In 1994, BraveWords & Bloody Knuckles magazine was born and here we stand 30 years later celebrating the past 12 months of music on our anniversary! What an incredible ride it has been and it's far from over! And during the past three decades, we've literally seen/heard thousands of releases and this is the time of the season when we crown the finest! The BraveWords scribes have spoken, so join us each day this month as we count down to the BravePick of 2024!

Remember, everybody has an opinion and it’s time for ours! Stay tuned at the end of December for BraveWords' writers’ individual Top 20s (new studio albums ONLY), Top 5 Brave Embarrassments (a fan favorite!), What/Who Needs To Stop In 2024? and Metal Predictions For 2025. 

BravePicks 2024

24) POWERWOLF - Wake Up The Wicked (Napalm)

 

The wolves howled once again in 2024. Powerwolf muscled back with some heavy hitting metal with the caffeine hit of Wake Up The Wicked – embracing catchiness with a rebirth of hardened numbers to appease a wide spectrum of their pack. Wake Up The Wicked balances speed and hooky anthems and made for a perfectly fanged release to tour behind in their first thorought hunt in North America.

The wolves take their prey at #24 on our list.

Scribe Mark Gromen ranked the album an 8.5 with a robust exclamation of “Praise the heavens.” An excerpt below:

My main "complaint" on recent discs was embracing the younger, often female audience, at the expense of the speedier numbers, as well as the tongue-in-cheek religious pokes in the eye. Good to see both are back, beginning with the opening "Bless "Em With The Blade". It races, start to finish, and is over in just 2:47, the shortest inclusion (although only one cracks four minutes, and by just four seconds!). Probably seen the pre-release video for "Sinners Of The Seven Seas" already. Nice to hear the sparingly use of Latin lyrics, like the early days, on this one and elsewhere on the platter, including regal follow-up "Kyrie Klitorem".

On a bouncy, mid-paced folk melody, "Heretic Hunters" has a build-in audience sing-along chorus, although the multi-voice, orchestral choir might be a bit too much for smaller stages. Obscure historical track this time around is "1589", the tale of  Peter Stumpp, the werewolf of Bedburg (Germany). Convicted of 16 murders, as well as accusations of witchcraft and cannibalism, he, his daughter and mistress were all tortured, executed and bodies burned. His severed head was posted on a pole as a warning against similar activities.

By contrast "Viva Vulgata", relating the initial Latin translation of the Bible, is sort of a mid-pace palette cleanser, before the fleet fingered, staccato riffing title track. Fast, simple and repetitive, it's sure to be in the live running order this fall. Another slice of history, the militaristic cadence of "Joan Of Arc", relates the victim of religious persecution and, finally, the pyre. Notice a theme? Double bass drums pumping, like pistons on the Autobahn, "Thunderpriest" is a full blown headbanger, all the way through. Talking about the cheeky quotient, Powerwolf certainly aren't the first act to use a children's choir, but the autobiographical "We Don't Wanna Be No Saints" ("We're born as sinners, like Adam & Eve. We don't seek forgiveness... We don't beg for mercy") may just be a message to their critics, complete with child-like innocence.

BravePicks 2024 Top 30

24)POWERWOLF - Wake Up The Wicked (Napalm)
25) ENSIFERUM - Winter Storm (Metal Blade)
26) OPETH - The Last Will And Testament (Reigning Phoenix Music)
27) DARK TRANQUILLITY - Endtime Signals (Century Media)
28) MORGUL BLADE - Heavy Metal Wraiths (No Remorse)
29) THE DEAD DAISIES - Light 'Em Up (Independent)
30) MÖRK GRYNING - Fasornas Tid (Season Of Mist)