My Favorite Records of 2022
Lots of really great records came out last year. It seems I’ve pared my listening down even more than I did last year. I’ve been playing more guitar and writing riffs more than listening to new music in my free time, I suppose. As usual, kind of a wide array of sounds in my tops again.
To my favorites…
36.) Revocation - Netherheaven
Blasted me in the face. Worth it alone for the Trevor Strnad closing feature. This is excellent riffing and song writing again.
35.) King Buffalo - Regenerator
Outstanding. I love this band and they keep bringing it. Wonderful guitar and bass tone throughout.
34.) Stormruler - Sacred Rites & Black Magick
This is great. 74 minutes of ripping trem picking and great performances. I dig the interludes in between each track. Wonderful sophomore release, keep this band on your radar, they’re doing great things.
33.) The Mountain King - WolloW
Palindrome doom record?! Super cool, lots of great musical moments. No way they intended to do all of this, haha :-)
32.) Pyrithe - Monuments to Impermanence
Loved this, not sure i’d even call it death metal? Progressive deathy metal or something. Whatever it is, really cool and the wild time shifts and arrangements make this one really special.
31.) Gaerea - Mirage
I loved Limbo. Big fan of the guitars on this. And the vocalist gives another A+ performance. Great band, great record.
30.) Russian Circles - Gnosis
Great balance of heavy and beauty, as always. Not quite as heavy as Blood Year but seemed close. Really interesting record. They continue to raise the bar for themselves.
29.) River Whyless - Monoflora
Reminds me a lot of Weyes Blood, and made me want to listen to Andromeda for the billionth time. Loved this.
28.) Undeath - It’s Time…To Rise From The Grave
RIPS…loving this. This is fantastic, I’m really looking forward to what they do next. Truly interesting death metal riffs and songwriting.
27.) Haunter - Discarnate Ails
Outstanding. This is such a great record, psych styled riffs and incredibly good vocal performances throughout. Love this. They really stepped it up on the sophomore release. 3 songs clocking in at 31 minutes, this could have easily gone longer, I wanted more. Looking forward to whatever they do next.
26.) Candelabrum - Nocturnal Trance
Reminds me of Paysage D’Hiver Im Wald. Great atmosphere, super raw production which isn’t something I “need” in black metal but when it works and fits, it really helps. This record really benefits from it. Lots of really cool instrumentation and the riffs are great. Love the vocals, too.
25.) Coheed & Cambria - Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind
Wonderful record. Loved this a lot, and that’s saying something because I have historically been indifferent on the rest of their albums. This record might have changed that because I might need to revisit their discog. Fantastic songwriting and performances. Love the riffs, love the vocal delivery and harmonies and melodies.
24.) Sarattma - Escape Velocity
Exceptionally well done instrumental metal record. So much going on, fantastic song writing and mood generation. The last two tracks are mind blowingly amazing.
23.) thoughtcrimes - Altered Pasts
Incredibly good, spiritual successor to The Dillinger Escape Plan. Billy Rymer on drums AND guitar.
22.) Crippled Black Phoenix - Banefyre
Exactly what I was hoping for. Skippable first track. Rose of Jericho belongs in the song of the year discussion. A long record (97 minutes) but it’s a journey that is meant to be taken.
21.) Brutus - Unison Life
Fantastic vocal performance and arrangements, love the rhythm section, and the songwriting is phenomenal. Some of these vocal melodies and harmonies were not leaving my brain for weeks after initial listen of this one.
20.) Wilderun - Epigone
Symphonic and grandiose, love the growls. Great clean singing then into wonderful growling. Top notch musicianship. Reminds me a lot of Devin Townsend Project and Between the Buried and Me. Tons of great riffing and grandiose instrumentation. This was exceptionally great. Bonus Radiohead cover was cool!
19.) Jamestown Revival - Young Man
One of my most listened to records of the year. Kinda bluegrass, kinda country, with a blues tinge to everything. Got to see them at Thalia Hall perform and they knocked it out of the park. Memorable tunes and vocal harmonies that get stuck in your brain for weeks. Looking forward to the next record.
18.) Kendrick Lamar - Mr Morale & The Big Steppers
Stellar, as always. Some of his best poetry, I think I like the beats on TPAB and/or DAMN better, but I think the writing on this is better. Great record.
17.) Dreadnought - The Endless
Love this band. This is my favorite of theirs since Bridging Realms. Loved this record. It’s too short, though! I wish there was a couple more long songs on it. Oh well, great stuff.
16.) Liminal Shroud - All Virtues Ablaze
Outstanding. Everything I like about atmospheric black metal is done incredibly well here. Only downside is I wanted more than 40 minutes.
15.) Humanotone - A Flourishing Fall in a Grain of Sand
FFO Elder. Loved this. This album is the spiritual successor to Reflections of a Floating World.
14.) Worn Mantle - Worn Mantle
The end of Aseity is incredible. All of Supplicant was amazing. Those two songs alone are 40 minutes long, this album is great. I love that they are not afraid of indulging a long song’s natural path and let it live.
13.) Mo’ynoq - A Place for Ash
Whoa this ruled. I like this band a lot, and am a big fan of this record. Meaty and dissonant.
12.) Cosmic Putrefaction - Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones
This is one of my favorite death metal records of the year. Great ambience and atmosphere mixed with full bore, bludgeoning riffs and drums pummeling me from every direction.
11.) Kardashev - Liminal Rite
Wonderful record. Lots to devour. One of the best sounding kick drums I have ever heard on record. I Love the songwriting, their use of space, and composition as an instrument. Wonderful.
10.) Elder - Innate Passage
Seems like they borrowed more from Reflections of a Floating World than Omens which I am ok with. Not quite as good as that record (RoaFW) but this was great, and continues their legacy.
9.) Danger Mouse & Black Thought - Cheat Codes
Strangers w/ A$AP Rocky and RtJ is the highlight but this whole thing rules. I listened to this album so much.
8.) An Abstract Illusion - Woe
This is great, but the last song bumps it up into “legendary” status. Incredible clean guitar tone at the end. Great record, loved the pacing and songwriting and instrumentation. The keys used throughout were really tastefully done and really bring everything together.
7.) Mythic Sunship - Light/Flux
Fantastic. Loved this record. Sax on sax. I listened to this one a lot, and it gets better on every listen.
6.) Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
I was very excited for this one. Grapevine gives me goosebumps, that acoustic guitar is perfect. I think I liked Titantic Rising better at this point, but time will tell. Wonderful song writing and production, vocal harmonies are incredible. Natalie Laura Mering continues to be one of my favorite storytellers and artists.
5.) Doldrum - The Knocking, Or the Story of the Sound That Preceded Their Disappearance
Incredible record. Loved this, just the raw emotion and arrangement. Love the progressions and the concept. Really well done. And it’s worth mentioning that the melodies on this album are infectious, they have a knack for coming up with memorable riffs. Looking forward to the next steps for this band, very promising.
4.) Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses
Blut Aus Nord take us on a psychedelic voyage through space and time, weaving a tapestry of black metal riffs in their wake. This album sounds like a plunge into the nether void of space in the best way.
3.) Dream Unending - Song of Salvation
This was an interesting one, and I didn’t listen to it until after 2022 had concluded. The use of clean guitar harmony throughout this record is beautifully done and really brings out the heaviness of the songs. Masterpiece. This band is adventurous in a way that really captures the spirit of an artist designing an experience for the listener. The build and release, ebb and flow, push and pull demonstrated throughout the runtime leaves me wanting more but satisfied with the experience. I’d love to see this record start to finish live.
2.) Tómarúm - Ash in Realms of Stone Icons
Whoa. Incredible. Insane fretless bass, great session drums, wonderful arrangements, outstanding performances, great production (mastered by Colin Marston from Krallice). Wow. I gave this a perfect score and re-listened to it over and over again throughout the year. To say I enjoyed this album is a travesty of analysis. Everything about this one delivers in the best way. I can’t wait for what’s next, if there’s something next. Well done. And the album artwork is phenomenal, too.
1.) White Ward - False Light
Big hype. This delivered. Dense and meaty, cinematic, and memorable. “Love Exchange Failure” really moved me, and this is such a worthy follow up, I can’t believe they topped it in such a spectacular way. I really like the transitions, they work well to set up all the “songs” and I really enjoyed how they arranged everything. This band does the whole “galloping into a driving double bass thunder” thing so well I need a more concise way to describe that convention. I’m going to start calling it “White Warding”, haha. After 3 listens I was comfortable giving it a perfect score, but I lost track of how many times I spun this one. Leviathan might be my favorite song of the year, and one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time. Unquestionably my album of the year, by a landslide.
Honorable Mentions
- Abduction - Black Blood
- Arkaik - Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts
- Carpenter Brut - Leather Terror
- Cavurn - Undead in Bellingham
- Cloakroom - Dissolution Waves
- Destrage - SO MUCH. too much.
- Emily Jane White - Alluvion
- END/Cult Leader - Gather & Mourn
- Fleshwater - We’re Not Here To Be Loved
- Gabriels - Angels & Queens - Part I
- Greyhaven - This Bright and Beautiful World
- High Castle Teleorkestra - The Egg That Never Opened
- Imperial Triumphant - Spirit of Ecstasy
- Krallice - Psychagogue
- Mizmor + Thou - Myopia
- Mosaic - Heimatspuk
- Nebula - Transmission From Mothership Earth
- Nite - Voices of the Kronian Moon
- Saor - Origins
- Sonivinos - Sonivinos (Sonicated Intravaginal Insemination in Numbers)
- Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems
- Taylor Swift - Midnights (3am Edition)
- Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
- The Canyon Observer - Figura
- Ultha - All that has Never been True