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She Likes It Heavy bostonfreeradio.com


Jan 13, 2021

Best of 2020, Show 2 of 2, counting down to my #1 Album!

Album Cover Art
The Spirit (Germany), album - Cosmic Terror: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3996197371_10.jpg
Psychotic Waltz (CA), album - The God Shaped Void: https://www.insideoutshop.de/images/products/large/0IO01998_637115800934067991.jpg
Phalanx (CA), album - Golden Horde: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2404742206_10.jpg
Blasphemer (Italy), album - The Sixth Hour: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0764213119_10.jpg
On Thorns I Lay (Greece), album - Threnos: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0195263489_10.jpg
Peripheral Cortex (Germany), album - God Kaiser Hell: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4257315599_10.jpg
Xenobiotic, album – Mordrake: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2471456487_10.jpg
Intronaut (CA), album - Fluid Existential Inversions: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0798790118_10.jpg
Heathen Foray (Austria), album – Weltenwandel: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4089437681_10.jpg
Man’n Sin (France), album - Garden of Starvation: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3989012929_10.jpg
Korgonthurus (Finland), album – Kuolleestasyntynyt: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0719671308_10.jpg
Crystal Coffin (CAN), album - The Transformation Room: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4001452580_10.jpg
Hyborian (KC), album - Volume II: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3175924485_10.jpg
Death On Fire (IN), album - Ghost Songs: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4129148932_10.jpg
Roman Ring (Chicago), album - The Halogen: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0817157893_10.jpg
Forlesen (Bay Area), album - Hierophant Violent: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4215778864_10.jpg
Graveir (AU), album - King of the Silent World: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3127444269_10.jpg
Light Dweller (AZ), album – Hominal: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0718838473_10.jpg
Khôra (Norway), album – Timaeus: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0231645775_10.jpg
Khthoniik Cerviiks (Germany), album – Æequiizoiikum: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0281983332_10.jpg
Xythlia, album - Immortality Through Quantum Suicide: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3169528353_10.jpg
Gaerea (Portugal), album – Limbo: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3738186031_10.jpg
Fides Inversa (Italy) , album – Historia Nocturna: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1364049488_10.jpg
Question (Mexico), album - Reflections of the Void: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3893888604_10.jpg
Krallice (NYC), album - Mass Cathexis: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0574786205_10.jpg
Ars Magna Umbrae (Poland), album – Apotheosis: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3001886981_10.jpg
Expander (Austin), album - Neuropunk Boostergang: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2673049905_10.jpg
Astringency (TX), album - Of Vacant Planes: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2891681845_10.jpg
Yatra (MD), album - All is Lost: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2190231781_10.jpg
Amiensus (MN), album – Abreaction: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0885904814_10.jpg
Lord Almighty (Boston), album – Wither: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1449725673_10.jpg
Maladie (GER), album - The Grand Aversion: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3234487487_10.jpg
Goratory (Boston), album - Sour Grapes: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3844836567_10.jpg
The Deviant (Norway), album - Rotting Dreams of Carrion: https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2586727345_10.jpg

Behind My Vocals
Statiqbloom (NYC), album - Beneath The Whelm
Deathmaze (Belgium), album - Eau Rouge
Riki (LA), album - S/T
IAMTHESHADOW (Portugal), album - Pitchblack

Modern Black
WAYFARER (Denver), album - A Romance With Violence
The Crimson Rider (Gallows Frontier, Act I) (0:25-10:50)
— Western romance and melody infused with epic, pummeling, majestic black metal with a fiery lead singer.

UPRISING (Germany), album - II
Monuments (12:25-19:35)
— Folk and punk lend the steel-tipped boot of anti-nazi black metal a surprising groove and heart.

RUNNERS-UP:
Khthoniik Cerviiks (Germany), album - Æequiizoiikum
Esoctrilihum (France), album - Eternity Of Shaog
Meslamtaea (Netherlands), album - Geketend in de schaduw van het leven
Calligram (Europe), album - The Eye Is The First Circle

Alternative & New/Cold/Dark Wave
Saturday Album: MOANING (LA), album - Uneasy Laughter
Keep Out (20:16-24:26)
— My Saturday album is my most played album of the year. Buy this on vinyl and twirl in your living room, arms outstretched as you belt every word and fall in love with every sweet note. I cannot recommend more.

FEARING (Santa Cruz), album - Shadow
Pictured Perfect (25:08-30:02)
— Fearing played on my birthday in 2019 opening for She Past Away (Turkey); and I knew I had to follow them. And I was rewarded with the most danceable goth-leaning dark wave of 2020.

RUNNERS-UP:
Pleasure Policy (Oakland), album - Forever
Statiqbloom (NYC), album - Beneath The Whelm
Deathmaze (Belgium), album - Eau Rouge
Riki (LA), album - S/T
IAMTHESHADOW (Portugal), album - Pitchblack

Black'n'Death
VREDEHAMMER (Norway), album - Viperous
Winds of Dysphoria (30:50-35:42)
— Industrial-influenced keyboards and beat deconstruct this tight guitar soloing, neck-wrencher.

HAAPOJA (Finland), album - Mullan Keskeltä
Tunne Kylmä, Tunne Pelko (36:15-41:39)
— Scraped off the bowels of death with strangled vocals and alien guitar tone. Melodies shine between the crust and grime.

WARDAEMONIC (AU), album - Acts of Repentance
Act IV – Sufferance (42:07-50:32)
— The name suggests straight pummeling, but this was a journey, each song providing dynamics in thought and structure.

RUNNER-UP:
Earth Rot (AU), album – Black Tides of Obscurity

Debut
SKELETON (Austin), album - S/T
Catacombs (51:23-55:50)
— What a difficult category to choose from. Listening to Skeleton is like how I would imagine them live, massive chomping energy in complex morsels of structure and brutality.

RUNNERS-UP:
Autonoesis (CAN), album – S/T
Diabolic Oath (Portland), album – Profane Death Exodus
Thætas (NYC) , album – Shrines to Absurdity
Kommand (CA), album – Terrorscape
Abyssal Ascendant (France), album – Chronicles of the Doomed Worlds, Pt. 2: Deacons of Abhorrence
Antzaat (Belgium), album – For You Men Who Gaze into the Sun
Well Of Night (Ohio), album – The Lower Planes of Self-Abstraction
Cynabare Urne (Finland), album – Obsidian Daggers & Cinnabar Skulls
Carnosus (Sweden), album - Dogma of the Deceased
Volcandra (Kentucky), album - Into the Azure

Mood
ORANSSI PAZUZU (Finland), album - Mestarin kynsi
Oikeamielisten sali (56:38-1:02:14)
— Do you expect me to skip Oranssi? Because they consistently put out excellent, unique albums that can’t possibly be matched by their next recording? And yet they did it again, with their signature black psychedelic, hypnotic, eclectic textures creating a new fold in your brain.

SERMENT (CAN), album - Chante, Ô Flamme de la Liberté
Flamme Hivernale (1:02:47-1:10:40)
— Each song includes the sound of wind; soothing, still pockets before an unrelenting pummeling of heart-wrenching black metal with a range of emotions.

CONVOCATION (Finland), album - Ashes Coalesce
Martyrise (1:11:11-1:21:16)
— I am not a funeral doom fan, but these guys use it to create an immensely satisfying, sinister, atmospheric death with hot, taloned vocals.

Modern Death
AFTERBIRTH (NYC), album - Four Dimensional Flesh
Spiritually Transmitted Disease (1:22:16-1:26:23)
— Don’t turn away from the dehydrated guttural upon guttural vocals. It becomes a droning texture within the experimental, psychedelic grind and death with raging technical guitar. The melody pops, flares and bubbles to create a weird, unique experience.

#1 Album: CRYPTAE (Netherlands), album - Nightmare Traversal
Monastic Tomb (1:27:06-END)
— Power surges in the suffocating ocean of Cryptae. It will bash you against its raw edges, a hypnotizing pain that becomes pleasurable. It cracks open to melodic threads and drowns you again. A nightmare, a dose of reality, a meditation.

RUNNERS-UP:
Wake (CAN), album - Devouring Ruin
Ulcerate (New Zealand), album - Stare Into Death and Be Still 
Bedsore (Italy), album - Hypnagogic Hallucinations
Sepulchral Curse (Finland) , album - Only Ashes Remain

RUNNER UP CATEGORIES
Heavy Metal Retro Doom
NITE (SF), album - Darkness Silence Mirror Flame

RUNNERS-UP:
Wytch Hazel (UK), album - III: Pentecost
Traveler (CAN), album - Termination Shock
Eternal Champion (Austin), album - Ravening Iron

Melodic Death
FIRES IN THE DISTANCE, album - Echoes From Deep November

RUNNERS-UP:
Countless Skies (UK), album - Glow
On Thorns I Lay (Greece), album - Threnos
Rannoch (UK), album - Reflections Upon Darkness
Descend (Sweden), album - The Deviant

Sludge
KONVENT (Denmark), album - Puritan Masochism

RUNNERS-UP:
Vile Creature (CAN), album - Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!
Garganjua (UK), album - Toward the Sun
Irist (GA), album - Order Of The Mind
Drought Year (NC), album - Adorned with Death (also industrial)
Black Royal (Finland), album - Firebride