Smokey Goretooth’s Top Albums of 2024
What really can be said about 2024? Actually, what we can say about 2024 is that it was another shit year amongst a series of shit years as of late. What wasn’t shitty about the year though was some of the albums that came out. I had an unsurprisingly hard time trying to narrow down what really hit me. If I’m being real, they all would be honorable mentions, since I’m shitty as fuck at making definitive statements. I’m noncommittal, know what I’m sayin’? After mucho de back-and-forth with trying to round out my choices I’m still not satisfied, but here’s what I’ve been feeling at the time of posting. Check in with me in another week or two, and I guarantee my top five will look quite different.
Here they are, in absolutely no particular order.
Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (Pure Noise)
Alright. This one is probably obvious and on a lot of people’s year-end lists. As much as that might pain me to say, it makes sense. The pain doesn’t come because they aren’t deserving of it—of course, they are, but it leaves diehard longtime KL fans like myself not feeling as cool anymore… I’m totally joking, so let me not sound like the brat I likely am. With Knocked Loose basically hitting the mainstream in like 20 seconds after their late-night appearance on Jimmy Kimmel, playing “Suffocate” along with Poppy, the masses now know that you can scream, shout, spin-kick, or twerk in the pit to a good ass beat.
Thou – Umbilical (Sacred Bones)
Thou don’t really waste time straight up assaulting your ears. From the beginning of Umbilical, they pretty much bitch slap you, starting with “Narcissist’s Prayer” in a way that doesn’t even prepare you for what’s next. You don’t even really need to hear or understand the lyrics to resonate with each of the singles—their impact is felt no matter what. It’s definitely more on the hardcore side than their usual sludgy delight, but that makes everything hit all the more hard. Listen to “House of Ideas.” It’s one of the best metal tracks of the year if you ask me.
Nails – Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast)
It’s about goddamn time, honestly. When I’m really feeling in the mood to just, I don’t know, fucking explode, Nails is most definitely a go-to. And now, after eight fuckin years, they’ve blessed me with Every Bridge Burning. It’s all the powerviolence I need to take me angrily into the new year where a bunch of bullshit awaits us all. Bullshit that will definitely lead to a lot of actual violence, so at least we’ve got a good soundtrack for it all. A track like “Lacking the Ability to Process Empathy” is a great example of that.
Julie Christmas – Ridiculous and Full of Blood (Red Crk Recordings)
There are about six days out of the month where the title of this album reflects me perfectly, and that just may be the point. Whenever Julie Christmas shrieks on Ridiculous and Full of Blood, I feel it deeply in my soul because I relate to it so much. I, too, am shrieking to an excessive degree. Even though the second half of the album sputters a bit in comparison to the first, the fact that none of the tracks singularly sound the same made this rife for repeats for me.
SeeYouSpaceCowboy – Coup de Grâce (Pure Noise)
Something about SeeYouSpaceCowboy reminds me of my heydays of scene-dom, even though they barely came out in 2016. They have a comforting sound that I crave more often than I’d like to admit. Well, the part of it that’s just the songs and not me singing them is what’s comforting. SeeYouSpaceCowboy utilizes their vocal dynamics to hit you from many different angles, elevated by some of the album’s guest stars like Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante on “To the Dance Floor for Shelter,” or Kim Dracula on “Lubricant Like Kerosene.” Even if you don’t think it’ll be your “thing,” just listen to it. You may be pleasantly surprised.
Honorable mentions:
Chat Pile – Cool World
Uniform – American Standard
Couch Slut – My Life as a Woman
Bongripper – Empty
Sumac – The Healer
Melvins – Tarantula Heart
