What I Listened To In 2021

I know what it is I listened to in 2021, and with my impressive memory and digital library owned by myself so that no streaming company can touch it, here’s what I was listening to the most in 2021, no Spotify wrapped required!

Orden Ogan

Orden Ogan finally released their new album Final Days in March after it was postponed twice and oh man it is amazing! It sounds just like the band I know and love with a sci-fi theme. I published my review for it in a heartbeat and even Seeb himself liked it when I shared it in the band’s Facebook group.

Then I also finished a short fanfiction featuring them that I started a year ago, I plan to write a full-length one later on.

So, it’s to be expected that I’ve still been listening to them nonstop this year from that project and the album release!

Epica

Epica also put out a new album this year and it rocks! They always deliver something amazing in symphonic metal with progressive elements. I can’t stop listening to Abyss of Time, The Skeleton Key, and Rivers. Those singles have helped me piece together some events that will happen in my Heisenberg fanfic that I am currently writing. (although the first song is mostly just me picturing myself singing in the heart of his factory and hoping that he hears me!)

The rest of the album is slowly growing on me, so you can imagine I’ve been listening to them a lot.

Rob Zombie

Down the rabbit hole, I went earlier this year and I just keep going deeper. For years I wanted to get into this legend, well here we are! It started with Dragula and continues to grow from there. (I swear to God, finding the right picture of him for this article is like looking for a needle in a haystack, I was hoping to get something more like of him on stage but nothing seemed to look good enough except this image!)

People were asking me, Emily when are you going to listen to Rob Zombie, when will you have the hots for him like you do for Mr. Lordi? Well, he’s just my type, so now I am both! Of course, I didn’t get into him because of peer pressure, I suddenly remembered that I wanted to and asked my friend for suggestions on where to begin.

Now, I’m officially a Living Dead Girl smitten over a Superbeast! Don’t worry, I will get more albums so I won’t be just referencing things from that one! I’ve gotten nothing but positive feedback from everything I’ve written about him since I started and I’m glad fellow fans have been so welcoming. I was listening to a lot of the songs I have so far on my commutes and still continue to.

Nightwish

When my mental health was not at its best: I was angry and sad all the time due to covid, the death of one of my cats, and having to change jobs. Nightwish was the one band that got me through all that, and my new crush on Tuomas Holopainen as well.

Nightwish has always been a band to put a smile on my face because of how beautiful their music is, and what really helped the most was going to their virtual concert in May. I love everything Nightwish has released, no matter who the singer is. Remember, it’s not about who’s singing, but where the roots are from: the writing and Tuomas is still putting his heart and soul into the band. He’s a genius at this and I’ve been listening to them all year long.

Pokemon, DOOM, and Resident Evil OSTs

When I got into RE7 and Village I was listening to their soundtracks a lot, and then when the Gen IV remasters were announced, it was time for me to retrieve my Pokemon score YouTube playlist so I started binge listening to it as the release date got closer.

Some of it is from other generations, but I have a lot of memories of it, and now I’m playing my way through Shining Pearl when I’m not listening to the playlist.

The music in all Pokemon games is epic and I know what you’re thinking, I just said I hate streaming but I have YouTube playlists which is technically, still streaming, but I don’t have to pay for it. It’s hard to explain but still.

Finally, how could I forget about the DOOM soundtracks? I spent half of 2021 playing those games and blasting their heavy metal tunes! They’re for perfect for walking, maybe driving too, and killing demons. I never get tired of it!

That’s my music listening for 2021 in a nutshell, all up here in my head. There will still be songs for the end of this month, but while everyone was doing their Spotify wrapped, I wanted to do my own thing similar to it instead.

👽Emily