Best Albums of 2020

[Zzzptm]

Time for the list... there were other releases in 2020 that I listened to and *didn't* buy, so I'm only ranking albums that I liked, with the exception of one, which was very easy to slot into that last place position.. I got 18 to rank, so here they are in order from 18 to 1

18. The Symbol Remains - Blue Oyster Cult
This one really disappointed, especially after the single release that was oh-so-heavy and juicy. Damn shame, but this one won't get as much repeat play as the others.

17. The Wax Monster Lives Behind the First Row of Trees - Moon Goose
Moon Goose channels Frank Zappa through a stoner rock amplifier stack and the result, while bizarre, remains somewhat charming. It's fun, but very very weird.

16. Hyperacusis - Chris Joss
I like this album, but there wasn't as much attention-grabbing in the instrumentals on offer as we had in Escape Unlikely or Soundtrack from "The Man with a Suitcase". It's a good, ambient album and definitely has a solid "coolness" about it.

15. 2020 Back to Earth - Kayleth
I had a lot of fun with this album, especially the sax solo in "Lost in the Canyons". Dude, space rock like that goes straight to the hearts of any Hawkwind fan, I tell you what. The second half of the album is a bit of a letdown, relative to that strong opening, but it's still worth checking out.

14. Animal Oxygen - Cobra Thief
Stoner rock that's straight, no chaser. They did it up right and I'll be looking forward to their next album.

13. Flux Capacitor - Here the Captain Is Speaking
It's instrumental space rock that's great for ambience or just thinking about stuff. It succeeds where Kayleth failed in that the album is consistent throughout. While it lacks as strong a track as "Lost in the Canyons", it doesn't slack off at the end, and I really enjoy playing this album for that reason.

12. 20/20 - Strange Majik
One thing I really needed this year was another album along the lines of Teaser or Private Eyes, and Dave Pattillo made just such an album. It's got a lively start, but gets into a tighter, more introspective sound pretty quickly. If you can handle the sea change, you got a great album on your hands. Add in his follow-up single "Can't Remember to Forget You", and you have a perfect finisher for this piece of workmanship. If you like Tommy Bolin, definitely check out Strange Majik's releases.

11. How the West Was Lost - The Marlboro Men
Not much to say about this except it's some awesomely fun stoner rock jamming. Great music for car chases, or for pretending you're in a car chase as you drive your errands.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Talking of Hawkwind, did get to listen their release this year Carnivorous (anagram of Coronavirus!), I thought it was solid but need to give it more listens.

[Zzzptm]

Top ten, now... I was surprised at how easy it was for me to get these arranged in the order I picked. Here goes:

10. Contra - Vuelveteloca
The boys from Chile made a great album this year. Spacey, psychedelic, and throbbingly heavy from end to end. Their best since Jinete Galactico, if that means anything to you...

9. Refractions - Lowrider
To say that I was excited about seeing a new Lowrider album this year is an understatement. It's been something like two decades since their genre-defining Ode to Io release, so I was good and ready for this to hit the streets. This one is just as good, and I'll not compare two albums from 20 years apart any more than that. Heavy desert rock that hits home.

8. Endless Nights - The Hypnagogics
Tried this on for size, just for kicks, and became a fan of the band. Female-fronted heavy doom with great instrumental sensibilities. Imagine The Damned gone heavier and you got a good idea of where this band is mining musical gold.

7. Ya Wanna Know What It's Like - Various artists, tribute to Hollywood Brats and The Boys
Listening to this glam punk masterpiece right now. Name your own price on Bandcamp for 20+ punk classics, each barely getting a breath of air before they return to obscurity. I find myself spinning this album a lot, and I love it every time it goes 'round the MP3 player.

6. La Guerra del Fin de Mundo - La Iglesia Atomica
This is unquestionably La Iglesia Atomica's heaviest release, thematically akin to ELP's Tarkus, but way harder-hitting by a long shot. In English, the title is "The War of the End of the World" and I can guarantee that it sounds just like that. Massive jam-metal tracks that do not disappoint.

5. Youth of Dissent - 1000Mods
1000Mods is a band I have learned to look forward to. Youth of Dissent will keep me in that frame of mind. It's definitely got more of a grunge feel than their previous album, but that was the only surprise for me in this otherwise true-to-form release. Solid rockers dot the scene on this album, and it's a real treat for the ears that love that heavy stuff.

4. Binary Sunset Massacre - Bantha Rider
It's a Bantha Rider record. Oh hell yes, it's that good. Stoner metal jams with live ammo. Triple Z sez check it out!

3. Punching the Sky - Armored Saint
This was SO GOOD to hear this year, after all the crazy we had. John Bush is as fresh today as he was in the late 80s, and that's a wonderful thing. I cherish this record and all of its straight-shooting metal.

2. Whoosh! - Deep Purple
This is controversial, but folks seem to either love it or not, and I'm in the "love it" camp. We've gone over how no one song really stands out, but the album as a whole absolutely does stand out, like some organically interconnected prog-rock opus. It's no secret that I love Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick and that I've got a soft spot for Magma's Theusz Hamtaak trilogy... so, yeah, I'mma gonna like Whoosh!, no question about it. For the Morse era releases, I consider it as strong as Now What?! and Purpendicular. So it's my second place for album of the year. First place is...

1. Faithless Rituals - Sky Valley Mistress
They sound like Adele armed with an AK-47, holed up in a garage in a police standoff. Brave, heavy, blusey, strong hard rock that deserves the top spot for album of the year. I love this band and have been watching them make their way over the last few years, so it's great to see them get some loving attention from the originators of the stoner rock scene in producing their first full-length release. It's a shame that their earlier material on Bandcamp got yanked in advance of this release, but if this was all I could get, then I'd be satisfied. If you listen to just one track, go ahead and start with the opener, "You Got Nothin'", a balls-to-the-wall rager that comes at you with broken beer bottle guitar and brass knuckle bass and drums, all supporting a razor-sharp vocalist who does her own thing. And then after you listen to that one track, you're a damn fool to not listen to all the others. I'm so glad that the producer let the band do on this album what they've done in their other work and didn't try to make them over into something that they're not. This is Sweet Lady Rock and Roll, and every song is a passionate kiss from her.

[Charger]

I've been thinking about my list and I find it hard to get 10 albums....

2 albums I can say we'd have in common ZZZ...I don't think I even need to name which two!

But I have to think about the others a bit...

[Zzzptm]

@Charger: I'm the first to admit that my list is mostly eclectic, but yeah, DP and SVM definitely belong on a lot of lists this year. I'd say that Armored Saint's effort is another that metal fans in general should take note of. Were you able to catch that one this year?

@Elves: Ozzy didn't impress me this year, so I'd be interested to know what you saw in it that gets you to put it on top, maybe it's something I missed.

[Charger]

Ordinary Man would belong on my worst albums of the year list...


So far albums that I think would belong on the list are

Deep Purple - Whoosh
Sky Valley Mistress - Faitless Rituals
Nightmare - Aeternam
Sons Of Apollo - MMXX
Metal Church - From The Vault (it has enough new/unreleased material to cut it I think)
Burning Witches - Dance With The Devil
Visions Of Atlantis - A Symphonic Journey To Remember (A live album/dvd but need to be mentioned)
Blaze Bayley - Live In Czech (also a live album/dvd but a great great prefromance)

Was somewhat disappointed by both Melanie C's and Lucifer's new albums...both had some good tracks but no great ones...so I'm not sure they'd really be worthy.

Haven't bought the new AC/DC album yet so can't say anything about that...based on the two or three tracks it's classic AC/DC material though...both in good and bad.

Zakk Sabbath's Vertigo as interesting as it is and the quality is most certainly there it's in the end just a cover album...not really worthy of being on a top 10 list.

Delain's new album is yet to be bought as well but based on the tracks I have heard it's bit underwhelming too sadly...

Hammerfall's new live album/dvd is something I'd need to check out too...

But looks like my top 10 might just be 8 albums this year....need to put them in order though....

[Zzzptm]

Metal Church is a tough call on being a "new" album, but if you want to go with it being new, I'll allow it.

[Charger]

Metal Church is a tough call on being a "new" album, but if you want to go with it being new, I'll allow it.

True it techically only had 4 new songs as the other 5 were unreleased from Damned If You Do...but all in all that still counts as 9 previously unreleased tracks....there have been full new albums out with less new tracks though...


And I also did remember another one... Archon Angel - Fallen...so that brings it up to 9 albums.

[Jack the Stripper]

I’ll go with the 10 I’ve listened to most but no particular order but Mr Bungle is definitely no 1

1. Mr Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo

Testament- Titans of Creation
Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man
Armorerd Saint - Punching the Sky
Havok - V
Body Count - Carnivore
Sodom - Genesis XIX
AC/DC - Power Up
Alcatrazz- Born Innocent
Kirk Windstein - Dream in Motion

Worst album of the year - Deep Purple practically backed out a turd and packaged it up with Whoosh!

Most looking forward to 2021 - Megadeth, Accept, Judas Priest, Ozzy, anything new from Tony Iommi.

[Zzzptm]

Worst album of the year - Deep Purple practically backed out a turd and packaged it up with Whoosh!

Not a lot of middle ground on that album.

New Megadeth is indeed something I'd like to hear in 2021.

[Scott]

Was a surprise drop, but the new Briton Rites album really knocked it out of the park. Epic theatrical doom metal that unashamedly owes a lot to four guys from Birmingham.

Hey Z, you mentioned being disappointed by the new BOC. Have you checked out Albert Bouchard's 'Reimaginos'? Joe dropped a solid solo album this last year too.

[Charger]

My top 10 will be a top 9 this year.

9.
Visions Of Atlantis - A Symphonic Journey To Remember

I'm usually not a big fan of dual vocal bands but VOA does it quite well and the voice of Clementine Delauney is just stunning. This live bluray is a great testament of their power. Filmed with a full symphony orchestra it adds much depth to the songs. Again that is something that I'm not always very fond of...Orchestra can work or it can't. For straight forward metal it's a no no, but for music that has more depth and orchestration to begin with it tends to work better, and that certainly is the case here.
A great live recording, well worthy of the mention.

8.
Burning Witches - Dance With The Devil

Much to my saddness the original singer Seraina Telli left the band in 2019 to focus more on her other project Dead Venus and that was a huge shock especially after the incredible Hexenhammer album. Seraina's vocals especially were stellar. But they found a new singer with near matching talent in Laura Guldemond whose voice soars with almost the same power as Seraina's did. The first song they put out didn't capture me quite the same way but the title track was again a stellar track.. The album didn't quite reach the high of Hexenhammer but is still a very solid piece of classic heavy metal from these Swiss ladies...well Swiss and Dutch ladies now.

7.
Metal Church - From The Vault

Metal Church released an album that had 9 unreleased songs (4 new ones and 5 leftovers from the Damned If You Do album sessions) and 4 cover tracks and 2 live tracks from the vaults. The new tracks were all Metal Church through and through and Dead On The Vine, For No Reason and the remake of the classic superfast rocker Conductor are all top notch. Tell Lie Vision and False Flag carry on with the classic Metal Chuch onslaught. Some of the covers don't work quite so well but the Nazareth cover of Please Don't Judas Me is pretty damn close of being a masterpiece. The two live tracks from the early 90s are nice additions as well.
With Metal Church you can hardly go wrong...especially with Mike Rowe at the helm.

6.
Nightmare - Aeternam

Much the same thing happened here than with the Witches...singer Maggy Luyten decided to leave the band in 2019 to focus more on her acoustic projects and teaching jobs so Nightmare was forced to look for a new singer...and they too found a very worthy replacement in the form of Madie Dien. Her vocals are nothing short of brilliant. She's got a perfect balance of aggressiveness and softness in her voice that works perfectly with this French metal icon. Great old school metal with a modern twist.

5.
Archon Angel - Fallen

Zak Stevens returned to the frontlines again after few years of absence since Circle II Circle called it quits with a project with Italian guitarist/songwriter Aldo Lonobile. The band combines the sounds of both Circle II Circle and Savatage to a very nice mixture of heavy metal and hard rock. Some of the songs are bit on the softer side but there is enough edge on some to give you serious case of trip down Savatage memory lane. Zak also gave some of the lyrical writing duties to his wife Kat who proves to be quite a capable lyricist indeed.
Vocally Zak sounds nearly as great as he did back in his Savatage days, soaring effortlessly from higher operatic pitches to low bass sounds proving the years have done very little to damage his incredible voice. Songs like Rise, Under The Spell and especially the epical very Savatage-esque Return Of The Storm are all brilliant...and leave me wanting more from these guys.

4.
Sons Of Apollo - MMXX

The progressive metal supergroup returned with an incredibly strong second album. Band that consists of the talents of Mike Portnoy, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, Billy Sheehan, Derek Sherinian and Jeff Scott Soto is going to deliver the goods...There is a great mixture of striaght foward metal with some prog elements and full blown massive progressive epics on the album. Someone might say this is like Dream Theater light or something, which couldn't be further from the truth. This is vastly different band. And honestly I have to say I much prefer this to Dream Theater. This has bit more METAL in the progressiveness. And ofcourse Jeff Scott Soto's vocals are incredibly strong.


3.
Blaze Bayley - Live In Czech

After the three years of touring and releasing an album a year with the Infinite Entanglement trilogy Blaze thought it would be cool to do one more tour and this time play the songs from the trilogy that didn't get played on the earlier tours...mainly the bigger more epical songs from the albums. This tour sadly never made it Finland and that being the first time in 10 years I was unable to see Blaze in action. And this setlist was by far the best one of them all so when he stated he'd be doing a live album was like a dream come true...there was a way for me to enjoy this wonderful setlist as well.
Recorded in a small club in the Czech Republic this again caputures Blaze at his best. Interacting closely with the audience, feeding from their energy and vise versa. Blaze is one of THE best live preformers I've ever seen. He's enthusiasm and energy is totally unmatched...He's backing band which consists of the UK band Absolva is also top notch and their live energy is almost up there with Blaze...especially the guitar master Chris Appleton, who is by far the most talented guitarist Blaze has ever had in his solo band...and most certainly can touch the greateness of Dave Murray and Janick Gers as well...heck he has to as he's playing both of their parts on his own during the few Maiden songs in the set!
Wonderful live album.

2.
Sky Valley Mistress - Faithless Rituals

The true surprise album on this list comes from the very young band in the UK. They mix styles of old school hard rock and early 70s heavy metal with a rather doomy guitar sound quite brilliantly. The incredible vocals of Kayley Davies are what really drive this band, that being said though the rest of the young band aren't any slouches either. Every now and then there comes a band that really blows your mind with their debut album and Sky Valley Mistress most certainly is one of them...Tracks like You Got Nothin', Punk Song, She Is So and the closer Electric Church are all top notch...the only slight dip is the epical nearly 11 minute Blue Desert which drags on a bit in the soft middle section...but it still showcases the immense talent of these kids and one can only hope that there will be more from them in the future...much more.


1.
DEEP PURPLE - WHOOSH!

After more than 50 (!!!) years of recording music the iconic band puts out their most complex and thought provoking album to date. And that is something of a feature in itself. Legendary producer Bob Ezrin brought yet more new life into the band with their 3rd album together. All of the songs were pretty much written and recorded live like back in the day which according to both Roger Glover and Ian Gillan is the way the band works best and this album surely is a testament to that. It is almost hard to imagine that these were done live as they are without a doubt the most complex songs Purple has ever done. There is a layer beyond layer in virtually every single song. You have to listen again and again and again to fully appreciate each song. This is not an album for simpletons...if you're expecting 12 new versions of Smoke On The Water you'd better move along.
Ian Gillan's voice is incredibly strong still at the age of 74! Which is an absolute mystery...ofcourse he can't do the high screams of the 70s but who cares. Gillan's voice is so much more than screams, it always has been and the older he's gotten more he has learned to use the complexity of his incredible voice.
The rest of the band is on fire as well...Don Airey who is without a doubt the best keyboard player alive right now adds so much on the songs, heck on some songs he is even more present than Steve Morse is. Roger and Ian Paice fill up the sound with awesome rythm sections.  Songs like Throw My Bones, Drop The Weapon, No Need To Shout, the incredibly funnily named What The What and the monsterfully epical Man Alive are all testaments that Deep Purple is very much alive and well even after more than 50 years.


I am leaving the option to add #10 on the list as well at some point as there might be an album I'll be picking up soon that would make it there...one strong possibilty being one called Seven Spires which I recently discovered.

[Thelemech]

I bought very few albums this year. I do however have a top 5

Havok - V
AC/DC - Power Up
Testament - Titans Of Creation
Metal Church - From The Vault
Vader - Solitude In Madness

[Zzzptm]

Getting back to Scott, no, I haven't picked up any of the Bouchards' stuff this year. I might give them a go if they're proper end-to-end rockers.

[Charger]

Well I posted my Top 5 on facebook too and Ian Gillan's official site shared that post...how nice...bit awesome actually.