Most readers and subscribers do not have the January 2020 issue of Decibel yet. But every year, that doesn’t stop some enterprising nerd from obtaining an early copy of our year-end issue and posting our Top 40 Albums of the Year on a number of message boards, blogs and virtually every social media platform. For the last five years or so, we’ve been forced to beat them to the punch.

So, if you’d prefer remaining in suspense until your copy arrives in the mail, please go here. The rest of you can venture on, but if you’d actually like to read editorial on these releases (for, you know, context), interviews with the artists who rank near and at the top of the list as well as dozens of entertaining contributor conceived year-end Top 5 lists, and a Hall of Fame on Madball’s Set It Off, you can grab a copy of the full issue here. It comes with a brand new Carcass picture flexi disc containing the band’s first few song in six years, too! Anyway, get irrationally upset below:

40 Devil Master, Satan Spits on Children of Light, Relapse

39 Smoulder, Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring, Cruz Del Sur

38 Nocturnus AD, Paradox, Profound Lore

37 Elizabeth Colour Wheel, Nocebo, Flenser

36 Misery Index, Rituals of Power, Season of Mist

35 Vastum, Orificial Purge, 20 Buck Spin

34 Candlemass, The Door To Doom, Napalm

33 Toxic Holocaust, Primal Future: 2019, eOne

32 Abbath, Outstrider, Season of Mist

31 Cerebral Rot, Odious Descent Into Decay, 20 Buck Spin

30 Baroness, Gold & Grey, Abraxan Hymns

29 Misþyrming, Algleymi, Norma Evangelium Diaboli

28 Magic Circle, Departed Souls, 20 Buck Spin

27 Schammasch, Hearts of No Light, Prosthetic

26 Opeth, In Cauda Venenum, Nuclear Blast

25 No One Knows What the Dead Think, No One Knows What the Dead Think, Willowtip

24 Inter Arma, Sulphur English, Relapse

23 Falls of Rauros, Patterns in Mythology, Gilead Media

22 Die Choking, IV, DCIVE

21 Idle Hands, Mana, Eisenwald

20 Cattle Decapitation, Death Atlas, Metal Blade

19 Funereal Presence, Achatius, The Anja Offensive

18 Darkthrone, Old Star, Peaceville

17 Haunt, If Icarus Could Fly, Shadow Kingdom

16 Obsequiae, The Palms of Sorrowed Kings, 20 Buck Spin

15 Venom Prison, Samsara, Prosthetic

14 Devin Townsend, Empath, InsideOut

13 Mizmor, Cairn, Gilead Media

12 Mayhem, Daemon, Century Media

11 Full of Hell, Weeping Choir, Relapse

10 False, Portent, Gilead Media

9 Sacred Reich, Awakening, Metal Blade

8 Spirit Adrift, Divided by Darkness, 20 Buck Spin

7 Blut aus Nord, Hallucinogen, Debemur Morti Productions

6 Possessed, Revelations of Oblivion, Nuclear Blast

5 Tomb Mold, Planetary Clairvoyance, 20 Buck Spin

4 Crypt Sermon, The Ruins of Fading Light, Dark Descent

3 Gatecreeper, Deserted, Relapse

2 Lingua Ignota, Caligula, Profound Lore

1 Blood Incantation, Hidden History of the Human Race, Dark Descent