Embers Of The Dying Night: Top Metal Albums Of 2020
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It is interesting to see how the passing of time affects taste, preferences, and lists of this type. I'm writing these lists as a means to share the music I like, and by now it has become a tradition, albeit one which very few people read on a regular basis, if at all, but one which I have no intention of giving up. I published my first yearly list back in 2007. At first, I would publish them on last.FM and myspace (yes, I am that old), then I moved to Facebook, migrated to Tumblr, think I even tried Instagram, but I was never satisfied with any of those as a platform to share my annual and other lists and scribblings with others. Some years ago I started sharing my lists on the metal storm, thanks to their quite useful tool called lists, which is made for exactly that reason. When I added my lists to the metal storm, I reworked them and expanded a bit, adding some sort of a template, from my old lists that I still had saved up at various places. Besides a top ten and honorable mentions, there are few other sub-categories, which are basically just my way of telling people that I really loved that album, and that they should really fuckin'listen to it. The fact that I think that anyone besides myself is actually that much interested in my annual top lists or best (mostly) metal albums speaks more about me, I guess.
Bear in mind, that all of this is just my personal opinion, and surprisingly, you are allowed to have yours as well! You don't agree with my choice? Congratulations, you have your own opinion. I am always open to band and album suggestions, but if you think some of my choices are wrong, or you really think that some band/album is shit or not metal enough, you can keep your opinion to yourself because you won't change mine. You know what they say about arguing over the internet... So take these lists as a view into my (very exquisite) music taste, and a huge fucking list of albums that I really, really fucking recommend. Welcome to the end of twenty-twenty... well by the time you read this, it will surely be 2021, and hopefully, the end of a covid pandemic will be a little bit closer, and we shall be able to go to a concert, get shitfaced and enjoy some metal. But let's talk about music for a bit. Cynics would say that staying at home and not being able to tour forced a lot of bands to publish new albums, as it became their only source of income, besides streams of live performances without an audience. I have no fuckin idea if those cynics are right or wrong, and I don't really care. Given that we are forced to relinquish concerts and festivals, having at least new albums is some sort of condolence. Now I am not a cynic, and I certainly will not complain when I have way too many good albums at my disposal to listen to and not nearly enough time, but I do hope that twenty-twentyone will see the return of concerts and festivals. Speaking of Cynic, but this time about the band, 2020 was really shit Both Sean Reinert and Sean Malone passed away during this year. Like we didn't lose enough musicians already in the last couple of years, and sadly they are not the only ones who died during this year either. I digress here, but the thought crossed my mind when I mentioned cynics, and I had to mention them and pay my respects in some sort of way. While we are speaking about dead musicians who left this world way too soon, four years after her death, Aleah's solo album is out mostly thanks to her band colleague and boyfriend Juha Raivio from Swallow the Sun. One can't but wonder how bright her future would be, and be saddened by her passing and the loss of her immense talent, especially after you hear her solo album, as well as her other bands, Hallatar, and Trees of Eternity... Back to some brighter topics, Spotify officially came to Serbia, so did Covid, and those two combined made it possible for me to listen to a bunch of new albums. In fact, I have never heard so many albums in space of one year I think, ever. Some of them were poor, most were decent and some selected few were completely fuckin' mindblowing. HAVUKRUUNU KAKAAV BEND BRAATEE MOOOJ!!! No seriously, what a fucking album. I can't remember when was the last time I was so mindblown by some album from some new or 'unknown' band. Actually, I can, last year's "Age of Aquarius", by Villagers of Ioannina City, but I digress. This album is the equivalent of the pandemic drug to ease my existence. Sheer fucking brilliance. Some might argue that Myrkur's new album is not metal at all, and they might be right, but I really enjoyed it, and I also liked Ulver's "Flowers of Evil" so you have Myrkur taking #2 spot on the list. I'm not going to talk about every album or write reviews for each and every one of them, but let me say that it was a very tough choice to narrow down the list, even with the honorable mentions included, let alone the top ten, so at some other time I might feel like I should have swapped the places for some albums because that perception always changes after a few years, but it is what it is. The year was quite a pleasant experience when it comes to music, there were some new albums from the bands that I more or less expected to deliver quality (Myrkur, Thy Catafalque, Paradise Lost...). There were plenty, and I mean plenty of new bands, new for me at least, that I discovered during this year (Havukruunu, Judicator, Winteryfilleth, Vvilderness, Temperance, Psychonaut, The Spirit, Atavistia, Emyn Muil...) Some bands I knew had an unexpected pleasant surprise in either coming back after a long time with new albums (...and Oceans, Psychotic Waltz) or surprising me with a really quality album in a moment when I really wasn't expecting such a masterpiece (Ensiferum, H.E.A.T, Green Carnation, Finntroll) The greatest surprise for me personally, is that Dark Tranquillity didn't make it into the top 10, and although it is a very good album, somehow it was way too similar to "Atoma" and although I did enjoy it, it just didn't make the cut... aside from DT, few other bands put out some decent albums, and while they didn't make it into the top, they were quite enjoyable and pleasant experiences, and I would still rate them as good albums (Conception, Pyramaze, Solstafir, Fates Warning, Anaal Nathrakh, Haken. Wolfheart, Serenity..) Finally, there were a few disappointments as well, and while I would not call them unlistenable, I would say they ended up below my expectations for those bands (Nightwish, Ayreon, Demons & Wizards, Carach Angren, Heaven Shall Burn, Iron Savior). Maybe having high expectations is the problem, hence why I had quite a few pleasant surprises from bands I didn't know or did not expect them to deliver a new album... Among the strangest things I came upon during this year, is a band named "The Lightbringer of Sweden". Shockingly, they come from, wait for it!... Sweden! Yes, you got it! While it might not be the most original power/heavy metal (in fact there is enough cheese and epicness in there for the whole confederation of Switzerland) it was one of the albums I really loved this year. You like (old) Hammerfall and Firewind? You will like this one. Ever wondered how the mashup of Rhapsody (of Fire, of Power, of Mighty Sword of Steel.. pick whichever Rhapsody you like) sounds when you mix it with Amaranthe? You don't have to wonder, just play "Viridian" a new album by Temperance. Another few worth mentionings are Emyn Muil's "Afar Angathfark" (I'd like to hear you pronounce that one) and Atavistia's "The Winter Way". The former sounds a lot like Summoning, and yes, they are also inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien, if their name wasn't big enough of a hint, while the latter is a carbon copy of a Wintersun, to the point that when I was listening to that album I had to check out when did I added Wintersun to my 2020 albums list... don't let the perceived lack of 'originality' put you off, all the mentioned ones are good albums. You might wonder why I talk so much about albums that are not in the top list or are only honourable mentions, but there is plenty of real quality in there. There are even more of those that I did not mention at all, and for them, you might want to check my "2020 pickings" playlist, which is basically "the rest", bands and albums that didn't make it into the top albums of this year. Be warned, it is quite a long list, it is unordered (although there is some sense to that order, that was only for my personal ease of use) and it contains both really, really awesome albums, but also some that I would rate as good, average or even poor, but I wanted to give them a try or was curious enough to see what they are all about.
Disclaimer: All top lists are unofficial and do not represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
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