The end, yep. Here it is. Was it worth it getting to this point? With all the rigamarole of your personal life? You’re a mess. The world is a mess. Two messes intertwining like a double helix of crumby rubbish. I suppose you think that by virtue of being a mess you’re allowed to self-medicate a smidge with some of this year’s high-quality audio productions? You’re in luck, pal. This time you’re in some goddamn luck, but before I administer my recommendations I would appreciate a brief moment of reflection. May I?
2024 was pendulous for yours truly. At one end of the swing my wife and I welcomed the second and equally greatest blessing of our lives, another sweet boy. He is an agreeable young man, not so tidy yet but he’ll get it. Not quite as high on that upswing but definitely not on the other, BAD upswing (still on a downswing though; have you met these guys? Difficult.) was joining this here gaggle of doofuses. I’ll save the true waxing poetic for the music but I’m honored to be part of a publication I’ve loved and respected for so long.
This was also the most difficult year of my life thus far. Work was particularly relentless. The one-two of a toddler and a fresh baby was a prime Tyson-level wallop. We had some very, very hard days that plunged me into hitherto unknown emotional depths. Not too much further explanation is warranted on the dark times. Everyone gets to these points and truly with every valley there’s a lovely summit. The below albums were my Sherpas.
Please, dear like-minded reader, keep your head up and shoulders back. 2025 might get wacky but you’ve got chutzpah, panache. In other words, less mess, more impress, OK? On with it.
THE SLIGHTLY LOWER THAN TOP 10 BUT I WOULDN’T DARE SAY BOTTOM 10 (20-11)
20. Lord Goblin – Lord Goblin
A tightly wound blend of blazing power metal and glorious trad spiced just so with a warm organ roux and a pinch of blackened fury, Lord Goblin are here to feed your needs. The Lord Goblin himself is on the mic and if you can fever dream up a blend of Bruce Dickinson and Dave Hunt of Anaal Nathrakh (in an underlying v.i.t.r.i.o.l. sort of way) then buddy you’re on some manifesting-ass dosage. Lord Goblin is a concise, riff-filled jaunt into new and welcome territory. BIG time looking forward to their next release.
• Bandcamp
19. Aara – Eiger
I’d say I’ve already written the book on Eiger but it wasn’t a book and, further, could barely be described as writing. Anywho, Aara play a no-bullshit style of wall-of-sound atmospheric black metal and if that bristles your behind feel free to abscond. If you stick around, though, you’ll be treated to 55 minutes of thick n’ serious riffs, punishing drums and one of the more ruthless vocal performances of the year. This one is for fans of the cold and unrelenting.
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18. Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia
Sin Querencia is Immortal Bird’s least fun record and that is absolutely a compliment. The band has always had a flair for using rhythmic motifs to lead the proceedings, and where Thrive on Neglect entwined that with enough melody to add an ounce of, dare I say, levity, Sin Querencia just hammers and hammers and hammers. An overall more violent affair for an overall more violent 21st century.
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17. Crown of Anguish – Stalker at the Midian Gate
Welcome to the first annual edition of “Dan Write Good, Isaac Write Bad” featuring Crown of Anguish and their slithering whopper of a record, Stalker at the Midian Gate! In this feature, we will discuss in comparatively troglodytic fashion why you should listen to Nile’s younger, much dustier (but honestly a little more affable) brother. Colossal riffs, sick acoustic interludes, production warmer than a stale tomb. Do your best Howard Carter impression and we’ll see you next week!
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16. Moisson Livide – Sent Empèri Gascon
Wouldn’t ya know it but we are already at the SECOND annual (biweekly? semi-bi-yearly?) edition of “Dan Write Good, Isaac Write Bad”! Moisson Livide practice a rousing, boisterous brand of Gastonian heroism. Think if Moonsorrow and The Somberlain made passionate l’amour over a game of Risk. Great, fun, powerful, technical, get at it or foutre le camp.
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15. Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy
I will admit to being relatively new to the “enjoyment” of brutal death metal. This fucking album took about four listens before I thought “yeah, I uh, I think it’s…good?”. Comparatively, the other day I was daydreaming about a new Carly Rae Jepsen album in 2025 and the thought alone put it squarely in my top 5. Canadian sirens aside, I can’t add to the conjecture around this release with any more grace than what has already been put forth by our very own Captain. So, read his review, delete the above, replace it with “Yeah I uh, I think it’s…good.”
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14. Dissimulator – Lower Form Resistance
How can you not love that gad-durn album cover? Woof, I’ll get divorced right now, baby. Lower Form Resistance is a dry and dirty dagger of a death/thrash stabbing. Sneakily technical (We get it. You’re from Montréal.), slyly catchy, another winner from 20 Buck Spin in 20 Twenty-Four. Submit to your robotic overlords’ new trepanation campaign – your reality must be reinstalled.
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13. Oranssi Pazuzu – Muutautuja
The illustrious Zach of Duvall fame already penned a real hobnobber of a review on this bad boy so set thy curious gaze upon that if you’re looking to be seduced. My dumb-guy elevator pitch is thus: hypnotic, cold, wild and free. Jam-band by way of Helvete psychedelia. That one dream you had about getting electroshock therapy with a Finnish biker gang. The growing realization that the wrought-iron fence keeping the feral spirit of black metal contained might actually be a 2D projection.
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12. Pyrrhon – Exhaust
Good morning. This is the first lecture of Societal Collapse 302 with your esteemed instructor Professor Bedlam. Yes, Pyrrhon are back and as full of caustic piss and expired vinegar as ever. This here’s another case of “I didn’t get it until I got it” (see #15) but THANKFULLY my fellow Riters pushed it enough that I finally gave it the attention necessary for full absorption. Exemplary, visionary death metal that with time, I’m sure, will only prove itself more powerful.
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11. Bütcher – On Fowl of Tyrant Wing
The most fun you’ll have in Hell all year and no, I do not want to hear about how Branson “actually wasn’t that bad”. Bütcher continue their streak of speed metal excellence and this time with more, more, MORE. Reckless pace, wicked leads, the devils ride on avian steeds. Spitting venom, barren earth, careening forth on riffs of mirth.
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THE TOP 10 BUT I WOULDN’T DARE SAY BEST 10, JUST MY FAVORITE 10 (10-1)
10. SERPENT COLUMN – TASSEL OF ARES
There are tortured souls who play guitar to exorcise their demons and there are demonic guitarists who exorcise their souls by torturing their demons. Still yet exist the rarest musicians with white-hot streaks of both. Tassel of Ares vomits forth like Hell itself has been punctured, its ghouls screaming out like the Bat Flight at Carlsbad Caverns. Lone architect Theophonos handles everything and I can’t help but experience this record in that context – as a total relinquishment of self to violent inner impulses, the music a form of scarring catharsis.
Of two riff-worship black metal albums in my top 10 this one takes the fabled Cake of Idiosyncrasy. Four tracks of massive string-work, coiling and uncoiling, spooling outward to drag the song forward and mightily constricting to wrest the ear to its will. The way Theophonos writes and plays is totally mesmerizing, a style unlike any I’ve heard and one necessary to experience as a fan of the guitar and of violent music.
Historical markers of a great artist are both the ability to synthesize and perfect the hallmarks of their chosen genre as well as to erase boundaries, to remove trappings and rearrange them into a stark, undeniable new whole. Serpent Column achieve both, and Tassel of Ares is a singular experience, one enjoyed best through focused consumption.
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10. CHAPEL OF DISEASE – ECHOES OF LIGHT
You know, when I founded “Dan Write Good, Isaac Write Bad” I never imagined we would get here. Three issues! Monumental. Let’s quit while we’re ahead, shall we? Goodnight, sweet princes and princesses.
Echoes of Light is one of those records that gives your rump a little kick. You turn around expecting your little brother, the neighbor kid maybe, but instead it’s the recluse from down the street’s grubby son. He hands you a joint and gestures toward his alley-facing garage – “You want to get real, chubby?” You nod rapidly. Let’s get real.
Chapel of Disease have mastered a prescient variety of 70’s-influenced death metal that is just as warm as it is cold-blooded. Mastermind Laurent Teubl plays his guitar with a soul that belies his age, lending the entire shebang an air of lived-in sincerity. This is the one album I heard this year where I thought “Damn. This might be the next big deal.” If Chapel of Disease’s next record doesn’t break them into the ears of the Absolute Elsewhere-swarm then the world is cruel and miserable. Moreso, anyway.
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8. NOXIS – VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE SYSTEM
Hey! Stupid! Yeah, you. You want to hear some heavy heavy smart stuff? Some chunky thick poindexter ass-handling? Some meaty, beaty, big and bouncy, if I may be so Pink? Well LISTEN TO NOXIS.
Violence Inherent in the System is a romp. A rough and tumble, mid-80’s action flick where the severed tongue rots squarely in decomposing cheek and the body count is astronomical. John Matrix would listen to Noxis. Shit, is John Matrix IN Noxis? No no, he’s a fictional character played by the #1 Imported Beefman. My mistake. But once those steely bass lashings and downhill-sprinting blasts kick in you’re going to be just as unreality-addled as I am.
Equal parts punishing crushery, twiddly trickery and lockstep…jockstrapping (?), Violence Inherent in the System is a required listen for death metal fiends in this, the year of our Arnold, 2024.
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7. NIMBIFER – DER BÖSE GEIST
This, THIS, is what I’m fuckin’ tawkin’ about. A mean pile of melodic and uncompromising riffs n’ blasts. Fans of the raw, fans of the atmo, fans of the more forward-facing BM acts of today, all of you lot can find something to love in Der böse Geist.
Hanover duo Nimbifer absolutely tear the ground asunder with this debut (heilige Scheiße) full-length. Drummer Sturmfriedt and string-ripper/throat-tearer Windkelch both commit entirely to the pursuit of triumphant destruction, tinging their solution with a drop of melancholy just potent enough to redden up the black filth.
Nimbifer adhere to a surprisingly common theme of 2024 – storm in, storm out, don’t overstay the welcome. At a tidy 36 minutes Der böse Geist rumbles through and rages, rages before the dying of its light. Indeed, like Rodney Dangerfield reading Dylan Thomas, this record distills the most important elements of its genre into something short, sweet and walleyed. Maybe not that last one but without any photos I don’t know what else to envision. (Disclaimer: author does not actually envision artists. Said descriptions would not uphold in a court of law and cannot be used in any litigation thereof.)
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6. THY CATAFALQUE – XII: A GYÖNYÖRÜ ÁLMOK EZUTÁN JÖNNEK
What is there to say about Thy Catafalque that yet remains unsaid? That this latest release (I will not type that title again.) is a-fucking-nother chameleonic juggernaut from the Hungarian Hercules himself? Obviously not. If you’ve paid a lick of attention to Tamás Kátai’s career for roughly the last decade then you already knew that. The truth is I just wanted to call him “Hungarian Hercules”. Plus, if you’re looking for an intelligent examination HERE instead of from Lone Watie you are sorely mistaken (see link below).
I’d call this album a departure from the skull-smashing heaviness of Alföld back to the more folky, electronic-y stylings of Meta and Vadak, and for that I’m glad. I believe Tamás is at his best when he allows his influences to run completely wild, to spill overboard even, because while in another’s hands this might cause a total cacophonous breakdown, he has the miraculous deftness to make it cohesive.
Every time I came back to this album I found some new lovely detail to fixate on. My expectation is that with time the full wonders of XII will reveal themselves. Start on it now! Maybe by mid-2025 you’ll be able to put it on your past-year’s list. That is assuming, of course, that Thy Catafalque don’t gift us another full-length next year; this guy’s more prolific than Kate Gosselin.
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5. HAMFERÐ – MEN GUÐS HOND ER STERK
I, a perennial dumb dummy, said this about my number 5 pick back in July for the first installment of Missing Pieces:
“Men Guðs hond er sterk is a work of vicious vitality and oceanic power. I could eagerly and capably argue its merit to death fans, doom fans, death-doom fans… Hell, I’d put a healthy wager on trad fans as well.”
If that makes a boink of sense to you then why haven’t you checked this record out yet, hmm? I wrote that nonsense last summer, for fjord’s sake.
If I could list but one reason to listen to Hamferð it would be for to bask in the radiant warmth of Jón Aldará’s voice. The man is a titan in the booth, a sorceror of the diaphragm, explosive in his growls and angelic in his cleans. As captain of the ship he commands the proceedings but this record is about the story, not the tellers. With subject matter as grim as this the music must both pay proper respect to its victims and colorfully illustrate their plight. In that regard, Men Guðs hond er sterk is every bit as harrowing and tragic as it needs to be.
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4. MOSS UPON THE SKULL – QUEST FOR THE SECRET FIRE
Here’s a group that came out of left field for me. Moss Upon the Skull practice a mystical style of death metal, progressive in its leanings but still earthen in feel. Imagine a gardner with otherwordly skill; they till the same ground you do, absorb the same rains, but their plants twist upward into alien forms, thicker and more wild than your paltry cuke vines. Quest for the Sacred Fire start with the same tools as any other death metal band but somehow their product seems more fluid and organic, like the rare, earned putridity of a rotten black truffle.
This record has some of the tightest songwriting I’ve heard this year. There’s not a single unnatural moment, no awkward transitions. Even the track sequencing is such that from beginning to end you never really get lost despite the intentional, enigmatic murk of the experience. Tasteful drumwork underlies the knotty riffs, vocals bellow from a foggy ravine. Quest is another wonderful example of a guitar player’s record in 2024. It’s that delightful amalgam of technical but not gratuitous, dissonant but not devoid of hook. These guys float like a Cacodemon and sting like a…well…Sting? I mean, the cover art glows blue, right?
Seek out Moss Upon the Skull if you are a fan of any of the following: robed beings of dubious intent, rhythmic gnashing of teeth, shimmering oils, horrors unmentionable and/or death metal from the churning void.
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• Bandcamp
3. CONVULSING – PERDURANCE
“At once a continuation of the surgical violence of Grievous and a stunning expansion (or contraction) into the choking constriction of introspection, perdurance has been as much as it is and will be. On February 29 perdurance was keeping time in the murky darkness of the unreal and on March 1 it was forcing our conscious minds to confront the ugliness of its truths.”
Such is a small portion of the slop I wrote for our Combined Staff list this year. I’m not sure how to encapsulate this record otherwise, at least currently. The truth is perdurance has the air of a release that will change and grow with me over time. Today’s conclusions might be tomorrow’s questions.
The concept of “maturity” as it relates to the growth and wisdom of a lived life might not necessarily be associated with death metal amongst the common man’s “great” thinkers. Disbelievers and ignoramuses aside, the power of convulsing exists as proof to the contrary – that a work of art forged in strife, naked in ragged pain, can also offer a gentle hand to lead you, screaming, over the coals and into the dark, up through and beyond the inner turmoil to some semblance of serenity.
There’s a distinct possibility that down the road perdurance will enter my personal death metal hall of fame, to perhaps diminish its breadth. This is an album that transcends its earthly form while still basking in its own self-actualized mastery. You readers would do well to offer your ear to Brendan Sloane. perdurance is not required by law, per se, but it IS considered mandatory.
• Bandcamp
2. UNLEASH THE ARCHERS – PHANTOMA
In the interest of time (and in the disinterest of negative press, and combat, and rage) I’d like to focus this paragraph on my personal experience with Phantoma in 2024. Having been newly converted to the Unleash the Archers fold in 2020 by way of Abyss and the subsequent backtracking to Apex, I was ready, willing and able to jump into a new release. Singles began trickling out and the excitement grew. Finally in May Phantoma was released and my initial tepid response eventually started to warm. Before long I recognized it for what it truly was – a confident side-step from a band that did not need to rush headlong into wild, uncharted territory. By doubling down on the 80’s-tinged influence of Abyss and reeling back just enough from the Euro-style blaze to keep a mostly lively pace, Unleash the Archers crafted their most concise release yet, a rock-solid collection of anthemic tunes with nary a stinker in the bunch. And yet…
A grave error was made. The Phantoma album release included a non-zero amount of the questionable usage of AI. Questionable is the operative word because this issue is still being heavily debated by both promotors and detractors of AI-created art in any form. To wade into these waters, especially as an artist with such foothold as Unleash the Archers, is deleterious to both the band as well as to the heavy music scene itself.
With all that being what it is, you may ask “well then, Mr. Hams, why bring this shit up again? Can’t you just talk about the MUSIC?”. No, unfortunately I can’t. YOU clicked that gorg’ human-made article art to hear MY opinion and unfortunately the overall radness of the songwriting/performances/riffs/solos/vocals/drums/bass/keys of Phantoma cannot be separated from the sadness of its messier context.
This album rips a whole heck of a lot. It’s my number two for a reason, many reasons in fact, but do note that we are entering an era where these battles will be more commonplace and likely get nastier as technology improves. If you can, listen to Phantoma, let it rock your woolen socks off, then do some of your own ponderin’ on the subject.
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1. MOTHER OF GRAVES – THE PERIAPT OF ABSENCE
“…The Periapt of Absence is as worthy a successor to Where the Shadows Adorn as the doomly deathsters could have crafted. Indeed, where the prior album was veiled in a miasmatic shroud, this one is such a brighter, bolder step into the outer atmosphere as to make me, asthmatic, proud. Despite such cumbersome and cheery phrasing I assure you, the bottom line is the same: this here is a class-A melodic doom death album, steeped in nostalgic reverence for the old gods and stricken through from end to end with piercing heartache.”
That was the gist of my opinion on Mother of Graves’ latest opus waaaaay back in those halcyon days of October, when the Autumn Leaves first began to coat the sidewalks, when the moon gained more time-ground in heated battle against the Rebellion of Tides (You’ve stuck with me long enough to be accustomed to facile description, OK? I’m no botanist, not even a moonographer.). And yes, your mastery of chronology did not mislead you: I STILL think The Periapt of Absence is tremendous.
Muscular yet graceful, sorrowful yet uplifting, Mother of Graves crafted the most complete heavy music package for me this year. Seeing them live and hearing these tunes in the flesh was especially a highlight given my infrequency of gig attendance these years of late. In an era where the stale rehashing of old styles has become de rigueur, it renews my faith in the future of heavy metal that bands like this can come around, delve greedily and deeply, and still hit veins of shining brilliance. There are only so many colorful ways to say I love this record, so to (finally) be brief: I love this record and everyone should listen to it.
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Barring convulsing, four of my five top albums all serve the same specific purpose in some percentage – they have been comforts, balms and salves. Is it a cop-out to rank what one simply enjoyed the most over the options that may have challenged or innovated the most? At other times in my life, I’d point you to an “absolutely it is, you coward”. Additionally and in that spirit, part of this job is to dissect and display the works of art we believe to be most worthy of careful exploration, the albums that unlock doors in people that may yet remain hidden. Yet, in 2024 that was not the case. I’m new to this gig, and frankly it has been a more difficult pursuit than I had imagined. These fun little musings you squint at on the can? They take hours, if not of actual fingers-to-keys clattering, of further listening and consideration and agonizing. So yes, if it’s a cop-out year for Mr. Hams I accept it ALSO as a year of much learning. I hope to next year disappoint even fewer of you in this, my clumsy pursuit of silly words on significant things.
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING (IN 2024) – 8 NON-HEAVY WHISTLE-WETTERS
The below are other, lighter albums I spun countless times this year. You stinkers visit Last Rites solely to be lectured at by lunkheads about which blast beat is better than what slam belch, I get that. Don’t ever accuse me, a lunkhead, of not getting that. However, sometimes what’s good for the greasy goose isn’t good for the grimy gander, you know what I’m saying? For every war metal there’s a peacegaze, yeah?
If you’re interested in lighter fare of varying genre take a dip into one of these here ponds. Hopefully you find something worth blabbing about. Lord knows I’m not going to blab about ALL of these. Blabbing days are over, dad is tired.
8. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven (punk/indie rock)
7. ELUCID – REVELATOR (hip-hop)
6. Charley Crockett – Visions of Dallas (country)
5. Charley Crockett – $10 Cowboy (country)
4. Meer – Wheels Within Wheels (prog pop/rock)
3. Nero – Into the Unknown (ah geez, electronic? dubstep? future house?)
2. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – Woodland (folk/country/americana)
1. AROOJ AFTAB – NIGHT REIGN (you tell me, bud)
At an ungodly hour on a balmy June morning my wife woke me up and it was time to go to the hospital. I drove anxiously, trying to thread the needle between life-savingly careful and life-savingly quick. The sky was watercolored with heat lightning and the car was being pelted with wet, heavy raindrops. Not the kind that portend impending disaster, the kind that have simply grown out of their cumulostratus beds. Night Reign was playing, and I will forever link its alluring sonic palette with the day my son was born.
What greater gift can an album give than to imprint itself upon a treasured memory? Night Reign has become an inextricable piece of my chapter, however long and fruitful it may be, and that is to say nothing of the exceptional beauty of the music itself. Arooj has a voice that can move to tears – I’ve seen it happen firsthand on the Vulture Prince tour – and the cadre of musicians she assembled for this record is, to be diminishing, world-class. To enter Night Reign‘s realm is to be enfolded by an almost desperate awe and lovesick yearning. If you’ve a heart in that brittle black palace of yours, you owe it to yourself to feed upon the many wondrous fruits of this record.
Keep on tickin’, boys and girls. Don’t forget to be a good pal to your chums, partner to your sweeties, collector of the triumphant and obscene.
