Surprisingly enough, finding 24 albums incoming for 2024 was pretty easy. Maybe it’s that backlog of creativity that’s still pouring out following a global pandemic or maybe it’s just timing but whatever the case may be, we like it. A lot! Especially with a bevy of the releases mentioned below popping up within the first 3 months of the upcoming new year. In fact, by the time this finally comes out the end will be here for Project 86 who release the 2nd half of their closing curtain called OMNI and, spoiler alert, it’s pretty spectacular. Also already out and worthy of your attention are the latest opuses from The Clamps who bring some fuzzed out Rawk you need to hear, the blistering devastation of Domination Campaign, and the funky frenetic chaos of No Terror In The Bang.
In fact, in fact! In just the time it took for us to drag our proverbial feet ever so slightly and delay this thing by another week we’ve had news about Sunny Day Real Estate (New song attached to a re-recorded Diary + tour!) and VR Sex (New record in March!) and that’s not even mentioning the record from Rotting Christ that we had no idea about but is now safely sitting on ye olde digital desk awaiting even more listens before an early review…but more on that one later. But first! We have to mention that The KVB will be back with a new full-length on April 5th! And Glassing! Holy crap the new Glassing is due on April 24th and we’re kind of already madly in love with what’s within From the Other Side of the Mirror (More on that, too, later on). Still on the heavier front, 2024 is theoretically bringing new wreckids from the Thrashmasters in Testament (1st in 4 years), Anthrax (1st in 8 years), and OG Seps The Troops Of Doom and on the more traditional Metal front, Zakk Sabbath returns on March 1st with Doomed Forever Forever Doomed through Magnetic Eye Records which sees the Zakk Wylde-led Black Sabbath trio covering both Paranoid and Master Of Reality in their entirety across two LP’s.
And in our favorite musical realm, the one called “Industrial”, we’ll be getting the Skinny Puppy/Front Line Assembly connection when Bill Leeb, Rhys Fulber, and Cevin Key team up for a new Cyberaktif record in February, the highly anticipated En Esch record should finally touch down following a 2023 filled with new singles, and speaking of singles Combichrist looks to have another out in February which hopefully indicates that a long-gestating full-length (And first since 2019) is finally on its’ way. Then there’s Chelsea Wolfe who returns on February 9th with She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, Killswitch Engage look to be nearing the finish line with their 9th full-length plus perhaps that Adam D/Howard Jones collab, and finally (For the intro part anyway), Kerry King‘s uber secret/hyped about project is on its’ way and with the revelation that Josh Wilbur (Lamb Of God) is at the boards and that the upcoming album is an extension of Slayer kicking off where Repentless ended we’d say that calling us excited would be an understatement.
24. Slower, Slower (January 26th, Heavy Psych Sounds Records): And on that Slayer kick, here’s some Slayer but but slower… from Slower. Get it? It’s a supergroup featuring members of Kylesa, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, and more and we can’t wait for you, too, to experience a 10+ minute version of “War Ensemble” amongst other sonic gems to be found on here.
23. Wage War, TBA (TBD, TBD): Look, as of this typing there is nothing known about the follow-up to 2021’s Manic save for it’s been some time aaaaaannnnnd the band just put out a call for extras for a new video so here’s all the everythings crossed that that’s a sign there’s new music on the way!
22. Pearl Jam, TBA (TBA, TBD): Later PJ records have been hit or miss for us. The last one we were genuinely excited for was 2006’s self-titled and mostly as it was paired with 10,000 Days from Tool so as a record store retail warrior, it was a good time for music listening. But it’s been almost 4 years since their last full-length and guitarist Mike McCready is being quoted in all the rags as describing the forthcoming 12th studio album as “heavier than you’d expect” and, well, color us intrigued!
21. The Brains, TBA (TBA, TBD): Not much is known about the upcoming new album from Montreal Psychobilly vets The Brains save for sporadic social media updates about various studio time wrapping up here and there but if it’s even a little like 2020’s Satana Tarantula which made us fans then all will be right in the world.
20. KMFDM, LET GO (February 2nd, Metropolis Records): Look, our review for KMFDM’s 23rd studio album in their 40th year as a collaborative entity has already dropped and we still made a point of placing it on this list because it deserves all the shout outs… and we had it penciled in for this preview list before we even heard the lead single (Or any music actually) because that’s how solid KMFDM is. You can read our review in the header now and be content that these legends are still out there doing what they do regularly and regularly doing it well.
19. Amiensus, Reverie (Spring, M-Theory Audio): The last record from Minnesota’s Amiensus kind of blew us away. Nothing in the Black Metal realm really sounded like it and following the release of lead single/title track “Reverie, we have high, high hopes for what’s coming.
18. Glassing, From the Other Side of the Mirror (April 24th, Pelagic Records): We’ve barely had this record, due in April mind you, for 24 hrs and have already added it to our 2024 best of draft if that says anything. There’s a lot to love on the upcoming full-length from Austin, Texas-based Glassing and if you like your heaviness dense and complex then this one’s for you! They’ll be out on the road soon with with Author & Punisher and hitting Sonia on February 23rd in Cambridge alongside MA natives Morne on the bill and we have to highly recommend catching them if you can especially at the chance to maybe see songs like “Anything You Want”, “Circle Down”, or “As My Heart Rots” live for the first time.
17. Eastern High, TBA (TBA, TBD): 2021’s Halo from Sweden heavies Eastern High was, in a word, AWESOME. Having spent a lot of 2023 writing and recording what’s to come is, according to the band’s own socials: “heavier and darker than anything we have released to this day”. How can you not get excited???
16. The Union Underground, TBA (TBA, TBD): What year is this? Are we really putting what could very well have been a one hit/album wonder from the initial Nu-Metal onslaught on here? With new music???? Yep, we are. Because that initial album, …An Education In Rebellion from Texas’ The Union Underground, still owns. And they’re at it again and touring with the Back to the 2000’s tour alongside Soil, Ra, and Flaw with a stop by New Bedford’s The Vault scheduled in mid-March with new tunes promised live with classics like “South Texas Deathride” and, of course, “Turn Me On ‘Mr. Deadman'”. Stay tuned!
15. Puya, TBA (TBA, TBD): Do you see a trend at all with the Nu-Metal nostalgia??? Look, Puya kicked ASS back in the day. Often lumped in with the Nu-Metal scene and often placed on bills with similar artists in that genre, Puya was more a worldly Heavy outfit that had more in common with Sepultura than it did Slipknot. They’ve been back for a bit and it seems as if a proper collection of new music is finally at hand!
14. Better Lovers/Many Eyes, TBA (TBA, TBD): Yep, we’re going to go the predictable route and lump all of Every Time I Die’s former members new outfits into one spot! Many Eyes featuring ETID’s Keith Buckley just played their first ever live show, has a slot opening for Thursday on their upcoming War All The Time anniversary tour, and have a whole record apparently ready to go. With the singles released so far along with some shoddy live footage out on the interwebs now, we’re really looking forward to what sounds like a nice hybrid of The Damned Things and Every Time I Die. As for the rest of the band sans wrestling Andy Williams (As “The Butcher” over on AEW), they’ve got Greg Puciato fronting them for that “What if?” scenario of Jordan Buckley’s killer songwriting paired with the frenetic energy of The Dillinger Escape Plan fully realized and a full-length following last year’s surprise EP on the way.
13. EYE AM/Silvertomb, TBA (TBA, Corpse Paint Records/TBD): And yep again, it’s two doubled up listings back to back because why not??? Also, it just makes sense with Type O Negative guitarist/vocalist Kenny Hickey at the forefront of both. First up, supergroup EYE AM which also feature Down/Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein and Todd Strange along with TON/Silvertomb drummer Johnny Kelly revealed themselves to the world in 2023 with 2 diverse Doom-y singles that captured the magic of all the members’ other outfits while also conjuring something new and exciting. More music has been recorded and is on the way in some shape or form later in 2024. Then there’s the 2nd Silvertomb record which, according to an interview we did with Hickey a while back (June of 2023, actually, and you can read that all right here), is done and ready to go. As lifelong TON fans (And with Crowbar being the 1st band we ever witnessed live…) can you see why we’d be excited for this???
12. Night Club, Masochist (March 15th, TBD): Night Club is one of those Dark Electro outfits that always flies under the radar for us. At this point, we don’t even remember who we caught them opening for that caused us to be fans but here we are, a few years in, and this duo has never failed to live up to that early hype we witnessed on stage. With lead single “Crime Scene” already out and doing the rounds, the sounds of Masochist are understandably promising.
11. Diiv, TBA (TBA, TBD): Diiv has had a stellar few years since last full-length 2019’s Deceiver was unleashed and most recently toured North America opening for Depeche Mode! Touring continues but signs have been pointing to a new record arriving sooner rather than later from the Brooklyn-based band.
10. Rotting Christ, Pro Xristoy (May 24th, Season Of Mist): We bumped another band completely off this list to make way for the Greek metallers’ new record which we had no idea was even a thing to come out of 2024. Following vocalist/guitarist Saki Tolis’ brilliant solo album in 2022, the big, bad RT is back with their 14th record and celebrating 35 years of macabre Black Metal goodness. We’ve been listening through it a LOT since we received a hella (Bringing this phrase back in 2024, btw) early advance and again, loved it enough to dropkick another album clean out of here.
9. TR/ST, TBA (TBA, Dais Records): New Dais Records signees, and one of our absolute faves, Robert Alfons is set to drop the first batch of TR/ST collected material since 2019’s epic 2-part The Destroyer records later this year and kicked off the new partnership with single “Robrash” and THEN surprise released a new EP featuring that track along with 4 others including a cover of Pet Shop Boys’ “Being Boring” with Scissor Sisters’ own Jake Shears on board. And yes, there’s still a new album coming!
8. Profiler, A Digital Nowhere (February 16th, Sharp Tone Records): Can an artist that’s on here really be “anticipated” once the promo is in hand and the results have been heard??? That goes for quite a few albums on here and y’know what, we’re okay with the status because when we started this initially most artists/albums were just an album title and maybe a date. And this was an incredibly long winded way of saying that we’ve heard A Digital Nowhere and while it might be only 8 right now, we have a feeling it’ll end up higher on another list towards the end of 2024. For now, and to not step on our own toes when it comes to our forthcoming review of the record, we’ll just say that the Nu-Metal revival is alive and well especially with bands like Profiler doing what they do.
7. Nox Novacula, TBA (TBA, TBD): We reviewed 2021’s Ascension very belatedly last year as we only discovered the Seattle band a few recordings into their career. And with Nox Novacula it’s definitely a “Better late than never” approach that causes us to reconcile missing so much of this Post-Punk, Gothic anthem-spewing outfit who have already stated that their upcoming new full-length will be on its’ way later in 2024. Don’t miss out like us and get on board now!
6. Static-X, Project Regeneration Vol. 2 (January 26th, Otsego Entertainment Group): Oh hey! It’s the second album on here that we’ve already reviewed (Check the header for more)! Not living on the West Coast ever, we’d say we were a pretty big fan of the Los Angeles-based Evil Disco progenitors before their debut was even a thing and were very skeptical of what would come from post-Wayne Static Project Regeneration Vol. 1. We were impressed enough by that posthumous outing that it ended up on our “Best Of” list the year it came out and as of right now can’t see why the follow-up/last chapter wouldn’t make this year’s.
5. Junius, TBA (TBA, TBD): It’s been quite some time since we last heard from Boston’s own Junius. Since 2017 in fact when Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light arrived. There’ve been shows in the year’s following from time to time in Junius world with recording for what’s to be the band’s fourth full-length hopefully over. To get fans ready, a recent live show was just released on Bandcamp as well as a just announced headline show at Faces Brewing in Malden (With Mission To Sleep and Juniper Youth opening and tickets available now right here) scheduled for March just around the corner to preview some of what’s to come later in 2024.
4. Corrosion Of Conformity, TBA (TBA, Nuclear Blast Records): The return of Stanton Moore. ‘Nuff said, right? The drummer behind probably our most favorite quartet iteration of Corrosion Of Conformity, In The Arms Of God, is confirmed to be helping out on the follow-up to 2018’s No Cross No Crown and that was all we needed to hear to skyrocket this thing into our Top 5 of 2024 (For the record, any new COC album is cause for celebration as well).
3. Ministry, Hopiumforthemasses (March 1st, Nuclear Blast): Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no denying the staying power of Ministry as an entity especially in advance of or during some major political upheaval and with the 2024 US Presidential Election right around the corner, Uncle Al has more than a few words to share on Ministry’s 16th album.
2. VOWWS, TBA (TBD, TBD): We tend to make it a point that whenever we rank an artist hella (See! We’re bringing it back!) high up a preview list and then the year goes by without results they usually get a shout out or mention the next year over a ranking. But we have a soft spot for Australian Death Pop mavens VOWWS and faith that this is the year the highly anticipated 3rd LP will arrive. And with a main support slot already booked with Twin Temple in late winter/early spring (And stopping at Boston’s Royale on March 1st) we think that faith might be rewarded in the new year.
1. Corlyx, TBA (TBD, Out Of Line): Considering how high up on previous year end lists Corlyx recordings have ranked, and knowing that a new record is indeed on the way following a steady roll out of singles beforehand, we’re pretty confident that the upcoming collection of Electro/Darkwave bangers from Brandon Ashley and Caitlin Stokes is gonna be it. So confident that it’s our most anticipated release of 2024. And to further that confidence, we’ve got the just dropped “Ghost Of The West Coast” out right now (Like, dropped TODAY) as proof which you can stream below.