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

It is so. It was very very lovely.

Shall we get started then?

Its a split shift with pom today

A reminder that you can subscribe to Spotify Results Playlist which has a huge number of 3 followers. So we might not bother doing it in future polls.

It's kind of impressive how Bandcamp has become The Metal Platform

^

I think we're all listening, just not to the Swedish slime.

And how if you like something enough to listen to it more than 3 times, you have to buy it!

Before I start, it's time for you all to predict your 'locks' for the top 20. I want to see who guesses the hivemind best.

Stoked 4 Poppy

#20

Sumac – May You Be Held

299 points, 10 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0004879527_10.jpg

https://sumac.bandcamp.com/album/may-you-be-held

Few bands clad a soft heart in tensile steel quite like Sumac. All of the abstruse metal trio’s four albums over the last five years have been ever more imposing, like self-perpetuating obstacle courses in hell. Ricocheting between formidable doom and barbed improvisation, Sumac sound preternaturally belligerent. But the group’s core is the spiritual yearning of Aaron Turner, who since his later days in Isis has often attempted to repurpose metal’s malevolent mechanics for personal transcendence. Sumac’s May You Be Held might be the closest he has ever come. For a vertiginous hour, Sumac pirouette around riffs and collapse into bedlam, hurtle through feedback and snap back into lockstep. As violent as they may sometimes seem, these songs are timely psalms of perseverance and rebirth, weaponized for whatever comes next.

Three years ago, Sumac traveled to Tokyo to work with Japanese experimental godhead Keiji Haino. That experience not only led to two intriguing collaborative LPs but also challenged Sumac to stretch their parameters; their subsequent full-length, 2018’s colossal Love in Shadow, disrupted their formerly relentless force with unmoored instrumental explorations and extreme dynamics. May You Be Held indulges this tension like a favorite new habit. The metal sections are mightier, tightened with pneumatic precision. The improvisations, meanwhile, are more adventurous, pushing harder against the boundaries of the songs themselves. The uncanny hybrid suggests something Peter Brötzmann’s Machine Gun band might have made in a different setting, or something his son, Caspar, might have eventually found with his own Massaker. Where those splenetic groups decried our failures, Sumac’s tirades ponder fixing them, too.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sumac-may-you-be-held/

Nechoch/Panop, Liturgy, Elder, Slift, ImTriumph, Paysage, Oranssi, Ulcerate, at least one Serpent Column LP, and I have my fingers crossed for Lowrider.

and ^ obvs

Oh I forgot this! Amusing that neither this nor OMG will be Turner's highest placement lol

I voted for this one. Great guitar timbres.

As good as I think May You Be Held was, that 18-min "Two Beasts" EP/single on Sub Pop from the very end of last year was my favourite Sumac output to date.

#19

Napalm Death – Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism

300 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://open.spotify.com/album/3AASIPHf14TujhNRkluEiA?si=EQGwdM0wTaGsJ_RCxVhFQA

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/883511-1536x1536-1-820x820.jpg

Napalm Death’s screeds against society's ills have always had a prophetic feel to them. And yet, while they have been fighting against the dangers of capitalism and social injustice since the height of Thatcher’s reign, the Brummie grindstitution have never come across preachy in their efforts to warn us of the precipice humanity has been recklessly dangling from for decades.

As world economies begin to enter a second recession in just over ten years due to an insidious disease that’s currently running roughshod through us, some might say we’ve finally overshot said precipice and are on a rapid descent to a cataclysmic fall – and perhaps we should’ve listened harder to such screamed warnings. But throughout all the sociopolitical upheaval and internal turmoil affecting each and every one of us this year to varying degrees of distress, you can still count on Napalm Death to deliver a grindcore polemic of the highest order – a band acting as a beacon of truth, consistency and stability during the most uncertain times of our generation.

This might not mean much to those who are struggling to pay rent or maintain their (physical and/or mental) health right now, but art – even art of such reality-based themes – can be a source of strength and a welcome form of escapism during even the darkest of days. The aptly-titled Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism is the band’s sixteenth LP and it’s certainly a cause for celebration. It finds Napalm Death acting as a self-contained sonic firestorm on a record that features furious tracks, as expected, but also some of their finest experiments to date.

https://thequietus.com/articles/28992-napalm-death-throes-of-joy-in-the-jaws-of-defeatism-review

good placement for this, strong album that nevertheless wasn't quite as awesome as the last one imho

I love the Idea of Sumac but both this one and Love in Shadow are in need of some tightening up. With a bit of luck their next LP will be it.

As for the Napalm Death, I think I'm just not enough of a fan to really get into their more recent output.

It was the Decibel Album of the Year.

I don't think the Decibel crew have voted in ILM metal poll for years now though.

how sad

Next up is the long awaited follow up album by a beloved band from yesteryear (face it, you are old)

I'm sure you can guess who it is so no prizes for guessing.

face it, you are old

My belatedly acquired metal habit is all about coming to terms with this.

Lets get the "but its not metal" cries out of the way first.

Then celebrate one of the greatest comeback albums by a beloved band.

Trying to think of alternatives because this is surely too low for Hum

Everyone done then? good.

#18

Lowrider – Refractions

307 points, 9 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1436667898_10.jpg

https://lowriderofficial.bandcamp.com/album/refractions

First of all, Refractions is a comeback story. The comeback story of a Swedish band called Lowrider, that became famous with one killer album entitled Ode to Io, released on September 2000. Only one pure stoner album, following the path of master Kyuss, that became cult. And all of this at a time when the European scene was not as developed as it is today. And since that time? Nothing or almost nothing. In 2003, the band is promised to a brilliant future but splits. We had to wait until 2013 to see the band reformed at the Deserfest Berlin. And twenty years to have the pleasure to listen to their second long opus !

The truth is that I listened to Refractions without big expectations. Nostalgia drove me to it, in memory of Ode to Io. I did not expect a Lowrider album anymore and the struggles they went through did not invite us to be optimistic. And yet, I took a big slap in my face when I listened to it. Refractions is a very consistent production. The pure stoner album we forgot to expect, and maybe a bit more. And damn, what a pleasure to hear again that singular insane groove we missed.

https://morefuzz.net/reviews/lowrider-refractions/

haha riiiight gotcha

Fucking great album.

I voted the ND #1. it's not my favorite in the discography of theirs, but I enjoyed the 80s goth/Killing Joke-isms amidst their more grindy output.

Lets get the "but its not metal" cries out of the way first.

Hey, even I voted for this. It was my #5, in fact – it's full of fantastic riffs and I think the relative mellowing suits them quite well, especially on the vocal front.

If you guys have never heard the majestic debut album by Lowrider then you are in for a treat. One of the truly great Stoner Rock albums

'Pipe Rider' is godly.

It was my #6

all...my...friends...call me pipe rider

the distinct possibility that I voted for 11 or 12 of the top 17 is filling me with monstrous trepidation. how can i control this power

#17

Stabscotch – Twilight Dawn

309 points, 8 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3800876887_10.jpg

https://mrsnowproductions.bandcamp.com/album/twilight-dawn

Stabscotch’s 2017 art-punk opus Uncanny Valley was a roaring, headlong plunge into the abyss. Over 100 minutes, the Pittsburgh rock alchemists transfigured punk forms into grotesque shapes like a wreck of twisted metal that’s impossible to ignore. Their follow up, the double EP Twilight Dawn, sees the group undergoing another transfiguration. Side A, 7 Is A Cycle, is a final exorcism of Uncanny Valley’s abyssal nihilism, culminating in the coruscating vortex of “Gravity”, where Tyler Blensdorf’s banshee howl clashes with Zack Hubbard’s distorted guitar squalls in an all-consuming battle of wills. Out of the ashes of side A emerges Drama Dragon, a similarly grotesque genre fusion of industrial, jazz, emo, post-punk and experimental rock that throws itself away from the void as forcefully as 7 Is A Cycle rushed into it.

https://beatsperminute.com/hindsight-2020-the-best-albums-we-didnt-review/4/

Whoa.

make it 12

here's the sickness, folks

I'm pretty sure I heard this last year and I, uh, don't remember a single thing about it.

Only on ilm would it come this high, lol

can't believe I missed this Lowrider album. that's some tasty fuzz!

Coil-inspired dark/white magic noise-rock fucking mayhem. The Last Alchemist and Gravity are world-shattering and the second half is an insane party where everyone is screaming in shock

It's insane

Oh wait you already said that, trying to do two things at once

it bears repeating

only my #11 though. Uncanny Valley is their masterpiece so far, this is merely a grand transitional statement

Three tracks in, Lowrider seems perfect for a breezy spring day. Actually remind me a bit of Soundgarden.

Next years Split by Anal Stabscotch is going to walk the poll, innit?

#16

Botanist – Photosynthesis

314 points, 9 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3403110590_10.jpg

https://verdant-realm-botanist.bandcamp.com/album/photosynthesis

In the natural world, photosynthesis is a process begun when plants take in carbon dioxide and water. The water is then oxidized, and the carbon dioxide is reduced. This turns the water in oxygen and the carbon dioxide into glucose, which creates the energy the plant needs to grow. The oxygen is released into the air and the energy is stored in glucose molecules. Or so I can remember from GCSE science (thanks Mrs Bailey). It’s through this process that plants can be considered the lungs of the planet. Much like their previous releases, avant-garde metal outfit Botanist have taken this idea and created a concept album around it. As usual the protagonist of the album is a botanist who has gone insane from witnessing the destruction of the natural world at the hand of man. Botanist take hammered dulcimers – water – and a tight rhythm section – carbon dioxide – and create music that is full of propulsive energy.

Photosynthesis is an album that opens with a sombre hammered dulcimer over blast beats. It feels like a metal album but also not at the same time. The use of the hammered dulcimer is a master stroke. They have a set sound that really lends itself to the music Botanist make, but when you can hear the string actually being hammered if adds an extra layer to the song.

https://thequietus.com/articles/29162-botanist-photosynthesis-review

Another high quality release from Botanist