Best of 2022

The year started off rather meekly, with not too many releases catching my attention. But with a blink of an eye, the spring season gave us some amazing death metal from Chile in the form of Rotten Tomb, Inanna and Suppression. Then there was the wave of traditional heavy metal from the Undying Victims and High Roller Records stablehouse. And before I could learn to pronounce Sanguisugabogg correctly, I already had over fifty albums bookmarked to check out. Suffice to say, every year does end up delivering hard if you make the effort to consume an inordinate amount of music!

I’ve been writing these listicles for over a decade now, and on this website of mine for the last seven years (see #AOTY for the past lists). The lists are purely based on how often I’ve listened to particular albums, my bias towards to heavy music subgenres and my inclination towards clamouring support for the “underground”. There are many albums that didn’t make the cut unfortunately like the new Misþyrming, the native-american themed bands like Blackbraid and Vital Spirit or the new Autopsy. I wish I had more time to listen to them to place them in the list below. But, here are my top ten albums of 2022!

Dusk are legends from the South Asian and Asian scene in general. Almost touching their third decade in existence, the band fronted by Babar Sheikh (ex-Impiety), released Imaginary Dead earlier this year. There are moments of death/doom, modern-era Rotting Christ, death/thrash bits with some great guitar solos and also not to mention experimental electronic synth-y sections. What shines through this album is the songwriting and the vocal performance. Dusk hail from Pakistan and it feels like the band makes a concerted effort to infuse influences from Sufi poetry and those singing/recital styles. I enjoy the spoken word sections as well as soaring melocholic screams. I rate Imaginary Dead highly and if Dusk weren’t already on the world map, this definitely puts them there!

Never judge a book (or album) by its cover but in the case of Baazlvaat, if the cover doesn’t pique your curiosity, I’m not sure what will. This can be either so bad or eccentricly genius. After a couple of spins of An Old Forgotten Text, I’m definitely leaning towards the latter. This was my first introduction to Baazlvaat, a rather peculiar black/folk and weirdly experimental band from USA (Michigan). I saw some comment which described this album as “What if Zappa grew up listening to Bathory and Celtic Frost”. It couldn’t more truer. I’ll go as far to say that this isn’t even a black metal album. Sure the vocals and some sections can indicate so, but the band goes on a musical trip exploring different directions, sometimes within the confines of a single song too. It’s brilliant! If I spent more time with Baazlvaat, I’d have rated this higher!

Negative Plane make their eleven year return with The Pact, their third studio album. I’ve heard of Negative Plane prior to this album but it was only a name I associated with something shrouded in mystery. Let it be stated that the Pact is not an easy listen (at least for me). It’s dense. It meanders through odd riff structures, weird time signatures and moments which pay tribute to the first-wave of black metal. The riffs almost feel like they could belong on a Mercyful Fate album too. They’re that good! With most of the tracks clocking over eight minutes, you will feel like you’re being taken on a mesmerizing journey. I love the production here especially with how the ambience is accentuated with church bells and chamber choir vocals. The Pact is a beautiful album and a masterpiece!

Pharmacist have released the best Carcass (Necrotism-era) sounding album ever, after Necrotism naturally. My comparisons albeit inevitable are merely meant flatter this Japanese death/grind band. Flourishing Extremities on Unspoiled Mental Grounds, boy that was a mouthful, is unique in itself wherein on one hand you can see the clear Carcass influence but at the same time they make it their own. The album comprises of grind-y songs over seven minutes long rife with some stellar guitar work. The songs have extremely catchy melodies, pummeling drums, snarly gurgly vocals and guitar solos (wait what?) to top it all off. You will not come across death/grind with guitar solos as exceptional as these. Fun fact, Andrew Lee from Ripped to Shreds, did most of the guitar leads on this album. I hope Pharmacist get the recognition they deserve because FEOUMG is a great record!

Sumerlands needs no introduction if you operate in the heavy metal realm of things. Dreamkiller is the band’s follow up to their wildly popular self-titled debut from six years ago. I would say that expectations were high for the band and with the change in vocal duties from Phil Swanson (Hour of 13 fame and many more) to Brendan Radigan (ex-Magic Circle), all eyes were on the band to see what they could deliver. Sumerlands didn’t disappoint to say the least. Dreamkiller flows so effortlessly from track to track. It’s a wonderful slab of heavy metal with AOR leanings. It’s massive sounding, the vocals are brilliant and the riffs are memorable for days! Dreamkiller cements Sumerlands’ credentials in heavy metal and although they have only two albums to their name, they’re easily one of the best heavy metal bands of the last two decades!

Elder’s album may not appear on many AOTY lists but they are on mine for several reasons, chiefly that I am a massive Elder fanboy since their magnificent Lore album from seven years ago. But I’ll also stick out my neck to say that Innate Passage has so much to offer. Elder is no longer the same band since their inception in the 2000s and they’ve transromed into this overtly proggy and (almost) instrumental ambient heavy rock band. Innate Passage takes Elder to greater heights from Omens. There’s just more (and better) of the long winding proggy/psychedelic sections with some exquisite guitar work, tremendous basslines and hooks that you expect to hear but still get blown away every time you hear them. Elder are the epitome of modern proggy heavy rock and Innate Passage is yet another great album from these extremely talented musicians.

It’s been quite a year for Wormrot with losing their second original member in Arif (their inimitable vocalist), while at the same time Hiss, their fourth full-length, being heralded as one of the best grindcore albums in recent years. Tumultuous but yet Rasyid has held the fort for so long as their guitarist and songwriter. Nonetheless, I’m glad that Arif was able to contribute to Hiss with his incredible vocal lines. It’s almost an instrument in itself lending itself to create the Wormrot sound - from the gang vocal shouts to screeches to growls. This will be his best work with Wormrot. While Arif’s vocals is one of the highlights of Hiss, I’d say the way the songs are structured and varied is yet another reason why Hiss stands out so spectacularly. There are influences from hardcore punk to Discordance Axis / Gridlink-esque grindcore to Wormrot’s earlier work (Dirge and Abuse). It’s a melting pot of styles, while still retaining Wormrot’s stamp. Hiss is not just a grindcore album, which can tend to be very one dimensional, it’s just so much more!

Luzifer are not a new band. The band members’ other band is the more well known Vulture, who are a speed/thrash demon. But we’re talking about this other avatar of theirs called Luzifer. Although having existed for over a decade, Iron Shackles is the band’s debut album. The band’s sound can be described as being influenced heavily by Mercyful Fate. It has anthemic choruses, guitar work that will make Denner and Shermann very proud, very catchy grooves and to mix it up a bit of very well chosen synths and post-punk (like in Der Golden Reiter) moments. Iron Shackles closes with a galloping Attila and often I’d put this album back on repeat. There’s not a single dull moment from start to finish and with the amount of re-play value it has, this was easily my favorite heavy metal album of the year!

Ares Kingdom are the Bolt Thrower of death/thrash. They’re unfortunately severely underrated and every few years, they deliver pulverizing and relentless albums consistently. I’d rank this album highly for that reason itself, that this is so consistent in terms of what it offers listeners. Born from the legendary “cult” band Order from Chaos in the 1990s, Ares Kingdom’s latest effort In Darkness At Last is probably one of their most brutal releases. You can feel the venom seething through the record. I can’t imagine how this would sound live. Chuck, Alex and Mike go all out with their muscianship and songwriting. Each track has something to give and the whole is greater than the sum of the individual tracks. Another highlight of this album is its production. It’s caustic and raw, almost fooling you as if you’re hearing the album live. Ares Kingdom are masters of the underground and In Darkness At Last is a great release!

Phobophilic’s Enveloping Absurdity is my death metal album of the year. These relatively lesser known young upstarts have taken the strong Demilich influence and made death metal that is heavy, groovy and also 10x more accessible to discerning ears. Heck, you can see Demilich’s Nespithe influence on the album cover too with the face drawings. But if Nespithe is the master then Enveloping Absurdity is the most promising apprentice. That’s high praise and it earns the number one spot in my list. I’ll stop with the comparisons now. Enveloping Absurdity has those “stop-start” guitar sections which are so catchy and headbang worthy, the caveronous growls, all round such great riff and seamless transitions and tempo changes. The production is very well balanced. It could’ve been murkier and that would’ve been my preference but that would’ve drowned out some of the beautiful guitar work which surfaces during the doomy/slower sections. The album title track is my favorite track which showcases everything that the album extends into. This band deserves more recognition!

With that, that’s a wrap. Until next year!