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Best of lists - 2022


Dead1

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I know you guys love this stuff so to get you completely agitated here we start with Decibel magazine's Top 40 for 2022:

 

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2022/11/10/spoiler-here-are-decibels-top-40-albums-of-2022/

 

 

40. Temple of Void, Summoning the Slayer, Relapse

39. Gaerea, Mirage, Season of Mist

38. Sigh, Shiki, Peaceville

37. Still/Form, From the Rot Is a Gift, Hex

36. Midnight, Let There Be Witchery, Metal Blade

35. Doldrum, The Knocking, or the Story of the Sound That Preceded Their Disappearance, Katafalque

34. Amorphis, Halo, Atomic Fire

33. Imperial Triumphant, Spirit of Ecstasy, Century Media

32. Black Anvil, Regenesis, Season of Mist

31. Municipal Waste, Electrified Brain, Nuclear Blast

30. Castrator, Defiled in Oblivion, Dark Descent

29. Daeva, Through Sheer Will and Black Magic…, 20 Buck Spin

28. Ripped to Shreds, 劇變 (Jubian), Relapse

27. Mother of Graves, Where the Shadows Adorn, Wise Blood

26. Eight Bells, Legacy of Ruin, Prophecy

25. Tzompantli, Tlazcaltiliztli, 20 Buck Spin

24. SpiritWorld, Deathwestern, Century Media

23. Escuela Grind, Memory Theater, MNRK

22. Vanum, Legend, Profound Lore

21. Satan, Earth Infernal, Metal Blade

20. Mizmor + Thou, Myopia, Gilead Media

19. Dream Unending, Song of Salvation, 20 Buck Spin

18. Phobophilic, Enveloping Absurdity, Prosthetic

17. Negative Plane, The Pact…, The Ajna Offensive

16. Sumerlands, Dreamkiller, Relapse

15. Terror, Pain Into Power, Pure Noise

14. Voivod, Syncro Anarchy, Century Media

13. Chat Pile, God’s Country, The Flenser

12. Wake, Thought Form Descent, Metal Blade

11. Oceans of Slumber, Starlight and Ash, Century Media

10. Mortuous, Upon Desolation, Carbonized

9. KEN mode, Null, Artoffact

8. Kreator, Hate Über Alles, Nuclear Blast

7. Nechochwen, Kanawha Black, Bindrune

6. Soul Glo, Diaspora Problems, Epitaph

5. Immolation, Acts of God, Nuclear Blast

4. Blackbraid, Blackbraid I, self-released

3. Sonja, Loud Arriver, Cruz Del Sur

2. Cave In, Heavy Pendulum, Relapse

1. Undeath, It’s Time… to Rise from the Grave, Prosthetic

 

 

Surprised not to see Autopsy on there but good mix of genres.

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  • Dead1 changed the title to Best of lists - 2022

I must be out of touch too, because I've only heard 2, 5 and 40.

To quote (although not to agree with) Nergal: "Don't start any bands. And I'm not even kidding here. Don't do it. The world is overwhelmed with bands, with records, with albums. There's really no space there for anything. There's only seven days a week. There's too many tours around. There's too many shows. People don't have, and will have less and less money. So all the tours are suffering. Do you really wanna put another song on another album that no one will pay attention to? No, you don't wanna do that. Go find yourself a proper job. Finish university, travel and enjoy life. Don't do this."

 

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In the Indian Classical music tradition the masters retreat into the wilderness and make music for no one on occasions that they happen to make music. 

I think I will buy a new guitar some day, on the condition that I never record anything, or perform for anyone. 

I've figured out that I have zero interest in new music, with the exception of local punk releases and I'll pick up new releases by a few crust bands. 

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I have heard at least some of 14 of these: 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 17, 18, 22, 25, 29, 30, 36, 39, 40, but only 6 of them: 1, 4, 10, 18, 36 and 40 were purchases. (still on the fence about buying #25) And out of those 6, only 3 of them might potentially be under consideration for my top 40 list: 1, 4 and 18. Not saying I think they'll make the cut, but I'll give them a listen come list time.

Once again we see that while some underground death metal does manage to find its way into some mainstreamer ears, black metal stilll mostly gets ignored and overlooked. There was only one legit black metal album (Blackbraid) on the whole list. I'll be more interested to compare notes with any black metal lists anyone might dig up. Even though I've been listening to much more death than black these last few months, black metal is still my genre of choice.

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Well, I recognize about 3/4 of them, so you all need to get on my level 😁.

That being said, while there are a few on here I actually really like, this one, probably more than any other year, just screams "list by committee" to me. Just picking and choosing bands with any kind of buzz around them (Black Fucking Anvil!?...I call bullshit right there).

4 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

There was only one legit black metal album (Blackbraid) on the whole list.

....well, that plus another five in Gaera, Negative Plane, Nechochwen, Black Anvil, and Vanum.

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Despite my withdrawal, I've done a "as per usual" adequate job of keeping up with the Jonses and tend to enjoy "the popular" ones to a certain extent. 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 14, 16, 28, 29, 38, 40. Not going to lie, I don't have a vivid memory of all of Those. These generic lists are good prompts-"oh I still need to listen to that one". Reminds me that I liked the new Voivod more than I was expecting, but not enough to purchase. For the big hitters, Autopsy, COL and BAN are unforgiveable oversites. 

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I'd also like to point out...totally called the Blackbraid year-end, dick riding parade. Not just that it would make a bunch of lists, but that everyone would fall over themselves to put it nice and high on their lists.

 

(That's more a shot at the exaggerated hypetrain that surrounded the album, more than a shot at the album itself, which was enjoyable)

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2 hours ago, SurgicalBrute said:

Well, I recognize about 3/4 of them, so you all need to get on my level 😁.

That being said, while there are a few on here I actually really like, this one, probably more than any other year, just screams "list by committee" to me. Just picking and choosing bands with any kind of buzz around them (Black Fucking Anvil!?...I call bullshit right there).

....well, that plus another five in Gaera, Negative Plane, Nechochwen, Black Anvil, and Vanum.

 I said legit black metal. I'm sure we could argue all day about what's legit and what's not and get nowhere because that's subjective. But I suspect you probably know what I mean. If it's something I couldn't listen to for more than a minute or two then that's what I mean by not legit. Feel free to enjoy them if you like, but Gaera, NP and Vanum these are not good records imho. Sounds like corporate black metal to me, too professional sounding, there's no grit there. Black Anvil's from fucking NY, which is not known as a true black metal town, it's more of a hipster black metal enclave. To be fair I haven't heard the latest Nechochwen album, but I've heard previous efforts. I suppose I could've picked a better word than "legit" (open to suggestions) but that's the one I chose last night.

I always keep a running list of my favorite black metal albums from the current year (which here in mid November currently stands at 36) and I don't see any of them (except Blackbraid) on the Decibel list. Not that I thought I would, because they never have any of what I would consider legit black metal on these corporate lists. Surprised they didn't have any crap like Ozzy, Ghost or Goatwhore on there. Which is why I don't seek these mainstream lists out or frequent any of the big mainstream metal blog sites. They cover metal, but not my kind of metal. I do enjoy reading my fellow forum members' year end lists though. Even the ones with no legit black metal on them.

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3 hours ago, SurgicalBrute said:

Just stick to saying everything sucks. There's less confusion that way

I thought it basically went without saying for guys like us that nearly everything on the anual November Decibel list sucks. Not sure where the confusion comes in. 

And I certainly don't think everything sucks, I'm the dude who buys 300+ new albums each year and can't keep his year end list under 50 albums, remember? I love metric shit tons of music. (just in a limited number of sub-genres) Honestly I thought Deadly-do-Right was the one who thought everything sucked?

But you know how it works man, if I hate something that you hate too, then you just think I have good taste. But when I hate something that you might happen to like then I'm the asshole 'curmudgeon' who hates everything. 

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13 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I thought it basically went without saying for guys like us that nearly everything on the anual November Decibel list sucks. Not sure where the confusion comes in. 

When you said "legit" black metal, it came across more like a question genre purity as opposed to what you apparently meant, which was a question of quality...at least to me. I think Gaera, Vanum, and (ugh) Black Anvil all blow as well, but I don't think there's any real way to argue that they're not real (i.e. legit) black metal bands, which was what I thought you were saying.

13 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

But you know how it works man, if I hate something that you hate too, then you just think I have good taste. But when I hate something that you might happen to like then I'm the asshole 'curmudgeon' who hates everything.

We're all free to like and dislike what we want. I'm by no means saying you have to change your approach to music, because I know I sure as hell wouldn't change mine either, but like everyone else, you've got your checklist of criteria for a band's sound that doesn't always make sense to everyone else...hence the occasional "music curmudgeon" comment that comes your way

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Yeah, it's not really about genre purity. I'll sometimes use legit informally the way some people might use the word solid to describe an album or something. I actually used the word decent the first time I typed that post last night and then went back and changed it to legit. It would be pointless to get up on my soap box and proclaim that all the black metal I don't care for doesn't even qualify as real true black metal. It's not like I've never engaged in any of that type of behavior before, obviously I have. But as time goes by there's just gonna be more and more of that stuff that I can't stand, so it's so much easier to just say this little pile of stuff over here that I like is legit, the real deal, the good stuff.

As far as my checklist of criteria goes, I've always found that despite my love of words, explaining how or why I do or don't like something is an extremely difficult task. I don't always even know the reasons why I don't like something myself, and therefore I can have quite a bit of trouble putting into words what it is I do or don't like about stuff. What I do know is this expected conformity where we're all supposed to fall in line to like and dislike all the same shit makes no sense to me.

I've always done my own thing, chosen my own path, gone my own way. I've never expected others to synchronize their tastes with mine, we all like and dislike different shit for our own very personal reasons. Even with people you've found you have a lot of music in common with, there will always be divergences. I fully expect most others will disagree with my tastes more often than not, the same way I generally disagree with theirs. And it doesn't bother me the slightest little bit when they do. So it never occurs to me that others could take offense when I disagree with their tastes.

But yet I often feel the expectations of my peers weighing on me when I say I can't stand Morbid Angel or Rush or Immolation or Krisiun or Dying Fetus or Messhugah or Pantera or Queensryche or Hail Spirit Noir or SYL or Negative Plane or 70's Priest or solo King Diamond or solo Ozzy or Pink Floyd's The Wall or Rust In Peace or whatever it may be that I can't stand that day. People often react like there must be something wrong with me. Like I've insulted them personally by not liking something they like. Or as if I were calling their taste into question. How could I dare to stray from the party line? Must need the shit cleaned out of my ears. What a curmudgeon. You must worship Satan. Why are you always such a cranky bastard? I find that one the most amusing. I'm not cranky, I bear no malice or hostility. I just like what I like and don't what I don't. And I don't care what anyone else thinks about that.

It's all fun and games when we're all ganging up and happily ragging on some common denominator, low-hanging fruit type shit, like nu-metal or metalcore or power metal or DEP or ICP or Ghost or Deafheaven or Balloon-knot or whichever bands we can all bond over hating. Fred Durst blows!! Yeah!! Fuck him!! But dare to say out loud that 70's Priest sucks, or I can't stand Rush, or Tool, or I have no use for Bowie's Berlin trilogy, or I think Morbid Angel is trash, or let slip that I don't give a shit about Dismember or Demilich, and then people react like you've farted in their face, or taken your dick out and pissed all over their leg. Like they expect you to excuse yourself and slink away to hang your head in shame for the crime of having a different opinion. Go think about what you've done, stop being so damned contrary and come with the correct attitude next time. And that's just dumb.

People need to harden the fuck up and stop being so bloody sensitive all the time. Unless it's your band and you've written and performed all the music yourself. Then I could understand them taking derogatory comments personally. But everyone else needs to get over themselves and accept that not everyone sees things the same way they do.

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1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

But dare to say out loud that 70's Priest sucks, or I can't stand Rush, or Tool, or I have no use for Bowie's Berlin trilogy, or I think Morbid Angel is trash, or let slip that I don't give a shit about Dismember or Demilich

Why how dare you sir! You have offended my delicate sensibilities. I challenge you to a duel at dawn. Blunderbusses at 20 paces.

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13 minutes ago, navybsn said:

Why how dare you sir! You have offended my delicate sensibilities. I challenge you to a duel at dawn. Blunderbusses at 20 paces.

I'm in a deep blue northern Yankee state. We have a 2 month waiting period for blunderbuss permits. And then there's no guarantee it'll even be approved. How about flare guns? I could probably drive up into PA and get one of those.

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1 minute ago, FatherAlabaster said:

This is a UK based forum guys, fisticuffs only please.

 

Navy's 14 years younger than me, and a professionally trained killer. I know he sits on his ass a lot more than he used to these days and drinks beer and stuff, but so do I. Don't think there's any doubt the smart money would be on him. So fisticuffs is out. Maybe throwing axes? Best 2 out of 3? Loser buys the beer 🍺 no wait I have it, loser has to listen to Rush catalog for an entire day while taking a tiki-tour of Sicilian cathedrals.

 

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