Released 26 June 2020 by Kunsthall Produktionen There’s no lyrics, just vocalized screams, that are somehow perfectly relatable in 2020.
I’m not sure this album would have appeared on my year end list in any other year but I cannot count the nights that I’ve listened to this album to help me wind down after long stressful days during this pandemic. Metal Archives doesn’t even consider Unreqvited a metal band but I’m a firm believer that this calming style of atmospheric black metal is another splinter of this diverse subgenre. Kaatayra released another album in August, Toda História pela Frente, that features electric instruments if you want a little more bite added to that sound. As an acoustic black metal album it certainly isn’t the most brutal release on this list but there’s simply nothing else out there that sounds like this album.
Kaatayra is a one man Brazilian black metal band that uses many folk elements and even instruments to create a sound that seemingly comes straight out of the rainforest. Kaatayra – Só Quem Viu o Relâmpago à Sua Direita Sabe Better songwriting combined with better production have made this band with a novelty name something to be taken seriously.
#BEST BLACK METAL ALBUMS FULL#
Their debut EP from 2018 was solid but the women of North Carolina based Feminazgûl really stepped it up this year on their first full length, No Dawn For Men. Each planet in the Solar System is given its own song by one of the two bands and then they both combine on the two songs about Pluto that close out this almost 2 hour long release that somehow goes by too quickly every time I play it. The Hellenic black metal of Spectral Lore met with the Cascadian black metal of Mare Cognitum to bring us this Astrological themed split from these two excellent one man bands. Released 13 March 2020 by Entropic Recordings
Spectral Lore / Mare Cognitum split Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine This is a great album to plug some headphones into while taking a walk somewhere outdoors. This debut album offers a Russian take on the Cascadian black metal sound of bands from the Pacific Northwest like Wolves In The Throne Room, Ash Borer, Fauna and others with a heavy focus not on coldness and evil but on nature and solitude. Gloosh is a one man band based in the city of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. A unique band unlike any other out there right now, they use black metal to explore the philosophy and spiritual concepts of Buddhism and Vedic Hinduism (subjects I do not claim to be an expert on) while simultaneously playing totally jamming riffs. The Czech band Cult of Fire released these two companion albums in February and while double albums can drag on they’ve done a good job of making each one listenable on its own, though I’d argue they do complete each other. Other Iranian metal bands From The Vastland and Arsames are more well known but Berglicht proves Erancnoir is worthy of attention too.
I found myself getting lost in this album’s four tracks, totaling about 70 minutes of music, many times this year. This Iranian one man band put out a gem of longform atmospheric black metal in early 2020. This black metal list is my first of these lists but the doom/stoner list is now live here and you can also find my death metal list here. 2020 has been a unique year with unique challenges, to say the least, and I fully expect that to be reflected in my lists. It’s the end of the year so it’s time for my end of year album lists! I’m posting several lists, each for a different subgenre/category, and ordered by release date instead of ranking them.