Another album where it is quite hard to describe and actualise what this band is doing. It flirts across infinite genres, never feeling able to commit wholesale to any. It successfully blurs between the different forms of extremity and heaviness. There are passages where you would swear this is black metal but then it instantaneously morphs into something more melodic and fragile. Then we are swept into fammoths of post-hardcore, full of lingering regret and desolate longing. And then explodes in a frantic exposition of blistering screamo, full of molten angst and anger. And then it wanders off again to find yet another musical form to fearlessly poke with its blunt stick.

Put simply what Frail Body are doing is both fearless and peerless. It pushes boundaries like I have never seen before. It twists and contorts convention with conviction and a confident stride. Bolstered by brave bravado, this is an album that doesn’t just contravene the rules, it brazenly ignores they even exist.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 2024Frail Body, 21-40Comment

28. Opeth - "The Last Will and Testament"

I delayed the start of this list so I could include this album. It is the Swedish prog-lords 14th studio album, their first in five years and in my very humble opinion the best thing they have released since the landmark “Blackwater Park”. In fact if this album had arrived it on its proposed release date of early October then I have no doubt it would be happily nestled in the top 10 if not making a serious charge for the summit of this list.

It is brilliant. It deftly marries their classic death metal style with the newer rich prog variation of their ever evolving musical constitution. Mikael Åkerfeldt’s death growls are back and you realise just how much you missed them. It gives the music a whole new dimension of gruffness and provides an eloquent contrast to the swirling operatic prog.

It is also fantastically constructed in its concept. Opeth have dallied with the continuous storyline across an album before. Both “My Arms, Your Hearse” and “Still Life” had flowing narratives across their duration. But something feels different and much more engaging about the storytelling within the “Last Will & Testament.” The world-building is immaculately intricate and the chronicle the album accounts is accessible and beautifully rendered.

For all this hyperbole its relatively conservative placing comes from one cursory listen. I am absolutely convinced that if I had managed to spin it more than once it would have got much higher and I would have been spouting even more superlatives. This is the album that may well go on to define them and certainly illustrates why they are held in such lofty esteem.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 2024Opeth, 21-40Comment

27. Beth Gibbons - "Lives Outgrown"

Okay! I promised you entries in the upper reaches of this list for records that exist outside of the metal fraternity. Here is one and it won’t be the last. You are probably thinking, “Beth Gibbons I know that name” and you’ll be right. She was and still is the voice of Bristolian auteurs Portishead, a band who (admittedly for a short time in the early 90’s) changed music forever. They stopped everyone in their tracks when they emerged playing an evocative mismatch of hip-hop, indie and ethereal goth entitled Trip-Hop. Debut record “Dummy” was everywhere and soundtracked everything.

Portishead still exist and sporadically play shows, though they haven’t released an album since 2008. Beth herself has become rather a recluse appearing every now and again as a special guest on other people’s albums. What has now become clear is that for the last decade she has been working on this, her first original composition solo album in her own name. It is an utterly remarkable album that fills an untapped void for honest record about growing old. It tackles directly the existential inward struggle of facing 60 when you still feel 16 and according to Beth its key influences are "motherhood, anxiety, menopause, and mortality".

It is a rugged and distinctly real album that brims with rustic reality. There is no sugarcoating here, instead we get a blisteringly bleak summary of the mundane nature of ageing. It borders on folk in many places but folk in its tragic storytelling form. These are lamenting torch songs, wistfully reminiscing and painfully regretting decisions not made and paths not taken. It is a thing of utter beauty, dark unforgiving and at times challenging, in the end, it is an unsurpassable treaty on the simple act of living life.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 2024Beth Gibbons, 21-40Comment

26. Funeral - "Gospel of Bones"

As you can guess from the name, Norway’s Funeral is one of the principal architects of funeral doom. Funeral doom is essentially normal Doom but played MUCH slower. Now I can hear you cry, Stewart from the way you describe it, normal Doom is already slow and plodding. Yes, it is, but Funeral Doom is even more lethargic, a glacially paced musical form where the notes are dispense in an unhurried and protracted manner.

Revered in the circles that revere this sort of thing but ignored practically everywhere else, Funeral have been diligently concocting this sort of thing for over 30 years. There have been the odd change in personnel (especially on vocals) but in the main it is the same group people plodding away after all this time. “Gospel of Bones” is magnificent and by a long stretch the best thing they have produced in decades. It is an expansively atmospheric endeavour that is rich with texture and musical differentiation.

One of the keys to its magnificence is Sindre Nedland bombastic vocal style. He is positively operatic and of grandeur in its style, which marvelously mingles with the maudlin nature of the music. Big but also slight, this is a fantastic record full of haunting refrains and large swaths of opulence.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 2024Funeral, 21-40Comment

25. Together To The Stars - "The Fragile Silence"

I have mentioned already Blackgaze and my worries that there is nothing left to do with it. Well this takes its euphoric skyscrapping nature and does exactly that, something different. This is black psychedelia or psychgaze (take your pick). Its an expansive record that reaches for the cosmos with each and every note. It is transcendental in the way that it soars. It takes a foundation of post metal and just builds in an upward trajectory. The tracks are expansive and exhilarating. A beautiful example of just how tender and interplanetary metal can be.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 2024Together To The Stars, 21-40Comment

24. Borknagar - "Fall"

Ahh Borknagar, the one band that keeps eluding me. You see I adore Borknagar. In many ways, they are the black metal equivalent of Opeth. They take a musical form that is in its raw state brittle and serrated, and then sculpt it into something quite eloquent and beautiful. On numerous occasions, I have been on the cusp of witnessing them live and on each of those occasions, fate, pandemics and life in general have got in the way. They remain just out of reach, tantalisingly close but simultaneously infuriatingly far.

They have been a going concern for close to 3 decades, but the last 15 years has been a particularly purple patch for them, pumping out a stellar run of five (including this one) quite incredible albums. “Fall” continues their penchant for creating widescreen cinematic metal that entices black metal’s anthemic qualities to the front.

Simply put this album sounds amazing, it is sumptuously produced and the soundscapes it creates are lush. It perfectly balances the harsh with deep textured melody and it just pulsates with intricate flourishes and in-depth ideas. It provides yet more proof to the argument that Borknagar are one of metal’s most impressive hidden treasures and all I hope now is they decide to visit the UK to promote this record.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 2024Borknagar, 21-40Comment

23. Glassing - "From the Other Side of the Mirror"

After bemoaning the state of or more accurately the deterioration of the Blackgaze scene, here is yet another stunningly good album that proficiently builds upon its legacy. This is an immaculate example of strident, modern songwriting. It’s an album that streams with elemental power and just feels utterly alive with both potential and ambition. There is so much going on, so many ideas and so much inventive innovation.

You think everything has been done with guitar music and then you hear this. Yes squealing guitars are leading us on but in a way that feel remarkably different to what we are used to. Everything leaps out at you, in a three-dimensional multilayered way. Short, sharp and ballistically incisive. This is a wonderful evolution of heavy music.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 2024Glassing, 21-40Comment

22. 40 Watt Sun - "Little Weight"

“Little Weight” is actually a really accurate description of his album. It is a slight and tender record that takes great care to be as minimal and as unassuming as possible. It originates in metal but actually this is doom with its heaviness and abrasion removed. It is a slow, ponderous piece of work that laboriously but also beautifully reveals itself in minimal leisurely fashion.

40 Watt Sun are the current incarnation of Patrick Walker, the man behind Warning and most importantly “Watching from a Distance”, the finest doom metal album ever recorded. Patrick has a superhuman power that is to take the enormity of metal and turn it into an emotive heartbreaking force. “Little Weight” is a genius piece of heartrending songwriting. It tells its tale in a passionate and soulful way. An remarkable album from a remarkable man.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 202440 Watt Sun, 21-40Comment

21. Sykofant - "Sykofant"

It is almost a tradition now for this list to have at least one high-scoring young Norwegian prog outfit. Well this year’s incumbent of the wonderfully androgynous Sykofant. Hailing from Oslo they have created an absolutely decadent mix of tempo and textures. This is modern prog at his absolute best. It exists in simultaneous Time zones, mining from the past but also unafraid to look to the future.

It unfurls in a beautifully unobtrusive way. It is happy to experiment but comfortable in its commerciality and accessibility. It beautifully weaves together melody and harmony to create a gorgeous cacophony of ever-shifting tempos. It is a lush, expansive record that just gets lost in his own creativity. Extraordinary.

2024 TOP 100Author : Stewart Lucas16 December 2024Sykofant, 21-40Comment