As most of you probably realize by now, 2024 is over and we’ve entered 2025. For those of you who haven’t, consider this a public service announcement.

Anyhow, let’s take a look at some of the noteworthy releases of last year. For whatever reason, we skipped doing one last year, so the previous one is from 2022.

On the whole, as far as music goes, 2024 was a decent year but scarcely one that will go down into the annals of history as a particularly important year. Or perhaps this will be remembered as the year when AI fully broke through in the music biz, at least in metal? We’ve seen AI-powered album covers by for example Deicide, and tech death metal veterans Pestilence put their foot in it a couple of times, first with an AI cover they soon backtracked from, and now towards the end of the year with a statement that they’re pro-AI and will be considering using AI for cover artwork in the future as well. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t go down well with the fans.

Well, as long as the musicians are OK with labels potentially replacing them with AI generated music, it’s all good, right?

Onto the best albums of the year. There can be no doubt about it: Cock Sparrer’s final album Hand On Heart (review) was the album of the year. The UK oi! legends are going out with a bang, finishing their career with an album topped only by the iconic Shock Troops (1983).

Otherwise, too, the top of our list is dominated by veterans. Metal/hardcore/rap crossover pioneers Body Count stay in top form with Merciless (review), proving the group helmed by rap legend Ice T and underrated guitar maestro Ernie C still know how to deliver the goods. Kerry King of Slayer fame released his first solo album From Hell I Rise (review) and surprised us with how vital it was. Slayer may be gone, but obviously the spirit lives on in King; From Hell I Rise is Slayer in everything but name. Which in this case is nothing but praise.

And then there was the surprise of The Cure’s Songs Of A Lost World (review). We weren’t expecting a new album from them, we weren’t expecting one in vein with goth classics such as Pornography, we weren’t expecting one of the best albums of the year. They delivered all of those.

I suppose you can call Nightside veterans as well: formed already in 1996, they’re part of the first waves of Finnish black metal. Last year’s Death From The North was however only their second album, as the band took a lengthy hiatus between 2004 and 2021. We never got around to reviewing the album, but it is a fierce package of classic 90’s northern black metal.

Chymist, on the other hand, is a new band, having been around since 2022. Their debut mini-CD Opus I: Nox (review) displays a brand of black metal rooted in the Finnish style, but miles away from cookie cutter copycats. A well deserved place on our list of best releases of the year.

Moving away from metal but staying in Finland, De La Rocka’s debut album Nightmare Reborn (review) is one of the best psychobilly albums in years. The immediate draw is the long list of visitors from acts such as Koffin Kats, Hola Ghost and Godless Wicked Creeps, but the lasting power comes from within – from being an album packed with great songs and good musicianship.

Going in an even more rootsy direction, another album we didn’t review here makes the list: Papa Reino’s Hiljaiset hautajaiset. Papa Reino’s brand of stripped down, raw blues combines authentic aesthetics with a deeply Finnish atmosphere, proving just how universal the blues is.

And we’ve got to give a mention to Lonesome Wyatt And The Holy Spooks as well. After initial disappointment, Afraid (review) turned out to be a very strong album. Sadly, though, overall Lonesome Wyatt’s year in music was somewhat patchy: Those Poor Bastard’s Back To The Primitive (review) was tolerable at best.

On the gig front, 2024 was way more happening than countless years before it. The most iconic gig was Current 93 in Espoo, Finland. An intimate, beautiful and long evening with David Tibet and friends: if our memory serves us right, the concert was over two hours long. But felt like a fraction of it.

Sleep Of Monsters’ farewell gig was another worthy of mention. It was the first and, sadly, last time we saw them perform live. A bittersweet evening, as the band was in high form. But all things must come to an end.

2024 was a year of note in one respect: we saw Beherit live not once, but twice. Both times were stellar; Beherit were in way better form than I think anyone dared dream. The second time at Kuudes Linja in Helsinki was insofar better, that we were in a spot from where we could see the entire thing, and where the sound was good. In contrast, on the first time at the Rites Of North festival in Oulu, Finland, we barely saw anything of the band, stuck back at the bar as we were, and the music was occasionally drowned out by the blubbering of drunk idiots. But nonetheless, it was Beherit’s comeback gig, so that’s one for the history books.

Otherwise too Rites Of North was a significant event for us: it was the first time Dieux Des Cimetières (yours truly’s musical alias) performed live. Though the setup was fairly minimal – all music played from a looper, the vocals live – it was no small task to bring DDC in front of a live audience. Ultimately, thanks to meticulous rehearsing and preparing, pretty much everything went off without a hitch.

Here’s waiting for the next time…

And we’ll toot our own a bit more: Dieux Des Cimetières also released a new album, Säkeitä esoteerisesta Euroopasta (read more here). Marrying esoteric neoclassical with martial industrial and lyrical themes focused on European mystic and esoteric undercurrents, it represents a new level for DDC. And has, it seems, been well received at least judged by the feedback we’ve received.

In summary, 2024 saw many good releases, but few that at least at this moment feel potentially iconic in stature. Looking forward to 2025, there are already a couple of hot albums on the horizon. Most notable of these is Lord Of The Lost vocalist Chris Harms’ debut solo album, which based on the advance video single I Love You promises to be a killer 80’s styled synthpop album.

But 2025 is a different story for a different future time. Unless we’re exceedingly lazy, we’ll return to summarizing the fresh year in about a year’s time. Until then: thanks for reading, and we’ll be seeing y’all on the pages of Only Death Is Real during 2025 as well.