It's been four months since I have written anything new. My apologies. On the bright side, I aced my first semester of grad school. I feel confident that next semester will be the same.
I have no doubt 2025 will be a killer year for music as well. Although, it will be hard to top this year. I do not remember giving so many albums such high scores. Normally, I have a few number 1 albums in my list. But this year the lowest score is 2. Usually, I grade albums on a 1-5 scale. That is not the case for 2024.
2 is the worst and 5 is the best. In addition, I use in between numbers. I include every album I listened to this year. I will start with the best albums to the worst. I have also split my album list into "Metal and Punk" and "Non-Metal." I grade music based on: style of music, musicianship, lyrics, album art, mixing and production. I don't include eps or demos. Please note this is just my opinion. Brutal death metal was the king of 2024.
GRAVITY DRUM ROLL PLEASE!
Winner: 1. Defeated Sanity: Chronicles of Lunacy
Bandcamp: https://defeatedsanity.bandcamp.com/merchAlso known as my childhood. I'm joking. But growing up with a mentally unstable parent teaches you a lot about yourself and how stigmatized mental heath is. The biggest reason why I love this album is because it's relateable to me. There are riffs for days. The bass is so good, it slapped a smile on my face. And the drum fills are telling me I need to practice more. Oh yeah, and Josh's vocals are insane.
Each song is about a psychological issue or mental illness. Really each song explains how gross humans really are. Are humans really the top predator? Scores of humans lack common sense and intellgence. Rather, I think that humans are on top of the food chain or animal hiarchy because of their talent at destruction.
My favorite part of collecting records is always being able to read the lyrics, learn who the band is thanking, and being able to see if I can hear a band's influences. Of course, I own this record. Even if Lille and Vaughn weren't my friends, I still buy the album because Defeated Sanity has never written a mediocre album. Let alone, a bad album. I do not think it's possible.
It was painful deciding what album would be number one. For me, first place was tied between Defeated Sanity and Maligancy because both albums held my attention from start to finish, the bar and skill is even higher than before, and these bands have been working their asses off for years. It's about time they become popular. Both Defeated Sanity and Maligancy deserve all the recognization they're getting. Albums like these are only created when a band doesn't compromise their integrity and keep upping their skills.
I told myself to stop being a Libra and make a choice. After listening to both Chronicles of Lunacy and ...Discontinued mulitple times this week I decided that I loved Chronicles just a little bit more. But not by much. Sorry, Danny! But hey, Maligancy won second place. That's pretty awesome because it shows how much thought I put into my AOTY list.
Now for the rest of the list. Some albums have comments that needed to be said. That's just how my ADHD brain works.
Metal & Punk Albums:
5
Everything is perfect! I LOVE THIS!
2. Maligancy: ...Discontinued
3. Brodequin: Harbinger of Woe
4. Petrification: Sever Sacred Light
5. Ashen Tomb: Ecstastic Death Reign
6. Tzompantli: Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force
7. Vanhelgd: Aptos Doctrina
8. Feral:To Usurp Thrones
9. Cryptic Hatred: Internal Torment
10. Crawl: Altar of Digust
11. Unearthly Rites: Ecdysis
12. Nails: Every Bridge Burn
13. Cryptic Brood: Flesh Bacteria
14. Gatecreeper: Dark Superstition
15. Wolfbrigade: Life Knife Death
16. Oranzzi Pazuzu: Muutautja
17. Coffins: Sinister Oath
18. Spectral Voice: Sparagmos
19. Swallow the Sun: Shining
20. DarkTranquillity: Endtime Signals
21. Horna: Nyx
22. Spectral Wound: Songs of Blood & Mire
23. Necrophobic: In the Twilight Grey
24. Winterfyllth: The Imperious Horizon
25. Mitochondrian: Vitriseptome
26. Blood Incantation: Absolute Elsewhere
27. Hulder: Verses in Oath
28. Sonata Arctica: Clear Cold Beyond
29. Hammerfall: Avenge the Fallen
30. Judas Priest: Invincible Sword
4.5
Potential to be a 5 but the production or mixing is off to me. Or something is missing.
31. Paganizer: Flesh Requirem. Would have been a 5 if not for the cringe song title, “Viking Supremacy”.
32. Ulcerate: Cutting the Throat of God
33. Fulci: Duck Face Killings
34. Cephalotripsy: Epigenetic Neurogenesis
35. Birdfesh: Faster Than a Priest Vomit
36. Necrot: Lifeless Birth
37. Cardiac Arrest: The Stench of Eternity
38. Wormed: Omegon
39. Black Curse: Burning in Celestial Poison
40. Bedsore: Dreaming the Strife for Love
41. Dissimulator: Lower Form Resistance
42. Ribspreader: Reap Humanity
43. Ahklys: House of the Black Geninis
44. Borknagar: Fall
45. Arkona: Stella Pandora. Not the folk metal band. But they both are Russian.
46. Hamferð: Men Guðs hond er sterk
47. Limbonic Art: Opus Daemoniacal
48. Ihsan: Ihsan
49. Witch Vomit: Funeral Sanctum
50. Thou: Umbilical
4
Definitely not average. But not a 4.5.
51. 200 Stabwounds: Manual Manic Procedures
52. Devenial Verdict: Blessings of Despair
53. Peeling Flesh: The G Code
54. Full of Hell: Coagulated Bliss
55. Darkthrone: It Beckons All
56. Concrete Winds: Concrete Winds
57. Benighted: Ekbom
58. Blazing Eternity: A Certain End of Everything
59. Avernus: Grievances
60. Gaerea: Coma
61. Master: Saints Dispelled
62. Severe Torture: Torn from the Jaws of Death. I heard some of these songs live. ST is definitely a live band. In the studio, it’s not the same.
63. Replicant- Infinite Morality
64. Molder: Catastrophic Reconfiguration
65. Verikalpa: Tuomio
66. Evergrey: Theories of Emptiness
67. My Dying Bride: A Mortal Binding
3.5
Above average, but still needs some more work.
68. Blood Red Throne: Nonagon
69. Undeath- More Insane
70. Teeth- The Will of Hate
71. Mokoma: Myrsky
72. Oxygen Destroyer: Guardian of the Universe. Even Godzilla is not enough to make this music above average.
73. Powerwolf: Wake Up the Dead
74. Blue Oyster Cult: Ghost Stories
3
Average
75. Anti-Christ Siege Machine: Vengeance of Eternal Fire
76. Nile: The Underworld Awaits
77. Epitaph: Path to Oblivion
78. Rhapsody of Fire: Challenge the Wind
79. In Extremo: Wolkenschiber
2.5
I can tell the artist or band is trying.
80. ACXDC: G.O.A.T. Misleading album title. This album was underwhelming. The dude is better off owning a book and record store. In addition, defending human rights.
81. Sarajah: Sarajah. Music is great. The vocals do not match the doom. It sounds wrong to me.
2
A for effort. But this album does not spark joy in me.
And the worst metal album goes to….
82. Nightrage: Remains of a Dead World. This album made me wish my hearing was dead. This is an example of how not to write melodic death metal. Nightrage was only good when Tomas Lindberg was their vocalist.
Non-Metal:
I don’t have as many for this category, so I’ll just put the number beside the album.
83. Eivor: Enn (5)
84. Molchat Doma: Belaya Polosa (5)
85. The Cure: Songs of a Lost World (5)
86: Ulver: Liminal Animals (5)
87. Nox Novacula: Feed the Fire (4.5)
88. GosT: Prophecy
89. Clan of Xymox: Blood of Christ (4)
No comments:
Post a Comment