Right on the heels of me mentioning that ‘best of 2024’ list season was right around the corner, Decibel did their usual and ‘leaked’ their top 40. I spent just enough time to quickly peruse their picks and decided I might have two albums in common, then let out my usual sigh of “meh.” It did raise some ire from a select few of our staff so that was fun for a second. Also, in case you haven’t heard, #tysonpaul was a thing that happened but the Serrano fight was INSANE and easily highlight of the night. Anyway, we’ve still got plenty of this year left for new stuff and Defeated Sanity hit the bricks hard with their brand of lunatic death metal that is most certainly music to my ears. Next up is one that brother Chris would’ve slapped on top of the pile this week, and that’s a new epic from Opeth, then we round out the top four with some truly repugnant death metal from Gutless and Repuked (yasssss!). Let me say this AGAIN loud enough so you guys in the back can hear this: don’t close the book on 2024 just because the ‘lists’ are coming out, trust me. And don’t just settle for calling one list the end all be all, peruse several and come away with some new and exciting shit. Now, get to the rest of what this week has in store and we’ll see you back here when we’ve got more to share.

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Defeated Sanity – Chronicles of Lunacy (Season of Mist) – death metal

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Opeth – The Last Will and Testament (Reigning Phoenix) – opethmetal

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Gutless – High Impact Violence (Dark Descent Records / Me Saco Un Ojo) – death metal

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Repuked – Club Squirting Blood (Soulseller Records) – death metal

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Also on tap:

10,000 Years – All Quiet On The Final Frontier (Ripple Music) – stoner

Aeon Gods – King of Gods (Scarlet Records) – power metal

Alta Rossa – A Defiant Cure (Source Atone Records) – sludge / post-metal

Anomic – Opacity, EP (WormHoleDeath) – thrash / death

Ante-Inferno – Death’s Soliloquy (Vendetta Records) – black metal

Astral Kompakt – Goldader (Tonzonen Records) – stoner rock

Bloodmoon Eclipse – For I Am Your Death (Purity Through Fire) – black metal

Carnal Savagery – Graveworms, Cadavers, Coffins and Bones (Moribund Records) – death metal

Coilguns – Odd Love (Humus Records) – noise

Conjonctive – Misère de Poussière (Self) – death metal

Crimson Dreams – Reign In Crimson (Syrup Moose Records) – power metal

Diamonds Hadder – Beyond The Breakers (No Remorse Records) – heavy metal

Die For My Sins – Scream (Vicisolum Productions) – heavy / power metal

Distant – Tsukuyomi: The Origin (Century Media Records) – deathcore

Doro – Rock ‘n’ Roll Christmas Party (Rare Diamonds) – xmas metal

Entomophthora – Instinctual Disease (Soulseller Records) – death metal

Fellowship – The Skies Above Eternity (Scarlet Records) – power metal

Goblin Hovel – Gobischkevrot (Self) – avantgarde

Golgothan Remains – Bearer of Light, Matriarch of Death, EP (Dark Descent Records) – death metal

Hail of Bullets – S/T, EP (Agonia Records) – death metal

Heaven-Gemini – Luonnonoikku (Inverse) – prog metal

High Warden – Astral Iron (Dying Victims Productions) – metal

Hjemsøkt – Om Vinteren, På En Sort Trone (Purity Through Fire) – black metal

Hot Hell Room – The Bleeding Land (Self) – heavy rock

Iniqitous Savagery – Edifice of Vicissitudes (Willowtip Records) – death metal

Kings Never Die – The Life & Times (Metalville) – heavy metal

Last Temptation – Heart Starter (Metalville) – metal

Lord Goblin – S/T (No Remorse Records) – blackened heavy metal

Maat – From Origin To Decay (FDA Records) – death metal

Mauvais Sang – La Flore (Daaganda Records) – noise rock

Mourning of the Heretic – To The Shadows Betrothed (Self) – black / death

Nigrum – Blood Worship Extremism (Iron Bonehead) – black / death

Null – First Sign Ahead (Self) – metal

Owdwyr – Receptor, Instrumental Edition (Self) – tech death

Panzerfaust – The Suns of Perdition IV (Eisenwald) – black metal

Purgatorial – Fading Whispers of Voidbound Souls (These Hands Melt) – death metal

Raptore – Renaissance (Dying Victims Productions) – metal

RVKKVS – Antithesis of Prosperity (Grindhead Records) – death metal

(((S))) – Howly Night (Self) – synth

Sign of the Jackal – Heavy Metal Survivors (Dying Victims Productions) – heavy metal

Silent Winter – Utopia (No Remorse Records) – heavy power metal

Silverships – Kingdom Of Decay (Tonzonen Records) – desert rock

Svartfjell – I, The Destroyer (Moribund Records) – black metal

Thunraz – Incineration Day (Self) – experimental death metal

Tygers Of Pan Tang – Animal Instinct, Reissue (Mighty Music) – heavy metal

Tyrannic – Tyrannic Desolation (Iron Bonehead) – blackened doom

Unholdun – Fœhn (Purity Through Fire) – metal

Xandria – Universal Tales (Napalm Records) – symphonic metal

— Josh