OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 17): DISENTOMB, WESTON SUPER MAIM, HYPERDONTIA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 242025
 

(written by Islander)

Welcome to Part 17 of this still-expanding list, which ends this week’s rollout and paves the way toward one final sequence next week. I again had an idea of why I thought these three songs would fit together. It’s not that they’re all the same (far from it), but I still detected some kinship among them: an amalgamation of brute-force brutishness and other manifestations of head-scrambling extravagance.

In case you haven’t explored the songs in the preceding 16 Parts, you can find all of them via this link.

DISENTOMB

We didn’t get a new Disentomb album last year, but we did get a very arresting EP named Nothing Above. It was the subject of an Andy Synn review, and another review by DGR in the context of him putting the EP on his year-end list. I’ll excerpt from both: Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 16): PAYSAGE D’HIVER, MERRIMACK, AKVAN

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 232025
 

(written by Islander)

The unifying theme that explains the grouping of today’s three selections for this list is… black metal… but although they all fit under that large and ever-expanding genre tent, each is quite different from the others.

To explore the songs laid out in the preceding 15 Parts of the list, go here.

PAYSAGE D’HIVER

In Part 6 of this list I included a song by Calcarata that I was confident was the longest song I’ve ever picked for one of these lists in the 16 years I’ve been doing them. That song was 17 minutes long. But today I’m starting with one that’s even longer, the 18+ minute opening track from Paysage D’Hiver‘s monumental 2024 album Die Berge. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 15): KANONENFIEBER, BLOODCROSS, DARKENED

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 222025
 

(written by Islander)

Continuing on with my plan to group songs in most of the remaining installments of this list in ways that make sense to me, today’s Part 15 includes three tracks from three very good 2024 albums that are highly propulsive, and all of them would fit into my weekly SHADES OF BLACK column, even though the last band is usually classified as death metal.

Also, all three album covers gives places of prominence to… skeletons.

The albums that house these songs are also records from which I easily could have picked different tracks for the list, which is one reason (among others) why they were so good. So I won’t be surprised if any of you would have made other picks; on a different day, I might have too.

To explore the songs in the previous 14 Parts of the list, use this link. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 14): BRODEQUIN, WORMED, KONKHRA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 212025
 

In yesterday’s installment of this list I mentioned that I had a certain logic or organizing principle in mind when I grouped songs together in most of the remaining Parts of the list. Today’s feature is evidence of that.

All three of today’s songs are brutalizing experiences, but they’re also head-spinners, especially the first two. And both of those aspects are key reasons why I think the songs turned out to be infectious.

For those of you who might be stumbling into this list for the first time, you can find the preceding 13 installments via this link. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 13): HIPPOTRAKTOR, TEN TON SLUG, IHSAHN

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 202025
 

(written by Islander)

Welcome to the lucky 13th Part of this list. In line with my original plan of posting a new installment every weekday until January expires, I now have 9 Parts left to go. Out of line with previous years’ lists, I’ve already planned which songs to include in each of those remaining Parts, though I suspect I’ll still make revisions because my brain won’t stay still and it’s so fucking difficult to stare at all the worthy songs I haven’t made room for.

As for today’s installment (and most of the ones still to come), I have grouped the songs together because they include certain stylistic ingredients that I thought would fit them together well. But you’ll be the judge of that, of course. To see the songs in the preceding 12 Parts, use this link. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 12): BENIGHTED, BAT, CELL PRESS, I AM THE INTIMIDATOR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  3 Responses »
Jan 172025
 

(written by Islander)

For today’s Part 12 of the list I had enough time to pack in four songs, and I wanted to get these four songs out together because (at least in my own mind) they have a kind of throughline of visceral appeal. The first and last one are just batshit wild, while the two in the middle are more mid-paced but are real good neck-punchers, and kind of crazed in their own ways.

To find the preceding 11 installments of this list, use this link. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 11): OPETH, BORKNAGAR

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  2 Responses »
Jan 162025
 

(written by Islander)

In yesterday’s installment of this list I think it’s fair to say that I spelunked pretty far underground with the selections, and (to mix my metaphors) veered off the beaten paths we usually beat around here. And so it seemed appropriate today to bounce back with songs from two bands of long standing and widespread veneration, both of whom released standout albums last year (though the first one wasn’t without its fan controversies).

I should add another explanation for today’s choices: I listened to hundreds of songs last year and found many of them infectious, as I define the word, far too many to include all of them in this list. And so part of what I try to do is to make choices that also provide a reflection and survey of metal in 2024, though in all cases my own tastes are still in command.

To find yesterday’s unconventional installment and all the other Parts of this list so far, click this link. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 10): OTTONE PESANTE, KILLING SPREE, PONTE DEL DIAVOLO

 Exceptions to the Rule, MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  No Responses »
Jan 152025
 

For the last few installments of this list I haven’t had any organizing principle that guided the grouping of songs together in a specific Part. Today I do. But I’m afraid if I tell you why I put these three songs together you might not listen to them (if you haven’t already heard them). Better for you to learn for yourselves, and hopefully to find yourselves as enthusiastic about them as I am.

(To find and listen to all the preceding songs in this list, use this link.) Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 9): DÖ, NECROPHOBIC, NECROWRETCH

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  2 Responses »
Jan 142025
 

(written by Islander)

We’ve arrived at Part 9 of our expanding Most Infectious Song list, with three more songs today. I again didn’t have a cohesive organizing principle in mind when grouping these three together, though I couldn’t resist going necro with the last two (in more ways than one).

To check out the preceding 8 Parts of the list and to learn what the list is about, use this link. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 8): ULCERATE, SÓLSTAFIR, EVERTO SIGNUM

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2024  2 Responses »
Jan 132025
 

Today we have begun a new week of posts at NCS, and thus resume the rollout of our list of 2024’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. To check out the preceding 7 installments and get an explanation about what the list represents, go HERE.

I don’t have any logical organizing principle for why I put these three songs together in this Part 8 of the list, though I suppose I might have subconsciously grouped them just to keep listeners off-balance. I do enjoy doing that.

ULCERATE

This is another example of choosing a song from a band who are extremely well-known and whose 2024 album (Cutting the Throat of God) justifiably garnered a ton of acclaim. Those factors would not alone warrant the pick of a song for this list, because (as I’ve explained before) it’s not really about critically acclaimed music. It’s about songs that are “catchy,” very memorable, or “most-played” — features that are all aspects of infectiousness as I define the term.

As it happens, however, a number of the songs on Ulcerate‘s new album — hell, probably all of them — are worthy contenders for this list in addition to making up an album that has rightly been critically lauded. Continue reading »

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