Our Poll On Your Favourite New Albums Of 2020!!

It's around this time of the month when we begin posting our year-end retrospective polls for the previous year, but as you'll recall, 2020 was not a normal year by any stretch. Usually, we have five polls to go up directly relating to the previous year (on new bands, album releases, news stories, concerts from the second half of the year, and on the whole year), with a poll on concerts from the first half of the year launching in July. Given the obvious pandemic-related circumstances we lived through in 2020, I am slashing our polls to just two for this year. It's impossible to do one on your favourite new bands, as not enough had the chance to fully debut last year (The Bridge Heads & Fort Creek publically launched in 2019, 9 Times Dark & The Isolation Sessions haven't played live yet, and that's about it for new local hard rock acts.) As for our year-end polls on your favourite concerts... our pool isn't all that great to draw from.

In terms of public Sault Ontario concerts with a half/majority lineup of metal, hard rock, or punk bands, Sault Ontario didn't have much in the 2½ months of normalcy we enjoyed before the pandemic began (remember, January-March aren't peak times for shows in good years), and with the exception of outdoor Heyden event Squatfest, most of the heavier concerts we saw in the late summer and onward were via cover acts on the bar circuit with limited audiences due to social distancing restrictions. Even if I were to include some of those, it's not really fair to assess a concert when they aren't capable of hosting a full audience. As such, I will only be doing two polls this year, with next month's devoted to news stories from a very newsworthy year, and I do plan to roll at least a few concerts into that selection to make up that poll's difference. Now, what should you know about this month's poll?

We're posing this question to you guys: What was your favourite local metal, hard rock, or punk CD of 2020? Between a combination of previously recorded material and musicians working in the studio when they couldn't really go out, we had a surprisingly robust slate of album releases from heavier local acts last year that we can select from! To qualify, albums must have been released for sale between January 1st and December 31st of 2020, so exclusively free releases (like most of Chase Wigmore's 2020 output) are not included. However, "Other" returns as an option if we missed your favourite. Now, here are your choices!

9 Times Dark - Vicissitude: A new solo punk project from local musician Chris Raginskis, 9 Times Dark's debut EP was quietly released in August after being mixed locally at Relentless Audio. We'll likely be taking more of a deep dive into "Vicissitude" next month when we'll likely review it on the SMS, but can you vouch for 9 Times Dark's debut already in this poll?

A Dire Setback - A Dire Setback: The debut album from this popular local punk trio, A Dire Setback had the unfortunate timing of releasing it March, shortly before it's primary CDBaby host shut down, AND during the early stages of the pandemic, forcing their release concert to be held virtually in a Facebook live-stream. This self-titled album got a strong reception from fans, but would you concur?

As It Stands - The Lost Tapes:  Almost a decade after recording their third EP in Mississauga, now-defunct hardcore quintet As It Stands finally had the original songs from those sessions mixed and released last month, giving fans closure(?) with long-awaited studio copies of some of their strongest original material. Were "The Lost Tapes" worth the wait for you?

The Bear Hunters - The Dead Testament: Local death metal fans got a pleasant surprise in November when The Bear Hunters emerged from their "eternal hibernation" to release their second album "The Dead Testament" on Bandcamp! This was a low-key release due to the pandemic, but did the production quality and brutality mesh well for your vote?

Either of Crucify The Whore's new albums: The polarizing but intense grindcore solo project kept busy during the pandemic with two early 2020 albums, namely the full-length "P.C. Sells... But I Ain't Buyin'!" and their second "A Couple of Degenerate Bastards" with long-time collaborator Chase Wigmore. Did you take to Tyler's newest output more than the others?

Mike Haggith - If Ever Comes The Day: With his planned first Thompson-based solo album "Bridges" postponed indefinitely, former Din frontman Mike Haggith released his ultra-personal 50th album "If Ever Comes The Day" in May, which also saw it's release concert moved to a virtual setting. This album saw a lot of positive reviews, but was it your favourite?

Tarnished - Down To The Wire: The only major hard rock/metal album release in 2020 from a Sault Michigan act, local hard rock quartet Tarnished put out their debut album in July via digital platforms, giving ex-Banned frontman Alex Traynor and crew a solid platform as they continued their emergence while they can't play traditional concerts. Would you vote for this one?

Other: Did we miss your preferred option? Was your favourite new local album from a genre we don't actively cover? Perhaps you liked a free album or single release more than anything that actually came out for sale? Did I completely forget about something new from a heavier act last year? If, for whatever reason, we missed the album you loved most, vote for "Other"!

VOTE TODAY! You have until February 19th or so to cast your votes, and it will be interesting to see what readers liked the most, especially when many of us had more time to listen to these albums, in theory! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news on the site by Friday! Thanks everyone!