The Best Debut Album - Metal Storm Awards 2024

Blighted Eye - Agony's Bespoke

Containing past and present members of bands such as Aethereus and Pantheïst, Blighted Eye storm out of the gates with an epic debut album that incorporates elements of melodic, technical, and blackened death within a progressive metal framework that is overloaded with irresistible riffs and solos. Agony's Bespoke flows freely between outstanding ideas across songs that are lengthy but always entertaining and exhilarating, with a sound reminiscent of a more melodic and sprawling Hath.

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Cistvaen - At Light's Demise

Cistvaen are a newly formed UK-based atmospheric black metal band who've introduced themselves with one of the most memorable debuts of the year. At Light's Demise is exceptionally crafted, beautifully performed, and wonderfully atmospheric, brimming with memorable epic build-ups and mesmerizing melodies. The theme strongly reflects on the emotional trauma the band personally endured amidst the turbulent and uncertain times of the global pandemic, and you can genuinely feel their suffering, if not your own, especially through what is one of the most passionate and emotive harsh vocal performances heard in 2024.

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Eye Eater - Alienate

Well, it's nothing if not alienating – this is the mysterious debut of a mysterious ensemble that practices death metal like the occult, with halting, sickening drums that hit like an intestinal blockage and howling growls like the static of dead air in an otherworldly radio station. The riffs range from elastic smackdowns to desolate wastelands of unplaceable dread, and everything in between just hurts. Eye Eater have acheived the sound of Ulcerate slowly devouring Gojira and evolving into something from Stalker. If you're not careful, they'll take the rest of your face, too

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Hauntologist - Hollow

Do you ever think Mgła just isn't post-metal enough? Hauntologist are here to deliver that very premise! With Darkside's drumming already having been such a staple of Mgła's sound, hearing it alongside the rest of the soundscape conducted by Mgła live bassist and Medico Peste member The Fall is an intriguing enough concept on its own. Hollow does its job of both acing that very specific black metal sound and doing some interesting things on its own.

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Kvadrat - The Horrible Dissonance Of Oblivion

The Horrible Dissonance Of Oblivion is a 44-minute descent into the blackest depths of musical terror. Greek one-man band Kvadrat plays a dissonant mixture that combines the unforgiving heaviness of death metal and the chilling atmosphere of black metal. The vocals are delivered in a powerful, deep-throated way, sounding at times like a shaman summoning a Lovecraftian monster with sinister liturgies. Kvadrat straddle the line between cacophony and haunting beauty, producing a swirling vortex of disharmonious harmonies.

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Lord Goblin - Lord Goblin

From heavy psych rock to traditional heavy metal? Yeah, that makes sense. That's the canon progression. Then from traditional heavy metal to epic doom - no problem, that's just Black Sabbath to Candlemass in one step. Just like the real deal. Epic doom to power metal, okay, there's plenty of logic there; we see that all the time. Power metal to black metal. ...All right. That one's new. But Lord Goblin make it work without a second's question, slipping tremolo-picked second-wave riffs and blastbeats in between hefty, stomping doom progressions and dramatic, soaring power metal choruses and wrapping it all up neatly and tightly in a sonic aesthetic grounded in old-school heavy metal. Lord Goblin cross streams with no seams in one of the most exciting debuts of the year.

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Mayhemic - Toba

There's an art to riding the crest of chaos. Push too far and you fall into a formless, sloppy mess; reel in too close and it's apparent that you're making compromises. But if you can walk the razor's edge, if you can keep yourself just controlled enough that you don't descend into complete oblivion, you come out with the type of total overriding bedlam that electrifies like nothing else. That's the energy that courses through Mayhemic's veins. Toba is so fast and furious that it spends the entire album pushing itself out of its own way, so blinded in frenzy that it's always a hair's breadth away from collapsing into noise. This is blackened thrash played absolutely without polish, with total abandon, with sheer passion and nothing else.

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Múr - M​ú​r

What's this?! A debut from an Icelandic band that isn't black metal?! Múr break their national stereotype by being neither black metal, nor atmospheric post-rock, nor quirky art pop. Yes, there are lineup connections to Forsmán, and a lot of similarities in sound to the likes of Sólstafir, but even within the recognizable sound that Múr have created on their debut, there are various strands of it running through each of the songs, some leaning more towards the "sustained" prog of Devin Townsend, some towards the more aggressive prog metal of Meshuggah, some towards the post-metal sound of Cult Of Luna, plus a bunch of other progressive and electronica nuances, and somehow all of these work cohesively on M​ú​r.

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Ponte Del Diavolo - Fire Blades From The Tomb

Ponte Del Diavolo’s debut album is a doom revelation, full of occult rock and post-punk, as well as blackened and darkwave sensitivities. Atmospheric nightly soundscapes, fierce aggressive leanings, medieval mysteries, and ritualistic invocations of evil find their place in this engrossing manifestation of menacing doom, while the haunting melodies, the dual bass attack, the evocative clarinet, and the Siouxsie Sioux-esque vocals make for a bold sound that is both familiar and uncommon in its nature.

Slimelord - Chytridiomycosis Relinquished

Chytridiomycosis, in case you were wondering, is a fungal disease that is currently, and without evident solution, devastating amphibian populations worldwide; the infection poses a severe threat to frogs and all their slimy-skinned brethren all across the globe. And now that you know, your first thought is, of course, “I want ugly, bloated, squidgy, creepy-crawly death-doom that sounds just like that.” Well, here you are, sicko: Slimelord’s latest paean to moist filth, this time in full-length form. Chytridiomycosis Relinquished is more ooze than album: loosely structured, noisy, dissonant, full of vomitory vocals and eerie, aqueous effects. Be careful not to get lost in Slimelord’s hypnosis; when you wake up, you’ll be covered in mold.

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