It’s the penultimate month of 2024 and the last installment of Record(s) o’ the Month for this trip around the Sun. We had some good times, didn’t we? Remember when we got some of these pieces posted on time? Yeah, that was great. Remember when you all agreed with our choices? I don’t, but I’m getting on in years and my mind isn’t what it once was. Anyway, it’s been a blast and I can’t wait to restart the vicious cycle in 2025. Onward.
Opeth is a fascinating band in the trajectory of metal because it’s difficult to say that there are other bands who have quite done what these Swedish legends have done. Throughout Opeth’s long and storied career, this legendary outfit has shown itself to be unafraid of change—but also pretty good at it. The Last Will and Testament (out November 22nd, 2024 from Reigning Phoenix Music/Moderbolaget) is remarkable in that it is an extension of the style that Opeth has been building toward since 2011’s much-maligned Heritage, yet it once again has recreated the band’s sound. And while The Last Will and Testament has been sold as Opeth returning to its roots, I disagree. Opeth in 2024 is writing songs that do not resemble the Oldepeth we all fell in love with and yet sound like no one but Opeth. The songs are contained, the concept is methodical, the lyrics are intentional and considered, and the sound is unrelentingly jazzy. Suppose there’s a knock on this album. In that case, it’s that the tendency towards abstraction and unresolved chord progressions can at times make the writing feel like it wanders or suffers from the same kind of unmemorability affliction as Wintersun’s latest. Yet unlike Finland’s most persistent vaporware developer, Opeth delivers. And The Last Will and Testament is something unique, well-crafted, and impactful. With a kind of surgical joy, El Cuervo concurred in his excellent review: “The Last Will and Testament doesn’t yield any weaknesses. On their fourteenth go-round, Opeth has once more delivered something exemplary in conception, performance, and production.” And honestly, if Opeth has reached the overwrought rock opera concept album stage of their career, I am fucking here for it.
Runner(s) Up:
Fellowship // The Skies Above Eternity [November 22nd, 2024 | Scarlet Records | Bandcamp] — England’s Fellowship put all the Fromage back into Europower and then some. 2022’s The Sabrelight Chronicles was dripping with saccharine leads, uplifting choruses, and it oozed more positivity than a week-long Tony Robbins retreat.1 It scored a rare perfect rating here and fans of cheesecore rejoiced the world over. They followed that triumph up with more of the same on The Skies Above Eternity, serving up the joyous, happy times pop-infected power candy that Helloweenies crave and the world deserves. The Skies Above Eternity is packed with songs forged to stick in the brain giving the world a rosy tint. As a fanboying Eldritch gushed, “This record doesn’t just confirm that Fellowship’s initial success was anything but a fluke; it assures me that they both understand and have preserved what made them so special in the first place.” Europower is as Europower does.
Stenched // Purulence Gushing from the Coffin [November 26th, 2024 | Me Saco Un Ojo Records | Bandcamp] — As the name suggests, Stenched plays ugly, reeking death metal of the foulest order. A one-man project from Mexico, Stenched delivers all the oozing, cavernous, sub-basement gut swill anyone could want and even offers the added bonus of well-written, interesting songs. Yes, it’s pure filth and as grotesque as possible but Purulence Gushing from the Coffin has that “it” factor that keeps you coming back for another dip in the scum pond against doctor’s orders.2 As a shocked and appalled Steel gasped, “Purulence Gushing from the Coffin is Plato’s ideal form of a death metal album, and Steel is with that old toga-wearing bastard on this one. It combines everything I love dearly about Incantation, Carcass, Demilich, and Chthe’ilist into one savory mouthful, and brother, it is toothsome!” Go smell what Stenched is cooking.
The post Record(s) o’ the Month – November 2024 appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.
