Another year in the books — and another batch of great music! I was remiss in keeping track of a lot of what came out in both the mainstream and the underground — spending a total of 198 days of the year on the road (mostly for work, with some fun here and there too!) — means I sorta lost track of what’s what. But I put my nose to the grindstone1, and gave it my best to play catch up, and I think I ran into a situation where I was loving too much for just a simple list lol! So here’s My Top 10, with Extra Hot Sauce on the Side!
| My Top 10 of 2022 List (in a half-ass order) |
1) Blut Aus Nord: “Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses”
A band that thrives in the darkest of dark corners of obscurity, this album is an aural vortex of melodies, textures, and echos as you are mentally sucked in to (wait for it…) an undreamable abyss. Every single time I put on a later day Blut Aus Nord album, I’m hearing new things. Maybe not as quasi-approachable as their previous amazing album (“Hallucinogen“) — and that’s exactly the way the band likes it.
2) Defleshed: “Grind over Matter”
I was in Osaka Japan this past Summer, and found the BAR MiDiAN, a killer metal-oriented bar in the Umeda part of town. The owner was fucking cool as hell – and knew her Scandinavian Death Metal up and down, backwards and forwards. We both found ourself wondering whatever happened to Defleshed. A few months later, this amazing comeback popped up out of nowhere! This band wowed me in the early `00s, and they are right back to where they were, without missing a beat; still unashamed about going a bit corny with the album titles lol. Bonus: the band actually stopped in at BAR MiDiAN recently for much beer & even more mayhem!
3) Disillusion: “Ayam”
Difficult to describe, and very difficult to not be utterly wowed with the expansive breadth that this album covers in a relatively small and dare I say almost friendly package. This takes you on a journey you didn’t know you wanted and/or needed to take – and you are a better person at the end of the road. An utterly amazing album start to finish.
4) Hammers Of Misfortune: “Overtaker”
An easy pick for me – I fucking {heart} anything Slough Feg and Slough Feg-adjacent. And this band from John Cobbet has always drawn from a eclectic range of influences from his other bands. Some Hammers albums draw on his Slough Feg background, and some from his band Ludrica. This one clearly takes its queues from his Vhol side-project – and I’m 100% all about that.
5) Epoch of Unlight: “At War With the Multiverse”
An underdog pick for being in my Top 10. This band takes everything that was fun about speedy and well done melodic Swedish Death Metal – remember way back when In Flames and Dark Tranquility were fun back in the `90s? — and gives it a modern revisit. This band has had some starts and stops over the years – formed in the late `90s, with some respectable albums in the early `00s – and I’m hoping this new one signals a greater push for quality in a genre that is otherwise a bit tired2.
6) Voivod: “Synchro Anarchy”
As a huge Vovod fan, including this album here was a no-brainer. When I posted my review for this back in February, I was at the time waiting for it to firmly sink in and stick to my ribs. Consider this album now firmly stuck with me 🙂
7) Freedom of Fear: “Carpathia”
One of several very-end-of-the-year finds for me, this is an interesting Aussie band that takes the guitar shredy wizardry of Necrophagist, bundles it with the Gothenburg sound, and blends in some Vektor-style pedal to the metal attitude (especially in the vocals). Curious if this band will ever get more of a buzz, since I never see anyone talking about them online.
8) Paganizer: “Beyond The Macabre”
A band that folks certainly do talk about online. This band – one of Rogga Johansson’s 59(!!) current and former projects – has 11 full-length albums, 7 EPs, 2 live albums, and a large handful of compilation and split appearance. So how am I the only one formerly ignorant of this? Oh well. I’m now on board with this classically classy slice of Swede Death, that goes far above and beyond the standard “crank up the HM-2 to Angry Chainsaw mode and go from there”.
9) Pillaging Villagers: “Self-Titled”
A pleasant surprise I stumbled across on Bandcamp. This is an one-man project that is unadulterated fucking fun! Yeah, screw those tyrant landlords, let’s grab some pitchforks and torches and fuck `em up! The very best quote regarding this album, from a dude named Nate Collins on Bandcamp: “Dropkick Murphys, In Flames, Blind Guardian, and Devin Townsend walk into a bar…”
10) Toxik: “Dis Morta”
Now this…. Where the hell did this come from?? A thrash metal band I’ve always been aware of, but not necessarily in sync with. The dumb album artwork (with some sort of angry suit-wearing clown for a mascot?) always distracted me from doing deep dives into their generally well-regarded first two albums. (Aside: the art & dumb mascot thing used to push me away from EvilDead3, too). But this album…. Holy fuck. It’s like everyone involved brought a different bottle of bottom-shelf cheap booze to a party and dumped them into the 5 gallon cooler, and the resulting rot gut schwill is somehow far greater than it’s individual parts. The need to edit and weed out some messy bits, and some of the “interesting” production choices, keep this album from getting higher marks from me. But this album is still gonzo nuts, and a blast to…, well, blast at a BYOB party.
| Honorable Mentions (in no particular order) |
| Phantom Spell — “Immortal’s Requiem” The band you never knew you wanted until now: if Styx, Blue Oyster Cult, and Rainbow got high and start goofing around with an Ouija board, this weirdo love-child would the result. Signature track: Seven Sided Mirror | Autonoesis — “Moon of Foul Magics” Canadian Thrash Metal is always a bit different, and this young band dials in the weirdness, by blending the thrash stylings of Sacrifice, Paradox, Coroner, etc with some subtle nods to Black Metal bands such as Absu, Abigor, and Summoning. Check out the utter break down of all sanity in the middle of the title song and it’s cool recovery transitioning back into this particular plane of existence. |
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| High Command — “Eclipse of the Dual Moons” From a band that is becoming fairly well-known, this album brings more of the reverb drenched crossover vibe of Power Trip and melds it with “We’re hard as fuck in the pit, but also like to toss funny shaped dice around while pretending our characters are slaying fake monsters” fantasy4 RPG elements. A band with a lot more going on that first meets the eye (uh, ear, that is). Your side-quest: investigate “Siege Warfare” | Queensrÿche — “Digital Noise Alliance” There’s been reams of real and virtual paper dedicated to all of the drama with this band, their infamous former vocalist, the ye olde “Who owns the band name?” legal thing, etc etc, blah blah. This ain’t about that. The New Guy On Vocals (who has actually been with the band for 10 years) has slowly been feeding into a good buzz regarding modern-day Queensrÿche. I have to say that he does do a good job here, and the song writing has picked up some mighty fine inertia, too. All of the songs click for me here (I especially liked the semi-proggy vibe of “Behind The Walls”). Hell…, even the Billy Idol cover surprisingly works in this context. Color me impressed. |
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| Extra Hot Sauce! |
Just some off-the-cuff observations and opinions on stuff that could or should have ruled my world — but perhaps did not.
#YMMV
Another year, another reliably reliable album….
These reliable bands offerings were good in 2022…, but for the life of me I can’t recall any individual cuts sticking in my head:
 | Candlemass — “Sweet Evil Sun” |
 | Meshuggah – “Immutable” |
German Thrash that seems to be just phoning it in these days…
Insert <eyeroll emoticon> here:
 | Kreator — “Hate Uber Alles” |
 | Tankard — “Pavlov’s Dawgs” |
The boring 2022 Celtic Frost album that Tom G Warrior did not write…
All I could think of when I was listening to this was “This sounds like a garage band trying to play Celtic Frost in the dullest way possible”:
 | Darkthrone — “Astral Fortress” |
Yet another “One good song, and then a load of boring crap” Megadeth album…
Insert <eyeroll and jerking off emoticon> here:
 | Megadeth — “The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead!” |
No, for the love of Satan, no. Nooooo…
Insert <eyeroll, jerking off, laughing, and vomiting emoticons> here:
 | Abbath — “Dread Reaver” |
And finally, lor the lolz:
Yuzssfirst — “Invierno en Borodino”
I know that we want this website to highlight everything that is great out there in metal-land… but I gotta share this petrified turd of a track lol! 100 cool-person points if you can sit through this start to finish!
If you somehow made it this far in this article, thanks! Allow me to buy you a beer in 2023!
Cheers!! //TSB
1 Seriously, where the hell did this torture-related expression come from, the Spanish Inquisition??
2 Not all melodic metal bands need to sound exactly like At The Gates, lol. Seriously.
3 Speaking of EvilDead, this new one from Toxik in my mind joins the ranks of “Old Ass American Thrash Metal Bands Coming Out With Amazing Out-Of-Left-Field Comebacks”, which includes EvilDead’s “United States of Anarchy”, Heathen’s “Empire of the Blind”,and Hexx’s “Entangled in Sin”. All are highly recommended.
4 Such a blend of “punk/crossover + fantasy nerdery” is not at all unprecedented. Surely folks remember when the English Dogs went all J.R.R. Tolkein’y, right?
I would love to hear your thoughts on what you enjoyed this year — or what you hated lol! If my thoughts are off the mark, school me and win me over to what y’all want to fight for. Cheers! //TSB