You hear about Listurnalia, but you never think it will happen to you. Well, here it comes and you aren’t the least bit ready for it! Starting the 2024 cavalcade of poor choices and deeply regrettable life decisions, we present the AMG staff picks. They’ve carefully assembled their Top Ten(ish) choices of what was best in life this year and now they humbly ask for your patience and understanding. You are under no legal obligation to give it, so do what feels right. Remember, Santa is now watching who gets naughty in 2025, so there will be consequences and repercussions down the road. Without further eloquence, let us commence the excessive pornucopia that is AMG’s Listurnalia. Here be the big opinions.
Iceberg
#ish. Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal
#10. Hamfer∂ // Men Gu∂s hond er sterk
#9. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales
#8. Deception // Daenacteh
#7. Fellowship // The Skies Above Eternity
#6. Nemedian Chronicles // The Savage Sword
#5. Brothers of Metal // Fimbulvinter
#4. Ulcerate // Cutting The Throat of God
#3. Myrath // Karma
#2. Aborted // Vault of Horrors
#1. Huntsmen // The Dry Land – Huntsmen is one of those bands that has a sonic toolbox primed to make me weak at the knees, but their follow-through has been wildly inconsistent. While I was enamored of the sharpened, doom-laced folk of EP American Scrap—specifically the chilling closer “The Last President”—2020’s Mandala of Fear missed the mark so greatly I feared Huntsmen had permanently lost their way. How wrong I was. The Dry Lands features the strongest synthesis of Huntsmen’s predilections to date, and their muti-vocal delivery has never been stronger. The masterful dynamic shape of “Rain,” the stylistic twists and turns of “Cruelly Dawns,” and the brilliant spoken word climax of “The Herbsight” kept me coming back to this album month after month. Shaping and honing their folk core with sludgy, proggy metal, Hunstmen has produced a jaw-dropping album that trumpets their return and cements their place as one of my favorite folk metal bands working now.
Honorable Mentions:
I Am the Intimidator // I Am the Intimidator
Sunburst // Manifesto
Hell:On // Shaman
Inner Strength // Daydreaming In Moonlight
Song o’ the Year:
Myrath – “Let It Go”
Mystikus Hugebeard
#ish. Eternal Storm // A Giant Bound To Fall
#10. Sorcerer // Devotion
#9. Master Boot Record // Hardwarez
#8. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God
#7. Alcest // Les Chants De L’Aurore
#6. Aborted // Vault of Horrors
#5. Albion // Lakesongs of Elbid
#4. Iotunn // Kinship
#3. Sgàile // Traverse the Bealach
#2. Keygen Church // Nel Nome Del Codice
#1. Ante-Inferno // Death’s Soliloquy – There are albums that are appreciably well-made and tick many of the right boxes for your tastes. Then, some albums speak to you. Death’s Soliloquy, the newest record by UK black metal act Ante-Inferno, is a harrowing work of genuine anguish reverberating deeper and deeper with each listen. This is black metal of the highest order, and should not be missed. It’s an extremely bleak album—the aggressive, second-wave-inspired riffs gnash with a nightmarish fervor at an unsympathetic, constant pace that grows into an ever-increasing oppressive weight across repeat listens. And yet, it’s also a beautiful album—the melodies radiate beauty and unyielding despair in equal measure, made all the more gripping by the clarity of the production. It’s atmospheric, but with such energy and density that attention never falters. At the time of writing, my own struggles with mental health have been such that my full review has sadly not yet beheld the light, but they fueled my burgeoning appreciation for what Death’s Soliloquy is, it’s is an album borne of dull, gray hopelessness—it neither somberly embraces oblivion, nor does it defiantly push against it. Death’s Soliloquy is the cold, crushing indifference of despair and the only reprieve from it.
Honorable Mentions:
Adon // Adon
Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe
Stenched // Purulence Gushing From the Coffin
Witch Bolt // Bellow
Mount Shrine // The Mount Hibiki Tapes
Songs o’ the Year:
Ante-Inferno – “An Axe. A Broadsoard. A Bullet”
Death’s Soliloquy by Ante-Inferno
Master Boot Record – “CPU”
HARDWAREZ by MASTER BOOT RECORD
Alekhines Gun
#ish. Paysage D’hiver // Die Berge
#10. Spectral Wound // Sounds of Blood and Mire
#9. Ershetu // Yomi
#8. Wormed // Omegon
#7. Coffins // Sinister Oath
#6. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy
#5. Gigan // Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus
#4. Darkspace // Dark Space -II
#3. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophie
#2. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos
#1. Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – In a great year for brutal death of stripes spacey, techy, and alien, there’s something refreshing about a back-to-basics approach. A glorious return for one of the brutal death forerunners, Harbinger of Woe is an artistic triumph, a masterclass in riff-craft and song assembly with the sole purpose of flattening the listener into eardrum-flavored toothpaste. Catchier than flaying hooks and assembled with the diabolical symmetry of a Judas cradle, Brodequin has presented a flesh-severing reminder that you don’t need flourishes or gimmicks or fret-board wizardry to create an album capable of traumatizing, pulverizing, and captivating all who hear it. Yes, I do confess.
Honorable Mentions:
Grin – Hush
Electric Wizard – Black Magic Rituals and Perversions Vol. 1
Tyme
#ish. Replicant // Infinite Mortality
#10. 200 Stab Wounds // Manual Manic Procedures
#9. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy
#8. Pneuma Hagion // From Beyond
#7. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe
#6. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System
#5. Julie Christmas // Ridiculous and Full of Blood
#4. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God
#3. Haunted // Stare at Nothing
#2. The Infernal Sea // Hellfenlic
#1. Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – Twenty-twenty-four has been quite a year in the house of Tyme. The last twelve months were a roller coaster ride that saw me and Mrs. Tyme complete a rather large home renovation and survive. Our boxer Blu had a cancer scare and surgery as a result. I took a new job within my company, leaving the position I’d been in for the past five years. I got the news that I had, after an extended period in “the freezer,” been demoted to n00b status here at AMG, the greatest blog on the interwebs. On the heels of that amazing news, I then learned that my mother passed away unexpectedly. Then, most recently, received the incredible news I’d been further demoted to staff! To say this has been a year of ups and downs would be an understatement. The album I returned to most, again and again, whether high or low, was Brodequin’s Harbinger of Woe. Each brutal riff after riff after riff sated my thirst for emotional release this year and so I hail them, Brodequin, and their riffs. After a twenty-year hiatus, they emerged from the murk to release not only one of the best brutal death metal albums of 2024 but my fuckin’ album o’ the year.
Honorable Mentions:
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum // Of the Last Human Being
Glassing // From the Other Side of the Mirror
Ingurgitating Oblivion // Ontology of Nought
Stenched // Purulence Gushing From the Coffin
Song o’ the Year:
Julie Christmas – “The Lighthouse”
Disappointment o’ the Year:
No new King Diamond album, AGAIN! And it will stay my disappointment until we get one. I suspect around 2028 or so.
Killjoy
#ish. Lizzard // Mesh
#10. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System
#9. Alcest // Les Chants de l’Aurore
#8. Mega Colossus // Showdown
#7. Albion // Lakesongs of Elbid
#6. Dååth // The Deceivers
#5. The Neptune Power Federation // Goodnight My Children
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair
#3. Fellowship // The Skies Above Eternity
#2. Laudare // Requiem
#1. In Vain // Solemn – This became my Record of the Year three tracks into my first spin when the melodious voice of Sindre Nedland in the chorus of “Season of Unrest” graced my undeserving ears. Indeed, the infinitely versatile vocal performances across the board are my favorite aspect, but Solemn ticks nearly every other box on my metal wishlist too. Catchy yet complex guitar lines, horn sections, a dreamy saxophone solo, string orchestrations, and the lyrics even rhyme! In Vain has perfected their sound so well that it’s easy to mistake their confidence for pretension. Though I fiddled with the placement of the rest of my list of candidates, there was never any doubt that Solemn was the best release of 2024.
Honorable Mentions:
Weltenbrandt // Transzendenz Schatten Romantik
Matrass // Cathedrals
Sgàile // Traverse the Bealach
Borknagar // Fall
Ætheria Conscientia // The Blossoming
Einvigi // Monokroma
Song o’ the Year:
In Vain – “Season of Unrest”
The post Clowns, Fools, and Buffoons: The AMG Staff Pick Their Top Ten(ish) Records o’ 2024 appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.
