Metal Hammer has named Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere as its album of the year.
The progressive death metal masterwork came out on top in an extensive poll of the magazine’s writers and editors. The honour follows the album’s release to critical and fan acclaim on October 4 via Century Media.
In its end-of-year issue, on sale now, Hammer says of Blood Incantation’s fourth full-length record: “Huge riffs and searing harmonics interwove with woozy bass emanations, craggy, cracked-meteorite roars and, at the album’s close, one of the year’s most breathlessly thrilling black metal climaxes.
“These moments, however, were laced with Eastern melodies, unexpected bongos, dashes of dappled acoustic prettiness and Mellotron workouts from members of Hällas and Tangerine Dream.”
The glowing critique echoes the review that the magazine offered when Absolute Elsewhere first came out. Journalist Dom Lawson awarded it a near-perfect 4.5 stars and called it “pure prog-death perfection”, as well as “one of the best metal albums of 2024”.
Blood Incantation had bold aspirations for their latest album, as they explain during an interview in the brand-new Hammer. “We didn’t want to make a ‘good’ record,” vocalist/guitarist Paul Riedl tells writer Dave Everley. “Every 10 or 15 years, a band will drop a record that really does change how other people do things. We wanted to make something that moved the needle.”
Riedl also tells Everley about recording Absolute Elsewhere at Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany: a space previously used by such legends as David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Killing Joke and Siouxsie And The Banshees.
“You’re not just walking in big shoes,” he says. “Being there humanises these people. There are couches there that are the ones Depeche Mode or David Bowie would sit on. Or you find yourself standing in a doorway where David Bowie would smoke cigarettes – you know, because there are photos of it. It demystifies their ambition, and it makes you realise that you are on the same path. They did all these great things, so why can’t you?”
The new Metal Hammer doesn’t just name Absolute Elsewhere as 2024’s best metal album, but also lists the entire top 50 of the year. See the complete rankings below.
The issue is available as of today (December 5) and offers the essential breakdown of the year in metal. As well as the albums of the year, the magazine revisits Slipknot’s blockbuster anniversary tour, Gojira’s show-stealing Olympic Games performance, Lzzy Hale joining Skid Row, Ghost going Hollywood and so much more. Order now and get your copy delivered directly to your doorstep.
Metal Hammer’s top 50 albums of 2024:
01. Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere
02. Judas Priest – Invincible Shield
03. Chelsea Wolfe – She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She
04. Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
05. Bruce Dickinson – The Mandrake Project
06. Opeth – The Last Will And Testament
07. Heriot – Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell
08. Ihsahn – Ihsahn
09. Lowen – Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran
10. Unto Others – Never, Neverland
11. Oranssi Pazuzu – Muuntautuja
12. Gatecreeper – Dark Superstition
13. Dool – The Shape Of Fluidity
14. Ulcerate – Cutting The Throat Of God
15. Julie Christmas – Ridiculous And Full Of Blood
16. Nightwish – Yesterwynde
17. Bring Me The Horizon – Post Human: Nex Gen
18. Dvne – Voidkind
19. Lucifer – Lucifer V
20. Rotting Christ – Pro Xristou
21. Leprous – Melodies Of Atonement
22. Devin Townsend – PowerNerd
23. Zeal & Ardor – Greif
24. Sólstafir – Hin Helga Kvöl
25. Nails – Every Bridge Burning
26. Slift – Ilion
27. Oceans Of Slumber – Where Gods Fear To Speak
28. Orange Goblin – Science, Not Fiction
29. High On Fire – Cometh The Storm
30. Touché Amoré – Spiral In A Straight Line
31. Dödsrit – Nocturnal Will
32. Kerry King – From Hell I Rise
33. Thou – Umbilical
34. Zetra – Zetra
35. Big | Brave – A Chaos Of Flowers
36. The Obsessed – Gilded Sorrow
37. Melt-Banana – 3+5
38. Job For A Cowboy – Moon Healer
39. Pijn – From Low Beams Of Hope
40. Kalandra – A Frame Of Mind
41. Tribulation – Sub Rosa In Æternum
42. Winterfylleth – The Imperious Horizon
43. Grand Magus – Sunraven
44. Satan – Songs In Crimson
45. Undeath – More Insane
46. While She Sleeps – Self Hell
47. Kati Ran – Sála
48. Caligula’s Horse – Charcoal Grace
49. Hamferd – Men Guds Hond Er Sterk
50. Fever 333 – Darker White
