It’s been two years since Wardruna dropped Skald, and half a decade since the last album featuring the full Nordic folk collective. Skald featured solo performances from project leader Einar Selvik, evoking the skald poets of pre-Christian Scandinavia. The album’s limited nature hasn’t hindered Wardruna’s journey, following up its…

The 60 best metal albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): Mr. Bungle, The Ocean Collective, Wailin’ Storms, Liturgy, Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou, Ulcerate, Umbra Vitae, Nero di Marte, Protest the Hero and Tombs. Who would’ve though Mr. Bungle would make it this high with a re-recorded…

The 60 best metal albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): Code Orange, Napalm Death, Garganjua, Pallbearer, Xibalba, Imperial Triumphant, Bell Witch & Aerial Ruin, Methwitch, Anaal Nathrakh and Huntsmen. We’re close to the last circle of hell, so I suppose Code Orange applies in more way than…

The 60 best metal albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): Deftones, Tallah, Loathe, Ulthar, Pyrrhon, Bedsore, Orthodox, Katla, -(16)- and Boris. Thirty down, 30 to go! We’re in the thick of our journey through metal in 2020. This is really where the true standouts start to come…

The 60 best metal albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): Killer Be Killed, Winterfylleth, Igorrr, Kall, Incantation, Wayfarer, Ether Coven, Eye of Nix, In The Company Of Serpents and Sólstafir. We’re nearing the half-way point! The hits keep on coming (literally), with RIFF’s countdown of 2020’s 60…

The 60 best metal albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): The Black Dahlia Murder, Elder, Sumac, Botanist, Vile Creature, Today is the Day, Cult of Fire, Mare Cognitum & Spectral Lore, End and Reverorum ib Malacht. Welcome to the second beatdown in a six-part beatdown series counting…

The 60 best metal albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): Great American Ghost, Azusa, Oranssi Pazuzu, Primitive Man, Obsidian Kingdom, Malokarpatan, My Dying Bride, Boundaries, Behold The Arctopus and O Zorn. Historians will likely look back on 2020 as one of the worst years ever. Luckily, metal…

Clockwise from top left: Hurtwave, Cristy Alover, Grandma, T9ine, Shallow Side and Barbara Black. Every week, there’s a plethora of new music at our fingertips. Artists on platforms like Spotify and Bandcamp are plentiful, and the radio offers a steady deluge of new singles, but who has time to…

Bandcamp Friday Oct. 2, 2020. Clockwise from left: Adrianne Lenker, Liturgy, Secret Chiefs 3, Sunami, Crippled Black Phoenix and Soft Kill. As the election proves to be as chaotic as expected, music is more important than ever as a means of speaking truth to power and forming community around…

In case anyone fell off the train in the past three years, it’s worth reiterating that Pallbearer basically became Boston with a beefy guitar tone on Heartless. After two albums of slow-motion Black Sabbath worship, the Arkansas doom metal quartet made a confident stride into classic prog-rock territory. In fact,…