Top 24 Albums of 2024 (3/4)

Part Three of a Four-Part Countdown for my AOTYs

Part 1/4

Part 2/4

Continuing my little countdown for favorite albums of 2024. A couple of my selections here are releases about which I’ve already written in more detail, so I embedded those posts.

12. Cutting the Throat of God by Ulcerate

Descriptors: technical death metal, dissonant death metal, atmospheric, sludge metal

Release date: 14 June 2024 / Country of origin: New Zealand

Ulcerate is a band I’ve long heard about in the metal community due to their unique, well-crafted dissonant spin on technical death metal sound. However, I never really gave them a spin until this year, but I’m so happy I did. They’re one of the most difficult metal bands for me to describe, perhaps because I don’t quite have anyone else to compare them to. What I can say is that I’ve listened to and enjoyed a lot of atmospheric metal, be it sludge or black or some other subgenre, but I can be rather picky about it. I want the music to create an atmosphere that evokes strong emotion yet is pleasant enough to play in the background during a country drive or even while I’m creative writing; the members of Ulcerate do this perfectly.

I think what stands out to me most about this album is the production quality, which enhances the musical composition to its fullest. I love that the percussion stands out in every song (the drummer is the recording engineer). The instruments and vocals are perfectly mixed to create what feels like its own world, somewhere spooky and dark, like if desolation were a landscape, all in red. The album cover is a pretty good visual depiction of the music, but one is not able to get a feel of what Ulcerate is just by looking at pictures or reading reviews, it’s really a band that anyone who likes more extreme and technical music genres must hear.

11. No Hands by Joey Valence & Brae

Descriptors: hip hop, nerdcore, rap

Release date: 7 June 2024 / Country of origin: United States

10. Melodies of Atonement by Leprous

Descriptors: art rock, progressive metal, progressive rock, electronic

Release date: 30 August 2024 / Country of origin: Norway

I remember listening to Leprous quite a bit in the mid-2010s, and while they have some awesome albums that I’ve always admired in terms of composition and execution, their style was never my favorite. They’re amazing at making artsy progressive metal with soaring, powerful vocals, often with avant-garde experimental elements in their earlier releases. But after they released The Congregation (2015), a well-regarded album that I really liked, I somewhat forgot about them and never listened to anything else they put out.

While visiting a local record store over the summer, I caught the fact that Leprous released a new album, which was being featured on a display, so I decided to give it a spin, and I honestly really enjoyed it. It felt much more electronic and less metal than the Leprous with which I was familiar, and while the shift in style might be polarizing to some, I thought it was refreshing for the group and fit the vocal style very well. All of the songs were catchy, and I found it to be less over-the-top than their other albums, even less pretentious due to the compositions being less bombastic than their most popular albums. I personally think it’s a solid release by them and it had a sound that I thought was perfect for summer.

9. Winter Storm by Ensiferum

Descriptors: folk metal, power metal, melodic death metal, symphonic metal

Release date: 18 October 2024 / Country of origin: Finland

True to its name, this album captures what a cold winter storm would sound like, especially one taking place in a forest with a bunch of folksy magical creatures and swordsmen, like what would be described in a fantasy novel. To me, this release is a simple and perfect blend of three types of metal that I absolutely love: folk, power, and melodeath. It’s the perfect amount of catchiness, aggression, and nerdiness ready to be consumed in one album. Not all songs are equally high quality, but there are a lot of catchy and memorable melodies throughout the album, including in one song that features solely female vocals. Everything flows well throughout. This has been a favorite for my partner and me to play in the car during cold weather, especially if we’re driving in the mountains or forests and see frost or snow.

8. Cool World by Chat Pile

Descriptors: sludge metal, nu metal, post-hardcore, noise, industrial

Release date: 11 October 2024 / Country of origin: United States

7. The New Sound by Geordie Greep

Descriptors: jazz rock, progressive rock, art rock, avant-garde, latin

Release date: 4 October 2024 / Country of origin: England

Ya like jazz? (Yes, I’m quoting The Bee Movie.) Despite the genre having a lot of similarities to progressive metal, one of my favorite types of music, I’m personally not the biggest jazzhead unless it’s featured in a video game I like, or it’s fused with metal. And for me to enjoy the jazzy elements, the fusion would need to be VERY metal-heavy, such as Trepalium, Cynic, and Rivers of Nihil. Sometimes I get down with jazz-pop like Laufey, but jazz-rock? Typically outside of my comfort zone. However, this album got a lot of buzz when it was released on RateYourMusic, which of course made me jump on it immediately. I tried listening to it about a week after its release, and I honestly could not even get past the first track because I found it absolutely annoying, its lack of a melody and strange composition did not appeal to me. I just didn’t get it.

But something compelled me to give the album another spin, mainly reviewers saying it’s weird and horny. Someone on RYM compared it to a musical, and as an occasional Broadway nerd, I figured I should at least get through the whole thing before judging. The first track is honestly my least favorite, and the album significantly improves for me after that, because it’s all a ton of unique, manic fun. Great saxophone and piano work. All of the tunes are distinct, giving you a different experience from the one before it, yet flowing together very well in the most chaotic way possible. Geordie’s vocals are honestly odd, but powerful and intriguing, and he delivers excellent storytelling through his performance and the lyrical content. Even if it’s not the most replayable and enjoyable album for me of the year, it might be the most memorable by far.