MMA Community Picks - Best of 2024 Voting Thread

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   Metal Music Archives Community
Picks – Best of 2024.

At the end of each year we do a presentation of some sort to
highlight the best/favourite releases of the MMA community. The vote is open to
all – if you have an MMA account and can see this you’re eligible to take part.
The closing date will be Friday 26^th January 2025.

To take part submit a list of 10 albums/EP’s (or less if you
don’t rate 10 highly enough) released in 2024 that are on MMA (if missing and you think they should be here add them yourself or ask a Collaborator/Admin to do it) with a short paragraph written
about each one. This can be taken from a review you have written for the site
or something totally new. You may also add positive comments for releases in
someone else’s list – just add them to the end of your list.

All albums/EP’s released in 2024 are eligible for inclusion
with the exception of NON-METAL.

Only include one list but you can edit it as often as you
wish up to the closing date.

The presentation won’t be an official ranking as such but
will be listed in order of which albums get the most comments.

As an example of how the finished presentation will look
check out last year’s staff picks – [url]https://www.metalmusicarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18843&FID=79&PR=3&title=mma-best-of-2023-staff-picks[/url]

Edited by Nightfly - 30 Nov 2024 at 7:30am

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Nightfly Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Admin Group Death, D/S/D, T/S/G Teams Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 5073	Post Options Post Reply Quote Nightfly Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: MMA Community Picks - Best of 2024 Voting Thread Posted: 30 Nov 2024 at 7:20am
	Metal Music Archives Community Picks – Best of 2024. At the end of each year we do a presentation of some sort to highlight the best/favourite releases of the MMA community. The vote is open to all – if you have an MMA account and can see this you’re eligible to take part. The closing date will be Friday 26^th January 2025. To take part submit a list of 10 albums/EP’s (or less if you don’t rate 10 highly enough) released in 2024 that are on MMA (if missing and you think they should be here add them yourself or ask a Collaborator/Admin to do it) with a short paragraph written about each one. This can be taken from a review you have written for the site or something totally new. You may also add positive comments for releases in someone else’s list – just add them to the end of your list. All albums/EP’s released in 2024 are eligible for inclusion with the exception of NON-METAL. Only include one list but you can edit it as often as you wish up to the closing date. The presentation won’t be an official ranking as such but will be listed in order of which albums get the most comments. As an example of how the finished presentation will look check out last year’s staff picks – [url]https://www.metalmusicarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18843&FID=79&PR=3&title=mma-best-of-2023-staff-picks[/url] Edited by Nightfly - 30 Nov 2024 at 7:30am

adg211288 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Forum Admin Group Black Metal, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 22266	Post Options Post Reply Quote adg211288 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 Nov 2024 at 8:00am
	Comments will follow... Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere US death metal act Blood Incantation have been taking the metal world by storm for a few years now, particularly since their last studio album Hidden History of the Human Race from 2019. Having explored other genres on other releases since, including the fully ambient EP Timewave Zero in 2022, their latest record Absolute Elsewhere is their most diverse record yet, containing two epic songs in three parts apiece that merge progressive death metal with ideas from space rock and Berlin School progressive electronic and featuring diverse guest performances including Thorsten Quaeschning of Tangerine Dream. The resulting record is a tour de force highlighting just where the death metal genre can be taken when a band doesn't limit themselves to genre conventions on extremity. Opeth - The Last Will and Testament Opeth returns to the extreme progressive metal sound which made them their name, but don't expect an album that leaves what they've been doing since Heritage forgotten and neglected. A superb release that is like a coming together of the old and the new, as well as their first concept album since Still Life. Opeth is not back, because they never went away, but those who have missed the old Opeth have double cause to celebrate this fourteenth studio album from the now legendary Swedish band. A work which stands up with their very best. Dvne - Voidkind I've been casually following the UK's progressive/sludge/post-metal act Dvne since their first album Asheran and been impressed by them, but with Voidkind, their third studio album, they've gone next level for me. The kind of album that makes one not only pay close attention to it but drives the need to revisit their back catalogue with renewed interest. I liked them before. Voidkind made me a fan. Frozen Crown - War Hearts Italy's Frozen Crown are, for my money, among the best modern power metal bands who have released their first album within the last ten years. War Hearts is their fifth and they show no sign of losing any steam. While this sort of band rarely breaks the mould, power metal tends to be a genre where it's about ticking boxes and excellent at what they do. Frozen Crown does that in spades. Great vocals, a triple guitarist line-up delivering melody and leads galore, and infectious songs. Can't ask for more from a power metal record. Hail Spirit Noir - Fossil Gardens Greek act Hail Spirit Noir has been going through periods of change following their first three albums that stuck to the same psychedelic black metal style. They chucked the black metal out on Eden in Reverse and then on Mannequins made a synthwave album. With Fossil Gardens, their sixth studio album, the band has returned to black metal albeit it in a progressive take, rather than returning to the sound which got them off the ground. It's different but still easily has the identity of a Hail Spirit Noir release and means that the band's last four albums have sounded nothing like each other. Ihsahn - Ihsahn I think that Ihsahn has long transcended the work he did with Emperor by adopting an extreme progressive metal sound as a solo artist, but on this self-titled studio album, his eighth, we get something of a throwback to Emperor's symphonic approach. This is not Ihsahn's full return to black metal roots however, but it certainly stands out as different in terms of his solo output. While I personally prefer often the more chaotic sounds of After or Eremita, this is a really good release and is also his first full studio album since 2018 although he released three EP's in the intervening years. Judas Priest - Invincible Shield I remember that sometimes we would say of Judas Priest's Painkiller album, which was their twelfth studio album, that an album released that far into a band's career really had no business being so good, much less the album that many would call the band's best. Post-Painkiller the band released a string of lesser to solid albums, but then dropped Firepower in 2018, their best in years. With Invincible Shield however they've only gone and bettered it, releasing not just their new best since Painkiller, but also an album that we will talk about the way we have Painkiller over the years: an album that is the nineteenth of a band who have been going for over fifty years at this point, has no business being as good as this. Borknagar - Fall Borknagar has had some different incarnations over the years they've been together but the current one, dually fronted by ICS Vortex and Lars A. Nedland, has been producing some of the band's strongest works yet. Fall, their twelfth studio album, has many claims to being their best yet and has musical nods to all eras of the band including their early Viking metal work. A someone who has to confess to feeling that this band peaked in the 1990s to early 2000s, it's an album that has made me reassess their last few releases as well Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All Nile is a brutal technical death metal powerhouse of a band. Although losing long-time vocalist/guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade in 2017 was a blow for their ever-changing line-up, Karl Sanders has soldiered on and following the solid Vile Nilotic Rites in 2019, has produced one of their best albums in the form of The Underworld Awaits Us All. Simone Simons - Vermillion Although it only bears the name of the Epica vocalist, Vermillion was written and performed in collaboration with Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen and represents one of two studio albums he put out in 2024, as well as being the strongest one, albeit as well the more typically Lucassen sounding one. As a release from Simone however it's very different to her main band Epica. It perhaps does a disservice to Simone Simons to say that it feels much more like a Lucassen album than her solo album, but the fact remains that, for me, it's rather a match made in heaven release; my favourite composer/instrumentalist and my favourite singer. Comments for other nominations I'll add comments here for releases other's write about that I have something to say about. Edited by adg211288 - 15 hours 46 minutes ago at 4:14am
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UMUR Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List MMA Special Collaborator Errors & Omissions Team / Retired Admin Joined: 25 Mar 2010 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 18240	Post Options Post Reply Quote UMUR Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 Nov 2024 at 10:01am
	This is the list of the 2024 albums I have reviewed so far. The top 10 may change before the poll closes: Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere Deceased - Children of the Morgue High on Fire - Cometh the Storm Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All Devin Townsend - PowerNerd The Black Dahlia Murder - Servitude Defiled - Horror Beyond Horror My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding Vltimas - Epic Bleedskin - Homicidal Therapy Manes - Pathei Mathos Primal Code - Opaque Fixation 200 Stab Wounds - Manual Manic Procedures Nocturnus AD - Unicursal Kerry King - From Hell I Rise Cavalera Conspiracy - Schizophrenia Exhorder - Defectum Omnium Evildead - Toxic Grace Nails - Every Bridge Burning Vale of Pnath - Between the Worlds of Life and Death Aborted - Vault of Horrors Deicide - Banished By Sin Six Feet Under - Killing for Revenge Morta Skuld - Creation Undone Pestilence - Levels of Perception
	Forever TRUE - Forever BLUE! UMUR on RYM

DippoMagoo Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MMA Special Collaborator Power & Neo, Goth & Symph, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 31 Aug 2014 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 3085	Post Options Post Reply Quote DippoMagoo Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 Nov 2024 at 2:12pm
	Ensiferum - Winter Storm Visions of Atlantis - Pirates II: Armada Fellowship - The Skies Above Eternity New Horizon - Conquerors Hypersonic - Khaosmogonia Powerwolf - Wake up the Wicked Dragony - Hic svnt dracones Manticora - Mycelium Timeless Fairytale - A Story to Tell Tyr - Battle Ballads Edited by DippoMagoo - 30 Nov 2024 at 6:08pm

Vim Fuego Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Admin Group Death, T/S/G, Grind, VA Teams Joined: 05 Jul 2015 Location: Canterbury, NZ Status: Offline Points: 6604	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vim Fuego Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 Nov 2024 at 8:25pm
	Working list. top 4 pretty much settled. Cancer Christ - God Is Violence Exhorder - Defectum Omnium UltraVomit - Ultra Vomit et le Pouvoir le Puissance Morta Skuld - Creation Undone Judas Priest - Invincible Shield DragonForce - Warp Speed Warriors My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding Striker - Ultrapower F.K.U. - The Horror and The Metal Korpiklaani - Rankarumpa High On Fire - Cometh The Storm Devilskin - Surfacing FerreTT - Glamdemic Accept - Humanoid Raised By Owls - Vol.3: (The Satirical Verses) Kerry King - From Hell I Rise The Troops of Doom - A Mass to the Grotesque Texas Toast Chainsaw Massacre - Super Turbo Master - Saints Dispelled Birdflesh - Faster Than A Piest Vomit Carnal Diafragma - The Garden of Earthly Delight Japanische Kampfhorspiele - Zuruck Im Dreck (Back to ze Roots 2) Anvil - One and Only Pagan Impaler - Buried Alive 200 Stab Wounds - Manual Manic Procedures Fleshgod Apocalypse - Opera Deicide - Banished by Sin Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All