Top row: Alien Ant Farm – Mantras; Underworld – Strawberry Hotel; Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft. Bottom row: Linkin Park – From Zero; The Cure – Songs of a Lost World; Devin Townsend – PowerNerd

2024 was a year. I expect some good things happened, but in the main it was not zesty.

Many major armed conflicts continued in many places including Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, the Sahel region of West Africa and Syria, as well as the ongoing war in Gaza. Sweden joined NATO and Bulgaria and Romania joined Schengen. Northern America saw a total solar eclipse, and a G5-rated series of solar storms led to the aurorae (both Borealis and Australis) to be seen much further from the poles than usual, including right over my back garden in Hemel Hempstead. FACT. P45 was found guilty on 34 counts, and we thought that would be the last we’d see of him. Hah. Then someone shot him in the ear. CrowdStrike knackered up a lot of Windows computers, the knock-on effects bringing down airlines, banks, government services and more across the world. This also made it difficult for punters to buy beer at the festival I was playing that day, so boo. In an unusually positive move, the UK became the first G7 country to phase out coal power. The Europa Clipper was sent to Europa, Jupiter’s moon. (Hopefully not to attempt a landing.) The UK got its first Labour government[1] since 2005, P45 got re-elected[2], and many countries around the world tilted further and further to the political right, about which I am very much not OK. I try to keep politics out of these intros, but damn, it’s hard. Alright what else have I got? Um… A Magritte painting sold for USD121.1m, Estonia legalised gay marriage, literally every single company added AI to literally every single one of their products, and I released my second album. No, really, I did.

Those suddenly pining for the fjords included David Soul, Franz Beckenbauer, Carl Weathers, Steve Wright, TM Stevens, Peter Higgs (he of the boson), OJ Simpson, Dickey Betts, Bernard Hill, Steve Albini, Morgan Spurlock, Lynn Conway, Donald Sutherland, James Earl Jones, Dame Maggie Smith, Kris Kristofferson, Paul Di’Anno, Geoff Capes, Janey Godley, Quincy Jones, Vic Flick, John Prescott, Bob Bryar, Eddie Stobart, my cat Bertie, and Matt Buckley.

That last name may not be familiar unless you were involved in the local music scene around Eastbourne/Hastings/Bexhill and that sort of area in the 1990s[3]. Matt was the first person I ever saw playing an actual Ibanez Jem in real life, and of all of us he seemed to be the most likely to succeed. I believe he went to GIT (or it could have been a different music school, my memory is bad) in the USA, and was an absurdly gifted guitarist and musician. I was only ever in one band with him, and that only briefly – one of the lineups of Iguanahead had me on acoustic guitar and Matt on lead for about a month or two before he left leaving me to take over all guitar duties. Before that, I would occasionally get up on stage with Sinister Footwear and play “Surfing With the Alien” or something to give Matt a break to go and get a pint. He was always something of an oddball, and was never dull to be around. Things could always happen, and usually did. I know very little about his passing, and all I can say is that I am immensely saddened that I’ll never get to jam with him again. RIP Matt.

Musically 2024 was a year of comebacks. All of these artists released a brand new album in 2024 after a 5+ year hiatus:

• Underworld – Strawberry Hotel – 5 years
• Mr. Big – Ten – 7 years
• Linkin Park – From Zero – 7 years
• Alien Ant Farm – Mantras – 9 years
• Sebastian Bach – Child Within the Man – 10 years
• The Cure – Songs of a Lost World – 16 years
• Clive Murray – Love and Painkillers – 22 years

So… you know. Don’t write someone off when they’re down until their sleeping chickens are all in a row, with two in a bush and both hands on the road. Or something.

The one-liners

• Sebastian Bach – Child Within the Man. (Rock.) The former Skid Row screamjouster returns after a ten-year break with a hard rocking album, sprinkled with guest guitar spots from the likes of John 5, Orianthi and Steve Stevens. Not flawless, but very good.
• Jerry Cantrell – I Want Blood. (Rock.) Head plank-molester for Alice in Chains, Jerry brings us another solo outing. Sounds quite like Alice in Chains, as it goes.
• Frost* – Life in the Wires. (Proggy rock. Or rocky prog, potentially.) Messrs Godfrey, Mitchell, Blundell and King return with their fifth full-length long player. Cracking stuff.
• Intervals – Memory Palace. (Instrumental metal.) Aaron Marshall with another tightly conceived block of instru-metal. As great as it is, they are all starting to sound a bit samey.
• Dua Lipa - Radical Optimism. (Pop). I adored Ms. Lipa’s previous album Future Nostalgia, and while there’s nothing wrong with this one, it doesn’t quite grab me the same way. “French Exit” is fab though.
• Rabea Massaad – Grinding Gears Vol. 4. (Instrumental metal.) The fourth instalment of Rabea’s gear demo tunes is the heaviest and best yet. Can the man do no wrong?
• Mr. Big - Ten. (Rock). If I’m honest, I only really care about the first three—maybe two—Mr. Big albums, but this here is their final one. So, there’s that.
• Clive Murray - Love and Painkillers. (Instrumental rock). Ahem. Yes. Look, it took me twenty years, and I finally finished it and released it. Sue me for being proud of that.
• Pet Shop Boys - Nonetheless. (Pop). Neil and Chris are still doing it, and they still sound great.
• dUg Pinnick - Thingamajigger. (Rock). Chief bass-botherer off of King’s X dUg brings us a solo record to tide us over until the next KXM album. It’s fine.
• Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. (Pop). I like Taylor, and I don’t care who knows it. Not as mesmerising as Midnights, not as intimate as Folklore or Evermore, and could probably stand to lose a couple of tracks. Still great though.
• Týr - Battle Ballads. (Folk Metal). The Faroese metallers are still going after a few lineup changes and their ninth album is exactly what you might expect. If you like them, you’ll like this.
• Whom Gods Destroy - Insanium. (Prog Metal). I wanted this to be as good as Sons of Apollo, but it’s not quite. Nothing wrong with it on paper though, and if you like Sherinian or Thal you’ll love it. Dino Jelusick (vocals) is one to watch for sure.

Honourable mentions

Alien Ant Farm - Mantras

Probably like a lot of people, I first became aware of AAF in 2001 when their major label debut ANThology dropped, bringing with it their smash cover of Jacko’s “Smooth Criminal”. You remember? The video was ace, and they did the leaning over thing like Mike? Yeah? Good times. (Well, actually the times from a musical POV were pretty dark for me, but I really liked that album.)

Anyhow, I lost touch with what they were up to after the less notable followup TruANT, and only checked back in on Dryden and co. when I heard they had a new album out, but this one is top drawer gear. Now that nu-metal is thankfully a distant memory, the band’s sound has matured and broadened while still being recognisable as the same band. The first three tracks are straight up brilliant, and “Last dAntz” particularly stands out as a nod to Coheed and Cambria with even shades of Polyphia creeping in. The album doesn’t lose steam there either, and in tru-ANT style we even get a Wham! cover, “Everything She wAnts”. Great work, boys. Top track: “Last dAntz”

Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft

Billie was born in the year ANThology came out. So, there’s that. She’s young, is what I’m saying. And yet there’s a maturity and depth in her voice that I find bewitching, and when coupled with the playful “edginess” of her lyrics and musical stylings, the results are some of the best pop songs around. She’s a proper musician too. She writes in collaboration with her brother Finneas, who is also her producer, but you don’t become the youngest artist ever to sing a James Bond theme song without being the real deal. Great. Top track: “Lunch”

Elbow - Audio Vertigo

I’ve opined before about how much I’ve loved Elbow since hearing Cast of Thousands back in the early 2000s and they remain one of my favourite British bands. Guy Garvey’s raw poetic sincerity bleeds through the band’s tight arrangements, which swing from sparse to lush with ease. If you can listen to this album and feel nothing, you might have died. Check, would you? Top track: “Balu”

Green Day - Saviors

You know what you’re going to get with Green Day, right? Right. And that’s what you get. And it’s really great. Any questions?

OK, look. I get that there’s an argument to be made along the lines of “…these multi-millionare faux ‘punk rockers’ telling me to smash the system really boil my piss…” and I understand that. But a) there’s also an argument that asks what is wrong with those who have been successful enough to reach millions of listeners then using their platform to spread their message, and b) this is also part of the bigger punk discussion. You know the one. It manifests in a few ways, from “I liked them before they were big” right the way up to “they sold a bajillion albums, that CAN’T be punk”, and so on. Whatever, girlfriend. I’m not certain they ever claimed to be punk anyway. And to be fair to BJA and crew, there is less hectoring on their more recent output… but do you know what there is plenty of? Huge tunes. Top track: “Corvette Summer”

Gun - Hombres

I don’t know how big Scot-rockers Gun ever were outside the UK, and even here they were mostly known for their smash cover of Cameo’s “Word Up” (which still owns). Well, they’ve had the usual inevitable line-up changes and a 15-year break, but the current line-up seems stable and this is a cracking rock album. Lead single “All Fired Up” is a block-rocker, and “Falling” is just lovely. Nice one. Top track: “Falling”

London Grammar - The Greatest Love

I love London Grammar. Ethereal moody indie-pop, I suppose, but what do I know? Beautiful vocals, pretty songs, what’s not to like? Top track: “House”

The Offspring - Supercharged

Again, you know what you’re going to get with The Offspring, and you get it, and it is good. 33 minutes of fun punky rock tracks. Any questions? Top track: “Looking Out For #1”

Max Richter - In a Landscape

Just beautiful. His best work since The Blue Notebooks. Absolutely indispensible. Top track: “They Will Shade Us With Their Wings”

Devin Townsend - PowerNerd

Ah, Mister Townsend, we meet again. What’s it to be this time, hmmm? Ethereal and wistful, unlistenable screaming, or madder-than-a-box-of-frogs-at-a-Focus-gig prog? Oh I see. None of those. Intriguing, dear boy, do go on. Ah, I see you’ve gone with punishingly heavy yet melodic and uplifting harmonious metal? Very well done, Mister Townsend… very well done indeed. Top track: “Gratitude”

Underworld - Strawberry Hotel

There ain’t nobody out there making the sound that these guys make. The fact that they’re still doing it, and doing it better than anyone else, is frankly awesome. Every album is wall-to-wall quality, and this is no exception. Also, I love how there are callbacks to some of their classics, for those that have but the ears to hear them. I can hear “Push Upstairs” being more than hinted at in “Denver Luna” and there is a definite nod to “Born Slippy Nuxx” at the end of “Techno Shinkansen”. Banging. Top track: “Denver Luna”

And the winners are…

I’ve gone back and forth on this a few times, and while the first one was never in any doubt, the second took a while to lock down its place on top of the podium. Yes, it’s another unbreakable two-way tie.

The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

Regular readers of this series will be sick of me saying I was “late to the party” when I “discover” some act who have in fact been huge forever.

Well, I was very late indeed to the The Cure party. They released their first album when I was 5, released their breakthrough album Disintegration when I was 15 (right when a goth phase would have been highly appropriate), and were generally successful into the mid 2000s and beyond, yet my only knowledge of them up until 2024 was “Love Cats” being on Top of the Pops a bit, and my mate playing me “Friday I’m In Love” and telling me he liked it because Robert Smith wore massive trainers in the video. It seems I’ve been doing it wrong, and apparently you aren’t allowed to exit the 90s without going through a Cure phase. Apologies, I will amend this retroactively.

Because… the new album is amazing.

I always wrote The Cure off as being gloomy, depressive, boring goth music. I lumped them in with The Smiths as being dreary, dull music to waste away to in the dark. In the early 90s I was in a rock band, playing colourful guitars and singing about girls and partying, so I had little-to-no interest in listening to whiny people being sad. Well obviously, with the benefit of hind legs, I can see that that view was reductive to the point of absurdity and that I was very much in the wrong[4]. I’ve been back and done the required reading now, and I totally get it. Bloodflowers is excellent, Wish is brilliant, Pornography is wonderful[5], and Disintegration is sublime. You were all right, and I was wrong, for a very long time[6].

However, what this has meant is that I am in the rare position of being able to evaluate the band’s new album against their older albums objectively and without nostalgia or bias, and I objectively think that Songs of a Lost World is at least as good as Disintegration. I suppose the thing I can’t comment on is the experience of hearing the older albums as a teenager, because I didn’t. I can totally see how those earlier albums would really connect with someone growing and changing and feeling misunderstood or excluded, and finding solace in Smith’s words and the band’s moody vibes, but I didn’t actually feel it myself having only heard those records aged 50.

What I can comment on is the effect of the new album on me now, and it (to use the vernacular of a few years ago) hits me right in the feels. Robert’s voice has aged like a fine cheese[7], the band’s sound is as dynamic as ever—the basslines in particular really throb along—and new boy Reeves Gabrels on guitar is an absolutely perfect fit for the band’s sound. I hesitate to use words like “ethereal” and “soundscapes”, but I just did so you’ll just have to get used to it.

This is a belter from soup to finish, whether you’re a die-hard Curist or a new fan like myself, get it down you.

Here they are with a live version of “I Can Never Say Goodbye”, a song that deals with the death of Smith’s brother. I mean… obviously, that’s a sad thing, but… how much more The Cure could it be?

Fabulous.

Top tracks: “Alone”, “I Can Never Say Goodbye”, “Endsong”

Linkin Park - From Zero

I was late to the… ah shit.

Well. I was. Back in the days of nu-metal, the haters (myself included) had absolutely zero time for Limp Park and/or Linked Biscuits, as we prided ourselves on calling them. None whatsoever. Sure, I might hear “Papercut” or “In the End” on the stereo at work, but I would never have sought to intentionally spend a single moment listening to bands of that ilk. This was 20 years ago, and in that time I have opened my mind a little, so when I heard via Nik Nocturnal that there was a new Linkin Park record and that he was, and I quote, “Stoked, dude” about it, I thought I would give it a wee listen.

I popped on the video for “The Emptiness Machine”, loved it, stuck on “Heavy Is the Crown”, loved it more, found “Two Faced”, adored it, and around this time I realised I could be looking at a contender for album of the year.

Sorry, I can’t see you? Where did you go? There’s an elephant in the room, and I can’t see past it…

My little joke. But the elephant that must be addressed here is the significant lineup change involved in Linkin Park’s return: vocalist Emily Armstrong stepping into the shoes vacated by previous shoutmeister Chester Bennington, who died in 2017[8]. I haven’t looked, because I do not want to get vomit on my keyboard, but I would bet that there are fan forums and subreddits filled with die-hard LP “fans” spouting shit like “Aw man, how can they possibly replace Chester with a woman?” or some such.

Well, as I say, I wasn’t into them when Chester was alive so I can’t really comment. The songs I heard back in the early 2000s I actually like now, so I only have favourable things to say about him and his work, but what I can certainly comment on is the talents of Ms. Armstrong.

She is absolutely awesome.

Aside. Can we just get past this “women can’t metal” horseshit? It’s patently not true. Need I point at Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Amy Lee (Evanescence), Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), Courtney LaPlante (Spiritbox), Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy), Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy), Taylor Momsen (The Pretty Reckless), or further back to Lita Ford, Janet Gardner (Vixen) and Doro Pesch? And those are just the ones that come to mind. I am certain there are thousands of bad-ass metal queens smashing stages and flooring crowds all over the world, just as there should be. They can metal your ass into the ground. Just being a woman is metal as hell. Shut up.

Ahem. Right. So, Emily Armstrong is bloody excellent and you can take that to the bank, the rest of the band are tight as anything, and the production is superb. One of the things that helped Linkin Park stand out from the crowd 20+ years ago was the interplay between the two vocalists, Bennington and founding member Mike Shinoda; Bennington having a greater range in terms of dynamics and power as well as literal vocal range, and Shinoda being a skilled rapper (and singer). Well, that is very much still the case – moreso perhaps now that Shinoda’s sparring partner is female, with a very different vocal pitch and timbre, accentuating the contrast between them even more. I realise that this is a poncey way of saying they sound great together. Some metal bands have two singers—one for “clean” singing and one for the death growls—and it’s for the same reason. The band’s music wants both textures available, and usually that means you need two people. (Unless the band is Spiritbox, Arch Enemy or Nightwish of course[9]. Hail Courtney. Hail Alissa (and Angela before her). Hail Floor.)

So what of the songs? Well look, in this case I admit I haven’t gone back to the source so I can’t compare From Zero to the smash hit albums of LP’s past: Hybrid Theory and Meteora being the two biggest. All I can do is take the record at face value, and it’s bloody excellent. Skipping the intro track, we get three hard hitters in the first four songs: “The Emptiness Machine”, “Heavy Is the Crown” and “Over Each Other” are pretty much flawless. “Over Each Other” in particular sticks out as being a showcase for Armstrong to really demonstrate her vocal chops, and is I think my favourite song on the album. There are some tracks here that are merely good, it’s true. “Casualty” and “Overflow” fall into that bucket in my opinion. “Cut the Bridge”, “IGYEIH” and “Stained” are better, and I do really like the album closer “Good Things Go”. These are definitely good songs. Great songs perhaps, some of them. Nothing wrong with them, for sure.

But.

But they aren’t…

They’re not…

Well.

What they aren’t is “Two Faced”, which absolutely slams, dude. Honestly. If you want Linkin Park[10], and it’s the 2020s[11], and you just want one song, take this one. It will leave you in absolutely no doubt[12].

Look.

See?

I was never into rap-rock, or nu-metal, or any of that stuff back then, but what did I know? I was in my 20s. What I can tell you right here, right now, at this moment in time, without a shadow of a doubt… is that From Zero is an absolute cracker of an album from start to nuts.

Top tracks: “Two Faced”, “Over Each Other”, “Heavy Is the Crown”

Turkey of the Year

Blood Stain Child - Cyberia

Japanese melodic death metal electronicore misfits Blood Stain Child released two albums in 2024, this one and another called Metalia. While I do really like their style overall (and 2019’s Amateras is excellent), their output is patchy. Metalia was not bad, but not quite of the grade to make my exalted list. Cyberia was… well. Sometimes when you don’t have anything nice to say, it’s best not to say anything at all.

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Well. Sort of Labour. I mean… Sir Kier is hardly Harold Wilson, is he? ↩︎ 1.

I suppose technically he’s P47 now. ↩︎ 1.

Or, of course, knew him in later life, potentially in Germany where he lived for a while. ↩︎ 1.

…about The Cure. Not about The Smiths. I have always hated them with a passion since long before M*rriss*y turned out to be total tool. You can take The Smiths, bung them in a sack with Joy Division, New Order, Depeche Mode and the fucking Jesus and fucking Mary Chain, gaffa it shut, and chuck the lot in the canal. Now, if you wouldn’t mind. Come on, I don’t have all day. ↩︎ 1.

Steady on. This is a family show. ↩︎ 1.

Yes, alright, I take it as read that not actually everyone liked The Cure, and that’s fine. Well done. You don’t need to leave a comment to that effect. It’s alright. ↩︎ 1.

Yes OK, that should say wine. ↩︎ 1.

Apparently by his own hand, sadly. ↩︎ 1.

Yes, I’m sure there are others. ↩︎ 1.

You do. ↩︎ 1.

It is. ↩︎ 1.

Gwen Stefani, there’s another queen. Not metal, true, but she is awesome. ↩︎

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