I have finally caved in and made a top 200 list. The main focus here is metal, so no Rush, no King Crimson, Deep Purple, or GY!BE are in the list, but I do still love those bands and others that could have qualified.
The list mostly contains albums, but some EPs, demos, splits, and compilations are also featured every now and then. I also tried to avoid including demos or EPs that were too short but there’s still a few of them.
Enjoy!

1.Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2.Windir - Arntor

3.Vektor - Terminal Redux

4.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

5.Sigh - Hangman's Hymn: Musikalische Exequien

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1.Archspire - Bleed The Future

2.Gojira - Fortitude

3.Tribulation - Where The Gloom Becomes Sound

4.Aephanemer - A Dream Of Wilderness

5.Beast In Black - Dark Connection

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This is a list of all the death metal albums I have listened to that I thought were at all worth remembering. Like my other genre lists, this is just a record of my own listening experience that I use for personal organization, not a definitive account of the best or all of the death metal out there; there will probably be albums or bands that are not death metal in the strictest sense. You'll find some OSDM, melodeath, tech death, death-doom, maybe a bit of deathcore, I don't know. Maybe some non-death metal albums by death metal bands that I put in here just because.

1.Death - The Sound Of Perseverance

2.Death - Symbolic

3.At The Gates - With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness

4.At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul

5.Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side

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For those interested in suggestions of albums by genre

Removed:
- Trolls
- Limp bizkit outside of Alternative category
- albums already nominated. After the results, I will add the nominated albums that don't receive enough votes to be displayed in the results, as "staff write-ins".
- albums with a release date not in 2021

1.

2.Heleven - Into The Oceans

3.Imminence - Heaven In Hiding

4.Lantlôs - Wildhund

5.Leprous - Aphelion

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Favourite albums of 2021. Will most likely be obsolete in a few days.

1.Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa - Corrupted Pillars Of Vanity

2.Converge - Bloodmoon: I [Collaboration]

3.Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion

4.Funeral Mist - Deiform

5.Year Of No Light - Consolamentum

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My very subjective ranking of all heard metal and metal-adjacent albums 2021.

1.Atvm - Famine, Putrid And Fucking Endless

2.Worm - Foreverglade

3.Noltem - Illusions In The Wake

4.Dream Unending - Tide Turns Eternal

5.Ad Nauseam - Imperative Imperceptible Impulse

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My best and most played stuff from 2021. The order of preference is as accurate as it can be.

Best EP: Melancholia - Static Church.
Best demo: Mace ‘N’ Chain - Upon The Anvil Formed.
Best video: Iron Maiden - “The Writing On The Wall”.
Best album artwork: Neptunian Maximalism - Solar Drone Ceremony.

1.Soen - Imperial

2.Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion

3.Unto Others - Strength

4.Lake Of Tears - Ominous

5.Lucifer's Fall - III - From The Deep

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In no particular order (after the top 5), here are my AOTY for 2021.
Some albums are not featured here, for which I've added description and Bandcamp link.
Enjoy :')

1.

2.First Fragment - Gloire Éternelle

3.Beast In Black - Dark Connection

4.Khirki - Κτηνωδία

5.Omnium Gatherum - Origin

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1.Sunrise - Equilibria

2.Evergrey - Escape Of The Phoenix

3.Helloween - Helloween

4.Manimal - Armageddon

5.Cradle Of Filth - Existence Is Futile

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1.Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion

2.Veilburner - Lurkers In The Capsule Of Skull

3.First Fragment - Gloire Éternelle

4.Replicant - Malignant Reality

5.Dormant Ordeal - The Grand Scheme Of Things

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1.Trivium - In The Court Of The Dragon

2.Swallow The Sun - Moonflowers

3.Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

4.Leprous - Aphelion

5.Soen - Imperial

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Albums i've enjoyed in 2021

1.Turnstile - Glow On

2.Deafheaven - Infinite Granite

3.Herzel - Le Dernier Rempart

4.The Flight Of Sleipnir - Eventide

5.Midnight Odyssey - Biolume Part 2 - The Golden Orb

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Good morrow
This is Prnzo
this list is probably for...
idk, the more adventurous...
jack-of-all-trades listener
lots of apples/oranges here
hopefully this top list helps
at least one MS'er
and if not...
there's always next yr
...unless there's not

update: this list still reflected just releases from earlier in the year - I keep updating my list offline... but I'm never happy with some of the configuration/arrangement (due mostly to indecision or losing track of even a very good release here n there)

1.Between The Buried And Me - Colors II

2.Dordeduh - Har

3.Adjy - The Idyll Opus (I-VI)

4.The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Illusory Walls

5.Converge and Chelsea Wolfe - Bloodmoon: I

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After clocking well over 700 albums in 2020, I'm hoping 2021 will be a bit busier IRL and thus slightly less comprehensively covered in these lists, but let's see - with all the new strains emerging, who TF knows when we might return to a semblance of normality. Until then, I'll be trying to make sure that nothing noteworthy passes my radar.

1.Vulgaris - Asundre

2.Dvne - Etemen Ænka

3.Heliocentric - Ishmael

4.Decline Of The I - Johannes

5.Dordeduh - Har

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1.Turnstile - Glow On

2.The Armed - Ultrapop

3.Lingua Ignota - Sinner Get Ready

4.Panopticon - . . . And Again Into The Light

5.Thirdface - Do It With A Smile

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