OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: THE DGR ADDENDUMB

(Last week Islander finished his month-long list of 2024’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. It included 69 songs in all. Today DGR has provided an addendum. It includes… 70 SONGS! Though there is some small overlap with Islander‘s list.)

At the time this article is being published we’ll have drawn our Most Infectious Songs of 2024 rollout to a close. There are likely a handful of questions surrounding how such a list gets put together or why I am once again exhuming the corpse of 2024 for a few more stick-whackins that are swirling around your mind.

To put it bluntly, the idea of doing an addendum to the 2024 song list was offered to me by the NoCleanSinging head honcho, in part due to a desire for differing opinions from his own but also to highlight, once again, just how wide the spread of music was in the 2024 world of heavy metal and just how much you’re likely to miss no matter how much you try to keep up. It’s fucking impossible.

Originally, this was just going to be an Andy shindig as a sort of quick “here’s a few more that might’ve been overlooked,” but then I was asked to contribute as well so I thought it might be a fun exercise to peel the curtain back a bit and show just how much the internet cabal decides who is going to break through and be famous this year.

The answer is, simply put, “fuck all”.

I purposefully keep my distance from the infectious song list outside of putting forth recommendations each year because I feel like an outsider’s look at the music I enjoy has value, and if the honcho and I manage to cross paths then maybe that song was actually worth something. You’ll note, of course, the direction that the 2024 song list took isn’t fully reflective of the music here, but that’s also because that list is meant to provide a snapshot of our leader’s personal taste. Hence why I tend to be pretty hands-off when it comes to it.

Whenever I find myself being cited there, it’s because I managed to basically land one, but you’ll note upon reading that my batting average is shit-awful. I am very much ensconced in a world of grind, death metal, tech-death, industrial, and various prefix-core offshoots with the occasional avant-garde madness that manages to capture my attention, and our editor, however, prefers his stuff mostly in the black metal realm – you’ll note quite a few of the suspects on our infectious list also made appearances in the Shades of Black columns – or stuff so bestial that the musicans within refer to themselves as shit like ‘Voidscarred Gravesinger Of The Fallen Wastes’, ‘Necrotic Warlust Of The Perlite And Bone Meal Combination For Eventual Harvent’, or ‘Sineater Borne Of The Ever-Barren Exothermal Womb’, because ‘Daniel Wolscjek’, ‘Jacob Gothard’, and ‘Pirated Copy Of EZ-Drummer’ don’t quite have that infernal ring to it that they might be looking for.

Constructing recommendations isn’t easy by any means, so what I’ve done every year that I’m asked for my contribution, to later be tossed into the garbage disposal, is basically pull the bones out of the completed creature of my year-end list and drill down to one song each. It allows me to also include bands that I would’ve otherwise kept on the bubble, as well as the yearly guilty pleasures. Hence, there’s a lot more than fifty songs here vs my actual year-end list, and so in order to avoid getting sucked past the event-horizon of last year once again, these will largely be commentary ‘free’.

I’ll do my best to keep it to two or three sentences why a specfic track got its claws in me unless I find myself on some strange tangent or observation that won’t leave my brain. I’m also using this as a way to break up the January review slate so that I’m not constantly staring blank-faced at one particular paragraph wondering aloud “What the fuck am I going to say now?”. So if you see a lot of shared metaphor between this and the eventual EP and album reviews as they surface, that’s why.

Also, good on you for connecting the dots. I’m sure a pair of blue and pink dogs as well as Salt, Pepper, and Paprika are going to be very proud of you.

I reiterate, though, these are unranked. The organization, though, is a neat snapshot of the eventual pile of bones from which I scryed the final top fifty that I vomited forth back in December.

 

Kruelty – Bloodless Mankind – Kruelty’s latest is four songs that are equally as mean as anything that appeared on their most recent album. To be honest, I could’ve chosen anything on there via dart thrown at a wall and probably landed with a good one. “Bloodless Mankind” won out partially based on name alone but also because it struck a solid balance between a tripartate battle between mean, grindy, and boulder-stupid death metal.

Sacramento – The Raven – Sacramento were a late as fuck discovery as evidenced by the fact that they were reviewed early in 2025 instead. Too late to make a year-end list but maybe I could sneak them on to the Most Infectious. Probably struck out there but I will vouch for “The Raven”, which lay in the middle of their release Four Nails. It’s one of the more teeth-baring songs on the release and one of a few that transcends past tantrum-throwing grind song and into something far more dangerous.

Merrimack – Sublunar Despondency – This one made the list. Surprisingly difficult to nominate one here for Merrimack given that the album is essentially four or five massive cauldrons of black metal with a couple of haunting interstitial segments to break things up. “Sublunar Despondency” was one of their lead-off singles as well but also a pretty solid representative of their latest as a whole.

Nails – I Can’t Turn it Off – Nails were on the bubble the entire time I was writing my year-end list only to sneak in right at the end. I’ve always got room in my heart for stupidly confrontational grind, and something as straightforward as “I Can’t Turn It Off” won out on that front. It feels a little like saying ‘play more like your last album’, which is the antithesis of the artistic evolution that the band went through, but on a more personal front at least it felt less exclusionary than most of their tough-guy stuff, and also any time they’re in the Nasum/Rotten Sound sandbox, I tend to enjoy them the most.

Mental Torment – DYM – Ukraine’s Mental Torment deserve points for being one of the few doom bands I was able to stand making time for this year without finding myself doing the cold calculus of ‘I could probably jam three or four death metal records in this time’. “DYM” is an enthralling song but also one where Mental Torment make a great impression of their cavernous death metal side as well as the set for stage dramaticism of their murk-laden doom.

Obscura Qalma – Ophidian’s Enthronement – Speaking of drama, the big sweeping nature of symphonic death metal will always grab my ear, and even when I can recognize every moving gear of that machine it’ll still make for an easy listen. Veils Of Transcendence is an EP of course, so again, the scant selection makes for ‘easy pickins’ but “Ophidian’s Enthronement” took the title here.

Carrion Vael – In The Words Of Grimm – “In The Words Of Grimm” is the opening song to Carrion Vael’s latest album and it is also the one that lays the blueprint down for the pyrotechnic tech-death showcase that the whole release is. Yes, influences are clear on this band but the song itself acting as if a festival dance performed in a flurry was enough to make it something of a showstopper.

Interloper – A Forgotten Loss – This one made the cut on the main list so I won’t dive too deep here. The title track from an album of impressive and intricate progressive metalcore hybridization.

Carnosus – Worm Charmer – Another of the high-speed hair-on-fire tech-death crews that owe something of a debt to bands like The Black Dahlia Murder. “Worm Charmer” is a quick-knife fight of a song that moves with the speed of explosive det-cord once lit.

Opeth – ß4 – Opeth made the cut with this one though I’m sure the song chosen was a surprise. For me, it was because this is the one that the album as a whole turns on. It lays out the whole scandalous affair plotwise, which means that musically it is the most varied in terms of tempo and style changes, encompassing the mass of vocal work that The Last Will And Testament had to offer as a whole. Really, what impressed the most was the closing clean-sung segment, which had to be the strongest and most earnest Mikael sounded over the course of the album.

Defeated Sanity – Condemned To Vascular Famine – A late addition to the overall list, this one almost made the cut but any song off of their latest album would’ve worked. Like many of the songs on Defeated Sanity’s latest, “Condemned To Vascular Famine” is a musical whirlwind that keeps its brutal-death and slam genre call right at the forefront, but never sticks to one particular riff long enough for someone to truly be able to groove to it without snapping their neck.

The Black Dahlia Murder – Panic Hysteric – “Panic Hysteric” is one of the most Black Dahlia as hell Black Dahlia Murder songs on Servitude, which feels a little hypocritical on my part by nominating it as if I were holding a “FIX OLD NO NEW” sign. Yet it felt good hearing these guys rip through a song like this.

Persefone – One Word – “One Word” is kind of a cheap pick but I felt that it being central to the Lingua Ignota EP as a whole and it existing as a musical crossroad for all of their ideas was a good enough call to sneak it in.

Lamentari – Appugno – I found myself appreciating Lamentari’s clearly lofty ambitions more and more as the year went on, as well as the dynamics of their release Ex Umbra In Lucem. The black and death metal hybridization as well as a helping of backing orchestration is ‘made for DGR’ style music, and among them were some solid face-crushers. Case in point: “Appugno”, which arrives mid-way through the album to shock people back to life after a few mid-tempo explorations of the dark. I nominated it partially as a hero for helping to pick things back up a bit but also because the song itself has some really interesting crashing and jarring riff work mid-way through the song, as if Lamentari decided to add orchestral scoring to the sound of a car-crash for about thirty seconds before yanking things back into the song’s overall guitar lead melody.

Trail Of Tears – Blood Red Halo – I would be remiss without bringing up Trail Of Tears’ comeback EP Winds Of Disdain at some point. Replete with revitalized and new lineup, the EP had some interesting twists and turns and plenty of future promises for where the Trail Of Tears crew could march forward. Hopefully, it includes some of the bludgeoningly stupid heaviness of a song like “Blood Red Halo” in the mix.

Mastiff – Void – One of the more mean songs on an impressively grimy and mean album. You don’t walk away from Mastiff’s latest feeling good about yourself, and this confrontational and noisy spasm of sound disguised as music is largely responsible.

Frontierer – Wearing Hell – Given the mouthful that is the full title of Frontierer’s late-December EP and the fact that I just reviewed the thing not long ago, it probably doesn’t shock that a song like “Wearing Hell” has continued to have its claws in me. “Wearing Hell” is as abrasive as Frontierer have gotten so far, with each release seeming to dive further into a sneering sort of ‘fuck you, I’ll show you approachable’ style of songwriting. The Skull Burner Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept as a whole isn’t that long of an experience but holy hell will the EP feel like it has slammed into you with the force of a freight train by the time you’re done. Songs like “Wearing Hell” only contribute to that overall sense.

Bloomdream – Blackwater – This is a song that will likely be a huge curveball vs everything we’ve listed here so far but it earned high marks – as did the album as a whole – for being a whole lot of directed emotion and passion powering one specific jam on their overall release.

Fit For An Autopsy – Lower Purpose – Fit For An Autopsy putting out an album of fairly-levelheaded deathcore was not somehting I had on the 2024 list but there were still some impressive highlight moments on their latest one. “Lower Purpose” was one of those songs and we shouted it out a few times across the site when we covered it, so it tended to stick around mentally long after the final excursion into 2024.

Ghostheart Nebula – Infinite Mirror – A gorgeous and lush doom track from a late-in-the-year album that will hopefully grab more attention when people have free moments to explore.

Wolfheart – Death Leads The Way – Wolfheart also shot pretty straight as well in 2024, but a career of stubborn consistency has been the band’s hallmark for five albums now. Each one iterates on the disc before it so there is a sense of forward progression, but overall they’re a band you could have a great time with just shuffling all of their collective works around and letting that playlist run. “Death Leads The Way” took the nomination due to how outwardly aggressive it is versus the band’s chosen epic and frozen storytelling paths. It stood as a contrast to their overall disc by just being tradionally heavy vs the soundtrack to ascending a mountain with just bear furs on and an axe in each hand.

Exocrine – Dragon – I appreciated Legend as a whole for being the Exocrine album wherein the group were able to really tie all of their disparate elements together. Granted, that’s a huge amount, so it has the production job of stuffing ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag, but the effort was apparent from the get-go as opposed to having releases that go out of their way to stubbornly insist they’re not iterations on the one just before it. “Dragon” was a showpiece of a song on that disc, which is why I wound up handing it the nomination.

Swallow The Sun – Under The Moon And Sun – Shining is a divisive album for sure but a song like “Under The Moon & Sun” was enough to make you think that maybe Swallow The Sun might’ve been on to something there. A wonderful moment on an album where the stars align just right to show all of the band’s strengths.

Nightrage – Euphoria Within Chaos – Another song wherein there’s always room in my heart for a catchy melodeath riff and a strong chorus, which Nightrage – for all of their moving parts over the years – have been consistent masters of.

Oak, Ash And Thorn – Distant Mountain, Distant Gods – “Distant Mountain, Distant Gods” is a song from Oak, Ash, And Thorn’s latest release that really laid out the band’s format as a whole. There is a lot of ambition in play on this particular song but it is also the one that seemed like the tree of life that their album as a whole was born from. It’s a big song in comparison the rest of the disc but like many of the songs on this list is one where all of their varied elements really fell into place, so it is partially most infectious as the first to come to mind but also one of the ‘best’ songs on the whole for the group.

Wurm Flesh – Defenestration – Three and a half minutes of digusting death metal on an EP that cleared just a hair over ten. An impressive display of brutality and the ‘meatiest’ song on Wurm Flesh’s Teratogenic Malformation release.

Party Cannon – Safety Is Not Priority – While we’re in disgusting land lets discuss Party Cannon’s talent of constantly cutting the floor out from under themselves. This is a band that is insanely talented but purposefully picks the dumbest names possible for its songs just to thumb their nose at people. The titular “Safety Is Not Priority” is an insane display of musicianship all wrapped around some of the most boulder-stupid groove someone could find.

Upon Stone – Onyx Through The Heart – Upon Stone deserve a lot of credit for releasing a disc in the frosty January months and having the album sound like a perpetual blaze. Dead Mother Moon had a ton of melodeath influences but favored the meaner and less glossy side of that particular style. “Onyx Through The Heart” was a shot across the bow in song form and made the strongest overall impression, so I put it up for nomination to see if it would grab new ears alongside my own.

Wheel – The Freeze – I am going to nominate Wheel as many times as I can, even though they’re much more of a progressive rock group than a metal band. The drum performances that’ve come out of their albums alone have been stunning enough to win me over every time. I chose “The Freeze” from Charismatic Leaders for being an expansive number and the closing act/summation of a pretty wide-reaching and rocking disc.

Cognizance – A Brain Dead Memoir – Cognizance’s Phantazein was an unsung hero of 2024 and any time I can shine a spotlight on it, I am going to. Hence why I threw down with “A Brain Dead Memoir”, which is one of the strongest songs on the album overall and one of their career highs musically. This is one where every part of the Cognizance machine clicked perfectly into place and is just humming loud enough to shake foundations. Bent-riff work and wall-of guitar solos abound alongside a piston-like precision on drums and vocals that are just as rapid-fire.

Vitriol – Shame And Its Afterbirth – We made the cut with this one. Vitriol somehow found a way to make things even more intense with “Shame And Its Afterbith”, which is why it left such a huge impression. Beyond the now expected ‘head held inside a blacksmith forge’ level of heat from the band, “Shame And Its Afterbirth” sounds like someone suffering for their art and making the listener suffer with them.

The Infernal Sea – Black Witchery – A rowdy party of a song that is part black metal firestorm, part drunken bar fight complete with an array of knives and broken bottles. “Black Witchery” thrashes things up in an album of otherwise infernal black metal. It arrives as such a surprise within the confines of Helfenlic and its journey through the dark that you can’t help but be taken aback by it the first time it hits with its count-off.

Eternal Storm – A Dim Illusion – I waxed poetic about “A Dim Illusion” quite a bit in my year-end pile wherein Eternal Storm were among the top 20 albums of 2024 for me, so if you want a deeper dive, head there. I nominated this one in part due to it not being as astronomically long as the songs surrounding it – although those were quite worthy on their own – but also due to how dynamic this song was as it progressed through its various movements.

Job For A Cowboy – Grinding Wheels Of Ophanim/The Sun Gave Me Ashes So I Sought Out The Moon – Much like Hideous Divinity later on in this collective I wound up nominating two tracks but that’s because these two songs are the best back-to-back showpiece on Moon Healer. Both are winding wonders of sound that display just as much technical proficiency as they do a taste for musical drama, building tension throughout until the inevitable beating that follows. Between a monstrous drum performance and an impressive bass showcase, the rhythm section ruled all on Moon Healer and these two were the best shot at demonstrating that.

Aborted – Hellbound – This one boiled down to taking the song that sounded the most ferocious on Aborted’s Vault Of Horrors. It’s just as much of a vocal conflagration as it is a song. Of course that’s bound to happen when you involve the animalistic stylings of one of team Cryptopsy in the mix. “Hellbound” transcends sheer spectacle and goes full nuclear. It’s brethren “Insect Politics” right after just serves to hammer that point home.

Benighted – Morgue – One of the more feral numbers from Benighted’s Ekbom. This one made the main list so I’ll keep it short and say it’s got massive grooves, glorious death grind, and a shockingly short and righteously stupid breakdown segment that you almost feel ashamed for having it appeal to you. “Morgue” rules on an album of songs that all crush from the get-go.

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Bloodclock – This one is part of a steak of songs that made the cut at the last minute. Opera is a wild showcase of an album that has Fleshgod performing a surprisingly varied mix of music this time around. It’s multi-faceted in a way that sounds like the group are still scrabbling just a bit to find the next true thing to wrap themselves around musically, but in the meantime the wild experimentaiton that has defined them since Veleno resulted in an interesting concept release with an ass-kicker of a song in “Bloodclock”. “Morphine Waltz” also made a pretty late-play for Most Infectious as well, given the orchestral madness the song is constructed out of. “Matricide” was also a hell of a contender at one point due to it being so different from everything else Fleshgod themselves had issued thus far while also playing out like a mid-era Trail of Tears song.

The Browning – Omni – Every year I have one song way outside of my wheelhouse that I’ve jokingly referred to as ‘whispery girl over techno song’ that hooks its way into my head like no other. I don’t really give a shit who sings it or the artist as a whole but that one particular song gets added to an overall playlist that I’ve had going for a few years now, and I’m up to eight total. Shock of all shocks, The Browning take this exact formula and add a couple of breakdowns and a deathcore progression to it and lo-and-behold it leaps into being one of my ‘most listened to’ songs this year. Granted, it is the tag-team couple – and gosh darnit aren’t they cute – of both the vocalists here that helps “Omni” ascend. They’ve also got a second project titled The Defekt wherein the two tag team but singer Moon is more prominent.

Blood Red Throne – Blade Eulogy – Straightforward and knife sharp, Blood Red Throne wrote a codex death metal with Nonagon and “Blade Eulogy” was your translation keystone.

Borknagar – Summits – “Summits” made the cut from Fall but I reiterate here, that song is so fucking strong it kind of shines the rest of the release, forcing every other song to live in its own mountainous shadow. It’s an expert-level class in building musically, and the final climax of the song is so strong that the sung moments will stick with you long after the song itself wraps up.

Hannes Grossmann – Engraved In Their Shrouds – Hannes Grossmann continues his streak of criminally underrated solo EPs where he gets to fantasy-draft some of the best musicians he’s worked with over the years to make music that is easily as strong as the output of full tech-death bands. Him putting out a career retrospective sort of musical EP just because he felt like exploring it musically is a hell of a move. “Engraved In Their Shrouds” is an impressive and hefty take on his overall sound.

Hideous Divinity – Hair, Dirt, Mud – More Than Many, Never One – Basically a single song split into two. This needs to be taken as one solid trip to see the appeal. Hidous Divinity have a flair for the cinematic, which is a tremedendously high difficulty bar to clear when your sound has been the most overwhelimg of the depth-charge heavy death metal groups out there, yet this was one of the times on Unextinct that really stood out, hence why I’m highlighting the part that you need both to get the true bulldozer effect.

Necrophobic – Stormcrow – Yes, it’s a single, it’s also catchy as fuck. It also made the cut so clearly the ol’ neuorons managed to spark just right this time around. Sometimes, for all of the insistent ‘evil’ that Necrophobic have to them, you just need a solid and galloping drumbeat to carry you all the way into the sky.

The Absence – Vagrant Death – I cheer for The Absence every chance I get for being one of the few American vanguards for a melodeath scene that has largely been the playground of European groups. They’ve been around a long time and their 2024 release was the most ‘raw’ the band had sounded in ages, yet musically it still demonstrated that The Absence were capable of an immense hook to claw into your skull. “Vagrant Death” was one of those songs.

Gaerea – Coma – I picked the title track from Coma based largely on how explosively it introduces itself. Every other song on this release has a sort of quiet despondency and desperation to it before they trek into the tried-and-true mania that has colored many a Gaerea song. “Coma” just bursts out of the gate and throws itself around the room instead.

Thy Shining Curse – Lenore – “Lenore” is an interesting proposition given that it was also a lead-off single for the Thy Shining Curse project, so it has been around a lot longer than the other rituals that were attached to the overall Theurgia experience. However, it is also the one wherein it seems like the ideas that Thy Shining Curse were aiming for truly crystalized. It’s a standout pillar in an album, and so it felt like many of the songs were constructed of similar ilk. The symphonic lines intertwined into the song are subtle enough and the instrumentation hits with the force of sledgehammer.

Darkened – Defilers Of The Light – I figured something from Defilers Of The Light should make it onto the list and felt the title track was a good representative of Darkened’s modernized yet still very rooted in the classic ‘swede-death’ stomp approach to death metal.

Darkend – In Your Multitude – “In Your Multitude” is the closing act of a five-song play that unfolds through Italian symphonic black metal group Darkend’s latest album Viaticum. The group are immensely ambitious and a massive song like this wound up being the most infectious due to how well the group tied its various interal acts together. It has big sweeping changes but it always resolves back around to that mournful main melody no matter which path the Darkend wander down.

My Dying Bride – The Apocalyptist (He Did Not Weep for Me) – Why not give Aaron Stainthorpe’s gothic poetry two shots at making it into the most infectious pile? The album that may have had the My Dying Bride crew side-eyeing and looking slightly displeased with one another had some fantastic tracks within its bounds and the longer breadth of “The Apocalyptist” stood out among the many different takes on the overall My Dying Bride sound.

High Parasite – Let It Fail – Fuck you, try to not sing along with that chorus

The Vision Bleak – Weird Tales – Yes, I will giggle about the fact that this album is just ‘one song’ so I nominated the whole thing for a very, very long time after Most Infectious has wrapped up and I don’t care what you think. This is a goth-metal spectacle filled to the brim with haunted tropes and ghost tales and I love it.

A Night In Texas – Death Protocol – As always, I remain a deathcore dork and A Night In Texas had a solid album that fulfilled the need for guitar-riff-avalanche style music wherein the drummer’s double-bass pedal seems just as important to how the rhythm guitar is written as would the main riffwork. “Death Protocol” is a machine-precise tour through what A Night In Texas has to offer. It hits hard and fast and was one of a handful of songs that I kept in my back pocket throughout the year as an adrenaline shot to the arm to cause me to race through the back part of the day if I started to drag.

Rotting Christ – The Sixth Day – It actually hurt a bit to not have Rotting Christ make my year-end list this year but over time I found that the album, while consistent, was finally a little too much of the same formula for even yours truly – given that they’ve been there for every other release prior. I still did find a handful of solid songs in the overall mix and my review found their album hewing pretty close to Sakis Tolis’ own solo work, which may explain why “The Sixth Day” had such a draw for me because it was one of the songs that seemed to bridge the divide among all his creative endeavors into a brooding yet solid Rotting Christ track.

Convulsing – Gossamer Pall – This one actually made the cut right before the end of the most infectious rollout so you can find many words there in regards to Convulsing’s dark artistry and the intensity that wavers throughout “Gossamer Pall”.

Ulcerate – To See Death Just Once – Ulcerate made it onto the list so I’ll just add that we could’ve picked any song from Cutting The Throat Of God and made a pretty convincing argument, but the mournful atmospherics that hover just out of the sight lines of the expected planet-crushing theatrics that make up an Ulcerate song really made “To See Death Just Once” – not just a fantastic title – stick around in the half dried out and cracked kiddie pool that is the ole noggin.

Hippotraktor – The Indifferent Human Eye – Hippotraktor made the cut for the year-end song list, which I am pleasantly surprised by, but it was a different song than what I suggested. Our editor was drawn to the fantastic title track while I found myself making a pitch for a dark-horse candidate in “The Indifferent Human Eye”. If you’re this deep into my explanations here, you’ll have seen that songs that appear to be fulcrum points of a disc hold a magnetic aura for me, and “The Indifferent Human Eye” is one of those songs. If not just for the opening burying itself deep in a meditative and quiet drift before exploding outwards in a grand rush of sound that culminates in some of the most immensely heavy moments of the song for a brief bit at the end. Plus, again, dark-horse candidates are a lot of fun to try to get added to the final closing ceremony.

Vale Of Pnath – Soul Offering – “Soul Offering” was a lead-off single for Vale Of Pnath’s newest album, and beyond the guitar and light symphonic acrobatics, I found myself consistently drawn to the rapid-fire vocal delivery that was on top of it. It was just as percussive as the drumming but also performed the musical parlor trick of having the music cut for a brief second while the vocals continue to tumble over themselves, and then the music returns to hit just as hard right before its chorus and my god does that work on me every time. Like a toddler watching the same animated musical over and over, that particular move will just launch a song into the stratosphere for me, and “Soul Offering” being as strong as it is to start with, managed to launch itself out into space.

Werewolves – We All Deserve To Be Slaves – Nominating a Werewolves song as I have done every year is an exercise in a combination of goofing off and lunacy. The band have made it a point to have a new disc out every year to see if they can meet a challenge of ten albums in ten years, which results in a lot of songs being of the Werewolves ‘mood’ more so than a display of individuality. However, each album does have three or four tracks that break from the pack either through a slight iteration on the grinding black-metal riff that Werewolves loves so much or by not having one rigid blastbeat be the backbone of the entire thing. Or in some cases, it can be just excessively mean, more than the already tongue firmly through cheek pisstake that the band are already taking with their current incarnation. Such was the case with “We All Deserve To Be Slaves”, which is why I offered it up for the yearly sacrifice to the infectious songs gods.

Wormed – Aetheric Transdimensionalization – This one made the cut, but when I originally submitted this overall list, my only real note to Islander was on this song, and all it said was “lol, good luck”. I still hold to that.

Darkness Everywhere – In Blood They Will Drown – Darkness Everywhere flew under a lot of radars this year and I think that a lot of melodeath fans are making a mistake by glossing over this band. They kept all of their songs sharp, to the point, sleek, and trim on their first full-length release, and a song like “In Blood They Will Drown” is an exercise in influence-worship whilst keeping the teeth bared and ready for any attack.

White Stones – D-Generación – White Stones’ continual transformation into a different beast on every release continued in 2024 and their continued insistence on remaining as bent and warped as possible is a big factor in that. White Stones use a lot of regional and folk melodies as part of their overall formula but rhythmically the songs are always groove-filled yet bizarre and well into the realm of progressive music. ‘D-Generación’ was a fun example of that, wherein the pieces of the White Stones puzzle fit together perfectly.

Dark Tranquillity – Unforgivable – Much of the reason for putting forth Dark Tranquillity is that the group’s album Endtime Signals was an honest surprise for me. It felt good to really enjoy an album vs the usual acknowledgement that ‘yes this is a decent Dark Tranquillity release’ that the past handful have been. But then, I also felt that album just prior was stronger than it had any right to be, so maybe I was just primed and ready to go for the newest. Hence, a song like “Unforgivable” had a really easy time fighting its way through the yearly chaff and into contention for the overall party.

Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish – “Words To live By” – honestly, I just love adding a handful of grind songs to the mix every year. They never make it into the main list, but the idea of a big batch of minute-long and sub-one-minute songs being put forth as serious contenders for ‘infectiousness’ vs the high-energy burnt to a cinder exercise that they usually are always makes me smile.

Fractal Gates – Hyperstate – France’s Fractal Gates and their combination of progressive metal and keyboard-heaavy melodeath awash in galaxy-spanning atmospherics has resulted in some immense and interesting releases over the years. Fractal Gates love to write a gigantic song and thus every release becomes a journey unto itself. It’s hard to pick a single song while recommending them sometimes, but “Hyperstate” managed to leave such a sizable impact crater that I felt good at least making a soft pitch for it to make the most infectious list, alas.

Disentomb – No God Unconquered – Disentomb made the cut. This EP is inordinantly heavy and I loved their attempts at exploring their sound from different angles within each of its four tracks. Any one of those could be a promising seed from which a new album may sprout. Whatever they run with is going to rend entire valleys to dust.

Schammasch – Your Waters Are Bitter – My number one album this year, with its mystical transcendence of the Schammasch formula and the magnetic songwriting alongside it, resulted in a grouping of gorgeous songs that I have been undertaking long since the album’s release. “Your Waters Are Bitter” is jammed to the brim with climactic moments but also does a good job continuing to weave threads for its musical brethren to follow, as well as tying up previous motifs. It is part song and part ‘next chapter in a book’. It also contained the many exaltations of ‘Old Ocean’ that winds their way through the second Maldoror Chants release, and for some reason, just about anytime frontman C.S.R saw fit to utter the words ‘OLD OCEAN’ it hit me right in the fun chemicals part of the brain – “I Hail You, Old Ocean” at the end of the album was almost orgasmic in this respect.

This disc is fantastic and this song, as well as the way it legitimately spills over into its follower “They Have Found Their Master”, was one of the many ways Schammasch’s latest wound its way around my brainstem.

Shit, I might’ve just mini-reviewed the album again.