Listmania: Metal Noise Top #5 Singles of 2020!

Probably the toughest of the categories in 2020 with the digital age lending itself to bands releasing runs of high grade explosive singles rather than committing to a full album or EP. That being said, the floor is clear, we can only pick five due to a short attention span so without further ado; of the millions of tracks released by millions of bands in the year of the Great Plague, here are our top #5…

Starting with the most recent and possibly working our way back through time, we’re going to go with “Something I Lack” by Weaponry. One of just a handful of single reviews from 2020 and one that really hit the mark in terms of Noise Metal. Maybe they’ll drop an edition of their long playing “No Lasting Memories” series with some comedy Oscar style speeches for this one.

Second on our list has to be “Armoured Core” by Hacktivist featuring Kid Bookie. We’ve never doubted the talents of the Milton Keynes DJentlemen but when it comes down to brass tacks, this cut is actually their finest in a little while and part of that is down to the improved unclean vocals of Jot Maxi as well as the assistance in the studio from former SikTh vocalist Justin Hill.

Next up it has to be Russian Melodic Death Metallers God Syndrome. They may have only released one single in 2020 (and as it happens one single in 2019), but the one that they did drop is an absolute belter. Maybe we’ve got rose tinted spectacles on, we’ve been in love with the band since 2016’s “Controverse” but these boys know how to do it in style.

February saw Australian supergroup Dealer (ex-Alpha Wolf, ex-Northlane, Iconoclast, Codeine King and Capture the Crown) unveiled a sophomore EP entitled “Saint” via Stay Sick Recordings and from that lead single “Tourniquet” is deserving of a special mention. A stone cold ripper from a project that imploded months later, we don’t know if we’ll see them again.

A project that completely blindsided us was a collaboration between Chelsea Grin vocalist Tom Barber and Emmure drummer Josh Miller called Darko. Their debut EP together “Dethmask” is nothing short of pure evil and this cut “Devine Void” which features Darius Tehrani in particular delivers the goods. There can only be five and this is them.