LISTMANIA BEGINS: THE DECIBEL TOP 40 FOR 2024

(written by Islander)

Well, holy shit, is it already time to begin our site’s annual LISTMANIA orgy? Lo and behold, it is.

It has become an annual (and reflexive) tradition at our putrid site to launch our year-end LISTMANIA orgy with the appearance of DECIBEL mag’s Top 40 list, because they always seem to burst from the starting gate sooner than anyone else — and they’ve done it again this year, even earlier than they did in 2023.

I need to repeat, of course, that the reason we also use their list as the launching point for all of our own forthcoming YE features is because, in my humble opinion, DECIBEL is still the best print publication out there for fans of extreme metal. Their list also always generates healthy discussions (and sometimes unhealthy ones), so it’s still a fitting way to launch the latest LISTMANIA season apart from the list’s early-bird status.

The DECIBEL 2024 list will officially appear in the magazine’s January 2024 edition (with Cirith Ungol on the cover), which hasn’t yet hit my own mailbox, but DECIBEL again decided (for the tenth year in a row) to scoop their own list rather than letting leeches like me leak it. They published the list on-line yesterday, and so I can now again re-publish their list without too much guilt, beyond the sheepishness that comes from being one of the factors that forced them to start outing themselves in the first place.

This year I’ll again start by quoting part of DECIBEL honcho Albert Mudrian‘s online introduction, to place the list in context

To those of you searching for grievance, please know that it doesn’t have to be like that. If a record you loved isn’t featured in the following 14 pages, its exclusion is not a personal affront to you. Conversely, if any album you absolutely loathe appears, it doesn’t render the list an abject failure. A more likely conclusion is that arriving at consensus between nearly three dozen contributors spanning six decades of metal fandom is, to put it mildly, an imperfect exercise. But after reading our list, you still can’t control your bodily functions, this may interest you.

Still, there is almost certainly a record in our Top 40 that you haven’t heard that is about to become one of your favorite albums of 2024. I’m sure it will feel pretty good when you tweet at us, “WTF Decibel, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?” Apologies in advance.

Once again, I’m not going to complain. I know that anyone’s list is necessarily a reflection of their personal tastes, and it would be a minor miracle if anyone else’s personal tastes matched my own. There’s also the fact that I never make a year-end list of my own (other than the infectious song list, which just goes on and on and on). It’s kind of hypocritical to publicly take pot-shots at other people’s lists when you’re not willing (or in my case mentally unable) to put your own out there.

But on top of that, this year I do like a lot of what’s on DECIBEL‘s list, though I’m also (as always) perplexed by some of the choices and rankings. For now, I’ll repeat what I write every year about year-end lists and why our site includes not only those of our own writers but also (like this one) lists that appear on prominent platforms elsewhere:

“Year-end lists continue to serve several useful purposes. One, of course, is to introduce fans to albums they may have overlooked. I also know people who don’t buy much music during the year and actually wait to read year-end rankings before preparing their shopping lists. And, perhaps most obviously, they give us something to discuss and argue about. Because apparently we don’t have enough to argue about already, even within a viciously polarized society in which yelling about something (anything) seems to be the daily past-time of millions.

“Of course it’s easy to argue over year-end lists. No matter who compiles them, they’re going to leave out albums you think should be included, they’re going to include albums you don’t think belong, and they’re going to screw up the rankings. I mean, that’s a given, isn’t it? As I’ve mentioned, the only list that could possibly satisfy any individual fan from start to finish is the one they make for themselves.”

To get back to this year’s DECIBEL list, I’m less perplexed than usual, because I like almost all the albums I see there that I’ve heard, and more so than in most years, I’ve heard parts or all of nearly every album on the list; and at this site we’ve written ourselves about a great many of them.

I thought about being specific about the few quibbles I have concerning names on the list and the more quibbles I have about the ranking order, but I decided not to bother doing that this year.

Instead, I’ll remind you that, as always, our own LISTMANIA series will include some additional lists from so-called “big platform” sites as they surface, plus lists by our own writers and a few guests, and then that infectious song list I mentioned above.

But the first thing I’m going to do next is something I was too busy to do last year in a timely manner and then completely forgot about: Put together the “wrap up” post for our 2023 LISTMANIA series! With links to everything we posted in last year’s orgy.

And with that, here’s the DECIBEL Top 40 for 2024. Feel free to give us your reactions in the comments.

 

40 Anciients, Beyond the Reach of the Sun, Season of Mist

39 Departure Chandelier, Satan Soldier of Fortune, Nuclear War Now

38 Oranssi Pazuzu, Muuntautuja, Nuclear Blast

37 Darkthrone, It Beckons Us All ……., Peaceville

36 Yoth Iria, Blazing Inferno, Edged Circle

35 Vicious Blade, Relentless Force, Redefining Darkness

34 High on Fire, Cometh the Storm, MNRK

33 Deceased, Children of the Morgue, Hells Headbangers

32 Oxygen Destroyer, Guardian of the Universe, Redefining Darkness

31 Midnight, Hellish Expectations, Metal Blade

30 Lucifer, Lucifer V, Century Media

29 Paysage d’Hiver, Die Berge, Kunsthall Produktionen

28 Glacial Tomb, Lightless Expanse, Prosthetic

27 Chat Pile, Cool World, The Flenser

26 Apparition, Disgraced Emanations from a Tranquil State, Profound Lore

25 Nails, Every Bridge Burning, Nuclear Blast

24 Hellbutcher, Hellbutcher, Metal Blade

23 Black Curse, Burning in Celestial Poison, Sepulchral Voice

22 The Black Dahlia Murder, Servitude, Metal Blade

21 Full of Hell, Coagulated Bliss, Closed Casket

20 Undeath, More Insane, Prosthetic

19 Dödsrit, Nocturnal Will, Wolves of Hades

18 Opeth, The Last Will and Testament, Reigning Phoenix Music

17 Terminal Nation, Echoes from the Devil’s Den, 20 Buck Spin

16 Ulcerate, Cutting the Throat of God, Debemur Morti Productions

15 Spectral Voice, Sparagmos, Dark Descent

14 Ripped to Shreds, Sanshi, Relapse

13 200 Stab Wounds, Manual Manic Procedures, Metal Blade

12 Hulder, Verses in Oath, 20 Buck Spin

11 Mother of Graves, The Periapt of Absence, Profound Lore

10 Necrot, Lifeless Birth, Tankcrimes

9 Inter Arma, New Heaven, Relapse

8 Julie Christmas, Ridiculous and Full of Blood, Red Crk

7 Gatecreeper, Dark Superstition, Nuclear Blast

6 Tzompantli, Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force, 20 Buck Spin

5 Tribulation, Sub Rosa In Æternum, Century Media

4 Judas Priest, Invincible Shield, Sony

3 Spectral Wound, Songs of Blood and Mire, Profound Lore

2 Blood Incantation, Absolute Everywhere, Century Media

1 Crypt Sermon, The Stygian Rose, Dark Descent