2020 Best Metal Albums Ranked: The Year-End List of All Lists

 As always the "listmania" tradition continues to inflate the internet and magazines around the world during the months of November, December and up to January. And I love them! I have compiled and aggregated 22 "best of 2020" lists that came out in the those months by major blogs and magazines. Most of those are metal focused publications from the USA/UK. But I diversified by including German, Dutch, Swedish, Canadian metal publications as well. Also by including prog and classic rock lists. 

Aardschok (NL)

AMG

BraveWords (CAN)

Classic Rock

Consequences Of Sound

Decibel

Guitar World

Heavymusichq.com

Kerrang!

laut.de

Metal Hammer DE

Metal Hammer UK

Metal Injection

Metal Sucks

Pop Matters (prog and metal)

PROG Magazine

Revolver

Sonic Perspectives

Stereogum 

Sweden Rock

Ultimate Classic Rock

I took the top 10 of each list and assigned 10 points to number 1, 9 to number 2 and so forth. So 10th place got one point. The album had to appear in a minimum of 3 lists to qualify with one exception. 

My conclusions were that the trend is similar from the last few years but with one difference. While individual lists are very diverse, when you aggregate them the big names do well (AC/DC in 2020). With that said, 2020 was, also in this case, a different year. Not many big names released albums. Then you have the critics darlings such as Deftones and Code Orange doing well. But also since many of the lists are US/UK focused they are biased towards alt rock and Nu-metal type of music. And finally the heavier, more underground and newer bands that everyone seems to include in their list. This year the chosen ones being Imperial Triumphant and Anaal Nathrakh. 

So the number one album of the year was a surprise to me, not because I don't like it, it was actually my number 7. But it's not the type of music I'd see doing well in so many diverse lists. Maybe it's because it reflects the darkness of 2020 while being quite catchy. Paradise Lost was by far the favorite album of 2020 aggregated list with 69 points appearing in 9 lists of the 22. They headed 3 lists (laut.de, MHDE, heavymusichq.com) and also 2nd place in other 3 (Sweden Rock, BraveWords, Sonic Perspectives). No other album was anywhere close to this performance.

Second place is already a significant drop Deftones with 49 points appearing in 6 lists. 2 times as number one (Revolver and MHUK) and 2 times as number 3 (COS, Kerrang). Very close to them was AC/DC with 47 points heading two lists (Sweden Rock, Classic Rock). 

Other two bands appeared in 6 lists: Code Orange heading 2 (Metal Injection, Kerrang) and Imperial Triumphant heading one (Pop Matters) almost tied for 4th place with 44 and 43 points respectively.  

Number 7 in my aggregated list was the second most frequent album: Katatonia appearing in 7 lists. However, they collected 31 points, so on average they appeared a lot but usually not at the top of the lists. Their best performance was number 3 in two lists (BraveWords, Aardschok). The opposite happened to  Eternal Champion, the number 20 is the only one to appear in less than 3 lists. But as number one (Stereogun) and two (Decibel). Number 10, Anaal Nathrakh was another effective one, they collected 26 points from only 3 lists, but heading one (AMG) and third place in two (MetalSucks and Metal Injection).  

Other than AC/DC, two non-metal acts made the list Fish (n 11) and Pearl Jam (n 18), that's because they were really strong in the non-metal lists. 

Only 5 albums of the aggregated list did not appear in my personal list: Imperial Triumphant, Fish, Oranssi Pazuzu, Pearl Jam, and Eternal Champion. I probably should give Imperial Triumphant and Oranssi Pazuzu another try. Fish and Eternal Champion didn't appeal to me and  Pearl Jam is not really my thing so didn't even try. My number 1 Spirit Adrift appeared in 16th place with 14 points and mentioned in 4 lists. The aggregated number 1 Paradise Lost was my 7th place. You can check my personal list video on the link below.

Here's the full list aggregating 22 lists into one:

Some runner ups: Sepultura, Dool, Paysage d’Hiver, CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX and Pallbearer.

Now, focus on 2021! Bye 2020.