2024 Albums

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

BCC V has got some good songs on it, but it's a little patchy. But I need to play it some more but other stuff has come out and got in the way of that!

[Zzzptm]

Definitely not a top spot contender, but I'm liking it well enough to consider the purchase. Maybe not right away, as I need to digest the ones I just picked up, but it will likely be in my next round of album buys.

[Zzzptm]

1000mods will have a new album out in November... I'm excited for that. https://1000mods.bandcamp.com/album/cheat-death

[Zzzptm]

Well, I wasn't as thrilled about the 1000mods album's two tracks as I was hoping for. But Chris Joss just made a new release, and I usually love his stuff. I'll pay the full price of the album for the opening track alone.

https://chrisjoss.bandcamp.com/album/classic-lineup

[Zzzptm]

Found the rest of 1000mods' newest on YouTube and I'm baffled why they didn't unlock full playing on Bandcamp. This is some good stuff, I believe I'll buy.

Much harder than their previous recent releases, I'm getting into it, yeah.

Then comes the accounting where we look at what we got and give it some rankings. And that means I get to crank up the Saxon again!

[Zzzptm]

And looking over the list of 2024 albums, that's all, folks! I checked out the "MC5" release that's more of a Wayne Kramer solo album and was disappointed. So after I download the 1000mods album, I'll have bought my last record for 2024.

[Charger]

I'm gonna take a look soon at my best albums of the 2024 list...although it will be somewhat incomplete as I am still missing few essentials from the year.

[Zzzptm]

My list to organize:

Saxon - Hell, Fire & Damnation
Blaze Bayley - Circle of Stone
Pilots of Baalbek - By the Seat of Our Pants
Buffalo Bud Buster - El Diablo Locomotor
Drive By Wire - Time Horizon
High Desert Queen - Palm Reader
Black Crowes - Happiness Bastards
Fu Manchu - The Return of Tomorrow
The Egyptian Gay Lovers - Go Ape
The Chuck Norris Experiment - 20
The Sons of Arrakis - Volume II
Deep Purple - =1
1000mods - Cheat Death
Chris Joss - Classic Lineup

14 albums to arrange in order, so I need to listen to 'em all, in the order above. Damn that Saxon album is a monster! It is king of the hill for 2024, I think.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I bought 3 albums this year!!

Hawkwind - Stories from Time and Space
Black Country Communion - V
Bruce Dickenson - The Mandrake Project

I need to play them all again!

[Charger]

So my list of albums include

Saxon - Hell, Fire & Damnation
Kerry King - From Hell I Rise
Deep Purple - =1
Metal Church - The Final Sermon (Live in Japan)
Blaze Bayley - Circle Of Stone
Black Sabbath - Anno Domini
The Crypt - The Crypt


Not many...

What I am missing are

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield
(The few songs I've heard from it have not been very impressive so haven't gotten it yet)

Bruce Dickinson - The Mandrake Project
(Same goes for this one...very underwhelming songs)

Castle - Evil Remains
(The songs I have heard have been excellent, but it's just been hard to find for a resonable price including postage)

Anette Olzon - Rapture
(For some reason have completely forgotten about this one)

Vision Of Atlantis - Pirates II The Armada
(This one too slipped through the cracks, shame on me!)

Hammerfall - Avenge The Fallen
(Bit underwhelmed by their singles for this one so I opted to not buy it yet)

So there are quite a few albums that I either intentiously didn't buy or some that just slipped through the cracks...but honestly this year I was bit hard up for cash so had so leave some albums out...but all of the albums here I will buy eventually.

I'm gonna put those 7 in order bit later... #1 is already quite clear to me...but the rest are not.

[Zzzptm]

#1 is already quite clear to me...

S A X O N ! ! !

[Zzzptm]

I'm playing the albums now and then slotting them where I think they belong in the order for ranking, with an eye towards a second play-through. Saxon is on top and I think it stays there.

[Charger]

So I guess it's time to put the albums of 2024 in order...

7.
The Crypt - The Crypt

Behind this female lead DOOM band is non other than Candlemass mastermind Leif Edling. He wrote most of the songs on the album along with singer Pepper. This is some good old school oriented doom metal but with a modern twist. Marcus Jidell from Avatarium (Another Leif's brain childs) produced and played guitars on the album.
Pepper's vocals can be soft or rather harsh as they should. She's no Jennie Ann Smith or Michelle Nocon but she has a lot of presense.
There can never be too many female fronted doom metal bands in the world!

6.
Metal Church - The Final Sermon

The last ever shows with Mike Howe in Japan were recorded and finally released on this double live album. Mike was on top of his game during the Damned If You Do tour that's for sure. He belts out some of the best preformances here I've ever heard. Such a bitter sweet album this one. Mike was one of the most unique voices in heavy metal no doubt about it.

5.
Kerry King - From Hell I Rise

It took a while for Kerry to get this one out considering Slayer called it quits back in 2019...and kind of ironically as soon as Kerry did get this out Slayer announced their comeback...but regardless. Kerry got himself quite the band. Paul Bostaph on drums, Kyle Sanders on bass, Phil Demmel on lead guitar and one of the best singers in all of thrash metal Mark Osegueda! It was hard to imagine this album could have possibly been a miss...and ofcourse it was not. Eventhough Mark is somewhat constrained here relying almost solely on his Tom-esque screaming it's still clear that he was the right man for the job. Kerry belts out Slayer-like riffs, Paul drums his ass off and so on and so on. Sure this isn't the most original and unique sounding album, but it doesn't need to be. This is Kerry King.

4.
Black Sabbath - Anno Domini

And talk about been long in the making! This boxset should have come out 10 years ago. But better late than never. The remastering work is AMAZING. And the remix of Forbidden is SUBERB! It's like a whole new album again! And that's the reason I've included it here. Hell of these album sound fresh again. Only gripe is that they should have included the Cross Purposes Live here!


3.
Blaze Bayley - Circle Of Stone

Blaze is one busy guy. He's constantly on tour and puts out new albums every two years or so...only time he takes off the road is when he gets a near death heart attack and a quadruple by pass surgery!
Anyways with Circle Of Stone Blaze ventures on to some more progressive ground, that he had touched a bit with the Infinite trilogy but here he takes a step further. Chris Appleton's guitar playing and writing is top notch through out. And eventhough there are some solid in your face heavy metal tunes even some of them have an interesting hook or bridge or something that adds a new layer to the song. Great album


2.
Deep Purple= 1

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't really know what to expect with a new album with a new guitarist after all these years with Steve. But Simon surely proved himself on the live stage and it was clear they had great chemistry together so why wouldn't a studio album work?
And oh boy did it work!! I don't have a lot of bad things to say about any of Purple's albums with Steve (although Whoosh might have taken the prog element bit too far) but this one felt like a breeze of fresh air. Something different yet distinctively PURPLE. Where some of the past albums might have bit more keyboard driven than guitar driven this one is purely guitar driven with excellent keyboards layered on the side. Songs like Show Me, Lazy Sod, Now You're Talking and Bleeding Obvious are all suberb tracks...in fact there isn't a single bad track on the whole album.


1.
SAXON - HELL, FIRE & DAMNATION

There was never any doubt what would be number one for this year...none...zero. So 10 points to ZZZ!
And the funny thing about all of this was that I hadn't really heard any single Saxon song until I heard the title track of this album and was totally blown away.
Well say hello to a brand new Saxon fan! 
This album is pure perfection from start to finish. Highlights being the title track, Roswell, Merchant Of Venice and the insanely stellar Madame Quillotine!
If I'm still alive at the end of 2029 (and if the forum is still here) and we're doing a best albums of the 20s list this album WILL be somewhere near the top of that list too!

[Zzzptm]

My rankings -

Chris Joss' Classic Lineup isn't a rock album, so I'll put it in a separate category. But it's a fantastic album, a great set of tunes for background music or focusing, you choose.

Now, for the rock and metal...

13. Buffalo Bud Buster - El Diablo Locomotor
This one's fun. Also short. I'd pay to see 'em live at a club, they rock hard and are likely a fun band to see live.

12. The Egyptian Gay Lovers - Go Ape!
Like the BBB album above, this one's fun times, but the tunes really don't stand up to the other selections from this year. Still a solid album, and I'm glad I picked it up.

11. High Desert Queen - Palm Reader
Great desert rock, got a little long at the end of things, but otherwise great album.

10. Pilots of Baalbek - By the Seat of Our Pants
Top ten territory starts here. The Pilots of Baalbek are wild and crazy Aussies that thrash out good and hard.

9. The Chuck Norris Experiment - 20
This one's very close to the ones in 10 and 8, a solid album from experienced hard rockers.

8. 1000mods - Cheat Death
Much harder and heavier than their previous releases, but still good stuff. I liked their previous release and Super Van Vacation more than this one, but I don't think they've hit a slump at all. They're good to go.

7. Fu Manchu - The Return of Tomorrow
The band are back in their desert stride with this release. Very heavy and hard-hitting. Most tasty stuff here.

6. Blaze Bayley - Circle of Stone
Blaze does a great job here with a solid, hard-hitting effort that is quite captivating. Reminds me of Uriah Heep's release from last year, goes very well paired with that album.

5. Sons of Arrakis - Volume II
Second album is better than the first. Excellent metal action fueled by the Dune universe, but doesn't require familiarity with the series to appreciate.

4. Drive By Wire - Time Horizon
Solid yeoman band from The Netherlands, putting down a tight album with great playing and singing. They haven't faded in terms of quality, not one bit.

3. Deep Purple - =1
This was a tough call, but I think they gave it their all with this one. Simon McBride is a breath of fresh air, just like Charger said. I do hope the band has another album or two still in them, because this one was great fun.

2. The Black Crowes - Happiness Bastards
I did not expect to like this one better than the Deep Purple album, but here we are. This one's fantastic.

1. Saxon - Hell, Fire & Damnation
These guys took the top of the mountain back in January and held off all comers. Magnificent album, best of the year.

And I'd love to see how it holds up for the rest of the decade. It has to measure up against Tony Martin's Thorns, Holy Ground from The Dead Dasies, The Stranglers' Dark Matters, Deep Purple's Whooosh!, and Sky Valley Mistress' Faithless Rituals.