August 2024 Best Heavy Metal Albums

August was a strong month, with a depth and breath of quality releases. Here are our picks for August 2024’s Best Heavy Metal Albums.

1. Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All (Napalm)

The veteran South Carolina death metal band Nile have some new faces on their latest album The Underworld Awaits Us All. Morbid Angel bassist Dan Vadim Von and guitarist Zach Jeter (Imperium, Doomsday Revival) are the group’s newest members, joining founding frontman Karl Sanders and longtime members George Kollias (drums) and Brian Kingsland (guitar).

The five-year gap between Vile Nilotic Rites and the new album is the longest of Nile’s career, making anticipation especially high. The band doesn’t disappoint, delivering their trademark death metal with stellar musicianship and creativity. Their middle eastern influences are showcased on the interlude “The Pentagrammathion Of Nephren-Ka.” “Overlord Of The Black Earth” and “Naquada II Enter The Golden Age” inject a brief melodic choir, which is an interesting change of pace. Melodic singing also makes an appearance near the end of “True Gods Of The Desert.” From streamlined tracks like the two minute “To Strike With Secret Fang” to epics like the 8 plus minute title track, Nile maintain the perfect mix of extremity, groove, melody and technicality. The Underworld Awaits Us All is another potent addition to Nile’s impressive catalog and one of the year’s best death metal albums. It’s our pick for August’s best album.

2. Anciients – Beyond The Reach Of The Sun (Season of Mist)

It has been a long eight years for fans of Anciients, Canada’s Juno-winning prog metal stalwarts. The band seemed to disappear after 2016’s excellent Voice Of The Void. As with many of us, life handed the band a series of obstacles, all of which they have overcome now and are we ever lucky, for the result of this wait is Beyond The Reach Of The Sun.

The Baroness and Mastodon influences and comparisons remain, but Anciients have taken their craft up a notch on this, their third release. Imagine the strongest moments of Voice Of The Void (“Ibex Eye”) and Heart Of Oak (“Raise the Sun”) and you’ll have an idea of what Beyond The Reach Of The Sun is like: nearly an hour of top-notch progressive metal. This a superb comeback album.

3. Nails – Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast)

After a long layoff from their biggest album to date, 2016’s You’ll Never Be One of Us, Nails are back with their fourth album Every Bridge Burning and the band has not lost a step in those years between. “Imposing Will” is the punch in the jaw to remind listeners what this band is capable of when firing on all cylinders. You barely get a chance to breathe during this album’s 20-minute run time, something that will make repeat visits to this aural altercation that much easier.

“Give Me The Painkiller” is another raucous anthem that adds in some high octane harmonics to the fray, giving a slight wrinkle to their bludgeoning bombardment. It’s something that adds to the overall attack without sacrificing any level of intensity. Every Bridge Burning is Nails returning after a long layoff with the same intensity to boot, breaking in a whole new generation of metallic hardcore, there will be no mercy!

4. Spectral Wound – Songs Of Blood And Mire (Profound Lore)

Spectral Wound return with the much-anticipated follow-up to 2021’s A Diabolic Thirst with their fourth album Songs Of Blood And Mire. This Quebecois quintet are able to convey their dark imagery masterfully through their melodically driven black metal. “Fevers And Suffering” opens the attack, and it evokes sounds of the great Dissection, while making this frigid and cold attack something of its own as well, effortlessly blending chaos with savagery with splendor.

The morbidity continues on “Aristocratic Suicidal Black Metal” with Jonah Campbell’s shrieks adding a ton to this already complex and visceral package. The riffs are rapid-fire and set the tone for “Twelve Moons In Hell.” Combine that with the drum kit that nearly sounds like it will explode at some point, Spectral Wound does all that they can to envelope you in the sounds of Satan. If you needed the right amount of technical mastery and melancholy, look no further than Songs Of Blood And Mire, one of 2024’s best black metal offerings.

5. Fleshgod Apocalypse – Opera (Nuclear Blast)

Fleshgod Apocalypse have come a long way since their days as a technical death metal band. In Opera, you can still hear impressive technical displays, but they take on a more supportive role compared to the intense action that’s constantly unfolding. The album wastes no time and keeps you on the edge for its entire duration.

If you liked their previous two albums, then Opera will feel familiar, but even more over the top. There are stellar performances from everyone, and even the final piano track adds something to the drama we’ve experienced. My only issue with Opera is that its production is rather loud, and it might be too bombastic and melodramatic at times. However, overall, Fleshgod Apocalypse have crafted another great symphonic/death metal album.

6. Kingcrow – Hopium (Season of Mist)

Italy’s Kingcrow have been around for quite a while but I only just discovered them with their seventh album, the excellent The Persistence, which we reviewed six years ago. Now we are up to their eighth album, Hopium, and once again the band crushes it, pushing their sound and style further abroad in epic-sounding fashion.

Once again led by the fantastic vocals of Diego Marchesi, Kingcrow deliver ten emotional, riveting songs that veer more towards aggressive prog-pop than metal. The band embraces synths and samples and arranges every song in wonderful fashion. Hopium solidifies Kingcrow’s status as one of the top prog bands in the vein of Riverside and Pain Of Salvation.