Listmania: Metal Noise Top #5 EPs of 2024!

“I’ve started, so I’ll finish” ~ Magnus Magnusson

After a spell on the side lines it’s time to return to our Listmania Awards Season for 2024 and complete the challenge, using the famous line from Mastermind as inspiration. We’ve already given you our top #5 singles of the year that was 2024, so now we turn to the EPs, which is as ever a fiercely contested category because it gives Metal bands on the underground circuit the ability to offer fans something more than a single without the financial burden of an album…

“Absence” by Bloodshot. Anyone who had witnessed the Oxford four piece Groove Death Metal operation in the live arena knew just what they were capable of and finally they did themselves justice and committed that to tape with this record. A couple of minutes short of being half an hour of power, here they capture their live energy and inject it into their 90’s inspired Death Metal riffs and solos to provide us with something that… simply conquers all. Sinister melodies, spoken word moments and a Pantera inspired drum sound all stack up to a record which has been on this list since 2nd February 2024 and was not toppled from the pedestal in the following eleven months.

“Death Is But A Door” by Alluvial. After the brilliance that is their album “Sarcoma“, a shorter, sharper record from musicians know for their roles in The Faceless, Entheos and Suffocation to name but a few was always an intriguing prospect and this one has it all. An unholy trinity of cuts of destructive power and technical prowess in Technical Death Metal followed up by one of haunting dark melody and a weighty lyrical narrative make it our award winner and easily so.

“Blood for the Crown” by Trendkill. They say that all good things must come to an end… and frankly we disagree but the choice is not ours to make. The North East Groove Metal outfit decided to release a final EP and then step back from the limelight feeling burned out and unappreciated which is a crying shame given that the record they left us with is every bit as fantastic as it’s predecessor which appeared on this list in 2023. It’s a cliché but it’s all killer, no filler with some sublime longer instrumental passages this time out allowing them to showcase a little more prowess.

“The Mother Of Death” by Necronomicon Ex Mortis. Spellbinding and sassy with virtuoso playing of the highest order, a fourth studio EP from the Chicago shred machine is soaked in themes stolen from low budget 80’s horror films and laced with nostalgia making it yet another must listen. They’ve got the verve, swagger, style and grace to add to their impeccable musicianship on this one and it surely can only be a matter of time before they’re on the World stage.

“Drowning” by Indevth. A powerhouse Nu-Metalcore record that is short and yet sickly sweat, this is enough to make you want to tear up your surroundings even on the first listen. Themes of mental anguish fight against the notion that those feelings won’t last forever making this one as deep and as dark as they come. Sonically elements of Metalcore, Deathcore and Gloom Metal smash against each other in a violent rage, the five piece gaining catharsis from their outpourings and that dark energy is what placed them here.

Honourable mentions (yes, we’re actually going to name some this time!) go to: “New Eyes” by Havok, “Leave No Soul” by Hatchet, “May Death Come Quickly” by The Hate Project, “Dismal” by Burn Down Eden and “Eulogy” by A Titan, A Deity. Next up the albums that made 2024 great.