There are some huge albums still to come in 2020 – get excited!
Okay, so to say that 2020 has been a difficult one so far would be something of an understatement. Many people are struggling but music is always there to provide a glimmer of light in the darkness. Tours and festivals might have been cancelled and a lot of planned releases have been set back, but there’s still plenty of good stuff on the near horizon.
Here are 15 albums still to look forward to in 2020…
The Foo Fighters have dropped a couple of surprise EPs over recent months but, more excitingly, they have a brand new studio album wrapped up and ready to go. There’s no confirmed release date yet but Dave Grohl revealed it was finished in February. Talking on the Bill Simmons Podcast he said: “Some of those songs, sometimes the best ones happen in 45 minutes… Then there’s other songs that - there’s a riff on the new record I’ve been working on for 25 fucking years. Like 25 years. First time I demoed it was in my fucking basement in Seattle… So sometimes it’s 45 minutes, sometimes it’s 25 fucking years.”
The Brit metalcore crew’s sixth studio album Cannibal was originally due at the start of April but was shunted back to July 3 for obvious reasons. We’ve heard it and it’s stunning, with Dani Winter-Bates penning the most personal lyrics of his career. Our 4/5 review said: “As the speedy Dark Infinite races to the finishing line in a welter of melodic energy and one last ultra-heavy breakdown, there’s a sense of breathless excitement that makes you want to hit repeat and start the whole thing over again.” Boom.
Neck Deep’s new album All Distortions Are Intentional is due out on 24 July via Hopeless. It also appears to be a concept album of sorts, telling the story of the characters Alice and Jett – the latter of whom dwells in a place called Sonderland, a combination of ‘Wonderland’ and the somewhat obscure word 'sonder'. “It’s that strange existential realisation that you are not the entire world,” frontman Ben Barlow explained. “Everyone around you feels and lives the same way that you do. You’re just an extra in their story.” Colour us intrigued.
This self-titled record, due on June 5 through Epitaph, is a huge one for The Ghost Inside. It’s their first since 2014’s Dear Youth, overcoming incredible odds to return from the tragic bus crash that took place the following year. That experience has clearly shaped who they are now but they’re not letting it define them. “This isn’t about what happened to us,” bassist Jim Riley said. “We won’t get lost in that one day. This is about our journey, our growth, and who we are.”
Asking Alexandria’s new album Like A House On Fire drops May 15. It’s another one we’ve heard and it sees the band continuing their musical evolution. If you still pine for rampant heaviness and Danny Worsnop screaming you won’t find it here, but if you loved the big rock anthems and more diverse stylings of their last, self-titled album, you’re in for a treat. Either way, they’re unlikely to care. “We’re still here,” says guitarist Ben Bruce. “We’re not going anywhere. We don’t have anything to prove. This time, we said, ‘Fuck you. We’re doing this our way.’”
This is another one that’s almost on top of us, due out on May 29 via Sumerian. If you caught them on tour when live music was still a thing you’ll know that THE BASTARDS features a new politicised anger on tracks like Massacre, The New American Dream, but it also promises "flourishes of electronics, metal beat-downs, drum'n'bass beats and haunting string arrangements". There’s also a bit of a concept behind it as drummer Emerson Barrett explained: “It takes place around the island of Obsidian and it’s set in 1888. In short, it’s a world that started off with intentions where the island encouraged free thinkers and artists to exist and, as everything does in life, eventually it becomes this political power and evil toxicity that comes with everything. To remain a true individual in the society, you must wear a gas mask.”
Originally slated for a May release, New Found Glory's 10th album Forever + Ever x Infinity is now scheduled for June 19 via Hopeless Records. It sees the pop-punk veterans reaching back to their roots with guitarist Chad Gilbert proclaiming: “This is the record our fans have been waiting for us to make. The old now feels new and fresh. It was a blast finding ourselves again.”
Now this one is big news. Evanescence haven’t released an entirely original new album since 2011 but last month they announced that a whole new album was coming. “We promised you a new album in 2020 and we won’t let anything stop us,” they said. "We are proud to begin sharing our new album The Bitter Truth with you, one piece at a time, starting with our first song Wasted On You.” The slow-burning track didn’t disappoint, accompanied by a lockdown video of the band members at home.
Creeper have a tendency to make announcements and launches something of an interactive event, so it was no surprise when they delayed the release of second album Sex, Death & The Infinite Void from May to July 31. When it does hit, expect something just as magical as the debut. “The real-life time travel that music can achieve is almost supernatural,” says frontman Will Gould. “In a moment you can be transported from a bedroom in the south of England to another dimension entirely. With our latest album, we attempted to perform a similar magic.”
This is yet another rescheduled release, currently due out on June 19. It’s their first original music since 2015’s VII: Sturm Und Drang, and it sounds like a beast already, going off the tracks already released. Guitarist Willie Adler said of the aptly-titled New Colossal Hate: “I'm pretty sure New Colossal Hate grew from a few different demos I had. You know, like parts of car. However, as it started to take shape, it quickly became my favourite song on the record. Please enjoy this banger of a tune. It holds a very special place in my heart."
To call this one hotly-anticipated would be something of an understatement. Early singles Degenerates and Resentment amassed 30 million-plus streams between them, even before the release of Mindreader last month. At the time of writing there’s still no firm release date for the album, titled You’re Welcome. Frontman Jeremy McKinnon has explained that this was largely due to the artwork not being complete and the band being sticklers for detail. “We didn’t make people wait for no fucking reason, so it better be right,” he said.
Deftones will release their ninth studio album later this year, although there is no confirmed date or title yet. Recently Chino Moreno told Zane Lowe of Apple Music: "We haven't really discussed it too deeply other than we plan on it coming out this summer. It's not looking like we're going to be able to get out there this summer to support it. So does it make sense to put it out when you can't support it? Maybe. Maybe not.” He added that the album had been mixed remotely, saying: "We just started the mixing process a couple of months back. It worked out as far as doing it remote. Our producer, Terry Date who's doing the record, he's in Seattle. As a band, we're all spread out anyway.”
Are you ready for a new Marilyn Manson masterpiece? We certainly are and our fingers are crossed. After The God Of Fuck teased a cryptic Instagram post in February featuring a soundwave and Latin caption, collaborator Shooter Jennings revealed that the album was finished at the end of last month and declared it a ‘masterpiece’. Mazza seemed to confirm both points, posting: “Love my Shooter, Misty & Pancake. Finished masterpiece album. And Matt Mahurin. Shit is gonna get real.” Bring it on, you delightfully bonkers freakazoid.
Biffy Clyro’s last two albums (not including the soundtrack Balance, Not Symmetry) both went straight to Number One in the UK album charts, so it will be interesting to see if A Celebration Of Endings does the same. The new LP was another one due out this month but has now been pushed to August 14. Frontman Simon Neil said of the album: “This is a very forward-looking album from a personal perspective and a societal perspective. The title is about seeing the joy in things changing, rather than the sadness. Change means progression and evolution. You can retain everything you loved before, but let’s lose the bad shit. It’s about trying to take back control.”
Grey Daze, as you’re probably aware, was Chester Bennington’s pre-Linkin Park band. While they originally split in 1998, there were plans to bring them back as recently as 2016. Founder and drummer Sean Dowdell said: “Obviously, what happened, happened and Chester was tragically taken from us… About six or seven months later, I started some conversations and said, ‘I really want to finish this album.’ We’re not going to accept mediocrity, we’re going to do our friend proud, we’re going to make Chester proud and we’re going to make sure this is something he would have been elated to put out.” That album, Amends, is currently due out on June 26 and contains a mix of new and re-recorded music including material written by Chester.
