LISTMANIA 2024: STEREOGUM’S 10 BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2024

(written by Islander)

This is a tough list to share, not because it’s a bad list but because it’s the swan song of the Black Market column, which has been running at Stereogum on a monthly basis since February 2013. As the kids used to say, I has the sads about this news. Well, but let’s back up a bit, for those who might be unfamiliar with that now-defunct institution.

Stereogum easily qualifies as one of the “big platform” web sites whose year-end lists of metal we perennially include in our LISTMANIA series. Of course, the site appeals to an audience of music fans much larger than devoted metalheads, but its staff has included a talented and tasteful (though gradually dwindling) group of metal writers who have been responsible for the site’s monthly The Black Market column.

I’ve always looked forward to Stereogum‘s annual metal list prepared by the Black Market writers. The one for 2024 came out on Monday of this week. As usual it consists of only 10 entries, with accompanying reviews of the choices by Ian Chainey, Michael Nelson, Doug Moore, Wyatt Marshall.

The list feature also includes a retrospective about the column by Ian Chainey, and an entertaining but also poignant interview of all those old-timer writers listed above.

As I’ve opined almost every year, the Black Market list is again a bit bamboozling, but that’s always part of its attraction. It’s also presented in such a light-hearted way (though the convictions about the worthiness of the music are clearly serious) that you can’t accuse these folks of being willfully elitist. Well, maybe you could, but I won’t.

My current bambooozlement turns out to be less confounding than it has in many previous years. This year I not only recognized all but one of the band names (the No. 7 pick rang no bells), but I had listened to parts or all of the 2024 records by the nine whose names I recognized. In addition, I actually wrote an astonished review of the No. 1 pick and am very happy to see it get that kind of recognition at The Black Market.

I guess this is all proof that my own metal interests over the years have become more obscure, more into “weird shit” than when I started out (that’s in quotation marks because it’s an acknowledgment in the interview of Black Market writers that they intended to do something different than simply “reinforcing the metal culture consensus”).

I should add that the introduction to this year’s Black Market list disclosed that Stereogum won’t be abandoning its metal coverage, but will be turning that over to Brad Sanders, who has been writing Bandcamp Daily‘s metal column (among other writing and radio work). By coincidence, he put up Bandcamp Daily‘s list of 2024’s best metal albums the same day that Stereogum published theirs. (You’ll see me re-posting that list here later today.) At Stereogum, his new metal column will be called “Breaking The Oath.” He also conducted the “exit interview” of Black Market writers that’s part of their 2024 year-end-list feature.

With thanks to all the writers who made that column such an interesting tradition for such a long time, here’s their 2024 list. To read the blurbs about the choices, and the introduction and interview discussion, go HERE.

10. Sadness – i want to make something as beautiful as you (Self-Released)

9. Wormed – Omegon (Season Of Mist)

8. Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia (20 Buck Spin)

7. Effluence – Necrobiology (Putrefactive Recordings)

6. Morvigor – De spiegel (Vita Detestabilis)

5. Concrete Winds – Concrete Winds (Sepulchral Voice)

4. Obliti Devoravit – Under My Michigan Sky (Colloquial Sound Recordings)

3. Convulsing – Perdurance (Self-Released)

2. Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight (Brutal Panda)

1. 夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker) – Delirium Pathomutageno Adductum (Self-Released)