Epicus Covidicus Metallicus: The GMD 2020 Metal Megathread

[Slammed]

There was more I was interested in come out this year than I thought. But I don't see anything else on the release list for the next three weeks that might change this so I'll post it now.

1. Testament – Titans Of Creation
This album was always going to be in my top 10 but the more I listened the higher it jumped. The only real downside for me is the last song which doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the album.
2. Alestorm – Curse Of The Crystal Coconut
Fuck the detractors Alestorm are a ton of fun and don't take themselves anywhere near as seriously as most of their haters do.
3. Bonded – Rest In Violence
Ex-Sodom, Ex-Suicidal Angels, Ex Assassin this album was always going to be good with that kind of pedigree
4. Plague Years – Circle Of Darkness
Second full length from these US thrash/death metallers (according to M-A) and it's great effort.
5. In Malice’s Wake – The Blindness Of Faith
Aussie thrash/death and IMW's best album so far
6. Wreck-Defy – Powers That Be
Greg Christian's most recent band with an ever improving catalogue
7. Harlott – Detritus Of The Final Age
Another Aussie thrash band doing it well
8. Gama Bomb – Sea Savage
These guys are stupidly fun
9. Sodom – Genesis XIX
Not quite as good as I hoped and it slows down towards the end but still a solid album
10.Victorius – Space Ninjas From Hell
Fun as fuck, goofy, german power metal about Japanese space ninjas, what more could one ask for?

HM's

Wartooth – Programmed Dichotomy
Burning Witches – Dance With The Devil
Secutor – Executor
Ozzy Osbourne – Ordinary Man
Annihilator – Ballistic, Sadistic
Grindpad – Violence
Hazzerd – Delirium
Shrapnel – Place For The Insane
Armored Saint – Punching The Sky
Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons – We’re The Bastards
Warbringer - Weapons Of Tomorrow

 

[Bloopy]

1. Stälker - Black Majik Terror
2. Dopelord - Sign of the Devil
3. Bleed This Earth - Bleed This Earth
4. Unruly - Unruly
5. Vader - Solitude in Madness
6. Ulcerate - Stare Into Death and Be Still
7. Thousand Limbs - Mara
8. Enter the Soil - The Still Forest, Bathed in Mist
9. VVARP - First Levitations
10. Terasophe - Terra Vitae/Terra Mori

HM:
Draulicht - Cruciatus
In Malice's Wake - The Blindness of Faith
Corpsefeast - Fence of Shrunken Heads
Demons of Noon - The Summoning

In Malice's Wake didn't do as much for me as I was hoping. I prefer their first two I think. Songs with a bit more room to breathe. But I'm weird like that.

 

[CiG]

Potentially controversial opinion:

The new White Magician album is better than the new Wytch Hazel album.

 

[challenge_everything]

Haven't heard it, but must say, the new Wytch Hazel album sucks compared to II: Sojourn.

 

[challenge_everything]

93) encenathrakh - thraakethraaeate thraithraake (american brutal/tech death)

 

[CiG]

Haven't heard it, but must say, the new Wytch Hazel album sucks compared to II: Sojourn.

I felt it was a bit low energy or something, I dunno. Might be a grower.

 

[Burkhard]

As usual, just a short list from me:

1. Lovebites - Electric Pentagram
My favourite album by them, also featuring their overall heaviest song thus far, "Set the World on Fire", which is Thrash Metal in perfection. They are also one of the very few bands which even manage to play Power Metal and "normal" Heavy Metal in a way I really do enjoy.

1. Lovebites - Five of a Kind
Possibly my favourite live album by any metal band thus far.

3. Nightwish - Human :||: Nature
I wasn't too impressed by its predecessor, but I really like this album, probably also because it sounds quite different from what they have done before. While "Oceanborn" is still my overall favourite Nightwish-album, I'd put this one at least at no. 3 after "Imaginaerum", but maybe one day these two will switch places.

4. Psychotic Waltz - The God-Shaped Void
Another positive surprise. Not as good as their first two releases, but I like it definitely better than "Mosquito" and "Bleeding".

5. Mekong Delta - Tales of a Future Past
A good album. I like it better than its predecessor, but considering that it took six years until the release of this album, I would have exepected a bit more. Still, Mekong Delta are one of the very few bands I already listened to in the eighties and whose new albums I still care about.

 

[no country for old wainds]

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I hear basically no difference in quality between the new and previous Wytch Hazels.

 

[rms]

Honestly think everyone would like this album and I still think it's the best I've heard this year




Other goodies

 

[Vegard Pompey]

lol:



full-length version if you want to subject yourself to that for some reason

 

[CiG]

I hear basically no difference in quality between the new and previous Wytch Hazels.

I might be wrong if we went down each album track by track to note the pacing differences, but the third album felt a bit slower and eventually started to drag. Not too much but just enough to have an impact on my enjoyment. Also I like the production on the second album a bit more, just feels a pinch more bombastic.

That said, I do think it's a grower because I'm already finding myself coming back to certain tracks on the new album like "Spirit and Fire" while I'm doing stuff or at work. They've clearly improved a ton as musicians and songwriters between II and III.

 

[Bloopy]

In Malice's Wake didn't do as much for me as I was hoping. I prefer their first two I think. Songs with a bit more room to breathe. But I'm weird like that.

Light Upon the Wicked takes my fancy a bit more too actually, just relistened to that one. Will be nice and high on my 2015 list given how little metal I know from that year.

 

[EternalMetal]

lol:



full-length version if you want to subject yourself to that for some reason

Christ, the Lord! This shit is embarrassing.

 

[CiG]

Not necessarily vouching for these records, but here are my favourite cover arts of this plague ridden hellyear 2020:

20. Edge of Human by Apraxic (Oregon deathgrind, imagine if you took the cavernous death metal of Witch Vomit and added spurts of grindcore. Dig the comic book post-apocalyptic cyberpunk vibe.)
Artwork by Matt Stikker.


19. Heir to the Cosmos by Apocryphetic (Memphis death metal, furious and infernal blasting style shit.)
Artwork by Raúl González.


18. Frustrations in the Key of Rust by Fistula (Sludge legends, this is their brand new covers album, haven't heard it yet but there are covers of bands like Misfits, Devo, Nirvana, The Exploited, Black Flag, Kilslug, Cro-Mags, D.R.I. etc.)
Artwork by Maegan LeMay.


17. True Bearings by Freeways (Canadian Thin Lizzy worship basically, I don't know why but I just love that cover painting... something about RVs just rules, maybe it's because I'm a huge fan of camping and road movies?)
Artwork by [unknown will add later].


16. The Invocation of the Deathless One by Apep (German death metal that gets compared to Nile a lot due to the themes, but by no means are they a Nile clone band. Horribly overlooked this year, probably because it dropped right before the whole COVID thing kicked off. Paolo's art is always a treat to witness.)
Artwork by Paolo Girardi.


15. The Eternal Resonance by Sweven (The much more progressive phoenix that emerged from the ashes of Morbus Chron! I love sparse atmospheric art like this, for some reason it always makes me think of Arya Stark on the man-made shores of The House of Black and White.)
Artwork by Raúl González.


14. Lesions of a Different Kind by Undeath (What a demented and psychotic piece of art! Nicely captures the ugliness of death metal.)
Artwork by Matt Browning (their drummer).


13. In the Eye of Nothing by Gorephilia (The mysteriousness of this one rules, you wouldn't look at it and really have a good idea what genre it could be, maybe it's not even metal? Is it Baldur's Gate fanart?)
Artwork by Raúl González.


12. The God-Shaped Void by Psychotic Waltz (I'm a total sucker for psychedelic art on a galactic scale, this is some crazy shit.)
Artwork by Travis Smith.


11. The Shadow at the World's End by Revolting (Immediately gives me a Considered Dead vibe, almost looks like it could be a zoomed out image from that chamber.)
Artwork by Juanjo Castellano.

 

[CiG]

Part two:

10. Devil's Alley by Madsher (Just a cool speed metal EP by a new Madrid-based band, nothing to go crazy about, but the cover is fucking awesome. Yes, that's Rutger Hauer aiming a shotgun at them lmfao.)
Artwork by [unknown again].


9. Tankeskrekk by Tottal Tømming (Mongo grindcore from Norway, this is some kind of insane absurdist car crash scene nightmare scenario with a dragon flying through the sky, it's nuts.)
Artwork by [unknown again!].


8. Dawn of Reintoxication by Repuked (Dirty Swedish death metal for fans of Autopsy/Abscess etc. Disgusting and degenerate cover art, suits the music perfectkly.)
Artwork by Thomas "Necromaniac" Westphal.


7. Anthropophagy by Sadistic Drive (Finnish car crash metal, with some insanely primitive and nasty old school artwork. Would make a perfect addition to a kids' colouring book.)
Artwork by Dayan Weller (the bassist of Dipygus, he also did art for Greenwitch and Warp Chamber this year).


6. Sharpen Your Spikes by Körgull the Exterminator (Noisy blackthrash from Spain, basically legends at this point for worshipping the early Voïvod records and keeping that whole sound alive. I adore the intense detail on this one, must have taken for fucking ever.)
Artwork by Alastor.


5. Aldrig i livet by Undergang (What a great record! The throwback to old school zine art and graphic novel style and 80's hardcore punk/Black Flag art all mixed together reeks of nostalgia for me. Not that I was around for any of it haha.)
Artwork by David "Torturdød" Buch Mikkelsen.


4. Four Dimensional Flesh by Afterbirth (Long Island progressive brutal psychedelic headfuck slamming death metal masters, with art that nicely acts as a subtle omen of things to come, while also perfectly fitting the vibe of the record. Reeks of classic science fiction artwork, could belong on a Slough Feg album just as much as this.)
Artwork by Kishor Haulenbeek.


3. Providence by Ulthar (I'm actually not super familiar with this album, I only listened to it once so far, I dug it but haven't returned yet. However the artwork is fuuuuuucking amazing, so many tiny gross little horrific details, just find a huge version of it, zoom and look at this fucking thing. So fucked up and beautiful at the same time. I can't think of a better Lovecraftian/cosmic horror art piece than this.)
Artwork by Ian Miller.


2. Vy kusy mrdacího masa by !T.O.O.H.! (This is actually a reissue of their first demo from 1995, but the artwork is new and a reimagining of the original artwork and well... it rules! Nobody should be surprised by this being so high for me lol.)
Artwork by [no idea, hopefully when my CD arrives it will say inside].


1. Alphaville by Imperial Triumphant (This is one of those pieces I could stare at for ages, and have, and never cease to be mindblown. The sprawling architectural visuals impress me so much man. This guy is a fantastic artist, he's done a lot of great pieces over the years like the piece he did for Abzu or Pleiades' Dust for example, definitely a personal favourite.)
Artwork by Zbigniew M. Bielak.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

1. Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville
2. Khthoniik Cerviiks - Æequiizoiikum
3. Gjendød - Angrep
4. Afterbirth - Four Dimensional Flesh
5. Malokarpatan - Krupinské ohne (The Fires of Krupina)
6. Defeated Sanity - The Sanguinary Impetus
7. Dead and Dripping - Profane Verses of Murderous Rhetoric
8. Isengard - Vårjevndøgn
9. Undergang - Aldrig i livet
10. Gorephilia - In the Eye of Nothing

Appreciate the legwork! I'm going down the list (on Malokarpatan now). My favorite so far is the Khthoniik Cerviiks, fucking tight riffage.

 

[CiG]

At this rate doing a thread for 2021's albums won't even be worth it.

 

[Bloopy]

As the years go by, all tastes gradually recede into their own dank caves clutching mutually exclusive sets of albums. Though 2021 felt like the outtakes and offcuts left over after bands made the most of being locked down in 2020. I'm depending on 2022 to tell me if I really have lost interest in new metal.

 

[CiG]

That shit makes no sense to me, I feel almost overwhelmed by how much good shit is getting released during the pandemic era!