THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS: ÜBER ROCK’S TOP ALBUMS OF 2020

Compiled by Monk

Over the course of a year, our Über team listens to literally hundreds of albums, and once again we set them the onerous task of selecting what they feel to have been the best new releases of the past 12 months.

In total, our crack team submitted more than 200 albums for consideration, with their lists then fed into our state-of-the-art musical abacus to calculate our final top ten albums of 2020.

First, here are our writer’s individual selections:

David O’Neill

1. Black Stone Cherry – ‘Human Condition’
2. Cadillac Three – ‘Country Fuzz’
3. Those Damn Crows – ‘Point Of No Return’
4. Dirty Shirley – ‘Dirty Shirley’
5. Everyday Heroes – ‘A Tale Of Sin And Sorrow’
6. King King – ‘Maverick’
7. Ryders Creed – ‘Lost Souls’

DJ Astrocreep

1. Sky Valley Mistress – ‘Faithless Rituals’
2. Psychlona – ‘Venus Skytrip’
3. Professor and the Madman – ‘Seance‘
4. Myrkur – ‘Folkesange’
5. Michael – ‘Tell Your Friends’
6. Ascension of the Watchers – ‘Apocrypha‘
7. Heavy Salad – ‘Cult Casual’
8. Avatar – ‘Hunter Gatherer’
9. The Sensible Gray Cells – ‘Get Back Into The World‘
10. Desert Storm – ‘Omens’
11. High Priestess – ‘Casting The Circle’
12. Death Valley Girls – ‘Under The Spell of Joy’
13. Poisonous Birds – ‘We Can Never Not Be All Of Us’
14. Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate – ‘Nostalgia For Infinity’
15. King Buzzo with Trevor Dunn – ‘Gift Of Sacrifice’
16. World Sanguine Report – ‘Skeleton Blush’
17. Dystopian Future Movies – ‘Inviolate’
18. Sertraline – ‘Clouded Minds & Silver Lines’
19. Like A Motorcycle – ‘Dead Broke‘
20. Häxan – ‘White Noise’

Gerald Stansbury

1. Soraia – ‘Dig Your Roots’
2. Massive Wagons – ‘House of Noise’
3. Ward Davis – ‘Black Cats and Crows’
4. Karen Jonas – ‘The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams’
5. Brooke Brown – ‘Troubled Heart’
6. The Nude Party – ‘Midnight Manor’
7. Vulvarine – ‘Unleashed’
8. Dangereens – ‘Tough Luck’
9. The Rumours – ‘Suck It’
10. Lucifer Star Machine – ‘The Devil’s Breath’
11. Gareth Leach – ‘Trigger’
12. Steve Earle & the Dukes – ‘Ghosts of West Virgina’
13. Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen – ‘Hold my Beer Volume 2’
14. Tyla – ‘Isolation Crossing Collection’
15. Low Cut Connie – ‘Private Lives’
16. L. Marble – ‘One Line at a Time’
17. Reckless Kelly – ‘American Jackpot/ American Girls’
18. Givvi Flynn – ‘Tomboy’
19. Armored Saint – ‘Punching the Sky’
20. Butch Walker – ‘American Love Song’

Jim Rowland

1. Horisont – ‘Sudden Death’
2. Chubby & The Gang – ‘Speed Kills’
3. Fontaines DC – ‘A Hero’s Death’
4. Midnight – ‘Rebirth By Blasphemy’
5. Hellripper – ‘The Affair Of The Poisons’
6. Young Knives – ‘Barbarians’
7. The Allman Betts Band – ‘Bless Your Heart’
8. Brant Bjork – ‘Brant Bjork’
9. Bob Mould – ‘Blue Hearts’
10. AC/DC – ‘Power Up’
11. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – ‘KG’
12. The Speedways – ‘Radio Sounds’
13. Blue Öyster Cult – ‘The Symbol Remains’
14. Anvil – ‘Legal At Last’
15. Freeways – ‘True Bearings’
16. Brimstone Coven – ‘The Woes Of A Mortal Earth’
17. Henrik Palm – ‘Poverty Metal’
18. Flower Kings – ‘Islands’
19. Albert Bouchard – ‘Re-Imaginos’
20. James Williamson & Deniz Tek – ‘Two To One’

John Bedard

1. Genus Ordinis Dei – ‘Glare of Deliverance’
2. The Bombpops – ‘Death in Venice Beach’
3. MFC Chicken – ‘Fast Food & Broken Hearts’
4. Death Valley Girls – ‘Under The Spell Of Joy’
5. Ravenworld – ‘Transcendence’
6. Fools Ghost – ‘Dark Woven Light’
7. Pinnacle Point – ‘Symphony Of Mind’
8. Dark Tranquillity – ‘Moment’
9. Slow Fall – ‘Beneath the Endless Rains’
10. Chronicle – ‘Demonology’
11. Chief State – ‘Tough Love’
12. Secret Rule – ‘Against’
13. Helen Love – ‘Power On’
14. Lucynine – ‘Amor Venenat’
15. Wayward Dawn – ‘Haven of Lies’
16. Curses – ‘Chapter II Bloom’

John Morrow

1. Oranssi Pazuzu – ‘Mestarin Kynsi’
2. Kvelertak – ‘Splid’
3. Hällas – ‘Conundrum’
4. Bungle – ‘The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny’
5. Napalm Death – ‘Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism’
6. Sodom – ‘Genesis XIX’
7. Imperial Triumphant – ‘Alphaville’
8. Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – ‘May Our Chambers Be Full’
9. Eternal Champion – ‘Ravening Iron’
10. John Petrucci – ‘Terminal Velocity’
11. Myrkur – ‘Folkesange’
12. The Project Hate MCMXCIX – ‘Purgatory’
13. Albinobeach – ‘The Ladder’
14. Killer Be Killed – ‘Reluctant Hero’
15. Lamb Of God – ‘Lamb Of God’
16. Taylor Swift – ‘Folklore’/ ‘Evermore’
17. Haunt – ‘Mind Freeze’
18. Diamond Head – ‘Lightning To The Nations 2020’
19. Orbit Culture – ‘Nija’
20. Kadavar – ‘The Isolation Tapes’

Jonny Bakes

1. Countless Skies – ‘Glow’
2. Unleash the Archers – ‘Abyss’
3. Mike from Scumface – ‘Clusterfuck 2020’
4. The Night Flight Orchestra – ‘Aeromantic’
5. Ensiferum – ‘Thalassic’
6. Dark Tranquillity – ‘Moment’
7. The Hell – ‘Joris: A Hardcore Opera’
8. Nightwish – ‘Human II : Nature’
9. Ten Foot Wizard – ‘Get Out of Your Mind’
10. Alestorm – ‘Curse of the Crystal Coconut’
11. Primal Instinct – ‘Devastation’
12. Dakesis – ‘Fractures’
13. Lamb of God – ‘Lamb of God’
14. Akhlys – ‘Melinoë’
15. Bioplan – ‘Epipath & Ocular’
16. Less Than Jake – ‘Silver Linings’
17. Trivium – ‘What The Dead Men Say’
18. Gaerea – ‘Limbo’
19. Attic Theory – ‘The Sign of an Active Mind’
20. Grift – ‘Budet’

Monk

1. Ward XVI – ‘Metamorphosis’
2. Fish – ‘Weltschmerz’
3. Snake Oil And Harmony – ‘Hurricane Riders’
4. Matty James Cassidy – ‘Old Souls’
5. Bakken – ‘This Means War’
6. Body Count – ‘Carnivore’
7. Ruff Majik – ‘The Devil’s Cattle’
8. Armored Saint – ‘Punching The Sky’
9. CJ Wildheart – ‘Siege’
10. Ingested – ‘Where Only Gods May Tread’
11. Anvil – ‘Legal At Last’
12. Spirit Adrift – ‘Enlightened In Eternity’
13. Lucifer Star Machine – ‘The Devil’s Breath’
14. Raging Speedhorn – ‘Hard To Kill’
15. Red Spektor – ‘Heart Of The Renewed Sun’
16. Rich Kid Expre$$ – ‘Psychodelic’
17. Scumbag Millionaire – ‘Poor And Infamous’
18. Unleash The Archers – ‘Abyss’
19. Ravenlight – ‘Project Genesis’
20. L.A. Witch – ‘Play With Fire‘

Phil Cooper

1. Millie Manders & The Shut Up – ‘Telling Truths, Breaking Ties’
2. Bury Tomorrow – ‘Cannibal’
3. Trivium – ‘What The Dead Men Say’
4. Anaal Nathrakh – ‘Endarkenment’
5. Winterfylleth – ‘The Reckoning Dawn’
6. Svalbard – ‘When I Die Will I Get Better?’
7. Enslaved – ‘Utgard’
8. Atavist – ‘III: Absolution’
9. Pallbearer – ‘Forgotten Days’
10. Ante Inferno – ‘Fane’
11. Dark Tranquility – ‘Moment’
12. Bruce Springsteen – ‘Letter to You’
13. Brian Fallon – ‘Local Honey’
14. Kvaen – ‘The Funeral Pyre’
15. Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Ordinary Man’
16. Kvelertak – ‘Splid’
17. Gama Bomb – ‘Sea Savage’
18. Ingested – ‘Where Only Gods May Tread’
19. Necrot – ‘Mortal’
20. Spirit Adrift – ‘Enlightened in Eternity’

Rich Hobson

1. Trivium – ‘What The Dead Men Say’
2. Pallbearer – ‘Forgotten Days’
3. Kaoteon – ‘Kaoteon’
4. Run The Jewels – ‘RTJ4’
5. Paradise Lost – ‘Obsidian’
6. Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Ordinary Man’
7. Anaal Nathrakh – ‘Endarkenment’
8. Oceans of Slumber – ‘Oceans of Slumber’
9. Fantastic Negrito – ‘Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?’
10. Napalm Death – ‘Throes of Joy In The Jaws of Defeatism’
11. Sepultura – ‘Quadra’
12. Higher Power – ‘27 Miles Underwater’
13. Creeper – ‘Sex, Death & The Infinite Void’
14. God Damn – ‘God Damn’
15. Raging Speedhorn – ‘Hard To Kill’
16. Lamb of God – ‘Lamb Of God’
17. Backxwash – ‘God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It’
18. Spanish Love Songs – ‘Brave Faces Everyone’
19. Irist – ‘Order of the Mind’
20. Brothers of Metal – ‘Emblas Saga’

Steve Mirsik

1. Joe Bonamassa – ‘Royal Tea’
2. Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown – ‘Pressure’
3. All Time Low – ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’
4. NFG – ‘Forever and Ever x Infinity’
5. Knuckle Puck – ‘20/20’
6. John 5 – ‘Live Invasion’
7. Taylor Swift – ‘Folklore’
8. Taylor Swift – ‘Evermore’
9. Neck Deep – ‘All Distortions Are Intentional’
10. Silverstein – ‘A Beautiful Place To Drown’
11. Four Year Strong – ‘Brain Pain’
12. Ace Frehley – ‘Origins, Vol. 2’
13. Anti-Flag – ‘20/20 Vision’
14. AC/DC – ‘Power Up’
15. Hayley Williams – ‘Petals for Armor’

The Dark Queen

1. Baleful Creed – ‘The Lowdown’
2. Snake Oil And Harmony – ‘Hurricane Riders’
3. Dan Reed – ‘Lift Off’
4. Ravenlight – ‘Project Genesis’
5. Ward XVI – ‘Metamorphosis’
6. Voodoo Sioux – ‘Professor Balthazar’s Psychedelic Medicine Show’
7. Bakken – ‘This Means War’
8. Fish – ‘Weltschmerz’
9. Matty James Cassidy – ‘Old Souls’
10. Confess – ‘Burn ‘Em All’

So, they you have it: our team’s individual selections. We set the ÜRHQ goblins to work on the trusty old abacus to work out the equations and mathematical algorithms… Well, the number crunching has been completed, and we present to you our final list of the ten albums which have most tickled our team’s aural cortexes over the past 12 months… and, in the best tradition of countdowns, we present it in reverse order:

=10. Fish – ‘Weltschmerz’

=10. Unleash The Archers – ‘Abyss’

8. Kvelertak – ‘Splid’

7. Death Valley Girls – ‘Under The Spell Of Joy’

6. Napalm Death – ‘Throes of Joy In The Jaws of Defeatism’

5. Myrkur – ‘Folkesange’

4. Snake Oil And Harmony – ‘Hurricane Riders’

3. Anaal Nathrakh – ‘Endarkenment’

2. Dark Tranquillity – ‘Moment’

1. Trivium – ‘What The Dead Men Say’

Well done to Matt Heafy and the lads for topping our writers’ poll of our collective and individual albums of this past, highly traumatic year. Despite everything else that has been going on in the world, it has been another great year for music, with literally hundreds of quality albums being released – of which our poll only reflects a snapshot. Personally speaking, I could easily have doubled the length of my list and really struggled to cut it down to the mere “top 20” to which we restrict ourselves…

This is our last post of the pan(dem)ic year… we’re off to sink a few beers, wave 2020 on its sorry way and hopefully look forward to a brighter 2021. So, see you on the other side, and in our time-honoured message on all things Über Rock – keep ‘er lit, keep ‘er between the hedges and keep the music alive \m/