(written by Islander)
This year I was able to pick up my tradition of gathering a list of the last year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs, having been unable to do that last year (though Vizzah Harri picked up the baton I dropped for songs from 2023). In compiling my list of infectious songs from 2024, I wound up with 69 songs before forcing myself to stop at the end of January. (Yuck it up, but I promise that number was coincidental.) That was just a tad more than the 66 songs on my list for 2022.
Of course, I really wasn’t finished when I stopped. A lot of candidates just as worthy as those 69 were left by the wayside when I hit the wall — as witnessed by a couple of posts that got added the week after. For the first time that I can recall, both DGR and Andy Synn created their own addenda to my list. In one fell swoop, DGR added 70 songs, though there was a small overlap with my own list. Andy added 10 that weren’t on my list or DGR‘s.
Knowing that those addenda were coming, I delayed putting together a wrap-up post with links to all the songs I picked. And then after we published those addenda I forgot about the wrap-up — until yesterday. And so now you have it.
As always, putting together the list was both fun and stressful — fun to re-listen to lots of good music and get reminded of what a good year it was for metal, stressful because list-making of any kind is so difficult for me. Also as usual, my list didn’t cover the entire waterfront of metal genres, given the limitations of my own (still very expansive) tastes, but those addenda helped make the 2024 list an even better snapshot of just how much variety and quality 2024 produced.
Below you will find links to Parts 1 through 22 of my list as they appeared over time before I called a halt at the end of January, and of course the names of all 66 songs. And at the end you’ll see links to DGR and Andy‘s addenda.
I do want to thank everyone who suggested songs for the list, from the readers who left so many good recommendations in the Comments on this post last November to several of my NCS colleagues.
PART 1
Darkthrone – The Bird People of Nordland
Crypt Sermon – Heavy Is the Crown of Bone
Dödsrit – Irjala
PART 2
Alta Rossa – Fields of Solar Flames
Candy – Dehumanize Me
Blackevil – Divine Forest
PART 3
High On Fire – Burning Down
Mandroid of Krypton – The Waltz of Death
Acid Magus – Emperor
PART 4
Gaerea – Coma
Groza – Asbest
Dewfall – Fara
Dizziness – Smoulder Dun
PART 5
The Monolith Deathcult – The Demon Who Makes Trophies of Men
Warlust – Black Souls
Urfeind – Weaving the Abyss
PART 6
Calcarata – Heilung
Polemicist – The Ambition and the Wrath
PART 7
Job For A Cowboy – The Sun Gave Me Ashes so I Sought Out the Moon
Spectral Wound – At Wine-Dark Midnight in the Mouldering Halls
PART 8
Ulcerate – To See Death Just Once
Solstafir – Blakkrakki
Everto Signum – Wyvern
PART 9
DÖ – Nuclear Emperor
Necrophobic – Stormcrow
Necrowretch – Numidian Knowledge
PART 10
Ottone Pesante – Battle of Qadesh
Killing Spree – Camouflage!
Ponte Del Diavolo – Nocturnal Veil
PART 11
Opeth – §4
Borknagar – Summits
PART 12
Benighted – Morgue
Bat – Rite for Exorcism
Cell Press – Original Uranium Baby
I Am the Intimidator – Gasoline
PART 13
Hippotraktor – Stasis
Ten Ton Slug – The Ooze
Ihsahn – The Promethean Spark
PART 14
Brodequin – Harbinger of Woe
Wormed – Aetheric Transdimensionalization
Konkhra – Sad Plight of Lucifer
PART 15
Kanonenfieber – Waffenbrüder
Bloodcross – Warbeasts
Darkened – Defilers of the Light
PART 16
Paysage D’Hiver – Urgrund
Merrimack – Sublunar Despondency
Akvan – Aryan Fire
PART 17
Disentomb – No God Unconquered
Weston Super Maim – Autistic Kill Trance
Hyperdontia – Death’s Embrace
PART 18
Thy Catafalque – Vasgyár
Hail Spirit Noir – Curse You, Entropia
Sear Bliss – Chasm
PART 19
Spider God – Starcrüsher
Summoning Saturn Voids – Nihil Re-Genesis
The Bleak Picture – Meaningless Nonsense
PART 20
Sinistro – Elegia
Man’s Gin – One Man Down
Devin Townsend – Jainism
Yovel – Corpses On Leave
PART 21
Fleshgod Apocalypse – Bloodclock
Vitriol – Shame and Its Afterbirth
Defeated Sanity – The Odour of Sanctity
Convulsing – Gossamer Pall
PART 22
Lostrégos – Auga – Ondas Serpeantes
Hoplites – Συμμιαινόμεναι Διονύσῳ Ἐλευθέριῳ
Cantique Lépreux – Rivières Rompues
Mefitis – Vire’s Arc
Beehive Revolt – The Quiet Death of Samuel Perkins