Epicus Covidicus Metallicus: The GMD 2020 Metal Megathread

[CiG]

We're almost on the other side of one of the shittiest years in recent memory with a lot of lives being turned upside down in the process, which means a lot of people probably didn't have the time to check out as much new music as they would have liked.

With that in mind, this thread is going to double as the GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 2020 as well as a thread for recommendations, posts about what 2020 metal you've recently been listening to, new discoveries and anything else inbetween.

RYM ALBUMS LIST
RYM EP LIST

Reminder of the rules:
- please submit at least *5* releases. But just remember, real men vote at 10.
- first place in your rankings gets 10 points, 2nd gets 9, etc etc, 10th gets 1.
- feel free to post more than 10, but only the top 10 will get points.
- feel free to post less than 10, the same scoring will apply.
- feel free not to rank your picks, in which case all ten picks will get 5.5 points.
- if you're so much of a dick that you have to post more than 10 unranked picks, only the first 10 will count. In other words, go back to the third rule.



As of now there is no deadline, it probably won't even be wrapped up until the end of 2021. Take your time.

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To kick this off here's some shit I've been jamming lately:

Dead and Dripping - Profane Verses of Murderous Rhetoric (one-man 90's style brutal-tech death metal out of New Jersey with nasty riffs, very twisted and old school a la Mortal Decay + Cryptopsy etc.)

The Heretics Fork - Opacis Doloris (biiiiig riffs with a crushing tone and punishing drums, like if Drawn and Quartered decided to cover Brodequin.)

Isengard - Vårjevndøgn (in love with the newly excavated Isengard material, so many massive nods to classic doom metal but filtered through the child-like enthusiasm of Fenriz's mind, instantly enamoured with 90% of the tracks here and will likely make my final top ten.)

Sadistic Drive - Anthropophagy (these Finns somehow managed to tap into the primordial soup of pre-genre autism death metal better than any other band in recent memory, there's a shitload of Repulsion here as well as the Autopsy demos, early Deceased, early Master, the demo era of Swedeath etc etc sounds like a long fucking car crash.)

White Magician - Dealers of Divinity (very classic "vintage" heavy metal out of Detroit and every member is also in Demon Bitch though I always preferred this band to that one myself, their 2016 EP The Pledge is also worth checking out.)

!T.O.O.H.! - Free Speech (funniest way I've seen modern !T.O.O.H.! described is "zeuhlcore" and it definitely kinda fits, with the ultra-tight musicianship though it probably fits krautrock just as much, but whatever they play it rules so if you like technically proficient deathgrind with electronic elements and vibes of zolo, zeuhl or krautrock give these Czech weirdies a go.)

Macabre - Carnival of Killers (this seems to be a crowd divider in my travels among metalheads online, the major complaint being that it has too much comical elements and not enough just straight up metal, fair enough I suppose but I think it 100% works and it's one of the catchiest albums I've heard in a long ass time.)

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I haven't dug too deep but I've barely heard anything from this year I liked. The Sweven is kinda cool but also pretty bloated and I haven't listened to it much since it came out.

 

[CiG]

Have you checked out the new Night album yet?

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I haven't! I liked the previous one a lot but it hasn't had great longevity for me. Getting a bit tired of hard rock/70s throwback shtick, too many bands doing that nowadays. Though I will contradict myself and say I have been enjoying the new Wytch Hazel, though it's basically the same thing as II: Sojourn again.

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

Loved/liked:

Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi
Psychotic Waltz - The God Shaped Void
Green Carnation - Leaves of Yesteryear
Incantation - Sect of Vile Divinities
Self Hypnosis - Contagion of Despair
Göden - Beyond Darkness
Saltas - Mors Salis - Opus I
The Funeral Orchesta - Negative Evocations EP / Negative Evocation Rites

Still need to hear Fates Warning, My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Pallbearer. Tangentially metal related but Jesu and Ulver's new albums are amazing and some of their best.

 

[EternalMetal]

Man, I got a lot of stuff to check out from this year. Ive been working 6-7 days a week since COVID and haven't had the time to check out more than a couple of new releases. Im usually inspired to check out more shit by going to concerts, but since that isn't happening I just haven't explored too much. Any good death metal releases this year?

 

[Baroque]

Yeah going to need a lot of time for this, took a few months off of music earlier this year, was pretty bleak, so a lot to catch up on. For now here's an early list of things I intend to listen/relisten to:

Warbringer - Weapons of Tomorrow
Psychotic Waltz - The God-Shaped Void
DGM - Tragic Separation
Mekong Delta - Tales of a Future Past
Skeletal Remains - The Entombment of Chaos
Havok - V
Vampire - Rex
Testament - Titans of Creation
Onslaught - Generation Antichrist
Exarsis - Sentenced to Life
Gama Bomb - Sea Savage
Azusa - Loop of Yesterdays
Quasarborn - A Pill Hard to Swallow
Heathen - Empire of the Blind
Entropy - Force Convergence
Hemotoxin - Restructure the Molded Mind
Amorphia - Merciless Strike
John Petrucci - Terminal Velocity
Plague - Portraits of Mind

 

[Baroque]

Man, I got a lot of stuff to check out from this year. Ive been working 6-7 days a week since COVID and haven't had the time to check out more than a couple of new releases. Im usually inspired to check out more shit by going to concerts, but since that isn't happening I just haven't explored too much. Any good death metal releases this year?

The ones by Plague and Skeletal Remains seemed pretty cool

 

[CiG]

Any good death metal releases this year?

Not sure what you typically go for but it seems like everybody I know is raving about the new Lantern album.



The new Gorephilia also seems to be hugely popular and it's definitely quality stuff.



Also I just got done listening to the new Undergang album and it left a pretty sick first impression.

 

[zerostatic]

Working from home during covid quarantine has allowed me time to listen to more metal this year. My favorite releases:

Warbringer - Weapons of Tomorrow - Nice to see how they have evolved and improved with each album.

Vader - Solitude in Madness. Love this album, a nice recovery after The Empire which I thought was a step down in quality compared to their two previous releases.

Incantation - Sect of Vile Divinities This album crushes.

Alestorm - The Curse of the Crystal Coconut I was worried when I saw the videos for the singles they released before the album came out but they are the weakest songs on the album. I listened to this nearly every day this summer while floating around the pool. Fannybaws, Chomp Chomp, Zombies Ate My Pirate Ship, and Wooden Leg Pt. II are all fun songs.

Benediction - Scriptures. Not too familiar with this band outside of Transcend the Rubicon, but I have enjoyed this album. If you haven't heard it yet, check out the vocal performance from Dave Ingram.

 

[EternalMetal]

@ CIG - I love previous releases of all those bands, so that is probably a good start. But if a band like Skeletal Remains has released anything like Devouring Mortality, then id like that as well. I usually prefer my death metal on the sludgy/doomy side, but I can always get in line with a good tech album. Nice organic/analog sound matters though. But im generally open to anything death metal that is worth it. Stoner, heavy metal, doom, grind, black.

 

[Krow]

I’m not sure I liked the new Macabre that much. There was some things to like in there but they seem more interested in nursery rhymes and campfire singalong nonsense.

doubt I’ll revisit it very much, if ever.

 

[CiG]

@EternalMetal I hear the new Resin Tomb album is a pretty good mixture of death, sludge and black metal. Might be worth investigating.

 

[Bloopy]

Nice 2020 album from fellow forum member @Terasophe:

 

[no country for old wainds]

for now i'll just run through my RYM friends' top 100 as a primer, might be useful to some of you:
1) paysage d'hiver - im wald (swiss atmospheric BM, overrated but fine)
2) ulcerate - stare into death and be still (kiwi tech death, overrated but fine)
3) malokarpatan - krupinske ohne (slovakian trad/BM hybrid, great step up from the debut IMO)
4) eternal champion - ravening iron (USPM, probably rules)
5) cirith ungol - forever black (US trad, bit disappointing but aight)
6) oranssi pazuzu - mestarin kynsi (finnish avant-garde/psych-BM, not my thing)
7) siege column - darkside legions (NYDM/war metal, w/e)
8) black curse - endless wound (US black/death, boring)
9) traveler - termination shock (canadian trad, decent i guess)
10) witches hammer - damnation is my salvation (canadian death/thrash, good stuff)

11) atramentus - stygian (canadian funeral doom, pretty cool iirc)
12) khthoniik cerviiks - aeequiizoiikum (german black + tech death, CiGcore)
13) gulch - impenetrable cerebral fortress (american metalcore)
14) afterbirth - four dimensional flesh (american tech death, good if you're into that kinda thing)
15) anhedonist / spectral voice - abject darkness / ineffable winds (american death)
16) worm - gloomlord (US death doom)
17) butcher - 666 goats carry my chariot (belgian thrash/speed, good obvs)
18) cauldron black ram - slaver (aussie black/death, rules)
19) faceless burial - speciation (aus DM, sokay)
20) havukruunu - uinuos syomein sota (finnish pagan BM, kinda lame)

21) solicitor - spectral devastation (american speed, fine)
22) meurtrieres - meurtrieres (french trad)
23) ironsword - servants of steel (USPM, pretty good)
24) sweven - the eternal resonance (swedish prog, cool)
25) question - reflections of the void (mexican DM, great)
26) undeath - lesions of a different kind (NYDM)
27) voidceremony - entropic reflections continuum: dimensional unravel (american tech death, cool)
28) serpent column - endless detainment (american BM/mathcore)
29) esoctrilihum - eternity of shaog (french black/death)
30) warp chamber - implements of excruciation (USDM, pretty damn good)

31) inlet - hum (american shoegazey alt-metal)
32) draghkar - at the crossroads of infinity (USDM, great)
33) 200 stab wounds - piles of festering decomposition (USDM)
34) hyperdontia - excreted from the flesh (danish DM)
35) imperial triumphant - alphaville (american avant-tech death, not my thing but headz love it)
36) deogen - the endless black shadows of abyss (USBM, great)
37) kawir - adrasteia (greek BM, ungood)
38) skeletal remains - the entombment of chaos (USDM, disposable)
39) coffin curse - ceased to be (chilean DM, even chileans are boring sometimes)
40) caustic wound - death posture (US deathgrind)

41) nimbifer - demo II (german BM, first demo ruled)
42) temple nightside - pillars of damnation (aussie DM)
43) gorephilia - in the eye of nothing (finnish DM)
44) cosmic putrefaction - the horizons towards which splendour withers (italian DM, not bad, expected better)
45) hexenbrett - zweite beschworung: ein kind zu toten (german BM/heavy, not bad i guess)
46) defeated sanity - the sanguinary impetus (german brutal/tech DM, not really my thing but solid)
47) internal rot - grieving birth (aussie grind)
48) deftones - ohms (US alt-metal)
49) spirit possession - spirit possession (USBM)
50) katavasia - magnus venator (melodic BM, this looks awesome)

51) departure chandelier - dripping papal blood (north american BM)
52) antichrist siege machine - filth of the world (US war metal)
53) exhumation - eleventh formulae (indonesian DM)
54) sadistic drive - anthropophagy (finnish DM, pretty damn good)
55) perdition temple - sacraments of descension (floridian DM, very good)
56) mystras - castles conquered and reclaimed (greek BM, cool stuff)
57) thecodontion - supercontinent (italian avant-DM, cool)
58) live burial - unending futility (british DM, i liked their previous one)
59) lamp of murmuur - the burning spears of crimson agony (USBM)
60) cryptic shift - visitations from enceladus (british tech thrash, very nice)

61) necrot - mortal (USDM)
62) spectral lore & mare cognitum - wanderers: astrology of the nine (greek/US atmo-black)
63) biesy - transsatanizm (polish avent-BM, pretty cool)
64) obscene - the inhabitable dark (USDM, cool album, love the cover art)
65) bastard priest - vengeance... of the damned (swedish DM, didn't know about this tbh)
66) the wizar'd - subterranean exile (aussie trad doom, good as ever)
67) chaotian - festering excarnation (danish DM, 2019 album was good)
68) onirik - the fire cult beyond eternity (portuguese BM, cool)
69) pyrrhon - abscess time (american tech death, not my thing)
70) ensnared - inimicus generis humani (swedish DM)

71) funeral leech - death meditation (US death/doom)
72) acerus - the tertiary rite (mexican trad, corchado side project, cool)
73) sanctifying ritual - sanctifying ritual (german DM, cool)
74) wytch hazel - iii: pentecost (british pastoral hard rock, i assume it rules like its predecessor)
75) ripped to shreds - luan (japanese DM, previous was solid)
76) pale divine - consequence of time (us trad doom, good stuff)
77) revenge - strike.smother.dehumanize (canadian war metal, ehh it's a revenge album alright)
78) gorevent - fate (japanese slam DM)
79) smoulder - dream quest ends (canadian trad, i assume it rules)
80) dearth - to crown all befoulment (US black/death)

81) cenotaphe - montre verita (french BM)
82) cemetery filth - dominion (USDM, not bad)
83) plague - portraits of mind (greek DM)
84) proscription - conduit (finnish DM)
85) disembowel - echoes of terror (USDM)
86) neptunian maximalism (belgian avant-garde jazz/drone metal)
87) boris - no (japanese sludge/crust)
88) kommodus - kommodus (aussie BM, cool iirc)
89) lamp of murmuur - heir of ecliptical romanticism (USBM)
90) sodom - genesis XIX (teutonic thrash)

91) ifernach - waqan (canadian BM)
92) pharmacist - medical renditions of grinding decomposition (japanese DM/goregrind)
93) encenathrakh - thraakethraaeate thraithraake (american brutal/tech death)
94) white magician - dealers of divinity (american trad)
95) ripper - paranormal waves (chilean thrash)
96) fluids - ignorance exalted (american brutal death/goregrind)
97) napalm death - throes of joy in the jaws of defeatism (british deathgrind)
98) azath - through a warren of shadow (malazan DM, pretty cool)
99) fleshvessel - bile of man reborn (american prog DM)
100) the spirit - cosmic terror (german melodic BM)

 

[CiG]

Just got through my first listen of the new Opium Warlords album Nembutal. Awesome, though like with all experimental music it will take multiple listens in multiple mind-states to unlock it fully. Definitely disappointing when an album is bookended by its two best tracks though, usually makes a lot of the middle feel like filler even if it's not really true. Even worse when those two best tracks were also the pre-release leaked tracks. :/

CiGcore

 

[Vegard Pompey]

5) cirith ungol - forever black (US trad, bit disappointing but aight)

Pretty much Baker sounds amazing on it but the songs are so boring. Don't know what people see in it.

 

[CiG]

You two are fucking weird.

 

[no country for old wainds]

the musicianship and sound/tone are still strong as well as baker, i don’t dislike it or anything, but yeah the songs and a lot of the riffs are kinda formulaic. it’s not disappointing by modern trad standards but it’s disappointing by legendary band standards. i mean it’s surely their least memorable album (aside from possibly PL which i haven’t heard in ages). same way i felt about the last pagan altar more or less actually.

 

[CiG]

same way i felt about the last pagan altar more or less actually.

Awesome album.