TOP 30 ALBUMS 2024: Part II (#24-#16)
Part two of our list. So much quality.
It started last week, and now it continues, further down into the depths of our TOP 30 ALBUMS OF 2024 list. Positions #24 to #16. Onwards!
24.
Pyrrhon
Exhaust
(Willowtip Records)
The first song on this, which is already Pyrrhon’s fifth album, is called ‘Not Going To Mars’, and while its lyrical content is, as you might have guessed, a brutal reflection on the likely end result of the current “space race” being run by men-children with precious little else - in their minds - to throw their obscene amounts of money at, it could also well have meant that no, we don’t need to go all cosmic on you and philosphically traverse vast dark galaxies filled with weird aliens we pulled from ‘70s illustration books to make the craziest, most twisted, unpredictable kind of death metal. Pyrrhon are just that good at looking around down here on this wretched planet and finding not only the blackest proverbial holes, but also the transcendental beauty, most of which we’re likely destroying right now. This palpable ethos, alongside the band’s typically restless-yet-still-musical approach, is enough to make ‘Exhaust’ special already, but as we said when we picked them for last September’s The Devil’s Month, it “sounds like Pyrrhon, but also like something totally new - I believe that’s how you nail that thing called ‘evolution’.” As time goes by and we get used to it, it’s starting to feel more and more like their best album yet. Which is saying something.
23.
Melt-Banana
3+5
(A-ZAP)
3+5=8, so this is naturally Melt-Banana’s ninth full-length album. It’s Melt-Banana logic, okay? Of course they wouldn’t be as stupidly straightforward and mundane as that (it is apparently, though not from any explanation given by the band itself, related to the significance of prime numbers), as their music and approach has never been in over 30 years. It’s actually funny how this band has always seemed to exist outside any “normal” parameters or evaluations. For instance, any other musical entity would naturally feel hesitant, apprehensive - something! - when faced with the situation of releasing their first album in eleven years (even their once steady rhythm of 7” splits was reduced to just one, in 2016 with Napalm Death), especially seeing as 2013’s ‘Fetch’ was essentially the perfect Melt-Banana album and a very hard monster to follow up. Yasuko Onuki and Ichiro Agata, however, just carry on being Melt-Banana straight from the first second of ‘3+5’ seemingly without a care in the world. And being Melt-Banana means being instantly recognisable, with Ichiro abusing his guitar in ways no other musician has dreamed of, a sort of lvl. 86 evolution of the basic Tom Morello RPG character, simultaneously machine-like glitchy but also profoundly organic, while Yasuko somehow manages to employ her distinctive manic yelp in subtly different ways that still allow it to never become annoying or intruding - on the contrary, it always enhances the tune’s power! - after all this time and all these songs. And the songs! That’s the thing - underneath all this apparent (and, well, very real too) madness of the Japanese duo’s music, the maddening hyperactivity that will leave you absolutely exhausted after its deceptively short 24 minutes, there’s an impressive richness of composition, which is how they manage to still sound fresh and not like repeating what could be a very limiting formula. No, repeated listens won’t take away the “what the fuck was that?” factor which is half the excitement and fun with this band anyway, and no, you won’t end up humming these tunes in the shower, but with a little time, they will reveal amazing distorted riffs, patterns and moods as you bravely hack through their restless attack. And you will, trust me.
22.
Sanguinary Consummation
Hymns Of Dismal Agony
(Vile Tapes Records)
I might have mentioned a few hundred times how happy and proud I am to have Therapy?’s Andy Cairns as a regular guest writer here in this sloppy joint, giving us his picks every month on our beloved The Devil’s Month feature, but I have to reinforce it by saying that this partnership turned out to be even better than I imagined when I invited the fine gentleman, and I did have lofty expectations already. Andy’s fine taste for scummy, noisy bands in particular has been a wonder to behold through his recommendations, and this, one of his suggestions from the September edition of the feature, is one of the many that really hit the spot for me. I had never heard of Sanguinary Consummation before, I have to confess, but when Andy said about it that “I’ve no way of describing it that will do it justice. The full throttle savagery is nailed down throughout by one of the most insane snare sounds I’ve ever heard. There’s brutal death metal grunts (I think), guitars like agricultural machinery and a sound aesthetic that is definitely in the camp of the avant-garde,” and then topped off his appreciation of ‘Hymns Of Dismal Agony’ with “once heard never forgotten,” my hands typed the address of their Bandcamp page faster than my brain even realised. And he was absolutely right. Rarely have I heard - not this month, not this year, not ever - death/grind with such a level of abandon and pure, chaotic devastation. The whole thing is over in 23 minutes, including the closing Orchidectomy (here, if, like me, you were like, “who?”) cover, but if you’ve ever been tortured for 23 minutes, you’ll know that it was 23 minutes too long. Holy shit.
21.
Paysage D’Hiver
Die Berge
(Kunsthall Produktionen)
A late entry to the list, released as it was, appropriately, in the freezing beginning of November, but a new Paysage D’Hiver album is always a “stop everything you’re doing” kind of event. Even if we’ve been really spoiled since Wintherr decided to upgrade the project from the demo-only stage it had occupied since its inception over 25 years ago with 2020’s ‘Im Wald’, giving us the luxury of three albums in four years since, there is still an aura of otherworldness to this music that makes it just a little more special than most of its peers. It’s not just the aura, even if that mystique has been expertly managed by the Swiss musician (whose real name is Tobias Möckl, if you want to ruin the magic just a little bit), it’s the actual music and concept behind it that creates that escapist kind of little alternative world. ‘Die Berge’ is naturally another chapter in the mysterious journey of the same character that has occupied the narrative since the beginning, “Der Wanderer”, and this time, according to the text that has accompanied the album’s release, it actually “takes the wanderer into its 14th chapter, which might end up as his last.” The justification is that “the main theme of the album is death and this time the enigmatic wanderer's journey is comparable to that of a Zen monk who hikes to the peak of a mountain on feeling that his time has come.” Maybe knowing that influenced my perception of it, but the howling winds symbolised by the acutely piercing riffs and the intensity of the monstrous vocals do seem to be heightened somehow, as if something final is approaching, or indeed already here. The overall mood, however, isn’t one of confrontation or rebellion, on the contrary - despite the terribly harsh nature of the music (it is still raw black metal after all), the resulting blizzard is an almost welcoming, hypnotic blur, removing your perception of time altogether (seriously, look at the lengths of the songs and then listen to the whole thing and tell me if it feels that much time has gone by) and dropping you in the middle of the icy forest with Der Wanderer himself.
20.
Filii Nigrantium Infernalium
Pérfida Contracção do Aço
(Osmose Productions)
The best extreme band to ever come out of Portugal and the most insidiously influential (whether the influenced actually realise it or not), Filii Nigrantium Infernalium are an absolute treasure, unfortunately still hidden from most even after 30 years of intermittent activity. Going through a spell of unusual lineup stability especially since the guitarist known here as Cardeal Aborto XIII and to the rest of the world as J. Goat or João Duarte (all you non-Portuguese headbangers will have seen him with VLTIMAS, Enthroned or Lvcifyre, most likely) joined, the band is probably going through the steadiest phase of their career, and that has manifested in the quality of their live shows and their studio output. 2018’s ‘Hóstia’ was not only one of the very best records of that year, but one of the most wonderful left-field black/thrash efforts this side of the 21st Century. The follow-up was always going to be difficult, but as always, ‘Pérfida Contracção do Aço’ achieves it seemingly effortlessly by not even trying, and just going its own way. Less oblique and less dissonant than its predecessor, it’s a more openly metal album, riff-based and more straightforward, with João’s influence being very noticeable (he wasn’t in the band for ‘Hóstia’ yet), though it often veers into punked up cavalcades and a few disorienting, discordant blasts. The beautiful, eloquent madness of founder and leader Belathauzer, the single most fascinating personality in the country’s underground, is still the driving force of this band, and even if you’ll admittedly lose part of the charm if you can’t understand his wildly blasphemous Portuguese lyrics, the whole thing is still worth it for his vocal theatrics alone. It’s a shame that, even releasing this through the once legendary Osmose Productions will probably not change their “hidden secret” position in the international scene, but go against the grain and give them a spin. You won’t regret it.
19.
Missouri Executive Order 44
Salt Sermon
(Learning Curve Records / The Ghost Is Clear Records)
Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on in Missouri, but if this proliferation of insanely extreme bands (see above: Sanguinary Consummation) is any indicator, shifting towards being a red state in recent years has been seriously screwing up people’s heads, man. I genuinely don’t know what to make of ‘Salt Sermon’, it’s like Melt-Banana and Sanguinary Consummation were forced to rehearse in the same room at the same time. Equal parts powerviolence, grind and hardcore, it’s unpredictable and unsettling, and I might as well just resort to quotes to give you an idea of what’s going on. “‘Salt Sermon’ touches on topics such as religious trauma, the acceptance of radical love, anti-authoritarianism. anti-colonialism, the slow yet constant alienation of basic human rights in the bible belt, and the art of the streetside brawl in a continuous fifteen minute pummeling front to back,” it says on their Bandcamp (and that fifteen minute thing is really the full length of the album, and once again, just like the two bands mentioned in the paragraph above - and up there in this same post too -, it’s really more than enough), while one of the top comments on that same page hilariously considers that “I have no idea who ordered the violently pro-Mormon, sample heavy, sassy chaos hardcore, but Missouri Executive Order 44 has delivered.” They have indeed. In spades, dude. In spades.
18.
Pallbearer
Mind Burns Alive
(Nuclear Blast)
The first couple of minutes of opener ‘Where The Light Fades’ are more than enough to make you understand that something special is really going on here. Outrageously, painfully beautiful and fragile, this song shows Pallbearer more vulnerable, exposed and genuine than ever before, and we’re not exactly talking about an emotionally distant band here. As a fan of the Little Rock quartet since the very beginning (we’ve even had Joseph as a guest on the podcast, one of my favourite episodes), I’ve appreciated every different musical approach they have explored, from the more openly doom metal beginnings to their meanderings through more post-something territories, their music has always made sense, it has always felt like an appropriate vehicle for the deeply emotional charge that always emanates from it. However, and I might be proved wrong by a completely different next album, but ‘Mind Burns Alive’ feels like the most natural, flowing means of expression they’ve ever tried. Sparser, more introspective and intimate than before, it actually feels quieter though, in apparent contradiction, never at the expense of some delightfully heavy passages. It’s heavy in the same way that 40 Watt Sun is heavy, to put it like that - whether you’re going through a part with some chunky guitars or just some frail vocals (kudos to Brett Campbell for a phenomenal, understated performance) over a semi-acoustic background, the heaviness is always there and never just relying on what are, ultimately, arrangements. Sombre but sober, never theatrically tragic, ‘Mind Burns Alive’ is a supremely elegant, classy effort and will surely establish itself in time as Pallbearer’s finest hour so far.
17.
The Jesus Lizard
Rack
(Ipecac Recordings)
The simple fact that The Jesus Lizard are not only back, but back with a new album, is an event of enough magnitude that this record might have ended up somewhere on this list even if it sucked (I’m kidding, but only just). If you don’t realise that, well, you’re probably too young, or not enough into noise rock to get it, and if the former isn’t your fault and can be mitigated with a little wisdom, the latter is entirely up to you and you should fix it now. And hey, ‘Rack’ doesn’t suck at all, so might as well start here! Because that’s exactly what this album is - The Jesus Lizard as you’d expect them to sound in 2024, It’s a massive weight to bare, let’s be honest here - for such an important and influential band to return to this record-releasing hassle after such a long time (their full-length discography dates now go like this: 1990/1991/1994/1996/1998/2024, to fully grasp the problem in a more visible way), there are many ways in which this could go wrong, disappoint every one and tarnish just a little bit of their massive legacy. They didn’t need to do it, they could just reunite for live shows (“do an Emperor”, I believe it’s called) and no one would really complain, but the fact they’ve bravely gone for the new album route means they actually felt they had something to say. And boy, they did. ‘Rack’ is not only prime The Jesus Lizard, worthy of sitting besides its older brothers, but it actually improves on several of those 90s albums. Everything is in its right place, with David Yow in his usual possessed demon mode, Duane Denison shooting off strange dissonant riffs like the ones that pretty much created noise rock back in the day, and the pounding, razor-sharp rhythm section of David Sims and Mac McNeily “as watertight as a mermaid’s brassiere”, as Capt. Blackadder would put it, but ‘Rack’ is not just a recreation of everything that made the band great in the first place - there is an added depth, a weight of age and experience, a more subtle dynamic between loud and quiet, permeating everything very noticeably. Just like Khanate last year, here’s another spotless example of how an important artist can return to activity after a long time and still remain as relevant and influential as ever.
16.
Sivert Høyem
On An Island
(Warner Music Norway)
Happily, the glorious return of Madrugada with a few immensely successful tours and the stellar ‘Chimes Of Midnight’ album in 2022 (hey, another good example of “how to return properly” like the one mentioned right above this) didn’t mean that frontman Sivert Høyem left his solo career stagnate. With a brilliant career in his own right mostly built after the band first broke up, Sivert has been exploring Madrugada-adjacent territories, yes, but sufficiently different and individual enough for it to be equally treasured. ‘On An Island’, his first solo album since 2016’s beautiful ‘Lioness’, might actually be his boldest step so far. Sure, it can be vaguely filed under “folk-y singer/songwriter”, but it’s more than that, so much more. The trick is that, with a voice like he has (which is obviously the main connecting element between Madrugada and his solo work and what makes the two appear so misleadingly close sometimes), it would be easy to just rely on it to carry things. However, while the voice is naturally the main vehicle of expression here, that easier route is seldomly followed during the course of the entire album, which relies much more on the feelings of intimacy, isolation and melancholy. Sivert has become somewhat of a master of managing silence and space (and this old song might just have been the biggest trigger for that approach), and expressing enormous feelings with apparently very little. I’d stop short of calling it minimalism, but there’s a sensibility in these songs that is absolutely rare for such relatively stripped down music. Oh, and if you want a quick highlight to sort of sample what this is all about, there’s a clear one - ‘The Rust’, one of the most painfully desolate, densely atmospheric songs you will ever hear, especially if you watch the accompanying video, a recommendation that I don’t throw out all that often. It’s one of the best songs he’s ever written (Madrugada included), and hopefully it’ll be a little pointer for whatever Sivert comes up with next. Whatever it is, though, I’ll be listening.
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