Current Events > Now that 2020 is a bit over halfway over, what are your favorite albums so far?

(+) Yeah! (+)

2020 has been absolutely lit for new music so far, >.< . As with last year, I have a feeling that i'm going to struggle quite a bit when it comes to narrowing my final list down a bit once the end of the year comes... It's already pretty big. As it stands, my two albums of the year are likely to be Royal Swan (for its sheer addictive quality to me) and Wanderers (for its highly ambitious length and the surprising quality maintained throughout), but the rest aren't in any particular order.

Phoxjaw - Royal Swan (Hard Rock/Metal)
Mare Cognitum/Spectral Lore - Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine (Atmospheric Black Metal)
Fliege - The Invisible Seam (Melodic Black Metal)
Sylosis - Cycle of Suffering (Progressive Death Metal)
The Ghost Inside - The Ghost Inside (Metalcore)
The Birthday Massacre - Diamonds (Gothic Rock)
Holden - Ursa Minor (Post Metal)
It Only Ends Once - Chasms Will Never Be Filled (Black Metal)
Dessiderium - Shadow Burn (Blackened Melodic Death Metal)
Caligula's Horse - Rise Radiant (Progressive Metal)

Katatonia - City Burials (Melodic Doom Metal)
Xenobiotic - Mordrake (Death Metal)
Abrynth - A Place of Buried Light (Doom Metal)
Infant Island - Beneath (?)
Skyforest - A New Dawn (Melodic Black Metal)
Lotus Thief - Orestia (Progressive Metal)
Unreqvited - Mosaic II (Atmospheric Black Metal)
Awenden - Golden Hour (Melodic Black Metal)
Insect Ark - The Vanishing (Instrumental Doom Rock)
Izthmi - The Arrows of Our Ways (Progressive Black Metal)

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Grimes - Miss Anthropocene
Purity Ring - WOMB
Lianne la Havas - Lianne La Havas
Blu & Exile - Miles
Backxwash - God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It
Oliver Tree - Ugly is Beautiful

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How do you find time to listen to so much music?

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Charli XCX - How im Feeling Now
Run the Jewels - RTJ4
Bad Moves - Untenable
Mrs. Piss - Self Surgery
Public Practice - Gentle Grip

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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

How do you find time to listen to so much music?

I've found as a main interest I can listen to at least 4 albums a day even with working full time, working out, and having a social life. I don't watch TV or game everyday, I listen to music everyday.

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Shoot, I forgot to put the new Firelink album on the list, x.x . It got lost as I went through my albums and decided which ones to write down.

KiwiTerraRizing posted...

How do you find time to listen to so much music?

I'm a no-life loser, so it should probably go without saying.

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Protest the Hero- Palimpsest

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hockeybub89 posted...

Protest the Hero- Palimpsest

Yeah, this is the other one that fell through the cracks on my list, x.x . I'd never really been interested in them before, but this album really caught my attention.

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Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts V and VI
Khruangbin - Mordechai
Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist - Alfredo
Run the Jewels - RTJ4


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Nice list; checking out Katatonia now and definitely gonna check out few others on your list.

For me the ones that I have heard and stood out are:
The Weeknd - After Hours
Dance Gavin Dance - Afterburner
Code Orange - Underneath
Tame Impala - The Slow Rush

Lockdown- Lil Rona 1-9

SoE State of Emergency- New Pandemic

The New Normal- 20/Twenty

Under the Mask- Incubation

Contagion- Contagion

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Buzz Killjoy posted...

Khruangbin - Mordechai

Great album!

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Sideways to New Italy 4 Lyfe

The Smiths + Australia - Morrissey doucheyness = RBCF

Cameo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbQryKouPbc

Not Tonight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQBgAnj_UoY

Beautiful Steven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV8pdpz1q0c

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Oh I also got to shout out to:

Black Dresses - Peaceful as Hell

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Shotgunnova posted...

The Smiths + Australia - Morrissey doucheyness = RBCF

An Australian Smiths without an asshat Morrissey figure makes me think of The Lucksmiths. Don't think they're still active though

The Charli XCX album is my favourite, quite like the new Taylor Swift album too. I've listened to a lot of music this year but mostly it's been exploring old stuff from genres I'm unfamiliar with. Listened to a lot of black metal and new age.

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Shotgunnova posted...

Sideways to New Italy 4 Lyfe

The Smiths + Australia - Morrissey doucheyness = RBCF

I found the new one slightly disappointing but only for not being as good as Hope downs

also I wouldnt compare them to the smiths at all. Much more like the cars imo

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DespondentDeity posted...

Great album!

Had tickets to see them on May 30th, but it got cancelled obviously which was a huge bummer. Would have been my first time seeing them live which is unfortunate since I live in Texas but I had never heard of them until early this year.

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I think the only album I've listened to that released this year was RTJ4. I'm always a few years behind.

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Idek
Kota the Fiend put out a new album
Traitors - Repent
Make Them Suffer's new album
The New Abnormal - The Strokes
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p-m posted...

An Australian Smiths without an ass*** Morrissey figure makes me think of The Lucksmiths. Don't think they're still active though

They disbanded, yeah. =|

TheGoldenEel posted...

I found the new one slightly disappointing but only for not being as good as Hope downs
also I wouldnt compare them to the smiths at all. Much more like the cars imo

Hope Downs is fantastic, too, yeah. I only find STNI slightly disappointing 'cause it has one song I don't like as much as the others, and everything on HD was great. As for the comparison, The Cars would work too, I suppose. Honestly, I like RBCF more than 99.9% of anything the Cars ever did, lmao. (That 0.1%? Putting "Shake It Up" in Captain N.)

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i didnt see future nostalgia :(
anyways
future nostalgia by dua lipa
yo hago lo que me da la gana by bad bunny
las que no iban a salir also by bad bunny
chromatica by lady gaga
after hours by the weeknd
manic by halsey
and the new taylor swift album folklore (i think)

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Ive listened to nearly 500 albums from this year so far. Been going back and relistening to stuff to get a better feel for what I would put on a list

some favorites off the top of my head

oranssi Pazuzu - mestarin kynsi
ulcerate - stare into death and be still
kvaen - the funeral pyre
Old man gloom - seminar XIII & IX
Calligram - the eye is the first circle
WVRM - colony collapse
End - splinters from an ever changing face
Mare Cognitum/Spectral Lore - Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine
wake - devouring ruin
Black curse - endless wound
the weeknd - after hours
of Montreal - ur fun
And you will know us by the trail of dead - IX: the godless void and other stories
devon Gilfillian - Black hole rainbow
Destroyer - have we met
Tame impala - the slow rush
Moses sumney - grae
Bloody james - the price of tea in china
Rap Ferreira - purple moonlight pages
Dogleg - melee
San Fermin - the cormorant
Drive by truckers - the unraveling
Serengeti - ajai
Trace mountains - lost in the country
Fiona Apple - fetch the bolt cutters
White denim - World as a waiting room
Jason Isbell - reunions
Stay inside - viewing
the Texas gentlemen - floor it!!!
Woods - strange to explain
jeff rosenstock - no dream
Medhane - cold water
Run the jewels - rtj4
Muzz - muzz
soft plastics - 5 dreams
Bob Dylan - rough and rowdy ways
Loathe - I let it in and it took everything
Pyrrhon - abscess time
Hum - inlet
Westside Gunn - pray for paris
My morning jacket - the waterfall ii
Blu and exile - miles
Taylor Swift - folklore
carly rae Jepsen - dedicated side b
dua lipa - future nostalgia
EOB - earth
Hayley Williams - petals for armor
Thao and the get down stay down - temple
caribou - suddenly
juiceboxxx - its easy to feel like a nobody when youre living in the city

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Eh, my favorite album to listen to so far isn't even from the year, its from 2018.

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TheGoldenEel posted...

oranssi Pazuzu - mestarin kynsi
ulcerate - stare into death and be still
End - splinters from an ever changing face
Black curse - endless wound
Pyrrhon - abscess time

I've listened to these, but I didn't really see what the big deal was for them, >.< . In particular, I felt that the Ulcerate album was a bit of a snoozefest...

TheGoldenEel posted...

Hum - inlet

I did enjoy this one, though. I didn't go in expecting to like it, but it really did beat my expectations.

TheGoldenEel posted...

Old man gloom - seminar XIII & IX
Calligram - the eye is the first circle
WVRM - colony collapse

All three of these have been on my "to do" list for a while, but i'll hopefully get to them eventually, >.<

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I'm just gonna list every standout album I've enjoyed this year and bold ones I feel were special among the standouts and some thoughts about them. In no particular order. Also, I have added 2.3 days of music that came out this year to my library so that's an indication of how much I've listened to.

Allegaeon - Roundabout (Yes Cover) (Melodic Death Metal)
It's a single, It's a cover, but I don't care. Between this, Subdivisions, and Animate Allegaeon has really shown that they can knock out some fucking killer prog rock covers. Seriously this and Subdivisions are two of the best covers I've ever heard.

Black Painted Moon - Personae (Progressive Metal)
What if a traditional prog metal band had a female pop vocalist? Sounds bad doesn't it. Well listen to this album and it may change your mind. I was caught off guard a little but this album is pretty good, full of potential and the vocals fit right in. It's a debut and it's not the best, but it's solid and I'm really looking forward to what these guys (and gal) come out with next.

Brucifer - Caveat Emptor! (Wierd Synth Driven Prog Metal with Video Game Sounds)
One of the weirder albums I've listened to this year. It's excellent, just strange. With one of the greatest albums cover's I've ever seen. Seriously, this shit is fucking art.


Caligula's Horse - Rise Radiant (Progressive Metal)
A very good album but I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed after In Contact but In Contact is incredibly difficult to follow. Still a very good album though.

Cryptic Ruse - Unfertile (Microtonal Metal)
Man, this album is fantastic. I haven't really heard a lot of microtonal music before I listened to The Mercury Tree's album Spidermilk last year (Go listen to that album, and band. Absolutely one of my favorite bands of all time) It's haunting, it's alien, and it's absolutely incredible. Stand out song is Mouths Without Throats, which is about Pac-Man or something. Also wins the award of the strangest, yet catchiest hook ever (eat all the dots, eat all the dots, eat all the fucking dots)

Firelink - Firelink (Black Metal): Dark Souls themed Black Metal. Really good album. If you like Dark Souls and Black Metal, you have to give it a listen.

Kardashev - The Baring of Shadows (Deathgaze)
Kardashev absolutely blew me away with their last EP, The Almanac, so when they randomly released another EP, I absolutely jumped on it. And hoooo-llly fuck. This is an incredible band. They mix melodic shoegaze atmosphere with absolutely crushingly heavy deathcore with one of the most incredible vocalists I've ever listened to. Never heard someone go from extremely low, absolutely brutal growls straight to airy, ethereal clears, then to skypiercing shrieks quite like Mark Garret. Seriously watch this vocal playthrough of one of the best tracks off their previous EPs, this guy is incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ_-W10Wmss

LeatherFrank - Dark Forest (Psychedelic Stoner Rock)
I don't really know what to really say about this EP, other than it's fucking incredible, go listen to it. It's atmospheric, it's groovy, it's psychedelic, it's dark.

Lor - Edge of Eternity (Folky Power Metal)
Another great album. A few years ago Lor released their debut album, In Forgotten Sleep and it was great. Well a month or so ago Lor just randomly dropped their second album and it's just as good, if not better.

Mountaineer - Bloodletting (Doomgaze)
This is easily one of the best albums this year. There are gorgeous melodic guitar leads, there are crushing, fuzzy doomy riffs, and there is a whole shitload of atmosphere. This album has a massive sound and it's executed with aplomb here.

Protest the Hero - Palimpsest (Progressive Metal)
This is a really solid album. Protest the Hero is an interesting band, going from a combination of punk meets prog metal, and now this album has more in common with Dream Theater than anything punky. It's a really good album but it doesn't come close to Bloodmeat or Volition in my opinion.

Violet Cold - Noir Kid (Blackgaze)
Oops, while mixing some fantastic shoegaze and black metal someone dropped some trance in it! And it turned out incredible. Seriously, it works here. Damn, didn't realize until here, it's been a really good year for metalgaze so far.

Novena - The Eleventh Hour (Traditional and Heavy Progressive Metal)
If you haven't heard Gareth Mason (from Slice the Cake) do spoken word over music you absolutely have to listen to the last track here, Prison Walls. It gives me fucking chills. This is a huge album at 72 minutes and is filled to the brim with ideas. Haken's Ross Jennings is the primary vocalist and has a great performance as well. This is a really really good album, but seriously Gareth Mason is a fucking monster.
That's all for now. I have listened to a ton more bands and albums this year but so far, these were the standouts for me personally. I still have a huge backlog to get through though so we will see how it looks at the end of the year.

Other albums this year I enjoyed so far include:
Unreqvited - Mosaic (Atmospheric Black Metal)
Wardaemoniv - Acts of Repentance (Blackened Death Metal)
Xenobiotic - Mordrake (Technical Death Metal)
Together to the Stars - As We Wither (Blackgaze)
Thy Catafalque - Naiv (Avant-garde Black Metal)
Sweven - The Eternal Resonance (Psychedelic Death Metal)
Oberst - Paradise (Post-Hardcore)
Neptunian Maximalism - Eons (Heavy Jazz)
Knight of the Round - Seven (Final Fantasy VII Death Metal Covers)
Katatonia - City Burials (Melodic Doom Metal)
Holy Fawn - The Black Moon (Blackgaze)
The Conjuration - Gospel (Avant-garde Death Metal)
Ainsoph - Omega - V (Blackgaze)

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bump

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after hours

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Mountain Goats- Songs For Pierre Chauvin
AJJ- Good Luck Everybody
Days n Daze- Show Me the Blueprints


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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

How do you find time to listen to so much music?

you cant listen to one album a week? Lol

@KiwiTerraRizing

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Alina Baraz - It Was Devine
DVSN - A Muse in Her Feelings (chopped not slopped)
Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo
Leven Kali - HIGHTIDE

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I enjoyed 20/20 Vision by Anti-Flag.

I don't really think I got much 2020 music... Most of the music I've obtained was from the last few years lol.

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Nothing I like in 2020 soni went back to 80s hits

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Dont really have any favorites but Ive listened to:
The Weeknd- After Hours
Taylor Swift- folklore
Purity Ring- WOMB
Halsey- Manic
Prize Fighter Inferno- Stray Bullets (EP)

cant think of any others but Im looking forward to the Killers new album coming up in August


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Spellz2113 posted...

Prize Fighter Inferno- Stray Bullets (EP)

That's a good song. First I ever heard anything of Weerd Science, I should get more of his stuff.

Death Rattle is maybe at this point my favorite PFI song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMt613etXc

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Error1355 posted...

That's a good song. First I ever heard anything of Weerd Science, I should get more of his stuff.

Death Rattle is maybe at this point my favorite PFI song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtMt613etXc

I feel ya. I know its definitely my favorite off this EP

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Ulcerate - "Stare into Death and Be Still" (Progressive/Technical Death Metal)
R I L E Y - "Loss Angeles" (R&B/Rap)
End - "Splinters from an Ever Changing Face" (Metalcore/Hardcore)
Lorna Shore - "Immortal" (Deathcore/Blackened Death Metal)
Elder - "Omens" (Progressive/Stoner Metal)

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I have slowly been making my way through Katatonia's discography myself. Havent got near the new one yet.

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Zodd3224 posted...

I have slowly been making my way through Katatonia's discography myself. Havent got near the new one yet.

*looks at sig*

I see that you've betrayed me, ;-;

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GrandConjuraton posted...

*looks at sig*

I see that you've betrayed me, ;-;

Ha. She asked me to make this my sig for two weeks about a week ago.

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Run the jewels-RTJ4

Dance Gavin Dance - Afterburner
Dawn of Solace - Waves
Demons & Wizards - III
Wolfheart - Wolves of Karelia
Katatonia - City Burials
Descend - The Deviant
Dynazty - The Dark Delight
Falconer - From a Dying Ember
Brothers of Metal - Emblas Saga

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Just listened to Haken - Virus. Damn that is an incredible album. Definitely their heaviest to date and I loved all the callbacks to older songs in Messiah Complex.

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The Fearless Flyers - Tailwinds
Bombay Bicycle Club - Everything Else Has Gone Wrong

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roger & brian eno mixing colours
tineidae exo
max richter voices
babayan's upcoming rachmaninoff: prludes; tudes-tableaux; moments musicaux

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