Last-minute slinky Norwegian jesters aside, our dedicated and awesome team of writers, photographers, editors, contributors, alumni, designers and what have you, have come together to work through our regular collaborative and demographic confirmation of those albums that tickled our collective pickle in 2024.
So, read on to find which new beast shall join the roll-call of honour that currently reads: 2013 – Carcass, 2014 – Behemoth, 2015 – Ghost, 2016 – Gojira, 2017 – Mastodon, 2018 – Ghost (again), 2019 – Opeth, 2020 – Deftones, 2021 – Trivium, 2022 – Machine Head, 2023 – Blackbraid
THE OFFICIAL GHOST CULT TOP 75 ALBUMS OF 2024
75. CNTS – Thoughts & Prayers (Ipecac Recordings) GC Review
74. Kerry King – From Hell I Rise (Reigning Pheonix Music) GC Review
73. Gost – Prophecy (Metal Blade Records) GC Review
72. Voraath – Volume 1: Hymn of the Hunters
71. Visions of Atlantis – Pirates II – Armada (Napalm Records)
70. Dirty Shades – Stuck In Motion (Modular Music) GC Review
69. Massive Wagons – Earth To Grace (Earache Records) GC Review
68. Devenial Verdict – Blessing Of Despair (Transcending Obscurity Records)
67. Missing Link – Watch Me Bleed (Triple B Records) GC Review
66. Flotsam & Jetsam – I Am The Weapon (AFM Records) GC Review
65. House of Protection – Galore [EP] (Red Bull Records)
64. Copse – MMXXIV (Church Road Records) GC Review
63. Tribulation – Sub Rosa In Æternum (Century Media Records) GC Review
62. Pearl Jam – Dark Matter (Monkeywrench Records / Republic Records)
61. Melvins – Tarantula Heart (Ipecac Recordings) GC Review
60. Jerry Cantrell – I Want Blood (Double J Music) GC Review
59. Eternal Storm – A Giant Bound To Fall (Transcending Obscurity Records) GC Review
58. Casey – How To Disappear (Hassle Records) GC Review
57. Resin Tomb – Cerebral Purgatory (Transcending Obscurity Records) GC Review
56. Boston Manor – Sundiver (SharpTone Records) GC Review
55. Speed – Only One Made (Flatspot Records / Last Ride Records)
54. Sólstafir – Hin Helga Kvöl (Century Media)
53. Undeath – More Insane (Prosthetic Records) GC Review
52. Insect Ark – Raw Blood Singing (Debemur Morti Productions) GC Review
51. Brat – Social Grace (Prosthetic Records) GC Review
50. Kublai Khan TX – Exhibition of Prowess (Rise Records)
49. Týr – Battle Ballads (Metal Blade Records) GC Review
48. Julie Christmas – Ridiculous and Full of Blood (Red Creek Recordings)
47. Dodsrit – Nocturnal Will (Wolves of Hades) GC Review
46. Aborted – Vault of Horrors (Nuclear Blast) GC Review
45. Green Day – Saviors (Reprise Records)
44. Four Year Strong – Analysis Paralysis (Pure Noise Records)
43. Alcest – Les Chants de l’Aurore (Nuclear Blast Records) GC Review
42. Candy – It’s Inside You (Triple B Records)
41. Orange Goblin – Science, Not Fiction (Peaceville Records) GC Review
40. Linkin Park – From Zero (Warner Records / Machine Shop). Returning with a new vocalist (Emily Armstrong) for their eighth album, Linkin Park played to their strengths with an album full of straight-up hits and bangers. Familiar, yet different, Mike Shinoda and crew reminded us all of their quality and stadium filling excellence.
39. Body Count – Merciless (Century Media Records) “Another rip-roaring, antagonistic attack on everything wrong in society and beyond, Ice-T vents his spleen as only he can on another collection of angry and sociopolitically relevant songs that probably shouldn’t be played at grandma’s house.” GC Review
38. 1349 – The Wolf and the King (Season of Mist) 21 years, and eight album deep, into their career, the Norwegian Black Metal beasts are on a seriously impressive run of form with a ferocious scything attack underpinned by the aggression of skinsman Frost. Old school quality with contemporary flair, 1349 have delivered a regal lycanthropic success.
37. Hidden Mothers – Erosion / Avulsion (Church Road Records) “What you can’t find on Erosion / Avulsion are signs of mediocrity or ill-timed or -placed sections. Everything feels firmly established and carries the demeanor of a record which is still tethered to something but is doing everything in its power to break free.” GC Review
36. Gatecreeper – Dark Superstition (Nuclear Blast Records) “Their third album sees their heavy, Death Metal roar wed to more melodic and concise metal. A heavy band embracing melody like this might raise some metalheads’ hackles, afraid their band going soft, but fear not. Their heft and aggression is still alive and kicking, but just married to more accessible metal.” GC Review
35. Counterparts – Heaven Let Them Die [EP] (Pure Noise Records) Surprise releasing their seventeen-minute feral ball of, possibly, the heaviest selection and collection of the Canadian punk / (original) metalcore quartets prolific career, the unexpected nature of this EP’s arrival was bettered only by the (now expected) quality within.
34. Immortal Bird – Sin Querencia (20 Buck Spin) Another abrasive amalgamation of jarring influences, be it blackened, noise, death, crust, Immortal Bird are held to their own lack of rules and instinctive ability to be both horrible and captivating simultaneously once again on their third full-length.
33. Kati Rán – Sála (Svart Records) Authentic, expansive, thoughtful, and exceptionally delicately crafted, Sála is not just a Norse or neo folk album, but an exploration of mythology, traditional instruments, and just how deep what can seem like simple or minimalistic music can go. An immersive eighty-minute journey like few others.
32. Job For A Cowboy – Moon Healer (Metal Blade Records) “Moon Healer is both a fantastic next step since Sun Eater and an ambitious comeback album, to say the least. Job For A Cowboy is certainly far away from their deathcore days, but what they have evolved into throughout these years has been worth the journey.” GC Review
31. Couch Slut – You Could Do It Tonight (Brutal Panda Records) “How many times have you heard a band described as genuinely “unsettling” to listen to? This scribe in question has probably described a few in writing as such. Well, more than likely those acts cannot come even close to the nauseating realism, punishing content and sonic barrage of New York’s Couch Slut.” GC Review
30. Nightwish – Yesterwynde (Nuclear Blast Records) “The Nightwish of today is very different to the Nightwish which began in 1996. Dense and cinematic, accessible but exploratory, Yesterwynde is yet another beautifully constructed record by the undisputed masters of symphonic metal.” GC Review
29. David Gilmour – Luck & Strange (Sony Music) Legendary Pink Floyd heartbeat Gilmour teams up with producer Charlie Andrews for his fifth solo album that proves that the septuagenarian still has plenty to offer, from bluesy to progressive, from rock to reflective, all the classy and classic Gilmour traits are prevalent throughout. Glacially Musical Review
28. Bring Me The Horizon – Post Human: NeX GEn (Sony Music, RCA) “The style for NeX GEn combines emo and post-hardcore elements with Hyper-pop. There are currently several bands paving the way to the future of Rock and Metal—but British band Bring Me The Horizon is something more. They are the past, present, and future of Rock and Metal all in one.” GC Review
27. Glassing – From The Other Side Of The Mirror (Pelagic Records) “Glassing… are not one to be musically pigeonholed, as they convey a wide range of sounds from Post Metal to Hardcore, Sludge to Black Metal while often breaking up the chaos with moments of drone atmospherics… across the record which ebbs and flows perfectly as one complete piece of art.” GC Review
26. VOLA – Friend Of A Phantom (Mascot Label Group) If previous release Witness was a confirmation of the quality of the Danish progressive metal quartet, their fourth outing is an even stronger step forwards. Classy, slick melodic metal with a focus on songs and emotional connection, Friend Of A Phantom sees VOLA operating at a different level. GC Review
25. Thou – Umbilical (Sacred Bones Records) “The new full-length effort from the Louisiana six-piece will raise your heart rate and lower your psyche with a wall of cacophonous and unrelenting guitar riffs, thunderous drumming, and raspy vocals… (and) certainly would fit in for after the sun sets and the flames rise in the firepits.” GC Review
24. Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntatuja (Nuclear Blast Records) Indescribable and indefinable, eclectic post-blackened progressive-eclectic transgressors divine, have served up another smorgasbord of uncomfortable and immersive indulgences to snare the soul and unsettle the mind as the Finnish collective expand further their psychedelic leanings.
23. Ihsahn – Ihsahn (Candlelight) “With this release, Ihsahn has once again provided a Blackened Progressive Metal masterclass in originality. He is a musician who creates music like no other, tapping into his Black Metal roots while also mixing in progressive experimentation, intricate classical orchestral arrangements, and sixties and seventies suspense cinema.” GC Review
22. While She Sleeps – SELF HELL (Sleeps Brothers / Spinefarm Records) “With SELF HELL, While She Sleeps prove that after almost two decades, they still know how to grow and expand their songwriting without losing what made them special in the first place. This is the sound of a band that has been reborn into a new higher form, and is ready to take on the rest of its long career.” GC Review
21. Better Lovers – Highly Irresponsible (SharpTone Records) While Better Lovers are probably sick of being tagged a supergroup, it is inescapable that this is indeed a super group. From the ashes of Every Time I Die, with pheonix wings and fire added by Greg Puciato and Will Putney, expectation is more than met by reality on an impressive debut.
20. Winterfylleth – The Imperious Horizon (Candlelight Records) In a move that matches the epic snow-and-ice bound vista that adorns the album’s cover, Britain’s finest Black Metal artisans return bigger, bolder, more expansive, yet more focused than before. Pushing their sound in all directions, The Imperious Horizon is the definitive Winterfylleth release.
19. Daath – The Deceivers (Metal Blade Records) “As the listener travels deeper into the album, the tone finds things leaning in a more progressive direction than in past releases. In finding their place in the current musical climate, fans of today’s progressive or Technical Death Metal will find much of what they are looking for here.” GC Review
18. Inter Arma – New Heaven (Relapse Records) Whether it is the doom, the dark, the death, the progressive, or just the metal part of their sound that Inter Arma are twisting, turning, dissecting or reconstructive, there is an over-riding oppressiveness, angularity, and obtuseness that makes New Heaven a challenging but oh-so-rewarding a listen.
17. Trelldom – …By The Shadows… (Prophecy Productions) “A mature, seductive kind of evil, the musical child of Gaahl, Trelldom has come a long way from raw, abrasive beginnings showing how Satan can find subtle ways to drag the listener into hell; subtle and insidious; when furious Black Metal spirits cultivate a love of Goth Rock and the avant-garde, I’m all for it” GC Review
16. Mastiff – Deprecipice (MNRK Heavy) “It’s not pretty and that’s the point … the multilayered masterpiece that is Deprecipice is lightyears away from anything else that has graced the brutal metallic sludge / hardcore / death metal scene for quite some time. Leave it up to Mastiff to be the ones leading the charge.” GC Review
15. Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project (BMG Rights Management) “Dickinson and Roy Z have managed to construct an absolute behemoth with The Mandrake Project. The album’s many different moods ensure things never get dull, and well worth the wait. If your expectations were cautiously low then raise them now.” GC Review
14. High On Fire – Cometh The Storm (MNRK Heavy) “Six years (where did that time go?) after their Grammy award-winning album Electric Messiah, comes Cometh The Storm. Gone is the ferocious, Thrash-like assault of the last album, replacing it is their trademark sludgy, Stoner Metal, but with a broadened palette. Can this record live up to its revered predecessor? In short, yes!” GC Review
13. Full Of Hell – Coagulated Bliss (Closed Casked Activities) “How would you describe Full Of Hell to someone who’d never heard the band before? How would you encompass the whole oeuvre? Abrasive? Definitely. Eclectic? For sure. As rabid and demented sounding as a bulldog trapped in a greenhouse on a hot summer’s day with a swarm of angry bees? Yes!” GC Review
12. Judas Priest – Invincible Shield (Columbia, Epic Records, Sony Japan) “So yes, while it’s true that most of the band are becoming increasingly weighed down by the ravages of wrinkles and bingo wings, one thing Invincible Shield proves beyond a shadow of doubt is that Judas Priest is still far too full of piss and vinegar to be regarded as a dinosaur.” GC Review
11. Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All (Napalm Records) “Sanders, Jeter, and Kingsland complement each other brilliantly… interweaving and clashing at will on arguably the most melodic and varied record in Nile’s history – as well as one of the heaviest. Not only an undisputed death metal highlight of 2024 but one of the band’s best in recent years.” GC Review
10. Chat Pile – Cool World (The Flenser) “Cool World exudes anger, Chat Pile letting the music do the talking…attaining a perfect balance of the varied sides to their sound be it the more punky noise rock outbursts to the darker metallic poundings that appeals to fans of heavy music who prefer an experimental edge that does not pander to the mainstream.” GC Review
9. The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World (Fiction, Lost, Polydor, Universal, Capitol) The rush of excitement as the first brand new songs from The Cure for over a decade were released was at odds with the band’s stately, unrushed, goth excellence, as is the sheer joy with which Songs… has been received. But it is worthy acclaim and happiness, for this album is a dark triumph indeed.
8. Devin Townsend – PowerNerd (InsideOut Music) “After promising to cut down on the meandering and writing something much more direct, the final product is a lot leaner than his last couple of studio outings. Often recalling Epicloud, Powernerd is an uplifting journey of self-affirmation and perseverance (with added cats and coffee)” GC Review
7. Nails – Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast Records) “17 minutes across 10 tracks might seem like a short run time for an album, but when the music is born out of the 100mph of Hardcore intensity, you don’t need 30 tracks to get a full meal. Whether it takes three minutes, two minutes, or 38 seconds, Nails steam at you full tilt, with one blast of malevolent aggression after another.” GC Review
6. The Black Dahlia Murder – Servitude (Metal Blade Records) “Complex, melodic and full of venomous fury, if Servitude proves one thing, it’s that The Black Dahlia Murder choosing to keep things in-house has been absolutely the right move… (and) this is still 100% The Black Dahlia Murder.” GC Review
5. Chelsea Wolfe – She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She (Loma Vista)
“She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She is one of those records that is difficult to write about because it refuses to be fixed into one box… as graceful as it is defiant, as futuristic as it is nostalgic, and as deep as it is immediate. If you’re open-minded, it could even show us a path forward when we don’t know we’re lost.” GC Review
4. Blood Incantation – Absolute Everywhere (Century Media)
“Absolute Elsewhere is a unique record, whose dense, thickly layered music and slightly indulgent running times are a bit off-putting. But persevere and you are rewarded with a richly woven prog death metal hybrid that is anything but boring, it seamlessly winds you down many a different road.” GC Review
3. Gaerea – Coma (Season of Mist)
“Coma provides ten songs with ten distinct ecosystems. Fifty minutes (of) unmatched atmosphere and Midas-Touch musical arrangements. Much like the highly anticipated sequel to a major box office hit, Coma came with all the preconceived notions and baggage, and yet it still manages to completely blow the fucking roof off.” GC Review
2. Opeth – The Last Will & Testament (Reigning Phoenix Music)
“Rejoice, fellow death metal fans, Opeth has brought back the harsh vocals… my favorite mix of the melodic death metal era of Opeth and the more recent prog-rock era of the band! The Last Will & Testament is truly a journey that needs to be listened to from front to back… many times.” GC Review
1. Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (Pure Noise Records)
It can’t be a complete surprise that Knocked Loose’s stellar LP You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (Pure Noise Records) is the number-one album on our countdown of the Top 40 Albums Of The
Year from Ghost Cult. Easily some of the most read and shared articles on our website this year are because of this band. They were our staff voted Album of The Month for May, in a runaway vote which is unusual for our team. As a band in heavy music it can be hard to break in or through. Knocked Loose was ubiquitous, like a spreading infection, they smashed through an inflection point in people’s consciousness and overcame the mainstream bias to not like music such as this, but make millions of new fans. A pretty unlikely story, if you ask us.
We are, in fact, seeing a changing of the guard in real-time in modern music, and this band is driving the bus. However, no band that started out in the Hardcore scene, or closely aligned with it, can be considered a runaway, overnight success. It’s not really possible. Their success can be traced all the way back to the eighties birth of New York and LA hardcore, through to today. Like a gladiator in the pits, one band rises above the dross and the din every decade to reshape the perception of this music on fans. Bands like Agnostic Front, Suicidal Tendencies, Deadguy, Converge, Hatbreed, Bury Your Dead, The Acacia Strain, Harm’s Way, and more recently Code Orange, broke down the goddamn door, so this band could have this moment.
At the same time, let’s not take anything away from the hard work, artistic growth, risk-taking, and straight-out unyielding dedication to being themselves this band has displayed. In a world of fakery, auto-tune, rage-bait, and clout-grabbing for clicks, just being as authentic and heavy as humanly possible should be commended.
The main reason a band like Knocked Loose’s has resonated so deeply is not because they changed much in their career, as the tastes of the average fan have improved and caught up to them. The reason so many were people were shocked and caught off guard at the band’s performance on late-night TV (Jimmy Kimmel), because the mainstream is not used to having the underground sounds in their faces. Maybe that is changing with Gojira at The Paris Olympics and other things. They can make the hardest beatdown songs of the year, and still collab with Poppy, herself an iconoclastic rising star, who could top this list someday.
Although Ghost Cult has progressed away slightly from our OG mandate and totally avant-garde roots, you can see real right-brain thinking of this. Sometimes we want crushing riffs and heavy, subversive lyrics. And other times we just want to donkey punch the person next to us in the pit like an unhinged caveman; the modern equivalent of throwing our feces or letting out a primal scream.
Maybe there’s a sociopolitical reason to why this album is hit people in the feels so hard. Simply put: extreme times call for extreme music, to paraphrase my favorite movie from almost forty years ago. Wax on, wax off.
Tim Ledin wrote in his review:
Knocked Loose, once again, has planted their flag in the soil of Hardcore with this latest album. You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To is going to be an album that people look back at years from now and appreciate. At the very least, even people who are not fans will not have any memes to make regarding ARF ARF because this band is no joke.
Check out our video and podcast breaking down the meat of this list!
Thanks to the bands, labels, publicists, and all of you dear readers!
We’ll be back for more in 2025!
STEVE TOVEY
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