Best I've heard so far (updated):

Blaze Of Perdition - Upharsin (black - Poland)
Blood Red Throne - Nonagon (death - Norway)
Coffins - Sinister Oath (doom/death - Japan)
Disbelief - Killing Karma (death/thrash/sludge - Germany)
Exhorder - Defectum Omnium (thrash/groove - US)
Exhumation - Master's Personae (death - Indonesia)
Heresiarch - Edifice (black/death - New Zealand)
Master - Saints Dispelled (death/thrash - US)
Necrophobic - In the Twilight Grey (death/black - Sweden)
Necrot - Lifeless Birth (death - US)
Violent Sin - Serpent's Call (speed/black - Belgium)
Vulture- Sentinels (speed/thrash - Germany)

Violent Sin was last year...

My top so far (in no order):
- Hauntologist
- Necrowretch
- Morbid Saint
- Chainsword
- Midnight
- Necrophobic
- Critical Defiance
- Savage Oath
- Necrot
- Horn

A few of my fav albums from this year so far:

Brodequin - Harbinger of Woe (old school-ish brutal death, dense as fuck and very good)
Dying Fetus - Make Them Beg for Death (took me a few listens to care, but it's just very solid meat and potatoes brutal death)
Necrophobic - In the Twilight Grey (I'm not the hugest Necrophobic fan, they're good but never been great to me, but this one hit the spot for some reason great melodic black/death)
Vitriol - Suffer & Become (I'm still figuring this album out, but on the surface it's cool unique maybe quasi-mystical death metal)
Dissimulator - Lower Form Resistance (very solid and memorable proggy death/thrash stuff for fans of Voivod)

Dying Fetus is from September of last year.

Make Them Beg for Death is amazing, but is a 2023 album, it ranked 5 in the top ten albums of the year list.

whoops - shows how late I was in actually getting into it lol.

Kinda goofy to do an update right before the midyear, but I'm easily swayed. For the minute my top 10 (metal) is:

Coffins - Sinister Oath
The Body & Dis Fig - Orchards of a Futile Heaven
Dionysiaque - Diogonos
Defect Designer - Chitin
Brodequin - Harbinger of Woe
Antichrist Siege Machine - Vengeance of Eternal Fire
Knoll - As Spoken
Departure Chandelier - Satan Soldier of Fortune
Critical Defiance - The Search Won't Fall
Deconsekrated - Ascension in the Altar of Condemned

Although The Das Fig collab isn't metal, it's just on the archives, probably won't include it in the actual year end poll if it's still in that 10 range by then.. I've been pretty whelmed by that batch given it's almost half way through the year and I've heard 130 albums already. Like they're good but there's nothing remotely up near prior year peaks. As cool as the new Coffins which is a very clear winner is it'd be 5th in 2023, 12th in 2022, 14th in 2021, and 15th in 2020 for me. So yeah pretty weak year imo. Steady for sure, probably the highest ratio of 6/10+ I've ever had, but weak.

Haha, looks like its a mid-year report card time!? OK, I'll jump on a bandwagon, lol. Seems my picks take a cohesive shape by this time. Top 5 picks are all but guaranteed to be in a final 10 list:

1.Vitriol - Suffer & Become ( Fuck me senseless! I can't put this thing down since it came out. Yes, takes a few spins to fully appreciate it but dammit, it rocks! Not to mention an awesome album art and an opening track "Shame and its afterbirth" is a song of the year!

2.Aborted - Vault Of Horrors
3. Necrowretch - Swords Of Dajjal
4. Skeletal Remains - Fragments Of The Ageless
5. Borknagar - Fall ( Phew, I did not see it coming tbh. Not a major fan of the band or prog/atmo BM in general but this delivers to say the least. So memorable! Well done!

The rest of the major contenders are in no order...as things may change considering some major hitters (Mgla, Ulcerate) are yet to come:

Unaussprechlichen Kulten
Necrot
Hideous Divinity
Witch Vomit
Brodequin
Blood Red Throne

Bruce Dickinson and Seasons of the Wolf are my top two. Really liked Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Necrot, Ponte del Diavolo, Blaze Bayley, My Dying Bride and I am the Intimidator too - lots of cool shit this year. Don't know if Priest or Skeletal Remains will be on my top 10 but those were very good too.

ok that Deconsekrated is very cool, would def appeal to fans of Dead Congregation.

You can tell exactly what it sounds like by looking at it, but the execution is strong.

Besides Riot V, Saxon and Judas Priest were there any memorable traditional heavy metal releases this year?

I like Stormborn - Zenith.

Depends what you mean by "trad", but I love the new Kontact album, Full Contact. Name is gimmicky and a bit silly, but it's a truly solid album. I'd describe it as Manilla Road meets Voivod. It's less technical, less prog, but still had Voivod-esque riffs, on top of a more heavy/uspm frame.

In addition to the Kontact album, which I second as great, I've also enjoyed:

Iron Curtain - Savage Dawn
Attic - Return of the Witchfinder (assuming you're ok with King Diamond worship)
Writhen Hilt - Ancient Sword Cult
I Am the Intimidator - I Am the Intimidator (as has been mentioned many times in this thread)

Seasons of the Wolf's Orna Verum is really great, albeit with a lot more hard rock than they used to have, but I love that kind of shit so it's no problem for me.

Acerus is great for a slightly deathened take on trad metal and Blaze Bayley released a really killer album too.

What are your favourite debuts this year so far? I love listening to new albums but they're almost always from bands I already know and I don't want to limit myself to my own bubble.

Oh yeah, that Kontact album is super fun to listen to, part of its charisma is the fact that it feels a bit quirky in my opinion. But that doesn't take away from the fact that it's super straightforward and energetic with plenty of memorable moments.

Yeah, quirky is a good qualifier. Campy might work as well. There is something a little cheesy about this album, but in a good, retro way.

Check out Demonslaught 666.

Black/speed out of China.

Just placed an order for these LPs but I'd say Coltre's 'To Watch with Hands...' album is great. FFO: Angel Witch.

Not heavy metal, but these leans more in the heavy rock/hard rock direction. I'd recommend Freeways' 'Dark Sanctuary' and Tonnerre's 'La Nuit Sauvage'. Super stuff!

Damn that opening riff.

Alternate reality Wasted Years riff!

Toxikull - Under The Southern Light
Striker - Ultrapower

Showdown by Mega Colossus has been one of my favorite albums of the year so far. Castle Rat's debut is pretty traditional doom. And I need to listen to it more but I enjoyed the new Tyr album. Showdown from Mega Colossus is the album I'd recommend most though.

No Remorse Records has released some solid records so far this year:

Traveler - Prequel to Madness
Dolmen Gate - Gateways to Eternity
Achelous - Tower of High Sorcery
Morgul Blade - Heavy Metal Wraiths

Whitecross - Fear No Evil

After living with this for a few months I can say this is easily their best album. Dave Roberts is great and he kind of reminds me of the vocals on Quartz' Stand Up and Fight. A great HR/HM album.

Attacker - The God Particle

Bobbly Lucas era is my least listened to but I think this is the best. Frantic and fiendish performance and I do see the Helstar resemblance that was pointed out.

I'm digging in the past but definitely, if you haven't yet, give it a listen. I got to this last week and had a great time. For all fans of (insert here: Mgła, DsO, Aosoth, Misþyrming, Kriegsmaschine) a must listen.

Here are some of my favourites of 2024 so far.

Melodic death metal, true bänger
This Ending - Crowned in Blood

Slam di damn
Axiomatic Dematerialization - Absolute Elimination of Existence

Chaotic deathgrind
Vitriol - Suffer & Become

It's not Cpt Killdrums, but nice flow and production
Brodequin - Harbinger of Woe

Breee? Badabim bada bom.
Benighted - Ekbom

Fast, brutal, melodic
Aborted - Vault of Horrors

Italian blasting
Hour of Penance - Devotion

Italian blasting pt 2?
Hideous Divinity - Unextinct

Brutal filthy production, but man these slams are fucking catchy!
Stages of Decomposition - Raptures of Psychopathy

If you're looking for new progressive/technical death metal in the early 90s Floridian vein, check out the new Hemotoxin. They're combining some of the best parts of all of those great Floridian bands into one great, riff-driven, melodic package.

Thank you! This shit is killer, unleashed old school style. I've been enjoying a lot of bands coming out of China in the last few years.

I really enjoyed this one. It sounds like they added more thrash back into their sound compared to the previous album. I didn't care for that one at all. My only complaint is that it's a bit short at only 29 minutes.

A lot of you need to write better descriptions, something besides brutal or atmospheric or just listing rando bands that nobody knows. A lot of times theres not even a genre description, why should anyone care to check those out? There are far too many releases every year and far too limited time to check them all out, I want to know WHY it's good and if I can listen to it at least next year as well.

I haven't listened to all the records I've been meaning to from this year, but I do have a couple of standouts so far:

Darkest Hour - Perpetual
Vitriol - Suffer & Become
Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To

I still need to check out the new Darkthrone and Full Of Hell records

This thread has pretty much always been "here's a list with no context or a link to a NWOTHM/Black Metal Promotion video that already has 100k views." It sucks. I've tried to encourage folks to be more thoughtful before but they don't care, they just want yell their self-proclaimed good taste into the void instead of being forced to think about why a piece of music is meaningful to them.

Tend to agree. I personally find it hard to come up with decent descriptions and would make a terrible reviewer, but we can all do the minimum of providing the genre. It's fine to list popular/big releases too - they have to go somewhere and perhaps this thread is the primary source for some people. Part of the attraction of MA is the elitist nature, whereas Black Metal Promotion is technically all YouTubers.

I use the thread by seeing if a bunch of people affirm a release, then checking it out. Returning to the original point, if an album has a single mention but an intriguing and well-written description then there's a good chance I'll listen.

There was a thread about it, but Aquilus released Bellum II earlier this month. Supposedly it was recorded at the same time as Bellum I. A beautiful blend of authentic classical orchestration and atmospheric black. Introspective with long instrumental passages, it requires attention to appreciate.

There is less black metal than Bellum I (may be a divergent opinion), which was in my 2021 top 10. Bellum II is still impressive and epic but I'll confess my collection doesn't need two.

Bandcamp

Whilst I see your point, I don't fully agree.
List threads are never acceptable, yes, but let's not start demanding mini reviews here, shall we? Not all of us have the time or the skills.

The way I see it, it's enough to write Band X plays melodic black metal in the vein of Dissection and/or Necrophobic.
I like it mainly due to the inspired guitar playing with frequent, fiery leads and mostly uptempo songs on the shorter side. Here's a single.

Done. You have a description detailed enough to know if it's something up your alley, why the OP finds it personally interesting and a way to sample it. Now it's on you to go and check it, if you feel so inclined.
Start asking fellas to write essays on why they dare post a band in here, and most won't bother, defeating the purpose of this thread.

I'm also happy with how this thread works.

I find a lot of great stuff every month via this thread based on little more than a brief description of genre. I don't need a 1000-word review when I'm scanning for new obscurities.

I'm actually fine with that example description, it adds a lot more than many comments I've seen in this thread this year, just add a note about how qualitative it is compared to other entries in the genre/sub genre, if it's more than flavour of the week/month/year. Not asking for whole reviews just some more description.