Happy Media Round-up: Top 10 Records of 2020
Editor’s Note: Here @The Pitch of Discontent, we spend most of our free-time diving headfirst into the bountiful world of real-time media consumption. As you’ve likely already surmised, the world is still batshit crazy, so we’re all about finding distractions in any shape or form. Below you will find a list of the best records that we’ve vibed with this year, sound tracking our weeks and months of misery and despair and crushing isolation. Enjoy!
Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist — Alfredo
“As the reigning monarch of gangster rap, Freddie Gibbs is all too familiar with the threat of regicide. On Alfredo, his collaborative LP with producer extraordinaire The Alchemist, the MC approaches the exigencies of the rap game like high court drama, detailing the ins and outs of power plays, money moves, and hood existentialism with thick-and-fast bars and a smooth flow that effortlessly rides the Alchemist’s gritty soulful beats and sinister mafioso samples.” (Exclaim!) // Owen Morawitz
Drain — California Cursed
So, there’s this POV scene in Point Break (1991), where rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) is attempting to infiltrate a group of bank-robbing surfers and he gets set upon by a bunch of Bra Boy-looking blokes who want to teach him one of those ‘locals rule’ kind of lessons. These dudes are all muscled up, covered in tattoos, and tanned like belt leather. It’s a scene that’s slick with 90s testosterone and Cali machismo, and also it gave us the beautiful line reading of “Back off, Warchild!” from Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi. California Cursed was one of the best hardcore punk debuts this year and Drain sound exactly like what those dudes would listen to and be totally stoked on. // Owen Morawitz
Spirit Adrift — Enlightened In Eternity
Former Gatecreeper guitarist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Nate Garrett might just be the most prolific artist in contemporary heavy metal. Starting as a solo endeavour and passion project for Garrett, Spirit Adrift has become an acclaimed act in traditional metal circles with a patented blend of Sabbathian doom and 80s Metallica thrash-dom off the back of three spectacular albums (2016’s Chained to Oblivion, 2017’s Curse of Conception and 2019’s Divided by Darkness). As the project is thrust into a new decade, Garrett’s fourth LP, Enlightened In Eternity, serves up more of the same: quicksilver leads, iconic melodies, intense drumming from Marcus Bryant, soaring harmonies, and endless points of entry for headbang-induced neck injuries. // Owen Morawitz
Black Royal — Firebride
This one was stuck in my car CD player, even though I literally had nowhere to go. Black Royal are (yet another) Finnish stoner doom band, slotting into that greened-out groove between Cathedral and Sleep with a sprinkling of Scandi-death ala Dismember of Hypocrisy. Maudlin and overcome with violin one minute (‘Coven’) and feverishly moshing the next (‘Hail Yourself’) it’s 38 minutes of solid riffs and (real?) Satanic rites. Please forgive me Satan, for I have not sinned. Beautiful. // Tom Valcanis
Pallbearer — Forgotten Days
In May of this year, I quit music journalism as a “profession” for good. Throughout a very long lockdown in Victoria, I listened to music as a “free man.” Forgotten Days is a reminder to metalheads what metal is all about; welcoming riffs arriving as big as houses and easy like favourite couches after an eight-hour shift. It makes no demands of you as Brett Campbell presses into your ears his Ozzy-fied wails and whoops. Light a doob and chill. Revel in your Forgotten Days. // Tom Valcanis
Gaerea — Limbo
Black metal, at least in the “underground” where seventeen dudes with a Bandcamp link can render that entire concept moot, is stuck in perpetual Retromania. Blast beats, hardcore, Wagner. Satan. Repeat. Portuguese coven Gaerea is almost like a revivalist of the late-90s BM; favouring grandiosity over brutality, pomp instead of cheap-ass four-track circumstances. Ten plus minute tracks dominate this, their second LP. No half-measures here. Their sounds recall early Dimmu Borgir or Behemoth before Nergal developed a cult of personality. It’s at times cathartic, mystical, and doubled over with chain-rattling, accusing finger pointing, and invisible orange summoning. What’s not to like? // Tom Valcanis
Elder — Omens
Sometimes, especially in music journalism, other writers get the drop on you and wrap things up better than you ever could. Writing for Stereogum, Tom Breihan notes that “Elder are still fully capable of coming up with vast elephantine riffs. They just never use those riffs to flatten or punish. Instead, on Omens, Elder use those riffs as parts of a sweeping, comforting blanket of sound. Omens works as headphones-based zone-out music — music for letting your thoughts wander and drift. But it still rocks.” In a year as thoroughly miserable as 2020, we all needed a dose of sonic escapism in one form or another and, thankfully, Elder rose to the occasion. // Owen Morawitz
Ihsahn — Pharos EP
Ihsahn will go down in history as a progenitor of black metal — the ringmaster of Emperor, natch — but should also have an appendix for creating the first ever theme songs for Bond villains. Pharos, a measly 25-minuter, packs in three originals and two covers; the former all sultry and smooth, streaked with trip-hop beats and super-cool strings as Ihsahn croons overhead. Yeah, you read that right. It’s not difficult imagining silhouettes of cocktail-dressed girls shooting guns into unsuspecting henchmen as playing cards and poker chips rain down a big screen. His cover of a-ha’s Manhattan Skyline transforms a forgotten 80s B-side into a powerhouse of furious stomping through lonely snow-covered streets. // Tom Valcanis
Pain of Salvation — Panther
Pain of Salvation is one of those bands I adored growing up but forgot about. After the disastrous BE concept, I stopped splashing my cash on them. Lucky for us these Swedish prog metallers kept pumping albums out. The output is courtesy of composer, guitarist, and singer Daniel Gildenlöw. He’s one of the few people in this business whose inner child refuses to die. We’re shot through twists and turns of eclectic electronics, dulcet mandolin, and even a turn at angst-ridden Linkin Park-ism (‘Panther’). All proof Gildenlow’s ode to the oddballs is the best since Rush nailed the cookie-cutter 80s to the Cable TV cross on ‘Subdivisions.’ // Tom Valcanis
Eternal Champion — Ravening Iron
“Take one look at the gorgeously illustrated album artwork by master Ken Kelly, with all the heaving bosoms and occult imagery of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, or the promo photo of vocalist Jason Tarpey (Iron Age) holding his mighty sword aloft, and you just know that you’re in for something delightfully anachronistic. Musically, Ravening Iron will be warm and familiar for any fan of traditional heavy metal. Think Sabbath and Ozzy. Think Mercyful Fate. Think Twilight of the Gods-era Bathory. All you really need to know is that it’s super fun and has bountiful riffs for many, many days. Hails!”(Substack) // Owen Morawitz
