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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.
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