I am not gonna say all the clichés about 2020, we all know it, right? It mostly sucked, but I am not celebrating 2021 either because it won't be much different. Unfortunatelly. I do hear that I need to work on my optimism, so off to a bad start! Apart from the disaster to the music industry due to live concerts being fully cancelled. 2020 was very productive for me personally. I reconnected with my guitar, bought some new ones, learned how to record and produce my own music and have been writing music like never before. I started a YouTube channel that replicates this blog on a podcast format and continue to consume and review music as, almost, always.
Speaking about new albums releases, we still got tons of new metal albums in 2020. The biggest name to release an album in 2020 was AC/DC which made a surprising return with their line-up from the previous album. But sadly, 2020 was not only bad due to the pandemic, I personally lost two of my top music idols, Neil Piert and Eddie Van Halen. RIP geniouses
Regardless of lockdowns, the "listmania" tradition continues to inflate the internet and magazines around the world during the month of December. As I have been doing for years, I compiled and aggregated about 18 "best of 2020" lists posted in the last few weeks by major blogs and magazines. My conclusions were that the Code Orange hype from a couple of years ago is back. A major name like AC/DC will always come on top because it gets mentioned in several lists. My surprise was Deftones becaming the album of the year on my aggregated list. Apart from those names the list doesn't feature many big names. Imperial Thriuph is poping up as the new crtics darling of the year.
As I mentioned last year, I finally gave in and fully adopted Spotify premium and this was the first full year using it fully. I bought almost no CDs, I think 3. I did however bought more albums in vinyl than I expected. But I will continue to reduce that number and be even more selective. In order to prioritize quality over quantity and to free-up time to practice music myself, I finally achieved my goal of reducing the number of albums that I listened in a year to under 100. More precisely "only" 85.
Finally, on my YouTube channel. That's been an interesting but, not surprisingly, frustrating experience. Not sure how long I'll keep that up, it requires more work than a blog and the viewship is quite limited.
Oh, and I also did several album cover puzzels during the first wave of lockdowns. That was fun!
I hope you get something useful out of this, so seat back and enjoy the read!
50.Heaven Shall Burn - Of Truth And Sacrifice
49.Primal Fear - Metal Commando
48.Stryper - Even The Devil Believes
47.Protest The Hero - Palimpsest
46.Kvelertak - Splid
45.Temple of Void - The World That Was
44.Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
43.Demons & Wizards - III
42.Heathen - Empire of the Blind
41.Long Distance Calling - How Do We Want To Live?
40.Code Orange - Underneath
39.Deftones - Ohms
38.Sylosis - Cycle of Suffering
37.Them - Return to Hemmersmoor
36.Shadowquest - Gallows of Eden
35.Manticora - To Live to Kill to Live
34.The Black Dahlia Murder - Verminous
33.Ensiferum - Thalassic
32.Axel Rudi Pell - Sign Of The Times
31.Joe Satriani - Shapeshifting
30.Enslaved - Utgard
29.British Lion - The Burning
28.Thoughts Factory - Elements
27.Lamb Of God - Lamb Of God
26.Magnus Karlsson's Free Fall - We Are the Night
25.My Dying Bride - The Ghost of Orion
24.H.E.A.T - H.E.A.T II
23.Rage - Wings of Rage
22.AC/DC - PWR/UP
21.Sepultura - Quadra
After 25 years, Psychotic Waltz returns with The God-Shaped Void, a well-written record with top-notch performances. Like many progressive rock albums, it is a grower and it requires some attention to capture all the nuances. I'm not an expert in their discography, but year 2020, Psychotic Waltz sound like a vital modern prog band with clear roots in the old school prog rock and metal. Highly recommended to any prog fan.
This is a very good album despite the length and some missteps. When Mateos, Alder and company hit the ball, it's a home run. There are enough great tracks here to get new and old fans psyched about FW in the new decade. That assuming the album title and the last song title are not foreshadowing the end of the band. Please come back in 3 or 4 years!
Intronaut can be too much to digest - but after a few listens, you hear the beauty in it, so it may take time to get to a final verdict. I suspect that many publications may have rushed to review it and missed the point. It's really a shame because Fluid Existential Inversions is one of the best prog albums of the year.
While not completely original, the sound created by Dark Forest is magical and adventurous. Oak, Ash & Thorn is a well crafted and executed album creating soaring epic melodies with just enough power to avoid going into cheesy territory. It all comes down to impeccable songwriting which makes all the difference. Certainly one of the best traditional/power metal album of the year.
This more experimental, more eclectic release impressed me from the get go. The first two tracks "Triassic" and "Jurassic | Cretaceous" each reference a period of the Mesozoic era are big and epic full of changes and exploring several musical influences. The Ocean continues to push heavy music forward, embracing heaviness and mood without boarders
This album as it is not a big departure from the previous records while having its own character. I believe it will have greater appeal to the prog fans than to the death metal ones. That's because there's a lot of clean vocals, atmospheric and melodic passages. For me that works and Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape is one of the best prog album of 2020.
Katatonia built on their foundation but also added some interesting elements leading to great songs such as "Behind The Blood", "Heart Set To Divide" and "Untrodden". City Burials is not perfect but still a very good album with moments of high-level song writing and melancholic catchiness. The production and delivery are excellent, it sounds beautiful. A suitable soundtrack for 2020.
Listening to Reluctant Hero made me not only go back to the debut album but also put The Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon and early Sepultura back on my playlist. It follows the same direction as the debut album and the quality is at par or slightly above. A very good album and if you like those guys in their bands or the debut album, this is guaranteed fun.
Anaal Nathrakh delivered the goods following the previous album that I already loved. There's no way to label this band. It's Melodic Death Metal meets Black Metal and Grindcore with touches of Industrial. And given the riffs and operatic vocals at times, it's even Power Metal. Not sure how they make it work, but it does and I love it.
While brutal and furious, Napalm Death was able to explore other forms of extremity in music and created a very diverse metal without loosing their identity. For example " Invigorating Clutch" is a groovy Black N Roll song and " Amoral" is catchy punk rock. The furious blast beats are still very much present in most tracks, but the exploration of other influences makes the album more fun and not repetitive.
Overall, Vanden Plas surprised me with their best record in more than a decade. It proves again that VP is an underrated band continuing their own unique path. This is another glorious work that brings up their roots and influences while moving the band forward. A must have for any prog metal fans.
The riffs and the drumming on this album are just great. I also love how they combine groove with insanely fast paced tempo. It's modern but with a thrash 80's vibe on the guitar tones. Mike Patton singing is very unique and great from start to finish. The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo is one of the best thrash albums of the year and a fantastic listening experience.
Punching the Sky is one of the best metal albums of the year, great production, sound, performance and music writing. Listening to it is a breath of fresh air from a very mature band. It will make you raise your fists and literally punch that sky. Join me celebrating this amazing and often underrated metal giants.
The diversity of Obsidian has the potential to please different segments of the band's fan base. It's trademark Paradise Lost full of melancholy and bittersweetness which fit well with the 2020 mood. But it also keeps the heavy elements from the last two albums while bringing the The Sisters of Mercy influence to the foreground. While not a radical departure in sound, Obsidian has just enough experimentation to keep those veterans relevant in 2020 while staying truthful to their roots.
Sorcere's Lamenting of the Innocent features all the elements I'd expect from an Epic Doom album. Big epic choruses, catchy melodies, heavy riffs, strong vocals and great musicianship. If you put aside the fact that there's nothing really new about it, you will give yourself a treat.
Testament did it again! Their 4th excellent album in a row shows no signs of those thrash veterans getting tired. More impressively they were able to do so by expanding their sound without loosing their identity and thrash roots. This is a mandatory album for any thrash metal fan.
Nine albums in, Trivium has put it all together and created a masterpiece of modern metal. What The Dead Men Say transcends genres and perfectly combines the different sounds the band has explored over the last 20 years. It's the heaviest album they've made in more than a decade but it's also melodic progressive and diverse. In many ways I believe Trivium found their sound. No formulas, no pre-conceptions, just four guys making the music they love.
The best concept album of the year. The band has said the title was actually a coincidence and not related to the corona virus. It is also a continueation of the previous record. Musically, the instrumental bridges on the album and each musician proficiency is jaw-dropping. Less self indulgent than Dream Theater but still quite similar at times, Haken have developed their own signature sound and are no doubt one of the best prog metal bands in activity today.
Symphonic metal with female vocals can be a bit of a cliche and by far not my favorite metal genre, but Nightwish with the current lineup has reached a complete new level of music writing, arrangement, musicianship and delivery. This is an amazing record for any metal fan, old and new, there's a bit of everything in HUMAN. :II: NATURE and it could've been my album of the year. Thanks Tuomas and band for such an entertaining album in days like these.
Enlightened In Eternity is a great album. I got hooked from the first listen and it only grew on me since then. I love the homage to traditional heavy metal combined with doom influences but all done through a modern lens. Additionally the music writing is great and so is the sound, specially the guitar riffs, solos and melodies. I was surprised that the reviews I've seen are not as positive as mine. I suspect that's due to the fact that the album departs from the darker and doomy characteristics of the, also very good, previous albums. But I took this album in comparison to other 2020 releases and in an year like this, a well written and produced traditional heavy metal album is definitely fitting well in my agenda.
Biggest Disappointments:
Sons of Apollo - MMXX
Ayreon - Transitus
Caligula's Horse - Rise Radiant
Pain of Salvation - Panther
Pallbearer - Forgotten Days
The Black Dahlia Murder - Verminous (Juanjo Castellano)
Napalm Death - Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
Skeletal Remains - The Entombment of Chaos (Dan Seagrave)
Testament - Titans Of Creation (Eliran Kantor)
Spirit Adrift - Enlightened In Eternity (Adam Burke)
Ensiferum - Thalassic
The End Of The Lie - Annihilator
Untrodden - Katatonia
As Blind As A Fool Can Be - Axel Rudi Pell
Black Waltz Death - Vanden Plas
On My Way Back To Earth - Magnus Karlsson's Free Fall
Nineteen Eighty - Joe Satriani
Top 5 songs:
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants by Armored Saint
Prosthetic by Haken
Come Clean by H.E.A.T
Astral Levitation by Spirit Adrift
Night Of The Witch by Testament
GloryHammer at Trix
Steel Panther at Trix
DragonForce at 013
Testament/Exodus/Death Angel at Tivoli
None, but the fact that there were no more shows...I think a show will never be disappointing again in my life.
