BravePicks 2024 - The Scribes Speak!
Greg Pratt

Top 20 Of 2024
1) TZOMPANTLI – Beating The Drums Of Ancestral Force (20 Buck Spin)
2) REPLICANT – Infinite Mortality (Transcending Obscurity Records)
3) ULCERATE – Cutting The Throat Of God (Debemur Morti Productions)
4) MAERE – ...And The Universe Keeps Silent (Transcending Obscurity Records)
5) NAILS – Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast Records)
6) WORMED – Omegon (Season Of Mist)
7) GIGAN – Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus (Willowtip Records)
8) CRAWL – Altar Of Disgust (Transcending Obscurity Records)
9) EVILYN – Mondestrunken (Transcending Obscurity Records)
10) HERESIARCH – Edifice (Iron Bonehead)
11) PESTILENGTH – Solar Clorex (Debemur Morti Productions)
12) NILE – The Underworld Awaits Us All (Napalm Records)
13) PHENOCRYST – Cremation Pyre (Blood Harvest Records)
14) SHOCK WITHDRAWAL – The Dismal Advance (Brutal Panda Records)
15) UNBORN GENERATION – ...And All We Forget (Inverse Records)
16) HYPERDONTIA – Harvest Of Malevolence (Dark Descent)
17) SIBIIR – Undergang (Fysisk Format Records)
18) SPECTRAL VOICE – Sparagmos (Dark Descent)
19) FUNERAL LEECH – The Illusion Of Time (Carbonized Records)
20) WREKTOMB – Bovine Mockeries Of Human Posturing (Personal Records)

Top 5 Brave Embarrassments
AUSTRIAN DEATH MACHINE – Quad Brutal (Napalm Records)
What is Napalm doing releasing this?

MÖTLEY CRÜE – Cancelled (Big Machine Music)
Not the worst thing in the world, but I thought it was over please just let it be over.

TRIBULATION – Sub Rosa In Aeturnum (Century Media Records)
I'm forever torn between loving post-punky/gothy guitar tones and hating the “I'm a ghoooooul” vox. Tribulation lean into the ghoul way too hard for me.

AS I LAY DYING – Through Storms Ahead (Napalm Records)
Seriously.

ANVIL – One And Only (AFM Records)
There will always be some small part of me that feels some connection to Anvil because we're both in Canada, but I guess whatever, it's a huge country and this is some weak, baffling, cringey stuff.

Thoughts On 2024
Oh man, Tzompantli delivered with Beating The Drums Of Ancestral Force, the record an absolutely transcendent death metal experience. And speaking of transcendence, Transcending Obscurity had a year in 2024, with incredible releases from Replicant, Maere, Crawl, and Evilyn all hitting my top 20, with others not far behind. I continue to look to labels like that one and Dark Descent, 20 Buck Spin, and Carbonized when I need to know who to trust and what is at least going to be worthy of some time, and they all did great this year. 

Some latecomers also came along after list-compiling time, like Golgothan Remains on Dark Descent, which probably would have cracked the top 20, and then we also have a top-class Canadian thrash reissue in Moral Decay from Supreme Echo Records that's worthy of a huge hail here, and Blood Incantation would have skyrocketed high up my list, real high, for Absolute Elsewhere, a true DM journey. 

All told, a very solid year for death metal, and even as I find myself unable to fully connect with certain strains of technical or over-produced death, there's more than enough in the grimy underworld to keep me happy. Also, that Bryan Adams 7” of songs you know from his KISS writing credits was kinda awesome; just had to say that somewhere.

What/Who Needs To Stop In 2025
I kinda say this annually, but old dogs complaining on social media, or bands splitting into two entities, all that stuff, I just can't. We gotta show the world this stuff is to be taken seriously, so just keep it to yourselves. Bands breaking up then coming back pretty quickly, it's all just exhausting. Hunker down, create your art, and do it with pride.

Metal Predictions For 2025
More ugly death metal rising up and bubbling over anything too pristine, please. As metal's output becomes almost oppressively overwhelming, labels like the ones I mentioned earlier have a greater responsibility to show us what's good, to help bands develop, and to become a beacon of quality, like Earache once was, like Relapse still is. 2024 was great for extreme metal, and with the sheer quantity of stuff coming out next year, even if a small percentage of it is top notch, it's going to be another good one. Dig deeper into the underground to unearth the gems.

Read our BravePicks 2024 countdown where Judas Priest's Invincible Shield conquered the throne at #1 here.

More Scribe Speaks:
Mark Gromen
Aaron Small
Carl Begai