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Emeritus
Reviews 36
Approval 98%
Soundoffs 41
News Articles 3
Band Edits + Tags 3
Album Edits 18
Album Ratings 217
Objectivity 57%
Last Active 01-01-70 12:00 am
Joined 01-01-70
Review Comments 1,594
| AF1's 2024 Album Awards
Everyone's doing their best of lists, but I like to be different and cool, so I'm instead awarding albums with various honors or dishonors! From the best to the worst to the most surprising, this is my 2024 in review (subject to updates if my AOTY changes)! | | 1 |  | Poppy
Negative Spaces
MOST SURPRISING
I always knew that Poppy was capable of delivering a strong album experience overall, she proved that as far back as I Disagree. What shocked me was just how good and how consistent Negative Spaces was overall. From that Architects-inspired breakdown in Have You Had Enough to the mania of The Center's Falling Out to the sparkling synthpop of Crystallized, there aren't many tracks in this album that I could consider truly skipping. Jordan Fish's production is very Jordan Fish-y, but Poppy's stellar vocal performance and some wonderful lyrics help it stand out, and prevent it from being yet another BMTH clone. Oh, and Push Go is a top 10 song of the year, thank you, moving on. | | 2 |  | Green Day
Saviors
COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
To say that my expectations for Green Day have been in the dirt ever since the wholly misguided and entirely embarrassing Father of All Motherfuckers is an understatement. How in the almighty fuck does a band come back after a misstep like that? Well, you release your best album since 21st Century Breakdown. Rob Cavallo is back on production, and the band are playing with a renewed fire that no aging punk rock band should have any right to have. The singles presented here are all well and good (Dilemma especially being one of Green Day's best songs in recent years), but for my money, it's the deep cuts like the bouncy Corvette Summer and the genuinely emotional ballads like Goodnight Adeline that steal the show here.
Also, in terms of personal memories, a top memory of 2024 for me is me and my gf crowding into a record store for an early listening party. | | 3 |  | Linkin Park
From Zero
MOST DISAPPOINTING
Ugh... let's get this out of the way, I wanted to like this album so fucking badly. LP are one of my favorite bands of all time, I was crushed by Chester's passing, and seeing them return with a Hunting Party-esque single gave me the greatest of joys. And, for what it's worth, the singles here are definitely worth revisiting, even if they feel like an LP greatest hits tour. The issue is that the rest of the album is also a greatest hits tour, with worse production somehow, way less memorable moments, and one of the first times ever where Mike Shinoda's rapping felt stilted and awkward. I didn't even know that was possible.
LP have some serious growing pains to work through at this point, and they're gonna have to do a lot of work to convince me that album 9 is worth listening to with the same level of enthusiasm. I don't hate the album, I gave it a 3.5, but almost every other Linkin Park album is at a 4 or higher for me, so... | | 4 |  | Foreign Hands
What's Left Unsaid
THROWBACK OF THE YEAR
Metalcore has existed for long enough and evolved for long enough that we can now say that there are bands out there releasing throwbacks to early 2000s stuff. Not that I hate Octane-core and djent-core (just look at my ratings for Poppy and ERRA), but it's always refreshing to see that the genre's roots haven't been lost to history. Foreign Hands unleash a flamethrower of classic core energy inspired by bands like Poison the Well of From First to Last over the course of 33 minutes, and it's utterly glorious. If we get more throwback-styled bands like them and Dying Wish in the years to come, the scene'll be all the better for it. | | 5 |  | Chat Pile
Cool World
MOST DISTURBING
What makes a disturbing album? Is it the lyrics? The vocals? The music? For Chat Pile, it's all three, and the way that it all comes together to create this crushing, depressing atmosphere that never relents. Sludgy, angry, and absurdly nihilistic in terms of lyrics, this was an album that I had a very tough time getting through, not because of it being bad, but because of how deeply dark and deeply depressing it always was. Came damn close to being my AOTY off atmosphere alone, but one album was generally more enjoyable for me (at the moment, assuming one of the albums I have to listen to like The Cure or Foxing or Blood Incantation don't supplant it). But before we can get to that... | | 6 |  | Falling in Reverse
Popular Monster
WORST ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Look... I would like to forget about this album. Really I would. I would like to forget all about Ronald Radke's overinflated ego, his constant victim mentality, his insulting of both critics and fans alike. I would like to forget about his band's cookie cutter instrumentals that rarely do anything unique. I would like to forget about the god awful lyrical miracle rap, or that stupid inexplicable forced southern twang on All My Life. But I can't. I can't forget about any of it. Popular Monster goes beyond worst album of the year for me. This is one of the worst album's I've ever listened to, period, full stop. As I so lovingly laid out in my 1/5 review, the album deserves absolutely none of your time. I'm mad I even gave it as much time as I did. I'm mad I'm giving it time right now by talking about it, so let's just move on. | | 7 |  | Counterparts
Heaven Let Them Die
EP OF THE YEAR
Fun fact, this EP dropped right as I was finishing up my Counterparts discog run. It was a day or two after the election, and I was feeling down and dark for multiple reasons. I don't know if Counterparts chose the release day on purpose, or if it was just spooky coincidence or fate. But it is not lost on me how poetic it is that the band released what is undeniably their heaviest and angriest work yet in the middle of a, to put it lightly, turbulent time.
It helps that the EP fucking rips too, between merging the newfound dynamic soundscapes of A Eulogy for Those Still Here with the unbridled fury of END's best releases and the unbelievably furious lyrics present on tracks like Praise No Artery Intact and A Martyr Left Alive. I do think it works best as an EP above all else, but it still leaves me quite excited to see what Counterparts will pull out next. | | 8 |  | Boundaries
Death Is Little More
(Current) ALBUM OF THE YEAR
I feel like, despite my love for certain modern metalcore bands, the genre as a whole is in something of an awkward place. Bad Omens' success has convinced some bands that pushing in the pop direction is the way to go, without capturing what made TDOPOM special, and a lot of the bands that don't do that are either pushing towards Octane-core, or ostensibly returning to their roots, without capturing what made said roots special (*cough cough* Architects *cough cough*).
Enter Boundaries with Death is Little More, a record that can only be described as a 33 minute descent into utter madness. Right out of the gate, the pinch harmonic-laden intro to Turning Hate Into Rage sinks its hooks into you and refuses to let go, with 2 absurd breakdowns in the first track alone. The transition from Darkness Shared into the utterly manic Like Petals from a Stem is a top 10 musical moment of the year, and the features on this album kick several levels of ass. | | 9 | | Boundaries
Death Is Little More
But what elevates Death is Little More to my personal favorite record of the year is its sheer accessibility and replayability, the amount of times I could hear Tim Sullivan's heart-rending cry of "Will you brake all of the promises that you made?" on Easily Erased, the sheer glee I get from hearing Matt McDougal let loose with his furious screams every time I hit play. No other album this year has managed to elicit such consistent enjoyment from me each time. And sometimes an AOTY doesn't have to be a mind blowing, earth-shattering, genre redefining release.
Sometimes, it's just an album that's more damn fun than anything else released. That is Boundaries. That is Death is Little More. That is my album of the year.
Now here's to 2025 | |
AnimalForce1
12.03.24 | Like I said, I still have some albums to check out, so Boundaries' top spot is in contention (I'll change its award name and cut out the AOTY part if I end up eating my words here). But overall, 2024 was a pretty damn fun year for music!
Two other awards that I don't think deserve a full blurb but are worth mentioning:
Single of the year - Searching for Tomorrow by Coheed and Cambria
Best discovery of the year - Deathconsciousness (because holy fuck, that album was an experience) | mkmusic1995
12.03.24 | Love it, great stuff! Gotta say Poppy is probably the biggest surprise of the year for me as well. That album just fucking bops | AnimalForce1
12.03.24 | Thanks man! Yeah, it's a hell of a world where Poppy beat out a returning Linkin Park | WalrusTusk
12.03.24 | Really creative concept dude. There was a point where I really enjoyed the Boundaries album as well, but I don't think it's going to land on my year end list. I also cannot get into Poppy. I've tried with every release but it never feels authentic. That being said, Chat Pile will definitely be hitting my list again. Cheers! |
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