Album Of The Year 2020

Sodom – Genesis XIX

November 27, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Germany
Style: Thrash metal
Label: Steamhammer
Release date: 27 November 2020

Sodom’s sixteenth album comes with a lineup shake-up. Frank Blackfire is back on guitar for the first time since Agent Orange in 1989, Yorck Segatz joins as second guitarist, and Toni Merkel takes over the drums. That makes Genesis XIX the first Sodom album recorded as a four-piece, and the extra guitar gives Tom Angelripper’s songs a thicker, meaner edge.

“Sodom & Gomorrah” is a straight-up Teutonic thrash beating, the title track stretches out past seven minutes with plenty of riff changes, and “Euthanasia” is as fast and filthy as anything they did in the eighties. “Nicht mehr mein Land” sounds furious. It runs a bit long at twelve tracks, but the energy hardly drops. Old-school in the best way.

Best tracks:

Sodom & Gomorrah
Euthanasia
Genesis XIX
Nicht mehr mein Land

Author’s rating: 8.3/10

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Dark Tranquillity – Moment

November 20, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Sweden
Style: Melodic death metal
Label: Century Media
Release date: 20 November 2020

Moment is Dark Tranquillity’s twelfth album and the first with guitarists Christopher Amott and Johan Reinholdz in the line-up. You can hear the new blood straight away. The leads are more fluid and more melodic than on recent records, weaving around the keyboards rather than sitting under them, while the melancholy core of the band’s sound stays exactly where it should.

“Phantom Days” opens with a brisk, urgent riff and one of the strongest choruses the band have written in a decade. “Identical to None” and “The Dark Unbroken” keep that energy high, but the album is at its best when it lets the atmosphere breathe. “Standstill” is a mournful highlight, and “Eyes of the World” has the kind of bittersweet melody this band do better than almost anyone.

Martin Brändström recorded it and Jens Bogren mixed it, so it sounds huge without being sterile. It is a dark, grown-up record from veterans who still care about the details.

Best tracks:

Phantom Days
Identical to None
Standstill
Eyes of the World

Author’s rating: 8.6/10

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Sólstafir – Endless Twilight of Codependent Love

November 6, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Iceland
Style: Post-metal
Label: Season of Mist
Release date: 6 November 2020

Endless Twilight of Codependent Love is Sólstafir’s seventh album, and it feels like a pull back toward heavier ground. Not all the way back. But “Akkeri” opens the record with ten minutes of hard-driving riffs, a touch of black metal and Aðalbjörn Tryggvason’s cracked, half-howled vocals before it opens out into the wide, slow-burning sound the band has owned for a decade.

The production keeps everything warm and roomy, so the guitars have space to ring instead of just grinding. “Drýsill” is the closest thing to a straight rocker here, all swagger and a chorus that sticks. “Her Fall From Grace” is the quiet, aching centre of the record and hits harder than most of the loud songs.

It runs long and a couple of the mid-album tracks wander a little. Then “Úlfur” arrives to close things out and you forgive all of it.

Best tracks:

Akkeri
Drýsill
Her Fall From Grace
Úlfur

Author’s rating: 8.6/10

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Fates Warning – Long Day Good Night

November 6, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Progressive metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release date: 6 November 2020

Long Day Good Night is Fates Warning’s thirteenth studio album, and it is a long one. Thirteen songs, more than seventy minutes, and very little interest in sticking to one mood for long. Fates Warning sound like a band that has stopped worrying about what a prog metal record is supposed to sound like.

The heavy end still works best. “The Destination Onward” opens with patience before the riff finally lands, and “Scars” is the tightest, most direct thing here, all clipped rhythm guitar and a chorus that sticks on the first pass. Joey Vera’s bass does a lot of quiet heavy lifting throughout, especially when the songs slow down.

And they do slow down. “When Snow Falls” is nearly all atmosphere, and a couple of the mid-album tracks drift toward soft-focus rock without adding much. It’s the length that hurts, not the quality of any single song. Still, “The Longest Shadow of the Day” is a genuinely great piece of writing, all slow-building tension and release, and it justifies the whole sprawl. Trim three tracks and this would be one of their best.

Best tracks:

The Destination Onward
Scars
The Longest Shadow of the Day
The Last Song

Author’s rating: 8.4/10

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Undeath – Lesions of a Different Kind

October 23, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Death metal
Label: Prosthetic Records
Release date: 23 October 2020

Rochester’s Undeath play old-school death metal with no apologies and no modern gloss, and their debut album is a riot. Gory titles, rotten grooves, and riffs that actually stick in your head.

“Suitably Hacked To Gore” kicks the door in and the energy barely drops after that. The title track brings in The Black Dahlia Murder’s Trevor Strnad for a guest turn, and “Acidic Twilight Visions” is pure filthy fun. “Kicked In The Protruding Guts” does exactly what the title promises.

Nothing here is new. It doesn’t need to be. Undeath simply write better songs than most of the bands mining the same early-90s territory.

Best tracks:

Suitably Hacked To Gore
Lesions Of A Different Kind
Acidic Twilight Visions
Kicked In The Protruding Guts

Author’s rating: 8.2/10

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Pallbearer – Forgotten Days

October 23, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Doom metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release date: 23 October 2020

After the proggy detours of Heartless, Pallbearer’s fourth album goes back to the riff. Randall Dunn, best known for his work with Sunn O))) and Earth, produced it, and the guitars come out thick, warm and enormous. The title track opens with a crawling, almost primitive groove that sounds like the band remembering why they started playing doom in the first place.

The vocals are still the secret weapon. They float above the sludge rather than fighting it, and on “Riverbed” and “Rite Of Passage” the melodies stick hard. “Silver Wings” is the patient centrepiece, building so slowly you barely notice how heavy it has become.

Closer “Caledonia” ends on a gentler, more reflective note. Sad, heavy, and very human.

Best tracks:

Forgotten Days
Riverbed
Silver Wings
Rite Of Passage

Author’s rating: 8.8/10

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Mors Principium Est – Seven

October 23, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Finland
Style: Melodic death metal
Label: AFM Records
Release date: 23 October 2020

The Finns’ seventh album, and their first since Embers of a Dying World in 2017, is exactly what the title promises and exactly what the fans wanted: fast, polished melodic death metal with Andy Gillion’s guitar leads and orchestral keyboards everywhere and Ville Viljanen barking over the top.

“A Day For Redemption” is a perfect opener, all galloping drums and a lead melody you will hum for days. “Lost In A Starless Aeon” keeps the pace up, “At The Shores Of Silver Sand” is the most epic thing here, and the closing “My Home, My Grave” slows down just enough to let the symphonic side breathe. The production is brickwall loud, which wears on you over a full listen. The songs are strong enough to survive it.

Best tracks:

A Day For Redemption
Lost In A Starless Aeon
At The Shores Of Silver Sand
My Home, My Grave

Author’s rating: 8.3/10

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Armored Saint – Punching the Sky

October 23, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Heavy metal
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release date: 23 October 2020

Punching the Sky is Armored Saint’s eighth studio album, produced by bassist Joey Vera and mixed by Jay Ruston. It’s a mature, confident heavy metal record from a band that has nothing left to prove and still plays like it does.

John Bush is the star. His voice has lost none of its grit, and he sings these songs with real conviction. “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” is a big, ambitious opener, “End of the Attention Span” is pure hard-hitting Saint, and “Lone Wolf” has one of the best choruses they’ve written in years. Guns N’ Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed adds Hammond and piano, which gives a couple of songs a warmer, classic-rock glow.

At eleven tracks it runs a bit long, and a couple of the mid-album songs blend together. But “Bubble” and “Missile to Gun” keep the energy up, and the playing is tight all the way through.

Best tracks:

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
End of the Attention Span
Lone Wolf
Bubble

Author’s rating: 8.3/10

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Benediction – Scriptures

October 16, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: UK
Style: Death metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release date: 16 October 2020

Twelve years after Killing Music, Benediction finally returned with Scriptures, and Dave Ingram is back on vocals for the first time since the late nineties. Scott Atkins produced it at Grindstone Studio. No reinvention, no surprises. Just mid-paced British death metal with a punk kick and riffs that groove instead of blur.

Opener “Iterations of I” sets the tone, “Stormcrow” and “Rabid Carnality” are the obvious headbangers, and “We Are Legion” closes with a proper old-school stomp. Ingram’s growl sounds like it never left. Twelve songs is maybe one or two too many, but it’s a comeback that sounds exactly like the band should.

Best tracks:

Iterations of I
Stormcrow
Rabid Carnality
We Are Legion

Author’s rating: 8.2/10

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Necrophobic – Dawn of the Damned

October 9, 2020 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Sweden
Style: Blackened death metal
Label: Century Media
Release date: 9 October 2020

Necrophobic’s ninth album picks up where Mark of the Necrogram left off and pushes the melody even harder. Guitarists Sebastian Ramstedt and Johan Bergebäck stack up melodies that would not sound out of place on an old Iron Maiden record, but the riffs underneath are cold, fast Swedish blackened death metal, and Anders Strokirk’s rasp keeps everything nasty. Fredrik Folkare of Unleashed recorded and mixed it, and the guitars have real bite.

“Mirror Black” is the obvious hit, all galloping menace and a chorus you can actually shout. “Tartarian Winds” and “The Infernal Depths of Eternity” are where the band really stretch out, and closer “Devil’s Spawn Attack” brings in Destruction’s Schmier for a gleeful, old-school thrashing finish. Necrophobic sound hungrier here than most bands half their age.

Best tracks:

Mirror Black
Tartarian Winds
The Infernal Depths of Eternity
Devil’s Spawn Attack

Author’s rating: 8.6/10

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Sodom – Genesis XIX

Dark Tranquillity – Moment

Sólstafir – Endless Twilight of Codependent Love

Fates Warning – Long Day Good Night

Undeath – Lesions of a Different Kind

Pallbearer – Forgotten Days

Mors Principium Est – Seven

Armored Saint – Punching the Sky

Benediction – Scriptures

Necrophobic – Dawn of the Damned

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