Music in 2020: From Best to Worst.

I don't know what this stuff is even supposed to be, but after listening to it through few times i'm now convinced that three discs and 2+ hours of it isn't enough, the world definitely needs more ethnic jazzy drone psychedelia like this. Éons is not just unique and utterly fascinating in every possible way imaginable, but it's also weirdly hypnotic and captivating in its glorious chaotic beauty. As I said, it's over 2 hours long, but it never feels like it. After the journey is over, it only makes you want more.

This will surely piss many fanatic metalheads off, since it's all dark ambient and zero black metal. I love it as it is, with a good hifi system it's really something else. This might even be one of my favorite albums of 2020.

What the...!? I knew the band by name but never bothered to listen to them until I accidentally clicked "Master Of The Dead" somebody sent me. It's a bliss to my ears, this is just the type of melodeath that I didn't even know I enjoyed this much. Consider me a fan.

Hail to the king, baby!

Maybe little too polished compared to their previous albums, but I still love it. Omens is definitely one of those kinds of records you're supposed to listen through at least dozen times until you really get into it, and even then you'll surely always find something new and interesting. For me, this is a strong contender for AOTY.

Great as always, it seems Oranssi Pazuzu can do no wrong. I don't know what substances they are smoking, but I hope they won't stop it anytime soon.

About time they released a full album, and it's really damn enjoyable old school US power metal. The Passing Of Time is like a metal album from 1984-1985 with more modern production style.

Dirty and mean old-school metal without your generic 2000's metal production or overdose of flowers. Just the way I like it.

Finally found some time to listen to this through few times. Not as weird as I was expecting, but creative enough to be surprising and endlessly intriguing to listen to, even though there are few weaker moments every now and then. As far as I have come to understand this artist, this might not the best record they have to offer, but even then I found myself enjoying this album more than many other new metal releases this year so far.

One of those impossible comebacks I didn't see coming even in my dreams. Not just how surprising it is to see these guys again, but the quality of this record is just wow. This must be the best comeback since Van Der Graaf Generator and Godbluff back in the 1975.

Before listening to Oresteia I had never even heard of Lotus Thief. Afterwards I wish I had, because this is pretty damn beautiful and haunting piece of ambient-whatever-metal. Simplistic, yes, but sometimes less really IS more.

Pretty good melodeath with killer riffs. Too bad they aren't anything too original or new these days, otherwise this stuff could be even more awesome. Very enjoyable regardless.

Oh, yeah. This is some good old thrash metal. Nothing more, nothing less.

Where did this come from? As far as I can remember, I have never enjoyed Apocalyptica, not even their earlier outputs. Maybe I'm just too demanding, but I've just felt that there's always been something missing, the first albums didn't even have drums or singer, so they were rather boring to me and then there's this one album where's half of it is just a same song with different lyrics, if I remember correctly. Now they feel complete, finally.

My friend's second cousin plays in this band.

Another 80's style speed metal band, this time from Belgium. In other words don't expect innovations of any sort, but then again you don't need innovation to be enjoyable. Compared to that new Stallion album I listened to just before this, Goats Carry My Chariot feels more tight and lacks pointless filler that one had. It's very good for what it is, I think.

I am honestly positively surprised. Never been huge fan of post-Cavalera Sepultura, but this thing here kicks some serious ass. So well in fact, that I might need to reconsider my relationship with the band once again. To my surprise they aren't even trying to cash in with some easy nostalgia points like some other older bands tend to do nowadays. I like that.

These guys are clearly inspired by Iron Maiden. And by being inspired I mean pretty much ripping off some of their most well known songs. I like it nevertheless. Aside from those questionable parts of Cloven Maiden, it's really good record in my opinion.

What a stupid little thrash metal album, it even has Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian. I love it.

Very good and enjoyable doom metal record in its own right. If there's one big thing I don't love about with this album, then it has to be the fact that I have literally heard the same kind of stuff too many times before to count, so there's not that much originality to be found here.

I guess this is one of those kind of records you're supposed to listen multiple times to really get into them. By one listening only I would call it good, but not as great as the two previous albums from them. The longer tracks are the highlight of the album, but the shorter songs between them mostly seem to lack "the final touch" to really get into my head.

Pretty decent 80's style speed metal with production similar to some early 90's Belgian thrash albums like Inferior to None for example. The first half is really goddamn good, but then something happens and the fillers start showing up. At the end I felt like this album was about 10 minutes too long and should have been shortened especially from the latter half.

I remember listening to Lost Society's first album for the first time when it was new. It caused a huge buzz here in Finland, critics loved it like a candy. I kinda liked it too, even though it was more about nostalgic 80's thrashing madness than anything else. Everything after that one has been mainly worse and worse. I guess they're killer live band, so the quality of their studio outputs doesn't really matter that much anyway.

This time they seemingly decided to change their sound big time from traditional thrash into some sort of mix of modern groove metal and metalcore. Change is good, and when ran out of ideas, also highly recommendable. This time the change just didn't bring anything too new or interesting to the table, just more recycling without the original spark that made them good in my eyes. Now they sound more like tired hybrid of Slipknot and late Bodom. I dig the raw production, though.

Best song? I guess Blood On Your Hands is ok. But my point here is: the album is very mediocre and forgettable. Neither annoying nor masterpiece of any kind. Just ok.

These people are world class talents, but they're not really doing anything interesting here. For example, put Emppu to play more acoustic parts, give him mandolin or lute or something, not just that same two or three metal riffs over and over again in every song. And why have a virtuoso like Kai Hahto in the band if he can't do his thing but rather play some very basic stuff. At this point this just feels like mr. Holopainen would much rather make his own symphony thing, but then there's these other band members so have to include them in somewhere.

Major letdown from one of my favourite bands ever. I don't even know what happened here, everything just feels so lame and boring. There are way worse albums in this world, but until this I didn't even know these guys were capable of being this forgettable and average.

Didn't expect anything mindblowing from this album, so at least I can say I don't feel any disappointed. The album itself isn't that interesting or fun for that matter, ol' man Oz has trouble articulating clearly and whatever singing he can still do is so full of autotune you could argue it's the algorithm doing the job altogether. The songs are mostly just tired and boring.

That's that.

Weak album, average at best. One or two memorable songs here, but that's pretty much it. Wouldn't call their previous albums any sort of masterpieces either, but this is just sad.

Huge disappointment. I was expecting some sort of kickass retro US power metal, but got way too slow, unoriginal and boring metal-something. The on-going retro movement produces much better stuff weekly.

Huh? So that was it? I was expecting some sort of übercreative mind-melting avant garde never made before, but all I got was just a symphonic metal(ish) album with some Middle Eastern influences, techno beats, polka, basic death metal guitars and random screaming. Very disappointing.

Not good. Listened this through couple of times and nothing special really stood out or caught my attention. Both the performance and the production sound too safe and by the numbers, even corporate to my taste. After an hour or two I most likely won't have any memory of this album at all.

These dudes should call it quits and retire already. Pretty much every album of theirs since early 80's has been average to good at best, but they still kept on going and going and going like a Duracell bunny. In 2020's there just doesn't seem to be anything creative or interesting left but a bare skeleton of a band refusing to stop whatever they are trying to accomplish. Legal at Last is not a good album, would't call it even mediocre, just plain bad.

Aside from maybe one decent song this album is a turd and complete waste of time and money. The vocals are especially shitty even for Chris Barnes, but some of the parts are written just to give more room for Barnes to embarrass himself with whatever animal he's trying to imitate. I'm honestly surprised even the biggest fans of the band like this.