The Top 20 Albums of 2024 : 10 to 1

 

This year I expanded what was once the Top 10 Albums of the Year to the Top 20. The Top 10  was limiting considering there are now 20 best-of-genre lists.  a Top 10 often left off ten albums that captured the top spot for their respective genres.  So we are continuing the countdown here in this second part to the top 10 albums  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...

10- Weston Super Maim- "See You Tomorrow Baby"

This band is out to crush you with their industrial-strength metal, possessed by chaotic outbursts of jarring mathematics like a grind-core version of Meshuggah. This album proves you can go to the extremes of heaviness while still having a huge sound. At times electronic sounds enter the fray. Impressive guitar work does not hinder the sheer weight this album hits you with while writing memorable songs. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/08/weston-super-maim-see-you-tomorrow-baby.html

 

 

 

9-O Zorn !- "Vermillion Haze" 

On the darker side of 90s grunge reviving, these guys kept the anthemic slant minimal, and instead cut themselves and allowed the songs to bleed from it. It is heavy with mood rather than hammering at you. This album took me by surprise and exceeded any hopes I had for it, It grew on me more than any other album becoming a staple of my weekly listening due to the honest melancholy that seeps from its pores. If you like grunge, but not the kind for jocks then this will be up your alley. Really can not sing its praises enough. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/03/o-zorn-vermillion-haze.html

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8-200 Stab Wounds - "Manual Manic Procedures" 

. Less than a year after the previous release, the guys have worked hard to perfect their craft, as this is more nuanced and dynamic songwriting. My only complaint about the first album was that it was so straightforward that there was little to separate it from veterans like Cannibal Corpses. Now they are really bringing it hard this time around. They give the oppressive pounding. Plenty of syncopated punches and little nuances make it clear that this operation is meticulous. Perfect blend of creepy melodic parts, and aggressive hooky riffs. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/death-is-june-200-stab-wounds-manual.html

 

             

7-DEHD - "Poetry" 

Over the years this band continued to grow on me until with this album everything clicked into pace. Their finely tuned garage pop is hookier than most pop on the radio. Some of the songs feel like long-lost classics from the early days of California garage rock, despite this band not being from California. At times this finds Beach Boys sounds colliding with the Velvet Underground. The hooks kept me listening which secured them at the top spot. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/dehd-poetry.html

  

6-Snow Strippers -"Night Killaz 2" 

Producer Graham Perez, and singer Tatiana Schwaninger. have totally killed it here, sonically it's almost like a cross between Charli XCX and Grimes, but on old-school techno drugs. This glitched-out more experimental take on electronica finds the emphasis is on the beats and soundscapes being woven here. Tatiana is not the greatest singer, but the secret to this album lies in how her voice is presented. She has her own charisma in her persona. An infectious listen that got as much playtime as faves like the Cure and Taylor Swift. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/snow-strippers-night-killaz-vol-2.html

 

 

5-Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - "Of the Last Human Being" 

When I place one of my favorite bands on the pedestal of what other bands should aspire to, said band must then meet these exalted expectations. If they are one of the best bands I have ever seen live then expectations are even higher. If they are coming back 17 years later, after you lived thinking their last album was the final chapter, then you can only hope for the best album ever. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum reopened in an attempt to make their best album yet. 2007's "In Glorious Times" is a perfect album, so they were wise not to take it head on but in a more mature step forward, emphasizing more of the chamber music side, while employing all the creepy dissonance they are known for. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/02/sleepytime-gorilla-museum-of-last-human.html

 

 

4- Crippling Alcoholism - "With Love From a Padded Room" 

This band beautifully captures a darkly honest misery. The singer's raspy voice makes you imagine what it might sound like if Tom Waits fronted Interpol. It took the top spot because the songs are uniquely engaging and this album can be played countless times without getting tired of it. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/crippling-alcoholism-with-love-from.html

 

3-Taylor Swift - "The Tortured Poets Department" 

She managed to beat Crippling Alcoholism, based on this album just being marginally more dynamic and a little hookier, as lyrically the two albums were neck and neck.  There is a reason she has a fantastical cult of fans. If we weigh her other albums again this one there might be more debate, but that is where she is as an artist, Swift only has her own work to measure things against. I think this is at least as strong as her more recent work.

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department.html

2-Glassing-"From the Other Side of the Mirror" 

 This band has 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 metal album of the year with the inner apocalypse they project outwardly. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/glassing-from-other-side-of-mirror.html

 

 

1-The Cure - "Songs Of a Lost World" 

It's no secret these guys are one of my favorite bands, but that means my expectations were higher. While Smith and friends claiming the top spot will not be a surprise to regular readers or people who know me, they earned this one.  This album sounds like they picked up where they left off on "Wish". Amazingly, they are still inspired to create something so perfect 14 albums later. 

https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-cure-songs-of-lost-world.html

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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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20-iRESS -

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

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