My Favourite Music of 2020

I’ll be honest: my taste in music is what most people would describe as horrible.

I get that.

Very heavily skewing to various genres and subgenres of metal, here are my favourite releases for 2020 with the top two highlighted and the rest in no particular order. If you’re adventurous you may find something here to inspire you while you work/drive/exercise.

Whatever your flavour, I hope you found new music this year you love just as much.

1 = Anaal Nathrakh – Endarkenment

How is there so much pure joy in this punishing noise? It is relentless and vicious and sarcastic and pounding, but when those melodies kick in it just elevates this to an entirely different level. First listen didn’t really click, but after that it just kept calling me back. Nasty and wonderful.

1 = Uada – Djinn

Black metal goes technicolour. Uada delivered a layered, nuanced and extraordinarily immersive album with 6 songs across an hour. Djinn adapts an almost 80’s post-punk approach to extreme metal, then polishes it up until its shiny bright. One to lose yourself in.

Sinistral King – Serpent Uncoiling

In which a mutated strain of black metal develops arena-sized ideas. Chunky, rolling riffs collide with choirs, Gregorian-style chants, blast beats, piano passages and a fire-and-brimstone delivery. Dark and addictive.

The Good the Bad and the Zugly – Algorithm & Blues

Released in January, this has been with me all year. No other band on earth packs as many riffs and hooks into an album, then tops it all off with gorgeous melodic guitar lines like these Norwegians.

Huntsmen – Mandala of Fear

Ambitious, sprawling and rewarding Americana Prog Doom Metal. Moments of noise and beauty, harmonies and heft. Give it time and revel in every detail.

殞煞 Vengeful Spectre – Vengeful Spectre

Black metal with a traditional Chinese element. Based on a medieval battle this actually sounds like a lone warrior, sword raised, riding into an enemy army knowing there’s a better than even chance he’ll be the lone survivor. Someone on r/metal claimed: this rips. And I can’t be any more succinct than that.

Spirit Adrift – Enlightened In Eternity

Warm, groovy, trad-inspired heavy metal. Cool riffs, great hooks and choruses you’ll be singing for days. It really feels like they weren’t trying too hard on the album – there’s a natural charm and accessibility all the way through.

Paradise Lost – Obsidian

Lush, ominous and ultimately hopeful, this arrived just as Autumn started closing in. Less metal than this band has been over their career but the songs are so good it doesn’t need to be too heavy.

Havukruunu – Uinuos Syömein Sota

Finnish black metal, this time underpinned with a pagan, folky flavour. I’d never heard of the band, but the hype was unmissable in metal circles – and in the end fully justified. One of the best surprises of 2020.

Thy Catafalque – Naiv

You haven’t heard anything like this weirdly beautiful Hungarian blend of extreme metal, folk, prog, electronica and then some. Another January release that made it all the way through the year as a regular listen.

Mora Prokaza – By Chance

My love/hate album for 2020: sometimes it sounds incredible. At others it is literally the last thing I want to hear. Dark, abrasive and deeply weird, this is essentially Belarusian black metal/hip hop/Peter and the Wolf-core (just in case that clears anything up for you).

Countless Skies – Glow

Packed with big, gorgeous melodies. This sits on the arty side of heavy, with clean and gruff vocals and music that amazingly sounds like the cover looks. I’m still unpacking everything here, but it certainly made an impact.

Thanks to all these artists for the incredible inspiration they provided this year.

#TBT: Michael Buble

In a past life I wrote for dB Magazine here in Adelaide. I was fortunate to talk to a lot of artists I loved, liked, admired and discovered as I went.

One was a young Canadian crooner named Michael Buble. He’s back in town on tour, and been to hell and back since we spoke, but here’s a moment in time with a much younger man.

Enjoy!

BOOK REVIEW – When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

When: the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

By Daniel H. Pink / @DanielPink

Canongate, 2018

In the four days since finishing Daniel Pink’s new book When, I’ve walked at least 2 kilometres at lunch. That’s the kind of book this is – it challenges your thinking about the every day.

Moving past simply how or why, Pink examines how time – and our notion of ‘the time’ – play a role in our lives. He delves into research and pulls data together resulting in a book packed with relatable stories, surprising ideas and ways we can change our approach to work.

When charts the rhythm of the day, with Pink investigating the effect time has on our moods, psychology and physiology. It contains a great deal of information organisations could tap into to change, improve and revitalise the ways in which employees work. Many of these will be challenging to implement, but as Pink underlines here; both productivity and culture stand to benefit.

From the mental effects of beginnings, middles and endings, to the power of the nappuccino and yes, the power of getting away from your desk  – hence my new daily lunch walks – Pink reveals tactics to best leverage time in both a personal and professional capacity. Each chapter also includes a Time Hacker’s Handbook, offering guidance on how to introduce new ideas and actions to your day.

When is entertaining and Pink keeps it moving typically well. The research is there if you want to dig further but each case is well-made and backed up without getting bogged down in too much detail. And as it turns out, it may just be habit-forming.

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing is available now

100 words on…the power of the personal

Direct communication with your customers can be genuinely powerful.

If you make sure it’s actually genuine.

My energy plan is up for renewal, and I’ve been skimming a product review site. What immediately stands out is a brand (in this case Origin) responding professionally and politely.

But the tone’s not right.

It hides behind the collective, and compounds this by offering generic email contacts – stripping the communication of genuine impact.

Saying I’ll look into it, and email me, makes a world of difference.

Despite their intentions, Origin is still presenting as a faceless corporation – undoing the great work their diligent, open communications could do.

100 words on…um and uh

A study by Mark Liberman on the use of um and uh in spoken English looks at use of these filler words – and the frequency – by gender.

We use them in the act of speaking, when we need a moment to clarify our next sentence. In (unscripted) conversation, silence is an invite for others to fill the space.

Um and uh signify we’re not finished.

Quirky note – males use uh 14% less when talking to females, who in turn increase their uhs when talking to males.

From a communications viewpoint, it looks like a subconscious case of knowing and accommodating your audience.