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

(oops, -e, o + -a x2 -- my World of Warcraft knowledge betrays me.)

A+ typo.

I haven't gone back to the Sightless Pit record either. I think I listened to it 3 times? I remember liking it, but that's about it right this second. I bet if I listened again I'd be into it.

same boat here

yeah, the Azarath is good as hell, but I didn't vote for it for some reason (probably cause it came out so late in the year that I only gave it a couple spins).

The Sightless Pit sounded good the one time I listened to it way back in Feb. 2020, but I never returned to it, even though Caligula was my #1 last year.

It's more like a set of rough sketches compared with the wild ambition of the Lingua Ignota albums, but I really liked it.

gonna work out my entire personal cosmology of metal verbs

bangs >>>> fucks >>> slays = kills >> whips >>> rips >>>>>> slams

#49
Machine Girl – U-Void Synthesizer
182 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1542473049_10.jpg

https://machinegirl.bandcamp.com/album/u-void-synthesizer

Since their inception, the Pittsburgh duo Machine Girl have put upsetting images of dogs at the heart of their symbology. Some of their album covers are straightforwardly terrifying—their 2014 album WLFGRL features a blown-out image of a snarling beast, fangs bared, poised for attack. Others are more surreal, like ...BECAUSE IM YOUNG ARROGANT AND HATE EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR, which trains a video-game firearm on the face of a canine. For the cover of 2018’s The Ugly Art, vocalist and producer Matt Stephenson said he wanted to make “a fucked up Deep Dream sort of image but with dogs,” and so he stitched together a bunch of pictures of gnarled beasts to make a dizzying collage in the shape of an even bigger dog. U-Void Synthesizer, the duo’s newest album, continues this tradition, editing a regal image of a pup into a demonoid monster wearing a spiked collar that reads “GOODBOY.”

The music has changed a lot over the years—from Stephenson’s solo experiments in the early days of the project to the crushing noise and shredded EBM punk he started making once drummer Sean Kelly joined the band—but the dogs on the covers hint at the spirit that’s united all of Machine Girl’s mutations. No matter the style, their music is designed to be unpredictable and dangerous, full of animalistic rage and uncontrollable energy. You’re meant to be afraid of its bite.

Even with volatility as one of the band’s core values, however, they’ve rarely felt as wonderfully feral as on U-Void Synthesizer. The music that Stephenson and Kelly make together has always been chaotic, but they try out more sounds and styles across these 11 tracks than seems possible. Take the immense first track, “The Fortress [The Blood Inside]”: In just under four minutes, Stephenson and Kelly squeeze in ecstatic trance synths, grinding noise-punk passages, open-hearted sacred-music harmonies, gargly grindcore vocals, half-stuttered rapping, and, yes, the sound of a barking dog.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/machine-girl-u-void-synthesizer/

I KNEW IT'D BE THIS

this album.......fucks

🤐

my #6. MG has taken digital hardcore by the scruff of the neck and made it dangerous again. pitchfork otm about that opening track but it's all insane. 'fully in it' is a grotesquely brilliant deep cut

this is the "too hot for me" to melted bodies' "just right", if you catch my drift

so much false metal

otm

if it's hardcore, it's metal ;)

its neither

its false

I first found out about Pissed Jeans because of this poll back in 2009. ILM has always had a rich history of false metal

Well, unless we ban Imago, it will continue!

We need a proper metal bandname up next

I like all the false and flat out not metal in these roll-outs, because it's cool to see what else all you metal loving nerds listen to and it usually doesn't overlap with the main ilm countdown anyway.

I'm way behind today's rollout, but just popping up to say glad to see Gulch here. Heavy hardcore but not exactly metal, admittedly, and more of an EP, but has a very satisfying ratio of ideas to running-length.

and it usually doesn't overlap with the main ilm countdown anyway.

True. Marnie Stern, Zombi et al dont tend to get near the general poll

we did get uncle acid & the deadbeats in the top 10 once

The days of Boris getting in the big poll are long gone too. Did Earth ever get in the main poll? I think they must have

#48
Esoctrilihum – Eternity of Shaog
183 points, 6 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3230531509_10.jpg

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/eternity-of-shaog

Esoctrilihum is a French avant garde black metal project signed to I, Voidhanger Records. This project has been making waves for a few years now. The unique mix of rich songwriting and epic concepts has made Esoctrilihum one of a kind. This is perfectly showcased in their new record, Eternity Of Shaog. Asthagul, the man behind the project, has gone above and beyond even the levels he's set for this project. He has created his most fully realized work yet. Eternity of Shaog acts as part of a diptych with his last album The Telluric Ashes of the Ö Vrth Immemorial Gods. This record is a part of a much broader overarching journey that explores demonic possession and insane deities. There is simply so much to unpack from a project that has fascinated underground metallers across the globe.

Many bands attempt to conjure up hellish sounds. However, few succeed the way Esoctrilihum does. Some tracks like "Exh-Enî Söph (1st Passage – Exiled From Sanity)" impress with their black metal intensity. Others such as "hayr-Thàs (6th Passage – Walk The Oracular Way)" dazzle with psychedelic violins. The violins are in fact showcased throughout the album. They really add to the magic of what they are creating. As a rule, the band thrives on off kilter songwriting, weird harmonic approaches, and unholy testaments to gods gone mad. There is such power to the production though that makes it all possible. For years Asthagul has been working at pulling it all together, but it is on this record that it finally has started to click. Eternity Of Shaog is perhaps the first Esoctrilihum record that really showcases Asthagul’s potential at its fullest.

https://metalinjection.net/reviews/esoctrilihum-eternity-of-shaog

His best tracks so far, some of the finest of 2020, but his previous LPs were more consistent.

I worked my way through this guy's entire discography last year, nothing clicked though. The riffing style is so fucking plain.

Pom didn't make this band up. It really exists https://open.spotify.com/album/3XOHlh0kHUHKhXiMTgCMRK?si=KllY0uNUTh-evHBw7YbNOQ

esoctrilihum was my #1, loved it

strong year for i, voidhanger

also lol great cover

cover art looks like one of the title cards from adventure time

hell yeah, that's more like it. This was my, checks notes, #18. I've always enjoyed this guy's stuff and his albums just keep one upping each other.

#47
Void Rot – Descending Pillars
184 points, 6 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0569123194_10.jpg

https://everlastingspewrecords.bandcamp.com/album/descending-pillars

There are a small number of times a year that a listener who delves into the great milieu of Bandcamp and who eschews algorithms and instead scours the bottomless depths of Spotify, makes a mental note to continue tracking the advancement and activity of a band. One such time occurred for me in late 2018 when I came across Minneapolis, Minnesota based quartet Void Rot. They had just that moment released their debut EP, Consumed by Oblivion. Said release featured only three tracks and barely a quarter an hour of music, but it knocked me sideways.

I love death metal. I love doom. But ‘death doom’ was always a genre I enjoyed, but where I found the sub-genre title fanciful – it was always a death metal band who threw a doom-influenced riff into the mix on the final, invariably longest, track. Or, vice versa, a doom band, who had some gurgling vocals or who may feature the occasional visceral, jagged riff. I had never found many bands who invested in truly warping the two seemingly disparate genres into something new, blurred and delightfully horrific. Enter Void Rot.

https://echoesanddust.com/2020/09/void-rot-descending-pillars/

Best cavernous atmosphere of 2020 imo.

Ooh, I voted for this one, too. Smack dub in the middle of my ballot. Def my fav doomy death and/or deathy doom release this year.

These feel AI-generated at this point

The AI is improving.

Relistening to Void Rot, and while I think the tracks on the Ativisma split grabbed me more, this is excellent, and I should have probably ranked it higher. Very 'Krypts' vibe.

coming up next: Cavern Tomb

who will be the Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard of doomened death

#46
Of Feather and Bone – Sulfuric Disintegration
187 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2974669090_10.jpg

https://offeatherandbone666.bandcamp.com/album/sulfuric-disintegration

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am extremely ticklish. Even the void where my bloodpump is supposed to be can be tickled with the right stimulus. Death metal is usually the best option to that end, especially when it writhes like a thrashing pit of jacked snakes. After hearing tell of the badassery of Denver’s Of Feather and Bone, I knew that they would deliver that which tickles my most demanding fancy. With their third full-length, Sulfuric Disintegration, these nasty motherfuckers show no mercy. Believe me when I say I lose molecular cohesion every time I play it.

You’ve heard death metal like this before. It’s a tried and true formula built on bone-crushing riffcraft and just a touch of musicality often delivered with buzzing tremolos. Double bass runs and blistering blasts compose the meat of the rhythm section, the bass guitar chasing after it with everything it’s got. Though the core sound is death metal through and through, the band applies it with the same livid intensity that acts such as Infernal Coil utilize. In this manner, Of Feather and Bone toy with the line between death and grind, though the time they spend thoroughly hacking a sick riff into your chest cavity—instead of attacking with ten riffs in a matter of mere seconds—prevents me from attributing a “grind” tag to their work.

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/of-feather-and-bone-sulfuring-disintegration-review/

I didn't get much out of this one, I'm afraid. Felt very generic.

wow, much lower than expected. this is a top 10er for me.

Guess I need to check this one out, I remember liking the previous one but I just spaced on the new one.

Never really connected with their stuff much before, but this one really hit my sweet spot. Voted it as my #2.

yeah, I went back to the album before it, and it was decent, but nothing approximating the newest one.

I didn't connect with this one either but these comments are making me want to give it another shot.

void rot somehow passed me by, it's new to me. but I do love krypts.

#45
Kaatayra – Toda história pela frente
188 points, 7 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3216140200_10.jpg

https://kaatayra.bandcamp.com/album/toda-hist-ria-pela-frente

(No review, wtf.)

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