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

Something like Altair Descends really is just astonishingly pretty for a track on a metal poll album, almost offensively pretty haha

Not once does that review I quoted use the word 'metal'.

Look, if the DM Trve Krve wanna mobilise and swat away the foul spectre of pretty Finnish spacerock then they'd better get boots on the ground because I will never stop voting pretty Finnish spacerock

The trve krve is mostly gone, alas.

Then what shall reign?

The False King, obv.

*gazes about at his empire of falsehood* I HAVE BUILT THIS

Look on my works, etc.

Except one of the two remaining albums is the sickest metal I've heard in my life, more or less, so

Speaking of falseness…

all this talk of falseness seems a bit premature when we can clearly look forward to Anal Stabwound winning next year's poll.

#2
Hum – Inlet
663 points, 17 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4126716193_10.jpg

https://humband.bandcamp.com/album/inlet

Rumors of a fifth Hum album have been circulating since 2016, and there’s some poetry in its surprise drop coinciding with the 20th-anniversary celebration of Deftones’ White Pony, this century’s most influential vision for heavy melodic rock and something that wouldn’t exist without Hum. In the past decade, an entire galaxy of bands equally indebted to shoegaze, emo and alt-rock has emerged from the niche Hum occupied in their heyday—seen as intimidating older brothers by fellow bands on the upstart Polyvinyl label in their home base of Champaign-Urbana, overshadowed and unfairly likened to upstate neighbors/tour mates Smashing Pumpkins. Yet, Inlet doesn’t indicate a band awaiting a hero’s welcome or trying to connect with the world at large. Rather, the massive album presents an invitation to block out everything in existence and ponder the enormity of the universe.

Hum’s wanderlust for inner odysseys was evident in the titles of their two major-label albums: You’d Prefer an Astronaut, Downward is Heavenward. Inlet doesn’t evoke the same playful adventurousness; its heavily fortified exteriors are more reflective of their standoffish relationship with media attention; a decade before it soundtracked a Cadillac commercial, the modest success of “Stars” allowed Hum to terrorize the Howard Stern Show with glass-shattering volume and confound Matt Pinfield by wearing chicken suits on 120 Minutes. “Step Into You” is the only thing here that could possibly give Hum a second chance at the mainstream success they tried their hardest to avoid—mostly because it’s the only thing here less than five minutes, though the cyclical, deadpan melody, head-nodding midtempo groove and hair gel-slick guitar solo could’ve shared space on the alt-rock dial next to Collective Soul.

Hum’s legacy has largely been stewarded by acolytes like Greet Death, Narrow Head, and the Talbott-produced Cloakroom, all of whom have embraced their more funereal aspects and ignored their commercial flirtations. In that light, Inlet is essentially fan service. Talbott’s rhythm guitar, moves with the velocity of a mudslide or molten lava, while Tim Lash’s textured leads evoke water and air, replicating an algae bloom in “Waves” or a slow-motion geyser on the chorus of “Shapeshifter.” And the riffs—the riffs!—are Black Sabbath-slow and simple, like Hum really spent 22 years stockpiling and eliminating anything that couldn’t withstand at least six minutes of repetition or maintain its melodic thrust at the slowest possible tempos.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/hum-inlet/

Good record that I'd outright love if the singing was a bit more involved.

Too false!

Glad I voted for this in the end. I almost removed it from my ballot, CORRECTLY GUESSING it would be the biggest threat to the Champions Of Music, but it is goddamn epic so I couldn't not. Those outros!

Almost hit the 666 too

all this talk of falseness seems a bit premature when we can clearly look forward to Anal Stabwound winning next year's poll.

― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Friday, 12 March 2021 21:39 (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Nikhil really does have that come-here-to-save-metal Chosen One vibe doesn't he

Don't overburden the poor lad, he's got enough to achieve as is.

My first response to hearing this Hum album was to say "they've come back metal" because it really is that heavy

Yeah I honestly don't mind this album's inclusion at all from a taxonomical perspective.

Where did Hum place in the general poll?

pretty solid record, I didn't realize hum was this popular tbh

prob should have campaigned for this idol group that kinda sounds like hum sometimes:
https://open.spotify.com/track/0Cv9wrH9k8D8kWj7k6BdqH?si=2UfeZ-9iS3KhJOiPBaOgWg

And I'd like to point out that this poll has never been an exclusively metal poll.

Metal fans have always listened to heavy rock plus for 30 years now alternative rock, so Hum, Kairon and Poppy belong as much as Imperial Triumphant or Sweven in this poll.

Well said!

re: Kairon; IRSE! -- I'm all for melody and catchiness in metal. The majority of DM and BM I hear sounds like somebody growling over a vacuum cleaner. I don't definitely don't think there is any one correct way to be "heavy". I loved the Poppy, Hum, and Machine Girl albums. Voted for all three of them. Nominated the Hades OST and considered nominating (and voting for) Pink Siifu. But I just don't feel like this one gets there in its tone, as noisy as it can be at points. It's just not... heavy. Anyway that's all I will say about that.

xp Hum deserves to be in this poll and I hope they placed high in the general, but I didn't think it was good enough by any metric to place this high. There are a few really good songs on here, the tone of the album is great, but the album is a slog to get through start to end. I don't feel that there is enough variance of tone and it just wears me down after a bit.

yanakoto sotto mute were robbed tbh

if only there was one album we could all agree on

I wonder which one it might be?

honestly surprised hum didn't win

I knew who'd win this poll from the moment the heavy guitars kicked in 5 minutes into my first listen of Ilmestys

anyway congrats to Loathe on topping the poll

and the winner is: Mrs Piss

you're all very cute

You'll never guess which celebrated 2020 metal album didn't make the top 101!

was hoping thaetas would make it in, that thing rules

Only one album with a #1 vote didn't make the 101

Tom knows who it is, lol

I don't think any of us saw the crabcore revival of 2020 coming, much less Attack! Attack! winning the poll.

jon knows what's up.

Alright, 'tis time.

#1
Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsi
945 points, 24 votes, 2 #1 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2961622067_10.jpg

https://oranssipazuzu.bandcamp.com/album/mestarin-kynsi

While loosely categorized as black metal, there has never been anything straightforward about the sounds generated by Finland's ORANSSI PAZUZU throughout their decade-long existence. Their musical output so far is definitely discordant enough to earn the genre tag, and the vocals — shared by guitarist Jun-His, bassist/keyboardist Ontto, and keyboardist/percussionist EviL — are hauntingly corrosive and blood curdling. The group will start though with black metal as a basic launching point and endeavor on a path loaded with twists and turns through psychedelic jazz, synthesizer-driven movie scores, and krautrock, all while maintaining an ominously dark aura. The results are the aural equivalent of an acid trip gone horribly awry, and in the end, come off as scarier and more dangerous than the latest pretenders to the black metal throne who are donning corpse paint and recycling old MAYHEM riffs on self-released demo cassettes.

The group's latest effort, "Mestarin kynsi", is the group's most spectacular descent into psychedelic musical madness to date. More overtly accessible metal sounds have taken more and more of a backseat as the band's musical progression has evolved, and this album establishes the band's ambitions fairly quickly. "Ilmestys" begins the record with a slow-burning collage of tribal drumming from Korjak, sitar-like guitar work from Ikon, a disturbingly rumbling bass line from Ontto and science-fiction sound effects before a discomforting assortment of vocal grunts begins to emanate after a few minutes. Harder riffs and heavier drums don't begin until the five-minute mark, but the group has already built up such a sense of menacing dread by then that the final few minutes become a musical catharsis.

https://www.blabbermouth.net/cdreviews/mestarin-kynsi/

the best metal band in the world

the best rock band in the world

the best prog band in the world

the best psych band in the world

the best band in the world

thank you to the pollrunners

hail to finland

and goodnight

and it's not even their best album

Fantastic record. Only my #26, however, since there was no way in hell it wouldn't reach the top 5.

Agree with beard papa that Hum is definitely heavy rock and good but not #2 good.

Oranssi Pazuzu otoh a predictable but deserved winner.

I gotta run to take care of a few things, was waiting for this to warp up.

Thanks again for running a great poll guys, what a fantastic roll-out!

A little bit samey with the last one, but still phenomenal.

(full disclosure: Oranssi Pazuzu was my gateway into metal)

Thanks to everyone who participated and made this such a lively experience!

METAL'S NOT DEAD!

(Even though it looks a hell of a lot like heavy psych/shoegazing these days.)

Metal looked like heavy psych when it was born!

V fun poll. Thanks, pom and Oor Neechy.

I appreciate this album a lot, and I'm fine with it winning. I've loved OP for years and got to see them play at a small venue not long before everything shut down. It was one of the better shows I've seen. That said: I found the constant tension-building in this album to be something that evoked an unwelcome amount of stress in me. As much as I appreciate this album, I found to my disappointment that there was no good time to listen to it. Too stressful for background music; too slow-developing for foreground. I think maybe the ultimate way of listening to this is just to be seeing them perform it in person and be 100% focused on it. Kind of a dumb complaint, I guess, but it is what it is.

Thanks for doing the poll. Had a good time reading it and discovered some new music.