Here I go again, as David Coverdale once sagely sang, back with part two of The Metal Pigeon’s Best of 2024 feature, focusing on the best albums of the year (a tidy ten selections for you newcomers). If you missed part one of the feature a few weeks ago, focusing on the best songs of the year, be sure to check that out too. Looking back on the year in metal, I imagine we’re all going to have differing perspectives on whether or not it was a strong year for a particular subgenre or another. I’ve heard from many in our metal circle that it was a great year for black metal, and from others that it was another banner year for death metal. For my part, I was happily surprised at the renewed strength of gothic rock/metal coming through via several releases, something that I had been long hungering for over the past few years. Much like the recent folk metal revival of the past several years, there are new artists introducing freshness to gothic heaviness by putting their own spin on tried and true sounds and themes. It resulted in igniting a desire on my part to revisit a heap of classics in that vein, such as Sentenced, Charon, To/Die/For, The Man-Eating Tree, H.I.M., and many others. Much like my summer of Dio last year, it was liberating to drop out of the new music treadmill for awhile at will and just listen to older stuff I really longed to hear just for the sheer enjoyment of it. While it admittedly results in less updates here at the blog, that reconnecting with my roots keeps the metal fires burning so to speak. It reminds me of what I really love about this kind of music, and as a result, helps me sort through newer music with a more discerning and sharper ear. Well, at least I like to think so anyway, whether or not you’ll agree depends on your opinion of the list below. Read on!
10. Unleash the Archers – Phantoma
I think I might be one of the minority in feeling like Unleash the Archers stumbled onto something fresh and inspired on Phantoma. They had gone the conceptual/storyline route before, but even on the previous album Abyss where they were dabbling in a few different sounds (synths for example), they still kept tethers to the direct, USPM influenced metal attack as a nod to their past. Here they completely cut that cord, and in turn, created a sparkling, shimmering synth based soundscape for the songs on this album to flow through, the result being their most cohesive work to date — something that convincingly gelled with Phantoma’s theme of sentient AI running amok. Take the title track, ostensibly one of the heavier songs on the record, and its riffs are dressed up with glossy keyboards and layered vocals that lend themselves towards the futuristic vision the song is illustrating. This album also saw the band furthering the shift towards embracing more rock songwriting structures as opposed keeping everything metallic, a decision that has greatly shifted the weight of so many of these songs onto Brittney Hayes shoulders. This album has her finest vocal performances to date, and we discussed her career defining moment earlier on the first part of this best of feature on the epic “Give It Up Or Give It All”, but we shouldn’t ignore her impact on “The Collective” or “Buried In Code”. Her vocal choices in melody direction and inflection are undeniably addictive. I’ll admit this was a album that took time to grow on me, but I found myself yearning to hear it when I’d step away from it for awhile. It snuck its way onto this list before I realized it, but its earned its place here.
(Also appears on: The Metal Pigeon’s Best Songs of 2024)
9. Iotunn – Kinship
Iotunn made waves a few years back with their debut Access All Worlds and its blending of progressive melodic death metal with traditional prog metal elements such as soaring clean vocals and dual lead guitar harmonies, but they really arrived on most everyone’s radar with this year’s incredible Kinship. This album was written with a degree of craftsmanship and attention to detail that underscores the album’s deliberate nature. This is illustrated in the patience of the songwriting, with most of these songs being built on long narrative arcs that culminate in emotionally powerful payoffs. It certainly was an album that required effort to immerse oneself fully, not offering up ultra hooky choruses or sugary melodies, its shifting riff sequences instead driving towards larger payoffs, much like classic Opeth albums such as Blackwater Park or Still Life. Its not an exaggeration to suggest that Kinship could be comparable to classics of that caliber, and vocalist Jón Aldará is to my ears as skillful a harsh/clean vocalist as Mikael Akerfeldt back in the day (some of you might know him from his work in Barren Earth after Mikko Kotamäki left). On such a complete and integrated album, its hard to pinpoint individual songs as standouts, but what comes to mind is the finale of “Twilight”, where after a bruising black metal tinged buildup, there’s a classic prog metal-esque riff sequence that transitions into Aldará’s earnest clean singing “Twilight / Hope flies free” over an epic melodic guitar motif echoing underneath. I debated on putting this album up higher than number nine, but because it came out relatively late in the year it received less spins than the other albums in this top ten. And lets not ignore the fact that this album is so mood dependent, and more of a full album experience (I didn’t just drop in on this thing to jam a particular song), that it had a bit of a handicap set against it terms of the amount of repeat spins it would receive. That being said, its a testament to its sheer artistic merit that it made such a monumental impact upon me in a short amount of time, that I couldn’t fathom leaving it off this list.
8. Wolfheart – Draconian Darkness
Wolfheart delivered one of the best comebacks of the year with Draconian Darkness, bouncing back from what I felt were two lacking albums in a row. Unrelenting, punishing, bleakly sorrowful and filled with spring loaded aggression that is let loose in carefully constructed sequences, their newest effort saw Tuomas Saukkonen and company marrying their distinctly Finnish melodeath with swaths of orchestral soundscapes to amp up the grandeur and majesty. I remember spinning this on its release day in the morning not expecting much given how I felt about the aforementioned prior albums, but was left thrilled and far more awake as a result — it worked better than the little stick of instant coffee from the Korean grocery store (I take them to work, I do proper coffee at home!). Not only is the songwriting as sharp as the band’s best work on Tyhjyys and Constellation of the Black Light, but I’d argue that the gorgeous, cinematic symphonic arrangements here adorn them so well that this is in the running for my favorite Wolfheart album period. And its just a nonstop onslaught, storming the gates with the opener “Ancient Cold”, one of their hookiest songs to date, and then ratcheting up the intensity with “Evenfall” and the crushing “Burning Sky”. I love the little delicate acoustic touches that are scattered among these songs, bringing a little Gothenburg flavor to Finnish melodeath in a crossover that we need more of. And I can’t speak highly enough about the quality of the orchestrations, courtesy of Saku Moilanen, who carefully paints dark colors in the backgrounds that accentuate passages, and on occasion unfurl into gorgeous melodic motifs to carry a sequence on their own such the rising swells in “Grave”. A welcome return to the year end list for one of Finland’s greatest exports.
7. Carmeria – Tragédie D’amour
It was when I first heard Tragédie D’amour that I began to take stock of just how much goth metal has been going through a nascent resurgence in 2024. For their sophomore album, Sydney based Carmeria decided to mix the Kamelot-ian symphonic progressive power metal heard on their 2021 debut album Advenae with a generous splash of Finnish gothic metal/rock for a heady cocktail that tastes both fresh and nostalgic. I initially appraised this album as an indulgent curiosity that fit into the Sentenced/Charon/H.I.M. kick I was going through for a couple months there, something that I would enjoy as a temporary aside, a casual aural fling. Well, that was a ridiculous notion as I soon realized, because any album that earns as many repeat listens as Tragédie D’amour has eventually comes calling when you start examining play counts, and in being honest with yourself as to what you really loved listening to the most during these past twelve months. I seem to learn that lesson anew every year and vow to never repeat it but… well here we are (I’m almost certain I’ll repeat the same mistake in 2025 at some point). Vocalist Jordan von Grae and keyboardist Mishka Bobrov were the brainchild behind injecting some of that melancholic gothic heartache into their sound as a direct homage to their shared love of H.I.M., and von Grae is a perfect melodic vocalist to blend both Roy Khan-esque dramatic theatricality with Ville Valo’s desperate, lovelorn crooning. I gushed about the album highlight “Immortal” on the Best Songs list, but this early 2000s gothic rock influence permeates much of the album, being mixed into the songwriting en masse so its not just relegated to isolated moments. Consider the ultra hooky “The Hoping Heart”, a keyboard and vocal driven song that blurs the lines of mid-tempo rocker and power ballad the way H.I.M. would with songs such as “The Funeral of Hearts” or “The Sacrament”. I also love the bands forays into pure balladry as on “Whispers of Forgiveness” with acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment that reminds me of Fourth Legacy/Karma era Kamelot; and on the short but gorgeous “Burning Ships” with bassist Emma Louise Nagy stepping in for lead vocals in a stirring performance. In listening to interviews with the band about this album, I get the feeling that maybe this marriage of goth rock into their sound was a temporary decision they made for this album, but I’d hope they would continue to pursue it. This is a sound that has been in desperate need of resurrection, and who would have thought it would take some sunbaked Aussies to bring it back to life?
(Also appears on: The Metal Pigeon’s Best Songs of 2024)
6. Opera Magna – Heroica
Considering that I listen to K-Pop on a part time basis (its definitely not taking up as much of my listening time as it was in 2021 and 2022), you’d figure that I wouldn’t have a stumbling block with clean vocal sung metal in a foreign language. But I guess its fair to say that I have, considering this is the first non-extreme or folk metal entry by a foreign language metal album on a year end list of mine. I definitely did not think that in a year with some biggish power metal names releasing new records, that Opera Magna, relative unknowns outside of Spain, would drop the best pure symphonic power metal album of the year. I vaguely remembered hearing this band name thrown around in power metal circles around early 2000s when they were being tipped as the next Dark Moor, but I don’t think I recall actually hearing anything they did when I learned their debut album was sung in Spanish. I’m of course guilty of being close minded in retrospect, but that was a long time ago and things have changed in my ability to enjoy all forms of art in other languages (subtitles are no problem these days!). This is the band’s first genuinely new album in over a decade, considering 2023’s Of Love and Other Demons seems to be an English language version of the collection of the three Spanish language Del amor y otros demonios EPs (which are far more enjoyable in their native tongue). Their approach on Heroica takes the theatricality of Alfred Romero era Dark Moor and fuses it with the speed and technicality of influences such as Angra and Rhapsody of Fire. Songs such as “Volver” and the title track ripple with an electricity that is mood elevating and adrenaline infusing, and although the translated lyrics are quite thoughtful, its purely the sonic impact that I’m referring to here. Elsewhere, such as on “Que el amor, la vida y la muerte así te encuentren”, we get a sense of how their commitment to writing in Spanish gives their sound a unique sense of identity that perhaps the Italian power metal greats miss out on by singing in English. I can’t quite define what exactly is so appealing about the way Spanish language lyrics are phrased, perhaps its their smoothness and affinity for a grandiose delivery that I’m responding to. So even though I probably missed much of the lyrical subtext happening throughout this stellar album, I loved every second of it.
(Also appears on: The Metal Pigeon’s Best Songs of 2024)
5. Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
At one point, this was sitting at the pole position on this list and I was certain that it wasn’t going to be dislodged from that spot. But perhaps the fact that I played the hell out of this thing upon it’s early March release date and on through the weeks and weeks thereafter made me shelve it for too long as a result (the same thing happened to Helloween’s incredible self-titled album in 2021 as I recall). I did bust this out recently in preparation for Priest’s show here in southwest Houston in October, but on the evening before the show word came down that Judas Priest was cancelling (for what we’d later find out might’ve been due to Rob getting the flu), and after that whole debacle my enthusiasm for giving it more spins faded. So yeah, I guess its fair to say that there was a tangible punishment for Invincible Shield as a whole in terms of their sliding down the year end rankings a bit, and perhaps that’s unfair, but it also has a lot to do with the competition it faced down below. I will say, in the past few weeks prepping for the finalization of this list, I have given it refresher spins and I do think its legitimately one of the best albums of the band’s career, easily their Brave New World moment in the post-reunion era (2005 and onwards). It is the strongest traditional metal album of the year as well, with Ritchie Faulkner and Glenn Tipton unleashing a dual guitar torrent that builds upon the focus and intensity of what was established on Firepower and turn it up to eleven. The album opens up with “Panic Attack” which brought to mind flashes of the Turbo album with those opening synths (happy connotations in my book) and kicks into the kind of full power attack that reminds one of “All Guns Blazing” or “Painkiller”, references I wouldn’t make unless I really believed they were apt. Then its just a murders row of absolute bangers one after another; “The Serpent and the King” (awesome), “Invincible Shield” (awesome), “Devil in Disguise” (awesome), “Gates of Hell” (awesome), “As God As My Witness” (so awesome). I skipped over “Crown of Thorns” in that sequence because it deserves special mention, featuring Halford’s most soulful vocal performance since “Angel” off Angel of Retribution, I love it so much. And things don’t dip in the second half, “Sons of Thunder” is at moments my favorite song on the record with that shouted back chorus, and “Trial By Fire” has the sort of classic mid 80s Priest-ian swagger that is so inimitable no matter how hard others have tried. I have yet to see other people’s lists, but I trust that this will be in most everyone’s top ten for obvious reasons. A late career championship for one of the greats.
4. Myrath – Karma
No strangers to the year end best albums list (having an appearance on the 2016 edition with Legacy), Myrath returned earlier this year with their first album in over five years, no thanks to a half year delay on the release date of Karma for whatever reason (purely speculation but vinyl wait times tend to be the singular reason for any metal album delay lately). In all ways an improvement over 2019’s Shehili in which the band tried for a sound that was too heavy for its own good, they’ve seemed to realize where the sweet spot of their sound truly lies, that being the intersection between sharply written metallic hard rock with unabashed pop songwriting instincts and Maghrebian folk instrumentation. Long removed from their Symphony X influenced progressive roots, their efforts in cultivating their poppier side have culminated in what is to my ears their strongest and most cohesive album to date, even eclipsing Legacy. Central to this effort is vocalist Zaher Zorgati, whose rich tone and impressive ability to inflect and emote carries this album via some truly captivating vocal melodies which these songs are built around. The use of a small horn section (well its actually one guy, Julien Duchet, handling everything with aplomb) as a punctuating accent (particularly on “Into the Light”) really brought to mind the sound of Phil Collins solo discography, particularly given the tone of Zorgati’s vocal similarity (both singers have a character rich voice, unmistakable in their identity). The positive vibes heard there and on a song such as “Let It Go” (not a cover of the Disney super ballad in case you were suspicious!) are something that few hard rock and metal bands can pull off as convincingly as Myrath. The closest to achieve similar results would be Orphaned Land who have dabbled in writing uplifting music, but tend to skew darker and more mournful by comparison. Much of Karma’s success I attribute to Zorgati and his vocal charisma, but major credit goes to guitarist Malek Ben Arbia for maximizing a single guitar approach and as always, playing with a balance of restraint and flair when needed, as well as longtime collaborator and producer Kévin Codfert for marrying all these disparate elements so seamlessly. Easily one of the most satisfying listens of the year.
3. Oak, Ash, & Thorn – Our Grief Is Thus
Denver’s Oak, Ash, & Thorn were one of the truly unknown bands on this list that took me by storm this past spring with the blackened folk metal of Our Grief Is Thus. They were introduced to me on an episode of the MSRcast, and described as having major Woods of Ypres vibes, which was of course enough for me to pay really close attention. After that show I binged this album nonstop, and to be sure, I do hear shades of the Canadian legends in their musical DNA, but I hear more in the way of Borknagar and Agalloch as primary influences. I will say that vocalist Adam Armstrong does sound a little like David Gold in certain moments with his clean vocals (but moreso on his very enunciative harsh vox), but I hear quite a bit of Lars Nedland in here as well. Yet what separates Oak, Ash, & Thorn from these possible influences is their songwriting, which is imbued with a personality of its own in its far looser, dare I suggest alternative rock stylistic bent. That doesn’t mean clean vocal pop choruses abound however, but the band favors a more stripped down, accessible riff sequence or rhythm pattern to usher in the choruses (they’re not buried in layers and layers of a wall of sound). The statement song here is the album opener “Dying Culture”, with one of the most artfully composed set of lyrics from any artist in 2024 and sporting a hugely memorable chorus. Yet in terms of accessibility, its hard to outdo “Light My Pyre” and “Auras”, the former being the most straight ahead rock influenced tune on the album, complete with one of the few instances of a band dropping the f-bomb in the lyrics and it feeling appropriate and warranted. But my favorite was “Auras”, with a shouting over the cliffside chorus that many a Scandinavian band would admire, Armstrong bellowing a brilliant clean vocal melody, and drummer Cierra White absolutely destroying the kit with a dynamic and engaging performance (she’s a darkhorse MVP on this album). This album got the band signed to Season of Mist, and rightfully so. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a career of masterpieces.
2. Swallow the Sun – Shining
Arguably the most controversial album on this list, with even die hard Swallow the Sun fans being divided in opinions, it’s also perhaps the most intriguing album of the year for exactly that reason. Worn down from the exhaustive experiences writing When a Shadow Is Forced into the Light and Moonflowers, two albums dealing with grief in its various permutations, guitarist and songwriter Juha Raivio just couldn’t keep delving into the darkness any further. I loved those albums, both made my year end lists in their respective years, but they were at times too dark and sorrowful to casually listen to, so I get it. So he began a slow climb upwards, and in the process, shifted the bands sound somewhat away from the charcoal black tones of those two albums and introduced elements of light into the band’s sound, which we’ve really not heard Swallow the Sun entertain since almost a decade ago with some of the stuff off the Songs From the North triple disc outing. I say somewhat to describe this shift because there certainly still exists the band’s trademark bruising, uber heavy tones and riff sequences happening all across this album, and vocalist Mikko Kotamäki growls through plenty of it. Yet much of this album is imbued with lighter shades in guitar tones that borrow from gothic metal and dare I suggest darkwave, making use of space and textures in a way that sometimes reminds me of Steven Wilson. The producer here is Dan Lancaster, a big name in mainstream rock circles, who helped the band reimagine their sound in such a way as to emphasize atmosphere and what I’ve thought of as a de-escalation of the traditional Swallow the Sun attack. And maybe its because I’ve been in this headspace where I’ve craved that gothic metal vibe this year, but this album struck a hugely personal chord with me. It inspired a pensive and thoughtful atmosphere, a slowing down of scattered thoughts into a purely singular focus, an incredible achievement for any album. It was an intense and heavy album that was also meditative, and that utterly surreal strangeness captivated me.
(Also appears on: The Metal Pigeon’s Best Songs of 2024)
1. Unto Others – Never, Neverland
Six years ago, when they were known as Idle Hands before US trademark law forced their name change, vocalist/guitarist Gabriel Franco, lead guitarist Sebastian Silva, and drummer Colin Vranizan crashed onto the 2019 best albums list at a staggering number two with their debut Mana, and instantaneously became a band that I’d keep at the forefront of my attention for future releases and shows. I caught them live sometime in 2021 on their headlining Strength tour and although I have mixed feelings on that album now (too heavy for its own good), the show here in Houston was fierce, with precision performances, and an intensity onstage from everyone involved that only bands who’ve really gelled together can muster. I left that show thinking with some degree of certainty that their best work was ahead of them, but I don’t think I ever suspected it would be right around the corner on their next frigging album. That is exactly what Never, Neverland could be (but if we’re lucky, its only just the start), because this album — a wild kitchen sink collection of gothic rock, traditional heavy metal, post-punk, and even some new wave strained through a Sisters of Mercy t-shirt — is the complete encapsulation of everything weird and wonderful about Unto Others. The band is an open book emotionally, at times expressing themselves with detached irony, at other times with tongue-in-cheek silliness, and often, with a disarming earnestness that cuts deep.
The songs that illustrate those emotional perspectives are just perfect in their simplicity, even downright elegant in moments, as on the album opener “Butterfly”, where Franco metaphorically examines the fine line between desire and destruction in regards to something or someone beautiful. Similarly on “Fame”, he delivers his wry observations of the trappings of stardom and success, singing in a icily detached tone (he’s so goddamned good at that) “The beauty often fades / And people hate when people change”. But without warning, Unto Others pulls me deep into nostalgia with something like “Momma Likes the Door Closed”, where I’m reminded of listening to stuff like Green Jelly and Primus in a friend’s bedroom on summer vacation from middle school, where you just nod along to a scorching riff and grin foolishly because you know its stupid but you love it anyway. And I get Faith No More vibes from the not quite instrumental “Hoops”, with its inexplicable, nonsensical shouted lyrics alongside awesome lead guitar parts, where its all so excellent even though you’re wondering why this was turned into a song in the first place. The beating heart of the album resides in its most vulnerable moments however, where on “Suicide Today” Franco disguises pleading urgency behind wryly glib, off-handedly conversational lyrics. Or on “Time Goes On”, where through a beautifully arranged guitar motif Franco sings about the dangers of being stuck in one’s own memories of the past, figuratively shouting (“Hey!”) to wake us from our stupor. The studio version of their “Pet Sematary” cover here that they actually played at the aforementioned Houston gig feels like a Christmas present by the time the album concludes. Captivating from start to finish, Never, Neverland made me run the gamut of emotions, kept me guessing, and had me playing the album in repeat mode on Spotify for countless weeks on end. Truly the album of the year.
