🎶 My favorite metal albums of 2024
How am I even supposed to choose?!
The amount of great metal this year has gone way beyond what I usually deal with. Well over 80 albums have been earmarked on my Spotify as AOTY material, and now I'm going to try to whittle that down to about a dozen or so.
As always, my lists aren't restricted to release year, but rather music I discovered that year. It's also unranked, cause I'm cool like that and I don't think one release is inherently better than another.
Enjoy!
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Kublai Khan TX - Exhibition Of Prowess
[2024, Hardcore / Groove Metal]
I mean, was there any doubt that this would end up on my list this year? This shit will make you feel like you're ten feet tall and carrying your balls around in a wheelbarrow. As I wrote in my recommendation earlier this year, "Suffice to say, it lived up to my expectations and then some. This might be the heaviest record I have ever heard, and I have heard a lot of heavy shit in my time."
This is not a technical masterpiece, it is not breaking new ground, and it is not a showcase of musicianship. But out of all the albums on the list, this is the most likely to instill serious stankface from the raw attitude and power of the music. My favorites on this one are Darwinism, Theory of Mind, Mud, and Low Tech.
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Disembodied Tyrant - The Poetic Edda
[2024, Symphonic Deathcore]
This might be the release that caught me the most by surprise. Symphonic deathcore is a bit of a meme at this point, and this is the only act that I feel gives it the power and ferocity that it needs to be interesting. Their use of strings (particularly violin) and choirs is much more in tune with how I feel these genres should play together. It sounds grandiose, it sounds aggressive, it sounds frantic. Really good shit.
My favorites are: The entire EP. Go listen!
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Nails - Every Bridge Burning
[2024, Power Violence]
This takes the award for the most ferocious album of the year. The chainsaw guitar tone combined with the blasting speed and snarling vocals makes for an absolutely relentless 17 minute ride. It barely gives you any time to breathe inbetween all the insanity, and I love it.
My favorite from this one is without a doubt Give Me The Painkiller, cause you might need one once you've involuntarily demolished your living room.
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High Desert Queen - Palm Reader
[2024, Stoner Metal]
This one was a blast to discover earlier this year. It's a pretty heavy record with slow, thundering stoner grooves. The songs take their time, there is a lot of playful guitar work, and the vocals are perfect for the genre. It also goes so hard in places I kind of forget what subgenre it is, and I love that about it.
Favorites are: Ancient Aliens, and Head Honcho.
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Cause N Effect - Validation Through Suffering
[2023, Technical Death Metal]
I had an immediate positive reaction to this record when I heard it in March. Tech Death is a genre that I find very likeable, and while my enjoyment of this was immediate, it didn't really work its way into AOTY territory until I learned that this is a solo project. After that, it was impossible not to put it on the list. It's hard, it's technical, it has groove, and dynamic songwriting. Everything you could want from a tech death record.
Unfortunately this artist is so obscure that it's even hard to search for their music on YouTube, so you're gonna have to go to Spotify to listen. It's worth it, I promise!
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Aborted - Vault of Horrors
[2024, Technical Deathcore]
One of the tightest releases of the year, chock full of impressive features and collabs. Not a single track that I find genuinely unenjoyable or uninteresting. Absolutely nuts from start to finish.
Absolute favorite track is probably The Shape of Hate because I just love the vocals from Oliver Rae Aleron of Archspire who features on the song.
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Gatecreeper - Dark Superstition
[2024, Melodic Death Metal]
There were quite a few contenders for best melodeath this year (you'll find a few of them in my honorable mentions), but this one came out on top for me. It has more groove, a fantastic guitar tone, memorable melodies and riffs, and maybe my most played melodeath song of the year in Dead Star. Their single off this album Caught In The Threads is also a banger.
If you were ever a fan of early In Flames this should be right up your alley.
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Striker - Ultrapower
[2024, Heavy / Glam Metal]
I mean, if you just want to listen to something fun, this is the record. It harkens back to the heydays of bands like Motley Crue, but with a youthful vigor and performance we haven't seen since those days. Hooks for days, catchy sing-a-long choruses and a healthy dose of self-awareness.
Favorites from this one are: Best of The Best of The Best, Sucks to Suck, and Ready For Anything.
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Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To
[2024, Hardcore]
The first EP I ever heard from this band would've been on my list for that year if I had made one, and now this full album is a proper standout among this year's releases. Yes, vocalist Bryan Garris is a point of contention for many but, while I do understand why, it's this author's humble opinion that his voice is pretty perfect for this particular style of music. A fierce, dark and explosive record with chugs and beats for days.
Check out Piece By Piece, Don't Reach For Me, and The Calm That Keeps You Awake!
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Exocrine - Legend
[2024, Progressive Technical Death Metal]
My favorite progressive metal record of the year, of course in part due to its sheer speed and technical wizardry. Exocrine are a very technically proficient metal band from France that have been on my radar for a long time, and I've enjoyed many of their previous releases. My only gripe with this particular record is that it can sound a bit muddled in the mix at times, but I know some of you metalheads out there actually prefer that so your mileage may vary.
In my opinion, the entire album is great, but check out Eidolon or the more progressive leaning The Oath to hear if this is for you.
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Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere
[2024, Progressive Death Metal]
I feel like everyone and their mother put this record on their lists this year, but it is not for nothing. A vast, epic, and dynamic album which can go from pensive ambient to death metal mastery in a matter of seconds. And it works!
An absolutely amazing album that demands a full listen from beginning to end. Consider it mandatory this year.
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Akhlys - House Of The Black Geminus
[2024, Cosmic / Atmospheric Black Metal]
A lot of good black metal this year, but this one rose to the top for me. It has a raw, grandiose sound that is quite unique. The musicianship is stellar (pun intended), and has a proper dark cosmic vibe all around, as this kind of music should have. I mean, the intro track The Mask Of Night-Speaking builds for four minutes before the vocals kick in. Highly immersive listen, highly recommended.
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Better Lovers - Highly Irresponsible
[2024, Mathcore]
Please take the genre tag with a grain of salt here, cause I'll admit I am having trouble defining this album.
That does not detract from the music though. This band is great! Snide lyrics, very dynamic in its variation, great melodic hooky choruses, and a great energy overall. You can tell that these guys are hungry and want to make their mark.
I'd start with A White Horse Covered In Blood and then check out the rest of the album if you dig it.
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General Fibrosis - Crossbreed Generation
[2024, Brutal Death Metal / Slam]
Okay, listen, it's pretty hard to convey to those that don't follow the scene just how massive this year was for Death Metal. Seriously. I feel like I'm just throwing a dart at a wall covered in album sleeves and each one is just as good as the other in their own way.
So, I'm going to be slightly cheeky and simply select one I enjoyed that I have seen pretty much no one talk about. This russian outfit has written a fucking brutal death metal record that still knows how to break up its songs and give some room for the listener to breathe once in a while. It sounds chunky as shit, has great growls, and great punchy production.
Also, look at that fucking album cover! It just screams Warhammer:40K. Side note: This makes for a pretty sick soundtrack while slicing through Tyranids in Space Marine 2! ;)
Check out the single Carnivore to see if this might be for you.
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Honorable mentions
I can't believe I've made it all the way here. Making this list was excruciating (in the best way, of course). Metal fans ate well this year for sure, and I'll tell you that the following mentions are still well worth checking out even if they didn't make the cut for my personal top spots.
Like I've said several times earlier, this was the year of Death Metal, and the honorable mentions will make that pretty clear.
In no particular order (Spotify links all the way down):
Brodequin - Harbinger of Woe [Brutal Death Metal]
Ripped To Shreds - Sanshi [Old School Death Metal]
Iotunn - Kinship [Progressive Death Metal]
Disparaged - Down The Heavens [Melodic Death Metal]
Atræ Bilis - Aumicide [Technical Death Metal]
Aara - Eiger [Atmospheric Black Metal]
Assemble the Chariots - Unyielding Night [Symphonic Deathcore]
200 Stab Wounds - Manual Manic Procedures [Death Metal]
Terminal Nation - Echoes Of The Devil's Den [Groove / Death Metal]
Korrosive - Katastrophic Creation [Thrash Metal]
High On Fire - Cometh The Storm [Sludge / Stoner Metal]
Make Them Suffer - Make Them Suffer [Metalcore]
Slope - Freak Dreams [Hard Funk Rock / Metal]
Beaten To Death - Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis [Grindcore]
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And that was it for this year!
Thank you for reading through to the end. I hope to be a bit more structured for 2025, writing more recommendations along the way, maybe even a monthly round-up of what I come across. We'll see how that pans out.
If you, for whatever reason, have the patience to sort through all the albums I had as AOTY contenders this year, you can find them in this Spotify playlist. Be aware, there's well over 800 tracks on there! 😮💨
As always, I hope you find something you liked. Let me know!
Peace! ✌️