Machine Music Presents: The Best Metal of 2022

What a year. What. A. Year. It was a great year for music, it was a fucking horrible year for basically anything else, and at times one that brought on that uneasy feeling that whatever it is that's going on right now is, for better and for worse, about to end. This might be just me running into a midlife crisis with the force of a large truck, but the world kind of sucks at the moment.HOWEVER! IT WAS A YEAR TOO! For music, that is. I had much less time to try to publish all the articles and interviews I would have liked, because it was also the year of a new kid (#3 is in the bag, and the bag is firmly closed), a new job, publishing a couple of books (one novel, one academic), and just in general way too much shit going on. It was, however, also the year in which I have raised György Ligeti to my own personal spiritual "S" tier, which is funny considering how much he came up in the three (yup) AOTY interviews I conducted this year (two down, one to go – more on that in the bottom of this ridiculous post).

If you haven't ridden the Machine Music AOTY rollercoaster™ before (2019, 2020, 2021), then it's basically a huge list of ridiculous categories that I made up, from which I choose the best of every made-up category. From then, through the force of advance metrics and algorithms (I think a lot), I conduct the final list. That's basically it.

I would be remiss, however, if I didn't mention the fact that it was also the year in which my humble Patreon grew to an all-time high in supporters. I might not be Joe Rogan, in that I'm not a dumb fuck, but what I lack in quantity I more than make up with the quality of the simply wonderful people who help keep this rusty ship afloat. My eternal thanks is yours, forever.

Other than that it was a pretty great year for my various interview projects, featuring he Pillars of the 90s series (Ripping Corpse), the Albums of the Decade series covering albums 2010-2019 (Locrian, Serpent Column, Sacriphyx and Intercourse) and a whole slew of bands in The War Inside My Head series including Cryptae, Spider God, Dysgnostic, Speglas, Locrian, WAKE, Gonemage, and others. There are a whole lot of interviews done and waiting to get published in 2023, so a lot to look forward to.

It was also the year that saw the release of our newest in the MILIM KASHOT line of charity compilations, which might have been the biggest, wildest one yet.  Still can't believe we pulled off that 夢遊病者 (Sleepwalker) / Choshech collab. Life is but a dream.

So, yeah. More to come in 2023.

As always, feel free to follow this ugly place wherever we may roam (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and TIK TOK), and listen to our kinda-sorta functioning podcast (YouTube, Spotify, Apple). You can support my unholy work here (Patreon), if you feel like it. 

ON TO THE LIST!

PART I: THE CATEGORIES

Albums that Feel Like You’ve Just Buried a Parent, and Instead of Tears Your Body Secretes Riffs

Absent in Body – Plague God (Relapse Records)

Celeste – Assassine​(​s) (Nuclear Blast Records)

Cult of Luna – The Long Road North (Metal Blade Records) – TOP PICK

Eight Bells – Legacy of Ruin (Prophecy Productions) – TOP PICK

E-L-R – Vexler (Prophecy Productions)

Forlesen – Black Terrain (I, Voidhanger Records) – TOP PICK

Messa – Close (Svart Records) – TOP PICK

Pyrithe – Monuments to Impermanence (Gilead Media) –  TOP PICK

The Otolith – Folium Limina (Blues Funeral Recordings)

–

Albums that Sound Like Extreme Metal Was Squeezed Through a Sieve Made of Chairs Missing, Violator and/or Twitch

Aeviterne – The Ailing Facade (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK

Cryptae – Capsule (Sentient Ruin Records) – TOP PICK

Luminous Vault  – Animate the Emptiness (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK

Lykotonon – Promethean Pathology (Profound Lore Records)

Ocular Trauma – Night Mara (Independent)

Spider God – Fly in the Trap (Repose Records)

Sunrise Patriot Motion – Black Fellflower Stream (Sibir Records) – TOP PICK

Tome of the Unreplenished – Earthbound (Xenoglossy Productions / Avantgarde Music)

–

Albums that Force Music Writers to Use the Word “Dissonant,” which then Causes Music Nerds to Burst into the Torrid Flames of “Well, Actually”

Altars – Ascetic Reflection (Everlasting Spew Records)

Blut aus Nord – Lovecraftian Echoes (Debemur Morti) – TOP PICK

Dysgnostic – Scar Echoes (Transcending Obscurity Records) 

Forlorn Aspect – Benthic Orations (Independent) – TOP PICK

Hissing – Hypervirulence Architecture (Profound Lore Records) 

Krvvla – X (Brucia Records)

Misanthropæ – Untitled (Independent)

Verberis – Adumbration of the Veiled Logos (NoEvDia) – TOP PICK

–

A Cement Truck of Human Entrails and Tasteful Drumming

Artificial Brain – Artificial Brain (Profound Lore Records)

Blastanus – Beyond (Sludgelord Records) – TOP PICK

Cosmic Putrefaction – Dirge for the Blessed Ones (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK

Mltilrated – Determined to Rot (Redefining Darkness Records)

Pharmacist – Flourishing Extremities on Unspoiled Mental Grounds (Sevared Records)

Reeking Aura – Blood and Bonemeal (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK

–

Albums that Once Saw a Person They Wished They Could Talk to in a Club But They Were Too Shy to Do Anything About it So They Became Metal Musicians

40 Watt Sun – Eternal Light (Svart Records) – TOP PICK

Choshech – Black Flag (999 Cuts) – TOP PICK

Grieving Sea – Donewiz (Brucia Records)

Ketoret – Spontaneous Combustion (Independent)

Haavard – Haarvard (Prophecy Productions)

Licho – Ciuciubabka (Pagan Records)

Wailin Storms – Silver Snake (Gilead Media)

–

Albums That Are the Musical Equivalent to What I Felt About Making This Stupid List

Abyssal – A Deep Sea Funeral (Transylvanian Recordings) – TOP PICK

Chrome Ghost – House of Falling Ash (Seeing Red Records)

Dream Unending – Song of Salvation (20 Buck Spin) – TOP PICK

Innumerable Forms – Philosophical Collapse (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK

Orthodox – Proceed (Alone Records) – TOP PICK

Primitive Man – Insurmountable (Closed Casket Activities)

Tzompantli – Tlazcaltiliztli (20 Buck Spin)

Scorched Vatika – Dirge (From the Depths)

–

The Marty Friedman Award for Making Solos Great Again

Autonoesis – Moon of Foul Magics (Independent)

Vimur – Transcendental Violence (Boris Records)

Worm – Bluenothing (20 Buck Spin) – TOP PICK

–

Black Metal Performed Inside a Broken Transistor, But That Broken Transistor (Sanyo, Probably) is the Cosmos Itself, Shattered Beyond Repair, AKA Albums Liked By People Who Shitpost in Questionable Forms Probably with An Avatar that Has Some Kind of Celtic Cross, Who Will be Pissed at My Little Jokes and Will Inevitably Refer to this Post as "The Jew List"

Bad Manor – The Haunting (Avantgarde Music / Ordo Vampyr Orientis)

Nocturnal Triumph – Nocturnal Triumph (Amor Fati Productions)

Trembling Void – The Burning Question (Inferna Profundus)

Trhä – vat g​ë​l​é​nva​!​!​! (Independent) – TOP PICK

Valac – Howls of Infinite Horror (Banner of Blood and Black Gangrene Productions)

Wraithlord – Obscurity (Independent) – TOP PICK

–

Albums Whose Tinder Profile Pic Includes a Knightly Sword

Alburnum – Buitenlucht (Babylon Doom Cult Records)

Clarent Blade – Return Into Forever (True Cult Records)

Hageetisse – De verminkte stilte van het zijn (Babylon Doom Cult Records)

Negative Plane – The Pact (Invictus Productions)

Predatory Light – Death and the Twilight Hours (20 Buck Spin) – TOP PICK

Vanum – Legend (Profound Lore Records) – TOP PICK

–

Pretentious Albums that Think They Are Smarter Than You and Act All High and Mighty But Are Actually Suffering an Unspeakable Horror on the Inside

Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture (Aural Music) 

Dreadnought – The Endless (Profound Lore Records)

Falls of Rauros – Key to a Vanishing Future (Eisenwald) 

Kraanerg – Of Matter (Total Dissonance Worship)

Mamaleek – Diner Coffee (The Flenser)

Nothing is Real – The End is Near (Independent) – TOP PICK

Sigh – Shiki (Peaceville Records) – TOP PICK

–

Albums that Make You Feel Like You're Living in a Cloud of Evil, AKA, Making This Fucking List

Arkæon – Parasit (I, Voidhanger Records)

Djevel – Naa skrider natten sort (Aftermath Music) – TOP PICK 

Esoctrilihum – Consecration of the Spiritu​̈​s Flesh (I, Voidhanger Records)

Feral Light – Psychic Contortions (I, Voidhanger Records) 

Negativa – 04 (Mystiskaos)

The Black Mysteries – Blessed Conjuration of Celestial Atrophy (Independent)

–

This Was a Difficult Year. A Lot of Great Things Happened. My Son Was Born. My First Novel Got Published. A Lot of Mid-Life Reflection Going On, and A Lot of Melancholy Starting Out the Widow, Wondering Whether My Life Has Been an Unfulfilled Promise. Wondering Where Things Go From Here. All That Thought and Reflecting, All Those Emotions, Definitely Did Not Find Any Meaning or Solace in These Slabs of Unbridled Death

Acephalix – Theothanatology (20 Buck Spin)

Ataraxy –  The Last Mirror (Dark Descent Records / Me Seco Un Ojo) – TOP PICK

Cavernal – Nigrescent (Diabolical Summoning Records)

Immolation – Acts of God (Nuclear Blast) – TOP PICK

Inanna – Void of Unending Depths (Memento Mori) – TOP PICK

Triumvir Foul – Onslaught to Seraphim (Vrasubatlat)

–

Whatever Leftover Matter that Remained in the Utter lack of Meaning of the Previous Category is Then Bullied by These Albums, Making Sure All That is Left is a Pulp of Bleeding Nothing

Autophagy – Bacteriophage (Pulverised Records)

Autopsy – Morbidity Triumphant (Peaceville Records) – TOP PICK

Corpsessed – Succumb to Rot (Dark Descent Records / Me Seco Un Ojo)

Encryptment – D​ö​dens F​ö​dsel (Nuclear Winter Records) – TOP PICK

Fleshrot – Unburied Corpse (Desert Wastelands Productions / Me Saco Un Ojo) – TOP PICK

Gutvoid – Durance of Lightless Horizons (Blood Harvest Records)

Undeath – It's Time​.​.​.​To Rise From the Grave (Prosthetic Records)

Vomitrot – Rotten Vomit (Independent)

Vrenth – Succumb to Chaos (Rotted Life Records)

–

Albums that Use Their Violence and Blast-Beat Malignancy to Release Me from My Own Pulp State and Cruelly Fuse My Dead Parts Together for One Sweet Moment, to Forget that I'm Putting this Fucking List Together

MICO – Zigurat (Total Dissonance Worship) – TOP PICK

SCUD – SCUD (Rat Covenant)

Tulip – Derangement, Exquisite Tenderness (Ordovician Records)

Vermin Womb – Retaliation (Closed Casket Activities)

Whoresnation – Dearth (Bones Brigade Records / Carbonized Records)

Wormrot – Hiss (Earache Records)

–

Albums that Fill the Room with Swarms of Mosquitos, Bees, and Wasps, that Sting Your Inner Light Until All that is Left is a Bloated, Blissful, Bulbous Mass of Mind that Has Rejected the Body as Well as This Dumb, Useless List

Crestfallen Dusk – Crestfallen Dusk (Moonlight Cypres Archetypes)

Doldrum – The Knocking, Or The Story of the Sound that Preceded Their Disappearance (Kataflaque)

Gorycz – Kamienie (Pagan Records)

Krallice – Crystalline Exhaustion (Independent / P2)

Krallice – Psychagogue (Independent / Hathenter) – TOP PICK

Loam – Loam (Independent)

Popiół – Szeptun (Pagan Records)

Scarcity – Aveilut (The Flenser) – TOP PICK

SkyThala – Boreal Despair (I, Voidhanger Records / Moonlight Cypress Archetypes) – TOP PICK

–

The Annual Award in Excellence in Being Darkthrone

Darkthrone – Astral Fortress (Peaceville Records) – TOP PICK

–

The Award for Best Megadeth Album since The System Has Failed

Megadeth – The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead! (Universal) – TOP PICK

–

Albums that Are an Extreme Close-Up of Ren and Stimpy's Ren as he Shouts and His Uvula is Dangling Like Dead Meat

atameo – it sure is sad to hope for the best while expecting the worst (Zegema Beach Records) – TOP PICK

Birds in a Row – Gris Klein (Red Creek) – TOP PICK

Gilded Age – The Moral High Ground is a Desert Island (Tomb Tree Tapes)

Gonemage – Handheld Demise (Xenoglossy Productions)

Hylda  – Juniper Pyre (Independent) – TOP PICK

Morrow –  The Quiet Earth (Alerta Antifascista /The Plague of Man Records)

Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems (Epitaph)

Trophy Hunt – The Branches on Either Side (Middle Man Records / Zegema Beach Records)

–

Grindcore that Has Gone Plaid

Cloud Rat – Threshold (Artoffact Records) – TOP PICK

Greber – Fright Without (No Funeral Records / Ancient Temple Recordings)

Knoll – Metempiric (Independent) – TOP PICK

Nostromo – Bucephale (Noise Addict)

Wake – Thought Form Descent (Metal Blade Records)

–

Noise Rock and Derivatives Thereof, Not Including the Chat Pile Album Because I'm Still Kind of Pissed About That 

Anatomy of Habit – Even if It Takes a Lifetime (Independent) – TOP PICK

Asbestos Worker – The Separation (Learning Curve Records) – TOP PICK

Bad Breeding – Human Capital (Iron Lung Records)

Helm's Alee – Keep This By The Way (Sargent House)

KEN Mode – Null (Artoffact Records)

The Callous Daoboys – Celebrity Therapist (MNRK Heavy) – TOP PICK

–

Albums that Are the Successful Deconstruction of the Human, of the Way we Feel and Think, that Also Include a Partial, I Should Say Intentionally Partial, Reconstruction That is Both Ugly and Beautiful

Aaron Turner and Dead Neanderthals – Corporeal Flux (Independent) – TOP PICK

Álvaro Pérez & Álvaro Domene – Radical Accretion (Iluso Records). Yes, it's a 2021 album, I don't care. Kudos to Miguel.

Batrakos – la pagoda dell'irrealtà (Xenoglossy Productions)

black midi – Hellfire (Rough Trade Records)

Bríi – Corpos Transparentes (Mospharic) – TOP PICK

Extra Life – Secular Works, Vol. 2 (Independent) – TOP PICK

Locrian – New Catastrophism (Profound Lore Records) 

Nancy Mounir – Nozhet El Nofous (Simsara Records)

Spintria – Bacchanalia (Moonlight Cypress Archetypes) 

Vaura – Vista of Deviant Anatomies (Primal Architecture Records)

–

Albums that Are the Kind of Black Metal You Write After Reading W. G. Sebald

Desiccation – Cold Dead Earth (Transylvanian Recordings) – TOP PICK

Epitaphe – II (Aesthetic Death) – TOP PICK

Floating – The Waves Have Teeth (Independent) – TOP PICK

Haunter – Discarnate Ails (Profound Lore Records)

Häxenzijrkell – Urgrund (Amor Fati Productions) 

Pensees Nocturnes – Douce Fange (Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions)

Monarkh – Azote (Kammer Records)

–

The Category in Which I Have Way Too Many Atmospheric Black Metal Albums, But, Let's Face it Folks, It's Been an Atmospheric Black Metal Type of Year, Which Means it Was Bad

Ante-Inferno – Antediluvian Dreamscapes (Vendetta Records)

Benthik Zone – ε​ἴ​δ​ω​λ​ο​ν (Onism Productions)

Det eviga leendet – Reverence (Mystiskaos)

Dinbethes – Balans (Babylon Doom Cult Records)

Drudkh – All Belong to the Night (Season of Mist)

Hornwood Fell – Sgr A (Independent)

Nubivagant – The Wheel and the Universe (Amor Fati Productions)

Olhava – Reborn (Avantgarde Music)

ORM – Altet (Indisciplinarian) – TOP PICK

Saidan – Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal (Jems Label)

Terzij de Horde – In One of These, I Am Your Enemy (Tartarus Records)

Ultha – All That Has Never Been True (Vendetta Records) – TOP PICK

Vanum – Legend (Profound Lore Records)

Vauruvã – Por N​ó​s da Ventania (Independent)

Vertige – Aux Solitaires! (Transcendence)

Vital Spirit – Still as Night, Cold as the Wind (Hidden Tribe)

Wanderlaars – Verbroken (Chronos Defiled) – TOP PICK

White Ward – False Light (Debemur Morti Productions) – TOP PICK

Woods of Desolation – The Falling Tide (Season of Mist)

–

Albums That Make Up What to Me Personally Was the Best Year in Punk in I Don't Know How Long, and, Yes, Some of These Are Actually EPs, Wow You're So Smart

Antro – Demo (Lower Class Kids)

Dark Circles – Frantic Death (Independent) – TOP PICK

Haexler – Wage, Work (Lower Class Kids)

Lifetaker – Der Letzte Raum (Lower Class Kids)

Rigorous Institution – Cainsmarsh (Black Water) – TOP PICK

Savage Pleasure – A Harrowing Cry (Toxic State Records)

The Convictions – The Eager Violence of the Heart (Leprotic Limb Records / Breaking Hands Records)

Warthog – Warthog (Toxic State Records / Static Shock)

–

I Could Have Found a Fancy Name for This Category But in My Head It's Basically "Zoning Out"

Bismuth and Vile Creature – A Hymn of Loss and Hope (The Flenser)

Blood Incantation – Timewave Zero (Century Media Records)

Bong Ra – Meditations (Tartarus Records)

Chrome Ghost – House of Falling Ash (Seeing Red Records)

Mizmor – Wit's End (Gilead Media)

Mizmor and Thou – Myopia (Gilead Media) – TOP PICK

Nadja – Nalepa (Broken Spine Productions) 

Ode and Elegy – Ode and Elegy (Independent)  – TOP PICK

Russian Circles – Gnosis (Sargent House)

–

The Soundtrack to The Sound of Music if the Movie Was Told from the Point of View of an Austrian Artillery Piece

Bog Body – Cryonic Crevasse Cult (Profound Lore Records)

Complot! – Victimes Innocentes (d'une furie meurtri​è​re) (Anti-Human Productions) 

Congealed Putrescence – Within the Ceaseless Murk (Caligari Records) 

Deathsiege – Throne of Heresy (Everlasting Spew Records) – TOP PICK

Prehistoric War Cult – Under The Sign Of The Red Moon (Kellerassel Records)

Ušumgal – Demo MMXXII (Independent)

–

SPLITS

Atvm / Penance Stare (Forgotten Sorcery Productions)

Autumn Tears / Zeresh – Widowing / Possessing (Dark Symphonies)

Bedsore / Mortal Incarnation (20 Buck Spin)

Deiquisitor, Phrenelith, Taphos, Undergang – Tetralogy of Death (Extremely Rotten Productions)

Gel / Cold Brats – Shock Therapy (Independent)

Gosudar / Malignant Altar (Me Saco Un Ojo Records)

Lamp of Murmuur / Ebony Pendant – Plenilunar Requiems (GoatowaRex / Forbidden Sonority) – TOP PICK

Malthusian / Suffering Hour – Time's Withering Shadow (Invictus Productions) – TOP PICK

Ritual Necromancy / Fossilization (Everlasting Spew Records)

Spider God / Grinning God (Phantom Lure) 

Spy / Maniac (Triple B Records)

–

EPs

Adharcáil – Adharcáil (Harsh Productions) – TOP PICK

Aglo – Collector (Independent)

Agriculture – The Circle Chant (Fiadh / Vita Detestabilis Edition)

Apes – Lullabies for Eternal Sleep (Translation Loss)

Black Math Horseman – Black Math Horseman (Profound Lore Records)

Death Breath – The Old Hag (Electric Assault Records)

Deathless Void – Deathless Void (Iron Bonehead Productions)

Fawn Limbs – Oleum (Independent)

Full of Hell – Aurora Leaking from an Open Wound (Independent)

Hulder – The Eternal Fanfare (20 Buck Spin)

IER – 赤​い​部​屋 (Independent)

Kostnatění – Oheň ho​ř​í tam, kde padl (Mystískaos) – TOP PICK

Mistcavern – Into Twilight (Independent)

Rejoice! The Light Has Come – Untitled (Independent)

Speglas – Time, Futility and Death (Pulverized Records) – TOP PICK

Srefa – Primal (Independent)

Svrm – Ч​е​р​в​і​в м​а​й​б​у​т​н​я з​д​о​б​и​ч (Vendetta Records)

Sunken Basilica – Sunken Basilica (Moonlight Cypress Archetypes)

Theomachia – The Theosophist (Xenoglossy Productions / Onism Productions)

The Replicate – No Longer Human (Independent)

Tomb Mold – Aperture of Body (Independent)

Vile Rites – The Ageless (Independent) – TOP PICK

PART II – THE LIST

ALBUMS I LOVED TO DEATH

65. Encryptment – D​ö​dens F​ö​dsel (Nuclear Winter Records)

64. Dark Circles – Frantic Death (Independent) 

63. Hylda  – Juniper Pyre (Independent) 

62. Megadeth – The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead! (Universal)

– Fleshrot – Unburied Corpse (Desert Wastelands Productions / Me Saco Un Ojo)

61. Asbestos Worker – The Separation (Learning Curve Records) 

60. Darkthrone – Astral Fortress (Peaceville Records)

59. MICO – Zigurat (Total Dissonance Worship) 

58. Vile Rites – The Ageless (Independent)

57. Deathsiege – Throne of Heresy (Everlasting Spew Records) 

56. Lamp of Murmuur / Ebony Pendant (GoatowaRex / Forbidden Sonority) – TOP PICK

55. Predatory Light – Death and the Twilight Hours (20 Buck Spin)

54. Ode and Elegy – Ode and Elegy (Independent) 

53. Nothing is Real – The End is Near (Independent)

52. Trhä – vat g​ë​l​é​nva​!​!​! (Independent) 

51. The Callous Daoboys – Celebrity Therapist (MNRK Heavy)

50. Floating – The Waves Have Teeth (Independent)

49. Malthusian / Suffering Hour – Time's Withering Shadow (Invictus Productions) 

48. Wanderlaars – Verbroken (Chronos Defiled)

47. Spider God – Fly in the Trap (Repose Records)

ALMOST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

46. Immolation – Acts of God (Nuclear Blast)

45. Birds in a Row – Gris Klein (Red Creek)

44. Autopsy – Morbidity Triumphant (Peaceville Records) 

43. Inanna – Void of Unending Depths (Memento Mori) 

42. ORM – Altet (Indisciplinarian)

41. Cosmic Putrefaction – Dirge for the Blessed Ones (Profound Lore Records)

40. Orthodox – Proceed (Alone Records)

39. Abyssal – A Deep Sea Funeral (Transylvanian Recordings)

38. Blastanus – Beyond (Sludgelord Records)

37. Dream Unending – Song of Salvation (20 Buck Spin)

36. Choshech – Black Flag (999 Cuts) 

35. Epitaphe – II (Aesthetic Death) 

34. Reeking Aura – Blood and Bonemeal (Profound Lore Records)

33. Adharcáil – Adharcáil (Harsh Productions) 

32. Aaron Turner and Dead Neanderthals – Corporeal Flux (Independent)

31. Forlorn Aspect – Benthic Orations (Independent)

30. Verberis – Adumbration of the Veiled Logos (NoEvDia)

29. Speglas – Time, Futility and Death (Pulverized Records) 

 – Anatomy of Habit – Even if It Takes a Lifetime (Independent)

28. Pyrithe – Monuments to Impermanence (Gilead Media) 

27. Ataraxy –  The Last Mirror (Dark Descent Records / Me Seco Un Ojo) 

26. Desiccation – Cold Dead Earth (Transylvanian Recordings) 

25. Mizmor and Thou – Myopia (Gilead Media)

SO, SO CLOSE TO ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

24. Blut aus Nord – Lovecraftian Echoes (Debemur Morti)

23. Knoll – Metempiric (Independent)

– atameo – it sure is sad to hope for the best while expecting the worst (Zegema Beach Records) 

22. Eight Bells – Legacy of Ruin (Prophecy Productions)

22. Rigorous Institution – Cainsmarsh (Black Water) 

20. White Ward – False Light (Debemur Morti Productions)

19. 40 Watt Sun – Eternal Light (Svart Records) 

18. Worm – Bluenothing (20 Buck Spin)

16. Sigh – Shiki (Peaceville Records)

15. Cloud Rat – Threshold (Artoffact Records)

15. Bríi – Corpos Transparentes (Mospharic)

14. Cryptae – Capsule (Sentient Ruin Records)

13. Extra Life – Secular Works, Vol. 2 (Independent)

12. Djevel – Naa skrider natten sort (Aftermath Music)

11. Krallice – Psychagogue (Independent / Hathenter)

10. Sunrise Patriot Motion – Black Fellflower Stream (Sibir Records)

9. Luminous Vault – Animate the Emptiness (Profound Lore Records) 

8. Ultha – All That Has Never Been True (Vendetta Records) 

7. Cult of Luna – The Long Road North (Metal Blade Records) 

6. Messa – Close (Svart Records)

5. Forlesen – Black Terrain (I, Voidhanger Records) 

THE ALBUM THAT WOULD/COULD HAVE BEEN MY AOTY HAD IT NOT BEEN ACTUALLY AN EP BUT IS, REGARDLESS, STUNNING

4. Kostnatění – Oheň ho​ř​í tam, kde padl (Mystískaos)

CO-ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

Scarcity – Aveilut (The Flenser) 

One of the most difficult tricks, if I may use that word, in this weird space of malformed, stubborn, antagonistic extreme metal is the achievement of humanity through the prism of immensity. Back when this website was mostly me babbling in Hebrew about, god knows what I was babbling about, I called this the "coriander effect," since coriander (cilantro!) is the taste of taste. To feel humanity piercing through all this garbage we call life and attempting to say something in the world is a truly rare feat, and when I think about the artists who make me feel that way then that list isn't very long. It has Virginia Woolf on it, it has Sebald on it and probably Joyce, it has Charlie Looker and Dave Mustaine on it, and probably Nina Simone and György Ligeti too. Now it also has Brendon Randall-Myers and Doug Moore. Here is my AOTY interview with both fine gentlemen about the humanity of this unreal piece of human.

SkyThala – Boreal Despair (I, Voidhanger Records) 

Very much continuing down the path of metal-meets-modern-classical, this newest effort from the braintrust in charge of Moonlight Cypress Archetypes (Primeval Well, Vile Haint, et al) is basically what all heavy music should sound like from now on. Challenging yet ruthless, delicate yet ginormous, it takes up not only the sonic attributes of the dissonant tradition of classical music but a lot of its scope and vision as well, creating what might be eight the most brutal modern classical album or the most fucked metal album in a very long time. For more, here is my in-depth AOTY interview with the band.

Aeviterne – The Ailing Facade (Profound Lore Records) 

In my mind, this past year has been one of the best years in Profound Lore's existence, and, at times, the absolute best.  The crowning achievement of PL's 2022 was this immaculate welding together of so many things I absolutely love about the extreme and heavy music of the last 15 years or so. It has the touch of the dissonant, in that almost modern-classical way, it has the emotive force and bleakness of a band like Sumac, along with a sinister undertone that sends off all kinds of prime-Blut aus Nord vibes. Add to that glorious mush the incomparable drumming of Ian Jacyszyn, who is, in my mind, one of the great drummer of this generation, and you receive an ever-evolving, ever-satisfying modern classic of heavy music. AOTY interview coming in the next few weeks.