Rolling 2020 Metal Thread

vocalist is the weak link for sure tho

ok that got boring.

checking out the Faceless Burial now

OK, HELLO

I like that one a lot. It's technical without being overbearing and Pete deBoer's production job is typically excellent.

the drums sound great, guitars don't have the same bland tone that drives me nuts about 21st century DM, raw but with perfect clarity.

nice use of groove too, which death metal used to do a lot more in the 90s.

Yeah, Faceless Burial really clicked for me - I need to go back to it.

I hate myself for being curious enough to still check it out after everything but the new Inquisition album is fucking amazing :-(

Ugh

On the stoner end of things, Green Druid's At the Maw of Ruin is really solid and it closes with a cover of Portishead's 'Threads':

https://greendruid.bandcamp.com

Thanks for the heads up pom, I loved Ashen Blood but had no idea there was a new one!

really dug that faceless burial, and yeah, i think 90s groove was a big part why. a little of that goes a long way. i need to spend more time with it tho.

haven’t mustered up the courage to listen to that inquisition record but i’ll admit a morbid curiosity. but pedo guy + no more frog vox, that's a solid two strikes off the bat right there!

the inq. vox aren't even that froggy anymore but anyway

i can't bring myself to listen to it. and I was a major Inquisition fanboy for 2 or 3 years :(

yeah, i was too. saw em live and everything.

to be clear, the lack of frog vox is another negative! i love the frog vox!

i grabbed a drum stick from their drummer after I saw them in Miami

the thing was basically shredded to a toothpick after the set

Yeah I have no interest in hearing that one either. I see it has three 100% reviews over at the Metal Archives and I'm not sure if that says more about the album or about the reviews that get posted there.

lol I'm sure the reviewers had nicknames like "Beruthiel666", "DyingLightofChrist", and "BobCornbread"

There’s a new Hate Forest album on the way, too. Got the promo in my inbox today.

Out on Christmas Day lol.

I love how one of the album's descriptors on RYM is 'hateful'.

Someone should add it is also Forresty.

lol now I'm tempted. And if it gets rejected, I'll try 'sylvan' instead.

New Ruins of Beverast out in February.

O good

That's a good one to look forward to re: 2021!

Here's a foretaste:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Kpo7-QzFo

there's that enormous noise we know and love

There's a 2CD Coffins compilation, Defilements, coming in January from the Horror Pain Gore Death label; it gathers up various EPs and splits and it totally rips. They're one of the most knuckle-walking bands I listen to, but I absolutely love their sound. Guitars as thick as tar.

aw yis, Coffins rule

The Pit claims to be a "Heavy metal news, opinions, and culture" website.
It is actually owned by Warner Music, so their top metal albums of 2020 probably takes that into account.

20. Kvelertak, Splid (Rise Records)
19. Necrot, Mortal (Tankcrimes)
18. Deftones, Ohms (Reprise Records)
17. Mr. Bungle, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo (Ipecac)
16. Nothing, The Great Dismal (Relapse Records)
15. Carnation, Where Death Lies (Season of Mist)
14. Mrs. Piss, Self-Surgery (Sargent House)
13. Tombs, Under Sullen Skies (Season of Mist)
12. Code Orange, Underneath (Roadrunner Records)
11. Bedsore, Hypnagogic Hallucinations (20 Buck Spin)
10. Avatar, Hunter Gatherer (eOne)
9. Killer Be Killed, Reluctant Hero (Nuclear Blast)
8. Wayfarer, A Romance With Violence (Profound Lore)
7. Video Nasties, Dominion (APF Records)
6. Body Count, Carnivore (Century Media)
5. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou, May Our Chambers Be Full (Sacred Bones)
4. Primitive Man, Immersion (Relapse Records)
3. The Black Dahlia Murder, Verminous (Metal Blade Records)
2. Spirit Adrift, Enlightened In Eternity (20 Buck Spin)
1. Ozzy Osbourne, Ordinary Man (Epic)

http://www.wearethepit.com/2020/12/the-pits-20-best-albums-of-2020/

The pit the pit the pit the pit... In. The. Pit.

I knew 20 Buck Spin were industry plants.

That Bedsore album is some unusual progressive death metal from Italy, with melodic atmospheric interludes, vintage synths, and interesting melodies and riffs. It'll be on my EOY ballot.

The last two albums on my Want List for 2020 were released today.

Children of Technology - Written Destiny (Hells Headbangers)
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/8/9/6/5/896508.jpg?3637
http://children-of-technology.bandcamp.com/album/written-destiny

Old school speed metal from Italy that touches the same receptors that Destruction and early Voivod touched when I was an incorrigible young punk.

Evangelist - Ad Mortem Festinamus (Nine Records)
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/9/0/0/8/900849.jpg?0537
http://ninerecords.bandcamp.com/album/ad-mortem-festinamus
http://evangelistdoom.bandcamp.com/album/ad-mortem-festinamus

This is the second 2020 album with a Manilla Road cover to make my Wish List (the other being Dream Quest Ends by Toronto's Smoulder). Both groups are tagged doom metal but they both also seem much more trad/power metal to these ears, in their case mainly because even the more doomy moments are majestic as fuck ["Anubis (On the Onyx Throne of Death)"].

i struggled to get into the last few ulcerate records so i wasn't rushing to listen to this year's and wow it's really fucking good

It’s phenomenal, top 10 EOY material, no doubt about it.

Yeah, I have it at #4 right now, though it's almost too heavy for my ears.

a few more listens and yeah, what an achievement. don't think i've ever heard brutal tech death so melodic and liquid

love that children of technology cover

Grizzly Butts goes all out:

https://grizzlybutts.com/2020/12/21/the-top-100-albums-of-the-year-2020/

Wow, thats an interesting list, so relatively few things I’ve heard from it though. Lots of stuff that sounds intriguing, for sure.

Love the Cénotaphe write-up in all its over-the-top glory tbh

2. SWEVEN – The Eternal Resonance (Ván Records)

My man!

Shit. Look at this oldschool 1985 metal gig ft Slayer, Venom and Exodus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybgS5OshcuY

Relapse Records turned 30 this year, and to celebrate they've put a 241-track sampler up on Bandcamp for name-your-price.

hot shitting batankles, staphman, the Coffin Curse album mentioned in Grizzly Butts is my kinda death metal. rifftastic, 90s-ish uptempo thrashy riffs, with the occasional atonal batfuckery.

bats.

Just a friendly reminder that you've got till Jan 8th to nom your faves:

2020 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock Poll: NOMINATIONS Thread (open until the 8th of January 2021)

AMG staff top 10 bonanza:

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/dubious-decisions-in-the-age-of-covid-the-amg-staff-pick-the-top-tenish-records-o-2020/

it's kind of amazing how many reviews they publish in a year and yet there's a major chunk of those that don't have reviews. there's so much metal!