Before we're all overwhelmed with an avalanche of new music in the new year, there's still a bit of time to reflect on how many great songs came out in 2021.
This weekend, the Best of 2021 Gauntlet will determine the greatest of them all, and you can vote for the last ones in!
Starting Friday, Jan. 7th at 4 p.m. PT and continuing at 2 p.m. PT on Saturday, the 40 best songs of the year will go head-to-head in The Gauntlet, live on KNOTFEST's Official Twitch Channel, hosted by Jon "StayPuft" Mallow. The winners will be decided by you in the chat. Four of those 40 will move to the final round.
Finally, on Sunday at 12pm PT, the final 10 songs voted into the tournament by the KNOTFEST audience will slug it out for a chance at the Championship Bracket. In the final round, the weekend's winners will join previous Gauntlet winners — Emma Ruth Rundle, Frontierer, Employed to Serve and Amenra — for all the marbles.
Voting is open now through Sunday! Choose between 50 songs, with the top 10 making it in for Sunday's bracket.
Friday, Jan 7 @ 4 p.m. PT: 1st Half of 2021 Gauntlet

Brand of Sacrifice - Animal
Tribulation - Funeral Pyre
Enforced - Malignance
Pupil Slicer - Wounds Upon My Skin
Capra - The Locust Preacher
Andrew W.K. - Bablon
Bewitcher - Mystifier (White Night City)
Gojira - Born for One Thing
Bodom After Midnight - Paint the Sky with Blood
Bala - X
Vexed - Epiphany
Spiritbox - Circle with Me
Bokassa - So Long, Idiots!
Tetrarch - Negative Noise
Turnstile - Mystery
The Night Flight Orchestra - White Jeans
Slaughter to Prevail - Baba Yaga
Powerwolf - Dancing with the Dead
Unto Others - When Will Gods Work Be Done
Lorna Shore - To the Hellfire
Saturday, Jan 8 @ 2 p.m. PT: 2nd Half of 2021 Gauntlet

Jinjer - Vortex
Dying Wish - Fragments of a Bitter Memory
Cradle of Filth - Crawling King Chaos
Trivium - In the Court of the Dragon
Every Time I Die - Post - Boredom
Green Lung - Graveyard Sun
Iron Maiden - Stratego
Lucifer - Bring Me His Head
Ghost - Hunter's Moon
Mastodon - Teardrinker
Khemmis - Living Pyre
Zeal & Ardor - Gotterdammerung
Converge & Chelsea Wolfe - Coil
Knocked Loose - God Knows
Slipknot - The Chapeltown Rag
Code Orange - Out for Blood
Rolo Tomassi - Drip
Venom Prison - Pain of Oizys
Napalm Death - Narcissus
Heriot - Near Vision / Enter the Flesh
Sunday, Jan 9 @ 12 p.m. PT: Vote-In Gauntlet / Championship Gauntlet