Best Albums of 2020 All Genres

Here it is the master list of the best of 2020. What a year, What a year… The music was so good!

Keep up the awesome work everyone and thank you for supporting the page and getting in touch. Also Thank you to all the people who buy the bands merch that is the only thing that can keep this exponential growth in the psych scene rising!!!

I am sure is missed some of my favorites on this list but it is time to reveal it to the world. : )

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Best Albums Of 2020

SLIFT UMMON

SLIFT UMMON adds the the #1 album of the year line up seriously amazing space rock, garage rock, psychedelic rock here. SLIFT is shaking the world with its incredible new album and the music is as epic as the packaging taking fuzz rock into all the places. SLIFT has it all and is with out a doubt one of the best albums of the year in psych rock.

Frankie and The Witch Fingers Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters Eating People Eating

Frankie and the Witch Fingers cannot stop releasing great albums. Their garage rock sound has incredible energy and Monster Eating People… is one of the most psychedelic offerings to date with wild fuzzy guitars and hip shaking rhythms. From Los Angeles California this band is taking this style of high energy rock to the next level.

L.A. Witch Play With Fire

LA Witch has always been an awesome desert rock group with catchy edgy songs but Play With Fire sees their song writing and production evolve into something that eclipses others in the genre. Sadie Sanchez’s vocals and rhythm guitar are so great with the whole band taking their skill and artistic vision to new heights. Get grungy, get attitude and wear black leather on your desert motorcycle ride with LA Witch.

OSees Protean Threat

Osees Protean Threat is incredible the weird grooves, hard hitters, punk rock psych and it even tosses in some cosmic drift to spice up the soup. The album is diverse and continuously pushes into new territory. The creativity of this band cannot be contained and I am a huge fan of all things Osees. The grooving bass lines the wild fuzz guitars, spaced out synth weirdo songs are something special.

Osees Metamorphosed

Osees Metamorphosed is a heavy release with psyched out krautrock dosed in motorik beats and CAN styled farout improvisations. This album starts out with friendly pcuk garage rockers with catchy charms. The later half ripps and does not stop to let the listener get their barings. The album comes hard and fast and then tosses the sound into the kraut rock LSD blender and warps the mind of the listener into blissful over stimulation.

Turtle Skull Monoliths

Turtle Skull Monoliths is incredible with heavy psych, stoner, dual harmony vocals, and garage rock. The lyrics are meaningful and the vocals sound great. They are from Australia and Monoliths is a break out sophomore album. They have a heavy sound but there is an openness and emotional clarity and sophistication that brings in some progressive rock and psych rock.

Anunnaki / The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol – Split

Anunnaki with a heavy doom sound that can blow out the windows. The flip side is kraut rock free improvisations by The Band Whose Name is A Symbol. The album as a whole is a great paring but since this is heavy psych Anunnaki hits so hard that you might lose your mind! After listening to this album I feel like I have done something wrong like I violated the sanctity of the matrix. That filtered wah guitar is so good it hurts. Don’t let the slow build up at the start fool you.

Mugstar – Graft

Mugstar Graft from the UK is progressive space rock excellence. This band seems to define the genre with their impeccable skill, extraordinary compositions, world class tones and a taste for experimentation and far out sounds. Mugstar has been in the psych music world for over 10 years and seem to get better with each release. Graft is easily their finest album to date and will propel the listener in hyperspace to explore alien worlds.

Moths And Locusts Exoplanets

Moths And Locusts Exoplanets from BC, Canada is amazing, unique, heavy, psychedelic, and experimental. Their sound ranges from heayvpsych to stoner to space rock electro psych to shoegaze and progressive. They have the uncanny ability to mix all the psych sub genres into a cohesive album that is an experiential joureny from start to finish. With some of the top psych rockers in Canada joining in on the album there is no question that this is one of the best space rock albums of the year.

Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Pink Lady Lemonade Double Sucker Punch

Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Pink Lady Lemonade Double Sucker Punch from Japan is a full space rock epic based around the song Pink Lady Lemonade from their very first album and has been a staple in their live sets for over 10 years. They are known as one of the most exciting and experimental psychedelic rock bands out there but this album sees a refinment of their sound taking everything they do best and summarizing it into one album. Legendary guitarist Makoto Kawabata presents his freak out guitar solos in a style that is impossible to replicate and that transmits the messages from the stars.

Death Valley Girls Under The Spell Of Joy

Death Valley Girls desert rock with female power rock vibes from the 70s, 80s and 90s complete with anthemic songs. Death Valley Girls rock their history of driven punk rock attitude has matured to reveal the strong songwriters in the band. They and have created a new female led power rock sound that never becomes cliche, always rocks and even gets a little psychedelic. This feels like an album that will never go out of style.

Population II À la Ô Terre

Population II is a French band with psyched out garage rock with a balance of instrumental and vocal tracks. Their sound is diverse and free flowing. The album features great guitar playing that draws on world music for eastern modal tone as well as moody garage rock with low biased fuzz. The album twist and turns and brings the listener along for a wild ride with a surprise around each turn.

Par Asito Singularity

Par Asito Singularity from Guadalajara, Mexico with instrumental heavy psychedelic, stoner, surf, space rock. They live in heavy riffage with building intensity at gets fast heavy and psychedelic with effected guitar leads and forward synth texture. Their first releases were in 2010 and Singularity is their 4th full length album and arguably their best.

Tambourinen Wooden Flower

Tambourinen Wooden Flower from the West Coast of the USA is a organic trip through the mysterious and sunlit woods. the album is krautrock and space rock all the way with droning instrumental, fuzz guitars, swirling synth and motorik percussion. From a member of The Myrrors this album is a warm psyched out rocker with layers that combine to create rich fuzzed out textures.

Osees Rotate Panther

Osees Rotate Panther is a strange otherworldly album with enough cosmic drift to land on this list as well as others. Much of the album is synthed and warped soundscapes with a couple lyrical songs remixed for the Protean Threat Sessions. Its a great album with spaced out psyched up vibes and weird unusual sounds. This is the most chill album from Osees since their synth album The 12″ Synth. This is one is new to me just came out but I like it more each day.

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Live in San Francisco ’16

King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard Live in San Francisco ’16 is a high energy recording highlighting their early career with songs from Nonagon Inifinty, I’m In Your Mind Fuzz, Quarters ect. The performance has perfect sound each instrument sounds awesome the mix is great the song selection and tight performance of the band translates beautifully to vinyl. King Gizzard is one of the best rocks out there from Australia.

The Rose City Band Summerlong

The Rose City Band Summerlong is the latest project from Rippley Johnson of Moon Duo and Wooden Shjips for the west coast USA. This project has Johnsons great guitar stylings toned down into gentle folk rock songs that hit with emotion and layered arramgements complete with slide guitar.

Karkara – Nowhere Land

https://thepsychrock.com/2020/11/05/karkara-nowhere-land-8-10-psychedelic-space-rock/

Karkara Nowhere Land ripps into the eastern tinged stoner rock. They get fairly heavy and their music is high energy and creates an atmosphere that with dark magical forces and ghoulish shadows lurking in mythical temples. They have an awesome eastern psych sound with touches of turkish music and microtonal insinuations in guitar arrangements. The vocals echo and reverb in psychedelic rock and garage style.

The Pancakes

The Pancakes from Germany are psychedelic garage rock with forages into heavy space rock later in the disc. The album has mind blowing guitar playing with world class psych tones courtesy of Rainer Neeff from far-out Germany space rock bands Zone Six and Krautzone. The early songs are garage rock focused with 1960s style.

Meinakunaru Lost Bones Of The Holy Butterfly

Meinakunaru Lost Bone Of The Holy Butterfly from the UK is all out space rock with ripping guitar solos and out of this world effects. The dirty driving bass lines and heavy percussion blast into stoner and krautrock territory. The guitars are blazing hot on this one with some AMT style freak outs / meltdown in the mix.

Black Helium The Wholly Other

Black Helium is dark magic stoner rock with a wicked doom and psychedelic nightmare element. This album has heavy hard highs and strange oozing slow downs. The whole production stands out as being highly creative and innovative blend of styles making a sound that is all their own and it is awesome for raising the dead.

Zone Six – Any Noise Is Intended (Extended Reissue)

Zone Six Any Noise is Intended is another incredible kraut rock, acid rock psychedelic space rock album. They have far-out guitars, cosmic soundscapes, liquid psychedelic guitar leads and soaring organs. This is a new edition of the original album from 2003 but with a full remaster and over 20 minutes of additional music making the album 78 minute long. ive into this liquid psych jamming space rock from Germany, it is sure to be a psychedelic rock classic for heads.

Automatism – Immersion

Automatism – Immersion from Sweden is space rock with a driven yet laid back sounds that captures the listener with their unique approach to space rock. They focus on progressive space rock sounds and present sharp skill on all instruments with dynamic beautiful tones. This band is tight and gets better with each spin. Automatism is space rock with out the stoner and heavy psych sounds and a refinment that almost hints toward the nuaces seen in jazz and prog.

White Canyon and The 5th Dimension

White Canyon & The 5th Dimension’s first album is incredible coming to us from Brazil. They have a expansive sound that uses clean guitar tones, full bass lines and steady drumming. The songs blend kraut and garage rock with unconventional song structures and deep reverb and don’t worry the guitars get heavy and fuzz too!

King Buffalo Dead Star

King Buffalo Dead Star is an impressive album that blends many sub genres of heavy metal, stoner, prog and heavy psychedelic rock. The end result is no doubt a triumph and easily one of the best heavy albums for the year. The sophisticated rhythms, dueling guitars and variety make this album something that rises above the rest.

REZN Chaotic Divine

REZN Chaotic Divine rips hard with slamming stoner riffs and alien space rock textures. They are from Chicago USA. The album has awesome slower moments with droning guitars as well as hard heavy metal and stoner riffs. The sound is awesome and out of this world.

Spiral Galaxy

Droning music from the kosmische masters of the 1970s with the next wave of kosmic rockers at his side. The sound is spiritual eastern drone with wild strange layers of vocals and a otherworldly vibe. The album has flutes, beat machines, eastern instruments, motorik beats. It features members of Acid Mothers Temple, Faust, Magic Carpet, and Ryley Walker. This is weird music that makes my pupils widen.

Korb II

Korb II is the second album from this UK band. This is deep space rock kraut rock all the way with synth and guitar playing off one another and a tight plotting rhythm section. This album dwells in heavy deep space the whole time and the guitars blaze through the nebulae.

The Janitors

The Janitors Noisolation Sessions Vol 1 from Sweden is a dark gothic industrial journey which is both musically and psychologically heavy. The brooding music is something to be experienced their sound is hard to define and they have a sound all their own that is highly satisfying for those dark musical urges.

The Spacelords Spaceflowers

The Spacelords Spaceflowers is heavy space rock with stoner vibes. This album could easily be at the top of the list with a refined sound that is some of the best in the genre.

TENGGER Nomad

Tengger Nomad is an ambient soundscape soothing and organic. The sound is beautiful with reserved tension and subtle overtones. Take a deep wash in electronic sound bliss with Tengger.

White Hills Splintered Metal Sky

White Hills Splintered Metal Sky of the UK have a dark industrial album that gets heavy with pounding rhythms evil feedback and dark moody vocals. The sound is warm and compressed giving it a Gothic 80s, 90s feel. The male female vocals are gritty dirty and way to cool. White Hills has been on the fore of the psych scene for a long time and they continue to evolve with new sounds and impressive creative album development. The sound on this album is great White Hills rocks.

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O Reverse Of Rebirth Reprise

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. Reverse Of Rebirth Reprise from Japan is psychedelic music that goes from psychedelic folk to freak out melt down feedback guitar with disorienting intensity from guitar guru Makoto Kawabata. This album goes from weird space folk to experimental noise krautrock. This is for the ones who want their music raw and weird AMT released incredible set of albums in 2020 some of their best and most accessible material to date.

Black Satori – Lucy Lane

Black Satori from Minneapolis and San Francisco plays psyched out garage rock with alternative and space rock infusions. Their debut album Lucy Lane features effected guitars, fuzzed out leads and echoing vocals. They are dynamic moving from mellow to cosmic meltdown.

Dead Sea Apes Night Land

Dead Sea Apes Night Land is a great slow burn psychedelic rock album with kraut and space rock features that can get heavy in their climatic moments and can be chill in their softer sections. The music is magical, mysterious, loose and improvisational. The guitars take the foreground with a variety of tones from fuzz, to clean with echo. The album even integrates in world instruments to build atmosphere. Dead Sea Apes have been making great music for a long time now and this album is undeniably awesome with plenty of lysergic sounds.

The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol – Berserkir II

The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol – Berserkir II is so great with improvisational jams that free flow into spaces where no one has gone before. They have created such syngery and liquid music that enters into the flow state with such ease. The music grows, shifts, with fuzzed out guitars, synth, driving drums, and rumbling melodic bass line. The songs are from an improvisational recording session that produced the albums Berserkir I and II. Get wild, and experimental with some red hot psychedelic krautrock.

Mugstar & Damo Suzuki Live at The Invisible Wind Factory

Mugstar & Damo Suzuki Live at The Invisible Wind Factory features Mugstar a standout space rock, krautrock band from the UK with legendary singer of CAN Damo Suzuki. Suzuki is committed to no rehearsal improvised live music and creates albums from those one-time performances. This is true krautrock from one of the genres founders. Mugstar goes way far-out with their incredible improvisations and ability to move as a unity forces through free open unrehearsed music.

Helicon This Can Only Lead To Chaos

Helicon This Can only Lead To Chaos is a ripping album with fuzz guitars, dark tones and wild effects. They include the Indian instrument the sitar into the mix for a world music flare. Their dark droning heavy tracks get into dark psychedelic nightmare territory with some heavy space doom.

White Manna ARC

White Manna ARC from California takes their sound in a new direction moving into improvisational soundscapes and kraut rock psych with layers of instruments for an experimental journey into the astral plane and into the psych rock palace. The album flows together like a long composition with a slow burn approach. Great album for those who like to hear new sounds that challenge our sense of familiarity.

Melody fields Broken Horse

Melody Fields Broken Horse is 1960s styled psychedelic pop rock. The vocal harmonies are retro San Francisco summer of love style. They bring sitars and other unique instruments into the mix.

The Kundalini Genie 11:11

The Kundalini Genie 11:11 takes their psychedelic garage rock sound and toss in more expansive soundscapes with shoegaze and post rock sounds. The songs develop a rich atmosphere with drones, sitar, echoing guitars and steady driving bass.

The Vacant Lots Interzone

The Vacant Lots Interzone is too cool with driving electronic beats, dancable bass lines, and attitude. The whole album is beat and synth forward with rock and fuzz guitar and vocals. The songs are gritty and warm with vintage tones and black leather attitude.

Holy Wave Interloper

Holy Wave Interlooper is synth and keyboard driven songs with effected guitars and live drums. Their sound is dreamy, indie, almost downer pop. The sound is continuously modulating shifting filtering. The vocals are laid in smoothly with coupled harmonies and simple melodies. Their sound is dense with layers of drones, guitars, filters creating wonderful atmospheres paired with great guitars and vocal melodies.

Andromeda Space Ritual All Shades Of Perception

Get way far out with Polish band Andromeda Space Ritual. The space rock sound is rock but stay restrained opening space for kosmische and heavy space rock to live in harmony. The driving progressive compositions are dynamic moving from soft and subtle to rocking and driven. They keep the vibes dark and moody with wonderful effects and overall sound.

Cult of Dom Keller – Ascend!

Autotelia I

Mary Lattimore Silver Ladders

Mary Lattimore’s Silver Ladders is beautiful with harps, echoes, guitars and drones that stretch into relaxing and artistic vistas. boarding on a folk style with the focus on acoustic compositions that breath and grow organically and take time to veer into the wild unknown. its a breath of beauty.

КОМВУИАТ ЯОВОТЯОИ Kernzeitverletzung

This German group makes kosmisch and kraut rock with long tracks and improvisational approach to music making. Their songs are a slow burn building up as they go. by the end the overdriven guitars and rocking and echoing out into the mystery of the stars.

Prana Crafter MorphoMystic

Prana Crafter MorphoMystic is cosmic synth with analogue echo, synth and guitar to create a psychedelic kosmiche drone. From the North Western United States Will Sol is the solo member of the project which seeks to travel through deep space.

Culto Al Qondor Tannhäuser Tor

Culto Al Qondor Tannhäuser Tor is contemporary Kosmische with heavy drones and free flowing spaced out improvisations. The music has a dark undertone creating an ominous atmosphere. The lead guitars are distant with heavy reverb and echo carving out a path through the modulating oscillations. This is a great offering from The Worst Bassists Records out of Germany.

Vinnum Sabbathi Of Dimensions and Theories

Vinnum Sabbathi Of Dimensions and Theories is space rock with heavy hard hitting riffs that will grab the attention of stoner rock and heavy psych lovers. Their style is guitar center with strong bass and percussion and the sci-fi theme is ever present with narrative voice overs fore telling of a time when humanity must search for new worlds to allow the species to survive. There are dark shades of doom here too not to be overlooked.

Mothers of The Land Hunting Grounds

Mothers Of The Land Hunting Grounds from Austria is heavy metal progressive rock with clean guitar intros, heavy fast progressive climaxes and psychedelic blues all in the mix. The production is top quality the performances are impressively skillful. If you want heavy metal stoner progressive space with classic rock vibes this album will excite your pallet.

Yuri Gagarin The Outskirts Of Reality

Yuri Gagarin The Outskirts Of Reality from Sweden is heavy stoner rock with heavy metal and space rock style. They come in hard and fast with driving riffs thumping bass and clear penatrating guitar leads. This band is instrumental and takes the sound into far out places as often as it drives into the heavy stoner grooves and heavy metal near thrash riffage.

Taras Bulba Soul Weaver

Taras Bulba is from the UK and was formed by the members of Earthling Society. Soul Weaver is acid folk, experiential kraut rock that employees many diverse instrumentals and noises into their compositions. They touch on psych rock, noise, postrock, kosmische and acid folk highlighting another side of this multifaceted and mixed genre. They get weird with vocals and sound experiments but the album has songs that are beautiful and challenging for the listener and developed unique and interesting musical colors. A great choice for those interested in the unusual and abstract.

Prana Crafter / Ragenap No Ear To Hear

Prana Crafter / Ragenap No Ear To Hear is a spaced out ambient kosmische album with artistic textures and otherworldly soundscapes.

Tombstone Eyes Land In The Sky

Tombstone Eyes Land In The Sky of Chicago USA is an album that avoids repeating itself. The songs go from heavy metal, to space rock, to atmospheric to doom and stoner. This band can do it all and with style. The album is a complete song cycle from beginning to end filled with treats for heavy psych lovers.

The Re-Stoned Thunders of The Deep

The Re-Stoned Thunders of The Deep kicks their instrumental heavy psych stoner rock into the next gear with a perfectly stoned album. From Russia this band has chops and kicks it out with stoney compositions that build and draw down for a great ride.

Stonus – Aphasia

Stonus Aphasia is from Cyprus and serves up heavy distorted stoner rock with psychedelic acid rock flair. The guitar tones and thumping bass have great tone and the overall composition of the album is highly enjoyable.

About The Psych Rock

The Psych Rock is here to promote awesome underground music that is wildly creative. The page is a one person operation and I want to thank everyone who has helped keep me motivated with your great music and awesome promos. Many thanks to all the viewers how have check out the page I hope you found a bunch of new and awesome music. 2020 was a good year for the page because I was stuck at home and I listened to all the music and discovered new music continuously. I have been a bit busy but doing my best to keep on top of the new releases and the many great artists and labels who take the time to send me emails.

Thank you to all the labels and artists the page is getting record traffic in 2021 and I have been receiving more promos then ever and getting into fruitful correspondence with several labels, artists, bands and music magazines. If you need writing let me know. If you have a project that I should cover or that I can help with reach out let me know. I am so happy that the page is becoming a place for like mind to connect on creative projects and developing connections. There are several labels who follow the page and who have let me know they discovered new bands on my site. Musicians contact me all the time expressing appreciation for helping them find new music and connecting them with others who can help with projects. Let’s keep it going if we all support each other we can make the music scene stronger and stronger.

How am I doing you ask? I am well Looking for more opportunities to share my creative talents. I have been writing a new album for my psychedelic rock band Black Satori, we have some exciting news coming soon! I finished up a home recorded full-length solo album and I am determining how to release it to the world. Its a folk rock album with some psychedelic vibes. My other solo albums can be found under Temple Rose. I have a several opportunities to contribute guitar, voice, and synth to a few project around the world including Wildwood Morning and The Cult of Lunar Shamans. Looking forward to sharing those as well. That said I am open to creative collaboration so get in touch (thepsychrock@gmail.com) I have been writing for POWmagazine.org which has been a delight some great longer form articles there about music. I am finding new hobbies and looking for more work as well. So it has been difficult to keep up but I appreciate all your support!

Thank you again and make sure to click around the new releases and find some great new music. Be sure to support artists and label because we have nothing to keep our ears entertained without them. Send them your crypto, buy their stuff and share their music! : )