Another year nearly done, and another look back at the metal that served as its soundtrack, this list being part one of a two-part Best of 2024 feature, focusing first on what are the ten best songs of the year to my ears. One of the things I’ve come to accept over the many years that I’ve been writing and publishing year end metal lists is that I rarely overlap with the general consensus. Blood Incantation for instance, is nowhere to be found on my lists, though I acknowledge their unorthodox brilliance and I get why so many love what they’re doing. A long time ago I used to think that in being so very far apart from the general consensus, I was missing out on a collective experience that the rest of the metal community was having, and that it was a fault of mine.
I’ve come to let go of that hang up as time has passed, and have embraced being out here in left field with a handful of other metal obsessives whose lists I eagerly await. I wish more people would offer up best songs lists in addition to their album lists, because I feel that in picking out individual songs worthy of the spotlight, you get an even bigger window into not only someone’s musical tastes, but their personality as well. Enough of the soap box for now, I hope everyone finds something about the songs below to love as much as I did, and I did make one concession towards looking like other lists — I’ve finally decided to number them in descending order (I’ve been a curmudgeon on this, but I’ll grudgingly admit there’s a logic to doing it).
10. Fellowship – “Victim” (from the album The Skies Above Eternity)
The most recent of all the entries on this list, being a late November release, “Victim” is simply that undeniable of a power metal song. Its constructed in what is now trademark Fellowship fashion, where they pull you in with cheerful, major key sugariness only to gut punch you with some pretty emotionally loaded lyrics. Vocalist Matthew Corry has been a revelation for the power metal scene in this regard, bringing a literate pen and more thoughtful consciousness to his voice as a lyricist. He seems to possess an innate understanding of how to craft a lyrical phrase that cuts straight to the heart in a poetic, yet direct manner, as he demonstrates here when he asks in the refrain “Will I always feel like a victim? / Will I always fight on my own?” Its this album’s answer to “Glint”, the now power metal classic off their debut EP that rocketed them to collective power metal consciousness. Both songs speak about some facet of mental health, barely concealed with fantastical metaphors and imagery, which sets Fellowship apart from other power metal bands where that kind of interpretation is solely left to the listener to decide.
9. Suidakra – “Unraveling Destinies” (from the album Darkanarad)
Striking like a coiled serpent, Suidakra exploded on their new album Darkanarad with a classic melodic death metal attack that they haven’t had since the days of Emprise to Avalon and Signs For the Fallen. Emblematic of this return to their melodeath roots is the single “Unraveling Destinies”, as catchy and instantaneous a song Suidakra has ever penned, with the introductory riff motif being hooky as all get out. Part of this song’s charm is the unorthodox structural arrangment happening here, such as the complete drop out save for some tight riffing and cymbal work in lieu of second verse stanza — then where you’d expect a chorus, we get another drop out with insistent riffing and an abrupt change of pace clean vocal led passage. When you step back and consider just how bizarre this song’s pacing is, its even more impressive that it is so beautifully harmonious and unforgettable. Arkadius’ approach to riffs has always been a defining feature of this band’s appeal, at once bleak and punishing yet also vividly colorful and resonant. No more is that evident than during the sequence at the 3:40 mark, where riff intensity and layered harmonies create magic that fades far too quickly.
8. Carmeria – “Immortal” (from the album Tragédie D’amour)
I was already digging Tragédie D’amour during my first listen thru before hearing “Immortal”, sitting far back at number seven on the track listing when this absolute goth metal diamond shined forth its glorious light and entranced me (picture the heart eyes emoji). I was already in the full blown swing of a heavy goth mood where for a few weeks I was constantly spinning Charon, Sentenced, and H.I.M.’s entire catalogs when the ever reliable Josh of Heavy Debriefings pointed out Carmeria to me. He sold the recommendation by saying that they had just put out the perfect 00s Finnish goth metal album, despite their Australian passports, and damn he wasn’t exaggerating. I love this stuff, and I know I know — the bright, euphoric hook here has more in common with the sweet gothic hard rock ear candy of H.I.M. than their more abrasive, harder edged countrymen mentioned above. Hey, I’m unabashed these days about my admiration for Ville Valo as a songwriter and vocalist, and Carmeria distilled the essence of everything that was great about that sound into one of the most earwormy singles of the year.
7. Tribulation – “Hungry Waters” (from the album Sub Rosa In Æternum)
Tribulation’s new album is one of the strangest yet ultimately most compelling that 2024 had to offer, if not exactly the most surprising. This band was telegraphing moving further away from their black metal roots on their past two albums, so while the gothic metal they’re exploring throughout Sub Rosa In Æternum was expected, its surreal to hear just how incredibly well they’re pulling it off. The standout example of this success is “Hungry Waters”, as convincing a Sisters of Mercy-esque clean vocal driven song that these guys could have dreamed up. I love that drum roll intro right into that sparse guitar lick that fills the space over smoothly rolling bass, while Johannes Andersson croons in a Nick Cave meets Johnny Cash amalgam that doesn’t sound like a pastiche. The band’s usage of space as a instrument unto itself is gorgeous, particularly in the sequence after the guitar solos, where lesser bands would fumble such an atmospheric sequence and lose our attention as listeners. There was never a danger of that throughout this tune, a song so entrancing that it still is the first thing I listen to when revisiting this album. Yet another example of why gothic metal reigned supreme over everything else this year.
6. Unleash the Archers – “Give It Up Or Give It All” (from the album Phantoma)
A transcendent moment on Unleash the Archers concept album Phantoma, this was the anthemic, arena rock resonating chorus that stuck in my head after every pass through the album. This song makes this list not just because its an expertly written mid-tempo, arms outstretched quasi power ballad epic, but because even in a career filled with no shortage of powerful grit and full throated, lung obliterating screams, this is Brittney Hayes singular greatest vocal performance to date. Of course she is jaw dropping on the magnificent chorus here, ringing with shades of Roxette’s Marie Fredriksson in her tone and delivery, at once smooth but absolutely reverberating with power. But I’m just as gripped by her performance during the verses, with her choices in vocal melody and lyrical pacing the kind of stuff that you’d normally hear coming from greats such as Mutt Lange and Desmond Child. I really enjoyed a ton of Phantoma whereas it was met with a bit of a collective head scratch from the power metal community as a whole, and maybe I’m in the minority in saying this, but I’m entirely down for them to do more stuff in this vein instead of trying to out heavy their older albums.
5. Opera Magna – “Volver” (from the album Heroica)
This magnificent song was the magnum opus from Opera Magna’s Heroica, and the first instance on this blog’s best songs of the year lists to be a Spanish language track (I don’t know what took so long but I blame only myself!). I’m not entirely up on my Spanish despite years of taking it in high school, but unless I’m mistaken “Volver” means “return”, and that makes sense in context of the scenes in the music video above, but I didn’t need the visuals of the MV to put imagery into my head while listening to this spectacularly inspiring gem. There’s so much to praise here, but lets start with the soaring vocals of Jose Vicente Broseta, whose voice is so phenomenally powerful and soaring that I wonder why I haven’t heard him in some guest spots around the power metal landscape (oh wait, actually he has a laundry list of guest appearances, but they’re all for Spanish metal bands). The composition and arrangement of the symphonic elements here is, dare I suggest, on another tier above much of the rest of symphonic power metal, with an ear towards understated refinement, eschewing Hollywood soundtrack histrionics. A lesson in elegance.
4. Swallow the Sun – “What I Have Become” (from the album Shining)
Emblematic of what I respect and love about Swallow the Sun’s recent new album Shining, “What I Have Become” is one of the strangest hopeful songs I could possibly imagine, and it wasn’t even anywhere close to being my favorite cut off the album initially. But as I stuck with the album through repeated listens in order to try to decipher its unorthodox mixing of Swallow the Sun’s patented gritty death doom with a glossy, sparkling production finish, this song began to emerge as one that lingered with me long after the album had finished. There’s something hypnotizing about this song for me that I’m not sure I can quite verbalize, but it must have something to do with vocalist Mikko Kotamäki’s split personalities happening simultaneously. He sings a graceful melody in a wistfully hopeful major key, while shadowing it with that inimitable hellish screaming vocal, with the two being layered together towards the end for a particularly unsettling effect. I never knew how to feel exactly after listening to this song, but that mystery is what kept me coming back.
3. Saltatio Mortis w/ Blind Guardian – “Finsterwacht”
I didn’t know who Saltatio Mortis were before this collaboration with Blind Guardian (in the form of co-lead vocals by Hansi Kursch and presumably some guitar parts by Andre or Marcus (no one seems to know for sure…), but they grabbed my attention this year with the release of the single “Finsterwacht”. The song is in German, marking one of the rare instances where you can hear Hansi sing in his native tongue (he previously did so on a guest appearance on In Extremo’s “Roter Stern”), but it’s stormy, grandiose, and epic arrangement and songwriting transcend language barriers. Saltatio Mortis have made a name for themselves lately for penning music inspired by videogames and general nerdery, and “Finsterwacht” tells a story about the events in the German version of Dungeons and Dragons, Das Schwarze Auge (“The Dark Eye”). The construction of this song lives up to the pedigree of their esteemed guests in Blind Guardian, finding a way to merge driving, surging build-ups with gloriously triumphant, exuberant payoffs in the refrain, and a highly memorable bagpipe motif that serves as the frequent segue glue. They released an English version of this later on during the year, complete with Hansi’s participation, and that was cool, but the magic resides in the original German version, one of the surprise gifts of 2024.
2. DreamGate – “Dreamgate” (from the album Dreamgate)
Power metal flagbearer Johannes Skyblazer (of the band Skyblazer) introduced me to this song with an impassioned recommendation on Facebook, declaring of the song, “You want to know what happiness sounds like for me? Check out the song Dreamgate, by Dreamgate off their album Dreamgate. That chorus progression will ALWAYS do it for me more than anything ever will.” And yes, its somewhat of a metal tradition to have a eponymous song off their eponymous album, Iron Maiden did it after all, but somehow its funnier to me when Dreamgate’s doing it. That’s not a slight in any way I should emphasize, because I love this song, and I love this album, and I love the band. Hailing from Italy, they’re very new on the power metal scene, but possess an old school, early 2000s stylistic aesthetic — and it all makes sense that Johannes, who is one of the biggest Power Quest fans in the world, would be the one to recommend this song to everyone. It is unabashedly cheerful, hopeful in tone, and yes that progression in the chorus is indeed everything myself and any other fan of the cheerier end of power metal could ever want. Its the kind of thing that can instantly lift your mood, stave away depression, or help you celebrate a tiny victory of some sort. It was my most listened to song of 2024 for all those reasons and more.
1. Unto Others – “Suicide Today” (from the album Never, Neverland)
I never imagined a song could be at once equal parts sardonic and encouraging, hopeful even, but the dudes in Unto Others (America’s greatest goth metal export since Type O’ Negative) managed to birth such a creation with “Suicide Today”, the standout single from Never, Neverland. Immediate, infectious, and thrilling, this song ignites mere seconds in to pop off like a rocket, with lead guitarist Sebastian Silva delivering perhaps his most energetic riff progression to date, and an earworm to boot. And while Silva, bassist Brandon Hill and drummer Colin Vranizan lay down the firepower, guitarist and vocalist Gabriel Franco sings in his charismatically deadpan vocal, “You don’t gotta be suicidal / Don’t have to kill yourself today / No, you can do it tomorrow”. I’m sure it elicited a guffaw from all of us the first time we heard it, but he’s specifically directing it at a litany of distraught characters he describes with succinct word pictures during the verses, so its not just a throwaway lyric to fill a syllabic need. He leaves off by saying “And you’re gonna die anyways / So give it a day”, and its such a wryly worded bit of motivation without sounding schlockily… erm, motivating. Its a brilliant, unforgettable song that walks the thin line between heart on sleeve emotion and dark humor the same way goth metal masters such as Sentenced and the aforementioned Type O were interweaving both throughout their own music. A career defining moment for the new heirs to the goth throne.
