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

#40

Afterbirth – Four Dimensional Flesh

202 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1320487242_10.jpg

https://uniqueleaderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/four-dimensional-flesh

Welcome to my ass. We won’t be long. I’ve gathered us here today before my review of the brilliant new Afterbirth record because I didn’t want to drag you through here in the middle of it. Suffice it to say that my critique of Afterbirth‘s The Time Traveler’s Dilemma has proven unassailably correct: Afterbirth should get right back on the horse, they should keep exploring their progressive tendencies, and they absolutely should record with Colin Marston. Probably no thanks to my scolding they have. Four Dimensional Flesh is a triumph, one of the most charismatic and original death metal albums you’ll ever hear.

Like a sci-fi movie that compels you to fill in the space around its world, Four-Dimensional Flesh gives you just enough information to make you wonder how the hell Afterbirth came up with it. Whereas the animating question of The Time Traveler’s Dilemma was “Can we please release this album already?” Four Dimensional Flesh poses a more focused query; “What if Voivod, on occasion, slammed?” Well, it would be pretty fucking sick. And it is. Four Dimensional Flesh proposes an alternative timeline for death metal, one where the genre’s literary touchstone is not H.P. Lovecraft but Arthur C. Clarke, where death metal’s goal is not oppression but expansion. Instead of a nether realm or bloody dungeon, the tension and brutality of Four Dimensional Flesh play out in an adventurous and bright future. I would never have thought a death metal band could pull off retrofuturism, but Afterbirth expanded the possible.

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/afterbirth-four-dimensional-flesh-review/

Don't forget the spotify results playlist to subscribe to
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6BISg6zJeLzumnfHfMfcbG?si=i_gA26H5SD-EankDWpLIiA

TOO LOW. I was the #1 vote on this one.

Backtracking a little, but I think the Sightless Pit album is very cool and - unpopular opinion alert - better than Lingua Ignota's solo stuff.

#39

Eternal Champion – Ravening Iron

202 points, 6 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2424041592_10.jpg

https://eternalchampion.bandcamp.com/album/ravening-iron

The heavy metal band Eternal Champion are led by singer Jason Tarpey, whose vocals share a bellowing timbre with Ozzy Osbourne in the ’80s, and whose ideas cannot be contained by his music, so he has to flesh them out with fantasy novels with titles like The Godblade. His are stories of fallen kings and cosmic deities, full of intricate world-building and violent action sequences. When you see the band live, he can often be found center stage, raising a huge, glimmering sword toward the heavens.

Ravening Iron is the Texas band’s second album, following 2016’s The Armor of Ire, but they already feel like lifers. Tarpey is also the vocalist of Iron Age, while guitarist Blake Ibanez plays in Power Trip and the other three members—bassist Brad Raub, guitarist John Powers, and multi-instrumentalist and producer Arthur Rizk—are members of the similarly epically scaled Sumerlands. Together, they treat Eternal Champion as a kind of fantasy camp: Their job is not simply to replicate the atmosphere of their favorite ’80s metal but to transport themselves to those landscapes to carve new ground.

The songs on Ravening Iron are the band’s best yet, and their strength largely comes down to their presentation. The production is cleaner and fuller than The Armor of Ire, and the songcraft is tighter and more immediate. “Skullseeker” involves a carefully plotted sex scene between two warriors from opposing armies (“Wait for the painting!,” Tarpey notes), and the song itself is pure adrenaline, a narrative matched by the music. Tarpey has explained that the title is derived from the name of its lead character, carved into his axe, but you get as much from his delivery (“He was… SKULLSEEKAAH”) and the steady, marching drumbeat.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/eternal-champion-ravening-iron/

Winner of worst album cover just changed

what's wrong with being sexy?

argh I should have voted for this. a supremely confident take on this style.

“Skullseeker” involves a carefully plotted sex scene between two warriors from opposing armies

This just missed my top 10. Def my fave trad metal release of the year.

I listened to the entire Azarath album btw. A pleasure to hear an absolute master at work tbh, such a light touch. I'd see any of his bands live just for him

That careful plotting, in full:

Like Vagar, howling to meet the line in shieldless battle
War-lust complete
A man or a wolf howls from the oaks
and now the mareships land
Bring swords to your coast

He was Skullseeker
Taking your life

Into the ruck, nothing to feel
No armor, both hands 'round the haft of his steel
In his lands his honor increased
But to him and his foes he is only a beast

He was Skullseeker
Taking your life

Upon the field you meet your fate
The horned man
A steel resolve

Slain bodies lay piled
Her hilt prepares the goal
The bosom awaits him now

He was Skullseeker
Taking your life

He was Skullseeker
Taking your life

this sounds so wistful, like skullseeker was the narrator's friend and they had a falling out

Skullseeker only wanted someone to hold him, but he ended up destroying a nation

I bet he really sings 'wife'

because he's such a lad

skullseekers a great bunch of lads

What does the music sound like?

It sounds like the album cover and/or Manilla Road.

#38

Boris – NO

203 points, 6 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2534931166_10.jpg

https://boris.bandcamp.com/album/no

The first quarter-century of recordings by the Japanese trio Boris plays like a guide to heavy music’s assorted possibilities. Since the mid-’90s, they have pivoted from curdled psych-rock to blown-out doom, from snarling thrash to blissful shoegaze, from chaotic improv to manicured pop, scurrying like a cornered animal looking for a spring from a waiting stylistic trap. Can you imagine any other band recording with Merzbow and the Cult’s Ian Astbury? That remarkable versatility has made Boris a lodestar for collapsing subgenre walls, within metal and beyond—if Boris were having so much fun digging through and temporarily donning metal’s various garbs, especially on stage, shouldn’t you?

But Boris’ albums have often suffered from that discursive zeal, as the band methodically moved among their obsessions in a way that could feel academic or clinical. They’d build momentum just to squander it, put you in trance just to interrupt it. All that whiplash could get tiring—on last year’s tedious LφVE & EVφL, their studio debut for Third Man, even Boris sounded over it. Not now, however: The remarkable NO—self-recorded during quarantine starting in late March and self-released in a digital rush—is a gloriously claustrophobic crucible full of all the sounds Boris make best, heated by indignation with our time of closed borders and extreme international turmoil.

Boris squeeze almost everything they’ve ever done and loved into these breathless 40 minutes—hardcore tirades and harsh-noise onslaughts, doom-metal riffs and droning tones, rock’n’roll hooks and reverb-shrouded murmurs. NO may be the most compelling and singular album they’ve made since their stateside 2005 breakthrough, Pink. But it’s a complete inversion of those thrashing party jams and hazy anthems—this is Boris, mad as fuck, screaming at the world about the feeling. It is fun and, as they correctly note in an accompanying essay, “extreme healing music.”

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/boris-no/

Best studio album they have made since 'Pink'

afterbirth is way too low. weird and unique record in a completely saturated genre. it was in my top three or so iirc.

also yeeeeah, long island, baby

This Boris is sounding great but it can't possibly live up to the Merzbow collab album

I was underwhelmed by NO, I guess just not my preferred Boris mode. I'm shocked that ended up so much higher than the vastly superior Merzbow collab.

just never been that huge a Boris fan and I've tried a lot, even the "peak" albums people cite are just OK to me

#37

Undeath – Lesions of a Different Kind

210 points, 5 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2287052272_10.jpg

https://undeath.bandcamp.com/album/lesions-of-a-different-kind

Death is their chief lyrical concern and avowed metal subgenre, but the members of Rochester, New York’s Undeath share a decidedly life-affirming outlook. “I think all of us love death metal so much,” vocalist Alexander Jones explained to Invisible Oranges, “because when it’s done well, it sits right at the intersection of pure musicianship and mindless fun.” There is a specific type of fun he is referring to: the spine-tingling thrill of campy horror movies, of screaming unintelligibly for no reason at all, of song titles like “Kicked in the Protruding Guts” and “Chained to a Reeking Rotted Body.” It is the restless, ridiculous heartbeat underlying their music.

After a few well-loved demos, Undeath’s debut album, Lesions of a Different Kind, never leans too far to either side of the death metal pendulum. It is a vicious and nauseating blast: catchy, impenetrable, and masterfully executed. What appeals about a song like “Acidic Twilight Visions” is the immediacy—a pummeling groove, a climactic solo, an honest-to-god chorus. But the closer you listen, the more you hear the virtuosity underlying their chaos, a complex web of interlocking parts that can turn on a dime from jackhammer shredding to guttural dissonance.

This old-school death metal, akin to the early work from fellow breakout revivalists like Tomb Mold and Blood Incantation, involves a purposeful lack of dynamics, indecipherable lyrics, and melodies that seem in danger of dissolving into a murky, low-end drone. The strength of the songs largely comes down to the riffs, which are remarkable throughout. Nearly every track opens with a memorable guitar part from Kyle Beam, and he guides his bandmates through an album that brings to mind plenty of the greats (Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, and more are saluted in the liner notes) but coheres into a singular force.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/undeath-lesions-of-a-different-kind/

I marveled at the tracklist but I don't think I ever actually listened tbh

Winner of best album cover, definitely.

fav album cover of the year

record is a lot of fun too

haha x-post

I mostly felt that way but the Merzbow collaboration made a definite impression.xps re Boris

I'm still working through the Esoctrilihum. It's p cool, v icy feel but propulsive, even grooving at times. Some interesting timbres and harmonies.

This Boris album ended up being not so much my thing. At least Pink opened up with Farewell, which remains one of the great heavy songs, or something

damn, thought Undeath would crack the top 20. It was in my top 5.

I enjoyed this a bunch but only listened a couple times. (A general pattern for me with most of the high-quality DM albums I hear. I move on after a listen or two, and so I don't end up voting for them.)

I just noticed all the other skeletons in the lair still have their skulls on their spines. Changing up the killing method. Nice.

Hence Lesions of a Different Kind. duh.

Did Earth ever get in the main poll? I think they must have

2008

I voted for both Kaatayras & Gezan (my #1; loving all the positive feedback thx <3) as well as Machine Girl & Mamaleek ("Cabrini-Green" my track of the year)

Not really following along but so far my definite impression is I'm sleeping on 2R0I2P0 (& maybe The Symbol Remains)

2R0I2P0, this instant, DAM!

how the hell did I forget to vote for Afterbirth. jesus, that thing was massive.

same with Undeath. I was doing a scan of all the albums and must have overlooked that one too. Afterbirth woulda been much higher, of the two.

#36

Aktor – Placebo

211 points, 5 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2949008585_10.jpg

https://aktor.bandcamp.com/album/placebo

Chicago's Professor Black and Finnish musician Jussi Lehtisalo are two of the most underappreciated — and versatile — musicians in rock music. The former has capably juggled melodic thrash with DAWNBRINGER, catchy rock anthems with HIGH SPIRITS, and tributes to the sounds of MOTÖRHEAD and early BATHORY under his own name. Lehtisalo has spent nearly three decades as the mastermind of psychedelic kraut-rock wizards CIRCLE and stoner-prog greats PHARAOH OVERLORD while indulging in death metal, punk rock, electronica, and more with dozens of side projects. Comparatively, AKTOR — a collaboration where the duo are joined by Lehtisalo's fellow CIRCLE bandmate Tomi Leppänen on drums — is a more straightforward rock project.

AKTOR's first proper full-length, 2015's "Paranoia", was a fun blast of sci-fi-influenced throwback rock that was full of catchy anthems for fans of '70s rock acts such as BLUE ÖYSTER CULT and CHEAP TRICK. "Placebo" sees the trio's obsessions with outer space and a good hook form a winning combination once again. While not explicitly marketed as a concept record, the album's lyrical themes and musical progression ebbs and flows like a good sci-fi story. AKTOR keeps the musical proceedings accessible throughout, with the feeling at the end of the record resembling the experience of having watched a breezy episode of the "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" television series from the early 1980s.

https://www.blabbermouth.net/cdreviews/placebo/

what were you saying about the worst cover art

these Finnish lads get everywhere!

2R0I2P0, this instant, DAM!

No

I thought Aktor was going to be my big Circle/Ektro-related release of the year until I heard 6. I still liked & voted for it but it dropped off through the year

A mock early-80s AOR concept album about death made for some eerie listening during lockdown

20 seconds into Aktor and I know I am going to like this lol

Very fun record that reminds me of lots of early '80s New Wave bands like Oingo Boingo, Devo, the Cars and Wall of Voodoo.

Next up I guess you could call them a 90s legacy act these days

no guesses?

Ulver?