Well, 2024, you’ve been a year. Although events around the globe have made navigating this year a massive challenge, as per usual, we can always find solace in music and this year, we’ve been treated to countless albums of utter brilliance. Narrowing down the quality of this year to just 20 releases is a mammoth task, and after much deliberation and debate amongst the Distorted Sound team, here we go: our Top 20 albums of 2024!
20. Scotland’s Hardcore – DESPIZE
If you have been yearning for an authentic hardcore release this year, DESPIZE have had you covered with their release Scotland’s Hardcore. An utterly bombastic, mountainous wall of sound that blazes seamlessly through from one song to the next from the groove of Sniper, to the industrial edge of Setting Up. DESPIZE are a band that play true to the genre, while also being more than happy to experiment with a variety of approaches.
As expected, DESPIZE throw everything at you in dense, destructive chunks and this collection of songs works perfectly. A slab of classic, heavy hitting hardcore, there’s plenty of tasty breakdowns and deranged moments to enjoy from start to finish. Frayed and rough enough to feel authentic, but super well mixed and put together as a record, Scotland’s Hardcore is a meaty beast that has more than earned DESPIZE on this list.
19. What’s Left Unsaid – FOREIGN HANDS
When you release your debut full-length you need to make sure you make your mark. Frenetic metalcore merchants FOREIGN HANDS understood the brief and came out all guns blazing with What’s Left Unsaid. Melding energetic, hardcore-infused hooks with uplifting melodies in impressive fashion, the quintet proudly wear their inspirations on their sleeves but not without injecting their own explosive, energetic vigour into the mix.
Having recently left the UK and Europe in ruins in support of GUILT TRIP and due to kick off 2025 with a hefty American tour alongside heavy hitters COUNTERPARTS, PAIN OF TRUTH and MALEVOLENCE, it is safe to say FOREIGN HANDS have no intention to take the foot off the pedal.
18. Prelude To Ecstasy – THE LAST DINNER PARTY
Coming in hot at the beginning of the year, THE LAST DINNER PARTY undoubtedly bounced into the world with a true zest for life. Having been one of the worst kept secrets in the scene since starting out, their debut Prelude To Ecstasy has been the breathe of fresh air we’ve all needed.
Hypnotic, energetic there’s something of FLEETWOOD MAC, KATE BUSH or even ABBA’s utter gay abandon for making proper glossy hits. From the euphoric Sinner to Caesar On A TV Screen, there’s a tapestry of talent woven into each song. Being so cinematic, the short film released alongside the record sits has a nostalgic feel of an off kilter indie movie from the seventies. Regardless of whether you chose to experience the album with its visual accompaniment or not, the record has a charm that instantly captivates.
17. Cool World – CHAT PILE
CHAT PILE’s debut, God’s Country, was a scathing look at their world, a microcosm of the horrors wrought in their area. Its follow-up, Cool World, expands that view to, as the name hints, the rest of the world. A wide-angle, panoramic view of suffering rather than the laser focus of before means that some of the earlier ferocity is lost, but never any of the unease or unsettling lyrical content.
Raygun Busch still sounds like a mad preacher, ranting and raving over colossal, often nu metal inspired riffs and bass lines. Odd musical bedfellows, but ones CHAT PILE have alchemised into something riveting; their unflinching depictions of human suffering or oddball lyrics (I Am Dog Now’s chorus) are part and parcel of their fascinating brand of sludge that draws on industrial and nu metal with horror stories made all the more awful because they’re real.
16. A Frame Of Mind – KALANDRA
In their relatively short tenure, KALANDRA have already captivated countless hearts of listeners around the world. Meticulously blending ethereal instrumentation with soothing vocal sequences that are crammed full of relatable subject matter makes it effortless to fall head over heels with their beautiful creations.
A Frame Of Mind tugs on your heart strings and encourages you to dig deeper, uncovering the introspective sentiments scattered throughout by the brilliant Katrine Stenbekk. This release also sees the fearless Norweigian collective venture into new, inventive territories which creates an air of excitement for their future works.
15. Moon Healer – JOB FOR A COWBOY
Back in 2014, JOB FOR A COWBOY transformed from a deathcore frontrunner to a progressive metal marvel with the release of the critically acclaimed Sun Eater. At the peak of their powers they seemingly faded into the shadows, leaving many to wonder whether this was the end.
It may have taken a decade but their triumphant return in the form of Moon Healer set them firmly back on top of the pack where they rightfully belong. Combining the eccentric but fascinating stylings of its predecessor, this monumental effort pushed their creative boundaries even further, providing their existing fan base with a stellar collection of tracks as well as firmly dropkicking the door off its hinges and allowing a whole new host of fans to climb aboard for the ride.
14. The Nothing That Is – FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY
Monstrous deathcore outfit FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY have become an unstoppable force with each passing release. The Nothing That Is continues their path of destruction with huge, stomping riffs, a sea of adrenaline fuelled lyricism and a continuous flow of intensity throughout.
With the masterful skillset of Will Putney at the helm, their swift ascent has been of little surprise but FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY feel more refined, focused and devastating than ever before. Anyone who was lucky enough to witness their recent headline tour will have experienced this first hand. We foresee 2025 being another blockbuster year for one of the most consistent bands on the circuit.
13. Coup de Grâce – SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY
Piano? Saxophone? Lounge jazz? Fear not, SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY haven’t abandoned their roots, just evolved and written an album about the end of the world. Coup de Grâce might open with a serene intro including iRIS.EXE but they’re swiftly back to their hip-swinging sasscore best with Subtle Whispers To Take Your Breath Away as vocalist Connie Sgarbossa snarls her way through and the halftime chorus guarantees crowdsurfers at their famously riotous shows.
The biggest leap on Coup de Grâce is that in embracing the concept album, there’s far more theatricality and flair than ever before; from Lubricant Like Kerosene’s ludicrously catchy chorus to the Courtney LaPlante-featuring To The Dance Floor For Shelter, SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY embrace melodicism and theatrics like never before. It may not be as chaotic as earlier work, but it’s far more cohesive and – dare we say it – accessible, without sacrificing their “sasscore” identity or sound, instead expanding it into incredibly fun new territories.
12. All You Embrace – ONE STEP CLOSER
The sophomore album can be challenging for many bands, but with All You Embrace, ONE STEP CLOSER deliver a masterclass on how to tackle growing pains. The Pennsylvania melodic hardcore group approach the album with confidence not only in their foundations, but with a willingness to approach change in their own way.
On All You Embrace, ONE STEP CLOSER push their sound to encompass a myriad of genres and influences adjacent to hardcore and emo. In leaning into this eclecticism, they create a unique blend of emotionally wrought melodies and energetic riffs to explore identity and insecurity in a strikingly raw and candid way. All You Embrace is an exciting evolution for ONE STEP CLOSER, and one that finds the band laying insecurities bare, weaving various genres into their emotional candour and dynamic hooks to pave a new path for what melodic hardcore can be.
11. Erosion/Avulsion – HIDDEN MOTHERS
It’s been a year for absolute belting debuts, and HIDDEN MOTHERS’ Erosion/Avulsion has set the standard for creative post music. From the post-hardcore Defanged and Violet Sun to the groove of Death Curl, the progressive-hardcore adjacent The Grey, there’s such a huge colour pallet through heavy music through this record.
The way this record manages to turn from soft, almost gentle moments, to heart wrenching and gut punching, is nothing short of superb. Each song has a vast span of ideas to enjoy; earnest arrangements to utterly devastating vocals, it’s all filled with a throughline of considerate songwriting and attention to melodic detail. The work put into making Erosion/Avulsion an experience for the emotional core of the listener is nothing less than staggering. As a debut for the deep breadth of HIDDEN MOTHERS scope, Erosion/Avulsion just demonstrates their unlimited potential.
10. Spiral In A Straight Line – TOUCHÉ AMORÉ
Six albums into their career, TOUCHÉ AMORÉ show no signs of slowing down on 2024’s Spiral In A Straight Line. The post-hardcore group reckon with loss, anguish, and despondency, tying them all together in their most cohesive album to date. On Spiral In A Straight Line, TOUCHÉ AMORÉ harness a particularly haunting energy that sticks with you long after you listen to it.
Balancing razor-sharp lyricism between cathartic crescendos and sorrowful instrumentals, Spiral In A Straight Line finds TOUCHÉ AMORÉ weaving emotional currents throughout every moment of the album. Collaborations from Lou Barlow and Julien Baker compliment and further heighten the album’s melancholic and moving undercurrent. It is exactly what TOUCHÉ AMORÉ do best: enrapturing anthemic moments that still feel rooted in vulnerability. Spiral In A Straight Line offers a brilliantly gut-wrenching album that pierces you through the heart and lingers there unflinchingly.
9. Breathing Through The Wound – SPLITKNUCKLE
Another DAZE entrant on our list is Essex’s SPLITKNUCKLE and their (also debut) album Breathing Through The Wound. They’ve been lurking around the UK hardcore scene for some time now, amassing a dedicated underground following with incendiary live shows and the kind of H8000/death metal-worshipping hardcore that’s the aural equivalent of a brawl in an alley.
Breathing Through The Wound ups the ante on everything they’ve done before, clocking in at a (relatively) swollen 40 minutes. But it’s 40 minutes of brutality and more than justifies its length in a scene famous for shorter releases. Opener Fuck Your Whole Life is a knuckleduster straight to the gut, chugging, two-step riffs and gunshot cracks for a snare drum. It’s hard, it’s obnoxious and it’s so very, very good; SPLITKNUCKLE bring the violence and the death metal for a debut that continues both DAZE’s and UKHC’s proud tradition of being all killer.
8. Coma – GAEREA
Having graced our coveted list back in 2022 with the astonishing Mirage, masked Portuguese collective GAEREA have been one of the brightest lights in the world of black metal. Performing a career defining set at this year’s black metal bonanza, Fortress Festival, in May only whet the anticipation for fourth full-length record Coma. Released in October, Coma took the foundations of the band’s stellar previous releases (namely 2022’s Mirage and 2020’s Limbo) whilst pushing their soundscape to new and fragile new places.
Album opener The Poet’s Ballet is ballsy in the sense that GAEREA are showing their most fragile and delicate state right from the get go, but by God, it works ever so well to build for a release of unbridled black metal fury that would hit similar readings to a detonation of an atomic bomb. From there, GAEREA proceed to engulf you into their vortex through the likes World Ablaze and Hope Shatters, whilst Wilted Flower encapsulates feelings of reflection and triumph. Put simply, Coma is an astonishing record from a band that looks set to become behemoths of black metal.
7. Artillery From Heaven – CONTENTION
CONTENTION aren’t here to fuck about. This year’s debut album, Artillery From Heaven, is a 10-song, 20-minute blast of violent metallic hardcore that goes for the jugular near immediately and doesn’t let up. Opening on Contention and a barrel-chested fight riff before accelerating, it’s fist-swinging hardcore of the best kind. There’s no frills, no genre-bending experimentation, just hard as nails metallic hardcore.
There’s nothing basic about Artillery From Heaven, though. Its guitar tone is reminiscent of the early 2000s in the best way, a buzzing, slicing racket that’s undeniable and demands movement in the pits it will no doubt incite. That it dropped on DAZE – one of the best US hardcore labels running – only underscores its quality. Straight edge hardcore has been resurgent lately and CONTENTION are one of its brightest new bands; an album packed with riffs this tough, dive bombs and sheer aural violence can’t be ignored.
6. Voidkind – DVNE
With their third album Voidkind, Scottish progressive post metallers DVNE delivered a gargantuan, science fiction epic that tightened up some of the excesses of its predecessor Etemen Æenka without sacrificing any of their chops. A deliberately more focused album, but still with an eons-spanning concept about a group eerily similar to Dune’s Bene Gesserit and the lengths man will go to for godhood, Voidkind barrels into being with Summa Blasphemia with its churning guitars, DVNE’s penchant for towering riffs and melodies on full display.
From there, the Scots go on a near-hour long journey through the cosmos, Eleonora offering tumultuous prog while Sarmatæ narrates a great marching of beasts across planets. It all culminates in the sprawling ten minute Cobalt Sun Necropolis, that takes all the various elements DVNE have played with over the entirety of Voidkind while also hinting at some of the sonic journeys to come.
5. Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell – HERIOT
It’s without doubt that HERIOT have had one hell of a year. As ever they’ve played and been booked at every major festival or tour, and their presence as ones to watch has been surging towards this debut release. And by god, what a debut Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell has been. What HERIOT delivered was a record brimming with rabid brutality, infested with malevolent textures and overall battering the senses with apocalyptically good industrial hardcore.
With so many genre-defying tendencies, Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell is such a well crafted journey, rightly bringing in acclaim from old and new listeners. The doom and ambience of Jake Packer’s bass with Julian Gage’s textures in his leadwork are delicious, not to mention the consonantly on point drums of Erhan Alman. Likewise, Debbie Gough and Packer deliver the most hair-raising vocals and bludgeoning rhythms, especially on modern classics like At The Fortress Gate. You’d be hard pressed to find another album this year that makes you want to stank face so hard the entire way through.
4. Only One Mode – SPEED
Possibly one of the most anticipated releases of the year, SPEED’s debut album Only One Mode lived up to its expectations and more. The Sydney hardcore band bring dynamism, energy and charisma to their sound, and their debut album is a testament to why SPEED are one of the most exciting hardcore bands around right now.
Each track on Only One Mode propels you through the album with an unwavering power.
Moving between fierce gang vocals, gritty breakdowns and stomach-churning riffs, SPEED leave it all on the table. Within this, they also strike a balance with their honesty. Their playful weaving of their bands name throughout lyrics is equally met with tracks that reflect on marginalisation, inclusivity and empowerment. SPEED are unapologetically authentic, and it is with this enthusiasm, and insanely dynamic hardcore style that Only One Mode is one of the best hardcore releases of the year.
3. Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran – LOWEN
Having first turned heads back in 2018 with debut A Crypt In The Stars, London-based LOWEN have been forging their own place within the UK’s buoyant heavy music scene thanks to their crushing doom fused with the rich history of the ancient Middle East, particularly their homeland of Iran.
Backed by the ever impressive Church Road Records, the band’s second album – Do Not Go To War With the Demons Of Mazandaran – takes what was special about 2018’s debut and elevates the LOWEN soundscape to staggering new heights. Najang Bah Divhayeh Mazandaran is as atmospheric as it is heavy, whereas the likes of Waging War Against God and Ghazal For The Embrace Of Fire twist and turn with hypnotic glee. It’s a thoroughly poignant record and one that cements LOWEN as one of the most intriguing bands in heavy music in 2024.
2. Absolute Elsewhere – BLOOD INCANTATION
Having taken extreme music by storm with 2016’s Starspawn, BLOOD INCANTATION cemented their reputation as one of death metal’s most forward-thinking and important names in 2019 with the staggering Hidden History Of The Human Race. Five years later and Absolute Elsewhere sees BLOOD INCANTATION firing on all cylinders.
Comprised of two sprawling epics – The Stargate and The Message – Absolute Elsewhere sees the band double down on their expansive sprawling progressive death metal with ample ambience drawn from their experimental Timewave Zero record and the result is one of the most visceral, atmospheric and thoroughly engaging listening experiences you’ll find in 2024. Death metal is in rude health with the ongoing revival showing no signs of slowing down. BLOOD INCANTATION are leaders of the pack.
1. You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To – KNOCKED LOOSE
It would be near impossible to talk about the last year in heavy music without KNOCKED LOOSE entering the conversation. 2024 has seen the band bring the scene to new levels, from their appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show to their Grammy nomination, and all with their third album You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To leading the charge.
The album is intense, visceral, and larger than life, whilst also remaining faithful to KNOCKED LOOSE’s sonic precision and lyrical sharpness. Each song stops you in your tracks, commanding brutal breakdowns and piercing riffs to ensure that for the brief 27-minute run time, you are entirely in their world. Collaborations with POPPY and MOTIONLESS see varying influences across metalcore weaving in with their sound, and offering some truly exciting and unexpected moments on the album.
Staking their claim as titans not only of heavy music, but of the modern music landscape, KNOCKED LOOSE deliver a truly captivating, and unmissable album with You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. It’s a once in a generation album, and one that is sure to leave its mark on heavy music for a long time. There would be nothing more fitting for our top spot.
Words: James Weaver, Laura McCarthy, Will Marshall, Dan McHugh, Sammy Andrews
And that rounds off our Top 20 Albums for 2024! It’s been a staggeringly good year for new heavy music and we can’t wait to see what is in store in 2025. Thank you for your continued support. Check out our digital magazines via our store or if you want to support DS, you can subscribe to our Patreon here. See you down the front!
