Great older cds new to you in 2020?,,,

[Hearing Aid Man]

Always enjoy finding something awesome I somehow missed from past years. I can think of 3 older cds that I really liked that were new to me in 2020...
4. Pronoia - Mimesis, not much for instrumentals, but this one blew me away. Proggy and heavy!
3. Jon Oliva - Global Warning, nice mix of heavier and mellow tunes. Reminds me of Savatage era stuff I liked alot. Finally checked out this solo stuff and this one stood out to me big time.
2. Neal Morse - Sola Scriptura, mentioned this in a post before. This cd blows me away even though some is on the lighter side. Prog perfection!
1. Orenda - Next, didn't even know this second cd existed til someone recently posted here. Next is not as heavy as their debut but this is still quality prog metal done just how I like it.

Anyone find any older treasures new to you for your collection in 2020?

[introclaus]

For me it was an entire new genre; progressive post hardcore.

Something (probably the artwork) made me check out the new Dance Gavin Dance, which I then completely fell in love with. Then I bought their entire discography and decided to find out what that sub genre “progressive post hardcore” was all about.

I already knew and loved Circa Survive, The Dear Hunter, Coheed & Cambria and Protest the Hero, that are all bands connected with or coming from that genre, although I personally never thought of either of them belonging there until now. Either way, I continued checking up on what was in the genre and ended up buying a lot of new albums thanks to that adventure:
Sianvar
Tides of Man
A Lot Like Birds
Tillian
Hail the sun
Icarus the Owl
Closure in Moscow
Eidola
Nova Charisma

To say that this “adventure” was expensive would be an understatement but there’s some awesome stuff there.

[Mardoch]

For me it was an entire new genre; progressive post hardcore.

Something (probably the artwork) made me check out the new Dance Gavin Dance, which I then completely fell in love with. Then I bought their entire discography and decided to find out what that sub genre “progressive post hardcore” was all about.

I already knew and loved Circa Survive, The Dear Hunter, Coheed & Cambria and Protest the Hero, that are all bands connected with or coming from that genre, although I personally never thought of either of them belonging there until now. Either way, I continued checking up on what was in the genre and ended up buying a lot of new albums thanks to that adventure:
Sianvar
Tides of Man
A Lot Like Birds
Tillian
Hail the sun
Icarus the Owl
Closure in Moscow
Eidola
Nova Charisma

To say that this “adventure” was expensive would be an understatement but there’s some awesome stuff there.

I love the instrumental part of DGD, but I can't stand the vocalist. Are the vocals in this sub-sub-genre more or less in line with that or is there some variety on tap?

Regarding the OP...man I've scooped up a ton of stuff this year, and much of it was not new. Some of the top hits:
The Omnific (2 bass and drums...sounds like so much more, though)
Allegaeon (instantly became one of my top 5 melodeath bands)
Nuclear Power Trio (jazzy metal informed by melodeath, features the guitarist from Allegaeon)
Karnivool (slept on these folks for ages, very wrongfully)
In Flames - I, The Mask (arguably a return to form album...quite good imo)
Nerve End (jazz inflected djenty stuff that might be getting an actual LP soonish)

[introclaus]

I love the instrumental part of DGD, but I can't stand the vocalist. Are the vocals in this sub-sub-genre more or less in line with that or is there some variety on tap?

Which of them? They always have 2 vocalists at a time - a core-growler and a clean high pitched vocalist. I LOVE the guy singing the cleans nowadays, Tillian Pearson (he's been there for 5 albums now) and obviously his solo albums all have his vocals all over them.

The genre is known to have the core-growls but interspersed with cleans - I think a good example of the approach is found in Circa Survive, so if you like the vocals there, that should be a good pointer towards the rest of the genre. My favorites are Hail the Sun (the singer is also in Sianvar and Nova Charisma) - check out the album "Mental Knife" (https://youtu.be/w2SczshdOGE), and A Lot Like Birds (especially their final album which is quite proggy and less "core") - "Divisi" (https://youtu.be/hUuZ3gwE3Jw).

[Random Axe]

I'm not even sure how to respond to this as 2020 was probably my best year of discovery ever. THe following are all pretty much new to me. I'd had some of their albums but didn't "get them" until this year.

Mystery
Tragodia
Judicator
The Codex
Royal Hunt
Onward
Leviathan

That's from my perpetually failing memory. I'm there's others

[Mardoch]

I love the instrumental part of DGD, but I can't stand the vocalist. Are the vocals in this sub-sub-genre more or less in line with that or is there some variety on tap?

Which of them? They always have 2 vocalists at a time - a core-growler and a clean high pitched vocalist. I LOVE the guy singing the cleans nowadays, Tillian Pearson (he's been there for 5 albums now) and obviously his solo albums all have his vocals all over them.

The genre is known to have the core-growls but interspersed with cleans - I think a good example of the approach is found in Circa Survive, so if you like the vocals there, that should be a good pointer towards the rest of the genre. My favorites are Hail the Sun (the singer is also in Sianvar and Nova Charisma) - check out the album "Mental Knife" (https://youtu.be/w2SczshdOGE), and A Lot Like Birds (especially their final album which is quite proggy and less "core") - "Divisi" (https://youtu.be/hUuZ3gwE3Jw).

Pretty sure it's the high clean guy I don't like, but it's been a while. I'll look into those.

[LarryD]

CAAMORA / Journeys End - An Acoustic Anthology.

This is Clive Nolan's ( Arena ) Caamora concept show laid out here in a 2-CD acoustic set. This was recorded at various places around the world, with just he and Caamora lead vocalist Agnieszka Swita, who has as beautiful a voice as she is beautiful ...... I'm not sure how I missed this one, as I generally soak up everything Clive has a hand in...... whats better here, is that he includes songs from his whole solo catalogue, and a couple of Arena songs as well. Agnieszka puts her own spin on these classic....

He does have some guests show up like Christina Booth, Ian Salmon, and other notable Neo-Proggers along the way ...... I personally would have chosen Christina Booth for all of the vocals, as she in the original Caamora show, but then it wouldn't be "the" Caamora I guess .......

If you love all things Clive - and can stand just he, his piano, and a female singer for most of the way - this is amazing. The production, courtesy of Karl Groom, is equally amazing. CD artwork and booklet all top notch.

Better late than never - but this is worth owning to add to the Clive Nolan collection.

[GaetanL]

I guess this is the perfect thread for me as I am digging more in the past these days exploring neo-prog, hard rock and hard rock/metal.
There are some older CDs I bought in 2020 that are still waiting for me to listen to, but so far a top 10 would be:

Power - Justice Of Fire (1995) (progressive power metal)
Avian - From The Depths Of Time (2005) (heavy metal / power metal)
Everon - Fantasma (2000) (neo-prog)
Everon - Bridge (2002) (neo-prog)
Pretty Maids - Pandemonium (2010) (heavy metal)
Foreigner - Mr. Moonlight (1994) (hard rock)
Winger - Karma (2009) (hard rock / metal)
Casino - Casino (1992) (neo-prog)
Aragon - Don't Bring The Rain (1988) (neo-prog)
Agnieszka Swita - Sleepless (2014) (neo-prog)

[Norén]

I guess this is the perfect thread for me as I am digging more in the past these days exploring neo-prog, hard rock and hard rock/metal.
There are some older CDs I bought in 2020 that are still waiting for me to listen to, but so far a top 10 would be:

Power - Justice Of Fire (1995) (progressive power metal)
Avian - From The Depths Of Time (2005) (heavy metal / power metal)
Everon - Fantasma (2000) (neo-prog)
Everon - Bridge (2002) (neo-prog)
Pretty Maids - Pandemonium (2010) (heavy metal)
Foreigner - Mr. Moonlight (1994) (hard rock)
Winger - Karma (2009) (hard rock / metal)
Casino - Casino (1992) (neo-prog)
Aragon - Don't Bring The Rain (1988) (neo-prog)
Agnieszka Swita - Sleepless (2014) (neo-prog)

Some great stuff there. Remember when I talked to Oliver Philipps and told him that I thought the first Everon album was by far the best and he called me "The strangers Everon fan ever",,, but I still think it is
And that Casino album is a masterpiece. And some Aragon albums are fantastic. Especially "Mouse".

[Psychotic Symphony]

I'm finally getting around to lots of stuff, most notably Rush!

I've always been a Rush fan but really kind of casually. Subdivisions is my favourite song by them and also the first I ever heard by then when I was like...13? So I've been exploring that era (the synth period) quite intently and loving it. There is just a lot of interesting things they do, and of course the musicianship is outstanding. I've also finally gotten around to hearing in it's entirety 2112! Now THAT is a trip.

[Hearing Aid Man]

Subdivisions is my favourite song.

Probably my favorite song from them too. I feel their other release Moving Pictures might be the best album of all time IMO. I like it even more than when it came out and I never get sick of it even though I've heard it so many times! Also, I don't feel it sounds dated either like alot of other stuff that old.

[AllMediaReviews]

Television - Marquee Moon

took me over 30 years to check it out, but I do follow why so many consider it a classic. The title track alone is worth the price of admission.