Another year in the books, and another killer 12 months of new music. Just when you think the bar can’t be raised any higher, along comes another creative subgenre or forward thinker to set the cat amongst the pigeons. I mean, what even is Transylvanian Blackened Evilcore? I’ve no clue, but as long as bands keep pushing the envelope, I’m pretty sure that there will be someone here at Metal Epidemic shouting about it at the end of the year. And 2024 delivered those gems by the bucket load. The rulebook has been officially torn up for asspaper, which made this list even harder to put together. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
So, without further ado, people of the internet, here are the end of year lists from the Metal Epidemic team!
Dave Buchanan
1. Four Stroke Baron – Data Diamond (Bandcamp)
2. Knoll – As Spoken (Bandcamp)
3. Sugar Horse – The Grand Scheme of Things (Bandcamp)
4. Grayscale Season – feel something new (Bandcamp)
5. Mountaineer – Dawn and All That Follows (Bandcamp)
6. Doodseskader – Year Two (Bandcamp)
7. Demersal – Demersal (Bandcamp)
8. Monolith – The Black Cradle (Bandcamp)
9. Still – A Theft (Bandcamp)
10. Iress – Sleep Now, In Reverse (Bandcamp)
Duncan McLeish
1. Four Stroke Baron – Data Diamond (Bandcamp)
2. Foxing – Foxing (Bandcamp)
3. Sugar Horse – The Grand Scheme of Things (Bandcamp)
4. Doodseskader – Year Two (Bandcamp)
5. Heriot – Devoured by the Mouth of Hell (Bandcamp)
6. Chat Pile – Cool World (Bandcamp)
7. Lure In – We Are All Going To Hell (Bandcamp)
8. Mountaineer – Dawn and All That Follows (Bandcamp)
9. Outlander – Acts Of Harm (Bandcamp)
10. Speed – Only One Mode (Bandcamp)
Paul Cairney
1. Rotting Christ – Pro Xristou (Bandcamp)
2. Earthtone9 – In Resonance Nexus (Stream)
3. Grand Magus – Sunraven (Bandcamp)
4. Sig-Ar-Tyr – Citadel of Stars (Bandcamp)
5. Mastiff – Deprecipice (Bandcamp)
6. Oakfarm – Oakfarm (Bandcamp)
7. Devin Townsend – PowerNerd (Bandcamp)
8. Mountaineer – Dawn and All That Follows (Bandcamp)
9. 200 Stab Wounds – Manual Manic Procedures (Bandcamp)
10. Khold – Du dømmes til Død (Bandcamp)
Ross Bowie
1. Chelsea Wolfe – She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (Bandcamp)
2. Joey Valence & Brae – No Hands (Bandcamp)
3. Unto Others – Never, Neverland (Bandcamp)
4. Cane Hill – a piece of me i never let you find (Stream)
5. Gvllow – Twin Flames (Stream)
6. Leprous – Melodies Of Atonement (Bandcamp)
7. Seeyouspacecowboy – Coup de Grâce (Bandcamp)
8. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Bandcamp)
9. Amigo the Devil – Yours Until the War is Over (Bandcamp)
10. Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties – In Lieu Of Flowers (Bandcamp)
Paul Franklin
1. High Desert Queen – Palm Reader (Bandcamp)
2. Slomosa – Tundra Rock (Bandcamp)
3. The Devils – Let the World Burn Down (Bandcamp)
4. The Virginmarys – House Beyond the Fires (Spotify)
5. The Black Crowes – Happiness Bastards (Bandcamp)
6. 1000Mods – Cheat Death (Bandcamp)
7. Massive Wagons – Earth and Grace (Spotify)
8. High Vis – Guided Tour (Bandcamp)
9. The Reytons – Ballad of a Bystander (Spotify)
10. Fu Manchu – The Return of Tomorrow (Bandcamp)
Andy Spoon
1. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Bandcamp)
2. Construct of Lethe – A Kindness Dealt In Venom (Bandcamp)
3. Buñuel – The Mansuetude (Bandcamp)
4. Ulcerate – Cutting The Throat of God (Bandcamp)
5. Feral – To Usurp The Thrones (Bandcamp)
6. Mirar – Mare (Bandcamp)
7. Pestilent Hex – Sorceries of Sanguine & Shadow (Bandcamp)
8. Job For a Cowboy – Moon Healer (Bandcamp)
9. Saevus Finis – Facilis Descensus Averno (Bandcamp)
10. Disembodied Tyrant – The Tower: Part One/The Poetic Edda (Bandcamp)
Metalcore Mike
1. Fit For An Autopsy – The Nothing That Is (Bandcamp)
2. Darko US – Starfire (Spotify)
3. Imminence – The Black (Bandcamp)
4. Distant – Tsukuyomi: The Origin (Bandcamp)
5. Like Moths To Flames – The Cycles Of Trying To Cope (Bandcamp)
6. Changing Tides – Amidst The Gray (Stream)
7. Oracle Spectre – Deceivers (Bandcamp)
8. Galleons – Violent Delights (Spotify)
9. Disembodied Tyrant – The Poetic Edda (Bandcamp)
10. The Archaic Epidemic – Infinite Exile (Bandcamp)
Trina Julian Edwards
1. Fit For An Autopsy – The Nothing That Is (Bandcamp)
2. ERRA – Cure (Bandcamp)
3. DAATH – The Deceivers (Bandcamp)
4. Gatecreeper – Dark Superstition (Bandcamp)
5. Darko US – Starfire (Spotify)
6. Vitriol – Suffer & Become (Bandcamp)
7. Gaerea – Coma (Bandcamp)
8. 200 Stab Wounds – Manual Manic Procedures (Bandcamp)
9. Undeath – More Insane (Bandcamp)
10. Kublai Khan TX – Exhibition of Prowess (Stream)
Rick Farley
1. Veilburner – The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom (Bandcamp)
2. Panzerfaust – The Suns of Perdition IV: To Shadow Zion (Bandcamp)
3. Gaerea – Coma (Bandcamp)
4. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Bandcamp)
5. Hauntologist – Hollow (Bandcamp)
6. Firtan – Ethos (Bandcamp)
7. Dödsrit – Nocturnal Will (Bandcamp)
8. Cistvaen – At Light’s Demise (Bandcamp)
9. Devenial Verdict – Blessing of Despair (Bandcamp)
10. KVAEN – The Formless Fires (Bandcamp)
Mark Waight
1. Autumn Bride – Bedtime Stories (Stream)
2. Ancient Settlers – Oblivion’s Legacy (Bandcamp)
3. Synlakross – Mental Parasites (Stream)
4. Meden Agan – My Name is Kate (Bandcamp)
5. Unbowed – Silent Weapons for a Quiet War (Stream)
6. Lankester Merrin – Dark Mother’s Child (Bandcamp)
7. Folterkammer – Weibermacht (Bandcamp)
8. Balance of Power – Fresh From The Abyss (Stream)
9. Helltenced – Back Stab Effect (Bandcamp)
10. OCTO CRURA – Aracno Clan (Bandcamp)
Eric Wilt
1. Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All (Bandcamp)
2.Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Bandcamp)
3. Jerry Cantrell – I Want Blood (Stream)
4. Volcandra – The Way of Ancients (Bandcamp)
5. Exist – Hijacking the Zeitgeist (Bandcamp)
6. VOLA – Friend of A Phantom (Bandcamp)
7. Leprous – Melodies Of Atonement (Bandcamp)
8. Spectral Voice – Sparagmos (Bandcamp)
9. Carrion Vael – Cannibals Anonymous (Bandcamp)
10. Neal Morse & The Resonance – No Hill For A Climber (Bandcamp)
Jeff Finch
1. Job for a Cowboy – Moon Healer (Bandcamp)
2. Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (Bandcamp)
3. Chat Pile – Cool World (Bandcamp)
4. The Black Dahlia Murder – Servitude (Bandcamp)
5. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Bandcamp)
6. Full of Hell – Coagulated Bliss (Bandcamp)
7. Winterfylleth – The Imperious Horizon (Bandcamp)
8. Opeth – The Last Will and Testament (Stream)
9. Marilyn Manson – One Nation Under Assassination – Chapter 1 (Bandcamp)
10. Ihsahn – Ihsahn (Stream)
Hillary Wisniewski
1. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World (Stream)
2. Gvllow – Twin Flames (Stream)
3. 40 Watt Sun – Little Weight (Bandcamp)
4. Coughin Vicars – Curses & Prayers (Bandcamp)
5. Melvins – Tarantula Heart (Bandcamp)
6. Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol – Big Dumb Riffs (Bandcamp)
7. High on Fire – Cometh the Storm (Bandcamp)
8. Hulder – Verses in Oath (Bandcamp)
9. Tribulation – Sub Rosa in Æternum (Bandcamp)
10. Nails – Every Bridge Burning (Stream)
Carlos Tirado
1. Ulcerate – Cutting the Throat of God (Bandcamp)
2. Ingurgitating Oblivion – Ontology of Nought (Bandcamp)
3. Panzerfaust – The Suns of Perdition IV: To Shadow Zion (Bandcamp)
4. Kanonenfieber – Die Urkatastorphe (Bandcamp)
5. Sumac – The Healer (Bandcamp)
6. Borknagar – Fall (Bandcamp)
7. Replicant – Infinite Mortality (Bandcamp)
8. Iotunn – Kinship (Bandcamp)
9. Ataraxie – Le Déclin (Bandcamp)
10. Scald – Ancient Doom Metal (Bandcamp)
Mark Young
1. Heriot – Devoured by the Mouth of Hell (Bandcamp)
2. Homecoming – Those We Knew (Bandcamp)
3. Voidgazer – Dance of the Undesirables (Bandcamp)
4. Shadow Limb – Reclaim (Bandcamp)
5. Tombstoner – Rot Stink Rip (Bandcamp)
6. Old Horn Tooth – Mourning Light (Bandcamp)
7. Azell – Death Control (Bandcamp)
8. Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (Bandcamp)
9. Monument of Misanthropy – Vile Postmortem Irrumatio (Bandcamp)
10. Black Lava – The Savage Winds of Wisdom (Bandcamp)
John Newlands
1. Sugar Horse – The Grand Scheme of Things (Bandcamp)
2. Doodseskader – Year Two (Bandcamp)
3. Outlander – Acts Of Harm (Bandcamp)
4. Chat Pile – Cool World (Bandcamp)
5. Dvne – Voidkind (Bandcamp)
6. The Cure – Songs of a Lost World (Stream)
7. Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight (Bandcamp)
8. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere (Bandcamp)
9. REZN – Burden (Bandcamp)
10. Iress – Sleep Now, In Reverse (Bandcamp)
