TOP 30 ALBUMS 2024: Part I (#30-#25)
List time is here again.
It doesn’t feel like it’s been a year since we last did this stuff, but our perception of time appears to be permanently screwed up nowadays, so I guess that checks out. So, time to look back over the past year in music and make lists! And yes, as I say every year, I know some of you love this list thing, some of you hate it, and either way is fine. Personally I love it and that’s why I keep doing it. It’s a different way to recommend music, an opportunity to shine an extra light on lots of different records that can be overlooked among the mountain of releases that hit us every year.
For 2023, I had a huge list of 75 albums, but while watching a fantastic panel at Viva Sounds festival this year, a known journalist and record label owner made a very valid point about the sheer volume of music that sometimes gets recommended at a time, and somehow that really resonated with me. How much is too much? Will you still remember, or care, about the #75-#65 positions of the list when you’re done with it, for instance? Maybe you will, maybe you won’t, and I’m not removing the amazing value of the records I’ve had in those positions of the list, but in any case, after listening to that talk I felt like reducing things a bit this year and really force myself to focus on the absolute favourites.
Sadly, this means that great stuff that I truly loved like, say, albums by Glacial Tomb, Krallice, Pharmakon, Thy Catafalque, Eye Flys, Generation Of Vipers, Ploughshare, R.Y.F., çöküş or Kevin Hufnagel, to mention but a few, had to be painfully left out. It helps that I’ve talked about many of these artists and releases in the other regular features. Anyway, I think they’ll survive without being present in my shitty lists, but still, be aware that this list is just the tip of the iceberg of a great mass of amazing music that was released in 2024.
Before we begin, allow me just a few notes about the list:
Only full-length albums count. No demos, live albums, reissues, EPs, splits or anything else like that. However, after the big thing is done, count on a separate list of best EPs too.
As I always like to reming you guys, which is kinda the norm at The Devil’s Mouth overall, there’s no real genre boundaries, even if I naturally tend towards the heavier stuff. But in general, a quiet folk album, a shrieky blackened noise album, a pop album and a power electronics album might come at you in successive positions. The only common theme to all this is “shit I like”.
Let me say that again: “shit I like”. So this is not supposed to be the be-all-end-all universally best albums of anything, because such a thing doesn’t exist. These are my favourites. Yours are different. And I’d love to hear about them! Hell, if enough of you show me your own lists I’d love to even do a post about them, just to show off the sort of different audiences this wretched place attracts. So don’t be shy.
Finally, as I always like to reinforce, lists are silly, okay? Don’t take this stuff too seriously. I could order this list again tomorrow and you’d probably get a different one, apart from the very topmost positions that have had a bigger deal of thought behind them. I’m sure I also left out a ton of records that would merit inclusion that I will only remember, or even discover, months from now. Or maybe I might have disregarded the inclusion of a particular album intentionally because I’m really not into it. I might think your album of the year sucks, as you might do mine, and that’s no biggie. In short, let’s by all means all argue about our lists in the comments and in the chat, but bearing in mind that the whole point of this is spreading the word about awesome music and hopefully that you’ll get some cool new favourites out of it. Onwards!
30.
Beware Wolves
Volume 1-5
(Aqualamb)
Wahey, so what about starting off with five albums in the same position? I know, last year I promised I would pile up stuff into the same numbers in the list, but listen up, this is different. This is the same guy, only known as Beware Wolves, who actually put out these five albums this year. They’re all really fantastic folky singer/songwriter records, all of them with their own little individuality but similar enough and flowing in and out of each other in such a natural way that they do merit being included in this list as one big release, as if it was one of those sprawling Stephin Merritt/The Magnetic Fields oeuvres like ‘69 Love Songs’ or ‘50 Song Memoir’. It’s in fact a good first comparison to throw at this, as these songs also walk that fine line between grandiose ambition and hushed imtimacy. Paradoxically, and just like Stephin, despite releasing five volumes in a year, Mr. Beware Wolves, whoever he is, knows how to never overstay his welcome - none of the five volumes go past 30 minutes in length, and the songs are typically sparse and to the point, almost always around the two/three minute mark. Which is not to say there isn’t a great deal of subtlety and depth to them, in terms of the actual crafting of the song and emotionally too. The fragile sort of minimalism has a great Elliott Smith-esque quality to it, a reference that I do not use lightly, and the voice has an instantly intimate, relatable quality to it. There are hints of old Neil Young or the calmer Springsteen moments when the songs have a more rocking out sort of vibe. Also crucial, there’s a lot of the kind of pastoral psych that Nick Drake perfected so well and melodies and harmonies that will stay with you long after you listen to these songs. If the five volume thing feels a little overwhelming at first, don’t worry, just pick any of them and listen to it. They’re all equally great, but after realising that each features its own little personality and mood - there’s the ghostly one, the saddest one, the folkier one - you’ll naturally want to go on and discover them all.
29.
VHS
For A Few Riffs More
(self-released)
VHS aren’t strangers to style exercises, both musically and thematically, as a quick glimpse into their very silly but very fun past vampire/zombie/barbarian/etc-ridden back catalogue will show (they straight up call what they do “movie metal”), but this is the furthest they’ve been in terms of the actual music. ‘For A Few Riffs More’ is very easy to describe, it just might be a little harder to get used to, and for some of you even harder to actually take seriously. We’re dealing with spaghetti western death metal here, you see. And yes, it sounds exactly like what you just imagined - melancholic Ennio Morricone-style cowboy landscapes, juxtaposed by, in the words of band leader Mike Hochins himself, “gross death metal vocals”. Don’t be afraid to dive in, though. It sounds silly, but the result is surprising, not only in the fact that the marriage of the different elements is much more seamless than what you might imagine from the description - a track like ‘A Grave For Every Bullet’ is a perfect example of the unforeseen brilliance of this unholy union - but the actual musical richness of the several parts means you’ll end up enjoying this as a proper album once the novelty and the chuckle value wear off. Can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with next!
28.
Child
Shitegeist
(Suicide Records)
A sort of a nondescript name for a band, sure, but all their personality seems to have been channeled towards the music itself. Child feature a quite exciting lineup if you happen to follow the inner workings of the Swedish underground, with the great Per Stålberg (Division Of Laura Lee) as the main highlight, but very well accompanied by the talent of familiar faces such as Alex Stjernfeldt (Grand Cadaver, Let Them Hang, Mr. Death), Jocke Lindström (The Grifted, Mr. Death) or Staffan Persson (Åskväder, Let Them Hang), for instance. The result is a typically Swedish and wildly addictive mix of death/grind and crust punk. Think anything from Disfear to Nasum, from Wolfbrigade to Skitsystem, whose Fredrik Wallenberg even guests here (just like Refused’s David Sandström), and you’re in a similar ballpark. There’s all the fury and intensity you’d expect, but also a lot of moments of variety to keep the interest - and show these guys’ real chops as well -, including a surprising cover of Pailhead’s ‘I Will Refuse’ (the one where Sandström guests, and I see what you guys did there). A brief - 24 minutes and you’re done! - but extremely bruising listen, that you won’t get tired of anytime soon.
27.
High Parasite
Forever We Burn
(Candlelight Records)
We’ve talked about High Parasite quite a bit here on TDM, when we included this debut on September’s The Devil’s Month picks, and also when we had the wonderful Aaron Stainthorpe guesting on our podcast for the second time, so by now you should be well aware of what this new band is all about. No, it’s not really “Aaron’s new band” as so many are calling it (especially in the wake of the latest news from the My Dying Bride camp), but his role in it is obviously decisive and helps elevate what would already be a strong album to something actually worthy of being included in very selective lists like this. As we said on that September roundup, “once you get past the novelty factor of hearing such a familiar voice in a different context, the quality of the songs is ultimately what makes ‘Forever We Burn’ live or die, and fortunately there’s enough solidity, enjoyment and replay value here to ensure it strides on very much alive, and eager to consolidate itself on stage over the next few months.” Fortunately that has started to happen already, with a very successful tour in the bag for the band already, so right now it seems High Parasite are here to stay, and their riff-heavy, groove-laden, beefier-Paradise Lost kind of approach enriched by that voice will continue to grow and evolve into 2025. We’re not complaining.
26.
40 Watt Sun
Little Weight
(Cappio Records / Fisher’s Folly)
Though always centred around the unique figure of Patrick Walker, 40 Watt Sun has nevertheless been through a few guises, from full band to Patrick on his own, the musical approach also shifting from quasi-doom metal to quiet acoustics to anything in between. And yet, just like Patrick himself states in his rare interviews, it is unmistakable that his entire work, even what lies behind 40 Watt Sun (Warning, essentially), is all part of the same continuum. There is a perfectly natural flow to everything he does, a sort of seemingly effortless, intimate movement from note to note, from song to song, from album to album, that envelops everything in the same, well, perfect light, to use the name of ‘Little Weight’s predecessor. There are some clear differences between the two, as always, starting with the now solidified lineup of Roland Scriver (also the talented artist who designed TDM’s very own goat logo!) on bass and Andy Prestidge on drums, both of which had already helped out a little on ‘Perfect Light’, but who now help these songs become fuller and a bit more dense than before. Love, melancholy and often aching beauty are still there as the main feelings evoked, but whereas before the empty space explored in the songs helped create that expression, now there is… yeah, a little more weight to them. You’ll find yourself floating on a more textured, denser surface, and as a result the songs seem to offer a gentler, kinder way to deal with those feelings.
25.
Ancient VVisdom
Master Of The Stone
(Argonauta Records)
The initial appeal of Ancient VVisdom, when their awesome debut album ‘A Godlike Inferno’ came out all those years ago (2011 already!), was the way they were able to express the weight of occult rock and black metal through an almost 100% acoustic approach. With time, and wisely, it has to be said, the band shook itself free of what could have become a creative shackle, though always maintaining a connection to those beginnings. ‘Master Of The Stone’ is their sixth album already, and one of the most well-balanced ones, swinging effortlessly from groovy, heavy - metallic, even! - rock anthems to sombre, folkier numbers, while often even combining the two things in the same songs. Let’s be clear though - any band that opens a record with a massively catchy tune like ‘Sold My Soul To Satan’ deserves a place on any list, it’s one of those undeniable stompy bangers that will lodge itself in your brain for weeks. In the end, that’s always been, through their several forms of expression, the main talent of the Jochum brothers - the ability to craft these huge tunes that no matter what kind of instrumentation they then put them through, are able to be hummed ad aeternum. Of course, that once you get past the glory of the opener you have waiting for you some chillingly post-apocalyptic bits of neofolk darkness like ‘World’s Demise’ or ‘The Devil’s Sermon’, or epic rockouts to the horned one in the form of ‘The Adversary’ or the title-track naturally helps to make this one more glorious entry in the often underrated AVV catalogue.
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I'll give that Child record a listen, based on those references and on the fact that a dude from Division of Laura Lee is involved—loved that band, always found them way underrated.