As January draws to an end, it’s time to bid a final farewell to the year 2020 and the Year End Lists it wrought. BUT FIRST! There are a few songs we need to scream at you about. This list focuses on some songs that totally kicked our asses, but somehow fell through the (admittedly crevasse-sized) cracks at the Ometer. But make no mistake, these songs and artists are all worth your attention.
So, in no particular order, we present Firesideometer’s Unsung Songs of 2020.
The side project of Opeth bassist Martin Mendez sounds exactly like what I wish Opeth still sounded like. It’s got some of that trippy 70’s prog influence, but never strays too far from its strengths—a smashing groove delivered with a formidable growl.
I spent a good chunk of 2020 with the line, “Ooooouuuugh, here I come, here I am—knocking HARD ON YOUR DOOOOR!” stuck in my head. Nice of them to knock, because you wouldn’t want to miss the goods Vader are peddling. I didn't find myself in the mood for much death metal in 2020 for some reason, but I always came back to ‘Shock and Awe’ (and the rest of Solitude in Madness) when I needed a fix of br00tality.
You pretty much know what you’re going to get from a new Gama Bomb album. Ripping thrash, a belly full of laughs, and at least one song you can’t get out of your head. ‘Sea Savage’ has a terrific galloping riff, a memorable chorus, and a cackle at the 1:19 mark that never fails to make me smile.
Eye Flys’ debut full-length kicks off with crushing force on their almost-title track ‘Tubba Lard’. It’s a swirling vortex of low-tuned, stomping riffs that chugs along relentlessly while the lead guitar shrieks from above. Think Unsane with Godflesh vocals and you’ll have some idea of the beating you’re in for.
I checked out Poppy’s latest solely because the album art caught my eye. The music is definitely not what I expected, and I can see how Poppy’s appropriation of the metal genre might be off-putting to old school metalheads. In general, I’d say she pulls it off less gracefully than Babymetal who mine similar territory to greater effect. But there are a handful of gems on the album, and ‘Sit / Stay’ is one of them. It’s a perfect blend of electronic, pop, and metal that never sounds forced—something the rest of I Disagree often struggles with.
There were two tracks that really stuck with me off of Hexvessel’s latest album. ‘Bog Bodies’ is one of them, ‘Kindred Moon’ the other. I went back and forth on which to include here. ‘Kindred Moon’ has the more memorable chorus, but something about the moody, gloomy vibe of ‘Bog Bodies’ punched me in the soul. I wish the band would put out an entire album in the vein of ‘Bog Bodies’.
When I heard there was a new Kristofer Åström album coming out, and Britta Persson would be singing on it, I got pretty excited. In my dreams, the entire album was full of duets from these two lovely voices that complemented each other so well on 2004’s magnificent Loupita. It turns out only one song on Hard Times features Britta Persson, but the stark, plaintive beauty of ‘Another Love’ does not disappoint. Fair warning: this song will surely burn your heart on a stick and throw it to waste
The new Kristofer Astrom got me in the mood for more Britta Persson, and it just so turns out Britta collaborated on the soundtrack to a Swedish television show this year called Detja. I don’t know anything about it, but if it’s half as fun as this sweet, breezy pop song, I might have to check it out. The rest of the album is excellent as well and probably should have made my year end list.
Imagine a world where Pantera never let go of their hair-metal roots. ‘Farewell to Yesterday’ kicks off with some straight-out-of-the-90’s slap-bass before storming in with a Cowboys From Hell-era riff, a Def Leppard yell, and enough cock-rock swagger to make Vince Neil blush. The way these elements layer in as the track builds to its infectious chorus is really something else. The rest of Ignite The Sky is well worth checking out, though I do wish the band would lean into those palm-muted riffs more often, as it really does the trick on ‘Farewell to Yesterday’.
The Chats are one of many great bands that came to my attention via Keep It Fast's Top 10 Albums of 2020. ‘Stinker’ (pronounced "Stink-ah") is a quick blast of silly, garage punk that reminds me a bit of early Hives meets a Fosters' beer commercial. The whole album is a blast, but the opener is the one that has been stuck in my head since first listen.
Tough to pick a single track off of this album, as it’s got more than a few slamming tracks on it. I could have just as easily picked ‘You Got It’ or ‘Super Sonic’, but let’s focus on the album’s title track—a full-on belter that demands to be blasted on your car stereo with the windows down on your way to a raging kegger. These guys are so great. Pretty much the Foo Fighters meets Monster Magnet in the best possible way.
Teramaze kind of lost me after 2014’s masterful progressive thrash album Esoteric Symbolism. Guitarist, principal songwriter, and now lead vocalist Dean Wells’ interests have taken the band in a softer, more pop-oriented prog-metal style that just isn’t for me. That said, their music has brought me enough joy over the years that I’m always going to give new material from the band a fair shot. I’m happy to report that ‘Only Daylight’ delivers the goods and could fit right in on Esoteric Symbolism. The song's got an unforgettable chorus, and Dean's voice suits the song well (though I'm still on TEAM REREKURA 4-EVARRRR!!!!).
I loved Ulver’s 2017 album, The Assassination of Julius Ceaser. I loved it so much that it made me a little sad, because—knowing Ulver—I figured they would never release another album quite like it. To my surprise, Flowers of Evil was quite a bit like it—enough so that its subtle differences really stick in my craw. ‘Hour of the Wolf’ was one of the few tracks on the album that gave me exactly what I was looking for. Of course, I don’t fault Ulver for not catering to my whims. They wouldn’t be Ulver if they weren’t subverting expectations at every turn.
2020 went dark for sure, and I don’t think there was a song that captured that apocalyptic dread better than ‘E605’. It’s a bleak, slow burning piece of dystopian sci-fi that feels downright timeless.
My patience for droney, distortion-laced post-rock is pretty limited these days, but when a band brings along a little Failure/Shiner/Hum influence and kicks things off with such a driving riff…
Try to imagine what Duvall-era Alice in Chains might sound like if they listened to a lot of Voivod and King Crimson. It's a pretty weird combination, but it's something you need to hear. If you do like it, you’ll probably like the rest of the band’s self-titled debut. I thought for sure this album would end up sinking its hooks into me last year, but it somehow never did.
I understand this will be a controversial choice given the recent actions of guitarist Jon Schaffer. For that reason, I’ve left off a video embed and did not include this track in our Spotify playlist. Everyone will need to decide for themselves whether they want a single streaming cent going to the man. I’ve decided to include the song on the list, because it truly was one of my favorites this year. It absolutely rips, and includes a fantastically urgent vocal performance by Hansi Kursch. It also serves a counterpoint to the trolls in the comments of every news story about the matter who act as if the metal community lost nothing when we lost Jon Schaffer to whatever madness it was that prompted his actions.
