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

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

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxposts

^^^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.

showing OotA cover to everyone in my work station rn. why? because it's lovely

agreed, imago!

showing Mayhem's Dawn of the Black Hearts cover to my team

well I was until they started sobbing

I didn't say there was anything wrong with it. At all. Just mentioning the fact that some people's workplaces are strict ffs

really hoping #8 has a really, really grim cover now lol

Bit of a Streisand effect here lol.

Alright, moving on…

#8
Imperial Triumphant – Alphaville
477 points, 12 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4090784654_10.jpg

https://totaldissonanceworship.bandcamp.com/album/alphaville

Death metal’s artistic ascent in the early 90s and the avant-garde influence on black metal bands such as Sigh, Ved Buens Ende and Dødheimsgard helped pave the way for our modern understanding of complex, intense forms of metal. Thankfully, decades on, we’re still having our brains scrambled by truly progressive acts across metal’s continually expanding spectrum. Judging by the acclaim deservedly hyped upon astral travellers such as Blood Incantation, Cryptic Shift and Oranssi Pazuzu, we are now in the midst of a very exciting creative period – and NYC avant-black/death metallers Imperial Triumphant are another leading example.

On their 2018 LP, Vile Luxury, the trio manipulated the listener’s psyche and physical wellbeing through sonic axis-shifting and malevolent aesthetics. Its opening occult fanfare of a six-part horn chorale set a disorientating, erudite and masterful tone for what was a claustrophobic score of NYC life and its past and present corruption, criminality and inequality. Metal didn’t often get that regal – or brutal – during the last decade, which is why Alphaville, named after Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 dystopian future- world sci-fi film, is so highly anticipated amongst those who want artists to continue to push compositions to radical limits.

By using Vile Luxury’s base headfuck style, as a launch pad for even more outlier, boundary-blitzing aims, Imperial Triumphant have done just that on album four. At times, their noir- jazz influences are so pronounced that it sounds as though Miles Davis’s troupe from 1971’s Live-Evil are jamming maniacally inside Portal’s grandfather clock. Rotted Futures sets the scene with its distorted violin wails descending into a sideways Voivod-ian groove, drummer Kenny Grohowski’s freefalling fills bouncing off the respective angular bass and guitar thrills of Steve Blanco and Ilya. Ilya’s demonic bellows act as an essential fulcrum from which the instrumentals swing, blast and morph, especially during Excelsior and the title track – not unlike a black/death extension of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s work with Mike Patton.

https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/imperial-triumphant-alphaville-album-review

someone cover up that sexy building!

Imo a step down from Vile Luxury, which I absolutely loved.

imo a step up from Vile Luxury, which I liked. My #10. Atomic Age is particularly staggering

Srsly though, the Eternal Champion cover is equally NSFW if we're really going to be removing pictures (not that we should be).

Lol yes, truly indecent monolith xp. Aaaah I thought this was a lock for the top 3! It's so resplendent and tainted.

I think we can all agree the Undeath is 100% SFW though.

Undeath cover is genuinely lovely tbh

is not that how we should all aspire to go

I liked what someone said way upthread about changing the killing methods up in the Undeath cover.

Speaking as someone who enjoys directionless, negligibly tasteful avant-metal, this band... are kind of poor, honestly.

On the other hand, Liturgy rule but I agree that the previous two were better. Still voted for it high up, mind.

The first day I listened to Alphaville in full, I was walking around a blistering hot and totally empty Canary Wharf and it was very ominously fitting.

we need a London metal band to do what IT do for NY. or will Lychgate do

We should poll the best UK metal bands of the 21st century at some point.

so long as that excludes anyone who formed before then, yes

Next up: LO-FI FOREST MAGIC.

#7
Paysage d’Hiver – Im Wald
491 points, 14 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0868412336_10.jpg

https://paysagedhiver.bandcamp.com/album/im-wald

Paysage d’Hiver is not new to black metal—not by a long shot. The Swiss one-man act has been hashing out quality blackened tunes since 1997 in the form of demos and splits, releasing some of the iciest sounds to grace the scene. Always toeing the line between raw and atmospheric, mastermind Wintherr’s (also a member of the formidable Darkspace) demo work has ranged from the crystalline ambiance of Die Festung to the unrelenting rawness of Winterkälte, consistently providing an aural experience of a blizzard at its most violent and a winter’s evening at its most empty. This has all built up to this: first full-length Im Wald,1 which feels far too anticlimactic for this stunning project’s storied 23-year career.

Wintry black metal may not be the most original thing since sliced bread, as genre-mates Coldworld, Vinterriket, Forest Silence, and millions of others have never shied from the cold. However, none have ever sounded as solid as Wintherr’s solo project. Furthermore, in the truest sense of the word, Im Wald is a culmination of Paysage d’Hiver‘s greatest assets. It’s an absolutely mammoth release, a sprawling 13-track and two-hour affair of blisteringly icy tremolo, searing shrieks, ominous darkness, and just enough ambiance to add dimension. It’s a continuation of the band’s last, 2015 demo Das Tor (aside from a couple splits), a blend of the old second-wave shredding and the new cleaner production that blessedly never forsakes its teeth. Combining the best of Krystal und Isa‘s fury, Einsamkeit‘s ominous darkness, and a combination of Wintherr’s trademark unrelentingly icy aesthetic with the twisting and labyrinthine uncertainty of isolation in a night-shrouded wintry forest, it may not be Paysage d’Hiver‘s first, but I’ll be damned if it’s not its best.

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/paysage-dhiver-im-wald-things-you-might-have-missed-2020/

My #6. Up there with Darkspace's very best.

My #4

I think I liked this? I bought it. I heard it, I think. It went on a while. It might have been good. I didn't vote for it. One day I will have to reaffirm whether it is truly up there with Darkspace III

Did you buy it too? I did the exact same! That said, I did vote for it at #36.

I think I just need to wait until it's the height of summer before I can listen to this properly