MS Awards 2020 - Staff Picks!!
| Written by: | ScreamingSteelUS |
| Published: | March 11, 2021 |
2020 may have been a terrible year for musicians, the music industry, and music fans, but it was somehow a great year for music - this year's MSAs were overflowing with excellent albums, and we had probably half a dozen five-way ties going here for a while. Eventually, we managed to arrive at something resembling consensus, the results of which you see before you, but what a tough series of choices. As always, you are called upon to respect these as more accurate results than those of the MSAs themselves.
2020 Metal Storm Staff Picks
 | Alternative Metal Crippled Black Phoenix - Ellengæst |  | Ambient / Drone / Noise Neptunian Maximalism - Éons |
 | Avant-Garde / Experimental Metal Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi |  | Black Metal Panzerfaust - The Suns Of Perdition - Chapter II: Render Unto Eden |
 | Death Metal Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still |  | Djent / Math Metal Serpent Column - Endless Detainment |
 | Doom Metal Fires In The Distance - Echoes From Deep November |  | Extreme Doom Metal Kraken Duumvirate - The Stars Below, The Seas Above |
 | Extreme Progressive Metal Sweven - The Eternal Resonance |  | Folk / Pagan / Viking Metal Havukruunu - Uinuos Syömein Sota |
 | Gothic Metal Dool - Summerland |  | Grindcore Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment |
 | Hard Rock Wytch Hazel - III: Pentecost |  | Hardcore / Metalcore / Deathcore Leeched - To Dull The Blades Of Your Abuse |
 | Heavy / Melodic Metal Dark Forest - Oak, Ash & Thorn |  | Industrial / Cyber / Electronic Metal Igorrr - Spirituality And Distortion |
 | Melodeath / Extreme Power / Gothenburg Metal Countless Skies - Glow |  | Melodic Black Metal Wayfarer - A Romance With Violence |
 | Metalgaze Fluisteraars - Bloem |  | Post-Metal Pull Down The Sun - Of Valleys And Mountains |
 | Power Metal Unleash The Archers - Abyss |  | Progressive Metal Lucid Planet - Lucid Planet II |
 | Sludge Metal In The Company Of Serpents - Lux |  | Stoner Metal Elder - Omens |
 | Symphonic Metal Lorna Shore - Immortal |  | Thrash Metal Bütcher - 666 Goats Carry My Chariot |
| Debut Sweven - The Eternal Resonance |  | Clandestine Cut Autolith - Caustic Light |
We hope you like our selections. We sure did. Rest assured that we're already thinking about what to nominate in the 2021 Awards - but you still have quite a bit of time left before you have to worry about that. For now, take a stroll through the list and check out anything you might have missed during the voting period.
 | Written on 11.03.2021 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct. |
Comments
Comments: 13
Visited by: 254 users
| Deadsoulman Elite Posts: 8004  |
All these match my first or second picks in every category I voted in, except Dool (my dislike for most of those occult goth rock bands grows stronger every day), Pull Down The Sun which I didn't find anything special, and Lorna Shore whose bog-standard deathcore vocals totally turned me off the album.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7666  |
Written by Deadsoulman on 11.03.2021 at 12:53 Shame on you. Written by Deadsoulman on 11.03.2021 at 12:53 Yep.
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| Karlabos Posts: 5789  |
No Kaatayra, no respec.
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
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| John_Doe Posts: 5259  |
I don't understand the hype around Dark Forest. 
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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| Deadsoulman Elite Posts: 8004 |
Written by nikarg on 11.03.2021 at 14:06 Haha, well, those two were even my least favourite albums in their respective categories, imagine that 
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| Nejde Posts: 1695  |
Even though they're lacking some of those 666 goats, Bütcher's cover really shows you that you're in for a treat when you press Play. I like that and I like the album even though I voted for Havok in thrash. Out of the staff picks Lucid Planet II is by far the best album regardless of genre. Countless Skies released a great album as expected and Pull Down The Sun and Fires In The Distance were really nice discoveries. I know I've said it before but Eden In Reverse was still AOTY imo.
---- Liebe ist für alle da.
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| Druss Posts: 278  |
Nice to see Dark Forest get the Heavy pick. The release is so full of heart. Though the production doesn't do it justice at times I felt.
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| musclassia Staff Posts: 7952  |
Three of my top 10 of 2020 made it here (Elder, Wayfarer and Ulcerate) made it here, and agree with a lot of the other choices, although I'd have half a dozen I'd choose ahead of Serpent Column for djent/math
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18488  |
12 of the ones listed above are among the ones I voted for this year.  I must admit I'm a bit "eh" about doom and post metal though but oh well.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| LordFezzington Lost To Apathy Posts: 400  |
Of the 10 categories I voted in, only Ulcerate matches my choice. I think it's kind of cool there were obviously so few clear consensus choices - goes to show the number of really great albums that came out last year.
---- "Pay no heed to anyone and do what seems right to yourself." - Franz Kafka, The Trial 2022 List: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7001 2021 List: https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=6742
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| Cynic Metalhead Ambrish Saxena Posts: 7783  |
Almost covered all of them. Will definitely checking out the few chips I missed.
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| TheBigRossowski Posts: 1359  |
Whoooa, definitely missed In The Company of Serpents! Bummer, man. I'll have to check that one out.. For the rest, you guys got it, fuckin' awesome, man.
---- That rug really tied the room together, did it not? 
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| sgtrobo Posts: 608  |
Bütcher, Anaal Nathrakh, and Havukruunu were 3 of my picks that made the staff list
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