Best of 2024: Hard rock and metal

Though there were some fantastic releases by a few classic bands in 2024, I didn’t feel that it was, overall, nearly as strong as some other years in recent memory for hard rock and heavy metal. The year also brought a few notably disappointing highly-anticipated albums from bands who have been very dependable in recent years, like Zeal & Ardor or Ad Infinitum.

While a few surprises are scattered among my 15 favorite releases of the year, I’m struck by the lack of newer and younger bands in my picks. A few debut albums show up on the list, but most are at least partially made up of veterans that I’ve been listening to for years. I’m willing to admit that maybe with everything going on in my life that 2024 was perhaps a year of musical comfort food for me.

Here are my thoughts on the year in hard rock and metal:

METAL MOMENT OF THE YEAR: Metal got perhaps its biggest global stage ever in 2024, being featured in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. And we’re not talking a glorified pop act with a few heavy guitar riffs. No, it was progressive death metal band Gojira offering up an epic performance of “Mea Culpa (Ah Ca Ira),” a take on the song “Ca Ira” from the French Revolution. Complete with shooting towers of flame and a finale with streamers that resembled spraying blood, it was not what most of us expected to see at the Olympics, but it was awesome. I’ll admit that I mostly ignored everything else about the ceremony and the games, wasn’t even watching live when it happened, but I jumped online just as soon as I heard to find the clip. It was a bit of vindication for an old metalhead who has, for the most part, seen the heavier end pushed into the dark corners.

Review: Kittie, "Until the End"

The members of Kittie have come a long way since their 1999 debut when they were a group of teenagers trying to prove they could hang with the boys in the burgeoning nu-metal scene.

On their third album, the band has completed its evolution into a true metal band, as evidenced by the pummelling opening track "Look So Pretty," which veers into death metal territory.

On the whole, "Until the End" is a much heavier album that shows a lot of growth. Musically, it's probably the most solid album Kittie has done, and it shows the influence of bands they've toured with over the years. That influence is most noticeable on songs like "Sugar," which opens with a blast of good, old-fashioned speed metal that leads into some chugging, offbeat Meshuggah-style rhythms.

The melodic "In Dreams" and the lead single "Into the Darkness" look back at the band's past, while "Burning Bridges" - a song that's sure to prick up any extreme metal fans' ears - plants their feet firmly on the road to the future.

Though they still seem to be searching for just the right balance between gnarly, heavy riffs and melodic hook-laden rock, the Canadian girls' third outing should give them some real respect in the metal world.

Get "Until the End."

Review: Kittie, "Oracle"

When I first heard about this group of teen-age girls playing metal, I'm sure I smirked. I could just imagine what they considered metal. But one listen to Kittie's debut album "Spit" wiped that look off my face and made me a believer. The collection of short, punchy and heavy tunes convinced me they were the real deal.

Apparently, convincing guys like me that teen-age girls could indeed lay down some heavy tracks wasn't enough, though. On their latest release "Oracle," the girls from Kittie take it one step further - or perhaps one step too far.

The most intriguing thing about "Spit" was the alternating melodic vocal passages and feral snarls. Combine those with a catchy hook - like the one on "Brackish" - and Kittie produces a song that can rival the best of the nu-metal crowd. On "Oracle," though, they focus less on melody and more on the snarl.

There's no doubt these girls have the chops. The riffs on songs like "What I Always Wanted," "In Winter" and "Wolves," will stand up to those of just about any metal band out there.

It's also obvious they've been listening to a lot of Pantera, especially on "Severed" and "No Name" - tunes ripped straight out of the Pantera songbook. Kittie thrashes through these numbers convincingly, but perhaps they've been focusing on the wrong things about Pantera. While they manage the huge riffs and snarling vocals, they don't quite get the total package. "Severed" gets redundant after a couple of listens, and "No Name" never really takes off.

The album does show glimpses of Kittie's potential. "What I Always Wanted" comes close to matching the best songs on their debut, striking a delicate balance between the band's light and dark sides. "In Winter" is the strongest performance on the album, with a dark and melodic verse and a nice chunky chorus riff. It's followed closely by their crushing cover of Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell." Kittie gives the song a heavy, bouncing riff and singer/screecher Morgan Lander showcases some interesting vocal inflections on the verse.

For an album that goes out of its way to show how heavy the band can be, two of the last tracks on the album seem like strange choices. Rather than go out with a bang, Kittie instead changes pace with "Safe" and "Pink Lemonade," a pair of interesting, yet morose tunes. The melancholy, keyboard-driven "Safe" is the better of the two, while the industrial-sounding "Pink Lemonade" gets a bit boring. Not a good choice as the listener's last memory of the album.

The songs on "Oracle" are not bad songs, in fact most of them are a bit above a lot of the nu-metal set. But it's also not an album that's likely to spend a lot of time in your CD player. It lacks the hooks and passages that get stuck in your head and won't go away. After a few listens, it gets a little dull.

On "Oracle," Kittie obviously set out to prove that they're more than a novelty act. Unlike their debut album, though, when the novelty wears off on this one, the listener may find there's not much beneath it.

Get "Oracle."