Vinyadan
2021-01-06, 04:42 PM
Around this time of the year, there normally is a top 10 posting in the Metal thread, but it hasn't surfaced in a while, so I thought of opening a thread open to all top 10 or general favourites in all media categories for the year 2020. After all, this probably was a year in which we consumed more than usual and even felt a necessity for books, movies, songs, et cetera.
So, my top 10 Music Albums (mostly metal):
Dark Forest -- Oak, Ash, and Thorn. Pensive heavy/power metal. UK
I think that Oak, Ash and Thorn is an exceptional album in spite of the fact that the singer is out of his range in it. The songwriting in excellent and very evocative, and I think that an album that deals with the myths and history of a nation has something going for it, if it sounds like if it were sung by just anyone of the countless people that told those legends and lived that history.
Brothers of Metal -- Emblas Saga. Shameless symphonic power happy drunken soaring vikings. (Sweden)
Symphonic metal requires huge technical skills. Once you have the skills, you need the ideas, which is why the genre tends to collapse in an imitation of Nightwish. Brothers of Metal (which also have a female vocalist) have just about everything. The disk is framed as a mythological narrative around the fire, which means a bit of talking at the start (I prefer when I start the disk and I get the music).
Unleash the Archers -- Abyss. Canadian power metal that transitions from a fantasy past to a sci-fi future.
Magnum -- The Serpent Rings. Hard Rock. (England)
Skyryder -- Vol. 2 -- heavy metal/hard rock (UK)
It's not just good, it's also short! (it's an EP.)
Boisson Divines -- La Halha. Folk power metal in Gascon (Occitan), with some autochthonous songs. (FR)
Wytch Hazel -- Pentecost. Guitar white metal (Lancashire)
Forndom -- Fathir. Very slow neofolk from Sweden.
Two albums out of some that I didn't really spin many times, but are very good: Seven Spires -- Emerald Seas, Eternal Champion -- Ravening Iron, Armoured Saint -- Punching the Sky, Judicator -- Let There be Nothing, Countless Skies -- Glow, Sacred Outcry -- Damned for All Times.
So, my top 10 Music Albums (mostly metal):
Dark Forest -- Oak, Ash, and Thorn. Pensive heavy/power metal. UK
I think that Oak, Ash and Thorn is an exceptional album in spite of the fact that the singer is out of his range in it. The songwriting in excellent and very evocative, and I think that an album that deals with the myths and history of a nation has something going for it, if it sounds like if it were sung by just anyone of the countless people that told those legends and lived that history.
Brothers of Metal -- Emblas Saga. Shameless symphonic power happy drunken soaring vikings. (Sweden)
Symphonic metal requires huge technical skills. Once you have the skills, you need the ideas, which is why the genre tends to collapse in an imitation of Nightwish. Brothers of Metal (which also have a female vocalist) have just about everything. The disk is framed as a mythological narrative around the fire, which means a bit of talking at the start (I prefer when I start the disk and I get the music).
Unleash the Archers -- Abyss. Canadian power metal that transitions from a fantasy past to a sci-fi future.
Magnum -- The Serpent Rings. Hard Rock. (England)
Skyryder -- Vol. 2 -- heavy metal/hard rock (UK)
It's not just good, it's also short! (it's an EP.)
Boisson Divines -- La Halha. Folk power metal in Gascon (Occitan), with some autochthonous songs. (FR)
Wytch Hazel -- Pentecost. Guitar white metal (Lancashire)
Forndom -- Fathir. Very slow neofolk from Sweden.
Two albums out of some that I didn't really spin many times, but are very good: Seven Spires -- Emerald Seas, Eternal Champion -- Ravening Iron, Armoured Saint -- Punching the Sky, Judicator -- Let There be Nothing, Countless Skies -- Glow, Sacred Outcry -- Damned for All Times.