The silver lining to the year of Covid is metal bands seem to have had plenty of inspiration. It was very strong year for black metal and a strong year overall. A bit weak in the death metal category but still some gems to be found. Recommendations and comments are always welcome. Enjoy.

1.Atramentus - Stygian

2.Evaporated Sores - Ulcerous Dimensions

3.Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville

4.Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still

5.Hail Spirit Noir - Eden In Reverse

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Seems like there's a limit on how many albums this site accepts on one list. Gonna have to cut out the last ones while adding new albums for the rest of the year.

1.Havukruunu - Uinuos Syömein Sota

2.Orbit Culture - Nija

3.Wolfheart - Wolves Of Karelia

4.Stormruler - Under The Burning Eclipse

5.Frozen Dreams - The Eclipse Of Eternity

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The best of 2010-2019. At the end it tuned out to be less diverse than what I thought it would be in terms of musical genres, with mostly black and death metal record filling the spots.
Recommendations more than welcomed.

1.Sutcliffe Jugend - Blue Rabbit

2.Emptiness - Nothing But The Whole

3.Ulcerate - The Destroyers Of All

4.Schammasch - Contradiction

5.Lorn - Subconscious Metamorphosis

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Just about finished the first half of the year without losing too much to the character limit; I have learnt to make these list descriptions increasingly pithy

1.Enslaved - Utgard

2.Wills Dissolve - Echoes

3.Wayfarer - A Romance With Violence

4.Aversio Humanitatis - Behold The Silent Dwellers

5.Lucid Planet - Lucid Planet II

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Ask and you shall receive. Let's see if I manage to keep up with it this time.

This list follows in the vein of the previous ones I did for 2015, 16, and 18. Here I'm chronicling my discoveries of albums from this year that generate that mystical lulling, hypnotizing, and all around otherwordly feeling I so insatiably lust for. Inevitably drone, ambient, and psychedelic music will be the most featured here, but if anything considerably sends me "into the zone" as it were, it's up for inclusion.

1.Tortuga - Deities

2.Dragged Into Sunlight - Terminal Aggressor II

3.Lotus Thief - Oresteia

4.Staurophagia - Sidereal Sacraments

5.Garganjua - Toward The Sun

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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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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I don't think these are necessarily the best 30 albums of this year, but they're the ones that have I guess endured in my psyche and inspiried revisits more than most others. I was tempted to do a top 50, but after around #26 or so, I found myself confronted with about 50 albums that could've conceivably made it in, most of which I hadn't relistened to enough to rank above the others with confidence.

1.Psychonaut - Unfold The God Man

2.Elder - Omens

3.Enslaved - Utgard

4.Regarde Les Hommes Tomber - Ascension

5.Pure Reason Revolution - Eupnea

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Bury me six feet deep
Cover me in concrete
Turn me into a street

1.Fluisteraars - Bloem

2.Sightless Pit - Grave Of A Dog

3.Neptunian Maximalism - Éons

4.Iress - Flaw

5.Drown - Subaqueous

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Brutally honest take on new albums I have listened and rated/commented in 2020 from best to worst.

My ratings:

✮✮✮✮✮ = "Yippee ki yay, motherfucker!"
✮✮✮✮½ = "If it bleeds, we can kill it."
✮✮✮✮ = "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
✮✮✮½ = "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum."
✮✮✮ = "You're a disease? And I'm the cure."
✮✮½ = "Cowabunga!"
✮✮ = "I see dead people."
✮½ = "No not the bees! Aaaaahhhh!!1"
✮ = "It's turkey time. Gobble. Gobble."
½ = "I don't like sand."

1.Neptunian Maximalism - Éons

2.Lucid Planet - Lucid Planet II

3.Beherit - Bardo Exist

4.Mors Principium Est - Seven

5.Conception - State Of Deception

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Top 30 in alphabetical order plus some honourable mentions, the top 3 EPs and the best split. Here in the Black Lodge we had some other 20 album that could get in, but the gates in Twin Peaks woods slammed down in flickering flashlights...
The comments are from my delirious tulpa...

1.Above Aurora - The Shrine Of Deterioration

2.Acherontas - Psychic Death - The Shattering Of Perceptions

3.Akhlys - Melinoë

4.Ars Magna Umbrae - Apotheosis

5.Blaze Of Perdition - The Harrowing Of Hearts

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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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1.Vile Creature - Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!

2.Fuck The Facts - Pleine Noirceur

3.Duma - Duma

4.Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full [Collaboration]

5.Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi

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This is my top albums (only with those where I gave 8 or more). I will update the list now and then

1.Slipknot - Iowa

2.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

3.Opeth - Ghost Reveries

4.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

5.Slipknot - Slipknot

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This list is meant to be an extensive, but by no means exhaustive, collection of the greatest (modern) metal albums and eps. Running the gamut from avant-garde to trve norweigan black metal. *As someone who is young in age, my tastes tend to revolve around the period of the 80s to the present.* Although certain metal albums from before will certainly be featured, the period of the 60s-70s will be under-represented. I refer you to this excellent list to gain a better appreciation for some of the best metal from that period: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/freis/martin_popoffs_the_top_500_heavy_metal_albums_of_all_time/

1.N.K.V.D. - Vlast

2.Naamah - Resensement

3.Nachtig - Nachtig

4.Nachtmystium - Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1

5.Nader Sadek - In The Flesh

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