After an excellent crop of malevolent items showcased in the Year of the Dark Lord 2022, last year’s blood-thirsty urges didn’t warrant such a list. Allegedly. But for 2024, these terrible 365 days, there seems to be enough material to slake our thirst for the dark and daemonic. To the point that vile Death and Black Metal records started to pile up over at the RMR office. The consequence? RMR ended up with too much material than would be good for this here list. So, we had to make a choice. Only records exuding the vile breath of Astaroth were fair game. Pieces that gave you the chills and left you uneasy and disturbed after a while. And that means that the adepts of the Neanderthal browbeat fest have been denied entry this time. Welcome to the dark abode of depravity and terror. Enter at your own peril.
And as always, this here rant ain’t a ranking list. In this sense and in no particular order, let’s begin.
Once La France des Maudits reached our webzine with some advanced devilry, Black Metal started to feel right again. Seth just went ahead and put us to rights with sordid French stories and one of the best Black Metal performances of 2024. Malevolent, enraged, vile, and immensely powerful. This record’s blasphemous roar annoyed our neighbors until late in the night. A call for Lucifer’s global reign in French blasted straight into the darkness. It won’t get any better. And thinking about this some more, the folks over at the IOC1 in charge of the French Olympics should have taken Seth as their go-to metal band of choice for their opening ceremony full of beheaded countenances of Marie-Antoinette. That would have boosted power – and some ecclesial outrage to boot.2 Instead, they chickened out and went for Gojira of all people. Environmentalists instead of the lightbringer’s brethren. What else can go wrong, right?
French Black Metal was on a rampage this year, and especially on the blasphemous side of things. Rituals held in hidden forests, invocations in English, Latin, and other forgotten languages, Corpus Diavolis just pulled out all the stops in search of carnal exploits. Elixiria Ekstasis, that potent brew, irresistible to The Goat on a rampage, showed us minions how traditional Black Metal with a shamanesque touch ought to sound like. A powerfully brutal tremolo fest gorging with vile rasps and hypnotic chants. Ferocious, dramatic, meaty, and always conscious of the olden times when Black Metal was pvre and filled with the blowtorches of hell.
More ritualistic fare and some truly powerful old-style Black Metal reached us from the Italians of Darkend. Viaticum‘s authentic and genuine delivery, the low-fi presentation, and the merciless rasps, snarls, and screams really got on our good side. All you need to know about death, dying, and your journey across the Styx in one giant blackened blob of Ritualistic Black Metal. That’s some wild fare only the initiated will enjoy. A monolithic presentation best consumed in one piece. Just be careful. Enjoy the brutality, but do not go through that left-hand door. You might not like what you find there.
Now, what do you need to fuel those snazzy rituals? Right. Sermons to feed the dark urges of the Princes of Hell. Halphas reminded us of this little fact and they sent us a record. Teachings about the Sermons of the Black Flame. The band neatly wrapped olde Black Metal into a ruthlessly ferocious gift package for the wicked. Best cuts of traditional blackened fare reinvented and brought to us with the wrath of hell. By Loki, this is the kind of sermon that ruined a loudspeaker or two over here at the office tower. Exactly the way it should be.
2024 also turned into an Atmospheric Death Metal affair with a mighty dose of doom ‘n’ damnation. Ellende‘s Todbringerin – a remake of their old record called – well – Todbringer. But boy, did L.G. up the ante on the pre-existing frugal skeleton. So, even though remakes won’t garner a lot of brownie points over here, RMR himself let it roll. And the outcome was as surprising as it’s dark and foreboding. An ode to the harbinger of death and a lament for the process of dying and the afterworld. Because, as the narrator so avidly stated: “The people are dying, but they’re not happy.” ‘Nuff said.
Interestingly, shortly after Ellende‘s deathly woes got on our radar, the metal universe spake. Weltenbrandt arrived on our doorstep out of bloody nowhere. The unwieldily named Transzendenz Schatten Romantik hits the same vein as Ellende, Varg, or – again – Waldgeflüster. And it does it well. These bands all thrive on the dark and almost pagan mystique of pastures, woods, and hidden clearings. That’s where all these goddesses get their summons and old deities are worshipped. Now, the band for sure didn’t invent anything new. But the melancholy-laden tunes, full of olde Black Metal atmospherics had us in an uproar. Meaning, newbies can indeed bring their fair share to their malevolent offering.
The Horrible Dissonance of Oblivion, Kvadrat‘s latest blackened edition, chilled our souls just good. Their truly malevolent intentions were to generate – and I quote again – “…nauseating sensations of uncertainty, alienation, hatred, and pain.” And indeed, after a while of rampant dissonance, crazed tremolos, bluntly screechy solos, and otherworldly growls, you start to grab the salt and throw an unknown number of pinches over your shoulder. You know, to fend off the daemon and his cronies. That’s some true malevolent spirit, even if we don’t quite know where exactly this band hails from.
Hail to the Unextinct, the cursed undead condemned to slave on! Hideous Divinity showed us 50 shades of malevolent with their merciless mélange of Dissonance and Technical Death Metal. The record’s a haunting experience. Its brutal metal onslaught together with atmospheric interludes and strange monologues from nowhere left us reeling more than once. The more you delve into this raw and abrasive abyss, the more angst and foreboding set in. And sooner than you think, you’ll find yourself quaking in the wake of its mighty tidal wave of brutal doom and destruction. So, don’t forget your helmet and body armor before you hit play.
The fate of all those witches got yet another turn of the rack with Panzerchrist‘s latest epic piece Maleficium Part I. A monolithic rockslide with some of the best malevolent cuts of Death and Black Metal on offer in 2024. A surprising turn of events, too. Because this band’s been overactive a few releases over the last 12 months or so. Usually this leads to a decline in delivery and fervor. But we gladly stand corrected. Part I is one roaring example of an exception confirming the rule. But before starting with the record, draw that circle of salt. It’s for your own good.
Aye, is it the December surprise? Not quite. But – the RMR crew was blown away by Veilburner‘s sick talent to weave malevolence into an intricate web of dissonance and more tech death. The unwieldily named The Duality of Decapitation and Wisdom took us down a daemonic path of unease and old magick. A brutal rendition of Crowley’s worst urges. Theories as to how losing your head would lead to some sort of rapture and divine wisdom roaring forth. Somehow. And while those theories are farfetched and downright idiotic, the ferociously effective metal on display had us positively reeling.
Okay, that’s it for now. Hide your salt and turn your crosses upright again. You’re safe again until the next malevolent slice of terror hits you next year. If we’re all still there, that is. One never knows these days.