Machine Music Presents The Best Metal of 2024
This year marks the sixth annual "Is Ron going through some stuff?" best-of list of all the albums I liked in a set calendar year such as the calendar year 2024 which is, at the time of your reading these tepid lines, thankfully over. It was a horrific year in what might be a horrific decade and horrific century, on at the end of which – in case you're reading this in 2098 – there's a good chance metal will seem like the tame, folksy music of yesteryear. Anyhow, if you've read past lists (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023) you have a general sense of what's going on, and if you havent – scroll down and all will reveal itself quite quickly. Also I recently did a Best of 2020-2024 list, because I'm apparently a hack who cannot delve deeply into the ocean of… whatever, but if you enjoy lists made by hacks of such a description then you might enjoy it.
Many thanks to anyone reading my nonsense throughout the year, and especially my obviously demented Patreon supporters. People caring is a rare thing these days, and anyone caring about what I do is super nice and very helpful.
PART I: THE CATEGORIES
THE BEST ALBUMS AT PUNISHING THE BODY AND THUS SEEMINGLY MAKING A HARSH STATEMENT ABOUT THE ABSENCE OF THE SOUL AND THE SOLE EXISTENCE OF AN EMBODIED SELF BUT IN REALITY INFLICT SUCH PAIN SO AS TO RELEASE THE SOUL FROM ITS CORPOREAL HIDING PLACE – EITHER THE PINEAL GLAND OR MY LOWER BACK WHEN I GET UP FROM THE SOFA – AND INTO FULL VIEW LIKE A RAINBOW. HERE'S A BIT FROM ELAINE SCARRY. IT'S ABOUT TORTURE:
Intense pain is world-destroying. In compelling confession, the torturers compel the prisoner to record and objectify the fact that intense pain is world-destroying. It is for this reason that while the content of the prisoner's answer is only sometimes important to the regime, the form of the answer, the fact of his answering, is always crucial.¹
Beaten to Death – Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis (Mas-Kina Recordings)
Infant Island – Obsidian Wreath (Secret Voice) – TOP PICK
Lwstndrds – Songs Of Atrocity (Lower Class Kids Records) – TOP PICK
Possessive – Res Ipsa Loquitur (Brucia Records)
Resin Tomb – Cerebral Purgatory (Transcending Obscurity Records) – TOP PICK
Sick/Tired – Whiphand Paranoia (Nerve Altar)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE MIST RISING FROM THE RAINBOW SOUL THAT, WHILE TETHERED TO ITS IRIDESCENT SOURCE, SHIFTS AND CURLS INTO DARKER HUES, THAT KIND THAT BOTH BLOCK OUT THE SUN AND ALSO ALLOW YOU TO LOOK INTO IT TO SEE ITS PERFECTION AND TO PONDER YOUR LIFE A REFLECTION FROM WHICH ONE THOUGHT CRYSTALIZES LIKE A SUDDEN DIAMOND: YEAR-END LISTS ARE STUPID
Ehtëk – ∆’díurd Ïəb Ádar≬m’al (Independent)
Ehtëk – Íncst (Independent)
Doedsmaghird – Omniverse Consciousness (Peaceville Records) – TOP PICK
Schammasch – The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean (Prosthetic Records) – TOP PICK
Vemod – The Deepening (Prophecy Productions) – TOP PICK
Verwoed – The Mother (Argento Records) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE SITTING ON A CLOUD AND SMOKING LIKE A CATERPILLAR ONLY YOU'RE NOT A CATERPILLAR AND YOU HAVE AN EXTENSIVE VINYL COLLECTION OF 70S PROG AND INSTEAD OF SMOKING YOU LISTEN TO YOUR VINYL COLLECTION AND YOU MIGHT EVEN SAY THINGS LIKE "FAR OUT" OR "FAVOLOSO" AND YOU HAVE A BEANBAG THAT HAS SEVERAL CIGARETTE HOLES BURNT INTO ITS BEANY FLESH AND YOU OWN AT LEAST ONE GUITAR THAT IS VERY POINTY ON WHICH YOU ONCE UPON A TIME LEARNED HOW TO PLAY A MORBID ANGEL SONG
Bedsore – Dreaming the Strife for Life (20 Buck Spin) – TOP PICK
Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Century Media Records) – TOP PICK
Gigan – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus (Willowtip Records) – TOP PICK
Orgona – Pleroma (Independent)
Noxis – Violence Inherent to the System (Dawnbreed Records / Rotten Life)
Siderean – Spilling the Astral Chalice (Edged Circle Productions) – TOP PICK
Slimelord – Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (20 Buck Spin) – TOP PICK
Vile Rites – Senescence (Carbonized Records) – TOP PICK
ALBUMS THAT ARE THE BEST OF BEING KIND OF LIKE THE PREVIOUS CATEGORY ONLY REPLACE THE CLOUD WITH A CLOUD MADE OF OBSOLETE MACHINES AND THE SMOKING WITH LASERS AND THE POINT GUITAR WITH SIX POINTY GUITARS AKA THE WILLOWTIP CATEGORY IN WHICH THERE'S ONLY ONE WILLOWTIP ALBUM
ABSCHWÖRZUNGE – Whorl (I, Voidhanger Records) – TOP PICK
ֿAtrae Bilis – Aumicide (20 Buck Spin)
Benighted – Ekbom (Season of Mist)
Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy (Season of Mist) – TOP PICK
Cryptodira – A Storm Called Progress (Good Fight)
Fractal Generator – Convergence (Everlasting Spew Records) – TOP PICK
Ingurgitating_Oblivion – Ontology of Nought (Willowtip Records)
Piah Mater – Under the Shadow of a Foreign Sun (Aural Music)
Replicant – Infinite Mortality (Transcending Obscurity Records) – TOP PICK
Sallow Moth – Vial (Lilang Isla)
Theurgy – Emanations of Unconscious Luminescence (New Standard Elite) – TOP PICK
Vitriol – Suffer & Become (Century Media Records)
Wormed – Omegon (Season of Mist) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE YOU KNOW THE CONCEPT OF TIME MACHINES NEVER REALLY APPEALED TO ME MAYBE BECAUSE I JUST ASSUME THE MISERY IS UBIQUITOUS AND CONSTANT ANYWHERE AND IN ANDY TIME BUT IF I WERE TO STEP INTO ONE WHETHER PHONE-BOOTH SHAPED OR LIKE READING A POEM I WOULD LOVE TO JUST UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS ABOUT STOCKHOLM-STYLE DEATH METAL THAT MAKES IT SO FUCKING MAGICAL OTHER THAN THE EXISTENCE OF NICKE ANDERSSON I GUESS I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK JUST TO BE NICKE ANDERSSON (FUNNILY ENOUGH NONE OF THESE BANDS IS SWEDISH: TWO ARE INDONESIAN, ONE IS AMERICAN, ONE IS ITALIAN, AND ONE IS SWEDISH OK NEVER MIND ONE IS SWEDISH).
Exhumation – Master's Personae (Pulverised Records) – TOP PICK
Nokturnal – Shades of Night (Pulverised Records)
Obscene – Agony & Wounds (Nameless Grave Records)
Vanhelgd – Atropos Doctrina (Dark Descent Records)
THE BEST ALBUMS BETTER DESCRIBED AS WEATHER SYSTEMS THAN ACTUAL ALBUMS AND I THINK WHAT I MEAN BY THAT IS REALLY SHITTY WEATHER SYSTEMS LIKE STORMS OR MUDSLIDES ARE MUDSLIDES EVEN WEATHER SYSTEMS I DON'T THINK THEY ARE ANYWAY ALBUMS THAT ARE MASTERFUL AT FEELING LIKE A WHOLE CLIMATE IS COLLAPSING ON YOUR HEAD I GUESS I MEAN THAT. HERE'S DANIEL DEFOE ABOUT THE GREAT STORM THAT STRUCK LONDON IN 1703:
It did not blow so hard till Twelve a Clock at Night, but that most Families went to Bed; though many of them not without some Concern at the terrible Wind, which then blew: But about One, or at least by Two a Clock, 'tis suppos'd, few People, that were capable of any Sense of Danger, were so hardy as to lie in Bed. And the Fury of the Tempest encreased to such a Degree, that as the Editor of this Account being in London, and conversing with the People the next Days, understood, most People expected the Fall of their Houses.²
Black Tusk – The Way Forward (Season of Mist)
Full of Hell – Coagulated Bliss (Closed Casket Activities) – TOP PICK
Glacial Tomb – Lightless Expanse (Prosthetic Records)
Knoll – As Spoken (Independent) – TOP PICK
Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia (20 Buck Spin) – TOP PICK
Inter Arma – New Heaven (Relapse Records) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE ME RIGHT NOW AT MY DESK OCTOBER 29 (EDITING NOVEMBER 17) FOLLOWING AN EXHAUSTING DAY OF ARGUING ONLINE ALL OF WHICH REALLY ENDED BADLY AND LEFT ME FEELING VACANT AND USELESS ESPECIALLY FACING THE ACCUSATION THAT EVERYTHING I WRITE I MAKE ABOUT MYSELF AND REALIZING JUST NOW THAT I'M DOING IT AGAIN AND SO I'M CHANGING THE CATEGORY TITLE HERE TO: THE BEST ALBUMS INTO WHICH ONE MAY DROWN AND FORGET ABOUT ONE'S SELF WHICH EVIDENTLY ISN'T SOMETHING I'M CAPABLE OF DOING. HERE I'LL JUST ADD THIS SHORT PIECE FROM ONE OF VIRGINIA WOOLF'S LETTERS:
Its raining—raining . . . and I’ve been walking, walking. The road to the Bridge was three foot in water, and this meant a two mile round; but oh dear, how I love this savage medieval water moved, all floating tree trunks and flocks of birds and a man in an old punt, and myself so eliminated of human feature you might take me for a stake walking.³
Choshech – A Journey Into Silence (999 Cuts) – TOP PICK
Extra Life – The Sacred Vowel (Independent) – TOP PICK
Locrian – End Terrain (Profound Lore Records)
Mamaleek – Vida Blue (The Flenser)
Skin Tension – Prolegomenon (Ibex Industries)
Sleepwalker (夢遊病者) – Delirium Pathomutageno Adductum (Independent) – TOP PICK
Vorare – Rope Tower (Independent)
THE BEST ALBUMS AT BEING THE CLOSEST THING FOR ME TO "BLACK METAL" AND STILL INTERESTING ENOUGH TO GET ME GOING. "GET ME GOING," WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? I GUESS MOST "BLACK METAL" BLACK METAL BORES ME, BUT THESE ALBUMS DON'T. THAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE HIGH PRAISE, BUT I'M TIRED AND IT IS WHAT IT IS. I GUESS WE COULD CALL IT THE MERITS OF TRADITION. ARE THERE MERITS TO TRADITION? SOMETIMES.
An-Xul – An-Xul (Chaos Records) – TOP PICK
Avmakt – Satanic Inversion of… (Peaceville Records)
Celestial Sword – Nocturnal Divinity (Death Prayer Records) – TOP PICK
Djevel – Natt til Ende (Aftermath Music) – TOP PICK
Häxenzijrkell – Portal (Amor Fati Productions) – TOP PICK
Heáfodbán – Blódwracu (Northern Doom) – TOP PICK
Necrowretch – Swords of Dajjal (Season of Mist)
Sluagh – II (Blood Coloured Beast)
Ungfell – De Ghörnt (Eisenwald) – TOP PICK
Valac – Under the Ophidians Curse (Independent)
Vox Clamantis – Abjection (Blood Coloured Beast)
Wraithlord – Phantasmal Warfare (Independent)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE WORLD SLOWING DOWN TO NOTHING. I OFTEN WRITE/READ WITH MUSIC, AND THESE ARE THE ALBUMS THAT BREAK UP MY CONCENTRATION, BRING IN THE QUIET THAT ALLOWS THE OUTSIDE WORLD TO SEEP INTO MY CONSCIOUSNESS, WHICH ISN'T SOMETHING I PARTICULARLY LIKE, BUT IS NECESSARY. THE EMPTY SPACES THAT AFFORD FOR THE INSERTION OF ME AND THE OUTSIDE INTO THE SAME SPACE, RESULTING OFTEN IN ME AGAIN THINKING IF I CAN EVEN WITHSTAND THIS PLACE ANYMORE, AND REALIZING THAT THERE ISN'T ANOTHER SPACE I WOULD WITHSTAND. HERE'S A QUOTE FROM THE GREAT MARY FAVRET
One way to register this is to say that the figure that takes war for winter (or winter for war) resists being differentiated into this or that war, one winter and not another, one set of verses and not another; its totalizing impulse resists, in other words, an archaeology like mine. The second, related formal feature occurs at the level of sensation and motion, where violent activity is assimilated to blank unfeeling, so that violence—specifically, the violence of war—is conceived not as injurious action so much as an unfelt state: a quiet scene, a season of calm.⁴
Abyssal – Glacial (Transylvanian Recordings) – TOP PICK
Amarok – Resilience (Vendetta Records)
Angmodnes – Rot of the Soul (Meuse Records)
Föhn – Condescending (Hypaethral Records)
FÓRN – Pact of Forgetting (Persistent Vision)
Nubivagant – The Blame Dagger (Amor Fati Productions) – TOP PICK
Sumac – The Healer (Thrill Jockey Records) – TOP PICK
Thou – Umbilical (Sacred Bones Records) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE MINING OF A DIFFERENT TIME INTO THE PRESENT CREATING A COLLAGE-LIKE EXISTENCE IN WHICH THE HORROS OF THIS WORLD THE ONE WE'RE LIVING IN RIGHT NOW ARE REPLACED WITH THE IMAGE OF A DIFFERENT KIND OF BLACK A DIFFERENT SHADE OF SAD ANOTHER SCREEN OF EMOTION BLARING FROM THE TELEVISION SCREEN WE JUST HAPHAZARDLY STACKED ON TOP ON THE EXISTING SCREEN THAT STANDS OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB BUT IN DOING SO EMPHASIZES BOTH THE AVAILABILITY OF THE "FEEL" OF DIFFERENT TIMES IN THIS PRESENT AS WELL AS HOW TRULY FUCKED UP THAT PRESENT IS, OF LOOKING EVERYWHERE AT THE SAME TIME, OF TAKING IT ALL IN. TO QUOTE THE LATE GREAT FREDRIC JAMESON:
The postmodernist viewer … is called upon to do the impossible, namely, to see all the screens at once, in their radical and random difference; such a viewer is asked to follow the evolutionary mutation of David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth (who watches fifty-seven television screens simultaneously) and to rise somehow to a level at which the vivid perception of radical difference is in and of itself a new mode of grasping what used to be called relationship: something for which the word collage is still only a very feeble name.⁵
At the Altar of the Horned God – Elements (I, Voidhanger Records)
Chat Pile – Cool World (The Flenser)
Cold Wives – S/T (Roman Nvmeral Records)
Crippling Alcoholism – With Love From A Padded Room (Aonair Records / Fisher King Records) – TOP PICK
EDO – Radiant Structures and Vivid Dreams (Independent) – TOP PICK
Kontrolle – Grau (Holy Goat Records)
Pulchritude – Wrapped in a Chasm (Independent)
Rope Sect – Estrangement (Iron Bonehead Productions)
Shum – Pulzáló Dobok Tisztítják Meg Az Eget (Independent) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS AT DIGGING UNDER THE FLESH AND PLANTING FIRE ANTS. I FUCKING HATE FIRE ANTS I HATE IT WHEN MY KIDS GET STUNG BY THEM BY THAT CHEMICAL BURN I HATE IT WHEN THEY'RE IN THE HOUSE IN THE BATHTUB BECAUSE IT'S PAIN THAT I CAN'T TAKE AWAY IT'S HELPLESSNESS OF THE WORST KIND SEEING YOUR CHILDREN IN PAIN AND BEING ABLE TO DO NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING. BUT I DON'T HATE THESE ALBUMS AND THE DISCOMFORT THEY CAUSE ME I JUST HATE FIRE ANTS AND THUS ALSO THIS METAPHOR
Acathexis – Immerse (Extraconscious Records)
Ara – Blutroter Mond (Endless Chaos Records) – TOP PICK
Deathless Void – The Voluptuous Fire of Sin (Iron Bonehead Productions) – TOP PICK
Feral Light – A Reckoning with the Intangible (Independent) – TOP PICK
Gråt Strigoi – The Prophetic Silence (Fiadh Productions) – TOP PICK
Holy Flesh – Advocate, Martyr, and Redeemer (Caligari Records)
Naxen – Descending into a Deeper Darkness (Vendetta Records)
THVN – ZGNIJ (Arcadian Industry)
Vafurlogi – Í vökulli áþján (NoEvDia)
Verberis – The Apophatic Wilderness (NoEvDia)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE MEDIEVAL SCRIBES PORING OVER THEIR RUSTLING PAGES AND SCROLLS STUDYING EVERY LETTER MAKING SURE THEY FAITHFULLY COPY THE WORKS OF ANCIENT GENIUS FAITHFULLY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE SACRED TRADITION ONLY THEIR MONASTERY SITS ATOP A MOUNTAIN OF USED AND EMPTY BOTTLES OF JACK DANIEL'S AND HEAVY METAL VINYLS ADORN THEIR CELLS.
Aquapocalypse – Aquatopolis (Independent)
Crypt Sermon – Stygian Rose (Dark Descent Records) – TOP PICK
Demon Bitch – Master of the Games (Cruz Del Sur Music)
I Am the Intimidator – I Am the Intimidator (Miserable Pyre Records) – TOP PICK
Midnight – Hellish Expectations (Metal Blade Records)
Pentagram – Eternal Life of Madness (Listenable Records)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE ME USING MUSIC AS A THREAD THAT MIGHT STRING TOGETHER THE FRAGMENTED PIECE OF MY SELF BEING MADE INTO PIECES AND YET WONDERING IF ALL THIS QUOTE UNQUOTE SELF THERAPY THROUGH MUSIC AS THAT THREAD THAT STRINGS WAS REALLY A MISTAKE ALL ALONG AND THAT THE PIECES NEED TO AT SOME POINT JUST DROP TO THE FLOOR MAYBE THAT'S WHERE THEY BELONG – ON THE FLOOR – AND NOT ON A FABRICATED STRING OF FAKE ORDER. OF FICTION.
Cave Sermon – Divine Laughter (Independent) – TOP PICK
Ceremony of Silence – Hálios (Willowtip Records) – TOP PICK
Conglaciation – Conglaciation (Liminal Dread Productions)
Convulsing – Perdurance (Independent) – TOP PICK
Defacement – Duality (Total Dissonance Worship / Avantgarde Music)
Kvadrat – The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion (Nuclear Winter Records / Total Dissonance Worship) – TOP PICK
Prisoner – Putrid / Obsolete (Persistent Vision) – TOP PICK
Pyrrhon – Exhaust (Willowtip Records) – TOP PICK
Moss Upon the Skull – Quest for the Sacred Fire (I, Voidhanger Records)
Thunraz – Incineration Day (Independent) – TOP PICK
Ulcerate – Cutting the Throat of God (Debemur Morti Productions)
THE BEST ALBUMS IN A CATEGORY THAT BASICALLY ORIGINALLY I HAD PLACED WITH THE ABOVE BUT ULTIMATELY DECIDED THAT FALLING TO PIECES WASN'T REALLY A PROPER DESCRIPTOR HERE BUT INSTEAD PIECES BURSTING IN FLAMES. PIECES BURSTING IN FLAMES. YOU WOULD THINK THAT WOULD FORGE A NEW THING. SOMETIMES THAT'S JUST NOT THE CASE. I CAN'T BELIEVE I STILL LIVE IN THIS PIT.
Adversarial – Solitude with the Eternal... (Dark Descent Records)
Cabinet – Hydrolysated Ordination (Bloodymountain Records) – TOP PICK
Choir – Smithe Thee Smoldering Providence (Violence in the Veins) – TOP PICK*
Civerous – Maze Envy (20 Buck Spin) – TOP PICK
Cosmic Putrefaction – Emerald Fires atop the Farewell Mountains (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK
Golgothan Remains – Bearer of Light, Matriarch of Death (Dark Descent Records)
Hadit – Metaphysical Engines Approaching the Event Horizon (I, Voidhanger Records) – TOP PICK
Mitochondrion – Vitriseptome (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK
* Guesstimate since I can't listen to the entire thing yet. Will amend if proved wrong. Wont' happen.
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE TAKING TWO THINGS OF RUST NOT EVEN RUSTY METAL JUST RUST AND RUBBING THEM TOGETHER INTO YOUR MOUTH SO THAT THE SAVINGS DISSOLVE INTO YOUR SOFT TISSUE AND YOU CHOKE ON DIRT THAT TASTES LIKE IRON BUT IT'S GROOVY.
Barren Womb – Chemical Tardigrade (Fucking North Pole Records / Blues For The Red Sun)
Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight (Brutal Panda Records)
Full of Hell and Andrew Nolan – Scraping the Divine (Closed Casket Activities) – TOP PICK
meth. – Shame (Prosthetic Records) – TOP PICK
Truck Violence – Violence (Mothland)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THERE'S THIS THING IN KANT ABOUT DISGUST NOT BEING A TOPIC FOR AESTHETIC REFLECTION BECAUSE DISGUST OR ABJECTION SHORT CIRCUIT THE REFLEXIVE PART OF US THAT IS ABLE TO TOY IF ONLY FOR A MOMENT WHEN APPRECIATING A FAKE REPRESENTATION OF SOMETHING AS IF IT'S REAL. IT'S NOT FAKE WHEN WE'RE GROSSED OUT HE SAYS THE KANT PERSON ITS REAL. HE'S WRONG. FUCK KANT:
One kind of ugliness alone is incapable of being represented conformably to nature without destroying all aesthetic delight, and consequently artistic beauty, namely, that which excites disgust.⁶
Coffin Curse – The Continuous Nothing (Memento Mori)
Diabolic Oath – Oracular Hexations (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)
Dipygus – Dipygus (Memento Mori / Headsplit Records / Crypt of the Wizard) – TOP PICK
Endless Loss – Traversing the Mephitic Artery (Nuclear Winter Records)
Hyperdontia – Harvest of Malevolence (Dark Descent Records) – TOP PICK
Living Gate – A Unified Soul (Relapse Records)
Necrot – Lifeless Birth (Tankcrimes) – TOP PICK
Outer Graves – Malevolent Entity (Transylvanian Recordings) – TOP PICK
Stenched – Purulence Gushing from the Coffin (Me Saco Un Ojo) – TOP PICK
Undeath – More Insane (Prosthetic Records)
Witch Vomit – Funeral Sanctum (20 Buck Spin)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE LARVAE SOUL BREAKING THROUGH THE SOFT PROTEIN INSECT EGGS ARE USUALLY MADE (I JUST GOOGLED THAT FOR NO GOOD REASON, AS IF THE WORLD ISN'T COMING DOWN HARD ENOUGH AROUND ME HERE I AM GOOGLING THE COMPOSITION OF INSECT EGG SHELLS FOR CONSUMPTION BY THE "METAL INTERNET" OF WHICH I AM PART SO WHO AM I KIDDING) ALL WHILE MAKING A VERY SILLY INSECT VERSION OF EFFORT BECAUSE MAYBE YOU'RE THE BUTTERFLY INSECT. NO SHADE TO OTHER NON-BUTTERFLY INSECTS, YOU RULE TOO. EXCEPT FIRE ANTS. ALL FIRE ANTS NEED TO DIE.
Ante-Inferno – Death's Soliloquy (Vendetta Records) – TOP PICK
Argwaan – Violable (Independent)
Árstíðir lífsins – Aldrlok (Ván Records)
Cailleach Bheur – Cailleach Bheur (Fiadh Productions) – TOP PICK
Cult of Erinyes – Æstivation (Amor Fati Productions) – TOP PICK
Dauþuz – Uranium (Amor Fati Productions)
Liminal Shroud – Visions of Collapse (Willowtip Records)
Myrdal – Helvíti (Vendetta Records)
Olim – Because (Flowing Downward)
Prosperity Gospel – Society of the Spectral (Comfort Monk) – TOP PICK
Paysage d'Hiver – Die Berge (Kunsthall Produktionen) – TOP PICK
Sadness – Your Perfect Hands and My Repeated Words (Independent)
Srefa – Solstice (Satanath Records / Australis Records) – TOP PICK
Ulvik – Last Rites | Dire Omens (Avantgarde Music) – TOP PICK
Vimur – The Timeless Everpresent (Avantgarde Music)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE BUG THAT DIDN'T REALLY MAKE IT IN THE PREVIOUS ENTRY AND HE SLIPS BACK INTO HIS HALF-EATEN EGG AND IS SLOWLY CONSUMED BY THE SAME SOUP THAT WAS MEANT TO NURISH HIM. NOT SURE THIS IS BIOLOGICALLY CORRECT, BUT THE SAD BUG SLOWLY DISSOLVING IS A PRETTY IMAGE
Apparition – Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK
Funeral Leech – The Illusion of Time (Carbonized Records)
Nekus – Death Apophenia (Sentient Ruin Laboratories) – TOP PICK
Spectral Voice – Sparagmos (Dark Descent Records) – TOP PICK
SXAP – -Emptiness (Bloodymountain records)
Tzompantli – Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force (20 Buck Spin)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO CATEGORIZE SINCE THEY FIT EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE
Trelldom – …By the Shadows… (Prophecy Productions) – TOP PICK
Weary of Empires – Aequilibria (Independent) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS MADE BY BANDS WHO HAVE AT LEAST ONE MEMBER THAT'S REALLY GOOD WITH MATH AND/OR SMOKING WEED
Aerkenbrand – Hedenfarne Æventyr (Virkelighedsfjern / Kolbitr / I, Voidhanger Records) – TOP PICK
Amiensus – Reclamation Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 (M-Theory Audio)
Chapel of Disease – Echoes of Light (Ván Records) – TOP PICK
Dawnwalker – The Unknowing (Independent)
Haunted Plasma – I (Svart Records) – TOP PICK
Múr – Múr (Century Media Recrods)
Papangu – Lampião Rei (Repose Records) – TOP PICK
Toby Driver – Raven, I Know That You Can Give Me Anything (Independent)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THAT WITTGENSTEIN QUOTE ABOUT HIS SPADE TURNING. YOU SEE HIS THING EARLY ON IN HIS THINKING WAS REALLY DIGGING, THUS THE SPADE, AND TRYING TO HIT BEDROCK (MY SON IS INTO MINECRAFT SO THAT WORD MEANS SOMETHING ELSE NOW). THAT WAS KIND OF THE THING AT THE TIME (EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY), PERFECTING THE WAY WE TALK ABOUT LIFE VIA LOGIC SO AS TO CREATE THE PERFECT VESSEL WITH WHICH TO ENGAGE WITH AND DESCRIBE THE WORLD. BUT SOMEWHERE ALONG THE LINE HE BECAME SUSPICIOUS OF DIGGING AND WENT FOR THE MORE SHALL WE SAY FLAT DEPICTION OF HOW LANGUAGE WORKS THROUGH HIS IDEA OF LANGUAGE GAMES. SO THIS QUOTE I'M TALKING ABOUT FROM HIS LATER WORK PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS ISN'T REALLY ONLY ABOUT WHEN TO STOP DIGGING, IT'S KIND OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DIGGING GOES WRONG, THE KIND OF ENERGY THAT GOES INTO THAT EFFORT, AS WELL AS BOTH THE DISILLUSIONMENT THAT IT BRINGS AND AN ACCEPTANCE OF WHATEVER WEIRD LIFE AND THE WAY WE TALK ABOUT IT. THESE ALBUMS ARE KIND OF THAT.
If I have exhausted the justifications, I have reached bedrock and my spade is turned. Then I am inclined to say: "This is simply what I do."⁷
Esoctrilihum – Döth-Derniàlh (I, Voidhanger Records)
Feral Forms – Through Demonic Spell (Everlasting Spew Records)
Invunche – Atavismo (Nuclear War Now! Records) – TOP PICK
Ὁπλίτης – Παραμαινομένη (Independent) – TOP PICK
Serpent Column – Tassel of Ares (Ten Plagues Tapes) – TOP PICK
Sordide – Ainsi finit le jour (Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions) – TOP PICK
Sun of Nothing – Maze (Venerate Industries)
Theophonos – Ashes in the Huron River (Profound Lore Records)
Veilburner – The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom (Transcending Obscurity Records) – TOP PICK
Wormwitch – Wormwitch (Profound Lore Records)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT INSIST THAT ATMOSPHERE IS A THING DESPITE THE FACT THAT WE LIVE IN WHAT MIGHT BE THE LEAST ATMOSPHERIC TIMES SINCE 1945 NO AIR NO SPACE NO "ANGULAR SOUNDSCAPES" NO "THE ANGUISH OF MANKIND IN LONGFROM" ONLY SUFFOCATING BRUTAL CORPOREALITY. SO I GUESS I'M SAYING "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE WHO ARE EVEN WILLING TO DISCUSS AIR WHEN THE WORLD IS SUFFOCATING BUT I GUESS THAT'S ONE WAY YOU COULD PRODUCE AIR FOR THE SUFFOCATING (ANOTHER WAY WOULD WHAT THEY DID IN TOTAL RECALL, WHICH WHEN YOU THINK OF IT WOLD REALLY WORK AS AN ALBUM COVER FOR SOME OF THESE ALBUMS. I'M ALSO ADDING THE MINIATURE THEY USED BECAUSE WTF
Alcest – Les Chants de l'Aurore (Nuclear Blast Records)
Aseethe – The Cost (Thrill Jokey Records)
Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean – Sisyphean Cruelty (Redscroll Records)
Coltaine – Forgotten Ways (Lay Bare Recordings)
Glassing – From the Other Side of the Mirror (Pelagic Records) – TOP PICK
Insect Ark – Raw Blood Singing (Debemur Morti Productions) – TOP PICK
Mother – II (Consouling Sounds)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE GETTING READY TO GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING IN THE OUTSIDE "REAL" WORLD AND THEN JUST TAKING A MOMENT TO CHECK UP ON THE MIRROR AND INSTEAD OF THE MIRROR YOU HAVE THE PAINTING THAT'S HANGING IN "THE SPOUTER INN" OF – WELL – YOU'RE NOT REALLY SURE WHAT IT IS OF, AND THEN YOU JUST STARE AT IT AND YOU FEEL LIKE MAYBE CALLING A FRIEND AND LETTING THEM KNOW OR SEND A PICTURE OF THE PAINTING SO THEY COULD GIVE THEIR OPINION ON WHAT THEY THINK IT MIGHT BE BUT DAYS GO BUY AND YOU KEEP STALLING AND STALLING AND YOU'VE DIED OF THIRST
Entering that gable-ended Spouter-Inn, you found yourself in a wide, low, straggling entry with old-fashioned wainscots, reminding one of the bulwarks of some condemned old craft. On one side hung a very large oilpainting so thoroughly besmoked, and every way defaced, that in the unequal crosslights by which you viewed it, it was only by diligent study and a series of systematic visits to it, and careful inquiry of the neighbors, that you could any way arrive at an understanding of its purpose. Such unaccountable masses of shades and shadows, that at first you almost thought some ambitious young artist, in the time of the New England hags, had endeavored to delineate chaos bewitched.⁸
Boarhammer – II: Chemognosis – A Shortcut to Mushrooms (Naturmacht Productions)
Dola – Tabernakulum (Independent) – TOP PICK
Genital Shame – Chronic Illness Wish (The Garrote) – TOP PICK
Hagetisse – The Fountain of Fallen Stars (Kapmes Records)
Herxheim – Contrapasso (I, Voidhanger Records) – TOP PICK
Malconfort – Humanism (Transcending Obscurity Records) – TOP PICK
Oppress. – The Subtle Art of Turning Gold into Shit (K.V.N.T. Kolektiv)
Sacred Son – Grief Commodity (Independent) – TOP PICK
Stagnant Waters – Rifts (Neuropa Records)
BEST PUNK/HARDCORE
Failure – Obstinate (No Time Records)
Hasslig – Apex Predator (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)
Haust – Negative Music (FysiskFormat)
Kriegshög – Love & Revenge (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos) – TOP PICK
Missouri Executive Order 44 – Salt Sermon (Learning Curve Records)
Sect – Plagues Upon Plagues (Southern Lord)
Yakuza極道 – S/T (Extreme Earslaughter)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE SWIRLING VORTEX THAT THREATENS TO SUCK YOUR LIFE THE APPROACHING STORM OF YOUR OWN MORTALITY THE FRAGILITY OF YOUR SKIN THE PERMEABILITY OF THE TISSUE THAT JUST BARELY COVERS YOU NOT JUST YOUR BODY BUT YOU AND THAT SERVES AS THE FLIMSY BORDER BETWEEN WHOEVER "YOU" IS OR WHAT "YOU" IS AND THE RAMPANT CHAOS THAT THREATENS TO DEVOUR IT AND YES I AM QUITE AWARE THIS READS LIKE AN IMMOLATION LYRIC I'LL TAKE THAT AS A FUCKING COMPLIMENT
Biesy – Golem (Pest Productions) – TOP PICK
Bríi – Camaradagem póstuma (Independent) – TOP PICK
Krallice – Inorganic Rites (P2) – TOP PICK
Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja (Nuclear Blast Records) – TOP PICK
Scarcity – The Promise of Rain (The Flenser) – TOP PICK
Silvaplana – Limbs of Dionysus (Augur Tongues / IARNWITH) – TOP PICK
Silvaplana – Sils Maria (Augur Tongues / IARNWITH) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE CLEANING THE AIR FROM VIOLENCE THAT ARE CLEARING THE QUIET FROM NOISE THAT ARE JUST YOU IN THIS TIME IN THIS PLACE NOT THINKING ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN WHAT NOISES MAY OR MAY NOT SOUND LIKE PURE TERROR (VIOLENTLY ACCELERATING MOTORBIKES, FOR INSTANCE, FOR THUNDER, OR THE SOUND ELECTRIC CAR ENGINES MAKE WHEN THEY DRIVE BY, LIKE DEATH)
40 Watt Sun – Little Weight (Cappio Records / Fisher's Folly) – TOP PICK
Dool – The Shape of Fluidity (Prophecy Productions)
Midwife – No Depression in Heaven (The Flenser)
Whispering Void – At the Sound of the Heart (Prophecy Productions) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE YOUR INTESTINES SINGING A SONG OF GROSS MOURNING
Contaminated – Celebratory Beheading (Blood Harvest Records) – TOP PICK
Hemorrhoid – Raw Materials of Decay (Headsplit Records / Extremely Rotten Records)
Nyctophagia – Broken Human Kingdom (Lifeless Chasm Records)
Posthumous Regurgitation – Guide to Cadaveric Cuisine (Headsplit Records)
Squelching Flesh – Psychic Incarceration (Lifeless Chasm Records)
Teratoma – Viscera Infest (Headsplit Records) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO MAKE YEAR-END LISTS WHILE THE WORLD IS EFFECTIVELY ENDING
Coven – Apres l'orage (Shove Records)
Demersal – Demersal (Nothing To Harvest Records, Vinyltroll Records, Tomb Tree et al)
Distend – IX (Fiadh Productions) – TOP PICK
drive your plow over the bones of the dead – tragedy as catharsis (No Funeral Records)
Rats Will Feast – Hell Hole (Time to Kill Records)
Rose Ceremony – Iteration II (Khya Records) – TOP PICK
Senza – Celestial Body (Zegema Beach Records) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT SOUND LIKE THE WAY THE WORLD ENDING WOULD SOUND LIKE IN THE MIND OF A PERSON WHO REALLY LIKES THE IDEA OF THE WORLD ENDING AND HAS READ THE APPROPRIATE LITERATURE IN PREPARATION FOR SAID ENDING AND MAY OR MAY NOT GO TO THE OPERA
Folterkammer – Weibermacht (Century Media Records)
Secrets – Toward the Nightside (Mysticism Productions)
Thanatotherion – Alienation Manifesto (I, Voidhanger Records) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT MAKE ME WISH I WASN'T SUCH A FUCKING POSER THAT I WAS THIS – AND HERE I'M PROJECTING THE IMAGE OF THE NON-POSER SO APOLOGIES FOR THE KNOWIN CARICATURE – MOUNTAIN OF A PERSON MAYBE 8 FEET TALL WITH A BATTLE VEST WITH A HUGE BACK PATCH OF DAVE MUSTAINE PICKING HIS NOSE YES I KNOW I'M DOING THIS WRONG AND A BEER IN MY HAD THAT LOOKS TINY BECAUSE I'M A MOUNTAIN AND I SMELL LIKE AN UNHYGIENIC BATHROOM STALL AND I ONLY SAY "FUCK YEAH" AND MY FISTS ARE ALWAYS CLENCHED WHICH MEANS GETTING THE BEER BOTTLE INTO THE FIST IS ADMITTEDLY A CHORE EVERY TIME BUT ALSO A PRETTY GOOD EXPLANATION AS TO WHY THE BATHROOM IS UNHYGIENIC.
Abhorration – Demonaltry (Invictus Productions) – TOP PICK
Antichrist Siege Machine – Vengeance of Eternal Fire (Profound Lore Records)
Black Curse – Burning in Celestial Poison (Sepulchral Voice Records) – TOP PICK
Concrete Winds – Concrete Winds (Sepulchral Voice Records) – TOP PICK
Diocletian – Inexorable Nexus (Nuclear War Now! Productions) – TOP PICK
Har – Cursed Creation (Dark Descent Records)
Maurda – Cultus Brachypter (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT CONJURE AN EVIL SPELL WHILE STIRRING A BOILING CAULDRON WITH DRY ICE VAPOR FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT OR GOING OUT TO FIGHT ON A HORSE WITH A BROADSWORD AKA THIS WOULD BE THE CATEGORY WITH THE MALOKARPATAN ALBUM HAD THERE BEEN A MALOKARPATAN ALBUM TO SPEAK OF
Auriferous Flame – The Insurrectionists and the Caretakers (True Cult Records)
Bütcher – On Fowl of Tyrant Wing (Osmose Productions)
Inconcessus Lux Lucis – Temples Colliding in Fire (I, Voidhanger Records) – TOP PICK
Morgul Blade – Heavy Metal Wraiths (No Remorse Records)
Sovereign of Conquest – Lamentations of Supernatural Revelation (Independent)
Stygian Ruin – A Violent Egress (Ixiol Productions / Crypt of the Wizard)
Rampant Beast – Into the Infernal Pyre (Blood Coloured Beast) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE QUIET SUCKING YOUR BRAIN MATTER OUT LIKE OSMOSIS IS OSMOSIS THE RIGHT TERM I'M NOT SURE BUT THIS IDEA OF A DIFFERENCE IN PRESSURES THAT SUCKS ONE MATTER AND CAUSES IT TO DIFFUSE THROUGH THE CELL WALL MAYBE DIFFUSION IS WHAT I MEAN I ALWAYS GOT THE TWO CONFUSED BUT I THINK THEY BOTH DEAL WITH SHIT GOING PLACES MOVING BEYOND CELL WALLS AND WHAT NOT AND SO THAT'S THESE ALBUMS THEY SEEM LIKE NOTHING IS GOING ON BUT THEY RUIN YOU
Ava Rasti – The River (FatCat Records) – TOP PICK
Dead Neanderthals & Aidan Baker – Cast Down and Hunted (Moving Furniture Records)
Gnod – Spot Land (Rocket Recordings)
Indricothere – Nonlocality Immersion (Independent) – TOP PICK
Kali Malone – All Life Long (Ideologic Organ) – TOP PICK
Leila Abdul-Rauf – Calls from a Seething Edge (Cyclic Law) – TOP PICK
Orphan Parapet – Time Lapse of Wet Fire (New Firmament)
Vedmy – Многодушие (Reflection Nebula)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE UNDERSTANDING THAT GOING SWEET, GOING MELODY, TREATING MUSIC "NICELY," NOT ASSAULTING THE STRUCTURE, IS ANOTHER WAY OF WRECKING HAVOC AS IF TO FOLLOW THE RULES TOO HARD UNDOES THE SYSTEM
Conifère – L'Impôt du Sang (Phantom Lure)
Nachtmystium – Blight Privilege (Prophecy Productions)
Firtan – Ethos (AOP Records)
Siadan – Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity (Jems) – TOP PICK
Mosaic Window – Hemasanctum (Willowtip Records) – TOP PICK
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THRASH ALBUMS. THRASH, AS KANT STATED EARLIER IN THIS POST, IS THAT MODE OF METAL THAT RESISTS REPRESENTATION. MAYBE HE WAS RIGHT AFTER WALL (OF COURSE HE WASN'T).
Abreaktion – Bornhatred (Chaos Records)
Dissimulator – Lower Form Resistance (20 Buck Spin) – TOP PICK
Oxygen Destroyer – Guardian of the Universe (Redefining Darkness Records)
THE BEST ALBUMS THAT ARE THE BEAST WITH TWO BACKS
Atvm / Diskord – Bipolarities (Transcending Obscurity Records)
Celestial Sword / Kommodus – Constellations of Fatality and Metamorphosis (Goatowarex) – TOP PICK
Jade / Sanctuarium – The Sempiternal Wound (Pulverised Records)
Lotus Thief/Forlesen – Lotus Thief/Forlesen (I, Voidhanger Records) – TOP PICK
Ontaard / Throwing Bricks – Oud Zeer (Tartarus Records) – TOP PICK
Spife / Sunken Basilica – Starflesh (Fiadh Productions) – TOP PICK
Wormwitch / Sadistic Ritual – Split (Boris Records) – TOP PICK
BEST SHORT THINGS
Emasculator – The Disfigured and the Divine (New Standard Elite) – TOP PICK
Hull of Light – Gilded Liminal Shrines (Independent) – TOP PICK
Immortal Form – Ashes of a Fallen World (Independent)
Intercourse – Egyptian Democracy (Redscroll Records)
Ka'tzon La'tevach – Blood's Right over the Land (Taklitim Holim)
svrm – Прощання (Vendetta Records) – TOP PICK
svrm – Мовчання і смерть (Independent)
Scoop – Curb Justice (Lower Class Kids Records)
Sunrise Patriot Motion – My Father Took Me Hunting in the Snow (Sibir Records) – TOP PICK
PART II: THE LIST
DEATH IS NOT AN EVENT OF LIFE. DEATH IS NOT LIVED THROUGH.
64 Kriegshög – Love & Revenge (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos)
63 Outer Graves – Malevolent Entity (Transylvanian Recordings)
62.1 Emasculator – The Disfigured and the Divine (New Standard Elite)
62 Theurgy – Emanations of Unconscious Luminescence (New Standard Elite)
61 Necrot – Lifeless Birth (Tankcrimes)
60 Teratoma – Viscera Infest (Headsplit Records)
59 Thanatotherion – Alienation Manifesto (I, Voidhanger Records)
58 Dissimulator – Lower Form Resistance (20 Buck Spin)
57 Apparition – Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State (Profound Lore Records)
56 Inconcessus Lux Lucis – Temples Colliding in Fire (I, Voidhanger Records)
55.1 Lwstndrds – Songs Of Atrocity (Lower Class Kids Records)
55 Senza – Celestial Body (Zegema Beach Records)
54 An-Xul – An-Xul (Chaos Records)
53.1 Thou – Umbilical (Sacred Bones Records)
53 Gråt Strigoi – The Prophetic Silence (Fiadh Productions)
52.1 Ante-Inferno – Death's Soliloquy (Vendetta Records)
52 Full of Hell and Andrew Nolan – Scraping the Divine (Closed Casket Activities)
51.1 Gigan – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus (Willowtip Records)
51 Abyssal – Glacial (Transylvanian Recordings)
50.11 Mosaic Window – Hemasanctum (Willowtip Records)
50.1 Heáfodbán – Blódwracu (Northern Doom)
50 Cult of Erinyes – Æstivation (Amor Fati Productions)
49 Choir – Smithe Thee Smoldering Providence (Violence in the Veins)
48 Insect Ark – Raw Blood Singing (Debemur Morti Productions)
47 Rose Ceremony – Iteration II (Khya Records)
46 Hyperdontia – Harvest of Malevolence (Dark Descent Records)
45 Contaminated – Celebratory Beheading (Blood Harvest Records)
44.11 Veilburner – The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom (Transcending Obscurity Records)
44.1 Sacred Son – Grief Commodity (Independent)
44. EDO – Radiant Structures and Vivid Dreams (Independent)
43. Nubivagant – The Blame Dagger (Amor Fati Productions)
42.13 Ava Rasti – The River (FatCat Records)
42.12 Häxenzijrkell – Portal (Amor Fati Productions)
42.11 Knoll – As Spoken (Independent)
42.1 Shum – Pulzáló Dobok Tisztítják Meg Az Eget (Independent)
42 Sordide – Ainsi finit le jour (Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions)
HOW THE WORLD IS, IS COMPLETELY INDIFFERENT FOR WHAT IS HIGHER. GOD DOES NOT REVEAL HIMSELF IN THE WORLD.
41.12 Hull of Light – Gilded Liminal Shrines (Independent)
41.1 Schammasch – The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean (Prosthetic Records)
41. Cailleach Bheur – Cailleach Bheur (Fiadh Productions)
40. Full of Hell – Coagulated Bliss (Closed Casket Activities)
39.14 Civerous – Maze Envy (20 Buck Spin)
39.13 Sumac – The Healer (Thrill Jockey Records)
39.12 Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy (Season of Mist)
39.11 ABSCHWÖRZUNGE – Whorl (I, Voidhanger Records)
39.1 Crypt Sermon – Stygian Rose (Dark Descent Records)
39 Malconfort – Humanism (Transcending Obscurity Records)
38 meth. – Shame (Prosthetic Records)
37 Concrete Winds – Concrete Winds (Sepulchral Voice Records)
36.11 Wormwitch / Sadistic Ritual – Split (Boris Records)
36.1 Vile Rites – Senescence (Carbonized Records)
36 Wormed – Omegon (Season of Mist)
35 Prosperity Gospel – Society of the Spectral (Comfort Monk)
34.1 Glassing – From the Other Side of the Mirror (Pelagic Records)
34 Diocletian – Inexorable Nexus (Nuclear War Now! Productions)
33. Inter Arma – New Heaven (Relapse Records)
32.1 Silvaplana – Limbs of Dionysus (Augur Tongues / IARNWITH)
32 Silvaplana – Sils Maria (Augur Tongues / IARNWITH)
31 Stenched – Purulence Gushing from the Coffin (Me Saco Un Ojo)
30.1 Deathless Void – The Voluptuous Fire of Sin (Iron Bonehead Productions)
30 Cabinet – Hydrolysated Ordination (Bloodymountain Records)
29.2 Kvadrat – The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion (Nuclear Winter Records / Total Disso Worship)
29.1 Replicant – Infinite Mortality (Transcending Obscurity Records)
29 Slimelord – Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (20 Buck Spin)
28.14 Cosmic Putrefaction – Emerald Fires atop the Farewell Mountains (Profound Lore Records)
28.13 Ceremony of Silence – Hálios (Willowtip Records)
28.12 Chapel of Disease – Echoes of Light (Ván Records)
28.11 Infant Island – Obsidian Wreath (Secret Voice)
28.1 Resin Tomb – Cerebral Purgatory (Transcending Obscurity Records)
28 Prisoner – Putrid / Obsolete (Persistent Vision)
27 Celestial Sword – Nocturnal Divinity (Death Prayer Records)
26 Lotus Thief/Forlesen – Lotus Thief/Forlesen (I, Voidhanger Records)
25 Ara – Blutroter Mond (Endless Chaos Records)
24.113 Rampant Beast – Into the Infernal Pyre (Blood Coloured Beast)
24.112 Srefa – Solstice (Satanath Records / Australis Records)
24.11 Paysage d'Hiver – Die Berge (Kunsthall Produktionen)
24.1 Spectral Voice – Sparagmos (Dark Descent Records)
24 Weary of Empires – Aequilibria (Independent)
23 Kali Malone – All Life Long (Ideologic Organ)
22.1 Sunrise Patriot Motion – My Father Took Me Hunting in the Snow (Sibir Records)
22 Doedsmaghird – Omniverse Consciousness (Peaceville Records)
THE PROPOSITION IS NOT A MIXTURE OF WORDS (JUST AS THE MUSICAL THEME IS NOT A MIXTURE OF TONES). THE PROPOSITION IS ARTICULATE.
21 Siadan – Visual Kill: The Blossoming of Psychotic Depravity (Jems)
20.1 Haunted Plasma – I (Svart Records)
20 Nekus – Death Apophenia (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)
18 Whispering Void – At the Sound of the Heart (Prophecy Productions)
17.1 I Am the Intimidator – I Am the Intimidator (Miserable Pyre Records)
17 Distend – IX (Fiadh Productions)
16 Papangu – Lampião Rei (Repose Records)
15.2 Spife / Sunken Basilica – Starflesh (Fiadh Productions)
15.1 Aerkenbrand – Hedenfarne Æventyr (Virkelighedsfjern / Kolbitr / I, Voidhanger Records)
15 Dipygus – Dipygus (Memento Mori / Headsplit Records / Crypt of the Wizard)
14.13 Djevel – Natt til Ende (Aftermath Music) –
14.12 Ulvik – Last Rites | Dire Omens (Avantgarde Music) –
14.1 Black Curse – Burning in Celestial Poison (Sepulchral Voice Records)
14 Ontaard / Throwing Bricks – Oud Zeer (Tartarus Records)
13 svrm – Прощання (Vendetta Records)
THE LIMITS OF MY YEAR-END LIST MEAN THE LIMITS OF MY WORLD.
12 Exhumation – Master's Personae (Pulverised Records)
11.1 Celestial Sword / Kommodus – Constellations of Fatality and Metamorphosis (Goatowarex)
11 Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja (Nuclear Blast Records)
10.1 Invunche – Atavismo (Nuclear War Now! Records)
10. Biesy – Golem (Pest Productions)
9 Abhorration – Demonaltry (Invictus Productions)
8. Thunraz – Incineration Day (Independent)
7.42 Convulsing – Perdurance (Independent)
7.41 Crippling Alcoholism – With Love From A Padded Room (Aonair Records / Fisher King Records)
7.4 Krallice – Inorganic Rites (P2)
7.3 Hadit – Metaphysical Engines Approaching the Event Horizon (I, Voidhanger Records)
7.2 Herxheim – Contrapasso (I, Voidhanger Records)
7.11 Bedsore – Dreaming the Strife for Life (20 Buck Spin)
7.1 Ὁπλίτης – Παραμαινομένη (Independent)
7 Indricothere – Nonlocality Immersion (Independent)
6 Siderean – Spilling the Astral Chalice (Edged Circle Productions)
5.11 Trelldom – …By the Shadows… (Prophecy Productions)
5.1 Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia (20 Buck Spin)
5 Pyrrhon – Exhaust (Willowtip Records)
4 Bríi – Camaradagem póstuma (Independent)
MY PROPOSITIONS ARE ELUCIDATORY IN THIS WAY: HE WHO UNDERSTANDS ME FINALLY RECOGNIZES THEM AS SENSELESS, WHEN HE HAS CLIMBED OUT THROUGH THEM, ON THEM, OVER THEM. (HE MUST SO TO SPEAK THROW AWAY THE LADDER, AFTER HE HAS CLIMBED UP ON IT.) HE MUST SURMOUNT THESE PROPOSITIONS; THEN HE SEES THE YEAR-END LIST RIGHTLY.
3.2 Ungfell – De Ghörnt (Eisenwald)
3.13 Dola – Tabernakulum (Independent)
3.12 Cave Sermon – Divine Laughter (Independent)
3.11 Serpent Column – Tassel of Ares (Ten Plagues Tapes)
3.1 Mitochondrion – Vitriseptome (Profound Lore Records)
3 Feral Light – A Reckoning with the Intangible (Independent)
2.22 Choshech – A Journey Into Silence (999 Cuts)
2.21 Leila Abdul-Rauf – Calls from a Seething Edge (Cyclic Law)
2.2 Extra Life – The Sacred Vowel (Independent)
2.1 Verwoed – The Mother (Argento Records)
2 40 Watt Sun – Little Weight (Cappio Records / Fisher's Folly)
WHEREOF ONE CANNOT SPEAK, THEREOF ONE MUST BE SILENT. OR WRITE A YEAR-END LIST. SAME.
1.3 Genital Shame – Chronic Illness Wish (The Garrote)
Genital Shame's Chronic Illness Wish sounds like an album beyond space and time. While some of the sonic elements should sound vaguely familiar to anyone with an interest in avant-garde black metal, the way those parts come together here sounds absolutely new. And exciting. And scary. But never inhuman, which is the prize of all prizes here, the dear, unfiltered, and immaculately expressed humanity.
1.2 Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Century Media Records)
I'm not much of an Aristotelian (I actually don't know why I just wrote that, I think I might be), but if there's ever proof to the idea of a seed "aspiring" to fulfill its potential then Absolute Elsewhere is a pretty solid one. Not to say that the combination of dreamy, meandering prog and death metal as the only defining feature of these fine Denver folk. No. And I'm still waiting on another club-over-the-head style sequel to Starspawn. But that combination has been looming in the background since Secret History and has now come full force. A band not just finding its footing but continuing to find its own wellspring of creativity and inspiration on its own terms, which is just a lovely – and very rare – thing to see.
1.12 Sleepwalker (夢遊病者) – Delirium Pathomutageno Adductum (Independent)
Sleepwalker have, it's safe to say, danced around many musical bonfires in the few years of their strange existence. They've dabbled with noise, black metal, folk, death metal, experimental music, neo-classical, you name it. Where they stood out almost always, besides their unrelenting creativity and unwillingness to stay too long in any one square, is the human quality of their music. It never felt like people trying musical things out, it felt like humans desperately and assuredly looking to the best way to express themselves, and in doing so never felt like a "noise" band or a "black metal" band but a unique entity of their own making. Delirium Pathomutageno Adductum, however, is a quantum leap in that already stunning journey, one that feels like the creating of a new and probably inimitable style of art and music. It's folk and heavy metal and prog that feel like all those things at the same time, never just the one, as the heavy metal vocals are used to make what feels like an almost folky statement about life. Music that feels like it was unearthed in an ancient site, and that sounds like it was made in the future.
1.11 Scarcity – The Promise of Rain (The Flenser)
As I already mentioned in my ill-advised best-of-the-decade-so-far list, this isn't really a new Scarcity album, nor do I treat it as such. I mean, it is, yes, it is that too. It's also the coming into being of Scarcity as a "real" band, as opposed to the double-bedroom project it started life as. But it isn't in the sense that it doesn't feel like Scarcity are recording albums, but instead putting together movements that come together into the wider context of their art. if Aveilut was our dreary introduction into that world, the woefully un-Hebrew The Promise of Rain is a sharp bend toward drama and, yes, even sunlight. The kind of sunlight you get with Doug Moore screaming at you, naturally, which is really the only kind I consider to be worthy of that name. A brilliant move sideways and forward that mostly makes me excited that I get to see where it goes next (please say brutal death metal, pretty please). Also, hands down the best cover art of the year and another testament to the immense talents of Christian Degn (also of the amazing Moray).
1.1 Vemod – The Deepening (Prophecy Productions)
Vemod's brilliant return is proof of many things. Firstly, it's proof that it pays to release an incredible album very early in the year, since it allows to live with that album and repeatedly return to it. Secondly, it's proof that a nightmare of a year, truly in the top three of my life, needs a stabilizing force. Sometimes I pick the most artistically inspiring album of the year for the top of my weird list, sometimes it's a sense of comfort too. Or the recognition that feeling an "edge" isn't the only thing we do when we listen to music, sometimes we just live. The Deepening was, of course, all of these things, and a daring, nuanced piece of incredibly moving music. But, for me, above all it was just there for me when I needed. And god knows I needed it a lot.
1 The world is everything that is the case and the case is that the list has ended.
NOTES
¹ Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985)
² Daniel Defoe, The Storm (London: John Nuit, 1704).
³ Virginia Woolf, The Letters of Virginia Woolf 1936-1941, edited by Nigel Nicolson (London: Hogarth Press, 1980).
⁴ Mary Favret, War at a Distance: Romanticism and the Making of Modern Wartime (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).
⁵ Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991).
⁶ Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Aesthetic Judgement, translated by James Creed Meredith (1790/1911).
⁷ Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, edited by G.E.M. Anscombe and translated by R. Rhees and G.E.M. Anscombe (Oxford: Blackwell, 1953).
⁸ Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, or: The Whale (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851).
Patreon. Not a note, but, you know.
פינגבק: Our 32 Favorite Metal Albums of 2024 - House Of Shakes