Nuclear Power Trio : " Wet Ass Plutonium"

 Ok, so this might be the best album title of the year, which was the main reason I gave this a listen with no warning what I was signing up for. As it turns out this an instrumental progressive metal band that has fully embraced synth wave. They have shrouded themselves in cartoonish anonymity. In reality they are Greg Burgess from Allegaeon, Cephalic Carnage bassist Nick Schendzielos and Havok / Fear Factory drummer Peter Webber. The second song finds a more jazzy melodic sense entering when you are not being dazzled by virtuosity. An almost fusion feel adds a more mature sensibility to things even when they introduce funk elements. "Nyetflix and Chill" feels the most South Beach inspired so far. 

For instrumental music it does manage to keep my interest three songs in, which says something considering that I am not really impressed with shredding. I feel it is  important to be a well rounded musician and capable of pulling out a sweep arpeggio when called for, but it loses it's luster when that is over done. I am more impressed with the bass shredding than the synth or guitar solos here. By the time we get to "Air Force Fun" I am beginning to get a little bored and needing something more to hook me in here. Sure the more orchestrated endeavors that unfold are impressive, but in terms of songwriting, rather masturbatory in what they have set out to do. 

"Snark Side of the Un" just kind of runs together with it's acrobatics , until a more melodic jazz tinged break down arrives. While I know that Chris Broderick , Ben Ellis, Brian Hopp and Scott Carstairs are all lending the fretwork magic, but it is not worth noting as there is nothing that stands to mark the personality of their playing. Things get heavier in places, and the more jazz tinged grooves work in different way, but there is little to offer a noted shift in the colors they are painting the arrangements with. Perhaps this might be fun live, but I can not see this as an album that is worth more than background music. "Anti-Saxxers" does have sax on it, and is the bass players moment to shine once more.

"Critical Bass Theory" is a grooving exploration of their fret boards, that might dazzle people who are really into guitar solos. Sure it has a pumped up back bone, but despite the driving moments it might as well just be a jazz album that is played by metal heads. The last song does have it's melodic moments , but the bulk of the song is more shredding solos from most of the instruments involved, the drummer is the one guy who is not over playing and holds it all down. I will give this an 8, as they are great musicians, and this is well done it is just not my thing, but I can appreciate the talent invested in this.This album is being released on Metal Blade Records.  

The Top 10 Mainstream Metal Albums

Time to bang your head. Mainstream metal is either 

A- Middle of the road in it's attempt to appeal to a wider audience 

B- A less extreme sub-genre like Power metal or Thrash that is easier for your average suburban metal to swallow

C- bands that are harder than hard rock , but not what we think of as death or black metal here. 

This list it the best of those kinda of bands, who you are more likely to see in the page of Revolver Magazine.. As with years past I sort through the genre lists before making the overall top ten of the year list. I know many of you are ready for 2020 to be over with. Hate to break it to you but nothing is getting better next year. As far as 2020 goes for the mainstream metal  are no new bands , so this year was more about the tried and true. 

The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Sure you can bitch and complain about your favorite band not being on the list. However I listen to five new albums a day so yes I heard your favorite album and was not impressed. No I do not care what you think about it .I do hope you can find your next favorite on this list and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out audio on these guys. Anyways here are the top 10 Mainstream Metal  albums of 2020

10- Pale Divine- " the Consequence of Time" 

This former doom band is not as depressed so they are able to pick up the speed for some Judas Priest like proto thrash. It leans in power metal direction, but while they are no longer in despair they are not as happy as power metal and that is a good thing./

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/05/pale-divine-consequence-of-time.html

9-  Mr. Bungle -"The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny"

They brought Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo on to re-record their demo. With those two what else did we think this was going to be. It's solid thrash. Mike shows he is not too old to get metal as needed. Not what most Bungle fans expected , but they made a great metal record 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/09/mr-bungle-raging-wrath-of-easter-bunny.html

8-Carach Angren - "Frankensteina Strataemontanus"

No as zany and King Diamond in the theatrics of their song writing as they have been in the past, in fact this album felt more straight ahead metal than what I have heard from them in the past. Oddly enough they were more ambitious than Mr. Bungle , this time around. 

    https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/06/carach-angren-franckensteina.html 

7- Caligula's Horse - "Rise Radiant" 

They were going to be on the prog list, but this album is more straight ahead than most on that list. Yes the are proggy and can shred, but still make a pretty solid effort in writing memorable song. Those hooks gave them the edge over the Angren boys. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/05/caligulas-horse-rise-radiant.html

 

6 -Inquisition - "Black Mass For a Mass Grave" 

They might still wear corpse paint , but that does not make this album black metal. The vocals are the same. But they have moved into a mellower and more melodic direction that owes more to the melodic nature of classic metal. The songs flow really well, and this is an album you can leave on and let play. Just because it is not black metal does not mean it doesn't have more balls to it than Caligula's Horse. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/11/inquisition-black-mass-for-mass-grave.html

5-Enslaved - "Utgard"

They are bringing their Viking side back. This album sounds huge and balances their more black metal beginnings with the more proggy stuff they have been churning out for the past twenty years. They might be pound for pound the most talented black metal band , next to Emperor. This album offers a broader range than Inquisition . 

 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/10/enslaved-utgard.html

 

4- Havok -"V"

This album has great energy. I am not normally about thrash revival bands because.. well I was there the first time it was done. Lyrically this album was right on time. Where Enslaved certainly does more with more epic sound, this in your face urgency earned this album more time in my ears. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/05/havok-v.html

3- Testament-"Titans of Creation"

These mother fuckers do not sound like they have aged a day. This could have been the album that came after "Low'. They kick out the same brand of thrash they have been killing with since the 80s. The albums in the top 2 spots took more chances with their formulas. But this gives you everything you want from them. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/03/testament-titans-of-creation.html

2- Demons & Wizards - "III"

Power metal is normally too happy for me. I do love me some Iced Earth though, and that is half the equation here. It also helps the singer from Blind Guardian is moodier than most of the metal yodelers. These guys also care about writing song, and wrote some good ones here. In fact not just good , but better than most.  

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/02/demons-wizards-iii.html

 

 1- Code Orange-"Underneath" 

The Orange Kids have pretty much evolved beyond their hard core past into an angry industrial machine that writes fucking catchy songs. Their vocals continue to improve , and this album captures the mood of 2020. It beat out Demons & Wizards for top spot because ... well it was not even close these guys are at their peak. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2020/03/code-orange-underneath.html

Havok : " V "

The smoke has cleared and the victors in the war of retro thrash have emerged .  Toxic Holocaust has  a couple albums I dig. Municipal Waste felt like kids who were in punk bands that wanted to jump on the metal band wagon at the tail end of the Myspace days. The reason the bar is held high for this sort of thing  is because . I'm I bought " Master of Puppets" on cassette the week it came out old. I saw Slayer, Overkill, Anthrax, Testament, Flotsam & Jetsam, Metal Church and Exodus in the 80s. I know aside from that most recent Testament review, I do not cover a great deal of it as my tastes tend to fall along the darker side of doom and black metal these days with a penchant for out of the box thinking when it comes to metal. Thrash tends to follow the rules of it's genre. Yeah there was some experimental thrash back in the day.... Wrathchild America, Scatterbrain , Mordred and Death Angel. I loved that shit. These days they tend to follow the template of their influences and get hung up on tone and how fast they can play. In doing so they for get what made the classic thrash bands classic is they wrote good songs.

This is where Havok is getting it right. I had not paid a great deal of attention until I pressed play on this album. I now know the error of my ways. I do know must of the original line up went on to form Necro Panther. You may be aware of my rule about not just metal but music in general, if not I will say it again for the people in the cheap seats. "Cool riffs alone does not a good song make" . There has to be dynamics. If bands are taking requests I would also like it do be dark. Havok is fun, but they are not dark so I will over look this. The vocals serve a purpose. They are not just a scowled after thought due to their obligatory nature. The album starts when the Metallic fade in. This is not the only Metallica moment. It was almost hard for me to get past the second song "Fear Campaign" as I kept going back into. Lyrically I think it speaks to what is going on in the world today, so it's relevance has made it my Corona theme song.

All instruments are 100 percent on point for " Betrayed By Technology". Once again very timely lyrics  that resonant with me. The bass tone on this album is impressive and it is good to hear it so present in the mix. The vocals come closer to singing rather than the spit fire snarling they have been doing. "Phantom Force" is the first single from this album, it's the kind of break neck speed you expect from this kind of thing, while song writing is still in place I think the need for speed makes this one feel rushed . They start stepping on the gas as the pace picks up in the album's third act. They do not catch the same quality of groove on a song like "Cosmetic Surgery". Maybe it just has to grow on me. They do add things like actual singing and groove to "Parapsychism" to make it one of the album's best songs even with the wink to "Whom the Bell Tolls". "Merchants of Death" gets caught back up in the speed factor, but is arranged in such a way that it compensates for this. There is a darker and more melodic touch to "Don't Do it" that works well. I will give this one a 9.5, this will be a hard album for new thrash bands to beat.