15. Stjärnfält - Ascension. Looks like this Swede is trying to get a piece of the Mesarthim-cake. And he does so quite well. Stjärnfälts first album might be a bit on the short side (only 32 minutes) but it serves a very welcome dash of Trance-infused Atmospheric Black Metal in the vein of the great Aussies.
14. Urgewalt - Traumweber II. I haven't listened to the first album by the two Bavarian guys who are responsible for "Traumweber II" but maybe I should do so, because Urgewalt's second album is a pretty mighty affair. Three overlong Ambient Black Metal songs that are surprisingly catchy, given their genre. What's not to like?
13. 0 - Entity. This came kind of out of nowhere. At some point over the course of 2020, I bought the first and (up to this point) only album by Icelandic Black/Doom Metallers 0 (called "Null & Void") which was released in 2014. A month later, I got a mail that said something like "Hey, these guys released another thing for the first time in six years". So I checked that (the album "Entity") out and liked it a lot. Quite doom, majestic stuff. Let's hope that it won't take them another six years to release a followup.
12. Karg - Traktat. I always find it a bit hard to take Karg seriously, because "their" (once again, solo project...) mastermind V. Wahntraum seems to be mighty proud of his Austrian heritage and therefore writes and performs Karg-lyrics in the broadest Austrian dialect possible. Apart from this... idiosyncracy, Karg's stuff is really good, though. I liked 2016's "Weltenasche" quite a bit and "Traktat" is even better. Maybe a bit long-winded in parts, but brilliant tracks like "Stolperkenotaphe" are absolutely worth it.
11. Shallow Waters - Bed Of Snakes. Nahemah were a great band, so I was a bit sad when they called their quits back in 2012. Sure, some of the guys went on to perform in The Holleum, but I never really got into their music. Shallow Waters, though, a band former Nahemah-vocalist Pablo Egido founded with other musicians from bands like Demised and The Great Wound, really does it for me. It's hard to pin down the genre they're actually playing, something in between Melodeath, Doom and Post Metal, but it is pretty darn catchy stuff. We'll see how much more of this they've got in themselves but their debut is a quite impressive piece of music.
10. Gospel Of Death - We Are Only Here To Suffer. I have no idea who hides behind the monicker Gospel Of Death but they seem to be a pretty swell dude or dudette, because when I bought their first album, "We Are Only Here To Suffer", they shot me an email, explicitly thanking me for doing so. No, thank YOU for the great album. Gospel Of Death's music doesn't sound a hundred percent like Licht Erlischt... but there are quite a few similiarities. And since Licht Erlischt... (or Latitude Egress) haven't done anything since 2014, I'm always thankful for a worthy replacement. So yeah, while I'm not that big into Funeral Doom Metal anymore, this is really great stuff (even though I'm not a hundred percent sure it actually fits that genre-designation). Go check it out. Maybe you'll get an email as well.
9. Yarek Ovich - Introversion. Yarek Ovich is the solo-project by one Yarek Ovich (duh) of Miellnir... eh... "fame"? Miellnir is a Russian Viking Metal band that released a single album six years ago, so... dunno about that. But their guitar-player Yarek Ovich seems to be a pretty talented multi-instrumentalist who crafted a pretty impressive debut-album in the form of "Introversion". He probably should stop writing lyrics in English, though, because the gibberish he recites here is unworthy of the great music.
8. Wayfarer - A Romance With Violence. I stumbled across Wayfarer because after liking Untamed Land quite a bit, I was looking for other bands who tried to mix Metal with Wild West themes. And Wayfarer have been doing that since 2011. Less bombastic than Untamed Land but that's not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. "A Romance With Violence" feels very dry and grounded but in an alluring way. Their folkish elements are sincere and authentic and the whole thing just sounds unlike anything else out there. I should really check out their other albums, if they're just half as good as "A Romance With Violence", they are a force to be reckoned with.
7. Mesarthim - The Degenerate Era. Best album of 2019, only at rank seven in 2020. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Nah, the thing is, 2020 was a really good year for music, so "The Degenerate Era", one of the more nondescript Mesarthim-albums out there, wasn't gonna take the top spot. Mind you, a "more nondescript Mesarthim-album" is still far better than pretty much anything else out there. And yeah, "The Degenerate Era" is pretty cool. I dig the return to shorter songs after 2019's epic "Ghost Condensate". Also the "Planet Nine"-EP isn't half bad either. Probably even better than "The Degenerate Era". But we're not including EPs here!
6. Deeformis - Stranger. Alona Dee is an Ukrainian multi-instrumentalist who at some point emigrated to Israel and in 2016 decided to found a one-woman Black Metal band in the form of Deeformis. Which is a good thing in my book, because her first album, "Stranger", is pretty amazing. Harsh yet nuanced, captivating, clocking in at just the right amount of time... her lyrics are a bit meh, but then again, if I would let terrible lyrics deter me, I'd have long since stopped to listen to music altogether. "Stranger" is cool. I'm looking forward to finding out what Alona will do on the followup.
5. Uada - Djinn. I think I liked the cover-artworks of Uada's two previous albums more than I actually liked the albums. The one for their third album "Djinn"? Hm. It's okay. Not great, not as good as those for "Devoid Of Light" or "Cult Of A Dying Sun", but I've definitely seen worse. But the music somehow seems to behave antithetically to the optical quality, because I really, really dig Uada's third album, "Djinn". It's more melodic and less harsh than their first two albums, but even in this form, their music still packs quite a bit of a punch. Color me surprised, I wasn't sure that they had it in them to produce a great album like this, but yeah, "Djinn" is really, really good.
4. Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment. 2020 was a good year for fans of Anaal Nathrakh. Not only did they release a new album (duh), but Mick Kenney also pushed out not just one but two albums with his new side-project Make Them Die Slowly ("Ferox" and "The Body Count Continues...", both really good albums, both just missed this list). And "Endarkenment", while probably the most pop-ish (is that an expression in English?) album of their whole career, is a lot of fun. Yes, they are still doing the same thing they have been doing since "Eschaton" back in 2005 (maybe with a couple more Industrial influences) so you probably won't be completely blown away by their 2020 sound. But they still do so with such verve and energy that I can't help but love them for it. And "The Age Of Starlight" is an absolute masterpiece of a song.
3. Draconian - Under A Godless Veil. I didn't even notice that Draconian hadn't released anything in five years (mainly because I only bought their 2015-release "Sovran" back in November of 2019...), so when "Under A Godless Veil" was unveiled (a-ha-ha), I wasn't necessarily clamoring for anything new by the Swedes. But then I listened to it. And it was good. Like... really, really good. Like... the third best album of the year. Can you believe it? "New" vocalist Heike Langhans (part of the band since 2012, actually) is a very good addition to the band and the rest is every bit as good as Draconian have pretty much always been. Cool stuff.
2. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Patchouli Blue. Oh, look. Jazz. Doom Jazz. Yes, that genre's pioneers, Bohren & Der Club Of Gore, decided to release a new album this year. That one goes by the name of "Patchouli Blue". And it's like pretty much every other album they have ever done since "Black Earth". I.e. absolutely brilliant. Well... maybe it's even their best one yet. While some of their other albums seemed to blend into themselves more often than not, this one is surprisingly nuanced for an album by a band that calls itself the "slowest band in the world" and sometimes advertises itself with the slogan "Other bands play, Bohren bore". If you only want a single album by these Mülheim-based weirdos, make it "Patchouli Blue". It's great.
1. My Dying Bride - The Ghost Of Orion. My Dying Bride released an album this year. 'nuff said.
Nah, I think I promised to talk a bit about it on multiple occasions, didn't I? Well. It's good. Like... really good. Not the best MDB-album out there (I counted those down a couple of weeks ago) but another strong entry in their consistently strong discography. Still not too sure about that weird interlude featuring Lindy-Fay Hella but apart from that, I dig pretty much every track. My favorite one remains "Your Broken Shore", though. Such a good song.