Flush It Friday: The List ov Lists for 2024
We’ll never stop.
Ah, List Season. When contributors to the Toilet scramble to make a cohesive list of 10 albums they ostensibly and legitimately liked more than other records from the same year. It’s definitely not the case that sometimes records in those last couple slots were just easier to write about when the deadline came, or that, for whatever reason, you weren’t feeling that one record that week but then were obsessed with it the second you hit publish on your list. This is all objective. This is all correct. This will all age quite well.
This year, 14 folks submitted their Top Ten Albums ov 2024, and, after running some serious calculations that even graduates of Tufts University (Go Jumbos) would find difficult to explain, I have figured out those albums that appeared on more than one list. We’ve got a nice selection—representative, I think, of the collective Toilet hivemind at work. We also, of course, had a host of albums that only made it to one list. Before we get to our Final List, let’s breeze quickly through some premium selections made by our writers.
365 Days of Horror high-fived Cemetery Skylines; Aaron gave it up for Scarcity; Brock did the right thing and crowned Ceremony of Silence; Gage got gory with Aborted; Hans blew it; Stick was right about Ulcerate; Joe went dummy for Gutless; Megachiles dooted our toots with Xanathar; Metal Aged Mom got Fourth Dominion stuck in the tape deck; Reliquary Tower got low and slow for Sif; Rolderathis reminded us all that Slimelord ruled the year; Sean Ghoulson kept things nuts with Defeated Sanity; and Spear was 100% correct about Devenial Verdict. That list itself could be a List of Lists. What impeccable taste we all have.
But perhaps not as tasty as… the Final List of 2024!
Chat Pile – Cool World
The Flenser | Ghoulson & Goddess
Sean Ghouls wrote, “Considering the band’s regular focus on the dark sides of American exceptionalism and post-colonial capitalism, such a dour and hopeless sound is perfect for the fucked up world we live in, ‘cool’ or otherwise.” I referenced a book instead of offering actual thoughts, if you can believe that. I think this shoulda been on more lists!
Haunted Plasma – I
Svart Records | Joe & Hans
I hadn’t even heard of this record before it showed up on not one but two lists. Hans called it, “Truly grandiose,” while Joe told us, “When I listen to ‘Haunted Plasma’ I can’t help but feel I’m floating through the virtual reality realm of The Lawnmower Man and that shit is worth the price of admission alone.” This has been Wishlisted.
Serpent Column – Tassel of Aries
Independent | Megachiles & Aaron
Everyone’s favourite dissonant black metal for weirdos returned with what Megachiles called the “Comeback” album of the year. Aaron also found the comeback “unexpected,” adding that Tassel of Aries is “a brighter, denser record than they’ve done before.” I gotta agree with the homie Megachiles that “The Long War of Essential Struggle” is indeed some “extremely cool shit.”
Khirki – Κυκεώνας (Kykeónas)
Venerate Industries | Roldy & Hans
I know Roldy is fist-pumpin’ his owl wings that other folks rode that Khirki train this year.
Κυκεώνας made Hans question everything: “What’s the point of all this evil metal, all this growling, when it seems like all I really want are some goddamn choruses to bellow along to?” Correctly dubbing Khirki as “adventure metal,” Roldy was transported all around the world by the album’s “concoction of hard rock, heavy metal, funk, and folk music.”
Pøltergeist – Nachtmusik
Bad Omen Records | Joe ‘n Jordan
“Have you considered turning down the distortion, cranking up the reverb, and slapping on a pair of cool sunglasses,” Joe asks Metal Dudes. Jordan concurs: “Grab your leather jacket and Ray-Bans, we’re going goth-rocking.” And goth-rocking we are indeed a-going. Our Toilet Overlords already convinced me with top-tier banger “Children of the Dark” from the podcast. The rest of the album is right there, too.
Thou – Umbilical
Sacred Bones | Aaron & Reliquary Tower
Another album that should probably have landed on at least one more list. Those Internet Motherfuckers are back with another slab of peerless Nola sludge. Reliquary Tower notes that Umbilical is Thou’s “punkiest, moshiest, most aggressive record to date.” For Aaron, it’s the “sheer velocity of [Thou’s] delivery [that] elevates the material on an album that’s arguably their heaviest yet.” I don’t know about all that, but we can definitely all agree that “House of Ideas” is about as good as it gets.
Ὁπλίτης – Παραμαινομένη
Independent | Aaron & Brock Samson
“Seemingly lauded and derided in equal measure over the same qualities,” the new Hoplites is “easily their best record” according to Aaron. Brock agreed that this “is the most hard-hitting, experimental, and fabulous release yet” from Hoplites, applauding the record for “seamlessly switching between ideas, riffs, and progressive components.” High praise for some wild-ass skronked-out black metal.
Demiser – Slave to the Scythe
Blacklight Media | Joe & Roldy
With Slave to the Scythe, Demiser has, Roldy argues, “[usurped] the blackthrash throne in the year of our Dark Lord 2K24.” The record, Roldy continues, “boasts a clean, punchy production style that, at least on paper, seems at odds with the genre’s trademark sleaze and rabidity.” Joe thanked Demiser for “[terrorizing] all the nice god-fearing people of the South” as well as for composing “blasphemous ripping blackthrash that’s easy to bang [his] stupid little head to.” Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth. “Feast” is as cool as the other side of the pillow, which you won’t even need once you bang your head right off your neck.
Replicant – Infinite Mortality
Transcending Obscurity Records | The Only People Who Got It Correct.
You fuckin’ dummies. I told you: this is the best death metal record of 2024. Brock gets it. (Spear gets it, too.) Brock writes, “It’s chock-full of riffs that hemorrhage the innards before smashing them with the unique but perfectly fitting shrieking barks of the vocalist. Constantly twisting with standout moments in each track, this is a ride of dissonant, brutal, and technical savagery that sank its meaty hooks into me immediately and never let go.” I just won’t shut up about Mike Gonçalves’ vocal performance. I’m disappointed in y’all.
Chapel of Disease – Echoes of Light
Ván Records | Stick, Joe, and Me.
A divisive record in its own right, though I think maybe just for those who don’t like the tastiest of licks. I included Echoes of Light for its abundance of “sensibilities”—whatever that means. Joe needs us to recognize that “Death Metal is now a Dad genre,” a recognition he embraces, because, really, he just wants us all to rock together tastefully. Chapel of Disease pulled the ultimate trick on Stick. He says, “They make me think it’s easy to create 45 minutes’ worth of non-stop memorable riffs, insane solos, and hell-yeah moments. Then I remember, oh no, these guys are freaks. It’s actually impossible to do that.” Apparently, it’s not impossible! Just for the rest of us.
Alcest – Les chants de l’aurore
Nuclear Blast | Stick & Me again and also Reliquary Tower
Reliquary Tower is correct that I wrote an incredible review of Les chants de l’aurore that you all should read or re-read. Stick flew all the way to goddamned Paris to see them live. What else needs to be said, really? Les chants quite literally moves you.
The Cure – Songs of a Lost World
Universal | Joe, Reliquary Tower, and Ghoulson
Giving “a little dap to lesser-known artists,” Joe included this underground hit sensation on his list because “deep, impenetrable melancholy is forever.” Sean called the results “breathtaking,” noting that every moment of Songs of a Lost World “is drenched in rich, dreamy, bittersweet angst; a dense aura of loss, longing, and entropy.” For Reliquary Tower, it’s “undeniably The Cure” and “a doomy, moody masterpiece.”
Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
Century Media | Stick & Joe & Reliquary Tower & Megachiles
Just like Tomb Mold last year, I think we all knew what would end up in this spot. A record and band so good that Eenzy and I actually made it to the show together. As Reliquary Tower tells us, even Paul Reidl thinks Absolute Elsewhere “is not just the band’s favorite record—it’s their best one.” It’s Stick’s “favorite thing by the band so far” as well. It was Megachiles’ Metal Album of the Year and has had his stargate opened many times in 2024. Hell, Joe even thinks the album “represents a watershed moment in modern metal.” He probably ain’t wrong.
Of course, we know that these albums aren’t the only albums we loved as a group, the only albums that brought us closer together. We liked and loved so many records, but these deserve their place in the sun. Did these records land on your lists? What did you omit that is unforgivable? What did we include in this or any of our individual lists that you think was an absolute roided-out dinger of a pick? Let us know below and share those GBUs as well. The year ain’t over, but it’s close. All my love to all our readers, to all our writers, to all our editors, to all our overlords. Be well. Stay well. Live well. Love well. Read more books. Buy more records. Give more hugs. Get more smooches. Pet more critters. Drink more water. Take a nice walk.
