The Top 20 Albums of 2024 : 20 to 11

This year I have decided to expand what was once the Top 10 Albums of the Year to the Top 20. The Top 10  was a little limiting considering there are now 20 best-of-genre lists, so a Top 10 would leave off ten albums that captured the top spot for their respective genres.  In doing this it's expanded said list into two parts. This is the first part counting down from album 20 to 11.  These are the albums I listened to most. When you take into consideration the fact I listened to over 900 albums this year, it's impressive for these albums to have endured the influx of new music that hit My inbox every morning and made me want to hear them again and again. Yes, this is the culmination of all the other lists done up to this point for other blogs and was refined down to this master list of all genres.; So here ya go...

1-Iress -" Sleep Now, In Reverse" 

Taking the top spot is this beautiful wave of gloomy gazing from this  Los Angeles-based band.  It was a tough call between this album and Bleakheart, with the vocals of Michelle Malley being the tiebreaker as she delivers an emotionally stunning performance that creates a wonderful contrast to the storm clouds the band summons beneath her sublime melodies. The drumming gives this album a great deal of focused intention which in turn creates songwriting magic as they grow as songwriters. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/07/iress-sleep-now-in-reverse.html

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19-REZN - "Burden"

The new album from Chicago's Sonic Sorcerors found them expanding their minds and sound The dark groovin' drive that lurks as the heartbeat of this album, might not be metal, but it is aggressive enough to get the point across.  The plea of the vocals echoes out into the expansive place they have created here. It feels darker than the previous album, but darker in a more hazy moonlit manner. When it comes to making melancholy stoner rock that is heavy on the atmosphere this year these guys can not be beaten. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/rezn-burden.html

 

 18-Charli XCX -"BRAT" 

If you strip away the cultural marketing tactics that put her in the spotlight this year, she already has released an album of Strong Bangers, but she was not letting it just be a great album. It's the nature of the beast she is in the belly of, but that aside, these songs bump seriously, and I have been a fan of hers for some time now, so glad to see she is getting the recognition she deserves. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/charli-xcx-brat.html

17-Witnesses - "Joy" 

 Despite my preference for Kody Ternes as the vocalist, things changed, and  Bibby from Seventh Angel is handling the vocals this time around. He is more of a metal singer than Ternes, he does make melodic choices that think outside of the power metal box, some doom singers lean toward. His voice grew on me.  Not as dark as some of their previous work the album deals more with self -actualization. There is a highly emotive nature they invoke with the atmosphere. It is one of Greg Schwan's strengths as a songwriter. Things are very dynamic, with the vocals soaring above it all. They once again excelled, and if you are a doom fan who enjoys melody then this album is a must.  This band is onto something and it is one of the more original expressions of doom I have heard in a minute. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/november-is-doom-witnesses-joy.html

 

16-Crypt Sermon- "The Stygian Rose" 

Taking their  80s-flavored metal down its darker grittier path, not unlike Savatage or Metal Church, the songs benefit from more vocal colors going on this time around. The riffing carries more thrash, as they hit their stride as songwriters.  There are lots of tasteful guitar solos that relentlessly hit you with killer riffs. This album finds them coming into their own, and standing shoulder to shoulder with the albums these songs draw inspiration from.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/07/crypt-sermon-stygian-rose.html

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15-Planes Mistaken For Stars - "Do You Still Love Me ?" 

The late Gared O'Donnell recorded this album while undergoing Chemo, before succumbing to his chance at 44. They were always too gritty and real to break through to the mainstream. Their take on rock n roll still pounds the song into you. Unless you share in the inner darkness with which these songs were conceived you might not know what to make of the brooding. To my ears it's beautiful. Some brighter guitar tones on this album than in their previous work, it's clear he was ending things in a manner that still pushed their sound forward. Gared you are missed

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/planes-mistaken-for-stars-do-you-still.html

14-Chelsea Wolfe -"Unbound" 

 If She said the versions of these songs found on this EP were how they were originally written, before being re-mixed into what was presented on "She Reaches Out to, She Reaches Out to..." it would make perfect sense as this sounds more like who she is. This is emotionally powerful and feels like a true expression of who she is. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/chelsea-wolfe-unbound.html

 

13-Full of Hell-"Coagulated Bliss"

This album grew on me more than any other this year, partly due to catching these guys live where it all clicked. It's also a huge step of maturity in songwriting. From a production standpoint, it's more organic. They were not darker, but more punk than the sludge-tinged gnarliness that comprised their guitar tone on other albums. The guitarist claims that he learned how to serve the song during their sessions for the album with Nothing. Things here reflect that due to the fact it is angular and mathy, but not spastic. The vocals are more deliberate as well.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/full-of-hell-coagulated-bliss.html

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12-Death Killer -"Total Destruction of the Entire Universe" 

Here is the kind of industrial album I was waiting for. It is both pissed and heavy as hell with a fair dose of chaos in its veins. There is a great balance of instrumentation and programming/ electronic elements. It is not industrial music to dance to it is industrial music that is going to kick your face. Not unlike Ministry's "Filth Pig" album in that regard though this is heavier. It blasts at you like a jackhammer, as it sonically fucks your brains out right from the first song

 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/gothtober-death-killer.html

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11-Nails - "Every Bridge Burning" 

It's been 8 years since the last album from this California-based hard-core band. They are just as angry as they were on "You Will Never Be One of Us".  The grind-core influence on the band has them spitting out minute-and-a-half songs propelled by an unrelenting momentum. The faster moments that create a frenzied wall of sound are balanced out by the intentional songwriting masterstrokes delivered here, and find this album to be worth the wait and put the band on the top of the hard-core heap. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/nails-every-bridge-burning.html