Rolling 2020 Metal Thread

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'.)