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

Tracks 1 and 3 set 'em up, tracks 2 and 4 despatch

love that mystras record

if you aren’t that into spectral lore, still worth a shot. it’s a very different sound and one that i personally prefer

Catching up…

Afterbirth does indeed feel too low even though I didn't vote for it myself. A brilliantly paradoxical record, no doubt about it.

As for the Eternal Champion, 'Skullseeker' is eternally hilarious and the album itself is top-notch power metal imo.

The Boris was pleasant enough (like Simon, I'm not much of a stan, mind you).

Undeath was my #9 – no-nonsense DM of the best possible kind and yes, the ultimate 2020 album cover.

The Aktor did precious little for me when I sampled it, sorry.

Deftones was my #20 – among their strongest albums, full stop, although admittedly nothing in it will convert the skeptics.

Mystras is the best Spectral Lore-related project of 2020 imo, ahead of his contributions to the Mare Cognitum collab.

Last but not least, this is going to be an unpopular opinion but not only is the Dark Buddha Rising awesome, I honestly prefer it to the Oranssi Pazuzu.

I mean it's not so much of a gap in quality that I'll even strenuously disagree. DBR have discovered the magic of how very minimalistic music can go on an immense journey. They're masters of tension and its ratcheting

Last but not least, this is going to be an unpopular opinion but not only is the Dark Buddha Rising awesome, I honestly prefer it to the Oranssi Pazuzu.

Some days I'm there, they are both so good for such different reasons.

Here's an even more unpopular opinion: DBR are tedious mince

Don't get me wrong, Mestarin kynsi is killer, but it didn't match my 2020 moods as thoroughly as the DBR.

xp hard disagree, obv., but that's the spirit!

ULTROS

FITE

it cool we buds. ultros talk about Mystras or something

#32 TIE

Couch Slut – Take a Chance on Rock ’n’ Roll

218 points, 6 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1619788850_10.jpg

https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/take-a-chance-on-rock-n-roll

The expression of grief and pain can be as intoxicating as it is poisonous. One of the things that punk rock bands are often lauded for is synthesizing their grievances with the world and personal failures into fun, digestible pieces of pop art for a selective audience of weirdos who have failed at life in similar ways. Candy-coated caterwauls of catharsis. That's the name of the game!

There are other genres, like heavy metal, that attempt to lay claim to life's betrayals and indignities by exhibiting them in a stark, cold, light for all to witness. But even heavy metal has to concede to its audience needs, and as a result, often hammer out anthems of empowerment and oases of relief from the anguish of life.

There are few bands that offer its audience none of these ways to deal with their pain, and still manage to be palatable. Cloud Rat is one, Lord Mantis is another, but the crown at this moment must go to Couch Slut.

Their new album, Take a Chance on Rock 'n' Roll, manages this aesthetic and aural coup without sapping any of the bitterness out of the fruits of knowledge they have on offer.

https://www.noecho.net/reviews/couch-slut-take-a-chance-on-rock-n-roll-review

now THIS is the imago section Oor Neechy ffs haha

my #15, absolutely crushing

Eh, I'm sure this is fine, I just have no yen to find out.

OK Mystras placed higher than I though it might, it's an excellent record obv, no-one would have batted an eye if he'd released it under the SL name though. (btw he has another album out in April!!!)

Listening to Afterbirth again I still like it and appreciate how different it is to other br000tal dm albums but it doesn't quite come together for me.

I couldn't get with Afterbirth at all

couch slut rule, even if i liked the previous LP by a hair

*preferred

This album didn't have a Won't Come on it, but I think it was better and more consistent overall, and its closing track was just as brutal as Won't Come in its own way

Holy Shit my old drummer just sent me photos of the “Someplace Cheap” night. here is a photo of the fireman and I on Coach’s bike, and the three of them (Capt America, fireman, and Coach) holding me at the bar and pic #3 is Randy on the righthand side https://t.co/agmg9snUzX pic.twitter.com/dYsM8UgRzp

— the bodice of christ (@megans__law) May 18, 2020

Just relistened to the closing track of DBR. How can you possibly call this tedious mince lol

Couch Slut was my #4. I was only moderately sold on the previous LP but got massively into this one. 'I'm 14' and 'The Stupid Man' absolutely crush (add to verbs list).

jesus those photos are bleak

Do we have a 'Real America' thread?

Those 'The Stupid Man' lyrics

#31

Colour Haze – We Are

220 points, 6 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0452339713_10.jpg

https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/we-are

It is no small thing for a band to change its construction after about 20 years of working with the same lineup, but as they cap their 25th anniversary celebration in 2019 with the release of the new album, We Are (formerly titled Life), that is precisely what Munich’s Colour Haze have done. The godfathers of European heavy psychedelia have operated since 1998 as the core trio of guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek, bassist Philipp Rasthofer and drummer Manfred Merwald, but with 2017’s In Her Garden (review here), they began to experiment more with adding flourish of organ and various synth from Jan Faszbender, and since then, Faszbender has become a part of a new four-piece incarnation of Colour Haze.

On the seven-track/45-minute We Are, which is released as ever through Koglek‘s Elektrohasch Schallplatten imprint and opens its first side at a rush with its quick-boogie title-track, they continue to experiment and drive themselves forward in that integration, with Faszbender moving between playing off the energy of Merwald‘s drumming, running along with Koglek‘s guitar in the graceful instrumental sweep in the second half of “Life,” and generally filling out the melodic and rhythmic foundations of the material while offering a few standout moments of his own, such as the organ laying the bed for the soaring vocals — and I mean “soaring”; there are some pointedly operatic guest vocals going on there too — of the album apex “Be with Me.” The change, in other words, suits Colour Haze. Their studio arrangements have been branching out since well before 2012’s She Said (review here) brought in strings and horns and 2014’s To the Highest Gods We Know (review here) answered back and built on those impulses, but from where the branching out is happening has changed, and their sound is that much richer for having Faszbender in the lineup on a hopefully ongoing basis.

http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2019/12/03/colour-haze-we-are-review-premiere/

What's the deal with the photos? xps

I briefly sampled this and didn't get what the fuss is all about. I should probably have started with their older material.

click the link in the tweet and read the lyrics (or don't, it's pretty upsetting).

xp

The photos are of the night and the individuals described literally and autobiographically in the lyrics to the closing track yeah

Another contender for worst album art here imho

don't know what this last one is but looks like a peter gabriel album or something

Yeah, I voted for this and love Colour Haze but their album covers have gotten progressively worse over the years.

It really reminds me of the cover for Pat Metheny's Speaking of Now.

Just relistened to the closing track of DBR. How can you possibly call this tedious mince lol

― imago, Thursday, 11 March 2021 17:44 (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I probably didn't get that far lol, I never have with any of their albums. But fiiiiine, I'll try again

This Colour Haze isn't the last European heavy psych that's going to place, nor the heaviest ;)

I liked the Colour Haze album a lot but it's a 2019 release (https://www.discogs.com/fr/Colour-Haze-We-Are/release/14517169) so I didn't vote for it.

We debated that in the noms thread, it was out digitally like the last week of 2019, but the physical copies weren't until (I think) March of 2020. I counted it as a 2020 release.

Oh I see. I didn't recall the discussion.

#30

Mare Cognitum & Spectral Lore – Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine

221 points, 8 votes

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3241657662_10.jpg

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wanderers-astrology-of-the-nine

I am not a particularly patient individual. In fact, it seems that the “older” I get the less patient I become. With this in mind, I asked myself, “Why. The fuck. Did you decide to pick up the two-hour split between Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum as your next promo?” It’s atmospheric black metal for heaven’s sake! For two hours! Little did the voice inside my head know that this epic love letter to the planets (and planetoid) of our solar system would be so compelling.

As this is a split, I should first differentiate between the two one-man bands that comprise this collaboration. Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum are both fairly well-known and universally well-respected (by those who know them) atmospheric black metal projects, but the two take very different approaches to the style. Mare Cognitum, my personal favorite, specializes in bone-crushing riffs drowning in tremolos and twisted dissonance. At the opposite corner, Spectral Lore prefers to inject drone and contemplative melodies into his brand rather than break necks. The two cohorts preserve their respective identities wonderfully on Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine, and yet they also find harmony. Together, the two atmophiles collide and intertwine, creating a thunderous ode to our celestial bodies spread out over ten songs.

https://www.angrymetalguy.com/spectral-lore-and-mare-cognitum-wanderers-astrology-of-the-nine-review/

*crickets*

#29

Victory Over the Sun – A Tessitura of Transfiguration

228 points, 6 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0116936604_10.jpg

https://votsband.bandcamp.com/album/a-tessitura-of-transfiguration

Weird. Lovely. Occasionally violent.

“Weird” never has been and doubtless never will be a white-hot selling point for metal. That said, metal can be insanely boring, and it is often the weird ones who force the genre to evolve into something interesting again or, failing that, simply remind us that metal is indeed the product of evolution. Victory Over the Sun is of this ilk. It is a genre-blind project that takes black metal as its primary colors and then swiftly mixes in so many unorthodox shades that the final picture, at least from a distance, looks much more gray. (Gray metal is not a nanogenre tag that has ever taken off despite writers of yore applying it to Agalloch and the like, but it is pretty apt in this case.)

So yes, let us begin with the weird. At first blush, Victory Over the Sun’s debut, A Tessitura of Transfiguration, is a bit of a mess. This is par for the course; no cause for dismay or alarm. The record takes a while to sort out, and rewards repeated listens. Depending on your point of reference, the journey may call to mind such nonconformists of old as Fleurety, Ved Buens Ende or even maudlin of the Well. That’s not to say that Tessitura is quite as confrontational as any of those; it’s just that VOtS clearly has no interest in doing anything correctly.

https://toiletovhell.com/victory-over-the-sun-a-tessitura-of-transfiguration/

Incredible stuff. Jute Gyte-inspired BM with great melodies and performances that compares the author's transition to the movie Andrei Rublev. My #9

POV: 1950s housewife shows you her microtonal riffs pic.twitter.com/Yvre4b10K0

— Virtual Trobairitz (@bastard__wing) April 4, 2020

*crickets*

The Mare Cognitum tracks alone make that album essential. The Spectral Lore ones are fairly good, but nowhere near III (or Mystras, for that matter).

Wanderers is massive, great piece of work, I end up wishing mate cognitum wre a bit more adventurous but the two projects complement each other well.

VotS is interesting, I'm not sold yet but I'll listen in on the development with interest

The Victory Over the Sun grew on me. The songwriting in particular is quite strong, and I'm curious to hear what she'll do next.

well, I voted for the Spectral Lore & Mare Cognitum relatively high (and agree with pom that the Mare Cognitum tracks edge out the Spectral Lore ones) even though it wasn't quite my favorite 2 hour long album of the year.

Never heard of this one, but the description sounds promising as I will always perk up for a Ved Buens Ende namedrop so I'll get to checking it out.

Countless xps: I just checked my ballot again and realized that the Defeated Sanity, which I simply forgot to vote for, is *not* my #24. Staircase wit at its finest. Carry on.

I was the #1 vote for Victory Over the Sun. Such accomplished, beautiful compositions that open up worlds, build atmospheres, go on unexpected journeys, etc. The 'thirds' she gets with the 17edo tuning on the first two tracks (either very flat minor thirds, neutral thirds that are about halfway between major and minor, or very sharp major thirds) are really interesting.

^^^absolutely all of this, but equally it really works as black metal and is clearly made with a deep reverence for the genre