(written by Islander)
Welcome to Part 2 of this list of 2024’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs. If you’ve stumbled across this for the first time today and have no idea what I’m doing, you could take a look at the introductory verbiage in Part 1. But today I’m just going to get right into the next three selections without delay, each one radically different from the others.
ALTA ROSSA
Alta Rossa‘s A Defiant Curse hit fairly late in the year, near the end of November, and Andy jumped on it fast. In his review he wrote:
“Dealing in a form of Sludge/Post-Metal that errs more towards the Hardcore-inspired end of the spectrum – think LLNN, Herod, and early The Ocean (i.e. when the band were at their best… yeah, I said it) – Alta Rossa hit hard and refuse to pull their punches…. As punchy and pugilistic as the band’s sound is, however (and there’s no question that Alta Rossa came ready to fight), it’s also brimming with dark, desolate atmosphere…. those who connect with this album will be in for one hell of a ride, equal parts primal, gut-level impact and deeper, darker soul-scarring slow-burn.”
I had something to say about it too: “If Alta Rossa‘s objective was to leave listeners with dropped jaws and popped eyes, I’d say… mission accomplished.”
I also agreed with a comment from byrd36 on Andy‘s review — that “‘Fields of Solar Flames‘ is infectious song list material.” There’s something horrifically captivating about the long groaning chords and extravagant drumwork that launches the track, and something similarly gripping about the feverish fretwork and possessed howls and unhinged screams that follow.
Powerful hammering beats drive in more hooks, as do quick jolting bursts, eerily wailing notes, and even more febrile fretwork convulsions. Eventually, blast-beats break out as the music begins to sound like demented sirens, though it still viciously pounds and groans as well.
Frightening stuff for sure, but also addictive.
https://altarossa.bandcamp.com/album/a-defiant-cure
https://www.facebook.com/altarossa
CANDY
Anyone who hasn’t come across Candy before are likely to be blind-sided by them. Their name just in no way prepares you for what’s coming in their music.
Will Cifer had the review of their 2024 album, and named it No. 14 on his YE Top 20 list. Andy Synn also named it to his Critical Top 10 for the year. I’ll excerpt from that latter entry:
Candy‘s It’s Inside You – while no doubt one of the hardest-hitting albums of the year, with every bruising body-blow and hammering haymaker landing with maximum force and lethal precision – finds the band drawing even more deeply than ever from a well of outside influences, incorporating injections of electronica, industrial and even Nu-Metal to expand the band’s creative palette without compromising their intensity or their integrity in the process.
Andy‘s write-up made me pay extra attention to the song “Dehumanize Me” (he called it “a definite song of the year contender”).
As Andy‘s quoted passage conveys, the song inflicts a thunderous, bone-busting beating, segmented by fast eruptions of automatic-weaponry and laced with shrill, freakish tones that pulse and screech. The variant hardcore vocals are on fire, adding mayhem more raw to the mechanistic mayhem, which continues ejecting unexpected bursts of sound. By the end, the pounding and popping is so ruthless you might be left searching your cranium with trembling fingers for fractures.
https://candygonnadie.bandcamp.com/album/it-s-inside-you
http://facebook.com/candygonnadie
BLACKEVIL
I’ve been hooked on Blackevil‘s music for a while, and so was stoked to get the chance to premiere this Bavarian band’s 2024 album, Praise the Communion Fire for the Unhallowed Sacrament. To crib from the overview I wrote then:
Blackevil have a deserved reputation for giving people a savagely good time, by providing high-octane, pulse-pounding, hell-raising musical experiences. But as the new album demonstrates more abundantly than even the records they’ve previously released, Blackevil continue finding new ways to pop eyes open (and even to make you think!), by going beyond the fundamental and expected tropes of horn-throwing, black/thrashing speed — so much so that they truly have now clearly transcended the “blackthrash” label.
I probably could have thrown a dart at the new album’s track list and picked whatever song it spiked for this list, because they’re all very infectious, but I did give a bit more thought than that and finally selected “Divine Forces“.
Blackevil set the hook hard and fast right from the start with a glorious heavy metal riff that fires in an ecstatic pulse, backed by full-bore drum extravagance, frenzied fretwork and a fleet-fingered bass-line. The crackling and screaming vocals are authentically demonic, reveling in the music’s searing, soaring, and sweeping glories.
The music grandly flows but also blows up in electrifying dual-guitar fireworks, all the while anchored by fantastic rhythm-section work that keeps the pulse rate super-high. And in its penultimate phase, the music sounds like mesmerizing sorcery. The whole thing is just fucking fantastic, guaranteed to put your heart in your throat.
https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/praise-the-communion-fire-for-the-unhallowed-sacrament
https://www.facebook.com/blackevilmetal