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Thanks Navy for your thoughtful lists. Thanks Mark for dumping everything. Thanks Orca for promising but not delivering. And thanks in advance GG. Your list will be late and long but we know we can rely on you. This is what Thatguy thinks this week. THATGUY’S TOP 17. METAL In alphabetical order and not order of merit. I don’t think there will be too many surprises here. Don’t expect in depth analysis - that’s not Thatguy’s style - and you’ll see the word fun a lot. Good music is always fun. It may be other things too - beautiful, challenging, thought provoking, sad, noisy, kind of annoying etc etc - but if it’s not fun then I probably won’t be listening, because in 2022 it was again - so much music, so little time. ARTIFICIAL BRAIN - Artificial Brain. This is a fun album full of metal goodness. Fuck youse all for a miserable bunch of sad sacks if you can’t enjoy this. ASHENSPIRE - Hostile Architecture. Angry Scots ranting and interesting music with saxophone. What’s not to love? ASUNOJOKEI - Island. I just love this band and this album in particular. Smart-arse chords and high pitched shrieking. Get it into you. DESOLATE SHRINE - Fires Of A Dying World. Dark, dense, angry. It’s everything I want from a metal album. DRUDKH - All Belongs To The Night. I think I’ve heard some of these chord progressions before from this band, but I don’t care. I enjoy this more with each listen so that makes it list-worthy. IMMOLATION - Acts Of God. Yep, I agree with everyone else that it is too long - but it rocks. IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT - Spirit of Ecstasy. I know there isn’t much love for these guys around here, but on re-listening and reflection, I like this album quite a lot. It’s a lot less wanky than their previous one and is actually a metal album, dissonant and iconoclastic enough to amuse me and all in all a lot of quirky fun. MALIGNANT AURA - Abysmal Misfortune Is Draped On Me. Miserable. Miserable but in a good way. MESHUGGAH - Immutable. The title sums it up. This is what it is, love it or hate it. There is so much happening here, and an instrumental track that is maybe the best track. MOURNFUL CONGREGATION - The Exuviae of Gods - Part 1. This is what I’m talking about. Beautiful, miserable but, yep, fun. These guys can do no wrong in my book. I hope Part 2 appears in 2023. OLHAVA - Reborn. Lots of atmospherics but enough BM to keep me hanging on. The goats won’t like it. OSSERP - Els nous cants de la Sibil-la. Like the Desolate Shrine, this just hits the spot. PHARMACIST - Flourishing Extremities On Unspoiled Mental Grounds. Every time I listen to this I just think - wow. TOADEATER - Bexadde. Almost worth listing just for the band name, but also for the mix. Bass, guitars and vocals about equal with supportive drums. A nice change from buried vocals and inaudible bass. ULTHA - All That Has Never Been True. I hate the cover art - it reminds me of the Electric Callboy video ‘We Got The Moves’ (ear and eye worm of the year even if not released in 2022). But the music is dense yet lively, interesting and engaging with fine examples of NON-CHEESY SYNTH all the way through it. This should be on everyone’s list. And they released a very good B side/demo/live album for NYP this year too. Thanks Ultha. WIEGEDOOD - There’s Always Blood At The End Of The Road. Excellent album by consistently good band. I think they would absolutely slay live. WORM MANTLE - Worm Mantle. I raved about this early in the year then left it alone for a long time. On re-listening, yep, I still love it. Lots of metal and a good deal of atmospherics - all guitar I think and no synths to whinge about. NON-METAL AKKU QUINTET - Live.Jazz so chill and groovy that there ought to be a law against it. BITCHIN BAJAS - Bajascillators. Radiant ambient/electronic/jazz. Check out the cover art. The music is just like the art. BORIS - W. Boris albums are so diverse that you can’t really say you do or don’t like the band. This is an electronic art rock/pop album. Noice. ELDER - Innate Passage. So musical, so engaging. loscil - The Sails Pt. 2. Radiant beauty as all his albums. Nils FRAHM - Music for Animals. Saw him live in 2022 and now I get him. Lovely and interesting electronics. Valentina GONCHAROVA - Ocean - Symphony for Electric Violin and other instruments. This is one for the ‘modern classical’ lovers I guess, but it’s also noisy and annoying. ŠIROM - The Liquified Throne of Simplicity. Long instrumental tracks of alternative folk/ambient with all sorts of weird instruments. Really very engaging. SPOOK- Spook. Chill. Midori TAKADA - You Who Are Leaving To Nirvana. Chanting, percussion and I think electronics. Ethereal and beautiful. COLLECTIONS ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles (on ECM). As I wrote in the jazz thread, this anthology contains the essence of all of jazz and of life. Olivier MESSIAEN - 100th Anniversary Box Set. So much Messiaen, so little time. I wish I had written this music, but I’m not a French, Catholic mystic organ virtuoso. Steve TIBBETTS - Hellhound Train: An Anthology. Jazz/rock/ambient, whatever. This is really entertaining. Anton WEBERN - Complete Works. Essential listening for the ‘modern classical’ lover and I’m glad I have this to listen to whenever I feel like it. I wish he had lived longer and widened his palette.

Great lists @KillaKukumba, @Thatguy, & @Arioch Lots to investigate there. Always enjoy the non-metal recs since I don't get a chance to check out those as much during the year. Surprised Makaya Mcraven didn't make your list T-guy. If the jazz stuff you have there is better than his latest, I'll definitely give them a whirl. And French prog rock? Name dropping Rush? You have my attention monsieur Arioch.

Obituary - Inked in Blood (2014)

Fuck me. A savage take down.😉

SATANIC WARMASTER - Aamongandr MORRIGAN - Anwynn VULTYRIUM - Vultyrium

At your disposal, navybsn 😉 If singing in French doesn't scare you, I recommend these two albums to get an idea about French prog rock : Sorry for the off-topic!

11 records for me. METAL (in alphabetical order) : An Abstract Illusion - Woe Arsena - Blood Rusted Mother Earth Blind Illusion - Wrath Of The Gods Force of Hell - Better Be Dead Hellish - The Dance Of The Four Elemental Serpents Les Enfants de Dagon - De Profundis Sigh - Shiki The Boneless Ones - Back To The Grind NON METAL (in alphabetical order) : Francis Décamps - Bien Au-Delà Du Délire JPL - Sapiens, chapitre 3/3 : Actum Nemo - Les nouveaux mondes 2022 The 3 non Metal albums are French progressive rock albums. It's a style I like a lot after I discovered by chance The Villa Strangiato (Rush) in 1984. In France, we have talented progressive rock bands, like Ange, Magma, Nemo, JPL, Gens de la Lune, Lazuli, ... For the 8 Metal albums of my list for 2022, a lot of Thrash, but also albums that are out of the ordinary (An Asbtract Illusion, Sigh, Les Enfants de Dagon). I love bands that try to invent something and at the moment, I notice that it's mostly in Black Metal that we find the most. Besides, the 3 bands mentioned above are part of it.

Thanks to @Thatguy and his constant whinging I can no longer forget to add something here. No genre breakdowns just the best 10 albums I bought this year with detailed write ups for each album 1. Dropkick Murphys - This Machine Still Kills Fascists (I liked it) 2. Evil Invaders - Shattering Reflections (I liked it) 3. Pillaging Villagers - Pillaging Villagers (I liked it) 4. Ugly Kid Joe – Rad Wings of Destiny (I liked it) 5. Devin Townsend – Lightwork (I liked it) 6. King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard - Omnium Gatherum (I liked it) 7. Schizophrenia - Recollections Of The Insane (I liked it) 8. Sabaton - The War To End All Wars (I liked it) 9. Extinction AD - Culture Of Violence (I liked it) 10, Megadeth - The Sick The Dying And The Dead (it was okay)

Great eclectic list as usual with some albums I've listened to but should revisit (Ultha) and others I need to check out (Pharmacist, Imperial Triumphant) . Indeed, W is a beautiful listen. Thanks for your write-up!

Orannsi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi

Venom invented black metal. They suck imo, but they still get credit as the genre originators. Because black metal's not about tremolo riffs, it's about Satan. Question resolved. End of discussion.

Mine's already done, but I feel I need to wait until December to start the thread. Forum manners and all. It's rude to be 11 months early.

King Gizzard - Flying Microtonal Banana

I didn't like this year's release as much as his last one, and I forgot about it. This is the trouble with lists, of course.by definition things get excluded.

I think that Venom brought to Black Metal its name (with its album of the same name), maybe the satanic imagery of the band and the fact that the musicians used pseudonyms (Cronos, Mantas, Abaddon). But Bathory brought much more to the genre in my opinion.

I haven't listened to much new stuff this year (I mostly just listened to old stuff) but the two new albums I did hear were great. 1. the sick the dying and the dead - Megadeth 2. rotting on the vine - Spesimin

Autonoesis - Moon of Foul Magics (2022)

Apparition - Feel Vacuous – Dreams Of Dysphoria Lucifixion ‎– Indulge In The Macabre Hearse - Traipse Across The Empty Graves

Yes, I await Dave's wrath with baited breath.

Weyes Blood/And in the Darkness, Hearts A Glow Immolation/Morbidity Triumphant

Hey, I promised nothing, I just said it was done! And you didn't use your manners

OAK PANTHEON - From a Whisper

Schizophrenia - Recollections Of The Insane

Just want to be clear here, because over the last few years I've watched Ghost's history get re-written in real time, but the hate for Ghost has far less to do with their music, and started almost entirely from their explosion into the more mainstream side of the world. In general, the same people who trash them now were falling all over themselves to praise the band when Opus Eponymous debuted as a quirky, underground release that no one could get their hands on. I'm not saying their music hasn't become even more poppy and easier to digest over the years, but this is the same band that closed out MDF in 2011. They were absolutely underground darlings for a time, and anyone who says otherwise is either lying or wasn't there when it happened

Sweet Of Feather and Bone shirt here, but they are all out of Large. Not going to be happy with M or XL but its tempting.