Top Ten Of 2024: Will J

After several years of doing end of year top tens, this has probably been the most difficult yet. So much quality music has come out in 2024 across many different genres, and I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to review several of the releases on my list. All the albums in my honourable mentions have been in my top ten, as the list itself, has changed order many times.

Some of these albums were anticipated, some came as surprise discoveries, and some saw me revisiting artists whose music I may not have given much recent time to. All of them are brilliant in their own way, and hopefully there will be something for everyone to discover here.

10. Darkspace ‘Dark Space -II’

After a decade away, cosmic black metal masters Darkspace returned with a new album and continued right where they left off. Consisting of one forty-seven-minute-long track, it builds from simple sparse elements into a mesmerising swirl of psychedelic industrial black metal, before cascading down to silence again. It’s been one of my favourite records to listen to when I want to get absorbed in music, and it really does transport you to the darkest depths of the cosmos.

Label: Season Of Mist

9. Speed ‘Only One Mode’

When it came to hardcore, Speed were pretty much impossible to ignore in 2024. Off the back of A Gang Called Speed and multiple successful tours, Only One Mode came blasting out to heaps of fanfare. I’m not one of those who think that Speed are groundbreaking geniuses, but their mix of the classic heavy hardcore sound with the creative flashes of Turnstile, and a sharp refined production value, made for a musically very fun album. But what defines them as a truly special band is the way they use hardcore to embrace, celebrate and display their own unique culture.

Label: Flatspot Records | Last Ride Records

8. Mari Boine ‘Alva’

A legend within her world, Mari Boine’s latest album is an absolute triumphant celebration of Sami music. I wrote a lot about it at the time in my review, and with continued listening my feelings on Alva have only grown more positive. Almost every emotion seems to be evoked somewhere across this record, and even if you can’t understand the words, Mari Boine brings forth an essential musical connection that feels both specific and universal at the same time.

Label: By Norse Music

7. Knoll ‘As Spoken’

When a band describes their sound as ‘funeral grind’, implying a combination of both the fastest and slowest of metal genres, then I knew I had to check it out. In actuality, Knoll’s sound makes much more sense than the description suggested, combining the ferociously thrilling grindcore of Full Of Hell with the densely complex death metal of Portal, and some eclectic atmospheric touches. The creative juices are clearly flowing well, because with As Spoken, Knoll are already on their third full-length album, all within the space of three years. That volume of material has clearly not been detrimental to the quality though, and when it comes to relentlessly bleak and depressive metal, there were no better albums this year.

Label: Total Dissonance Worship

6. Gouge Away ‘Deep Sage’

When they first started, Gouge Away were one of the most exciting hardcore punk bands to appear in years, but they disappeared from view sometime around 2020 and it seemed they may not ever reappear. Luckily though things transpired to bring the band back together, and the result of that is their best album yet. Deep Sage continues to see them mix hardcore, punk, post-punk, grunge and alt-rock together, a combination taken up by many more bands in recent years, but this time with an even better sense of songcraft. Deep Sage is concise and simple in many ways, but it is also a brilliant example of how beautifully nuanced punk rock can be.

Label: Deathwish Inc

5. Alcest ‘Les Chants De L’Aurore’

I adored Alcest’s last album Spiritual Instinct so much that I knew it would be difficult for any follow up to hit the same mark. For me, they are at their best when their balance between light and dark leans just over (but not too much) into the darkness, which is why Spiritual Instinct felt so perfect. Les Chants De L’Aurore has a more subtle balance, one that took me some time to really enjoy. But the more I listened to this album, the more its beauty grew on me and the more its wonderful highlights shone through in the form of some of the best songs Alcest have ever written.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

4. Full Of Hell ‘Coagulated Bliss’

Looking back at my review of this record, I think I focussed too much on the imperfections when actually they are often what make Coagulated Bliss such a fun listen. Full Of Hell pushed the boundaries of what they can be by not trying to focus on one area of their sound at a time, but instead becoming all versions of Full Of Hell, all at the same time. Coagulated Bliss is a bold, bright and colourful record that just might be the heaviest pop record ever made.

Label: Closed Casket Activities

3. Heriot ‘Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell’

This was probably my most anticipated record of the year, and with the build-up and slow release of singles, it felt like an age waiting for the album. But holy devouring mouth of hell did Heriot deliver! Taking on a sound which only a handful of bands have been successful with, Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell combines the most brutal and crushing beatdown metalcore with industrial noise, glitchy electronics and dark atmospherics in a way which feels totally fluid and completely engaging. What makes Heriot stand out most though is the excellence of their writing, and their ability to craft genuinely memorable songs from the most absurdly heavy and abrasive riffs.

Label: Century Media

2. Mannequin Pussy ‘I Got Heaven’

A band who I had previously, and quite unfairly, written off as being a bit of a ‘Pitchfork Band’, Mannequin Pussy completely changed my mind with I Got Heaven. It’s a sublime, stunning and utterly fabulous record that was the soundtrack to my summer and beyond. The first half is a string of brilliantly written punky, noisy, shoegaze, indie pop tunes, while the second half sees the band lash out a few times into full on hardcore, before finishing with one of the most gorgeous ending tracks I have heard in a long time. It’s an incredible record, and it came very, very close to being my number one.

Label: Epitaph

1. Thou ‘Umbilical’

I wrote pretty extensively about Umbilical in my review, and yet I still feel I could write more. Thou have been one of my favourite bands since I first discovered them around 2018, a year of huge profligacy and expansion for them. Bringing so much more sonic diversity into sludge metal than any band before, Thou set a new standard for what this genre could be, and it was a very high standard indeed. But, as I have discovered, they are always going against the grain, and more often than not, their own grain. So having spent five or so years pushing the boundaries of the genre one way, they decided to push the boundaries back in another direction.

Though Umbilical doesn’t touch on the haunting emotions and melodic vision of their last full-length Magus, the all consuming heaviness which it displays instead is utterly breathtaking. After spending much of this year listening, and listening, and listening some more to Umbilical, my ultimate conclusion has to be that, quite simply, this record is undeniably, unquestionably, absolutely fucking phenomenal!

Label: Sacred Bones Records

Honourable Mentions

In no particular order…

Leila Abdul Rauf ‘Calls From A Seething Edge’
Oranssi Pazuzu ‘Muuntautuja’
Diiv ‘Frog In Boiling Water’
Pallbearer ‘Mind Burns Alive’
Umbra Vitae ‘Light Of Death’

Scribed by: Will J