So, farewell to 2023 – another great year for metal. As good as it’s been though, we can’t help our minds wandering ahead to all the great new tunes we’ll be getting in 2024. Judas Priest have confirmed a followup to 2018’s incredible Firepower, Kreator are heading back into the studio and we’ve got release dates for new records by While She Sleeps, Chelsea Wolfe, Darkest Hour and Saxon. Already, incredibly exciting – but there’s so much more large-scale talent who could give us new music as well. Here are 10 massive metal bands that we’d love to get an album from over the next 12 months.
Ozzy Osbourne
We’re, sadly, seeing the Godfather Of Heavy Metal start to wind down his career. But, while we may never catch Ozzy onstage again, it’s doubtful that a pioneer with his desire is going to shuffle off quietly. We’d love for him to give us one more record – and the man himself recently told Hammer that 2024 will see him return to the studio.
System Of A Down
Call this wishful thinking if you’d like, but System Of A Down are the last truly legendary metal band to not put out a new album in the last decade. Plus, the two tracks the alt-metal innovators released in 2020, Protect The Land and Genocidal Humanoidz, proved original music from them is still very much possible. Consider our appetite massively whetted.
Tool
2024 will mark five years since Tool released Fear Inoculum. A long time, but – given the 13-year gestation that album needed – surely it’s too early for the prog metal legends? Well, bassist Justin Chancellor told Hammer recently that the band have been chucking ideas around, saying, “There’s no thought of taking 13 years if we’re gonna do it.” We’ve got everything crossed!
Mercyful Fate / King Diamond
It appears there’ll be a new King Diamond album in 2024. Great news, but… is it too much to ask for a new Mercyful Fate one as well? It’s been half a decade since the heavy metal titans reformed and their live shows have been outrageously brilliant. So, getting their first album of new material since 1999 would make 2024 a historic year.
Nightwish
Nightwish albums are collections of the most gloriously bombastic metal on the market, and the band refuse to rush their stacked compositions. As a result, there was a five-year gap between Endless Forms Most Beautiful and latest full-length Human :||: Nature, with album 10 not expected until 2024. The band recorded it during the summer, though, so the wait’s nearly over.
Deftones
Given that latest release Ohms was Hammer’s 2020 album of the year, Deftones are still on top of their game. If we didn’t get a new album in 2024, it would mark the longest period with no new material from the Sacramento darlings. Guitarist Steph Carpenter recently suggested writing had started on the band’s 10th album, so this looks like it’ll happen soon.
Dream Theater
Prog metal masters Dream Theater rarely drag their feet when it comes to releasing new material. However, with the news of iconic drummer Mike Portnoy returning to the band back in October, we’re even more impatient than usual. Mike has already hinted that this freshly reunited classic lineup have new music in mind – hopefully we hear some next year!
Killswitch Engage
Killswitch Engage are normally a prolific bunch, so the gap between 2019’s Atonement and whatever comes next will be the longest dry spell of their career. Fortunately, Adam D and the boys are set to spoil us in 2024. Not only is new music from Killswitch expected, but the guitarist and ex-singer Howard Jones have just wrapped recording their own album as well.
Opeth
2019’s In Cauda Venenum was, in our humble opinion, the best album of Opeth’s post-2011 pure prog period. It will be five years old come 2024: an age for a band as normally prolific as these Swedish explorers. That’s a bloody long time to have been gasping for a followup, so it had better come in the next 12 months!
Anthrax
Anthrax took eight years to make 2011’s Worship Music after the release of We’ve Come For You All in 2003, and they changed singers about 15 times in that period! 2024 will also mark eight years since we last heard from the band on 2016’s For All Kings. Surely, then, we’re overdue for something new from the New York thrash rebels.
