January 2024, In Review

My favorite albums of the year thus far

It’s been a busy year so far. Counting only full-length albums, EPs, and splits, I’ve tracked 416 metal releases for the month of January, with 161 of them being within the realm of black metal.

Currently, the United States is the largest exporter of metal music. This includes black metal. However, the USBM scene has maintained a preference for blackened death (and outside of the blackened realm, death metal overall). The US also loses some points for being the largest exporter of metalcore.

For shame, USA, for shame.

So what of everyone else? Here’s the Top 10:

Looks like Russia’s been busy with more than just violating other nations’ sovereignty. The others - namely Germany, the UK, Finland, France, Portugal, Italy, and Spain - have held their positions as some the largest exporters of black metal for a few years now. The odd one out is Australia, who has been trending upwards lately in their black metal releases. Much to my amusement, the Scandinavians are largely absent this month,…