2020 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock/Heavy Music Poll: RESULTS – Top 100 Countdown

This cracked my top 20. Def my favorite funeral doom thing this year. Hopefully, we'll also get a Tchornobog follow-up one of these days.

Recap as of today:

101. Primitive Man – Immersion

100. Atramentus – Stygian

99. Undergang – Aldrig i livet

98. Dan Weiss/Starebaby – Natural Selection

95 TIE. Worm – Gloomlord

95 TIE. Ulthar – Providence

95 TIE. Vile Creature – Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!

93 TIE. VoidCeremony – Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel

93 TIE. Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin – Stygian Bough Volume I

92. Lamp of Murmuur – Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism

91. Okkultokrati – La ilden lyse

90. Horisont – Sudden Death

89. Skeletal Remains – The Entombment of Chaos

87 TIE. Spirit Adrift – Enlightened in Eternity

87 TIE. Biesy – Transsatanizm

86. Ripped to Shreds – Luan

85. Cirith Ungol – Forever Black

84. Turia – Degen van licht

82 TIE. Regarde les hommes tomber – Ascension

82 TIE. Angel Morgue – In the Morgue of Angels

81. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs – Viscerals
80. Khthoniik Cerviiks – Æequiizoiikum
79. Vladislav Delay – Rakka
78. Eternal Rot – Putridarium
76 TIE. Ocrilim – Plvence Abrost R Msitloun
76 TIE. Dola – Dola
75. Blue Öyster Cult – The Symbol Remains
74. Malokarpatan – Krupinské ohne
73. Defeated Sanity – The Sanguinary Impetus
72. Geld – Beyond the Floor
71. Melted Bodies – Enjoy Yourself
70. Envy – The Fallen Crimson
69. Svalbard – When I Die, Will I Get Better?
68. Boris & Merzbow – 2R0I2P0
67. Pyrrhon – Abscess Time
66. Raspberry Bulbs – Before the Age of Mirrors
65. Azusa – Loop of Yesterdays
64. Fuck the Facts – Pleine noirceur
63. Blues Pills – Holy Moly!
62. Kaatayra – Só quem viu o relâmpago à sua direita sabe
61. Drown – Subaqueous

Thanks to Neechy for taking over!

Thanks pom & Neechy, great roll-out so far!

I decided that Geld weren't QUITE 2020's Reveal in the end, but they were pretty cool

― imago, Tuesday, 9 March 2021 21:55 (fifty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

however I am now listening to the last two tracks, which are absolutely where it's at

Yeah, really enjoying the rollout - great work! :)

I really liked the electric Kaatayra album. The idea in this one was interesting and there were some v pretty moments, and ofc I'm all for more nylon-string guitars (I think that's what he used?) in rock and metal, but I think they would require a different approach. It mostly sounds like he played the exact same lines that would normally be played on distorted electric guitars which have much more sustain, harmonic saturation, and presence. There's loads of more accomplished classical guitar ensemble music out there tbh imo, lots of which has prog or metal influences. (Idk about music for classical guitars with metal drums and vocals, admittedly.)

I Have Opinions.

Incidentally, this was a v good classical guitar duo album w a lot of contemporary pieces that were influenced by metal or prog, if anyone's interested: https://www.analekta.com/en/albums/contemporary-music-guitar-duo/

I couldn't be around today so I must bellow TOOOO LOOOOOOW at Khthoniik Cerviiks

Surprised to see Ocrilim on here, I had to listen a bunch of Mick Barr stuff for a RYM project and a lot of it's pretty much inscrutable to me, he has some gems outside of Krallice though (Annwn as Tom Violence mentioned is really good). Haven't heard this one, though.

I lost interest in Boris when it became obvious they weren't going to do any more cheesy J-rock albums

Pyrrhon are more tech-death than mathcore to my ears, I didn't get into this one as much as their previous but they're one of the best "angular" metal bands around.

Kaatayra will doubtless appear again, I'm probably the only one who prefers 'So quem...' to the later one, oh well

That album looks interesting sund4r, I'll check it out at some point!

I listened to one and a half Melted Bodies songs and absolutely did not Enjoy Myself

Oh, cool, ultros. Hope you enjoy.

I Have Opinions.

I Agree With Said Opinions.

And I second Sund4r's repping for Adam Cicchillitti & Steve Cowan.

This Kaatayra is really lovely. Don't think I'd heard this one before.

9:30 into "Stygian III" from the Atramentus album, the album is good but this track is amazing so far. The vocals are a little reminiscent of Tibetan throat singing at moments.

It reminds me a little of the Mournful Congregation album I own and should listen to more often.

Canadian metal rules.

Philippe Tougas and Claude Leduc are also members of Chthe'ilist, another awesome Longueuil band that can hang with the best of the Greater Montreal tech death crew.

I just heard the Atramentus album yesterday and REALLY liked it. I think he's getting the croaky vocals partly from Demilich (a definite influence on Chthe'ilist).

Yeah, both that and the Tibetan throat singing comparison strike me as very much otm.

ok, maybe listening to funeral doom while working is a bad idea bc i moved on quickly after sampling when the atramentus record first came out. but playing it again tonight and it really is pretty sick.

fave dirge of the year is still the expanded oksennus. pairs nicely and theres no chance in hell it is placing so -

https://necrolatryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ty-n-orjat-paholaisten-y-st-nouskaa

Haven't heard that one. I'll check it out, thanks.

85. Cirith Ungol – Forever Black


Surprised this isn't higher; it made my top 10.

76 TIE. Dola – Dola

This was my #2 and I think I turned some people onto it in the Rolling Metal thread.

71. Melted Bodies – Enjoy Yourself

This made the Top 15 on my list and I know I turned some people onto it in the Rolling metal thread.

There were also a few things I liked enough to but didn't quite crack my Nifty Fifty (Vile Creature, Pyrrhon, Drown)

what's the deal with the Ungol? everybody I talked to either says Jesus has returned to walk among us or that it was a tepid pile of horse dung. feels like a weird polarized reaction where you'd normally see some lukewarm. but maybe I walk in atypical circles.

why?

why ask why

try Bud Dry

Listening to Fuck the Facts. Man, Mélanie Mongeon's pipes.

bud dry is very death metal imo

^^^ fact.

Well fuck that then ofc

lol

Was hoping for that assist – thx.

xp

death to IPA metal

Long live bitter metal.

Apparently I saw this band without realizing that MM was screaming bilingually. Based on the printed lyrics, I think she writes much better in French than in English but, even when I read while listening, I don't really know how to connect what I'm reading with what I'm hearing.

I never pay attention to metal lyrics unless they're ineluctably intelligible.

was in a heavy metal parking before a slayer show a few years ago before the fall of new york and a coors light banner advertising plane flew by while i happened to be drinking a cold coors light tall boy and all was right with the world at that particular moment in time

maybe have had a few too many cold coors lights tonight because that is perhaps only semi comprehensible after a second pass but i hope the underlying spirit made it thru

It was all about the Big Rig Alpha Bomb IPA tonight.

Had a couple of Disco Soleils tonight. #TeamIPA

had some sake with dinner and then whiskey after that so i am posing hard tbqh

would absolutely drink a cold coors light in a heavy metal parking lot the second that opportunity presents itself again however

the last track on stygian really is something. genuinely takes you places. but man, they kinda flub the ending with the blastbeats. and then, adding insult to injury... a fadeout!

Svalbard sounding like something I ought to like. Let's see if that actually happens. Inevitable not-as-good-as-Rolo-Tomassi thoughts looming

There's some...Mew in the mix? Paging Sund4r

Oh no I've read a Deafheaven comparison and I can hear it too. Will persist however

The melodic resolution at the end of Click Bait might have just put me off this lot for good

let's pro/con this

+ Mew
+ convincing performances from players + vocalist
+ post-metal dynamics done pretty well
+ the occasional decent melody

- forcing a Rolo Tomassi comparison even though pointedly comparing two post-hardcore UK bands with female vocalists probably goes against everything they stand for idk
- many of the melodies are CORNY
- I'm led to believe that the lyrics aren't all that so I'm not listening out for them
- it all sounds very, very familiar, and their USP appears to be those aforementioned lyrics

but Mew!

someone help an ilxor out here

Came here to say:

- Sounds like Mew mixed with the vocalist from Atreyu doing a Bristol accent - very confusing.
- Might be too emo even for me.
- Might not.

Got to listen ahead of imago in these polls. That opening track IS lovely though. Not sure I could listen to a whole album of it.

Glad I stuck out the post-rock until the second track of the Boris/Merzbow album. Wow!

'Absolutego' sounds like Electric Wizard through...an electrical storm.

holy fuck what is THIS