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Honorable Mentions
Antichrist Siege Machine – Vengeance of Eternal Fire
The most pissed off album of the year, bar none. I don’t think metal is all that often well suited to expressing anger, most of the time its just too dramatic. To really get at what makes anger satisfying, it has to be overwhelming, all consuming, real true anger is about being so furious that its not even helpful for you any more, its just breaking more things. I don’t think any album this year captured the tripping-over-yourself, sputtering rage that Antichrist Siege Machine did with this album. Just the snare tone on its own sounds incensed.
Kommodus – Constellations of Fatality and Metamorphosis
I just love the way this album sounds. Weird black metal that sounds like its emanating out of a cave in the woods underneath an aurora borealis, but in a warm way? It’s not your average frozen darkness black metal, it’s much warmer and weirder, reminding me of moments from Yellow Eyes and beyond. It also features probably my favourite album art of the year, I love the purples, blues and oranges, very pleasing to look at.
Favourite Albums of the Year
Adam Wiltize – Eleven Fugues for Sodium Pentothal
2024 was a big year for me and ambient. I wrote and finished my Masters thesis this year, which interestingly didn’t really begin until I took a step back and read a lot. The soundtrack to that reading was quite often ambient music, so a lot of these songs are strongly associated with a period of reflection and learning for me. The album that made me realize, hey, I’m actually a “fan” of ambient now, not just distant observer, was this release by Adam Wiltzie. Former member of Stars of the Lid (RIP Brian McBride), and current member of A Winged Victory for the Sullen and other cool projects like The Dead Texan, this is another excellent release in a formidable discography. There is a wry sense of humor on this album, but also a titanic, oceanic depth to the ambient, orchestral drones that Wiltzie composes. Tracks like As Above Perhaps So Below have this almost gothic quality to them, with slowly rising strings, oddly reminiscent of Yuka Kitamura’s Dark Souls 3 soundtrack, which is maybe a lame comparison, but hey this is my blog go get your own.
There is a glittering beauty, patience and even a sense of loss on this record that makes it immensely comforting and reassuring, like a firm support, or a strong hug. Listen to this in the morning, as the sun fills your room and drink a cup of tea. Everything is going to be ok.
Defacement – Duality
As the legendary Martin Eric Ain once said, there are many more shades and colors to darkness than just black. Duality by Defacement explores the rich and deep textures that this sort of music can take, it feels like some raging underground river, it’s own surging wave of inky blackness. That is a lot of metaphors to throw at you at once, but just know that this record is excellent. Defacement feel much more at home with this huge drum production, and swirling guitar tone than on previous records, and the long compositions give them the space and time they need to build some really rewarding and interesting songs. Songs like the title track even metamorphose into some beautiful moments of melody and respite, benefiting from some excellent and creative guitar solos throughout the record. This is to say nothing of the multiple interlude tracks, that on your average death metal album are complete snoozefests that I’m quite happy to skip through. Not so on Duality, these actually feel like compositions, pieces of music created with intention and care, unsettling pieces of electronic music with skittery percussion and eerie chimes. The song names, Optic, Vagus, Facial and Hypoglossal all seem to reference important neurological pathways, which in concert with the apocalyptic and dissonant tone of the rest of the album gives it an oddly arcane dimension. All of this contributes to a very compelling experience, with a unique vision and identity, which is everything I’m asking for in extreme music right now.
Ingurgitating Oblivion – Ontology of Nought
The most common criticism I’ve seen of this album is that it doesn’t have much “re-listenability”, which while a valid criteria, in my opinion could not be further from the truth. Contrary to that, I think perhaps this record’s greatest strength is how complex and detailed it is, throughout its 73 minute run time. Lille Gruber is perhaps the greatest extreme metal drummer of our time, and he has put in another astonishing performance here, really showing how deep his bag is, effortlessly flowing from jazzy prog to brutal death slammery and back. Despite it’s length the record never overstays its welcome, and has enough interesting twists and turns to keep you coming back to explore its warped hallways. It has an interesting production scheme, the snare is particularly snappy, slicing through chugging guitars and ethereal vocals alike, like a reassuring guide through the chaos. This album is a statement on how good progressive technical death metal can get, without falling into most of the boring wankery of a post Necrophagist world. This is a record with immense feeling and thoughtfulness, not simply the collision of highly technical playing towards some genre form. Listen to tracks like To weave the tapestry of nought – part II to get a sense of this mastery and direction, or hey, just listen to the whole thing front to back. It’s worth your time.
Cave Sermon – Divine Laughter
Do you ever find yourself thinking about an artist like a General Manager for some sports team? You’re thinking, yeah they’re great, but they would be even better if they added this guy from this band, that would be awesome. Obviously music nor art really works like that, but I have found those ideas rolling around in my head before. Well, Cave Sermon‘s Charlie Park sort of did exactly what I was thinking, and for this year’s full length release he tapped the incredible Pablo Miguel Mendez of Mico to lay down vocals for this record. I don’t think my GM brain could have suggested a better choice to be honest, Mendez’s voice is exactly the sort of ragged bellow that Cave Sermon need. They are absolutely pummelling on this record, a muscular combination of dissonant death metal and black metal, illuminated by moments of melody and space. Liquid Gold, one of the flagship songs on this record effortlessly flows between grueling death metal marches, and arcing black metal grace, brought to conclusion by an eerie ambient passage. These noisey, ambient pieces are really what make the record click, taking it beyond just the savagery of blast beats and howling gutturals, and adding this hallucinatory effect of hazy musical mirages, dreamily pulling you out of the maelstrom before dropping you back in. The first half of Beyond Recognition demosntrates this excellently.
I love the push and pull of forlorn melody, and punishing heaviness that this album plays with, and Miguel Mendez is so damn good, I hope this is a partnership we get to hear more from in the coming years. This is the carefully constructed, heavy and emotional extreme metal that forms the bedrock of my musical taste.
Mamaleek – Vida Blue
If this isn’t the album of the year, then I don’t know what an album of the year looks like. Mamaleek are an incredible band, with a fascinating discography that tells its own story, and it feels like they’ve managed to up the ante with this album. Mamaleek have long been a band who are able to speak emotions that aren’t easy to get your hands around with words alone, at least not English ones. Whether it’s the near suicidal anguish of their early records, the brazen habibi funk meets noise rock of their middle era, or the exquisite compositions and slinky affectations of their newer releases, each album tells an interesting story. This record is one of loss and acceptance, mourning the death of a band member. The band has always been very cagey about their identity, which makes this narrative particularly evocative, an artistic entity that doesn’t want you to know their name is telling you how much they miss their friend. In the commemorative post for their lost friend, they mentioned going for walks at night with them, something mentioned on Ancient Souls, No Longer Sorrowful, and an experience close to my heart as well. This is what this album reminds me of, long walks in the austere Calgarian darkness, chatting with a friend about all manner of things. It’s a masterfully made album, with so many excellent twists and turns, from the heaviness of Tegucigalpa, to the sorrowful piano arrangement in the aforementioned Ancient Souls, or the upward organs of album closer Hidden Exit on a Greyhound. So much of it is anchored to the emotions buried in the quotidian, of the smiles and tears shared at the bus stop or the checkout aisle. I love this record, and I think you would too, give it a listen and just enjoy all of the flavours and textures that this band has on display, it’s a good time.
That’s all for this year, my list was of course much longer than the 7 albums mentioned here, which you can check out in the header for this post, or maybe I’ll link it elsewhere. Let me know what your album of the year was, and if any of my choices agreed with yours.