By Greg Maki
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What a year. For the first time in what feels like forever, heavy music infiltrated the mainstream in a big way in 2024. And it happened without a hint of compromise, showing the world what metal is all about without being watered down for mass consumption. The year was full of significant moments for the genre. These are our picks for the most important.
5. Nicko McBrain plays final live show with Iron Maiden
Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, in Sao Paulo, Brazil marked the end of an era for one of our most venerable metal bands. After 42 years behind the kit, drummer Nicko McBrain played his final show with Iron Maiden. Surprisingly little fanfare accompanied the news, with the announcement on social media that morning and his replacement (Simon Dawson from Maiden bassist Steve Harris’s side band, British Lion) being named the next day. That feels right for a musician who was the backbone of Iron Maiden and its signature galloping rhythms but never sought the spotlight, letting frontman Bruce Dickinson, band leader Steve Harris, the guitarists—three of them in the band’s ranks for the past 25 years—and iconic mascot Eddie get all the glory. Nicko will continue to be involved with Iron Maiden in some fashion, but as it primarily is a live act these days, having released only two studio albums since 2010, his absence will be felt. The show must go on, though, as Maiden will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2025 and already has tour dates scheduled. McBrain has more than earned his retirement, and surely Dawson wouldn’t have been chosen if the band didn’t believe he was up to the task of filling Nicko’s very large shoes.
4. Judas Priest continues to reign as the Metal Gods
Judas Priest long ago cemented its legacy as one of metal’s foundational acts, yet more than a half century into its run, the Birmingham-bred band may have found itself with a little something to prove with its 19th studio album, “Invincible Shield.” Its signature guitar duo is a thing of the past, with KK Downing having left the band in 2011 and Glenn Tipton revealing his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2018 just prior to the release of the “Firepower” album. (On top of that, vocalist Rob Halford beat prostate cancer in 2020.) While Tipton has maintained a creative presence, it’s undoubtedly Richie Faulkner doing much of the six-string heavy lifting, joined in the live setting by producer Andy Sneap. With internal chemistry in flux, a new Judas Priest record in 2024 was far from a slam dunk, particularly as a follow-up to the superb “Firepower.” It’s a rare feat for a band to release new music 50 years after its debut album and rarer still for that new music to reach the heights of “Invincible Shield.” Easily Priest’s best album since “Painkiller” (1990), it holds its own with anything in the band’s illustrious career, the kind of record that makes one proud to be a metalhead.
3. Ice Nine Kills gets terrified
Metal and horror always have been natural bedfellows, but surprisingly, you have to go back to the 1980s to find true collaborations between musical acts and horror filmmakers. (Think Dokken and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” in 1987, Alice Cooper and “Friday the 13th Part VI” in 1986, or for a bit of a deeper cut, check out the all-star lineup of rockers assembled for Wes Craven’s 1989 film “Shocker.”) As the reigning kings of horror-infused metal, Ice Nine Kills was the logical choice to write and record the official song for 2024’s horror sensation “Terrifier 3.” The track, “A Work of Art,” featuring System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian and Leah Voysey from “Terrifier 2,” is a metalcore masterpiece with a huge, anthemic chorus, a lethal breakdown and the clever wordplay that’s become a hallmark of frontman Spencer Charnas. The music video takes things even further, featuring actors from the franchise, including Art the Clown himself, David Howard Thornton; an appearance by Sirius XM’s Jose “Metal Ambassador” Mangin; and nearly as much blood and gore as the movies. With horror having a bit of a mainstream renaissance in recent years, it’s time for metal to retake its rightful place as its soundtrack, and there’s no better argument for that than “A Work of Art.”
2. Knocked Loose and Poppy frighten a late-night TV audience
Metallic hardcore band Knocked Loose was having a great 2024, releasing its third LP, “You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To,” in May to much critical acclaim, playing major festivals (including Coachella of all places) and joining Slipknot on its 25th anniversary tour. Then came November. First, the band scored a Best Metal Performance Grammy nomination for “Suffocate,” its collaboration with the genre-fluid Poppy (who’s had quite a year herself). Then, just before Thanksgiving, Knocked Loose took the stage before the unsuspecting viewers of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to perform the honored song. In the pouring rain, with flames shooting from the stage, the band launched into a pulverizing performance that surely was unlike anything most watching had ever seen. When, after a minute or so, Poppy came skipping onto the stage in her doll-like dress, many likely thought they were about to get a respite from the onslaught. Instead, she started trading anguished screams with Knocked Loose frontman Bryan Garris, taking the song to even more destructive heights. The aftermath of the performance was even better, with outraged viewers taking to social media with tales of frightened children and predictable complaints of “this isn’t music.” And let’s be honest, isn’t this at least part of the appeal of heavy music? That “normies” find it scary and it upsets them so much? Of course, there are more extreme acts out there today, but major props to Knocked Loose and Poppy for making metal dangerous again on a big stage. And that pig squeal!
1. Gojira lays waste to the Olympics
As if there were any other choice. Gojira’s performance of the French Revolution-era protest song “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça Ira)” in July at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris was nothing short of historic, one of the most momentous occasions in the five-plus decades of metal. And boy, was it metal—kicked off by a singing, beheaded Marie Antoinette; pyro raging throughout; and one of the genre’s most respected bands performing from the windows of an actual castle (the Conciergerie) accompanied by opera singer Marina Viotti floating down the Seine River on a wooden ship. Nearly 30 million people across the world watched this spectacle live, and no doubt many millions more have seen it online in the months since. Subsequently released as a single and music video, the song rightfully earned a Grammy nomination. A bit of Satanic panic followed as well, and that’s fine, too. As metalheads, we don’t necessarily expect or even want everyone else to understand our music and way of life. But in a time when so many continue to insist that “rock is dead,” metal in 2024 received the biggest showcase in its entire history.