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
