It is always difficult to be able to choose the best albums of a year with such a prolific production. Possibly and due to Covid, the bands have created more intimate works in 2020, but nevertheless my vocation is psychedelic, so in this list you may not find metal or heavy doom bands, but many good albums. with a common denominator, fundamentally psychedelia. I hope you are encouraged to listen to those that you do not know and you are pleasantly surprised.

Happy 2021 to everyone. Rock On!!

(Roberto Lucas (Denpafuzz)

50 MOUNT HUSH.- “MOUNT HUSH” (Austria) 70’s, heavy-blues, heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, retro-rock, Stoner

https://mounthush.bandcamp.com/album/mount-hush

49 NARLA.- ‘TILL THE WEATHER CHANGES’ (Australia) psychedelic-rock, 60’s, 70’s, blues-rock, heavy-blues, alternative

https://narlamusic.bandcamp.com/album/till-the-weather-changes-2

48 THE GOLDEN GRASS.- “HEAVY COLOUR (US) boogie rock-hard-rock, blues, 70’s psychedelic-rock

https://thegoldengrass.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-colour

47 THE SONIC DAWN.- “ENTER THE MIRAGE” (Denmark) 60’s, psychedelic, psychedelic-rock, rock,

https://thesonicdawn.bandcamp.com/album/enter-the-mirage?from=embed

46 BOGWIFE.- “HALLS OF REBIRTH” (Denmark) heavy-psych, stoner, doom

https://bogwife.bandcamp.com/album/halls-of-rebirth

45 BIG SCENIC NOWHERE.- ‘LAVENDER BLUES’ (US) desert-rock, progresive-rock, rock, psychedelic-rock, Stoner

https://bigscenicnowhere.bandcamp.com/album/lavender-blues?from=embed

44 TORTUGA.-“DEITIES” (Poland) heavy-psych, doom, stoner, pysch-doom

https://tortugapl.bandcamp.com/album/deities

43 MAGIC BUS.- “THE EARTH YEARS” (UK) Cantenbury, folk-rock, hard-progressive, progressive-rock, psychedelic-rock, rock, vintage, west coast

https://magicbus2.bandcamp.com/album/the-earth-years-2

42 ANDROMEDA SPACE RITUAL.- “ALL SHADES OF PERCEPTION” (Poland) heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, space-rock

https://andromedaspaceritual.bandcamp.com/album/all-shades-of-perception

41  THE THIRD MIND.- “THE THIRD MIND” (US) blues-rock, psychedelic-rock, west-coast, acid-rock, jazz

https://davealvin.bandcamp.com/album/the-third-mind
40 GREEN ORBIT.- “SUPERNOVA” (Germany) heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, stoner, fuzz

https://greenorbit.bandcamp.com/album/supernova

39 BUFFALO FUZZ.- “VOLUME II” (US) blues-rock, heavy-blues, psychedelic-rock, rock, Stoner

https://buffalofuzz.bandcamp.com/album/volume-ii

38 SPACELORDS.- “SPACE FLOWERS” (Germany) heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, space-rock, instrumental, stoner, kraut, kosmiche

https://thespacelords1.bandcamp.com/album/spaceflowers

37 ELECTRIC MOON.- “LIVE T FREAK VALLEY FESTIVAL 2019” (Germany) psychedelic-rock, space-rock, instrumental, improvisation, kraut, acid-rock

https://electric-moon.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-freak-valley-festival-2019

36 ROBOT GOD.- “SILVER BUDDHA DREAMING” (Australia) heavy-psych, 70’s, hard-rock, space-rock, stoner, doom

https://robotgodband.bandcamp.com/album/silver-buddha-dreaming

35 THE RE-STONED.- “THUNDERS OF THE DEEP”(Russia) heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, jam, instrumental, space, Stoner

https://re-stoned.bandcamp.com/album/thunders-of-the-deep

34 RING VAN MÖBIUS.- ‘THE 3RD MAJESTY’ (Norway) hard-progressive, 70’s, progressive-rock, vintage, retro-rock

https://ringvanmbius.bandcamp.com/album/the-3rd-majesty

33 JAMES BUTTON BAND.- “DESERT REVELATIONS” (Poland) vintage, 70’s, 60’s blues-rock, rock

https://jamesbuttonband.bandcamp.com/album/desert-revelations

32 REZN.- ‘CHAOTIC DIVINE’ (US) heavy-psych, stoner, hard-rock, psychedelic-rock, doom

https://rezzzn.bandcamp.com/album/chaotic-divine

31 ASIMOV – “ASIMOV AND THE HIDDEN CIRCUS – FLOWERS” (Portugal) heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, psychedelic

https://asimovstenarmusik.bandcamp.com/album/asimov-and-the-hidden-circus-flowers

30 HUMULUS.- “DEEP” (Italy) heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, Stoner

By constructing the themes with the precision of a watchmaker, they manage to convey sensations and moods with remarkable skill. The album seems to have two different parts in its six songs; a first in which the stoner heaviness has a greater share of prominence and a second in which they allow themselves to be seduced by the most aromatic and attractive psychedelia creating landscapes full of beauty.

29 BRANT BJORK.- ‘BRANT BJORK’ (US) desert-rock, rock, psychedelic-rock, stoner, swamp-rock

Increasingly rooted in funk sounds, BRANT himself manifests that this work is his true creative nature. Gone are those moments in which heavy rhythms had a greater role. At the moment BRANT BJORK is in a period of maturity, and this is reflected in possibly slower songs, but not without strength.

28 FAMILIARS.- “ALL IN GOOD TIME” (Canada) desert-rock, heavy-psych, shoegaze, stonergaze, stoner, psychedelic-rock

Dense, murky desert sounds with warm, whispering shoegaze voices in tracks that inhabit dark psychedelic atmospheres. With two fundamental characteristics, the serious, heavy and disturbing sound, and completely haunting and whispering voices. A combination of which the band obtains an outstanding result

27 PSYCHLONA.- “VENUS SKYTRIP” (UK) desert-rock, fuzz, stoner, heavy-psych, proto-metal

Creating a whole hemorrhage of riffs, between shamanic voices and thunderous rhythms, they leave me with a feeling that they have achieved the magic formula to trap the listener with their sidereal desert-rock infused with intoxicating heavy-psych passages. Cosmic fuzz that overwhelms us between sandy nebulae inherited from their fellow Hawkwind.

26 DAILY THOMPSON.- “OUMUAMUA” (Germany) fuzz, 70’s,90’s, hard-rock, blues-rock, heavy-psych, grunge, psychedelic-rock, Stoner

An alum in which the band explores some sounds that had not been so common in their previous albums and in which we can find from the diffuse stoner riffs full of fuzz to heavy psychedelic passages in Rotor or Color Haze line, but in which we also find a greater presence of sounds from the seventies. If the influence on the sound of the grunge band of the nineties is present with Sonic Youth echoes, the truth is that in this work if there is something that predominates, it is the blues.

25  YAWNING MAN.- ‘LIVE AT GIANT ROCK ‘ (US) desert-rock, instrumental, Stoner, psychedelic, post-rock

A whole redemptive experience inspired by that recording that Pink Floyd made decades ago in the ruins of Pompeii. In that spirit, a lifelong dream is fulfilled: Capturing YAWNING MAN performing in the same environment that so inspired his music. If they are masters at something, it is precisely in their ability to create atmospheres, and here with their four they never succeed once again. In the space where they are probably most comfortable, they manage to bring out the best of themselves.

24 WITCHWOOD.- ‘BEFORE THE WINTER’ (Italy) hard-progressive, vintage, 70’s, retro hard-rock, progressive-rock

Taking the classic rock of the 70’s as a reference, the new album by the Italians WITCHWOOD offers us a repertoire of songs in which we can find influences from bands like Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Camel, but also from contemporary bands like Hällas. Their songs put the soundtrack to a story of tales and legends on the path of the best progressive retro rock of the moment. By coloring his themes with different styles, both blues, hard-rock, psychedelia or progressive developments with a folk vocation, they make up an exciting album in which none of his themes lowers the quality level.

23 MOTHERS OF THE LAND.- “HUNTING GROUNDS”  (Austria) hard-rock, heavy rock, heavy-psych, progressive-rock, psychedelic-rock, stoner, vintage.

A captivating and exciting work, dragging you on their sound waves and taking you on the journey with them through their surreal world. A journey in which his floating guitars dispense with the word to tell their stories, but managing to practice an agile and attractive oratory, full of virtuosity and sensitivity. An album brimming with adrenaline but also dopamine, in which its epic instrumental passages are adorned with multiple ornaments to create a framework of great beauty in songs woven on a solid rhythmic base and with its two guitarists exuding technique and sensitivity.

22 KADAVAR.- ‘ISOLATION TAPES’ (Germany) 60’s psychedelic, psychedelic-rock, progressive-rock space, rock

In ‘ISOLATION TAPES’ do not expect to find the explosive riffs that have characterized them all this time, here the band is carried away by bucolism and their mood in an intimate and reflective work that plays with Floydian elements and the pop psychedelic of the 60’s. Leaving aside the hard-retro Stoner sounds common on their previous albums, psychedelia and bucolic progressive 60’s inspired moments take center stage in a soft, cottony album.

21 SIENA ROOT.- “THE SECRET OF OUR TIME” (Sweden) retro-rock, hard-rock, blues-rock, soul, vintage, classic-rock

By creating each song differently, they get everything to fit, always trying to develop and find new ways to be creative and not do the same thing over and over again. We are surely facing the most accomplished album in years by a band that continues to constantly reinvent itself. A concept album, about human nature and the relationship with technology and artificial reality in which blues, soul and folk appear among more progressive developments supported by their usual retro rock sound

20 KRYPTOGRAF.- “KRYPTOGRAF” (Norway) proto-.metal, hard-rock, 70’s, psychedelic-rock, progressive-rock

Inspired by the proto-metal of the early 70’s and having Black Sabbath as their Holy Grail, the Bergen quartet presents us with a varied cocktail of vintage hard-rock sounds in which the psychedelic aroma flies over careful progressive developments. The fact that the vocal registers do not fall on just one singer, but on three, makes the listener’s focus (especially live), focus on the band as a whole, without personal protagonism.

19 SLIFT.- “UMMON” (France) heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, kraut, space, alternative, progressive-rock, rock.

The progressive sound of the Toulouse trio is a colorful and legendary journey to the edge of kraut and stoner rock plunging into the heavy-psych depths. All an exceptional astral adventure contained in their second album ‘Ummon’, in which they build a space odyssey about titans, a mixture of acid krautrock, cosmic jazz and powerful saturated guitars. A strident wall of sound and energy. The five edgy tracks are loaded with fuzz chaos and manic beats high enough to hit your head spinning with their hypnotic riffs.

18 LOWRIDER.- “REFRACTIONS” (Sweden) desert-rock, fuzz, heavy-psych, Stoner

The album that every stoner lover has been waiting for so long and that will make many disappointments believe again in a style that in recent times seems to be stagnating. The album that will get people to say, “cool !!! Good shit !!! ”. A whole cataract of sandy fuzz that is carried away by its most psychedelic side. Be careful, this does not mean that the quartet renounces the blinding solos, nor the shaking of the drums, nor the manual desert-rock vibrations, on the contrary, in this album those oscillations take on a new dimension.

17 MOURA.- “MOURA” (Spain) folk-progressive, heavy-progressive, heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, Stoner

The spanish’s MOURA invite us to sit next to the bonfire in which the Druids invoke the ancestors in an authentic sound coven in which traditional music of Celtic origin is recovered in four long psycho-progressive themes of an evident heaviness and compositional complexity. A thousand textures and shapes make up grooves that are a true rough diamond for these Galician goldsmiths. Carving each theme with traditional ornaments full of history, magic and mystery, to cover them with a contemporary sound full of strength and complexity.

16 ALL THEM WITCHES.- “NOTHING AS THE IDEAL” (US) psychedelic-rock, shoegaze, Stoner

Masters in building magnetic enveloping atmospheres until they hatch into heavy rhythms, those from Nashville remain faithful to floating psychedelia on those shoegaze melodies that have been giving them so much success in recent years with a rugged but always enchanting character. At this point the reputation of ALL THEM WITCHES is beyond doubt and this album is a reflection of their good work and quality as a band,

15 HEAVY TRIP.- “HEAVY TRIP” (Canada) heavy-psych, heavy-blues, hard-rock, acid-rock, 70’s, stoner, doom-blues

If Obelix gained his strength by falling into the potion of magic potion as a child, the Canadian trio originally from Vancouver, HEAVY-TRIP must have taken L.S.D. in their baby bottles. We are used to finding devilish heavy psychedelic albums, but the acidity and the aroma of psychotropics that these grooves contain are within the reach of few. Add to that his love of blues and dark Sabbath sounds, the perfect cocktail is in. Many are those who try to experiment with hallucinogenic drugs, but here they can save the visit to the camel on duty to have a good “trip”

14 KING BUFFALO.- “DEAD STAR” (US) psychedelic-rock, shoegaze, heavy-psych, Stoner

Thirty-six minutes full of mystique that makes us evade our daily problems, to embark on a bewitching journey in which psychedelia and shoegaze melodies surround us. Embracing and lulling the listener with warm vocals and choruses, psychotropic reverberations and hypnotic kraut rhythms, the Rochester trio reinvents itself by experimenting with more progressive moments in which we find some Floydian echo. An inner look that makes our senses are motivated by its murmuring passages. Leaving more prominence to the synthesizers, we always find a guitar that emerges from the dark and nebulous atmospheres to seduce us with its beautiful passages.

13 LAMP OF THE UNIVERSE.- “DEAD SHRINE” (New Zealand) psychedelic-rock, heavy-psych, drone, devotional, space, acid-rock

An album born between the aroma of incense and with a devotional aura that invites reflection, helping emotional relaxation. His psychedelic drone takes on celestial heights in this new mystical trance. Its whispering and meditative passages are colored by beautiful psychedelic harmonies over the perpetual reverberations to which we are accustomed. The moving vocal passages try to lull us into a gratifying sensory experience that makes us forget the real world to cross a sensory border in which psychedelia invades our senses in a spiritual catharsis.

12 SLEEPWULF.- “SLEEPWULF” (Sweden) 70’s, blues-rock, vintage, hard-rock, retro-rock

Paying tribute to retro-rock warriors like Kadavar, Witchcraft or Graveyard, and with an accent to the early Jethro Tull comes a new wave of timeless vintage rock from northern Europe from the hand of the Swedes SLEEPWULF. A work in which there is no compositional alchemy, but in which everything flows naturally to obtain an outstanding result. Any lover of retro sounds and rock from the early seventies will kneel before this album that will knock down the doors of the underground scene.

11 BLUES PILLS.- “HOLY MOLLY!” (Sweden) blues-rock, soul-rock, hard-rock, psychedelic-rock

A return to the origins? BLUES PILLS recovers the acidity that gave rise to them. With their new album it seems that they have overcome the stage in which the band was moving away from the harshness. “HOLY MOLLY !!” It is a kind of liberation of the band after the turbulent times passed from their previous album in their own words. After some depressions and low moods, they regain the reins of what they really want to be.

10  YURI GAGARIN.- “THE OUTSKIRTS OF REALITY” (Sweden) space-rock, psychedelic-rock, heavy-psych

A whole sidereal journey to the ends of the universe through five songs in which they make it clear that they are at the forefront of the ship of contemporary space heavy psychedelia. We are surely facing the best album of the genre of the present century. A masterpiece? I suppose there will be opinions for all tastes, but what there is no doubt is that YURI GAGARIN have thrown the rest into this album. A space odyssey in which everything happens at the speed of light over sidereal spaces that take kraut rhythms that hit us with the force of a gigantic asteroid

9 ELLIS/MUNK ENSEMBLE.- “SAN DIEGO SESSIONS” (Denmark-US) psychedelic-rock, jazz, fusion, experimental,

A bacchanal of rhythms with thunderous drums between a psychotropic guitar indentation and multicolored vintage keys with jazz elements and a certain spatial vocation accompany the lysergic orgy that they create in each song. Topics that are like real black holes that end up trapping you inside and that are like an intoxicating concoction that makes us forget about the earthly world for about an hour to embark on a cosmic journey that you will not want to leave.

8 APE SKULL.- “FIELS OF SUBCONSCIENCE” (Italy) 70’s vintage, hard-rock, blues-rock, psychedelic-rock, acid-rock, soul, Funky

Installed in the sound of the early 70’s with Hendrix as a prophet, and bands like Cream, Edgar Broughton Band or many others as references, APE SKULL are back. And how! The wait has finally been worth it. After a tortuous road and a thousand problems to get a label that will publish their new songs, the Roman trio shows itself in full power creating an outstanding “vintage” rock album. Without poses and full of authenticity, its sound comes out of your gut naturally. The effective combination of blues, funky, psychedelia, soul and pure acid hard rock, will undoubtedly delight the most purist lovers of old-fashioned rock.

7 RYTE.- “RYTE” (Austria) heavy-psych, proto-metal, acid-rock,

With the aim of making sophisticated heavy psychedelia, the band does not put any limit to its creative capacity using different progressive, spatial, doom, proto-metal elements, etc …, to give freshness to the four long songs that the album contains without lose an iota of the heaviness that had characterized them in their previous band. An adventure with a monumental and great result. With an apparent vocation for jam, the delicious sour passages are enriched with a multitude of nuances and twists that make nothing here boring.

6 ELEPHANT TREE.- ‘HABITS’ (UK) heavy-psych, doom, psychedelic-rock, shoegaze, metal

An album in which you can see that every detail has been taken care of, and that contains perfectly worked songs, which makes listening to it an exciting and cathartic experience. With an approach in which the keyboards and synthesizers as well as a greater prominence of the second guitar, he makes his songs acquire a monumental tinge. That combination of heavy elements in which the doom supports the floating melodies, over instrumental developments between psychedelia, progressive and stoner is simply perfect. If you add the magnetic voices and choruses to that, the perfect storm is served.

5 RIDER NEGRO.- “THE ECHO OF THE DESERT” (Mexico) psychedelic-rock, blues, psychedelic. desert-rock, jazz, vintage, rock, western

A conceptual work in which the mystique of the desert is reflected in calm and heartbreaking themes in which the legacy of the “Lizard King” is evident in the vocal registers of Tiaca Serrano, its singer and guitar. Ten songs that meander through sensory states more typical of a peyote journey full of mysticism, in which the transition between day and night relate the evolution of life as a perpetual cycle. Songs that flow calmly between the cacti and the solitude of the desert under chords of blues, jazz, classic rock, Latin rhythms, but fundamentally from that shamanic psychedelia that Morrison offered us decades ago.

4 ACID MESS.- ‘SANGRE DE OTROS MUNDOS’ (Spain) heavy-psych, psychedelic-rock, alternative, progressive-rock, 90’s, rock

ACID MESS has gained in textures and sound space. With this new album they broaden the horizon of the public that a band that until now had offered us great psychedelic moments can reach. But here, without renouncing psychedelia, the progressive atmospheres inherited from the Spanish rock of the 70’s, take on a new dimension. Psychedelia, jazz, Andalusian rock, Latin rhythms, aromas of the East, alternative riffs more typical of the 90’s,

3 CAUSA SUI.- ‘SBOZADELICO’ (Denmark) psychedelic, rock, fusión, jazz

SZABODELICO ‘is an obvious nod to the Hungarian master GABOR SZABO. All a fusion of jazz, rock and subtle psychedelia that may be the album that stoners will hate the most but at the same time it should be noted, that it is the most spontaneous album of the experienced Danish band and if perhaps a spectrum of its audience can see something disappointed, there will be another who on the contrary feels very gratified. Painting each subject with a wide range of colors, CAUSA SUI explores sounds from various cultures and eras without any complexities. Fleeing from overproduction, the songs are shown with their virginity intact, full of a freshness and an innocence that it is difficult not to capture you

2 ACID MOON AND THE PREGNANT SUN.- “SPEAKIN’ OF THE DEVIL” (Israel) 60’s,70’s, rock, west-coast, psychedelic, garage-rock, classic-rock, folk-rock

A careful and delicate work in which you will not find powerful riffs and that punk attitude that characterizes the band, but instead you will embark on a time tunnel to the most flowery California of the late sixties, to the vast prairies in which the soundtrack is country and American music, acid rock from the early 70’s between exotic Mediterranean aromas of colorful psychedelia, or the most primitive garage rock moments. Always offering the most melodic side in songs that ooze feelings and that inevitably evoke bygone eras.

1 SAMSARA BLUES EXPERIMENT.- ‘END OF FOREVER’ (Germany) heavy-psych, Stoner, psychedelic-rock, progresive-rock, hard-rock, 70’s

‘END OF FOREVER’ may be SAMSARA BLUES EXPRIMENT’s best album, and this is saying a lot, since its discography has given us many joys. Good melodies endowed with their characteristic mystique merge with moments of hard 70’s in line Jethro Tull or even Pink Floyd, with rural moments that collide with the multitude of unexpected turns in each song. The beauty of the guitar developments is another of the great endorsements of this wonderful farewell work in which the oriental fragrances that invade well-constructed themes are also found.