(written by Islander)
Welcome to Part 4 of this evolving list of infectious metal songs from last year. Today, as you can see, I’ve turned in a black metal direction and also included four picks today instead of three. To check out the preceding three Parts and to understand what this list is about, go here.
GAEREA
Even though Gaerea‘s career had already reached impressive heights before last year, it’s fair to say that this Portuguese band’s 2024 album Coma was a breakout hit, not only garnering widespread critical acclaim and tremendous support from listeners but marking an evident new chapter in the band’s musical evolution.
As just one sign of how impressive Coma was, at our own site it made best-of-2024 lists by Andy Synn, Gonzo, Daniel Barkasi, Didrik Mešiček, Professor D. Grover the XIIIth, Johan Huldtgren, and many of our readers who shared their lists with us. DGR reviewed the album for us, and also named it No. 11 on his own year-end list.
Under these circumstances it would have been shocking not to consider Coma‘s songs for this list. Consider them I did, and came away with several strong candidates (after all, in various roundups I did write about three of the songs and videos that came out before the album release). Rather than agonize over the choice, I deferred to DGR, whose own pick was the album’s title song.
As he wrote me, “the video may be a whiff but the song itself is punchy as fuck and comes out of nowhere after the first four tend to fade out on ‘pretty’ moments or at least quiet despondency.”
The travelogue-style video is indeed an outlier in the context of the intriguing films that usually accompany Gaerea songs, and the “Coma” is indeed punchy as fuck, though it also includes ethereal, dream-like melodies and elements of searing distress that are also gripping and memorable.
https://gaerea.bandcamp.com/album/coma
https://www.facebook.com/@gaerea/
GROZA
When I started pulling together this list in December I made a note to myself to pair Groza‘s song “Asbest” with a Gaerea song I was then pretty sure I’d put on the list, and I decided to keep the pairing even though I was persuaded to include a different Gaerea song.
Accompanied by an excellent video, “Asbest” is the kind of song that creates intensely distressing sensations in ways that sink them in a listener’s head. It’s the emotional force of its blistering vocals and despairing melodies, which flow like rivers, that make it hard to forget, but it’s strongly memorable in other ways too, from heavy stalking beats to brightly swirling melodies which sound like the dance of pipes or a hurdy-gurdy, and a solo near the end that brilliantly flashes.
“Asbest” is from Groza‘s 2024 album Nadir; the whole record is well worth your time.
https://groza-blackmetal.bandcamp.com/album/nadir
https://www.facebook.com/grozaband
DEWFALL
Dewfall allow quite a lot of time to pass between their albums, but in their case that just makes new ones all the more welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed their latest full-length, 2024’s Landhaskur. Dan Barkasi reviewed it for us, and included this assessment:
Where folk and folk-adjacent metal in general has been a feckless, unbearable bore for years, Dewfall provides fresh, engaging black metal with a folky underbelly. The medieval pagan theme is legitimately intriguing, and the band have discovered the right mixture to give us an album in Landhaskur that’s got soul in abundance defined by a generous combination of melody and slick blackened instrumentation. If there’s a record in this style to check out this year, Dewfall’s latest should be near the top of that list.
And here’s what I wrote about the song “FARA” that I’m now adding to this infectious song list:
[A] cello and violin play a prominent role in the mournful opening of “FARA“, and they establish a melody that Dewfall soon hurl forward with dramatically greater speed, intensity, and wrenching power. That melody digs in, piercing like vibrating knives, as the vocals barbarically vent the words and the rhythm section whips up a riot.
The riffing also contorts — feverishly attacking, dismally swirling, and becoming delirious; the lead guitar spins up into a brilliantly spiraling solo; the vocals give birth to both mad cries and deep, solemn singing; the song crescendos in a way that may leave you gasping.
https://dewfallofficial.bandcamp.com/album/landhaskur
https://www.facebook.com/DewFallOfficial/
DIZZINESS
Like Dewfall, Dizziness haven’t hurried with their full-lengths, although over a near-17-year career they have filled in the intervals with splits and EPs. Their latest album, 2024’s Abhorrent Flickering of Obscurity, was packed with songs that encompassed exhilarating twists and turns and generally matched up very well with the band’s name.
The dizzying song I picked for this list is “Smoulder Dun“. It features a great keyboard introduction that seizes attention immediately, and then the music becomes extravagantly destructive and head-spinning.
Anchored by enormous bass tones and vividly assaulting drums, the music flies high, writhing and warping, fronted by voices both maniacal and solemn. At its heights, the music is also majestic, while simultaneously fraught with moods of despair. I’ve found myself turning back to it often enough that I thought it belonged here.
https://dizziness.bandcamp.com/album/abhorrent-flickering-of-obscurity-2024
https://www.facebook.com/dizzinessvault