Reports from the Underground: 2020 Albums of the Year

Hello. We are BACK. Or in the case that this is the first time you read this blog, we are… front? I don’t know, don’t ask me, but please don’t leave yet. There’s a sentimental ramble coming up you clearly don’t want to miss.

Soo… 2020. What a year it was. This was the year in which I started my BS post introductions out of a lack of inspiration for proper ones, and also a one of staff changes on this blog as we got in five new reviewers, one left, and three were too busy for the better part of the year. Oh and… you’re telling me I’m forgetting something? Ah yes, my singular dental visit! No…? …OK fine, I’ll talk about Covid as well. Obviously it was the primary source of all our reviewer turmoil as it upended our lives.

But really I want to talk about more positive things, such as this list we’ve presented you here. Despite all the bad that happened in the wider world, the underground was as vibrant as ever. The sheer volume of great releases this year we’ve reviewed is absolutely staggering. We’ve highlighted 40 releases or so, but if you were to include all the honorable mentions, then that amount doubles easily. And then to think we only focus on progressive metal-ish releases. For me it’s easy to say we live in the golden age of underground music. There’s an unfathomable amount of great music coming out right now. To simply focus on the bigger artists is a waste if you ask me. The underground is where it’s at, and this post is a celebration of that sentiment.

Now let me explain how this list is structured. For starters, we didn’t do a ranked list as we didn’t listen to all of each other’s albums anyway, and our tastes are too different for such a thing to begin with. Furthermore it would go against the spirit of this blog. Your enjoyment of something is a very personal thing, and a ranked list does not respect that. Instead we divided this post into three tiers (four if you count honorable mentions also). Each reviewer picked a few albums for each tier, reflecting how much they enjoyed those albums. We have “The Great” for roughly 8/10 albums, “The Amazing” for roughly 9/10 albums, and “The Albums of the Year” for well… the albums of the year. For the last tier each reviewer obviously picked only one album, but for the others they were allowed some more. I stressed to the team that it shouldn’t just be a great album, but also one they established a connection with, so this list is truly personal to each of our reviewers.

I think that about covers what I wanted to say for now. Each tier will have its own Spotify playlist at the top with the recommended tracks from the albums featured in that tier. Be sure to save those if you like playlists, and also follow our Spotify account as we regularly add new playlists. We also have a spreadsheet this time with all the albums for if you don’t feel like reading the entire post (beware of spoilers though). So with all that out of the way, let’s get cracking! Happy reading!