Best of 2020
Well, here it is, this is basically the culmination of all my weekly music posts, here’s my end of year list with all of my favorites from this year. I had to leave a few out, which is ultimately a good thing cause that means, despite all the bad this year, we were really spoiled for choice with new music, and you know what, I’ll take it. Anyway, be sure to tell me what your favorite albums were.
Top 10 Albums
Loathe – I Let It in and it Took Everything – This was a surprise hit that came out earlier in the year but holy shit, was I impressed. It’s like a perfect mix between metalcore and heavy Deftones vibes. People are gonna be biting this sound for years, I’m calling it now.
Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher – I’ve been very vocal about my love for Phoebe Bridgers this year, but there’s a reason this album made it on every end of year list from everybody from Barak Obama to Nate from Converge. This woman and this album are INCREDIBLY special.
END – Splinters From an Ever-Changing Face – I’d been looking forward to this album for about 2 years and it didn’t disappoint. This was an absolutely incredible supergroup that somehow managed to be even greater than its individual pieces and gave us this absolute beat down of an album.
Currents – The Way It Ends – It’s hard to name any bands that do metalcore better than these guys. Out of all the truly incredible metalcore albums that came out this year, this is a massive standout that managed to more than live up to the incredible name these guys have built for themselves.
Lorna Shore – Immortal – I called this as one of my albums of the year about a year ago, before the album itself had even come out. Despite some controversy that was handled promptly by the band, this blacked deathcore still went on to be the absolute heaviest album of the year.
Invent, Animate – Greyview – Honestly, I was surprised by this one. These guys have always been good but failed to really captivate me. Greyview was entirely different, it was a technical masterpiece and captivating from start to finish. It may be more Djenty, but these guys and Currents owned metalcore in 2020.
Be Well – The Weight and the Cost – This album is a special one, not many people caught it, and it probably won’t make many year-end lists, but this DC-born supergroup featuring a bunch of old metal and hardcore guys just really hit home for me, this felt very special and very personal.
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full – This collaboration really showed us the possibilities of the meeting of creative minds from two groups at the top of their different yet complimentary games. This folky, almost ethereal doom/sludge metal (sounds weird, right?) turned out to be perfect.
The Acacia Strain – Slow Decay – The music on this album was incredible, The Acacia Strain is always awesome, but this may be a highlight of theirs over the past few years, More than that though, the unorthodox release of this album – a series of 2-song EPs released every month or so spelling out DECAY, was just the coolest thing in the world.
Polaris – The Death of Me – I almost didn’t include this album cause it felt like another step towards the nu-metal trend in metalcore, but ultimately, I think that’s precisely why it deserves a spot on this list. This album is a bit of a blueprint for where metalcore is going, and it feels different, but it’s damn good.
Best EP (tie)
Bilmuri – Eggy Pocket – Again, I legit thought this project was a joke, the whole premise of it is just so weird. One of the guys from Attack Attack has a post-hardcore/R&B kind of project with just the weirdest aesthetics ever but man, does it work. This EP was so well done, I loved it so much.
Salem – Salem – This gets kind of into novelty territory, releasing a horror punk album right around Halloween, it’s a surefire way to get my attention. But they really played on the old Alkaline Trio, My Chem, AFI, Tiger Army sound and feel, and not only was it perfect contextually, it was pretty damn good full stop.
Best Single
Every Time I Die – All – This kind of goes without saying. We may not have gotten the new album this year, but we got three incredible singles, which are not only enough to hold me over until the new year, but also enough to make me more excited than ever about this new album.
Spiritbox – Holy Roller – This music delivery methods may be a bit unconventional, leaning towards releasing singles one by one as the main event, rather than a promotional tool for a full album. But it works, cause every stand-alone single that Spiritbox has released has been unreal, especially “Holy Roller”.
Best Show – hahahahahahahahaha *sobs* Nah, I saw Cult of Luna and Emma Ruth Rundle this year and it was awesome, but that’s literally it. That said, there were a lot of very good live streams. The Devil Wears Prada ones were very good, especially Roots Above. The Every Time I Die ‘Tidathon was basically a hilarious fever dream so that was awesome. And the Thursday and Darkest Hour/Misery Signals steams were also really good. Hopefully I’ll be able to add some actual live shows to my list for 2021 though.
That said, I think that does it for me for 2020. Thank you all again so so much for paying attention to these, it really means a lot. I’ve had a ton of fun writing them, but hearing all the encouragement from some of you, telling me how much you enjoyed it, how you found new bands from it, or how you have absolutely no idea what I was talking about cause you don’t listen to any of this music but still read it every week anyway, all of that was incredibly encouraging and made this all worth it. So, thanks again, and as I said, I’ll be back at it in a few weeks when the first real releases of 2020 start coming out.