Apotheosis' 50 Favorite Metal Albums of 2020
The comprehensive guide to metal in the year of our satanic overlord 2020.
Reviewing and making lists of great metal music is an eye opening experience. When you make year end lists for music as a whole, chances are that it will end up looking somewhat similar to the lists you see bigger music journalism outlets posting. This is because of consensus, a thing that I’ve discussed at length in this very newsletter.
What makes metal journalism so fun is a total lack of consensus. Sure, certain albums pop up on most lists, but the bits and pieces in between those five or six records are always unpredictable. Seeing these lists reminds us that even when we think a record is absolute trash (which we’ll never talk about) that it was made with someone in mind, and that someone probably enjoyed the record. It’s a nice reminder that taste being subjective is good, and can lead to amazing discoveries if you’re willing to be patient.
While you thumb through this list, feel free to toss on our playlist featuring our favorite tracks from each of these records, or at least the ones that were on Spotify.
And don’t forget to pass this along to your friends so everyone can argue about whether or not we got the list right. We did of course, but arguing is fun.
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50. Sweven - The Eternal Resonance
Founded by Robert Andersson, the former frontman of Morbus Chron, and named after Morbus Chron’s final record (RIP) Sweven promises that the innovation Andersson brought to his former band will not die with them. Instrumentally complex and sonically diverse, The Eternal Resonance pushes the boundaries of what metal can do even when it operates cleanly within its boundaries from a stylistic perspective. It’s a feat well-worth recognizing.
49. Black Curse - Endless Wound
Black Curse takes blackened-death to its extreme conclusion on Endless Wound. The album rends open a rift in time and space with its searing brutality and then rips off your leg to kick your three-limbed body through said rift. Once you reach the other side of the portal, they allow you to soak in heavy layers of black metal as you bleed out in the cold vastness of space. Not a single second on this record is predictable, it's one of the most thrilling experiences in music this year.
48. Couch Slut - Take a Chance on Rock ‘n’ Roll
Many woman-led bands in metal want to keep it a secret. Not to say they hide it, but most would at least prefer not to address it, and not from a place of shame either, but because the minute they make it a focus it’s all anyone will ever talk about. Couch Slut was never worried about that. Firmly planted in the sludge-adjacent plains of noise rock, Couch Slut uses violent instrumentation to deliver violent tracks. Dealing with domestic violence, drug use and loads of other upsetting topics, Couch Slut pulls no punches, and the value of having women come at these topics through one of the most rage filled sonic palates to ever exist cannot be overstated.
47. Vile Creature - Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!
Vile Creature chases something special on Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!. The record moves effortlessly through dozens of styles, but the instrumental and stylistic choices always take a backseat to the grander emotional ambitions of the record. Whether you’re feeling despondent in the face of a track, or you get so riled up you could run through a wall, it’s all what the group wants you to feel. It’s a glorious achievement that we can’t afford to overlook.
46. Teramaze - I Wonder
Teramaze makes their intentions known from the first notes of the record. I Wonder is a record that puts it’s vocalist in full control. While this has sometimes worked out for the worse, it massively elevates I Wonder. Lead singer Dean Wells delivers some of the most powerful vocals in metal this year. It’s the kind of metal you could show your parents, or at least a friend who doesn’t hate metal guitars, but it pulls off accessibility while delivering everything you could crave from a prog metal record.
45. WVRM - Colony Collapse
Grindcore isn’t exactly a welcoming genre, but then again Colony Collapse isn’t a welcoming album. In contrast to the straightforward brutality and blast beat mayhem of most grindcore bands, WVRM occasionally flickers into a more breakdown friendly tempo. The guitar work regularly impresses as they weave thick spider webs around the whirling blast beats. If you can hang on for the ride, it’s all worth it to hear Ian Nix roar “words fall like missiles on the West Bank” on “Years of Lead.”
44. Svalbard - When I Die, Will I Get Better?
Metal has always had potential to be a driver or at least an advocate for positive political change. But the brutal nature of the style often demands that it is used to rail against existing power structures, particularly the ones that affect men. Svalbard, a woman-fronted black metal group from Bristol, demands that we introduce this brutality to other issues. It bleeds through each track in different ways, but hearing “I’m sick of being a stick / for all the misogynistic / bears you poke.” cuts to the core of how women are portrayed in metal. It should never have been treated as an exception, but only as another form of metal, but Serena Cherry sings it better than I could write it in the closing lines of “Click Bait,” “One day you will write about us / and it won't be dismissed as virtue signaling / And the piece won’t be designed / with generating comments in mind / it won’t be reactive / it won’t be a gender war / one day, when I’m represented / I will have control.”
43. Titans to Tachyons - Cactides
Technically proficient beyond belief, Titans to Tachyons uses their considerable skill to push towards the outer boundaries of metal. Others have already begun to compare their work to iconic artists like John Zorn and Secret Chiefs 3, and rightfully so. It’s a brain shredding trip to the farthest limits of the genre, but it’s the way they combine experimentation with wicked flares of metal’s signature tricks that makes the record so revelatory.
42. Putrid Offal - Sicknesses Obsessions
Sicknesses Obsessions delivers no-holds barred death metal straight across the plate. A fastball cooking at what feels like 120 mph, this record combines propulsive riffs and drum patterns with nauseating vocals to turn your brain into mush. It’s a fatal medical condition pressed into wax, and it’s not for those with weak constitutions.
41. Poppy - I Disagree
Metal has always had issues with gimmicks. Just look at the 80’s. But sometimes a gimmick pays off. Resting in the shade of luminaries like Babymetal, I Disagree takes the ideas of their pop-metal blend and refines it into something that satisfies beyond the absurdity. The lyrics are unsettling, the pop is catchy and the metal blends surprisingly well with Poppy’s disaffected vocals. It may be a gimmick, but it definitely works.
40. 156/Silence - Irrational Pull
Metal and violence have always been equated, but few albums inflict violence on listeners like Irrational Pull does. Combining a pounding approach to metal with rhythmic hardcore punk, 156/Silence creates an album that borders on overwhelming, but never falls off the deep end. It’s best enjoyed while balancing on the edge of a knife.
39. Testament - Titans of Creation
In an effort to not disparage “the big four,” I’ll say that Testament more than deserved a seat at that particular table. Comparing Titans of Creation to any of the late-era works of the big four is justification enough in its own right. Where other groups have lost their edge from tirelessly pursuing the next big sound, Testament has held firm to the roots of thrash, constantly tinkering with the edges to push it further into a pure space. Titans of Creation is the reward for those of us who have stayed along for the ride.
38. Eye Flys - Tub of Lard
Eye Flys was clearly created for the hell of it. Pulling members from Full of Hell, Backslider and Triac, the album sizzles with political vitriol and unbridled anger that could only come from something joyous. It may seem counterintuitive, but one listen and you’ll hear the relaxed comfort that each member brings to the tracks. It’s a match made in heaven, and the music sounds like the mouth of hell. You love to see it.
37. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
This wasn’t a combination that we’d have anticipated working if we hadn’t heard the record ourselves. Combining the full-bodied riffs and full-throated roars of Thou with the dreamy song structures and vocals of Emma Ruth Rundle shouldn’t work. Somehow it does. The result is an album that is as crushing as it is soothing, and as forward looking as it is grounded in the current moment.
36. Disembowel - Echoes of Terror
Disembowel delivers some truly terrifying death metal on Echoes of Terror. It’s a perfect example of an album cover doing the music justice. A blood-soaked horrorshow awaits anyone with the guts to stomach the grueling record, but those who come out on the other side will emerge as changed beings. Whether the change is for better or worse we can’t say, but we can say that the central riffs on “Chuffed Beyond Recognition” are among the best of the year.
35. Year of the Knife - Internal Incarceration
Punch. Me. Until. I’m. Mush. That’s all I have to say about Internal Incarceration. This positively violent record takes the metalcore approach that has recently been paved by Vein and Knocked Loose. Instead of asking how to build a song around the breakdown, they simply forego the non-breakdown portions. The miniscule runtime ensures that it doesn’t get old, and the passionate delivery of the instruments and vocals keep you engaged even when you’re bleeding out.
34. Haken - Virus
Virus is unconcerned with density and ear-popping moments of technical bravado. Instead, Haken uses their considerable instrumental skills to create songs with plenty of room to breathe. By the time the levee breaks and sweeps you away in a sea of complex riffs and time signature insanity, it’s far too late. But they even make struggling for air a blissful experience.
33. Old Man Gloom - Seminar VIII: Light of Meaning
Having operated in the most evolution-friendly space in metal for over 20 years, Old Man Gloom could be forgiven for tiring out and coasting along with their old sound. Obviously they’re uninterested in making the same sounds. From the truly unsettling “EMF” to the harsh static roar of “True Volcano,” Old Man Gloom crafts a compelling record that always aims to tilt metal onto its side, and routinely succeeds.
32. Loathe - I Let It In and It Took Everything
Pulling generously from Deftones, Loathe puts together a thrilling experience that will either expose you to an unexplored world of music, or will trigger every nostalgia switch in your brain. Thanks to the added years of genre evolution since Deftones became a definitive alt-metal band, I Let It In and It Took Everything contains plenty of tricks and tweaks that breathe new life into it and prevent the record from being a pale imitation.
31. Havok - V
Thrash metal finds itself in an odd spot in 2020. Having peaked (both in quality and popularity) it seems destined to fall victim to more extreme genres of metal. V makes an excellent case that there’s still room for thrash in the world of metal. The unrelenting pace and driving intensity of pure thrash works as an excellent canvas on which Havok paints loads of subversive political ideas. If it wouldn’t make this longer than it needs to be, I’d simply paste in the lyrics to “Merchants of Death” but I’ll choose this nugget of truth in the pile of revelations that the song delivers “Killing people overseas / Even if they're not a threat / Behold murderous greed / And don't forget the debt now.”
30. Resent - Crosshairs
Listening to Crosshairs feels like having an elephant sit on your chest. Boasting all the heaviness of a stoner-doom record, Crosshairs’ sludgy songwriting practically suffocates you with unpredictable stop-start patterns and disorienting dynamics. Guitars roll down into the depths when your brain tells them to flare upwards, they stutter step when you expect them to glide into a grumbling reverberation. If that sounds startling, Resent would be happy to hear it. Crosshairs keeps you on the verge of a panic attack because it was designed to. Whether you want that or revile it isn’t their concern.
29. Ulcerate - Stare into Death and be Still
It doesn’t take a lot of investigation to see why this record has become so beloved in 2020. Ulcerate delivers a technically-perfect and magnetic death metal record that will easily capture the attention of anyone with even a passing interest in extreme metal. Stare into Death and be Still perfectly blends intensity and technicality with intelligent songwriting to deliver thought provoking explorations of metal’s future. With any luck, they’re onto something.
28. Merzbow - StereoAkuma
It takes a special ear to make good noise music. The naturally off-putting genre has few fans, and even those who consider themselves “fans” have little more than a passing interest to be tossed out as a factoid at weird academia parties. But for those who truly enjoy the genre, StereoAkuma hides plenty of treasures within its static-riddled walls. Despite the unrelenting hurricane of noise, StereoAkuma addresses some of the primary complaints about Merzbow. An ever shifting dynamic range helps keep the album on its feet as it shuffles through its 49-minute runtime, and the freewheeling composition of the record holds onto the improvisational elements that so many Merzbow fans hold dear. It’s the best thing he’s put out in quite awhile.
27. Morwinyon - Pristine
Another recent entrant into the world of atmoblack, Morwinyon sets out to answer the question “What if we only did the prettiest parts of black metal?” Pristine answers the question with a simple statement “It would sound absolutely gorgeous.” Trading misanthropy for hope, this Italian group presents a thrilling vision of how the natural atmospheric elements of the genre could be used with a lighter touch in order to maximize emotional impact. With such a successful debut, the mind races at the potential masterpieces Morwinyon has yet to create. For now, Pristine is more than capable of satisfying those eager fans.
26. Frayle - 1692
If one were to argue that metal could be made more accessible without losing what makes the genre special, 1692 would be quite the arrow to have in your quiver. Tempering the more abrasive elements of doom with the spectral voice of Gwyn Strang, Frayle has landed on a formula that can satisfy both the pickiest metalheads and the most skeptical critics. Best of all, the combo of Strang’s tremendous voice and Sean Bilovecky’s hulking guitar doesn’t just widen the appeal, it improves both elements, elevating 1692 far beyond standard stoner-doom fare.
25. Xythlia - Immortality Through Quantum Suicide
This is not for the faint of heart. Immortality Through Quantum Suicide overwhelms at every possible turn with a speed and brutality so unrelenting it seems impossible that a human composed it. Metal purists might balk at the use of electronic drum kits and left-field production techniques, but this record hits closer to the soul of metal than most “pure” albums ever could.
24. Intronaut - Fluid Existential Inversions
Leaning into the more psychedelic angle of prog, Intronaut crafts a riveting album filled with memorable flashes of technicality and clear artistic intent. In a time when so much of prog has become a showcase for long songs with wonky time signatures, Fluid External Inversions shows that you can use those techniques for the tools that they are, instead of making them the purpose of the tracks. By sidestepping the sterility of the genre, their tracks feel free and light despite their complexity and length.
23. Old Man Gloom - Seminar IX: Darkness of Being
A long standing pillar of the extreme metal scene, Old Man Gloom hasn’t lost a step over their two decades as a band. Seminar IX: Darkness of Being, may not redefine metal in the way that many of Old Man Gloom’s releases have, but it refines their approach and style into something surgically precise. Compelling riffs, innovative use of noise and production, and a bold, recognizable guitar tone all blend into a profoundly awesome experience.
22. Gulch - Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
The devil bless this album. Adding yet another brick into the wall of “good metalcore” Gulch’s Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress is as manic and brutal as its tremendous cover art implies. Does it sound a little bit like being repeatedly hit with a hammer in an alleyway? Yes. But after the third or fourth bludgeoning the delirium it inspires starts to border on euphoria. It’s just a shame no one got to mosh to these tracks at a live show this year.
21. Defeated Sanity - The Sanguinary Impetus
If being alive has been somewhat of a trial lately, Defeated Sanity would be more than happy to relieve you of life’s burdens by beating you to death with a two pronged guitar assault. Boasting a technical competency that borders on overwhelming, The Sanguinary Impetus won’t be for everyone, but those who can stomach the brutality will find a record that gleefully stomps in the marshes of excess. The gut-churning nausea it inspires is all part of the appeal.
20. Battalions - Pure Humber Sludge
If 2020 has radicalized you, Pure Humber Sludge presents a gorgeous vessel of wrath in which to pour your anger. Propelled by driving, forceful songwriting, Pure Humber Sludge wears its heart on its sleeve. It hardly takes a minute for Battalions to literally scream “Fuck the government!” on “A Coward’s Manifesto.” As the record grumbles along, they don’t become any more fond of authority, but then again, who is these days?
19. Green Druid - At the Maw of Ruin
Green Druid released the perfect doom-metal album for the current moment. It fully understands the practical applications of fantastical narratives, deftly handling the latter to weave a tale that provokes thought as much as it engages the listener. Given that stoner-doom rarely has lyrics worth paying attention to, this is worth more than you might expect. While other bands discuss how much weed could be loaded into a submarine, Green Druid asks “What if the Earth fought back against the ravages we inflict upon her?” The answer is fittingly macabre, and the musicianship that undergirds the record is sufficiently seismic. At the Maw of Ruin fits together perfectly, and only grows in quality with each subsequent listen.
18. Paysage D’Hiver - Im Wald
The ever secretive Paysage D’Hiver seems incapable of delivering a miss. Im Wald is a perfect black metal album. Describing as anything less would be a lie. But like many of the records on this list, the relentless pursuit of progress pulls the record into a nigh-transcendent realm. Unwilling to simply create an excellent black metal album, Paysage D’Hiver tinkers with electronic elements and atmospheric elements that pull the record into the 21st century. The precision with which he explores these ideas elevate Im Wald far beyond its peers.
17. Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion
Igorrr doesn’t give a damn what anyone thinks. Spirituality and Distortion is all the better for it. Bullying its way through Middle-Eastern psych, symphonic metal and breakcore, the record refuses to be sequestered into any definition. Luckily, records don’t need a genre to be a blast, and few things were more entertaining than Spirituality and Distortion. At times the album reaches for a level of absurdity that borders on camp, but no matter how high far they have to stretch, Igorrr always grabs the ring.
16. Vous Autres - Sel de Pierre
Cannon fire. It’s the first thing that comes to mind listening to Sel de Pierre. It ripples with an energy that borders on apocalyptic. Yes, the group shows off impressive structural ideas like the slow build in “Onde” and the doomy end section of “Vesuve” but their key triumph rests within the way the instruments actually sound. “Sans Séves” serves as the best example on the record. The oceanic depth of the bass, piercing thrust of the lead guitar, half-drowned screams and drums that hit with the force of an unmoored container ship all meld into the deadliest track of 2020. In a year when the world felt like it would often end, Sel de Pierre provided a fitting soundtrack.
15. Uniform - Shame
Few things are more satisfying than watching a band grow and evolve. Throughout their career, the folks in Uniform have shown that the only place they don’t want to be is wherever they were last seen standing. This desire for an ever-changing artistic expression has had its potential fully unlocked over the last few years through collaborations with label-mate The Body. The impact these collaborations have had on Shame are clear and pronounced. “The Shadow of God’s Hand” tinkers with doom and sludge, “Life in Remission” borders on grindcore before flicking a switch into pure noise. Much like the band who made it, Shame refuses to hold still. And in its restless pursuit of something new, Uniform has constructed their strongest effort yet.
14. Duma - Duma
Metal has never suffered from a lack of international appeal. But it’s hard to look at a map of where most metal bands are from without noticing the primarily pasty populations of those countries. Hailing from Nairobi, Kenya, Duma challenges both the European death-grip on the genre and the foundations of the genre itself. Duma’s ambition is so great that calling it metal begins to feel reductive, but you’d expect that from former members of Lust of a Dying Breed and Seeds of Datura. Even still, Martin Khanja (aka Lord Spike Heart) and Sam Karugu, surpass any expectation laid before them. Seamlessly blending noise, black-metal, power-electronics and about a half-dozen other styles of extreme music, Duma is a solitary work that feels fully capable of redefining both the African and Western metal scenes.
13. sadness - Alluring the distant eye
Metal so often falls into the trap of “if it’s hard to play, that means it’s good.” This reductive line of thinking has hampered the genre so terribly that unpacking the damage would take more than a few tomes. Luckily, the necessity for those books quickly evaporates in the brilliant light of sadness’ music. Poured into the Deafheaven mold of “emotion before all else” Alluring the distant eye is a crippling work of emotional honesty that puts almost every album to shame. Whether the lyrics unfurl themselves in your ear or the songs exist only as sound, the internal journey of each song rings so clear that you can’t help getting ensnared in its siren-like call.
12. Kaatayra - Toda História pela Frente
2020 brought a lot of horrible things with it, but Brazilian metal was certainly not among them. Releasing two albums this year, Kaatayra boldly asserted the presence of the South American metal scene, showing that it stored just as much potential as the longstanding institutions of European metal. The structures and tones found on Toda História pela Frente will certainly ring bells for any seasoned metal listener. But the record never settles for a single influence. When it sinks towards atmoblack it pulls out of the groove with a searing guitar solo, when the blistering pace begins to overwhelm the structure it smoothly glides into traditional Brazilian acoustic. The record excels at keeping listeners on their toes, not because of complexity of over-technicality, but because the ideas they present are so musically enlightening you can’t help but float away on their lightness.
11. Boris - NO
After a lengthy period of experimentation with style, Boris has re-emerged into their comfort zone. While their return was announced by 2017’s Dear, NO reasserts their importance in the world of metal by combining their signature style of drone metal with the lessons they learned from their releases in the aughts. NO brings s a blistering interpretation of hardcore punk run through the filter of absurd heaviness that only Boris could create. Bouncing happily through hardcore tracks like “Anti-Gone,” “Non-Bloood Lore” and “Temple of Hatred” the album is balanced with the droning delights of “Genesis” and “Zerkalo.” Their famous style flashes throughout the record, but even when they swing for the fences on hardcore, they retain a wondrous undergirding of texture and depth that Boris alone could create.
10. Bríi - Entre Tudo que é Visto e Oculto
Some people enjoy metal because they need music that would happily gouge out their eyes using their own clavicles as spoons. If that’s your preferred style of metal, scroll on down, because Bríi has no interest in sticking to your timetable of violence. Filled to the brim with innovation, Entre Tudo que é Visto e Oculto promises to be unlike anything you’ve ever heard. Sometimes it’s blending electronics and Brazilian folk, other times it’s pure black metal, but no matter the style being utilized, it remains high-quality. Entre Tudo que é Visto e Oculto needs to be heard to be understood. It will take patience, but you’ll be rewarded for each second you spend in its arms.
9. neánder - Eremit
If stoner-doom sounds up your musical alley, but you’re tired of bats, babes and bongs, then neánder may just provide the relief you require. Cast in the mold of groups like Monolord, neánder forgoes much of the lyrical content of stoner-doom and exchanges it for heavier riffs and a more varied range of sounds. Opener “Purpur (Prelude)” happily fiddles around in post-metal, while sections of “Eremit” almost drown in the realm of black metal. Eremit happily crunches these genres together into a nearly homogenous under the suffocating weight of ten ton riffs and bulky guitar tones. The lack of focus is the allure, but so are the riffs. They even use the time honored trick of playing something slow and heavy, then pausing and playing it again slower and heavier. God that never gets old. We’ll break our necks headbanging to this record one day, but until then it’ll keep punishing our eardrums and the structural integrity of our neighbor’s walls.
8. Ornassi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
Ornassi Pazuzu refuses to be constrained by something so silly as genre. Ostensibly considered black metal, the group would much rather throw spaghetti at the wall than sit around and work in sandboxes where others have played. Mestarin Kynsi shows the group exploring the boundaries of extreme music, reaching even further out than their masterful work on Muukalainen Puhuu and Värähtelijä. They come across as unrestrained and fearless, plowing through genres as varied as folk, doom, death, black and electronic. Somehow they melt these all together into a soundtrack more sickening than the monster from Society, but you can’t help but watch as it all bubbles and steams before you. Hold still too long and you might just get swallowed up into it.
7. Judicator - Let There Be Nothing
Restraint can do a lot for a power metal album. When so many records are nothing but full blown power fantasies (a thing I enjoy) Judicator uses the genre for something a bit more high brow. Focusing on the woes of a Roman general named Belisarius, Let There Be Nothing has enough characters to fill an episode of Game of Thrones and enough narrative to be adapted into a feature film or two. This strong focus on storytelling helps to ground the record, allowing the vocals and instrumentals to soar freely with the theatricality of Andrew Lloyd-Weber. It all culminates in a slew of heart-pounding anthems that are as impactful as they are empowering. It’s the very pinnacle of power metal.
6. Dopelord - Sign of the Devil
All hail Black Sabbath! You can practically feel the demonic pipes of Ozzy Osbourne cackling with glee as this masterful interpretation of stoner-doom metal washes over you in a terpene laden haze. Best enjoyed seven steps away from sober, Sign of the Devil refuses to bother with ideas that would classify as groundbreaking. It may feel as though that’s an insult, but asking Dopelord to do anything other than what they do on this record would be akin to asking John Wick to put down the gun and pick up a paintbrush. If you need a little more variance, Dopelord does shake things up with flashes of thrash and death metal, but they know you’re really here for the bowel shaking riffs. On that promise they more than deliver.
5. Xenobiotic - Mordrake
Sometimes you just have to strap in and do the damn thing. Xenobiotic shows their willingness to dive to the heart of the matter on Mordrake. Opening with a short intro on “Insomnia” the album exists only as a thrill ride. Mordrake’s seams practically burst with an overstuffed combination of brutal screams, complex drums and compelling guitar and bass sections. Harmony rarely comes to mind when discussing metal, but each element blends so well with its partners that harmonious may be the only way to describe this record outside of brutal.
4. exhalants - Atonement
Most artists shy away from depicting desperation in their music. Those that attempt it often fail. It’s that particular, hyper-specific emotion that sets the work of exhalants apart from so many of their peers. Choosing to operate in the noise rock and sludge realm of metal, exhalants refuses to shy away from the reality that created them. Born out of the South, like so many of their sludgy influences, exhalants focuses on the things they know, and leave the rest to you. What they do that subverts expectations, and ultimately makes them special, is that they balance their desperation and aggression with intersperisions of idyllic soundscapes. Much like the poorer areas of the South intertwine their desperation with the mythos of a verdant land. In particular, Atonement shows that exhalants know how to push listeners towards a reaction. The way they blend the beautiful and the horrid is not only thrilling, it’s realistic, and it remains the plight of many places in this country. Hell, they even do it on the album cover.
3. Arkheron Thodol - Rituals of the Sovereign Heart
Black metal has always been a popular subgenre of choice, but it has never been THIS popular. Around the time that Deafheaven released Sunbather, a tremendous album whose influence has been litigated to the point where we have little to add, everyone suddenly became an atmospheric black metal (atmoblack) artist. While the debate as to why still rages on, the real issue emerged when these bands began to oversaturate the metal scene with tired ideas and poorly conceived songs. Pushing back against the rising tide of mediocrity emerging from atmoblack, much of the metal world turned their back on the genre, which had become a hipster haven. But this didn’t mean there weren’t concepts to explore within the genre, but rather that there weren’t enough serious bands to explore them.
Arkheron Thodol has all the clout, skill and various adjectives they needed to shatter our shallow perception of the genre. By playing with post-metal structures, ripping riffs and memorable solos, Arkheron Thodol asserts that atmoblack can be more than just a fad or a Deafheaven ripoff. This record is decidedly metal-ass metal, and it demands to be taken seriously. Luckily the music speaks for itself by thoroughly exploring a variety of musical approaches and emotional expressions. Rituals of the Sovereign Heart is memorable, potent and endlessly listenable. Without a doubt, it’s one of the year’s most impressive triumphs.
2. Liturgy - Origin of the Alimonies
Origin of the Alimonies exists as a transformative work in the realm of metal. At only 37 minutes long, the record teeters close to the edge of a long EP more than it does a full length album. Not a surprise given that Liturgy’s last project H.A.Q.Q., which this record builds upon, released almost exactly a year before it. But this shortened runtime allows Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, the frontwoman of the band, and essentially the sole member of Liturgy, to see how closely she can cram different musical modes without losing the audience. She comes awfully close. But of course her unrivaled intuition for extreme music, which has already yielded two confirmed classics, an opera, and two more potential classics, manages to pull together these disparate ideas into a work so cohesive that it would turn even the most seasoned composer into a slack-jawed child.
Hunt-Hendrix is not the first person, or even the first woman to combine metal with more symphonic elements. But as far as I am aware, she is the only person to break new ground in both realms then slam them together with the force of a MOAB. Add in her perception shattering use of electronics, glitch elements and other cutting edge production and you’ll find that she’s created something unlike anything before it. Origin of the Alimonies demands admiration, one listen will surely pull it out of you.
1. Melted Bodies - Enjoy Yourself
It concerns me that the best metal album of the year could slip though unnoticed. It concerns me even more that this album will never get it’s full due. In past dissections, I compared this record to System of a Down, and focused primarily on lyrical dissections. But to focus only on the lyrics misses what makes this album succeed. Sure, the lyrics are a key element, and certainly go a long way towards lifting this album above all the other excellent records this year. However the true strength of this record is its ability to feel both adventurous and painfully plotted out. Take “Funny Commercials” for instance. The track itself is less than five minutes long, and even then it still contains at least four distinct sections, all of which feel fully thought out. They blend together brilliantly, and get wild enough to satisfy even the pickiest of extreme metal fans, while remaining somewhere in the realm of accessible. It’s a truly stunning achievement, except it takes place on virtually every song on this record.
We cannot take this record for granted. It swings for the fences every single second. Once the pitching machine runs out of juice and the dust finally clears, we’ll see that there were a lot more home runs than anything else. It’s a politically relevant work of magic that pushes boundaries to places that hold only tragedy; and come out victorious. This does not happen often, it may not happen ever. If you listen to a single piece of metal this year, make it Enjoy Yourself.