Favorite 50 Plus a Few More: 2022 Edition
60 favorites, bonus awards
"Artwork" by Wolf Rambatz. Original Butthole Chainsaw character design by Mike Teal
Gasp! Look, child! It is the very last year-end list of 2022! Watch it flap around without a care, unaware that it is about to be annihilated in a couple hours by 2023. Oh! To feel so free, to be so stupid!
Hello. It's that time again. To kick off this annual mess, I've asked a guest to write the obligatory "what is this???/metal: there is a lot of it" intro. That guest is me from a week ago.
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At the time I'm writing this, my "Best Metal: 2022" list on RateYourMusic contains 212 releases. That's...a lot. It's 39 more than last year, and it felt like I did nothing else in 2021 but listen to new metal. Still, as you can see, I somehow packed even more metal into this year. How much? Well, here's the truly absurd number: Based on wide-ranging intel such as my mess of a Bandcamp account and the deluge of promo emails sent to me every day, I probably listened to north of 500 releases over the past 365 days. That's a ludicrous amount. And yet!
The exact numbers have yet to be tabulated, and probably won't for a long time, but Encyclopaedia Metallum currently lists 26,145 releases for 2022. 26,145! Think of it like this: I listened to, like, two percent of 2022's metal, and that's all I do all day. Two percent! It's why I felt so eternally behind on listening. I love metal, yet there's more of it released in some weeks than I will ever hear in my lifetime.
So, yeah, if you came here looking for the best metal releases, this list is not it because how could it be? 26,145 releases! Are you out of your mind? Traveler, I'm not going to give you the runaround. I don't do "best" anymore for various reasons, foremost that I'm a legendary idiot and anything I proclaim to be the "best" is doomed to obscurity. But, more than that, I can't claim to know the "best" if I haven't heard "all," and I definitely will never hear all.
The list you're about to see, then, simply collects some of my favorites that I felt I logged enough listens of to grok. (Sorry, Dressed in Streams, Labyrinth of Stars, your favorite album, etc., I heard 'em too late, or, in the case of some heavy hitters, not at all.) I then ordered them haphazardly without considering objective quality, thinking more along the lines of "how much do I want to listen to this right now." As December ticks its final tocks, this is how I want to remember the year. Although, let's be honest: this isn't about me. Again, I'm a genuine loser of immense proportions. You shouldn't care about what I think. Instead, this is an excuse to give these great bands some more publicity before the lights go out. If you like something, buy it. These artists deserve it.
***
Thanks, me. That was even more worthless than usual.
Like last year, I wrote this entire damn thing in a day, which was, yet again, a goddamn mistake, but I'm going to say I did it to maintain the consistency of the series. Sure. Yep. That's totally the reason why. Remember, if there's ever a point where you're reading these blurbs and you're like, "Huh, is Wolf OK," the answer is no! Of course not! To that end, if you want to read some more thought-out coverage from this year, I've linked to it below each belch of a summary.
Also, my indecisive self couldn't cap this list at the traditional 50. This year was nuts, it could've easily produced a top 200. The fix? We're going long this year, but I promise my verbose ass will keep things to a minimum so you can finish reading this by the time 2024 rolls around. OK. Let's get into it.
60. Thermokarst - Thermokarst (self-released)
From: Victoria, British Columbia
Genre: black metal
Narrative: One of Canada's rawest black metal newcomers debuts with a full-length that makes good on its kvlt-adored 2019 demo.
Why it's here: As nasty as the embryonic second-wave's afterbirth, Thermokarst hears your meager pleas for atmospheric throat-clearing and cuts your throat with riffs instead.
59. The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow (Lux Inframundis Productions)
From: Chicago, IL
Genre: death metal
Narrative: The first Chasm album with vocals since 2009's Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm is pretty classic Chasm despite the group slimming down to a duo: Daniel Corchado (bass, guitars, vocals) and Antonio León (drums).
Why it's here: Few other bands in death metal make "the journey" as exciting as this Mexican institution, and when The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow racks up the riff miles by exploring labyrinthine thrash/prog progressions, it's more than worth the price of the ticket. That Corchado and León pack all of this into 42 minutes is an metalineering marvel.
58. Xenoglyph - Spiritfraud (Translation Loss Records)
From: Space? / United States
Genre: black metal
Narrative: Following up 2020's excellent intro, Mytharc, these two aliens from GJ357D, who immigrated to Earth to escape robotic overlords, give their avant-garde black metal inclinations a panoramic atmospheric sweep.
Why it's here: Obviously, the first thing all aliens should do when landing on this rock is to explore Blut Aus Nord's Memoria Vetusta trilogy; the Kents really failed Superman there. Anyway, Spiritfraud, with its mid-paced mightiness, nails that balance of abstract idiosyncrasies and triumphant flexing that runs through the best of the askew black metal crews.
57. Inexorum - Equinox Vigil (Gilead Media)
From: Minneapolis, MN
Genre: melodeath
Narrative: Carl Skildum (guitars, vocals) and Matthew Kirkwold's (bass, vocals) third album as Inexorum adds a powered-up boost to the duo's racing melo leads that adhere to the old Gothenberg ideal, but have a very American burliness to them.
Why it's here: Pretty simple: I like good melodeath/black leads, and Equinox Vigil is 40 minutes of some of the best leads I've heard this year. Walk into the forest and air guitar with a spruce.
56. Krvvla - X (Brucia Records)
From: Minsk, Belarus
Genre: black metal
Narrative: This quartet added A.G. on vocals in 2019, and its post-black metal took on a dolorous new dimension.
Why it's here: Let's start a trend that will run throughout this list: Things I should've written about months ago when I bought them. When X descends into delirium, it feels so powerful. Utilizing an almost old-school skramz-y approach to its tumult, weaving together guitar and bass lines into a chaotic whole, Krvvla plumbs the depths of the soul, indefatigably unrelenting in its pursuit to dig deeper.
55. Excrescence - Inescapable Anatomical Deterioration (New Standard Elite)
From: Tacoma, WA
Genre: brutal death metal
Narrative: The year in brutal death metal was feeling pretty pedestrian until New Standard Elite unloaded the goo cannons operated by these fresh-faced moistketeers who are making their full-length debut.
Why it's here: What Excrescence lacks in innovation, it makes up for with the sheer hardness of its going, obliterating its already pretty hard 2020 promo. Inescapable Anatomical Deterioration has more pings than the golf club section of a Goodwill that neighbors a golf course, is squelchier than a possessed CB radio, and feels like attending a tea party underneath a tank tread.
54. Beyond the Grasp of Light - Hell (self-released)
From: Philadelphia, PA
Genre: black metal
Narrative: Brandon Scott Braun's debut came out of nowhere, which is fitting since it's a diabolical descendant of the Axis of Perdition school of scares.
Why it's here: More frightening than a Philly street when all four sports teams lose on the same day, Hell is a hellish experience, emphasizing hair-raising screams and "what was that?" boo-scare riffs. At its base, it has a post-y progression, but it's more like if Cult of Luna let Anaal Nathrakh into its dressing room so the latter could crack open the Lament Configuration.
53. Critical Extravasation - Order of Decadence (Redefining Darkness Records)
From: Moscow, Russia
Genre: tech death/thrash / prog death
Narrative: Redefining Darkness is one of the best death metal scouts in the game, and one of its greatest finds in 2022 is this tech-focused death/thrash trio. Аспид is the comp given the region, but Order of Decadence definitely dances with Death and Sadus.
Why it's here: Do you suffer from prog death fatigue, an actual condition? Ask your doctor about Order of Decadence. Half the fun is hearing these three, plus guest drummer Vladimir Fomenko, wow with ridiculous section after ridiculous section of death metal musicianship. But the songwriting is as sharp as the playing, wiggling with many earworm parts.
52. Ozaru - Ozaru (self-released)
From: Florida
Genre: death metal / grind
Narrative: Three familiar-sounding players we can only guess the identities of blast off like last year's Charnel Grounds and pilot an interstellar death metal starship in the same class as Afterbirth and Artificial Brain. Where a Sarpanitum-esque near-melodicism fueled Charnel Grounds, Ozaru makes much shorter flights, miniaturizing these bangers into Discordance Axis-sized nuggets of grind.
Why it's here: Oh no, I can't stop writing tortured sci-fi blurbs. Over intense blasts and intricate riffs that scry into dimensions beyond, deep grunts are emitted in the same way as radiation from pulsars. Written in the night sky like god's signature is the Ozaru constellation, a star field that the ancients believed spelled out: R-U-L-E-S.
51. Sickness - Daemones sub terra (Nuclear Abominations Records)
From: Turku, Finland
Genre: black metal / death metal
Narrative: 2017's Deus Maledictus Est was a perfect ultra-obscure demo, bashing out microscopic death/grind songs that featured the most outlandish ghost vocals possible — everything you want from a band you know nothing about. Five years later, Sickness, not to be confused with the 100 other Sicknesses, has expanded into a quintet and continues to put more meat on its bones, composing girthier, grislier death metal.
Why it's here: An improvement on 2019's already good Nidus Diaboli, Daemones sub terra is an awesomely archaic sort of chaos, doing to blackened death what Condor did to speed metal. These songs inevitably break down like how a football play breaks down: the fog of war, everyone is running on fumes, and your sole lizard brain motivation is to ring someone's bell.
50. Autonoesis - Moon of Foul Magics (self-released)
From: Toronto, Canada
Genre: meloblack / melodeath
Narrative: Autonoesis's 2020 debut was fully formed, uniting the meloblack odysseys of Dawn with the progressiveness of Edge of Sanity. Moon of Foul Magics proves this anonymous shredder didn't catch lightning in a bottle, presenting a new set of songs that feel fresher and more classic.
Why it's here: There are some righteous leads on this album that, while in a different context, make me feel some things I haven't felt since early Arsis. If you need an album to show your non-metal friends what an extreme metal guitar can do, this is a good one, particularly because Moon of Foul Magics can muster a chunky chug with the same gusto as its fiery fretboard runs.
49. Mutarotik - Mutarotik (self-released)
From: Edmonton, Canada
Genre: death metal / black metal
Narrative: A member of the excellent Sigil embarks on a side project that takes the early exploits of Aura Noir and Gorguts and chars all of it pitch black, reforming the ashes into super mean songs.
Why it's here: Well hell, what an evil-ass homunculus of a blackened death record. Mutarotik ensorcelled me early and stuck with me throughout the year because I love hearing those jaggedly sweeping (makes sense when you hear it) riffs.
48. Ashenspire - Hostile Architecture (Code666 Records / Aural Music)
From: Glasgow, UK
Genre: black metal / prog
Narrative: With a ton of friends in tow, this quartet freed itself from black metal templates and embarked on a trip to the fringe. While brainy and proggy, Hostile Architecture is also strikingly soulful, sounding like it was made for the people.
Why it's here: Hostile Architecture made me think of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Not that this Glaswegian troop sounds much like the San Franciscan experimental legend, but there's a similar spirit of adventurism and proficiency that runs through Ashenspire's progressive black metal. As such, this is the album on the list I'd recommend to anyone with a ProgArchives account.
47. Sigh - Shiki (Peaceville Records)
From: Tokyo, Japan
Genre: black metal
Narrative: Marching to its own beat for over 30 years, Sigh releases the most accessible version of its twisted black metal vision on Shiki, an album that balanced the band's eccentricities with some of its most impressive musicianship.
Why it's here: Despite Japan's Sigh checking many of my boxes, re: avant-garde preferences, I'm not the biggest fan, only reaching for Gallows Gallery these days. (Why yes, I own 五人一首 albums, why do you ask?) Shiki changed that by being catchy as heck. But don't sleep on the heaviosity of Sigh's riffs: there are some primo Celtic Frost chugs throughout.
46. Miscreance - Convergence (Unspeakable Axe Records)
From: Venice / Florence, Italy
Genre: tech death / tech thrash
Narrative: The Italian quartet shreds its way to one of the defining albums of the Unspeakable Axe aesthetic, a prog death plus thrash ripper with a Pestlience-esque ability to pepper you with punches.
Why it's here: Based on Convergence's promo photos, you could be led to believe that Miscreance is just some bros hanging out in short shorts and slaying their instruments. And I don't think that's necessarily wrong, but it sells the songwriting, which displays some clever Atheist craft, short.
45. Abyssal - A Deep Sea Funeral (Concreto Records / Transylvanian Recordings)
From: Tijuana, Mexico
Genre: funeral doom
Narrative: With a wonderfully spectral production by מזמור's A.L.N., this Mexican funeral doom trio expands upon 2018's spare Misanthrope with another longform crawler that does meditative quietude and crushing, Buried At Sea-esque riffs with equal acuity.
Why it's here: "Waters are now empty," singer/guitarist F howls at the 40-minute song's conclusion. "Lifeless. Forgotten. Ignored." Real-deal depression is like drowning, right? Yes, I say, from the couch, unable to do anything else but watch mechanic videos on YouTube.
44. Shapeshifter - Dark Ritual (Ungulates)
From: Japan
Genre: grind
Narrative: These grinders ran the grind gamut, never afraid to fuse blasts with adjacent styles. [Me, from an hour later: What does this even mean? Tower to Wolf Rambatz, you're writing nothing sentences again. Please come in and refuel.]
Why it's here: Japan's Shapeshifter commandeered a large portion of my brain for the entire year. Perhaps it was that some of the year's best art adorned Dark Ritual. More likely, though, it was the riffs, particularly the Swarrrm-y "Rust" that was the perfect post-hardcore respite.
43. Mourir - Disgrâce (Throatruiner Ṙecords)
From: Toulouse, France
Genre: black metal
Narrative: Olivier Lolmède (Plebeian Grandstand) and company follow up 2020's underappreciated Animal bouffe animal with a moody black metal album that doesn't skimp on the grim heaviness, both sonically and atmospherically.
Why it's here: Some of the best tension-building laid down on wax this year, Mourir did the most with negative space, taking a Swans-y approach to mounting unease and making it a black metal kind of uncomfortable. Also one of the best-sounding black metal albums.
42. Metalian - Beyond the Wall (Temple of Mystery Records)
From: Montréal, Canada
Genre: heavy metal
Narrative: Canada's Judas Priest keeps it true on Beyond the Wall but also makes the most Shakin' Street song of 2022 with the instantly stuck-in-your-head punk banger "Dark City."
Why it's here: The Halford-y bridge of "Motorhorse," with the harmonies and the dueling guitars, is pretty much what I want out of heavy metal. From one metal Ian to another, Beyond the Wall is another total blast.
41. Encenathrakh - Ithate Thength Oceate (P2)
From: Columbus, Ohio
Genre: technical brutal death
Narrative: Now three albums in, the "Columbus," "Ohio," technical brutal death metal band's improvised swirl of noise sounds more musical than ever. Where past works would occasionally spill into the absurd, breaking the spell, Ithate Thngth Oceate encapsulates a bleakness that feels in tune with the times, a world that is moving too fast for those left behind to catch up.
Why it's here: Paulo Henri Paguntalan. I mean, everyone comes to play: scientists could harness the kinetic energy from Weasel Walter's limbs to power space stations. But Paguntalan's array of mouth noises, including doing the Predator clicks better than anyone else, always makes me laugh that "I can't believe a human is doing this" laugh.
40. Faceless Burial - At the Foothills of Deliration (Dark Descent Records / Desiccated Productions / Me Saco un Ojo Records)
From: Melbourne, Australia
Genre: death metal
Narrative: Dealing in the kind of older vintage death that would stimulate Travis Tate, the trio still has a modern approach to shifting on a dime and flexing technical chops.
Why it's here: Good god, Faceless Burial burned through all the riff notebooks for At the Foothills of Deliration. These tracks sound like early Suffocation decided to take a run at Pestilence on a whim.
39. Altars - Ascetic Reflection (Everlasting Spew Records)
From: Adelaide / Melbourne, Australia
Genre: death metal
Narrative: For its first album in nine years, the Australian trio welcomed Convulsing's Brendan Sloan into the fold and crafted a meticulous album that crackles with classic death metal energy while staking out new territory
Why it's here: Few other albums are so richly detailed, from the packaging down to the music contained within. There's a proggish-ness operating at Ascetic Reflection's core, inspiring these songs to blaze trails. But every second has been engineered to be smart, engaging, and super sleek in a, dare I say, power pop kind of way.
38. Sunrise Patriot Motion - Black Fellflower Stream (self-released)
From: Beacon, NY
Genre: post-punk / black metal
Narrative: Staffed by three members of Yellow Eyes and Bambara's Blaze Bateh on drums, Sunrise Patriot Motion synthesized a genius mix of goth, post-punk, and black metal that was able to crash through the gates into broader appreciation, and the scene is all the better for it.
Why it's here: While the timbres may be somewhat more palatable to outsiders, the band dishes up mysterious delicacies as strange and harrowing as Manes ever got. Still, hooks are hooks, and Black Fellflower Stream is one of the catchiest metallic albums of the year.
37. Mico - Zigurat (Total Dissonance Worship)
From: Cali, Colombia
Genre: omnicore
Narrative: One of the jewels in the Total Dissonance Worship crown, this duo tries on a thousand styles and is dashingly dissonant and beautifully brutal in all of them. Ziguart is a wild, impressionistic amalgamation, even dipping into legit good harsh noise, that sounds even grander when you pull back and take it as an ultra-aggressive whole.
Why it's here: Few albums squeezed my brain meat like Ziguart, an album that feels like it's operating in so many more dimensions than most metal bands. That Mico can pull off galactic black metal ("Yunque"), noise ("Pulso Corrupto"), and corrosive core ("Insufrible Espanto") in a three-song stretch and still have a full bag of tricks is truly something.
36. Sarattma - Escape Velocity (Nefarious Industries)
From: Philadelphia, PA
Genre: fusion / doom
Narrative: Crack musicians Sara Neidorf and Matt Hollenberg join forces to jam through an eclectic set of doomy songs that wordlessly tackle subjects such as loss.
Why it's here: "Twilight Realm of Imaginary Notes" would get a song of the year nomination from me if I did such a thing. The 15-minute fusion stunner shows off the best of Neidorf and Hollenberg, the two expert players spurring each other to greater heights. In particular, Hollenberg's extended solo and Neidorf's feast of rhythms are things to behold.
35. Pyrithe - Monuments to Impermanence (Gilead Media)
From: Pittsburgh, PA
Genre: sludge / post-metal
Narrative: Four years after WRCT, the Pyrithe trio and friends lay down the definitive versions of these songs. Monuments to Impermanence sounds like Old Man Gloom tasked with recording a suite composed by eight different metal bands from eight different genres.
Why it's here: In one of those fun twists of modern language, "immersive" has become so overused that it means nothing, but it's hard to describe Monuments to Impermanence as anything else, especially the two-parter "Ekphrastik," especially the gorgeous opening of "Gifts of Impermanence." And really, these monuments are anything but: When this album is playing, I disappear into it, and Pyrithe skillfully navigates these many styles without losing the band's singular voice.
34. Orm - Intet • Altet (Indisciplinarian)
From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Genre: black metal
Narrative: The Danish trio again goes looooooooong for an epic concept album.
Why it's here: It makes sense that an album about life should be long. On Intet • Altet, the Danish black metal trio crosses the 90-minute runtime line with just four songs. And yet, despite the TV-show-length compositions, the songs are tight, flowing with the cinematic grace of a movie cut together by a good editor.
33. Satan - Earth Infernal (Metal Blade Records)
From: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Genre: NWOBHM
Narrative: One of the best comeback stories in metal keeps it rolling with another riff-filled record of speedy heavy metal.
Why it's here: After four comeback full-lengths, it shouldn't be surprising anymore. Satan, the over-40-years-old NWOBHM band, still rules. Earth Infernal doesn't buck the trend; if anything, it bests Cruel Magic by tapping into the fury brought on by the five-piece's environmentalism.
32. Wake - Thought Form Descent (Metal Blade Records)
From: Calgary, Canada
Genre: omnicore
Narrative: Wake completed its metamorphosis from grinder to all-encompassing omnicorer on its strongest full-length to date.
Why it's here: If Thought Form Descent is remembered for anything, let it be proof that omnicore can have stirring, emotion-based songwriting. Songs like the centerpiece, the beautiful "Mourning Dirge (Repose of the Dead)," bring the brutality, yes, but they also make sure you feel it.
31. couldcareless - cryptic clarity (self-released)
From: Parts Unknown
Genre: grind
Narrative: "...the bedroom grindcore project of inter-dimensional anomaly, Nub, and his minion, Din," per the band. Says it all, and yet...what? Cryptic clarity's genesis stirs up a lot of questions — what do you mean, "sampled guitars"? — that are answered by the duo's blistering grind. That answer? It rips, don't worry about it.
Why it's here: I definitely didn't see myself falling for an e-grind album this year, but Nub and Din aren't making the typical cybergrinder. Altered States of America plus feelings? Sure, that'll get you close, but note that this is surprisingly heartfelt for a release with song titles like "lift yr skinny dicks like antennas to my ass."
30. Harlequin - Origin of Suffering (Label)
From: Los Angeles, CA
Genre: death metal
Narrative: After knocking socks off with its live sets, Harlequin hit the studio and unleashed a wonderfully quirky death metal album with the same energy and enthusiasm as the inchoate, pre-codified death metal that once played in a sandbox with no rules. The trio didn't limit itself to just death metal, though, trying out black metal, grind, and slam.
Why it's here: While the blurb above may rightfully make you think of something like Nuclear Death, Origin of Suffering reminded me instead of when I came up, cutting my teeth on unknowns like Cephalic Carnage before I was ready. There's an excitement and weirdness on this album that will always play no matter when you were reared, but if you also got jumped into death metal in the early 2000s, this will really hit the spot.
29. Antigama - Whiteout (Selfmadegod Records)
From: Warsaw, Poland
Genre: grind
Narrative: Once a jazzy, dissonant weirdo that lived on the edge, Antigama refocused on Whiteout and thrashed with gales of Brutal Truthian grind.
Why it's here: On the surface, Antigama's Whiteout sounds like a blistering grinder in the spirit of modern Napalm Death. But the Polish quartet has some weird things waiting for you if you're willing to dig in. The best set of riffs of this band's career is adorned with the oblique avant-garde touches that have been Antigama's throughline for over 20 years.
28. Ecchymosis - Psychopathic Concupiscence Towards Homicidal Lacerations (Label)
From: Bangkok, Thailand
Genre: brutal death metal
Narrative: One of the sickest bands in Siamese Brutalism proved its primacy with five bulldozing brutal death workouts that had the impossible-to-contain power of prime Marshawn Lynch with a full head of steam.
Why it's here: Beast mode, indeed. Once this brutal death metal quintet starts chugging, nothing will drag it down. As always, shout out to pingmaster Polwach Beokhaimook, who went super hard across a number of releases, but especially this one and the similarly excellent Biomorphic Engulfment single.
27. Beyond Mortal Dreams - Abomination of the Flames (Lavadome Productions)
From: Adelaide, Australia
Genre: death metal
Narrative: On Abomination of the Flames, this quartet pairs huge, heaving Morbid Angel/Nile riffs with the gonzo black metal inventiveness of a late-period Emperor or Manes.
Why it's here: It's not a surprise that an ex-Darklord band took a big swing for the fences. But, just like Giancarlo Stanton whacking a moonshot, is it ever satisfying when an experimental death metal band connects. Sure, the Cynic synth voice is fun, but, oh my god, some of the riffs these ruffians rip up are killer.
26. Days of Desolation - Circles (Halenoise Records / Loner Cult Records / Romantic Songs Records / Up The Punx)
From: Halen, Belgium
Genre: grind / d-beat
Narrative: The crusty trio took its songwriting up a notch by going in two different directions, increasing the force of its blasting while making its leads even catchier.
Why it's here: This band makes the kind of music that makes you want to start a band. D-beat with blasts and killer leads? And yet, you know you'll always be chasing Circles because the songwriting is too good, exhibiting an expert push and pull that allows songs like "Hypersleep" to take flight.
***
HALFTIME!
Why do I insist on writing this every year? In one sitting, even! Am I dying? Is this what dying feels like? PriceMaster, how many more blurbs do I have to write before I can take a nap?
…SEVENTEEN THOUSAND BLURBS.
Sweet. Let's…keep doing this.
***
25. KEN mode - Null (Artoffact Records)
From: Winnipeg, Canada
Genre: noise rock / metalcore
Narrative: Multi-instrumentalist Kathryn Kerr is added as a full-time member and immediately makes her mark with searing sax, Coil-ing synths, and piercing piano. The Matthewsons and the Hamilton, i.e., the rest of the band, are in rare form, too, killing another set of crushing, noisy, metallic core.
Why it's here: Is it metal??? (Everyone in this band is cringing.) Yes, of course it is. KEN mode is heavier than a shipping vessel with the total vinyl discographies of whole metal styles stowed in its hull. (Is...this why there's a wax shortage?) Null also expanded the band's scope with some neat NIN/no-wave tracks along with its trademark pummeling riffs and rhythms.
24. Meshuggah - Immutable (Atomic Fire Records)
From: Umeå, Sweden
Genre: tech groove / thrash
Narrative: The djent godfathers turn back the clock. A lot of Immutable sounds like a lost album between Nothing and Catch-33, but, crucially, Meshuggah hasn't lost its recent advancements in the art of making me wonder where the heck the one is.
Why it's here: I've been listening to Immutable the entire time I've been writing this and I can say, with utmost confidence, that riffs are cool.
23. Wrack - Repulsive Gravity (self-released)
From: San Francisco, CA
Genre: doom / sludge / death metal
Narrative: Tyler Cox, of a ton of bands, but most notably The Mass, releases the third EP under the Wrack name and it is a doozy, subtly experimenting with doom, sludge, and death.
Why it's here: Repulsive Gravity grooves massively in different modes: lumbering doom/sludgerations; chiming post-hardcore meditations; heaving Morbid Angel slime incantations. Focus in on it and you can even hear some neat inventions, such as death metal...dub?
22. Krallice - Crystalline Exhaustion / Psychagogue (P2 / Hathenter / Harsh Productions)
From: New York, NY
Genre: black metal
Narrative: The winning streak continues with two more entries in the recent keyboard Krallice saga. Crystalline Exhaustion's title track might be the quartet's best deep space workout. The earthier Psychagogue, featuring Nicholas McMaster on guitar, has the winding woosh of a drafty staircase in a castle.
Why it's here: I'm a dirty, smelly mark for this band. While I get the Make Barr Guitar Again criticism, I still think Krallice is on a tremendous creative run, one that metal might never see again.
21. Final Eclipse - Interminable Darkness (self-released)
From: United States
Genre: black metal
Narrative: This anonymous group from Parts Unknown, United States, did a bicep-pumping sort of black metal that could easily power clean the heft of death metal without really sounding like blackened death. Instead, it was that ye olde sort of triumph, the kind of riffs that whistle through the wind as you stand atop a mountain, surveying your slain enemies below.
Why it's here: Interesting. Sounds like a fortress...a fortress of death, if you will.
20. Spastic Tumor - Murder Weapon (Rectal Purulence)
From: Toronto, Canada
Genre: goregrind
Narrative: One of the sickest bands going follows up the incredibly titled I'd Like to Kill Somebody with the even more self-implicating Murder Weapon. The formula is simple: Entombed-y riffs, d-beat, and goregrind, but Spastic Tumor sells it so hard with a hilariously ironic joie de vivre and a sick-to-your-stomach commitment to the murder bit.
Why it's here: Goddamn, this band is going to be the death of me. To whatever poor soul is doing some reconnaissance after finding me on a dating site, I swear I'm not like this, despite listening to this all of the time. Few things powered my workouts to bigger gainz than hearing someone gurgle roar over Clandestine riffs.
19. Ordo Vampyr Orientis: Bad Manor - The Haunting / Bat Magic - Ritualia Festum in Ichor Noster (Avantgarde Music / Ordo Vampyr Orientis)
From: United States
Genre: black metal
Narrative: The most fun crew in the black metal underground came back in a big way. Bad Manor did punkish black metal that sounds like how Edward Gorey's art looks. Bat Magic again swathed its vampiric hunger in plush, blackened Deep Purple-isms.
Why it's here: My open plea to OVO last year was for more. The shadowy collective answered. It's clear that these metal makers just sort of get it, keying into what makes black metal enjoyable.
18. Stabbing - Extirpated Mortal Process (Comatose Music)
From: Austin/Houston, TX
Genre: brutal death metal
Narrative: From the sick brains behind Ravenous Psychotic Onslaught, which has a title that could double as Stabbing's MO, comes Extirpated Mortal Process, an all-out splatterer that slices and dices its compositions until there's no fat on them.
Why it's here: Sure, Stabbing has maxed out the brutal death riffs, blasts, and blerghs, but, jeez, are they catchy. Each song seems like it has at least one Cannibal Corpse earworm that will munch on your mind for days.
17. Vórtize - ¡Tienes que luchar! (Nube Negra Prods / Despreciable Realidad / Suicide Records)
From: Limache, Chile
Genre: heavy metal
Narrative: Javier Ortiz taps a few guests, including standout singer Romi Huerta Núñez, for this giddy collection of pure heavy metal riffitude.
Why it's here: Glorious goddamn heavy metal, turning the meme-y instrument telekinesis of Ortiz's promo photo into a pretty good visual description of his powered-up trad prowess. Plus, it doesn't get much better than Núñez slaying the vocals for the all-timer "Toma acción."
16. Blind Guardian - The God Machine (Nuclear Blast)
From: Krefeld, Germany
Genre: power metal
Narrative: If you wondered whether the best power metal band on the planet lost its fastball after the boringly indulgent Twilight Orchestra, the German institution immediately put you on your ass with a killer sequence of singles. The rest of The God Machine delivered, finding a perfect middle ground between the band's later-day bombast and its earlier, speedier endeavors.
Why it's here: What a return. "Life Beyond the Spheres" is my favorite, often letting Hansi and his multitracked Kürsch clone army push the song into the divine.
15. Trauma Bond - Winter’s Light (self-released)
From: London, UK
Genre: grind / deathcore
Narrative: This duo is a purveyor of riff devastation. But it can also easily shift into other modes: noise, post-punk, goth.
Why it's here: Let's hear it for Eloise Chong-Gargette's vocals, my friends. Wow. Tom Mitchell works his ass off to give her a cataclysmic bed of badass riffs to work her magic. Trauma Bond is always searching for a new way to max the yield of that partnership, and in this case, its biggest blower-upper is the close of "The Sea Saw What You Did," a world-ending deathcore chuggerama.
14. Chrome Ghost - House of Falling Ash (Seeing Red Records)
From: Roseville, CA
Genre: sludge / doom
Narrative: I like how I'm doing a quick edit of this sloppy newsletter and I discover that I just flat-out forgot to write this one. I'll atone for my sins by giving this some more inches than the others because my brain looks like the grill at the world's busiest Denny's and I can't think anymore. Anyway, Chrome Ghost! The trio, with help from some key collaborators like Pat Hills, made a lovely/punishing doomy record that was quiet and loud and beautiful and brutal. I'll give the rest of this section over to the band. This is pulled from its Bandcamp:
House of Falling Ash is our longest record, our most sonically ambitious record, (with pedal steel guitar, arpeggiated synths, mellotron) but also our most thematically ambitious record. this loosely-formed concept record is about a sort of dreamscape of the unconscious where the pain and secrets of our lives rest locked away in a decrepit home choked in roses and encircled by guard dogs. this pain has nowhere to go and the world (and the house) are crumbling around it and threaten to go down in flames.
Why it's here: I kind of said what I needed to say in the blurb that is linked below, but lemme just give some extra shine to "The Furnace" real quick, a song that makes me feel like I'm finally hearing Mare's potential realized after all these years. I neglected to mention this in past write-ups, but Eva Rose, from the mighty CHRCH, seals the deal on that song with her screams.
13. Shitgrinder - Shitgrinder (RSR / Headsplit Records)
From: Brisbane, Australia
Genre: grind
Narrative: Shitgrinder didn't mess around on this 18-minute scorcher of a death/grind album. Putting the power in power trio, these three blazed through Olympian-strong riffs and blasts with some of the best production in the style.
Why it's here: What a name considering its output is anything but. As soon as this ball of riffs and blasts starts rolling, it's impossible to stop, offering you only one option once it finally comes to a close: play it again.
12. Wraithstorm - Unseen & Unfound (self-released)
From: Arizona / Michigan / Florida
Genre: funeral doom
Narrative: Alicia Cordisco (Project: Roenwolfe, Transgressive), Michael Goodrich, and Lex Edwards (the great Soulmass, worth checking out) create a funeral doomer that explores feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Why it's here: I spend a lot of time trying to understand metal albums, but sometimes I want a metal album to understand me. Wraithstorm's bass-forward funeral doom felt in step with my emotions this year; when I needed a friend, I turned to this trio, and Edwards's singing, Cordisco's riffs, and Goodrich's drumming were always there for me.
11. Elder - Innate Passage (Armageddon Shop / Stickman Records)
From: Berlin, Germany
Genre: prog / psych / stoner
Narrative: One of stoner's modern riffmasters continues to evolve into a far-reaching and stirringly scenic psych/prog force.
Why it's here: Omens never landed with me mainly because I thought Elder was at a crossroads with the vocals. Nick DiSalvo sounds great on Innate Passage, finding his voice and singing with confidence. And, surprise, this helps Elder make the leap to Motorpsycho territory, as the German quartet riffs an incredible riff rife with the melancholy you feel when you're daydreaming about summer in late fall.
10. Sonja - Loud Arriver (Cruz del Sur Music)
Photography by Stephanie Slate. Frame design by Ariel Posh. Layout by Annick Giroux.
From: Philadelphia, PA
Genre: heavy metal
Narrative: Led by Melissa Moore, Sonja nails the vibe of '80s heavy metal without resorting to cheap nostalgia. The key is the songwriting that uses a brilliant push/pull of bridges and choruses to communicate not just lust but longing.
Why it's here: Not to be crass, but Loud Arriver fucks. There are a lot of bands doing Nightmare on Elm Street 3 metal, as I've come to call it, that mix of Dokken-y hard rock and heavy metal that's tinged with midnight's mix of terror and teenage hormones. But Sonja feels more real, with sharper riffs and choruses than its peers, which helps deliver a sense of non-nerdy authenticity; "Fuck, Then Die," indeed.
9. Vermin Womb - Retaliation (Closed Casket Activities)
Artwork by Hell Simulation.
From: Denver, CO
Genre: grind
Narrative: Six years after Decline, one of the heaviest bands in the biz detonates another nuclear-sized blast of cathartic black/death/grind violence.
Why it's here: In the best way, Retaliation feels like therapy. By going all out, the trio gives you the green light to undergo the release of exorcising your pent-up aggression. The chaos the musicians whips up acts like a vacuum, sucking the poison out of you. Nineteen minutes later, you feel free.
8. Blut aus Nord - Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses / Lovecraftian Echoes (Debemur Morti Productions)
Artwork by Maciej Kamuda.
From: Mondeville, France
Genre: black metal
Narrative: One of the best to ever do it gets back on track this year with two stunners. Disharmonium applied the traditional BAN formula to the last few post-Memoria Vetusta III releases — the gothy post-punk of Yerûšelem, monastic meditations of Hallucinogen, forest-dwelling riff hermit that's Forhist — and uncorked the release fans have been waiting for. Lovecraftian Echoes, on the other hand, was made with the help of subscribers and brought BAN back to its breakout, the incomparable The Work Which Transforms God.
Why it's here: No one writes a riff, and plays that riff, like Vindsval.
7. Hammers of Misfortune - Overtaker (self-released)
Artwork by Saprophial.
From: Montana
Genre: prog metal / tech thrash
Narrative: Jamie Myers is back, so too is Mike Scalzi for a couple of tracks, and with this roster throwback...Hammers of Misfortune rockets into outer space.
Why it's here: Joined by Blake Anderson and a host of guests, John Cobbett, Sigrid Sheie, and Myers have crafted an incredible space opera of tech thrash. The prog is still present, of course, just carried along many light years by a ship powered by Cobbett's incomparable shred.
6. Effluence - Liquefied / Sarmat (P2 / Putrefactive Recordings)
Artwork by Charred Vulture.
From: California
Genre: extremely hard bop
Narrative: While the extremely hard bop extended universe took off this year and introduced fans to so many more bands, the flagship outfit offers two definitive statements.
Why it's here: "Oh," I thought to myself earlier this year while listening to Effluence's excellent split with Blowtorch, "it's nice that they're steering into their LDOH side." Months later, we now have two extremely hard bop classics that are extremely not that. The Zappa-fied Liquefied is the recommended opening course, because, wow, is Sarmat a mind-melter, a gore jazz blowout with a middle section that never fails to make my jaw drop.
5. Anal Stabwound - Reality Drips Into the Mouth of Indifference (New Standard Elite)
Artwork by Daemorph.
From: Connecticut
Genre: brutal death metal
Narrative: Still not out of his teens, brutal death metal wunderkind Nikhil Talwalkar cuts his first classic. Reality Drips into the Mouth of Indifference takes the Defeated Sanity formula of the last few years and rebrutalizes it for the New Standard Elite crowd.
Why it's here: While most of Talwalkar's connections feature the prodigy on drums (and for good reason), Indifference is a showcase for his work as a riffsmith, delivering an impressive set of juds that slither around more than a snake trying to escape a Rube Goldberg machine.
4. Inanna - Void of Unending Depths (Memento Mori)
Artwork by Daniel Hermosilla.
From: Santiago, Chile
Genre: death metal
Narrative: Don't you dare call it anything other than death metal. This quartet took listeners on a trip for album number three, letting its proggy influences guide its classic bouts of blergh.
Why it's here: The one-two of "Mind Surgery" and "Cabo de Hornos" is one of my favorite stretches of music this year. Inanna does cosmosh (that being spacey death metal) with a true heaviness that will appeal to the most jaded banger while also engaging in a sneaky melodicism and crisp composing that will change the minds of the staunchest metal deniers.
3. Doldrum - The Knocking, or the Story of the Sound That Preceded Their Disappearance (Katafalque)
From: Denver, CO
Genre: black metal
Narrative: The pseudonymous Denver trio sets jangly Ved Buens Ende black metal in the 19th century days of prospectors to tell one hell of a spectral tale.
Why it's here: Doldrum's commitment to establishing a story is like few others. Often, The Knocking felt like a radio play, just one with some of the sweetest riffs of the year. Coorie doon and dream.
2. Heaving Earth - Darkness of God (Lavadome Productions)
Artwork by Sözo Tozö.
From: Prague, Czechia
Genre: death metal
Narrative: One of metal's best Immolation-influenced shredders goes somewhere else for Darkness of God, a near-melo masterpiece of death metal leads. Still, with guest Giulio Galati sitting on the drummer's stool, these nine songs are as bracingly blasty and head-spinningly technical as always.
Why it's here: Asking me why I like this is like asking a dog why it likes barking at squirrels. I don't know, it's instinctual. Guitarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs. Rrrrrrrrifffffffffs. Arf arf arf!
1. Scarcity - Aveilut (The Flenser)
Cover photo by creature five fingered. Cover layout by Alex Eckman-Lawn.
From: New York, NY
Genre: black metal
Narrative: Brendon Randall-Myers and Doug Moore cut an intense document that explores the stages of grief. Intricately constructed, Aveilut's modern black metal radiates the true power of the human experience.
Why it's here: As soon as I heard this album, I knew it was going to be the AOTY. Thankfully, others also realized this as well and wrote great things about it, alleviating me from trying to squeeze my feelings into three sentences. Ron Ben-Tovin ran a extraordinary interview with Doug and Brendon. Grayson Haver Currin wrote a notable review for Pitchfork. Read those, please. And yeah, I know I'm going long here, but it's worth it. No other album touched me as profoundly. Aveilut is an all-timer.
AWARDS
Ah, crap. I forgot I have to do awards.
DID I GET IT RIGHT?
Reappraising last year’s top 10.
10. Hooded Menace - The Tritonus Bell (Season of Mist)
9. Cerebral Effusion - Ominous Flesh Discipline (New Standard Elite)
8. Charnel Grounds - Molecular Entropy Examined in the Bowels of a Great One / Hermetic Wisdom (self-released)
7. Concrete Winds - Nerve Butcherer (Sepulchral Voice Records)
6. Diskord - Degenerations (Transcending Obscurity Records)
5. Cenotaph - Precognition to Eradicate (New Standard Elite)
4. Jute Gyte - Mitrealität (Jeshimoth Entertainment)
3. Plebeian Grandstand - Rien ne suffit (Debemur Morti Productions)
2. Seputus - Phantom Indigo (Willowtip Records)
1. Succumb - XXI (The Flenser / Caligari Records)
I was expecting the worst. Looking back at lists is like looking at old photos of yourself in high school. Like, ugh, look at this unworldly idiot who hasn't had all of the confidence squished out of them by the meat press that is reality.
But, you know what? For once, I think I did OK. All of these albums are still in the rotation. And, if anything, my esteem has only grown for the top three. So, a year later, I'm going to say it: This was a good list.
OUT OF STEP
Awarded to my favorite punk record that I couldn’t shoehorn into a list.
A tie?
Bitter Branches - Your Neighbors Are Failures (Equal Vision Records)
After wracking my broken brain for 60 crappy write-ups, this is about the time in the day when I pass out from blurb-exhaustion and fall into a blurb-coma where I lucid dream of fighting a sentient thesaurus in hopes of it dropping a better synonym for "devastating." But thank the word gods for the healing, restorative powers of Tim Singer's kickass voice. Now...I have the power. The legend that screamed for Deadguy and Kiss it Goodbye has that surname for a reason, and Bitter Branches's full-length debut puts it on full display. There's nothing else in punk like listening to a smoldering Singer build a phrase furiously. Thankfully, the rest of this Philly quartet's rippage is up to snuff, launching into a more stripped-down core style than Singer's other stops.
Bombardement - Le Futur Est Là (Destructure / Symphony Of Destruction)
Am I breaking the rules? Did I get this into a list this year? Yes, I did, but nothing will stop me from shoehorning it into this one. The five-piece from Bordeaux bash out the d-beat record of the last few years, vibrating with the power of the prime Motörhead engine found puttering away underneath its crusty hood. "L'Œil Électrique" went into so many of my mixes this year that I feel I should retire it, raising its banner to the mixtape rafters. Catchy and hard as hell: that’s how you do it.
Hylda - Juniper Pyre (self-released)
Debatably metal, Hylda fits better in this section, although, truth be told, the Connecticut band will scratch some Krallicean itches almost as good as the genuine article. But yeah, this screamo trio takes the Welcome the Plague Year sort of skramz of yesteryear and augments it with the cryptic metalisms of outre black metal and avant-garde death metal. Something like "Entanglement," with its halting rhythms, displays this fusion best, finally giving black metal fans an inroad to Funeral Diner.
Triac - Pure Joy - Numb Grief-Stricken Animals (RSRecords)
Like Bombardement, I'm cheating because this Baltimore powerviolence-y grinder made a list this year, but there was no way I wasn’t mentioning it again. The blast beat endures because few things in music can trigger such a release. Triac brought the blasts on Pure Joy - Numb Grief-Stricken Animals, often punching the gas with a fastcore-esque zeal for speed while maintaining that weighty, metallic, grindy gravity. Oh, also, the songs are really well-written? As if that's fair. The flip of Days of Desolation, Triac is the kind of band that doesn't make you want to start a band because how could you possibly step to this?
Past winners:
2021: Tenue - Territorios (Alerta Antifascista / The Plague of Man Records / Pifia Records / Long Legs Long Arms / Crust Or Die / Zegema Beach Records)
2020: Subdued - Over the Hills and Far Away (La Vida Es Un Mus Discos / Roachleg Records)
2019: Protocol - Bloodsport (Dynastic Yellow Star Label / 11 PM Records)
2018: Great Falls - A Sense of Rest (Corpse Flower Records / Throatruiner Records)
THE FALSE
Awarded to my favorite non-metal album that could conceivably be enjoyed by metalheads.
A tie??
Officine - Officine (self-released)
There's something so irresistibly freeing about screaming over electronics. Officine, a Parisian three-piece, does it with a killer backbeat. If you ever listened to Lightning Bolt and thought, "Yes, but I wish this was ear-splitting noise with Oxbow-esque howls instead," do I have the album for you. "Hakike," the opener, is a stunner in all senses, melting you down with wave after wave of screams and feedback. The drumming, which has the insistence of an alarm, continually raises the tension. Goddamn. Officine is an easy pitch to any metalhead who likes it ugly.
Tantric Bile - Baka (self-released)
Effluence's extremely hard bop sister band released two records of jazzy grind before hitting you with Baka, a ludicrous Eurostep into the avant-garde. The concept? "A musical interpretation of the 1980 film Tanya's Island," per the band, an out-there cult flick that features a pre-Prince Vanity from Vanity 6. The music? A free jazz take on exotica. "Wolf," you're writing to me in a long email with many more grievances about this half-assed newsletter, "I thought this section was supposed to appeal to metalheads." Yo, "Bòkò," with its ultra-shrill tones that sound like a specter being stabbed to death, is one of the most extreme things I've heard this year. Brilliant stuff. I'm a fan forever.
Past winners:
2021: Dorotheo - Como Es (Halfshell Records)
2020: Kairon; IRSE! - Polysomn (Svart Records)
2019: Helium Horse Fly - Hollowed (Dipole Experiment Records)
2018: Madder Mortem - Marrow (Dark Essence Records)
Want more music from 2022 that's not metal? Check out my list over here.
GAINZZZ
Awarded to the best album for the gym.
A tie???
Bite - Sounds of Agony (self-released)
A lot of beatdown stuff has a tough posture but forgets the riffs. Bite has riffs — big ol' groovy ones. This German brute is in the mold of pit-punching nu metalcore like Kublai Khan TX but has a deathcore edge to its flurry of chugs. The result is an EP that always feels fresh because, my god, there are a lot of things to be pissed about in this crappy world. Let Sounds of Agony be the scope that helps you aim that frustration in a better direction.
Gargling - Depraved Ingestion of Cranial Discharge (Lifeless Chasm Records)
The Chicago two-piece sure loves it a brutal death chug. However, what separates Gargling from stuff in the Unique Leader vein is that its ping-happy slam is covered in maggots. Indeed, all 12 of these two-minute-and-under earth-shakers are super gross, stewing in fetid spew. Polwach Beokhaimook guests, so you know it's legit. But if you need another co-sign, catch me in the gym when I'm deadlifting with a stank face because I'm luxuriating in these barfy chugs.
Past winners:
2021: Last Light - We Were Never Here (self-released)
2020: Focal Dystonia - Descending (In)human Flesh (Comatose Records)
2019: Pool – Pool (Skeletal Lightning)
2018: Internal Bleeding - Corrupting Influence (Unique Leader)
SON OF A
Awarded to the best album that I found in 2022 that wasn’t released this year.
Ophanim - Delphic Moorage (Desidarius Recordings)
From the brain and nimble fingers of Hunter Petersen (Chloroma, Miasmic, Trichomniasis, and Potion, among others), Ophanim does a spin on tech death that sounds like the heavy melodeath of the Sarpanitum contingent. The twist? The solos are straight out of a G3 tour, as if Steve Vai finally figured out that Vital Remains is onto something.
Past winners:
2021: Evilyn - Inside Shells (self-released)
2020: Self Deconstruction - Wounds (Break the Records / F.O.A.D.)
2019: Voice Coils - Heaven’s Sense (Shatter Your Leaves)
2018: Butcher ABC - North of Hell (Selfmadegod)
I’LL HOLD YOUR BEER
Awarded to the biggest swing for the fences.
A tie????
Álvaro Domene - Not Arbitrary (Iluso Records)
The New York guitarist/composer dropped a few records this year, but Not Arbitrary took over my life. This solo guitar album is unlike any other, sounding like someone scratched a KK Null CD. When Domene divebombs into total glitch miasma, it feels fantastic. Obviously, ymmv. As the brilliant Joshua Buergel said, "My Not Arbitrary album title has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my album title."
Garry Brents’s Discography (various)
Garry Brents released so much music I couldn't keep up with the output. Cara Neir, Gonemage, Homeskin, Memorrhage, KSSL, Sallow Moth, possibly 10s of others I haven't found. Yet, somehow, beyond all odds, none of Brents's material is half-assed. And that's really something considering the wild, what-if style fusions and experiments he typically pursues. Whether it's the creepy-crawly, Ruins-influenced black metal of Homeskin or the bouncy nu metalisms of Memorrhage, Brents's tunes immediately transcended any potential gag. Artists may have taken bigger hacks this year, but few swung the stick like Brents or swung it as often.
Past winners:
2021: Tantric Bile - Seminal Baptism (self-released)
2020: Potion - Cemetary (self-released)
2019: !T.O.O.H.! - Komouš (self-released)
2018: Entropia - Vacuum (Arachnophobia Records)
SHOWER BEER
Awarded to the best album to throw on during the weekend.
A tie?????
Griefstoker - Soulseller (self-released)
Expect more words on Reia Pedersen's solo doom/sludge debut real soon whenever I can finally finish the doom Booster that has been sitting in my drafts for months. (2022, woo!) In the meantime, the tl;dr is that this Australian stonery groove-beast not only figures out the riffs, hitting that midpoint between not-cringe Electric Wizard and Ramesses, but achieves the essential element of good slow metal: the rhythm section swings. If I still drank, and that's going to be a life decision worth re-investigating as soon as I finish writing this year-end wrap-up, many shower beers would be cracked in its swinging honor.
Maceration - It Never Ends... (Emanzipation Productions)
Thirty years ago, this Danish death metal group cut a decent album with a singer named Day Disyraah. Who was hiding behind that stage name? Dan Swanö. Now, decades later, Maceration is back. On the mix and master? Swanö. Chipping in guest vocals? Swanö! As you can expect, It Never Ends... is pitch-perfect, old-school Euro death metal, like some lost classic hiding behind a pile of Illdisposed cassettes. And Swanö sounds as good as ever, giving his husky roar a real workout. Easily one of the best throw-it-on-during-a-BBQ death metal albums this year.
Sölicitör - All Debts on Death (Gates of Hell Records)
Only two songs, yes. However, think of it like this: two goddamn great songs from Seattle's finest speed metallers. The quintet took the next step on All Debts on Death, strengthening what worked on 2020's Spectral Devastation and going even heavier. Amy Lee Carlson belts like she's trying to impress Leather Lungs Leone, and the rest of the band charges into battle with raging, riotous, ripping metal. Some may think this sounds like the past, but to me, the future is bright.
Past winners:
2021: Blood Sport - Hot Blood and Cold Steel (Gates of Hell Records) / Witch Cross - Angel of Death (High Roller Records)
2020: Hecatomb - Horrid Invocations (self-released)
2019: Smoulder - Times of Obscene Evil (Cruz del Sur Music)
2018: Deathhammer - Chained to Hell (Hells Headbangers Records)
SWING AND A MISS
Band I doomed to obscurity by predicting it would be huge and it’s not going to be huge, obviously.
A tie??????
Blightcaster - Of Blood-Cursed Night (self-released)
Current Bandcamp Collections Count: 11
2022 is alright if you like saxophones. This Texas trio added sax skronk to Corrupted crawls and then got weird, ending up sounding like an alternate universe version of Aldebaran formed by space whales. Come for the horns and excruciatingly doomy guitars, but stay for the exquisite drumming that never fails to drop in a jaw-dropping fill.
Mulk / Hydrocele - Split (self-released)
Current Bandcamp Collections Count: 7
I've described many things as "the end of music," but that title feels extra fitting for Mulk. Gore gabber? Glitch grind? Splittergore? It's going to take years for us to catch up to what this French project is doing. And, you know, I get it. This is a tough hang for anyone except the most committed degenerate who has finished music. But if it feels even the slightest bit right, get ready to become obsessed. Joining the band on this split is Russia's Hydrocele, one of the more promising LDOH-style turbo ping blasters around.
Vihameditaatio - Metafyysinen Käsitys Itsestä (Esfinge de la Calavera)
Current Bandcamp Collections Count: 30
A late entry, Vihameditaatio's transfixing psychedelic black metal forced its way into this roundup as soon as I heard a healthy OOGH over swaths of surfin' guitars. What's in the water in Finland? Ultimately, this is more Mörkö than Oranssi Pazuzu, but it'll more than satiate either fanbase.
Wombscape - Forced Labour Songs (Landscape Records)
Current Bandcamp Collections Count: 18
I like me some Converge, but the clones never did it for me. Japan's Wombscape, though, is probably the best straight-up Converge descendant I've heard since Curl Up and Die. The reason Forced Labour Songs works is because the band has a point of view that's not strictly "When Forever Comes Crashing is a badass album, huh!" Wombscape also has something to say about this current catastrophe for workers, where working more never seems to get you more. Finally, sick riffs! The riffs are sick!
Past winners:
2021: Plain Cheese Pizza - Plain Cheese Pizza (self-released)
2020: Relic Point - Self Punishment (self-released)
THE PIERCED FROM WITHIN AWARD
Awarded to the album that is Suffocation’s Pierced From Within.
Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
Goddamn it, Suffocation, you did it again.
Past winners:
2021: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
2020: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
2019: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
2018: Suffocation - Pierced From Within (Roadrunner Records)
SKETCH WATCH
Bands that turned out to be sketchy after I covered them.
Not much to note in this section beyond that I am no longer covering Profound Lore Records releases. If you saw any egregious omissions in the main list, that's probably why.
FRIENDS, HOW MANY OF US HAVE THEM
The year in bands I can’t cover in here.
Ignore the fact that I just gave my bud Doug's band AOTY. The problem with having extremely talented friends is that I can't...really cover their extremely good bands without violating my own stupidly strict code of ethics. So, I wanted to tip my hat to some of my friend's successes in this section while acknowledging that, yes, I'm biased. That said, go to hell, all of these rule.
Steve Dave had a year for the ages, playing bass on the newest releases from Nite and Wretched Stench. Maybe Hands of Goro will be out soon?
My other podcast compadre Dave dropped the Ancient Enemy EP. It's so much fun. We did an entire bonus podcast about it. Patrick Rennick, who sings on it, also released an album with his band Brain Famine this year. It crushes.
Finally, Doug had an outlandish good guest spot on the newest Kurushimi. I wanted to get that into the list, but I was already pushing my luck with the Scarcity.
Do I think these are all worth checking out? Yes! Would I say that even if these people didn't have the misfortune of befriending me? Yes!
THE PLAGUEIES
Awarded to the podcast and post that did the best and chastising the post that did the worst.
BEST POST: What Death Metal Were They Referencing in Horizon Zero Dawn / Keep Cool, Cat! / VaccZine #12: Interview w/ Total Dissonance Worship
I didn't get a chance to write a bunch this year, but I thought these three came out pretty OK, and the numbers seem to agree. The Horizon Zero Dawn post was one of those over-the-top exercises that found me writing in the voice of video game NPC Travis Tate, and contains death metal demos than you'll ever need for the rest of your life. "Keep Cool, Cat!" was my exploration of Garfield's 1995 Eurodance album. And the last VaccZine (sigh) kicked off with a great chat with Simon Hawemann, the head of TDW.
BEST POD: Plague Rages Podcast #9: The Stream Court
It's dated now because all of the albums discussed are out, but this one took off when it was released.
WORST POST: All of RBOTD. The entire damn project.
This…didn't work out so great. I have one more RBOTD to post before I shut this endeavor down. Kind of bummed about it, but what can you do? This year sucked. Here's to 2023.
Is it over? Can I sleep now? Farewell!
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