Hard to believe its been almost a full year since I posted anything at all on this blog. I have no excuses except that other things took priority in 2024. What remained a priority though was consuming as much new metal music as time allowed. What you’ll find here is the first half of our annual Top 40 Metal Albums list. I won’t even begin to pretend that I listened to enough new music to ever call this a “best of” list. But what you will find are my favorite albums of the year in some sort of descending order (mostly based on how often I revisited each record, songs or moments on each that stuck with me, etc.).
As always, I hope you find something new that you love (and if you do go buy the record and support the band). Feel free to leave your favorite albums from 2024 in the comments. On to the list…
40. Goat Major – Ritual
2024 turned out to be a great year for stoner rock/doom in my humble opinion. From legacy bands returning to top form to relative newcomers lighting it up, I honestly felt this was the strongest year for all things “stoner” in quite some time. One of those relative newcomers who really impressed me was the UK’s Goat Major. Taking a fuzzy page from acts like fellow Brits Electric Wizard, Goat Major combined some seriously catchy hooks with a heavy as bricks doom aesthetic. One of the better debut full-length albums of 2024.
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/ritual
39. Vaticinal Rites – Cascading Memories of Immortality
Like our previous entry Vaticinal Rites is also from the UK and also dropped their debut full-length album in 2024. The comparisons stop there. Worshiping at the altar of classic, old school death metal, Vaticinal Rites hearken back to a time when the genre was new and exciting for all of us, while adding their own unique spin. Its not the most atmospheric death metal album you’ll hear this year, and it’s not the heaviest one I’ve heard either, but it’s absolutely one of the most technically proficient and delivers multiple tracks that are worth immediate repeat listens.
https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com/album/cascading-memories-of-immortality
38. Void Witch – Horripilating Presence
Yet another band who delivered a stellar debut full-length this year (and label mates of our previous entry) is Texas death/doom outfit Void Witch. Labeling this album as simply death/doom almost does it a disservice. This band dives deeper into the atmospheric and technical death metal pools more often, and with better results, than many of their brethren. The end result is one of the more innovative death/doom albums I’ve heard in quite some time, and one that offers continued nuance upon every listen.
https://everlastingspew.bandcamp.com/album/horripilating-presence
37. Avmakt – Satanic Inversion Of….
2024 also wound up being a great year for the black metal genre as well. While some killer legacy acts like Darkthrone and Borknagar were still putting out quality material it really felt like a passing of the guard to me this year. There was a crop of bands that started truly claiming their rightful place at the top of the black metal food chain (especially here in North America), and peppered into that was another crop of bands dropping debut albums that blew my doors off. Norway’s Avmakt was one of the latter, unleashing an absolutely frost-inducing debut during the heat of the summer. Drawing direct influence from their home country’s storied second wave of black metal, Avmakt emphatically drove their flag into scorched earth, claiming their piece of black metal territory. One of a handful of albums that are perfect to curl up with on those frosty winter nights.
https://peaceville.bandcamp.com/album/satanic-inversion-of
36. Nekus – Death Apophenia
This is the second year in a row that German death/doom merchants Nekus dropped a record I spent a lot of time with. While last year’s release barely missed the cut for 2023’s version of this list. Death Apophenia was too damned good too make the mistake of leaving them off a second time. Drenched in absolutely ghoulish atmospherics this album constantly sounds like some ancient beast awakening and emerging from some deep cavernous hole…and its really pissed off. Sheer brutality abounds on this record. Not for the faint of heart.
https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/sepulchral-divination
35. Ploughshare – Second Wound
Hat tip to Starkweather vocalist Rennie Resmini for turning me on to the third album from Australia’s Ploughshare. (PSA: You should follow all the Starkweather social media and Rennie’s Substack page for killer music recommendations.) This is another album that when I sit down for re-listens I find all these musical Easter eggs I somehow missed the last time out. Bass lines that occasionally sound like something out of a David Lynch film? Check. Guitar work that flies up and down the fret board hitting notes you’re just not expecting? Check. Tortured vocals that perfectly add to the overall dank atmosphere? Check. Technical, atmospheric, blackened death metal at its finest.
https://ploughshare.bandcamp.com/album/second-wound
34. Ulvik – Last Rites | Dire Omens
I mentioned earlier that there are some black metal bands here in North America that have been around the block a couple times, but in 2024 really started to flex their muscle as one of the better bands operating in the genre today. Canada’s Ulvik fit that description. Last Rites| Dire Omens is the band’s fourth full length album, and you’d be hard-pressed in convincing me it wasn’t their best yet. Part of my reasoning is it may also be their heaviest album yet. While dark/neo-folk elements still abound, the entire tone of this album feels weightier and gloomier than previous efforts. While a lot of black metal albums with folk elements give you the feeling of being transported to some mystical forest, this album makes you feel like you’re trapped there, the sun has already climbed below the treeline, and danger looms in the shadows. A truly engaging album from start to finish.
https://ulvik.bandcamp.com/album/last-rites-dire-omens
33. Deadform – Entrenched In Hell
What I love about good sludge/crust punk is that it is often able to take some of my favorite elements from both punk and metal and blends them into this brutally heavy concoction. Enter the debut from Oakland’s Deadform. Made up of former members of some truly trendsetting acts, including Dystopia, Stormcrow, Laudanum, and Noothgrush, Deadform delivered by far one of the best crust/sludge albums of the year. Unafraid to toss in the occasional catchy hook amidst the brutality this was one album that I could picture the pits getting really active for at shows held in some holed out squat on the ‘wrong side of the tracks’. (I’ve been to too many of those shows to count in my time…) Get ready to circle pit in your living room to this beast.
https://tankcrimes.bandcamp.com/album/entrenched-in-hell
32. Sidewinder – Talons
Remember earlier when I was talking about how I thought 2024 was a great year for stoner rock/doom? Well, one of the better albums of the lot came from New Zealand’s Sidewinder. Possibly no other stoner album this year did a better job cascading from thunderous cacophony to more melodic elements, and then swimming back up stream with Sabbath-like precision than this one. Vocalist Jem Tupe delivered one of my favorite vocal performances of 2024 that fell along the doom/stoner pantheon, and the riffs on this album will stick with you long after the record stops spinning.
https://sidewindernz.bandcamp.com/album/talons-album
31. Crypt Sermon – The Stygian Rose
One of my most anticipated albums of 2024 was the new long player from trad/doom warriors Crypt Sermon. I’ve been a huge fan of this band since their 2015 debut and five years seemed like an eternity as we waited for album #3 to finally drop. (Especially with everything that transpired over those five years.) Needless to say, this album was well worth the wait. While I felt the first two albums leaned slightly more towards their trad metal influences, this album tends to skew slightly more towards their doom side, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Highly recommended for fans of acts like Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus.
https://cryptsermon.bandcamp.com/album/the-stygian-rose
30. The Gates of Slumber – The Gates of Slumber
After their split in 2013 and the untimely death of bass player Jason McCash I honestly never thought we’d get another The Gates of Slumber album. Even after their reunion in 2019 and live album in 2020 I was still doubtful we’d get new material. Joke’s on me because The Gates of Slumber dropped one of the best doom metal albums of the year last month. I honestly wish this record had come out earlier in the year so I could have spent more time with it because it’s one of their strongest efforts to date, which if you are familiar at all with their exceptional back catalogue you know that’s saying something. A worthy addition to a growing doom legacy.
https://thegatesofslumber.bandcamp.com/album/the-gates-of-slumber
29. Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia
I’ve been a fan of Chicago’s Immortal Bird since their debut EP back in 2013, and their newest full-length album was another one of my most anticipated albums of 2024. Deftly mixing death and black metal with crusty and sludgy aesthetics, Immortal Bird’s sound is sometimes hard to quantify (which is certainly not a bad thing). What you can unequivocally say is that this is a fierce record that is completely unrelenting in its overall aggression from note one. Fans of all the aforementioned genres will find a lot to grasp here, and even more to hold their interest on repeat listens.
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/sin-querencia
28. Blighted Eye – Agony’s Bespoke
I love when a band is nowhere on my radar at the beginning of the year, yet by the end of the year I’m singing their praises to as many people as will listen. This year that crown may fall to Seattle’s Blighted Eye. Agony’s Bespoke will go down as one of my favorite debut albums in 2024 because it took a genre that I felt had grown somewhat stale (in this case melodic death metal) and infused it with new and interesting concepts. There are prog and technical elements here that collide with more doom-laden passages, all of which will keep you guessing. It will also keeping you wondering how a band so technically proficient and so good at what they do flew under your radar for so long. (Note: I also highly recommend the 2018 film The Nightingale this album’s lyrics are based on.)
https://beyondthetoprecords.bandcamp.com/album/agonys-bespoke
27. Laceration – I Erode
A lot of bands have tried to capture the essence of old school death metal over the last few years with varying degrees of success. Truthfully most of them have failed miserably. But California’s Laceration are the exception to what is fast becoming an unfortunate rule. Few recent albums can hearken back to death metal’s golden age of the early to mid ’90s while keeping one foot planted in the genre’s burgeoning future the way this one has. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons online to bands like Immolation, Suffocation, and various eras of Death. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with any of those comparisons, but I also wouldn’t get lost in the sauce the fact that above all else Laceration sounds like…Laceration. And that’s arguably the biggest compliment you can give a band these days.
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/i-erode
26. Vircolac – Veneration
In 2019 Ireland’s Vircolac came out of nowhere to crack my Top 40 list that year. I wasn’t going to be caught off guard again when it came to this band. Released back in February, Veneration was one of the first truly fantastic albums of 2024 and one of the first that I spent an exorbitant amount of time with. Vircolac’s brand of blackened death metal melds ample melody with sheer brutality to create an album that is heavy on atmospherics. The album starts with a stirring neofolk intro, complete with chilling vocals from Irish singer Sarah McQuillan. It’s an unexpected tone-setter that let’s you know this band is not above stretching the boundaries of what blackened death metal can be. A highly entertaining album from one of the extreme metal world’s most underrated bands.
https://vircolac.bandcamp.com/album/veneration
25. Coffins – Sinister Oath
Sometimes a band gets into the practice room or studio and says, ‘we’re just going to write the heaviest shit we can’, and it works. Japan’s Coffins has been slinging sludgy, nasty, doom-infused death metal for a couple decades now, and with each record they seem to up the ante on how crushingly heavy their music can get. If you are looking for tech death where guitarists are trying to cram as many notes as humanly possible into a song or some type of post-metal/death metal hybrid, this probably isn’t for you. This is death metal as the old guard designed it and Coffins continues to perfect it.
https://coffins.bandcamp.com/album/sinister-oath
24. Funeral Leech – The Illusion of Time
New York has a pretty long and storied history with death metal so when I say that Funeral Leech is possibly the best death metal band to come out of New York in the last few years don’t take it as hyperbole. Existing in the darkened corner of the metal landscape where death and doom metal often meet to create an unholy alliance, Funeral Leech dropped their debut record in 2020 and immediately jumped towards the top of my personal death metal hierarchy. Two albums, two trips into the top 25 of my year-end list. The Illusion of Time is a bit more focused and leans harder into their doom aspects than their previous release, but the brutality factor that made them so appealing to begin with has not been lost at all. (Fun side note: Saw a dude in a Funeral Leech shirt at an event I was running in October and it was easily the best “nice shirt” moment of 2024.)
https://funeralleech.bandcamp.com/album/the-illusion-of-time
23. Vanhelgd – Atropos Doctrina
Ever since 2016’s Temple of Phobos album (which was their 4th full-length) Vanhelgd has been a band I’ve kept my eye on, patiently awaiting new material and happily devouring it upon release. The wait was longer than usual this time around as its been six years since their last release. But like some many great albums we had to wait for in the ‘time of the great plague’, it was worth it in the end. Vanhelgd have the innate ability to sound completely unhinged, yet entirely in control all at the same time, and this album is no different. There are melodic Swedish elements on this record that give it a semblance of accessibility, only for them them be buried under blackened cacophony within a few notes notice. Another strong outing for one of death metal’s most underrated acts.
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/atropos-doctrina
22. Necrot – Lifeles Birth
I was first introduced to Oakland’s Necrot in 2016 when Tankcrimes released a compilation record culling together their demo material. If you didn’t know any better you would have thought that album was a compilation of some long lost band from death metal’s ’90s heyday. Fast forward eight years and now three proper full-length albums later and Necrot is still perfectly carrying the OSDM flag into battle. As a whole album I’m not sure yet where I’d place this album in a Necrot ranking, but I do feel it has all of the most memorable moments/songs if that makes any sense. Tracks like “Drill The Skull” and “Winds of Hell” will keep you coming back and again and again like a true glutton for aural punishment.
https://necrot.bandcamp.com/album/lifeless-birth
21. Spectral Voice – Sparagmos
At some point we’re all going to be talking about how Denver, Colorado changed the face of the extreme music landscape, right? (I mean, my #1 album from last year was from Denver’s Wayfarer so I’m on board I guess.) While one of Denver’s most acclaimed bands, Blood Incantation was catching shit from metal purists about their unique brand of death metal being a little too unique, three of their members helped unleash one of the best death/doom albums, not only of the year but possibly the decade back in February. I can remember the first time I sat down with Sparagmos from Spectral Voice and immediately thinking it would wind up somewhere on my year-end list. It was the perfect album to help guide me through the bleak winter doldrums, a cathartic 45-minute journey that stuck with me longer and harder than I could have ever been expecting it to.
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sparagmos
The Metal Dad 