2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE PERSONAL TOP TEN

(Andy Synn finishes off “List Week” with his personal favourites of the year)

Well, here we are, finally at the end of “List Week”… and, let me tell you, I am ready to take some time off and recharge/reset my mental machinery.

Oh, I’ll probably end up writing one or two more things, here and there, before the end of the month – there’s a handful of Black Metal albums I really want to write more about, for one thing, and I’ve got to do my end of the month Synn Report, of course – but for the most part I’ll be turning the site back over to Islander, DGR, and whatever guests posts we have, for the rest of December.

Before then, however, I’ve got one more list up my proverbial sleeve… and this one, thankfully, is a lot easier and more laid back, seeing as it’s basically just the ten albums which “clicked” with me and monopolised my listening the most this year.

It’s not the “best” albums of the year, by any means – though many of them appeared on my “Great” list – it’s just my favourite full-lengths from the last twelve months (and you can see what my favourite EPs were here), and should give you some idea of where my personal tastes lay these last many months.

HONOURABLE MENTION: UNDERNEATH – FROM THE GUT OF GAIA

Now normally I don’t do “Honourable Mentions”, but in this highly unusual case I didn’t have much choice.

You see for most of the year From the Gut of Gaia has had a guaranteed place in my Top Ten (probably my Top Five, to be honest), but when I reviewed the band’s second album in October (both their second album and the second album they’ve released this year) I discovered that they had wiped their debut (and its preceding EP) from the internet entirely.

Which left me with a dilemma – while it’s absolutely one of my favourite albums of 2024 (as well as one of the most unrelentingly heavy, obnoxiously aggressive albums you’re likely to have heard all year) there’s now no way for me to share it with you, which is why, ultimately, I’ve had to relegate it to an “Honourable Mention”.

If you’ve heard it, of course, you’ll know exactly why I love it, and if you haven’t… well, hopefully it will one day reappear, in one form or another!

10. MACHUKHA – MOCHARI

Let me tell you something, for whatever reason my list this year is absolutely dominated by new discoveries… which I actually think is pretty exciting, as there’s so much good stuff coming out that we/I don’t have to just rely on the same old favourites.

Case in point, back in July I wrote this about the debut album by German-based Black Metal belligerents Machukha (who, as I’ve since discovered, are the new home of ex-Endless Shade vocalist Natalia Androsova):

On songs like the opening blaze of blast-furnace fury that is “Trymatys’”, the savage Blackened Hardcore sturm und drang of “Bezpliddya” and the seething “Kvit” the group put it all on the line with some of the most cathartic vocals, electrifying riffs, and blisteringly intense (yet also impressively creative) drums I’ve heard so far this year.

But there’s more than meets the eye (or ear) to Mochari than that, as demonstrated by the moodier, more Post-Black Metal leaning strains of “Dykhay” (especially during its minimalist second half) and the sombre, almost cinematic, slow-burn of closer “Nezrushnist’”, while the brooding ambience of “Inodi Padaye Snih Tak Lahidno Krizʹ Sosnovu Khvoyu” and the bloodstained atmospherics of “Tsyu tayemnytsyu duzhe vazhko berehty” effectively form one long-form, shadow-drenched centrepiece to the album.

09. SANTACREU – CANC​̧​ONS D’AMOR, DOL I ENYORAN​Ç​A

Possibly the first, and possibly only, album we’ve ever written about that’s sung – in a sombre, soul-stirring voice overflowing with loss and longing – entirely in Catalan, Canc​̧​ons d’Amor, Dol i Enyoran​ç​a picks up the baton from latter-day Isis and add an even more melancholy, ambient melodicism into the mix (one that’s at least spiritually, if not sonically, kin to the likes of Anathema, Katatonia, et al) to create one of the most striking (and strikingly underrated/underappreciated) debuts of 2024,

I think I summed up the album’s allure pretty well in my review:

With a title which translates to “Songs of Love, Sorrow and Longing”, you could probably guess that Canc​̧​ons d’Amor… is an album which wears its emotions out on its sleeve.

And, from the moment that the slow-burn intro of “L’Absència” crests the horizon, all the way through to the final fading notes of colossal closer “L’Ascensió”, it’s painfully, poignantly, clear that Santacreu have put their entire heart and soul into this record.

08. DUHKHA – A PLACE YOU CAN’T COME BACK FROM

Wielding some of the most massive riffs of 2024 – coupled to some truly gargantuan grooves – Duhkha‘s debut album hit me so fucking hard back in August that the bruises are only just starting to fade now.

Essentially answering the hitherto unasked question “what if Meshuggah had started out as a Hardcore band instead of Thrash?”, the album’s devastatingly down-tuned riffs (and equally hefty, low-slung bass-lines) definitely make this one of the heaviest, heftiest records of the year in my opinion (and the last twelve months haven’t exactly been lacking in heaviness by any means), and what the blastbeat-and-breakdown driven drums may lack in terms of calculated, mathe-metallic complexity they more than make up for in punishing, unparalleled power.

At the same time, however, the band’s subtle use of sinister pseudo-melody at key moments, coupled with the primal hookiness of their songwriting, simply proves what I said in my original review:

“[That] this album is more than just an amateur beatdown… it’s a targeted assault by a bunch of professionals who’ve been paid very well to hurt you as thoroughly as possible.”

07. DOODSESKADER – YEAR TWO

If you’ve been reading through my previous list articles (I refuse to call them “listicles”) you should have been expecting this one to appear (after all, I haven’t exactly been subtle about my love for the band’s genre-blending Industrial Hip-Hop Sludge Punk sound).

Combining heavy doses of both Amenra and Aphex Twin, Neurosis and Nine Inch Nails, all garnished with a dash of Deftones and a stiff shot of Godflesh, and then thrown into a blender along with hefty helpings of Death Grips, dälek, and Run the Jewels, the resultant amalgamation is undoubtedly as stupidly divisive as it is almost disgustingly catchy, with the sneering, snotty nihilism of the lyrics and the swaggering, spiteful antagonism of the vocals being either the cherry on top, or the final nail in the coffin – depending on your reaction – when it comes to the band’s fearless, fuck you attitude.

But, like I said at the time:

“Whatever you call it, the pair’s instantly-recognisable blend of banging dance-floor fillers and pounding mosh-pit killers is absolutely guaranteed to stand-out, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it appearing as a dark-horse entry on at least a few year-end lists come December.”

06. TENUE – ARCOS, BÓVEDAS, PÓRTICOS

Allow me, if you will, to begin by quoting from my review of this particular album (originally published in early September):

This year, for me at least, has been full of welcome surprises and new discoveries that don’t fit neatly into any one particular box or genre – and while Tenue are not a new band (Arcos, b​ó​vedas, p​ó​rticos is in fact their third proper release) their multi-faceted mix of Crust, Black Metal, Prog, and Post-Hardcore is definitely new to me (but has quickly become a firm favourite).

As you can tell, Arcos, b​ó​vedas, p​ó​rticos has remained a favourite of mine ever since (hence it’s inclusion in my “Personal Top Ten”) and the reasons for why should be pretty obvious.

After all, there have been few albums this year to possess such an electrifying sense of unrelenting urgency, with every seething tremolo riff and booming, crashing chord, every hammering rhythm and barrage of heart-racing blastbeats, practically crackling with energy as they pour from the speakers.

It’s the album’s more emotive and introspective moments – as achingly vulnerable as the rest of the record is aggressively visceral – which provide an even clearer look into the soul of the group, however, revealing that Tenue are a band who truly put all of themselves into their music, without restraint or regret.

05. MIND MOLD – EROSIVE

I’ve intimated more than a few times this week that 2024 has been one hell of a year for the more dissonant and atmospheric side of the Death Metal spectrum, with the likes of Hecatoncheir, Devenial Verdict, and Resin Tomb all ending up on the short-list for my “Personal Top Ten” (with the latter in particular coming very close to making the final cut).

But I seem to have been one of a very small number of people to have discovered the doom-laden delights of Canada’s Mind Mold and their dissonantly-infectious debut album, Erosive.

The slower, almost suffocating, pace of this album – especially when compared with the majority of the band’s peers (Ulcerate, who you’ll be hearing more about shortly, being the obvious exception) – played a major role in helping it stand out, from my perspective anyway, with the band clearly aiming to craft a more ominous and claustrophobic sound which relies more on slowly-building tension and asphyxiating atmosphere than abrasive intensity.

That’s not to say there aren’t moments, scattered here and there, where the band allow themselves to cut loose in cataclysmically cathartic fashion, but for the most part I think you’ll be surprised by just how mournfully melodic this album is, despite its constant, crushing heaviness.

04. ƁLÓÐ – MARA

One thing you may have noticed is that, so far anyway, my personal preferences this year seem pretty evenly split between blazing energy and smothering darkness… and I’ll give you one guess which side of that divide Mara falls on.

Blistered, blackened, and drenched in bloody horror, the grim, grinding guitars of Ulrich Wegrich churn out their demonic, doom-laden dirges and hellish, haunting harmonies as if compelled by some unholy, inhuman force, with the songs themselves shifting seamlessly back and forth between monstrous, unforgiving heaviness and moody, mesmerising ambience in such a masterful way that I can’t help but wonder if the band haven’t made some sort of terrible, Faustian bargain in order to possess such a devilish gift for contrast and dynamic, as every teasing flash of melody or subtle atmospheric embellishment only serves to make the rest of the record feel even harsher and heavier in comparison.

But it’s the vocals of Anna Lynn Wegrich – equally capable of playing the sinister, yet seductive siren as she is transforming into a howling harbinger of death and destruction – which perhaps leave the biggest impression, as her appearance here is undoubtedly one of the most expressive, evocative, and emotionally-scarring performances of the year.

03. EYE EATER – ALIENATE

Dissonant Death Metal infused with Tech Death, Deathcore, and Blackened elements/influences, Eye Eater‘s debut was one that I predicted would likely make another appearance come the end of the year, so you shouldn’t be all that shocked to see it here (especially given my admitted preference for darkly dissonant delights).

Let’s take a look at what I wrote about the album back in July, shall we?

“Alienate clearly owes as much to the likes of Black Tongue and Humanity’s Last Breath as it does Ulcerate and Meshuggah, with moments like the choppy rhythmic climax of the title-track, the massive, down-tuned chords and chiming harmonics of “To Wish Death Upon Us All”, and the elasticated riffs and pneumatic percussive patterns which dominate the second half of “Failure Artefacts”, all exemplifying the band’s cutting edge fusion of styles.

But while the heaviness and aggression levels are frequently pushed all the way into the red, it’s actually the group’s more melodic digressions and frequent use of atmosphere-enhancing negative space which turn out to be the most important aspect of the band’s darkly dynamic sound.”

Now doesn’t that sound like something you’ll want to listen to (if you haven’t done already)?

02. ULCERATE – CUTTING THE THROAT OF GOD

There’s one big name – and one big name only – on my list this year, and from the moment that “To Flow Through Ashen Hearts” comes crawling out of the speakers like a creeping, all-consuming stream of molten magma, devouring and destroying everything in its path, to the final, seething bars of the scorching title-track, it’s obvious just why Ulcerate had to be here.

Focussing even more on ominous oppressive atmosphere and slow-burning dread, the band’s seventh album is undoubtedly the moodiest – and, dare I say, most melodic – of their career, yet still possesses that same sense of burning, volcanic rage and rumbling, richter-scale shaking intensity.

And while every member of the terrible trio continues to put in a career-best performance – Michael Hoggard’s instantly recognisable brand of viscerally textured, dissonantly infectious riffage melding seamlessly with the undulating bass work of Paul Kelland (whose gargantuan growl continues to feel like standing in front of an open blast-furnace), beneath which drumming wunderking Jamie St. Merat delivers yet another dizzyingly hypnotic, dervish-like performance – it’s the superior songwriting and sense of dynamic which makes this, in my opinion at least, the band’s best and most complete work since The Destroyers of All.

Make no mistake, this album has gotten into my head and under my skin like few others this year, and seems likely to stay there for a long, long time.

01. GIVER – THE FUTURE HOLDS NOTHING BUT CONFRONTATION

Back in September I wrote:

“…keep an eye out towards the end of the year, because if there’s one thing I’m sure that the future holds for this album it’s that it’s definitely going to be making another appearance in December as one of my favourite records of 2024.”

And, wouldn’t you know it, my prediction came true, because not only did The Future Holds Nothing But Confrontation end up taking a slot in my “Personal Top Ten”, it also earned itself a spot right at the very top!

Equal parts “Metallic”, “Melodic”, and “Post-” Hardcore, and sharing strands of DNA with everyone from Thrice and Shai Hulud to Darkest Hour and Downfall of Gaia, the band’s thrilling third album is full to the brim with righteously angry, angst-ridden anthems which have their hearts on their sleeves and their fists in the air.

Not only is there some seriously hefty riffage to be found here – as well as some absolutely breathtaking bursts of blastbeats – but this is one amazingly hooky (and also subtly proggy, despite the tight, concise crafting of the album’s eleven songs, most of which clock in between two and four minutes) record, especially when it comes to the vocals (which juxtapose clean and harsh tones, and everything in between, and always seem to know when to switch between them for maximum effect).

I could say more, as every track just feels more vital and vibrant than the last, but ultimately this is one of those albums which simply connected with me, instantly, on a fundamental level, and just seems to get better and better with each and every listen.