20 albums that did (just) not make it to my Top 20 of 2020

2020 has been a shit year to almost everybody on almost all fronts. Never all is bleak so apart from some very good times in Portugal, a nice spring and summer the biggest surpise was the huge amount of great CD releases. So in 2020 I am allowed to pick a top 20 and long time thought I needed to extend to at least a top 30, as there simply were too many very good albums. As that would be the easy way out I played, listened, thought and defined a Top 20 after all. Now I only need to listen some more and rank them over the next few days. Meanwhile I herewith share 20 albums I also highly enjoyed, but this week did not make the cut. Maybe next week some of them would, but one has to take decisions in life. 

So if there are any rules let me set them out here. I am old school. This cannot only been seen by the bolding head, but also by the fact that I don't do Spotify, Deezer or any streaming service. So in order to qualify I must have bought the album. Normally I check albums of bands I do not know on bandcamp or youtube and decide after first hearing if a purchase is necessary. A direct result of this is that I have not heard many new albums. Several of those I would typically pick up during after a show, but that did not happen this year. So I shall not rank the albums that missed the top 20 as they are in no particular order. I will discuss them under genres. I know I shall forget a lot of albums hich I missed and should like but again tough luck.

For me 2020 was a year of nostalgia with the large amount of time spent at home. This resulted in me going back to the styles I loved in the eighties most, which does reflect in my list. 

Extreme metal
Especially the more extreme end of metal came less into my picture. I do like extreme metal live and often pick up albums after shows or buy in advance and play a lot at home before a gig. Now that I only saw the very short Imperial Belial gig in January and the shows of Diabolical in February plus the Noctem/Spectrum of Dilussion later that month. The last band released an album that received praise, but I have not heard it yet. Dark Tranquility, Fen and Enslaved I should also have picked up at a show, but not heard yet. What I did buy and liked a lot are albums by 1. God Dethroned , 2.Rages of Sin, 3. Contrarian and 4. Azusa. Rages of Sin even released the probably best extreme metal album ever released in The Hague. Pity they could not tour, nor do all seated shows, to bring the album even more alive to me. Azusa last year blew me away with album and show in their very own hardcore/progmetal way but was now less of a surprise to me. God Dethroned I missed in Baroeg due to storm in February and Contrarian is too recent to judge completly.

Progmetal

Musically 2020 has absolutely been the year of progmetal. Most of the greats releasing an album and several new discoveries to add to the party. Starting with the best release that did not make it to my Top20 5. Wolverine. This band released video/audio beauty A Darkened Sun, but not releasing same in any format. I donated at their side, but could not buy a release anywhere, staying restricted to Youtube plays. Another band that came with a very strong release was 6. Green Carnation. Their only problem was that of the five songs the longest was a re-release and one a cover, so only three new songs made them drop out of my Top20. Of the big names in Progmetal three bands released an album that definitely did not disappoint, but also was not their best work ever. 7. Haken were more to the point and definitely overcame their Mountain/Affinity dip. 8. Pain of Salvation could never follow up In the Passing Light of Day, but did not falll back to Road Salt levels either. A pleasant album indeed. 9. Oceans of Slumber released yet another moody masterpiece but where The Banished Heart held in the title track and No Color, No Light two breathtaking beautiful songs, this album had no such highlights. Good but not at their best therefore. 10. Gargoyl is a new band around David Davidson (Revocation) Reason enough for me to order fast, but this one is hard to get into. Still sort of struggling with it, while hearing the beauty in songs. Finally 11. Katatonia fall in this area of progmetal, but also doom. This year's release received more praise than I really understood. Album of the month in Aardschok, but not enough happening for me. Very nice on Sunday mornings though.

Doom

Doom for me best works live. That being said not all doom. The more accessible doom mixed with Heavy Metal works anytime. 12. Sorcerer released another winner with Lamenting of the Innocent. Unfortunately the Little Devil show got canceled, as we already were with 8 having tickets and counting. That day in Tilburg probably would have catapulted this album straight into my Top10. Another LD winner Spririt Adrift I have not even heard yet, knowing I should love that album as well reading the reviews. I even never took the time to listen to the new Bell Witch which I definitely still should do. iOPages magazine put me on the track of 13. Lotus Thief. This and is hard to box again, but doomy rules to me, while prog must be there given the magazine I first read about them. Nice one

Thrash Metal

2020 was agood year for Thrash Metal, but I missed most albums. I mean I did not even hear Testament. Still a few made it to my Top20 and 14. Havok was a nice album as well. I did not pick up Warbringer whom I thought stronger when seeing them together. 

NWOBHM

If I missed out on many many thrash metal albums NWOBHM almost completely passed me in the blind. I should have bumped into albums by Raven, Tokyo Blade or Satan's Empire really. The only highlight was that I finally got hands on Traitor's Gate Devil Takes the High Road. One of my absolute favorites of teh year, but a re-release so not qualifying.

Hard Rock

More mainstream hardrock had some good albums as well. To me both 15. Horisont and 16. The Night Flight Orchestra were very uplifting albums perfectly matching a warm summer. Yet for both it was not their strongest release ever.

Prog Rock

While over the past years prog rock lost playing time to extreme metal in my CD player, this nostalgic year they made a comeback of sorts. Still I missed many releases especially Lee Abraham, whom I follow rather close. I just discovered 17. Vulkan and it seems to be a grower even. 18. Prehistoric Animals released an album even stronger than their debut making you happy, maybe lacking a bit of punch though.19. The Pineapple Thief  is perfect for the Sunday morning, but too slow most other days in the week. Finally 20. Pendragon originally disappointed me. Too calm and easy. When Nick Barrett played a brilliant version of water during Proglove home sessions I needed to review my disappointment and now play the album with pleasure looking out for their bi-annual return to de Boerderij in years to come. As re-releases do not count I won't add Marillion's script box to any list. Otherwise candidate for album of the year with all the extras.

Portugal

No Portuguese album in my list this year. This mainly due to bad luck. Last visit to Glam O Rama resulted in sold out album by Gaerea and waiting for the release of Attick Demon to come in any day. The one I most definitely should have is Wanderer, so next time and year better luck.

So these were only albums I loved, but just not making my Top20. Imagine what a ride that will be. Online on Thursday, still needing to play some and decide on picking orders and rankings.