One of the most influential cult bands in the heavy metal scene, established in 1971 their first record was from 1980 and their last from 2023 the band just published 6 albums.
Doom - Epic - Dark and Power Metal style. The vocals of Tim Baker unique style gave to Cirith Ungol a special flavor.

1.Cirith Ungol - Frost And Fire

2.Cirith Ungol - King Of The Dead

3.Cirith Ungol - One Foot In Hell

4.Cirith Ungol - Paradise Lost

5.Cirith Ungol - Dark Parade

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All write-in votes from Metal Storm Awards 2020

1.

2.

3.Amaranthe - Manifest

4.Avatar - Hunter Gatherer

5.El Lobo En Tu Puerta - Santana Bendita

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My source was looking at the most popular 1000 metal albums (excluding demos and EPs) of the year in question on the RateYourMusic website. I liked more than these but these are the ones that spoke to me the most. I went through all 1000, chose carefully, then went back to my short list and eliminated a few. Surprisingly, there aren't any Mariusz Lewandowski pieces featured here which is unfortunate because like a lot of people I'm quite a fan of his art. List is in order of popularity rather than being ranked by my preference.

1.Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still

2.Neptunian Maximalism - Éons

3.Black Curse - Endless Wound

4.Testament - Titans Of Creation

5.Cirith Ungol - Forever Black

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First 18 in a order as I think its best. Yes in order so my best 18 albums what I can say were best. Really best from all!
Rest in order, just because I am selfish I wanna know what I have listen.

I dont know how to put suxer albums A-Z or Z-A what sucks more, I chose A-Z system so from 369 all was bad, biggest led down is 369 then what I thought was let down but not so bad as that band.

1.Katavasia - Magnus Venator

2.Marko Hietala - Pyre Of The Black Heart

3.Yoth Iria - Under His Sway

4.Trident - Nord

5.Ivanhoe - Blood And Gold

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1.Auðn - Vökudraumsins Fangi

2.Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still

3.Vader - Solitude In Madness

4.Aeternam - Al Qassam

5.Necrophobic - Dawn Of The Damned

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Using MSA's to organize my listening from 2020.

1.Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

2.The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic

3.Envy - The Fallen Crimson

4.Igorrr - Spirituality And Distortion

5.Paradise Lost - Obsidian

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My Top-15 list for 2020. Great year despite the f***ing virus shutting everything down.

1.Sacred Outcry - Damned For All Time

2.Cirith Ungol - Forever Black

3.Eternal Champion - Ravening Iron

4.Armored Saint - Punching The Sky

5.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

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Top albums listened to in 2021. Like the good ol' days, I'm listening to as much metal as I can this year. Listing the full albums I ingest because my memory is shit and I won't remember what was worth a second spin. I am including albums I've listened to before if i listen to them again this year. This is a gauge more than anything else.

1.Motörhead - Ace Of Spades

2.Kamelot - The Black Halo

3.Judas Priest - Painkiller

4.Sonata Arctica - Ecliptica

5.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

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Another end to a year, another list to make.

Like always I've added the specific genre/subgenre so you can easily pick out the albums that might be of interest to you.

I know some of you like statistics, so I put in a bit of extra effort to add some numbers:

- 317 albums
- Total points given: 2366,1
- Average Score: 7,46/10

- Albums with a score of 7 or above: 79,11%
- Albums with a score of 8 or above: 36,39%
- Albums with a score of 9 or above: 1,27%

- Albums with a score below 5: 2,53%

- Nationalities: 35

- USA: 73 - (23,10%)
- Germany: 31 - (9,81%)
- Sweden: 28 - (8,86%)
- UK: 25 - (7,91%)
- Finland: 18 - (5,70%)
- Greece: 18 - (5,70%)
- Brazil: 10 - (3,16%)
- France: 10 - (3,16%)
- Poland: 10 - (3,16%)
- Italy: 9 - (2,85%)
- Spain: 9 - (2,85%)
- Canada: 8 - (2,53%)
- Belgium: 6 - (1,90%)
- Norway: 6 - (1,90%)
- Russia: 6 - (1,90%)
- The Netherlands: 6 - (1,90%)
- Australia: 5 - (1,58%)
- Denmark: 5 - (1,58%)
- Czech Republic: 4 - (1,27%)
- Mexico: 4 - (1,27%)
- Colombia: 3 - (0,95%)
- Switzerland: 3 - (0,95%)
- Argentina: 2 - (0,63%)
- Austria: 2 - (0,63%)
- Chile: 2 - (0,63%)
- Japan: 2 - (0,63%)
- Portugal: 2 - (0,63%)
- Puerto Rico: 2 - (0,63%)
- Slovakia: 2 - (0,63%)
- Costa Rica: 1 - (0,32%)
- Egypt: 1 - (0,32%)
- Estonia: 1 - (0,32%)
- Ethiopia: 1 - (0,32%)
- Israel: 1 - (0,32%)
- Peru: 1 - (0,32%)

1.Paradise Lost - Obsidian

2.IAH - III

3.Asian Death Crustacean - Baikal

4.Dawnwalker - Ages

5.Necrophobic - Dawn Of The Damned

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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

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Maybe this is a top, but those albumes are just the ones that I will listen recurrently.

1.Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville

2.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

3.Draconian - Under A Godless Veil

4.Afterbirth - Four Dimensional Flesh

5.Igorrr - Spirituality And Distortion

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Well here it is!

1.Ensiferum - Thalassic

2.Skyforest - A New Dawn

3.Avatar - Hunter Gatherer

4.Vredehammer - Viperous

5.Finntroll - Vredesvävd

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Reviving the old tradition of yearly lists. I was uncertain, because my lists have barely any metal and certainly none that MSers don't already know about, but there's nowhere else to publish this shit, either!

1.Ichiko Aoba - "Gift" at Sogetsu Hall

2.Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

3.Ichiko Aoba - Adan no kaze

4.tricot - 真っ黒 (Makkuro)

5.tricot - 10

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Manuel Castillo (Amusia) is a Mexican youtuber/reviewer specialized in heavy metal, who makes reviews without pression from the labels or distros. His passion and knowledge are the best tools he has and is followed by almost 70,000 people from the Spanish-speaking community. His partner, Carlos, also make reviews but of underground bands.

1.Haunt - Mind Freeze

2.Annihilator - Ballistic, Sadistic

3.Mystic Prophecy - Metal Division

4.Lorna Shore - Immortal

5.God Dethroned - Illuminati

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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

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