Top Albums ov 2024 w/ Sean Ghoulson & Megachiles!
When you reach into your pocket to get your wallet, you hear a soft groan. “Not like this…not like this” croaks your credit card as you prepare to buy yet another banger release covered on LISTMANIA 2K24 DAY 3. “Curse you unto the end, Sean Ghoulson and Megachiles, for you’ve drained me of nigh all my lifeforce.” Good night, sweet prince: / And flights of angels flush thee to thy rest.
Sean Ghoulson
As another year winds down, the general populous braces for another year of awesome collective trauma and corporate bullshit. A bright spot in an otherwise stressful-ass year, 2024 was awe-inspiring in regards to music. Countless releases from artists new and old have struck gold in the album format, from Judas Priest to Femtanyl to fucking LL Cool J. Even musicians who have otherwise been hard to appreciate have completely outdone themselves (if you told me in January that Halsey and Yeat would be making my top 50 for the year, I would have thought you were crazy and asked you politely how you got into my home). This has resulted in a year where the top 10 was about as competitive as it ever could be. If you don’t see your favorite releases on this list, know it’s probably due to how competitive this year was—I might have missed them altogether. (It’s also entirely possible that your favs are shit and you should feel bad.)
So, without further to do, this is Sean Ghoulson’s top 10 albums of 2024—giving props to the bands and artists that kept me from losing my mind and gnawing off my fingers.
10. Mayhemic – Toba
Sepulchral Voice Records | TTT Feature
Style pioneers like Sarcófago, Sabbat (JPN), and Vulcano took the idea of “black-thrash” about as far as you could take it decades ago. As such, any band looking to play this type of metal needs either to find a fresh angle to approach it from or perfect their sound to the point of coming close to those previously mentioned titans. The Chilean metalheads that make up Mayhemic are definitely closer to the latter than the former. As with any thrash act with more extreme inclinations, Mayhemic sounds a lot like Slayer (specifically Show No Mercy), while also resembling contemporary Chilean thrash peers like Demoniac and Hellish. Mayhemic’s debut full-length, titled Toba, shows that they are a bestial grouping, with enough bile-spewing swagger and tight, vicious thrashing akin to Hellhammer. Songs like “Kollarbone Crushed Neanderthal” and “Hazardous Prowler” showcase a standout act carrying the blasphemous torch of speed and violence.
9. Chat Pile – Cool World
The Flenser
OKC natives Chat Pile are one of the last few bastions of ’90s-style sludgy noise rock. With roots in bands from labels like Touch and Go and Amphetamine Reptile, this group of irradiated freaks has made a significant name for themselves since 2019’s This Dungeon Earth. Now on their second record with The Flenser, Chat Pile’s current sonic palette is closer to their second EP (Remove Your Skin Please) than it is to their previous full-length (God’s Country). This isn’t to say that the band has moved away from the Godflesh-meets-Jesus Lizard affectations that appeared on that record (and the bulk of their discography), it’s just that songs like “Camcorder” and “Milk of Human Kindness” take on the gothier inclinations flirted with on cuts like Remove Your Skin Please‘s “Mask” (not to be confused with God’s Country‘s “The Mask” and this new record’s “Masc”). These two sides of the band are expertly melded on Cool World, creating an atmosphere both frantically livid and desolately depressing. 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.
8. Burial – Dreamfear / Boy Sent From Above
XL Recordings
Garage legend and dubstep pioneer (that’s the lo-fi, chilled-out English dubstep, not the American wub-wub horseshit popularized by Skrillex) Burial’s Dreamfear / Boy Sent From Above isn’t necessarily an album—depending on who you ask, it’s either an EP or a single. If you ask me, I’ll call you a massive fucking dork. Clocking in at around 25 minutes, I’d argue this release is substantive enough to make this list (my fucking list, may I remind you). A treble-heavy mix of off-kilter samples and subdued rhythms, this release is an easy electro recommendation for anyone looking for dance music that’s heady, chilly, and lonesome. Lacking any bass tones whatsoever, it’s clear that this 12″ is much less suited for the club environment than it is for walking the gloomy streets of London at night, with cold, rainy winds brushing against your face. The way these two songs effortlessly transition between grooves and melodies makes this feel like a particularly melancholic dream—one where the bittersweet memories of the past speed by the listener. Whatever kind of release you qualify it as, Dreamfear / Boy Sent From Above is about as close to harrowing as you can get from this many breakbeats.
7. Theurgy – Emanations of Unconscious Luminescence
New Standard Elite
Don’t let the recency of Theurgy’s formation fool you, this supergroup is about as experienced as you can get for slam death metal. Containing members of ByoNoiseGenerator, Anal Stabwound, and Ecchymosis, Theurgy is one of the more interesting signees on New Standard Elite—blending the nastiness of groups like Devourment (just check out that killer “Molesting the Decapitated” cover on the back half of this release) with progressive songwriting that’d make Maudlin of the Well blush and Opeth throw up. Emanations is a thoroughly unpredictable listen, constantly keeping the experience fresh with dizzying leads, otherworldly vocals, and layered band rhythms. The songcraft on display in tracks like “Abstract Deterioration of Intricate Thoughts” and “Miracles of Absolute Hedonism” live up to the mind-melting, near-Lovecraftian horrors that the record’s cover promises. The 2020s have seen slam musicians seeking to shed the genre’s preconceptions of meatheaded ignorance and the members of Theurgy are no different. Esoterically brutal, Emanations of Unconscious Luminescence is dumb guy metal for the thinking man (don’t think about that description too hard).
6. Charli XCX – Brat
Atlantic
A new album from Charli XCX was always going to rank highly for me, as her blend of time-honored girlypop and PC Music post-club bangers has been a favorite of mine for years now. It’s interesting, however, to compare 2022’s CRASH, which you could argue was Charli at her most desperate for mainstream success, to this year’s Brat, a record that was far more authentic to Charli as an artist and person. Ironically, it was this more raw and genuine album that propelled her to the top of the pops (to borrow a phrase from her home of bl’ody Ingerland). Despite partially-successful efforts from corporate bastards and the neoliberal ghouls we call a Democratic Party in America to cheapen the aesthetics of Brat, Charli XCX’s pop masterwork will most definitely go down as a remarkable classic—representative of the bleak depression and hedonistic joys of modern party culture, while also exploring her relationship to other artists, the music industry, her loved ones, and her very own life and career. Brat depicts an artist who contains multitudes, bookended by “360” and “365,” the two greatest club bangers of the year.
5. Bladee – Cold Visions
Trash Island
Drainers of the world rejoice, Drain Gang‘s very own zoomer-icon Bladee has seemingly mastered the “rage” style of trap created by Playboi Carti, his regular producers, and the Opium imprint he made (that exclusively houses Playboi Carti rip-offs). One such producer, F1LTHY, has his fingerprints all over this record—complete with blown-out bass, dense drum progressions, and a near-punk level of attitude and energy. This is in addition to what draws in so many fans to Bladee’s work: dark, emotive songs full of sarcastic/sardonic humor, passionate vocal performances, fantastic hooks, and unique sonic profiles. This 64-minute LP feels damn-near breezy, with not a second of runtime wasted, as Bladee works alongside his fellow Sadboi/Drain Gang-adjacent collaborators (Yung Lean, Yung Sherman, Ecco2k, Thaiboy Digital, Black Kray, Gabe Schuman, etc.). This record also includes credits from various iconic artists, such as vaporwave-icon James Ferraro and the previously mentioned (dissed?) Skrillex. All this is to say, Cold Visions is an immense tracklist of infectious, chilled, and immaculate beats with Bladee delivering some of his most varied and charismatic performances yet. What else could we expect from the self-described Drain Gang CEO?
4. Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy
Review
Defeated Sanity has been a front-running act in modern brutal and technical death metal for some time now, but Chronicles of Lunacy is the release that confirms their place as masters of the previously mentioned drive to integrate progressive and avant-garde influences into brutal and slam death metal. Each moment of Chronicles feels scientifically calculated to be perfect, depicting immense skill and a clear respect for the classics. Seemingly a synthesis between Cryptopsy, Afterbirth, Atheist, and Cynic, Defeated Sanity’s newest effort is the end result of decades of hard work and experimentation—potentially resulting in one of the finest death metal albums ever put to wax. Every song, from “Amputationsdrang” to “Heredity Violated,” stands alone as a jazz-adjacent powerhouse of compositional complexity and pulpy extreme metal heft. Just as powerful as it is ambitious, Chronicles is a band reaching their finest hour while also serving as the ultimate love letter to what came before (be it Atheist’s branching song structures and jazz breaks or Tucker-era Morbid Angel‘s unhinged escapades). Get on this yesterday if you’re a huge death metal nerd like me.
3. Chief Keef – Almighty So 2
43B
Legendary drill pioneer and modern hip-hop god Chief Keef is easily one of the most impactful and important rappers, period. This said, his legacy is accompanied by a notorious caginess with releasing his art. Infamously one to delay, change, or cancel projects at random, the same intuitions and idiosyncrasies that have made him stand alone with his craft seem to impede the progress of said craft. Since its announcement in 2018 (alongside other records that were released much sooner), Almighty So 2 (the sequel to his landmark mixtape Almighty So) has seen countless changes, setbacks, re-writes, and leaks. Regardless, the Almighty So 2 we did get is about as amazing as anyone could have hoped. Containing some of the greatest beats to grace a modern Sosa record (most all of which were produced by Sosa as well) and an amazing set of performances from the man himself, this is a rapper who’s just as sharp as he was when he first broke out. Almighty So 2 contains a number of great hardcore hip-hop slappers (“Too Trim,” “Runners,” “Jesus,” “Neph Nem”), while also containing some of the most moving, inspired tracks in Keef‘s entire discography (“Believe,” “Drifting Away”). Clearly still a production savant and dynamic emcee, Chief Keef proves here that he is still one of the most amazing artists the world has seen in modern times (both in and out of rap).
2. Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja
Nuclear Blast | Review
Black metal iconoclasts Oranssi Pazuzu have made it clear throughout their career that they care much more about experimentation and sonic depth than any sense of commitment to “black metal.” This rings through to Muuntautuja, easily the group’s most enveloping and all-encompassing record today. With tracks that resemble musical movements more than songs, Pazuzu have crafted an exceptionally captivating piece of art that emulates the feeling of going mad from the awe of a being beyond our comprehension. Drawing from many seemingly disparate influences (Nine Inch Nails, Portishead, Death Grips, Boredoms, etc.), the group makes good on their promise of a “…sculpture made of black electric ooze.” Horrifically intoxicating, this is a record that fails to release its hooks from the listener after the end of album closer “Vierivä usva;” sticking with you like a particularly disturbing A24 film.
Before the best album of the year, let’s do a few honorable mentions:
- Ripped to Shreds – Sanshi
- Willi Carlisle – Critterland
- Spectral Voice – Sparagmos
- Bladee & Yung Lean – Psykos
- Toadliquor – Back in the Hole
- Tyler, the Creator – Chromakopia
- Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
- Black Curse – Burning in Celestial Poison
- Welt – Before/After
- Effluence – Necrobiology
And the number one……
1. The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World
Fiction/Lost/Polydor/Universal/Capitol Records
From Defeated Sanity to Charli XCX to Chief Keef, this list has had a strong theme of legacy—be that the lineage of genre or the artist’s growth over time. As such, there’s maybe no number one candidate more fitting than the seminal goth-pop band The Cure. One of the rare bands to break through genre and style boundaries, Robert Smith has led The Cure through continued success, acclaim, relevance, and respect, with numerous classic records in multiple different genres under their belt no less. Now aged into the position of beloved elder statesmen of pop culture, the band embraces a denser take on their most ethereal sounds (think something between Disintegration and Bloodflowers) on Songs Of A Lost World.
The results are breathtaking, to say the least.
Every moment of Songs Of A Lost World is drenched in rich, dreamy, bittersweet angst; a dense aura of loss, longing, and entropy. Smith sings of the pain of aging in a voice that, ironically enough, perfectly resembles the beauty of his voice decades ago. The rest of the band too (who are the same musicians Smith worked alongside before the 16-year-hiatus) reach immense, resonant highs here that move me beyond words. Songs Of A Lost World speaks deeply to the sorrows of personal and societal decay; moments like “Alone,” “Warsong,” and “Endsong” depict the ending of all things in a near-philosophical manner. It’s a tragically beautiful piece of art that touches on the great, unspeakable hurt that lies at the base of our relationship to life as a finite experience. Songs Of A Lost World muses on the very nature of endings, while standing strong as one of The Cure’s very best works.
Well, that was a fun (?) list to cap off a fun (???) year. Be good to one another and yourselves. Have a wonderful holiday season and don’t forget to scream really fucking loud in your car to let out pent-up fury. I’m gonna go submerge into a strange substance of undetermined origin. Until next time!
Megachiles
I have, in fact, listened to more than just doots ‘n toots this year, and this list proves it. Give these artists a listen and some of that cold hard cheese (and money) this LISTMANIA 2K24:
10 Wicked Awesome albums I couldn’t write about (or previously wrote about) because 10 is our arbitrary, but prudent, cut off:
Ardente – La Nuit Éternelle
Vukkeg – Crossing the Rubicon | Dungeon Crawling: Vol IV
Curta’n Wall – Some Welsh words that are just a string of consonants
Echoes of Oblivion – Specters of a Distant Realm | Dungeon Crawling Vol. V
Defacement – Duality
Convulsing – Perdurance
Botanist – Paleobotany
Moonglow – Moonglow | Dungeon Crawling: Vol IV
Hrad – Leaving the Ancient Times Behind
Amser Segur – The Astral Voyage to Cosmic Anachronism
Best Song/Best Dungeons & Dragons Shit
Xanathar – Thunders Over Waterdeep
Independent
Look man, I know this is one song but hear me out: this is absolutely the sickest song I’ve heard all year. Black metal croaks ‘n tremolos, trad shred, doom chugs, cymbal clinks, doots, toots, AND Pavarotti power metal warbling?? Xanathar has got something for everyone. Set aside 10 minutes and rock out to this, then join me in anxiously awaiting a got-dang full-length from these buds. Also bah gawd, it’s the busiest man in black metal himself, Erech Leleth, with additional guitars, keyboards, and mixing credits!
Best “Comeback” Album
Serpent Column – Tassel of Aries
Independent | Disso Feature
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Dorky avant-garde black metal fans the world over rejoiced this past October as black metal avant-garde–ist Jimmy Hamsey dropped a piping hot slab of avant-garde black metal under his purportedly defunct avant-garde black metal project, and Bowl Darling, Serpent Column. I actually don’t know what “avant-garde” means but it’s in the BC tags, so I’m gonna assume it’s French for “damn this guy is freaky good at guitar.” I fondly remember listening to Mirror in Darkness 5 years ago and feeling a little like Hank Hill listening to toilet sounds, but also getting utterly ensorcelled by the skronkish riff blastin’ therein. Much to my delight (I’m one of the aforementioned dorks), Tassel of Aries is a move back toward Mirror in Darkness’ “maelstrom of toilet sounds and extreme amounts of guitar shred” approach, as opposed to the hardcore and noise-informed approach of Katartisis. I will conclude by saying “The Long War of Essential Struggle” is some of the most extremely cool shit ever and you should listen to it. Thank you.
Best Lord of the Rings Shit
Jim Kirkwood – Where Shadows Lie [Remaster]
Out of Season | Dungeon Crawling: Vol IV
I know this is a remaster/reissue of a nearly 35 year-old album but hear me out: 1) I don’t care, 2) you’ll posers have never even heard of Jim Kirkwood, and 3) it’s rad and I listened to it A LOT, so there. Righteous proto-dungeon synth that sounds like Kraftwerk and John Carpenter traveled to Isengard (for sick acoustics and Maiar studio tech access, ofc) to lay down a peak FANTASY SYNTHESIZER MUSIC SCORE to Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings after a mind-opening, Hobbit-worthy blunt rotation with Tom Bombadil himself and the finest pipe-weed in the Southfarthing. Ring a dong dillo fr.
Best Dungeon Synth for Fleeing Caradhras’ Pass and Shaking Ass
Erestor – Journey in the Dark
Independent
Also coincidentally first runner-up in Best Lord of the Rings Shit. I covered Erestor’s other project, Ancient Kingdom, in my latest haul ov dungeon synth, and as you would assume, A Journey In the Dark is also extremely rad as hell. So, let it be decreed that Journey in the Dark serves as both my mandatory late-breaking, top ten entry for the year and a proxy for several dope Ancient Kingdom releases I spun relentlessly this year. This is drum-heavy, evocative dungeon synth that occasionally veers into an ass-shakin’ and ham-quakin’ up-tempo electronic, vidya game inspired sound. Album centerpiece “Khazad-dûm” is an essential fantasy synthesizer music listen, and the outro to “The Chamber of Mazarbul” as well as closer “Onward” have grooves so hot ‘n taut they could be from Gandalf’s boiler room set circa 1500-1600 S.A. (Second Age). Fly, you fools (to these sick beats)!
Best Castle Metal
Gloomy Reflections – Oath of the Paladins
Independent
WIMPS AND POSERS LEAVE THE HALL. QUEST MASTER HAS ISSUED A SUMMONS 4 REAL ROCKERS ONLY!!!
FANS OV BIG MEATY BASS LINES, RAD KEYBOARD SHIT, AND SICK ASS GUITAR SOLOS REJOICE.
AN OATH HAS BEEN FORGED IN IRON AND QUENCHED IN HALLOWED WATERS.
WE HEED THE CALL!
TO ARMS! TO GLORY! TO GLOOMY REFLECTIONS!⚔️⚔️⚔️
Best COLIN MARSTON JOINT
Krallice – Inorganic Rite
Independent
I weep for the loss of Menegroth, but bask in the glory of the final reverberations to echo from its hallowed caves. The apotheosis of the synth-heavy iteration of Krallice that sprung into being on 2021’s Demonic Wealth, because it’s also got the badass, skronked up black metal riff blastin’ grandeur of “Wretched Wisdom” (see: “Fatestorm Sanctuary”). REAL SYNTH BATH HEADS KNOW.
Best Big Boi Doom Metal
Crypt Sermon – The Stygian Rose
Dark Descent Records
Philly’s phinest Candlemass Phanatics have disinterred a mausoleum’s worth of riffs and adorned their epic doom in the gloomy investiture and ominous portents of gothic horror. You know what that means? Melodramatic riffs, macabre vocals, and my man Tanner Anderson on keys (you can’t don the gloomy investiture without keyboards, dawg). I’m not usually a lyrics bud, but I make an exception for Brooks Wilson because he always delivers the goods. And woo boy he really delivers on Stygian Rose. “Cimmerian shadows/Gossamer writhes below”? “Blood has spilled from this unholy grail”? “She came to me in a dream/Cloaked in green flame/Her voice a silent scream/She called my name”?! Hell yeah, we’re like a 1-2 “sanguine moon”s, a “Night’s velvet embrace”, and a few steamy descriptions of lips and hands touching things away from some trve gothic romance shit. When he rhymed “burning” with “yearning”, I felt that. FFO: Solitudue Aeternus circa ‘92-’96 (the spooky stuff years), Mercyful Fate, practicing dark alchemies and esoteric sex magic to peer beyond the mortal veil, Interview With the Vampire, and the PBS “Mystery!” opening sequence.
Best Black Metal About Castles and Dragons but Oops! All Sick Keyboard Shit!
Valen – Dragon Crown
Obsidian Relic Records | Dungeon Crawling Vol. V
My thesis in the latest Dungeon Crawl was that Dragon Crown is epic black metal distilled to its essence, and by essence I mean the cool synth shit that opens your heart to the riddle of steel. Indebted as much to Summoning and Caladan Brood’s histrionic black metal as it is to goblin-troll-elf-ghost mode electronic atmospherics of Ånden som gjorde opprør, Valen eschews oppressive dungeon ambiance borne of Advanced D&D for compositions and production that invoke the scope and heroism of high fantasy and sword ‘n sorcery (read: lots of bombastic drum tracks and sick choral fx). In other words, this is dungeon synth that makes you go “hell yeah,” and consider the various properties and power levels of fictional magic swords. Hell yeah.
Best Dad Prog in a 4-sided death Metal Longsleeve (Metal AOTY)
Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
Century Media Records
Also the de facto winner of the “Best Death Metal in Space” category. I’ve opened my Stargate aplenty to this album and can say without reservation I think it’s one of 2024’s best. It might also be Blood Incantation’s best as well. That said, I was also absolutely the target audience when they played Yes prior to opening for Gorguts et al. last year and when Colin Marston joined them on stage that same show to lay down some siqq synth soundscapes, so like form your own dang opinion, bud. A transmission of molten hot Morbid Angelisms and coronal mass-ejected death metal shred, quenched in an interstellar radiation field of Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd as it traveled the vastness of the cosmos to our terrestrial plane. 👽🌌🔺
Dungeon Synth AOTY
Fief – VI
Out of Season | Dungeon Crawling Vol. V
Story time: I went to a renaissance festival in Wisconsin with my wife, kid, and brother this summer and decided to wear my Fief t-shirt, much to my wife’s chagrin. In my defense I don’t have a cool cloak or suit of plate mail to wear, and statistically speaking there’s a high likelihood I’ll be wearing a band shirt on any given day. Despite my wife’s disappointment in my fashion choices, not one, but TWO whole dudes were super stoked about my shirt and dungeon synth being rep’d out in the wild. One of these dudes was also a super talented lute player performing as entertainment at the fest, so you know I was feeling like the Belle of the dang Ball.
While Lute Guy and I were talkin’ doots after his set, my brother who was standing nearby was like “So who’s Fief?.” Lute Guy turned, looked him dead in the eye, and said: “Only the greatest dungeon synth composer of our time.”
Anyway, now my wife still bullies me for being a huge dork, but also begrudgingly acknowledges my Fief shirt is pretty rad. Also I think Lute Guy might have been right. VI absolutely rocks. Lute Guy: wherever you are, I hope VI is everything you dreamed it’d be. It is for me.
Check out Listmania 2k24 Days I and II!
