Here is part 2 of my AOTY list. Part 1 is here. This category is called...
Albums I was obsessed with/bumped all year.
This is self explanatory. Below are my heavy hitters for 2020.
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| Gulch |
6. Jelly & Pi'erre Bourne -- Wolf of Peachtree (SOSSHOUSE)
Pi'erre Bourne is my pick for producer of the year after dropping two trap master classes with his SOSSHOUSE affiliates. Jelly, the first beneficiary, doesn't just allow his mentor to carry him past the limits of his ability. He excels in the format set for him. The hooks on this project are high energy. The verses are full of quotables. The songs are all short and sweet in that "leave you wanting more" kind of way. Wolf of Peachtree is the type of fun, easy listen you can come back to again and again. I don't know how it will hold up, but I loved it in 2020.
5. Gulch -- Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress (Closed Casket Activities)
Gulch have been one of the biggest "newsmakers" in hardcore for the past two years. They break Hardcore Twitter any time they do anything, it seems. It comes as no surprise then, that their debut "full length" on Closed Casket Activities made the biggest noise of any hardcore release in 2020. It sold out of its first pressing in minutes, and subsequent pressings didn't last much longer. For good reason, too. Gulch mesh the blistering energy of punk with the technical brutality of death metal and the bouncy rhythm of moshcore. The result is something dangerous yet oddly digestible for all stripes of hardcore kid. My only gripe is that three of the albums' eight short songs were previously released. Plus the last track is a Siouxiee and the Bandshees cover. We got less than seven minutes of new Gulch material on this album. Seven great minutes, nonetheless.
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| Lil Uzi Vert |
4. Drain -- California Cursed (Revelation)
Gulch's sister band edge them out on my list, partly because there was a fair bit more music on their Revelation debut. This album was a grower for me, but once you get used to the choppy key changes there's very little to criticize. Drain pour thrash riffs into a modern hardcore cast, resulting in perfectly dynamic, mosh ready burners. Unfortunately the songs weren't pit-tested. Drain only got to play one show on this album before everything was shut down in March. Too bad, because there are more than enough moments on California Cursed to make my old, fat, weak ass jump in the pit and hurt myself.
3, Lil' Uzi Vert -- Eternal Atake (Generation Now)
Uzi's long awaited follow-up to Love is Rage 2 went through the full cycle of public opinion. First, there were over-zealous 16-year-olds calling it the best trap album ever. Then people suddenly grew off it (thanks, Fantano) and it was "mid" or "overrated". Now I'm starting to see people come back around a little bit. EA hardly left my rotation. The beats on this project are intricately crafted. It sounds like it was mixed by an alien with super-hearing on the planet of Protoolsia. Uzi can rap too -- as much as the Griselda heads don't want to admit it, this project has its fair share of sleepy-good bars. The production is what keeps drawing me back though. EA paints an out-of-this-world sonic landscape for Uzi and the listener to get lost in, proving that trap, as a genre, can innovate when it wants to.
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| Terminal Nation |
2. Terminal Nation -- Holocene Extinction (20 Buck Spin)
I'm not entirely sure what to say about this album because I'm not super familiar with the source material it cites. I believe Nails are a band who pull from the similar well of early 90's Earache Records shit. The main difference is that while Nails like to pummel you over the dome with powerviolence flavoured brutality, Terminal Nation prefer to draw it out a little. The songs on Holocene Extinction provides a lot of touchstones for hardcore kids to latch onto. There are stompy mosh parts. There are lots of meaty riffs. The "long" songs are more crushingly repetitive than technically obtuse, and even then, they aren't that long. The lyrics are politically charged without being corny or stupid *coughvanguardcough*. This record is thoroughly enjoyable and there was a two week period this year where I listened to it on repeat almost exclusively.
1. 21 Savage & Metro Boomin' -- Savage Mode II (Slaughter Gang/Boominati)
I'm not gonna lie, the album art on SMII had me loving the record before I heard a note of music. I wasn't disappointed when it dropped either. This album was labelled trap because of who worked on it, but there's so much more going on. Metro's production touches on a number of different influences. He has soul samples, major key pop production, 90's drum sounds, 80's drum sounds, and more. Savage performs about as well as any pop or mainstream rapper in his lane. He's got punchlines, storytelling bars, concept songs and even ballads, all sewn up with his infectious flow and cool-as-a-cucumber delivery. There isn't a bad or even "just okay" song on this project. The whole thing bangs from start to finish and the narration from Morgan Freeman gives an epic, iconic feel to an already phenomenal musical performance. This record is just about perfect.
EPs of the year
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| Big Laugh |
There were a ton of great EPs that dropped this year as well. Here are my five favourites.
5. Self Defense Family -- Long Island (Run For Cover)
Self Defense Family's prodigious output has dropped off in recent years, but they blessed us in 2020 with a two-month long dump of old unreleased material. This sounds like a throwaway from the Heaven is Earth days , which is my favourite period of SDF. This two track offering is grimy, seedy and washed out.
4. X. Kubrick -- The Sevel Levels of Happiness (Self-Released)
This was another standout from my podcast. Delaware's X. Kubrick makes a time capsule of late 90's hardcore rap that's full of hard ass bars and well written choruses. His expert-level flow betrays his relative inexperience as a rapper.
3. Koyo -- Painting Words Into Lines (Self-Released)
This is a warm blanket for a post-hardcore fan, threading the needle on influences as diverse as Silent Majority, The Movielife and Saosin. This will scratch an itch for anyone who likes a bit of bittersweet melancholy in their punk rock.
2. Big Laugh -- Manic Revision (11PM)
Big Laugh's demo was straightforward youth crew revival with a distinctly basement charm. This EP dials up the weirdness, as the band cites Infest and Heresy as influences. Oddly enough, Manic Revision has a big-room production feel that gives it heavy crossover appeal.
1. Pummel -- Our Power (Atomic Action)
Pummel was the last band I got to see before lockdown, and boy am I glad for that. This EP blends a ton of disparate hardcore styles through a distinctly "Boston" lens for something entirely cohesive and unique. Pummel is going to be the best band in hardcore if this EP is any indicator of things to come.
Honorable Mention:
Westside Gunn - Pray For Paris
Nick Enaigbe - The Sight Beneath My Eyelids
Polo G - The Goat
Code Orange - Underneath
Brick - The Intro
No Cost - Demo
Highway Sniper - Greatest Hits
Youth Collapse - New Form
Stuff I didn't get enough time with:
42 Dugg - Young n' Turnt 2
Chavo & Pi'erre Bourne - Chavo's World
Kodak Black - Bill Israel
Mozzy - Occupational Hazard
Spillage Village - Spilligion
Undeath - Lesions of a Different Kind
Fluids - Ignorance Exhalted.
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