2024 provided some nice gems for me. As usual I didn’t write much about them but compared to previous years, I listened to a lot more music!
There’s still a lot to be listened to. As my colleague ExtremeMetalVoyager already mentioned: ‘Absolute Elsewhere’ is not in my list either (yet). Even though I only read praising reviews, including our own written by a different colleague, I haven’t given it a proper listen yet.
Albums that díd made an impact on my year so far are the following albums.
Hamferð – Men Guðs hond er sterk
I’ll start with my top album of 2024. Hamferð is a band that never ceases to mesmerise me. Everything about them sounds right. The cohesion between the different band members when they play just makes sense, as is obvious on this album, that they recorded all together in the studio. The theme, the way they put it into music, the emotion on every level; they once again managed it with Men Guðs hond er sterk!
Rome – World In Flames
Ok, this is officially an EP and not a full album, but who cares. When a release is good enough to end up second place in my top released, it simply deserves to be mentioned, right? It’s actual, and musically divers(ish). It certainly represents all elements of what is Rome. I’ve listened to it many, many times this year.
Unto Others – Never, Neverland
If you had told me at the beginning of this year, that this band would end up in this list, I would have looked at you with confused face, because I didn’t really know the band back then. Gladly this changed over the year, and though the only show I saw of them wasn’t that good unfortunately, the album ís!!
This was my ultimate top 3 of 2024, the following albums are in a random order, but all deserve a place in my top albums 2024, nevertheless.
Kalandra – A Frame of Mind
How can a person not be impressed, and carried away by Katrine Stenbekk her voice. This combined with the band their folk/proggy sound makes this album a gem. It’s different than their previous albums, but still very recognizable as being Kalandra.
Zeal & Ardor – Grief
I honestly doubted a bit to put this album in my list. It’s an album didn’t convince me at first. It’s still growing on me, and to be honest, there are a few songs that probably will never be my favourite songs by Zeal & Ardor, but in general they created yet again, a memorable album.
Theigns & Thralls – The Keep & The Spire
Well, this isn’t really a metal album, is it? I still want to write a review about the album, but simply haven’t gotten to it yet. But the second release of these gentlemen their ‘Irish Folk Rock’ music is something I frequently listen to. They didn’t re-invent the wheel, but made a good, straightforward album.
Gost – Prophecy
The synth-wave, dark-wave genre is a genre I’m growing into more and more lately. Combine this with my favourite metal genre, black metal, and this album by Gost can’t be missed in my yearlist. Perfect for long car rides, or secretly dancing in the living room when nobody is watching 😉
