LISTMANIA 2024 Archives - Page 3 of 4

BECAUSE WITTY YEAR-END LIST TITLES ABOUT RUINING THE HOLIDAYS ARE FOR SUCKERS — THE DGR YEAR ENDSTAVAGANZA PART ONE: 50-41

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Dec 162024

(This is the first part of a five-part countdown by DGR of his 2024 year-end list, with each selection accompanied by his very extensive thoughts about the releases. Our plan is to roll out the rest of the installments on successive days until this week ends or falls into a sinkhole under the weight of his words.)

It feels like I blinked and suddenly a whole year had passed. Maybe it’s just the flow of life finally catching back up to me but this year moved in extreme fits and extreme starts and somewhere along the way I lost track of it among the deluge and wreckage that seems to be a daily existence. Among the piles of charred wood and still yet burning cars is another three hundred and sixty-five days of existence slowly signing its final paperwork and preparing itself to move on from the mortal coil.

At the very least, there was some sort of notification that this was coming. It feels like every year I open with some variation of ‘hey, this previous year sucked shit,’ and I’m pretty sure I’ve taken a similar tack to open up a few of the previous year-end posts – if only some sort of dipshit had done an anniversary post whereby he might have easy access to all his previous years’ transgressions upon the internet and the collective heavy metal world at large – so I’ll dispense with the usual landfill avalanche of thoughts pertaining to world events and the previous days gone by because, shock of all shocks, this year sucked.

Next year is likely going to suck too and the year after that will probably suck even worse. We’ll make the word ‘suck’ mundane through repetition, as if an ever-present shadow haunting our lives, by the time we’re done with this. Eventually, we will all lose all sense of what the word actually means and we will be permanently trapped in some sort of constant suck-vortex powerful enough that we’ll get dragged into court for infringement by Dyson and we’ll be numb to the common sense of suck surrounding us. We’ll have finally ascended into the boring dystopia I’ve bitched about that is coming for years. Just my luck I can’t even get one with decent Blade Runner lighting. Continue reading »

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE PERSONAL TOP TEN

LISTMANIA 2024 13 Responses »

Dec 132024

(Andy Synn finishes off “List Week” with his personal favourites of the year)

Well, here we are, finally at the end of “List Week”… and, let me tell you, I am ready to take some time off and recharge/reset my mental machinery.

Oh, I’ll probably end up writing one or two more things, here and there, before the end of the month – there’s a handful of Black Metal albums I really want to write more about, for one thing, and I’ve got to do my end of the month Synn Report, of course – but for the most part I’ll be turning the site back over to Islander, DGR, and whatever guests posts we have, for the rest of December.

Before then, however, I’ve got one more list up my proverbial sleeve… and this one, thankfully, is a lot easier and more laid back, seeing as it’s basically just the ten albums which “clicked” with me and monopolised my listening the most this year.

It’s not the “best” albums of the year, by any means – though many of them appeared on my “Great” list – it’s just my favourite full-lengths from the last twelve months (and you can see what my favourite EPs were here), and should give you some idea of where my personal tastes lay these last many months.

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE CRITICAL TOP TEN

LISTMANIA 2024 13 Responses »

Dec 122024

(Andy Synn does his best to remain objective while selecting his “Critical Top Ten” of 2024)

Out of everything I’ve written and published this week, this is the closest to a traditional “Best Of” list.

But, even so, it’s still a little different, as while it’s ostensibly a “Top Ten”, it’s purposefully not ranked… rather it’s meant to be a snapshot of the ten albums (drawn from yesterday’s “Great” list) which together form the best representation of the year in Metal, across all the different styles and sub-genres which make up our beloved scene.

I’ll grant you that ten albums isn’t enough to fully represent the sheer variety and vitality of the year – you’ll notice for example, that both Blood Incantation and Job For A Cowboy are notably absent – but I’ve still tried my best (while also trying to be as “objective” as possible, despite that being ultimately an exercise in futility, as there will always be some sort of subjective bias involved) to provide a hand-picked cross-section which hopefully illustrates the very best-of-the-best from the last twelve-ish months.

As always, in recognition that many of our readers may already be familiar with some of the albums selected for this year’s “Critical Top Ten”, I’ve also included a few “honourable mentions” – whose primary purpose is to highlight a few extra albums which, while they may not have made it into the Top Ten, still deserve more recognition and attention – so even if you think you know what to expect (and, hopefully, there’ll still be a few surprises) you might just discover a brand new favourite artist/album while you’re here!

LISTMANIA 2024: BANDCAMP DAILY’S “THE BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2024”

LISTMANIA 2024 4 Responses »

Dec 112024

(written by Islander)

Reading year-end lists that someone other than you made tend to provoke mixed feelings of validation, perplexity (which sometimes verges into anger), and discovery. The opportunity for discovery is the main reason we here at NCS devote so much space to our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza, even though we know those other feelings will also be in the mix of reactions. The list we’re re-publishing from Bandcamp Daily will probably be no different in any of these respects.

Bandcamp, of course, has become a vital platform for the digital release of music of all stripes (and physical merchandise as well) since its founding in 2007. Bandcamp used to release an annual compilation of performance statistics, but I haven’t found a similar report since the one they released for 2017. However, the main Bandcamp page today reports that “Fans have paid artists $1.42 billion using Bandcamp, and $194 million in the last year.”

Those are staggering totals, and some part of those enormous sums has been the result of Bandcamp’s laudable decision to continue the monthly tradition of “Bandcamp Fridays” that they began during the height of the pandemic. The last of those for 2024 occurred last week. We won’t know for a while whether it will be continued in 2025. It better be, or else! Continue reading »

LISTMANIA 2024: STEREOGUM’S 10 BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2024

LISTMANIA 2024 3 Responses »

Dec 112024

(written by Islander)

This is a tough list to share, not because it’s a bad list but because it’s the swan song of the Black Market column, which has been running at Stereogum on a monthly basis since February 2013. As the kids used to say, I has the sads about this news. Well, but let’s back up a bit, for those who might be unfamiliar with that now-defunct institution.

Stereogum easily qualifies as one of the “big platform” web sites whose year-end lists of metal we perennially include in our LISTMANIA series. Of course, the site appeals to an audience of music fans much larger than devoted metalheads, but its staff has included a talented and tasteful (though gradually dwindling) group of metal writers who have been responsible for the site’s monthly The Black Market column.

I’ve always looked forward to Stereogum‘s annual metal list prepared by the Black Market writers. The one for 2024 came out on Monday of this week. As usual it consists of only 10 entries, with accompanying reviews of the choices by Ian Chainey, Michael Nelson, Doug Moore, Wyatt Marshall.

The list feature also includes a retrospective about the column by Ian Chainey, and an entertaining but also poignant interview of all those old-timer writers listed above.

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE GREAT

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Dec 112024

(Andy Synn continues his ongoing round-up of the year with his selections for the top tier albums)

We’re halfway through the week now and it’s time to take a look at the albums I thought represented the creme-de-la-creme of the year.

Before we get into it, however, it’s worth stating that if you don’t see an album listed here, or on yesterday’s “Good” list, then the most likely explanation for its absence is… that I simply didn’t get around to hearing it (or, alternatively, I didn’t have time to listen to it enough to form a proper opinion).

Case in point, I bounced off the new Inter Arma pretty hard when it was released, and never found time to go back to it, so you won’t be seeing that here (some people seem to love it, while others hate it, which is pretty par for the course with the band, actually), and I still haven’t heard a single note of the new Fleshgod Apocalypse (so I’m going to be relying on DGR to let me know more about that in his list).

Similarly, while I’m still enjoying immersing myself in the Hardcore scene all over again (musically, at least) I have to say that – while I don’t begrudge the band their ongoing success – for some reason everything by Knocked Loose just goes in one ear and out the other with me, and never seems to stick around long enough to keep my attention, and when it comes to Nails… well, they’ve just never really done it for me (and get more than enough press elsewhere anyway, so I doubt they’ll be harmed by their omission).

I am, however, particularly mad at myself that I never found (or made) the time to properly dive into the new one from Thy Catafalque, and I just realised that The Foreshadowing have a new one out as well… and I’ve completely overlooked it.

When it comes to what did make the final cut, however, I think you’ll find a lot to love here, from phenomenal first albums from brand new bands to riveting new releases from a variety of exceptional artists from across the Death/Black/Doom spectrum… and beyond (with members of the 20 Buck Spin and Transcending Obscurity rosters putting in a particularly good showing, both here and in the “Good” list, this year).

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE GOOD

LISTMANIA 2024 14 Responses »

Dec 102024

(Today we have Andy Synn‘s mammoth second article rounding up the year that was 2024)

Ok, so this is where “List Week” really gets going.

Before we get stuck in, however, a quick explanation for those of you who are new to the site at this time of year.

The following article is not a normal “Best Of…” list, nor is it intended to be treated like one – instead, think of it as a resource which rounds up all the albums I’ve heard this year (well, almost all of them, there’s a few that got cut simply because I didn’t feel strongly enough about them to include them at all) which didn’t make it onto my “Great” list (which will be published tomorrow).

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check them out, however, as there’s a lot of good stuff here (including some of my personal favourites), and the list itself runs the gamut from “it’s pretty good, you might like this” to “this is really fucking good, bordering on great, and needs to be heard”.

It’s not, of course, in any way definitive, because:

I’ll obviously have forgotten to include some things
there’s a few big names I just didn’t have time to get around to
some of what isn’t here will appear on tomorrow’s “Great” list
some bands we purposefully don’t feature/cover (for a variety of reasons)

And, obviously, there’s going to be more albums than I can count that I won’t even have been aware of… but it’s still a pretty big collection of records and releases, split up by style and sub-genre, which I hope you’ll find useful as a way of catching up on stuff you might have missed.

Feel free to drop any questions about anything you’re interested in via the comments… and, yes, I’ve provided links for every single album featured here.

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): THE DISAPPOINTING

LISTMANIA 2024 11 Responses »

Dec 092024

Well, here we are again – it’s the beginning of “List Week” again, where I take over the site (barring the occasional interview or premiere) for five days of features rounding up all the albums I’ve managed to listen to over the course of this year.

Now, to clarify, this isn’t about showing off how many albums I’ve heard – I am well aware I am in an unusually lucky position wherein I have access to, and time to listen to, more albums than most (the exception being those people who apparently have time to listen to thousands of albums a year, which… well, let’s say I have my doubts) – it’s about providing a resource for our readers to use to check out stuff they may have missed.

Obviously, there’s also an element of looking back and analysing the year – what was “great”, what was “good”, and (in this particular article) what was most “disappointing” – but there’s no real “ranking” system beyond these three tiers (the exception being my “Critical” and “Personal” top tens at the end of the week, which I’ll say more about at the time).

2024 – A YEAR IN REVIEW(S): SHORT BUT SWEET

LISTMANIA 2024 8 Responses »

Dec 062024

(Andy Synn kicks off “List Week” a little early with a round-up of all the EPs he’s checked out this year)

As is tradition here at NCS we’re going to tee up “List Week” – where I essentially take over the site in order to round-up the “Great”, “Good”, and “Disappointing” albums of the year, concluding with my picks for the “Critical” (i.e. semi-objective) Top Ten and my completely and unapologetically subjective “Personal” Top Ten – with my round-up of all the EPs, splits, and short-form releases from 2024 (including links) which I think are worthy of your time and attention.

Of course, this isn’t a definitive list by any means – anyone who claims any of their lists represent some sort of “definitive” ranking should be treated with rank (pun intended) suspicion, as it’s a literal impossibility for any writer/reviewer to have heard all the great releases from a given year – but it’ll hopefully serve as a useful resource for you to bookmark and come back to whenever you have the time, or inclination, to listen to something more on the “short but sweet” end of the scale.

And, as always, I’m closing the piece with a slightly more in-depth look at my ten favourite – note that I said “favourite”, not “best”, as I’m not trying to make any sort of authoritative claim here – EPs of the year, if only to give you a glimpse into what I’ve liked and listened to the most since January.

(Obviously, this doesn’t include my own band’s EP, which I’d never be so arrogant as to include on my own list, but… maybe you’ll want to give it a listen and include it on yours?)

LISTMANIA 2024: AN INVITATION FOR READERS’ LISTS OF THE YEAR’S BEST METAL

LISTMANIA 2024 75 Responses »

Dec 022024

As of yesterday we are entering the final month of 2024, and that begins the final countdown to the end of the year. In the world of metal, this month we’ll also start seeing more and more lists of the year’s best releases.

Back in 2009, when this site was just a few days old, I wrote a post about year-end lists and why people bother with them. The best reason still seems to be this: Reading someone else’s list of the albums they thought were best is a good way to discover music you missed and might like.

We don’t do an “official” NCS year-end list of best albums. However, we publish the picks of each of our regular staff writers as well as a group of invited guests, in addition to lists that we re-post from a few print zines and “big platform” online sites.

Every year we also invite our readers to share their lists and we’re doing that again right here, right now. Continue reading »

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