MY TOP 20 FOR APRIL 2020

Tons of albums were released this April. For me, most of them were...just albums out there. Fillers. I tried to cut the slag and prepare my list with those albums which I'll keep on listening in the next months. The quality albums. The albums which may be important for me for reasons only my heart knows. Of course, there will be another 15 more, that I'll come back to in the future. However, the below list represents what it has to represent. Honorable mentions? Either zero or too many.

ULCERATE - Stare Into Death and Be Still
Release Date: 24 April

How can I describe something that cannot be described? It must be witnessed, experienced...then again and again in order to believe it.

KATATONIA - City Burials
Release Date: 24 April 

Exquisite new album. Their best since Last Fair Deal Gone Down? Most probably. Prog? No, because prog doesn't have a heart and soul.

WOLFHEART - Wolves of Karelia
Release Date: 10 April

It's the continuation of Constellation album. In the same veins, with the same feel and very much - the same polish. It is an excellent record, but maybe a tiny shift and change here and there was needed?

BENIGHTED - Obscene Repressed
Release Date: 10 April

Benighted always deliver asphyxial tight and intense albums!

TRAVELER - Termination Shock
Release Date 10/24 April

Much anticipated! Not as good as the debut, but Traveler are traveling their own cosmic heavy metal highway and I'm really enjoying being on board at their space ship.

BLACK CURSE - Endless Wound
Release Date: 2 April

Dense, dark and devastating by the Denver supergroup. This album will prove it stands with time on a later stage. Trust me.

FUNERAL LEECH - Death Meditation
Release Date: 17 April

Death Meditation is so to the point name of the album. Suffocating death metal.

SPELL - Opulent Decay
Release Date: 10 April

Trippy. It is a very very solid competition to Hällas and their cosmic voyages.

ORANSSI PAZUZU - Mestarin Kynsi
Release Date: 17 April

Not an easy listen, not for every day. The progressiveness in the psychedelia here requires certain mood and time. To peel off...

BARRENS - Penumbra
Release Date: 10 April

Superb instrumental post-rock. The perfect soundtrack for the lockdown days. This really got me.

CIRITH UNGOL - Forever Black
Release Date: 24 April

I honestly didn't like the singles released before the album. The rest is very good though. And it is growing.

WARBRINGER - Weapons of Tomorrow
Release Date: 24 April

It is a different Warbringer - a bit tamed, more polished, more diverse. Matured. Not straight forward mindless thrash. Weapons of tomorrow combines elements of other styles, just to become a great modern thrash piece.

CAUSTIC WOUND - Death Posture
Release Date: 10 April

The name of the band, the name of this album and the cover art says enough. No? OK...

200 STAB WOUNDS - Piles of Festering Decomposition EP
Release Date: 10 April

3 songs. Tones of piles of decomposition...

MARROWFIELDS - Metamorphoses
Release Date: 24 April

Absolute awesomeness where Pallbearer meets Paradise Lost to mourn.

ELDER - Omens
Release Date: 24 April

Elder has always been a band that needs time and understanding. "Omens" deserves these even more than before just to discover what it has really to show.

WITCHES HAMMER - Damnation Is My Salvation
Release Date - 7 April

The 80's speed and darkness. First full-length album after almost 40 years of existence in the underground darkness. Bang your head!

REEK - Death Is Something There Between
Release Date: 24 April

Absolute Entombed Wolverine era worship. Said enough.

GOLDEN LIGHT - Sacred Colours of the Source of Light
Release Date: 24 April

Strangely attracted to this one. There is definitely some black magic in it.





Now, here comes the last spot on the present list. I was really wondering which album to put here. Following the presumption that it should be an album that I'll come back to in the next months, it has to be Testament's new record. Testament delivered another solid album, but it is another unmemorable one in their discography. Riffy, heartless, artificial, long. That's why I didn't listen to it much in April. Going further to some of the most hyped releases in April, could be Abysmal Dawn*, Shards of Humanity or Ripped To Shreds*. Unfortunately, I didn't quite get into those. This White Mountain, Malist, Auroch, Helfró, Curse Upon a Prayer, Xpus, and Sinistral King released interesting black metal albums. For the time being, I enjoyed the most This White Mountains, but not enough to get into this list. Who knows in what kind of mood I'll be next month, and which one of them will suddenly grow in me. Calligram is another band to look for in between the April releases. Very solid black metal, especially the combination with D-Beats. Cauldron - a very enjoyable covers album. Dool, Earthdiver, and High Priestess also deserve a mention here. I still have to digest The Ditch and The Delta. Sölicitör? Still meh. But wait, in the beginning I said no honorable mentions. So the 20-list is actually 19-list with an open end.
Enjoy the good music and thanks for reading this!

*Abysmal Dawn grew tremendously on me and it is AOTY contender. Ripped to Shreds turn to be very good as well