2020 certainly feels like the plague, and it all started with Neil Peart’s passing. Over the last few months alone, many went from laughing at Corona beer memes to no longer taking any of this as a joke. The COVID-19 outbreak feels like a disaster film, and sadly, it has become our reality. While many are living in isolation, Metal Insider contributors wanted to share songs that have been helping us cope through this time of uncertainty.  

Jeff Podoshen: What I’m listening to:

Hyborian, Volume II

Nyrst, Nastrini

Life of Agony, Sound of Scars

Craft, White Noise and Black Metal

Blaze of Perdition, The Harrowing of Hearts

Sarke, Gastwerso

Taake, Ubeseiret

Funeral Mist, Hekatomb

Zenae Zukowski: It’s been a tough and surreal time. It still doesn’t feel real what’s happening and my vivid end of the world dreams are more soothing than what we’re dealing with right now. I’m not sure what’s been getting me through this time but, I cried watching the first #MetallicaMondays, felt comforting watching a Metallica show knowing there’s no more Rockville this year. Music wise, aside from having random bird and cat game videos for my cats, there’s been a few:

Summoning

Heilung

Russian Circles

Moonsorrow

God Is an Astronaut 

Solstafir

I guess you can say, I need some atmospheric/dark tunes right now. Minimal lyrics, not even power metal or my personal favorite, Epica, is helping me. 

Oh the new NIN albums are great as well. After work hours are spent reminiscing to 80s, 90s, and early 00s music videos.

And then I go to some doomy/depressive stuff:

Insomnium

Paradise Lost

Geez…Borknagar and Ne Obliviscaris feel too “uplifting” right now.

Matthew Brown: My listening habits haven’t changed much. I’ve been doing a combination of seeking out new music while also exploring past albums from bands that I like but haven’t explored their discography.

Caspian, On Circles

Skyforest, A New Dawn

My Dying Bride, The Ghost of Orion

Anathema, We’re Here Because We’re Here

Everything by Alcest

Some non-metal stuff I’ve been listening to includes Ghosteen by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Joe Hisaishi’s soundtrack to Spirited Away.

Elise Yablon: Since I’ve been working from home for the last week, I’ve been listening to Spotify a lot more than usual. Comfort music for me is more pop-punk/”emo” and 90s alternative than metal, so a lot of Dashboard Confessional, Everclear, Green Day and the like.  I’m a big fan of live streaming, so I’ve been trying to keep up with some of those. I’ve been watching Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard’s streams (again, not metal, but I love his sound and he’s got a comforting way about him). Global Citizen’s #TogetherAtHome series is getting some interesting, diverse names to play live on Instagram as well. There are a few good lists out there of who’s streaming when, but sometimes I’ll just come across something online at random.

Chris Annunziata: I’ve been listening to Dyscarnate’s 2017 release With All Their Might on constant loop. After that, I listen to more Dyscarnate. They are definitely on constant play for me; you could say it’s ridiculous. Other than that, it’s been all of Devin Townsend’s Quarantine Project (shocker!) and new Trivium. Below are some random tracks I go back to when I’m not listening to Dyscarnate:

Paradise Lost – “Fall From Grace”

Sylosis – “Apex of Disdain”

Baroness – “Try to Disappear”

Hath – “Usurpation”

Blaqk Audio – “First to Love” (don’t judge me, it gets stuck in my head)

Check out our collaborative Quarantine Playlist below:

For fun, we created a SECOND playlist filled with apocalyptic, plague, doomsday, end of the world tunes: