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EOTY Listmania Extravaganza 2022


navybsn

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Ok, well I get started with all of the stuff I really didn't get to spend any time with this year but is probably worthy of consideration. Just couldn't fit them in. Most came to my attention in the past week or so while others just got buried in the mountain of releases I picked up this year. Not saying they are all worthy, but stuff that is worthy of attention. Definitely releases I'll be focused on over the next month or so. No write ups on these for obvious reasons.

The Could have beens:

Parasit - En Falsk Utopia

Kryptograf - The Eldorado Spell

Spiral Staircase - Vision Shifting Form

Hersker - Hudangst

Rigorous Institution - Cainsmarsh

Imprecation - In Nomine Diaboli

GEVURAH - Gehinnom

Malist - As I become Darkness

Drudkh - All Belong to the Night

Sigh - Shiki

Eteraz - Villian

Grave Axis - Dismal Aeon

High Vis - Blending

Phantasia - Ghost Stories

French Police - Onyx

Locust Revival - Your Delusion Are Not Mine

Carrion Bloom - Sacraments of Pestilence

Djevel - Naa skrider natten sort

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Nice Navy. Well in the spirt of lists, I'm just going to dump all of the new albums as far as I can recollect I am working with bot metal and non metal in alphabetical order, Not all would make a list but they are all on the table!

2022

  1. 40 Watt Sun-Perfect Light
  2. Antichrist Emporium-III
  3. Autopsy-Morbidity Triumphant
  4. Blackbraid-Blackbraid I
  5. Black Country, New Road-Ants from Up There
  6. Cavernlight-As I Cast Ruin Upon the Lens That Reveals My Every Flaw
  7. Big Thief-Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
  8. Blut Aus Nord-Disharmonium 
  9. Beach House-Once Twice Melody
  10. The Beth-Experts in a Dying Field
  11. Boris-W
  12. Boris -Heavy Rocks
  13. Bjork-Forcossa
  14. Bill Callahan-YTI⅃AƎЯ
  15. Cave In-Heavy Pendulum 
  16. Chat Pile/God’s Country
  17. Darkher-The Buried Storm 
  18. Crippled Black Phoenix-Banefyre
  19. Cult of Luna-The Road North
  20. Daeva-Through Sheer Will and Black Magic
  21. Darkthrone-Astral Fortress
  22. Dead Cross/III
  23. Dream Unending-Song of Salvation
  24. Sharon Van Etten-We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong
  25. Florist-Florist
  26. Grimma-Frostbitten
  27. Haunter/Discarnate Ails
  28. Immolation-Acts of God
  29. Ken Mode-Null
  30. Messa-Close
  31. Mizmor and Thou-Myopia 
  32. Kevin Morby-This is a Photograph 
  33. Nocturnal Triumph
  34. Otolith-Folium Limina
  35. Sigh-Shiki
  36. Smile-A Light For Attracting Attention
  37. Spiritworld-Deathwestern
  38. Voivod-Synrho Anarchy
  39. Undeath-It’s Time to rise from the Death
  40. Kurt Vile-Watch My Moves
  41. Wake-Death Through Descent
  42. Weye’s Blood-And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglo
  43. Wo Fat-Singularity
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42 minutes ago, navybsn said:

Ok, well I get started with all of the stuff I really didn't get to spend any time with this year but is probably worthy of consideration. Just couldn't fit them in. Most came to my attention in the past week or so while others just got buried in the mountain of releases I picked up this year. Not saying they are all worthy, but stuff that is worthy of attention. Definitely releases I'll be focused on over the next month or so. No write ups on these for obvious reasons.

The Could have beens:

Parasit - En Falsk Utopia

Kryptograf - The Eldorado Spell

Spiral Staircase - Vision Shifting Form

Hersker - Hudangst

Rigorous Institution - Cainsmarsh

Imprecation - In Nomine Diaboli

GEVURAH - Gehinnom

Malist - As I become Darkness

Drudkh - All Belong to the Night

Sigh - Shiki

Eteraz - Villian

Grave Axis - Dismal Aeon

High Vis - Blending

Phantasia - Ghost Stories

French Police - Onyx

Locust Revival - Your Delusion Are Not Mine

Carrion Bloom - Sacraments of Pestilence

Abigor - Nachthymnen

Djevel - Naa skrider natten sort

A few of those (Spiral Staircase, Gevurah, Djevel, and Imprecation) were right on the edge for me...to the point that if I take my list out to 50, they'd have all made it easily.

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Nice @markm

The Honorable Mentions:

Darkthrone - Astral Fortress - seriously, how could the venerable DT not make an appearance. Is this their best album? No. Does it still kick ass and warrant repeat plays? Hell yeah.

The Chasm - Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow - see all the comments above re: Darkthrone. Same applies here.

Vauruva - Por Nos da Ventania - weird brazilian progressive black metal. 

HAUNTER - Discarnate Ails - more prog black but this time out of Austin, Tx. 

Worm - Bluenothing - this probably had a shot at the top 10 if it weren't so short. Doesn't measure up to their killer DM release from last year, but I dig the "something different".

Daeva - Through Sheer Will and Black Magic - legit black/thrash from the good old USA. This is a killer release that just doesn't quite have the replay quality of my top selections, but shouldn't be missed.

Riot City - Electric Elite - good follow up to the debut. Promising NWOTHM band, but they're just not at that standard bearer level for me just yet. Good old school Judas Priest worship. Songwriting is not quite as consistent on this one though.

Sumerlands - Dreamkiller - the dreaded sophomore slump album. A little light on the Jake E Lee riff-fest antics of the first album and they replaced one of my all-time favorite singers. This one probably never had a real shot of making the big list. Expectations too high. Anyway, a few skippable songs and a bit too slick. The high points are really good though.

Violet Age - Night Sins - this year was packed with good post-punk/darkwave releases. Some had to miss the cut. This is the best of those that missed my top 3 for the genre. Definitely worthy of investigation.

Executioner's Mask - Winterlong - if Violet Age was my #4 in post-punk, this would be #5. A different sound/approach that feels a little more electronic/industrial to me, but don't trust me on that description. A good album that's had lots of spins around here.

Vandal Moon - Queen of the Night - or maybe this would be #5. Catchy, good songs, replay value...I really like this album, so what's keeping it out of the tops? It's just a little too slick sounding for me. Otherwise, top quality "danceable" post-punk.

Psychonaut - Violate Consensus Reality - prog metal ala Mastodon. Same style of prog metal, but I wouldn't put them in the same class. Really good album and my first introduction to this band. Warrants further listening and further investigation into the back catalogue.

Escotrilihum - Sapoth's, Consecration of Spiritus Flesh - I really love this project, but neither of these really grabbed me this year the way previous releases have. The EP - Luadimmerantia is probably the best of the 3 releases he's put out this year.

Envy of None - Envy of None - and now for something completely different. Alt-rock that reminds me of stuff I listened to back in the 90's/early aughts. Would this have caught my attention had Alex Fucking Lifeson not been involved? Probably not, but he is and it did. Solid songwriting and a few sweet Lerxst moments, but he's not the focus here. It's lead singer and smoking hot babe Maiah Wynne.

Well, that's it for the honorable mentions. Now the real work on writing up the winners begins.

3 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

This is a 1995 album that they just put up on their own BC with some of their other stuff earlier this year, so while you should definitely listen to it because it's awesome, it's not a candidate.

Haha shit. That wasn't supposed to be on there. Must of transposed it from my "need to listen to" list.

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49 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

Just as well no one is interested in the stuff I listen to or has already judged it because I couldn't ever see myself putting in that much effort. 1-10 is all you get from me.

Yeah of course we are. I can never just do 1-10 because I can never really decide on order outside the top 3-5. Not the problems our grizzly old goat rustler has ( who's list is probably still in the high 80's) or anything, but enough to keep me from restricting it to 10. Besides, there were 8 KG albums this year, you had to like more than 2 other albums right 🤣?

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Only one KG album made my list and it's in the bottom half of the top 10.

I've always done lists as a challenge rather than just picking good albums, it's why I re-listen to most albums before ranking them, (even in the other yearly polls from 1980-20whatever I re-listened to all the albums listed). For me listing the albums I bought and changing the order isn't really much of a challenge, but selecting 10 from those that stand out is. There will always be albums that make it close and make the top 10 hard but that's the way I've always done it.

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5 hours ago, navybsn said:

For the 'best of' list this year, I'm going to go with the best and then top 5 rather than rank them all in order. I'm lazy and can't really decide on overall rankings for everything outside the top 5.

So on to business...

The 'Best' (of what I heard this year)

Skumstrike - Deadly Intrusions - Canada, Blackened Speed metal/Punk. Seems like every year a nasty face-ripping piece of aural destruction makes its way into the top of the top. This year it's Skumstrike. This record will mug you while walking down the street and leave you bloody and broken on the sidewalk clinging to life. Vicious.

Oh man, I've had that in my MC wishlist all year...it's really good, I should finally pay the few bucks for the darn thing. 

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Man, I don't even know where to start with this list making business. I keep a running list of all my favorites as I go throughout the year, adding things as I find them so I won't forget them at the end of the year. But then come Christmas I have way too much good shit to sort through. Good shit that most here don't care about and wouldn't be interested in listening to anyway, because all our tastes are so different. As usual I have no idea how to separate the ones that are truly superior from all the ones that are just very good. For someone who loves making lists so much I'm really bad at this. I could almost be tempted to go the Marky McMarkerson route and just list all 105 albums I'm working with to make my list from and then just walk away, done and dusted. But what fun would that be?

I start out the same way every year, I tell myself I'm gonna just make one mixed genre list, a top 25, post it and be done with it. But it doesn't ever seem to work out that way. The whole apples and oranges aspect of comparing death metal albums to black metal albums and then attempting to rank them all together integrated on the same list does my head in. But then even when I allow myself to separate the sub-genres and make two separate lists of about 20 each thinking that will somehow help make things easier because then I won't have to exclude quite so much - that doesn't seem to work out for me either or get me any closer to solving the puzzle. I need a collaborator, an editor, someone to ride my ass and tell me when to cut the shit. But there's no one on the planet qualified to sort this list to my exacting caprine specifications except me. So as always, I shall walk through the valley of the shadow of death alone. And I will fear no evil. But I'm gonna need more time. A lot more time. It's always been much easier for me to make best of lists from years gone by because after some time has passed it becomes much clearer which albums have staying power and will become the ones for the ages.

 

I can say that if I were to make an all genres list (and who knows, maybe I still will) that Skumstrike would probably be in my top 5. 

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I actually had a way easier time putting together a list this year as there were only 7-8 albums that REALLY grabbed my attention. 2022 was the year where I really crashed and burned out on hunting for new music all the time. I only purchased 59 albums this year, compared to 105 last year, 123 in 2020 and 187 in both 2019 and 2018.

Probably small potatoes though compared to some. I'm astounded at how some people will rack up 250+ new releases in a year. Seriously, do you guys listen to anything other than new releases? 

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I've sort of been off the res, but I've definitely bought less than 100. And as far as new metal and hard(ish) or heavy rock(ish), punk, etc.  around 30 albums, that's really been about it. Probably double that when I broaden it out to non 2022 heavy oriented music if I include Queen, Swans and so on.

And, I've been back and forth with some of the crew about spending time stalking new albums, but I lurk here and there, see recos here, go to some blogs, look at my BC feed, sample and buy many of my albums during aoty list season. I rarely use Youtube to find new music. I don't go to metal Youtube stations, no Black Metal promotion, none of that shit. It's not how I want to spend my time, personally. 

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12 minutes ago, zackflag said:

Seriously, do you guys listen to anything other than new releases? 

I used to have my new release lists that came out every week and I'd go through them and listen to every band I could. Those lists were obviously tailored to my liking so I wasn't listening to 500 albums a week and albums that I just weren't interested in, but often there as still 15-20 albums a week. I certainly wouldn't buy them all I have my rules about what constitutes a purchase and what constitutes a listen and I stick to that, but I would end up buying a lot and making time to listen to it.

These days not so much, because the more I looked at what I was buying the more I realised I was buying for the sake of it. Some of the stuff I bought I thought was the best shit ever at the time didn't even make my end of year list, some of it I didn't even listen to beyond those first few spins at purchase time. Even worse some of the stuff I was buying I had to force myself to listen to 12-18 months later when the band released something new because I couldn't remember what they sounded like. I still scan some new release lists but I don't listen to every album and I subsequently don't buy as much but there are times where I'll go a week or two without listening to anything but new releases because it's been a good release week, or I just haven't caught up for a few weeks.

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51 minutes ago, markm said:

Finding new music in the streaming era for some becomes a compulsion that's separate from being a metal or music fan. It becomes an end unto itself. In fact, I'd say  it's nothing to do with being a fan or a music nerd. It becomes it's own lifestyle hobby.

It's like an addiction that's about keeping up and not missing anything that ultimately becomes a rolling snowball that turns into an avalanche because, of course it's impossible to listen to everything. It's our era's take on the Greek myth where Zeus punishes some poor bastard for all eternity pushing the boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down. But we have the choice to get off the hamster wheel which I've tried doing with mixed success. Crack cocaine is a tough habit to quit.  

I think it also can create a kind of anxiety due to sensory overload about not keeping up. I mean, it's really just a tiny niche that millions are going through living in the information age particularly now with social media.

The sane route seems to me is to have filters, pick and choose even if it's somewhat random and whatever sticks, sticks. Who wants to be basket case chasing after every shiny object you see. Well, I indulge for a month or two a year-haha- samsara. 

 

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24 minutes ago, zackflag said:

I actually had a way easier time putting together a list this year as there were only 7-8 albums that REALLY grabbed my attention. 2022 was the year where I really crashed and burned out on hunting for new music all the time. I only purchased 59 albums this year, compared to 105 last year, 123 in 2020 and 187 in both 2019 and 2018.

Probably small potatoes though compared to some. I'm astounded at how some people will rack up 250+ new releases in a year. Seriously, do you guys listen to anything other than new releases? 

Not really. I'd say 90% of my listening time is always devoted to new releases from the current year. Except during Jan - Feb - March which is the designated time when I'll allow myself to enjoy listening to much more of my older stuff before I feel the need to start the next year's rat race in earnest, because the year is still young and I figure I'll be able to catch up.

I think when I stopped working 50+ hours a week outside the house in late July of 2015 that's when my new music buying problem really escalated through the roof and got out of hand. I have made a conscious effort to cut down this past year though. If you can call 266 cutting down. In the modern digital era it's just become much too easy to pull the trigger first and then ask questions later. Hunting for new music is my main hobby, it's just what I like to do.

Number of albums in my music library by year of release:

2022 - 266
2021 - 348  
2020 - 455
2019 - 421
2018 - 343
2017 - 248
2016 - 270

That's 2,349 albums from just the last 7 years, avg 335 per year.

But if you zoom out and look at the last 12 years 2010 - 2022, total 3,152 albums, or 242 per year. 

If I look at just 2010 - 2015 it drops way down to 803 albums, or 134 per year.

2015 - 184
2014 - 139
2013 - 128
2012 - 119
2011 - 94
2010 - 139

2000 - 2009: 1,308 albums, or 131 per year.

2009 - 134
2008 - 139
2007 - 137
2006 - 133
2005 - 153
2004 - 117
2003 - 128
2002 - 133
2001 - 111
2000 - 123

1990 - 1999: 1,029 albums, or 103 per year.

1999 - 139
1998 - 107
1997 - 95
1996 - 112
1995 - 102
1994 - 103
1993 - 110
1992 - 111
1991 - 88
1990 - 62

1980's 478 albums

1970's 245 albums

1960's 67 albums

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24 minutes ago, markm said:

Finding new music in the streaming era for some becomes a compulsion that's separate from being a metal or music fan. In fact, it's nothing to do with being a fan or a music nerd. It becomes it's own lifestyle hobby. It's like an addiction that's about keeping up and not missing anything that ultimately becomes a rolling snowball that turns into an avalanche because, of course it's impossible to listen to everything. It's our era's take on the Greek myth where Zeus punishes some poor bastard for all eternity pushing the boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down. But we have the choice to get off the hamster wheel which I've tried doing with mixed success. Crack cocaine is a tough habit to quit.  

I think it also can create a kind of anxiety due to sensory overload about not keeping up. I mean, it's really just a tiny niche that millions are going through living in the information age particularly now with social media.

The sane route seems to me is to have filters, pick and choose even if it's somewhat random and whatever sticks, sticks. Who wants to be basket case chasing after every shiny object you see. Well, I indulge for a month or two a year-haha- samsara. 

 

When I 'semi-retired' and moved onto the farm I used to spend a lot of sleepless nights on the internet in chat rooms and forums and it really did become a case of keeping up with the Jones', long before FOMO was a thing. It used to be a challenge to see who could find the latest 'great' release, we all knew when the bigger, more known bands were releasing stuff but it was a rush to the bottom of the heap to find that gem that no one else found. Too often it wasn't gems we were finding but it didn't stop the hunt. There was times were we'd have several hundred people all competing and trying to claim their lucky find was the best thing ever. Despite that it was, at it's core, a game of one-upmanship I believe most people just did it for fun and entertainment, although I'm sure there was more than one person secretly keeping scores looking to see if they'd found more gems than others, or they'd bought more than others, or other such scores.

At that time I didn't have any anxieties around what I was doing, I thought it was a fun past time, but I did, without realising it, have sensory overload. One album after another. Listening to songs but not really hearing them. One band after another. The shit just all blended together and it was about the game, a game I didn't care whether I won or lost, not about listening to music.

24 minutes ago, markm said:

 Who wants to be basket case chasing after every shiny object you see.

"Not I", he says staring at the wall of shiny battery tools slowly replacing all the corded tools that still work fine.

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28 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Not really. I'd say 90% of my listening time is always devoted to new releases from the current year. Except during Jan - Feb - March which is the designated time when I'll allow myself to enjoy listening to much more of my older stuff before I feel the need to start the next year's rat race in earnest, because the year is still young and I figure I'll be able to catch up.

 

Your situation is different. You walk to the beat of your own.....blast beat, you don't work a traditional 9-5,  your a bachelor and it's your main hobby. Living the dream. 

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