A little late but not worse for the wear, a list/ quick discussion of my favorite releases from the year 2024. Not much controvery here if you follow my older lists; much metal, much local. Without further ado:
 






1. Thou - Umbilical
Count on Thou to never play by their own rules, in this case gone are the atmospheric freakouts, video game soundtracks, full albums of 90's alt-band covers and joint operations with other avant-noise or avant-folk artists. Just a pure old school sludgy NOLA- style hardcore beatdown in store.  Listen
 
2. Glass - Local Man Dies
Not designed for comfort consumption but leaves the appropriate audience hopeful in the end. One of the best experimental rock bands to come out of South Carolina. Listen

3. X - Smoke & Fiction
The late (end?) career trajectory of the legendary roots-punk band X kind of came out the blue, starting with the album before this, after a decades-long hiatus. Exene and John still sound vibrant and the rest of the band is tight and never disillusioned sounding. No state-fair-legacy-band bullshit here, always urgent and athemic. Listen

4. Infinitefreefall - Belief Systems
Another set of bangers from my favorite local band. The music takes its cues from electronica and post punk from decades past and spins new webs to entangle the current generation. Listen

5. E.Z. Shakes - Leaves Grow Back
Most fully-realized release from these Columbia roots-rockers, and that's after a string of super pro previous efforts. The revelatory recording by David Barbe fits like a glove and the whole band is in world-class form. Listen

6. Bewitcher - Spell Shock
The best blackened thrash in the US? Maybe having Rancid's Lars Frederiksen at the production helm was the unexpected jolt I needed, but this album is all killer speed and black attitude. Listen

7. Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
The world's best "haunted-house metal" band returns with an album at turns beautiful and at other times so disturbing, I had to turn it off and take a break and dose my trip appropriately. Finland's greatest export, currently. Listen

8. Uniform - American Standard
Harrowing and heroic, an industrial sludge-fest that never lets the listener feel safe. Listen

9. Melt~Banana - 3+5
Still a perfect synthesis of angry noise and glitchy pop song structures. Listen

10. Jon Snodgrass and His Buddies - Barge at Will
Fans of Snodgrass will delight in some great poppy, humorous alt-punk-roots songcraft and new listeners will be wondering why they never got on board. Listen

11. Dissimulator- Lower Form Resistance
You had me at progressive thrashy death metal with dystopian sci-fi themes, ala Voivod. Listen

12. Julie Christmas - Ridiculous And Full Of Blood
Scary and hypnotic, and it's like a rollercoaster in that all of her ups and downs are gonna be bad vibes. Listen

13. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Nell' Ora Blu
Amazing 'soundtrack' to a faux '70s style Giallo flick from the English doom masters. Synthy or stoner as the mood requires and quite beyond even themselves, this far in their career. Listen

14. New Model Army - Unbroken
Another band that refuses to enter legacy status and the new one has all the urgency that made the classic albums so great. Listen

15. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere
Not much left to be said about THE metal 'It' album of 2024 that hordes of reviewers (even mainstream ones!) haven't gushed about. One of the best death metal bands in the world gets Tangerine Dream to jam with them; appropriately epic crossover prog metal ensues. Listen

17. Glassing - From the Other Side of the Mirror
Austin's Glassing are the heir to the throne of bands like Jesu and Isis. Their newest is the latest in a string of compelling atmospheric post-metal/ post-hardcore. Listen

18. The Cure - Songs of a Lost World
I can only call myself a half-ass Cure fan, but this late-stage Cure is without peer among it's peers. Listen

19. Midnight - Hellish Expectations
What can I say about Midnight main man Jamie Walters besides there will be no wheels remade here by him, but they will be burned into dust as the king of blackened speed never lets up on this new release. Listen

20. Bardo Pond - Volume 9
An intense psych trip by the masters. Listen

21. Demiser - Slave to the Scythe
22. MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks
23. Vemod - The Deepening
24. YES FLAG - Grand Bystander
25. Various - Pater Noster and the Mission of Light Soundtrack
26. Scott Reynolds + Bill Stevenson - Magic Beans & Time Machines
27. Cloud Nothings - Final Summer
28. Category 7 - Category 7
29. Spiter - Enter The Gates Of Fucking Hell
30. Down by Law - Crazy Days
31. An Autumn - Ethereal
32. Tourneforte - Notes From A Lost Dog
33. Belushi Speed Ball - Stellkira
34. Old 97's - American Primitive
35. Gonemage - Spell Piercings
36. Memorrhage - Anyo
37. The Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came
38. Sleater-Kinney - Little Rope
39. Fireblood - Hellalujah / Goatslayer
40. Sallow Moth - Vial
41. Darkthrone - It Beckons Us All
42. Cara Beth Satalino - Little Green
43. Alcest - Les Chants de l'Aurore
44. Writhing Squares - Mythology
45. Late Bloomer - Another One Again
46. Oxygen Destroyer - Guardian of the Universe
47. SAVAK - Flavors Of Paradise
48. Replicant - Infinite Mortality
49. Knoll - As Spoken
50. Candy - It’s Inside You
51. Mannequin Pussy - I Got Heaven
52. Nails - Every Bridge Burning
53. Laura Jane Grace - Hole In My Head
54. Kaizër - I Exist
55. John Moreland - Visitor
56. Sadness - i love you
57. Sumac - The Healer
58. American Aquarium - The Fear of Standing Still
59. The Chisel - What A Fucking Nightmare
60. Chapel Of Disease - Echoes Of Light
61. Eye Flys - Eye Flys
62. Gatecreeper - Dark Superstition
63. Morbid Saint - Swallowed by Hell
64. Ufomammut - Hidden
65. Sugar Wounds + Sachiel - Change of Heart (We Are No Longer Here)
66. Witch Club Satan - Witch Club Satan
67. Corb Lund - El Viejo
68. Zeal & Ardor - GREIF
69. Skylar Gudasz - COUNTRY
70. Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All
71. Aaron Lee Tasjan - Stellar Evolution
72. Stygian Crown - Funeral for a King
73. Necrot - Lifeless Birth
74. Pissed Jeans - Half Divorced
75. Deadyellow - What Was Left Of Them
76. Spectral Wound - Songs of Blood and Mire
77. The Melvins - Tarantula Heart
78. Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Häxan Sabaoth
79. BRAT - Social Grace
80. Slow Runner - Yesterday Don't Fail Me Now
81. Heriot - Devoured By the Mouth of Hell
82. Krallice - Inorganic Rites
83. Satan - Songs in Crimson
84. Whores. - WAR.
85. Kerry King - From Hell I Rise
86. High On Fire - Cometh The Storm
87. Todd Mathis - Autumn Through Machines
88. Black Valley Moon - Curses, Wishes & Haunted Transmissions Vol. 1
89. BODYSTOCKING - Set In Silver
90. Chat Pile - Cool World
91. Waxahatchee - Tigers Blood
92. Enforced - A Leap Into the Dark
93. Orange Goblin - Science, Not Fiction
94. Frail Body - Artificial Bouquet
95. Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge - Wine On Venus
96. BAT - Under The Crooked Claw
97. Little Stranger - Sat Around Trippin
98. Brittany Howard - What Now
99. Sill Crow - Live From Charleston
100. Ministry - HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES

• Tags:
• Top List
• 2024
• Featured