Jan 172025
 

(written by Islander)

For today’s Part 12 of the list I had enough time to pack in four songs, and I wanted to get these four songs out together because (at least in my own mind) they have a kind of throughline of visceral appeal. The first and last one are just batshit wild, while the two in the middle are more mid-paced but are real good neck-punchers, and kind of crazed in their own ways.

To find the preceding 11 installments of this list, use this link.

 

BENIGHTED

My friend DGR is a pretty gentle soul, though you wouldn’t know it from the kind of metal he favors, but I’d still worry a bit about my own well-being if I didn’t include a Benighted song on this list. He is a REALLY BIG FAN of that band, and has been for ages. Even if you didn’t know that before last year, you’d know it from the review he wrote for their 2024 album Ekbom and his placement of it in the No. 5 spot on his Top 50 YE list.

However, concerns about my own well-being only go so far (he does live more than 750 miles away from me), and I wouldn’t have put his favored Benighted song “Morgue” on this list if I didn’t also think it was catchy as fuck… which I do!

As DGR himself noted, that song is one of several on the album that includes some of the most shameless grooves the band have ever written, as they lean more into the death metal side of their deathgrind playbook. Here’s his take on the song, which is the second part of a one-two opening punch for the album that begins with “Scars”:

Morgue” on the other hand is the most gloriously stupid Benighted have gotten in some time and features some of the most blatant chugging guitar riffs as well. If you’ve listened to metal for a while then you’ll hear and see every single twist and turn “Morgue” makes before the song itself gets to it, even the build-up section before the final shout-chorus. It’s almost offensive how blatant its chugging riff and ignorant as hell breakdown segment is, appealing strictly to the almost cro-magnon and instinctual subsection; you’ll headbang along to it anyway and be mad at yourself afterwords. “Morgue” is stupid fun.

Oh hell yes it is. And for extra fun I’m also including a drum-cam video for “Morgue” executed by drummer Kevin Paradis.

https://benighted.bandcamp.com/album/ekbom
https://www.facebook.com/brutalbenighted

 

BAT

I got hooked on Bat‘s “Rite for Exorcism” as soon as I saw and heard the short horror movie for the song last March. I didn’t spill a lot of words about it then, only these:

“Prepare to get your motor running and your head pumping with this gravel-toned chug-fest, which also includes gut-busting and galloping drum-work, gloriously sinister soloing, and vocals as raw as roadburn.”

And you know what? Those words will still do. The song, which hasn’t come close to wearing out its welcome since last March, is from Bat‘s 2024 album Under the Crooked Claw, which was released by Nuclear Blast.

https://bat.bfan.link/utcclp
https://www.facebook.com/bewareofthebat

 

CELL PRESS

This next song, “Original Uranium Baby,” happens to be one that I premiered along with a video last February. It’s from this Montreal band’s 2024 debut album Cages. It’s described as “a dystopian tale set in the town of Elliot Lake, Ontario, in the year 2088.”

We’re now almost a year beyond the time when I first heard the song, and it has stuck with me, which I think is pretty good evidence of its infectiousness — especially because the song is a pretty quirky beast (but also a beast). Here’s what I wrote about it back then:

The song is indeed a hook monster that will get your muscles jumping, but the hooks are mangled and the beats don’t consistently follow a straight line. It sounds stripped-down, as lots of catchy music often does, but it mutates as it goes.

There’s a heavy throbbing and punching quality to the bass lines, and the riffing seems to blare, quiver, and lurch in differing phases of derangement, while the drumming comes off-kilter just enough to enhance the song’s bamboozling qualities, and the swift fills add to its electric effects.

As the music works its odd magic, and begins to seem like a big ugly bulldozer out of control, a voice howls and screams in a throat-shredding combination of fury and madness.

https://cellpress.bandcamp.com/album/cages
https://www.facebook.com/cellpressmtl

 

I AM THE INTIMIDATOR

I like to think that I don’t take myself, this blog, or metal bands too seriously, but I confess that when I see a band that doesn’t seem to take itself seriously, I’m reflexively skeptical. I know that’s an inconsistency in my outlook, so I try not to completely shut the door on music from bands that seem… goofy… without giving them at least a quick listen.

In the case of I Am the Intimidator‘s self-titled 2024 album, I was also skeptical because of the album’s concept — a tale of NASCAR great Dale Earnhardt’s last day on earth before he fractured his skull in a sudden last-lap crash during the Daytona 500 — because I’d rather watch paint dry than watch a NASCAR race.

But despite all these misgivings, I was induced to give the album a chance after seeing Vizzah Harri extoling the infectious virtues of an album track named “Gasoline” in his year-end list:

Deeper in the underground there looms music that might seem like a joke, a gambit, an absurdity to scoff at. I AM THE INTIMIDATOR was forged in the name of Dale Earnhardt’s final day in a revisionist fantastical hell ride. The player should start on the second track called “Gasoline.” It’s four minutes and 20 seconds long. Whether you indulge in the devil’s lettuce or not and whether you partake in it prior to pressing play, you won’t be ready for what comes. It’s glorious, keeps on giving, and is the best thing that should not have worked on paper, but did.

Later, I found a delightful review of the album by DR. A.N. GRIER at AMG, which I encourage you to check out (here) if you need to overcome your own skepticism. I’ll include this quote about “Gasoline” from that review too:

[G]oddamn, was I surprised when the vocals rose to Dio-esque levels in this old-school chugger. When we hit the repetitive “gotta pump the gasoline, motherfucker,” the song takes on some Ministry qualities that make me want to hump a tailpipe. As the song progresses, the guitars reach higher and higher, ripping through solo after impressive solo.

But of course the easiest way to deal with your own skepticism is to just listen to “Gasoline,” either with or without simultaneously watching the goofy video. As you can tell, it won me over — quite easily, as it turns out.

https://iamtheintimidator.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-the-intimidator

  3 Responses to “OUR LIST OF 2024’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 12): BENIGHTED, BAT, CELL PRESS, I AM THE INTIMIDATOR”

  1. Not only does this instalment contain some of the catchiest tunes from last year, it’s like a greatest ‘hit’ of writing from ’24 cos, the way you cropped GRIER, one can read the rhyme of ‘chugger…motherfucker’ much easier. And then the bit about exhaust fornication is just chef’s kiss

  2. I’ve listened to the I Am The Intimidator album several times since discovering it here in Vizzah Harri’s list. It’s a fun banger for sure.

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.