Doc Grier has a Top Ten(ish) of 2020 worthy of fear. Grab a beer and peer into the unknown.
Massacre
![Plague – Portraits of Mind [Things You Might Have Missed 2020]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Plague_Portraits-of-Mind-01-768x768.jpg)
Plague – Portraits of Mind [Things You Might Have Missed 2020]
“I suppose there’s a certain dark irony to the fact that death metal had one of its best years during a global pandemic. It’s a double irony that in a year fraught with so much outstanding death metal, it’s Plague’s unsung debut Portraits of Mind that keeps drawing me back as the days (and plague) drag on.” Portraits of 2020.
Benediction – Scriptures Review
“When I first heard Benediction, it was on the indispensable Death…Is Just the Beginning II with “Dark is the Season.” I still get that opening riff stuck in my head from time to time. Many moons ago when I first discovered Anaal Nathrakh, I learned that vocalist Dave Hunt had performed on Benediction’s 2008 release Killing Music, I was rather ambivalent upon hearing it. Sometime around then I heard Bolt Thrower’s underrated Honour Valour Pride, which featured Benediction’s best-known vocalist Dave Ingram, and I loved his performance. Ingram’s stellar performance on the title track of Megascavenger’s At the Plateaus of Leng was a big factor in me picking it up. Scriptures, Benediction’s first release since Killing Music, sees Ingram return to the fold and my expectations measured.” Death… is beginning again.
The Glorious Dead – Into Lifeless Shrines Review
“Old school death metal never gets olde at the House of Steel. I’m a sucker for the stuff and I’m willing to give any such act a chance to show off their gnarly, aged wares. Michigan’s The Glorious Dead rolled their dead cart into town recently with the promo for full-length debut Into Lifeless Shrines, and I was there to greet them.” The Shrining.
Bear Mace – Charred Field of Slaughter Review
“Yet, the success of a musician is only measured by one’s support and their growth in the field. Green Carnation’s Tchort has proved his worth and Bear Mace’s Sugar has done the same. Bear Mace’s newest release, Charred Field of Slaughter, is that proof. You want to know what a man can do with a guitar, with killer bass and solo partners, with one of the genre’s nastiest vocalists, and nearly forty years of death metal boiling through one’s head? Witness.” Bears, beets, burly death metal.
Yer Metal Is Olde: Death – Leprosy
“As a lover of progressive music, I often muse on the use of “progressive” as a categorization as averse to adjective. The paradox of unfettered creativity being characterized, and therefore restricted, often seems alien to me. Not so for Chuck Schuldiner, who knew all too well the difference between progression and growth. Long before the intelligentsia of extreme music raised a monopoly on pens, metal sought to forge its own swords. While Death would help define progressive death metal in years to come, it was 1988’s Leprosy that would be amongst the first to channel the genre’s base instincts.” Still infectious after all these years.
The Grotesquery – The Lupine Anathema Review
“The man who annually renders your complaints of “not enough time” null and void by spearheading a million bands per annum, Mr. Rogga Johansson returns once again with The Grotesquery, packed to capacity with classic death metal and riffs a-plenty. Having once more conjured Kam Lee from beyond for another round of retro death metal, fourth record, The Lupine Anathema, embarks on a pseudo-concept centered around the legend of the werewolf.” Eyes bigger than your stomach, eh Wolfie?
Akatharta – Spiritus Immundus Review
“Sometimes, when that flight of masochistic fancy hits, we here at AMG like to play a little game lovingly referred to as Promo Roulette – not unlike Russian Roulette, but with every chamber loaded with disaster and disappointment. The powers that be randomly assign a project, comfortable in the knowledge that the first, last and only rule of said gamble is: the house always wins. On occasion, however, it is possible to steal a non-fatal cranial grazing and happen upon something worthwhile. So when the relative quality of Akatharta’s debut, Spiritus Immundus, rebounded off my ferrous hide and into my lap, I was pleasantly surprised.” You got lucky, Beuller!
Down Among The Dead Men – Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy! Review
“Down Among The Dead Men vocalist Dave Ingram has the death metal pedigree of a standard poodle with the roar of a rabid pit bull, widely known for his work with Benediction and a brief yet destructive stint in Bolt Thrower for 2002’s excellent Honour – Valour – Pride. Take one rabid poodle and add some Rogga.
Bone Gnawer – Cannibal Crematorium Review
“Starting your promo blurb off with “Horror ‘n gore connoisseurs, Bone Gnawer….” will catch my eye. Going on to mention that the band is the brainchild of death metal legend Kam Lee (The Grotesquery, ex-Massacre, ex-Denial Fiend) that’s a great way to keep me reading.” Madam X likes cookouts…and cannibalism.
