Essay: Treue zum eigenen Selbst
Essay: Nicht immer besteht eine große Diskrepanz zwischen dem, was man tut, und dem, was man wirklich möchte. Manchmal unterscheiden sie sich nur geringfügig – wie kleine Schlaglöcher auf dem Weg des Lebens, die man überwinden kann, ohne aus dem Gleichgewicht zu geraten.
(iz). Manche Menschen haben sogar das Glück, von klein auf eine authenti
https://islamische-zeitung.de/essay-treue-zum-eigenen-selbst/
#Feuilleton #Bildung #Kultur #essay #selbst #treue
Überwachungsgesamtrechnung: „Mehr Transparenz wäre auch im Sinne der Behörden selbst“
Dieser Artikel stammt von Netzpolitik.org.
Überwachungsgesamtrechnung: „Mehr Transparenz wäre auch im Sinne der Behörden selbst“
Die Überwachungsgesamtrechnung ist ein Mammutprojekt mit vielen Hürden: Misstrauische Polizeibehörden, mangelhafte Zahlen zu Überwachungsmaßnahmen und skeptische Innenminister:innen. Im Interview erklärt Projektleiter Ralf Poscher, warum mehr Transparenz bei Sicherheitsgesetzen auch Behörden nützt.
Kurz vor dem Regierungswechsel veröffentlichte das Bundesinnenministerium ohne eine begleitende Pressemitteilung die Überwachungsgesamtrechnung auf seiner Website. Das Projekt war ein Vorhaben der Ampel-Regierung und sollte untersuchen, wie sich Überwachungsbefugnisse rechtlich und praktisch auswirken. Eigentlich war im Anschluss noch mehr geplant: Eine Freiheitskommission sollte bei neuen Gesetzesvorhaben eine Art Grundrechte-Check durchführen und aufpassen, dass die Gesamtüberwachungslast nicht zu hoch wird. Dazu wird es unter der neuen schwarz-roten Regierung wohl kaum kommen. Im Interview mit Prof. Dr. Ralf Poscher sprechen wir darüber, was die Überwachungsgesamtrechnung uns dennoch bringen kann.
Poscher hat das Projekt geleitet. Der Rechtswissenschaftler ist geschäftsführender Direktor der Abteilung für Öffentliches Recht am Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Kriminalität, Sicherheit und Recht. Mit einem Team hat er fast ein Jahr lang Sicherheitsgesetze von Bund und Ländern sowie konkrete Zahlen zu Überwachungsmaßnahmen ausgewertet.
Überwachungsintensität in mathematische Formeln übersetzen
netzpolitik.org: An der Überwachungsgesamtrechnung hat ein über 10-köpfiges Forschungsteam rund ein Jahr lang gearbeitet. Aus welchen Disziplinen stammten die Wissenschaftler:innen?
Poscher: Das war ein interdisziplinäres Team. Viele waren Rechtswissenschaftler, denn ein Großteil der Arbeit war es, eine große Zahl von Vorschriften und Gesetze zu klassifizieren. Aber es waren auch Kriminologen und Sozialwissenschaftler dabei. Teilweise brauchten wir auch Mathematiker, um die Überwachungslast zu berechnen und die entsprechenden Formeln zu gestalten.
Ralf Poscher wünscht sich mehr Selbstbewusstsein der Behörden und Transparenz. – Alle Rechte vorbehalten Uni Freiburgnetzpolitik.org: Wie haben sie die Formel erarbeitet, die das Überwachungsniveau abbilden sollen?
Poscher: Das einfachste Formel-Element waren die empirischen Häufigkeiten, wie oft eine Überwachungsmaßnahme durchgeführt wird. Da hatten wir jedoch das Problem, dass wir nur sehr eingeschränkt Daten erhalten haben und auch fraglich ist, wie valide diese Daten sind.
Komplizierter war es mit den Intensitätswerten der Überwachung für die einzelnen Vorschriften, die wir uns angesehen haben. Damit die Intensitätswerte am Ende nicht nur von unserer subjektiven Einschätzung abhängig sind, haben wir sehr genau die Rechtsprechung des Verfassungsgerichts ausgewertet, um auf der einen Seite festzustellen, welche Kriterien es als intensitätssteigernd ansieht.
Auf der anderen Seite gibt es Faktoren, die nach der Rechtsprechung mitigierend wirken und die Überwachungsintensität wieder absenken. Das sind beispielsweise vorgeschaltete verfahrensrechtliche Elemente wie ein Genehmigungsvorbehalt. Dadurch müssen Bürger dann nicht so sehr fürchten, leicht Gegenstand von Überwachung zu werden. Es macht ja einen Unterschied, wenn der Bürger weiß: Diese Überwachungsmaßnahme kann die Polizei nicht einfach so ergreifen, sondern da muss sie vorher einen Richter fragen.
So haben wir die einzelnen Faktoren aus der Rechtsprechung in intensitätssteigernde und mitigierende eingeteilt und geschaut, was es in den Gesetzen für unterschiedliche Ausprägungen dieser Faktoren gibt.
„Daten mit besonderer Persönlichkeitsrelevanz“ bekommen eine 8
netzpolitik.org: Eines der Merkmale für die Eingriffsintensität ist beispielsweise die Persönlichkeitsrelevanz der erhobenen Daten. Werden identifizierende Daten erhoben, hat das den Wert 2 bekommen, „Daten mit besonderer Persönlichkeitsrelevanz“ haben den Wert 8. Wie haben Sie diese Faktoren in Zahlen übersetzt?
Poscher: Wir haben sehr lange mit verschiedenen Werten experimentiert, bis wir Zuordnungen gefunden haben, die überzeugend waren und nicht zu kontraintuitiven Ergebnisse führten. Wir haben bis zum Schluss immer wieder nachjustiert und besonders angesichts neu auftauchender Überwachungsbefugnisse geschaut: Überzeugt jetzt die Einordnung noch, die wir dabei herausbekommen?
Die Merkmale selbst sind also nicht von uns erfunden, sondern die haben wir jeweils der Rechtsprechung entnommen. Aber die Gewichtung der Faktoren anhand numerischer Werte, das ist natürlich eine Setzung von uns. Aber weil wir so viele Faktoren in der Rechtsprechung gefunden haben, würde es recht wenig verschieben, wenn jemand jetzt sagte: Hier würde ich statt 7 nur 5 Punkte zuweisen. Unser Fokus war, dass es in der Gesamtansicht plausibel ist.
netzpolitik.org: Im Bericht steht zum Beispiel bei der Online-Durchsuchung, dass sie in den unterschiedlichen Länder- und Bundesgesetzen so unterschiedlich gestaltet sei, dass man dort jeweils ganz andere Kennwerte erreicht. Welche Faktoren führen zu dieser unterschiedlichen Bewertung?
Poscher: Meistens liegen die Unterschiede in den mitigierenden Faktoren. Also in den verfahrensrechtlichen Anforderungen, damit eine solche Online-Durchsuchung erfolgen kann. Ein anderer Faktor ist, dass die Einsatzanlässe unterschiedlich definiert werden. In manchen Ländern wird eine Maßnahme auch gegen allgemeine Kriminalität eingesetzt, in anderen nur zur Terrorismusbekämpfung. Das macht natürlich einen Unterschied in der Überwachungslast.
Die Überwachungsgesamtrechnung ermöglicht es, Fragen zu stellen
netzpolitik.org: Was kann man mit einer solchen Erkenntnis machen?
Poscher: Man könnte in die Tabelle schauen und sich fragen: Was können wir tun, um die Überwachungslast zu senken? Dafür könnte man analysieren, wie sich die Regelungen in den Ländern unterscheiden, die einen niedrigeren Überwachungswert haben.
Man kann sich aber auch umgekehrt fragen: Führen besondere Hürden oder Einschränkungen dazu, dass Ermittlungen in bestimmten Ländern nicht so erfolgreich stattfinden können wie in anderen?
Die Gesamtrechnung gibt darüber erst mal keine Auskunft. Sie erlaubt jedoch, solche Unterschiede zu sehen und dann die entsprechenden Fragen zu stellen.
netzpolitik.org: Nun scheint der politische Wille momentan zu sein, eine Überwachungsgesamtrechnung eher abzulehnen. Im vergangenen Juni haben beispielsweise die Innenminister:innen der Länder und des Bundes beschlossen, dass eine Überwachungsgesamtrechnung „keine geeignete Grundlage“ für politische Entscheidungen sein könne – bevor diese überhaupt fertig war. Stattdessen forderten sie eine „Sicherheitsgesamtrechnung“. Wie hat sich dieses Klima auf Ihre Arbeit ausgewirkt?
Poscher: Es hat uns erstmal überrascht, weil einer unserer Auftraggeber ja das Bundesinnenministerium war. Einerseits kann ich verstehen, dass die Behörden Sorge haben, dass ihre Leistung nicht gesehen wird. Andererseits ist es sehr schade, dass die Behörden so defensiv auf diese Untersuchung reagieren und sich davor scheuen, ihre Zahlen öffentlich zu machen. Die Überwachungsgesamtrechnung ist kein Projekt, das sich gegen die Sicherheitsbehörden und ihre Arbeit wendet. Sie soll vielmehr Transparenz schaffen – auch für die Behörden selbst.
Aus unserer Sicht kann Transparenz hinsichtlich sicherheitsrechtlicher Überwachung ein starkes vertrauensbildendes Element sein. Denn bei einer Reihe von Maßnahmen gibt es eine große öffentliche Besorgnis, beispielsweise bei der Online-Durchsuchung. Anhand der Zahlen kann man aber sehen, dass etwa die Online-Durchsuchung nur sehr, sehr zurückhaltend eingesetzt wird. Die Sorge, dass beinahe jedes Telefon mit einem Bundestrojaner infiziert ist, ist also weit von der Realität entfernt.
Es ist ein bisschen verwunderlich, dass die Behörden da nicht selbstbewusster sind und auch nicht sehen, wie viel Vertrauen man gewinnen könnte, wenn man diese Dinge öffentlich macht. Ist doch das Vertrauen der Bevölkerung für die Arbeit der Sicherheitsbehörden von unschätzbarem Wert.
Ein weiteres Problem ist, dass Behörden teilweise gar nicht in der Lage sind, Zahlen zu Überwachungsmaßnahmen zu liefern, weil sie die selber nicht haben. Teilweise müssen in den Behörden, wo es Meldepflichten gibt, händisch Papierakten durchgearbeitet und Maßnahmen gezählt werden. Das ist ein unvertretbarer Aufwand.
Und dann kommt dazu, dass es keine einheitlichen Standards gibt, wie Daten erhoben werden. Auch bei Daten, die schon seit Jahrzehnten gesammelt werden, wie die zur Häufigkeit von Telekommunikationsüberwachungen. Manche Behörden zählen überwachte Anschlüsse, andere zählen betroffene Personen, einige zählen die Anordnungsbeschlüsse, andere nur tatsächlich durchgeführte Überwachungen. Da macht jede Behörde, was sie gerade für richtig erachtet, und die Zahlen lassen sich dann nur sehr schwer vergleichen. Es ist unverständlich, warum die Justizministerkonferenz die Arbeit ihrer Beamten so wenig achtet und es weiterhin zulässt, dass die Erfassung nicht nach einheitlichen Vorgaben erfolgt.
Wie die Behörden selbst von mehr Transparenz profitieren können
netzpolitik.org: Gab es auch Ausnahmen? Also Behörden, die besonders kooperativ waren und bereits eine digitale Erfassung von Maßnahmen haben?
Poscher: Es gab einige wenige Behörden, die auf Knopfdruck Daten zu Überwachungsmaßnahmen liefern konnten, weil sie selbst entsprechende Systeme eingeführt haben. Das haben sie dann auch gern getan. Ein Beispiel ist das Saarland. Es geht also. Da hatten wir gute Zahlen mit wenig Aufwand.
netzpolitik.org: Können die Behörden auch selbst von einer systematischeren Erfassung profitieren?
Poscher: Unbedingt. Der Sinn unseres ganzen Projekts war ja, mehr Transparenz in die sicherheitspolitische Diskussion zu tragen – auch weil teilweise Besorgnisse überbordend sind und mit der Realität nicht viel zu tun haben.
Andererseits sehen wir aber auch einen Zuwachs an Überwachungsmaßnahmen in bestimmten Feldern, wo die Sinnfrage gestellt werden muss. Da ist unklar, was man überhaupt mit den ganzen Daten anfangen und wie man sie verwerten kann.
Wir sehen sehr große Unterschiede in manchen Bereichen, etwa bei der Telekommunikationsüberwachung zwischen den Ländern. Da müssen wir fragen: Warum ist das eigentlich so? Sind das Berichtsfehler? Das wissen die Behörden selber nicht, es müsste aber jedenfalls jede Behördenleitung bereits aus einer Steuerungs- und Managementperspektive interessieren. Sie würden sehr davon profitieren, auch um etwa zu entscheiden, welches technische Equipment sie anschaffen oder wie sie ihre Beamten einteilen und wo sinnvoll es ist, Kapazitäten einzusetzen.
All das lässt sich nicht beurteilen, ohne dass man diese Zahlen hat. Das ist so, als würde man Apple fragen: „Wie viele Bildschirme haben sie denn geliefert bekommen?“ Und Apple sagt dann: „Wissen wir nicht, wir bauen Computer.“ So lässt sich schlecht arbeiten.
netzpolitik.org: Woran liegt es, dass viele Behörden keine guten Zahlen zu ihren Maßnahmen liefern können?
Poscher: Das hat zum einen mit der mangelnden Digitalisierung unserer Verwaltung zu tun. Es sind aber vielfältige Probleme. Ein weiterer Grund ist die komplexe Verantwortungsstruktur innerhalb der Behörden, wo wir die Polizei auf der einen Seite haben, die Staatsanwaltschaft auf der anderen und dann auch die Gerichte. Die müssten ja eigentlich alle Systeme haben, die miteinander interoperabel sind. Das ist leider noch lange nicht der Fall.
netzpolitik.org: Im Bericht ist erwähnt, dass bestimmte Bereiche nicht berücksichtigt wurden. Woran lag das und wie sollte eine potenzielle nächste Version der Überwachungsgesamtrechnung vielleicht ergänzt werden?
Poscher: Der Grund der Beschränkungen lag vor allem an dem Auftrag. Wir hatten vom Innen- und Justizministerium nur den Auftrag für bestimmte Bereiche. Da wir nur elf Monate Zeit für das Projekt hatten, waren wir da auch nicht unbedingt traurig darüber.
Ein Bereich, der unbedingt mitaufgenommen werden sollte, ist allerdings die Überwachung von Finanzdaten. Da gibt es sehr viele Auswertungsmaßnahmen. Kontobewegungen werden sehr lange gespeichert und Banken sind sicherheitsrechtlich verpflichtet, alle Transaktionen automatisiert zu analysieren . Was in anderen Überwachungsbereichen kontrovers diskutiert wird, gibt es im Finanzbereich seit Jahren schon ganz praktisch – ohne große öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit.
Wie es mit der Überwachungsgesamtrechnung weiter geht
netzpolitik.org: Wird es denn eine Weiterführung der Überwachungsgesamtrechnung geben?
Poscher: Wir haben jetzt einen sehr guten Grundstock und evaluieren derzeit, wie viel Aufwand es ist, die Überwachungsgesamtrechnung zeitlich fortzuführen. Was wir auf jeden Fall fortführen können, ist die Evaluierung von Sicherheitsgesetzen und -regelungen. Die könnten wir dann auch beispielsweise auf die Finanzdaten ausweiten.
Teilweise können wir auch weiter mit den Zahlen für Maßnahmen arbeiten, denn eine Reihe davon müssen Behörden ohnehin veröffentlichen – wir werden also kontinuierlich weiter Zahlen bekommen. Das Problem ist, dass sich die Aussagekraft der Zahlen je nach Bundesland stark unterscheidet. Eine solche Untersuchung wird also weiterhin erst einmal lückenhaft bleiben.
Aber das ganze Instrument wird ja eigentlich erst richtig interessant, wenn es auch eine zeitliche Dimension hat. Also wenn man sieht, wie sich die Überwachungslast verändert.
netzpolitik.org: Im Bericht zur Überwachungsgesamtrechnung sind viele Tabellen mit langen Zahlenreihen enthalten. Werden Sie in Zukunft auch den vollständigen Datensatz veröffentlichen?
Poscher: Daran arbeiten wir noch. Die Datenbank mit allen Zahlen ist mittlerweile sehr komplex geworden und wir überlegen, was das richtige Format für eine Veröffentlichung ist, sodass andere damit auch etwas anfangen können.
netzpolitik.org: Was ist für Sie die wichtigste Erkenntnis aus der Arbeit an der Überwachungsgesamtrechnung?
Poscher: Für mich ist die Botschaft sehr wichtig, dass es auch im Interesse der Behörden wäre, wenn sie selbst über bessere Zahlen verfügen und wenn sie mit ihrer Arbeit in die Öffentlichkeit gehen würden.
Wir haben nichts in den Zahlen gefunden, was eine Behörde verstecken müsste. Unser Ziel ist es, auch Politik und Behörden für mehr Transparenz in der Sicherheitspolitik zu gewinnen, um eine rationalere und faktenbasierte öffentliche Diskussion von Sicherheitsmaßnahmen zu ermöglichen.
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Author: Anna Biselli
#behorden #selbst #sinne #transparenz #uberwachungsgesamtrechnung
#Kriege dieser #Welt 2025
Die #Menschheit hat nichts, aber auch gar #nichts #gelernt ❗️🤦♂️🧠💩
Eins ist sicher, #Intelligentes #Leben #wird sich #selbst #auslöschen ❗️
Deswegen finden wir auch kein anderes Intelligentes Leben.
Gefühle sind nicht authentisch. Sie sind mit variierenden #Techniken und in sich historisch wandelnden Kontexten her- und ausgestellt.
Eva Illouz zur Beziehung von #Technologie, #Gefühlen und #Selbst im gegenwärtigen #Kapitalismus.
Was mit der Nafs beim Fasten geschieht
Die Nafs im Fasten: Der Ramadan hat eine Wirkung auf unser Selbst. Es wird zeitweise vergeistigt.
(Traversing Tradition). Der Ramadan ist da. Mehr denn je ist es für Muslime wichtig, ihn nicht auf das Materielle zu reduzieren. Während das Fasten zweifelsohne gesundheitliche und weltliche Vorteile hat, untergräb
https://islamische-zeitung.de/die-nafs-waehrend-des-fastens/
#Ramadan2025 #GrundlagenFasten #Islam #IZPlus #fasten #nafs #ramadan #selbst
Der Begriff ist als eine #Kritik an der zentralen #Fokussierung auf das #Gehirn bei der Lösung des "schwierigen Problems des #Bewusstseins" ("hard problem of #consciousness") gemeint. Hauptsächlich die #kognitiven #Neurowissenschaften würden bei dem Versuch der Lösung des Problems zur Erklärung des „bewussten #Ichs , #Selbst, #Qualia durch die Zentrierung auf das Gehirn weitere, wesentliche Aspekte außer Acht lassen.
Mehr auf: https://philosophies.de/index.php/2022/08/22/neurozentrismus/
🔊 #NowPlaying on #KEXP's #SeekAndDestroy
Selbst:
🎵 La encarnación de todos los miedos
https://selbst.bandcamp.com/track/la-encarnaci-n-de-todos-los-miedos
Essay: vom inneren Schweinehund
Beim „inneren Schweinehund“ geht es um weit mehr als nur die Überwinterung der eigenen Trägheit, sondern auch um den Charakter.
(iz). Vor kurzem war ich bei einer Lesung der Berliner Dichterin Antje Remke, die mit Witz und Humor die Herausforderungen des Alltags beschreibt. Eines ihrer Gedichte handelt von Aljoscha. A
https://islamische-zeitung.de/essay-vom-inneren-schweinehund/
#Bildung #Feuilleton #IZPlus #charakter #essay #InnererSchweinehund #selbst
Ach du Schande #KI #Klont sich #selbst und #verhindert #Abschaltung 😱🤦♂️
https://www.scinexx.de/news/technik/kuenstliche-intelligenz-klont-sich-selbst/
Dann prüfen wir das AfD Verbot eben selbst
Wir beim Volksverpetzer fordern seit langem die Prüfung eines AfD Verbots durch das Verfassungsgericht. Nicht, weil wir die Partei verboten sehen wollen, sondern weil wir fürchten, dass es notwendig ist. Aber da es die demokratischen Institutionen bisher einfach nicht machen, macht das jetzt die Zivilgesellschaft einfach selbst. Und du kannst mithelfen, dass dieses Gutachten entsteht. Ein Gutachten, das, wenn es feststellt, dass die AfD verfassungsfeindlich ist, direkt als Verbotsantrag verwendet werden kann.
Unsere Petition hat viel mehr erreicht als gedacht!
Fast eine Million Menschen fordern in der Volksverpetzer Petition bei Innn.it, dass geprüft wird, ob die AfD verboten werden muss (willst du auch dabei sein, hier unterschreiben). Wir haben die Petition Januar 2024 an den Bundesrat übergeben, die Omas gegen Rechts haben unsere Petition auch in Bremen übergeben und im Oktober 2024 mit uns an 120 Abgeordnete aus dem Bundestag. Eine der größten Petitionen, die je an den Bundestag überreicht wurde! Durch die vorgezogene Bundestagswahl kann jetzt es vor der Wahl zwar nicht mehr zur Abstimmung kommen – aber der Druck ist da, sogar Friedrich Merz hat sich offen gezeigt.
Dass die AfD vom Verfassungsschutz insgesamt gesichert rechtsextrem betrachtet wird, steht vermutlich seit einem Jahr fest, wird aber ebenfalls wegen der vorgezogenen Wahlen bisher zurückgehalten. Mehrere Landesverbände sind längst, teils gerichtlich überprüft, gesichert rechtsextrem. Es werden immer mehr Terrorverdächtige entdeckt, die Kontakt zur AfD haben oder gar Ämter für sie innehaben.
Wir müssen tun, was sich die Politik nicht traut
Währenddessen beschließen die Rechtsextremen das, was in Potsdam im Geheimtreffen mit anderen Rechtsextremen besprochen wurde, offiziell in ihrem Parteiprogramm. Und es schaut sich also immer noch nicht wirklich ernsthaft jemand an, ob die AfD schon verboten werden muss. Wenn es die Politik nicht hinbekommt, muss es die Zivilgesellschaft eben selbst machen. Das dachte sich zumindest die Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF). Und die braucht deine Hilfe.
Die GFF will ein groß angelegtes Projekt starten, und einige Juristen und Experten für Rechtsextremismus zu einem Team zusammenstellen, das ergebnisoffen begutachtet, ob die AfD jetzt verfassungsfeindlich ist oder nicht. DAS ist quasi das, was so viele seit langem fordern: Dass Experten genau anschauen, nach welchen Kriterien das Bundesverfassungsgericht eine Partei verbieten würde – und ob das nicht schon längst auf die rechtsextreme AfD zutrifft. Wenn das Gutachten feststellt, dass die AfD verboten gehört, dann kann dieses Gutachten direkt als Verbotsantrag verwendet werden.
Weder Bundesregierung, Bundesrat noch Bundestag stellen bisher die finanziellen und personellen Ressourcen für diese wichtige Arbeit zur Verfügung. Also macht die Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte es einfach selbst. Unterstützt werden sie neben uns von Campact, innn.it, dem Republikanischen Anwältinnen- und Anwälteverein (RAV), dem Postmigrantischen Jurist*innenbund, FragDenStaat und Bleibt stabil. Aber das kostet leider einiges an Geld. Für alle diejenigen, die mit ihrer Unterstützung möglich machen wollen, dass dieses Gutachten endlich erstellt wird, hat die GFF hier eine Spendenseite eingerichtet.
Das Puzzle zusammensetzen
Es gibt bereits zahlreiche Initiativen, die Belege für die Verfassungsfeindlichkeit zusammengetragen haben. Eine Analyse des Instituts für Menschenrechte, das Zentrum für politische Schönheit, ein Urteil des OVG Münster, eine rechtswissenschaftliche Stellungnahme von 18 namhaften Rechtsexperten, ein offener Brief des RAV unterstützt von 618 Juristen. Jetzt braucht es ein Team aus Experten, die das alles zusammentragen und beurteilen. Wenn das der Bundestag oder Bundesrat allein nicht hinbekommt, dann muss auch hier die Zivilgesellschaft einspringen.
Wenn genug Geld zusammenkommt, können diese Experten sich ein paar Monate nur damit befassen und das akribisch, genau und ergebnisoffen ausarbeiten – den Faktencheck machen, sozusagen. Und hinzu kommen dann ja noch all diejenigen Informationen, die der Verfassungsschutz vielleicht herausgefunden hat, die bisher noch zurückgehalten werden.
Das führt dann endlich dazu, was Volksverpetzer und fast eine Million Menschen seit langem fordern: Prüft endlich, ob das nicht eine verfassungsfeindliche Partei ist, die laut deutschem Grundgesetz verboten werden muss, um unsere Demokratie und Freiheiten zu beschützen. Denn wenn es so ist, dann ist es unsere demokratische Pflicht, die AfD vors Bundesverfassungsgericht zu bringen!
Artikelbild: canva.com/Volksverpetzer
Merz: Die (Selbst) Zerstörung der Union
Merz hat für Wahlkampf-Spielchen die Brandmauer eingerissen und sein Versprechen gebrochen, nicht mit den Faschisten zusammenarbeiten. Die jubelten gestern im Bundestag als einzige. Die Konservativen und ihre Medien versuchen uns das als Erfolg zu verkaufen. Aber Merz hat den Anfang vom Ende der letzten verbliebenen konservativen Volksparteien in Westeuropa eingeläutet. Die CDU will den gleichen Weg gehen wie die Forza Italia, die VVD oder die ÖVP – als schwacher Juniorpartner und Mehrheitsbeschaffer für Rechtsextreme.
So sehr schadet Merz der CDU
Die CDU ist eine der letzten verbliebenen konservativen Volksparteien in Westeuropa. In fast allen anderen Ländern wurde sie mittlerweile von den Rechtsextremisten eingeholt oder überholt. Eine Übersicht:
In Italien ist die Forza Italia Juniorpartner der rechtsextremen Partei von Giorgia Meloni. In Österreich wird die ÖVP (EVP) gerade Juniorpartner der rechtsextremen FPÖ. Und in den Niederlanden ist die VVD Juniorpartner der Rechtsextremisten von Geert Wilders. In Frankreich spielen Konservative bei Präsidentschaftswahlen kaum noch eine Rolle.
Einzig in Spanien gibt es noch eine konservative Partei, die stärker ist als die Rechtsextremisten. Doch als vor der letzten Wahl die Konservativen eine Koalition mit den Rechtsextremen ins Gespräch brachten, gewannen sie bei der Wahl weniger Stimmen als erhofft und stellen nun nicht den Ministerpräsidenten. Diesen stellen nun die Sozialisten, die zuvor in Umfragen abgeschlagen waren. In Großbritannien überholt die rechtspopulistische “Reform UK” gerade die Tories in den Umfragen, was beim dortigen Wahlrecht der Zerstörung der Partei gleichkommt.
Und alle diese Konservativen haben den gleichen Fehler gemacht: Sie haben sich rhetorisch, insbesondere in der Migrationspolitik, nicht von den Rechtsextremisten abgegrenzt. Sie haben die Forderungen und Feindbilder der Rechtsextremen übernommen und damit legitimiert. Sie konnten aber nicht erklären: Was ist eigentlich konservativ, abgesehen von der gleichen populistischen Migrationspolitik, wie es die extremen Rechten haben? Denn die kann man ja in “strenger” auch von den Rechtsextremisten haben. Sie haben alle geglaubt, sie könnten die extremen Rechten schwächen, indem sie sie kopieren.
Es gibt also gleich mehrere europäische Länder, die Friedrich Merz zeigen sollten, wohin sein aktueller Kurs führt. Wir alle wissen ganz genau, wohin das führen wird. Die Wissenschaft warnt seit Jahren eindringlich davor, dass die Union den gleichen Weg gehen wird. Nur die Union will es stur trotzdem versuchen. Merz hatte einst angekündigt, die AfD zu halbieren. Mit dieser Politik wird er mittelfristig die Union halbieren.
Nicht erfüllbare Erwartungen
Die Strategie von Merz sieht so aus: Merz wollte der AfD das Migrationsthema nach Aschaffenburg nicht überlassen. Die Logik geht so: Es wäre so oder so darüber diskutiert worden. Und es ist besser, wenn Merz das federführend tut als die Faschisten. Im Antrag der Union, der gestern mit den Stimmen der AfD beschlossen wurde, sieht man das Ausmaß der Zwickmühle, die das Migrationsthema für die Union hat.
Denn: Die Union hat jetzt einen vom Bundestag beschlossenen Antrag an der Backe, den sie, wenn überhaupt, nur in einer Koalition mit der AfD durchsetzen kann, und selbst das ist zweifelhaft. Denn: Er verstößt gegen das Europarecht, ist reine Symbolpolitik und wäre nicht mal geeignet, die Migration nach Deutschland zu reduzieren, was sich ja so viele AfD- und CDU-Politiker wünschen. Das werden wir im Folgenden auch mit Quellen belegen.
Das heißt, Merz zündet ein kurzfristiges Strohfeuer an, das so oder so nicht einmal das bringen wird, was es angeblich soll. Und das langfristig auf jeden Fall die AfD stärken wird. Geht Merz keine Koalition mit der AfD ein, wird die AfD auf der Erfüllung des Antrags beharren.
Zurückweisungen gibt es schon
Der gestern beschlossene Antrag verstößt gegen Europarecht, das belegt eine Anfrage von Erik Marquardt (MdEP Grüne) an die von Ursula Leyen (CDU) geführte EU-Kommission. Denn er fordert pauschale Zurückweisungen an der Grenze ohne Einzelfallprüfung. Auf die Einzelfallprüfung zu verzichten, verstößt noch dazu gegen die Verfassung.
Die Vorschläge von Merz und der CDU sind für EU-Mitglieder rechtlich nicht zulässig. Das hat mir die EU-Kommission unter auf eine schriftliche Frage mitgeteilt.Mit diesem Vorstoß greifen CDU/CSU die EU frontal an. Sie verabschieden sich aus dem Verbund der pro-europäischen Parteien.
— Erik Marquardt (@erik-marquardt.eu) 2025-01-28T15:09:01.895Z
Es liegt genau dazu auch bereits ein Urteil des Gerichtshofs der Europäischen Union vor.
Hier ist zu erklären: Es ist rechtlich zulässig, Asylbewerber in das Land zurückzuschicken, in denen sie zuerst registriert worden sind, das geschieht aber nicht über Zurückweisungen an der Grenze, sondern regulär über das EU-Asylsystem. Es ist aber nur zulässig, wenn die Menschenwürde der Geflüchteten gewahrt bleibt, das steht auch in Artikel 16a (Absatz 2) und Artikel 1 Grundgesetz. Wenn andere EU-Staaten völlig überlastet sind, ist das nicht gewährleistet.
Dies zeigt ein Urteil aus dem Jahr 2022. Das Oberverwaltungsgericht schrieb, als ein syrischer Geflüchteter gegen seine Dublin-Abschiebung nach Griechenland klagte:
“Gegenwärtig würde eine Abschiebung der Betroffenen nach Griechenland daher das Verbot des Art. 3 der Konvention vom 4.11.1950 zum Schutze der Menschenrechte und Grundfreiheiten (EMRK) beziehungsweise gegen den § 4 der Europäischen Grundrechtecharta (GRCh) verletzen.”
Reformen wurden bereits beschlossen
Es gab im ersten Halbjahr 2024 36.795 Übernahmegesuche nach der Dublin-Verordnung, von denen 21.314 angenommen wurden. 3.043 Menschen wurden überstellt. Warum so wenige? Besonders rechtsextrem regierte Länder machen die Überstellung hier oft unmöglich. Italiens Meloni nahm nur 3 Geflüchtete zurück, nachdem 10.000 Rücknahme-Gesuche positiv beschieden wurden. Das wird sich in Zukunft wahrscheinlich ändern: Bis nächstes Jahr müssen die EU Staaten die GEAS umsetzen, die die Überstellungen in anderen EU-Ländern erleichtern. Ja, es gab bereits die geforderten Reformen, die jetzt umgesetzt werden.
Es ist auch zulässig, Menschen, die nicht aus Asyl-Gründen einreisen, an der Grenze zurückzuweisen. Das wird auch gemacht, das waren im 1. Halbjahr 2024 21.661 Personen. Mittlerweile wird mehr als die Hälfte der an der Grenze registrierten Einreisen ohne Aufenthaltsberechtigung wieder zurückgewiesen.
Doch eine pauschale Zurückweisung aller Asylsuchenden an der deutschen Grenze verstößt gegen das individuelle Grundrecht auf Asyl. Die Mütter und Väter des Grundgesetzes haben das Recht auf Asyl aus gutem Grund als individuell einklagbares Grundrecht institutionalisiert. Gerade im Hinblick auf die Erfahrungen aus der Nazi-Zeit, als die Weltgemeinschaft dramatisch versagte beim Schutz der Menschen, die aus Nazi-Deutschland fliehen mussten, ist es erschreckend, wie egal Friedrich Merz diese Lehren aus der eigenen Geschichte sind. Genau wegen dieser Erfahrungen ist das Recht auf Asyl in unserer Verfassung verankert und sollte nicht mit Füßen getreten werden.
Grenzkontrollen bringen wenig und kosten viel
Auch gab es im ersten Halbjahr 2024 115.682 Asylanträge. Übrigens viel weniger als im Vorjahr und weit unter dem Niveau von 2015 und 2016. Hier wird auch klar, dass der Großteil der Asylbewerber gar nicht an der Grenze aufgegriffen werden. Bei zunehmenden Zurückweisungen an der Grenze würden vermutlich mehr Migranten einfach über die “Grüne Grenze” reisen, anstatt über die Checkpoints der Polizei. Gleichzeitig würden Zurückweisungen das EU-Asylsystem beschädigen, dadurch setzt der Antrag von Merz die Dublin-Abschiebungen und die gerade erst beschlossenen Gesetze für Verteilungen in der EU aufs Spiel.
Es ist einfach so: Es führt kein Weg daran vorbei, Migrations-Fragen auf EU-Ebene zu lösen. Oder eben durch einen vollständig überwachten 1400 Kilometer langem Grenzzaun um Deutschland, den niemand bezahlen will. Friedrich Merz schürt also Erwartungen, die er auf diesem Weg nicht erfüllen kann.
Bereits die aktuellen Grenzkontrollen dürften laut einer Studie übrigens die deutsche Wirtschaft 11,5 Mrd. € kosten, also etwa so viel wie das prognostizierte Wirtschaftswachstum dieses Jahres. Die andauernde Verlängerung von deutschen Grenzkontrollen stört auch unsere europäischen Nachbarn immer mehr. Luxemburg droht, Einspruch bei der Europäischen Kommission einzulegen, sollte Deutschland eine Verlängerung der bereits bestehenden Kontrollen beantragen.
Abschiebehaft gibt es schon
Friedrich Merz möchte alle Personen, die vollziehbar ausreisepflichtig sind, in Haft nehmen. In Deutschland sind 42.300 Menschen unmittelbar ausreisepflichtig, haben also keine Duldung. Davon sind 17.583 Menschen (!) (s. Bundestag, S. 23) abgelehnte Asylbewerber. Zum Vergleich: Aktuell gibt es in Deutschland 44.000 Menschen in Strafgefangenschaft. Ein Platz in der Abschiebehaft kostet pro Tag (!) übrigens 455,28 €. Das zeigt schon, dass die Forderung in der jetzigen Form ziemlich absurd ist – die Infrastruktur ist schlicht nicht vorhanden und immens teuer.
Wer keinen Aufenthaltsgrund mehr hat, bekommt normalerweise eine Frist, um freiwillig auszureisen. Wer ausreisepflichtig ist, braucht Gelegenheit, sich Papiere für die Ausreise zu besorgen. Ohne Papiere ist auch keine Abschiebung möglich.
Erst nach dieser Frist wird für gewöhnlich eine Abschiebung angeordnet. Bereits jetzt ist es den (oft CDU geführten) Ländern möglich, hier Personen in Abschiebehaft zu nehmen, wenn die Abschiebung ansonsten erschwert würde.
Im Zuge des Rückführungs-Verbesserungsgesetzes (im Februar 2024 in Kraft getreten), wurde die Abschiebehaft bereits von möglichen 10 Tagen auf ganze 4 Wochen verlängert. Abschiebungshaft darf nur dann erfolgen, wenn dies notwendig ist, um die Abschiebung durchzusetzen und das muss individuell von einem deutschen Gericht geprüft werden. Eine pauschale Abschiebehaft für die vollziehbar Ausreisepflichtigen ist daher ebenso sehr wahrscheinlich rechtswidrig.
Der Vorschlag von Merz ist also erstens nur schwer umsetzbar, da es gar nicht genug Haftplätze gibt. Sein Ziel erreicht er auch nicht, denn Fristen, z.B. für die Beschaffung von Papieren und anderen Botschafts-Besuchen gibt es ja nicht ohne Grund. Also was soll dieser ganze Zirkus mit diesem Antrag? Warum sein Versprechen brechen, nicht Mehrheiten mit den Rechtsextremen zu beschaffen – und dann nur für eine reine Show?
Union muss sich von der AfD abgrenzen
Bisher konnte die Union sagen: Wir sind zwar auch für strengere Asylpolitik, aber im Gegensatz zur AfD haben wir Vorschläge, die tatsächlich umsetzbar und gesetzeskonform sind. Nach dem Motto: “Während die Radikalen nur laut tönen mit Scheinlösungen, aber haben wir die Expertise und den Sachverstand, echte Lösungen anzubieten.” So hat es übrigens Merkel gemacht, mit dem EU-Türkei-Abkommen, das stark kritisiert wurde, aber eben eine rechtskonforme Reduzierung der Migration mit sich brachte.
Jetzt beschließt Merz mit den Stimmen der AfD einen Antrag, der genau solche teils rechtswidrigen Scheinlösungen beinhaltet. Es ist ein kompliziertes Thema und natürlich funktioniert das an manchem Stammtisch gut. Aber die Frage, die bleibt: Wo ist nun die Abgrenzung zur AfD?
Im März möchte Merz Kanzler werden. Das kann er Stand jetzt entweder mit den Stimmen der AfD oder mit SPD und/oder Grünen. Nur wird er mit SPD und Grünen Scheinlösungen nicht durchsetzen können. Nicht, nachdem er die Brandmauer eingerissen hat, nach dem er erfolglos versucht hatte, sie zu erpressen. Die AfD hat mit dem Antrag nun ein Druckmittel gegen Merz in der Hand, welches sie in der kommenden Legislaturperiode genüsslich ausspielen wird.
Merz hat die Union in eine Sackgasse manövriert. Er muss jetzt entweder den demokratischen Konsens verraten und mit den Faschisten eine Regierung bilden – etwas, dass man ihm trotz gegenteiliger Versicherungen jetzt nicht mehr glauben kann – oder eingestehen, dass die Konservativen nicht das liefern können, was die AfD verspricht. Er wird entweder die Demokraten oder die Rechtsextremen verraten, wahrscheinlich sogar beide. Es ist der Anfang vom Ende der christdemokratischen Partei in Deutschland, die sehenden Auges den gleichen Weg geht wie ihre Schwesterparteien in ganz Europa: In die Selbstzerstörung.
Michael Kappeler/dpa
AngryMetalGuy.com’s Aggregated Top 20 Albums o’ 2024
By El Cuervo
Here we are. The culmination of not just two weeks of hardcore listing,1 but twelve months of hardcore metalling. The AngryMetalGuy.com Aggregated Top 20 Albums o’ 2024 represents the cream of the crop, or more accurately, the cream of a small corner of a field containing some crops. Using the unrestrained power of manual data entry and a mighty spreadsheet, our wonderful little website compiles our numerous year-end ranking articles and the dozens of metal albums therein into one final, dreadful ranking.2
What tidings of 2024? The clearest message is one of death. No fewer than nine of the top ten awards, and all of the top seven, constitute death metal or death metal adjacency. Whether tunneling through the trenches (Kanonenfieber), slicing through a human abattoir (Aborted), staggering through disquieted exhaustion (Pyyrhon), or indulging in a spot of deicide (Ulcerate), this article demonstrates the many faces that death metal wore in 2024. So tight was its cadaverous stranglehold that I considered limiting this list to just the top ten to emphasize the power of death metal over the last twelve months. However, I’m unashamed to admit that the presence of a few of my own top ten albums over the #11-20 slots influenced my decision to extend it. A byproduct of this selfish maneuver is that a few other subgenres get a nod in what should be something of a summary of all types of metal from the year.
Interestingly, 2024 saw significantly less consistency across the aggregated favorites, as our writers allocated many fewer voting points across the top ten. Paradoxically, and despite the ubiquity of one subgenre in this aggregation, this indicates a broader spread of taste across the many releases cited in the season’s rankings – at least compared with prior years.3 I prefer this outcome to one of bandwagon-hoppers and hat-tippers, where our staff is compelled to include records popular across our central bloc.
I want to grant one final call-out for those records picked by at least five people but that were suppressed through low rankings such that they failed to reach this aggregation. 2024’s highlights include The Vision Bleak, Spectral Wound, Madder Mortem, and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.4
–El Cuervo
#20. Nemedian Chronicles // The Savage Sword – “There is also a distinctly epic, cinematic quality that hearkens back to Bal-Sagoth’s overwrought storytelling. Between the propulsive riffs and sweeping melodies, I’m immediately absorbed into the experience with every listen” (Eldritch Elitist).
#19. Opeth // The Last Will and Testament – “From the sophisticated compositions to the entertaining story, and the exemplary instrumentation to the immaculate production, its knotty harmonization of death metal with progressive rock has the aura of perfection” (El Cuervo).
#18. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – “Hardcore-tinged technical death metal for fans of the discordant and the unorthodox, Infinite Mortality is supremely memorable not just for its sound, but for its infallible, hook-laden construction” (Kenstrosity).
#17. Dissimulator // Lower Form Resistance – “The exemplary instrumentation, chaotic energy, and technological feel make Lower Form Resistance sound like Voivod reinvented for the 2020s. In a sub-genre so preoccupied with rehashing old ideas – I do not accept that thrash metal must sound like 1986 – Dissimulator thrives by looking forward” (El Cuervo).
#16. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – “While it’s ‘merely’ black metal, its gorgeous melodies and shrilling tremolos showcase the genre at its finest… The most heart-rending record of 2024, Despondency Chord Progressions showcases the paralyzing power of music” (Maddog).
#15. Hell:on // Shaman – “Hell:on’s mix of death metal, throat-singing, ritualistic rhythms, and Eastern instrumentation makes me feel like I’m trapped within some infernal combination of a death metal concert and a Witcher III boss fight… No other album felt as spiritually dense to me in a year where I’ve fought to find my own personal peace” (Holdeneye).
#14. In Vain // Solemn – “The infinitely versatile vocal performances across the board are my favorite aspect, but Solemn ticks nearly every other box on my metal wishlist too. Catchy yet complex guitar lines, horn sections, a dreamy saxophone solo, string orchestrations… In Vain has perfected their sound” (Killjoy).
#13. Huntsmen // The Dry Land – “Every track is a journey in and of itself, and the diversity is immense. The Dry Land has become one of those albums where I can’t put it on without finishing it entirely; I’ll just keep going ‘Oh yes the next song has these awesome mournful vocals’ or ‘Ah here comes that mindblowing transition.’” (GardensTale).
#12. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – “Men Guðs hond er sterk is tight, it’s heavy—though not as heavy as its predecessor—but more importantly it’s complete and brilliant and my Record o’ the Year for 2024’” (Angry Metal Guy).
#11. Meer // Wheels within Wheels – “Wheels within Wheels is my new go-to album when things are bad—it is melancholic and angry, but also optimistic and hopeful, a delicate yet gorgeous balance that speaks to me… It’s like a hand outstretched, a friend with an ear always ready to listen.” (Twelve).
#10. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – [#3, #6, #6, #8, #9, #HM, #HM] – Only just nudging into the top ten by virtue of its seven list placements, Chronicles of Lunacy by Defeated Sanity is the standard-bearer for the death metal onslaught that follows. Forging a singular path that’s both punishingly technical and punishingly brutal, Ferox comments that “it takes extreme skill to weaponize the base and the stoopid this effectively. Defeated Sanity is more than up for the job.” Not only unique but uniquely consistent, Dolphin Whisperer likens the band to “an apex predator in the brutal death metal world. Defeated Sanity’s appearance arouses not questions of competency but rather calculations of the carnage wrought… Chronicles’ fangs glisten with an aged-imbrued tarnish, tearing at my flesh in every way I would expect.” Not all music can proclaim success through violence but Chronicles of Lunacy makes this its goal.
#9. Brodequin // Harbinger of Woe – [#1, #1, #3, #4, #HM] – 2024 was an exciting time for Knoxville’s Brodequin, just as it was for the latest class of AMG n00bs. No fewer than two of our most promising suckers graduates picked Harbinger of Woe as their album o’ the year.5 Alekhines Gun eloquently describes how it’s a “glorious return for one of the brutal death forerunners… an artistic triumph, a masterclass in riff-craft and song assembly with the sole purpose of flattening the listener into eardrum-flavored toothpaste.” Tyme likewise highlights the guitars, emphasizing that “each brutal riff after riff after riff sated my thirst for emotional release this year and so I hail them, Brodequin, and their riffs.” And though Holdeneye doesn’t focus on the riffs, he nonetheless acknowledges Brodequin’s energizing impact: “Harbinger of Woe’s 30-minute runtime is so bludgeoning that my watch sometimes registers my listening sessions as cardio.” It was never so easy to get fit.
#8. Fellowship // The Skies above Eternity – [#1, #3, #3, #7, #8, #9] – I absolutely love the colorful, cheery presence of Fellowship among the burly death metal otherwise crushing this top ten. I even went to the (low) effort of generating this image to best visualize this association. The Skies above Eternity continues to offer some of the most uplifting and heartfelt power metal ever conceived. Noting its “fantastic songs and endearingly honest positivity,” Sentynel concludes that “there was pretty much no chance The Skies above Eternity wasn’t going to land high up my list.” Clinching his top spot, Eldritch Elitist reckons that the record “excels through consistency and conciseness. The band’s trademark earnestness, vulnerability, and impeccable sense of melodic craft can be felt in every second of the experience. This album may be a 4.0 in my brain, but it’s a 4.5 in my heart and a 5.0 in my soul.” You like joy right?6
#7. Iotunn // Kinship – [#1, #3, #4, #4, #8, #ish, #HM] – Dissatisfied with just one Angry Metal aggregated listing, the stand-out Iotunn return three years after their debut with an offering of progressive, melodic death metal. Kenstrosity takes a wide view over the album’s assets, being “the gorgeous compositions, ascendant guitar work, ridiculous replay value, and stellar vocals.” Despite these qualities, GardensTale recognizes that not all of these tracks were created equal. He opines that the lengthy closer is disappointing, but “the songwriting on the best couple of tracks here is simply unparalleled. ‘Mistland,’ ‘The Coming End’ and especially ‘Earth to Sky’ are just massive in a way few bands ever achieve.” Awarding his album o’ the year, Doom et Al rejects the criticism that Kinship is too long; “the songs are exactly as long as they need to be… The result is ethereal, complex, spiritually satisfying prog-death.”
#6. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – [#1, #1, #4, #4, #7, #HM] – The mighty Kronos may be dormant but his legacy remains through reverence for Pyrrhon. Exhaust boasts an “off-the-deep-end brand of experimental death metal” that is “mellifluous and disgusting, rifftastic and immersive” (Maddog). It’s an arcane, impenetrable sort of music, with Dolphin Whisperer articulating this better than I ever could: “Exhaust demands attention from its initial irony-laced lift-off to its closing brutalist clock-out, swinging skronk-enabled splatters and ache-addled vituperation around every faded line and pothole in its death metal architecture.” Both he and Felagund awarded it their album o’ the year, though the latter focused on its potent theme: “on an album that thoroughly explores the universal theme of exhaustion, be it physical, mental, social, or economic, Pyrrhon’s brand of noise-tinged death metal feels like the ideal tool with which to scrawl their livid manifesto.” There are few acts as inspired as this one.
#5. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – [#3, #4, #4, #4, #4, #6] – Despite failing to win a list placement higher than #3, Devenial Verdict hit our aggregated list with their immense Blessing of Despair. What type of death metal does it brandish? Carcharodon writes “I enjoy the stomping thuggery of Devenial Verdict’s dissonant death well enough [but] it’s the sudden mood swings into what Thus Spoke described as ‘lethally graceful restraint’ that really hooked me.” Accordingly, Cherd admires the “thoughtful transitions and atmospherics… It’s just that Blessing of Despair HAZ THE RIFFS, including my favorite death metal riff of the year.” It’s this blend of heavy and light that best characterizes Blessing of Despair; “the slick mixture of mournful melody and menacing, barked growls; neck-snapping flicks of cymbal, and those resonant, aggressive chord progressions make for—almost—my favorite take on death metal” (Thus Spoke). You’ll struggle to hear more dynamic death metal this year.
#4. Aborted // Vault of Horrors – [#2, #2, #3, #4, #6, #6] – If the last couple of entries in this article experiment with death metal’s musical extremity, then Aborted have always taken a markedly simpler approach. “Blood-drenched, gore-soaked, and happily grindy, Aborted are in a league all their own… The music [builds] a menacing atmosphere that pervades only the stickiest of grindhouse theaters (Felagund). Endorsing the horror, Dear Hollow comments that “Vault of Horrors kicks serious ass. Ripping tempos, bludgeoning riffs, and an unhinged technicality align for an album deserving of the act’s reputation.” Relentless riffs and a hellish host of guest vocalists help each track to stand apart, and even the cantakerous Dr. A.N. Grier agrees that “with tracks like “Dreadbringer,” “The Golgothan,” and “Malevolent Haze,” this new release offers some incredible depth and relentless brutality.” If you like gory, grindy death metal you need look no further than Aborted.
#3. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – [#1, #2, #2, #5, #6, #6, #10, #HM] – Perhaps the greatest surprise of the year was the interminably brutal but interminably intriguing Violence Inherent in the System by debutants, Noxis. Maddog characterizes it as a “remarkable blend of old and new. The album’s stomping riffs and popping snare drum root it in 1990s brutal death metal. Conversely, its exuberantly grimy bass tone, its proggy rhythms, and its surprise woodwind extravaganza feel unabashedly modern.” This dichotomy of styles is developed further by Saunders: “raw and unclean, technical and brutal, thrashy and proggy, sharp and refined, Noxis blaze their way craftily through memorable, riff-infested wastelands with unbridled aggression, speed, and finesse.” Capping his list with this album, Ferox concludes that the varied tools result in songs that are all “a wild ride that alternately crushes, challenges, and tickles… and somehow they do with zero pretension and abundant commitment to brutality.”7
#2. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – [#1, #2, #3, #6, #6, #6, #7, #9, #9] – Kanonenfieber enjoys the great honor of being AMG.com’s only 5.0 rating in 2024 on the incomparable Die Urkatastrophe. Despite the fact that He “would not necessarily have chosen to listen to [it], Die Urkatastrophe is a powerful album that walks the line between black and death metal [and like] so many of the best albums is both thematically coherent and full of individual standout moments” (Angry Metal Guy). And while Sentynel is normally averse to particularly brutal metal, “the craft [of an incredible vocal performance, sharp melodic writing and a weighty story] drew me in anyway.” However, no one loved Die Urkatastrophe like Carcharodon, so I’ll let him finish this: “It has everything and is more than I dared hope for as a follow-up to my beloved Menschenmühle… It is brutal, vicious [and] anthemic [but] it is the storytelling that elevates this record to the next level.”
#1. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – [#1, #2, #2, #3, #4, #4, #5, #7, #8, #HM] — Collecting the most top five list selections, Cutting the Throat of God comfortably out-muscled its competition as AMG.com’s favorite album o’ the year. Both Dear Hollow and Cherd cite Ulcerate’s newfound humanity on this record as one of its key qualities. The former writes that it constitutes “the vicious and the ethereal blended into unspoken horror, with meditations ranging from the frantic to the morbid,” while the latter opines that “there [is] something warmer and more human to what I had previously considered a rather detached style… [it’s’] like dream-walking through a hedge maze.” But it’s our resident Ulcerate fangirl that best loved the record so she will conclude this piece: “Distilling the tension and the turmoil into tidal forces of incredible rhythm, and dark, brilliant melody with Cutting the Throat of God, Ulcerate reach transcendence… This is atmospheric death metal perfected” (Thus Spoke).
#2024 #Aborted #Brodequin #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #Dissimulator #Fellowship #Hamferð #HellOn #Huntsmen #InVain #Iotunn #Kanonenfieber #Meer #NemedianChronicles #Noxis #Opeth #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Selbst #Ulcerate
El Cuervo’s, GardensTale’s, and Eldritch Elitist’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By El Cuervo
El Cuervo
After more than a decade in this job, the years start to blur. While there may be an almost imperceptible feeling that some years are musically stronger than others, I’ve started to reach the realization that they’re all basically the same. 99% of heavy metal spawned into the world is destined to be forgotten or disparaged.
That’s not to say I’m bored of this state of affairs. The metal community, and in particular its underground, remains in a robust position to peddle the best non-mainstream music in the world, boasting a wide array of sub-genres from all over the globe. Just look at my list below: nine of the selections are from the atypical regions of Northern Europe and North America, hitherto unknown for their metal output.
Nonetheless, it’s the year-to-year consistency that highlights the importance of gathering our thoughts at annual intervals to assemble a list of real quality. This process reminds me why I still spend hundreds of hours each year consuming and reviewing new music. These stand-outs justify my decision and I deeply enjoy commemorating them in this ranking extravaganza. Revel in the albums that most excited me in 2024.
#10. A Burial at Sea // Close to Home – As much as music may impress you with its technical chops or hook you with its bold melodies, it’s music that makes you feel something that endures. The idiosyncratic brand of post-rock heard on Close to Home, dipping into brassy jazz and techy math rock as much as it does shoegaze, always prioritizes its emotive impact above all else. I love the gentle lilt, the crashing apices, the shimmering walls of noise, the orchestral edges. A Burial at Sea ebbs with slow rhythms and delicate chords, but flows with heavy drums and tremolo-picked melodies. The natural cadence across tracks makes the album feel complete. Each year yields one or two ‘mood’ releases for me to savor in a dark room with my headphones and my thoughts; 2024’s is Close to Home.
#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – As much as I initially enjoyed Die Urkatastrophe as a studio album, it took the Kanonenfieber live experience to really get its hooks into me. This isn’t just blackened death metal. It’s theatrical, energetic, and catchy, without devolving into something as simple as ‘meloblack’. The shout-along choruses and grooving leads were accentuated in a live setting, and I was incentivized to dig back through the Kanonenfieber back catalog. But the gig wouldn’t have been as entertaining as it was without the underlying music being of high quality. I’ve been to plenty of shows which have encouraged me to revisit an artist – but where the studio release is far less potent. Die Urkatastrophe has the chops and power to excel in both formats.
#8. Aquilus// Bellum II – Lots of black metal adopts the adjective of ‘atmospheric’ but few come as close to this as Aquilus. Horace Rosenqvist forges music that harmonizes but transcends classical and black metal, beguiling and terrifying in equal measure. Bellum II may be marginally the lesser of Bellum I, but it’s still among the best music released this year. Its compositions are extraordinary, as they subtly and satisfyingly transition from delicate piano and strings to towering black metal blasts. This is the prime example of the album’s devastating dichotomies that I previously described (“elegance and savagery; serenity and chaos; airiness and crunch”). Rosenqvist is a singularly mesmerizing instrumentalist and composer, able to pull contrasting music into a brutal but beautiful whole.
#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – It’s hard to conceive of a more metal homeland than the Faroe Islands. Cold? Dark? Remote? Check, check, check. This results in Hamferð’s frigid, towering block of death-inflected doom metal that owes as much to its isolated island roots as it does to any other metal band. Men Guðs hond er sterk is a crushingly heavy album, but one gilded with a hopeful edge derived from its concept wherein a survivor of a whaling accident emphasizes the miracle of his life. While prioritizing the sheer weight of mass and exquisitely despondent leads, the album also benefits from one of metal’s most talented vocalists in Jón Aldará, who runs the gamut from bellowing growls to melancholic croons. Though it runs out of steam by the gentle acoustic conclusion, the preceding thirty-nine minutes are monumental.
#6. Blood Incantation // Absolute Elsewhere – Blood Incantation is plainly an excellent band. But I’m struggling to explain why Absolute Elsewhere became the underground cross-over metal album of the year, favored by big and small publications alike. Perhaps it’s the savage but technical riffs that make you mosh and think simultaneously. Perhaps it’s the Floydian approach to song structures. Perhaps it’s the penchant for meandering, Tangerine Dreamy interludes. Perhaps it’s the sophisticated fusion of something heavy so listeners feel edgy, with something chill so listeners feel safe. Perhaps it’s the conspiratorial orientation around our alien overlords building the pyramids. Perhaps it’s all of these and more. Hmm. On reflection, I think I do understand why everyone loves Absolute Elsewhere as much as they do.
#5. Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – We all know that doom is the worst core metal sub-genre. To my abject horror, 2024 saw not one but two excellent examples of it. Crypt Sermon stormed the top five of my list, folding excellent leads and engaging solos into some of the most captivating metal of the year. While the front half is good, it’s the back half where things hit another level. “Heavy Is the Crown of Bone” until the title track exemplifies the best of the sub-genre through their epic proportions, memorable melodies and fat, crunchy guitar tones. While the riffs have immediate impact, the detailed compositions give the songs real staying power. Layers of guitars, a tempo that eschews dirge speeds, varied vocals and progressive song constructions march the album to a conclusion that comes too quickly.
#4. Syst3m Glitch // The Brave Ones – The remainder of this list documents my love for heavy metal and all things progressive. But synthwave is the third pillar of my music library and the most joyous. The best of the year comes from Florida’s Syst3m Glitch. He’s not always been my first pick for synths, but The Brave Ones dramatically outperformed his prior output and muscled its way into my favorite albums from 2024. It’s stuffed full of catchy, memorable tunes that traverse the synthwave soundscape, from the pop-laced sweetness of “California,” to the pulsing rhythms of “Thrill Ride,” to the darksynth pastiche of “Tommy Danger,” and finally to the smooth retrowave of “Raining in Tokyo.” It’s rare for one release to cover this much territory, and rarer still that it’s so successful in doing so.
#3. Dissimulator // Lower Form Resistance – February is early in the year but I knew then that Lower Form Resistance would be high on my list. Dissimulator inherits death metal traits from the members’ other bands (including Beyond Creation and First Fragment) but builds these into uber-tight, technical thrash metal. The excellence of the riffs here is fucking relentlessness; no other 2024 release can boast such a fine repertoire. From the ridiculously good “Neural Hack” until the closer, the album generates such entertainment value that it feels half as long as it is. The exemplary instrumentation, chaotic energy and technological feel make Lower Form Resistance sound like Voivod reinvented for the 2020s. In a sub-genre so preoccupied with rehashing old ideas – I do not accept that thrash metal must sound like 1986 – Dissimulator thrives by looking forward.
#2. In Vain // Solemn – It’s no secret that I’m a prog nerd. While In Vain has always been plenty progressive through varied and unpredictable songwriting, what I envy most is the knack for incorporating myriad styles into one cohesive sound. Solemn follows two prior records demarcated by their fusions of melodic death metal, black metal, progressive rock, and Nordic folk music. This fusion has never been more seamless than it is in 2024. The expansive songs feel like they should be extremely long and complex but in reality, they hardly exceed seven minutes and utilize powerful melodic anchors. As if all this wasn’t enough, the quintessential In Vain guitar and vocal harmonies, and orchestral pomp, elevate the songs into metal magic. Solemn is pure Cuervo catnip.
#1. Opeth // The Last Will and Testament – It feels like I’ve spent much of the last few months describing just how much I admire Opeth. This year-end list is no exception as I properly rank The Last Will and Testament as 2024’s best release. With the Opeth ranking articles so recent, I think it would fall into the upper half of their work. In a discography littered with records revered by both metalheads and prog nerds, this demarcates a record of rare quality. Though – yes – Åkerfeldt returns to growled vocals here, this is just a small piece of what makes The Last Will and Testament so good. From the sophisticated compositions to the entertaining story, and the exemplary instrumentation to the immaculate production, its knotty harmonization of death metal with progressive rock has the aura of perfection. No other record from 2024 can make such a claim.
Honorable Mentions
Songs o’ the Year
GardensTale
Fucking hell, what a year. Ordinarily, I’d try and wax poetically on the passing of time or some shit here. Looking back with melancholy and whatnot seems to be the intention for opening paragraphs to arbitrary lists of what music this one rando that I happen to be got the most enjoyment from this year. But I think this time, I’ll try some brutal honesty instead. It’s not been a great year overall. I won’t bore you with a tedious list, numbering my shades of the various common mental issues people my age and disposition face, but suffice it to say I’ve closed out most prior years in better spirits. But I’m getting help, I’m fighting it, and I’m learning. Learning to give myself grace, to step back when I need to. And if that sometimes means slowing down on a review, well, it’s a small price to pay.
One consequence is that I have spent less time listening to music I wasn’t reviewing. That shows below because this list will look like the most self-congratulatory thing I ever wrote. The vast majority of entries I penned myself, be it as a full article, a TYMHM or even a filter entry. But the funny part is, I thought it was a really strong year! I had quite a sizeable shortlist to whittle down. But then I was done whittling and discovered I’d almost exclusively cut albums I did not review, like APES, Crypt Sermon and Hamferð for instance. Additionally, I find I’ve added less to the list in the second half of the year, and my sullied brain has questioned myself many times: was autumn weaker than usual, or is my growing ennui obstructing my ability to like things as much as they deserve?
I don’t know, to tell the truth. And I’m unlikely to find out, because time marches on and new releases darken the horizon of January even now. There are only so many hours in the day, so much music hitting the virtual marketplaces and streaming colossi. To give each year its proper due would take 5 years, or having no job or other hobbies. So I can’t give you a fair, balanced and complete list of the best records of the year, because I do have a job and other hobbies, and no time machine. I can only give you the records that made me feel good. I hope they made or will make you feel good, too.
(ish). Dool // The Shape of Fluidity — I’ve been aware of Dool for a while now, even before vocalist Raven van Dorst became a national television personality. But it wasn’t until I caught “Venus in Flames” on the metal radio station in the car that I became interested in their music. The Shape of Fluidity crystallizes Van Dorst’s lifelong struggle with identity into a fierce, defiant, and intensely personal album. The androgynous vocals sizzle with raw emotion, and the instrumentation is likewise fluid in its presentation, swaying from almost post-punk energy to Anathema-adjacent prog and dipping into epic doom. An excellent album that really puts Dool on the map.
10. Alcest // Les Chants de l’Aurore — Here’s a fun fact: I always thought Souvenirs d’un Autre Monde wasn’t Alcest’s first album. It was the first album of theirs I heard, but since about 97 out of 100 bands that evolve their sound go softer rather than harder, I assumed there was something more extreme preceding it. Alcest tends to do things differently, though, changing things up rather radically from album to album. Les Chants de l’Aurore has elements from many of its older siblings, but the mood it sets is such a beautiful warm summer melancholy, it sets it apart in a very special way. And seeing it performed live a few weeks ago was a very special experience that seared the album in my mind.
9. Madder Mortem // Old Eyes, New Heart — No, I’ll never stop proselytizing Madder Mortem, why do you ask? Old Eyes, New Heart wasn’t what I expected, yet in many ways was just what I needed, and was strangely prophetic at times. It’s the most intensely personal album from the Norwegians (which is saying something) and through the healing power of shared misery, sitting down with it is like a good session with a therapist.
8. 40 Watt Sun // Little Weight — Patrick Walker could sing me The Cat In The Hat and I’d still feel like weeping. I’m not sure the man could earn anything below a 4.0 from me if he tried. That being said, Little Weight still takes a spot by the sunny window that 40 Watt Sun hasn’t explored before. Where Perfect Light and Wider Than the Sky were steeped in sadness, Little Weight expels it. It might be the most hopeful album I’ve heard this year, a return to the light from the deepest darkest places. It’s been a comforting hug on bad days, a warm blanket to fight the cold.
7. Walg // IV — The second year in a row I get to feature this duo. Walg is quickly becoming one of my favorite black metal bands. IV fits any mood, really. It’s got anger, it’s got despair, but it also has enough catchy tunes and energy for when you’re in a good mood. You can play the whole thing start to finish, and you can pick out your favorites and stick ‘em in a playlist. As such, it’s been this year’s ol’ reliable, the album to return to when nothing else sparks joy.
6. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe — If I had a nickel for every time an acclaimed blackened death metal band exclusively used historically accurate World War I accounts and even performed in uniform, I’d have two nickels. It’s kind of difficult for me to mentally separate Kanonenfieber and 1914 for obvious reasons. Luckily there is space for both in the trenches because Noise’s project has become a mean Menschen mühling machine. “Der Maulwurf” grabbed me by the throat from the first spin, and everything else followed over and over again. Epic, bludgeoning and harrowing.
5. Labyrinthus Stellarum // Vortex of the Worlds — I can’t stop playing this album. It is stuck in my algorithm. The bleeps and bloops that summon Hastur from the depths of space and time live in my head and they do not pay rent. How did two kids1 from a war-torn country manage this? Labyrinthus Stellarum is so goddamn good at composing addictive melodies in 4 dimensions it should be considered unfair. The only reason it’s not higher is because at this point the competition becomes even more unfair.
4. Iotunn // Kinship — A lot of people told me in the comments that the closing track on Kinship is a great song and shouldn’t have affected my rating of the album as a whole. They are wrong on both counts. This is a shame because up to that point, this is the album of the year. Earning what amounts to a 4.495 despite a disappointing closer is an incredible feat, but the songwriting on the best couple of tracks here is simply unparalleled. “Mistland,” “The Coming End” and especially “Earth to Sky” are just massive in a way few bands ever achieve, and Iotunn make it seem effortless.
3. Vredehammer // God Slayer — One improvement to my life is that I am returning semi-regularly to the gym these days. I’ve struggled with working out consistently, but I can usually get a session a week in these days. And my number one companion for these outings has been God Slayer. The bridge in the title track alone gives me enough energy to break whatever personal record I’ll be working on at the time. Just looking at the album art gives me an extra pound of gains for the week.
2. Meer // Wheels Within Wheels — Yeah, it’s not really metal, but it’s proggy and it’s fucking gorgeous so up yours, elitists! I’ve come to the opinion that Norway is simply the best country for prog in general, and Meer is just another notch in that belt. Whereas Playing House didn’t really grab me at the time, I couldn’t stop spinning Wheels Within Wheels. I had to start every day with “Come to Light” for a while, and the climax of that track is so uniquely empowering it’d help beat down whatever funk I found myself in at the time. The symphonic composition and multi-vocal approach are just beautiful and it truly does not get old. Meer has outdone itself.
1. Huntsmen // The Dry Land — I’ve had multiple comeback stories this year. Outside of metal, both Elbow and That Handsome Devil returned with fantastic albums after the last was simply disappointing. The biggest comeback and biggest surprise was, without a doubt, Huntsmen. Mandala of Fear was such a slog, I could never have expected the perfect tight flow of The Dry Land. Every track is a journey in and of itself, and the diversity is immense. The Dry Land has become one of those albums where I can’t put it on without finishing it entirely; I’ll just keep going ‘Oh yes the next song has these awesome mournful vocals’ or ‘Ah here comes that mindblowing transition.’ It’s been a great year for metal and music in general, but the way Huntsmen returned from the grave and far surpassed even their vaunted debut was the absolute peak for me, and it has not since been surpassed by any other release.
Honorable Mentions
Non-Metal Albums
This is a metal blog, despite our occasional forays into tangential material like Meer. But several of my favorite non-metal artists all released some excellent albums, and considering the year I’ve had and the state of the world, I’d rather end with some positivity for the open-minded among you, who are secure enough in their trveness to partake in some decidedly vntrve yet excellent releases.
Songs o’ the Year
Eldritch Elitist
Huh. It’s apparently been four fucking years since I last penned a proper 2 Records o’ the Year list for Angry Metal Guy. This time last year, I wasn’t sure whether I’d be contributing such a list ever again. I still love this blog and the music we celebrate, but making regular contributions to AMG requires a not-insignificant time investment, and I’ve found myself spread ever-thinner over the years. And then January happened, in which a startling number of fantastic releases in that month alone resulted in the crystallization of a single goal: To make 2024 my most complete year of musical indulgence to date. If there was an album released that even slightly piqued my interest in a given week, I was going to find time to listen to it, ideally to completion. This resolve resulted in so many discoveries that I could have penned Top Ten Records o’ the Month articles for multiple months of 2024.
When I say “multiple months,” I really mean “January through March”, as my momentum dwindled when mid-April rolled around. Compounding factors between life and work suddenly left me with much less time in which to indulge in new music. Once I fell behind, I quickly realized that it would be virtually impossible to keep up the listening schedule I had set for myself, and subsequently gave up the ghost. As badly as I wanted to contribute the most confidently comprehensive year-end list possible, this list might as well be titled “Eldritch Elitist’s Top 10 Records o’ Q1 2024 & Friends”. Lopsided though it may be, that’s no excuse to not take a legitimate stab at a list at all, especially not when comments like this keep rolling in… Wait, why the hell has that guy been hanging around the AMG break room? Christ, I really need to work on staying in the loop around here. Anyway, here’s some albums I like; no -ishs, HMs, or butts about it.
#10. Cruce Signatus // Cruce Signatus – While Cruce Signatus sits at the bottom of my top 10, I have listened to it more than any other record this year outside of my number 1 pick. It’s become a go-to record to throw on thanks to its instrumental nature and soundtrack-like ebb and flow. More than that, Cruce Signatus’ unique blend of metal and synthwave is legitimately compelling, feeling distinct from similar acts as an actual soundtrack to an in-progress animation project. The downside is that this record feels partially complete because it literally is. The upside is that the experience of listening to this record will surely evolve retroactively as this project continues, and in the meantime, I’ll remain content to absorb one of the most ambitious cross-media offerings of 2024.
#9. Myrath // Karma – The release of Karma marked my first prolonged exposure to Myrath, and while I don’t adore it as heavily as some of my AMG colleagues, it remained in heavy rotation throughout 2024 all the same. Karma is an uncommonly proficient slab of pop metal, one that smartly leverages its latent progressive and folk metal leanings in sublimely bombastic fashion. It lacks variety, but Myrath navigates Karma’s narrow aesthetic with such precision as to maximize its scope, resulting in an album that compels through efficiency. Ultimately, the most important quality of any pop record is its ability to lodge its hooks into my brain, and I have had every single one of these songs stuck in my head many times throughout the year. If that kind of recurring impact isn’t worthy of a spot on this list, I don’t know what is.
#8. Soulmass // Principality of Mechanical Violence – Despite Soulmass’ previous LP basing its concept on my favorite video game, Principality of Mechanical Violence hit me way harder despite unfamiliarity with its source material. My knowledge of Gundam may only go so far as that handsome blonde fellow in red who apparently did nothing wrong, but I do know that this Gundam concept album rocks unlike any other Soulmass record. It largely culls the band’s moodier death/doom passages in favor of concise riffage, yet is also densely melodic, neatly slotting melancholic guitar leads alongside meaty riffs that echo Bolt Thrower and Cannibal Corpse. The resulting listening experience is equally absorbing and exhilarating, enticing me to get in the robot time and time again.
#7. Mega Colossus // Showdown – Mega Colossus just gets it. Not once in my years of listening to this band have I gotten a sense that they are trying to recapture the heyday of traditional metal, or otherwise be anything in the moment other than themselves. Showdown further cements my impression, as it sees Mega Colossus reaching ever further into their bottomless bag of nerd fixations. The resulting songs cover topical ground ranging from Porco Rosso to Mad Max: Fury Road, but more importantly, they masterfully weave inspirations as far-reaching as Kansas and Megadeth into their core aesthetic of Iron Maiden-inspired trad metal. Combine the playfully loose hold on genre convention with Mega Colossus’ ever-effusive lyrics, and you have one of the most purely entertaining records of the year from one of the best modern bands in the genre.
#6. Black Curse // Burning in Celestial Poison – Unlike other albums on this list, I have not returned to Burning in Celestial Poison to reconfirm its standing. Call me irresponsible, but I must emphasize that my memory and impression of this record – one formed after multiple days of consecutive spins – remains fully crystalized in my mind. Black Curse’s sophomore outing is one that continues to linger in the darker corners of my mind, a wholly unique vision of blackened death metal that, while not as traditionally thrilling as the band’s debut, is more than the sum of its parts. That “more” manifests as an incorporeal malefic entity seemingly possessing motives independent of the artists who spawned it. Burning in Celestial Poison feels like a living, breathing work, one which unsettles as much as it entices.
#5. Oak, Ash & Thorn // Our Grief is Thus – Our Grief is Thus is one of those albums that feels made specifically for me, with power metal vocals and melodeath riffage wrapped in an overarching aesthetic of black metal, folk metal, and crust punk. Beyond gifting me the forbidden knowledge that power metal with d-beats can and does work, it’s also a generally excellent example of effective genre splicing, feeling as though it belongs in both all and none of the styles from which it cleverly pulls inspiration. What Oak, Ash & Thorn has accomplished with this sophomore outing is an explosively energetic yet cohesive record, and one so melodically effervescent as to be compulsively replayable. Our Grief is Thus is the most surprising record of 2024, and I am firmly seated on the OAT boat for whatever comes next.
#4. Madder Mortem // Old Eyes, New Heart – Madder Mortem is a name I’ve heard tossed around since 2009, and who I never bothered to check out because I thought they were some sorta high falutin’, artsy fartsy doom metal band. That may have been the case once upon a time, but at some point they evolved into the accessible sort of dark progressive metal showcased on Old Eyes, New Heart. Immediately gripping and heavy yet disarmingly vulnerable, this record converted me to Madder Mortem fandom almost instantly. Its songs wormed their way under my skin with atomic precision and never left; as early as my third listen, they felt like old friends, albeit ones prone to trauma dumping. There may be records I liked more in 2024, but none moved or shook me quite like Old Eyes, New Heart.
#3. Galneryus // The Stars Will Light the Way – I’ve read dozens of comments all parroting a mildly irksome take: The Stars Will Light the Way feels like Galneryus on cruise control. While this has mostly been opined through a positive lens, it still feels unfairly reductive when considering the sheer quality and consistency of this album. Sure, Sho’s voice is notably strained at this point, but he excels at utilizing his current strengths in the strongest collection of Galneryus tracks since 2014’s Vetelgyus. It’s also the most straightforward record Galneryus has released since Vetelgyus, nixing much of the experimentation and darker leanings of recent offerings (“In Water’s Gaze” notwithstanding) in favor of unbridled jubilance. So yeah, sure, The Stars Will Light the Way is a “safe” record if you want to call it that. It’s still one of the best records from the best power metal band in the world.
#2. Nemedian Chronicles // The Savage Sword – I can hardly believe that Nemedian Chronicles is not a Greek band. They sound so in step with acts like Sacred Outcry that I can practically feel the lamb and tzatziki sauce falling out of an overloaded gyro and onto my lap. Yet the appeal of Nemedian Chronicles is singular. There is a lot of love for Blind Guardian and Sacred Outcry on The Savage Sword, but there is also a distinctly epic, cinematic quality that hearkens back to Bal-Sagoth’s overwrought storytelling. Between the propulsive riffs and sweeping melodies, I’m immediately absorbed into the experience with every listen, and that’s to say nothing of the engaging and often unpredictable songwriting. In most years, The Savage Sword would handily take the crown for best power metal release. However…
#1. Fellowship // The Skies Above Eternity – You know that little bit of text under my review of The Skies Above Eternity that says “Rating: 4.0/5.0?” That number is technically correct per the AMG style guide, but what that number can’t account for is the fact that The Skies Above Eternity is a record I’ll be listening to for the rest of my life. 2022’s The Saberlight Chronicles is a true 5.0/5.0 by any objective or subjective metric, and while The Skies Above Eternity is not as good from a technical standpoint, it fully recaptures the strengths that made its predecessor a modern power metal icon. Fellowship’s debut may have had higher and more frequent peaks, but The Skies Above Eternity excels through consistency and conciseness. The band’s trademark earnestness, vulnerability, and impeccable sense of melodic craft can be felt in every second of the experience. It doesn’t matter whether this record is the best material Fellowship is capable of producing because it warms me in the exact same way they’ve been doing since their first EP, making The Skies Above Eternity one of my most treasured records by default. This album may be a 4.0 in my brain, but it’s a 4.5 in my heart and a 5.0 in my soul.
Song o’ the Year
Fellowship’s “Hold Up Your Hearts (Again)” – I was present in the audience when Fellowship debuted this song live, and everyone was so on board with the silliness of its title that we enthusiastically welcomed it into the Fellowship canon with a communal sea of heart hands. It doesn’t top “Glint” as my favorite Fellowship song, but its concentrated formula of speedy Euro-power metal and the lyrics’ pitch-perfect shonen anime energy handily clear second place status.
Disappointment o’ the Year
Various “Artists” – The Continued Proliferation of Crappy AI Album “Art” – This blog has not adopted a formal stance on albums featuring generative AI artwork, nor do I feel it needs to. But this is my list, and I’m taking the opportunity to say that if I get so much as a whiff of AI coming off of an album going into 2025, I won’t be giving it the time of day, much less a review. It is unfathomable to think some musicians can devote so much time and creative energy into creating an album, only to hold zero value in the image that is supposed to be introducing that album to the world. In fact, if an album features an AI-generated cover, I automatically assume that the devaluation of art permeates the music itself in some form. Either pay a fucking artist to create an album cover for you, or go outside to take a picture of a cool tree or something and slap a Photoshop filter on it. If that proves too difficult, the public domain is your friend. If it’s good enough for Bolt Thrower, it’s sure as hell good enough for your shitty bedroom black metal project.
#2024 #40WattSun #ABurialAtSea #Alcest #andEldritchElitistSTopTenIshOf2024 #Aquilus #At1980 #Beardfish #BlackCurse #BloodIncantation #CruceSignatus #CryptSermon #Dissimulator #Dool #ElCuervoS #Fellowship #Galneryus #GardensTaleS #Hamferð #Huntsmen #InVain #Iotunn #Kalax #Kanonenfieber #LabyrinthusStellarum #Lists #Listurnalia #MadderMortem #Meer #MegaColossus #Monkey3 #MorgulBlade #Myrath #NemedianChronicles #OakAshThorn #Opeth #Selbst #Sidewinder #SleepytimeGorillaMuseum #Soulmass #Syst3mGlitch #TheVisionBleak #Vredehammer #Walg
Carcharodon and Cherd’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Carcharodon
Carcharodon
I’ve been writing here since 2018. This has been the hardest year to date. I feel like I say this every year right around this time but, for whatever reason, I’ve really struggled this year to find the motivation and inspiration to write. Indeed, I’ve often felt that I lacked the passion for the music. Rather than exploring the murkier depths of Bandcamp, I was often to be found in the company of old, non-metal friends like Nick Cave, 16 Horsepower and Tom Waits.
Despite my disappointment with the world, most of which is on literal or metaphorical fire, and my disillusionment with people, whose choices have caused most of that, there were bright glimmers. The phenomenal response to our Gondor-esque call for aid, when Kenstrosity‘s life was ripped apart by Hurricane Helene, reassured me there are still a few good people out there, a good number of whom read this blog.
Still, I managed to turn out a few reviews this year, including my first ever 5.0—more of which below—which was worth it for the Steel Ire it evoked alone. And there was the Fifteenalia, a celebration the like of which we will not see again (for obvious reasons), which I had the honour of steering from questionable inception to creaky delivery.
Ironically, despite my struggles on the writing front, This Place has played a significant part in keeping me sane. It’s been tolerable to welcome a few new staffers—some even raised up from the awful Place Below—to our serried ranks, while the older hands feel almost like family at this point, with everything that that entails. As ever, particular thanks go to Steel Druhm for his tireless intimidation, which just about keeps us honest, while Dolph, Dear Hollow, El Cuervo, Grier, Maddog, Sentynel and Thus Spoke, among others, have proved adequate companions for banter and gigs.
And with that, I wish you all the happiest of Listurnalias.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – A very late entry to this list, Pillar of Light should be a cautionary tale to bands and labels: release your shit earlier! With more time, the stunning Amenra-meets-Cult of Luna post-misery of Caldera could easily have placed in the top half of this list. While I know this is an album I will come to love and fully expect to regret not placing it higher here, the reality is that other entries have had longer to sink their hooks into me. I will just say that, for me, the apparently divisive vocals are a perfect fit for Pillar of Light’s style.
#10. Seth // La France des Maudits – Way back when,1 French black metallers Seth snuck onto my list of Honorable Mentions with La Morsure du Christ, a fantastic return to form after a lengthy absence. After a short gap, they’re back and this year’s La France des Maudits has cracked the list proper. Melodic, bordering on symphonic with the keys and choral arrangements, but also visceral and feral, Seth dropped an absolute banger. It doesn’t hurt that, as Thus Spoke pointed out in her review, it’s “downright impressive how rich and dynamic this sounds.”
#9. The Vision Bleak // Weird Tales – The Vision Bleak is not, to paraphrase Dr Grier, a band that has ever ‘got’ me. Or perhaps, I’ve never got them. But Weird Tales resonated with me enormously. And perhaps that’s because it’s not really like anything The Vision Bleak has done before. Structuring their gothic black metal (or should that be blackened goth metal?) into a single, flowing song (albeit one broken into parts) got my attention. But they held my attention because they actually managed to pull off this very-hard-to-execute vision. Weird Tales’ Type O Negative / Moonspell-inspired blackened sound clicked into place almost instantly for me and now I need to go back to TVB’s discography with newly-opened eyes.
#8. Necrowretch // Swords of Dajjal – The first 4.0 I delivered in an alarmingly high-scoring year, Necrowretch’s black-death fusion is something that I have returned to again. Hiding beneath the vicious, downright nasty surface of Swords of Dajjal, is a surprisingly subtle and well-crafted concept album. As I said in my review, there is zero bloat or filler on this record, which blazes with intensity, driven as much by the scything, razor-sharp riffs as the rasping, sepulchral vocals. The range of influences cited, both by me and by impressed commenters, shows how many different aspects there are to this killer record.
#7. Panzerfaust // The Suns of Perdition – Chapter IV: To Shadow Zion – After Chapter III: The Astral Drain, I was worried that Panzerfaust were running out of steam and inspiration to close out The Suns of Perdition saga. Thankfully, my concerns were misplaced. To Shadow Zion reeks of doom and destiny. Huge, brooding and intense, it is a captivating listen, with the stunning “The Damascene Conversions” sitting at its heart. From the sulfuric vocals to the masterful drumming, this was a worthy final chapter for The Suns of Perdition, which must go down as one of the best executed, most consistent multi-album concept pieces in metal.
#6. Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – Spectral Wound just can’t miss. For a band that, superficially at least, plays fairly old school black metal, songwriting chops paired with brilliant execution mean these guys are anything but derivative. My favourite album of theirs to date, Songs of Blood and Mire is just tons of wicked, nasty fun. It’s hard to say exactly why, but I feel like everything Spectral Wound does has a slight knowing wink to it, which suggests that the band doesn’t take itself too seriously. For me, this is a huge positive, as a lot of black metal is so tediously earnest, where this is unflinchingly harsh, surprisingly melodic and drowning in swaggering groove. Great stuff.
#5. Mother of Graves // The Periapt of Absence – I’m a sucker for death doom. And The Periapt of Absence is some fucking great death doom. Mother of Graves were unknown to me before I stumbled across this album but their blending of old school Opeth (think somewhere between Morningrise and Orchid) with early Katatonia and Paradise Lost, plus a sprinkling of Clouds is stunning. All wrapped up in a pleasingly tight package, Mother of Graves smother the listener in unflinching, heartwrenching misery. And I love every minute of it. It’s that Peaceville Three sound we love, but feeling fresh, vibrant and vital.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – Me and death metal don’t always see eye to eye, and the last Devenial Verdict left only a passing impression. But Thus Spoke‘s tireless tongue-bathing promotion of Blessing of Despair convinced me to give it a chance. While I enjoy the stomping thuggery of Devenial Verdict’s dissonant death well enough, it’s the sudden mood swings into what TS described as “lethally graceful restraint” that really hooked me. Although worlds apart stylistically, on Blessing of Despair DV achieved what Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean did on Obsession Destruction: knowing precisely how far to push the suffocating, claustrophobic heaviness, before taking their foot off your throat for a minute. Then stamping on it again.
#3. Julie Christmas // Ridiculous and Full of Blood – Maddog predicted that I would lambast him as an underrating bastard for the 3.5 he deigned to award Ms Christmas. And he was quite correct. He’s a charlatan of the highest order. However, even I’m surprised by how high Ridiculous and Full of Blood has landed here. But, as someone not given to overly emotional reactions to music, I’m continually stunned by the reactions Julie—Can I call you Julie? No? Ok—extracts from me. I’m often on the edge of tears by the end of “The Lighthouse,” just like that cad Maddog, while the likes of “Not Enough” and “End of the World” (the latter with CoL’s Johannes Persson) have a scary edge to them, with Christmas at her maniacal, crooning, possessed, unpredictable best.
#2. A Swarm of the Sun // An Empire – Speaking of emotional responses, A Swarm of the Sun’s stripped back melancholy is right up there. If I say that An Empire is brighter and more uplifting than previous efforts The Rifts and The Woods, understand that this is a very relative statement. An Empire is drowning in sorrow and misery, and yet there is just a hint of brightness that shimmers and hovers around the edges, like a lunar halo. Slow and deliberate, haunting and cathartic, A Swarm of the Sun’s latest outing is just beautiful. End of. No discussion.2
#1. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Y’all know I dropped a 5.0 on Die Urkatastophe, so it’s no surprise to find it here, sitting pretty, atop my list. There’s not much more praise that I can heap on Kanonenfieber’s sophomore record than I already did in my review. For me, it has everything and is more than I dared hope for as a follow up to my beloved Menschenmühle (my album of the year for 2021). It is brutal and vicious (“Panzerhenker” and “Ausblutingsschlacht”), anthemic (“Der Maulwurf” and “Menschenmühle”) and more. Crafted—and yes, that is the correct word—with huge skill and attention to detail, it is the storytelling, based on original source materials, that elevates this record to the next level for me. And if you don’t speak German, or are simply not into narrative in your metal, just go bang your fucking head to “Gott mit der Kavallerie”!
Honorable mentions In alphabetical order by band:
Surprises o’ the Year Ordered by most astounding first:
Disappointment o’ the Year Limited to a single musical disappointment, to avoid submitting a lengthy thesis:
Songs o’ the Year
Cherd
Twenty-twenty-four was certainly a year that followed previous years and will precede still others. When I look back, I’ll likely remember it as the year I discovered the wonders of ADHD medication after decades of non-treatment, the difficult transition my poor Cherdlet experienced from kindergarten to first grade, and the incredible bucket list trip my wife and I took to Toronto to watch our favorite TV franchise filming new content courtesy of my very important Hollywood connections. No, not Robert Downey Jr. Much more important and better-looking. Hmm? Margot Robbie? She wishes. I also had the pleasure of meeting several of my fellow writers in person, and they are all much homelier than they let on with the exception of Madam X, who is a goddamned ray of sunshine.
On the musical front, I was able to check two bands off my “need to see live” list in Judas Priest and Archspire, whereby I discovered that Halford does exactly zero audience banter, and Archspire do nothing but. Fun shows, both. I didn’t listen to as much new music by volume this year than I have in previous years when I’d log between 200 and 400 releases, and that was largely due to my kid’s age and the level of interaction he needs. I have a feeling, however, that 2025 will see an uptick thanks to the new Heavys headphones I got for Christmas this year. As always, I want to thank the editors, particularly Steel Druhm and Doc Grier, for not sending me a mailbomb after all the late reviews I turned in (I’ll work on that in 2025), and the man himself, AMG, for building this community and for agreeing that Deep Space Nine is the best Star Trek show.4
(ish) Chat Pile // Cool World – This is what it sounds like when Chat Pile make a “mature” record. As I noted in my October review, some of the most glaring weirdness and black humor the band is known for is missing in Cool World, which is why it’s here on my list instead of matching the lofty heights of my 2022 AOTY God’s Country. That said, this is consistently bleak in a way I like, and it boasts what are in my opinion the two best–if not most memorable–songs the band have written to date in “New World” and “Masc.” I’m a sucker for these Oklahomans and look forward to how their sound evolves from here.
#10. Glacial Tomb // Lightless Expanse – I’ve had an up and down journey with Glacial Tomb’s sophomore record, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still view this as one of the best things I’ve listened to this year. To consider a record this closely means you have to listen to it a lot, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I logged more hours with Lightless Expanse than with any other album. I’ve made a big deal about the one-three punch of “Voidwomb/Enshrined in Concrete/Abyssal Host”, but it bears repeating since it’s my favorite consecutive stretch of death metal in 2024.
#9. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – If you peel back the veneer of disso-death and blackened blasts on Infinite Mortality, you’ll find a pounding hardcore heart comprised of equal parts beatdown and Converge. As technical as this music gets, and there is a lot going on here, Replicant never forget their primary duty as a metal band: snapping necks. On their third album, they’ve exquisitely composed a missive to unbridled aggression. I completely missed their previous albums, so I’m glad our Kenfren wouldn’t shut his excitable yap about this one.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – “Alright skaters! This is the end of our free skate period. We’d like to once again thank you for spending your Saturday with us here at Family Fun Roller Rink and Arcade. It’s time to slow things down, down, way down, and you know what that means. That’s right, it’s couples’ skate. So, find that special someone you want to be interred on a cold stone slab with, gaze into each other’s empty eye sockets, and make your way around the rink as wave after wave of Spectral Voice’s death/funeral doom forcefully separates you from any light, hope, or happiness this wretched world might have accidentally given you. Remember, those who survive the next 45 minutes of tectonic plates colliding will get the chance to compete in roller limbo!”
#7. Crypt Sermon // The Stygian Rose – Despite being one of the biggest doom apologists on this site, Crypt Sermon failed to grab me with their highly acclaimed debut nearly ten years ago. I chalk this up to my unfamiliarity with the traditional doom style at the time. In recent years, I’ve binged large amounts of Candlemass, Saint Vitus, Cathedral, Solitude Aeturnus et al., so I finally have the frame of reference to see just how well Crypt Sermon’s third LP captures the swagger, majesty, and grit of a style few contemporary bands seem interested in playing. After the growing pains displayed on The Ruins of Fading Light, these Philly natives have worked out the kinks and delivered an air-tight slab of doomy goodness.
#6. Full of Hell // Coagulated Bliss – I regret waiving my seniority claim to Full of Hell releases, thus allowing Dolph to snap up review duties for Coagulated Bliss. It’s not that he did a bad job of reviewing the prolific experimental grind outfit’s latest. He did great, and he awarded it a deserved 4.0. But then he had the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity, and the gumption to incorrectly lower his score. To make matters worse, it appeared nowhere on his year-end list. Not even a goll dern honorable mention. I’ve told him to his cetacean face that he’s wrong and I’m likely to do so again because this is Full of Hell’s best work since Trumpeting Ecstasy. In fact, it might be better.
#5. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – For most of their existence, Ulcerate was a highly acclaimed band that I just couldn’t get into. That changed four years ago with the release of Stare into Death and Be Still. Little changed in their intricate approach to dissonant death metal, but there was something warmer and more human to what I had previously considered a rather detached style. That trend continues with Cutting the Throat of God. I find this record best when taken as a whole, letting the experience unfold over the full runtime, like dream-walking through a hedge maze or being trapped in a velvet sack and discovering it’s much larger on the inside.5
#4. Thou // Umbilical – I waited a long time for a chance to review a new record by Thou, and when it finally came, they did not disappoint. As I said in my June review, “Like their chimerical American metal brethren Inter Arma, it doesn’t matter how many influences the band stuff into one album. They are all unified in sound under Thou’s banner. Bryan Funck’s acid-bit vocals are unmistakable and apparently unchangeable after 20 throat-shredding years. Also unchangeable? Thou’s ability to craft the most metallic-sounding guitar tone out there. As the standard bearer for…hell, as the entire sum of the second generation of Louisiana sludge, the sound they’ve forged isn’t the kind of sloppy muck you may associate with the term. It’s certainly thick, but it has a quality like two enormous steel I-beams violently striking each other.” If that doesn’t sell Umbilical for you, then here is where our paths diverge.
#3. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I didn’t listen to Blessing of Despair for several weeks after it came out in October despite the fact Devenial Verdict’s previous record, Ash Blind, made my year-end list in 2022. When I finally got around to it earlier in December, it threatened to blow the doors right off my still nebulous list, climbing fast and high until ultimately landing here at number three. There is more immediacy than on Ash Blind, which took me a while to warm up to. That doesn’t mean the band skimps on the kind of thoughtful transitions and atmospherics they’ve come to be known for. It’s just that Blessing of Despair HAZ THE RIFFS, including my favorite death metal riff of the year in “Solus.”
#2. Void Witch // Horripilating Presence – When I revisited Horripilating Presence with the purpose of sorting out this list’s pecking order, I expected death-doomers Void Witch to fall mid-to-late top 10. Obviously, the opposite happened. For the life of me I don’t understand how this album didn’t gain more traction amongst the other writers and you, the unwashed commentariat. As I said back in July, “…the material on Horripilating Presence is Mohamed Ali levels of confident. The editing of ideas in each song and across the album’s taut 39 minutes is masterful, especially for a debut. No song hews too closely to any of the others, but all are of a piece, locking comfortably into place like an intricate puzzle box, and Void Witch have such sights to show you.”
#1. Inter Arma // New Heaven – Inter Arma never miss. Aside from being one of the best live acts in metal, every album they’ve released going back to 2013’s Sky Burial has been one successful evolution after another. As a very wise reviewer once said, “They’re the same shaggy beast as ever, but beneath that matted, coarse coat is a rippling form mid-shape shift, stretching, pulling, and crossing back on itself constantly over the course of New Heaven’s shockingly concise 42 minutes…If being all over the musical map sounds like a negative, you’ve probably never heard an Inter Arma record before. It seems whatever they throw at the wall sticks, and the listening experience across their (usually much longer) records never feels uneven. This is because they play everything with the same smoldering intensity and volatile mean streak.” What a record.
Honorable Mentions:
Songs o’ the Year:
In alphabetical order by band:
#2024 #40WattSun #ASwarmOfTheSun #Anciients #BlogPosts #BlueHeron #CarcharodonAndCherdSTopTenIshOf2024 #ChatPile #Convulsing #CryptSermon #DevenialVerdict #FullOfHell #GlareOfTheSun #GrandMagus #InterArma #JulieChristmas #Kanonenfieber #Listurnalia #LordBuffalo #MotherOfGraves #Necrowretch #Nyktophobia #Opeth #Panzerfaust #PillarOfLight #Replicant #Selbst #Seth #Silhouette #SpectralVoice #SpectralWound #Sumac #TheVisionBleak #Thou #Ulcerate #VoidWitch #Vorga #ZealArdor
Doom_et_Al’s and Dear Hollow’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Doom_et_Al
Doom_et_Al
2024 was the year my reviewing fell off a cliff.
I had plenty of good excuses. An infant son (Grayskull) who totally rocks my world but who gobbles up free time and good sleep habits like Pacman on a tear. A new role at the hospital, for which I was initially out of my depth, and that required enormous effort to stay afloat. An exhausting book tour for a memoir I published earlier this year. These are all incredible things for which I am extremely grateful. I just found that at the end of every day, when I should have been critically assessing music, all I wanted to do was sleep.
This significant reduction in free time has forced me to reassess my relationship with metal. In the beforetimes, I would inhale it. I was not picky; the more the merrier. Now, I have to be judicious with what I listen to. I have a lower tolerance for bad music, and less inclination to listen to it multiple times. I sometimes yearned for a time when I could focus on music I wanted to listen to, not music I was being asked to critique. This caused me to wonder if I had any business reviewing music at all.
I can’t tell you if 2024 was a good year for metal or not, because the free time I had was focused on music that brought comfort. I therefore spun fewer albums, but those I did spin got a lot of earball time. I do know that despite everything, metal continued to bring me enormous joy and happiness. Part of this is thanks to the incredible AMG team, and AMG Himself, who have created, without question, the best metal site on the planet. Special thanks to the Steely One, who could have fired me many times, but didn’t for some reason. I’d also like to thank my fellow writers who are good, kind, supportive people whose only flaw is their collective questionable taste.
Returning to the question of why I’m still here: a few weeks ago, I was playing Gaerea softly on the stereo. Grayskull crawled in, heard the music, stood up, and with the biggest grin on his face, began growling and gesticulating. He was loving it, and his unbridled joy reminded me of how glorious good metal can be. It inspired me to try to review more next year. I hope some of that rubs off on you and that you have a beautiful, prosperous and happy 2025
#10. Sgáile // Traverse the Bealach – This type of noodly prog isn’t usually my thing. But Sgáile’s Traverse the Bealach is so damn catchy and epic that it transcends the usual pitfalls of the sub-genre. Importantly, it captures the essence and majesty of the Scottish Highlands (albeit in post-apocalyptic form) in a way matched only, perhaps, by countryman Saor. It’s also an album that improves the longer you listen to it. An unexpected delight.
#9. Misotheist // Vessels by Which the Devil is Made Flesh – A band that hasn’t forgotten that black metal is supposed to feel ugly and dangerous, Vessels picks up where For the Glory of Your Redeemer left off, and is just as remorseless, claustrophobic and scary as its predecessors. Misotheist do their usual thing and knock out 3 dissonant bangers in under 40 minutes. When people complain that black metal has gone soft, point them in the direction of Misotheist
#8. Dissimulator // Lower Form Resistance – Thrash so tasty, even non-thrash fans like myself had to take notice. Complex, technical, ferocious… the only thing I don’t love is the vocals, and those I can get past because the rest is so good. Loaded with killer riffs from start to finish, this should appease the cave-man in you, while tickling those neurones as well. This one stayed in rotation for me all year. Thrash never does that. Which should tell you all you need to know.
#7. Spectral Wound // Songs of Blood and Mire – Although not as immediately spectacular as its predecessor, Songs of Blood and Mire is still a ferocious collection of vital and vivid black metal. Melding melodicism with fury, Spectral Wound create music as monstrous as it is catchy. Perhaps because it lacks the outright bangers of A Diabolic Thirst, perhaps because it is even more caustic, this one flew under many a radar. Don’t let it fly under yours.
#6. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Building on the promise exhibited in earlier albums and EPs, Kanonenfieber realize their full potential with Die Urkatastrophe. So aggressive, so confident, so accomplished that I knew after one listen that it would list. The notion that “war is hell” is patently clichéd, yet Kanonenfieber subvert the usual trappings by cleverly mixing the faux-sunniness of war propaganda with the brutality of black metal. It works brilliantly.
#5. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – Don’t let the hideous AI art turn you off. Selbst have come out of nowhere to create the year’s most chaotic, yet compelling, collection of tracks. Channelling Suffering Hour, this is music that finds the beauty in the messiness of its composition. Miraculously, the insanity never becomes wearying, only more interesting. By the time the final chords fade, you’ll want to throw yourself in all over again.
#4. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay – File under “surprise of the year.” I nearly snapped this one up from the promo sump, and then, like an idiot, passed it by. Joke’s on me. Capturing the warm, fuzzy side of black metal (a la Deafheaven, or a good version of Ghost Bath), Dawn Treader manages to pack a deep emotional punch despite all the prettiness on display. Alcest’s effort this year was fine… but when I wanted that transcendent experience only good black metal can provide, it was to Bloom & Decay that I kept returning.
#3. Gaerea // Coma – Gaerea have always been absolute masters of catharsis. The ability to take music that is baseline intense, and ratchet it up even further, is a rare gift. With Coma, Gaerea dial things back. Their tenderest, most intimate collection benefits from adding a gentler emotional core. This makes Coma less immediate than, say, Mirage,but ultimately more varied. And when it hits, the highs are some of the best of Gaerea’s rock-solid career.
#2. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – Arguably the best band in metal release another absolute barnstormer. Using every trick learned over the previous albums, Ulcerate deploy a devastating assault of dissonant death metal that captivates as it overwhelms. Insane drumming, complex time shifts, forceful melodies, thematic cohesion… Cutting the Throat of God has it all.
#1. Iotunnn // Kinship – First things first. Kinship not Access All Worlds Part 2. It’s more ambitious. It’s more sprawling. It’s shaggier and looser. And truthfully, on my first few listens, I thought it was a bit bloated and ill-disciplined. A 4.5 hiding in a 3.0, if you will. But a weird thing happened. I kept coming back. And every time I came back, I discovered something new. The incredible cymbal work on the chorus of “Mistland,” the gorgeous ending of “The Anguished Eternal.” Soon I realized Kinship, and its songs, are exactly as long as they need to be. Jon Aldara’s amazing vocal work elevates the stellar material even further, adding emotional complexity and yearning to the spell-binding complexity. The result is ethereal, complex, spiritually satisfying prog-death. It’s the best album of the year.
Disappointment o’ the Year:
Zeal & Ardor // Greif – I love the band. The live show still rocks. But this is a disappointing misfire.
Songs o’ the Year
Dear Hollow
Welcome to the end of 2024! We at AMG hope the year has been kind to you – that your lives are filled with love, your hearts with joy, and our world with peace. I hope that you have found your people, and have those you can lean on. If we have ever given you a voice, a platform, or just love and support when you need it, then we have done our jobs.
2024 has been a roller coaster for the Hollow household. Our toddler is now a three-year-old encroaching on kidhood, with all the sass and sick burns she can muster.1 Fun news: we will be welcoming another kiddo into the world come summer of 2025! I also finally graduated with my master’s in secondary education this past year (mainly for the pay raise). While I’m unsure how much I will use from those classes, I have stepped up my class offerings to science fiction, true crime, and archaeology, alongside myriad others.
My metal reviewing has found a bit of a crossroads in 2024. At the end of 2023, I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression with potential ADHD, with a ton of childhood patterns and religious trauma rooted in my upbringing. As I unpack my need for productivity, I have had to take some steps back and see where my values actually lie as I’ve acclimated to medication, counseling, and just trying to rewire my brain. I’ve been reading and relaxing more, instead of cranking out reviews as religiously as I have. I’m trying to live without religion – of any kind.
Special shout-outs to those who have been instrumental in my journey this year: the ineffable and tireless Steel Druhm, the genre-confusing Dolphin Whisperer, and those who have been supportive all year (Thus Spoke, Maddog, Carcharadon, Holdeneye, and Mystikus Hugebeard). Couldn’t have done it without y’all.
On to the metal!
#ish. Sumac // The Healer – The amorphous and fluid nature of The Healer is exactly what I’ve wanted out of post-metal. Its organicity is its greatest asset, accomplishing rich and trembling tones across its mammoth 76-minute runtime. Improvised material largely fails due to its lack of direction, but direction was never a focus for Sumac; rather, it dwells in its own devastation – the warhead and the fallout. Electronics simmer, noise erupts, sludge riffs hit with the weight of a thousand suns, and vocals command the attack with vitriol and mania alike. The Healer wounds and heals.
#10. Sidewinder // Talon – I never thought a stoner-inclined album would make it to my list, but here we are. I scoffed, but then the first riff of “Guardians” hit, and collided with vocalist Jem Tupe’s formidable and rich belts, the pleasure was so immense I threw a table over. The full-bodied, fuzzed-out blues riffs continue into jam seshes that keep me coming back for more, with them bluesy vocals floating like a weed-piloted spaceship atop the seas of psychedelia. The New Zealand act boasts range, zeniths in the low and slow, and cuts loose with southern fried riffage. I haven’t been able to shake the riff from “Prisoner” for months.
#9. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum // Of the Last Human Being – As a recent convert to 2004’s Of Natural History, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum scratches the itch I didn’t know I had. In essence, an art rock and jazz foray, Of the Last Human Being goes from snappy blasts of UneXpect-style metal meltdowns, multilayered vocal attacks, wonky and hypnotizing dream sequences,2 to brass drawls, anachronistic industrial electronic, to art-funk, and more! Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is confidently locked into its own stylistic fluidity – Of the Last Being picks up as if seventeen years haven’t passed since its predecessor.
#8. Mamaleek // Vida Blue – Taking what made predecessor Diner Coffee so great and blowing it up with a palpable pomp, Vida Blue simultaneously pays homage to member Eric Livingston and the relocation of the Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas. Mamaleek establishes these tracks upon much shiftier sands, free jazz at its core, while jazz- and blues rock, post-punk, prog-rock, and pure experimentalisms are glossed over progressions rotten to the core. From flute and brass explosions to anarchic punk driving, you’d be hard-pressed to find an album as bewildering – and as utterly brilliant – as Vida Blue. Home run or whatever.
#7. Thou // Umbilical – While Thou has always been excellent, Umbilical foregoes the post-metal sensibilities that populated Heathen and Summit in favor of a cutthroat hardcore influence. Blessedly, while it feels harsher than much of their previous material, it doesn’t change the core that defines this Baton Rouge collective. Doom and sludge still dominate the pain and smothering that Umbilical represents, with the thick riffs reeking with the putridity of swamp water and vocals haunting with the vitriol of the bayou’s ghosts dominating the ears aplenty, with a vicious hardcore urgency biting through the humidity.
#6. Ataraxie // Le Déclin – The bleak edge of funeral doom has never felt so appealing. Recalling Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal in its audio and existential weight, the French collective balances the heft of funeral doom with the punishment of death metal – without the bells and whistles of modern atmospherics. Leads dominate the melodic portions with mobility and competence, death metal collapses regularly imminent, tension and bleakness hanging high in an empty sky. Four tracks of patient starkness greet the ears with overwhelming weight and tortured meditations on devastation.
#5. Ingurgitating Oblivion // Ontology of Nought – Easily my most returned-to album of 2024, the German duo creates a death metal album that embodies the outer extremes of the style. It’s dissonant beyond what many consider dissonant, punishing beyond what’s considered punishing, and easily one of the most exploratory albums of the year. Five long-form tracks showcase labyrinthine songwriting, experimental melodic structures, mind-flaying technicality, and a strange sense of catchiness radiating from deep within. Perhaps the most puzzling release of the year that requires and demands your full attention, the unearthed rewards are plenty.
#4. Orgone // Pleroma – Stephen Jarrett emerges from a ten-year hiatus of Orgone for a definitive piece of metal that defies explanation. Featuring a technicality that exists in a league of its own with an adventurousness and organicity that aligns its vast range of influences neatly, with its core landing somewhere among technical death metal and post-hardcore a la Amia Venera Landscape. Riffs and sweeps maintain a certain unhinged and intensely calculated tedium, while stylistic wilderness is explored in real-time. Post-metal, death metal, post-hardcore, and jazz are all tied together with crescendos and organic breadth that sway from lush harmony to scathing dissonance seamlessly. Orgone returns with an opus and pilgrimage of beauty, adventure, and pain.
#3. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – I was this close to writing off Ulcerate’s newest as too accessible and too forward, lacking the atmospheric prowess of The Destroyers of All or Stare Into Death and Be Still. Then I let Cutting the Throat of God whisper and breath. In between these stormy blusters came the answer, and a sentience emerged. It wasn’t about a broad showcase of dissonance and technical prowess, but a holistic cohesion that stitches the music together with the nuance and sinews of being. The vicious and the ethereal blended into unspoken horror, with meditations ranging from the frantic to the morbid. Cutting the Throat of God is the most human of its releases but in the tragedy it becomes and the metamorphosis it undergoes – the murder of God.
#2. Aborted // Vault of Horrors – I’ve never been terribly keen on the Belgian deathgrind legends, but Vault of Horrors curb-stomped a special place in me – namely because it sounds like deathcore. I’m not willing to banter about that specificity, but all I know is that Vault of Horrors kicks serious ass. Ripping tempos, bludgeoning riffs, and an unhinged technicality align for an album deserving of the act’s reputation, bolstered by a legion of guests.3 Highlight after highlight rolls by with reckless abandon and pulverizing intensity, until your body is so bruised and beaten you have nothing else to offer. I don’t care if it’s deathcore; it’s brutal, bouncy, and wicked, and I’m just happy to have my skull caved in.
#1. Convulsing // Perdurance – Thinking of the meteoric trajectory of Australian one-man project Convulsing and its albums, it’s no wonder that Perdurance has lasting success. Dissonant death metal has a high standard this year with established juggernauts Ulcerate, Gigan, Mitochondrion, Devenial Verdict, Pyrrhon, Replicant, and Ingurgitating Oblivion releasing scathing blight upon the world in monolithic and ruthless fashion. In this way, Perdurance takes the world in a whisper. Encapsulating a sound that is both unforgivingly dense and painfully claustrophobic, while also starkly and lushly atmospheric in its layered crescendos and exploratory songwriting, few artists profess the level of songwriting the way sole member Brendan Sloan utilizes: intricate and gradual evolution of riffs and melodies, achieving a level of organicity and sentience seen by few. Twisting convention with a knife firmly planted in devastation, Perdurance achieves a truly iconic and transcendent voice in the best album of the year.
Honorable Mentions:
Biggest Surprises:
Songs o’ the Year:
#2024 #Aborted #Apes #Ataraxie #CharliXCX #Convulsing #DawnTreader #DefeatedSanity #Dissimulator #DoomEtAlSAndDearHollowSTopTenIshOf2024 #Gaerea #IngurgitatingOblivion #Iotunn #Kanonenfieber #Mamaleek #Misotheist #Orgone #PaysageDHiver #PillarOfLight #Selbst #Sgaile #Sidewinder #SleepytimeGorillaMuseum #SpectralWound #Stenched #Sumac #Thou #Ulcerate #ZealAndArdor
Thus Spoke and Maddog’s Top Ten(ish) of 2024
By Steel Druhm
Thus Spoke
My second AMG End-of-Year piece?! Didn’t I just get here? This is my typical reaction to life’s happenings. I’m blindsided by everything. You’ll probably notice that many of the below list entries ‘snuck up on me’ in how much I liked them, compared to everything else. The fact that we’re now halfway through the 2020s makes me feel a bit nauseous. I keep telling people I ‘just moved’ into the home I bought this year, but I’ve been in it since April. And that huge milestone—for which I feel immensely grateful and privileged to have achieved this side of 30—would have solely dominated my year were it not for two other facts: 1) I was finally diagnosed with and very recently started medication for ADHD; 2) 2024 has got to have been the strongest year of the decade so far for metal. So, time to talk about the music rather than myself.
My overoptimistic prediction that Ulcerate would release new music came true,1 and there was, in general, a particular influx of excellent material from the darker, more dissonant, and extreme sides of death and black metal. This was also the year I finally reconnected with my love of doom after a long period of lukewarm engagement. But I wouldn’t have known about half of it were it not for this gig, and the amazing people I share it with. Whether it was Dear Hollow, Kenstrosity, or Mystikus Hugebeard pinging across something they thought I might like, or a particularly potent review penned by a colleague, a commenter chipping in with some gem, or the group buzz around an album I might otherwise never have considered, there’s no better place to find and discuss metal. And speaking of community, if I ever needed a confirmation that this right here is the loveliest place on the internet, the rallying response to Ken‘s plight earlier this year from staff and readers was it.2 I couldn’t ask for better company.
I said as much last year, but I’ll probably say it every year: having this opportunity is wild and I feel so blessed. To be able to send my thoughts about music into the world where people read and consider them, that’s mad. Bumping into an AMG fan in the wild was also an affirming and heartwarming experience reminding me that there are actually real people out there who know who we are; and let me say, however enthusiastic and grateful you might be for us, the feeling is mutual. So to everyone reading this, to all the folks at AMG who make it possible for me to continually wax lyrical about stuff I love (and stuff I don’t love so much) and put up with all my overrating, to all of you: thank you. Shout out also to my list buddy Maddog, whose EOY write-up is bound to be more br00tal and much less flowery than mine, and whose in-person company I continue to have the pleasure of enjoying whenever he deigns to visit our little island up here. Oh, and thank you to the original creator and to Kenstrosity for my new avatar! I asked and you delivered. And if you actually read this far down, thank you for indulging me. But now, finally, it’s list time.
#ish. Pillar of Light // Caldera – I unintentionally ended my reviewing year on a high with Pillar of Light. Or perhaps a low, if we consider mood. When a record evokes a genuine emotional response in me,3 as Caldera does, it deserves more than an Honorable Mention. So here it is. It’s one of those albums you experience that forever afterward remains tied to your particular life situation when you were first immersed, and for that reason, its longevity is increased and its impact amplified. Given how “Leaving” and “Infernal Gaze” leave me in pieces, it’s probably a good thing the misery comes down from 11 at other times. But on the next album, who knows? I’ll be ready at least.
#10. Replicant // Infinite Mortality – Much like Kenstrosity, author of the review, I have not historically been Replicant’s hugest fan. For some reason their music never stuck with me; I just didn’t get it. Infinite Mortality has been the enlightenment I needed. It’s undeniably fantastic. Brilliantly technical and ruthlessly efficient in execution, it manages to also be ridiculously groovy in a way that you wouldn’t expect from this flavor of extreme death metal. Suited, evidently, to desk sessions and gym sessions alike, given the range of play it got from me since its release, its balance of skronk and style proved why I should, long ago, have been paying attention to Replicant. Ken himself struggled to find a negative and so do I. Even interlude “SCN9A” is great, especially as it leads into monster “Pain Enduring.” Only the superlative strength of other contenders causes this to fall so low on the list.
#9. ColdCell // Age of Unreason – In a rare case of me underrating something, my review of Age of Unreason did not quite do justice to its strength. Not only have I revisited it often, but I have of late been struck ever deeper by its profundity. The honest, vulnerable lamentations on inequality (“Solidarity or Solitude”), hatred (“Discord”), and human selfishness (“Dead to the World”) go far beyond a jaded misanthropy and strike a real chord. In wrapping this up in an insidiously simple package of compelling, devastating black metal with a distinctive voice, ColdCell have made, I now recognize, a true masterpiece. Brutal in its own way, and beautiful in many more, this is a record I hardly realized had made such a strong impact on me until I saw just how many times I’d spun it. This year may have seen black metal that goes harder, or with more powerful atmospheres, but none that are as memorable as Age of Unreason.
#8. Spectral Voice // Sparagmos – What a behemoth. It’s hard to believe that—just for a little while—Sparagmos slipped my mind many months after its February release. Relistening brought it all back into horrifying clarity. This record throws a veil over the sun, stares at you with unseeing, ecstatic eyes of Dionysian worship, and forces you into terrified awe. I’m still blown away by how crushingly heavy and immersive it is; how it still manages to blindside me with sudden turns from ominous crawling into chaotic, chthonic tremolos and clustered, hideous vocals. A masterclass in patient, predatory ambush. Nothing else this year was like it, which is partially why I’ve had to return so often to its dark embrace. Every nightmarish track was at some point in the runnings for the Song of the Year playlist. In the end, only one could make it, and it is, as I said in my review, “as inexorable as death.”
#7. Hamferð // Men Guðs hond er sterk – I’m surprised as well. Before Men Guðs hond er sterk, I had never laid ears on Hamferð and I was quite stunned to find how instantly I loved them. It’s not often an album by a band you’d previously never spent time with claims a spot on your year-end list after one listen, but this was one of those rare occasions. Something about the sorrowful, yet also soaring, melodies delivered through the interplays of resonant chords and gentle plucks, and between caustic growls and clear, ardent cleans just transports me. I feel the solemnity, the fear, and the grief in alternately forceful and graceful heaviness thanks to these intricately woven compositions and ardent performances that make the fact the lyrics are all in Faroese completely irrelevant. And Hamferð cover breadth with such ease, the slowly rolling wave of doom rising with tremolos into new intensity; and yet still controlled, still patient. The closer and it’s sample used to bother me, but I’m long past that now. In short, as the Angry Metal Guy himself said, “the record’s flow is impeccable,” and “the writing is subtle but addictive”. He’s not kidding about that last part, I really can’t stop listening to it.
#6. Föhn // Condescending – I was not prepared for what Condescending would do to me. Like any funeral doom worth its salt, it’s massive, but its presence is not smothering, it does not suffocate. Instead, it dampens the sound of anything else, so that the lugubrious chords, vocals, and fraught, lamenting refrains reverberate inside your mind, alone. This presence is redoubled by the heart-rending devastation of the compositions it centers—lyrically and musically. Bleakly beautiful, crushing doom in all its low, slow, cavernous hell leads you into an almost blissful moroseness, just in time for the veil to tear and your spirit to crumble as haunting melodies spill in from impossibly delicate sources of saxophone, synth, or ringing strings. Condescending will not leave my mind, and as broken and misty-eyed as these songs make me—”A Day After” and “Persona” especially—I’ll keep returning to experience it again and again. Maybe I can only speak for myself; maybe you’re sensing a theme wherein I like albums that make me feel sad. Whatever the case, Föhn took my breath away, and I don’t want it back.
#5. Cave Sermon // Divine Laughter – It’s pretty irresponsible of me to put this in the list at all, let alone in this position, considering how late in the day I discovered it. But I’m not really known for being ‘responsible’ around these parts, so, what the hell. What some might pigeonhole as just wonky death metal, or blackened post-hardcore—or even post-metal, as Metal Archives confusingly stamp it—is really much more complex, deep, and unique. Gripping and strange, in a way that struck me on my very first listen, Divine Laughter is responsible for me going from never having heard of Cave Sermon to being an ardent fan in one afternoon. Every listen gives me my new favorite part and uncovers more and more of its treasures. Savage and beautiful and with unnervingly easy flow, large parts of it are total perfection (“Liquid Gol, “The Paint of An Invader”). I cannot get enough. It’s so good, actually, that it’s made me feel a bit anxious about how much I’ve still missed this year, though I am very glad that this made it to my ears, even at the 11th hour. Divine Laughter is simply one of the greatest things I’ve heard in 2024, and it’s a crime that more people aren’t talking about it.
#4. Devenial Verdict // Blessing of Despair – I was waiting for Blessing of Despair since January, and as it always is with things we have high expectations for, part of me was preparing for disappointment. That preparation proved unnecessary once I finally got my hands on this in the Autumn. Devenial Verdict delivered. This time, they amped up all their unique little idiosyncrasies that made me fall in love with Ash Blind, and added a criminally heavy helping of groove. This thing is atmospheric and punchy, providing soundscapes that are just as haunting and mysterious(TM) as they are stomping and cutthroat. Either way, these riffs will make you shiver. “Garden of Eyes”! “Solus”! Ahhhh! Even “Counting Silence” and “A Curse Made Flesh,” which I initially dismissed as a little understated, have this delicious melancholic presence I just want to be immersed in 24/7. Devenial Verdict’s slick mixture of mournful melody and menacing, barked growls; neck-snapping flicks of cymbal, and those resonant, aggressive chord progressions make for—almost—my favorite take on death metal that exists. The sole reason Blessing of Despair wasn’t my most-played album of 2024 is that I only started in September.4
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – Back in 2017 or so, I was struck by what at the time I considered the most gorgeous opening guitar on any song ever. It was “…Of Solitary Ramblings,” the first track on Selbst’s self-titled debut.5 From that day forward I was enamoured. The undercurrents of lamenting melodrama and a black metal interwoven with a distinctive style of flowing, weeping strums continue to make Selbst very special. But if I had thought that their depths of emotional poignancy and stirring, multi-layered compositions had been reached, Despondency Chord Progressions showed they had not. Cleans that some wrote off as unsavory, rather bring—in my opinion—a new vulnerability, and their rawness compounds the pathos of already intensely cathartic compositions. The album’s title is, as I noted, an apt descriptor for the musical themes, but really undersells the cry of grief and despair that erupts from the music with every shuddering, tremolo-shaken, surge and every plaintive, somber quietude. I stand by what I said back in April, that “[t]his is black metal at its most stirring, entrancingly beautiful, and existentially affecting.” The sheer magnitude of its impassioned peaks (“Third World Wretchedness,” “Between Seclusion and Obsession”) and the sting of its humanity (“When true Loneliness is Experienced,” “Chant of Self Confrontation”) are like nothing else in the genre.
#2. Amiensus // Reclamation [Parts 1 & 2] – Take it up in the comments if you think this is cheating; Reclamation is one work in my eyes. And what a masterpiece. Each part a gorgeous, immersive side of one breathtaking journey that is best experienced together. I remain stunned by Amiensus’ mastery of musical storytelling through a flowing, intricate soundscape—at turns triumphant (“Vermillion Fog of War,” “Sólfarið”), sorrowful (“Reverie,” “Leprosarium”), and always stirring. Everything about Reclamation is graceful, which is another part of its magic because it’s not as though Amiensus left the black metal behind. Rather they seem to have found the deepest essence of the genre’s unique propensity for raw emotional expression, and moulded its elements into what is hands-down the most beautiful thing I’ve heard at least this year. It is, as I noted in my write-up of Part 1, a distillation of pure joy, and uplifting no matter how wistful (“Sun and Moon”), or suffused with bittersweet longing (“A Consciousness Throughout Time,” “Acquiescence”). And with so much of it—albeit, a time that flashes by with thrilling speed—it’s impossible not to get lost in. “Sun and Moon” was so close to being my favorite song of 2024, and in another year, it would have been. For that matter, in another year Reclamation itself would have claimed the top spot on this list.
#1. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – What else could it have been? I worry that by this point I may have used up all of the words that are possible to describe this pinnacle of excellence. In reality, though, I’m not sure I even have the words to express it in the first place, not for lack of trying. Ulcerate have long been a behemoth in their realm within the larger world of death metal, but while distinctive, they have never settled, continually carving up the template of dissonance with varyingly-sized blades of atmosphere and melody, moving between their most barbed and chaotic (Everything is Fire) to their most somber and moody (The Destroyers of All) in just one album. Later Shrines of Paralysis—my former favorite—saw a turn back towards the urgency and aggression, but with this new harmonic undercurrent in place. With hindsight, I can see now that the deeply atmospheric, disquieting Stare into Death and Be Still marked a turning point, paving the ground for what could be their magnum opus. Distilling the tension and the turmoil, into tidal forces of incredible rhythm, and dark, brilliant melody, with Cutting the Throat of God, Ulcerate reach transcendence. Dire (“The Dawn is Hollow”), deadly (“Transfiguration in and Out of Worlds”), devastating (“To See Death Just Once,” “Cutting the Throat of God”). Its intricacies only continue to reveal themselves to me; helped, no doubt, by a phenomenal live performance that bewitched me anew this October. I had to upgrade this album’s score to Iconic, because it is. This is atmospheric death metal perfected, and if genre-mates weren’t already looking in Ulcerate’s direction, there’s hardly any choice now. Cutting the Throat of God represents, in the greatest form, “the savagery, authenticity, and more recently, beauty that makes this icon of the dissonant death metal world who they are.”
Honorable Mentions:
Gaerea // Coma – Despite having calmed down considerably from my previous Gaerea overhype, there’s no denying that they’ve really got something. With a new vocalist, they retain their distinctively melodramatic and intense style, while incorporating a little more vulnerability via some genuinely really lovely cleans. A great record that just wasn’t great enough for the ridiculously high standard set by this year’s fare.
Eye Eater // Alienate – I am immensely grateful for Dolphin Whisperer for bringing this to my attention. Much of this album feels like it was written specifically for me, because it uses pretty much all of my favorite things in metal. It’s atmospheric and dissonant, like Ulcerate and others in that vein; it’s kind of post-death-y, and replete with minor melodies, and a particular kind of urgency my brain associates with specific kinds of ‘-core’. I just didn’t get quite enough time with it.
Songs of the Year
“To See Death Just Once” – Ulcerate
“Sun and Moon” – Amiensus
“Solus” – Devenial Verdict
“Terminal” – Vorga
“Third World Wretchedness” – Selbst
“The Paint of an Invader” – Cave Sermon
“A Day After” – Föhn
“Ábær” – Hamferð
“Inversion” – Endonomos
“Death’s Knell Rings in Eternity” – Spectral Voice
“Leaving” – Pillar of Light
Maddog
It’s been a weird year, and this is a weird list. Last December, I lamented the emotional hollowness of 2023’s metal output. If anything, 2024 fell even flatter. My most anticipated heavyweights were competent but inconsistent (Alcest, Julie Christmas), and few albums moved me. Unfazed, death metal picked up the slack and made this year a pleasure. Led by a flurry of excellent releases from genre titans, 2024 helped rekindle my love for cantankerous death metal.
Even so, the brutality of 2024’s output shocked me. Despite my worship of Suffocation and Dying Fetus, most brutal death metal releases of the last decade haven’t gripped me. But 2024 pulled me onto the brutal train with creativity and pizzazz. Both the techy and the knuckle-dragging corners of that subgenre thrived, including several artists that didn’t make my list (like Gigan, Iniquitous Savagery, and Nile). After tending toward more emotive music and other poseur nonsense in recent years, I took a long jump back in 2024.
As if that wasn’t enough, this was a banner year for dissonance. That’s a sentence I never expected to type; even dissonant death metal’s classics tend to be hit-or-miss with me. In 2024, the skronk finally broke through, aided by many avant-garde bands drifting toward a more accessible sound. This year’s screechy screeds were cogent enough to grab my arm and unhinged enough to rip it out of its socket. It’s been a jarring but eye-opening year.
This comment from the Brodequin review doubles as a summary of my 2024 music picks:
I wonder if I, we, they or all of us have a screw loose.
Heading into 2024, I craved immersive soundscapes and misty eyes. Instead, I was met with discordant gurgling. I didn’t expect it, but I don’t regret it.
#ish. Hypoxia // Defiance – Defiance never gets old. This old-school death metal behemoth has been around for ten months and hails from a subgenre that’s infamous for monotony. And yet, like Monstrosity’s best work, it blossoms on every spin. Defiance sports 2024’s fiercest harsh vocal performance, and riffwork so potent that it could revive the Selbst baby. I don’t have anything fancy to add, so I won’t try. Defiance is a rare death metal record that’s simple, thrilling, and well-written.
#10. Dawn Treader // Bloom & Decay – The thought sometimes crosses my mind: Why does atmospheric black metal even exist? The musical possibilities abound; who would pay $8 for tremolo scales recorded in a rest stop bathroom? Records like Bloom & Decay jolt me out of my pretension. Dawn Treader’s underground gem is both a product and a peddler of overpowering emotion. Ross Connell unleashes a tirade against violence and oppression using grief-stricken guitar melodies. On the flip side, Bloom & Decay’s heavy use of major keys—my second biggest fear—blurs the line between despair and tentative hope. Most impressive is the album’s flow, which Itchymenace described better than I ever could: “The majority of Bloom & Decay is instrumental, but you hardly notice because the music has such a storytelling quality.” Bloom & Decay’s 53-minute chokehold on my heart is ineffable but unyielding.
#9. Kanonenfieber // Die Urkatastrophe – Germany’s nameless Noise has built up a remarkable CV – 7 years, 3 bands, 8 albums. While I’ve often enjoyed his music, I never fell under his spell. Die Urkatastrophe was the last straw. A pacifist tirade told through first-person WWI vignettes, Die Urkatastrophe depicts nationalist violence and its aftermath. Armed with a sharp-edged blackened death foundation and surging chorus melodies, Kanonenfieber provides rewarding fodder even for unfeeling riff addicts. However, its excellence lies in its raw emotion. Both Noise’s lyrics and his songwriting embrace a “show, don’t tell” approach that brings the album to life. As the narrator’s cavalry offensive meets with a hilltop ambush in “Gott mit der Kavallerie,” Kanonenfieber’s upbeat riffs transform into a sudden dirge followed by frantic black metal. The epic “Waffenbrüder” evokes the wide-eyed optimism of childhood friends, the pride of enlisting, the tragedy of losing a companion, and the regrets of a life wasted. Die Urkatastrophe is both a transformative album and exemplary storytelling.
#8. Defeated Sanity // Chronicles of Lunacy – Chronicles of Lunacy is essential listening for any fans of extreme metal. Its greatest triumph is its fine mix of Defeated Sanity’s signature ingredients. Chronicles excels as pure brutal death metal through punishing caveman riffs and a tasteful dose of slam. Vaughn Stoffey’s guitars elevate this to an art form using wily fretboard acrobatics and seamless jazzy breaks. Led by kit-meister Lille Gruber, Defeated Sanity’s off-kilter rhythms and heavy syncopation miraculously aid the album’s staying power rather than hindering it. Put simply, Chronicles of Lunacy is 2024’s most vivid reminder of why I love death metal. I love its unforgiving brutality; I love its dazzling technicality; I love its groove; I love its genre-bending creative expression; I love its rhythmic feats of strength; I love its intellect; I love its idiocy. In other words, I love Defeated Sanity.
#7. Ulcerate // Cutting the Throat of God – It’s a match made in heaven: Cutting the Throat of God is Ulcerate for dummies, and I’m a dummy. Ulcerate continues to march toward more accessible ground, leaving behind the merciless dissonance of Everything is Fire. Powerful melodic themes peek through the chaos and take time to shine, offering both souvenirs and footholds. Despite Cutting’s lowbrow appeal, Ulcerate’s inimitable signature remains. Unease pervades the record, and Ulcerate’s cohesive songwriting transforms it from a concept to an emotion. In Thus Spoke’s words, Jamie Saint Merat’s drums are “more body than skeleton,” using their distinctive start-stop style to guide the mood. The album’s climaxes alone justify a purchase, as hypnotic melodies and frenzied dissonance coalesce into a tsunami. In short, Cutting the Throat of God captured both my brain and my heart.
#6. Hippotraktor // Stasis – I first heard about Belgium’s Hippotraktor from an insistent coworker, long before I discovered GardensTale’s well-worded underrating. Psychonaut meets Karnivool meets The Ocean meets Meshuggah in this pounding, beautiful prog/post adventure. Stasis’ hard-won achievement is that it navigates through disparate ideas with fluidity and flair. Psychonaut-drenched sludge forms a jagged backbone that sways between meditative and explosive. Meanwhile, Hippotraktor’s mastery of melody catapults them into genre royalty. “Stasis” uses this superpower for peaceful guitar jams, “Echoes” uses it for soaring As I Lay Dying vocal lines, and “The Reckoning” uses it for haunting continuity across its eight minutes. The djenty interdjections are well-written and screwed in tight, packing a punch even for listeners with severe djent allerdjies. Stasis is a bold statement from a new band, and it’s jostled up my list posthaste.
#5. Hell:on // Shaman – Hell:on’s folk-infused take on death metal stands apart. Shaman’s diverse influences complement each other and flourish in isolation. Phrygian themes, throat singing, and driving sitars steer the album. But despite Shaman’s folk roots, it’s an excellent slab of death metal. Hell:on’s riffs recall the threatening leviathans of Nile’s Annihilation of the Wicked, while the narrative song structures feel like a roided-out Aeternam. Even among such storied company, Shaman’s melodies stand out. Over the record’s runtime, Hell:on’s guitars shred, soar, flail, and wallop, evolving smoothly and dragging the listener along. As icing on the cake, Holdeneye’s review of Shaman features the most sobering and most badass introductory story of 2024. Hell:on demanded my attention and earned it.
#4. Pyrrhon // Exhaust – I started warming up to Exhaust on my first listen, but it took a while to diagnose why. Pyrrhon’s earlier releases didn’t click with me, but Exhaust is a trailblazer and a paradox. Pyrrhon rewrites the textbook on riffs, displaying a mastery of groove even in their wildest moments. And the noisier cuts, which remind me most of Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Velvet Underground, are evocative narratives rather than lifeless technical exercises. The longer pieces intersperse hypnotic buildups with furious cacophony (“Out of Gas”), while the shorter tracks are simultaneously caustic and infectious. With a thick leading bass performance and a master that highlights every detail of the drums, Exhaust grows on me with every spin. Pyrrhon’s off-the-deep-end brand of experimental death metal isn’t my usual fare, but I can’t avert my ears this time. Both mellifluous and disgusting, both rifftastic and immersive, Exhaust is singular.
#3. Selbst // Despondency Chord Progressions – My first toe dip into Selbst made a lasting impression. Shortly after Despondency Chord Progressions came out, I spun it at the office. In the final minute of the opener “La Encarnación de Todos los Miedos,” I felt the involuntary tears start to flow, and I had to nuke the music and run to the bathroom to avoid worrying my desk neighbor. This embarrassing first encounter perfectly encapsulates the album. While it’s “merely” black metal, its gorgeous melodies and shrilling tremolos showcase the genre at its finest. Alternating between meditative dirges and howling chords, Selbst conveys both muffled sobs and hysterical bawling. Selbst’s fluid compositions captivated me at once and dug their claws even deeper over the ensuing months. The most heart-rending record of 2024, Despondency Chord Progressions showcases the paralyzing power of music.
#2. Noxis // Violence Inherent in the System – Noxis’ debut is a remarkable blend of old and new. The album’s stomping riffs and popping snare drum root it in 1990s brutal death metal. Conversely, its exuberantly grimy bass tone, its proggy rhythms, and its surprise woodwind extravaganza feel unabashedly modern. Much like last year’s Ohio death metal highlight, Violence Inherent in the System succeeds by ripping throughout, whether with a vile Dying Fetus riff or with an adventurous bass melody. Although this is the longest record in my top five, its 46 minutes fly by. Boasting momentum that would make Newton blush, Noxis keeps the energy high from the barnburner “Skullcrushing Defilement” to the proggy old-school “Emanations of the Sick.” After six months of scrutinizing and adoring Violence, I still can’t fathom that this is a debut album.
#1. Wormed // Omegon – I’ve already said my piece on this, and nothing has changed. Omegon feels as thrilling, as alien, as robotic, and as human as it did in July. In a year where brutality and dissonance thrived, Wormed maxed out both dimensions. Omegon is at once a painstakingly crafted work of art, an all-consuming atmosphere, and 2024’s punchiest death metal record.
Honorable Mentions:
Songs o’ the Year:
#2024 #Amiensus #BlogPost #Brodequin #CaveSermon #ColdCell #DawnTreader #DefeatedSanity #DevenialVerdict #EyeEater #Föhn #Gaerea #Hamferð #HellOn #Hippotraktor #Hypoxia #Kanonenfeiber #Kryptos #Necrowretch #Noxis #OxygenDestroyer #PillarOfLight #Pyrrhon #Replicant #Selbst #SpectralVoice #ThusSpokeAndMaddogSTopTenIshOf2024 #Ulcerate #Wormed
#Wahlprogramm – CDU und CSU wollen #Selbstbestimmungsgesetz wieder abschaffen – #transfeindlichkeit
Die Union plant einen Wahlkampf auf Kosten von trans, inter und nichtbinären Menschen: Laut Wahlprogramm-Entwurf wollen CDU und CSU das erst Anfang November in Kraft getretene Selbstbestimmungsgesetz wieder abschaffen. Vermutlich tausenden Menschen hat das neue Selbstbestimmungsgesetz (SBGG) bereits geholfen, kein einziger Missbrauchsfall ist bislang bekannt.
https://dokmz.com/2024/12/15/wahlprogramm-cdu-und-csu-wollen-selbstbestimmungsgesetz-wieder-abschaffen-transfeindlichkeit/
#Veränderung geschieht, wenn jemand wird, was er ist, nicht wenn er versucht, etwas zu werden, das er nicht ist.
(Arnold #Beisser)
#psychotHHerapie #Zitat #Zitate #Selbst #Sein #Selbstfindung #ArnoldBeisser
