Niels.im

My favourite music albums of 2024

End of the year means I go through the endless amount of albums I've listened to in the last year and pick my favourites. I must admit that it has become quite a daunting task with the increasing amount of releases every year. I'm quite well organized, if I like an album I at least add it to my library in Apple Music, or buy it physical or digital. I rip everything that I own to FLAC and add it to my personal library on my NAS so I can listen to it with Plexamp.

Anyway, I went through my collection and wrote down my favourite albums. But creating a chart is a thankless task. I like a lot of different music, mostly adjacent to metal, but I can't put a pop record above a dissonant death-metal album. I listen to both genres at different moods or times. One is not better than the other, both are good within their own boundaries or genres.

So I've kind of created my own categories this year. A category is not always a genre or sub-genre, but something else that binds the albums. But sometimes it is a genre (đŸ€·). So without further ado, these are my favourite albums of 2024.

Brave the elements

  1. Iotunn - Kinship
  2. Borknagar - Fall

Both these albums give me the feeling of standing in a storm at a Scandinavian coast. With the epic vocals of JĂłn AldarĂĄ of Iotunn, or Lazare and ICS Vortex of Borknagar, these two albums fall in the "epic metal about nature" bucket for me. Besides that, both albums feature a great and diverse bunch of progressive (black) metal songs. Breaking away from the sub-genres they started in (and for Borknagar moving Lazare to the frontman role). I really would love to see them tour together in the future.

Hygge

  1. Kalandra - A Frame of Mind
  2. GĂ„te - Ulveham

GĂ„te has been a favourite for a long time, Kalandra I knew, but this year I discovered how good they actually are. The new Kalandra album A Frame of Mind sits somewhere between Norwegian folk, singer-songwriter and post-rock. The songs are cozy, fragile, emotional and beautiful. If I had to choose one album from this year to bring to a deserted (Scandinavian) island, it might be this one.

To my surprise GĂ„te came out for Norway at the Eurovision songfestival, and then to an even bigger surprise, they ended up in the last place. Undeserved of course. But Ulveham is not their best album, it's actually not even an album, but a compilation of EP's with a bonus track. Still, I do like all these songs a lot and I take every chance to put GĂ„te in a list. Also, possibly because of their Eurovision participation, I finally got to see them live this year, and it was everything I expected and more.

Nederlandstalig / Dutch language

  1. Eefje de Visser - Heimwee
  2. Vuur & Zijde - Boezem
  3. Het Universumpje - Stilleven Met Dierentemmer
  4. Froukje - Noodzakelijk Verdriet

The Dutch language has never really lent itself to the music I listened to, but in the last couple of years that has changed. Mostly due to a young generation of artists within different genres. The Dutch black-metal scene around Utrecht has been going strong for years already, Vuur & Zijde spun out of that scene. Eefje de Visser is not exactly new, but her way of using the language in her songs has been pretty unique, and is an inspiration for a lot of artists. Het Universumpje is what you get when Spinvis and Queens Of The Stone Age make a baby, while Froukje is a talent pur sang.

What if Portishead played metal

  1. Oranssi Pazuzu - Muuntautuja
  2. Haunted Plasma - I

Oranssi Pazuzu have been pushing the boundaries of black-metal for years. Their newest is shorter, more to the point, with an electronic Krautrock sound that reminds me a lot of Portishead's last studio album Third. I guess those influences are also on I, the first Haunted Plasma album. It's a bit more mellow than Muuntautuja, but considering they share a pivotal member with Oranssi Pazuzu, it's not a strange combination.

Horns in metal

  1. Trelldom - ...by the Shadows...
  2. Dystopia - De Verboden Diepte I: Veldslag op de Rand van de Wereld
  3. Föhn - Condescending

It's never not a good idea to use a saxophone, trumpet or clarinet on a metal album. If you've never heard metal combined with a horn or woodwind instrument, then you're missing out. In the case of Trelldom, they were quite a traditional black-metal band, but took a huge step out of the boundaries into a new domain. The saxophone by Kjetil MĂžster moves them closer towards jazz sometimes, but the guitar is still a very strong element of the music.

Dystopia is a Dutch black-metal band that have been rumbling in the underground for quite some years. Their latest features a trumpet in some of the songs.

Föhn is a Greek funeral doom-metal band. The usage of tenor and soprano saxophone's leaps the music above most of their peers. The songs, while long, are well-written too and are really something you need to hear.

Prog-rock & death-metal

  1. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere
  2. Opeth - The Last Will and Testament
  3. Chapel of Disease - Echoes of Light
  4. Bedsore - Dreaming the Strife for Love

2024 is the year we celebrated that Opeth brought back the grunts. The year Blood Incantation embraced their prog-rock influence even more. Chapel of Disease introduced clean vocals with their Mark Knopfler way of playing (death-)metal. Bedsore is moving into an even proggier space, but is not doing it the same way as the other bands in this list. I love my prog-rock death-metal (which is not the same as progressive death-metal), and this year was great for fans of the combination of these types of music.

Best of the 80's in '24

  1. Ulver - Liminal Animals
  2. Tribulation - Sub Rosa in Æternum
  3. Cemetery Skyline - Nordic Gothic

While I personally didn't gel with Ulver's strategy to release every song as a single, the album itself is pretty good. A combination of 80's pop with synthesizer ambient. Maybe it's not as exciting as The Assassination Of Julius Caesar, but the songs are definately better than Flowers of Evil.

Tribulation moved further into 80's gothic rock. While they were already very gothic previously, they are embracing Sisters of Mercy here. The album has grown on me and in terms of song writing this is a huge step forward for the band.

Talking about catchy songs and embracing gothic rock, Cemetery Skyline does exactly that. Their sound is different from the other two, in this case it's more of a One Second and Host era Paradise Lost that I'm hearing, but with the amazing clean vocals of Mikael Stanne. Who must be the busiest musician in Sweden, with three of his bands releasing new music this year.

Pop

  1. Everything Everything - Mountainhead
  2. Charlot - Lost Like Alice
  3. Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate
  4. Amaranthe - The Catalyst

Pop is a pretty broad term, but I guess these all are very catchy and accessible albums with songs you can sing along with. While Amaranthe plays metal, their song writing is quality and soaked in Swedish pop music traditions.

According to Apple Music Everything Everything's Mountainhead is the album I listened to the most this year. That must be because this has been one of the few albums I listened to while runnng (I usually listen to podcasts) and it has been a staple in the car.

I saw Charlot live earlier this year and have been awaiting her album to come out. It didn't dissapoint and I like how they embraced their electronic side a bit more. Next to Froukje I think Charlot are one of the best young acts in the Netherlands.

As an artist known for her electronic music, Kelly Lee Owens really embraces her pop side on Dreamstate. I must admit that it took a while before I liked it as an album, but it is definately good pop music.

Fuzzy black-metal

  1. ConifĂšre - L'impĂŽt du Sang
  2. Spectral Wound - Songs of Blood and Mire
  3. Nimbifer - Der böse Geist

This year I really started to like some of these old-school fuzzy sounding melodic black-metal projects. I found out about ConifĂšre and Nimbifer at the same time, both are amazing. This is the first time Spectral Wound clicked with me (I've gone back and relistened to their older albums now too). I'm not sure what's different this time, but I really love these three. Also shoutouts to Oerheks and Serpent Column.

Bands celebrating Katatonia

  1. Counting Hours - The Wishing Tomb
  2. Mother of Graves - The Periapt of Absence

Katatonia have been around for quite a while and throughout their career they've moved from black-metal to death-doom to their own little corner of gloomy rock and metal. Counting Hours and Mother of Graves both took their favourite slice of Katatonia's career and made it into their own sound. I love the doomy sounds of Brave Murder Day and its related EP's, and so do Mother of Graves. Counting Hours does a similar thing, but injects this with emotional clean vocals. You really can't go wrong with either of these bands.

Dissonant death-metal

  1. Ulcerate - Cutting the Throat of God
  2. Devenial Verdict - Blessing of Despair
  3. Replicant - Infinite Mortality
  4. Convulsing - perdurance

2024 must be the pivotal year of dissonant death-metal. Not only have there been a lot of quality releases in this niche of a sub-genre, a lot of bands took the dissonant death-metal sound and moved it into uncharted territories. Combining it with post-metal (Ulcerate), OSDM (Replicant), metalcore (Replicant again) or whatever Convulsing and Devenial Verdict do to make the music more accessible to the ears. There have been a couple of other releases, but I just don't have the time and dedication to listen to dissonant metal 24/7. Still, these four are highlights and worth all the attention you can give.

New wave of progressive thrash

  1. Dissimulator - Lower Form Resistance
  2. Sovereign - Altered Realities
  3. Siderean - Spilling the Astral Chalice
  4. Mayhemic - Toba
  5. Critical Defiance - The Search Won't Fall

Maybe it's debatable if there really is a new wave of thrash-metal bands. I mean, it's the only thing they play in Chile (Mayhemic, Critical Defiance, give them a listen, you won't be dissapointed!), but Siderean, Sovereign and Dissimulator combine the old-school thrash-metal sound with a modern sound. Not in a pizza-thrash-metal way, but with their feet firm in the 80's and in 2024. If this is a new wave, you heard it here first.

Heavy emotions

  1. Pallbearer - Minds Burns Alive
  2. MEER - Wheels Within Wheels
  3. Beth Gibbons - Lives Outgrown
  4. Sinistro - VĂ©rtice
  5. HamferĂ° - Men GuĂ°s hond er sterk
  6. Big Brave - A Chaos Of Flowers

All these albums are very heavy in emotions. From the doom of Pallbearer and HamferĂ° to the progressive rock MEER plays. Or just listen to Beth Gibbons' comeback album. Big Brave is emotional, their singer was in tears during their concert at Roadburn this year.

Old metal

  1. Crypt Sermon - The Stygian Rose
  2. Darkthrone - It Beckons Us All.......

The older you get, the more ellipses you are allowed to use. At least, that's what I think Darkthrone does. Initially I named this category "classic metal", but I like "old metal" better. Funny, since Crypt Sermon are still quite a young band. Anyway, both bands play music in the vein of traditional doom-metal. The new Darkthrone is actually a lot of fun! Crypt Sermon has the best songs!

Death

  1. Defeated Sanity - Chronicles of Lunacy
  2. Spectral Voice - Sparagmos
  3. Civerous - Maze Envy
  4. Slimelord - Chytridiomycosis Relinquished

Defeated Sanity plays brutal death-metal, a genre I usually don't really like to listen to, but in this case they do it with such elegance, technicallity and effort that I can not love it. This is a higher form of death-metal and it's such a pleasure to listen to these accomplished musicians on headphones.

The other three albums dropped earlier this year in a short amount of time, and since then they've been a staple of my year. Slimelord's Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (I can only copy/paste this title) took a while to grow, and with Civerous and Spectral Voice (all these Spectral bands confuse me deeply) these are my favourite (classic) death-metal albums of the year.

Last but not least

  1. Chelsea Wolfe - She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out
  2. Dool - The Shape Of Fluidity

Chelsea Wolfe embraces her electronic side on She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out, which I've literally have been waiting for since Pain is Beauty. Her performance at Roadburn this year was super impressive and the best I've seen her live (fourth time solo and seen her with Converge twice) so far.

Unfortunately I missed Dool live this year (I saw them back in '17), but I think The Shape Of Fluidity is their best album. The others didn't gel as well with me as this one. Deep, heavy and very personal.

So, that's it. A long list of albums I really liked this year. I hope you liked my somewhat unconventional take on end of year lists, but I liked to create this a lot better than another top 10. Happy 2025 and see ya hopefully around next year!