Xmas holiday listening

I've finally finished work for 2020 and so the Xmas holiday has officially begun. So naturally, in order to celebrate this festive time of enforced jollity and mandatory good will to all men, I have embarked on a marathon Funeral Doom bender.

What are your music imbibing intentions this holiday season?

Right now it's just gonna be a synthwave Christmas for me because of my break from metal (https://metal.academy/forum/23/thread/620?page=1#topic_5230). Happy holidays, and see you all in the new year!

- Shadowdoom9/Andi

I'm in a bit of a doom metal phase too. I tend to go back to favourites rather than looking for something fresh. The holidays is a great time to check out some new stuff.

I'll be finishing off the December feature releases, checking out the January ones, putting together the January playlists & filling in some remaining rating gaps I have in late 80's extreme metal.

Just caught on to Onirik's latest release and have spent most of the weekend with that so far.  But also dusted off some old vinyl (second hand purchases) that wouldn't play on my old vinyl player - because the player was shite - but now seem to be okay, so last night I got through Winger's self-titled (shut up) with a few whisky and cokes in me and sang along like a teenage girl!  Onirik and Winger in the same day, what an eclectic bastard I am.

Just caught on to Onirik's latest release and have spent most of the weekend with that so far.  But also dusted off some old vinyl (second hand purchases) that wouldn't play on my old vinyl player - because the player was shite - but now seem to be okay, so last night I got through Winger's self-titled (shut up) with a few whisky and cokes in me and sang along like a teenage girl!  Onirik and Winger in the same day, what an eclectic bastard I am.

That Onirik album is a seriously great record... erm Winger, not so much!

I'll still be relistening to a bunch of 2020 stuff trying to nail down a list I feel happy with. It's getting really close, so I'll probably end out 2020 with some pop and rap  albums that had a lot of buzz in 2020, just to fill out the year. There might be one or two metal albums from the random lists I've been seeing pop up that I might check out, and maybe try and write reviews for Neptunian Maximalism, that Spectral Lore / Mare Cognitum collab, Oranssi Pazuzu and Imperial Triumphant? Those are some difficult albums to review though, so I'll have to see how I feel about it. 

I also want to catch up with the Feature Releases again, try to make it more of a habit in 2021. Work has been escalating so I've found myself being forgetful about grabbing new music for the day, since my workplace blocks Spotify for some reason. No, I don't work in a prison, even though some of the stuff they do around here makes it seem like it. Looking back, I had a very productive 2020 music-wise and the Academy has definitely been a cornerstone for that.