Favorite 50: 2024 Edition, Part Last

Awards, otherwise known as an excuse to talk about a lot of bands I haven't yet

"Artwork" by Wolf Rambatz. Original Butthole Chainsaw character design by Mike Teal

This is the third, and final, installment of our year-end series. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

First, some housekeeping. In the interest of not leaving you in the lurch without posts for months at a time, Plague Rages will expand the family. (Whither Steve Dave? Being an honest-to-Dio rock star.) Over the next year, some guest contributors will be sliding through. I won't spoil…most of them. One I will spoil is Dave Fonseca, who will be writing a monthly column. Dave has been a longtime bestie and collaborator; you may remember us on any number of podcasts that lasted for about as long as we could tolerate editing them. We also both cut our teeth at Metal Review, a website you might remember if you are old. Lately, Dave has been doing fantastic work at the Better Material Substack, including one of the best EOY features I've read this year. If you don't love him already, you will soon. You better. I am enforcing it. This is non-negotiable love.

***

You may have heard I quit my gig. Why? Well, perhaps you can relate. Let me lay some tracks first before I get to the part about derailing the train.

I started writing for Stereogum's Black Market in 2014, first as an infantryman blurber and then, beginning in 2018, as Intro Master General. Of the 140 columns The Black Market published, I was in about 120 of them. I cashed checks with multiple different companies listed at the top: Spin, Prometheus, Billboard, and, once Scott repurchased the site, Stereogum. I was there so long that our Black Market team of five eventually dwindled down to two; Wyatt will outlast the Sun. I hate to think what my overall word count came in at, but it was far higher than it should've been. Apologies to my editors, especially Chris.

This is all to say that writing the column occupied an enormous chunk of my life. There, of course, was the time sink: depending on the intro, constructing the column could easily exceed 40 hours a month. But there was also a mental debt I was paying off, too. "What am I going to write?" simmered on a back burner in my brain from the first to the fifteenth of the month, and then it became a massive pot of ready-to-roil oil that sloshed nearly everything else off the stove. It was far worse when I had multiple pieces in the process of reporting, a mass of tangled ideas that felt like how a drawer of Cat 5 cables looks. I did interviews while at my other jobs. I researched at night, lucubrating by the pale glow of a monitor that slept as much as I did. I spent countless hours hunting for new, slick, neat music that wasn't being featured anywhere else. All of this was at the expense of living a life.

I don't make that last admission like I was doing some yeoman task or forced to roll a Defeated Sanity-shaped bolder up a hill. I was writing a heavy metal column, doing far more, and getting far sweatier, than I needed to. Don't weep for my poor decisions. I also realize I was extremely fortunate to be given a platform, especially due to the fact I pretty much failed my way there with negligible talent. And there were parts I truly loved: I was put on this Earth to recommend cool music to people…and have horrible things happen to me so people can laugh about it later. At least I recognize my calling.

But I bring all of that previously stated exhausting perfectionism up to demonstrate how much of myself was made up from writerly materials. Writing was important to me. Writing was me. Writing was how I self-identified. "Oh, I'm a writer. A real one. I get paid for it and everything." From a factual standpoint, that became less and less true as I worked other jobs with pay and standing far exceeding whatever I made as a freelancer. You could say I was wearing different masks depending on the audience: I'm a writer, I'm a credentialing expert, I'm a union executive, I'm a hairless ape who feeds eternally starving animals who have never had food in their lives, etc. But the fact that "Oh, I'm a writer" was my go-to explanation of selfhood probably said a lot. I went on podcasts as a writer. I was on panels as a writer. I told people on first dates I was a writer. There weren't a lot of second dates.

Like any artistic pursuit, writing in a professional capacity is uniquely iniquitous. On the book side, you're putting in your 10,000 hours to basically make pennies unless you're authoring one of the 15 cookbooks that props up the entire publishing industry. On the zine/blog side, anyone doing your taxes will laugh at you unless you're penning faux-journalistic, editorial section agitprop. For everyone else, then, it's a real 'for the love of' gig, except there's no time to love it. Things move so quickly, you can't rest on your laurels because it's always 'on to the next.' That would be fine if it went both ways, but the bad pieces weigh on you like crazy. Writing, like any situationship, doesn't love you back. I used to say that publishing was like a game of cards: When it goes good, it's like winning at solitaire; when it goes bad, it's like losing your house after a hand of blackjack.

For me, writing was always a way to fill a hole, one continually emptied of the external and internal meta data of existence. But filling the hole will eventually burn you out. There's no substitute for bedrock, that which is made of community, relationships, and the pursuit of self-actualization; all of that 'living a life' stuff that gets pushed to the margins in order to "succeed" in this world. If there's no bedrock, that hole is a bottomless pit. Near the end, I felt a severe disconnect between writing, which, let's be honest, is the only thing I'm halfway decent at, and growing as a person. Like anything else in life, you only have time to work on one of those things in the woodshed.

So, by 2024, your Black Marketers were burned out. Everyone had other obligations that made continuing the column in its current form a near-impossible lift. The decision, then, was to dodge a potential Willie Mays on the Mets situation and tap out while we were on top. We did some of our best work this year, and I'd rather go out too early than roll down the hill for a few more years. But there was also this inescapable thought that I was taking up space. More and more, my obscure coverage choices chafed against the zeitgeist. And while I think those were the right decisions, giving underground acts needed exposure they wouldn't or couldn't get elsewhere, I couldn't quite shake the feeling that even my most outre choices were becoming expected. Oh, a bewildering free jazz brutal death band? Classic Ian pick. When the avant-garde becomes de rigueur, it's time to bounce. Metal needs fresh blood pumping through its veins, it needs surprises, not the molasses-y goo leaking from the mushy brain of some dork on the back nine of life.

"What are you going to do next?" a member of a band asked me when I told them I was done at the end of the year. I don't know. For the first time in 12 years, "professional writer" isn't an active part of my CV. I've spent my brief freedom doing what I've always done: writing. Maybe I really am Brooks Hatlen, and as your pummeled inbox has experienced, I've been plowing through the draft backlog like I'm back on deadline. After that? Shrug emoji. It has been nice not being forced to listen to new music or care about black metal. I've also gone back to collecting physical — vinyl and CDs; after running a tape label, cassettes are dead to me — now that my email accounts aren't being punished by a ton of promos. So, yeah. Right this second, I'm at the Maybe Crossroads: maybe another midlife crisis jump-started by a series of noise pedals calling my name; maybe move to a city where I don't have to drive that far to go to shows (I went to, gulp, 150 this year, which added up to, at the very least, 30,000 miles of travel; eat shit, The Proclaimers); maybe find a new job. Or, you know, maybe live life a little. I have been putting that off. Sounds like a decent enough gig.

***

Where is metal in 2024? Metal is metal. I've written this so many times, and I'll write it again: Because the genre is so vast, so all-encompassing, I don't think there's much you can definitively say about it. Every style is Schrödinger's.

My perception of the state of the scene, as it were, is that black metal continues its unabated dominance of the metal landscape. Not in quality, mind you, but in quantity. At the time I'm typing this out, 3,500 black metal full-lengths have been released. Death metal, the next closest contender, has 2,607. We are living in blackened times. Despite my general ambivalence towards most black metal, I think that's largely fine. There does seem to be more room to breathe creatively in black metal right now, which is funny because it has traditionally had the staunchest traditionalists. While I think blackgaze and atmo black — which, again, are terrible genre tags — have become homogeneous up top, there are plenty of acts doing interesting work below the topsoil. So, even using black metal as a marker, metal is about the same as it has always been. That is to say, if there's one constant in our lives, it's that some metal style is in its renaissance while others wait for their inevitable return to the throne.

I guess you could say metal is no monolith, but man, does it ever cast a monolithic shadow over our lives. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Now, let's take a look at some stats we've been tracking. For more in-depth stats, I highly suggest checking out the Metal Stats WordPress and Flourish pages. To clear up any confusion, no, that is not me.

Were more metal full-lengths released in 2024 than ever before?

At the time I'm writing this, the record is 2023's 10,093 full-lengths. There have been 9,179 full-lengths released or slated to be released in 2024. Hard to say if 2024 will eventually eclipse 2023. Last December, 862 full-lengths were released. This year, there have been or will be 491. 371 more isn't going to do it, which would be the first down year for releases in a long time. However, Metallum always seems to find albums between the seat cushions, so I wouldn't bet against 2024 just yet. Metal: there is a lot of it.

Real quick, live albums are also down from 2023's peak of 683. 2024 has 487 currently. I'm interested to see what happens to that number once the post-COVID concert boom slows down. Anecdotally, we already seem to be in the throes of a live show recession.

Who holds the Trad Belt?

Q1: Judas Priest - Invincible Shield
Q2: Judas Priest - Invincible Shield
Q3: Vendel - Out in the Fields
Q4: Blitzkrieg - Blitzkrieg

Priest's brief reign feels right, and it almost snagged the belt in Q3. As far as Q4, I refuse to believe the new Blitzkrieg is better than the new Satan. Can someone confirm? I'm too busy listening to Biomorphic Engulfment while hoarding all of the jewel cases Brutal Mind sent me like a dragon.

***

It has been a bit, so here are some places on Substack and around the web you can find good music coverage. Substack first:

And here are some of the websites I hit to find new tunes:

Machine Music

Bandcamp Daily

Last Rites

No Clean Singing

Stereogum

Invisible Oranges

That's it. Enjoy the awards.

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2024 AWARDS

DID I GET IT RIGHT?

Reappraising last year’s top 10.

10. Baring Teeth - The Path Narrows (I, Voidhanger Records)
9. Kostnatění - Úpal (Willowtip)
8. ТДК [TDK] - Nemesta (self-released)
7. 夢遊病者 [Sleepwalker] - Skopofoboexoskelett (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)
6. Nithing - Agonal Hymns (New Standard Elite)
5. Jute Gyte - Unus Mundus Patet (Jeshimoth Entertainment)
4. Hunter Petersen Report: Trichomoniasis - Makeshift Crematoria (New Standard Elite) / Harvest of the Killing Fields (self-released) / Potion - split w/ Failure Addict (self-released)
3. Great Falls - Objects Without Pain (Neurot Recordings)
2. Anachronism - Meanders (Unorthodox Emanations)
1. Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium - Nahab (Debemur Morti Productions)

You know, I've done way worse. Out of the 10 on the short list, I own physical copies of six, and the only reason I'm not at full capacity is because I can't figure out how to get better shipping rates for the remaining four. (I'm not crossing that Canada Post picket line until they get better pay/pensions.) I also saw Baring Teeth live, and that was a sick show. So, you know, a lot of 2023 has hung around in 2024, which is a great thing in the music part of my life and kind of a disaster in everything else.

Out of the top 25 that year, I think only Hypomanic Daydream, Cognizant, and Final Eclipse might challenge for a spot in the top 10. I still listen to those fairly frequently, and I've found that Final Eclipse's The Dark World is an album for all seasons. Really thought that one would melt in the light of the summer. Nope. The time is always right to scale the mountain.

OUT OF STEP

Awarded to my favorite punk record that I couldn’t shoehorn into a list.

Yambag - Mindfuck Ultra (11pm Records, Convulse Records)

I'm a sucker for whenever a hardcore band lets loose a well-timed "woo!" Yambag's Mindfuck Ultra feels like an entire album of that, one big fastcore "woo!" that could blow Ric Flair's hair back. Ultimately, think if Void were Intense Degree; there's your sonic ballpark. And just like how reaching over the fence to catch a foul ball in said ballpark should be a crime, a writer should see jail time for going long about an album this thrillingly short. So let's not. Play it once and then again and again and again. Woo!

Past winners:
2023: Citric Dummies - Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass (Feel It Records)
2022: Bitter Branches - Your Neighbors Are Failures (Equal Vision Records) / Bombardement - Le Futur Est Là (Destructure / Symphony Of Destruction) / Hylda - Juniper Pyre (self-released) / Triac - Pure Joy - Numb Grief-Stricken Animals (RSRecords)
2021: Tenue - Territorios (Alerta Antifascista / The Plague of Man Records / Pifia Records / Long Legs Long Arms / Crust Or Die / Zegema Beach Records)
2020: Subdued - Over the Hills and Far Away (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos / Roachleg Records)
2019: Protocol - Bloodsport (Dynastic Yellow Star Label / 11 PM Records)
2018: Great Falls - A Sense of Rest (Corpse Flower Records / Throatruiner Records)

THE FALSE

Awarded to my favorite non-metal album that could conceivably be enjoyed by metalheads.

Blind Girls - An Exit Exists (Persistent Vision, Secret Voice and Life Lair Regret)

This year, screamo had the same bell curve as brutal death metal: a lot of decent things but few good things. Blind Girls's An Exit Exists is one of the good things. Channeling the Witching Hour screamo of yore (never using the term "emoviolence," don't care), these Australians absolutely bring it, grindingly blasting and devastatingly judding through a set of songs burning with blinding fury. Still, An Exit Exists is heavy on the feels: "Despite our timely effort the world won't stop for us," Sharni Brouwer screams on "Dissonance." While we're on the topic, "AI Generated Love Letter"? Pretty good song title. Anyway, Blind Girls exerts an immediacy, a force of will, through its utter desperation for change. This isn't the woebegone melodrama people mistake screamo for. No, Blind Girls demonstrates a resiliency just by dint of the fact that it's still raging. So, it's closer to the mark to say this album is the internal monologue of someone chafing against the sandpaper friction of the modern world, the seeming impossibility of finding absolution and love against a dealer with a stacked deck. An Exit Exists, but can we even take it?

Depending when this goes up, you can either read or wait for my non-metal 2024 roundup on Wolf’s Week. Yambag and Blind Girls are featured.

Past winners:
2023: Flooding - Silhouette Machine (The Ghost Is Clear Records) / Sunny Kim, Vardan Ovsepian, Ben Monder - Liminal Silence (Earshift Music) / Mindvac - Mindvac (self-released)
2022: Officine - Officine (self-released) / Tantric Bile - Baka (self-released)
2021: Dorotheo - Como Es (Halfshell Records)
2020: Kairon; IRSE! - Polysomn (Svart Records)
2019: Helium Horse Fly - Hollowed (Dipole Experiment Records)
2018: Madder Mortem - Marrow (Dark Essence Records)

GAINZZZ

Awarded to the best album for the gym.

Regurgitated Entrails - Sickening Indulgence of Flesh (New Standard Elite)

To me, the measurement of good gym music is how much it makes me want to walk around like a puffed-up idiot. Regurgitated Entrails's puffed-up idiot score is pretty high, stepping into 'Tony Manero with a new haircut in the middle of a roid cycle' territory. Like a lot of New Standard Elite's output, the basic conceit is Suffocation but dumber, which is to say slightly tech-ish death metal that has big, moshy juds that would make a pit spill into other parts of the audience. It's a lot of "I need to see more movement; maximum output" stuff. While listening to Sickening Indulgence of Flesh, I've made stank faces that would put expressive bassists to shame, which has probably made the rest of the gym think I crapped my pants. Finally, "Sickening Indulgence of Flesh" sounds like a Death Metal English take on wanking it. Bonus points?

Past winners:
2023: Darkall Slaves - Mephitic Redolence of the Decomposed (New Standard Elite) / Chamber - A Love to Kill For (Pure Noise Records)
2022: Bite - Sounds of Agony (self-released) / Gargling - Depraved Ingestion of Cranial Discharge (Lifeless Chasm Records)
2021: Last Light - We Were Never Here (self-released)
2020: Focal Dystonia - Descending (In)human Flesh (Comatose Records)
2019: Pool – Pool (Skeletal Lightning)
2018: Internal Bleeding - Corrupting Influence (Unique Leader)

SON OF A

Awarded to the best album that I found in 2024 that wasn’t released this year.

Odious Sanction - Psychotically Enraged (Unique Leader Records)

We're bending the rules here — I know, me??? — because I don't want to work too hard, and that work is me scrolling through my Bandcamp purchases. Anyway, Odious Sanction showed up in the oddly enduring Travis Tate post (see below, gotta flog the wares), so it was a known quantity to me. However, I didn't catch that the band dumped its back catalog on Bandcamp until late in the year. Instant buy. 1999's Psychotically Enraged is the ideal combination of death metal and hardcore in that it sounds like death metal and hardcore. If Buried Alive suddenly resurfaced with a bunch of Dying Fetus riffs, a sick few would call them out for ripping off Psychotically Enraged. Scott Bryant nails that hardcore bark, and Steve Shalaty, now of Immolation, absolutely slays the death metal drums. That said, RIP to guitarist Gene Burnworth, who stacked a hundred different riffs of both types on top of each other. What an absolute ass-kicker.

Past winners:
2023: Decrepit Cadaver - Revelations (Unmatched Brutality Records)
2022: Ophanim - Delphic Moorage (Desidarius Recordings)
2021: Evilyn - Inside Shells (self-released)
2020: Self Deconstruction - Wounds (Break the Records / F.O.A.D.)
2019: Voice Coils - Heaven’s Sense (Shatter Your Leaves)
2018: Butcher ABC - North of Hell (Selfmadegod)

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I’LL HOLD YOUR BEER

Awarded to the biggest swing for the fences.

Stagnant Waters - Rifts (Neuropa Records)

I wish I liked black metal this year. In this award space, we've covered some big musical swings over the past couple of years. Stagnant Waters takes us back to the glory days of format fuckery. Indeed, Rifts is a twofer: You get not one but two versions of the same album. One is more black metal-y Manes, and the other is more electronic-y Manes. Basically, it sounds like Manes, but even weirder, somehow? At the end of the day, I say with the MBA air of someone with a preference for double-breasted suits, I can't stand the circus music stuff on this record, but I appreciate the desire to be weird, and the fact they got so sweaty with a fraternal twin album is admirable. May all of your adventures have a secondary electronic version. That's all we can ask out of life, right?

Past winners:
2023: PoiL Ueda - PoiL Ueda / Yoshitsune (Dur Et Doux)
2022: Álvaro Domene - Not Arbitrary (Iluso Records) / Garry Brents’s Discography (various)
2021: Tantric Bile - Seminal Baptism (self-released)
2020: Potion - Cemetary (self-released)
2019: !T.O.O.H.! - Komouš (self-released)
2018: Entropia - Vacuum (Arachnophobia Records)

SHOWER BEER

Awarded to the best album to throw on during the weekend.

Asphalt - E.P. IV / V (self-released)

Asphalt recently posted a behind-the-scenes look at the recording process for “Melted Skull,” a song that they tacked onto E.P. IV after its initial release. (This is a trend. Every one of these EPs has had an expanding tracklist. It’s one of the better deals in metal because you’ll know you’ll get more eventually.) It’s about what you’d expect: M.S.W. and T.A.S. pounding away at a deadly groove, and then T.A.S. recording vocals that sound like a bear trained to take over the mic if Catacombs ever resurfaces. But what separates Asphalt from the morass of try-less bong-toke burnouts and strung-out sludge impressionists that have diluted the effectiveness of the style is that this two-piece has “it.” That’s a hard thing to quantify, but you know it when you hear it when your head reflexively starts to bang to a riff. The critical ingredient that makes this Asphalt alchemy work, then, is M.S.W. and T.A.S.’s feel for the material, a sixth sense of knowing precisely when to trigger the grimace you make when the riff is too sick. I used to love this stuff, so it’s nice to hear a collection of songs that remind me of the glory days. And, given that 2024 already contains E.P. IV, along with a comeback from Toadliquor and a rebound from Iron Monkey, perhaps the sludgenaissance is finally upon us.

Past winners:
2023: Pyöveli - Mega-Thrash Revolution (Witches Brew) / Cruel Force - Dawn of the Axe (Shadow Kingdom Records)
2022: Griefstoker - Soulseller (self-released) / Maceration - It Never Ends​.​.​. (Emanzipation Productions) / Sölicitör - All Debts on Death (Gates of Hell Records)
2021: Blood Sport - Hot Blood and Cold Steel (Gates of Hell Records) / Witch Cross - Angel of Death (High Roller Records)
2020: Hecatomb - Horrid Invocations (self-released)
2019: Smoulder - Times of Obscene Evil (Cruz del Sur Music)
2018: Deathhammer - Chained to Hell (Hells Headbangers Records)

SWING AND A MISS

Band I doomed to obscurity by predicting it would be huge and it’s not going to be huge, obviously.

DUHKHA - A Place You Can't Come Back From (Good Fight)

Actually, the things that make A Place You Can’t Come Back From float in 2024 are the necessary firmware updates. Barney and Aranda play with more dexterity than the bygone breakdown beasts that once walked the land with the same stumbling wooziness as a concussed brontosaurus…or Rick Ta Life riding a horse. Like, just the fact that DUHKHA can blast well wasn’t really a frequently heard facet of this stuff in the pre-Dave Witte days. So, every swing of the rhythmic sledgehammer is on point. Same goes for the juds. Ulug thankfully frees many of these beatdowns from the stale tropes of yesteryear, retaining the most powerful elements and sharpening them into something more incisive. Remember when lesser riffs were the stale bread sandwiching the breakdown meat? The rest stops for weary spin-kickers? DUHKHA does not. Ulug always seems to have a good riff in his quiver. That commitment to killer over filler really plays when DUHKHA quickly shifts from one section to the next with the alacrity of a mathier band. That sets the table for Miller to scream with expert control. Even better, Miller’s vocal variety far surpasses the once endemic-in-the-scene replacement-level roars that couldn’t even match the power of infuriated gym teachers. (Personally, I think the lyrics skew a little too close to the Poison the Well eyes-paralyze school of cryptic emotionality, but your mileage may vary depending on which SSRIs you’re on.) All that comes together for another rarity for albums of this ilk: A Place You Can’t Come Back From is front-to-back solid.

How did a reference to SSRIs not get this band over? Guys, I’m working my ass off over here.

Past winners:
2023: Forgotten Silence - Vemork Konstrukt (Doomentia Records) / Hollow Senses - Taurobolium (self-released)
2022: Blightcaster - Of Blood-Cursed Night (self-released) / Mulk / Hydrocele - Split (self-released) / Vihameditaatio - Metafyysinen Käsitys Itsestä (Esfinge de la Calavera) / Wombscape - Forced Labour Songs (Landscape Records)
2021: Plain Cheese Pizza - Plain Cheese Pizza (self-released)
2020: Relic Point - Self Punishment (self-released)

SINGLES GOING STEADY

Awarded to the band that put out the best single.

Guck - IDGAG (Three One G)

Yep. I created this award solely to get Guck in here. Hey, did you read the Guck interview? You should.

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IN THE FLESH

Awarded to the best metal set I saw live this year.

Fórn at Jerry's Pizza, 6/21/2024 - Midstate Metal Fest

I caught Fórn the night before at Knucklehead, so I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what the doom band might do at the Midstate Metal Fest. Nope. In the goddamn sauna of Jerry's Pizza on one of the hottest and muggiest days of the year, Fórn was absolutely rapturous, winning the day despite killer sets from Abyssal, Civerous, and Hell. Now with otay:onii as a second singer, the funeral doom sextet is all the more texturally effective, weaving a melancholy tapestry of heart-wrecking misery. The screams, the 20-ton riffs, the cocoon of cacophonous sounds. I haven't been put in a concert trance like that in a long time, probably not since I legit lost my mind during Chrome Ghost. And Fórn was so successful because it teetered on the brink of the surreal, pushing the limits of its music and spilling into a liminal space where reality faded away. What else could one say when, lost entirely in the amplifier hymns, you'd look down and see otay:onii at your feet, snaking through the audience.

THE PIERCED FROM WITHIN AWARD

Awarded to the album that is Suffocation’s Pierced From Within.

Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)

Past winners:
2023: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
2022: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
2021: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
2020: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
2019: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
2018: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)

See you next year.

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