The Editors Picks: The best releases of 2020 (July-December) 13.03.21 | Alex Sievers Svalbard – ‘When I Die, Will I Get Better?’ Having a powerful opener is sometimes all you need. And few opening songs in 2020 come as powerful as ‘ Open Wound‘ kicking off Svalbard’s third album. What is overall a familiar, expected and perhaps unadventurous record for this U.K. band still cannot hope to diminish what a solid offering it was. Following an esteemed style of melodic hardcore, shoegaze, black metal and post-metal in the same school of thought as bands like Envy, Oathbreaker, and Alcest, it’s a fucking consistent listen. Generating some of their best songs to date. It’s an impassioned album that can be read as either being about feeling like death might cure one’s own mental anguish; individuals – artists, actors, musicians, celebrities, politicians, your mate down the road – getting placed upon tall golden pedestals once they shuffle off this mortal coil; or the idea of an afterlife awaiting you if you can tick the arbitrary moral boxes assigned by your respective house of worship. No matter how you view it,