Best of 2024: Annual Review

Lighthouse Music

7 min read

CONGRATS! Here is to another crazy, busy, uncontrollable, unexpected, and colourful year around the sun. In purely musical terms, the previous 2024 more than delivered across the entire board, be it on the totally extreme and unapologetically extreme side, the more accessible, multilayered and diverse middle, or the completely opposite pop-, rap- and electronic-oriented altnernative front, with countless options for all of us to enjoy in whatever genre, mood, country or scene one might like. For better or worse, I intend to skip the traditional ramblings and jump right into what made 2024 the wild experience it was.

REVIEWS. Somehow, 2024 saw a personal record of 35 published articles for both LP or EP releases, more than the 27 for 2023 or the 30 in my very active 2022. This might be due to the slight optimisation of the writing process, the minor changes in posts' style and length, or just because I simply do not overthink it all anymore, but either way, there is plenty to read and go through on the website. In case someone is looking for good modern metal or alternative music to listen to, I would highly recommend those 35 reviews to start with, or at least the four separate quarterly overviews of the Top 20 tracks for each season.

In total, I gave my undivided attention and carefully listened to 218 separate releases worth noting, of which 134 LPs, 42 EPs and the other 40 a mixture of deluxe or special editions, and anniversary re-issues. All in all, considering my traditionally open approach to all new music, but also an increasingly limited time for unknown bands, the numbers are pretty respectable and more than enough to cover just about everything notable that happened in 2024. Of all these releases, I found 72 to be worth at least a 7/10 mark and 35 of them saw their reviews posted, so you can be assured I picked only the very best to spotlight. After all, our time is very limited to waste it on random background noise or rehashed cloches...

SPOTIFY. Nothing surprising here, apart from a slight dip in listening time which I like to see as an actual improvement as these 33,637 minutes made up a much more focused and engaged listening experience of a total of 1905 unique artists and 4224 individual songs. Considering my top 2024's releases, naturally my top 5 bands included Bad Omens, Siamese, While She Sleeps, Banks Arcade and Cane Hill, joined by top tracks from the likes of The Devil Wears Prada, Make Them Suffer, Kingdom Of Giants, thrown and even the newly discovered Sun Eater. In other words, I did enjoy my contemporary, alternative, melodic, vibey and atmospheric metalcore, and you can expect more of the same next year.

As usual, I put the best 100 tracks that defined the Modern Metal and Alternative scenes in 2024 into two separate playlists as the most representative annual pair out there. Obviously, the next 2025 editions of both collections are already available with some tracks released in December to get us started while we wait for more ragers to drop in the coming weeks. Alongise this, in the Playlist section of the website or my official Spotify account, you can find more killer playlists, including the best modern tracks from Australia, UK, Germany and France, some party metal goofiness, electronic remixes and acoustic versions of favourite heavy bangers, metal covers of pop anthems, and much more to come!

COUNTRIES. The regional crown has to go to Australia again with an unbreakable dominance in 2024, fuelled by some of the country's main modern heavyhitters In Hearts Wake, Make Them Suffer, Alpha Wolf and Northlane, joined by younger troopers and future stars like Banks Arcade, Windwaker, Ocean Grove, Reliqa, Diamond Construct, RedHook, Alienist, Inertia, Gravemind, and bidding farewell to the wonderfully weird Void Of Vision who released what turned out to be their last ever LP. All in all, another phenomenal year for Aussie records, and considering we did not hear much from the likes of Parkway Drive, Polaris and Thornhill, expect another massive 2025 for Down Under yet again.

Moving over to Europe now, and no big surprises there either, only a consistently evolving, diverse and driven sound from across the entire continent. Arising Empire once again played a central role in pushing the scene forward, representing an admirably multifaceted roster that released some of the best material from the entire year, as seen in the post above. In addition, Germany as a whole delivered a brilliant array of modern metal excellence, including the likes of Rising Insane, Future Palace, Avralize, defocus, Alleviate, GHØSTKID, Immunity, SETYØURSAILS, Venues, Any Given Day, and many others, most of them waving the Arising Empire flag to really give the label its deserved title.

To the north, Scandinavia was at the expected level of impecable metal sound, with Sweden unleashing a mixture of unstoppable newcomers, established legends and future heavyhitters like Imminence, thrown, Dark Tranquility, The Greyscale Season, Allt, Awake The Dreamer, Self Deception and Cemetery Skyline, and Finland answering with the more modern-leaning Blind Channel, As I May and One Morning Left, but it was really Denmark's Siamese and Vola that stole the show with two fantastic albums, quite different in style and mood, but very similar in creative freedom, production approach and overall impression.

Against all that wonderful pastiche of styles and traditions, the UK stood proud and loud with the usual blend of relentless metal perfection, marvelously diverse rock output, and all things alternative to fill gaps inbetween. On the heavy side, the usual heroes While She Sleeps and Being Me The Horizon led the troops in style with two seminal releases, joined by the likes of Sylosis, Polar, Acres, and Our Hollow, Our Home, but it was the endless pool of British indie richness that gave us amazing new music from the likes of Boston Manor, Nothing But Thieves, Kasabian, Enter Shikari, Casyette, Kid Bookie, Glass Animals, In Search Of Sun, Dream State, and countless others from just about every genre you like.

Across the Channel, France was a bit too quiet for my liking, but we already know Landmvrks and Novelists are cooking some massive new albums, and I am sure Gojira, Resolve and ten56. are going to join in at some point next year, so expect a busy 2025 there as well. After all, even without much exciting new music or activities, Paris did give us one of the most iconic metal moments of all times with that one particularly epic live performance at the most prestigious of international sport stages, reserved for one of the greatest acts of our times and deserving nothing but respect and admiration! Respect for Gojira and their 'Mea Culpa' masterpiece from the Opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.

Normally, I tend skip the USA alltogether as delving into each separate state and subscene is a whole other article on its own, plus it is somewhat expected from American bands to deliver the goods. Still, there are two distinct areas that might be worth mentioning, starting from Ohio and its biggest weapons The Devil Wears Prada, whose track 'Ritual' ended as my most listened to song of the year and who have been maturing as the finest of wines for a decade now, closely followed by The Plot In You and Landon Tewers and just about everything wonderful produced by him, both bands getting ready for a huge 2025.

The other one to highlight, maybe expectedly so, is California and its traditionally spectacular range of bands and genres represented across the board with the likes of Linkin Park making a thunderous comeback to the very top, Kingdom Of Giants also re-appearing after a long break with some of their best material to date, The Ghost Inside refusing to slow down with yet another groovy record, P.O.D. and The Offspring sharing one for the nostalgia hunters, even AWOLNATION with a marvelously quirky alternative masterpiece. Obviously, these are just a few mentions and the USA list can go on forever.

To wrap it all up, 2024 was a total blast and there was kickass modern metal and alternative music coming from every corner of the world. I am proud to say my Modern Metal playlist included bands from 21 different countries and I do hope this trend of expanding the reach and broading the horizon continues not just for myself, but for everyone else that may have stumbled across this page. To those of you who did, and stayed, I thank and salute you, and wish us all and even better, bigger, and louder 2025!