Best albums of 2020?

[NuMetalManiak]

2020 has been a screwed-up year, but at the same time I have to admit, music-wise we are hearing some really awesome music out there. Even though the year isn't over yet I've gotta share my favorites this year.

 

Deftones' Ohms is probably the most obvious pick for me. I was surprised at how excellent it was, especially since Gore was their weakest album overall (which isn't saying much as Deftones hasn't made anything that was close to mediocre, so even Gore has its qualities). But I was wowed by how great their overall sound was and how unique each track feels, certainly one worth listening to for 2020.

 

Apart from that, an album that I ranked highly was Novelists' C'est la Vie. Had to give it a high score, again almost every song banged for me just like with Ohms, and I love bands that balance the screams well with the cleans.

 

Other favorites of mine this year:
Misery Signals - Ultraviolet

Good Tiger - Raised in a Doomsday Cult
Corelia - New Wilderness

Dance Gavin Dance - Afterburner

Static-X - Project Regeneration Vol. 1

10 Years - Violent Allies

 

So what are your favorite albums released this year so far?

[seed]

For me:

 

Onirik - Fire Cult Beyond Eternity.

Black Curse - Endless Wound.

Benediction - Scriptures.

Blaze of Perdition - The Harrowing of Hearts.

Fides Inversa - Historia Nocturna.

Amnutseba - Emanatism.

Ars Magna Umbrae - Apotheosis.

Hrae - Þar sem skepnur reika.

Vader - Solitude in Madness.

Purtenance - Buried Incarnation.

Mork Gryning - Hnisindes Vede.

Demonical - World Domination.

Armagedda - Svindeldjup ättestup.

Order of Orias - Ablaze.

Caustic Wound - Death Posture.

The Spirit - Cosmic Terror.

Golgata - Tempel.

Edited December 19, 2020 by seed
New addition.

[qdash]

 

 

[qdash]

Also:

 

Steinsopp - Luggeføre

River Cult - Chilling Effect

Lowrider - Refractions

Geezer - Groovy

 

Instrumental stuff:

 

Yuri Gagarin - The Outskirts of Reality

Kanaan - Odence Sessions

Tia Carrera - Tired and True

Hazy Sea - Coast Of The Immortals

Cuarzo - Vol. 2

[tourniquet]

Haven't bought many albums this year, guess these 2 were the one's i liked the most

 

Tame Impala - The slow rush

La Priest - Gene

[MFG38]

My picks so far:

 

Haken - Virus

Igorrr - Spirituality & Distortion

Tallah - Matriphagy

Yousei Teikoku - age of villains

[hybridial]

I've only been listening to two albums from this year

 

Paradise Lost - Obsidian

Wolfheart - Wolves of Karellia

 

I've also not really listened to them a tonne yet, and Wolfheart is pretty new to me in general but I think I like them quite a bit. 

 

Draconian are releasing a new album shortly and having listened to 2-3 songs released on youtube, I think it's going to be another quality release from them. 

[seed]

7 minutes ago, hybridial said:

Paradise Lost - Obsidian

 

I should prolly give that a listen, when I was looking for top releases from this year I noticed Obsidian popped up a few times.

 

It probably still won't be better than their self-titled album in my book, but if it's good, then it's good.

[hybridial]

5 minutes ago, seed said:

It probably still won't be better than their self-titled album in my book, but if it's good, then it's good.

 

I've mainly focused my listening to their self titled album and onwards, and I definitely like all of them, but I'd say my favourite one is Medusa, which doesn't seem to be liked by their fanbase so much. But if you like Doom Metal, I think Fearless Sky and Medusa are absolutely phenomenal Doom songs. I think it is the most atmospheric of those albums and that seems to be what I like these days.  

Edited October 29, 2020 by hybridial

[HAK3180]

Yes, Ultraviolet is quite good.

 

And I've heard of almost nothing else anyone has posted, haha.

[seed]

On 10/29/2020 at 6:23 PM, hybridial said:

I've mainly focused my listening to their self titled album and onwards, and I definitely like all of them, but I'd say my favourite one is Medusa, which doesn't seem to be liked by their fanbase so much. But if you like Doom Metal, I think Fearless Sky and Medusa are absolutely phenomenal Doom songs. I think it is the most atmospheric of those albums and that seems to be what I like these days.  

 

Yeah, we long for different things 😉.

 

I tend to like less popular, if not outright obscure releases from bands as well, sometimes in spite of them making objectively future releases since. Such an example would be Belphegor's Last Supper for me, which is the only full-length to not feature Helmuth on vocals, but it simply has something that the other albums have lost since.

 

LS had a pretty grim atmosphere, neat production (for my needs), badass guitar tone, and visceral "screams". The kind of "screams" that have gone entirely missing from their subsequent releases.

 

This is an album barely if anyone talks about when thinking about the band, and I think it's also the only album to have enjoyed no re-releases, apart from one, which features a censored cover with a "Parental Advisory" sticker. Have they made better music since? Absolutely, take Lucifer Incestus or Totenritual for example, but Last Supper has remained my favorite classic release from them.

 

This is probably similar to my case with Paradise Lost. I don't doubt they've probably made better music since Lost Paradise - no, they're actually not a band I listen to very often, save for periodically giving their debut album a spin -, but their debut album is where they were at their best in terms of death metal, and very solid death metal no less.

Edited November 2, 2020 by seed

[hybridial]

3 minutes ago, seed said:

This is probably similar to my case of Paradise Lost. I don't doubt they've probably made better music Lost Paradise

 

Just to clarify, because it is rather confusing when you think about it, their debut album was called Lost Paradise... and then they much later did an album called Paradise Lost, the one I refer to, and technically that *is* the self titled album. The words are in the correct order XD

 

when it came to approaching a band with a long library that goes back deep into the 90s like that, I tend to deliberately choose a later starting date, generally based on perception of quality, but, it almost always leans later because, I am just really picky about production and a lot of bands either because of their starting resources or just the time of release have production that I find offputting. I like things clean, I don't hold it against the music but it simply is what my preference is and what I stick to. So I know with Opeth it's Still Life and on, the prior albums are likely quality but Still Life is the first one that sounds fine to me production wise. It's good in some ways because with most bands I'm not a hardcore fan, I can be pretty unbiased in judging their newer work. So ah, it's not just the old fans that think Opeth just ditched being fucking amazing for being boring as fuck. Yeah, I agree with the general feeling they too a massive downgrade. 

 

But yeah, I'm picky, like Khemmis is a newish band that I was like "yeah, this is great" and when I listen to bands that generally get brought up as being comparable, say Pallbearer... it doesn't really speak to me. I think what I want in music now is really, really specific. 

 

But that fits alright with my listening habits, some people might feel they've listened to a song once or twice and they feel they know it or got most of what they could out of it. I think my number for that is like 5000. I might have specific preferences but the right thing is a glorious journey for me. 

[Firedust]

Best:

 

Ulcerate - Stare into Death and Be Still

Paysage D'Hiver - Im Wald

Havukruunu - Uinuos Syömein Sota

Crippled Black Phoenix - Ellengaest

Black Curse - Endless Wound

 

Biggest surprises:

 

Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts VI and VII

Paradise Lost - Obsidian

Deftones - Ohms

Persefone's debut remaster

 

Biggest Disappointments:

 

The two new Autechre albums

Touche Amore - Lament

The new Pallbearer album

 

 

Worst things I've heard this year:

 

Jeff Rosenstock - No Dream

The new BMTH ep

Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone

 

[hybridial]

11 minutes ago, Firedust said:

Persefone's debut remaster

 

Oh, hadn't heard about that, might be something I'll give a look. 

[seed]

15 minutes ago, hybridial said:

I am just really picky about production and a lot of bands either because of their starting resources or just the time of release have production that I find offputting. I like things clean, I don't hold it against the music but it simply is what my preference is and what I stick to. So I know with Opeth it's Still Life and on, the prior albums are likely quality but Still Life is the first one that sounds fine to me production wise. It's good in some ways because with most bands I'm not a hardcore fan, I can be pretty unbiased in judging their newer work. So ah, it's not just the old fans that think Opeth just ditched being fucking amazing for being boring as fuck. Yeah, I agree with the general feeling they too a massive downgrade. 

 

Yeah, I'm the opposite of that.

 

Even with my tinnitus (which is thankfully just a minor nuissance nowadays) I still prefer rawer production because I simply feel like metal just loses most if not all the atmosphere when taking the good production route, and all too often it becomes stale and sterile. There's cases where it still sounds good, think of Immolation's Atonement here is old school and new simultaneously and the great production doesn't hinder it, in fact Ross Dolan sounds better than ever on that album IMO, with slight Nathan Explosion vibes, even.

 

But guess which tend to be my favorite releases by them: Failures for Gods (this tends to not be too liked by fans because it has the weakest production of them all, surprise surprise), Dawn of Possession, Close to a World Below, or Here in After. But I enjoy their newer albums just as much.

 

For me, all the magic is gone when they take the clean route. And I've heard awful "good" production, where the music turns into an impenetrable brick wall... in the recent years that's gonna be Watain's Trident Wolf Eclipse. No fucking variation whatsoever in that album...

 

Still, if the composition is good in general, production will likely not ruin it. Beherit has basically two extreme examples. Drawing Down the Moon has abysmal production, but it would have never succeeded to convey that dreamlike atmosphere without it, despite not being the band's decision to opt for such awful production, and it wasn't the decision of many bands either, they simply couldn't afford more - but people liked that, and we still do. It is their ability in general to make the most with less that impresses me at such releases. I honestly don't think I want to know how Bathory's The Return, Crematory's The Exordium, Abhorrence's Vulgar Necrolatry, Lord Belial's Kiss the Goat, Grave's Into the Grave, Enslaved's Hordanes Land, or Merciless' The Awakening would have sounded if they had better production...

 

But to come back to Beherit, there's also Engram at the other end of the spectrum, which has insanely clean production to the point you can hear the bandmates' guitar chords being hit. And it's brilliant. I daresay even Holocausto performs better than he did on Drawing.

 

Even so, if the style ain't my jam, then all of this is just meaningless. For instance, I don't like new school death metal anyway, it simply doesn't have what I am looking for, and I know exactly what I want. It simply isn't there. This is why when you see me posting death stuff it's predominantly the old school kind, or the new-ish "cavernous" style - think Dead Congregation, Cruciamentum, Venenum, etc.

 

22 minutes ago, Firedust said:

Havukruunu - Uinuos Syömein Sota

 

Huh, alright, this completely flew under my radar. Wasn't aware of Havukruunu releasing a new album, oops.

 

Speaking of which, I've also noticed Emyn Muil released a new album recently, if you like Summoning-esque black metal too.

[DevilMyEyes]

2 hours ago, MFG38 said:

Tallah - Matriphagy

Oh hell yes

[hybridial]

18 minutes ago, seed said:

Even with my tinnitus (which is thankfully just a minor nuissance nowadays) I still prefer rawer production because I simply feel like metal just loses most if not all the atmosphere when taking the good production route, and all too often it becomes stale and sterile.

 

Metal covers a lot of ground, I can believe that there is that elusive thing you love about it that expresses itself through raw production, and think I understand... to a limited degree but at least to some degree, what it is about that that people like. 

 

I actually think that comes with getting to know better what oneself likes, it's kind of having a more clear perspective on everything even if just fleetingly. I've also had to accept very few people I know understand the appeal of what I'm into now. Though my sister does, at least. Like she's not really much of a music listener now and never was into metal or anything but I've linked her songs by Be'lakor and Swallow the Sun, and honestly most people I know into some aspect of metal are just like "hate it because growls", but she understood it, which I was very grateful for. 

[Firedust]

I think there's a fine line to walk when it comes to production. Raw production can enhance your listening experience as well as be detrimental to it, depending on the genre of the music and intended direction. Having said that, I don't think I've ever heard a record that was so uncleanly produced that I couldn't listen to it at all. On the other hand, I do hate the sterile production jobs found on modern prog metal releases, especially on everything produced by fking Misha Mansoor or someone else from the djent crowd, who seem to have the ability to suck the last fragments of soul out of everything they touch.

Edited October 29, 2020 by Firedust

[seed]

17 minutes ago, hybridial said:

Metal covers a lot of ground, I can believe that there is that elusive thing you love about it that expresses itself through raw production, and think I understand... to a limited degree but at least to some degree, what it is about that that people like. 

 

I actually think that comes with getting to know better what oneself likes, it's kind of having a more clear perspective on everything even if just fleetingly. I've also had to accept very few people I know understand the appeal of what I'm into now. Though my sister does, at least. Like she's not really much of a music listener now and never was into metal or anything but I've linked her songs by Be'lakor and Swallow the Sun, and honestly most people I know into some aspect of metal are just like "hate it because growls", but she understood it, which I was very grateful for. 

 

Besides, extreme metal without their specific vocal style simply isn't the same. And the vocals are the best part 👌.

 

Death metal without growls is not death metal in my book, even if the composition fits the label otherwise. I know plenty of people who stop listening the instant they hear growls too - haha, high school was fun 😉.

 

Or roars, such as the likes of Caligula while he was with Hypocrisy during their Penetralia/Osculum Obscenum era. There's lots of great singers around, and each one of them is unique in their own way - no-one has ever managed to match his lion-like roars IMO, he was a fucking beast.

 

@Firedust Precisely. But that being said, if you can enjoy early Darkthrone, Mutiilation, Vlad Tepes, Torgeist, or Demoncy's Joined in Darkness/Within the Sylvan Realms of Frost, you can listen to everything in this genre.

Edited October 29, 2020 by seed

[hybridial]

3 minutes ago, seed said:

Besides, extreme metal without their specific vocal style simply isn't the same. And the vocals are the best part 👌.

 

Where I sit on it is complex, but I kinda look at it this way; I don't really like growling because its growling, because I don't like singing simply because its singing. There's always a purpose or a goal in any endeavour, and for me it's understanding the goal that matters. I've not listened to a huge amount of growling so I guess if you think that makes my opinion more limited, that might be fair. For me I'd say Mikeal Akerfeldt in the opening verses of The Moor and Blackwater Park are perhaps the most powerful execution of those vocals I know, but in the end that has a lot to do with Akerfeldt's song composition skills which on those albums was exemplary. I'd say emotion is maybe a bit less apparent to me in most other cases but that I definitely feel there's a certain atmosphere created by growling as a style that definitely can enhance greatly the right kind of music. And really what seems to be the case with what I like is a deliberate contrast; bands that are combining styles, creating contrast, which is why all metal I like does fall under the melodic category, because the point of it for me is hearing melodies and pure metal intermixed to create intense journeys of emotion.

 

And it helps that I'm probably bipolar :p 

[Bridgeburner56]

Easy one for me. Orbit Culture's latest album Nija is an absolute titan
 

 

Fucking immense

 

[Veinen]

Really good year for black metal, quite a bit stronger than 2019 in my opinion. Deogen was my early year favorite but has been since overtaken at the top by the insanely catchy Bone Awl full length.

 

Top 8

Bone Awl - An Obelisk Marks the Line

Deogen - The Endless Black Shadows of Abyss

Internal Rot - Grieving Birth

Nidernes - Darkness Cenotaph

Ifernach - Waqan

Albionic Hermeticism / Ynkleudherhenavogyon - Swēsaz Ambos (split)

Ensorcelled - The Path of the Cleric

Dearth - To Crown All Befoulment

 

And here's plenty more: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Blood_Veinen/2020-worthwhile-releases/

 

Dearth - To Crown All Befoulment I feel is a big time overlooked gem since it's pretty comparable to the Black Curse album which was massively hyped (for good reason, it's a great album). 

[Firedust]

51 minutes ago, Veinen said:

List of bm recs

I've been so out of touch this year with bm. Cheers for sharing!

 

Last year was amazing for bm, and it will be interesting to see if 2020 is just as good!

[Egg Boy]

Probably pretty different from the other lists here, but w/e

 

• Armand Hammer - Shrines
• Clipping. - Visions of Bodies Being Burned
• Denzel Curry, Kenny Beats - Unlocked
• Run The Jewels - RTJ4
• Freddie Gibbs, The Alchemist - Alfredo

[AD_79]

My favourite from this year is easily Faceless Burial - Speciation. The band employs a winding, contorted style of riffcraft and songwriting that feels very Unfathomable Ruination in nature, albeit in a somewhat more OSDM-esque form. If you even somewhat enjoy death metal, this is a must-listen.

 

Of course, 2020 has bestowed upon us a fair few other fantastic offerings. In a year that has otherwise been... less than excellent, let's say, the music has been one of the few bright spots that help keep me going.

 

Afterbirth - Four Dimensional Flesh - One of the most unique brutal death metal records out there, with its retrofuturistic, almost hopeful atmosphere.

Aseitas - False Peace - Forward-thinking dissonant prog-death. Not for the faint of heart.

Atramentus - Stygian - The finest funeral doom I've heard this year. The perfect soundtrack to many a depressive episode.

Cryptic Shift - Visitations from Enceladus - Prog-death with a hefty dose of spacey thrash in the mix.

Cytotoxin - Nuklearth - Highly propulsive and killer, yet groovy, almost catchy brutal tech-death.

Dan Terminus - Last Call for All Passengers - Stripped-back darksynth that isn't afraid to get aggressive.

Firelink - Firelink - Dark Souls-themed melodic black/death metal. Nothing more needs to be said.

Gaerea - Limbo - Black metal that displays both melody and surprising heft. Deathened black metal?

Sutrah - Aletheia (EP) - Meditative tech-death. Sounds like an oxymoron yet works incredibly well.

Unleash the Archers - Abyss - Likely my favourite non-brutal metal record of the year. Very solid power metal.

Wake - Devouring Ruin - What happens when a grind band transitions to adventurous, long-form death metal? An absolutely monstrous record.

Edited October 29, 2020 by AD_79

[DJVCardMaster]

This year was a dissapointment even for Pearl Jam, whose Gigaton was badly distributed and had a somewhat good half, and a really mediocre one, as they manage to do since many years.

The songs are mostly forgetable, and the worst is, this month they pulled out somewhat of a B-side that is better than any of the songs of the record, even getting a little bit back to their 90's roots. Sadly, no song like this is on the record, except for maybe one or two.

Pearl Jam is aging really bad, sadly, and sadly they are the only grunge reimain alive, even tho' they are not a Grunge band since 1995.

I can't say which album is the best of 2020 as I don't tend to listen to new music, or  switch to other genres than Alt-rock/metal, grunge and post-hardcore these days, but I can certainly say Pearl Jam's Gigaton is the most dissapointing of 2020.


God forgive me, but I'm starting to hate Pearl Jam.

[SYS]

 

Dan Terminus - Last Call for All Passengers 

 

 

Kadavar - Isolation Tapes

 

Zack Sabbath - Vertigo

 

Dungeon Weed - Mind Palace of the Mushroom God

 

[AD_79]

50 minutes ago, DJVCardMaster said:

God forgive me, but I'm starting to hate Pearl Jam.

 

Isn't this thread intended for your favourite things released this year as opposed to your least favourite? Get some positivity going (or if you can't do that, don't post at all heh), please :P

Edited October 29, 2020 by AD_79

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

40 Watt Sun - Wider than the Sky is so far my favorite album released this year. Anything by Patrick Walker is fucking great, and Watching from a Distance by Warning is one of the best doom metal albums ever made.

Edited October 30, 2020 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[NuMetalManiak]

1 hour ago, DJVCardMaster said:

This year was a dissapointment even for Pearl Jam, whose Gigaton was badly distributed and had a somewhat good half, and a really mediocre one, as they manage to do since many years.

The songs are mostly forgetable, and the worst is, this month they pulled out somewhat of a B-side that is better than any of the songs of the record, even getting a little bit back to their 90's roots. Sadly, no song like this is on the record, except for maybe one or two.

Pearl Jam is aging really bad, sadly, and sadly they are the only grunge reimain alive, even tho' they are not a Grunge band since 1995.

I can't say which album is the best of 2020 as I don't tend to listen to new music, or  switch to other genres than Alt-rock/metal, grunge and post-hardcore these days, but I can certainly say Pearl Jam's Gigaton is the most dissapointing of 2020.


God forgive me, but I'm starting to hate Pearl Jam.

Being honest here, but Pearl Jam in general has been boring, and I've listened to their entire discography from first to last album recently. There's no denying Ten is great, and Lightning Bolt IMO is their second best for a number of decent songs its got. I was actually surprised Gigaton wasn't as bad as I expected when I listened to the whole thing. I would say its their third best overall, with the standouts being Quick Escape and Alright.

When you are refering to the B-side are you referring to Get It Back?