Continuing the /amodelofcontrol.com review of 2024 – and the twenty-first year that I’ve done this – which this week turns attention to the best tracks of the year. Next week will be the wrap of the best albums of 2024.

/Countdown/Tracks/History

/Countdown /Tracks /#1s on Spotify

/2023 /Skindred /Gimme That Boom
/2022 /SRSQ /Someday I Will Bask In The Sun
/2021 /ACTORS /Killing Time (Is Over)
/2020 /seeming /End Studies
/2019 /SCALPING /Ruptured
/2018 /IDLES /Television
/2017 /Zola Jesus /Siphon
/2016 /School of Seven Bells /Signals
/2015 /CHVRCHES /Playing Dead
/2014 /seeming /The Burial

/2013 /Seabound /Nothing But Love
/2012 /Death Grips /Hacker
/2011 /Frank Turner /One Foot Before The Other
/2010 /In Strict Confidence /Silver Bullets
/2009 /Yeah Yeah Yeahs /Zero
/2008 /Mind.in.a.box /What Used To Be (Short Storm)
/2007 /Prometheus Burning /Battery Drain
/2006: No tracks of the year list
/2005 /Grendel /Soilbleed & /Rotersand /Exterminate Annihilate Destroy
/2004: No tracks of the year list

The tracks of the year post is often the hardest to collate and write. It is perhaps because I have so much choice – even from just the /Tracks of the Month posts in my /Tuesday Ten series this year, I had 30 tracks to choose from (needless to say, it’s not unusual for me to be writing about more than ten tracks each month!), and it’s also not unusual for a few more to pop into consideration in one way or another. For example, the release list file that I keep recorded 345 relevant releases to consider – and that by no means covered everything. In other words, there’s been a whole lot of new music this year once again.

Music is such a part of my life that I’m generally listening to music when I’m on my own. Even just going by my Last.fm stats, I’ve listened to 16,795 songs during the “qualifying” period for this list (see below) – made up from 11,858 unique songs, and 3,765 artists. Some struck a chord, some were older, and others will not have made an impression at all. Working from home, for the most part, helps – music has long soundtracked my working day when I’m not on calls – and I like to try and vary and expand what I’m listening to. I’ve also continued DJing both on livestreams and in-person, and as always, this list will be far more than just industrial music.

A note on “eligibility” for this list. If the song was released between 01-Dec 2023 and 30-Nov 2024 and/or featured on an album of new material in that same timeframe, it counts.

I run /amodelofcontrol.com as what might be called a “labour of love”. I’ve written about music for twenty-eight years, over twenty of those years under this website banner, and I continue to want to celebrate all that is great about this corner of the musical realm. So this site continues to exist – with no external funding and no paid-for advertising – and I will continue to do so as long as I want to do it, and as long as people want to read it.

So thanks for reading, contributing, offering comments, or being one of those people that makes the music I want to write about. Look forward to more from me about the music I listen to in 2025.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/Powerman 5000
/1999
/Abandon Ship

I’m not normally one for nostalgia if I can help it, but PM5K might have a point with a single this year. Back in 1999, the band had the world at their feet, their sci-fi infused industrial metal going down a storm in the clubs, and Tonight the Stars Revolt! sold well beyond a million copies. Then, the musical word changed in terms of styles in vogue – and of course Napster et al, and bands like PM5K would never have that kind of opportunity again. So for Spider and his band to lean back to that time is a little wistful, but also a hark back to a more innocent time. 1999 is the sound of an older, wiser band who don’t have to go all out anymore, and this track is a little more restrained than I thought it might be. Even when it kicks up a gear, it still feels like something is deliberately being held back. Still a lot of fun, though.

/Une Misère
/Sever
/DAMNED

Icelandic six-piece Une Misère have featured in these lists before: their vicious, metallic hardcore being right up my street. Their first new material in a few years isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but why fuck with a sound that works so well? You know what’s coming with those ominous cymbal taps to begin with, and the crushing multi-guitar attack brings thrashing mid-sections and a murderous breakdown to complete the set. Coming to destroy you in a moshpit sometime soon. (This was released right at the end of November last year, and just missed the list: so is being featured here to right that wrong).

/Gunpoint X
/Guns Guns Guns (BFG Remix)
/Perfection Of Human Error Remix EP

A band I know nothing about (and unfortunately had to miss a gig locally recently due to other plans) released a monster of a track earlier in the year. One of a few bands nodding back to the kind of sample-heavy industrial metal that was part of my formative musical education at the moment, this track is, I’m presuming, a satirical one. Lyrically it takes the position of a gun-nut celebrating their love of weapons in various ways, while newsreel and political samples (some suspiciously similar to Ministry concepts of the past), and musically it is a relentless, guitar-heavy stomp that sounds great fun – and for an underground band, has impressive production values too.

/Agency-V
/We Can Erase You

This relatively new Essex trio (Marie Williamson, Lloyd Price, and Peter Steer) have one familiar name to this site, as Peter Steer used to be in both The Nine and Tenek, as well as a number of other projects. That experience in the style certainly comes across on this excellent single, a track of soaring electronics and melody, with Marie’s tense vocals matching the atmosphere well. Peter Steer’s long-proven knack with catchy choruses shines through, too (as does his subtle use of backing vocals to enhance at just the right moments, something any Tenek fan will be more than familiar with), and the end result is a single that promises much for future output.

/Shooting Daggers
/Wipe Out
/Love & Rage

It turns out skatepunk is still a thing, and this feminist/queercore band from London are leaning right into it, with this short, sharp single from their debut album. Wipe Out is a celebratory song about the scene they are part of, but also that making mistakes while improving your skills – whether that is skating or another endeavour – is part of the process. You can’t always succeed, but Shooting Daggers lands their tricks here on this great track.

/_the boundless_
/Step Up
/Step Up

A bit of a bolt from the blue early in 2024 was this US artist – whom I know very little about – one that is clearly au fait with the sample-heavy artists of the late-80s and early-90s, like the Poppies and Renegade Soundwave in particular. The title track to the EP, Step Up, has a lolloping breakbeat (very much of the time, in fact) that works as a springboard for any number of samples and synth hooks to burst away from, and keeping up with what is going on is dizzying and a whole lot of fun.

/Benefits
/Land of the Tyrants (feat. Zera Tønin)

After making headlines in the music press just recently with fan-led changes to their upcoming tour, they also raised eyebrows with a notable change to their sound for the first new track from their upcoming album. While much of the material from Nails was built around scorching noise, Land of the Tyrants backs Kingsley Hall’s diatribe about oligarchs and a fucked up society with smoother beats, the kind of mellowed out dance music that I might have heard in the nineties. It suits the vocal delivery surprisingly well, as Hall is more restrained here, as if he feels like he needs to regroup somewhat. The Tories are out, but change – and positive change at that – is going to be hard enough without the likes of Trump in the White House across the Atlantic, and this song reflects that.

/Principe Valiente
/Something New
/In This Light

The gloomy, goth dreampop of Principe Valiente’s recent work was pierced somewhat by the single from this new album, which amid an album that is mostly at one, glacial pace, shows a bit of fire amid the ice. Something New rumbles along atop a Cure-esque bassline, with Fernando Honorato’s deep, rich vocals providing a plaintative cry over it. A much needed jolt of energy, and a reminder that bands really can do something new, away from their established style, and make it work.

/KAPUT
/High Wire

Nadia Garofalo (who left /amodelofcontrol.com favourites Ganser a couple of years back) has been involved in a couple of other projects since then, but KAPUT seems to offer the most promise. A collaboration with Chicago producer/engineer Brian Fox, there’s a distinct No-wave nihilism to the first single as Garofalo offers her trademark detached vocals to a song that rumbles along before ripping into a chaotic climax, while the video has the most fake blood that I’ve seen in music video in some time…

/Will Haven
/KIRE
/No Stars To Guide Me: 30 Years of WHVN

Never mind stars, Will Haven have been burning with the intensity of a supernova for three decades, and the new track for their exceptionally concise “best-of” continues that pattern. KIRE roars out of the traps – something of a WHVN trademark – with mighty, chugging riffage and a low-end rumble that you could feel from miles away. Grady Avenell sounds like he is exorcising every demon in his body, and the tempo waxes and wanes subtly as the band provide the muscular, ripping backbone. There aren’t many bands that are this heavy that have managed to survive this long – most of them burn out within a few years. Their sheer aural power is perhaps why they never broke through like their friends and peers Deftones, but for those of us that have stuck with them all this time, I’m glad they kept with it.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/The Foreign Resort
/Southern Skies

A stripped back single from The Foreign Resort this autumn appears to have launched us into a new phase for the band, with a new album expected at some point. Their love of The Cure remains undimmed (although that might be Mikkel Borbjerg Jakobsen’s vocal style, which sounds an awful lot like Robert Smith), but this isn’t downbeat darkness: instead, shorn of the synths that often dominate this bands sound, this is an impressive, goth-rock charge with a distinct shoegazey edge thank to the buzzing guitars. A band who have flown under the radar a bit, and perhaps the new album will change that.

/Fluke
/Insanely Beautiful
/Insanely Beautiful EP

One of the more surprising returns after a long absence this year has been electronic group Fluke – 21 years since their last album Puppy. This group always seemed to shun the limelight, keeping their image as low-profile as possible, so the return is surprising the say the least. If you were expecting thundering tracks like Atom Bomb again too, you may be disappointed from the first couple of new tracks, but that’s not to say that they aren’t great. Comeback single Insanely Beautiful – all seven minutes of it – is wonderful. Picking up where the more considered sound of Puppy left off, it is a mix of gentle, quasi-ambient piano sequences and rumbling rhythms that culminates in thrilling, boiling climax, with Jon Fugler’s vocals mostly untreated and clear in the mix (another change from their better-known hits in the nineties). It’s a great return, and a continuation of the groups’ long-standing ethos of evolution – they’ve never stood still, and seeing as electronic music alone has changed in the two-decades since they last graced us with their presence, why should they?

/Isaac Howlett
/House of Cards

With the success of Empathy Test over the past decade – and indeed their continuing success – it may have been a bit of a surprise to find frontman Isaac Howlett releasing a solo record, but when I heard the song for the first time it immediately made sense. ET made their name by being a deeply emotional, mostly ballad-led synthpop band – and with such a distinctive sound – that anything deviating from that may not have worked. House of Cards still has the lovelorn, after-dark quality, but coupled to a dancefloor-friendly beat, it’s a radical change for Howlett and one that suits him surprisingly well. I cannot imagine that this will signify the end of the parent band just yet, but it does perhaps signpost an alternative route for future success if ET comes to the end of the road.

/Derision Cult
/Warning Signs
/Mercenary Notes, Pt. 2

If you like your industrial with a hefty side of metal – and perhaps like classic Ministry from the turn of the 80s/90s…Derision Cult are likely for you. The excellent single Warning Signs tears down the track like an out of control monster truck, all thumping drums and chugging riffs, while Dave McAnally snarls his vocals. Those warning signs here appear to be a call to arms around the horror of US politics right now, full of corruption and hate. The song is simply a warning and show of disgust, there are no solutions suggested (but then, why should there be – musicians cannot solve politics), and it’s a fantastic display of Chicago industrial metal paying tribute to the past while still looking to the future. The animated video is awesome, too.

/Data Void
/Nothing Changes
/Strategies of Dissent

A new project from Don Gordon (NUMB, Halo_Gen) and James Mendez (Jihad, Trial by Fire) released an interesting album this year, but the most notable track was Nothing Changes. A thrilling, 170bpm rush, it rips along atop a booming industrialised drum’n’bass chassis with vocals spat out by James Mendez that appear to thrown scorn on US politics and the options of worse than now or more of the same – and a nihilistic streak of going “fuck it” and blasting through life with little regard to the consequences as a result. There is definitely more than a hint of Numb at their most aggressive, but it’s not a straight retread, and nor should it be. By some distance the best track on the album it comes from, but well worth a listen if you want to hear what both artists are up to at the moment.

/Knocked Loose
/Suffocate (feat. Poppy)
/You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To

A band that might be one of the biggest metal bands around right now – helped by their wild appearance on Jimmy Kimmel last week that saw a lot of pearl-clutching online – benefitted too from an unexpected meeting of minds this year, but one that works brilliantly. Knocked Loose are the young, rising metalcore stars with a reputation for wild live shows, while Poppy has shed the robot persona for one that takes in vicious metal and synthpop/industrial in equal measure. This track has everything I want – those cymbal taps that herald a world of impending aural violence, rapid tempo changes and guitar riffs that come with razor-sharp edges, and an almighty depth charge of a breakdown that could wipe cities off the map. Poppy’s savage vocal delivery works well against the falsetto shriek of Bryan Garris, too, the kind of inspired guest vocal that allows you to see an artist in a whole new light.

/Ghostpoet
/Oh Lord!
/Am I The Change I Wish To See?

Obaro Ejimiwe – for he is Ghostpoet – has been relatively quiet in recent times, so it was a pleasure to hear new material from him after what feels so long. This song is a dark, brooding trip-hop piece, where Ghostpoet has an internal conversation with God, admitting he’s not in a great place, and asks Him how he’s doing. Think of it as a mental health check in four minutes. The video: a clever concept around what Black men waiting to get into Heaven might have to do – is arresting, too.

/ESA
/Rats Come Together
/Rats Come Together

Jamie Blacker has long been unusual within the noisier realms of industrial for being willing to use elements of disparate genres: extreme metal, glitch, gabba, hip-hop and church organs all make appearances on this relentless track. It storms past at a breathless pace for the most part, a thundering rhythm holding everything together, but elsewhere Blacker manages to include a striking clean vocal interlude, and the general feeling is that after twenty years, he’s nowhere done innovating.

/Kim Gordon
/I’m A Man
/The Collective

Kim Gordon has been a key part of the alternative landscape for a long time, having been part of the core of Sonic Youth since the eighties, but I can’t say I was expecting the lead single for her album The Collective to be industrial trap. No, really – and it sounds great, with weird droning synths adding something quite strange into the mix. The bit that is less surprising are the lyrics, that tear into entitled, toxic men, showing both fury with them and laughing at them. Kim Gordon has long offered commentary in her songs about gender politics and feminism, taking men to task, and this might be one of the best songs from her I’ve heard in a great many years.

/SØLVE
/BLEAK HEARTS
/BLEAK HEARTS BURN

Brant Showers has long used his solo SØLVE project as a playground for his ideas and musical evolution, with the project having diverged some way from the parent ∆AIMON duo. There’s still the dark, near-occult atmospheres, sure, but musically is where the difference really lies. The latest EP from Brant came earlier in the autumn, and was noticeably heavier thanks to extensive use of guitars. BLEAK HEARTS leans into No-Wave: massive sounding drums and chugging guitars bear the echoes of earlier Swans (a neat squaring of the circle after ∆AIMON came to prominence thanks to their staggering cover of A SCREW (HOLY MONEY) way back in 2011), but there is a an aggressive edge to it too, as if Brant is exorcising demons from within. The EP also contains a fantastic cover of Sister Machine Gun’s Burn, rebuilt in a similar style. An excellent return with intriguing pointers for where he might go next.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/Everything Goes Cold
/Nadir
/Nadir EP

The return of Eric Gottesman’s Everything Goes Cold project, after around a decade, was a welcome surprise this year. Over the initial period the project was active, he never let his sound stagnate, so to hear Nadir make another about turn makes absolute sense. A gloomy, machine-rock ballad is pretty much what we get, and with slashes of processed guitars bursting through the walls, it’s a great return. Also of note is the video, where “that” fridge makes a long awaited reappearance…

/Caustic Grip
/Beneath The Skin
/Beneath The Skin

One of a few tracks released in an unusually fertile (for music) December last year came from electro-industrial revivalists Caustic Grip. The name should tip you into what to expect – and you’d be entirely right – but that doesn’t take away anything from how damned good this artist has become. Beneath The Skin might well be their best track yet. A dingy-dancefloor-basement-friendly drum pattern stomps away, assisted by bass synths bubbling away, and a vocal about body dysmorphia that actually has something profound to say. A fantastic track.

/INVA//ID
/Thorn
/Thorn EP

The latest in a number of singles over the past couple of years followed up an exceptional cover of Show Me Your Spine by industrial supergroup PTP, and indeed that cover gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Thorn is a grinding, three-minute slab of nastiness. Heavy, downtuned guitars drag the funereal drums into the murk, and the snarled vocals only add to the aggression and implied violence. This is a band taking industrial back into some really dark places – not the cartoon nastiness of aggrotech, somewhere much more unsettling.

/Einstürzende Neubauten
/Ist Ist (Dubfire Remix)
/Ist Ist (Dubfire Remixes)

Remixes of Neubauten are – unusually, for a band in the industrial sphere – relatively uncommon, but perhaps that simply a matter of quality control: and here, Iranian-American producer Dubfire – a self-confessed huge fan of the band – knocks it out of the park and then some. Ist Ist in the original form is very much the Neubauten of modern times – intricate and relatively mellowed out, with Blixa Bargeld’s wordplay and vocal delivery the key to the track. Dubfire takes his vocals and little else of the track, overlaying it on thundering industrial rhythms that, somehow, feel entirely appropriate for the Berliner experimental legends, and the end result sounds incredible when played at speaker-blowing volume.

/Witch of the Vale
/100 Ways To Leave
/100 Ways To Leave, Vol. I

After the sheer emotional force of the last release The Love of a Father in 2022, the new EP from Scottish duo Witch of the Vale feels much more subdued. Hints were made around the time of release that the last year or so has been a trying time, and this EP appears to reflect that – a sense of mental and physical exhaustion permeates these low-key songs. Pick of the songs here is the title track, a bleak tale of relationship breakdown where Erin’s striking vocals are, as usual, in the forefront, and here accompanied by just swirling synths and the odd snarl of bass, and like the rest of this album, the general lack of drums really does soften the atmosphere, if not the emotional wallop. An EP of songs that really needs close attention to uncover its beauty.

/Sleek Teeth
/Endless
/Sleek Teeth

The seemingly endless supply of great new artists in our scene from Los Angeles continues, with Sleek Teeth one of the latest to come to my attention. They released a handful of songs this year, culminating in an excellent EP in October, and Endless is the track that I keep coming back to. Think gloomy darkwave vocals coupled with the kind of thumping electro that Depeche Mode were putting out in the mid-80s, and a soaring chorus that had me marvelling at first listen.

/Clipping.
/Tipsy
/Tipsy b/w Midnight

A new album from Clipping. is due in 2025, and in the meantime, we’ve had a number of singles across the year. Tipsy was my pick of the bunch, a woozy, industrial take on J-Kwon’s twenty-year old track that comes armed with monstrous bass synths on the chorus, and random blasts of pure noise – while Daveed Diggs roams a drunken, fucked up club and paints us a picture of what he sees. The place sounds wild, a bacchanal of excess that everyone will, naturally, regret and celebrate in equal measure the following morning. It’s quite the change from the horror themes of the last few albums, for sure…

/Semantix
/Facelift
/Caustic Motion EP

One of a number of artists in recent times delving deep into classic EBM stylings – but with a modern twist – is Semantix, whose instrumental EBM workouts have been some of the best examples of their kind in some years. The latest EP, released in the first week of 2024, is all choppy synths and relentless rhythms. Facelift is a machine-led track that is tailor-made for gloomy, sweat-drenched clubs and deserves to be played as loud as possible.

/Frank Turner
/No Thank You For The Music
/Undefeated

The standout song from Undefeated became obvious from the first listen, as I realised that I’ll be singing along with this at every FTHC gig from now on. I mean, why else is there a giant, sing-a-long chorus, and a big vocal breakdown later in the song? It is a big, loud punk song about the joy of the underground, of music that is excluded from the mainstream and instead finds it’s audience and tribe organically, not relying on advertisers or suchlike. Pretty much like Turner, in fact, who has now had Number One albums, and big-ass sold out shows everywhere he goes, because he’s put in the work and plugged away, and is finally reaping those rewards. No Thank You For The Music has the feel of a richly-deserved victory lap, and listening to it, it is impossible not to cheer him on.

/Shellac
/I Don’t Fear Hell
/To All Trains

If there’s a heaven, I hope they’re having fun / Cause if there’s a hell, I’m gonna know everyone” A quite remarkable final line from any album, but from one released just days after Steve Albini died? Fuuuck. I Don’t Fear Hell is the last track on the last Shellac album, and so is pretty much the final words from Steve Albini, and it’s eerily prophetic. It lurches forward with a stuttering momentum, even more stark than the rest of the album, as if to allow more attention on Albini’s words. It’s like he wrote the song with a keen sense of his own mortality, as if he knew it was coming, and that he was prepared. I mean, it’s not as if he didn’t cram an awful lot into his life, with his musical endeavours, his poker playing, his online presence, and perhaps most importantly, an awareness and ability to apologise and try and atone for some of his more questionable statements and actions when he was younger. There is a lot to learn from Albini’s actions in his later life, and this song was an extraordinary way to put a full stop on that life.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/MODEBIONICS
/DIVIIDE DIVISION
/VIIXIIV (DIVIIDE DIVISION)

Modern EBM has evolved in a couple of directions over the past decade – either becoming an element of thumping, club-bound techno, or looping back to the nineties and returning to pounding electro-industrial. MODEBIONICS are very much in the latter camp, and DIVIIDE DIVISION comes complete with an unstoppable rhythm, synths that 242 would be proud of, and shadowy, low-key vocals and choir effects that are part of the sound, but never dominate. There used to be an EBM night called ENDURANCE in London, that pumped out new and old EBM and New Beat at brutal volumes, in sweaty basements. This would have been ideal there, and I mean that as the highest compliment.

/IAmImperfect
/Static & Feeling
/Reincarnate EP

A relatively new duo from Sheffield (featuring Kelly D, a regular in these pages over the years thanks to his involvement in The Way of All Flesh in particular) that are marking their mark with a glitchy, guitar-heavy take on synthpop. After a couple of standalone tracks, their first EP this autumn showcased their songcraft, and puts the best foot forward by opening with the duo’s standout track so far. Static & Feeling has a nice, guitar-assisted stomp to it, but really takes off thanks to Paul’s dramatic vocal delivery in the chorus (and live, when I saw them playing Crafty Cove in Whitby, this was the track that really clicked with the sold-out crowd). A strong prospect, this one.

/ULTRA SUNN
/Broken Monsters
/US

It seems that Depeche Mode are back in fashion, certainly judging on the number of artists at the moment who seem to be paying homage. There’s certainly something of DM’s leather-and-electro pomp in the outstanding single from Ultra Sunn, with reverbed vocals for extra effect, while the music also has tinges of EBM muscle-and-hate to it. It’s a muscular, powerful sound, and has like much of the rest of Ultra Sunn’s output so far, a way with hooks that get into your head and stay there for days on end.

/YARD
/Bend

A friend tipped me to the edgy, noisy sounds that Dublin band YARD make, and they are part of the new wave of ostensibly noise rock bands that bring in industrial and techno influences to supercharge their sound. Not unlike SCALER, perhaps, but the songs YARD have released are vastly more aggressive, and seem to care less about the dancefloor. Bend is a case in point – grimy, vicious rhythms dominate the track, with fathoms-worth of bass and guitars that barely sound like normal instruments. Vocals are part of the texture, just another part of the dense, oppressive mix. Aim for 2025: try and see this band live.

/MAQUINA.
/denial
/PRATA

It is by chance than Portuguese band MAQUINA. ended up adjacent to YARD in this list: and they are making music with similar inputs. But MAQUINA., at least on the savage denial, have a sheer sonic force that punches you in the gut: all volume and power (in part thanks to that looped, apparently infinite bassline), and the distinct feeling that live this will blind you with the accompaniment of strobes. It also has a brutal, unstoppable momentum thanks to a rhythm section forged in steel, while guitars are all pedal-led and the vocals have a reverb that makes them inhuman. This is nasty, ugly, and quite brilliant.

/Then Comes Silence
/Ride or Die
/Trickery

Most listeners to music in our “scene” will likely now be familiar with the gothic rock charge of Swedish trio Then Comes Silence, who have a thoroughly modern take on the genre, with sleek synths and crisp production, but most importantly a knack with giant-sounding, anthemic songs. Latest album Trickery was introduced by the motorik power of Ride or Die, a song that celebrates the kinship and camaraderie of the post-punk/goth scene, and how most of the bands look out for each other, both on tour and on record – and the song charges forward on the kind of chorus that makes you want to punch the air when it kicks in.

/Lord Spikeheart
/TYVM ft. SAIONJI BBBBBBB
/The Adept

A few years ago, jaws dropped as Kenyan duo DUMA blasted our eardrums, like an unholy mix of digital hardcore, grindcore and power noise. They may now be gone, but Lord Spikeheart from the duo released solo material this year, and it somehow felt even more extreme. Blasting through at the kind of BPM that causes panic attacks, the vocals could strip paint from the walls, and it becomes quickly apparent that this is a nastily confrontational two-and-a-bit minutes, the kind of music that will send some people (hi, my wife) running for the hills, and the rest of us reaching for the volume setting and turning it up all the louder.

/St. Vincent
/Broken Man
/All Born Screaming

As comebacks go (after the previous album getting a lukewarm reception), Broken Man was a striking, defiant return. The video is simple but unforgettable, and tells us as much as the song does. St. Vincent in a featureless black space, with a microphone stand and then randomly bursts into flames, and we watch her fighting with the fire as the song explodes into life around her, before giving in to the flames while carrying what appears to be a riding crop. The song itself seethes and writhes, building from a simple tick-tock of synths and programmed drums into an explosion of guitars and drums, while St. Vincent roars the vocals. It certainly got our attention…

/Delilah Bon
/I Am The Best (Ask Your Momma)
/Evil, Hate Filled Female

The centrepiece and frankly star track on the new Delilah Bon album is a takedown of internet haters (complete with bonus “Your Momma” jokes) and is genuinely a hilarious song, too. But it’s also an important message: so many men are so entitled that they become toxic misogynists when they find women that dare speak up against them, and the internet is fucking full of them. Delilah Bon has a great clapback: the more they comment, the more they complain…the better she does. It’s still views, it’s still listens, and that’s all good for Delilah! A great track, a great message, and a whole lot of fun along the way.

/KLACK
/Let’s Go To Berlin!
/Modern Production

KLACK have spent a lot of time referencing the UK dance music that they love, but another key influence comes from Berlin, and the glorious closing track on their latest EP celebrates that city. A punchy beat keeps a strict tempo, while Matt Fanale gives what appears to be a quick overview of Berlin…before a hilarious punchline changes up the track entirely. Suddenly, a giant, ravey synth motif takes over and it’s all hands in the air. Then, we get Matt describing a potentially imagined journey across town, hunting out German music luminaries, clubs and great food (with mixed success, although you can always find good Currywurst, that’s for sure), and all the while, this track absolutely bangs. A wonderful celebration of music culture, with the distinct feeling that Matt and Eric Oehler are having a whale of a time making music as KLACK. Us listeners are probably enjoying it just as much.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01

/Divine Shade
/Hate & Oblivion

For me, French trio Divine Shade were the undisputed standout of Infest 2024. Taking influences from The Young Gods and Killing Joke – or at least, that’s who their songs most sound like to these ears – their sleek industrial rock is full of interesting touches and dynamic shifts, and latest single Hate and Oblivion is a great example of just how great they are. Laconic vocals dovetail with pounding drums and buzzing guitars, much of which frequently drops away for elegant synth-based ambience. Live they are punishing and enthralling, on record the subtleties and sheer level of detail becomes clear. I believe an album is coming sometime in 2025, I can’t wait.

/Beborn Beton
/American Girls
/To The Stars

Following on from their marvellous album Darkness Falls Again last year, a postscript to it arrived last month, in the form of a handful of new tracks, an ELO cover (!) and some impressive remixes. The EP is worth it alone, though, for the glorious American Girls. A celebration of the strength and perseverance of women, and the struggle for equality, apparently, it’s hardly the first recent song by the band to reference wider world events, but the warmth and melodic hit of this track ranks it as one of their best. I also rather love the nod to the Beach Boys weaving through parts of the song, too…

/BLACKGOLD
/One Chance
/Back With Another One EP

I have no fucking idea who this masked five-piece actually are, but provided they keep delivering the goods like this track, they can remain as anonymous as they like. A song that is bluntly about taking the chances you are offered, and not shirking away, it should also be noted that this is as Nu-Metal as it comes, and it doesn’t give a flying fuck if you don’t like it. It has riffs, it has bounce, it has the kind of chorus to be sung back by giant festival crowds, and yes, it has a Limp Bizkit-esque monster of a breakdown and payoff that suggests this presumably younger band grew up on their parent’s music (the band’s tagline on Facebook does say “Your mum’s favourite Nu-Metal band”, after all). I make no apologies whatsoever for saying I absolutely fucking love this, and they are doing what they promise on their T-shirts: they “Make Nu-Metal Great Again”. They are also fantastic live, as they proved the other week supporting Pitchshifter.

/Charli XCX
/guess feat. billie eilish
/brat and it’s completely different but also still brat

As was inescapable this year, it was a brat summer, as Charli XCX finally became the globe-straddling pop star she had long promised to be. As is often the way when an artist hits their creative peak, they have a seemingly endless collection of bangers, so when brat got an expanded edition with a few more songs, guess seemed to turn up like an afterthought. As soon as you turn on this track, though, it becomes clear that this is anything but an afterthought: it’s a sneering, dancefloor monster, as Charli cheekily challenges someone – presumably the tabloids, the gossipmongers, and probably a few suitors – to take a few guesses around intimate details, clearly as she’s sick of being asked them, before Billie Eilish joins the party and makes these questions rather more personal, even though she knows it’s not going anywhere (as she makes clear in her vocals – “Charli like boys but she knows I’d hit it“, indeed…). So: sexual tension, flirting, and a banging earworm of a tune. What’s not to like?

/ACTORS
/Object of Desire
/

The new ACTORS album is due sometime in early 2025, and in the meantime, we’ve been teased with a handful of singles across 2024 – of which Object of Desire was the standout. A mostly-synth-based track, it drips with a raw sensuality, with lyrics of short phrases that suggest carnal pleasure and vocals that brood and purr. ACTORS have been getting better and better in recent years, straddling the border between post-punk and synthpop with effortless ease, and with songs like this, it’s clear they are still not done.

/The Jesus Lizard
/Hide & Seek
/Rack

Twenty-six years have passed since The Jesus Lizard last recorded new music, and Hide and Seek made it feel like it was last week. Oh yes, that demonic rhythm section is back in full effect – pounding drums, woozy basslines that could work as the foundation for skyscrapers – that allow savage guitar work and David Yow to bellow the usual bizarro lyrics, this time about an encounter with a witch, it seems (“She’s a battleaxe with no sense of humour” is a choice line from the chorus – this is some of Yow’s most laugh-out-loud lyrics in ages). It charges forward, the chorus could move boulders uphill, it ups yet another gear for the final freakout coda, and leaves you with the sense that it was worth the fucking wait, that’s for sure. Younger noise rock bands, step aside – the kings are back in to reclaim their throne.

/Scene Queen
/18+
/Hot Singles In Your Area

It may originally have been released in 2023, but it appeared on the artist’s debut album this year, therefore it counts. And if nothing else, it likely wins the “earworm of the year” award: for weeks it was ringing through my brain when I woke up in the night… Scene Queen, anyway, is feminist, sex-positive pop-meets-metal, and it does both sides brilliantly, with gigantic hooks and slamming riffs. The best track by far is 18+, where Scene Queen takes on the (many) abusers in emo and pop-punk (the scene she grew up with) and takes them down with cheerleader chants (“18+! 18+! Get those children off your bus!“), arena-sized choruses, pithy takedowns and a general feeling that this is a message that needs screaming from the rooftops. Anyway, best of luck getting the damned thing out of your head.

/Pixel Grip
/STAMINA

“Chicago Club-Pop” is what Pixel Grip call themselves, and they took their sound to another level with the stark power of STAMINA late this summer. There’s not a lot to it: a drumbeat that hits you in the chest, a bass Moog…and Rita Lukea. This song is all about Rita, a groovy, punishing track all about her sexual needs, and how her paramour needs to “fuck [me] over and over“, and “it ain’t over until I say it’s over“, a demonstration of feminine sexuality and choice: she is going to get what she wants. It’s a song that musically builds up to a literally orgasmic high, and you can feel the sweat dripping from the walls. The top comment on the equally stark YouTube video says it all: “my speakers need a cigarette“.

/Urban Heat
/Sanitizer
/The Tower

A little late to the party with Urban Heat – and indeed I’ve missed two opportunities to see them live in the UK this year, never mind at Cold Waves – but I was hooked as soon as I heard the masterful groove of Sanitizer. Nodding clearly to hip-hop as much as darkwave electronics – and with a distinct feeling they may have listened to Stromkern at some point – Sanitizer charges out of the speakers at you like an avalanche, Jonathan Horstmann’s vocals coming at you with an urgency like this might be the last time he has the chance. It’s a song, at least to these ears, that is one giant pep talk, about not giving in against the forces that push you down, about cleaning house and starting afresh with new ideas. An apt song in a time where I feel I need such encouragement, and where anything remotely progressive gets shouted down. Oh, and medical-themed video looks like it was as much fun to film as it is to watch.

/The Last Year
/Extinction

This one popped up on a recommendation somewhere (possibly on Spotify, maybe on YouTube), and I was hooked immediately. A synth-assisted alt-rock track that absolutely rips, it’s a “happy” song about the impending end of the world, and seems to revel in humans reaping what they sow. But then, with Governments still not grasping just how dire climate change already is, meteorologists getting death threats thanks to hurricane conspiracies, Trump being re-elected, and with there now being a general sense that we’re fucked as a race in the medium-term, maybe The Last Year have a point.

Anyway, the song: it is based on bubbling synths and muscular drum rhythms, while vocalist Niki seethes through her delivery. It’s also one of those songs where the tiny breath that the whole band takes just before the chorus allows it to absolutely blast out of the speakers – and what a chorus it is (“Out of Sight / Out of Mind” indeed…). A band up there with HEALTH in their capability to bring together sweet melody and crushing heaviness. Where have this band been in my listening before now? This track, though, has been looping in my head for months, so perhaps it’s appropriate that a seething soundtrack to the impending apocalypse is the /amodelofcontrol.com track of 2024.

/50-/41 – /40-/31 – /30-/21 – /20-/11 – /10-/01