Best Doom Metal Albums of 2024

Veil Lifter stands as Post Death Soundtrack’s triumphant exercise in genre alchemy, where grunge’s raw electricity collides with doom’s crushing weight. The band’s masterful fusion transcends mere genre experimentation, as distortion-drenched guitars weave through glacial doom progressions with natural fluidity. Tracks like “Arjuna’s Hunting Hand” showcase their command of atmosphere, with ambient textures floating through the dense sonic landscape. Post Death Soundtrack’s fearless genre-bending approach yields rich rewards here, crafting an album that speaks equally to doom’s meditative depth and grunge’s visceral punch. For listeners craving genuine innovation in heavy music, Veil Lifter delivers a rare combination of adventurous spirit and masterful execution.

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Avernus returns from a 27-year album silence with Grievances, marking a decisive shift from their death-tinged past. The Chicago stalwarts shed the growls of 1997’s …Of the Fallen in favor of cleaner vocals and pure doom architecture. The album opens with “Calling the Void” and unfolds across carefully structured movements that prove their time away wasn’t spent idle. Founding members Rick Yifrach and Steve Murray maintain the band’s cinematic foundations while pushing into more ethereal territory, aided by Chris Predkiewicz’s atmospheric keys and a series of female vocalists that add crucial texture. What’s remarkable isn’t just that Avernus returned, but how naturally they’ve adapted to modern doom’s expanded palette. Where their early work merged death metal’s aggression with gothic atmospheres, Grievances shows a band comfortable enough to let space and silence carry equal weight. This isn’t a band trying to recapture past glories or prove their relevance – it’s one that understands how doom has evolved and finds its place within that evolution. Named for an ancient entrance to the underworld, Avernus proves some doors never truly close.

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My Dying Bride’s A Mortal Binding shows these British doom pioneers still crafting daunting atmospheres. Seven tracks unfold with patient confidence, from “Her Dominion’s” immediate intensity to “The Apocalyptist’s” 11-minute journey. Shaun MacGowan’s violin continues to define their character, weaving through the dense guitar work of Andrew Craighan and Neil Blanchett. The return of drummer Dan Mullins brings familiar dynamics, particularly evident in “The 2nd of Three Bells” where Aaron Stainthorpe’s vocals shift seamlessly between growls and clean passages. Each composition demonstrates their gift for building tension across extended forms, letting riffs and melodies develop naturally rather than forcing change. After thirty years, My Dying Bride continues to expand their impact while honoring the foundations that made them essential to British doom. A Mortal Binding stands as proof that mastery comes not from reinvention but from deepening what already works.

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In Waves by Fall of Leviathan plunges deep into oceanic metaphor through masterful post-rock/post-metal architecture. The band navigates between serene, atmospheric passages and crushing climaxes with fluid grace, though occasionally these crescendos fall short of the genre’s most transcendent moments. Their aquatic theme permeates both sound and substance, with layered compositions mirroring the ocean’s depths – from surface stillness to turbulent undertow. The album’s greatest strength lies in its atmospheric cohesion, even when individual tracks might benefit from sharper dynamic contrasts. For devotees of post-metal’s meditative power, In Waves offers a compelling if not fully realized vision, its thoughtful marriage of concept and execution marking Fall of Leviathan as an act worth watching in the genre’s doom metal soundscape.

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Monolith doesn’t just write about insect invasions – they make you hear the chitinous army coming. Lord of the Insect Order warps death metal, black metal, and doom into something that feels like an actual extinction event compressed into 32 minutes. This isn’t just riffs and blast beats with a sci-fi veneer. From the moment “Swarm Awakening” breaks ground with its subterranean growls, you’re caught in a genuine horror show where every sound choice amplifies the dread. The production deliberately strips away metal’s usual polish, leaving exposed nerve endings that make “Mammalian Effacement” feel like documentation of real collapse rather than mere performance. By the time “Unfurling of the Cosmic Caterpillar” closes this transmission, you realize why this UK outfit kept it lean – they’ve captured something primal that would evaporate if given room to breathe. In a genre full of conceptual apocalypses, here’s one that actually sounds like the end of human dominion, told by a band that understands true horror works better without filler. This is doom metal at its finest, especially regarding the topic.

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Endonomos II turns ancient ground into fresh burial soil on Enlightenment. Their second offering through Argonauta builds temples from familiar ruins – doom’s granite foundation shot through with post-metal veins and death metal roots. “Atheon Anarkhon” and “Kafir Qal’a” aren’t just standout tracks, they’re proof that dissonance can be sacred geometry when wielded with purpose. The vocal interplay works like ritual here – clean passages serving as prayer before guttural depths swallow the light. Where peers like Pallbearer carved their names into doom’s canon through sheer weight, Endonomos II understands that true heaviness comes from negative space. Across 48 minutes, they build cathedrals just to watch them crumble, each collapse calculated for maximum impact. This isn’t momentum, it’s gravity – the kind that bends light and warps time. Enlightenment suggests Endonomos II has found something worth excavating in doom’s depths, and they’re patient enough to let us watch them dig.

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Men Guðs hond er sterk finds Hamferð wielding death/doom with rare emotional precision. The Faroese band’s command of atmosphere serves a higher purpose here, with Jón Aldará’s vocals carrying ancient grief into the present. Where lesser bands might wallow, Hamferð builds monuments to survival and loss, each track a carefully constructed arc of tension and release. “Glæman” rises from gentleness to thunder without losing its contemplative heart, while the title track devastates with its narrative weight, turning island history into universal truth. Throughout, the band demonstrates masterful restraint, letting silence speak as loudly as their heaviest moments. It’s an album that understands doom’s true power: not just to crush, but to preserve stories that might otherwise be lost to time. In Hamferð’s hands, these tales of survival against nature’s might become something timeless – a before and after event to human resilience carved in sound.

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Ufomammut’s Hidden emerges on Neurot Recordings as a potent distillation of their otherworldly craft. The Italian trio harnesses mechanized dread and planetary mass, with “Crookhead” and “Mausoleum” delivering their densest material to date. Their production walks a tightrope between clarity and distortion, lending cosmic depth to even their most straightforward passages. Unlike peers who mistake effects for substance, Ufomammut’s approach to doom remains refreshingly physical – each riff lands with deliberate force, while electronic textures serve the songs rather than obscure them. The album stands as both refinement and expansion of their sound, proving there’s still fresh territory to be found in doom’s well-worn paths, provided you know where to dig.

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Danish doom powerhouse Alkymist brought us UnnDerr, channeling Celtic Frost’s primordial darkness while forging their own path through modern extremity. Like Monotheist before it, this carries that rare gravity that marks genuine innovation in doom. “The Scent” demonstrates their masterful control of dynamics, building from spectral clean tones to seismic riffs that threaten to split the earth. Per Silkjær’s drumming brings crucial momentum, his seamless shifts between d-beat aggression and doom’s ceremonial patience giving even the slowest passages unstoppable force. The ten-minute title track “UnnDerr” stands as their defining statement, weaving doom, blackened sludge, and atmospheric weight into something genuinely transformative. The production captures both delicacy and destruction – every frequency purposeful, every riff given room to resonate and decay which in the end result in an perfectly reflected industrial, hostile ambience.

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Finnish outfit Counting Hours brings veteran insight to The Wishing Tomb. Born from the ranks of Shape of Despair and Rapture, they strip doom metal to its essentials while weaving in threads of melodic death and black metal. The three-guitar arrangement serves substance over spectacle – Petrushevski, Ullgren, and Loponen build harmonies that resonate in the bones, not just the ears. Köykkä’s drumming and Forsström’s bass work add gravity to even the quietest passages. “Unsung, Forlorn” demonstrates their grasp of tension, each note given space to decay before the next unfolds. “Timeless Ones” proves equally patient, letting its weight accumulate naturally rather than forcing immediate payoff. Throughout, the band trusts silence as much as sound, understanding that doom’s power lies in anticipation as much as delivery. Where lesser supergroups might lean on past achievements, Counting Hours channels their collected experience into something honest. The Wishing Tomb stands as proof that innovation often comes from refinement rather than reinvention. It’s an album that demands attention without begging for it – Finnish doom deepened rather than merely repeated, and that´s why the final result is great and accesible for all metal fans.

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