The first thing I notice about the opening track to their new album is how the vocals have improved. More sung sections, along with harsh counterpoint. I also appreciate the darker tension lurking in the mood. Not as sludge-flavored as 20024's "Cool World" album, which took the number two spot on that year's Top 10 Sludge albums. Creepier than the Jesus Lizard but with a similar vibe. You can hear this on "Deep Blue," which falls somewhere between noise rock and grunge. They have always been great at capturing the color of feeling unhinged, and this album continues that tradition. They hammer at you harder as "Deep Blue" progresses, though I am reluctant to call this a metal album; however, I am only two songs in.
"Same Rules" is more introspective that what you might expect from them. I like the mood here, and just wnat good songs, as I am not invested in these guys being heavy; if this was the new Watain, then we might have a problem. They are growing at what they do here. "Pen is Mall" is more pounding, with the vocals stepping up into a more aggressive snarl. The thump of the bass brings back the ghost of nu-metal that has haunted this band before. The noise rock side can be heard in the angular, ugly nature of how they engage this anger. The theme of this album is how the decay of society is due to collective apathy, so this might be why it is less confrontational, though they roar pretty furiously on "Shrine".
"Oddly," there is almost a funky groove to the jangle of "Intruder", which is contrasted by the more explosive sections of the song. I like the lyrics that someone told him this house needs haunting. "Christabel 26" moves off a bass line that reminds me of Rollins Band. The howl of the vocals also works with this influence. The moredetached spoken vocals hold more in common with King Missile. There is also a depressed Nirvana feel to this one. The ugly angular noise throb continues on "Influence"; there is a similar tension as "Bleach" era Nirvana. This collides against the Jesus Lizard-like tension.
"Family Funeral" slows the pound down. There is a dissonance to it that falls much clsoer to the bounds of noise rock. A spoken vocal mutters under the burly bassline. The vocals build into a tortured question of where the fuck is he supposed to go. The last song has to sound creepy, as it is called "October All of the Time," which is how I feel this time of year.It is more of a grunge ballad. I will give this album a 10 as it deserves. If this is not the album that breaks them into an even larger audience, it might not be happening and they cango back to being indie darlings. Regardless, they are creepier and more melodic, showing a great deal of growth, making this their best effort yet.
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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
pst662
Let's face it this might be the last top ten list for this genre I get to make as the world could end at any moment these days. These are the bands that best celebrated the coming apocalypse as Sludge should. After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of the year. 2024. The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list; and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway here are the top 10 Sludge albums of 2024
10-Ufomammut- " Hidden"
Italian psych-progsters are back with a renewed thunder. This is their tenth album so they know what they are doing. It moves in a manner that is not the doom they self-identify as until it does slow into a more sludged-out trudge. The commanding vocals are more sung than howled, though often splitting the difference between the two. The band continues to excel.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/ufomammut-hidden.html
9-Swamp Coffin -"Drowning Glory"
This band from England approaches sludge with almost hard-core-like aggression as they stomp into the riffs, which is a great deal different from how the Southern-fired sludge of America, takes a more bong-broiled attitude towards it. Sludge is really what happens when punks try to play Doom. This theory is further nuanced when considering the differences between when it's tackled by crust punks vs hard-core kids who grew out of the scene. The hard-core leanings are more noticed when the pace picks up and it becomes sludge in guitar tone only. Even then there are a few riffs with more of a lumbering groove.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/swamp-coffin-drowning-glory.html
8-Autolith - "Artificial Heaven"
This Memphis-based band excels at creating a deliberate atmosphere they trudge with authority. Their strength as a band is the ability to recognize they can only effectively crush you by giving you the chance to catch your breath, rather than just a single-minded assault on your ear drums. The album washes you in their beautiful darkness.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/november-is-doom-autolith-artificial.html
7-Canopy - "Empty Light'
One of Atlanta's best-kept secrets has just unleashed a new EP that will elevate its status in the metal community. These guys are going above and beyond, as what kept me listening was not the screamed vocals or punchy sludge accents, but the way the chords rang out to create a sense of melancholy. Just being heavy for the sake of being heavy is an easy task, but pouring your pain and depression. These guys are solidly on the side of sludge, there is a penchant for post-rock guitar wandering to balance out their monolithic crunch with the breathing room needed to create a dynamic juxtaposition
Sludge fans should find themselves pretty content when this album roars to life. It takes you back to the early 2000s when bands like Isis were the newest most exciting force in metal. The hype around sludge has ebbed to the point bands are not self-identifying as that much these days. No matter what this band from Ohio tells you, they are not post-doom or doom gaze they are sludge. They should be proud as they are doing a fine job of it and bring a convincing level of atmosphere to these songs, that keeps them from sounding like the raw pound of cavemen.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/02/oldspeak-st.html
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/couch-slut-you-could-do-it-tonight.html
4-Inerth -"Hybris"
Meeting somewhere in the bleak wasted land where sludge intersects with death metal, this band from Spain pulls from a wider range of influences including post-punk and crust. There is a very natural feel to the production of this album that captures the sonic nature of what they do organically. More commanding in the overt sense than what Neurosis did they owe a little more to Sepultura. Though their songs are painted with a dystopian darkness rather than blood-red aggression.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/death-is-june-inerth-hybris.html
3-Sect-"Plagues Upon Plagues"
This band is comprised of who's who of post-millennial Hard-core. At the mic former Cursed vocalist Chris Colohan, who is giving an impassioned performance, with a husky croon that winks in the direction of Neurosis. His approach gives the dark tension of the music, more depth and makes more of an impact when it does get time to scream and kick the riffs driven by former Earth Crisis guitarist Scott Crouse. Darker and denser than the bounds metallic hard-core if what finds them lumped in here.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/sect-plagues-upon-plagues.html
2-Chat Pile - "Cool World"
Expectations are high for this one as 2022's "God's Country" made it to number six on the Top 10 Punk Albums of the Year list. This album feels a great deal angrier. Where every band always says this will be a heavier album than our last, these guys just delivered. They still care about songwriting, perhaps even more so, as the almost industrial sludge beatings give way to nuance. They fell short of bringing the kind of sonic darkness as the band who took the top spot this year, but should still be celebrated for the great album they delivered.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/chat-pile-cool-world.html
1-Glassing -"From the Other Side of the Mirror"
In 2021, this band earned the 7th spot on the overall metal top 10 for the year. They have a history of ruling, and it's not stopping. This album was darker and more melodic, giving me more of what I wanted from them. At times, the screamed vocals offset what might otherwise be creepy bass-driven shoegaze. They get feral and deface your eardrums with their tangible sense of anguish. Though none of this is contrived or thought out from a marketing perspective by a record label this is just where they are, perhaps even angrier than the previous album though there is a wide range of emotional colors being used here making them the best sludge album of the year with the inner apocalypse they project outwardly.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/glassing-from-other-side-of-mirror.html
pst582
Expectations are high for this one as 2022's "God's Country" made it to number six on the Top 10 Punk Albums of the Year list. This album feels a great deal angrier. Where every band always says this will be a heavier album than our last, these guys just delivered. They still care about songwriting, perhaps even more so, as the almost industrial sludge beatings the album starts with give way to a more nuanced take with "Shame". The vocals are once again varied ranging from detached spoken word to growls and screams of all kinds. There is also more of an attempt at singing. The drummer is certainly out for blood as he is beating the shit out of his kit.
A mean bass tone bares its teeth leading into "Frownland". The syncopation is more industrial in the thump. The vocals work off repetitious chants and desperate cries of anguish,. "Funny Man" is the first song that finds things going off into a quirky angular direction though this time it has the throbbing weight of sonic malice behind it. The repetition of vocal lines finds a solid groove in the lurking tension of "Camcorder". They do not do darkness in a post-punk manner, but like a deranged alcoholic who is making threatening calls to your house.
"Tape" finds an effective balance of all the unhinged elements they are throwing at you. The sonic sweeps of guitar color the background. "the New World" finds the band stomping at you with more raw primal chaos."Masc" clearly reflects how the band's songwriting has matured without sacrificing its edge. "Milk of Human Kindness' has more melodic elements to its introspection as the pound moves to a more undercurrent. It does build up into an angrier throb. If Captain Beefheart or Tom Waits ever made a metal album it might sound like "No Way Out". There is the feeling of being in a circus sideshow in the odd timing and eerie guitar lines. I will go ahead and round this up to a 10 as it's better than their previous album in that it packs a more defined punch thanks to the taunt songwriting.
9-Boris- "Heavy Rocks"
Another chapter in their "heavy rocks" series. It carries an explosive Stooges like barrages that gets more chaotic as it progresses, while still holding it together rock songs. This band has been around for 30 years so know what they are doing, though they have covered a great deal of ground over the course of their career. Sometimes there is a screamo tinge to the more emotive vocals. The oddest production jobs in terms of where the instruments sit. More raw and punk flavored than what the Melvins do, but on the less metal side of where the Melvins sit sonically. Boris has dabbled in metal before, that is just not what is happening here. The focus is on high energy and up-tempo songs.
8-Spice- "Viv"
If I had to sum up this band in an elevator pitch it would be if you mixed the Pixies with the aggression of a 90s post-hardcore band. Sometimes there is more jangle, they flirt with more traditional styles of punk, often leaning into a darker more Jesus and the Mary Chain like post-punk flavor. The album has an impressive range of dynamics, summoning a great deal of energy when they kick on the gas and pick up the intensity, with plenty of attitude to spare.
7-Dead Cross- "II"
The darkest and heaviest of Mike Patton's many projects. I appreciate the dissonance of what they are doing. Where Patton's singing on 'the Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny" was more metal in its intentions, that is only a fraction of what is going on here. Justin Pearson from the Locust feels to have more influence on this album when it comes to the more noise punk direction. ". Things remain sonically dense even when being kicked in a more punk direction. It is however the darker atmospheric passages that bring the spastic punk ones into the needed balance.
Abysmal Hymns: Dead Cross :"II"
6-Chat Pile- "God's Country"
Perhaps these guys were once a grind band, but they smoked enough weeds to weird out the anger and turn it sideways. This instead turned them to the dark side. These dark vibes kept me returning to this album. Punk rock that takes an angular lumber that turns to sludged out noise rock, but the spoken vocals ranting about homelessness, I normal do not like political or social topics that are not infused with a message of nihilism and hopelessness. But this somehow works for me due to the unhinged screamed manner they are delivered on this crazy album.
5-Cancer Bats -"Psychic Jailbreak"
2-High Vis - "Blending"
Perhaps these guys were once a grind band, but they smoked enough weeds to weird out the anger and turn it sideways. This instead turned them to the dark side. I was so pleased about the dark vibes pervading what they do that I decided to keep listening after the first song and give this album a shot. Angular lumber of "Why" might create the mood of sludged out noise rock, but the spoken vocals that rant about homelessness, I normal do not like political or social topics that are not infused with a message of nihilism and hopelessness. But this somehow works for me due to the unhinged screamed manner they are delivered. "Pamela" is not the first song where I have detected a touch of post-punk influence. Here the guitar riff that opens the song shines a spotlight on that fact. The bleak vocals still offer a narrative that brings absurdist 90s alternative band King Missile to mind. The dissonant heaviness the guitar turns to is very nice.
"Wicked Puppet Dance" is driven by a more metallic momentum. The vocal work against the guitar with more of a roar. It is a similar approach to many of the more abrasive industrial bands of the 90s. The guitars have a more melodic feel on "Anytime" like the Pixies if they were a metal band. I am fine with lyrics about the world collapsing, just the kind of themes I gravitate to. The moments of reflection on this song give the album a wider range of dynamics even if the vocals are the most consistent part of their sound here. Nu-metal had been listed in the [press release for the sounds this band draw from and I did not hear until we got to the pounding of "Tropical Beaches Inc". But thankfully this goes down in a manner that requires minimal Addidas. "The Mask " beats you wil a similar throb though there is less of the Korn bounce to it.
"I Don't Care if I Burn" is more of as spoken word interlude than a song. They return to the kind of burly stomping grooves that propels this album with "Grimace Smoking Weed". It's a bizarre haunting ode to the purple shake monster. The narrative of the lyrics suggest Grimace is a demon that drives him to the point of wanting to kill himself. Man, weed in Oklahoma City is impressive. I will give this one a 9..5, it's a very intense and emotional journey that is heavy in perhaps not the most conventional ways.
