The Conversation: 2024 In Review

Does everyone know what a Mobius strip is? It's a piece of paper that gets looped in such a way that when you trace it, there is only one side. It's a bit of a physical illusion, and I'm starting to feel that way about time. We have gathered at the end of every year to sort through what we have been through, and doing so continues to get harder and harder as the years blend together. Maybe it's just age, and the feeling of acceleration as each year becomes a smaller fraction of our lives, but I tend to think it's more than that.

Because of the lack of monoculture, we each live in our own little bubbles, and as such it's more difficult to remember how those interact with the world at large. That's a high-fallutin' way of saying this was yet another year where it didn't feel like anything 'happened'. There wasn't a musical experience or trend that defined the way we experienced the year, and at least to me it feels as if we are mired in the same stagnant time we have been talking about for years now.

The Good

Chris C: Finding the good was harder than ever this year. Not only was music largely a spewing firehouse of the same ol' same ol', but I spent much of the year in very much the wrong mood to be won over by the things that were offering up something new or exciting. That said, what caught my attention this year were albums that hit the notes of being what we would call 'emotional', if not outright 'emo'. There was a tremendous My Chemical Romance clone from The Requiem, Lucifer was all the occult prayer we could ask for, and Sunburst did progressive metal in the melancholy melodic way few bands ever have. Throw in the grungy heaviness of Smash Atoms doing their best Alice In Chains, and it was a lovely, albeit, dark year. On the other side of the ledger, Powerwolf was there to push our tongues firmly in our cheeks, as we often need from time to time.

D.M: This was a good year for me for bands I was already familiar with.  Which normally wouldn't merit mention, but I think I said the exact opposite at this time last year.  So, to bring us back to the Mobius strip, what's old(ish) has become new again.  As I put the final pieces of my year end best-of in order (I better get my ass in gear,) there's going to be a minimum two and a maximum four bands that I wasn't previously familiar with making their way into my list, and only one of those will be in my already-solidified top eight spots (who is it?  Tune in and find out!) As different as they could be on the spectrum of music I enjoy, I spent a lot of time with The Warning, Combichrist and Dampf.  Oh, wait, damn, are you going to have Powerwolf on your list? Because they're making my list.  Are we going to backdoor our way into a consensus Album of the Year?  I want to give a few bands their due for noble attempts that just fell short or lacked a significant piece.  Sleepmakeswaves had one of the coolest guitar tones of the year, but the album fell into a proggy slog and couldn't hold my attention.  Sons of Alpha Centauri had potential, but got real Radiohead-y.  Shout out to Midnight.  That guy nails his gimmick, he just gets it. Kitty Coen, Inspector Cluzo, Drift Into Black, Free Ride and Keygen Church all had moments that grabbed my attention, but couldn't take me across the finish line.  Ryujin might have had two of the best singles of the year (including the horribly cheesy but also horribly catchy one about rainbows,) but those two singles are all there was.

The Bad

Chris C: This was a bad year for big(ger) names. Green Day and The Offspring both celebrated the thirtieth anniversaries of their landmark albums by releasing record that remind us just how far they've fallen. Getting off the ground doesn't negate the fact they have wounds soon to be fatal. Neal Morse is a big name to me, and he released two lousy albums; one prog, and one below dinner-theater level. And to top things off, right at the end of the year Opeth proved to me why I hate being one of the few people who can think critically. I had always maintained it wasn't the moving away from growled vocals that ruined them, but a change in their songwriting. They added back growls, which has seemingly quieted the majority of the critics, and yet the album is the same turgid turd they've been recycling for nearly fifteen years. I seem to be the only one who hears it.


D.M: Throw in a few more.  DragonForce's record was 'meh,' though I appreciated that they experimented a little (insofar as DragonForce is capable of,) Peal Jam released an album, and of all the albums they've ever put out, well, it sure was one of them.  Jerry Cantrell got a lot of press for his record, and I thought it was only okay, it didn't do anything for me.  Melvins with what, to me, was an uninspired effort (though far be it from me to criticize the quirky genius of King Buzzo,) and PAIN, which I was really looking forward to, pumped out a lackluster record.  None of the ones I've mentioned were truly awful, but I wanted more from all of them (with the exception of Pearl Jam, which in my humble opinion, haven't released a good album since "Vitalogy.")

The Surprising

Chris C: The big one for me was the Lucifer album I mentioned. Last year it was Katatonia and Ad Infinitum, and this year Lucifer is the band that finally lived up to the potential I heard in them. I don't necessarily expect that on a band's fifth album, but they managed to pull it off, and the results were spectacular. Now, I'm enough of a cynic to be wary of them continuing on down this path, but having one album that justified listening to the first four is a definite win in my book. I'll also call Smash Atoms a surprise, because while I've always appreciate Alice In Chains, I don't think I've ever really enjoyed any of their albums, in full, quite this much. Grunge was never my thing, but maybe it's like emo, where I've become angry and bitter enough later on in life. Also, I'm surprised by myself, if I may indulge for a moment. This fall, as I've been writing more about esoteria and personal connections to music, I'm rather pleased with myself for doing some of my best writing. I wasn't sure I still had it in me.

D.M: One big surprise - I actually really liked the new Ihsahn record.  I've always had a certain respect for Ihsahn as someone who's trying to take black and extreme metal to a new place, but I've never listened and thought "wow."  But this one is pretty good, there's a lot of dimensions to it I like.  Do I end-of-year list like it?  Don't know yet.  And maybe that's damning with faint praise.  But the out-of-nowhere pleasant surprise was Transit Method.  Holy crap.  The sensibility of Rush, but as a punk band?  Sign me up!  Also, minor pleasant surprise that Powerman 5000's album was as good as it was.  They'll never be what they were twenty-five years, but I like this record a lot.

The Disappointing

Chris C: This one could take a while, so I'll be brief. I was disappointed by most of the records I was most looking forward to. Bruce Dickinson's first solo album in nearly twenty years should have been a highlight, given how high I hold his last three in esteem. Instead, it truly sounds like an album thrown together with little thought, as if he realized at the last minute he needed music to go along with his graphic novel. Ugh. Favorites from recent years Cold Years and Yours Truly both shifted their sounds in ways that didn't appeal to my ears very much. They aren't bad, but not at all what I wanted to hear. Anette Olzon got another solo album that is the worst material she and Magnus Karlsson are capable of, and doubles as a bit of religious evangelicalism. Double ugh. And then there's Taylor Swift... You know I like words, but Taylor indulging in two records of profane complaining was just too much. It was everything bad about "Midnights" expanded to nearly two hours. At least when there was no single released, I knew it wasn't going to be good. I was not as ready for Ad Infinitum to come back one year after their triumph with a mediocre record that stepped away from everything good they had been working on. Hence why I'm not overly optimistic about what the next Lucifer and Katatonia albums will bring.

D.M: I think a lot of my disappointments I filed under "bad," but I'll say I was generally disappointed in the number of bands who sounded like poor versions of other, better bands.  Never mind my perennial railing against what I consider to be the dead genre of power metal.  Like, I listened to Legions of Doom, and I thought 'this is the poor man's Candlemass,' which is a band I don't like that much anyway.  And this is where I'll disagree with you, but that's what turned me off to Smash Atoms.  I'd rather just listen to "Dirt" again.  And there were a million albums like that this year - bands that wanted to be Danzig, bands that wanted to be Type O Negative, bands that wanted to be Cancer Bats, bands that wanted to be Fear Factory.  Everything felt like an imitation. Oh, and I should point out Category 7.  Some of it's my fault - I need to stop being lured in by supergroups, which suck way more often than they're good.  But I wanted that to be good.  I wanted to like John Bush again.

The Future

Chris C: Maybe I'm just not following the news the way I used to, but I'm not aware of a lot of releases that have been confirmed for next year as of yet. There should be a new Halestorm record, which will be my most anticipated album, and I'm at least interested to hear how Dream Theater is going to go backwards in time with their reunion. Otherwise, everything else I can think of is more due to timing than actual evidence. The two-year cycle might bring us a new Soen album, and perhaps The Dark Element will deliver the album I seem to remember the label teasing for this year. Otherwise, I think I'm in store for another year of scouring to find my passion again.

D.M: New Lacuna Coil!  New Spiders!  Both on my list.  Spiders, as far as I know, hasn't made a peep in years, so curious to see what they come up with.  And Lacuna Coil isn't always a win, but it's always an interesting listen, and worthy of time spent.  There's new Soilwork on the horizon, if the rumors are true, but I've grown dubious of them over the last few years.  I'll listen for sure, but my level of optimism is muted.  As you mention the cycle hopefully bringing bands back around, I'd love a new Red Fang album, and maybe a full-length from The Hawkins?  Oh, and the Mets to win the World Series.  Thanks.