Rolling 2020 Metal Thread

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!

Half of that AMG list goes back to the '80s (well, Body Count's debut was in '92 but still), which I find pretty funny actually.

It kind of cracks me up how stingy AMG is with their ratings. A 3.5 on their 5.0 scale is basically the equivalent of a 9.0 on the Pitchfork scale. Case in point, one of the reviewers listed the Duma record his album of the year, which was given a 3.5 in his own review. I mean, I know the intention is a corrective to like the MOJO/Uncut model where almost any record gets a 7 or better out of 10, but it makes me laugh when the best of their year end lists all get 3.0s and 3.5s.

the new Wombbath album is ok (not a patch on their 90s stuff) but production is enough to give me a sinus headache. hollowed out the classic Swedish guitar sound to where it's nauseatingly full of mids and sounds like teeth chattering.

the riffs being second tier don't help.

I feel like weirdly sculpted death metal guitar tones are getting more and more common and I'd really rather listen to some bedroom 4 track demos any day of the week.

Can't remember the band but I bought some OSDM album a couple years back where the HM2 was so overdone you couldn't really hear the notes or chords, just a loud buzzing rumble.

that's exactly what it was. it was the aural equivalent of riding an old rickety wooden rollercoaster while having a sinus headache

More AMG lists:

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/l-saunders-and-mark-z-s-top-tenish-of-2020/

While browsing RYM I came across this list of albums we can expect in 2021 and it's more exciting than I expected:

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Bagauda/-my-top-metal-2021-/

Dordeduh's second LP is also bound to come out in 2021.

(Gotta copy/paste that link; it's not ILX-friendly.)

Scald??? finally a follow up to the truly brilliant Will of Gods Is a Great Power?

Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer part of the Capitol riots today? Fuck that guy.

yup, he was, and yup, fuck him hard

read this, interesting! (title is a bit of hyperbole tbh compared to a lot of bands)

listening to Fire Down Under, really good hard rock/metal

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-of-riot-the-unluckiest-band-in-the-world

what the fuck were they thinking with that dumb-ass seal?? such a weird decision.

As much as it pains me to say it (again), Romanian metal mostly sucks balls, but this is actually good:

https://daius.bandcamp.com/album/ascuns

Forgot to provide a brief description: folky, neo-Romantic quasi blackgaze with passionate vocals, some lovely melodies and a uniquely prominent nai (pan flute) part that manages to keep cheese at bay (Gheorghe Zamfir this is not). Daniel Neagoe is way too prolific for his own good so it's nice to hear him hit the bull's eye for once.

lol look at the title of the thread

Ffffuuuu

(FYI: 'tis a truncated 'fuck' rather than an 'f u'.)