Best Albums 2024: 15 to 11
Part 3 of my best albums of 2024. You can read part 1 here and part 2 here in case you missed them.
#15 - Blackshift by Ghostheart Nebula
Melodic Death / Doom Metal from Italy
Second release from this band and this is some really great melodic death / doom metal. I am loving the addition of the female vocals with this release. It really adds an added sense of melancholy.
From the band: If blueshift and redshift represent a change in the spectrum in the space-time linear dimension, “Blackshift” moves itself off to another reality going down into the deepness of the blackest voidness.
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
#14 - Inheritance by Lying Figures
Melodic Death / Doom Metal from France
Second album from this band. Lying Figures music is inspired by tortured art in music, cinema or literature. If you’re a fan of death / doom in the realm of Slumber, Rapture and Daylight Dies definitely check this one out.
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
#13 - Cyberstrictive by Apogean
Technical Death Metal from Canada
Debut album from this band and what a banger. Top notch tech death with incredible guitar work. Some of the riffs in here are mind blowing. This was released by The Artisan Era which is my favorite record label. They do not have a bad release that I have heard.
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
#12 - Eternity Whispers by Oubliette
Melodic Black Metal from the United States
Incredible melodic black metal with some melancholy, atmosphere and prog mixed in. This is another release from The Artisan Era and this falls right in line with all of the other incredible bands they have in their roster. Female fronted band and the musicianship is amazing. Spencer Moore from tech death band Inferi is filling in on drums for this release so they are super tight. This album does so many things very well.
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
#11 - Between the Worlds of Life and Death by Vale of Pnath
Blackened / Technical Death Metal from Denver
Vale of Pnath has moved into more of a blackened death metal from technical death metal. Which makes sense because 3 of the members are also members of Abigail Williams. The band has gone through several lineup changes since their first album in 2011 with only founding guitarist Vance Valenzuela left from the original lineup but they are still releasing killer music and I still hear his sound in the guitars. II from 2016 is one of my all time favorite albums. While this one does not reach the level of II it is still an incredible album and just out of my top 10 for this year. Stand out track on this one is Soul Offering however the entire album is fantastic.
The Vale of Pnath (or Pnoth) is a vast pit the underworld in H.P. Lovecrafts writing, which is where the band takes its name from. This vale is especially notorious, for part of it lies at the bottom of the Crag of the Ghouls and is filled with a mountain-sized layer of bones. Nightgaunts often carry their victims to the vale, where they are left to die.