Best 10 Metal Albums of January 2024

We're a bit behind, but here's the first article in a series of the best metal albums by month. Many shy away from releasing albums in January, so we salute you, oh, brave warriors. A list of the best metal albums of January 2024 featuring a variety of subgenres, from black, death, and thrash to heavy metal. This list caters to a wide range of metal music preferences, so there's something for every metalhead to enjoy!

Check out the other articles in the series, spotlighting the monthly best metal albums for February, March and April 2024. Or check out the complete 2024 metal albums chart for more amazing albums.

With their sixth full-length, "Charcoal Grace," Australian progressive metal band Caligula's Horse takes the top spot. The album's backbone consists of a four-piece, 24-minute epic suite, "Charcoal Grace," which also gives the album its name. After releasing their previous album amid the pandemic, canceling tour dates, and being unable to promote it, the band stated that Charcoal Grace was a cathartic release inspired by the band's hopelessness caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the gentleness of "Charcoal Grace," we make a 180-degree turn to the pummeling force of "Suffer & Become," the second album released by Portland-based technical death metal band Vitriol. With influences from brutal death metal, black metal, or grindcore, you know you're in for an extreme metal buffet. Check them out on tour right now, supporting Cattle Decapitation.

These boots are made for walking, and that's just wh.... Umm, sorry, traveling. I meant traveling... or hiking... or questing; you get the point. Sgàile plays the kind of music that makes you want to drop everything, grab your trusted companion (or your backpack), and go adventuring (or for a hike). "Traverse the Bealach" is the second release of this one-man Scottish project that draws inspiration from many subgenres, from prog and post-metal to some folk, power, or black metal. While the clean vocals will probably dissuade most extreme metal lovers from giving the album a chance, their unique flavor is a strong reason for the opposite.

"Divine Laughter" is the second album released by another Australian band, Cave Sermon. The album offers a unique blend of various metal influences, incorporating elements of death, post, and prog-metal, with some sludge metal, black metal, and moments of psychedelia sprinkled on top. Following the first album's all-instrumental format, this one features Miguel Méndez of Mico on vocals.

Hauntologist, a Polish back metal project featuring Darkside (Kriegsmaschine, Mgła) and The Fall (Ashes, Eschatology, Over the Voids..., Owls Woods Graves, Raventhrone, Mgła (live),) has released their debut album, "Hollow." Taking into account the band members' pedigree, the album comes highly recommended for fans of post-black metal.

If you look only at the aesthetics of Ὁπλίτης (Hoplites), you could take it as a Greek band, but in reality, it is the brainchild of Chinese multiinstrumentalist Liu Zhenyang. On January 12, he released the project's fourth album, Παραμαινομένη (Paramainomeni), after three albums released in 2023. The album is an amalgamation of extreme metal subgenres, incorporating avant-garde metal, black metal, mathcore, dissonant elements, and more.

Formed by three of the four members of Chthe'ilist, Canadian band Dissimulator challenges Revocation's crown as the kings of technical death/thrash metal of the past few years with their debut album, "Lower Form Resistance."

By this point, Lucifer's solid output of retro aesthetics is no surprise. With their fifth album, simply called "Lucifer V," they add another solid performance to their occult rock/proto-metal repertoire.

Veteran NWOBH band Saxon released their first album, "Hell, Fire and Damnation," after guitarist Brian Tatler, of Diamond Head fame, joined the band in 2023. An album featuring two heavy metal titans should not be missed by any metalhead. And be sure to catch them on tour this year as well.

Atmospheric black metal band Vemod released their second album, The Deepening, on January 19 via Prophecy Productions. They create a bewitching aura with the help of folk or post elements. Let's hope it won't take them another thirteen years until they release their third album.

Thank you for checking out the Best 10 Metal Albums of January 2024 list! See you soon on HornsOrThorns.com for more thrilling best-of lists, and in the meantime, enjoy these albums.