The concept of this list is not exceptionally well defined, but I'm circling a basic concept of lean, fast-paced metal with high-pitched vocals that tend to be on the harsher side. The album that inspired the compilation was Evil Invaders' Shattering Reflection, so that can serve as a template; not everything here necessarily sounds exactly like that, but it's all somewhere in the blackened speed/power-thrash/particularly aggressive heavy metal continuum. I'm going entirely by what feels right to me and not necessarily what makes sense on paper, so don't hold this to a rigid standard of consistency.

Here are a few individual tracks that I also thought fit the mood nicely:

Accept - "Fast As A Shark"
Accept - "Fight It Back"
3 Inches Of Blood - "Leather Lord"
Judas Priest - "Ram It Down"
Judas Priest - "Hard As Iron"
Satan - "Trial By Fire"
Crisix - "Ultra Thrash"
Fifth Angel - "In The Fallout"

1.Judas Priest - Painkiller

2.Evil Invaders - Shattering Reflection

3.Bütcher - 666 Goats Carry My Chariot

4.Agent Steel - Skeptics Apocalypse

5.Riot - ThunderSteel

      View entire list ››

TOP 50 ALBUMS OF 2020 3 YEARS LATER

1.Code Orange - Underneath

2.Napalm Death - Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism

3.AC/DC - Power Up

4.Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

5.Polaris - The Death Of Me

      View entire list ››

1.Disembowelment - Transcendence Into The Peripheral

2.Weakling - Dead As Dreams

3.Greylotus - Dawnfall

4.John Petrucci - An Evening With John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess [Collaboration]

5.John Petrucci - Suspended Animation

      View entire list ››

1 album per band per subgenre
work in progress, updating as I go through the song-by-song ratings on RateYourMusic.com
I will typically update my black metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6924
and my death metal faves - https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6298
prior to updating this one

1.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

2.King Diamond - Abigail

3.Voivod - Dimension Hatröss

4.Mastodon - Crack The Skye

5.Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris

      View entire list ››

1.Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

2.Orbit Culture - Nija

3.Make Them Die Slowly - The Bodycount Continues

4.Within The Ruins - Black Heart

5.Code Orange - Underneath

      View entire list ››

Surely not everything I've listened to, not even close. Every year I use Spotify to make some megalist and start plowing through. Most albums are listened to and discarded, but those that pique my interest get shunted into the Keeper playlist. (I also use other media when needed - particularly Bandcamp - but Spotify remains my favorite.)

1.10,000 Years - 10​,​000 Years

2.Acid Mammoth - Under Acid Hoof

3....And Oceans - Cosmic World Mother

4.Aversio Humanitatis - Behold The Silent Dwellers

5.Baardvader - Baardvader

      View entire list ››

1.Sacred Outcry - Damned For All Time

2.1000mods - Youth Of Dissent

3.Sweven - The Eternal Resonance

4.Malokarpatan - Krupinské Ohne

5.Loathe - I Let It In And It Took Everything

      View entire list ››

2020 has been nothing short of a horrific year. The music industry was quite possibly changed forever due to the pandemic, we saw tours and festivals canceled, and as of now, live shows seem to be a thing of the past.

However, this year ( especially in metal), we saw some big releases, impressive debuts, and the return of several bands that had been on hiatus for decades. Overall for albums, 2020 was rather impressive. Here's my favorite 100 metal albums of 2020...

1.Spectral Lore - Wanderers: Astrology Of The Nine [Collaboration]

2.Cryptic Shift - Visitations From Enceladus

3.Psychotic Waltz - The God-Shaped Void

4.Akhlys - Melinoë

5.Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still

      View entire list ››

1.Konvent - Puritan Masochism

2.Paradise Lost - Obsidian

3.Incantation - Sect Of Vile Divinities

4.Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

5.Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville

      View entire list ››

It's closing in on the end of 2021, so revisiting the year of the lockdown

1.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

2.Akhlys - Melinoë

3.Black Curse - Endless Wound

4.Cryptic Shift - Visitations From Enceladus

5.Draconian - Under A Godless Veil

      View entire list ››

Well here it is!

1.Ensiferum - Thalassic

2.Skyforest - A New Dawn

3.Avatar - Hunter Gatherer

4.Vredehammer - Viperous

5.Finntroll - Vredesvävd

      View entire list ››

Keeping track of what I heard and liked in 2020

1.Protest The Hero - Palimpsest

2.The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic

3.Orbit Culture - Nija

4.Eternal Champion - Ravening Iron

5.Necrophobic - Dawn Of The Damned

      View entire list ››

My favorite metal albums of 2020.

1.AC/DC - Power Up

2.Benediction - Scriptures

3.Pharmacist - Medical Renditions Of Grinding Decomposition

4.Cro-Mags - In The Beginning

5.Gut - Disciples Of Smut

      View entire list ››

Every metal album I've heard so far from 2020 rated 5/10 or more. My tastes are predominately thrash, heavy and power metal (I was a teenager in the 80s!). I loved a lot of black and death metal in the 90s but I find it hard to get excited by much extreme stuff in my old age. The odd thing still tickles my fancy though.

1.Enslaved - Utgard

2.Bütcher - 666 Goats Carry My Chariot

3.Finntroll - Vredesvävd

4.Myrkur - Folkesange

5.Sepultura - Quadra

      View entire list ››

1.Benediction - Scriptures

2.Sodom - Genesis XIX

3.Inquisition - Black Mass For A Mass Grave

4.Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

5.Necrot - Mortal

      View entire list ››