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

Cool, thanks. I'll give it a belated shot.

#24

Necrot – Mortal

274 points, 8 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3627892011_10.jpg

https://necrot.bandcamp.com/album/mortal

People are never satisfied. They are saturated with options, and with choice comes entitlement. Corpulent technicality and aimless dissonance have somehow convinced people that songwriting isn’t necessary. Fucking die.1 Whatever happened to the basics? But not just the basics, the fucking basics. Evolution is key, but nothing can replace those original elements that, when correctly combined, elicit such a chemical crush. Oakland’s Necrot have been descanting the insalubrious since 2012 and boast members of Mortuous, Vastum and Acephalix. Their 2017 record Blood Offerings rampaged through the underground with an electric take on no-nonsense death metal. Follow-up Mortal continues the trend, but this beast has refined its approach.

Great writing and a firm sense of self defined Blood Offerings‘ success. Necrot‘s material combines the original Floridian flavor with a palpably dark mood. The result is not unlike the legendary Morgoth (and, therefore, early Death). Mortal maintains the same framework as its sibling but it demands a higher standard. Feral riffing has always reliably buoyed Necrot‘s writing. Mortal ensures that “feral” ascends to “predatory” with a celebratory killing spree. An attack that requires no genetic reconstruction of the band’s identity, just a flattening of emotions.

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/necrot-mortal-things-you-might-have-missed-2020/

I voted for this because I ended up revisiting it way more often than I expected.

Solstafir was my #25. Lovely stuff, reminds me a bit of Tribulation, except the vocals of course.

#23

Duma– Duma

275 points, 8 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3289675772_10.jpg

https://nyegenyegetapes.bandcamp.com/album/duma

The duo of Martin Khanja and Sam Karugu make music that’s manic, heavy, and impossible to categorize. It’s electronic and caustic, though it can also feel pensive. Machine-gun drums and piercing shrieks form the foundation of most songs; there are occasionally little ribbons of melody to cling to, but more often than not, static, synth drones and sculpted feedback provide the only adornment. This is music that comes apart at the seams, that glitches and convulses, that revels in the sounds of people and machines stretched to their breaking points.

Both Khanja and Karugu are veterans of Nairobi’s thriving metal scene. Khanja’s previous band, Lust of a Dying Breed, pushed speed metal into industrial territory: their final release traded in blast beats for the jittery sound of programmed drums. Duma goes even further, dispensing with any allegiance to genre, though the band draws liberally from black metal, power electronics, grindcore, drone and even hip-hop. As a composer, Karugu is an agent of chaos: these songs are crammed full of pummeling bass hits, stacked polyrhythms and other violently rhythmic sounds—it’s easy to picture an Ableton grid crowded with overlapping drum tracks. He sometimes employs recordings of hand drums as well, though even these are usually played at inhuman tempos. Khanja, meanwhile, can howl like a black metal vocalist, bark like a metalcore singer, or even yelp with a kind of frenzied glee. His throat-shredding vocals are often the only constant in these songs as tempos shift, tracks drop in and out of the mix, and waves of noise advance and recede.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/duma-duma/

Sounds amazing on paper. Too bad I haven't felt compelled to revisit it at all.

I think it made The Wires EOY list

same boat as pom

One of the best covers of the year for sure. I liked this enough to throw it some points, but will agree that it doesn't quite live up to the album that was in my head when I first read about it.

Yeah that cover art is amazing.

Wow, didn't expect this to be so high. Or even place. It's only tangentially metal but it's weird and dark as hell. Closest I'm going to get to listening to power electronics

#22

Hail Spirit Noir – Eden in Reverse

298 points, 8 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2317890106_10.jpg

https://agoniarecords.bandcamp.com/album/eden-in-reverse

Hail Spirit Noir is no stranger to experimentation. Right from the get-go with their first full-length album Pneuma, the Greek trio (now sextet) introduced a blend of black metal, progressive rock, and psychedelic music. Regardless of this apparent contradiction, their sound was fresh, intricate, and captivating. The subsequent albums maintained this very trend. By Mayhem in Blue, however, some of its tracks were developed in a more collected and deliberate fashion. Enter Eden In Reverse: an album that is as bizarre as their preceding efforts, but not in the way that one might think.

From the first few notes of the opener “Darwinian Beasts”, one might assume that Eden in Reverse would become yet another consistent record for their already solid repertoire. Yet as the song progresses and transitions onto the second track, “Incense Swirls”, there is an evident change of pace. Instead of their familiar black metal endeavors, we are greeted with… Kraftwerk-esque synth leads? This is quite a departure from their earlier efforts, though do not let that become a hindrance. These two tracks are a daring milestone for Hail Spirit Noir, as Eden in Reverse is a surprisingly expansive record where dynamics and textures are favored over the perceived abrasiveness found in past records.

https://everythingisnoise.net/reviews/hail-spirit-noir-eden-in-reverse/

yeah I did vote for this. they are so cool

I missed this one – adding it to my playlist.

Nobody excited enough about it to post?

There's been a lot of unclaimed #1 votes between yesterday and today, too, including this one so far.

If memory serves, the same thing happened last year.

I've tried with some older HSN albums, given the descriptions I always feel like I should love 'em, but I can't get into them at all.

I would have this down as 'very great fun' rather than 'amazing' but is IS fun. Try 'Crossroads' if you haven't

I thought someone would mention Ulver for sure

There's been a lot of unclaimed #1 votes between yesterday and today, too, including this one so far.

― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Thursday, 11 March 2021 21:39 (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

If memory serves, the same thing happened last year.

― pomenitul, Thursday, 11 March 2021 21:40 (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

Every year

If Panos Cosmatos decides to do the 80s rather than the 70s he should rope this lot in

This one's perhaps a bit different, less theatrical and more brooding, further from metal before but more genuinely psychedelic. Kind of slick but in a way that works.

I remember liking Oi Magoi okay, but found something about the genre fusion a bit shallow, idk.

Looking at my ballot, I definitely had this about 10 places too high haha. IT'S STILL GOOD THO

If Panos Cosmatos decides to do the 80s rather than the 70s he should rope this lot in

did you mean this the other way around as both Panos movies have been set in 1983?

The album is a bit scooby doom in places

oh shit haha. well in that case get 'em involved

idk why I assumed both Cosmatos movies were set in about 1978

Heh, I just assumed Mandy was present-day.

they're both as if the 70s never ended, nor will end, tbf

Or rather, I didn't think it had a 'date'. I think of it as its own fantasy world.

#21

Krallice – Mass Cathexis

299 points, 9 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1618789199_10.jpg

https://krallice.bandcamp.com/album/mass-cathexis

Krallice’s post-hiatus work has been focused on surprise releases, organized entirely around particular themes; whether it is the heavier, Dave Edwardson focused Loum or the second-wave influenced Go Be Forgotten, the Brooklyn black metal explorers have percolated experiments into crystallized experiences. Mass Cathexis, the band’s ninth album, feels both a return to their original trajectory— before Ygg Hur and it’s heavier oddities—and a new phase in its own right. Mass Cathexis takes the salient lessons learned in Krallice’s experimental years, like shorter song lengths and more diversified riffing, and applies it to the quirky metal of their Interdimensional Bleedthrough and Years Past Matter era.

To be fair, the movement of Krallice’s abject sound has been minimal over their career. The riffs and production are still clinical and sharp, with Colin Marston and Mick Barr conjuring the same technical guitar and bass interplay that’s defined the band. This laser focus and obsession with an overtly “technical” sound are felt most strongly in the rhythm section, which Mass Cathexis features, again, quite prominently. Maybe this is controversial, but the aforementioned riffs and rhythm have always given Krallice the implication of a black metal band. The pieces and parts are there, but It became clear with Years Past Matter that Krallice was doing something different in black metal, especially since heading in a death metal-lite direction. Luckily, Mass Cathexis continues that trend while retaining the sort-of kvlt flair born in Go Be Forgotten. But make no mistakes, despite re-visiting familiar ground, Mass Cathexis is Kralice’s strangest and most unwieldy collection to date.

https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/81933/Krallice-Mass-Cathexis/

Spotify Results Playlist

Their latest seems like a more successful iteration of what they attempted on Mass Cathexis.

So far:

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 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
60. Gezan – Klue
59. Gulch – Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
58. Touché Amoré – Lament
57. Mr. Bungle – The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo
56. Feminazgûl – No Dawn for Men
54 TIE. Zombi – 2020
54 TIE. Molasses – Through the Hollow
53. Pallbearer – Forgotten Days
52. Triptykon – Requiem (Live at Roadburn 2019)
51. Azarath – Saint Desecration
50. Sightless Pit – Grave of a Dog
49. Machine Girl – U-Void Synthesizer
48. Esoctrilihum – Eternity of Shaog
47. Void Rot – Descending Pillars
46. Of Feather and Bone – Sulfuric Disintegration
45. Kaatayra – Toda história pela frente
43 TIE. Mamaleek – Come & See
43 TIE. Thou & Emma Ruth Rundle – May Our Chambers Be Full
42. AC/DC – Power Up
41. Cryptic Shift – Visitations from Enceladus
40. Afterbirth – Four Dimensional Flesh
39. Eternal Champion – Ravening Iron
38. Boris – No
37. Undeath – Lesions of a Different Kind
36. Aktor – Placebo
35. Deftones – Ohms
34. Mystras – Castles Conquered and Reclaimed
32 TIE. Dark Buddha Rising – Mathreyata
32 TIE. Couch Slut – Take a Chance on Rock 'n' Roll
31. Colour Haze – We Are
30. Mare Cognitum & Spectral Lore – Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine
29. Victory Over the Sun – A Tessitura of Transformation
28. Old Man Gloom – Darkness of Being / Light of Meaning
27. Behold… the Arctopus – Hepeleptic Overtrove
26. Faceless Burial – Speciation
25. Sólstafir – Endless Twilight of Codependent Love
24. Necrot – Mortal
23. Duma – Duma
22. Hail Spirit Noir – Eden in Reverse
21. Krallice – Mass Cathexis

xp I'd say the new one is going for something completely different, they're forced to get weird with it, Mass Cathexis feels more like they're trying to consolidate the atmoblack era with teh mad techy stuff they've been doing recently. It fucking rules anyway. I love this band too much.

Enjoying the rollout pom and neechy, thank you :)

My favorite Hail Spirit Noir is Oi Magoi. Each one since then I've liked a little bit less. Still voted for this one though.

Just out of interest: What do you think of the extended nominations and voting period?

Would you guys prefer the same again or prefer it the week after big EOY poll or back to the before Christmas days of olde?

I think I prefer it the way it is this year.

helps to make March a bit heavier

It does give plenty of time for late year albums to sink in.

hail spirit noir too low

was kinda cold on the necrot record at fist but warmed up to it over the year. there's nothing new there but it rips just the same.

no comment

Any hopes for top 20 placement tomorrow?

The Krallice was so good!

I think I've voted for 12 of them, so I am hoping that at least one of the other 8 is a pleasant surprise!

I'm pretty certain a good 4 of my favourite albums are all still to come. There's also something that's almost definitely going to place that I'm going to get Very Angry Online about, fair warning.

There's also something that's almost definitely going to place that I'm going to get Very Angry Online about, fair warning.

I think I voted for this :/

Haha, looking forward to it.