' Top 10 Metal Albums of 2024 of the Music Press

To compile this data, I went through every big music website that has a top ten metal album list along with all the writer's lists from various websites to find who my peers in music journalists thought were the top 10 metal albums of 2024, so this compiles lists, from Stereogum, Metal Sucks, Rolling Stone, Revolver, No Clean Singing, Ghost Cult, Treblezine, Pop Matters, Metal Injection, Angry Metal Guy, Loudwire, Decibel,, Lambgoat and more.  

Only a few surprises, the top 5 should be expected if you see what albums are getting the most buzz and hype. I think the number one album is perhaps the most overhyped of the bunch, but it also won by the hugest margin, I think most of these albums were safe bets, by artists who do not push societies buttons making them pretty tame, which is not really what metal is about, it's a very controlled danger, is the overall tone of this list with a few exceptions to this rule

10-Couch Slut - "You Could Do it Tonight" 

This was a surprise as it's a great album that rides the line between noise-rock and sludge. It's dark and lyrically interesting, glad that it is getting recognition. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/couch-slut-you-could-do-it-tonight.html

9-Wormed - "Omegon" 

I heard this album and thought I would rather listen to the new Benighted. But impressed this once got so many mentions. 

8-Job For a Cowboy - "Moon Healer" 

Well-made, but I would rather listen to Carcass when it comes to this sort of thing. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/01/job-for-cowboy-moon-healer.html

7-Caligula's Horse - "Charcoal Grace" 

Was not impressed enough by the songs I heard from this one to review the whole album. It's more for the kinda kids who listen to Devin Townsend and proggy rock and get their over-produced guitar tones painted up like a metal band without actually being, one, they are talented enough players, this one just bored me. Not dark enough. 

6-Replicant-"Infinite Mortality' 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/replicant-infinite-mortality.html

5-Crypt Sermon- "The Stygian Rose" 

Falling at the intersection where thrash, power metal and doom meet, this takes the best melodic elements from bands like Metal Church and takes them to work. The best album on this list. 

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

4-Ulcerate - "Cutting the Throat of God' 

This album is good, and I am surprised it got so much recognition. It did not make my top 10 death metal albums as there were just more death metal albums that were better. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/ulcerate-cutting-throat-of-god.html

3-Chat Pile-"Cool World' 

This is one of the best sludge albums of the year. It's more accessible than a Neurosis album, and these guys are pretty clever so it's not surprising this album proved to be the one that broke them through to the metal mainstream. 

 https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/chat-pile-cool-world.html

2-Opeth-"The Last Will and Testament' 

They made number two on my prog-list. There is more of a metal touch to things, since he brings back the growl, and these are well-written songs so this is one of the few album's on here that warrants the hype. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/opeth-last-will-testament.html

1- Blood Incantation - "Absolute Elsewhere" 

This one won everyone over by a pretty huge margin. I was basically an honorable mention on my top 10 prog albums of the year. It's good, but not the best, however, the band has been a hipster favorite when it comes to death metal since they have mustaches and look like they work at a brewery rather than the bullet belt norm of the genre. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/blood-incantation-absolute-elsewhere.html

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Ulcerate : "Cutting the Throat of God"

If you like dark and dissonant death metal I would assume this band from New Zealand doesn't need an introduction. They perfected their art form back in 2011 with "Destroyers of All", now with album seven, they are refining how melody works within their songwriting process. Does it sacrifice brutality? It depends on what you want from Death Metal. If you are looking for just a straightforward pounding, well Deicide just put out a new album. Not to say there are no moments of blasting, they are just used as a tool and not the primary function of the songs. In the broadest sense of the word, they are a tech death band, which is a term I normally do not like, as it means masturbatory time changes and excessive solos. There is a technical nature to how these compositions are assembled, but the math of it is different from what makes these songs. 

Things do get obscured in the blur of bludgeoning riffs that is "Further Opening the Wounds" so the band is not totally against the concept of being heavy for the sake of being heavy. "Transfiguration In and Out of  Worlds" finds the atmosphere creating more space that gives the illusion the song is more melodic than it is, though it sonically does not conform to the path most death metal follows. This is one of their strengths as a band. "To See Death Just Once" is dissonant as expected, but lumbers along the bounds of death metal that is not uncommon for these guys, perhaps even more so when the tempo picks up as more technical embellishments haunt the song. The blasting against the angular passages is not as compelling as what the album has already laid out before us. I prefer the mood created when the song breaks down five minutes in.  

"Undying as an Apparition" sounds like the title suggests. It feels like a ghost is haunting a normal death metal band. The song starts off like most death metal these days a storm of double bass and jagged guitar then gradually the haunting eerie touches of sonic nuance begin to take things for a darker turn. The title track closes the album with a throb that is more spectral than say Morbid Angel's but does not take as many chances as we heard earlier in the album. I will give this album a 9, the third act is more straightforward death metal, but they do offer more melodic experimentation this time around.Comes out June 14th on Debemur Morti Productions.  

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Ulcerate : "Stare Into Death and Be Still"

The New Zealand death metal band's 6th album really finds them making the most of what works best . They have their sound dialed in. It has enough different elements to please most fans of death metal. They are atmospheric without having to relent on the heaviness. They are dissonant without forsaking melody. The have a low classic death metal growl that digs into the darkness of a subterranean depth. The have a punishing enough assaults' coming from the drums to please those who look for brutality when it comes to their death metal. That is if they are not wanting something to slam them in the face like Suffocation does. There are blast beats , but this does not owe anything to black metal. To just be a death metal band in 2020 says something about the dedication to ones craft , as doom and black metal influences have run rampant on the genre since the last album these guys released.

These guys are not what I think of as technical death metal, though their compositions are intricate. "Exhale the Ash" finds them weaving some melody into the angular jerk back into the faster sections. There is a certain uniformity to their sound that carries over from the first song. At a minute and a half into the song they give it the breathing room it needs for it to stand on it's own two legs. Death metal drummers have to be good, so it's expected, but this album once again finds their drummer going beyond the call of duty. There is a little bit of swing to the title track. It is not just a full frontal ponding which is a wise choice as it was already beginning to numb me out and we are only on the third song. This reprieve only last for the first two minutes then they pummel you for three minutes before you get anohter breather . They do make the second half of the song more interesting. " There is No Horizon" gives a better picture of how their songwriting has matured. Only three of the 8 songs find them passing the 8 minute mark. So they do not get over indulgent and jam things out. In fact I have not heard an actual guitar solo yet. If there was one it got buried in the barrage.

Up until the vocals come in they use restraint on "Inversion". After that it's back to heavy as normal. Dynamically this album could use more moments like the beginning of "Visceral Ends". I am surprised they held back as long as they did to crunch down. There is a simple palm muted chug that runs through the middle of the song that proves less can be more. The beating they give you the first 3 minutes of "Drawn into the Next Void" doesn't feel as fresh as the atmospheric section that follows it. By the last song things have kind of blended into a blur of distortion and double bass with some angular melody rining out over it. I will give this album an 8, mainly because the songs can become a blur and uiniform in sound. It is not their best album, but they have grown as a band into a very concise machine. Fans of this band should not be disappointed. This album is being released April 24th on Debemur Morti .

Ulcerate : "Shrines of Paralysis"

They are back to a denser sound more in line with their best album to date "Destroyers of All". But does this one measure up to the 2011 album? I know these guys can write song so the murky mush of riffs they sling at me on the second song is not as impressive. Things do not improve much on "There Are No Saviors" except for the atmospheric break down mid way into the song. The drumming on this section is more impressive than when they are just throwing you up against a wall of double bass. The title track is the first song that has melody and more depth in the feelings it conveys. If the band is capable of writing this then they are more capable in just dialing in the faster more typical death metal songs.

While "Chasm of Fire" is not as strong as the title track it's still an improvement over the first few songs, though a formula is firmly in place where they rang until midway into the song then go for a moody break down. If you are going to do some hammering into your brain death metal then "Extinguished Light" would be the way to do it. The album closes with "End the Hope". With it's more deliberate and dissonant pound it shows hope until blasting off into chaotic non-sense.

The bar is raised high for these guys because we have heard what they are capable of. If you are easily impressed by sheer heaviness and formulaic song writing then this album might wow you. I'll give it a 6.5 because it certainly has it's moments and these guys are skilled at their instruments I would like to hear more heart in the writing and not making the atmosphere an obligatory section that comes right when the clock hits the half way mark. This drops October 28th on Relapse, I am little under whelmed, but some of you sheeple with gobble this like turkeys.

Ulcerate: "Vermis"

The New Zealand band  has come back with an  album  even darker and denser than 2011's  "Destroyers of All" It opens with a slow sludge laden drone before it bust into the more angular death metal that they are known for on the title track.

They cleared up the problem I have with the production on "Destroyers of All" which was the drums sounded so thin I wondered if they were a drum machine. They have more bass behind them and way up in the mix , which for this band is important because the insane drumming is this bands strong point.

It does however only take me til the third song to begin to get bored with the monotone growl of the vocals. The guitars do have a knack for the eerie , though their remains a certain dissonance to them that leers away from being melodic.

The band does get a lot of credit for being technical death that doesn't get hung up on the technique and devolve into wanking. "Clutching Revulsion" is so dissonant it reminds mea little of Blut Aus Nord. While they are no black metal, I'm sure fans of Deathspell Omega will also appreciate what these guys put into their craft. On "Weight of Emptiness" they use a similar color to paint this bleak bludgeoning, though they creep into the song rather than kick in the door roaring, almost to the point of dragging as the song doesn't come to life properly until the two minute mark. They defy traditional compositional structure as they are not worried with things like hooks or choruses. The catchiest riff might be to "Confronting Entropy".

 Despite it's heaviness I find this becomes a wall of white noise at times I can simply zone out to and let coat the background with its thickness while I work. Not the face peeling affair that keep you locked in a head bang. I think this is because the technical aspects of what they do works like jazz. Theres space where they are given each other to dance around in their own worlds rather than becoming one relentless machine that congeals into the riff and slaps you with it. The playing is impressive but the song writing is back to a collection of cool dark grinding sounds happening but not always making a connection.

The pace slows to a doomier dirge with a furious under current of double bass they slowly forces the rest of the song to build momentum on " The Imperious Weak" that see the band following up for more of a one two combination than they have previously on this album. This sis where the brutality your standard fan of death metal will be looking for. "Cessation" works on a similar formula. It might be a few pounds heavier on the ears. The growl on all the songs follow the same pattern while every thing else take the ebb and flow with erratic bursts and blast jumping out at you. By the end of this song there is no denying its heavy even when it breaks down into the cleaner guitar at the last minute and thirty.

The album closes with "Await Rescission" . Like the songs before it they don't change the script to much and keep all the ingredients they have been choking you with up to this point. While the sounds on this album are perfected I think the songwriting was more dialed in on "Destroyers of All". These guys are great players and talented at the game they have mastered , but it boils down in the end to songs. There are some cool dynamic dips into the gray waters of their more sullen sections but I don't feel there is anything really being said through the music than just a heavy soundscape. If you are a fan of heavy and dark music that ultimately just drives in circles then this might be for you, it well executed but lazy song writing relying to it's heaviness alone so I'll give it a 7.5.






6.7