Heavy metal. Lists. Math. These are three of my favorite things. It’s for this reason that the AngryMetalGuy.com Meta List is the article for which I feel the most excitement every year. Personally representing the best year for metal in several, I have been especially delighted to be a part of this community this year.¹ I noted in my personal list that 2020 saw a booming trade in death metal, a fact brought home by our final aggregation here. Three albums in our collective top ten suckle at the teat of the corpse (Afterbirth, Faceless Burial, Ulcerate),² with another two at least fondling that teat among others (Imperial Triumphant, Anaal Nathrakh).³ I’m pleased to report that each of them delivers a distinct whiff of that death-like stench.

However, I am disappointed to find several selections on this list fall into typical “critics’ consensus” picks. You’ll see a number of these albums sitting pretty atop other year-end lists you’ll have read. I enjoy that AngryMetalGuy.com does not usually single out trendy albums but that’s not the case for 2020. Does this demonstrate that these records were truly the best of the year? That we didn’t listen to as much music this year? That we’re hiring more posers by the day? This is a question we can’t satisfactorily answer but I’m minded to go with the latter. Let’s raze it to the ground and restart from August 2014 (completely coincidentally, the month my watch here began).⁴

Like last year, I also feel compelled to shout-out those bands which accrued a respectable number of votes but which fell short of the aggregated list on account of their low voting points not amounting to much. This includes Kvaen (six votes), Eternal Champion (five votes) and Black Royal (five votes). Compared with Protest the Hero which only hit three lists, it feels like these records were shafted but such are the mechanics of our sophisticated algorithm.⁵

– El Cuervo

10. Protest the Hero // Palimpsest – [#1, #1, #1] – Protest the Hero and their fifth album, Palimpsest, is unquestionably the most divisive entry in the history of this feature. The detractors note “God, the fucking vocals” (Doc Grier), that it’s “like mall kids trying to be oh-so-serious about historical events for some class project” (Steel Druhm), and “this is a situation similar to in hockey when the fans get together and vote the worst player onto the all-star team” (Huck ‘n Roll, purveyor of objectively sick burns). Nonetheless, its supporters scraped Palimpsest on to this list by virtue of just three list entries, all of which were AotY picks. Dr. The Wvrm earnestly muses on the record’s timely social commentary which “reflects all the glory, pain, and hope⁠—past, present, and future⁠—incumbent in the American experience,” while Kronos enthuses that “every single song is an absolute banger.” The ever-eloquent GardensTale summarizes it thus: “it’s an enormously accomplished and meticulously crafted album, with technical and songwriting chops through the roof.” Love it or hate it, there’s little doubt that any record could capture the zeitgeist as well as this one does.

9. Lör // Edge of Eternity – [#1, #2, #5, #7] – Is it a full-length? Maybe. Is it an EP? Perhaps. [Is it a Mini-LP? Yes, that’s exactly what it is. – AMG] Is it worth your time? Definitely. Lör achieves this through “a combination of speed, thrash, power metal, with splashes of techy and melodic death and a can-do attitude.” Bestowing his AotY award and eternal adoration, AMG elucidates that “the band excels at writing and arranging songs, creatively utilizing transitions and harmonies in ways that evoke the great orchestral bands.” Though the record boasts expert arrangements and genre splicing, Dr. Wvrm’s neanderthal brain notes Edge of Eternity’s “thrashy punch” and that it features “arguably the five best songs of the year.” It’s tough to dispute a release featuring five of the best of anything in any given year, and he closes that “this is the record Lör should be known for. This is the power metal we need in our lives.”

8. Haken // VIrus – [#2, #2, #5, #6, #HM] – Bridging the old and the new, VIrus finds Haken once again in that sweet spot of catchy and proggy: “Haken never lets its technical tendencies distract from writing good, memorable and engaging songs. VIrus exhibits time and again the sweet balance between technical and progressive considerations and the benefits of just writing a catchy song” (Angry Metal Guy). Ruck n’ Holl, as one of the other prog weenies, also approves, though adopts a different tack by focusing on the considerable vocal prowess of the group. “What puts Haken over the top in this genre isn’t [just] the complex arrangements, the technical aptitude, or the Rush-like musicianship. It’s Ross Jennings’ vocal melodies, which make every song far catchier than it should be.” Catchy prog and sweet vocals? Count me in.⁶

7. Havukruunu // Uinuos syömein sota – [#3, #4, #6, #7, #8, #ish] – Representing their first entry into this hallowed list, longboat-lovers Havukruunu and their third record snappily entitled Uinuos syömein sota caused quite the Angry Metal Buzz this year. Contextualizing the band, Grymm notes that “Havukruunu captures the spirit of Quorthon and company incredibly well, and they delivered big on the anthemic Viking chants, icy tremolo riffs, and earworm-level songwriting here.” As if all this wasn’t enough, Doom et Al compares it with its predecessor, stating that it “delivered with aplomb. The same urgent riffs, the same sense of fun, the same eminently head-bangable moments. There was no attempt to reinvent the wheel here, with obvious homage to Immortal, but when it’s done this well, who cares?” Who indeed?

6. Afterbirth // Four Dimensional Flesh – [#2, #3, #4, #8, #8] – Offering, for my money, the most creative death metal of the year, Afterbirth finally rewarded their fans’ patience with what may be their crowning glory: Four Dimensional Flesh. Sir Kenneth attributes this to the mix, which is “thick and muscular, but also expansive and remarkably clear [which] launches the record from an excellent musical experiment to an essential record for the genre.” Likewise, L. Saunders describes it as “a cosmic delight of uncompromising, exploratory and intelligent brutal death. Progressive, complex, infectious, slammy, and a downright inspired album.” It’s tough to argue with such a glowing reception and I sincerely doubt I’ll ever be so fascinated by a brutal death metal record again.

5. Faceless Burial // Speciation – [#1, #2, #5, #7, #9, #HM, #HM] – Every year, there’s one record uniting our resident death metal connoisseurs. With one a grouchy British Northerner and the other a grouchy American Northerner, it’s unsurprising that they have music about death and violence in common. 2020’s cooperative selection is Australia’s Faceless Burial and their blistering sophomore album. Ferris Beuller graced Speciation with his top award, highlighting how the “complex riffing and dizzying drum work congeal into the most bizarrely memorable songs, all whilst herding the tenets of the old school.” Meanwhile, his star-spangled colleague ruminates that “in between splintered reflections of the greats, Faceless Burial build the foundations of greatness for themselves, delivering astronomic solos and glistening riffs that shine through their own cave-dweller production” (Kronos). You’d be a fool to miss this, even in a year replete with excellent death metal.

4. The Ocean // Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic I Cenozoic – [#1, #2, #5, #7, #7, #10, #HM] – Taking the top spot for most uses of “ozoic” on a musical album in the history of the world, Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic I Cenozoic is a confidentozoic and sophisticatedozoic step onwards from its predecessorozoic. IT nerd Sentynel lists its admirable qualities (“the band’s progressive writing and changeable moods, the dense, complex composition, Middle Eastern influences, and more varied vocals”), while OAP Huck n’ Roll gushes that “The Ocean have pushed themselves further compositionally than ever before, and the vocal performances are home runs. The opening and closing trios of songs are the epitomai of progressive metal. Aside from a brief and somewhat directionless lull in the middle, Phanerozoic II is a near-perfect album.” The Ocean are a perennial favorite around these parts and Phanerozoic II once more comes with our official Stamp ov Approvalozoic.

3. Imperial Triumphant // Alphaville – [#1, #1, #1, #4, #5, #HM] – Topping more lists than the two records ahead of it, Alphaville was loved by a number of writers. Cherdy Boi describes the record by its origins: “If you’ve been [to New York City] for any amount of time you know it’s both the most sublime and disgusting city in the world, at once futuristic and horribly dilapidated, elegant and claustrophobic. Imperial Triumphant is the full width and breadth of this history and experience in avant blackened death form.” Meanwhile, Akerblogger comments that “it’s a record that turned up the theatrics and stagecraft by infinity,” highlighting “the bounteous basslines, the diverse vocal transformations, the fluid transitions.” Its final enthusiast, Dear Hollow, summarizes the record as “something menacingly deliberate by contrast to its splattering predecessors: simultaneously more listenable and more challenging.” The door to the warped world is here, folks.

2. Ulcerate // Stare into Death and Be Still – [#1, #2, #2, #3, #4, #4, #5, #8, #HM] – Resolutely refusing to offer anything short of the spectacular, Ulcerate’s Stare into Death and Be Still still finds these Kiwi innovators at the top of the game they invented. Doomy Al bestowed on them his top award, noting that “the dissonant, twisting, sinuous riffs, entwined with Jamie St. Merat’s frankly astonishing drumming, resulted in a crushing, dystopian nightmare that remains a perfect allegory for the nightmare landscape of 2020.” Arguably its greatest quality is its enrapturing atmosphere, a point accentuated by Carcharodon: “this is still brvtal, dissonant death metal, drenched—one could say “drowning”—in atmosphere and is utterly captivating as the violence ebbs and flows”. An unimaginative pick though this may be, it utterly deserves its accolades.

1. Anaal Nathrakh // Endarkenment – [#1, #1, #2, #2, #4, #4, #4, #6, #7, #9, #HM, #HM] – “That AN really is posercore. Like the second you’ve got every rando on staff, including me, rating it high, you know they sold out.” (Lil Wvrm) While this take may be a little hot, Brother Grymm recognizes this hooky quality by questioning: “Is it their most accessible album? Yes. Is it still visceral, unflinching, and unmistakingly Anaal Nathrakh? Also yes, to all three.” Similarly, Messr. Saunders comments that Endarkenment is “an expert soldering of epic, fist-pumping hooks with extreme urges, covering black, grind, industrial, death, and power, that finds Dave Hunt and Mick Kenney keeping their well-established formula fresh and compelling.” Emphasizing its most important contribution to the world, Dr. Anal Gruyere comments that “though [we] tried to laugh the album off for the pig-eye-cock fiasco, [we] couldn’t deny its power.” Reviewing metal in 2020, it’s tough to argue that Anaal Nathrakh doesn’t deserve to be our collective favorite; the 12 writers who picked it on their lists, plus 7 slots in the top 4, can’t all be wrong. ’nuff said.

I have very little to add except that it’s been a lot of fun doing playlists this last year. The primer feature is the only way I’d ever have been exposed to a lot of bands this year—I’m still mad I actually enjoyed the Alestorm feature⁠—and everyone’s Songs o’ the Year lists have been a nice treat this holiday season, when no one really wants to listen to review copy anyway. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

Oh, and Protest the Hero officially has the most unique choices on this list. Every Haken song was listed under one entry on AMG‘s list; they’re all one entry on this list. Weenies win again.

– Dr. Wvrm

The post AngryMetalGuy.com’s Aggregated Top 10 of 2020: Thus Spake the Plebeians appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

On September 18th of 2013, my first-ever Angry Metal Guy review of Vattnet Viskar’s Sky Swallower debuted on this very webpage. As 2020 opened, I promised myself that I would be more prolific, more productive, and more engaged in my writing. You see, September 18th of this year would mark seven full years of writing for the Internet’s best metal review site. It’s a pretty big deal because it would also mark that I have been writing for Angry Metal Guy longer than any day job I’ve ever held at this point. So, I swore that I would up my writing game, dive deeper than I’ve ever dived before into our favorite genre of music, and really pull out all the stops.

But as we all know, 2020 happened.

Many of you folks likely stayed home and tried to ride out the COVID-19 storm as best as you could, as did many of the writers here on this blog. I… didn’t, or rather, I couldn’t. See, I work at a warehouse that fulfills online orders, so my job, as well as people who work retail establishments like grocery and department stores, was considered to be essential. So whereas many of my fellow writers and editors squeezed in some extra listening and writing time while working at home, I spent the majority of 2020 running around an insanely busy warehouse, fulfilling orders, and trying my damnedest to not get sick or run myself down, which I ended up doing on the regular in the case of the latter. In other words, my work exploded with activity. I couldn’t find hardly any time to listen to music, let alone write about it. My priorities shifted from attempting to be more productive as a writer, to making sure I don’t get sick or run down. So this year’s list isn’t so much a “Top Ten of a wide variety of different genres and bands,” and more of a “Top Ten of things I actually had time to listen to and enjoy this year due to exhaustion and an insane work schedule.” As such, it’s not going to be as robust or genre-encompassing as years past, and I do apologize.

I’m thankful, though, that while I knew of a few people I went to elementary school with got sick with the coronavirus (one of whom almost died from it), I’m one of the lucky few that didn’t lose anybody or my job because of it. It’s still disheartening to see people I used to meet at local breweries who work with me now, due to their jobs being misplaced or their businesses closing. Even more so is hearing about some of them losing a parent or relative due to it. I have no patience or time in people who engage in shaming others for having to start over, or what they do for work.¹ All of us lost something near and dear to us this year, whether it’s a job, a family member, or even just the sense of normalcy, and I’m hoping that, in 2021, there is some empathy to be had and given, at least more than it was in 2020.

So, I urge all of you to tell those you love that you love them, as many times as you feel necessary, and then some more times just to be sure. Look out for your friends and family members who are most at risk. Above all, take time out for yourself and do things you love. I’ll be doing so after the holidays are over, and I’m hoping that next year I can visit family back up north again, pandemic depending.

Oh, and if you have a retail or warehouse job and someone tells you that you’re not essential, not-so-kindly tell them to fuck right off.

My thanks and gratitude to my family and friends for checking up on me when things went berserk work-wise. To all the editors and writers here at Angry Metal Guy for being understanding of my absence and sporadic writing schedules. To my partner of 11 years for working through things together, no matter how hard it got. And finally, to you, the readers, for your continued patronage, recommendations on new bands to check out, hilarious and/or insightful comments, and for your understanding and patience in what was a horrifically bad year.

If any of you lost a loved one, a job, a business, or even a favorite hangout this year due to the coronavirus, I offer nothing but my utmost support and condolences. For those of you continuing to put yourselves at risk, whether you work in the fields of healthcare, retail, or warehouse work, keep fighting the good fight, and know that I’m right there alongside you. Here’s hoping that 2021 ends up being less of a shitstorm than this year was. Fuck this year. Fuck this year so goddamn much.

Onward…

#ish. Eternal Champion // Ravening Iron – Only an “ish” in that I’ve spent precious little time with it, but the first few listens were enough to impress the hell out of me. It’s not easy to channel the heart that’s prominent in classic heavy metal, and these Texans have that in spades. A tremendous album that sticks with you long after it dies out.

#10. 殞煞 Vengeful Spectre // 殞煞 Vengeful Spectre – Back in January,² Chinese black metal upstarts 殞煞 Vengeful Spectre put forth an impressive debut, teeming with the same impressive atmosphere that recalls early Chthonic and Spectre’s countrymates Black Kirin. Solid, if a bit too short, debut from a promising new band.

#9. Nug // Alter Ego – Another impressive debut, this time from the Ukraine, Nug took post metal, a genre that’s become a shambling corpse for the most part, and made it vital by going hard on the riffs and rhythms, eschewing clean, shimmery vocals that populate modern-day post metal, and basically reminding all of us why we fell in love with the genre in the first place. A grower that keeps blossoming with each successive listen.

#8. Leeched // To Dull the Blades of Your Abuse – I’ve never been so happily disgusted by how grimy and chunky Leeched’s organic and all-too-real take on industrialized hardcore, and on their second album, they upped the ante by… well, not doing anything different except make things somehow more grotesque while becoming more face-melting and head-crushing in their songwriting approach. Easy recommendation for those who wish Godflesh would become more of a hardcore act.

#7. Lör // Edge of Eternity – Earlier this year, I was wondering whatever the hell happened to Pennsylvanian folkers Lör after their debut, In Forgotten Sleep, made permanent residence in my brain over the last couple of years. Turns out, they surprised all of us with this amazing EP, showcasing not only tighter musicianship above and beyond their already awesome display on the debut, but making the vast majority of AMG writers excited for their second full-length. One of the shiniest diamonds in all of American metal.

#6. Shores of Null // Beyond the Shores (On Death and Dying) – If you’re gonna make your third album a single 39-minute song, you better bring your A-game. Shores of Null not only brought it, but made those 39 minutes almost fly by, not only displaying impressive growth from their amazing debut, Quiescence, but also giving glimpses as to what would happen if Shores of Null decided to go all funeral doom on us. The answer? Good things. Good things, indeed.

#5. Imperial Triumphant // Alphaville – Label me as a hipster all you want, I don’t give a fuck. I don’t spin Alphaville all that often, but when I do, it takes me to places that are simultaneously regal and pristine while also being grimy and disgusting. Imperial Triumphant’s continued progression as musicians no longer pushes the envelope so much as redefines what the envelope is. Further listens uncover even more grotesque layers, making Alphaville the ugly gift that keeps on giving.

#4. Havukruunu // Uinuos syömein sota – Like the vast majority of you, I miss Bathory a lot. Like, a lot. Thankfully, Havukruunu captures the spirit of Quorthon and company incredibly well, and they delivered big on the anthemic Viking chants, icy tremolo riffs, and earworm-level songwriting here. Havukruunu, in the short time I’ve been familiar with their music, have quickly turned into a new favorite band for me, and I hope Uinuos syömein sota does the same for you.

#3. Vredehammer // Viperous – Do you like RIFFS? I mean, sure, we all like riffs, but there’s a difference between riffs and RIFFS. Viperous has RIFFS. Immeasurable amounts of them, almost to the point where it borders on the realm of the ridiculous just how many there are, and just how fucking remarkably potent each of them are delivered by the gifted hands of Per Valla. It’s borderline illegal how fucking lethal Valla’s RIFF-flinging ability is exhibited on Viperous.

#2. Godthrymm // Reflections – When not one, but two former My Dying Bride members join forces to bring back the early days of the Peaceville Three (namely Paradise Lost), you know only remarkable things will happen. Those remarkable things coalesced into Reflections, their first full-length, and a masterclass in all things doom and gloom.

#1. Anaal Nathrakh // Endarkenment – I will start this off by saying that AMG Himself was right: I underscored this album. I felt a 4.0 was a good score for a tremendous return-to-form after a shaky detour in 2018’s A New Kind of Horror. Fact of the matter is I’ve listened to Endarkenment almost on a daily basis: on the way to/from work, at the gym, when I’m home gaming, etc. And it rarely feels old or tired. Is it their most accessible album? Yes. Is it still visceral, unflinching, and unmistakingly Anaal Nathrakh? Also yes, to all three. Besides, Endarkenment expertly encapsulated just what I felt about what’s going on in the world better than I could ever put to words. That, and it brings me unbridled joy through catharsis. That’s more than enough to make this vital, as well as soundly place it as my Record o’ the Year.

Honorable Mention

Heaven Shall Burn // Of Truth & Sacrifice – Again, I didn’t get a chance to listen to much music outside of stuff I’ve reviewed this year, due to working so much and the burnout that came with it, as well as trying to exhibit some massive self-care via eating right, exercising when I can squeeze it in, and knocking down my gaming list piece by piece. That said, even with the unevenness of their second disc, Of Truth & Sacrifice was a solid outing that brought me back to choice cuts off of Antigone, Deaf to Our Prayers, and even a little bit of Whatever It May Take in terms of hooks and ferocity. It also took me back to younger, happier years when there wasn’t a pandemic, nor there were people who openly acted like complete and utter assholes. Which leads me to…

Disappointment of 2020

An Overwhelming Majority of the Human Race (Well, at least online) – Buckle up, this will be a long, bumpy ride. Look, I completely understand all the discomforts levied this year. I’ve avoided gatherings, miss concerts with a great passion, and my hands have seen way more alcohol than either my mouth or liver. Masks are uncomfortable. Keeping at least six feet away from people is daunting, if sometimes impossible, especially in a work environment. But good fucking god, there is no reason to be an asshole to people, whether online or in person, when it’s not even remotely justified. None. Especially when that person’s lost a business, a job or career, or even a family member or a dear friend. Nowhere is this readily apparent than on that cesspool of unwanted opinions, readily-available misinformation, and ultra-wet-and-slimy hot-takes, Facebook. I’d been teetering with deleting my account before 2020 took root and became the epic shitshow we all know and loathe, but seeing “friends” use FB as a vehicle to either shame workers like me for “not being essential enough,” or seeing Canadian friends use it as a joke to ridicule Americans for what’s been happening to them, or even cracking jokes at the expense of those who’ve lost anything they value this year was enough for me to pull the plug entirely on my being there. People who act like that aren’t enlightened, or charming, or funny. They’re assholes, and assholery knows no creed, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, race, or economic background. While I miss the few people I can legitimately call a friend on there, as well as having handy access to music, gaming, and movie news, I don’t miss the constant mudslinging without self-reflection or the massive hit on my sanity I took while standing by and watching all this shit go down. This isn’t a Republican or Democrat problem, and it’s gonna take a lot more than some celebrities who are several tax brackets above me, banding together online for a sing-along to John Lennon’s “Imagine” to fix.

Song(s) o’ the Year

Kronos

You don’t want to read about my life and I have no intention of writing about it. At this point in list season, you’re probably done with the whole recap thing; I’ll spare you that as well. If it’s true efficiency you seek, I would advise you skip all of my writing below and proceed straight to yelling at me in the comments. There is nothing here for you. In fact, this sentence is totally useless. I’m just using it to push the first record on the list down below my headshot there. Our editorial team have enough shit to shovel without me throwing formatting to the wind for the sake of my own terseness.⁴ These five lines go out to them, and to the ever-thoughtful and open Grymm above. Truly, thanks.

But, hey, maybe you’re not choosing to read this. If you have any sense of how your life should be run, you’re on the shitter right now. The wi-fi is bad in there, and the comments aren’t loading. Solidarity requires me to provide the content you need right now. So read on, comrade.

#ish. Intercepting Pattern // The Encounter – It’s djent, it’s jazz fusion, and, shockingly, it’s great. Perhaps that’s because it’s made by a bunch of brutal death metal nerds in their spare time. Regardless of the reason, The Encounter’s single slick song pulses with paranoia drenched in deceit. Sure, it’s a sappy love letter to Special Defects, but I don’t see Fredrik Thordendal complaining, so I won’t either. Intercepting Pattern’s combined talents and clear passion are more than enough to pull off this weird but engaging record that doesn’t quite fit in to the metal scene.

#10. Black Curse // Endless Wound – Old School Death Metal is over. It no longer exists because it has destroyed the opposition that gave it shape. It’s just death metal now. Endless Wound is its fanfare, a carol for death metal’s feast upon its own amputated excesses. Greasy, glassy-eyed, and reeking, Black Curse drunkenly dance in the sputtering ashes of death metal as it was.

#9. Loviatar // Lightless – Doom is for old men. I really like this doom record. But I am not yet an old man. Not being old men themselves, Loviatar rejuvenated their doom with a healthy injection of post-metal, pulling the style forward into, well, at least the ‘90s. A small jump, perhaps, but if that’s not current enough for you, I cannot fathom why you would visit this website. Rosy-cheeked doom skeptics are encouraged to take a shot in the dark on this one.

#8. Defeated Sanity // The Sanguinary Impetus – Defeated Sanity peaked with Passages, but they’re taking their sweet time on the descent. And being Germans, they’re hell-bent on exploring every nook and cranny of the spot they find themselves in. Gruber et. al use The Sanguinary Impetus as a vessel for both experimentation and mastery, delivering a few memorable oddities (“Phytodigestion”) alongside some of their best material ever (“Propelled into Sacrilege”). Throw in lyrics on the subject of carnivorous plants, parasitoid wasps, Komodo dragons, and other ecological oddities, and you’ve got a record more than worthy of the world’s foremost brutalizers.

#7. Aseitas // False Peace – Aseitas have enough ideas to supply three or four bands. That surplus makes for fascinating albums, but it’s their skill in arrangement that provides gripping songs. False Peace manifests a kaleidoscopic future death metal in crackling embers and magmatic torrents, bending and melting the bedrock of tempo and tonality. But it’s kinda long, so, you know. Could be better.

#6. Lord Buffalo // Tohu Wa Bohu – This is the album (or at least one of the albums) you’re meant to yell at me for liking. Having this weird-ass folk-rock album here makes me a massive poseur. But check this out: you could be a poseur, too. It’s fun. All you have to do is listen to Tohu Wa Bohu all the time instead of the much cooler death metal records that you keep passing on for no reason.

#5. Calligram // The Eye is the First Circle – Absolutely nasty. The hardcore/black metal intersection has produced many violent collisions before, but The Eye is the First Circle is particularly gruesome among them. Calligram’s caustic wreckage forgoes the oppression of a group like Plebeian Grandstand for the immediacy of razor-wire black metal riffing and inhuman screams. Matteo Rizzardo’s electric retches melt through the chaos with a caustic imperative that demands not just attention, but transfixion.

#4. Ulcerate // Stare into Death and Be Still – I would be annoyed were I not so infatuated. I keep expecting Ulcerate to cool off a bit, but more than a decade after Everything is Fire completely upended death metal, the kiwis are still so far ahead of the curve it’s almost comical. Stare into Death is unmistakably both an Ulcerate record and a new record. The band’s compositions are as impenetrable and expansive as ever, but by God does this record have hooks. The Ulcerate riff is now so integral to death metal that it can be simultaneously unapproachable and catchy, and every song on Stare into Death uses this fact to its utmost advantage.

#3. Afterbirth // Four Dimensional Flesh – You simply love to see it. After decades spent marking time and a shaky debut, Afterbirth delivered. Four Dimensional Flesh has the valence of an undiscovered classic, something buried by history that, in different circumstances, could have helped shape the course of a quarter century of death metal. Afterbirth use grunge and post-rock to plot out a retrofuturist alternative history for brutality, one that’s colorful and adventurous rather than drab and foreboding. Plus, listening for all of that can help you develop an appreciation for guttural vocals. That way you won’t have to whine about them in the future. Imagine how nice that would feel.

#2. Faceless Burial // Speciation – I’m generally more of a macroevolution guy, but in the competition of “best death metal records named after evolutionary process (reason unclear)” I have to disappoint Abysmal Dawn. Speciation is a saltatory change for Faceless Burial, applying the trio’s clear chemistry and sharp writing to material an order of magnitude more ambitious than their debut. In between splintered reflections of the greats, Faceless Burial build the foundations of greatness for themselves, delivering astronomic solos and glistening riffs that shine through their own cave-dweller production. Just like For Dimensional Flesh, Speciation proves that greatness requires no novelty; only a vision and the skill to pull it off.

#1. Protest the Hero // Palimpsest – More than a poser, I am a big weenie now. I am listening to a prog metal/post-hardcore album about American myth-making written and performed entirely by Canadians. It is a bit incoherent. But the music is tech death for the beardless; Rody Walker sounds like mallcore’s Rob Halford. He’s crying his lungs out about Amelia Earhart and industrial sugar accidents.⁵ He’s belting out the most beautiful lyrics ever written on the topics of covered wagons and burning zeppelins. I am tearing up a little bit. I am screaming in the shower about Lester Gills. Every single song is an absolute banger. I am a big, big weenie now.⁶

Honorable Mentions:

• End // Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face
• Fawn Limbs // Sleeper Vessels
• Sweven // The Eternal Resonance

Songs o’ the year

Calligram/Lord Buffalo // “Kenosis”

The post Kronos’ and Grymm’s Top Ten(ish) of 2020 appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Metal kept me sane in 2020. No kidding. As a healthcare worker, my days were (are) a blur of stress, fear, and sheer exhaustion. The suffering and sadness I witnessed are something I won’t forget anytime soon. On a personal level, I haven’t seen my family in a year and I honestly have no idea when it will be safe enough to travel to see them again.

The only real constant of 2020 was this genre of music we all love. I listened to more metal this year than any other I can remember, and it provided the relief and joy which were in such short supply elsewhere. None of my friends like it, so I have to share my passion with the folk on this site, and your enthusiasm and comments (even when you disagree) make it all worthwhile. Without you, the best metal community on the internet, the site as we know it doesn’t exist.

A special thanks to the entire oddball team at AMG. They may not always have great taste, but a better, more passionate, more knowledgeable group of metalheads you simply will not find. They’re also a really solid bunch of human beings. Hours and hours go into every lovingly crafted review, and we absolutely obsess over our words, scores, and lists. Thanks to Steel for being the glue that holds this whole enterprise together, ably assisted by Wvrm and Grier. Gratitude to fellow South African Madam X, the undisputed brains behind this operation, and to Dear Hollow for all the support. Love and respect to Carcharodon for being a top bloke I now think of as a friend. Also to Holdeneye, perhaps the funniest chap you’ll ever (virtually) meet. Finally, special gratitude to the artists who put the time and effort into this music that allowed me to get through 2020. There is no way to adequately express my thanks, except to say that I will never pass up a killer live show, or a merch station, ever again.

I tried not to overthink the list below, but there were so many amazing albums and artists that I (sadly) had to omit. It seemed like a year dominated by so much amazing death metal, such that I, not well-versed in this sub-genre, was forced to admire it. My criteria were clear: I selected the albums that gave me the most joy and that stayed on my playlist the longest. Enjoy!

PS: When it’s your turn: GET VACCINATED!

(ish). Gaerea // Limbo – Intensity. Overwhelming intensity. Whenever I listen to Limbo, that’s the impression I get. The lead singer sounds absolutely desperate at times, and, honestly, I can’t blame him. Gaerea embraces emotions so powerful they have to be howled into the abyss. But beyond the intensity, what Gaerea have managed with Limbo should not be underestimated: this is modern, smart black metal, utilizing every trick in the book to create music both claustrophobic and deeply personal. No sophomore slump detected here. Limbo is the sound of walls inexorably closing in.

#10. Dark Forest // Oak, Ash & Thorn – Talk about a surprise! Twee songs about forest folk and spirits with a lead singer clearly an octave out of his depth. And yet, the tracks on Oak, Ash & Thorn are ear-worms of the highest order. I simply defy you not to hum along with these guys. Yet the real heroes are those guitars. I mean, damn, the solo on “Relics” may be the best two minutes of metal this year. I usually leave the old-person metal to Steel and Huck, but I’m glad I made an exception here. 2020 was grim but Dark Forest made me smile every time I put this on. It stayed on rotation all year.

#9. Wayfarer // A Romance with Violence – Restless US black metal band, Wayfarer, has been building to this throughout its career. With every release, its atmospheric brand of music has been looking for focus. Well, the Wild West theme tentatively explored on their three previous albums has found complete expression on A Romance with Violence. It fearlessly examines the violent, genocidal, whitewashed history of a bloody nation using harsh black metal as a base camp. It sounds so natural it makes you wonder why more bands haven’t explored this concept. Catchy but brutal songs, surprisingly complex themes… oh, and you can almost taste the cheap saloon whiskey, mingled with the dust and blood on your tongue. It’s delicious.

#8. Afterbirth // Four Dimensional Flesh – Sci-fi as death metal. Expansive. Mind-bending. Perhaps most impressively of all, it manages to sound absolutely great at the same time. The riffs contort and twist as if warped by a malevolent wormhole, with slams that seem to smash from all directions. Yet the gentler, more experimental moments are what really set it apart. It simultaneously looks forwards and backwards for inspiration, resulting in a progressive experience rooted in what has worked in the past. This is the true soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

#7. Velnias // Scion of Aether – The Rocky Mountains of Colorado are known for their lonely beauty. Velnias uses this desolation as inspiration to construct mighty songs about time, nature and the eternal. What makes Scion of Aether special is how Velnias uses its influences—doom, sludge, black metal—to create a cavernous sound every bit as massive as its themes. Over the course of four songs proper, Scion of Aether jumps from prog to black metal to death doom, while sounding unique in the process. Majestic, dark and meditative. Imagine Elder but with real bite. One of the most underrated gems of 2020.

#6. Panzerfaust // The Suns of Perdition II: Render Unto Eden – Carcharodon is usually a fairly measured chap, so it was unusual to see him reduced to a slobbering fanboy, giving The Suns of Perdition II a thorough tongue-bathing on the day of its release. Seriously, he still goes on about it and I’m not sure he’ll ever get over its omission for RotM. Yet the Shark Guy was (disappointingly) right: this is just top black metal: intense, frightening, catchy and focused. Panzerfaust are on a winning streak at the moment with the Suns of Perdition series, and you should be there, cheering them on.

#5. Cytotoxin // Nuklearth – One of my favorite reviews on this site is Kronos’ of Cytotoxin’s Gammageddon. Niche death metal is not usually my thing, but Kronos managed to sell it on brutality mixed with actual solid song writing. What do you know? It was a blast of crushing yet catchy technical death metal. Well, the follow-up, Nuklearth, arrived and it was weird as hell, but worth the wait. Ridiculously complex guitar work, some of the best drumming of the year, thundering vocals, and a pong drum that will melt your face. Perhaps most impressively, what started off as cheap schtick (the explosion at Chernobyl) has now become a far more weighty and serious meditation on humanity’s obsession with self-destruction. Brainy and brawny.

#4. Spectral Lore/Mare Cognitum // Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine – This album made me incredibly angry. Just look at the absurd length of this thing: the wrong side of 2 hours. How do you even begin assessing this? Should an album always be listened to in its entirety? If it needs to be broken up into smaller chunks, is that a fault of the album or the listener? And yet… and yet… Channeling the spirit of Michael Gira and Swans, creating lengthy epics worth the journey, this is some of the best black metal you’ll hear. Period. The songs dip and dance together, alternating between brutal (particularly the Mare Cognitum tracks) and meditative. The duality of the artists is embraced, forming a constant to-and-fro that is never less than compelling. Due to its length, I still puzzle philosophically over whether this is a good album. But one thing that’s not in doubt is that it is outstanding black metal.

#3. Havukruunu // Uinuos syömein sota – Following up Kelle Surut Soi (one of my favorite albums from 2017) was never going to be an easy task. Expectations were sky-high. Yet Havukruunu delivered with aplomb. The same urgent riffs, the same sense of fun, the same eminently head-bangable moments. There was no attempt to reinvent the wheel here, with obvious homage to Immortal, but when it’s done this well, who cares? You know those movies where you start watching, and then can’t stop until they’re finished? This was the black metal equivalent.

#2. Afsky // Ofte Jeg Drømmer Mig Død – A textbook example of something very ugly illuminating beautiful truths. Afsky managed to make screeching, vicious black metal sound raw and vulnerable. The best albums take you on a journey, and Ofte Jeg Drømmer Mig Død, by combining old-school riffs with a modern sensibility, was one hell of a ride. This was not just a collection of songs, but an experience that conveyed real, earned emotion. My heart breaks a little every time I listen to it. The best album of the year by someone you’ve never heard of.

#1. Ulcerate // Stare into Death and Be Still – Where Shrines of Paralysis laid waste to everything in its path with unrelenting fire, Stare into Death and Be Still surveys the ash and carnage and wonders: is anything salvageable? The dissonant, twisting, sinuous riffs, entwined with Jamie St. Merat’s frankly astonishing drumming, resulted in a crushing, dystopian nightmare that remains a perfect allegory for the nightmare landscape of 2020. Arguably the best band in metal has never sounded so cohesive and focused. I still can’t believe this extraordinary, cavernous art was created by just three men. Nothing this year sounded quite like it, and I simply could not stop staring into death in slack-jawed awe. If I reviewed it today, it would breeze a 5.0/5.0.

Honorable Mentions:

• Faceless Burial // Speciation – Old-school death metal played with a distinctly modern sensibility. More riffs in each song than in the entirety of St. Anger
• Defeated Sanity // The Sanguinary Impetus – A strange and difficult beast that divided the staff. It’s wildly experimental and spiky, but inventive in a way that brings to mind None So Vile. For the bold.
• Exgenesis // Solve et Coagula – Sadboi death-doom done right. Hits right in the feels with an unusually melodic approach.
• Dynfari // Myrkurs er þörf – Post-metal album of the year, edging out Nug and The Ocean. Less experimental than previous releases, but more emotionally impactful.
• Kvaen // Funeral Pyre – Apart from being the source of endless memes among the staff, this was also the most pure fun I had with a black metal album this year. Whizzes by on boundless energy and catchy tracks.
• Vredehammer // Viperous – The album to lift to. Or run to. Or whatever it is that gets your heart rate up. Pummeling, thunderous, awesome death metal. RIP your personal best.
• Paradise Lost // Obsidian – Rock-solid (ha!) doom offering from one of the most dependable bands in metal. So workmanlike in its excellence that it flew under many radars. Doom done right by the masters.
• Convocation // Ashes Coalesce – Funeral doom with an unhinged edge. A slightly meandering final quarter is the only thing costing it a spot in the top 10.
• …and Oceans // Cosmic World Mother – Black metal legends return to form with an outstanding release that perfectly straddled the line between brvtal and melodic.

Disappointment of the Year:

Pallbearer // Forgotten Days – I love Pallbearer. Foundations of Burden is one of my favorite doom albums of all time. But something has happened to my beloved band. Maybe it’s a desire to explore a more proggy path. Maybe a lurch towards being more listener-friendly. Or maybe it’s simply the AMG Law of Diminishing Returns^TM. Regardless, the downward trend begun by Heartless is continued with the anemic Forgotten Days. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t terrible… it’s just completely unremarkable. And for Pallbearer, that is profoundly disappointing.

Song o’ the Year:

Loviatar – “Silica”

Dear Hollow

We made it, Al! We got a list, so we’ve officially graduated from insufferably overrating n00bs to insufferably overrating contributors! Three cheers for mediocrity!

It’s year-end, so while we all hope that 2021 offers a tad more optimism than 2020, it’s still prime time for reflection and wonder. Can we all just breathe a sigh of relief that we made it to the end? As a teacher, it’s been an absolute dumpster fire picking up after the shutdown, good and bad: from picking up bad work ethic to giving kids a safe place to go, it’s just great to see shining faces alight with new knowledge and mischief even if they’re covered in masks.

Good or bad, it’s been a year of self-discovery and learning what really matters. My wife and I bought our first house in February and have had extra time to really enjoy it, thanks to the shutdown. I got to decorate our house with icy blue Christmas lights, nearly plummeting to my death in the process, as well as discovering the never-ending stream of breaking appliances, like blowing several fuses of said Christmas lights and realizing that you shouldn’t try to put three pounds of cooked chicken down the garbage disposal. My point is, it’s been a year to remember.

I’ve had a blast writing reviews for AMG, so thanks to everyone I write with and for, as it truly is a community that supports and empowers. A special shoutout to Carcharodon, Holdeneye, Doom_et_Al, and TheKenWord for the fantastic conversation and venting sessions. Big thanks to Madam X, Steel Druhm, and the good doctors Grier and Wvrm for putting up with me when I’m lost and have way too many overly specific questions. Finally, thanks to you guys, the readers, who offer insights and snark, praise and criticism—it makes us all better writers and better people. I hope the end of 2020 offers you a lovely holiday season with family and friends (social distanced, of course), and I pray that your hearts be filled with peace during this time.

2020’s music has been on a roll this year, offering respite for a year on a roll with shitty circumstances. I’ve felt it necessary to focus on the blackened arts this year, which has been a roller coaster of the good, the bad, and the ugly. But we’ve been shredding along, rolling with the punches. If you’ve followed my reviews, I haven’t exactly been the most thrilled with the year at large,¹ so below you’ll find some things that tickled my dear ol’ antlers.

Without further ado, onto metal, ye noise-mongering fuckwads!

#(ish). Dkharmakhaoz // Proclamation ov the Black Suns – While Belarus’ Dkharmakhaoz does little to challenge black metal, they’re armed with their extremely unique, nearly industrial guitar tone and obsidian dissonance. A debut doesn’t get much better than this: a pitch-black album that never compromises its atmosphere for the strength of its individual pieces. Tracks like the title track and “Ascension” showcase the range of their songwriting, doomy and atmospheric with experimental flourishes keeping things interesting, and always unsettling.

#10. Neck of the Woods // The Annex of Ire – Deemed “progressive death metal,” these Canadians fuse accessibility with mind-bending technicality with an absolute beast behind the mic. Conjuring the likes of Between the Buried and Me and Gojira, The Annex of Ire is worth a golf clap for its admirable technical leads and mathy rhythms, but a blasting hoot ‘n holler for its ability to be listenable. Tracks like “Skin Your Teeth” and “Ambivalence” are absolutely relentless, packed wall to wall with pummeling riffs, while the opening title track and closer “The Tower” showcase proggy serenity in bass solos and mesmerizing repetition. A true genre-bending beast with tons of replay value. Crank it up, eh?

#9. Death. Void. Terror. // To the Great Monolith II – While 2018’s To the Great Monolith was truly a terrifying and fantastic piece of music, its successor incorporates much more dynamic songwriting and restraint. While still rumbling murkily about in the background with chaotic black/doom shenanigans, the newfound choral textures and passages of stillness offer a sense of blasphemy and menace its predecessor merely hinted at. With a feasible runtime split up into even more feasible pieces, To the Great Monolith II sees Swiss enigma Death. Void. Terror. on the up and up.

#8. Wayfarer // A Romance with Violence – It’s rare to have stunning black metal paired with such a visceral and engaging story, but Wayfarer’s tale of American westward expansion drives A Romance with Violence with grace and purpose. While its blackened tropes offer little variation to the scene, the purpose with which it’s guided, its western atmosphere, and the patient execution of its formidable assets make tracks like “The Crimson Rider (Gallows Frontier, Act I)” and “Vaudeville” some of the year’s best tracks. Punctuated by tasteful interludes, blasts of fury, and distinctly American musical trademarks, it’s an evocative listen and easily the band’s best.

#7. Igorrr // Spirituality and Distortion – Up to this point, Igorrr’s releases have had some dimension of novelty. Frankly, baroque freakouts over breakcore with an “everything and the kitchen sink” aesthetic doesn’t have much staying power, but Spirituality and Distortion finds songwriting muscle in restraint and subtlety. Don’t get me wrong, this Frenchman’s fourth full-length is still weird as shit, but the abrasive electronics in tracks like “Very Noise” and “Downgrade Desert” keep the album grounded, while “Parpaing” and “Himalaya Massive Ritual” are fully realized death metal beatdowns. The result is a more accessible album with more than enough dynamic to justify its length.

#6. Calligram // The Eye is the First Circle – While black metal and hardcore fusions are nothing new, they’re seldom this immaculate. International collective Calligram snuck into my life for a tour-de-force of sinister and crushing proportions, featuring first and foremost a pristinely executed atmosphere of dread. Executed with flourishes of sludge and doom, its bulletproof songwriting traipses genre trappings: black enough for dread, punk without the tackiness, and doom without the drudgery. A near perfectly balanced album of blackened fury and dread.

#5. Gaerea // Limbo – A range of emotions, textures, and flavors greet your ears as Limbo lands gracefully upon your psyche. While previous efforts were certainly darker and bleaker than Limbo, Gaerea has accomplished a range across its sophomore effort, making it an extremely balanced and menacingly blacked affair. While resorting to all-out assaults in tracks like “To Ain” or “Conspiranoia,” they nonetheless always seem to have something up their sleeve at their most violent, making tracks like “Null” or “Mare” tantalizingly complex. Another win in a series of victories for these Portuguese.

#4. Ulcerate // Stare Into Death and Be Still – Combining the patience of The Destroyers of All with the fury of Everything is Fire and a newfound element of melody hinted in Shrines of Paralysis, Ulcerate offers a step forward in quality and variety. While “Drawn Into the Next Void” and “Lifeless Advance” are blasters reminiscent of Everything is Fire, the title track and closer “Dissolved Orders” display a humanity in crystalline melody that emerges from the dissonant depths in stunning clarity. Through Stare Into Death and Be Still, these New Zealanders take a step forward while never forsaking what we love and adore about them.

#3. Paysage d’Hiver // Im Wald – Wintry black metal its best, from one of the most consistent black metal musicians out there. In their “first” full-length, don’t expect another Winterkälte or Kristal und Isa, as sole member Wintherr accomplishes a massive step up in a sprawling two-hour long trip through icy forests. While its tracks of trademark blistering iciness and intertwined ambiance is the centerpiece of Im Wald, Paysage d’Hiver also creates evocative ambient interludes, providing brief respites that make its massive runtime more feasible. A true monument from one of black metal’s most consistent.

#2. Neptunian Maximalism // Éons – A sprawling and intense listen that spans nearly every breed of music there is. Easily the most perplexing piece of maybe-metal I’ve perhaps ever experienced, this Belgian collective takes listeners on a trip through the geological timeline of earth from creation to destruction. Utilizing traditional folk, free jazz, drone, and blackened doom while taking advantage of every member’s formidable talents, Éons is easily one of the most challenging pieces of music in recent memory, but also one of the most rewarding. From ritualistic pulsating percussion to swaths of warm drone, this wildly unique three-disc odyssey through space and time is both captivating and haunting.

#1. Imperial Triumphant // Alphaville – Compared to the sprawling Vile Luxury, Alphaville’s more streamlined approach has certainly been a point of contention at the office, but your favorite New Yorkers channel meticulous chaos in ways few can. Instead of scattering its formidable assets across its runtime, Imperial Triumphant channels them all simultaneously, as dissonance, free jazz, and off-kilter rhythms collide in menacing black/death space. The result is something menacingly deliberate by contrast to its splattering predecessors: simultaneously more listenable and more challenging, it requires multiple listens to unearth its bounties. True to the project’s concept, Alphaville is a soundtrack to the Big Apple’s regality and dereliction, a sinister game of contradictions that speaks beyond Times Square and underneath the skin of anyone who dares to listen. A whimpering and roaring success, and the best of the year.

Honorable Mentions:

• Svalbard // When I Die, Will I Get Better? – Melodic hardcore/screamo with post- and black-metal tendencies, its heart-on-the-sleeve approach offers a refreshingly straightforward listen with gut-punching vulnerability and head-banging energy.
• Ulthar // Providence – Lovecraftian blackened death metal with a lovely blend of cavernous riffs and dissonant technicality for Cthulhu to, as the kids say, 720 quickscope your ass. Probably.
• Dark Buddha Rising // Mathreyata – While drone-meisters like Sunn O))) rumble along like stampeding sloths on Prozac, these Finns’ adherence to dynamics and growth gives their seventh full-length an organic breathing quality alongside its trademark brooding menace.
• Orbit Culture // Nija – An epitome of modern death metal in a simultaneously catchy and crushing execution of death, melodeath, groove, thrash, and a healthy dose of atmospherics.
• Atramentus // Stygian – The year’s finest funeral doom that doesn’t reinvent a divisive style but instead creates colossal atmosphere of melancholia, bleakness, and dread. After all, what else could you possibly want?
• Hwwauoch // Protest Against Sanity – Continuing a tradition of being as goddamn unlistenable and visceral as possible in their third release, the onomatopoeic Hwwauoch offers the band name to get hit by baseball bats to² and a dense soundtrack to insanity.
• Cryptic Shift // Visitations from Enceladus – Twisty and dense, thrashy and brutal, it’s death metal that fuses boundless energy with a cohesive narrative. A fantastic death metal release: technical, ambitious, and just plain fun.
• The Acacia Strain // Slow Decay – While last year’s It Comes in Waves was a surprisingly restrained and post- influenced effort from one of the least restrained deathcore bands to ever deathcore, Slow Decay instead channels fury into a lurching doom influence that reflects the menace of its title. Huge, uncompromising, and unbelievably pissed off.
• Old Growth // Mossweaver – While atmoblack is a tried and tired group of pretty sounds, this German exploration of the organic and natural fills the Agalloch-shaped hole with an evocative blend of ritualism and ambiance through patient songwriting and folk melodies.

Disappointments o’ the Year:

• Huntsmen // Mandala of Fear – American Scrap was a fantastically solid listen of dynamic doom with sludge and post-metal. Mandala of Fear decided to put it on the torture rack, eschewing subtlety and good songwriting in favor of stretching its runtime to “epic” proportions. The result is a stretchy noodly doom monster that can’t hold itself up.
• Vassafor // To the Death – Certainly not a bad album, to be sure, but its riff-centered structure paired with its bloated runtime alienates fans of both the balanced The Obsidian Codex and the doomy snoozer Malediction. Fans of the riff will drool over To the Death, but the rest of us just wanna go home by the end of its hour-plus runtime.

Song o’ the Year:

The Ruins of Beverast’s “The Grand Nebula Pulse” – While 2020 has yielded little of our favorite German blackened doomster, this gem from the split with the Icelandic Almyrkvi was truly a diamond in the rough. A summation of The Ruins of Beverast’s career, it channels the ritualism of contemporary releases and the rawness of earlier work, as well as the project’s trademark haunting songwriting. Truly the best song of the year, and hopefully a sign of things to come in the forthcoming The Thule Grimoires.

The post Doom_et_Al’s and Dear Hollow’s Top Ten(ish) of 2020 appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Santa will still be around and his elf minions abound. Good tidings can be from afar, and trve Christmas spirit is hard to mar. Be thankful for the iron blessings in your life, and continue forging that mega-ton knife.

From all of us at AMG, to all the loyal and semi-loyal AMG readers, we wish you a day of health, peace, and happiness. Work on being more loyal though.

Oh, and enjoy deep of this.

The post Merry Christmas from the AMG Horde appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Lightning to the Nations displayed a raw and hungry young band, still rough around the edges, much like debuts from Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and Metallica. That raw, aggressive edge is hard to replicate, especially forty years later, and Diamond Head make no attempt to harness that youthful energy, instead aiming for a slick, professional, and highly accomplished take on the material. Look, this is still an 80’s metal debut. It’s going to be loaded with flaws, whether it’s the misogynistic lyrics, or the sometime hokey arrangements, but the playing and production (aside from the drums) is far better. Standout cuts “Am I Evil,” “It’s Electric,” and the title track are superb, with only minor deviations from the originals.

The other original songs are strong in their own right, although “Sucking My Love” and “Sweet and Innocent” evoke more winces lyrically now that I’m an actual adult. Those songs were much cooler when I was a pubescent boy. Still, the seven Diamond Head songs are a blast to listen to. And in a case of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” the band covers Metallica’s “No Remorse” with aplomb. They also take on “The Immigrant Song,” which nobody ever needs to cover, and Judas Priest’s “Sinner” and Deep Purple’s deep cut “Rat Bat Blue,”¹ both of which are worthy additions. These songs might be more interesting on first listen than the Diamond Head tracks for the novelty factor, and while the band steers close to the originals they kick them out with power.

This might be heresy to the olde and fervent among us, but Rasmus Bom Anderson is a more gifted singer than Sean Harris, as he demonstrated on last year’s stellar The Coffin Train. His voice has a classic metal tone to it, and he brings that same kind of rockstar delivery to the lyrics that we loved back in the 80’s. Brian Tatler is the only original member here, so remaking this historic album was obviously his decision. Tatler’s guitar work, much like the guitar playing on last month’s Mr. Bungle re-recording, is definitely more professional than it was forty years ago.² All around, the band delivers a slick, sharp performance, where the only issue is the questionable drum production. The drums are loud and boxy-sounding; the material deserves better.

Do you need this album? If you want to hear a more modern, refined take on a classic record, and you want a few catchy cover tunes to boot, yes. If you’re more than happy with the original, or even the 2011 remaster with its additional songs, no. Diamond Head are sharper than ever, Anderson delivers a superb vocal performance, and aside from the shoddy drum production this is a great-sounding recording. Having never owned the original, but still having heard it many times, Lightning to the Nations 2020 is a worthy addition to my collection, and one I’ll enjoy many times over.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Silver Lining Music
Websites: diamondheadofficial.com | facebook.com/DiamondHeadOfficial
Releases Worldwide: November 27th, 2020

The post Diamond Head – Lightning to the Nations 2020 Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

Six songs and a svelte 49 minutes makes The Renaissance of Hope much shorter and more direct than 2018’s Autumn Kings, but the two albums are otherwise quite similar – pacing, tempo, and emotion all strike a familiar chord. Nothing is broken with Decembre Noir’s delivery, so there’s no point trying to fix anything. “A Swan Lake Full of Tears” opens things, and may be the most diverse song on the album. With its blend of clean and harsh vocals and its lurching gait, it’s a bludgeoning nine-minutes. “Hope/Renaissance” is a massive song, thundering along at a blistering (for doom) pace at times, and featuring plenty of excellent axework from Sebastian and Martin. This one has been steadily climbing my Best Songs of 2020 playlist all month. In fact, the opening trio of nine-plus minute songs are all majestic and engaging.

Shorter songs prop up the back half of the album, with “Streets of Transience” coming off like a deathier version of modern Katatonia and “Behind the Scenes” ending the album in stately, epic fashion. Throughout The Renaissance of Hope, Decembre Noir double down on their “martyrdom of euthanasia” theme lyrically. Each song has bleak, gripping lyrics. A couple of examples: from the title track, “How peaceful this future will be, when life recreates itself, bit by bit, and silence touches the soul of beauty.” Or from the closing number, “It’s not the quest for freedom, it is more the thirst to free the soul.” This is a lyrically deep album, and following along really does provide plenty of food for thought.

The drums displease me. But like Billy Joel, don’t ask me why.¹ Okay, fine, I’ll tell you. The drum production, particularly the snare, is much too sterile and generic. There was just a touch more pop to the snare on Autumn Kings, whereas here the sound is more round, for lack of a better term. This is a minor nitpick, though, and one that may be peculiar to my oddly-formed ears. Longtime producer Alexander Dietz is back behind the console here, and once again (aside from the drums) delivers a taut, well-mixed recording. Lars’ vocals churn through the mix, as do the guitars when Lars is not singing. Song arrangements are still strong, and Kevin’s drumming remains as invigorating as any doom act.

Once again, Decembre Noir have delivered a compelling and emotional album. The shorter length makes it easier to digest, despite song lengths. While the band doesn’t exactly stretch its wings here and seek any new territory musically, what they do they execute in stellar fashion. Billed as “a glimpse of hope in a time of darkness,” The Renaissance of Hope is another high quality release from these pros, and their fans will be more than pleased.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Lifeforce Records
Websites: decembrenoirlfr.bandcamp.com | decembre-noir.de | facebook.com/DecembreNoir
Releases Worldwide: November 13th, 2020

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The album plays out like an interactive Lovecraftian horror film,¹ with “Dispossessed in an Asphyxiating Darkness” opening to eerie, unsettling riffs that reverberate off the moist walls of the hideous caverns you’re lost within as otherworldly chanting and terrifying death growls roil the very air you breathe. You’ll feel the dreadful menace lurking around every darkened corner, and when the unholy beast finally heaves its writhing, insanity-inducing mass into view 4 minutes in, it’s even more horrific than you feared. This stuff is truly disgusting and nasty, like 500 pounds of tuna salad left out in the July heat, now sentient and bearing a grudge. Run, but with every step its awful low tide stench grows closer. The atmosphere is risible and raw, primal and primitive, like the earliest days of Sepultura dialed up to the nth degree. “Perverted Astral Intoxication for a Death Incarnation”² features spine-squishing doom segments with creepy ambient touches giving false hope in between harrowing riffs. The death croaks are more noise than actual vocals but they’re oppressive and noxious, so they fit right in. The deft hand with which this dynamic duo handle the transitions between massive doom and blistering death onslaughts is quite impressive. The two elements play off each other well, depriving the listener of predictability.

One of the album’s best moments occurs when “Viciously Consumed by the Unfolding Unknown” kicks into a murderous, unstoppable death chug at 3:10 that feels like it could flatten a steel-reinforced concrete bunker without so much as slowing. When it isn’t steamrolling mankind into the ashbin of history it makes excellent use of tricks and tropes made famous by Hellhammer and Winter while coating them all with the latest weaponized viral monstrosity. This thing plays out like a long, lurid journey through Hell and it’s the mood of the whole that matters more than individual tracks. There isn’t much in the way of variation from cut to cut, though each has a big standout moment that slaps you in the gob with an oily tendril. The huge, epic riffs that lead you into “Existential Dismemberment by a Transcendental Nothingness” are especially gripping, and closer “Traversing the Threshold of a Treacherous Depraved Absolute” steps up the doom game significantly. At 40:49, the album is about as long as this kind of thing can be while remaining engaging, and any more would be less. Could some songs be shorter and tighter? Yes. It all holds together in a slithering, shambling way though.

Federico Gutierrez (ex-Corpse Garden) handles bass, guitar and vocals, and that makes him the big man on campus here. I’m fairly certain none of his vocals are actual words, but his unceasing growls, groans and chants are ghastly and gripping. It’s his guitar-work however that makes the Bloodsoaked Necrovoid experience so enthralling. There are a ton of loathsome, subdermal riff lines and anxiety-inducing dissonant phrasing running through every track and he’s a master at creating a suffocating mood. Jose Maria Arrea handles drums and synths, going hard on the former and thankfully light on the latter. Though this is the kind of album you put on to make people leave a party, the pair show some surprising subtly at times, knowing when to go all in and when to step back, switching styles as the songs require.

Expelled into the Unknown Depths of the Unfathomable is a gateway into a way worse place than 2020, and sometimes that kind of voyage provides us with some much needed perspective. This is the ideal soundtrack to play as you are slowly devoured by maggots, if you’re in the market for that.³ It’s definitely one of the more gruesome listens I’ve had this year, and I mean that as a positive. A warning though: once you stare into this abyss, the abyss may do far worse than just stare back.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Iron Bonehead
Website: bloodsoakednecrovoid.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: November 6th, 2020

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For their thirteenth album, Fates Warning have decided to release something that is thirteen songs long and¹ 72:22 in length. This is not a good idea. Length for the sake of length rarely works out, and here we run into the age-old issue of bloat. But let’s focus on the positive first. There are some amazing songs on Long Day Good Night. Opening in dark, moody fashion, “The Destination Onward” takes a long time to ramp up, but it does. It’s an odd choice for the opening track, as it lets our attention drift away over the first few minutes, but when it kicks into high gear it’s worth it. “Shuttered World” opens with writhing guitars hard-panned and is one of the album’s heavier tracks, churning through rather straightforward verses in very aggressive fashion. “Alone We Walk” caps off a heavy, sometimes moody, opening trio.

“The Longest Shadow of the Day” is the longest song here, and by default must be examined as potentially the best. It is. It opens with some subdued guitar melodies and then a brief Joey Vera bass solo before winding up. It’s a three-minute meandering intro that admirably shows off the band’s skills before diving into a heavy riff. This then goes on for a couple more minutes before the music quiets down and vocals enter the fray. Meanwhile, don’t let the hard-hitting guitars and drums throw you off of what is amazing Vera bass work. Matheos’ solo here is reminiscent of latter-day David Gilmour work, impeccable as always in both mood and tone. And get in on the bass riff at 8:37. Just wow. This song, like much of the album, serves as a showcase for Vera’s underrated but excellent bass playing.

“The Way Home” is one of three “long” songs, and the least compelling. It doesn’t really take the listener anywhere special, which is the case for an alarming number of tracks here. This is the longest album of the band’s career, and it sure didn’t have to be. The bloat shows up as AOR filler – “Now Comes the Rain,” “Under the Sun,” (which wasn’t intended to be a song at the outset and maybe didn’t really have to be in the grand scheme of things), and “Liar,” which is another boring, straightforward heavy metal song, could have been left on the cutting room floor. The simplicity and mundane nature of these songs are shrouded in layers of guitars and often interesting bridges, but that doesn’t elevate the songs on multiple listens. The short, simple nature of the songwriting really only pays off twice: in “When the Snow Falls,” which is a wonderfully melancholic left turn, and “The Last Song,” a sweet and quiet acoustic number to close the album.

Long Day Good Night is certainly Fates Warning’s most versatile and varied release, but that doesn’t translate into their best effort. Fates Warning albums have always contained an underlying mood or theme. Not so with Long Day Good Night. This album comes off just as a collection of songs; nothing unifies the album front to back. Some fantastic songs reside here, but far too much AOR filler. The band’s goal seems to be to demonstrate a wide variety of moods and styles, and in that manner they have succeeded. But in doing so they have failed to create an experience that is engaging from start to end.

Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Metal Blade Records
Websites: fateswarning.com | fateswarning.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/FatesWarning
Release Worldwide: November 6th, 2020

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The Ocean Collective occupies a special place in my heart. Yet for all their hard work, it’s been a while since they released something that really moved the needle for me. The Ocean has two “voices” that I like. The first, most notably featured on Pelagial, is the crushing weight of the deepest oceans. But the other album that really spoke to me in the time that I’ve been reviewing is 2010’s Heliocentric. Of the records that the band has released since 2010, Phanerozoic II reminds me the most of 2010’s oft-maligned album. With its more melodious and progressive approach—and excellent guest appearances from Katatonia’s own Jonas Renkse—the album leans toward thoughtful and melancholy, while subtly engaging in progressive composition that’s hard to not love. Ironically, I was forced to disagree with reviewer-of-everything-AMG-can’t-do-himself Dr. Grier when he suggested that the album suffered from problems of flow. But, on the other hand, Grier was right when he remarked that: “Phanerozoic II is an exercise in progressive variety that works well. It has all the classic elements of the band but with surprises around every corner. The Ocean has never let me down, and it seems they never will.”

Runner(s) Up:

Svalbard – When I Die, Will I Get Better? — “Svalbard has succeeded in creating a heart-wrenching album whose simplicity in D-beats, stunning tremolo, sustained overlays, desperate vocals, and just a dash of post and black is truly refreshing. It’s a fed-up album that stunningly conveys exhaustion, frustration, and melancholy with every fiber while never forsaking its hardcore roots. While it may not be the perfect album or one that you may revisit because of its unflinching vulnerability, its appeal lies in its emotional splatter, one whose yearning chaos meets listeners where they are. And that’s exactly what we need right now: ‘when all hope remains elusive.'” – Dear Hollow

Finntroll // Vredesvävd — Finntroll is back and we should all give thanks. Not only did they produce one of the first “folk metal” albums that anyone has liked in years, but they also approached Vredesvävd with an aggression and direct attack that few others can match. While not as experimental and the band’s most diverse material, Vredesvävd is a reminder that these Finnish trolls are a force to be reckoned with as they pummel your earholes from start to finish. As Dr. Wvrm explained: “Vredesvävd never gives you time to think. The entirety of Vredesvävd fits into a neat package. The thick guitars, the invigorating keys and epic orchestration, the good-enough production, it all completes one of the easiest listens of the year.”

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Starting life as something like a blackened death act, Sweden’s Draconian quickly evolved into a prototypical, Theater of Tragedy-influenced “beauty and the beast” gothic death metal band by the time of their Where Lovers Mourn debut. Pairing powerful death roars with quasi-operatic female vocals, they soon developed into one of the best gothic doom acts out there, releasing massive albums like Arcane Rain Fell and Turning Seasons Within. 2015’s Sovran saw them improving on their sound yet again, creating lengthy odes to despair and suffering that hit you right in the feelz with a runaway melancholy truck. With a new platter about to drop, let’s hope Draconian can keep the depressive times flowing like beer at Oktoberfest. Sad songs say so much.

-Steel

Draconian’s seventh album Under a Godless Veil will be released on October 30th worldwide via Napalm Records.

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