EOTY Listmania Extravaganza 2022

[JonoBlade]

On 1/14/2023 at 5:15 AM, Hungarino said:

Ok, let's get this one on the record! I wish I was on here bullshitting with you bastards more but work and life, you know the drill. Many thanks for everyone's posts and humoring my diatribes.

Besieged - Violence Beyond All Reason. Death thrash. Canada. When you kick out the best death thrash in recent memory you deserve your spot, even if countless bands have tried the same style. Greatness is greatness.

Spectral Souls - Towards Extinction. DM. Peru. I don’t gaf, I kept hitting play on this and it never disappointed. Just a fun, raucous, barely contained and at times out of control extravaganza of metal enthusiasm.

An extensive list with precisely zero entries I have heard of before. But that's great, because the whole point is discovering something new. Forgive me if I just jump straight to the top 2.

Spectral Souls is NYP! Sounds great. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Been working on my list on and off since Christmas, which is nearly a month now. Listened to a shit ton of albums, some of them multiple times, and I've chopped a lot of good stuff off. I'm sure I've forgotten about some stuff as well, but that'll happen when you're working with 250 albums. It seems to be fairly stable for the last few days now and I'm not finding much more fat to trim, so I guess that means it's about as ready as it's ever gonna be. Stroke of midnight Jan 20th, not too bad for me, I've gone into February a few times. Once again I've separated all my lists into different sub-genres.

I've said many times that Finnish black metal is far and away my favorite kind of black metal, and this year is no different with 27% of my black metal picks being from Finland. (Not counting Order of Nosferat because I didn't know how many percentage points to award just for a Finnish drummer) My lists this year have been grouped sort of geographically, not in any qualitative order other than my #1 AOTY by Diaboli being listed first. Asterisks denote my top 10 black metal albums. As usual I haven't seen too many of my 2022 favorites appearing on many other lists. 

 

Black Metal:  Top 22 of '22

Diaboli - Pagan Gods Rise   Finland  AOTY** 
Rienaus - Luciferille    Finland *
Grieve - Funeral   Finland 
Serpentfyre - Baptism of Shadows   Finland *
Förgjord - Ruumissaarna pt. 1   Finland 
Licht des Urteils - Uhraamo   Finland  

Piolun - Rzeki Goryczy  Poland *
Order of Nosferat - Nachtmusik  Germany/Finland (their latest from December is good too)
Drudensang - Tuiflsrijtt  Germany
Storm Kvlt - Europas Weg zum Grab   Germany *
Vorgfang - Skammens Stein  Norway *
Djevel - Naa Skrider Natten Sort  Norway
Tugt - Ved Lysets Ophør  Denmark
Aara - Triade II: Hemera  Switzerland *

Serpentshrine - Allegiance to the Myth  Norfolk VA
Cerberus - Unrelenting Chaos  Quincy Mass
Fogos - Corpses and Ashes  España *
Kringa - All Stillborn Fires, Lick my Heart!  Austria
Spectral Corruption - Requiem  Slovakia *
Šakal - Jav, Prav, Nav   Serbia
Atra Mors - Morbid Killers and Other Deaths in Music  Italy 
Wampyrinacht - Night of the Desecration  Greece  *

Alright that takes care of the black metal, and now here comes everything else. I've left off comps and EP's in the interest of brevity. I've used asterisks to indicate some of my personal favorites. Lots of other cool shit that just missed making my list but I can't keep everything on. I normally do my list with all the album covers but besides Hungarino no one else seems to be doing that anymore so I didn't bother. Also didn't do write-ups for each album this year because that'd probably take me another two weeks.

Death Metal: 16
Vacuous Depths - Corporal Humiliation dm Tampa Florida *
Obsidian Hooves - Illuminating Void  dm Los Angeles  *
Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer  dm Detroit  *
Father Befouled - Crowned In Veneficum  dm Atlanta GA *
Pneuma Hagion - Demiurge  dm  San Antonio TX  *
Imprecation - In Nomine Diaboli  dm  Houston TX 
Trenchant - Commandoccult  dm Austin TX
The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow  dm Mexico/Chicago

Encryptment - Dödens Födsel  dm Sweden *
Flesh Crusher - Bastardized, and Demonic Possession, (figured 2 EP's = 1 full length) dm Sweden
Cryptic Hatred - Nocturnal Sickness  dm Finland
Desecresy - Unveil in the Abyss  dm Finland
Deathcult - Of Soil Unearthed  dm Switzerland
Sedimentum - Suppuration Morphogénésiaque  dm  Quebec
Concilivm - A Monument in Darkness  dm Chile
Descent - Order of Chaos, Aussie death Brisbane *
 
Deathgrind: 2
Sickrecy - Salvation Through Tyranny deathgrind Sweden  *
Vomitrot - Rotten Vomit deathgrind Sweden  *

Black/Death: 7
Sepulchral Rift - Void Sorcery blk/dth Sweden  *
Blood Chalice - The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism  blk/dth  Finland *
Abhorrency - Climax of Disgusting Impurities  blk/dth Sacramento CA *
ChaosMancer - Procreation of the Unholy  blk/dth Colombia
Vicissitude - Neolithic Necrocannibals murky blk/dth Wellington New Zealand
Abolition Ritual - Cosmonemesis  blk/dth Italy  *
Stillborn - Cultura de la Muerte  blk/dth  Poland

Black/thrash/death/crust: 7
Skumstrike - Deadly Intrusions black/thrash  Montreal Quebec *
Nocturnal Graves - An Outlaw's Stand  black/thrash/death  Melbourne Australia
Ironhawk - Ritual of the Warpath black/speed/punk  Tasmania
Perversion - Dies Irae  death/thrash   Detroit MI
Cruz - Confines de la Cordura death/thrash/crust   Spain *
Slavenkust - Slavenkust, death/crust  Poland
Terminal Filth - Death Driven  crust  Germany

 

If anyone cares my 3 most listened to albums by far of the past year weren't even from last year, they were...

Killing Joke - Killing Joke, 2003

Vargsang - In the Mist of Night, 2014

Social Distortion - White Light, White Heat, White Trash, 1996

[Thatguy]

Hmm...quite a short list, not too late - good. No album art and no mini reviews - not so good.😉

I think I somehow missed most - if not all - of these though, GG

[GoatmasterGeneral]

43 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Hmm...quite a short list, not too late - good. No album art and no mini reviews - not so good.😉

I think I somehow missed most - if not all - of these though, GG

Hungarino's list at whopping 56 titles all told had 2 more than mine did. I would have had several more of his on mine as well if I had been including EP's. But everyone else who's weighed in so far has gone with a more modest amount. Yours for example had 31, and that's only if you count the non-metal and the collections. Your main metal albums list was only 17. Pretty sure that made it your longest list ever though.

Don't know how you could have missed all 54 of these cold blooded killer records if you were paying any attention Doc. I've posted all of them at least once, most of them more than once, and some of them many times throughout the year (since those were my favorites) with the accompanying videos for convenience and everything.

But surely by now you have a pretty good idea of the kind of stuff I listen to, no? We have some small amount of overlap you and I but I think it's mostly your stuff that I've decided is maybe not so bad. Not sure what you've ever gotten from my recos. I know you said Archgoat one time which rather surprised me. As I look it over again I'm not sure what I have on my list this year that really stands out to me as a Thatguy album.

I'm really not that good at coming up with mini reviews anyway, especially 50 of them. I find myself using the same phrases repeatedly and then continually having to go back and change them. The other Mark can tell you I've gotten very redundant in my old age, I've not a whole lot left to say that I haven't already said before many many times. Maybe I should strive to be more laconic like you in my twilight years.

[Thatguy]

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Don't know how you could have missed all 54 of these cold blooded killer records if you were paying any attention Doc.

I have listened to some...

 

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Maybe I should strive to be more laconic like you in my twilight years.

Nah.

[markm]

GG, I have that S/T Killing Joke and Social D album, first one I bought back in the 90's....good shit. And, then credit where credit is due-you convinced me to grab their earlier albums which are even better. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

13 hours ago, markm said:

GG, I have that S/T Killing Joke and Social D album, first one I bought back in the 90's....good shit. And, then credit where credit is due-you convinced me to grab their earlier albums which are even better. 

Whose earlier albums, KJ or Social D?

[markm]

1 minute ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Whose earlier albums, KJ or Social D?

Social D-S/T and Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell. I have a couple of KJ albums also.

[Hungarino]

On 1/19/2023 at 9:00 PM, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Been working on my list on and off since Christmas, which is nearly a month now. Listened to a shit ton of albums, some of them multiple times, and I've chopped a lot of good stuff off. I'm sure I've forgotten about some stuff as well, but that'll happen when you're working with 250 albums. It seems to be fairly stable for the last few days now and I'm not finding much more fat to trim, so I guess that means it's about as ready as it's ever gonna be. Stroke of midnight Jan 20th, not too bad for me, I've gone into February a few times. Once again I've separated all my lists into different sub-genres.

I've said many times that Finnish black metal is far and away my favorite kind of black metal, and this year is no different with 27% of my black metal picks being from Finland. (Not counting Order of Nosferat because I didn't know how many percentage points to award just for a Finnish drummer) My lists this year have been grouped sort of geographically, not in any qualitative order other than my #1 AOTY by Diaboli being listed first. Asterisks denote my top 10 black metal albums. As usual I haven't seen too many of my 2022 favorites appearing on many other lists. 

 

Black Metal:  Top 22 of '22

Diaboli - Pagan Gods Rise   Finland  AOTY** 
Rienaus - Luciferille    Finland *
Grieve - Funeral   Finland 
Serpentfyre - Baptism of Shadows   Finland *
Förgjord - Ruumissaarna pt. 1   Finland 
Licht des Urteils - Uhraamo   Finland  

Piolun - Rzeki Goryczy  Poland *
Order of Nosferat - Nachtmusik  Germany/Finland (their latest from December is good too)
Drudensang - Tuiflsrijtt  Germany
Storm Kvlt - Europas Weg zum Grab   Germany *
Vorgfang - Skammens Stein  Norway *
Djevel - Naa Skrider Natten Sort  Norway
Tugt - Ved Lysets Ophør  Denmark
Aara - Triade II: Hemera  Switzerland *

Serpentshrine - Allegiance to the Myth  Norfolk VA
Cerberus - Unrelenting Chaos  Quincy Mass
Fogos - Corpses and Ashes  España *
Kringa - All Stillborn Fires, Lick my Heart!  Austria
Spectral Corruption - Requiem  Slovakia *
Šakal - Jav, Prav, Nav   Serbia
Atra Mors - Morbid Killers and Other Deaths in Music  Italy 
Wampyrinacht - Night of the Desecration  Greece  *

Alright that takes care of the black metal, and now here comes everything else. I've left off comps and EP's in the interest of brevity. I've used asterisks to indicate some of my personal favorites. Lots of other cool shit that just missed making my list but I can't keep everything on. I normally do my list with all the album covers but besides Hungarino no one else seems to be doing that anymore so I didn't bother. Also didn't do write-ups for each album this year because that'd probably take me another two weeks.

Death Metal: 16
Vacuous Depths - Corporal Humiliation dm Tampa Florida *
Obsidian Hooves - Illuminating Void  dm Los Angeles  *
Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer  dm Detroit  *
Father Befouled - Crowned In Veneficum  dm Atlanta GA *
Pneuma Hagion - Demiurge  dm  San Antonio TX  *
Imprecation - In Nomine Diaboli  dm  Houston TX 
Trenchant - Commandoccult  dm Austin TX
The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow  dm Mexico/Chicago

Encryptment - Dödens Födsel  dm Sweden *
Flesh Crusher - Bastardized, and Demonic Possession, (figured 2 EP's = 1 full length) dm Sweden
Cryptic Hatred - Nocturnal Sickness  dm Finland
Desecresy - Unveil in the Abyss  dm Finland
Deathcult - Of Soil Unearthed  dm Switzerland
Sedimentum - Suppuration Morphogénésiaque  dm  Quebec
Concilivm - A Monument in Darkness  dm Chile
Descent - Order of Chaos, Aussie death Brisbane *
 
Deathgrind: 2
Sickrecy - Salvation Through Tyranny deathgrind Sweden  *
Vomitrot - Rotten Vomit deathgrind Sweden  *

Black/Death: 7
Sepulchral Rift - Void Sorcery blk/dth Sweden  *
Blood Chalice - The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism  blk/dth  Finland *
Abhorrency - Climax of Disgusting Impurities  blk/dth Sacramento CA *
ChaosMancer - Procreation of the Unholy  blk/dth Colombia
Vicissitude - Neolithic Necrocannibals murky blk/dth Wellington New Zealand
Abolition Ritual - Cosmonemesis  blk/dth Italy  *
Stillborn - Cultura de la Muerte  blk/dth  Poland

Black/thrash/death/crust: 7
Skumstrike - Deadly Intrusions black/thrash  Montreal Quebec *
Nocturnal Graves - An Outlaw's Stand  black/thrash/death  Melbourne Australia
Ironhawk - Ritual of the Warpath black/speed/punk  Tasmania
Perversion - Dies Irae  death/thrash   Detroit MI
Cruz - Confines de la Cordura death/thrash/crust   Spain *
Slavenkust - Slavenkust, death/crust  Poland
Terminal Filth - Death Driven  crust  Germany

 

If anyone cares my 3 most listened to albums by far of the past year weren't even from last year, they were...

Killing Joke - Killing Joke, 2003

Vargsang - In the Mist of Night, 2014

Social Distortion - White Light, White Heat, White Trash, 1996

Yes! I can now sample a curated black metal list that is mostly off of my radar but always top notch. I stumbled across the majority of GGs death and thrash but I just don't catch these black metal releases. Maybe because they aren't all on BC, but no matter its easier to let you do the searching. These are the most evil, searing and nasty kind of no-bullshit black metal.

To anyone not familiar and at the point where you are sick of overly symphonic/folksy or melodic black metal just start here, or search out some Finnish black. 

[markm]

On 1/4/2023 at 8:25 AM, Sheol said:

Man there's a lot of music I've never heard (of) this year.

Here's my Top 21 list (why 21? Because why not?)

1. GGGOLDDD  -  This shame should not be mine

Easily the best album of the year. Emotional, cathartic and empowering. This isn't really metal, but there's certainly heavy sections. I think this would appeal to the likes of @markm and.... 🤷‍♂️

 

Thanks for the rec, I just received a copy in the mail. Seems like the kind of piece  that benefits from printed lyrics. This will take some time to absorb, but I like it. 

[JorKid]

This is my late to the party list.  I was working a ton and didn't listen to as many releases as typical, but still managed to find some I thought were quite good.  I find it hard to rank albums that are very different in style, but I rank them based on how much I played them on repeat.

1) Worm - Bluenothing (EP)

2) Phobophilic - Enveloping Absurdity

3) Daeva – Through Sheer Will and Black Magic

4) Wormrot - Hiss

5) Tomb Mold – Aperture of Body (EP)

6) Immolation – Acts of God

7) Undeath – It’s Time… To Risk From the Grave

Honorable mentions: 

Spiritworld - Deathwestern

[markm]

I'm back, bitches!

Mark’s 2022 Music essays-After The Dust has settled….mostly

So, yeah, I’ve been pretty quiet mostly because I’ve been digesting all the music I bought in 2022 which makes more sense to me than the current culture of compulsively buying based on release dates, YouTube channels, Bandcamp notifications and the like. I mean back in the analog era, we didn’t feel the urge to buy everything as soon as it was released. I bought Paranoid at some point in the early 80’s over ten years after it was released and didn’t feel like I was buying an old album. I probably bought Heaven and Hell in ‘82 or ‘83 when it was actually released in ‘80 and didn’t think anything of it. Metallica was considered underground until And Justice For All because their albums received no radio play which actually was a thing in the 80's.  I probably bought Ride The Lightning sometime in the late 80’s. Who cares? In recent years, I’ve collected a bunch of Neil Young’s classics, The Byrds, Sonic Youth, The Kinks, all kinds of 80’s punk. Music should be timeless, right?

Anyway, as I picked up more and more 2022 albums, I listened, evaluated and started writing my thoughts on each album thinking about ranking. But other stuff got in the way. But it’s all good.

I mean, here we are in the second quarter of 2023, and I’ve had time to think and evaluate and analyze while I mostly listened to my new albums and revisit a bunch of Boris lately.

So, I’m going to present a series of essays on my thoughts on 2022  music in chapters or installments. Also, because I listen to a lot of non-metal, I’m going to put them in my list because-why not? It’s all just music I'm listening to.

I always keep my eye on the non metal world, often with mixed results. This year, with artists releasing post pandemic albums and touring again, there seems to be a deluge of great music.  Folks are just pouring out their anguish after a brutal couple of years. 

So, rather than present metal and non metal lists, I pared down about 30 albums, I think it's 25 metal and 5 non metal with several adjacent albums in the mix. I might be writing this for an audience of one and that’s perfectly fine. Hey, I have have to amuse myself with something  besides kayaking. So stay tuned. 
 

 

 

 

 

[markm]

Mark's 2022 musical orgy Chapter 1: non 22 metal and honorable mentions.

Non 2022 older music I bought in 2022
2022 saw me filling in holes in my music collection-nostalgic throwbacks to The Scorpions, Kiss, Motley Crue, Motorhead, Blondie  and Queen.  

Queen:

• Queen I,
• Queen II
•  Sheer Heart Attack
•  A Night at the Opera
• A Day at the Races
• Jazz.

Everybody knows A Night at the Opera, but I found the first three albums particularly satisfying. 

Motorhead-I’ve slowly purchased early Motorhead albums after only really having No Remorse from my college days and playing the shit out of it for years. No Remorse was  a double compilation album that covered their early classics along with a few previously unreleased tracks like the essential Killed by Death. After that I did buy a a handful of albums in the 90’s and 2000’s but it turns out I missed some great albums over the years. In 2022 I was frankly blown away by the quality of Orgamsatron, 1916, Inferno, Another Perfect Day, and Bastards. Oh, I also picked up Bomber.

I also grabbed some old nostalgic music-

• A lot of KISS classics including Hotter Than Hell, Dressed to Kill, Love Gun, Rock and Roll All Over, Destroyer, Alive I and Alive II confirming that their best material can  be found on Alive I and II.
•  The Scorpions-Animal Magnetism, Blackout (repurchased-my old 80’s CD got lost somewhere along the highway), Love Drive and Virgin Killer. All great stuff.
• And some Motley Crue that I still enjoy from time to time. 

Blondie-I always had a thing for Blondie when she came out big in the late 70’s with her new wave pop rock when I was in middle school. I mean, she was gorgeous but her music, while pop, always had the spirit of rock and roll even when she flirted with disco. Blondie, the band was very much influenced by 60's rock and girl groups. I’ve owned Parallel Lines, an absolute classic for years, and in 2022-Blondie released Against the Odds 74-82, the first definitive box set put out by the band. It's good.

Honorable Mentions: 

Metal:
1. Undeath/Rise from the Grave-enuff said on this album in 22, it was all over the lists, it’s pretty solid OSDM.

2.  Dream Unending-Song of Salvation-definitely enjoy this one, but it didn’t make my cut. It's  a beautiful album and not very metal at all!
3. Ken Mode-Null-Guess, I’ve always enjoyed elements of Noise but didn’t always know it was “noise”. In addition to Swans, I’ve bought a bunch of Sonic Youth in recent years. I’m a big Boris fan. I dig older Melvins.  I’ve enjoyed bands like Gnawed Their Tongues and The Daughters. Although I’m a Swans fan, it wasn’t until this year that I spent time with their landmark noise album, Filth, that I genuinely embraced my enjoyment of noise rock. But I like noise with a purpose that is used like another instrument, not just random sound. Maybe it was the industrial, abrasive noise of Filth that reconnected me to Ken Mold.

In the early twenty-teens, Ken Mode caught my attention with two albums that combined hardcore, noise and sludge, Entrench and Vulnerable. So-called metallic hardcore was a thing back then. Converge’s Ax to Fall in ‘09 was a turning point for sure. I was listening to bands like All Pigs Must Die and Trap Them. Ken Mode combine that metallic hardcore vibe with elements of noise rock.

But I lost track of what Ken Mode was doing over the years. 2022-a year where Chat Pile got a lot of hype, Ken Mode came out with a pretty good noise hardcore album full of rage.  Null forgoes some of their earlier sludge influences for a decidedly Swansian noisy album with a fair share of experimental metal. 
4. Autopsy-Morbidity Triumphant-OSDM was something of a gateway to me in the aughts. Autopsy was at the bottom of the list until I heard Severed Survival and Mental funeral. Gore death metal  is uninteresting to me, but then  I saw Reifert’s punk band play at Maryland DeathFest and it clicked-the punk and doom inflected meat and potatoes style. This one is my favorite modern Autopsy album. The doomy aspect is on display which is one of my favorite DM styles. Reifert is a unique extreme vocalist and is in fine form here. It hasn’t gotten as much replay as other albums, but will stay in rotation for quite a while, I imagine. Conclusion-solid!
5. Otolith-Folium Limina-it’s grown on me but it feels like Sub Rosa lite-overly simplified from the more esoteric literary themes  and sludgier Sub Rosa sound. Nevertheless, for a melodic almost symphonic sounding album mixed with folk, I kind of dig this....

7. Blackbraid/I-I’ve enjoyed this album but something is a bit off for me. It’s like album was produced by one of these new AI algorithms for meloblack….just too textbook or something….can’t quite put my finger on it. 
6. Chat Pile-God’s Country-actually enjoy this but it was just too overhyped. I'll be interested to see what their next more. 

Disappointment: Gaerea-Mirage-I have a bone to pick with this album. I know this album was much loved in 2022 and all over EOY lists, including by posters here, and the music is quite good,  but the album is so brickwalled, it’s hard for me to listen to. I’ve noticed the same thing with other post-black bands. More overtly post-black band, Harakari for the Sky, produces their albums in a similar way.  I think it’s a heavy chip on their shoulder Napoleon complex kind of thing. Nobody wants to be a post-black pansy so they think they have to really flex their muscles on the heavy bits to sound as loud as possible. I just mean, I think some bands feel they need  to compensate for the melodic post metal parts by thinking they have to compress the living shit out of their albums to make the heavier parts brooootal.... but it turns the heavier moments into a distorted hot mess for me and I can barely listen to it. Metallic hardcore often does the same thing-looking at you-Nails. I hate this tendency. I know dynamic range and compression and brickwalling aren’t everything and there’s a lot more that goes into production and  mastering than just compression. Alex used to write about  that at M-F-you can overly compress  and brickwall albums and they can still sound good, but in this case, Gaerea is just trying too hard IMO to go for the uber distorted heavy sound and get their metal cred at the detriment of the recording. 

Non Metal in no particular order:

• Blondie-Against the Odds 1974-1982-Archival box set rarities and outakes
• Big Thief/Dragon New Mountain-excellent double album from an indie folk band that run the gamut from bluegrass to folk rock to acoustic. Big Thief are  a fresh sounding band with a unique female vocalist/lyricist that produced a kind of White Album smorgasbord of  what indie folk can do. Worth checking out.
• The Beth’s-Expert in a Dying Field -Brit rock/indie, lite and Beatles-like melodic
• Rosalia -motomami-blatant pop-but it's an all Spanish language combination of traditional Spanish (as in Spain) traditional music mashed up with pop and hip-hop....really surprised I like this, but I do and traditional Spanish music is enjoyable to me even though I have basically have none.
• Sharon Van Etten-We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong-Big name in the indie world I knew nothing about....strong female indie talent-kind of middle of the road album, but I dig the post pandemic consoling vibe, like a friend putting her arm around you and saying, "we're going to get through this shit".
• Kevin Morby-This is a Photograph-bluesy singer songwriter late period Dylanish thing
• 40 Watt Sun-Perfect Light-Used to be marginally doom, now very enjoyable singer songwriter with gorgeous minimal guitar
• Spoon/Lucifer on the Sofa-Decent indie rock somewhat of a Rolling Stones vibe
• Angel Olson-Big Time

 

[markm]

Mark's 2022 musical orgy Chapter 2: 30-25

30. Weye’s Blood-And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow (singer songwriter, 70’s inflected folk chamber rock)-right off the bat, I will endeavor to use as many hyphenated sub genres to annoy Kukey Al. Call this a throwback to my childhood, Mom enjoyed quite a bit of soft folkie rock-Neil Diamond, Carpenters, John Denver, Jim Croce, Joan Baez. Shit like that. The ‘rents took us to Peter, Paull and Mary, Sieger and Guthrie concerts. 

Songstress Natalie Laura Mering, born years after these sounds in 1988 draws a direct line to the current term-the so called Laurel Canyon sound of the 70’s that produced a wealth of singer songwriter, folk and country singers-and in her case specifically Joni Mitchell and perhaps Carly Simon. Apparently she’s quite a rising star in the indie rock scene, but new to me. My relationship to indie music is like my relationship to goat metal-I dabble. This album garnered much attention in mainstream musical platforms and it’s lovely music with strings, orchestration and easy female vocals to soothe the anxieties of our time. 

29. Skumstrike-Deadly Intentions-Time for an about turn! I had this kicking around my Bandcamp wishlist all year. When I saw it pop on some lists here in the forums, I decided I needed to get off the pot. I do enjoy crusty takes on speed metal generally.  I haven’t had it long enough to really know where the rubber hits the road. The tracks bleed together for me so far, but for an adrenalized shot of primal black/speed metal/punk this duo creates a surprisingly catchy, ungodly racket within a 30 minute onslaught of shit-eating grin metal riffage. Who knows if it will wear as well as other forum racketeers like Profane Order but for now, that’ll do goat, that’ll do.

28. Antichrist Imperium-III-When I was a kid we had Standard Schnauzer who had the nasty habit of rolling in shit. Bathing her is not one of my favorite memories, but she genuinely seemed to revel in the manure rub.  Likewise, there’s a kind of exquisite, blasphemous orgy of excess in this album. It doesn’t rise to the greatness of the ‘Coke and is a little blasty for my taste. Lyrically the war between God and Satan is so overdone, but I do enjoy the multitudinous stylistic shifts,  with interesting albeit clunky arrangements on display here and I’m a fan of their work. I need to go back to II which I think might be a tad stronger of an effort.  Conclusion-good shit!

27. Voivod-Synchro Anarchy-I have to confess, I’ve not felt the need to listen  to their earlier influential albums, but I’ve dabbled in millennial efforts including their ‘03 self titled album and 2013’s Target Earth. They seem to get me attention in nearly ten year increments. This one hits the landing for me. It’s got enough thrash heft to match their slightly weird and decidedly off kilter quirks. The sci-fi lyrics are clearly meant as allegory to our times. This is sideways stabbing, barbarous music with enough ear candy to keep my attention. Conclusion-cool album! I’m always up for something different.

26. Crippled Black Phoenix-Balefyre-Writing “endtime ballads" in a difficulty to pigeon hole post/psychedelic/dark folk/prog/quasi experimental gothic rock but somewhat adjacent metal as the band is fronted by former Electric Wizard drummer Justin Graves, while new to me, has a fairly massive discography and a mission to be the voice for the voiceless. The band features a duo male/female clean vocal-credit goes to vocalist and lyricist, Belinda Kordic and her elastic, haunting voice.   This album exists in a macabre shadow world of gothic post rock and doom with chants, spells and long form dirges. Maybe, it’s due to episodes of The Last of Us , and the fact that the album is somewhat structured like a play, but it gives me a cultish Wicca enclave feeling like a group of Robin Hood characters living in the woods giving comfort to those that, for one reason or another are outcast from the material world. The band has a deep connection to  nature and animals.  The album has weaknesses. It is ridiculously long and engages in lengthy post rock songs that try my patience. That said,  I’ve found the odyssey CBP takes worthy of binge listening with exotic and intriguing sounds. 

25.  Daeva-Through Sheer Will and Black Magic-At one time, I might have said thrash was my favorite style even though I was mainstream all the way with a handful of Big 4 albums and assorted random albums that grabbed my attention- looking at you-LIghts, Camera….revolution. Today’s thrash leaves me unimpressed overall, but occasionally black thrash reinvigorates my enthusiasm for something akin to speed metal. Like many albums I deem “great”, TSW&BM transcend genre to simply being a terrific metal album.  There’s a lot of occult smoke and mirrors, chaotic labyrinthian guitar wizardry under the hood! The demonic vocals are spot on and suit the horrific themes and it’s simply a blast to listen to.  Blackened Thrash tends to be a niche genre for me, but every time I come back to this, I’m impressed how good this album is and deserves a higher ranking. Nearly pitch perfect if not  a little thin sounding in terms of production-perhaps par for the course, genre-wise.  

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Thanks for writing all those words for us to read Mark. You're not just writing for an audience of one, I am definitely looking forward to reading all of these posts later this evening after the electricians have gone. You should never hesitate to mix in all your non-metal selections right along with the metal, we have plenty of us here who have musical interests that reach far beyond just metal. And even when you're writing about stuff that I know I would never care to listen to, I still enjoy reading what you have to say about it. And it doesn't matter that it's April already, I'm still finding 2022 stuff I missed even now.

[markm]

Mark's 2022 musical orgy Chapter 3: 24-20

24. Smile-A Light For Attracting Attention-This list is peppered with albums I did not expect to make much of an impression. I am not a huge Radiohead fan, but I certainly enjoy their work up through 2000’s OK Computer. Their art rock which in recent years embraces electronic influences over guitar brawn is certainly refined, innovative  and musical but a bit delicate for my tastes, overrated and only sporadically gets listens as my go to alt/indie tastes in the rock world favor more muscular guitar work along the lines of Dinosaur Jr and more recently Sonic Youth. A Moonshape Pool was meh. 

Much to my surprise after the first listen, I thought….hmmmmm, that’s better than I expected……subsequent listens confirmed my feeling that this is a pretty darn good arty rock album. Smile is composed of the main songwriting duo of Radiohead-Thomas Yorke (vocals) and Jonny Greenwood (music) with a drummer I’m not familiar with a jazz background. For a group of guys known to be  perfectionists, there’s a looser, playful feel to the songs, of course a lush sound but really, rather inspired, with a range of musical hues and textures garnering repeat listens from me. 

23. Cave In-Heavy Pendulum-My only experience with Cave-In was 2005’s Pitch Perfect Black that I remember being enjoyable as an alternative metal adjacent album but didn’t make much of an impression after a handful of listens. Connecting the dots between Old Man Gloom, I realized that Caleb Scofield who played in both bands is the same guy who died in a car accident tragically at just 39 and had a huge impact on Heavy Pendulum’s song writing as well as Old Man Glooms’ 2020 duo albums- Seminar II & III released separately that topped my list that year.

Heavy Pendulum, as has been heavily reported, is very long but also very good for fans of early 90’s crossbreeding-grunge/metal/hardcore/alternative, often radio-friendly rock.
Sure, it’s mainstream, but this is good heavy rock music with infectious songwriting. This is the kind of album that gives me hope that heavy, gritty, accessible rock music is alive and kicking. As people often say about such music, this is what should be played on today’s rock radio. A slam dunk tour de force song after song and simply a gargantuan record in terms of both quantity and quality as far as I’m concerned. I mean, fuck. 

22. Gggolddd-This Shame Should Not Be Mine-Sheol’s number 1. When an old M-F friend makes a recommendation, I take that to heart especially when we share musical intersections of taste. No history with Gggolddd. So, context, this album apparently was commissioned for the Roadburn festival but as Sheol said it’s not really metal. I’d call this dark alternative rock with some pop vocal melodies and a heavy dose of industrial and electronic influences with killer female vocals. Being Dutch, I can’t help but think of Anneke Van Giersbergen of the Gathering who also crossed into alternative metal adjacent pop rock, but this album is stylistically much darker, and experimental.

And here’s the kicker-it’s about her experiences as a 19 year old being raped nearly 30 years ago.  Sort of the melodic counterpoint to Lingua Ignota’s noise/blackened classical masterwork, Caligula, but a completely different animal. Thematically similar but worlds apart musically. Disturbing, cathartic, vocally driven, dark and beautiful that for me has resulted in compulsive listening and is list worthy. I’ll end by name dropping Trent Reznor as a loose musical dot to connect….for fans of NIN potentially. 

21. Gevurah/Gehinnom-Zack’s top picks have a strong track record for my enjoyment of engaging, oft disturbing extreme metal and this one certainly fits the bill. I really do look at the lists and recommendations of posters on the forums.  Extreme metal often overwhelms my senses. That’s part of the experience, right? Like many of the albums I consider high quality, this album took time and repeat listens to mine its blackened  gold. There are great albums that are simple and direct, readily apparent on first listen. But as a rule, many of the better metal albums per my listening are onion-like complex and take time to peel the layers. The vocals could use  more variety if I’m being critical,  and have a hardcore wring to my ears in the way that black metal and HC vox sometimes are similar. The band does not shield its influences with echoes of DSO and Ulcerate , bands I admire whose dissonant styles surely must be a direct influence on virtually any black metal band who do the disso-black thing. Here it goes in my list cracking the top 25. 

20. Kurt Vile-Watch My Moves-Indie-chill to the bone-rocker, Kurt Vile, now 42 is the slowhand for today’s generation. He might have been born too late but he’s doing his laid back Dad rock thing and gets better with every album. Did I say Dad Rock? Actually he’s a rock dad. He sings about his kids, his hometown of Philadelphia, and opening for Neil Young, listening to Heart of Gold. His understated songwriting flows by like a lazy daydream on a sunny afternoon. It flirts with dream pop. His arrangements get better with every album. Even his stoner drawl that used to sound like Fu Manchu on quaaludes is greatly improved. I’m getting a Dire Straights feel on this one. There’s not a lot of rock music like this today. It’s classic sounding rock but he does his own thing in a way that sounds current bucking trends and is one of today’s great songwriters.  But, you just might have to turn off the cell phone, stop the clock, and sip on a cold beer in a hammock to appreciate how good he is. Did I warn you it was super mellow? 
 

[markm]

Mark's top 2022, Chapter 4: albums 19-15 

19. SpiritWorld-Death Western-I was at a coworker's house some time ago talking to her brother, a guy about my age and we were talking about music. He remarked, I like hard rock but not that headbanging shit. You know a guy like this.  You probably know plenty of guys like this.  This guy likes AC/DC and Zeppelin, but he doesn’t like headbanging shit. And that’s fine. I think his REO Speedwagon albums suck. SpiritWorld is that headbanging shit.  I don’t care if you call it metallic hardcore, crossover, or punk, the genre Itunes stupidly assigned when I downloaded the CD. Whatever.  Dwid Hellion of Integrity contributes vocals which makes sense. I loved 2017’s, Howling for the NIghtmare to Consume, another hardocre metal album that was definitely headbanging shit.  Unlike many of the more nuanced albums I have on my list, SpiritWorld is simple and direct. Slayertastic riffs, straightforward crunchy classic melodeth(ish) groove and barked vocals. It’s awesome. It takes me back to bands like Suicidal Tendencies. You know what you're getting with this kind of music. No fucking around. It’s metal because it’s  headbanging shit and those guys will not like SpiritWorld. 

 

18.  Nadja-Labyrinthine-This one caught me off guard from a Nine Circles EOTY list. I could tell the reviewer liked experimental drone which piqued my interest. Then, TG noted that he was surprised that anyone else on the forums listened to Nadja which, of course, I hadn’t really, but I gave it a chance and Labyrinthine shook up my list breaking into my top 20. Back in the day, I spent a good bit of time listening to Sunn0))) and Boris’s drone and it’s been fun reconnecting to the genre. Like so many others on my list, it took several listens to sink in. The good one’s often do. Just 4 long tracks. The band is a duo team who invited 4 vocalists to contribute, one to each track. The first and last tracks are quite extreme, the last one being absolutely harrowing  with the middle tracks being atmospheric with female vocals. Track 2, Rue, in particular is gorgeous. The vocals are reminiscent of Jarboe’s work with Swans or perhaps Julie Christmas with Cult of Luna. It’s been a while since a drone album struck this strong of a chord. Needless to say, this is not an easy listen. 

17.Wo Fat-Singularity-I’ve recently lamented on Elder’s move from the stoner riffage of their album, Lore into newer, hard to define, but clearly into 70’s prog influences. Well, in walk Singularity. I’ve been touting this album since mid summer, 2022. One of the phrases that comes to mind for a lot of slower, stoner/doom and related genres is analogue warmth, not a quality appropriate for a lot of extreme metal but it sure works with this kind of jam oriented hard blues rock fare that just begs to be listened to on big speakers. What a mammoth recording of endless phat fuzzy riffs, solos after solos, doom, space rock and good songwriting. It finds a sweet spot between Lore and some of Eathless’s long form jams like 2007’s Rhythms from a Comic Sky.  Recalling blues rock giants like ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughn. The sum is greater than its parts with 7 tracks clocking in over 70 minutes. A great album to put on for a long drive or as I recently discovered cooking a meal with copious amounts of chopping prep. 

16.  Sigh/Shiki-So, I did not enjoy Shiki on first listen just as their last album, Heir to Despair, was just so-so. My favorite of the few Sigh albums I own are The Hangman’s Hymn (2007) and In Somniphobia (2012). This one took time.   I kept coming back and again, the more I listened, the more I discovered and now, I’m completely in love with Shiki. The first several tracks are an absolute riff fests and then the expected experimental electronic, proggy weirdness comes into play. I think what I love most about this album is the dichotomy between classic metal guitar and the avalanche of other  instruments. Taking a look at the liner credits, frontman Mirai lists flute, piccolo, clarinet and Japanese, I would suppose, instruments-Shakuhachi, Shinobue, Shamisen just to name a few!

15. Grimma-Frostbitten-For the record, I didn’t steal everything off of Zack’s list as I’ve been listening to this album for some time before list season, but I think Zack said it well. For atmoblack, these guys have hit on a great sound. Lately, a certain amount of atmoblack gets a little lost in the ether-BAN, whom I am normally a fanboy of with their popular  Hallucinogen album and the Mare Cognitum/Spectral Lore collaboration/The Wanderers comes to mind. Those are cool albums for shure but a little too celestial for their own good.  Frostbitten brings gorgeous rustic, woodsy, acoustic pagan-like passages and contrasts them satisfying harsh, abrasive Nordic black metal that just nails it.  Every time I go back, I think, yeah, this is a great fucking record. 

 

[markm]

Mark's top 2022 albums, Chapter 5: 14-11

14. Florist S/T-In a lot of ways, I straddle the peace and love 60’s folk and classic rock my parents exposed to me in the 70's with the hard rock and metal I came to in the late 70's and 80s  and the extreme metal I found in the 2000’s.

Back in the late 80’s when I was a theater student at JMU in Harrisonburg, Virginia in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, there existed a nostalgia for 60’s hippie-wannabe artsy culture. People had T-shirts that said, Bring back the 60’s man. Of course, I was listening to my Motorhead, ‘tallica, cult and Priest albums, but having been reared on my fare share of 60’s and early 70’s folk rock, I had a warm spot for the hacky sack playing, poncho wearing artsy types when they pulled out their acoustic guitars at late night parties.

. Florist takes me back to that scene. This is an indie folk album that intersperses ambient interludes with folk and folk rock. Singer Emily Sprague reminds me of an actress friend I had in the theater department that sang and played folk music. Sprague, I have read, records ambient recordings under a different name. The band rented a cabin in the Hudson Valley to record this self-titled release. While they cooked, made community and set up their instruments, they recorded bits and pieces of private moments, found sounds and short improvised pieces of playing that make the interludes on this album.

 It helps that the actual folk and folk rock tunes are really, really good. Prague sings with an intimate, delicate childlike vocal style that is the aural equivalent of watching the sun rise on a beautiful Appalachian mountain view. 

13. Wake-Death Through Descent-For a bunch of teenagers, Emperor’s masterstroke-Anthems at the Welkin at Dusk sure cast it’s influence far and wide with a mesmerizing combination of extreme metal, classical symphonic elements and ambiguous, romanticized occult themes that appealed as much to pagan nature worship as it did to orthodox Satanism. Brilliant stroke there, Ihsahn!

Metal fans are notoriously skeptical, hostile even, to the term religion and for good reason-organized religion is nothing more than archaic myth. Gripes about religions aside, we humans have an innate desire to connect to something larger than ourselves. 

OSDM, crust punk and related goat genres notwithstanding, much of the more interesting extreme metal in my book, touches on such human longing for something beyond our mortal coil.  Second wave black exemplified by Anthems at the Welkin does that exceedingly well and  Death Through Descent picked up the mantle in 2022. Black metal just does the -epic, dark, cult, tribal, cosmic, otherworldly, evil, vast, God-like -thing really, really well.

This one snuck up on me at the end of the year.  Wake is one of those bands that I didn’t have a great handle on. I have their last album, Devouring Ruin, which I barely remembered. Wake, Wode…ah those similarly named “W” bands with genre-fluid takes on progressive black metal.  I went back and spent some time with their last album, Devouring Ruin. And, yes, they’ve absolutely thrown open the floodgates with Death Through Descent. I really don’t know how much further they can blow out their sound. 

First, this album sounds absolutely massive-roaring from the speakers with a wide angle cinematic sound peppered with atmospheric touches including acoustic and post metal stylings that are woven in but never meander or detract from the gargantuan sound. 

On a literal lyrical level, Wake wrote a pretty woke concept album about astral projection, but it is really about the death experience we all must make. It’s   rooted in non Judeo Christian traditions as can be found in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Clearly, I took a deep conceptual dive on this one, but since most fans aren’t reading lyrics, none of that matters if the music isn’t good. 

I didn’t hear much of the celestial progressive influences on my first listen. The production was just too big to take in on my puny Rav-4 stereo. My only criticism is the intensity and vocals are ratcheted up to 10 on every song and can be exhausting. The vocals start sounding like black metal helium inhalations a la Alvin and the chipmunks on a bad meth trip. Other than that, this thing rips.  Like so many of my favorite 2022 albums, this one reveals itself slowly after repeat listens. Headphones recommended.

12. Elder/Innate Passage-Have you ever written off a band only to rediscover them at a later time? I think sometimes you have to be in the right headspace to receive music in a certain kind of way. I did not expect to see Elder on my list until I finally got around to listening to Innate Passage and shit! Passage sent me on a compulsive listening spree starting with my old favorite, Lore and then revisiting Reflections of a Floating World, an album I had prematurely written off. Reflections is a bridge to their current sound and is actually pretty dang good. 

It’s funny how preconceptions can color my listening. Obviously stoner metal was merely the starting point for a young band destined to mature into something completely different. Elder are no longer playing metal. Listening to an interview with main man, Nick DiSlavo, he explained that stoner metal was all he listened to when he was a teenager. As he developed his style, he yearned for the creativity and freedom of the 70’s prog giants. I’m hearing a lot of Yes meets The Almond Brothers with the kind of meticulous attention to detail and smooth jazz sensibilities of Steely Dan. This is sophisticated, elegant and silky smooth -adjectives not typically associated with metal! But it doesn’t bother me in the least in the way some prog metal albums do. Or as TG might say in his concise manner-very noice. 

DiSalvo spent time working on his vocals and it shows. He’s moved from a shouting/singing style that was still on display in Reflections  to a much smoother delivery. He actually brought in a guest vocalist on at least one track. The songwriting, arrangements and playing are exquisite. The keys are even more prominent on this one adding a symphonic “Elder with strings" feeling. I’m reminded of bands like Agalloch.-not in style or substance but in approach-musicians completely dedicated to craft without genre limitations. 

I’m glad I was receptive to their new direction. Yep, a 70’s psyche hard prog album. I just never know what direction my musical muse takes me, but I try to keep myself receptive to just about anything regardless of genre. Sweet, smooth, analog warmth that makes me smile. 

11. Haunter/Discarnate Ails-3 tracks of suffocating,  progressive blackened death madness. I enjoy their combo of off kilter chaotic dissonance, proggy soundscapes that manage to keep things pretty high on the extremometer. Been spinning this on and off all year and it’s held up. 

 

[Thatguy]

3 hours ago, markm said:

11. Haunter/Discarnate Ails-3 tracks of suffocating,  progressive blackened death madness. I enjoy their combo of off kilter chaotic dissonance, proggy soundscapes that manage to keep things pretty high on the extremometer. Been spinning this on and off all year and it’s held up. 

 

I'll be seeing them live in June. 

Interesting list, and great write ups.  I certainly don't love all these but there is a good deal of overlap with my interests and there is plenty to think about.

I look forward to the conclusion of this exciting drama.

[Hungarino]

About to hit play on SpiritWorld, and will have to revisit Sigh. 

Thanks Mark! Honorary Goat and music aficionado par excellance. I did not know you were a Duke. I grew up in Charlottesville and know the Valley well, or used to I guess its been a while now. Maybe we will trade VA stories over a few drinks someday!

[markm]

Thanks guys for the encouragement on my list. I consider you all personal friends and who knows, maybe we'll meet up somewhere along the line!

[markm]

Mark's Favorite albums of 2022, Chapter 6: # 10-6

10. Immolation/Acts of God-Majesty and Decay (2010) was my introduction to Immolation and may still be my favorite Immolation album.  Back then, I bought albums by the DM greats when they came out in real time,  some 20 years after the late 80’s/early 90’s heyday. By then, bands like Immolation, Asphyx, Death, Entombed, Carcass and so on  were “legacy” bands or ceased to exist.  I didn’t really dive into DM classics until just a few years ago. Immolation, a thorny beast, has never been as easy for me to love as their D-beat Swededeth counterparts. But, I’ve always respected their place in  extreme metal history. 

So, last year I threw myself into Acts of God trying to absorb their contribution to death metal with their complex, twisting, labyrinthian style and the rewards have been good. It’s a lot to take in one sitting, each song is like a masters class in complex DM dissonance. This one will stay in rotation for a long time and each time a track comes up on my 2022 playlist, it satisfies that barbarous DM fix. 

9. Messa/Close-Messa, album # 3 was the perfect opportunity to revisit albums #1 and 2. I remember when Metal-Fi bud, Ferday urged me to listen to Belfry as we were both doomsters and he thought it would be to my liking. He told me it was nothing new but brought back some of the old magic. Although overhyped and uncomplicated compared to subsequent efforts, I am happy to report that Belfry holds up per my listening quite well to the vintage recordings of my initiation into bands like EW, Sleep, Spirit Caravan, Pentagram and early YOB. Belfry’s combination of colossal doom fuzz, drone and ambient textures with a promising new metal vocalist was a standout in 2016. The tone and weight of that album was glorious, excluding the ambient bits that don’t further the songs for me.  

Album #2-Feast for Water (2018) took some of the oxygen out of their massive sound with greater jazz and experimental emphasis. Feast is a brilliant dark work that helped cement Messa with the silly occult doom genre tag with marvelous compositions and holds up today as their best overall effort, IMO. 

So how does Messa compare? Well, it’s a mixed bag but still good enough to be one of the best albums of 2022. Sara and company are going to do their best to reinvent themselves regardless of what I want in a doom album. Messa are going to tinker and, as a listener,  you have to decide if you're in for the ride. 

So anybody who pays attention to Messa, knows they decided to add in middle eastern/Mediterranean influences on Close which gives it an exotic texture, but those touches are largely interludes only occasionally woven into the doom tracks. 

They’ve sadly moved on from the drone of Belfry. That said, Close is a progressive doom album with enough riffage from their past for me and a very good album with unique compositions. Rubedo is one of the best songs of the year. Critically, given all of their experimentation, Close feels a little too streamlined and plays it safe. I’d prefer more grit and edginess. Nonetheless, taken on its own merits, Close places Messa in the company of bands like the  Gathering-pure class.  Can’t wait to see what they do next. I am definitely in for the ride.

8. Cult of Luna-The Long Road North-Longtime COL fan since their second album The Beyond in 2003, my interest finally waned with A Dawn to Fear that was a letdown after seminal albums including Salvation and Somewhere Along the Highway followed by the excellent Vertikal and the enigmatic collaboration with Juslie Christmas, Mariner. I went back and listened to A Dawn to Fear recently and it’s actually better than I remembered. 

Regardless of readjusted expectations from glory days,  I probably listened to TLRN more than any other album in 2022. North is a vast journey through austere, bleak soundscapes that are barren yet cinematic and epic in scope. They bring two guest vocalists that bridges the harsh post atmospheric tracks. TLRN won’t convince anyone who isn’t on board with what COL does, but it reaffirms their mastery of their style; a great achievement. 

7. Blut Aus Nord-Disharmonium-9 albums for me, BAN occupies a very special place in my collection as one of my all time favorite legacy bands as well as a gateway into avant black metal with their time warping industrial sensibilities as found on The Works that Transform God and the unsettling and largely ignored, Morte. Alternately, Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars is a wonderfully  melodic, cosmic highpoint. And the  bold experimentation and scope of the 777 trilogy is my favorite overall. 

After the popular, but IMO, atmo-melodic-lite-black of Hallucinogen, mastermind Vindsval turns his eye on the disturbing dissonant bad trip that has long been part of their sound. As a lovecraftian soundscape, this nightmare concept album works wonderfully. I must say, I held Disharmonium at arms length for several months before its dark beauty finally made sense and now I love this blackhole of an album. It’s essentially one bleeding loop of blackened soundscape and needs to be taken in as a whole. Awesome stuff!

6. Darkthrone/Astral Forest-Some albums feel familiar the first time you hear them. Not that they sound like a bands’ past work or give you deja vu, but like they were etched in stone newly unearthed by an archeological dig. Now, I know Darkthrone has a cult following so let me be upfront-Darkthrone is not one of my favorite bands of all time. 

Like most of you, I went through the natural exploration of second wave black and I love their early-unholy trinity-classics; skipped their mid-period punk metal  and jumped in real time in the twenty-teens with their modern classic, The Underground Resistance from 2013. Subsequent efforts were just so-so for me and got increasingly bland. 

Yet, for a reason  I can’t quite explain, Astral Forest put a spell on me. Maybe it’s my doom loving tendencies but Astral Forest pulls me into its own musical alternate reality. It’s a world that’s both ancient and new-my own little crusty, raw, rugged metal Narnia. But, you know, with horns and black magic and Lucifer smiling on the whole proceedings.

Really, I can’t explain-it feels like ancient wisdom; myth & wizardry passed down through millennia. It oozes something. I’m not sure what. There’s an unquantifiable essence as if channeled from the earth’s mantle. Nah, that’s bullisht. I just like this album because it’s really good! It has grit and sounds like it was recorded in a cave and mines some of the best aspects of new olde metal. 
 

[Thatguy]

What is this tease?

Oh, well. I guess it makes me eager for the top five, or are you going to unveil then one at a time?

The only one of the above I really can't go with is Messa. That's just me for some reason.

[markm]

2 hours ago, Thatguy said:

What is this tease?

Oh, well. I guess it makes me eager for the top five, or are you going to unveil then one at a time?

The only one of the above I really can't go with is Messa. That's just me for some reason.

That is quite all right. I still have mixed feelings about Close, but overall, I've enjoyed my time with it and think it's well crafted if not a little dull in places.  I drafted bits and pieces of my reviews over the last few months in my spare time, mostly to avoid my actual job-haha-and I still need to proof my original thoughts before I post. And, I didn't want to overwhelm with my verbiage and give in bits and pieces.  

[markm]

Mark's favorite albums and final thoughts for favorite music in 2022, Chapter 7: #4-1

5.Misþyrming-Með hamri - -This one was on a lot of lists and for good reason. Misþyrming has a special sound. I bought their 2019 Algleymi no doubt on strong recommendations from the M-F crew. I think I like Með Hamri even better. The band is firing on all cylinders with a decidedly Funeral Mist like attack on a few tracks. I like the little touches of atmosphere with some surprise choral voices and what you could call symphonic touches, but very light on the touch that add depth and texture to the eviscerating sound. In extreme metal, I’m always on the lookout for good song writing, distinctive, memorable tracks and replay value. This album checks all boxes. This is high quality black metal. One of the very top extreme metal albums of 2022, no question!

4.Bill Callahan/Reality-When a folk guitarist/singer songwriter cracks my top 5, it must be special. My love for Bob Dylan’s music has been a throughline in my listening all my life. Outside of heavy music, a good acoustic singer songwriter is one of my favorite non metal genres. Callahn came to my attention with his low key homespun 2019 album, Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest. Callahan spent his early career in alternative low fi genres recording on home made 4 track tape albums. Researching the guy, he was a bit of an enigmatic reclusive figure dabbling in genres including neofolk, apocalyptic folk, indie, alt-country and rock. He re-emerged in his 50's, married and with two kids as a kind of late bloomer, and in the alternative singer songwriter world is considered one of America’s great songwriters. Callahan uses a lot of American Western imagery. He delivers intimate folktales and pearls of wisdom like a leathered cowboy sitting by the campfire in a deep baritone voice.  Reality is a soft, introspective album that ranges from minimalistic acoustic lyric driven songs to blues, and Americana rock ‘N  roll with moments of transcendence. For a metal fan, it takes a few listens to sink in but I give it my highest recommendation for non metal chill listening over a cup of coffee or late night whisky soaked listening. 

3.Cavernlight- As I Cast Ruin Upon the Lens That Reveals My Every Flaw-Continuing their tradition of long album names, Cavernlight follow  up 2017’s, As We Cup Our Hands and Drink From the Stream of Our Ache. This was one of the first albums that made an impression in 2022 and holds up well. Post pandemic, Cavernlight taps into the despair and mental illness that we know has a grip on much of our world. They specialize in a Neurosis inspired brand of dark misery that is as cathartic and beautiful as it is oppressive. Drone/doom/post metal/noise/sludge soundscapes…really well done. 

2. Mizmor and Thou-Myopia -I often neglect collaborations and supergroup albums only to find  them later and realize I’ve passed on great work. This presented an opportunity to listen to the handful of albums I have from both bands. Yay! Allow me to jump into a weekend  of nothing but  depressive blackened drone and doom. 

Mizmor’s Yodh was one of my favorite albums in 2016, a blackened doom/drone masterwork as far as I’m concerned. Artist A.L.N.’s vocals are absolutely gut wrenching. His vocal work , doom riffs and black metal influences create some of the most satisfying black doom/drone, I’ve ever heard.  I’ve found his subsequent work like 2019’s Carin quite compelling but doesn’t reach the heights of Yodh. 

In a similar vein, Thou’s mix of multi
genres-doom/sludge/noise/grunge/hardcore/post and alternative influences-combine in a stew of dissonant and dense complex music. Thou can be exhausting and takes a certain mood and patience for me to get through even though I find a myriad of interesting ingredients beneath the surface when I'm willing to roll my sleeves up. Both bands dig into some pretty heady lyrical concepts. 

 Myopia seems to bring out the best of both bands. The sum is definitely greater than its parts. The styles merge exceedingly well. I couldn’t find a physical copy which got me off the hook from nose diving into the lyrics that are no doubt existential and esoteric.

 Not surprisingly, this is a long album at over 70 minutes and tough to get through in one setting. More Mizmor than Thou, which is to my liking, but the styles of both bands weave in and out throughout. Yet, they clearly inspire each other to create something special rather than arm wrestle for control. 

Thou’s influence seems to have provided a creative wellspring for A.L.N. with music nearly rivaling Yodh. And judging on the success of Thou’s collaboration with Emma Ruth Rundle in 2020 and The Body, makes me wonder if they should stick to collaborations-LOL!

1. Boris-Rocks 222, Fade & “W ''-In 2022, we get an unexpected 30 year anniversary Boris feast of wide ranging styles which should be no surprise to anyone following Boris’s vast discography. 

Love letter to Boris: : My two favorite non extreme metal bands active post 2,000, Boris and Neurosis have pioneered  just about every heavy genre other than traditional black and death in the 2000’s in some way or manner that I adore. They’ve pioneered experimental innovation from Through Silver and Blood, Enemy of the Sun and Times of Grace to Amplifier Worship, Feedbacker, Pink, No, Smile, Rainbow and Dear. 

Ah Boris, you art metal-adjacent chameleons, what genre have you not dabbled in?  I’ll put my cards on the table and state that my overwhelming preference is their golden era of  1998-2006 when they ruled over feedback and distorted gluttony, primarily in the realm of drone, noise, sludge, doom and psychadelic acid/stoner guitar freakouts with a strong hardcore influence. I mean, that’s die and go to heaven shit for me. 

Lead guitarist Wata has stated in multiple interviews that their influences in the beginning were largely Pink Floyd and the early Melvins recordings-after all they named themselves after a Melvins song. However soon after their first recordings of drone/doom/psch/sludge, you’d have to include 80’s Japanese hardcore, stoner metal and a decidedly punked out, scruffy Motorhead drive. Guitarist/bassist Takeshi (the dude with the double necked guitar bass) cites bass players who play their instruments more like a guitar and counts Lemmy as one of his favorite players.  

But  my account, Boris have dabbled -psych rock/sludge/thrash/D-beat/”metal”/proto-punk, proto-metal, screamo/drone/punk/hardcore/stoner/garage/post metal, shoegaze, dream J-pop/experimental/noise…..surely they are the greatest heavy rock band still flexing their muscles, still innovating and still scorching the earth with their feedback drenched art. I will forgive forays into J-Pop and shoegaze.  

 Boris has provided a feast of pleasures for me over the years. I do have some caveats-while they claim they record their albums with vintage analog equipment, they brickwall their albums to smithereens. Over compression  is one of my beefs with heavy music, but I give them a pass. My presumption is that, in their quest for the most bowel shaking drones, they think the brickwalling gives them more of what they want in terms of seismic, sonic thunder. 

Secondly, their habit of releasing multiple versions of the same album with different album covers with different track lists often with different masters and production values, depending on what part of the globe you live and extensive discography makes their catalog daunting for the uninitiated.  Apparently, they think western audiences or at least the American market prefers the “modern” metal sound of highly processed and compressed. Not to mention the nearly countless collaborations and experimental small “b” “boris” recordings, live recordings of albums and on and on. Some albums are only available on Bandcamp. Additionally, Bandcamp has a but a fraction of their discography available. The albums they chose to omit on Spotify baffles me.  It’s virtually impossible to own everything they’ve released. 

My final caveat is that their desire to not be limited by any style or genre and their prolific nature makes finding great albums somewhat confounding. Consistency with such far flung restless experimentation and excess is sometimes sacrificed. Despite  the countless hours of recordings, and fluctuations in quality, Boris in my mind remains one of the great sources of heavy rock and I love them. As a guitarist, Wata deserves more credit for her virtuosity and innovation.

A big part of their sound is they way they record with hordes of equipment, double necked guitars double downing on base and guitar with one band member, Ebow electronic drone manipulations, stacks of orange amplifiers, and a mound of often self made and designed pedals and assorted equipment that would make Smog blush guarding his treasure. After losing one member after their first album, the bassist, Takeshi switched to bass and guitar (hence the double neck). Wata claims his skill set includes being good with punk and thrash guitar as well as noise effects.  Wata plays lead guitar throughout. She lets the guys take care of the framework of the band. Atsuo is a beast on drums. He’s often the spokesperson and has fronted the band vocally in recent years. I think he does most of the harsh hardcore vocals but I may be wrong about that. Atsuo also does most of the recording and mixing. They are all involved with setting up their own gear, placing microphones and general electrical wizzadry. Atsuo and Wata may be married. They’re very private but clearly have an insular world that has allowed three members to remain unchanged for nearly 30 years. 

W: So, first we have the oddball, “W”, that I’ve been listening to for the better part of a  year. “W” is an ambient-drone dreamscape of an album that follow up to 2020’s “No”, that was a refreshing mix of hardcore, thrash and sludge sounds. No (2020) is one of their heavier metal albums for fans of d-beat and crust infused metal. The much heavier “No” with the ambient dreaminess of  “W” offer yin/yang counterparts  to complete the word-”NOW”. Oh, aren’t they clever. 

Had it been just on the merits of “W”, Boris might not have made the list. I just went back and re-listened and am reminded how good it is. “W” is an oddball of an album in  a band who made a career of oddball albums. I’m dubbing W as “dream drone”, heavy on the ambient and the surreal. Tracks ebb and flow like a dream and cut off abruptly with no clear endings. More than songs, they are vignettes, pieces of gazy music making W one of Boris’s softer albums. Wata, uncharacteristically handles all the vocals. I’ve read she is very introverted, preferring to hide behind her mountains of gear but I think she kills it on the vocals.  In the final tracks, she hits you with familiar Sun0))) styled moments of volcanic drone. I fantasize that Wata is playing for my amusement, lulling me to sleep for ¾ of the album and then jolting me back to reality with massive  waves of drone-preferably wearing those knee high black leather boots she sports with a nicely fitted mini skirt.  

Boris Rocks 2022-then comes the third garage hard rock installment of their Heavy Rocks series, released in August of ‘22 that I missed until the end of the Year. They’ve released a “Rocks” album about once a decade. They are each different but meant to represent the heavier, often stoner rock side of Boris’s output. What we have here is a snarling, slutty, sleazy mix of proto punk and metal along with expected experimental moments including about the third album on my list to include skronky saxophone. Just….why? They mix it up but this is basically a  straightforward middle finger of raw rock and roll jammed with musical ideas and virtuosity. 

Fade-Then in true Boris fashion, without any announcement, Boris returned to their drone sound with an extended piece of slow moving lava only released on Bandcamp. The band describes Fade as “not bound by concepts of rock and music in general, but would rather be said to be a documentary of the world plunged into the chaotic age”. OK Boris, so this is an experimental album. Boris release some albums as capitalized BORIS or Boris that represent their heavier rock/metal adjacent side and others as small b boris as their experimental albums not bound to conventions of rock. Fade is primarily instrumental and a heavy but beautiful drone meditation. It might be my favorite of the three. Boris’ drone output is often imbued with melodic undertones.  Visually, Fade is the sonic equivalent of lava flowing down a volcano with an orange snake-like flume oozing through an avalanche of gray volcanic ash. 

As much as I love Boris, keeping it real, Fade, album #29 makes jumping into their discography somewhat hit and miss. They also compress their albums to about a DNR of 4 but as Alex used to write about at Metal-Fi, compression is just part of the story. I’m not a musician, but it’s my belief that Boris, who as I’ve written  are  self-produced, know so much about their gear and their recording process  and the sounds they want to make that they are able to harness their brickwalling to add to the insanely distorted sound they desire. That, and ultimately they don’t care as much about sound quality as their process. 

They play similar to a jazz band, jamming and writing tunes based often on their mistakes they record when practicing. For them it’s about listening to each other without any preconceived notions. In interviews the band has stated that they think adhering to genre is dumb. They say, “just play what you play”. 

They don’t consider themselves a metal band because in Japan metal has associations with Japanese 80’s hair bands bringing to mind Loudness, remember them? Boris is beyond labels. All I know is they embody the best things in experimental music including excess. Long live rock and roll.

OK-many words spent-that’s all I gots!