Markisan's Top 40 Albums of 2024

2024 is almost in the books and I’m absolutely staggered by the last 366 days of blistering metal. While there are still a few albums trickling in as this leap year fades away, it’s time to power down the stereo, disconnect the headphones and freeze my favorite metal albums in time once more.

As in years past, I'm delivering a list of my favorite records here in print with descriptions, album covers and Bandcamp links. My Top 25 selections were originally revealed last week on the big year-end episode of the Metalheads Podcast. For this year’s written list, however, I decided to extend the party and make it a Top 40.

That’s right, I’m saying goodbye to heavy metal 2024 with a director’s cut version of my best-of list.

Over the last 10 days or so, my selections for 26-40 changed quite a bit. I listened to some gems that slipped through the cracks and re-spun albums to let them sink a bit deeper into my bones. I don’t think I’ve ever finalized a list this close to the end of a year. After listening to a total of 732 albums, some right at the edge of the 2024’s collapse, I feel this is one of the most complete and diverse year-end metal lists I’ve ever done.

Happy New Year, dear metalheads. Let’s fucking go.

–MARKISAN 12/30/24

Click on the image above to view Markisan’s Top 40 feature!