đ¶ïž To The Teeth: the best of 2024
Sinstro, Grendel's Sÿster, UdÄd, Ulver, Fórn, Ihsahn, Dool and the top 3!
Welcome to the To The Teeth newsletter! Your weekly update of new heavy music. You can listen to (most) everything in the playlist on Spotify. If you like what you read, go to Patreon (receive a patch!) & Bandcamp (buy a patch!). Peppers are hot đ¶ïž!
The To The Teeth Top Ten
Yeah just ten this year. Not because there wasnât enough to love.. Or was there? I donât know about 2024 guys. The top stuff here is absolutely insane, but I had a fairly easy day keeping this to just ten. Of course I couldnât help putting some of the music I listened to a lot in the honorable mentions. But still, Iâm quote content with just ten and thatâs a shift from previous years. It is what it is. I like all the Tâs. I hope youâll find something here that you might have missed and of course, even more I hope youâll have fantastic holidays and a healthy, safe and carefree 2025. Cheers.
đ¶ïž 1. Opeth - The Last Will and Testament
Prog death/rock, Sweden (Reigning Phoenix Music)
FFO: Edge of Sanity, Katatonia, Wilderun
It was around two years ago that I started to wonder if Ă kerfeldt would be writing and recording again. After all: 2005, 2008, 2022, 2014, 2016, 2019⊠It was about time. He had written In Cauda Venenum alone in a period of time where he had planned a long break, so I guess the covid crisis wouldnât have to be a problem. But the years went by, until this august. I was in a tent with my family on a camping in the south of France, couldnât sleep from the heat and saw the first new single â§1â pop up on Spotify at midnight. I was shocked, happy as a little kid but also scared it would be shit. I listened to it with my phone against my ear as to not wake up my family. When the first growl came in, I almost teared up.
Anyway. Shouldnât have to be scared. It ended up being a fantastic record. Maybe the best since Ghost Reveries (although Iâm partial to Pale Communion). Not just because of the great death growls - by the best growler ever, I dare to say - but because itâs such an adventure, so dynamic, so compelling. Itâs an album with everything that made Opeth great in the far and near past, heavy, progressive, folky and melancholic, plus itâs more theatrical than ever before, with beautiful details within to discover with every listen.
đ¶ïž 2. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere
Death, USA (Century Media)
FFO: Morbid Angel, Pink Floyd, Drugs
Iâve had this one on top for a while, too. A band I expected something good from, after a great run of albums, but not this good. The way they dive deep into krautrock, progrock and other lava lamp music and still manage to keep the specific gravity of their death metal as heavy as it is, is incredible. All the praise they get is all deserved. A monolithic album.
đ¶ïž 3. Mdou Moctar - Funeral For Justice
Blues rock, Niger (Matador Records)
FFO: Tinariwen, Bombino, Jimi Hendrix
Mahamadou Souleymane, known as Mdou Moctar, is sometimes called the Jimi Hendrix of the Sahara. A fitting name, although the greatness of Mdou (pronounce as em-doo) Moctar lies in itâs fresh approach to the guitar. In the words of Kirk Hammett: âUs guitar players in the West, we all have the same base vocabulary, the same handful of stereotypical licks. But Mdouâs music, itâs almost free of that stuff. And because of that, it sounds more spontaneous. It sounds fresh. Itâs amazing.â Heâs (as always) right. The songs werenât written as such, but improvised in long jams, and then cut to fit the album. Extra spontaneous, extra fun.
đ¶ïž 4. Dool - The Shape of Fluidity
Doom rock, The Netherlands (Prophecy Productions)
FFO: The Devilâs Blood, Wolvennest, SĂłlstafir
Another album I knew would end up on this list after just the first single. âHermagorgonâ is an intense post/doom dirge with very personal subject matter, the born hermaphroditism of singer Raven van Dorst. I get goosebumps every time I listen to it, and it helps this is one of the very best (maybe the best) live bands of the low countries.
đ¶ïž 5. Ihsahn - Ihsahn
Experimental prog, Norway (Candlelight Records)
FFO: Emperor, Opeth, Leprous
A name so nice you can say it twice. Heâs been a solo artist for far longer than the active recording years of Emperor, but I still see him as the ex-singer of that band. As to underscore the fact his genious hasnât moved anywhere, he has named his eight album after himself. There are references to his past all over it, so itâs a sort of retrospective as well. I kinda lost him in the previous years, but while Ihsahn never went anyway, Iâm back.
đ¶ïž 6. FĂłrn - Repercussions of the Self
Doom/sludge, USA (Persistent Vision Records)
FFO: Thou, Bell Witch, Lycus
FĂłrnâs flirt with doomy, sludgy post-metal pays off in a big way. Haunting and absorbing with a cinematic, grandiose quality.
đ¶ïž 7. Ulver - Liminal Animals
Experimental electronic, Norway (self released)
FFO: Depeche Mode, Arcturus, DĂždheimsgard
Youâll forgive me the hesitation to include Ulver in the heavy sections of this newsletter when it came out. They havenât been heavy in aeons, but: thatâs not very important. Plus, as commenter JQ noted: âHow many metalheads have been exposed to music they otherwise wouldnât have listened to because it had the Ulver name on it?â Ulver will be Ulver. And theyâre Ulvering here. Carry on.
đ¶ïž 8. UdĂ„d - UdĂ„d
Black, Norway (Peaceville Records)
FFO: Mork, Këkht ArÀkh, Darkthrone
I love Thomas Eriksenâs main project Mork, but I havenât loved it like UdĂ„d. Thereâs something dreamy and distant here (hence the KĂ«kht reference). Itâs nostalgic and melancholic, with a base thatâs undeniably true Norwegian black metal, but also has a bedroom dungeon synth vibe. I love that combination, especially if itâs driven by fantastic riff after fantastic riff.
đ¶ïž 9. Grendel's SĂżster - Katabasis into the Abaton
Heavy/folk, Germany (Cruz Del Sur Music)
FFO: Tanith, Bergfried, Slough Feg
Weird music, weird voice, weird lyrics, weird choice to do it in two languages. Iâm completely entranced by these German nerds. I might be weird.
đ¶ïž 10. Sinistro - VĂ©rtice
Doom/post, Portugal (Alma Mater Records)
FFO: Moonspell, The Gathering, Messa
Thereâs something about Mediterranean music that sounds as if itâs been dried in the sun, soaked in the sea and dipped in olive oil. It canât be coincidence that Sinistro is on Moonspellâs label, they share that sundried feeling, heavy with melancholy and topped off with fantastic vocals - even though current singer Priscila da Costa is not coming close to previous vocalist PatrĂcia Andrade. Da Costa brings her own unique ingredients.
I also listened to these a lot: Candy (metalcore, USA), Darkthrone (black/doom, Norway), Doedsmaghird (avantgarde black, Norway), Gouge Away (hardcore punk, USA), Het Universumpje (stoner, The Netherlands),Charlotte Wessels (symphonic/alternative, The Netherlands), Lowen (prog/post doom, UK), Givre (black, Canada), Solar Wimp (avantgarde/post/prog, USA), Isenordal (pagan/doom/neofolk, USA), Caligulaâs Horse (prog, Australia), Spectral Voice (death/doom, USA), Inter Arma (sludge/black/death/post, USA), Thy Catafalque (avantgarde/prog, Hungary) and Bongripper (stoner/sludge, USA).
The Playlist
Check out the 101 best heavy songs of the year playlist right here!
Not-so-heavy & next year
Not-so-heavy albums of the year: Manu Chao, Billie Eilish, Hiatus Kaiyote, Froukje, Arooj Aftab, AngĂ©lica Garcia, The Smile (Wall of Eyes), Bolis Pupul, Eefje de Visser, Burial, Kelly Moran & NilĂŒfer Yanya.
Iâm looking forward to next year because of: Ex Deo, The Halo Effect, Harakiri for the Sky, Jinjer, Unreqvited, Lacuna Coil, Mantar, Rotting Christ, Ghaals Wyrd, Mean Mistreater, Mastodon, Ghost, Wrekmeister Harmonies, Grima, Havukruunu, Cryptosis, Som, Spiritbox, Arch Enemy, Dream Theater, Obscura, Amorphis, Cradle of Filth, Imperial Triumphant, Mayhem, Paradise Lost, Samael, Soulfly and who knows, Triptykon.
What is your favourite? What did I miss? Let me know!
Hey, Iâm JQ!
Iâll say for me that my number one is easily Absolute Elsewhere â seeing them play it live sealed it for me in particular.
Hereâs to a great 2025, I look forward to each weekâs post!
Met dank aan de onvolprezen PvdP wil ik nog graag Hail Spirit Noir - Fossil Gardens (is het kosmisch? black? psych? doom? tech? het is het allemaal!), Piah Mater - Under the shadow of a foreign sun (de wél interessante plaat die Opeth had moeten maken) en Lowen - Do not go to war with the demons of mazandaran (de hysterisch-Iraanse zus van Gojira) noemen.