Ghost Cult continues our “End of Year Guest Post Extravaganza” with a slew of posts from bands, industry, PR pros, and more! We’ll be sharing lists, memories, and other shenanigans from our favorite bands, partners, music industry peers, and other folks we respect across the globe. In this edition, Max Maxwell of Mountain Caller shares an in-depth review of his Top Albums List for 2020. Their excellent covers album The Truthseeker is out now (buy and stream it here!
Pinegrove – Marigold
Last year, Evan Stephens Hall was rightly forced to face up to his toxic masculinity and atone for the harm he had imparted as a result of it. In the aftermath on Marigold, he wrangles with his own identity and morality in the most human of ways and gives us a direct insight into the guilt, the anger, the regret, the self-criticism, and the self-justification that brings. It’s uncomfortably poignant, thought-provoking, and transparent in a manner the world sorely needs more of. It’s also the best collection of songs that the most talented songwriter of his generation has put his name to.
Motorpsycho – The All Is One
A melting pot of classic 1970s prog, Coltrane collective jamming, Krautrock, psychedelia, and whatever else they fancy, all jammed out by unabashed Deadheads with stunning musicality, dynamism, and charm. The All Is One continues an absolutely blistering run of epic, ambitious creative form. The most underrated band on planet Earth.
Fiona Apple – Fetch The Bolt Cutters
Fiona Apple feels like one of those artists who just has to be completely utterly themselves and everything they do will be outstanding. In a list featuring Napalm Death, Greg Puciato, and Run The Jewels, this is the most scorchingly angry of the lot. Is she fetching bolt cutters to cut herself out of the patriarchal cage? Or to mutilate and maim the men who put her there? Probably both. And honestly, who can blame her.
Greg Puciato – Child Soldier: Creator Of God
This solidified Greg’s status as my favourite vocalist of all time. There really is nothing he can’t do, and do better than 95% of all other musicians. How he makes intimate acoustic, punishing industrial, and dance-y dream pop (to name three styles out of about three million) all hang together is beyond me, but it’s very good.
Run The Jewels – RTJ4
Possibly the most important album of the year, in such a tumultuous political climate. There’s no political commentator more informed, more articulate, and more deserving of their platform than Killer Mike. They lure you in with traditional RTJ bangers, and before you know it you’ve re-evaluated your entire view of race relations and are better for it. Essential.
Imperial Triumphant – Alphaville
As The Dillinger Escape Plan and Shining (from Norway) will testify, if you want to be abrasive, nasty, and disorientating, then jazz can cater to you as much as the heaviest ends of hardcore or metal. Imperial Triumphant appears to be taking this to its logical conclusion and has blended the common extremities of those two sounds to make something darker and more threatening than either could be on their own. I’m a sucker for it.
Bambara – Stray
Surly, disenfranchised, masochistic punk rock. Lyrically, it’s Nick Cave and Daughters at their darkest, and musically it’s like a surf-punk band only watched German expressionist cinema. All of that is mixed together to create actual songs, making it a surprisingly accessible and concise listen. But that doesn’t make it any less captivating.
Napalm Death – Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
My introduction to Napalm Death proper, and boy do I feel like an idiot for waiting this long. One of the originators of this sound, and still outpacing everyone else in their field in terms of extremity, invention, dynamism, and vitality. It’s unbelievable.
Myrkur – Folkesange
Another constant in the background while studying. The Scandinavian aesthetic is very dear and pleasing to me, and anything that gives me that feeling is a winner. Calm, contemplative, sterling, naturalistic, it has all the things that I love about Scandi-culture. It’s also really cool to see someone with so much hype around them in the metal scene dive headfirst in the opposite direction.
Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts V: Together
I started my psychology degree this year, and it’s apt that 75% of my studying has been soundtracked by an album that touches your unconscious more than your conscious. You barely notice it when it’s on, but it replaces the air in the room with mantric, immersive throbbing.