2020 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock Poll: VOTING & FURTHER CAMPAIGNING thread (open until March 5)

The time has come to reflect upon Year One of the Pandemic through its metal releases. Apposite, don’t you think?

You know the rules: up to 50 votes, weighted/ranked or unweighted/unranked. Here is the voting form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSehAe26-gUYDp1QygkSRP2oLzXP87A11J9OpvpsBXy6H5EFuw/viewform

And the full list of nominations:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oansNE_3srFiESacKOqgY6nQwqSnt6KfmHzS_tmb9p0

Please copy and paste titles directly from the spreadsheet to the voting form, thusly:

-(16)- – Dream Squasher
-S- – Zabiijanie czasu I
Ω – V
…and Oceans – Cosmic World Mother
10 Code – Ride

Don’t forget to post here upon voting that we may double-check whether your ballot made it through.

You have until midnight (PST) on Friday, the 19th of February (i.e. Saturday morning in the UK).

Campaigning already started in a previous thread, so don’t miss out on everyone’s suggestions so far:

ILM 2020 METAL & HEAVY + Adjacent Albums Poll CAMPAIGNING THREAD IS NOW OPEN

And be sure to stan some more in this here thread as we draw ever closer to the rollout.

Lastly, here’s the collaborative Spotify playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3a0enQtah5VT4hADz1wdnf?si=DJq13jK2QY6qHWBgaUsgCA

Just voted a moment ago--thanks!

huzzah!

Here is the pastebin for nominations , which is easier to copy and paste from

https://pastebin.com/2w3eW7wZ

Don't sleep on Lowrider - Refractions
https://open.spotify.com/album/6Q62mWN0z5axAKyGXQK75O?si=-L_T8DyiQZCGg-KxOQuTPw

For those wanting something weirder how about
Neptunian Maximalism - Eons
https://open.spotify.com/album/0P25kH1ABGMaF9PzwZzFyc?si=aSbGM7z6QyGf8hFUKjcWEg

Some of you may have seen this in the general EOY poll

Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsi

https://open.spotify.com/album/0gsk1RGjMrtEDE05s0TZMf?si=ibug-LzhTaSXlN_3uEaWlA

There's an error in the spreadsheet:
What it should be: (band name) Ainsoph - (record title) Ω - V

Fixed.

also, Hum – Imlet should be Inlet

Echoes of Hamlet, surely.

thank you for fixing. submitted

Already did a bit of campaigning for faves in the previous thread but will repost here and add more.

How about some Hungarian/Scottish kitchen sink metal?

Thy Catafalque - Naiv
https://open.spotify.com/album/2eH5WM6pIPFsFylP5sbOi9?si=NJ0Dp2MdSL-MIW5gtG75YQ

loved Naiv. found out from the album nom doc that there was another release this year. excited to check it out as well

I have a Best of 2020 Spotify Playlist that I curated throughout the year:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7B12GYpOu4sCycx1nMlanu?si=Ao1rOXjVTBSynqV469hO_Q

It is not all metal but I would guess about 75% of it is relevant and everything metallic on it has been nominated.

Hey, wasn't Myrkur Folkesange nominated?!?

http://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/147829286_10165084884805597_7628526913499187756_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=2&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=sywqj__8Fn8AX9wy1Ax&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=a33bdf04b2763284f234b8eed6220445&oe=6047A6AC

I wrote in the Myrkyr assuming it's a correctable oversight!

You totally did nominate it. No idea what happened there, sorry.

I added it to the spreadsheet btw.

No worries, thanks for doing the heavy lifting!

Those wanting something less heavy, more hard rocking with clean vox should try

Blues Pills - Holy Moly!

https://open.spotify.com/album/5q42nCZVvcbvSLIX2zxvkQ?si=CLMJk0fJT_CAwMCV1hujTA

How about some heavy space rock?

Slift - Ummon

https://open.spotify.com/album/0fq6gHjQJmkGatVu0SVZwW?si=yUgIgLuYQCCt701Tzcxitw

or you can listen to the Spotify playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3a0enQtah5VT4hADz1wdnf?si=DJq13jK2QY6qHWBgaUsgCA

I've already stanned for several of these, but…

Turia's Degen van licht is mandatory listening for the atmoblack-inclined. And if you love it as much as I do, don't sleep on Empyrean Grace's Bestowment of the Seraphic Key, also from the Haeresis Noviomagi crew.

Folk-plagued medieval BM with demented vocals is a subgenre I'm very fond of and Armagedda's Svindeldjup Ättestup did justice to it best last year.

If you want straight up beautiful oceanic BM for wallowing in existential misery, Sunken's Livslede is where it's at. Nothing matters and I love it oh so much.

Along somewhat similar lines in that it also exhibits a marked post-metal influence, Förfallet's s/t is an extremely effective instance of anti-trve kvlt BM with nary an ounce of blackgaze cheese in earshot.

Satanic ritual incantations are a dime a dozen in BM but Svartsyn's got the predicatory intensity down pat and Requiem is no exception.

My favourite funeral doom album of 2020 by far, Atramentus's Stygian, will suffocate you, if you let it.

Then, of course, there's also all the stuff that probably doesn't need my help placing: Lowrider, Ulcerate, Paysage d'Hiver, Neptunian Maximalism, Undeath, Dark Buddha Rising, Undergang, Deftones, Oranssi Pazuzu, etc., but do make sure you hear it all before voting!

Time’s slowly but surely running out, folks! Don’t forget that campaigning really does work!

Voted - I'm gonna campaign for one that just missed my ballot, but I'd love for folks to hear it and give it some love - Polish trio's Dola self-titled debut is a great mix of post-metal/sludge with some exciting vocals. I hope they are recording a follow-up.

Love the Dola and (spoiler) it made my ballot.

Didn’t make mine, alas, but it’s a good ‘un.

Anyone else care to recommend or campaign for albums?

Anything I or others need to hear before voting?

I would urge those perhaps not so striclty metal oriented voters to check out the very lovely Colour Haze album We Are from the list. Somehow a more kosmische (thinking AR & Machines / Amon Duul rather than Neu!) vibe to this one than some previous releases. Warmest sounds around.

https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/we-are

Also the Motorpsycho album was a huge thing, a groovy prog suite sandwiched between a set of more ostensibly straightforward rock songs and a handful of quieter, mostly acoustic numbers. It doesn't really lend itself to excerpts but let's have the title track. I think some found the lyrics too on the nose but sometimes you just got to say it straight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckrg-GQInRg

I don't really like campaigning tbh but let's see if it works at all. Rock stuff seems to fall in the gap between the main poll and the perception of this one as being mostly metal.

Colour Haze are indeed awesome

I do think campaigning works and lots of heavy rock and adjacent shouldn't miss out if it's good. If it's nominated anyone should vote for it regardless of whether they consider themselves a metalhead or not.

The poll is open to all - including lurkers. Always has been.

Discogs and Spotify both say "We Are" was released in 2019.

The nomination passed inpection.

2020 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock Poll: NOMINATIONS Thread (open until the 8th of January 2021)

‘Inspection’ is giving us too much credit. That said, a 2020 Bandcamp release is fine in my book.

You like death metal with a slight tech bent? Then you've heard Faceless Burial's Speciation, right? Riiiight? Because it fucking rips, and somewhat stupendously achieves that effect without being dumb as rocks.

On the bluesier, Beefheart-esque end of metal, featuring less genre-hopping than on their previous albums and all the more compelling for it, Mamaleek's Come & See is a highlight.

It's since been repackaged as the closer to Omination's latest LP, which came out this year, but as a standalone EP, The Pale Horseman is peak Eastern Orthodox apocalypticism made in… Tunisia, of all places.

I don't get much out of Thin Lizzy and 70s heavy metal revival gets little beyond a polite nod from me on the best of days, but Wytch Hazel's III: Pentecost is just incredibly solid and catchy from beginning to end.

Folk-suffused, melodic death doom with gorgeous clean vocals courtesy of a closet cookie monster doesn't get much better than Syttyköön toinen aurinko by Kaunis Kuolematon.

I'm getting my ballot together... I have 40 now, hope to send in a full 50-album ballot this time, thanks for all the campaigning everyone it's helped me find a bunch of good stuff.

I don't really like campaigning tbh but let's see if it works at all. Rock stuff seems to fall in the gap between the main poll and the perception of this one as being mostly metal.

― Noel Emits

With that in mind I'll recommend Horisont - Sudden Death as it didn't get anywhere in the main poll. It's a sort of 70's AOR/Prog/Heavy Metal pastiche kind of thing I liked a lot. Feels like Thin Lizzy, ELO, Procol Harum, and Alan Parsons Project were big influences.

Five more…

Slutet's Love & Beauty is a wild, improvisational black metal ride into Sumerian mythology by an obscure Swedish collective that tries really hard to sound like an actual cult (perhaps it is one?).

Also from Sweden, Draug's Irreelle sindelag is violin-haunted blackened doom that keeps leaping through the looking glass and back.

On the death metal end of things, why is no one talking about Angel Morgue's In the Morgue of Angels? I can't imagine being into riffs and not liking this.

From Russia, last year gave us Black Flux's Black Stream (guess which subgenre these guys play) and it includes my most played metal track of 2020, 'Ashen Goblets', which distantly reminds me of the'Opening' from Glassworks, of all things.

From Poland, Cultum Interitum's Poison of Being is truly ugly and filthy methodical black metal with multiple vocalists to ensure optimal laceration.

Mr Pom and Mr Lai could you check your emails please?

There is now a weeks' extension for voting!

Voting now ends Friday, February 26!

ahhhhhh

Horisont album sounds good.

Deep Purple and BÖC albums were v good for anyone who didn't hear them. Purp has a lot of psych and prog elements, including quoting most of the prelude to BWV1006 in "Nothing At All".

Dan Weiss album = virtuoso jazz players doing legit heavy hyper-intricate progressive compositions. I think it's actually better than the previous album; Monder shreds more on this one.

I enjoyed the Horisont as well, very buoyant. Thanks for that.

The Dan Weiss is great but not trve enovgh for my ballot, that’s just how it is. Still, anyone who likes heavy jazz ought to hear it.

I had listened to the Wytch Hazel some time ago and enjoyed it p well.

I had stopped keeping up with Krallice, probably just because I didn't think they could top Years Past Matter, but I'm really impressed by Mass Cathexis. They've managed to preserve everything that was good about them without simply rehashing what they were doing; they seem to have gone further in a progressive direction. "Feed on the Blood of Rats" is really fantastic: what a great riff. Wonderful breakdown in "Aspherance".

I had to turn it off bc I couldn't hear it over the construction but the first five tracks from the Colour Haze were really good - is it an ineligible 2019 release, though?

I'm glad for the extension. It will give me more time to check out these suggestions. So far I'm digging the Mamaleek and Angel Morgue.

the merkins at dusk, obvi

voting rn

done

voted for 50 porngrind bands

As is tradition.

Just checked and the voting form is still open. Seandalai messaged me saying he will have results tonight, so if anyone cares to vote then best post here now alerting seandalai before he closes it.

You got my ballot, pom, right?

seandalai only knows!

the lesser known beach boys demo

I haven't got a clue what is going to win this. What won Decibels album of the year?

ok found the list. Could Napalm Death win this poll?

40. Dark Fortress, Spectres from the Old World, Century Media
39. Fawn Limbs, Sleeper Vessels, Roman Numeral
38. Exgenesis, Solve et Coagula, Rain Without End
37. Megaton Sword, Blood Hails Steel – Steel Hails Fire, Dying Victims
36. Oranssi Pazuzu, Mestarin Kynsi, Nuclear Blast
35. Svalbard, When I Die, Will I Get Better, Translation Loss
34. Enslaved, Utgard, Nuclear Blast
33. In the Company of Serpents, Lux, Self-released
32. Xibalba, Años En Infierno, Southern Lord
31. Wake, Devouring Ruin, Translation Loss
30. Cirith Ungol, Forever Black, Metal Blade
29. Proscription, Conduit, Dark Descent
28. Celestial Season, The Secret Teachings, Burning World
27. Midnight, Rebirth by Blasphemy, Metal Blade
26. Krallice, Mass Cathexis, Self-released
25. ACxDC, Satan is King, Prosthetic
24. Temple of Void, The World That Was, Shadow Kingdom
23. Atramentus, Stygian, 20 Buck Spin
22. Tombs, Under Sullen Skies, Season of Mist
21. Haunt, Flashback, Church
20. Kirk Windstein, Dream in Motion, eOne
19. Pallbearer, Forgotten Days, Nuclear Blast
18. Lamp of Murmuur, Heir of Ecliptical Romanticism, Self-released
17. Godthrymm, Reflections, Profound Lore
16. Dropdead, Dropdead, Armageddon
15. Ripped to Shreds 亂 (Luan), Pulverized
14. Vile Creature, Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!, Prosthetic
13. Of Feather & Bone, Sulfuric Disintegration, Profound Lore
12. Armored Saint, Punching the Sky, Metal Blade
11. Incantation, Sect of Vile Divinities, Relapse
10. Goden, Beyond Darkness, Svart
9. Paradise Lost, Obsidian, Nuclear Blast
8. Uada, Djinn, Eisenwald
7. Sweven, The Eternal Resonance, Van
6. Necrot, Mortal, Tankcrimes
5. Spirit Adrift, Enlightened in Eternity, 20 Buck Spin
4. Paysage d’Hiver, Im Wald, Kunsthall Produktionen
3. Imperial Triumphant, Alphaville, Century Media
2. Eternal Champion, Ravening Iron, No Remorse
1. Napalm Death, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, Century Media

If last year's pop general ILM poll is anything to go by, it'll be a duel between Hum and Oranssi Pazuzu.

previous winners of this poll have not got near the big pop poll however

deafheaven do better in that poll than this one, lol

plus voters are weirdly purist and say they wont vote for things like Hum as its not metal, despite the fact this isn't an exclusively metal poll.

Plus Zombi tend to make it every album hehe

I liked the Hum but not enough to vote for it because I'm not 100% sold on those noncommittal vox. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

i dont even know if it will just be diehard metallers voting this year or those who dabble (potential Hum voters) and are into all kinds of music.

Personally I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't that high but who knows.

I did however vote for it.

Voting is closed, results are in.

Thank you seandalai!

And I do believe we have enough for a 101.

How many ballots did we get?

Why would anyone vote for Hum in a metal poll unless they are trolling? Even the people who are into all kinds of music know they're not metal. Nobody would look for their records in the metal section of their local record shop.

I think it's fair to say they are a heavy rock band.

I briefly removed Hum from my ballot for tactical reasons, then restored them because the album bangs

And I do believe we have enough for a 101.

I'd say so too.

You wouldn't find them on the heavy rock shelf either. Those are reserved for AC/DCs and Motley Crues.

Sure, but it's heavy and it's rock.

Obviously yes. I love Hum and I know it's louder and heavier than many actual metal records that will place, but calling it metal or heavy rock just seems wrong.

Perhaps it is your record store's shelves that are wrong.

Usually we wait for the results before we start screaming NOT METAL

For what it's worth, I just typed "what genre is the band hum" into Google and the first thing that came up was "alternative metal".

I don't think it's weird at all to include them. It's not like someone nominated the Spin Doctors

Yeah I guess I'm the one having the blinders on. I just thought nobody would seriously think of Hum as a metal band.

This has never been a metal-exclusive poll.

it's in the title, even. heavy rock is a term that is pretty broad and inclusive.

It's going to be fun if Hum win

now she's out back counting VOTES

Hum probably sound more rooted in Black Sabbath to me than a lot of the bands on that Decibel list do, though.

They were at the bottom of my list tbc.

mine too

Last on mine I think as well LOL.

In a break from previous traditions we wont be starting the rollout today as pom is busy and doesn't want to miss out on any of the rollout.

So I think we will be starting tomorrow about 8/9am his time, which will be UK lunchtime I think?

ahaha that makes at least 4 of us xp

I hope you are all excited

Won't be able to listen along because I'm at work, but at least I can follow the rollout since I'm working from home.

Starting in 30 mins or so. Stay tuned.

Very excited! Working until half 6, but I'll be checking in sporadically.

And so it begins:

2020 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock/Heavy Music Poll: RESULTS – Top 100 Countdown

Thanks all, re: above <3

Hope you're ok, LBI.

Feel free to join us in the rollout, of course (if you feel like it!).

Onward and upward for me, thank you Pom.