Listmania: Metal Noise Top #5 Underground Metal Bands to Watch in 2020!

Not only is it a new dawn and a new day, but it’s New Year’s Day! So we’ve cooked up a final listmania entry in our awards season for that hangover light reading experience! As with most years, 2019 saw a number of bands start their journeys in Metal with debut singles, music videos and of course EPs. So today’s entry in our awards season is a category dedicated to those who have impressed us with something in 2019 that we hope will evolve into something more in 2020. Here’s the “Metal Noise Top #5 Underground Metal Bands to Watch in 2020“…

…first up we’re going to go with Newcastle natives Creak. They dropped a pair of singles in 2019 in “Recluse” and “Wretch” which included a guest appearance and production work from Conor Sweeney of Gloom pioneers Loathe. They have also played a wealth of shows including a December run with God Complex. Fingers crossed for a debut EP from them on 2020…

…from a band with two singles to and band with a EP of 5 songs spanning 10 minutes and 11 seconds, second on our list are Oklahoma Beatdown Deathcore heavy hitters Strangled. We were impressed by their sheer brute force when “Mobilize” appeared in June and had to wait until August for the EP. Forget about rehab, give us some more of their p***ed off style aggressive tendencies!

Our third band to watch has to be Weaponry. They may have parted company with drummer Marty Drummond after 10 months in the band on 24th December but they’re a live force and have a clutch of quality singles, including “Hard Place” their latest “Search For Life“. Their early Deftones inspired riffs have been a pleasure, so let’s have an EP gentleman! Frontman Al Bristow has given us the inside track and let us know that Weaponry have a re-recorded version of “Moving To Andromeda” dropping on 17th January, just in time for Gecko’s birthday!

Vexed unleashed a pair of singles in “Elite” which of course features none other than Thy Art Is Murder frontman CJ McMahon and “Dominate” in 2019, both of which got heads turning and saw them take the Fireball Whiskey stage at Tech-Fest in the summer and we even landed an exclusive interview with front woman Megan Targett after the event! Things have been hush-hush about an album or even an EP in their camp, despite having enough material to play a 30 minute set. So we’re hopeful that what we heard live will get to a place near us very soon.

March saw the debut EP from Winchester Virginia Downtempo Deathcore Groove crew Betrayer batter our ear drums into submission. “Sacred Tongues” is just the beginning for them and given some of the material has been floating around in the ether otherwise known as the internet for a couple of years, we would very much like to see new material from them in 2020! We’re talking to you Kenneth Williams!