As 2024 winds down, Revolver has been asking our readers to share their thoughts on the year in heavy music. Last week we got your picks for the top 5 artists of 2024, and now we’re asking you to pick the sickest song you’ve heard these last 12 months.
To be sure, the votes came pouring in for some of the scene’s biggest players — and there’s naturally a bit of crossover between this week and last week’s poll — though your picks likewise ran the gamut from hooks-heavy modern rock towards the endlessly ambitious fringes of progressive death metal. It’s an interesting mix, for sure.
Below are the top five vote-getters.
Blood Incantation – “The Stargate”
The monolith returns.
Cosmic Coloradans Blood Incantation went full-on gonzo while wormholing through the two epic compositions on their fourth full-length, Absolute Elsewhere. Revolver readers, however, highlighted its introductory “The Stargate” as one of 2024’s most staggering sonic journeys.
Split up into three “Tablets,” the “surging magnitude” of “The Stargate” finds Blood Incantation portaling back and forth through classic death blasting, space-dust-inhaling synth ambiance, psyche-twisting Seventies prog and so much more.
“All life is suffering,” vocalist-guitarist Paul Riedl posits up front in the 20-minute piece, but what a damned joy it was to enter “The Stargate.”
Spiritbox – “Soft Spine”
There’s nothing precious or delicate about Spiritbox’s “Soft Spine,” the positively crushing debut single from the djent-pop favorites’ forthcoming Tsunami Sea album. The song is an iron-plated juggernaut of string-scraping savagery and unnervingly jud-heavy moments from guitarist Mike Stringer, and likewise finds vocalist Courtney LaPlante delivering a knockout performance while rage-screaming about the “insidious” actions of some untrustworthy folk.
Blow-for-blow, it’s one of Spiritbox’s heaviest and most jaw-dropping tracks yet, and fans have been rewarding all that “sick behavior” by perma-streaming the single ahead of next year’s album release.
Knocked Loose – “Suffocate” Ft. Poppy
Few songs this year could eclipse the monumental heaviness of Knocked Loose’s tag-team track with Poppy. Knocked Loose, themselves, are in fine, furious form as they gear up and down between manic micro-blasts, barbed-wire D-beats and chest-crevassing mosh sections. Even across the godhead oppressiveness of this year’s You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, “Suffocate” is one of its most menacingly dynamic tracks.
But then there’s the vocals — Bryan Garris is guard-dog snarlin’ his way through his sections par excellence, while Poppy hints at her heavy-as-hell 2024 through a positively seething set of screams.
It all came crashing down, and the wreckage sounded spectacular.
Linkin Park – “The Emptiness Machine”
The return of Linkin Park was one of the most surprising and much-discussed news stories in rock and metal music this year. While the band delivered a diverse collection with their FROM ZERO comeback album — their first studio full-length following the 2017 death of Chester Bennington — they kicked off their new era with the propulsive and poppy “The Emptiness Machine,” which has quickly become a fan favorite.
“The Emptiness Machine” is a succinct and snappy modern-rock earworm that contrasts a subtle verse from co-founding vocalist-guitarist Mike Shinoda with the rip-roaring and raspy chorus from new singer Emily Armstrong.
All told, it was an energy-surged introduction to the band’s current lineup, and likewise one of 2024’s true must-hears.
Gojira – “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ca ira!)”
In terms of unlikely hits — metal or otherwise — you don’t get much stranger than Gojira reimagining a protest song from French Revolution times, debuting its double-barreled explosiveness during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics, and likewise doing so while performing on the outdoor balconies of a castle. But, damn — put that all together and you’ve got yourself one incredibly memorable piece of music. Best of all, it’s an outright banger.
“Mea Culpa (Ah! Ca ira!)” may not be Gojira’s most progressively heavy moment, but it does swing for the rafters with its cannon-blasted drum work, guillotine-sharp riffage and a tandem vocal approach that unites Joe Duplantier’s mighty yet melodic roar with the grand elegance of opera singer (and longtime metalhead) Marina Viotti.
For all those reasons and more, it’s Revolver readers’ pick for the best song of 2024.