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

I also think that, like, the compositions are basically metal in pacing and structure, they have that epic build and simmer

What IS metal?

https://matthewsavides.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/abe-simpson.gif

Several of your top 10 picks already placed so I'd say you're still with it.

Very behind with listening but Solstafir wins cutest album title and cover and the vocals also sound very nice and emo at times.

it's fine, a certain elephantine Belgian collective will show up and we can all be happy, even unperson

if your band's from finland, it's at least kinda metal

^ trve

ötm

hence why Vladislav Delay was warmly (frostily) welcomed in from his tundra explorations

Speaking of Finland,a few days ago I came across Mooncitadel, a one-man band that makes epic symphonic BM with an almost speed metal-esque bent, and his LP from last year is simply glorious. No one nommed it, alas.

ty, on the pile it goes

Currently the 5th best metal album of 2020 according to RYM, heh.

Besides, if you liked the Moldé Volhal, there's a fair chance you'll enjoy this one as well.

Next up: an LP that I loudly complained about over several threads and that I actually think is decent, just painfully overhyped. Don't worry, I won't reiterate my grievances for the nth time.

this one presents more fash than MV, but that's never been enough of a barrier for me :/

Ah, I didn't check for that. Always a problem with Finnish BM in particular.

#9
Liturgy – Origin of the Alimonies
421 points, 12 votes

https://liturgy.bandcamp.com/album/origin-of-the-alimonies-2

https://liturgy.bandcamp.com/album/origin-of-the-alimonies-2

Liturgy have never opted for the path of least resistance or readiest acceptance. When they burst from Brooklyn nearly a dozen years ago, they were an exhilarating addition to an already promising U.S. black metal scene, aggressive enough to command and strange enough to captivate. They could have made a fine career in that image; instead, their firebrand inclinations prevailed. Founder Hunter Hunt-Hendrix raised hackles with a high-minded black metal manifesto. Aesthethica burrowed deeper into theology with post-rock muscle, while The Ark Work confounded through mystical chants that recalled Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Philip Glass. Last year’s H.A.Q.Q., made with a new lineup after an extended hiatus, went wild with symphonic flourishes and brittle electronic edits. Such provocation could sometimes feel glib and hollow, as though the wholly serious Hunt-Hendrix were tickling black metal just to see if it would flinch. Liturgy became troll bait, a punchline.

But Origin of the Alimonies, Liturgy’s second album in as many years, is as believable as it is provocative, as obvious as it is obscure. A rapturous synthesis of Hunt-Hendrix’s philosophical pontifications and musical enthusiasms, Origin finds a balance that has long proven elusive for Liturgy. Like Charles Mingus’ The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady almost 60 years earlier, Origin of the Alimonies wrestles with ideas that can seem too grand for music to contain; throughout these seven tracks, it sounds as if Hunt-Hendrix were fighting to hold the reins enough to make the point once and for all. On Liturgy’s most compelling album in a decade, and arguably ever, she does.

Liturgy’s black metal core, built around Hunt-Hendrix’s time-stretching “burst beats,” remains intact, thanks to the return of the athletic quartet that debuted on H.A.Q.Q. But a gaggle of marquee New York improvisers—trumpeter Nate Wooley, flautist Eve Essex, bassist James Ilgenfritz, and so on—broaden Liturgy’s textures and techniques. Scraped violin strings chatter with tremolo guitars. Pounded piano figures complicate splenetic rhythms. At one point, during “The Fall of SIHEYMEN,” Liturgy sound like a symphony being led by John Zorn toward the Naked City.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/liturgy-origin-of-the-alimonies/

Screwed up the img link there. Here it is:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1229338581_10.jpg

Ah, phew! I didn't vote for it super-high. Was starting to get anxious. It's lovely, and the flute is a very welcome addition, I just wish there were a lot more of the moments that hit.

This is a massive step down from their previous two albums, yes. But it's still great and I still voted for it. Which tells you how much I love their previous two albums. This is basically a stop-gap before the next one solves the world

Points for inspiring Victory Over the Sun but I still don't click with Liturgy for the most part. Maybe I'll try again with Pharaoh Overlord but I probably got my fill of disco-metal with KMFDM in high school.

Ulcerate otoh made one of the most rocking albums of the year.

now we need to ask a mod to put a nsfw warning on the thread

or remove the pic

^cancel culture strikes again

otherwise many ilxors will get in trouble at work if they follow the top 10

lol shut up :D

the most NSFW cover itt is probably....well, one of the DMs

People's workplaces will disagree

Cover it all up with more gore imo.

The workplace should learn to recognize the beauty of the human form.

Liturgy is all about divinity, transcendence and light, there is no gore in Liturgy haha

I hadn't even considered that. Fuck puritanism.

People's workplaces will disagree

if you're WFH and think there's a real chance your IT department is looking at your browser history that closely, get a new job imho

Talking to HR: "It's, uh, transcendental black metal - here, let me send you the manifesto..."

hahaha

I just prefer to err on the cautious side so nobody gets into trouble at work now or in the future when they open this thread

Lol xp

if HR is cool with the melted bodies cover, should be fine with liturgy

lol jmm

and Eternal Champion lol

_People's workplaces will disagree_


if you're WFH and think there's a real chance your IT department is looking at your browser history that closely, get a new job imho

my company has more of an issue with me posting w/ you varlots than any album cover graphics!

save us, pom

they also tell me who to FP

Not the drama I was expecting itt.

(so glad that Geld have placed. never in doubt)

FALSE METAL

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^^^they WERE last year's Reveal after all lol xxp

I haven't returned to the Liturgy much, but thought it was fascinating the several times I listened through it. A strange cosmic opera, bursting with colour.