2024 Metal Academy Awards Discussion - The North Edition

It's that time of year again i.e. the time when we start to think about which releases will be crowned as the pinnacle of their clans for the previous calendar year. I've opened this thread to house the discussions around our The North Clan Release of the 2024.

These are the 2024 releases that have gained the most attention from our members:

Spectral Wound - "Songs of Blood and Mire"

Hoplites - "Παραμαινομένη"

Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa - "The Blossoming"

Darkthrone - "It Beckons Us All......."

Labyrinthus Stellarum - "Vortex of the Worlds"

What other releases should our members be checking out?

I really don't think Darkthrone's album belongs in The North to be honest.

Spectral Wound is my black metal AOTY, but Antichrist Siege Machine's "Vengeance of Eternal Fire" is a great war metal album.

Above Aurora, Darkspace and Departure Chandelier all turned in solid efforts in 2024 as well.

Hauntologist's "Hollow" is a nice slab of posr-black if anyone is up for that.

Of the releases I've afforded a full review to, Ætheria Conscientia's "The Blossoming" is the current leader but I have a bunch of releases that I've spent some casual listening time with that I need to firm up this month including the Paysage d'Hiver, Aara, Trhä, Conifère, Panzerfaust & Hoplites releases.

Besides Xephyr's featured albums of 2024, my North visits were not very long. I liked almost all of the records mentioned above, with Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa being my favourite.

Thy Catafalque's A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek is a wonderful release although it is categorized as folk metal and much lacking in anything dark. The only other record worth consideration is Saidan's Visual Kill. Their style of black metal is very melodic, uplifting and very inspired by Deafheaven so I advise caution to the more traditional black metal fans.

I'm willing to offer up:

• Krallice - Inorganic Rites
• Aquilus - Bellum II
• Bríi - Camaradagem póstuma 
• Black Curse - Burning in Celestial Poison

Really strong year for Black Metal yet again in my opinion, with Krallice and Paysage D'hiver taking my top 2 spots. Very hard to decide which one I liked better, since each one has a very distinct atmosphere that hits differently depending on the day. 

Many of you might disagree but I think the wonderfully grim black metal vocals that appear across the majority of the latest Oranssi Pazuzu album are enough to drag it into avant-garde black metal territory, despite the music clearly having been divorced from black metal a long time ago now. That puts "Muuntautuja" in front in the race for my The North Release of the Year too.

Many of you might disagree but I think the wonderfully grim black metal vocals that appear across the majority of the latest Oranssi Pazuzu album are enough to drag it into avant-garde black metal territory, despite the music clearly having been divorced from black metal a long time ago now. That puts "Muuntautuja" in front in the race for my The North Release of the Year too.

Hmmm... the age old question. I thought the general consensus was that vocals alone don't contribute to genre selection. If an album has black metal "music" with clean vocals, it's still black metal. If an album has pop "music" with black metal vocals, it's still just pop. To move away from this logic creates all sorts of bad genre choices, particularly as death and black metal vocals appear across all sorts of subgenres these days.

Hmmm... the age old question. I thought the general consensus was that vocals alone don't contribute to genre selection. If an album has black metal "music" with clean vocals, it's still black metal. If an album has pop "music" with black metal vocals, it's still just pop. To move away from this logic creates all sorts of bad genre choices, particularly as death and black metal vocals appear across all sorts of subgenres these days.

Yes, that's generally been my stance over the years but this record isn't as straight-forward as that. You see, if you examine it in detail, you'll find that the vocals are the main thing tying this record to metal. The instrumentation is quite diverse & spends a fair bit more time outside of the metal scope so I don't think you could say that this is a straight-up "avant-garde metal" release as such. In fact, if you were to base your genre-tag solely on the instrumentation then this release may not even qualify for the Academy. The vocals are about as black metal as they come though & I don't think you'd find another metal release that's not tagged with at least a "blackened" prefix if they offered something similar. Given that the black metal component is the primary link to metal & it's prominent enough in the sound of the album to command a metal tag, I feel that an avant-garde black metal tag is the best fit for it. Have a listen for yourself though as I'm certainly open to other ideas if they're a better fit.

Hmmm... the age old question. I thought the general consensus was that vocals alone don't contribute to genre selection. If an album has black metal "music" with clean vocals, it's still black metal. If an album has pop "music" with black metal vocals, it's still just pop. To move away from this logic creates all sorts of bad genre choices, particularly as death and black metal vocals appear across all sorts of subgenres these days.

Yes, that's generally been my stance over the years but this record isn't as straight-forward as that. You see, if you examine it in detail, you'll find that the vocals are the main thing tying this record to metal. The instrumentation is quite diverse & spends a fair bit more time outside of the metal scope so I don't think you could say that this is a straight-up "avant-garde metal" release as such. In fact, if you were to base your genre-tag solely on the instrumentation then this release may not even qualify for the Academy. The vocals are about as black metal as they come though & I don't think you'd find another metal release that's not tagged with at least a "blackened" prefix if they offered something similar. Given that the black metal component is the primary link to metal & it's prominent enough in the sound of the album to command a metal tag, I feel that an avant-garde black metal tag is the best fit for it. Have a listen for yourself though as I'm certainly open to other ideas if they're a better fit.

I initially thought no to a black metal primary, but contuinued re-listens have seen me soften my stance on that point. I think bands like OP who are now operating on the outer boundaries of metal  are able to throw a bit of a proverbial spanner in the works of the clan system. Undoubtedly the vocals are the most black metal aspect of the album, but tracks such as "Bioalkemisti", "Voitelu" and "Valotus" contain sufficient of a black metal vibe musically, within a wider black metal context, to be considered a part of the North. That the album as a whole is undoubtedly avant-garde is indisputable and if we use the dictionary definition of avant-garde, ie "the advance group in any field, especially in the visual, literary, or musical arts, whose works are characterized chiefly by unorthodox and experimental methods" and apply that to Muuntautuja, I think it is fair to say that Oranssi Pazuzu are in the vanguard of bands redefining exactly what black metal is or can be and it may be that we need to recalibrate our definitions too. Also ambient and electronic music has been a part of black metal since the earliest days of the second wave. So, yes, absolutely to avant-garde black metal for me.

Do you also hear a bit of an industrial sound here too, Daniel, particularly in the machine-like dehumanisation of tracks like the title track and "Ikikäärme"?

Do you also hear a bit of an industrial sound here too, Daniel, particularly in the machine-like dehumanisation of tracks like the title track and "Ikikäärme"?

I do but I wouldn't say that it's worthy of aq secondary tag as it's not all that prominent in the overall direction of the album. The psychedelic side of the Oranssi Pazuzu sound has certainly been pushed to the back this time though, hasn't it? I'm gonna put up a Hall of Judgement poll to have the album put into The North at some stage today so make sure that you vote in that mate.

I just finished reviewing the latest Paysage d'Hiver album & it's another classic in my opinion. It honestly had the potential to be one of the all-time great black metal records if not for one flaw which I go into detail about but, as it stands, I'm gonna place it in second place for my The North award, slightly behind Oranssi Pazuzu (if we end up counting it here of course).