This is it! The list to rule all other lists. 2024 will go down as a fine year for Metal releases and these are the ones we found ourselves liking and playing the most over the year:
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Catchy and filled with killer guitar leads, sign us up! |
This year we had tons of excellent Black Metal releases so we decided to make this list dedicated to this genre. It was quite hard to decide on a certain order, but we managed to reach a consensus:
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Returning after 26 years, these crazy Germans return with their sleazy take on the genre and deliver one hell of an engaging release. |
In order to not have a billion different lists, this year we are merging anything that has to do with Symphonic elements into one single category. One thing to be sure about, all these releases have some killer symphonic arrangements regardless of the genre:
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Hailing from Denver, Colorado, this outfit delivered one of the most engaging and fun Symphonic Metal releases of 2024 and it was just their first release. Please be sure to keep an eye out for these guys. |
The Melodic/Progressive side of Metal has seen a boom in all kinds of directions, creating some truly unique releases in 2024:
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Wintersun finally delivered the second part of "Time" and it was as awesome as expected. |
Top 5 Atmospheric, Dreamy, and weird Metal-ish releases of 2024
2024 was a very interesting year with tons of very dreamy and highly atmospheric releases that dabbled into some dark corners of music:
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Very unique Dark Rock music from this stacked Norwegian outfit. Definitely one of the more different releases of 2024. |
Every year we spent quite a while doing our top albums of the year list combining data driven techniques: rating, number of times we played the album, alongside a quick listening session of all our candidates and their best songs. 2021 was a pretty solid year in music with many bands releasing albums written and recorded during the pandemic, allowing them to fully funnel their creativity and unleashing some of the best music in the last couple of decades. Here is our list of the top 25 releases of 2021:
As one of the genres that saw the most growth in 2021, Atmospheric Black Metal takes all kinds of shapes, from raw and rudimentary to over-the-top keyboard/synth arrangements, these are the top release we reviewed in 2021:
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The year 2021 was filled with tons of awesome Metal releases, but it was Black Metal releases that really stood out with some killer debuts and considerable improvements over their previous efforts from established bands. Our list was hard to rank, but we did our best to reflect what we think was the best of the year:
Being one of our favorite genres, we are quite picky as to which releases make our list. During 2021 we had some solid contributors that pushed the genre in new directions while retaining melancholic supperiority:
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Post-Metal and its subgeneres continued to grow in 2021, in our list we tried to capture releases that went in multiple different directions from this exciting and complex genre:
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Zeal & Ardor - Baroness - Deafheaven
March 8th, 2019 - Houston, Texas
Ensiferum - Septicflesh - Arsis
January 28th, 2019 - Atlanta, Georgia
November 2nd & 3rd, 2018 - Brooklyn, NY
Eye of Solitude - Marche Funebre - Catapult the Dead
March 13th, 2018 - Oakland, California
Enslaved - Wolves in the Throne Room - Myrkur - Khemis
March 9th, 2018 - San Francisco, California
November 6th, 2017 - Atlanta, Georgia
October 29th, 2017 - Rotterdam, Netherlands
October 28th, 2017 - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Brujeria + Powerflo + Pinnata Protest
October 23rd, 2017 - San Francisco, CA
Orphaned Land + Pain + Voodoo KungFu
September 20th, 2017 - Oakland, California
August 16-19th, 2017 - Dinkelsbühl, Germany
August 10th, 2017 - Jaroměř, Czech Republic
August 11th, 2017 - Jaroměř, Czech Republic
August 12th, 2017 - Jaroměř, Czech Republic
July 28-29th, 2017 - Germany
Feb 2-6, 2017 - USA
Feb 2-6, 2017 - USA
Feb 2-6, 2017 - USA
Feb 2-6, 2017 - USA
Children of Bodom + Abbath + Exmortus + Oni
12/05/2016 - The Regency, CA
Sonata Arctica + Leaves' Eyes + Omnium Gatherum
12/02/2016 - Slim's - San Francisco, CA
Epica + Arkona + Fleshgod Apocalypse + The Agonist
11/18/2016 - Social Hall - San Francisco, CA
Fallujah + Between The Buried And Me + Devin Townsend Project
10/05/2016 - Regency Ballroom - San Francisco, CA
