Listmania: Metal Noise Top #5 Underground Metal Bands to Watch in 2024!

They say that all good things must come to an end and with that in mind it is time for the final chapter of our Listmania Awards Season. It’s been an absolute pleasure going back over the year that was 2023 and picking out the songs, the EPs, the albums and the live shows that stood out for us so now it’s time to look forward to the now two day old 2024. What does the future have in store? Is it so bright it will burn our retinas? Which bands are going to do great things? Here are five that we think you should keep your eye out for…

What can we say about Arcaeon that we haven’t already said? The Reading and London Tech-Metal outfit could have appeared in our top #5 singles for “Burn Beyond The Grave” or in our top #5 live bands for their performances at Tech-Fest or Techabilitation, they’re that good. However we don’t want to spoil them or given them huge egos or anything so we’ve put them in this category because they have a sophomore album in the works for 2024. They premiered two new songs in “Interceptor” and “Celestial” in at The Hairy Dog in Derby and both were a pleasure you can’t measure.

Anyone who watched our exclusive interview with The Freudian Session which had Chris Underhill from My Latest Failure asking the questions ahead of Reading Rising IV will know that the band have an EP in the works. When they talked about that record as well as their experience sharing a stage with former Queens Of The Stone Age bassist Nick Steven Oliveri’s outfit Mondo Generator, they got our attention. If it’s half as good as it sounds and they can capture their infections live energy when they commit the cuts to tape then it’s going to be a Metal tinged Punk explosion!

Another band with an album in the works are Dublin Ireland based Progressive Metal outfit Uragh who gave us single “Monarch” as a statement of intent. They made it all the way to the final of the Metal 2 the Masses competition for a chance to play the New Blood stage at Bloodstock last summer and have Josh Robinson (Archives, Neon Empire, Survivalist) at JSR Studio in Belfast in the corner. They’ve provided enough evidence for this judge, jury and executioner to convict, all we await is for the sentencing panel to provide a date…

Having given us a criminally underrated debut EP in “One Girl One Thousand Lacerations“, Nottingham based Blackened Death Metal outfit Kryptess have gone in search of a drummer to give their live show that little bit more freedom. A band who feature two former members of Cacodaemonic and made their name on the live circuit since supporting Gamma Bomb on a run in 2022, we expect bug things from them in the year to come…

Last but by no means least we should mention Australian Death Doom Metal purveyors Banished Realm. The seasoned veteran musicians gave us debut EP in “Impious Rumination” earlier this year and have played at least one new cut live so we’re expecting them to break the shackles of their homeland in 2024 and take their show on the yellow brick road. If we had our way, they’d make it to Rabidfest in Oxford in November and become the first international band to play the event but we may have to wait for them to get their debut album completed first…

Honourable mentions? Why not… Dreadworm or VileGloom escaping the US and appearing on the next incarnation of the Impericon Never Say Die Tour? Post Mortem Promises to give us the album we’ve been waiting for since they announced their return? Dutch Groove Death outfit Black Rabbit to appear at Damnation Festival? Sunfall to unveil a debut album with new vocalist Aiden Cooper to see an end to their waterfall release of singles? The possibilities are endless…