Jeff Treppel’s Top Fifteen Metal Albums of 2020
A lot of these intros are probably gonna be about how 2020 sucked. Mine is no different! Not gonna lie, it was a rough one for me on pretty much every level. I did adopt a cat, though, and I love him even though he’s objectively trash. So that’s one good thing. Another? The sheer amount of quality metal this year, despite some high-profile albums getting delayed to 2021. Here are 15 (mostly) metal albums that helped keep me sane in an insane world.
15. Carcass – Despicable (NB)
I like EPS but too often they just feel like maxi-singles or unnecessary stopgaps. While yes, Despicable is a stopgap, most full-lengths don’t contain four songs as jaw-droppingly great as these throwaways. I expect Torn Arteries to top next year’s list just based on this triumphant melodeath mini-album.
14. Eternal Champion – Ravening Iron (No Remorse)
“Thousands of swords, no one can take them from me,” is a hell of a difficult line to deliver if you are not extremely confident in what you’re doing. Eternal Champion’s sophomore album brims with that self-assurance. Proof that trad metal doesn’t have to sound like it’s from 1983 to kick ass.
13. Slift – Ummon (Vicious Circle/Stolen Body)
It’s not hyperbole to say that Monster Magnet’s Dopes to Infinity was one of those life-changing records for me. While Slift’s second full-length could never have that same impact, it does a superb job of capturing the same sense of excitement I got the first time I took a trip on the space rock ship.
12. Zombi – 2020 (Relapse)
Zombi up the guitars and the “prog” part of their synth-prog sound this time around. Cold and desolate in a way even their previously darkest material never quite felt, it packs quite a punch. Reminds me of the brutally utilitarian aesthetic of Richard Stanley’s Hardware.
11. Thy Catalfaque – Naiv (SoM)
Hungarian multi-instrumentalist Tamás Kátai continues to put the “experimental” in experimental black metal. While normally traditional Middle Eastern sounds would seem wildly out of place in this kind of music, he uses the repetitious motorik drumming to seamlessly weave them together. Talk about sentences I never thought I’d type — or music I never realized I needed in my life.
10. Anaal Nathrakh – Endarkenment (Metal Blade)
Honestly was not expecting a new one from Anaal Nathrakh — much less an album with that cover art — to wind up in my top ten, but Endarkenment succeeds on pretty much every level it shouldn’t. I still don’t know how they make such chaotically extreme metal seem so fun.
9. Mr. Bungle – The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo (Ipecac)
Back when I had the fortune to see one of the transcendent Mr. Bungle reunion shows earlier this misbegotten year, I remarked to my friends that if they recorded those songs with that lineup, it would be the thrash album of the year. Turns out I was right.
8. Haunt – Flashback (Church)
I’ve loved Haunt since I first heard the Luminous Eyes EP, but I feel like their studio albums never quite matched the dynamic stage shows. Flashback finally lives up to the live. One-man army Trevor Church’s addition of synthesizers fills out Haunt’s sound and makes his band sound like the arena act they were always meant to be.
7. Armored Saint – Punching the Sky (Metal Blade)
Listened to this sucker a LOT when prepping my Decibel cover story so I’ll admit I’m a little biased. Still, the best album in thirty years from one of my all-time favorites was gonna wind up marching onto this list anyway. All killer, no filler — talk about planting a right hook from left field right in the face of expectations.
6. Midnight – Rebirth by Blasphemy (Metal Blade)
Midnight put on a ridiculously awesome live show, but — even moreso than Haunt — they’ve always felt like one-trick ponies on wax. AC/DC in bondage masks. Rebirth by Blasphemy bursts out of the gate with statement-of-intent “Fucking Speed and Darkness” and then slams through 35 flesh-rending minutes of top-shelf riffs and hooks.
5. Enslaved – Utgard (NB)
Enslaved’s evolution into the most musically exciting act in extreme metal has been a joy to experience. There’s prog, there’s black metal, there’s Viking folk stuff, but it all serves a purpose. I’m pretty sure I say this every time they put out a new album — and I mean it every time — but this is damn near the best work they’ve ever done.
4. Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin Kynsi (NB)
If any band captured the madness, despair, and uncertainty of 2020 in album form, it was Oranssi Pazuzu. Anything that nearly gave me an anxiety attack through the sheer psychedelic repetition alone was gonna leave an impression. It’s unfortunate for my fragile mental health that Mestarin Kynsi is so compulsively listenable.
3. Uada – Djinn (Eisenwald)
Black metal’s okay, but I prefer mine spiked with something. Uada pour the whole damn liquor cabinet in there: post-punk, doom, prog, NWOBHM. Sandstorm-sized riffs power this tour de force of darkness, sweeping away orthodoxy in its wake. Mythological djinni may not actually grant wishes, but Djinn certainly seems like the answer to my metal prayers.
2. Spirit Adrift – Enlightened in Eternity (20 Buck Spin)
Spirit Adrift’s doom records ruled, but they always felt a little held back. Now, as Dio once almost said, the chains are off. Enlightened in Eternity takes Nate Garrett and Marcus Bryant’s sorrow over the past couple years and throws it right back in reality’s face with a fistful of triumphant metal. If they continue down this path, cool; if not, it’s nice to hear them put their talents towards something this uplifting.
1. Night Flight Orchestra – Aeromantic (NB)
As Chuck Eddy wrote in Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe when he included an Osmonds album at number 66.6, institutionalize my butt at your own peril, but Night Flight Orchestra’s overdriven AOR crash lands right in my cheese-metal sweet spot. No album gave me more joy this year than this record. Not even close. Aeromantic’s heartfelt songs soar as high as this concept album’s lovelorn stewardesses.
