Top Picks
Caelestra – Bastion (progressive post-black/death metal)
Here I was thinking I had a cool, underground release to drop on you, but then Eden jumped in and stole my thunder! Just because he beat me to the punch though doesn't mean Caelestra and Bastion aren't still worth your attention. I'm also happy to have heard the full thing in advance, which definitely drives home more of its floaty, post-black metal aesthetic, whereas the first single alone had me thinking it might be more of a post-tech-death offering, in the vein of mid-period Fallujah. Either way it's an outstanding eleventh-hour offering to cap of 2024 with and well worth listening to before the year is through.
Mesarthim – Anthropic Bias/Departure (progressive post-black/electro-metal)
Oh hey, this is that cool band who put out that cool album last year. This album seems cool too. And noticeably more active/aggressive as well, which is cool.
Release Roundup
A Dead Poem – Abstract Existence (gothy black metal)
A Different Cloud – Skogslott (post-black metal)
Afflicta – Origin Of Sorrow (tech-death)
After Lapse – Pathways (gothy prog metal)
Alberto Rigoni – Nemesis Call (powerish shred)
An Axis Of Perdition – Apertures (weird/doomy black metal)
Archenterum – Méconium (blackened death metal)
Asenheim – Wolkenbrecher (black metal)
At The Altar Of The Horned God – Elements (goth/synth pop)
August Moon – Something Eldritch And Macabre (blackened death metal)
Birkental – Peccatum Mortiferum (annoying black metal)
Boreal Grave – I Am Your Bane (deathcore)
Caressing Misery – Lost And Serene (goth metal)
Coldspine – Nullpunkt (doom-sludge)
Crestfallen Queen – Horns (progish/doomy black metal)
Crucifixation – Blaspheme unto Death (death metal)
Deep River Acolytes – Procession Of The Damned (sludgy doom)
Errance – Where the Silence Lies (progressive black/doom)
False Mutation/Kombat – Monument of Abomination (death metal)
Fatal Embrace – Hail Down Deep (meloblack/death)
Fluids/Wharflurch – Spored & Gored (brutal death, goregrind)
Harkane – Argo (weird/blackened disso-death)
Hellgo – Etiquette (posty post-hardcore)
Hope Is a Lie – Hope Is a Lie (industrial black/doom)
Hostilia – All The Blood Spilt (thrash metal)
Illusion Force – Halfana (too-much power metal)
In We Fall – Inner Self (alt-rock)
Injector – Endless Scorn (thrash)
Invicti – Evil Empire (Conan-core)
Jarl – Trümmerfestung (black metal)
JJ Pinestone – Break The Chain (hair metal)
Karnage Through Crossing – Shattered Chains (heavy/doom metal)
Kildonan – Embers (DSBM)
KillerKorp – Vices (sludgy death metal)
Liquid Flesh – Vestiges Abrutissants (death metal)
Magic Kingdom – Blaze Of Rage (power metal)
Mana Diagram – Moonlight Desire (melodic power-metal)
Medieval Steel – Blood Moon (heavy/trad metal)
Mirrorshield – Visions from a Crystal Light (power-folk)
Misanthropy – The Ever-Crushing Weight Of Stagnance (weird/techish death metal)
Monte Penumbra – Austere Dawning (black metal)
Mörk Gryning – Fasornas Tid (black metal)
Novomundo – Echoes of Ego (groove death/doom?)
Öldöds – Ölen Ska Ner (brutal death metal)
Orbiter – Distorted Folklore (posty alt/stoner-rock)
Residual Self – Reseed (goth metal/doom)
Reviver – Carnival Of Chaos (heavy metal)
Runopatia – Archaistia (black metal, meloblack)
Serac – Baring Teeth in a Famine (blackened sludge-doom)
Shatterface – Deviate (industrial metal)
Stronger Than Arnold – Odd Structures Lost in the Depth of Space (psychedelic stoner-prog)
Suciedad – Detonación del congreso (crusty thrash)
Tactic – Tools of the Trade (heavy metal)
Thanatomania – Punire (dissonant? black metal)
Tinnitus Attack – Six Sick Sins (blackish thrash)
Todestrieb – Corona Tenebra (blackened disso-death)
Tony Tears – La Societa degli Eterni (weird goth rock/doom)
Trouble County – Blacken The Sky (yarly grunge)
Ulth∆r – Trece fantasmas Pt.1: Arcanum (power metal)
Vacation / Whippets – Split (alt/indie rock, noise punk)
Whispers – Yom-Ma-Lok (metallic hardcore)
Winds of Tragedy – Death Wash Over Me (black metal, DSBM)
Zeke Deux – Zeke Deux II (power metal, visual kei)
Alright, that's it for 2024. I'll be back in January sometime, once there are enough interesting new releases around to warrant putting one of these together again. Also, I’m calling it: No more basic black metal! Do better!