How the fuck is it already mid-2025 when 2020 was just a few months ago? Yeah I slept on some shit last year, I was going through some stuff, what`s your fucking excuse for listening to the same 5 albums over and over again? YES, it`s all the title including this sentence. Haven`t you picked up on my way naming these articles yet?

 Album Reviews, LISTMANIA 2024  No Responses »
May 152025
 

(“Eclectic.” There’s that word again, the one we almost always use in sharing year-end lists from Tumbleweed Dealer‘s Seb Painchaud. We already did present Seb’s 2024 YE list during our LISTMANIA series for last year, but it turns out he overlooked a few — 16 of them, to be precise.)

How the fuck is it already mid-2025 when 2020 was just a few months ago? Yeah I slept on some shit last year, I was going through some stuff, what`s your fucking excuse for listening to the same 5 albums over and over again? YES, it’s all the title including this sentence. Haven’t you picked up on my way naming these articles yet?

So, are we really doing this again? I swore I was done with these lists as no one seems to read ‘em but god damn it, I kept discovering amazing 2024 albums I wish I had included and I made a playlist of ‘em on spotify and it’s just there, mocking me with its smugness, shoving my face into the failure that is not reporting these albums to you, the people not reading these lists.

On we go… Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024 WRAPUP

 LISTMANIA 2024  1 Response »
Jan 012025
 

(written by Islander)

We posted the last of our many year-end lists yesterday, on the last day of 2024. As in previous years, the volume was extensive. As usual, some of them were re-postings of lists that appeared at “big platform” web sites and print magazines, and others were prepared by our own stable of race-horse writers. And once again we had a large group of lists from other guests and old friends. Plus, we’ve again received valuable, extensive lists in reader comments on THIS POST (new lists can still be added there).

In this article I’m setting forth links to all of the 2024 year-end lists that we published, divided into categories and listed within each category in the order of their appearance. For people who are looking for the best metal that 2024 had to offer, these lists and our readers’ lists provide a tremendous resource, as they have in past years. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: A LIST OF LICORICE ALL SORTS / SPONGIFORM LONG FORMS – AN EDGING OF MUSIC EXPERIENCED AND AN (KIND OF) UNRANKED LIST OF 2

 LISTMANIA 2024  No Responses »
Dec 312024
 

(It’s fitting that the last installment in our main LISTMANIA series comes from one of our newest contributors, who made his first NCS appearance in early February of this year. Of course, this being Vizzah Harri (born in South Africa, now living in Vietnam), this isn’t a conventional list, but more like an ongoing diary of the year, which isn’t musically limited to metal nor even limited to music, though it begins with reflections from the present.)

It’s been a year of bi-polarities and absurdism. The Onion bought Infowars and Vice started writing Onion articles. The level of fakery doesn’t even matter anymore because it seems like reality has itself been augmented into a surreal hellscape. It takes but one lie to fool one man or a thousand for a lifetime; it is immeasurable how hard it is to turn back that lie. Randi and his partner once tried to prove how easy it is to fool people, and they succeeded but proved unknowingly that people didn’t want to know the truth in the end, they wanted to remain suspended in fantasy. The cognitive dissonance was too tough to reconcile.

 In brighter news, there will be new music from our favorite caterpillars in öOoOoOoOoOo and the teaser they dropped way back on April 1st is alluring as fuck: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: A YEAR-END LIST FROM JOHAN HULDTGREN (OBITUS)

 LISTMANIA 2024  No Responses »
Dec 312024
 

(For the 14th year in a row, our friend Johan Huldtgren of the Swedish black metal band Obitus — whose 2017 album Slaves of the Vast Machine is still their latest release — has again allowed us to share with you a year-end Top 10 list.)

As I usually remark, lists like this are always somewhat arbitrary, it’s ten releases I picked, from the longer list of albums I liked, whittled down from albums I’ve heard released in 2024. If as to underscore that this year I made several lists, this being the NCS edition.

Some of the albums on this year’s list were released fairly late in the year, so there is a risk of recency bias, but that is simply something we’ll have to let time sort out. As at least a few of the releases below I’ve not seen on other lists published here, I hope you find something here you enjoy which you may otherwise have missed. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: “25 FOR 24!” BY DANIEL BARKASI

 LISTMANIA 2024  8 Responses »
Dec 272024
 

(We present NCS writer Daniel Barkasi‘s year-end list of his favorite albums released in 2024 — a ranked list of 25.)

We’re at the end of another romp around the calendar. Yes, we survived! If not, how would you be reading this slop? Mind melding, perhaps? I probably didn’t listen to enough math/prog for Mr. Spock’s logical, technical tastes. Or maybe he does enjoy a dose of pure, unfettered violence once in a while?

We’re definitely not in the age of Starfleet, especially considering the state of this planet. I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time complaining about how it’s been a long year – we indulge plenty in my Obscurities column – so let’s keep that to a minimum here. We moved, went through a pair of catastrophic hurricanes (fuck Florida, seriously), the US proved that it’s collectively braindead, are we’re planning another move for next year. But, in positive news, we rescued another kitten! Her name’s Mabel, and we’re so glad to have her amongst our horde of nine other cats, three dogs, two horses, a bunch of snakes and spiders, and a partridge in a palm tree.

The end of another year is typically a time for reflection, spending time with those you care about, doing fun stuff. We’ve gone to Disney World a lot recently. For many, though, it’s a difficult and lonely time. I’m sure we all know somebody struggling, going through difficult times, fighting health issues. A very good friend right now is going through quite an ordeal, so if you’re reading – you probably will at some point – all the love to you, Darren. Try to lend a friendly ear to folks if you can, and be there for those who need it most. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: A YEAR-END LIST FROM TODD MANNING

 LISTMANIA 2024  1 Response »
Dec 262024
 

(This is NCS writer Todd Manning‘s list of the year’s best metal albums (an un-ranked Top 15), plus a handful of favorite EPs.)

Brutal music for another brutal year. As always, I’m partial to quite a bit of weird mixed in with my metal, but its all dark. You can feel the darkness just beyond the light of our tiny candles. It’s pressing in from all sides. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: GONZO’S TOP 25 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

 LISTMANIA 2024  8 Responses »
Dec 242024
 

(This is Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo‘s list of 2024’s Top 25 albums.)

It’s probably a grim sign of the times when, upon assembling this list, my first thought is “which albums helped me endure the horrors?”

That’s really why we listen to music in the first place, though. In that sense, this year was no different than any other. And I’d defy anyone to name a better form of self-guided therapy than blasting a metal record at god’s volume to help them navigate said horrors of existence.

Holy shit, that all sounded a lot bleaker than I’d intended. Whatever, though. We’re going with it. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: A YEAR-END LIST BY PROFESSOR D. GROVER THE XIIITH

 LISTMANIA 2024  1 Response »
Dec 242024
 

(Our friend Professor D. Grover the XIIIth (ex-The Number of the Blog) has been joining us this time of year for many years to share his diverse year-end lists, and does so again now. There’s a lot here, and, once more, it truly is diverse.)

Greetings and salutations, friends. Here we are again, poring over a year’s worth of music and taking stock of our thoughts about it. I always enjoy the opportunity to reflect on what I’ve heard throughout the year, to see how my music taste has evolved from years past. It’s been a busy year for me, working while trying to adapt my schedule to the sports activities of three kids, but I’ve still found plenty of time to check out a solid number of albums.

As always, I’ll start with some honorable mentions. This is not an exhaustive list of everything that I’ve heard through the year, of course, but it is most of the albums that caught enough of my attention to warrant at least some attention. Many of these could have made my final list, but then said list would have been absurdly long, and I just don’t have the time for that. Unlike last year I’m not dividing them into categories, either, but rest assured, I enjoyed all of these albums a great deal. Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: NEILL JAMESON’S “ODDS & ENDS”

 LISTMANIA 2024  No Responses »
Dec 232024
 

(Last week we published a three-part series of year-end lists (which you can find here) prepared by Neill Jameson (Krieg), but it turned out those lists omitted some things, and Neill has cured the omissions in another list installment we’re presenting below.)

I was certain I forgot a few things in my main list(s) since I tried to get everything written and submitted early this year in an effort to be responsible, something I’ll never be again, so I put together an additional list of some of the things I forgot as well as some of the cool shit that got reissued this year. 2024 was a pretty loaded year for music overall but one thing I really enjoyed was being able to finally pick up a few pieces that were just too goddamned expensive on the secondary market that were handled with obvious care to the source material in a trend that I hope continues. 

Anyway, here’s a few of them: Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: A TOP 20 LIST FROM DIDRIK MEŠIČEK

 LISTMANIA 2024  1 Response »
Dec 232024
 

(As our year-end LISTMANIA series proceeds, what we have for you today is the Top 20 list of NCS writer Didrik Mešiček.)

I’m pretty sure I said about how the world is horrible at the moment in this intro last year, and this year I feel a bit more optimistic, as the world is still horrible but at least we have consistency. That’s… good, right?

Anyway, what about the metals? I reckon it’s been a really solid year, perhaps the best since like 2021? Ironically, the pandemic years are some of my favourite in regards to new musical releases and there’s something to be said there about artists and suffering.

Most of all, I think 2024 has been phenomenal for black metal. I’ve included quite a few albums who are more or less a part of the aforementioned genre and there’s at least three or four more that have been considered but just missed, partly also because I did try to keep it a bit varied in regards to the subgenres. After all, I could easily switch the 19th and the 17th (for example) best album in these lists just based on my mood, the position of the moon, the number of cats currently trying to be in my lap. and whether I’ve eaten a croissant today.

But without further ado, here are the albums! Continue reading »

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