The Best Melodic Black Metal Album - Metal Storm Awards 2024

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.

Full review

Dödsrit - Nocturnal Will

Nocturnal Will is hardly an illogical progression from Dödsrit’s previous releases: their work has always been impressively melodic despite its concurrent rawness, and you could even say there were elements of Scandinavian folk nestled within those punkish screens of blastbeats. Still, you usually had to hack through the crust to get to anything vaguely traditional-sounding, so Nocturnal Will does come as something of a surprise with how much more polished and folk-forward it is. The constant new iterations of the lead guitar melodies give each song a dramatic build and a stronger folk identity than ever before, though of course the furious speed of Dödsrit’s punk engines has not been diminished, nor has the sheer severity of its black metal core softened for all the positive amendments to the band’s production. Nocturnal Will may just be a sharpening of what was already there, but it is accomplished so effectively that Dödsrit sounds reborn.

Full review

Gaerea - Coma

Gaerea’s sound is as explosive as their success: an uncontainable energy pushes this Portuguese combo into huge walls of sound where the emotional ferocity of hardcore and the melodic grandeur of crescendoing post-metal meet in an anthemic and indefatigable surge of black metal. With this tight, rich, and heavy sound, Gaerea scored Best Debut with Unsettling Whispers back in 2018, came this close to snatching Best Black Metal Album with Limbo in 2020, and then seized it by a downright staggering margin with Mirage in 2022. Coma offers more of the same brilliant sound while also taking care not to gather too much moss, increasing the emphasis on metalgaze techniques and more compact, impactful songwriting; it makes for another proud addition to what is rapidly becoming one of the best and most consistent discographies in modern black metal.

Full review

In Aphelion - Reaperdawn

Reaperdawn is the second album by Sweden's melodic black metallers In Aphelion, a band formed by members of Necrophobic, whose music is - you guessed correctly - very similar to Necrophobic. This is high-quality black metal, with emphasis on the melodic aspect of the guitars, and it even seems that the excellent band’s debut, Moribund, has been surpassed by Reaperdawn. The album’s theme is focused on darkness and the absence of light, as one can tell from the song titles, but the music itself is full of these glorious and frozen melodies of Dissection that no one can get enough of.

Full review

Labyrinthus Stellarum - Vortex Of The Worlds

Incorporating electronic experimentation in its fresh melodic black metal style, the Ukrainian band Labyrinthus Stellarum creates beautiful and uplifting hymns amidst fast-paced riffs and raspy, triumphant vocals. The keyboard arrangements add lots of melody and catchiness, filling the whole composition with uplifting, engaging energy, as the soaring guitar-work propels the listener on a trip through time and space, across sparkling galaxies and through colorful nebulae.

Full review

Necrophobic - In The Twilight Grey

Ten studio albums in, and Swedish legends Necrophobic keep churning out high-quality, melodic black/death metal like there’s no tomorrow. With blasphemous lyricism, malicious guitar riffs, and haunting melodies, the band sounds as great as ever, excelling in catchy songwriting and passionate performance. In the end, they’ve made yet again a worthy installment in their consistently great discography, proving that, no matter when they play, whether it's before the dawn or in the twilight grey, Necrophobic never disappoint!

Full review

Sear Bliss - Heavenly Down

Six years after Letters From The Edge, the finest Hungarian export of atmospheric/melodic black metal returns with Heavenly Down, one of the best albums in their 30-year career. With a cover that is a clear nod to their first albums, Sear Bliss bring together the melancholy and the triumph in black metal. Clean guitars, majestic synths, and epic trombone sections mesh with fierce tremolo picking, groovy riffs, and firing blastbeats. This album is where musical opposites converge and a delicate balance of harmony unfolds.

Full review

Winterfylleth - The Imperious Horizon

Winterfylleth's eighth studio album, The Imperious Horizon, is a showcase of the band’s trademark fusion of ferocious black metal with symphonic and ambient elements. The album continues the band’s exploration of Old English history, folklore, and existential themes. At the same time it also introduces some new textures like orchestral arrangements and reflective moments. The band has further refined its immersive soundscapes with soaring guitar lines, subtle keyboard accents, and a varied mix of harsh and clean vocals. As such, The Imperious Horizon strikes a good balance between fierceness, grandeur, and somber reflection, staying true to Winterfylleth's core sound while adding enough variation to keep it fresh and engaging. Rich in emotional depth, strong instrumentation, and a masterful blend of black metal with more melodic and atmospheric elements, the album is a powerful addition to the band's discography.

Wormwood - The Star

Wormwood ascend to new heights on The Star, as their fourth album to date shines bright in the Northern sky. The folk-tinged melodicism of the album is hugely memorable, and light touches such as tranquil clean vocals and dungeon synth-inspired keyboards give the album a richly diverse range of tones, but the black metal part of the equation is not overlooked, as several songs find time to go harder, harsher, and darker at key moments. The Star has hooks for days, and it never lets up on the entertainment value, not even when Wormwood try their hand at something proggier on the album's longest tracks.

Full review

Yoth Iria - Blazing Inferno

Yoth Iria have graduated from supergroup to super group: The Magus has left the ranks and a new lineup takes the reins for round two, but Blazing Inferno demonstrates that this band most certainly has a future of its own. Yoth Iria is a walking museum of Greece's contributions to black metal, refurbishing the groaning, doomy riffs, enchanting gothic aura, mesmeric repetition, and strong melodic sensibilities that Hellenic extreme metal has become known for and making it all sound fresher than it has in years. Well, at least since the last Yoth Iria album. If you like your evil music played with a fiery heavy metal passion, Blazing Inferno is a great place to start.

Full review