Top Ten Albums of 2024

On December 31, 2024December 30, 2024 By bigbadburchIn AOTY 20244 Comments

It’s the last day of 2024, so I guess I ought to post my album list for the year.

There is one important thing to keep in mind – I honestly did not have time to check out a whole ton of stuff. I was very busy this year with house hunting that got put off, a job that was going off the rails and an eventual job change, and all of the assorted stress and turmoil along with stuff like that. Things are moving forward but even now I’m still adjusting to a different job, way different hours and stuff like that.

It’s the unfortunate part of this site – I’m a hobby blogger, I’m not a music journalist of any sort so I don’t have near as much time as I would really need to investigate new releases. Week after week went by with albums of interest to me, some of them I got to hear once and others not at all. Given that I spent a good chunk of the year on this site in remembrance of 1984, keeping up with today’s music wasn’t nearly as much on my radar as I would have liked it to be. Add in to that the issue that more new music is released than ever before, and it’s just impossible to keep up.

But even if my evaluation of this year’s music is woefully incomplete, I can still offer up a top ten list. Even if 2024 albums weren’t’ the focal point of my year, there are still ten out there I can nail down to compose the pretty well mandatory year-end list.

Blaze – Circle Of Stone

In a year when every Iron Maiden singer released a solo album of some sort, it’s Blaze that came out on top for me. This album is a great follow-up to his excellent prior album War Within Me. This one brings a few touches of power metal along. Blaze has had a great solo career and this is another wonderful release in the series.

Chat Pile – Cool World

The Oklahoma outfit generated a lot of buzz on their 2022 full-length debut God’s Country. The follow-up also delivers a woeful brand of noise and doom, with just a touch of nu-metal thrown in. This one shapeshifts in places to keep it from sounding like a clone of their prior work and keeps the band on everyone’s radar, much to the chagrin of some. I’m here for it.

illuminati hotties – POWER

In 2021 I happened on this indie/punk/alt act on kind of a whim and the album Let Me Do One More nearly ran off with my album of the year award. Sarah Tudzin has done production and engineering work to everyone from Logic and Slowdive to boygenius, and her own project rivals those. This album is overall pretty chill and satisfying and I look forward to much more to come.

Rotting Christ – Pro Xristou

I did not check out a ton of extreme metal this year, which is a shame as I’m led to believe there was a ton worth a listen. But I will always make time for the veteran Greek outfit and their blend of atmospheric black metal. This is their 14^th album and they sound just as great as they did when I first heard them in the early ’90’s.

Waxahatchee – Tiger’s Blood

Katie Crutchfield’s project got notice in 2020 with the critically praised Saint Cloud album and this is the long-awaited follow-up. It’s a fantastic blend of indie rock and country that was pleasing on first listen and then made itself at home with subsequent plays. It’s nice to see Waxahatchee continue to gain notice, including with a Grammy nomination for this record.

Transylvania – Windrider

Up next is something a bit different – this is the debut full-length from an act local to Springfield. We’ve been waiting awhile for this release as it was done sometime a few years ago in the midst of the pandemic and took some time to come to light. Transylvania have been one of the mainstays of the local scene here for years and it’s great to finally have this album in hand. While there’s no doubt the band bears comparisons to Iron Maiden, they have definitely made their own stamp on things here.

I will cover this album in more detail in the coming weeks.

Grand Magus – Sunraven

It’s never a bad year when Grand Magus release an album. This is another fine blend of doom and traditional heavy metal. I’ve been following Grand Magus since pretty much the beginning and it’s hard to believe we’re now over 20 years and 10 albums in.

Saxon – Hell, Fire and Damnation

Saxon showed up right at the start of the year with their 24^th album and yet another excellent entry in their catalog, which has been on fire for a few decades now. There’s a bit extra behind this one that lifts it up another level. It didn’t hurt that I got to see them on tour this year in one of the very few shows I was able to attend.

I did previously review this album as an Album of the Week feature.

High On Fire – Cometh The Storm

The heavy as hell noise merchants took over five years off, with founder Matt Pike dealing with some health issues and releasing a solo album in that time. But the band returned better than ever with this slab of metal that combines their trademark Motorhead meets stoner metal vibe with Middle Eastern music influences. As usual, High On Fire transcend all category labels and delivered a quality offering once again.

Album of the Year 2024

Judas Priest – Invincible Shield

Priest arrived earlier in the year with their 19^th album and they mopped the floor with everyone from the word go. The band have been in fine form on their past few releases despite line-up turmoil and advanced age. Everyone else had most of the year to top this and were unable to do so. It’s amazing just how great Priest sound in 2024 – it isn’t just that they sound “better than they should for their age,” it’s that they were once again able to conquer the heavy metal realm.

That does it for 2024, at least the stuff I was able to give spins to. I’m sure there’s more great stuff out there that I missed, but sadly that’s how time works, I don’t have near enough of it. Let’s see what 2025 has in store.

High On Fire – Burning Down

On February 21, 2024February 20, 2024 By bigbadburchIn Song Of The Week10 Comments

Last week brought a highly anticipated new track as High On Fire offered up the first single from their upcoming album. Burning Down is the lead single from Cometh The Storm, an album that will see the light of day on April 19. The record is a highly anticipated one in my household, High On Fire have been one of the most consistently awesome bands of the 2000’s.

Burning Down keeps the streak going – this is all riffs and tone in that space between doom, stoner and flat-out heavy metal that High On Fire have occupied their whole career. This one holds a mid-tempo pace, though the band have always been able to operate effectively on any point of the speed spectrum.

The video is also sufficiently gnarly – it starts with people suffering from what looks to be an old school plague, then some monsters show up and burn everything. It’s a very creepy and well-rendered video, kudos to whoever put that together.

I don’t have much else to say about this one – the song rocks, the video is great and the new album stands to be another barnburner in a discography full of them. High On Fire are back after an uncharacteristic six-year absence, marked by health issues and the pandemic mucking everything up. But they are back and all is right with speaker systems everywhere.

High On Fire – Death Is This Communion (Album of the Week)

On August 2, 2021June 24, 2023 By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week1 Comment

I figured every Monday I’d do an Album of the Week. There is no real critera behind it, I just pick an album I’m fond of for whatever reason and talk about it. It could be something with a real story behind it or it could just be something I really like and I just say “jam out to this.”

I’m gonna kick off the series with an absoulte banger and one of my favorite albums of all time.

High On Fire are an institution today and much of that came about with the 2007 release of Death Is This Communion. This band had already set a high bar with their prior efforts and they cleared that bar by leaps and bounds on …Communion.

Released September 18, 2007 via Relapse Records

Favorite Tracks: Death Is This Communion, Turk, Fury Whip

The tunes have always been heavy with High On Fire but the band have also thrown in some melodic embellishments to keep things lively. It’s not stuff that will simply whip your ass, but it will still certianly whip your ass. And it’ll soften the blow with some sweet interludes along the way.

There isn’t any real background story to why I got into this album. The only thing I really needed to know was that there was a new High On Fire album. When we all heard it after release we were pretty well shitting ourselves over it. I recall pretty unanimous praise from my circles for the record, everyone was flipping over how awesome it was.

It’s an album without a single weak note for me. But the title track is the first one that really got its claws in me. Just this long, droning, pounding rhythym and the lyrics speaking of some arisen Eldritch horror consuming all. That’s the kind of stuff I sign up for anywhere, anytime.

This album put High On Fire on a whole new playing field. While they were already known for having a sound their own that didn’t fall too neatly into one of metal’s slog of subgenres, they transcended their own past on …Communion and let the world know they were one of the world’s premeir acts.

In the nearly 14 years since the release, High On Fire have continued to forge a path of their own making in an ever-crowded metal marketplace. This album will probably always be tops for me but they’ve touched the Sun a time or two since on subsequent releases. Our shirtless overlord Matt Pike and his band of hard-pounding doomsters trudge on, pounding us into gleefull submission with the most piss-soaked, metal-hardened riffs to be found.