| 2024 |
| 20 |  | Delving
All Paths Diverge
Sweet and lush krautrock. Special attention is paid to highlighting synth in concert with driving guitar passages. Functionally beautiful as background or active intentional listening. |
| 19 |  | Bedsore
Dreaming the Strife for Love
A unique take on ‘70s inspired progressive death metal. This one borrows more from the likes of Camel and Gentle Giant rather than Pink Floyd. Of course it couldn’t be a standout 20 Buck Spin release without the pervasive star-drenched psychedelic swamp sound (read: Morbus Chron worship), which also occupies a significant slice of the sonic pie. It runs a tad hot/cold but is creative and thought provoking enough to return to time and time again. |
| 18 |  | Pyrrhon
Exhaust
A sociopathic and borderline genius war path through the greatest fucking city on earth. |
| 17 |  | SUMAC
The Healer
Dynamically bold and abstract as ever. Some parts flirt fleetingly with the idea of melody only to be callously aborted and left dying in a haze of reverberating feedback. It's like Turner could’ve inserted the soft side of Isis but intentionally truncated and choked out the riffs. The effect is that they seemingly lose all musical context to the impatient ear…but these tracks weren’t meant for an algorithm. This is a work to behold in conscious totality. It feels in some way like the apotheosis of their album trilogy, with “Yellow Dawn” representing its crowning achievement. |
| 16 |  | Hello Mary
Emita Ox
A sharp and eclectic flurry of garage tunes with unexpected production value. Adeptly oscillates between punchy and sprawling, often within the same track. There’s an expansive grunge quality that brings Failure to mind. Emita Ox is mysterious to me. |
| 15 |  | Thou
Umbilical
Umbilical is an onslaught of ferocious blackened sludge that proudly bares its bloody canines. There’s not a second wasted on this one, opting for ruthless aggression around every turn. "House of Ideas" is my favorite Thou track of all time and undoubtedly my favorite track released in 2024. That alone kept this svelte banger in constant rotation. It’s lean by Thou’s standard, which makes it more imminently bingeable than most of their awesome discography. |
| 14 |  | Chat Pile
Cool World
Sludgy mantras for a decaying world. I imagine this album being conceived amidst PBR and Doritos-fueled exploitive ‘80s horror marathons and doom scrolling Tik-Tok sessions. Chat Pile traded the pretentious semi-spoken word bits of their debut for more immediacy and groove. |
| 13 |  | Crippled Black Phoenix
The Wolf Changes Its Fur But Not Its Nature
I’m not indoctrinated into the CBP cannon enough to discern how these songs have evolved from their original forms and to what extent that’s been successful. I am, however, fully indoctrinated into the wider spectrum of powerful expansive post rock and feel qualified to report that this delivers. “Song for the Unloved” and “444” are particularly stunning. It’s not an easy task to stand out in such a well-trodden and trope-laden subgenre, but this one glimmers and resonates like the best of them. |
| 12 |  | Metz
Up On Gravity Hill
Kinetically infused alternative-noise with a soul. This is a masterclass in wielding hefty distortion in service of the song. Feel love crashing down. |
| 11 |  | The Swell Fellas
Residuum Unknown
A cave-dwelling poisonous serpent of an album. I have no idea how a band writes a section as thoroughly badass as the one that comes at the finale of "Next Dawn" and then decides to call it quits. It’s a travesty, but I suppose this is what it means to go out on a high. I hear the bluesy stoner rock backbone of All Them Witches pulsing through this. There’s some Adam Jones in the way their squirmy guitar lines build and collapse on themselves. I’m smitten. |
| 10 |  | Inter Arma
New Heaven
Reveling in the psychedelia of Paradise Gallows while suffocating on the cruel atmosphere of Sulphur English. New Heaven is boldly streamlined, tracking shoe prints across an abyssal pathway through extreme music. Boasting one of the greatest drummers in the scene, the rhythm production is shocking. It could be divisive for some, but I find the variation track to track refreshing. There is an explorative quality to how these songs come together with none of them holding onto a single idea long enough for it to grow stale. This might be their weirdest release to date. |
| 9 |  | Pallbearer
Mind Burns Alive
A stark tonal shift and realignment of sonic priorities. The songs are powerfully crafted, etching indelible marks in the listeners psyche. It's albums like this that provide irrefutable evidence of alternative forms of heaviness. The softer touch may alienate some percentage of their fanbase. This took guts. |
| 8 |  | REZN
Burden
A satisfying second part to last year's fantastic release. They’ve refined this thing to a razor sharp edge and it’s just so much fun to jam. This may be Rezn’s compositional apex point for the smooth electronic/ambient/doom interplay and cements this innovative take as some of the best in the game. Can’t wait to see where they go next with it. |
| 7 |  | Full of Hell
Coagulated Bliss
Full of Hell’s All We Love We Leave Behind. It shreds, yes, but in a diverse way I’ve never heard from this band before. It doesn’t sit fully in grind tempo the entire time and roots out sludge and doom motifs to great effect. It brought me back to the first time I clicked with Dillinger and it made me feel like all I wanted out of music this year was mathy heavy shit. “Fractured Bonds to Mecca” is the perfect sludgy industrial dirge. “Bleeding Horizon” is triumphant. |
| 6 |  | The Smile
Wall of Eyes
Transcendent moments on this rival prime Radiohead. A skosh uneven top to bottom and track to track flow leaves a little to be desired, but when it digs in it’s white hot. My favorite of their three albums thus far. |
| 5 |  | Opeth
The Last Will and Testament
It’s not a return to form, it’s a creative amalgamation of the heavy mid period and late prog rock period. They’ve painted a prog rock concept with the death metal palette. Wildly technical and as ambitious as anything they’ve ever attempted. Progressive is an over abused descriptor, but this is it...the trve prog. Full of twists, not the least of which involves a hair raising flute solo by Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson. This is Oldpeth reinvigorated and kicking prog metal’s ass. |
| 4 |  | Papangu
Lampião Rei
Paying homage to South American 70s prog (Os Mutantes, Invisible) Papangu has crafted a joyous and eclectic album of the year contender. There’s so many details buried within that this still feels fresh after repeat listens. The album tells tales of an infamous Brazilian bandit and the mysterious folklore of fantastical forest creatures. It was difficult to imagine that the band could top the sludgy zuehl antics of Holoceno, but here we are. Very exciting and unique progressive experience. There’s a bass solo from Magma’s Philippe Bussonnet to boot. Violins, congas, sweeping and delicate synth. It’s a treat. |
| 3 |  | David Gilmour
Luck And Strange
Stunned. I would’ve never guessed that he had another one of these in him and I couldn’t be more grateful for the experience. Gilmour’s guitar and voice are still relevant and vibrant. Seeing him perform this at MSG alongside his ensemble band (including his daughter on vocals and harp) was the concert highlight of my year. Luck and Strange might just be Gilmour's strongest solo album top to bottom. Pure jubilation for this. |
| 2 |  | Slift
Ilion
A deeply engaging odyssey of riffs. Ilion is a true psych epic that unfurls with perfect pace. Unquestionably masterful instrumentation from a three piece at the height of their powers. Its crescendos are transcendent, hypnotic, and addictive. It’s a colossal album that rooted itself in my rotation from January all the way to December. It’s a genre staple from here on out. |
| 1 |  | Blood Incantation
Absolute Elsewhere
Can we just skip past the hipster backlash part when all the super special thoughtful people must declare that Starspawn and Hidden History were better and just go directly to the part where this is an unquestionable timeless classic? You know the part I’m talking about, right? When the nameless voiceless few still post online about their majestic rare opinions on subjective topics and the rest of us frolic gleefully in the sunlight free to ignore them until the end of our days. Oh yeah that’s the part I’m talking about. That part rules. It’s all like - SIiiiiphon my flesh through the staargate AAAAHhhhhhBUUUUUURRRRRN!! |
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