We’re gonna kick off my personal marathon through list season (I’m up to five lists now!) with this, what I am calling the “amuse-bouche” of my picks this year.  I’ve really enjoyed branching out and separating the truly heavy from what some might consider blasphemy to include in a heavy metal blog (just wait, there’ll be lots to cry about when my main list gets done).  We’ve had lots of discussions this year about what the difference (or lack thereof) is between “metal” and “heavy” and how those two things aren’t always synonymous with each other.  How does one simply exclude all the great punk, emo and generally-unclassifiable-but-definitely-heavy music that drops year after year?  Plus, writing this just gives me more opportunities to talk about albums I’ve been wild about, genre aside, and that’s always a pretty big win in my book.  And so, without further ado, I give you just a little taste of what’s to come from my neck of the woods for the year 2024.

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Infant Island – Obsidian Wreath

“Emo meets black metal” is one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language, and Obsidian Wreath is definitely all that and more.  Infant Island’s newest full length came highly recommended to me from both my sibling and my partner, so how am I supposed to ignore it?  The rush of adrenaline that pumps through me when the blast beats meet the panic chords is practically unmatched this year, and while no one could classify this album as anything less than “heavy,” there’s a lot of subtlety on display here too, in the form of delicate electronics and spacious guitar work.  It goes by pretty quickly, but listening to this album always leaves a lasting impression on me.

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SeeYouSpaceCowboy – Coup de Grâce

What an absolutely excellent time to be a thirty-something year old scene kid.  SeeYouSpaceCowboy have always been at the forefront of doing what-the-fuck-ever they want, but Coup de Grâce sees them carrying the scene torch into places like sultry jazz, dance rock and experimental noise.  Just don’t call them screamo, please and thanks.  Coup de Grâce truly is so much more than that, even if all the hallmarks are present and accounted for: anthemic clean choruses, breakdowns, panic chords, and the raspy shriek of frontwoman Connie Sgarbossa backed up by three other members (drummer AJ Tartol finally gets a turn behind the mic, and it works wonders).  The end result is something that elicits equal parts spin kicking and ass shaking.

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Glassing – From the Other Side of the Mirror

From the Other Side of the Mirror damn near crushed me flat the first time I listened to it.  It is heavy in every conceivable sense of the word.  Again, we see post-hardcore with liberal sprinklings of post-metal and black metal, but in a way that very much retains the essence of the Austin, TX, trio and the space they stride between despair and hope.  There really is no way to get through From the Other Side without being affected by it: it’s a wholly cathartic experience that weaves its way into your brain and sits there, begging to be examined again and again.  Oh, and did I mention it’s *brutally* heavy?  Because that experience of listening to this album is like being Wile E. Coyote and having an ACME™ brand one ton weight dropped on you.

How could I forget that Hera wrote a review of this behemoth of an album?  If you want to see what real good writing looks like, give it a peek here.

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Julie Christmas – Ridiculous and Full of Blood

It’s been eight long years since Mariner was released, the album that made most of the metal world (if you weren’t already initiated) stand up and take notice of Julie Christmas.  True, she had been around the scene before, and 2010’s The Bad Wife was well-received, but it’s been relatively quiet on the Eastern front from the Brooklyn native…until now.  “Quiet” is the last word I would use to describe Ridiculous and Full of Blood, but there is more here than just noise for its own sake: Christmas’ deft exploration of big emotions both positive and negative allows her to use the entire range of her voice.  Shrieks, cracks, gasps, roars and everything in between are very clearly the stars of the show, but the band that backs her up is rock solid as well, and a guest feature from her good friend Johannes Persson doesn’t hurt either.

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Chat Pile – Cool World

Cool World takes everything that made God’s Country so mesmerizing to me and turns it completely up to 11.  The riffs are more dense and yet more accessible, thanks to them actually turning down the distortion on the guitars.  The bass and drums drive the bus relentlessly forward with an intensity that belies their simple nature (and Chris was absolutely right, Cool World has an absolutely incredible drum sound).  The vocals from Raygun Busch are just as immediate and the band’s exploration of violence as a central theme is immediately apparent.  But really, even though it is very dark and very heavy (musically and emotionally), Cool World still retains a, well, cool factor that is undeniable.  Except, wait, there’s no song about dropping acid and hallucinating The Hamburglar; I take it back, worst album ever.

Do you want to hear the sound of me being betrayed by the person I’m closest to in this world?  Check out our October Album of the Month gauntlet, where Cool World came out on top!

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Melt-Banana – 3+5

If Melt-Banana release a new album, you know we have to talk about it.  Even if it hadn’t been eleven years since the release of their last full-length, 3+5 would be something to talk about.  And how to even begin talking about it?  If you don’t know who Melt-Banana are, to try to describe them to the laypeople is…daunting at best.  Just go listen to this album.  Take it all in.  Or at least try to, but do listen for all the subtlety in the midst of the noise.  All the little bits of electronics, all the little touches of melody, and all the fucking fun injected into the wacky and wild noise rock that Melt-Banana do like no one else are what make them something quite special around these parts.  This is one of the most fun records I’ve listened to this year, bar none.

3+5 also came out on top of our new Battle Royale format for the Audio Thing!  Check out our August episode for more discussion on this and more.

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Better Lovers – Highly Irresponsible

I miss Every Time I Die too, Josh.  I have yet to check out the Many Eyes album from this year, mostly because when I want a fix of the goods I go right to Highly Irresponsible every time.  This album is truly greater than the sum of its parts, and while it capitalizes on the nostalgia factor previously mentioned, the combination of Every Time I Die, Fit for an Autopsy and the inimitable vocals of Greg Puciato make for something that sounds like the breath got put back into each member’s lungs.  It’s a bunch of phoenixes rising from the ashes of inglorious ends, to come back brighter and stronger than ever, and Highly Irresponsible captures all the energy and passion that hallmarked the heyday of Every Time I Die and The Dillinger Escape Plan.  This record was a ton of fun to record, and that spirit shines through in every second of Highly Irresponsible.

Want a drink pairing to go with this album and a Friday night in front of the speakers?  I got you right here.

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Touché Amoré – Spiral in a Straight Line

You had me at “ft. Julien Baker.”  Truly, there is no one else out there doing post-hardcore to the level that Touché Amoré is, and Spiral in a Straight Line is another stellar addition to a discography that doesn’t ever miss.  Spine-chilling honesty in the lyrics and energetic and deeply melodic guitar work spaced out a little bit more, with more clean tones and ambience to really let the words breathe.  As with most Touché Amoré albums, it’s immediate and direct, and the anguish and hurt are palpable, but there’s ever so subtly more light and optimism present to make this more broadly applicable.  There’s been a lot of really excellent, deeply affecting post-hardcore this year, and while Spiral doesn’t necessarily hit the highs of Parting the Sea or Stage Four, it doesn’t have to.  This is where Touché Amoré is at now, and I’m here for it.

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envy – Eunoia

Where do I even begin to talk about this album?  Just the fact that I got to review it is enough to make me feel incredibly lucky and overjoyed.  envy are one of those rare bands whose releases make me drop literally everything I’m doing to take notice, and Eunoia unexpectedly doesn’t disappoint.  That might be putting it too mildly: I can’t believe how much life and energy there is in this release.  Tetsu sounds like a man possessed from start to finish, the newly revitalized band plays behind him with a fury and intensity that matches their earliest post-hardcore days, while still incorporating the spoken word and post-rock that has defined their later career.  Eunoia is the comeback album that I didn’t know we were missing from envy, especially considering they /already made/ a comeback album four years ago.  It’s a thing of beauty, a vital and important release from a band that never stops upping their game and making me question why anyone else even bothers making music anymore.

I’ll forever be grateful that I get the opportunity to bring music like this to the masses because of this site.  Here’s the review I got to write for this incredible album.

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Comeback Kid – Trouble

Victory Records might not have the most, ahem, noble reputation in its later years, but for me, that little Chicago independent label provided me with so much new music that it’s almost impossible to calculate, from Streetlight Manifesto to Taking Back Sunday to Between the Buried and Me and, yes, Comeback Kid.  Though it’s been a long time since they have been signed to Victory, it hasn’t been a long time since Comeback Kid released something worth mentioning.  The Canadian bruisers truly never run out of steam, and Trouble, though only 4 songs and 13 minutes, is a hell of a hardcore romp through what makes Comeback Kid a force to be reckoned with, even nigh-on 25 years into their career.

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Well, there we go.  Momentum being what it is, you can expect a lot more from me and the other brilliant minds here at Nine Circles Dot Co, even beyond what has already been posted.  Truly, there was so much good music this year, I might actually be in the middle of switching my lists up based on some things I realized I forgot about from reading everyone else’s picks, but at least there is this to get your appetite going.  What a way to close 2024 and kick off 2025.  This is always my favorite time of year, and this list has become one of my favorites to work on.  I was genuinely too excited to wait to share it with all of you, and I’m pretty damn stoked for the rest of EOY season too.  Until the next one.

— Ian