Paradise Lost get best album 2020 vote from me for Obsidian (kind of fitting that that should be won by a doom band in 2020?). A really cracking weighty album that draws on all of PL's previous musical exploits over the years, in my opinion, and is one of their most consistent albums overall.
Then it's probably a tie between Katatonia's City Burials (again, fitting) and Unleash the Archers' Abyss. Katatonia are very acquired-taste and mellow, think Opeth in an especially low key mellow moment, but with unusually soft vocals, so I won't recommend to passers-by, but I felt this album reakly, built on their previous one, with some very nice understated guitar work. They don't get enough recognition that. Not unlike Paradise Lost's 2020 offering, it sounds like they've pulled together highlights of their music from several distinct eras.
Abyss has a few really nice, promising tracks, on a par with Apex, but also a couple of corny ones which were a disappointment in comparison to the previous album, Apex. And they made a conscious effort to go a bit synthetic sounding and sci-fi, which I really didn't think much of to begin with, but it does work in the context of the storyline, and sounded tremendous in their live stream performance. It's an album meant to be listened to as a whole, they've said that's the intention, too, it's part 2 of the story they started in the previous album. That said, if you're going to pick out individual tracks, Soulbound is easy-access, and The Wind That Shapes The Land is a bit more epic, top form UTA.
I recently got Dark Tranquility's Moment, which is growing on me fast. Comes across as more low-key and melancholy than some of their other music, without being drastically different.
The other album that's been a keeper - and I keep forgetting this was actually is a 2020 release - is British Lion's second album. I maintain my opinion that it has a real hint of Unforgettable Fire-era U2 about it, and I do feel this band is getting more comfortable with who they are and more confident in finding their own direction. You realise they were almost shying away from stand-out guitar work in their first album, maybe because they really don't want to be compared and contrasted with Maiden. Which of course they are anyway. There are a couple of very nice sounding guitar moments here and there in The Burning. It's like: "Oh you didn't tell us you could actually play."
