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Emeritus
Reviews 36
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Soundoffs 41
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Last Active 01-01-70 12:00 am
Joined 01-01-70
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| AF1's Favorite Discoveries of 2024
If you're like me, you don't just use the new year as an excuse to listen to new music. It's also a chance to listen to albums you missed, catch up on classics, maybe find a new band. This year had some spicy discoveries, from albums I'd been meaning to listen to, to bands that I discovered and then promptly fell in love with, and this list categorizes all of them! The only rule is that no 2024 releases are allowed here, only albums from 2023 and before! | | 1 |  | Silent Planet
Everything Was Sound
I'd been a casual fan of Slant Plant up until the start of the year, where I foolishly believed I had the drive to listen to 26 fucking discographies in a year. The upside was that it did manage to convert me from a casual fan of Silent Planet into a full-blown superfan. EWS was easily the best of their albums, backed up by some of their best and most stirring singles (Panic Room and Psychescape are the two highlights). I do kinda wish they still made music like this. Not that Mindframe was awful, but this blows Superbloom and everything that followed out of the water. | | 2 |  | Palm Reader
Sleepless
Quite easily my favorite band discovery out of the year. Palm Reader's brand of melodic metalcore always cut like a fucking razor. Internal Winter is far and away my favorite track from them (it's my 6th most played song of the year according to Apple Replay), but Sleepless was the pinnacle of their albums. So sad these guys called it quits, they were one of the best in the game. | | 3 |  | END (USA-NJ)
Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face
One of the prime hallmarks of this year was me giving albums I'd DNFed a second shot. END was at the top of my list, having been a bit too abrasive for my taste when I'd tried them out the year prior. But holy fuck, was this year ever different. The second I heard Brendan Murphy scream out "YOUR FUCKING END", it was over for me. One of the most ignorantly heavy albums in the scene, which may be a little one-note, but it's a glorious, glorious single note, and it never outstayed its welcome. | | 4 |  | King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard
PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of...
On the subject of giving albums second chances, PetroDragonic's vocals had always been a point of contention in my brain between "this is cool" and "this is grating", ever since I'd heard "Dragon" for the first time. Last year's surprise thrash release found a permanent home in my library this year, as I stopped paying too much attention to the vocals, and paid far more attention to the killer drums, the shredding solos, and the really fun songwriting. Tracks like "Witchcraft" and "Gila Monster" are some of the most fun metal tracks I listened to this year. | | 5 |  | Rolo Tomassi
Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
Twice this year did I not understand the hype during a discog run... until a certain turning point. In the case of mathcore veterans Rolo Tomassi, that turning point started to loom on the horizon when I ran through Astraea and Grievances, but I really turned the corner when I got to their 2018 magnum opus, Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It. It's very difficult to describe how effective the transition from Aftermath to Rituals is at left-hooking you across the fucking face. Once Rituals bares its fangs, the album never really closes its jaws, but it never loses its ethereal beauty. | | 6 |  | Counterparts
A Eulogy for Those Still Here
At the risk of courting some controversy, early Counterparts struck me as overrated. There were good ideas, but the band always played their whole hand too early, leaving the rest of the album to spin its wheels. Around Tragedy Will Find Us, things got better, the songwriting got tighter, Brendan sounded better. And that style continued onward for a few albums. I had You're Not You Anymore as my favorite album from this Canadian group, due to it being archetypal Counterparts with all the fat trimmed off. Then A Eulogy for Those Still Here came along, and proved that the band could still pull out some new tricks. The renewed focus on melody, both in vocals and guitar, along with some of Brendan's best lyrics yet, utterly sold me on this album better than any previous Counterparts album ever did. | | 7 |  | Have a Nice Life
Deathconsciousness
It's rare to find an album that truly moves you and sits with you long after you take off the headphones. But it happened to me TWICE this year. The first came when I saw an innocuous YouTube thumbnail depicting part of the painting that graces the cover of Deathconsciousness. I immediately felt a visceral twist in my gut, and I knew I had to check out the album. I had no idea what I was stumbling into.
To experience Deathconsciousness is to be teleported to another state of mind, to feel the world around you dissolve beneath muffled vocals and gritty riffs. Right from the opening, I knew this album was going to be something special. And by the time Earthmover's titanic explosion of sound hit at the 5-minute mark, I felt myself drawn to near-tears. I took my headphones off and sighed, feeling the weight of the music I had just listened to lay heavy on my shoulders.
Is it cheesy? Yeah. But this album really did affect me like that. And I didn't think any other album could match it. | | 8 |  | Ethereal Shroud
Trisagion
And then today came. Having received a new pair of headphones for Hanukkah a couple nights ago, I decided to go back and finally listen to Sput darling Trisagion in full. I strapped on the headset, turned on Noise Cancelling, and waited for Chasmal Fires' to reveal itself to me. 20 minutes passed by in what felt like 6. I found myself uplifted by Discarnate, like I could move a mountain, even if it costed all my blood sweat and tears. And then Astral Mariner hit, and I felt all that sadness from Deathconsciousness return in full force.
I can count the number of black metal releases I've thoroughly enjoyed on a single hand. And out of all of them, NONE of them affected me like Trisagion did. This is a special album. It is an artistic statement, it is an apocalyptic call to arms, it is an exploration of grief and strength and alienation all in one. It is, dare I say, a perfect record. And it is my favorite discovery of 2024.
Here's to 2025, and all the great albums and artists ahead. | |
AnimalForce1
12.28.24 | Another list idea that I feel is underrepresented. Sure, new music is cool, but that feeling of finding a gem that you'd missed out on in years past? That's something special right there | jrlikestodance
12.28.24 | Unwound and Defeated Sanity were my massive gems/discoveries of 2024. Can't believe I went so long without listening to either of them and both were in my top 3 artists of the year. If you get the chance to see King Gizzard live, please do it!!! | AnimalForce1
12.28.24 | I still need to dig through the rest of Gizz's discography, but I imagine that a live show would be the most whiplash-y mishmash of sounds in the best way possible | Hawks
12.28.24 | My biggest "discovery" of the year was most definitely John Coltrane. Got into jazz in general very heavy this year and Coltrane has continued to blow me away. From his earlier stuff to his later experimental stuff. All just rules so hard.
Awesome list my brother! |
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