Whelp, did this year suck or what? 2020 is one of those just abysmally awful years like 1939, 1929, 1860, 1349, etc…that was just tremendously awful for the entire planet. Here in the United States, we’ve been governed by a kleptocrat with the support his cult of the “stupid, ignorant, and desperate” who are fearful that a brown person somewhere somehow has a dollar more and a shinier smart phone than they do. Said orange faced kleptocrat has done fuck all to respond to a pandemic that as I type this, has killed more than 300,000 Americans who may not have otherwise kicked the bucket except for the malice and incompetence of this pitiful, weak, small quasi-man. Oh, then there was the fact that when cops were seen literally murdering a black man on cellphone video by choking him out, that after the initial shock subsided, we got more of the same “can’t we just all get along so I don’t have to worry about my property being stolen” bullshit. Heaven forbid the fucking police have to abide by the same doctrines regarding the use of deadly force that our military does.
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| That whole thing about those who don't learn from the past...etc... |
Not that the other side of the political aisle has done anyone any favors either. Diamond Joe, strategically speaking, barely won under the stupid ass rules that govern our elections despite having 7 million more votes. This was mainly because Team Blue would rather pander to token “representation” rather than deliver a meaningful actual change that may ask our economic and business elites to sacrifice a marginal percentage of their monopolized wealth for the good of everyone else, at least at its highest levels of leadership. And your arm gets twisted into voting for this bullshit, because your only viable alternative to going along with the diet soda version of Republicanism is so bat-shit incompetent they throw away a previous administration’s pandemic response playbook and since getting beat in an election are currently peddling some bizarre conspiracy that somehow Hugo Chavez’s rotting corpse has conspired with China’s Winnie the Pooh and the “Epstein/Clinton Reptilian Pedophile Crime Syndicate” to swing votes via rigged voting machines that somehow managed to allocate votes to Biden instead of Trump, but didn’t alter any down ticket races to give Biden a legislative majority. Yeah, this shit is wild… and by wild I mean comedic stupid and bound to get worse because Y’all-Qaeda thinks government mandates to wear masks and limit gatherings of people to reduce the spread of Covid-19 is somehow is an oppression of their freedom.
Did I even mention that RBG dropped dead and was replaced by the Queen Bitch of Gilead, and for that we are now under his watchful eye, or at least that of a 6-3 conservative dickhead Supreme Court majority, with a president-elect too fucking pussy to stack the court, create new liberal states, or otherwise lock in some changes for the better? Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s some snarky socialist types lounging their parents basements with a bachelors degree in sociology along with a mountain of student loan debt, but at least those heroes come armed with a bag of dirt weed, Cheetos, internet pornography (or at least pics of AOC’s feet) and some dank memes to bring about “the revolution” once they’re done playing Animal Crossing and listening to Chapo’s Trap House.
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| Look, they make me laugh too sometimes but if you think that these clowns are gonna bring about your political revolution, then rest assured that our elites can sleep well at night. |
Fuck my country, man.
That’s a lot of political ranting and run-on sentences but the last 4 years of Trump’s awful reign has been exhausting in an all consuming way unlike anything else in my lifetime. It’s been the car wreck you want to take your eyes off of but you just can’t. That said, 2020, like much of the last few years, has been more positive for M and I than perhaps the public at large. I type this 4 classes away from completing my MBA from a directional state university with a Division 2 football team; I even have a 4.0 GPA to boot. M and I managed a couple fun trips, including adventures to several National Parks in Colorado and Utah, a lovely few days on the beach in Georgia that left us both so sunburnt as to be red as tomatoes, and we made to Oklahoma and New Mexico for the first time which has us down to 3 remaining states to visit to have completed the entire United States. I even managed to lose 50lbs. Sure, I need to lose another 50, but it’s a start, right? Hah.
It hasn’t been all fun and games though. M had her work hours briefly cut back at one point, my annual college football road trip got shit-canned, and I haven’t been to a fucking metal concert since December of 2019. I didn’t get to see either of my 90 year old grandmothers for Christmas this year, and my plans to finally get on an airplane were thwarted, as M and I had intended to make it to Las Vegas for Psycho Las Vegas in 2020, as well as to swing by a couple of National Parks (Death Valley, Grand Canyon, maybe Zion?) in a loop.
I’m not sure what 2021 holds but at least in theory the vaccines for our new plague are now starting to be distributed and by mid year we may be able to actually have fun again if we manage to live that long and/or if there’s any restaurants or concert venues that aren’t boarded up by that time. Until then, I’ve got another semester of college coursework ahead of me, some time spent screaming at the TV as the Green Bay Packers will get destroyed in the playoffs by a team with a strong running game, the Washington Capitals will grow older and waste more of what’s left of Alex Ovechkin’s prime, and hey, maybe a little more of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla to keep me occupied. With that said, here’s my take on the year in heavy music for 2020.
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| Our hero in DC is only getting older, and once he retires we're not winning shit. |
Most Disappointing Record- Katatonia City Burials
I was a bit surprised to reach this conclusion, but this album came out
back in April and I had almost completely forgotten it was a thing. I know that
M listened to the song “Lacquer” a lot and I don’t think the album begins all
that badly, but it ends up just being completely forgettable background music. Katatonia’s
style is already relatively subdued for a metal band, but I thought the
previous album “The Fall of Hearts” was amazing. I’m certainly willing to
embrace and sit down with post-metal type stuff and don’t demand blood and gore
as you, clearly bored individual reading this, will note on my actual list, but
City Burials just didn’t have
staying power or memorability. An example of a band I just expect more from.
Honorable Mentions:
Anaal Nathrakh Endarkenment
Athme Mephitic
Bedsore Hypnagogic Hallucinations
Benediction Scriptures
Contrarian Only Time Will Tell
Convocation Ashes Coalesce
Deathwhite Grave Image
Deeds of Flesh Nucleus
Demonical World Domination
Desolator Sermon of Apathy
Devoured Elysium Extermination Policies
Disavowed Revocation of the Fallen
Earth Rot Black Tides of Obscurity
Gaerea Limbo
Hinayana Death of the Cosmic
Incantation Sect of Vile Divinities
Incinerate Sacriligevim
Khora Timaeus
Molested Divinity Unearthing the Void
Napalm Death Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism
Necrophobic Dawn of the Damned
Necrot Mortal
Paradise Lost Obsidian
Shed The Skin The Forbidden Arts
Skaldr Scythe of Our Errors
Solstafir Endless Twilight of Codependent Love
Ulthar Providence
Vader Solitude In Madness
Valdrin Effigy of Nightmares
Void Rot Descending Pillars
Werewolves The Dead Are Screaming
White Stones Kuarahy
Winterfylleth The Reckoning Dawn
10.) Spirit Adrift Enlightened in Eternity
M will challenge me on this pick, as she seemed to prefer this band when they just played slow and frontman Nate Garrett didn’t express himself as an overconfident rock star in interviews, but I appreciate that Spirit Adrift didn’t repeat the same album they had released on twice previously. In a miserable, depressing kind of year where nothing about society seems capable of functioning properly, there needed to be an album that offered…ummm...well…hope and resilience? The chorus of the opening track to this album makes that manifestly clear and I’d dare say a bit of an internalized slogan for myself this year.
“If we make it through the night, we will ride into the light.”
9.) Xibalba Anos En Infierno
I discovered this band while hanging out with a homie at the last college football road trip, and I had some anticipation for this release. It’s exactly what I was hoping for, sludgy and grimy, a good bit raw, heavy as all fucking hell, straddling the line somewhere between old school death metal, 90’s hardcore, and doom. I dunno if they’re actually doing anything new, but they certainly sound fresh to these ears.
8.) Valkyrie Fear
Speaking of the retro train, Valkyrie delves deeply into the same well of 70’s and early 80’s rock that bands like Graveyard, or In Solitude, or Sumerlands indulge in, complete with theatrical guitar work, extensive harmonies, imperfect but effective clean vocals. In a world where Ghost has become one of metal’s biggest bands, there’s clearly a space for quality bands like Valkyrie to occupy and I’ve certainly redeveloped my appreciation for these kinds of classic sounding bands.
7.) Godtrhymm Reflections
Take early Paradise Lost, Saint Vitus, and maybe a bit of the first Pallbearer record, let it simmer for hours, then run it through a strainer of Serenades-era Anathema, and you’ve got Godtrhymm. Godrhymm is the labor of love produced by Hammish Glencross, recently exiled from My Dying Bride, and who had previously also played in legendary doom metal act Solstice. This is plodding miserable stuff, with riffs that are both massive, monolithic, yet memorable and vocals that reach for that territory Nick Holmes was treading in during Gothic and Shades of God. Absolutely top notch.
6.) …And Oceans Cosmic World Mother
A welcome return, and they avoided some of the weird experimentation and bizarre indulgences of their later records to just focus on ripping, melodic and somewhat symphonic Scandinavian black metal delivered with precision. You always wonder about reunion albums and if the band should have even bothered, but I feel pretty comfortable saying that this album is well balanced between its ferocity and it’s melodicism, sharing most in common with the band’s debut The Dynamic Gallery of Thoughts, which I also recommend if you can find it. A welcome throwback to that vibrant mid-late 90’s period of black metal.
5.) Cytotoxin Nuklearth
I feel like this is a year where I heard a lot of really good, but not great brutal death metal records. Not that “elite-tier” anyhow. I mean, Molested Divinity’s Unearthing the Void was awesome and the Disavowed reunion was much welcomed but while I enjoyed the new Defeated Sanity album, I wasn’t nearly as impressed with it as other fans of the brutal death metal sound. Nuklearth, however, stands out. Cytotoxin scores points on a couple levels; their Chernobyl gimmick is original, their musicianship is next level, and they bring both the technical and the brutal in equal abundance. Nuklearth rips hard, furiously blasting while also providing those breakdowns without going overkill on it.
4.) Uada Djinn
A vocal minority of the tr00 brigade will complain about this album. The rest of us, who like ugly heavy music, will see this for what it is: the album where Uada escaped the Mgla comparisons and became the Judas Priest meets Dissection band they always were aiming for. This record opens with a post-punk sounding drum beat and ends with one of the absolute most epic Iron Maiden inspired guitar solos ever recorded in metal. Yeah, listen to the last 3 minutes or so of “Between Two Worlds” and tell me that’s not what you hear. Much like Behemoth has proven, just because you draw from many non-metal influences, it doesn’t mean that your extreme metal has to become “less metal” as a result.
3.) Wayfarer A Romance With Violence
I love everything about this album and consider it a possible top album of the decade if not for the two albums above it; one of the best and most close together top 3 albums I could rate in quite a bit of time. Wayfarer really dives in deeper with the “cowboy western motif” as A Romance With Violence is very much more conceptual than previous Wayfarer releases; closely examining the westward expansion and just how grim and chaotic reality was for settlers in a lawless hinter-region of the United States. If you’ve ever driven across the Western United States, the vastness of the distances between cities is enormous and the hours upon hours just on the interstate can be relaxing in its solitude but it could also be scary, as mother nature unleashes ferocious storms and many of the folk who live in those rural, geographically isolated outposts can be rather rough around the edges, if you’re lucky. Wayfarer captures all of that perfectly, as they blend their black metal with clean, semi-acoustic spaghetti western vibes seamlessly, capturing the wild west for the morbidly dark, death and despair filled wasteland that it was.
2.) Ulcerate Stare Into Death And Be Still
The idea that a 3 piece band can sound this heavy, this fierce, this ominous, this dark, this…horrifying? Ulcerate is the darkest, most terrifying sounding act in death metal at this point, as their 6 to 8 minute compositions have gradually moved away from their clankier, most discordant elements of their early sound to something that still is connected to that, but pulls at you with greater, almost black metalish despair without any high pitched shrieks or corpse-painted silliness. This is guttural growls and some of the most impressively bombastic drumming in any death metal band ever. While accessible…by Ulcerate’s standards, this is far removed from the caveman brutality of the 90’s and certainly a challenging record for people who may prefer their death metal…dare I say less intellectual? For those who want an involved, captivating listen that builds to peaks and crescendos instead of verse/chorus/verse, this delivers in spades. I was convinced it was going to be my number 1 album, except for the band that follows…
1.) Pallbearer Forgotten Days
With their 4th album, it’s just time to stop only thinking of Pallbearer as a tremendous doom metal band, but just flat out the best band active in metal in 2020. The tr00 d00mmmm crowd will dislike the shorter song lengths and faster tempos, but an album that’s easier to listen to is no crime. Rather, the fact that Pallbearer can write songs at different lengths and tempos and still sound haunting, miserable, and full of raw, sludgy goodness is a feather in their cap. The fact they’re playing up to their classic rock influences while still foundationally being a slow band who play long songs full of low end sludge I think has only made the band even better to listen to.
