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.
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New Music Report – December 11, 2020
Well, this is it, folks, this is the last of my new music posts for 2020. This is more or less the last week that will feature any notable releases for the remainder of the year, so I’ll be taking a few weeks off. I hugely appreciate every single one of you that’s read these, talked to me about new music, or discovered some new bands through my posts. I’ll pick these back up in January when the new releases start rolling out again, and in the meantime, I’ll be back in a week or so with my Top 10 list from the year.
Inspirit – This is a big one, I’m gonna need you all to bear with me for a second while I explain this. A little more than a decade ago, I was living in Boston playing in a post-hardcore band and there were two bands in particular in the Boston music scene that everyone loved universally: Therefore I Am and Vanna. This band, as it turns out, is literally Vanna from that point in time. If put the Boston music scene from the late-00s into a time capsule, and opened that time capsule up in 2020, Inspirit is what you would get. This is the 2006-ish Vanna lineup with the 2006-ish Vanna sound. They’ve made no attempts to modernize their sound or pander to any contemporary standards. They just made good, classic metalcore with strong vocal hooks, just as we enjoyed it back then, and it turns out, I enjoy it just as much today. Sure, I’m sure it’s partially due to some nostalgic value, as it will be for anybody that’s missed classic Vanna all these years, but there is an undeniable charm and honesty that comes from these songs that feels lacking in today’s hyper-technical, hyper-produced metalcore, and even for that alone, I love it.
Deftones (remix album) – Ok well, what can really be said about White Pony? It’s one of the most monumental albums of all time. So, choosing to remix it on its 20th anniversary was, well, both a no brainer and a bit of a risky move. On the one hand, everyone loves this album, and any opportunity to revisit it is certainly a welcome one. On the other than, what are the chances that songs like “Passenger” and “Change” can actually be improved upon, especially two decades later. I believe that songs are not only representative of the musicians, but also the time they were created, and White Pony really could have only existed in the year 2000. So, even with big names like Mike Shinoda, Squarepusher, DJ Shadow, Phantogram, and Purity Ring remixing these almost untouchable works of music, it wasn’t a sure thing. But did they miss the mark? I guess that’s a subjective answer. “Passenger” is one of my favorite songs of all time. Do I think Mike Shinoda improved upon it? No. Do I appreciate the new perspective on a song that means so much to me? Absolutely. And I think that’s the takeaway. This doesn’t improve upon White Pony, it simply allows you to look at it through a new lens, and I think for that, it’s worth a listen.
Singles – You know how I’ve been saying for weeks that I don’t usually talk about singles then proceed to talk about singles? Well, these are two of my favorite bands and I can do what I want.
Every Time I Die – God, what a fucking year 2020 has been. And the postponement of the new ETID album was another giant turd on a great big disappointment of a year. But man, are they coming in at the last minute to save the day. These two new singles prove that they really are one of the greatest bands out there. ETID may be my favorite band so I’m very, very biased here, but these new singles; holy shit, dude. Not only are these absolute rippers, but the production value is the best we’ve ever heard from the boys, Goose’s drumming fits the band perfectly, and the on top of all that, the band are still out there willing to keep experimenting with new and adventurous compositions. As a result, these singles are a very enticing taste of what’s to come. Now here’s hoping we can get our shit together in 2021 so we can get the new album and I can see these guys live again. In the meantime, check out the livestream they’re doing this Saturday (12/19).
Cult of Luna – Speaking of 2020 being a disaster, this was the last band I got to see live, I’m actually wearing a Cult of Luna hoodie right now. So, I’m awfully fond of these guys too. I honestly wasn’t expecting new material from them so quickly after their absolutely incredible 2019 album, A Dawn to Fear, but here we have the first single off their upcoming EP. “Three Bridges” is an epic, almost 9 minute long sludgy, post metal masterpiece. It feels like a continuation of A Dawn to Fear, but very much its own piece moving into a new, grander direction. This is fantastic, and now I’m VERY excited for the new album.
Read MoreNew Music Report – December 4, 2020
The new music is still getting a bit slim as we reach the end of the year but this past week was still pretty cool. I don’t want to cover all these, but in addition to the music I covered, we also got new music from Evanescence (single), Deftones (remix single), Hollywood Undead, Goldfinger, and Rammstein (remastered album). Which, if nothing else, is more proof that time is meaningless cause that shouldn’t all be happening in 2020. Now on to the albums I actually want to talk about.
Sigur Ros – This album is a massive, incredible experience. This is a recording is their first true orchestral work, which they live premiered back in 2002 and finally recorded for listeners everywhere. There’s honestly just so much to say about this record, it’s featuring Icelandic post rock legends, Sigur Ros, who are, of course absolutely, brilliant and need no introduction, plus the Reykjavik choir and the orchestra from the Paris Conservatory, showcasing music composed to tell the Medieval Icelandic legend of an apocalyptic banquet. I mean, how fucking cool is every single detail of that? And honestly, when you lay it all out like that it’s kind of hard to actually appreciate the magnitude of the thing. It’s like trying to imagine what a billion of something looks like; all of the pieces are so large and magnificent it’s almost impossible to comprehend what it would actually look – or in this case, sound – like. But let me tell you, it’s just as grand and amazing as your think it could possibly be, perhaps even better. This is an incredibly captivating and beautiful piece of music, and I definitely encourage everyone to check it out.
Annisokay – Well, technically this album release got pushed back to the end of January, but they fucked this up monumentally so I’m writing about it now as a warning. Understandably, many bands have delayed album releases this year in hopes that later on in the year, they can start playing shows again and actually promote the album and maybe make a little money. In theory, this makes sense. It’s never worked though. PVRIS, New Found Glory, Lamb of God, Bury Tomorrow, etc, all of them pushed back their album releases, ALL of them leaked before the original release date anyway. It never works. Now on to the music itself… Honestly, it’s equally as disappointing as the botched album release itself. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Kingdom of Giants album, and about how it had some solid hooks but had no real substance. That’s exactly what happened here, this album is generic, store brand metalcore to the point where it was just completely bland and unappealing. They tried to follow the textbook a bit too closely and they lost any soul their music would have otherwise had. I had high hopes for this one, but it just didn’t hit right.
Singles – As I’ve said before, I don’t really cover singles often unless they’re very special, but this week we’ve got three of them, and I really feel like I should at least mention them all.
Spiritbox – I really fell in love with Spiritbox this year, they’re really at the top of the game in terms of songwriting, lyrics, technicality, everything, really. This is basically the polar opposite of “Holy Roller”; this song isn’t heavy at all, but it’s absolutely crushing and truly gorgeous.
Captives – This is my absolute favorite unknown band to share with people. They’re a UK band that has perfected what a post hardcore band should be in a way that I haven’t heard since early Hands Like Houses or self-titled era Emarosa. They just signed with Sharptone Records so get ready to hear a lot more from them.
Architects – I know they’ve been making the slow descent into butt rock, but honestly, they deserve it. Architects have been defining metalcore for more than a decade now. And now they’re doing the same thing with heavy mainstream, I respected it but wasn’t a huge fan at first, but this new single is genuinely good.
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New Music Report – November 27, 2020
Well, the year is winding down and so is the new music to talk about. Thankfully, we still have a few good weeks left, and those weeks tend to give us some very cool very unexpected albums that are always a nice way to carry us through the barren month around the holidays before new music for 2021 starts showing up, and what a way to do it this year.
Palm Reader – Almost every year, I end up surprised by a really cool last minute, end of year release, and this year is no different. While I’ve been following this chaotic British metalcore/melodic hardcore for years now, they’ve always been mostly lukewarm to me. They’ve been an objectively good, but not quite stellar band. They felt like they had the makings of something really impressive but had a little trouble actually getting there. This is their arrival. This album is spectacular. I know I tend to draw comparisons to other bands with familiar sounds to help define a band or an album, but for this band it’s kind of hard. It’s got so many very familiar sounds and styles that just sound right, but still incredibly unique; flavors of so many of my favorite chaotic and iconic bands, but they all cumulate to become just themselves, just Palm Reader. And man, is it brilliant. There’s an epic blend of dark atmospherics, raw chaos, and wonderful texturized synths giving a soundscape for a diverse mix of ripping screams, airy clean vocals, and a vocal strain to meet every tone in between. Check this out.
Within the Ruins – For well more than a decade now, Within the Ruins have been pushing the limits of progressive metalcore/deathcore, and during the last 5 or 6 years, in particular, they have been having a particularly tumultuous career. From lineup changes, illness, bus accidents, and more, Within the Ruins have really been put to the test and kept on pushing where many other bands would have called it a day. That makes this new album – their first with new vocalist, Steve Tinnon – even more impressive. While this may not be the pinnacle of Within the Ruins in any singular moment, it’s an incredibly strong and comprehensive showcase of what the band is capable of, with many soaring highs and incredible technical moments. This is quite possibly the most consistently impressive Within the Ruins album, at least in quite some time. This is an absolute banger of an album that hits nonstop with a bit of everything, from brutal chugging metal, to djenty leads, to groovy synths. It’s wild, it sounds like a mishmash of things that should probably be a bit too chaotic to work together, but these guys are absolute masterminds of extreme metal, and this album, above all else, perhaps, proves exactly why.
Plini – This is a tricky one. I make a habit of just writing about music that I enjoy personally, I know that really limits me, but this is intended to be an informal thing to allows me to share the things that I like, not to try to fish for likes by trashing anyone’s music. But this one, this is different. Now, I know this is strange, I really love progressive, heavy instrumental music, but when it loses the heavy factor, I really lose all interest. Which I know is super lame, but bands like Polyphia and Chon do absolutely nothing for me, but I LOVE bands like Night Verses. Go figure. Anyway, Plini falls into the category of the latter. He’s an incredibly talented musician and writes quasi-heavy, very progressive, almost jazzy instrumental music. And I’ll be the first to say that it isn’t necessarily for me, it’s just not my thing. But I really have to recognize the sheer talent going on here. And really, the diversity in this album, covering the full spectrum of soundscapes into the heaviness that I am familiar with makes it all the more captivating. This was a big surprise, I knew how good Plini was, but I still wasn’t expecting it to hit the spot, but man, I’m just so in awe at this man’s talent, it’s impossible to not enjoy this.
HORSE the Band – Well, this was unexpected. I never thought I’d be writing about HORSE the Band again, but 2020 is full of surprises, so here we are. And for what it’s worth, it’s a short album, it’s two new songs and a cover, but it’s still really incredible to say that we’ve got some new music from these guys. If you know this band, you know, if you don’t and you enjoy absolutely chaos and nonsense and something called Nintendocore, then check this out.
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New Music Report – November 19, 2020
This past week has been a pretty big one for new music, I suppose all of this year’s releases are beginning to wind down as the holidays come up and people are starting to think of their end of year lists, but that doesn’t mean the energy or quality from any of these records is dwindling or lacking in any way, in fact every single album here is incredibly special in its own right, and can deliver a little something for just about every taste.
Killer Be Killed – I’m always somewhat dubious of supergroups, some of them end up being pretty good, or at least fun, but they’re usually either a flash in the pan sort of thing, or just don’t live up to the hype that the individual pieces bring to the table. But this year has been challenging that opinion pretty hard. And funny enough, just about every band that’s been pushing the envelope features a member of The Dillinger Escape Plan. Take from that what you will. This, however, is even crazier. Killer Be Killed features Greg Puciato from The Dillinger Escape Plan, Ben Koller from Converge, Troy Sanders from Mastodon, and Max Cavalera from Sepultura/Soulfly. Which is basically the who’s who of important metal bands of the past two or three decades. And the final product is really remarkable, especially considering all members except Koller share vocal duties on every track. It seems overwhelming on paper, but that’s never the case, it truly feels like cohesive package, playing on all their individual strengths while still working very hard feel like a band, rather than a group of individuals, to create a complete, captivating album that absolutely rips.
Bilmuri – So this is a little embarrassing, I thought this project was a joke project for way too long. I guess between the whole aesthetic, the name, and the fact that it’s the solo project of an ex-member of Attack Attack!, I thought the whole thing was meant to be a bit silly. And I suppose it is, to a degree – there is a pan flute breakdown – but man this is fantastic. There is actually a ton of thought and talent put into this project, the song writing is incredible; some incredibly well done mix between pop and post-hardcore that most post-hardcore bands could only dream of. It’s wonderfully weird and eccentric and absolutely blew away whatever expectations I had from this EP; this is just incredibly high quality music. I mean, we always knew Johnny Franck was incredibly talented from his days in Attack Attack!. Say what you will about that band’s style, they knew how to write incredibly catchy songs, and Franck was really the driving force behind that. And those song writing chops have really had a chance to shine with Bilmuri, and it’s just as impressive as ever.
Tombs – Alright, this one is kind of a handful and trying to explain the genre will make me sound like a bit of a pretentious ass, so bear with me, but they’re basically black metal-based and death metal influenced with post metal structuring and composition and strong, gritty sludge and doom metal elements mixed in. There’s no real streamlined way to say that. But, as much of a mouthful as it may be, it’s incredible. Albums like this are one of the reasons why I write this post every week. This is for sure going to fly under way too many people’s radars, but I sincerely hope this motivates someone to go check it out. It’s actually unfair to try and associate this band too closely with black metal cause so much gets lost along the way and the criticism of the genre-bending elements that make this album so special really get in the way. So, you should really just think of this as a very dark, gritty, and unique metal album, not exactly the sum of its pieces, but something entirely new and in that sense, pretty special, as well. It may take a little bit to truly get in to this album, but it is well worth the effort.
Pg.lost – I now post rock as a whole can be sort of polarizing to some people, while I happen to love it, a lot of people don’t find the long, meandering song arrangements and slow burn builds to be captivating in any way. There are a few exceptions to this rule; bands that can stick true to to the ethos of post rock and post metal while still keeping the music at a rolling boil throughout, and pg.lost are one of the best at that. Rather than embracing the scarcity and open space that some post rock bands lean on, pg.lost layer an incredible mix of post metal, shoe gaze, synth leads, and some occasional ambient to set a foundation. It’s a fascinating mix of so many different sounds and influences, creating an incredibly deep composition of feelings and soundscapes, from thundering post metal to a Mogwai-esq synth driven post rock. But whatever form the music takes, it’s an especially dynamic and immersive take on post metal, leaving more and more to be discovered and felt on every listen.
Dark Tranquility – Man, this one takes me back. As soon as I put this record on it felt like I was in middle school discovering bands like In Flames, At the Gates, and indeed, Dark Tranquility for the first time. It was a really incredible time in the history of melodeath, and I really do revel in any chance I get to relive the heyday of the genre. But it’s kind of unfair to proceed without recognizing that those days have indeed passed, and I can never hear Clayman for the first time ever again. But Dark Tranquility have always been that solid landmark in melodeath, while others went off to transform their sound, Dark Tranquility just kinda stayed the same. You always knew what to expect from their next album. Now, whether this lack of progress (or reliable consistency) is a bad thing or not is entirely up to you, but after a while you do kind of want something fresh. This album… Well, this album isn’t that. It’s a small step in the right direction; it has a bit more depth than the old standard, but at its core, it’s still basically the same thing. But honestly, I’ll take it. It was very enjoyable, if mostly for the nostalgia.
Phoebe Bridgers – This EP doesn’t actually feature any new music, but instead reimagined songs off Punisher, her absolutely breathtaking album from earlier this year. These four songs have been redone as acoustic tracks with string arrangements. As usual, they’re incredible. Again, it’s nothing new, but if you like Phoebe Bridgers even a fraction as much as I do, it’s at least worth checking out.
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