Ten albums from 2020
Almost didn’t bother with this I have to admit, but what the heck, why not. I’m already doing a ‘make fun of other people’s top albums’ Zoom session with friends in a few weeks, and that sort of forced me to think about my own top 10. I'm not totally sure about the order on these apart from the two faves, which are Oranssi Pazuzu and Im Wald. Not even going to claim these are the best albums of the year, but they're the ones I listened to the most, so I guess that's some sort of metric.
“The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny” - Mr. Bungle
I'd never heard the original demo, I have to admit, and was a bit leery of the idea at first, but I loved this album as soon as I heard it. Stellar lineup, great production, and a load of fast fun songs; you can legitimately (I tell myself) tell that the people on this album are having a blast putting it together. (YouTube)
Really fun hearing a coherent album from two great bands, though I was mildly daunted by the hour and fifty five minute runtime. Paysage d’Hiver draws you into one continuous listen, but a super-long album starts to feel its length when it has clearly distinct individual songs. The songs are great though, and they add up to a great release. (YouTube)
The funeraliest of funeral doom, with three tracks for 44 minutes. A mere eight years in the making, this is a full concept album, complete with a fantasy setting and an immortal knight wandering his planet after all life had perished and the sun burned out. It’s as cheery as you might expect, though being what it is you’ll obviously never get any of that from the vocals, which are mostly drawn out screams and growls. I’ve made it sound terrible - it’s a great listen. (YouTube)
Yes, they’re the sort of people who insist that the spaces between the letters in the band name are a key part of the name, and they released one of their albums by burying copies of it around the US and having a sort of treasure hunt, but this is still some great chugging post-metal fun. I really appreciate rhythm driven music, and this has a lot of that in a richly-produced package. (YouTube)
I’ve only just realised having these guys in here means I’ve got both the bands from the Waste of Space Orchestra in my top ten. Deservedly so, if we’re happy calling this drone then this is a great example of how ‘drone’ doesn’t mean ‘boring.’ There are some relaxed bits where you can collect yourself, but those inevitable lead to some possibly Amenra-influenced chugging, and eventual glorious walls of noise. (YouTube)
Crushing grooves and noise, this is definitely the heaviest thing in this list - this year’s LLNN or Nails, basically. Depending on your feelings about noise this might feel like it’s occasionally pushing the boundaries of what counts as music by the time it hits tracks like ∞. The short run time is ideal; no time is wasted. I haven't read the lyrics, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say they're not cheery. (YouTube)
If you like oldschool Finnish black metal you probably know Havukruunu already, and don’t really need to be told what they sound like. This album landed a few months into lockdown, and really hit home from the first song, the title track Uinuos Syömein Sota. 1:10 in (after the viking chanting) I can practically see the pit and smell the cheap lager in the Underworld - it’s enough to make a man misty-eyed. A well-timed reminder we’ll be out of this pandemic and having fun again at some point. (YouTube)
When you've released a number of great albums as Winterfylleth have, it must be hard to keep things going, maintaining a sound your fans love without growing stale. These guys have changed a bit over the years, but this was a great return to style, touching all the key bits they can deliver; crushing black metal, drifting acoustic sections, and a final track that I can only call 'grandiose.' If Havukruunu delivered the best opening track of the year, Winterfylleth's In Darkness Begotten has to be this year's closer. (YouTube)
Psychedelic black metal is not a wildly common subgenre, but here we are. If black metal traditionally draws you into trance-like grooves in a wall of noise, Oranssi Pazuzu lures you in with psychedelic grooves and synth noodling before slapping you with a wall of distortion. I really couldn’t decide between this and Paysage d’Hiver for my favourite of the year. (YouTube)
A two hour long walk through an atmospheric black metal snowstorm. Like Oranssi Pazuzu this feels like a nice indication of where black metal might be able to go as it stretches its legs and wanders away from the facepaint and awful politics of some of the early bands, though in this case it’s wandering straight into blastbeats and a wall of guitars that could be older black metal apart from their endurance. You’re not getting a quick set of blasts and and then a wander into a solo, you’re getting a minutes long stretch of that beat with the same unrelenting guitar and Tobias’ screaming layered over the top. I suppose people will either find it wearing or hypnotic, I’m very much in the latter camp. (YouTube)
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