It’s July, which means we’re over halfway through 2024, which means that it’s time for us to look back at the year’s releases so far! Like many of you, we at the Subway spent all our life-savings on Taylor Swift tickets and have spent the rest of the year destitute, sitting in our homes listening to The Tortured Poets Department on an endless loop whilst writing our crushes’s names into our journals in a variety of lovestruck fonts. However, we also reviewed some underground prog this year, and there have been some banger releases between the solstices, from epic trad prog sagas to thunderously groovy post-metal, from gothic trip-hoppy art rock to classical-infused black metal. So get yourself comfy, press play on our playlist, and peruse this list of our writers’s favourite albums in 2024 so far.
Aquilus – Bellum II
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Xanthochroid, Dordeduh, Emperor, Agalloch, Claude Debussy
Picked by: Sam
I don’t listen to a ton of extreme metal anymore, but Aquilus struck a chord with me this year. Listening to Bellum II is as if being caught in a long and detailed dream, drifting on the waves of beautiful cinematic classical interweaving an Opethian ebb and flow style of songwriting. Sometimes acoustics and violin will guide you through a royal flower garden, then a swelling guitar solo will have you soaring through the clouds, at other times intense black metal passages will bring you face to face with your demons, returning acoustics and whispered vocals bring back the pretty calm but the unease remains, and so it flows for nearly an hour. Normally I prefer a tighter approach to songwriting (like say, Vanden Plas, my SANCTIMONARIUUUUM runner-up pick), but I have a weakness for bands who can pull off ebb and flow without succumbing to amorphous directionlessness; Bellum II is fleeting, yet always cohesive and with a sense of purpose as it works to process the maelstrom that is our emotions during an intense period in life. It is best listened to in its entirety, but tracks like “Into the Earth” and especially “Nigh to Her Gloam” are wonderful listens by themselves, the latter being a strong song of the year contender for its incredible lead work and fantastical crescendos. So do yourself a favor and let Bellum II take you away on a journey to the unknown.
Recommended tracks: Nigh to Her Gloam
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Azure – Fym
Recommended for fans of: Rush, Ayreon, (Luca Turilli’s) Rhapsody (of Fire), Haken, Yes
Picked by: Dave
Well, here I am, yet again talking about Fym. It should come as no surprise that this is my pick for favorite of the year so far: Fym has had an unrelenting vicegrip on my attention since the moment I picked it up thanks to its indulgence in technicolor excess, incorporation of playful fusion prog elements with power metal, and obsessively fleshed-out fantasy lyricism. It would be a challenge to find something that is, in concept, more tailored to my tastes in the realm of progressive rock. On my first few listens, I was drawn to Fym’s more catchy and in-your-face moments, such as “The Azdinist // Den of Dawns”’s powerful staccato instrumentation and its rumbling and groovy bass to “Mount, Mettle, and Key”’s invigorating vocal work, making for a strong contender for my favorite chorus of the year, to “Doppelgänger”’s glamorous and borderline danceable fusion-pop reminiscent of a mix of Kyros and Dirty Loops.
What keeps me coming back to Fym, however, is not just the in-your-face catchy tracks, but also the quieter moments that sit between them, as its gorgeous and lush softer passages betray Azure’s songwriting versatility across a spectrum of intensities. “Kingdom of Ice and Light” lives up to its name as orchestration skates delicately around serene riffage before giving way to a chilling guitar solo; “The Portent” spends a considerable majority of its runtime floating peacefully in a cosmic sea before exploding into a The Helix Nebula-meets-power-metal instrumental break; and “Sky Sailing / Beyond the Bloom / Wilt” features some of Fym’s most lush and cozy orchestral moments in its second movement, sparking imagery of exploring a forest with both curiosity and an insidious unease. Moreover, Fym’s storyline and its integration into the music provide an extra dimension of intrigue, giving lots of room for consideration of characters’ intentions and motivations and helping to further amplify its vivid prosody through lyricism. Azure’s acumen for catchy progressive/power metal results in an addictive experience that maintains its Lustre well beyond the first couple (or thirty) listens.
Recommended tracks: The Azdinist // Den of Dawns, Mount Mettle and Key, The Portent
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Hippotraktor – Stasis
Recommended for fans of: Dvne, The Ocean, Meshuggah, Intronaut, Uneven Structure, Fit for an Autopsy
Picked by: Zach
Djent tends to be the problem child of the metal world, and since every Instagram guitarist gets millions of views by chugging on that low 7th string, you bet it’s gonna get plenty of metalheads riled up. But I’ve always had a soft spot for the genre, likely because the sound of that low string is basically instant dopamine for me. However, Hippotraktor have seemingly come out of nowhere and added their own spin on things. Stasis has all the chugs and syncopated rhythms I could ask for, but with Hippo’s own added blend of post-metal seasonings. While the songs never delve into sludge-y territory, they have that distinct rising and falling motion not unlike labelmates The Ocean. This is coupled with the sheer weight of Stasis’s production, making every chug hit you like a brick wall and every clean-vocal chorus seem like an ascent to heaven.
Hippotraktor bring what more djent bands should bring to the table. Tight, dynamic songwriting without any of the flashy nonsense. This album has exactly one guitar solo on it and is all the better for it. Hippo draw you in with stanky grooves and incredible, soaring vocals, needing none of the bells and whistles that most of their genre contemporaries employ. Stasis provides 46 minutes of sheer weight in musical personification, all exemplified by that downright incredible title track. If you aren’t screaming INTERCONNECTED by the end of it, then you may as well not have a pulse. This will be one of the best this year, even with a year full of incredible albums, mark my words.
Recommended tracks: Stasis, The Indifferent Human Eye, Echoes, Descent
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
i Häxa – Part One & Part Two
Recommended for fans of: Chelsea Wolfe, Massive Attack, Radiohead, Emma Ruth Rundle
Picked by: Christopher [seconded by: Sam]
I’m sort of cheating here: i Häxa will release their full album sometime around November, but they’ve been slowly drip feeding it in EP form a quarter at a time, so my pick is two EPs that collectively equate to half an album, of which the other half isn’t yet out. Got it? Good. With that in mind, i Häxa sound something like a confluence of Chelsea Wolfe, Radiohead, and Massive Attack. A collaboration between vocalist Rebecca Need-Menear (Anavae) and producer/multi-instrumentalist Peter Miles (producer for Architects, We Are the Ocean, and co-producer on Tesseract’s War of Being), i Häxa sojourn through a variety of styles united by abrasive trip-hop beats, luxurious blankets of synth, complex backing orchestration, moments of Nine Inch Nails industriality, eerie ambiences—a labyrinth of sonic mazes forming and unfolding.
There’s enormous range here from the industrial grooves of “Underworld” to the belting lament of “The Well” (my most played track of this year by far) to the vulnerability of “Last at the Table”. Around half the tracks feature portentous spoken word from Need-Menear; recitations, invocations, and soliloquies delivered with deft enunciation and a perfect ear for tone and mood. Dreamlike imagery, gothic and wiccan, suffuses throughout, both lyrically and in the fantastic audiovisual accompaniments to both EPs. Familiar yet innovative, accessible and artistic, diverse but flowing, a kintsugi style fusion of disparate parts, i Häxa have delivered the most exciting, emotionally engaging and catchy work of 2024 so far, and, like the year itself, they’re only halfway done; an ending starts.
Recommended tracks: Underworld, The Well, We Three, Sapling
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
In Vain – Solemn
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Insomnium, In Mourning, Disillusion, Countless Skies
Picked by: Ian [seconded by: Andy, Christopher, Cooper, Zach]
Of the many metaphors and analogies we use to convey an album’s sound, one of the more useful yet vague is that of size. What makes an album “big”? Is it ample layers of orchestration or dynamics? Melodies that abandon subtlety and shout their power and emotionality from the rooftops? Or is it merely the raw quantity of the runtime? In Vain‘s Solemn looks at these questions and answers with a resounding “all of the above”, and the result is an unabashedly massive tour de force of a record seemingly dedicated to dropping listeners’ jaws at every turn. It’s almost unfair how many things this album pulls off incredibly well. Soulful, intense vocals, harsh and clean alike? Check. Soaring, shredding solos? Check. Blistering blastbeats, tight riffs, and crystalline production? Check, check and triple check.
But all of those individual strengths in performance are mere footnotes in comparison to the astonishingly masterful songwriting and composition on display here. Every single chorus on here is precisely designed to hit like a sledgehammer and embed itself into the listener’s psyche like an emotional splinter, every climax soaring higher and higher before crashing down with the force of a roaring wave. The orchestration, too, is immaculate, incorporating cinematic strings, wild sax solos, and an absolute all-timer of a horn interlude in a way that feels natural yet ever-surprising. It says something that the only real criticisms of the album I’ve seen from my fellow writers revolve around it being “overlong”, but as someone who only cares about excess quantity if it starts dragging down the overall quality, I am stalwart in my insistence that not a minute of its hour-long runtime is wasted. Unless an absolute masterpiece blindsides me in the back half of the year, expect this to top my Subway AOTY list for 2024.
Recommended tracks: Shadows Flap Their Black Wings, Beyond the Pale, Eternal Waves, Watch For Me on the Mountain
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Lamentari – Ex Umbra in Lucem
Recommended for fans of: Emperor, Ihsahn, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Septicflesh, Limbonic Art
Picked by: Andy [seconded by: Christopher, Zach]
If you asked me to predict who would be album of the year halfway through the year in January, my first response would’ve been to ask if Lamentari were releasing a full length debut. As Chris would joyously tell you, he introduced me to Lamentari back in 2020 with their first EP, and from that moment I knew this band have what it takes to release a masterpiece with a guitar virtuoso, actual orchestrations, and unpredictable songwriting (who thought they’d whip out a fretless bass solo on “Tragoedia in Domo Dei”??). I’ve waited nearly half a decade for Ex Umbra in Lucem, and it delivered. My only problem with it is that they didn’t add standalone single “Nihilitatis” addended to the end, but since that, too, was Chris’ suggestion, Ex Umbra in Lucem [Chris’ Version] is nearly perfect. What a debut!
Recommended tracks: Tragoedia In Domo Dei, Intra Muros Mentis, Appugno
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Triton Project – Messenger’s Quest
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Seventh Wonder, Darkwater, Circus Maximus
Picked by: Doug [Seconded by: Christopher]
The best gifts are often the biggest surprises. Triton Project emerged from nowhere with next-to-no fanfare, and their debut caught me off guard with its surpassing quality and ambition. Constructing a progressive concept album of such scope and depth is no easy task, and numerous inexperienced artists fail to deliver every year. Messenger’s Quest, though, is a triumph of songwriting, not just as a debut but as an album in its own right. Don’t let the long runtimes of the tracks or of the album itself intimidate you; Triton Project never overstay their welcome, keeping each song fresh with a colorful tapestry of influences and a compositional structure consisting mostly of shorter sections which stand on their own and flow smoothly from one to the next.
Of course, such luxurious composition also leans heavily on the quality of the band’s performance and their ability to see the vision realized. Luckily, Triton Project excel in that area too. With only three main members and guest violinist Olivier Allard of Cydemind, each musician carries a major portion of the final presentation on their shoulders, and the excellence of each individual contribution shines through clearly in the combined experience. Messenger’s Quest is a must-listen for fans of any flavor of traditional or power-prog, a truly unknown gem that shines with unexpected brilliance.
Recommended tracks: The Key if you like short songs, Lighthouse of the World if you like long ones
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | original review
Vitriol – Suffer & Become
Recommended for fans of: Hate Eternal, Cattle Decapitation, Nile, Hideous Divinity
Picked by: Cooper
I vividly remember the first time I heard Vitriol via a guitar playthrough video ahead of 2019’s To Bathe from the Throat of Cowardice. Immediately, I was struck by the sheer savagery of the guitar and vocal performances that seemed to flow from frontman Kyle Rasmussen as though he were a victim of demonic possession. Still, despite the engaging visual performance, I was never quite able to latch onto Vitriol’s last album, only appreciating its intensity at a superficial, intellectual level. When I heard Suffer & Become’s first single “The Flowers of Sadism” though, my love for it was instantaneous and ravenous.
Without sacrificing an iota of their potency, Vitriol infused into their sound a level of sophistication that permeates both the album’s harmonic content as well as the lyric’s philosophical underpinnings. Like a Pollock, the chaos of Suffer & Become is immediately apparent–the blast beats are relentless, the guitar riffs are unwieldy seemingly by design, and the production is rather impermeable–but with repeat exposure, the intention behind each detail becomes apparent. Some moments, like the sweeping solos that close out highlight “Shame and its Afterbirth” reveal their merit almost immediately, but others like the clean tremolo sections of “Survival’s Careening Inertia” and the brutal climaxes of “He Will Fight Savagely” slowly unveil their nuances with repeat listens. Made and presented in cathartically excruciating detail, this is brutal death metal elevated to the level of high art, to be loved intellectually and ravenously.
Recommended tracks: Shame and its Afterbirth, The Isolating Lie of Learning Another, He Will Fight Savagely
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify
Our non-Subway favorites:
Yes, we do also listen to other things, occasionally.
Billie Eilish – HIT ME HARD AND SOFT (alternative pop)
Picked by: Cooper
It’s not every day that a global pop superstar releases a concept album with recurring musical motifs and seamless song transitions, but that’s what Billie did with her latest HIT ME HARD AND SOFT that sees her broadening her musical horizons farther than she ever has before. While not all tracks hit quite so hard, the risks taken by incorporating progressive writing techniques and by refusing to release singles in order to preserve the “album experience” make this album more than deserving of attention from pop and prog circles alike.
Recommended tracks: The Greatest, Birds of a Feather
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Borknagar – Fall (progressive black metal)
Picked by: Christopher
Twelve albums into their storied career and Borknagar show no signs of slowing down; in fact, Fall might be their best work yet. A rip-roaring mix of blast-beat driven intensity fuelled by screeching invective giving way to contemplative, folky sojourns of mountainous grandeur, both sides of the Borknagar dichotomy are blended seamlessly here, with soaring hooks and tight licks aplenty. You’ll be chanting “SISYPHUS’S BOULDER!” all day.
Recommended tracks: Summits, Moon, Unraveling
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Caligula’s Horse- Charcoal Grace (semi-djenty progressive metal)
Picked by: Sam
So I complained in my Rendezvous Point review about how Redditors would shill Caligula’s Horse at every opportunity whether appropriate or not, and I’m afraid that I have become what I swore to destroy because WHY IS THIS ALBUM SO GOOD WHAT THE HELL JIM? Bar maybe the overly djenty bits of “Golem,” Charcoal Grace has consistently blown me away of late. Its hooks were not immediate but sunk in deeply once they hit, and the crescendos throughout just absolutely sent me. I had been waiting to see what a more ambitious CHorse would sound like, and it’s utterly freaking brilliant. [This excerpt was sponsored by Jim Grey.]
Recommended tracks: The Stormchaser, Mute
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DVNE – Voidkind (progressive metal, post-metal, sludge metal)
Picked by: Doug
For newer artists on the scene, consistency is key. Even bands that can manage a great album or two can’t always maintain that greatness over time and earn long-term acclaim. With their third consecutive release filled with precise-yet-sludgy guitars and intense, all-encompassing atmosphere backed by a tantalizing sci-fi universe, DVNE have clearly earned all their praise and then some. We mere mortals can only hope that they rule benevolently as God-Emperor and that their Golden Path will prepare humanity for our trials to come.
Recommended tracks: Summa Blasphemia, Eleonora, Cobalt Sun Necropolis
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Ihsahn – Ihsahn (progressive black metal, symphonic black metal)
Picked by: Andy
This is the year of symphonic black metal, goddamn. With Lamentari and Ihsahn as my two picks (heck, Aquilus themselves are third best symphoblack), the proggy output of Norweigian black metal legend/god-figure Ihsahn is the real deal, possibly his best work in a thirty year career. Amalgamating his fierce black metal, pop and prog sensibilities, and a newly masterful hand at orchestration, the dude just can’t be stopped. All hail the orchestra.
Recommended tracks: Hubris and the Blue Devils, A Taste of the Ambrosia, At the Heart of All Things Broken
