As the site’s founder, it’s my honor to present the final writer’s top ten before we publish the Official Site Top Ten™ and then move onto 2025 albums. Like Chris and Andy, I undertook the foolish endeavor to listen to every goddamn thing we reviewed this year. I am definitely not doing that again, but I am grateful for all the incredible music that I got exposed to because of it. So compared to the relatively meek 2023, coming up with a list for 2024 was far more challenging.
My greatest issue while putting this list together was that though I listened to everything we reviewed, I didn’t revisit the stand-out albums enough, so when December came around I had to hurriedly catch up on the lost time. My top five was—order aside—set in stone, but behind that was a list of at least twenty albums which could have all reasonably made my top ten. To an extent, this means that my list contains what I listened to last that happened to coincide with my emotional state at the time of listening, so chances are, my list would look very different if you were to ask me a month later. Nevertheless, I’m quite happy with the final result, and I hope you’ll get as much as I did out of at least one of these albums.
Non-Subway Honorable Mentions:
Caligula’s Horse – Charcoal Grace (progressive metal):
I’ve always gravitated towards Caligula’s Horse’s moodier, epic side the most, so when given an album full of that start to finish, I am happy. Charcoal Grace is the most I’ve liked a Jim Grey project since Arcane’s Known/Learned, and would have probably been my album of the year had it been eligible.
Kingcrow – Hopium (progressive metal):
Kingcrow was my first underground prog metal band, so I’m quite proud that they’ve become too big for this blog to review. Hopium builds on the electronic direction of The Persistence but is less bleak and much more about simply doing things because they sound cool: it’s got funky guitar lines, zany electronic synth melodies, urgent uptempo songs, earworm choruses, and much more.
Thy Catafalque – XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek (progressive/folk/avant-garde metal):
My taste in music is usually on the serious side, but this year’s Thy Catflap (as a friend of mine lovingly calls them) had me dancing with joy simply for how fun it was. A gyönyörű captures everything Tamás Kátai has done in his career from black metal to folk to prog to heavy metal to avant-garde, and compounds it into this concise, accessible package that is just a joy to listen to front to back.
10. Fellwarden – Legend
Style: Pagan black metal (harsh vocals, also chanting)
Recommended for fans of: Moonsorrow, Macabre Omen, Saor, Enslaved, Insomnium, Opeth
In terms of prog-adjacent subgenres, pagan/folk black metal is, in my experience, woefully underappreciated. At its best, the style’s lengthy stream of consciousness compositions portray that same wide sonic range and depth of atmosphere that made Opeth and Enslaved so special, and Fellwarden’s latest album Legend provides a beautiful example of this. The album is bathed in romanticism and the emotions that stem from it: longing, melancholy, and an awe for nature’s vastness and grandeur. Its spacious production allows for Fellwarden to storm forth with epic viking choirs, imposing riffs, and thundering drums when they so desire, as it gives rise to otherworldly acoustic sections with beautiful tremolo picking and ethereal chanting. It was a more low-key album throughout the year for me, but as the year went on I found myself increasingly enthralled by Legend, making it a worthy start to my list.
Recommended tracks: Desperation, Serenity, Death
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
9. Madder Mortem – Old Eyes, New Heart
Style: Progressive metal, alternative metal (mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Green Carnation, Alter Bridge/Tremonti, Soen, Katatonia
When you have a genre as exploratory and complicated as progressive metal, the art of hook writing often goes underappreciated. As a huge lover of hook-centric prog, Madder Mortem’s new album is absolutely riveting. It doesn’t matter what style they employ; each song is instantly memorable both instrumentally and vocally while also providing vast emotional depth and a high level of complexity. You have groovy chonkers, smooth bluesy sections, anthemic rockers, sexy Tool-esque bass work, massive doomy riffs, and a bunch of other experimentation that the band incorporates effortlessly. Of course, Agnete Kirkevaag delivers the goods as well, putting on another hugely charismatic performance on vocals with both powerful belts and smooth, bluesy crooning. Safe to say, I fell for this album hook, line, and sinker.
Recommended tracks: Coming From the Dark, The Head That Wears the Crown, Cold Hard Rain, Things I’ll Never Do
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
8. Sunburst – Manifesto
Style: Power metal, progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Kamelot, DGM, Symphony X, Tanagra
While I loved Tommy Karevik in Seventh Wonder, his work in Kamelot never appealed to me all that much. Thank god we have a new Roy Khan album… Wait, you’re telling me this is not a Roy Khan band? Could have fooled me. Vasilis Georgiou of Sunburst has a nearly identical timbre and style and, most importantly, is just as good! That is where the Kamelot similarities end, though, because instrumentally, Sunburst is entirely its own beast. Manifesto is prog power 101: hard, adrenaline-fueled riffs that give DGM and Symphony X a run for their money, highly technical transitions, huge melodic choruses, mind-blowing odd-time wizardry, tasteful guitar solos that expertly combine shred and feel, grandiose arrangements, and an overall emphasis on melody. Had I remembered to revisit it more often, Manifesto might have ranked even higher on this list, but it’s nevertheless an incredible album that any power metal aficionado should jump on straight away.
Recommended tracks: The Flood, Samaritan, Inimicus Intus
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
7. Múr – Múr
Style: Post-metal, atmospheric sludge metal, progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Cult of Luna, The Ocean, Gojira, Amenra, Dirge
When describing post-metal bands, I often compare their sound to the sensation of being stepped on by a mammoth, both for how massive the creature is as a metaphor for heaviness, and because its fur is all warm and fuzzy akin to the sludgy riffs post-metal is typically based on. Though I cannot find reports of mammoths having ever lived on Iceland, the creatures were able to adapt to arctic climates, and so all things considered, I think it is fair to say that Múr is one of metal’s finest recent exports of mammoths stepping on you because Jesus Christ these fellas are heavy. Take Cult of Luna’s weighty sludge and amp that up with Gojira’s crushing groove metal sensibilities and you Múr or less get Múr (sorry not sorry). Listening to Múr is akin to a watching bird cam soaring over Iceland’s volcanic landscape: it is majestic, primal, mysterious, yet also very concrete and dangerous (lava is bad for your health in most cases)—this atmosphere in large part is due to the addition of a lead keyboard player and gorgeous arcane guitar tones. With both the technical and compositional additions of prog to the usual Cult of Luna-like post-metal crescendo structures, Múr created an epic, highly dynamic debut album that appeals to lovers of post-metal and the heavier strains of prog alike.
Recommended tracks: Frelsari, Vitrun
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
6. In Vain – Solemn
Style: Progressive metal, melodic death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Insomnium, Borknagar, Opeth and everything else you put in FFOpeth for, Amiensus
Some bands do not need an explanation. They are simply good and will make their way to you regardless. I can be a bit of a contrarian at times when it comes to popular things, but Solemn even I couldn’t argue with. It is simply a tightly written, performed, and produced prog death album that does everything right. You’ve got riffs for days across the (melodic) black/death metal spectrum, highly dynamic songwriting with lots of mood and tempo switches, harsh vocals as vicious as the clean vocals are catchy, clever vocal harmonies, and tons of otherwise cathartic moments where everything falls into place. In Vain also set themselves apart with a focus on sounding triumphant and epic instead of the more typical prog death mode of being moody and melancholic, something which peaks in “Eternal Waves” when the horns come in and in “Watch for Me on the Mountain” with its magnificent send-off chorus. In short, Solemn is an amazing album you should all check out.
Recommended tracks: Beyond the Pale, Eternal Waves, Watch for Me on the Mountain
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
5. Aquilus – Bellum II
Style: Symphonic black metal, progressive metal, modern classical (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Xanthochroid, A Forest of Stars, Enslaved
Bellum II is one of those albums that transports you into another dimension: a dream-like existence where all experiences of the day are stripped down to their raw emotional essence and your subconscious transforms them into fleeting scenes and images, but instead of merely a day, Bellum II is the mental processing of an entire stage of life: capturing both its most beautiful moments through rich modern classical arrangements and/or Opethian acoustic guitar playing, re-living its most scorching mental scars with tortured screams and swelling black metal passages, and deftly weaving all the excitement, hardships, and moments of respite in between by way of light Opethian riffage, gorgeous lead guitar work, and relaxed yet urgent tempos—one can only imagine the emotional intensity of the events that Horace Rosenqvist externalized through these compositions—brilliantly tying it all together in a free-flowing yet never aimless stream of music that I firmly believe any lover of melodic extreme metal should experience at least once.
Recommended tracks: Into the Earth, A Solitary Demise, Night to Her Gloam
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
4. Schammasch – The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean
Style: Post-metal, atmospheric black metal, progressive metal (mixed vocals, spoken word)
Recommended for fans of: Behemoth, Solstafir, Tryptikon, Enslaved, Cult of Luna, Tool
Though I always rolled my eyes in my youth when my mom would go on unprompted lectures about the esoteric school of thought she had been studying (anthroposophy), it did leave me with a sense of familiarity and fascination about the occult. Schammasch is a band who revels in the mystique imagery and atmosphere typically associated with this, so The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean was very easy for me to latch onto. Based on the French surrealist novel Le Chants de Maldoror, it uses the translated text for lyrics. The resulting album is a fascinating experience of dark, ritualistic post-black metal with intense, tom-heavy drumming, and enthralling use of spoken word to enhance its mystical atmosphere. As with all good post-metal, intricate build ups to stunning crescendos abound, and Schammasch deftly avoid the common pitfall of long winded minimalism by adding lots of dynamics and small spikes of tension mid-song. By the time the triumphant leads of “I Hail You, Old Ocean” come in and the band gets ready for their final crescendo of the album, I always find myself astounded at how quickly Old Ocean flew by and start clinging to those final moments of splendor, not wanting the experience to end but slowly coming to terms with the fact that this too, shall pass.
Recommended tracks: Crystal Waves; I Hail You, Old Ocean
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
3. Vanden Plas – The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things
Style: Traditional progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater when they were still good and all bands that sound like it
I’ve mentioned multiple times that Vanden Plas is my favorite band, so this should come as no surprise. They’ve done it again, those bastards. I was initially afraid that keyboardist Günter Werno’s departure from the band would be an ill omen, but The Empyrean Equation is another phenomenal entry into their catalogue. The songwriting is ambitious with a multitude of lengthy tracks and their first (semi-)instrumental since 1997, each song taking you on a sonic journey with wonderful melodic lead work and hard riffs courtesy of Stephan Lill, carefully constructed vocal lines magical and emotionally rich as ever by Andy Kuntz, phenomenal guitar and keyboard solos, tempo and time signature changes, and a wonderful atmosphere conjured by Allessandro Del Vecchio on keys as the backdrop to it all. It all just works and yields some of my favorite Vanden Plas moments yet. The piano motif and subsequent build of the title track sends me to high heaven, as do the final five minutes of “The Sacrilegious Mind Machine” in which the band builds from a magical acoustic section to a stunning conclusion, and the chorus of “Sanctimonarium” and its underlying synth line gets me stimming uncontrollably. Overall, this band continues to be an absolute cheat code for my taste and I cannot praise their work enough.
Recommended tracks: The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things, Sanctimonarium, The Sacrilegious Mind Machine
Related links: Spotify | Facebook | original review
2. Eternal Storm – A Giant Bound to Fall
Style: Melodic death metal, progressive metal, (sorta) post-metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Insomnium, Be’lakor, Opeth
There was a period as a teen where I was convinced that progressive death metal was the end-all-be-all of music. Its ability to seamlessly transition from gorgeous prog rock into the most extreme metal passages and back in these expansive compositions made the genre feel like the ultimate package. I no longer believe this is unique to prog death, nor do I believe that music needs to be all-encompassing to be of the highest quality in the first place, but every once in a while I encounter a prog death band that brings me right back to those years of my youth. In 2024, Eternal Storm was that band.
A Giant Bound to Fall is a moody, emotionally intense album that plays like an arduous journey through a misty, barren landscape to an unknown destination so you can escape the past in hope of a better future. It has an interesting textural focus that almost gives it a post-metal-like quality, something which also comes through in its many spectacular build-ups such as in “A Dim Illusion” when arcane synths and groovy drumming coalesce into something otherworldly or in “Lone Tree Domain” when the instrumentation swells as soul-bearing cleans and monstrous harsh vocals enter a duet. Of course, Eternal Storm also provide the usual dynamic songwriting that prog death is known for—see “An Abyss of Unreason” with its wide array of mood and tempo shifts, or the first half of “Last Refuge” with its expert showcase of both heavy and melodic guitar work—but it is rather an intangible emotive, atmospheric quality that makes A Giant Bound to Fall so special to me. Somehow, this album just resonated, and in the end, that’s all that matters.
Recommended tracks: A Giant Bound to Fall, A Dim Illusion, Lone Tree Domain
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
1. Teramaze – Eli: A Wonderful Fall from Grace
Style: Traditional progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Caligula’s Horse, Ayreon, Ostura
By far my most-listened to album of the year, Eli: A Wonderful Fall from Grace had an absolute chokehold on me in 2024. Ever since I’ve picked up singing as a hobby, vocals have become my main draw to music, and Teramaze have terrific vocalists. Nathan Peachy is back on lead duties and his silky, smooth voice just melts me, as does Dean Wells on “Hands are Tied,” where he takes the lead. Teramaze have their way of evoking emotion in their melodies and arrangements that hook me like a good friend of mine’s face to mosquitos during the summer (it’s not pretty), and supplement it with enough technical intricacy to satiate the logical part of my brain as well. There are so many moments I could name that were instant all-timers for me. When “The Will of Eli” transitions from high energy prog into a gorgeous Floydian soft section I can feel my soul ascend to a higher plane of existence; when “Standing Ovation” comes in with its high energy verses, the hype sends me flying; when “Step Right Up” releases tension halfway through and enters a godly sung verse I shout, “fuck yeah”; and when the final saxophone solo hits in the title track, all I can think is “end me” (but in a good way). Though it might not be the most original or technical thing out there, nothing this year hit me as hard as Eli did. It’s a wonderful conclusion to the Halo story, and an easy album of the year for me.
Recommended tracks: The Will of Eli, Step Right Up, Standing Ovation
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | original review
