Rolling 2022 Metal Thread

Ooh is that the show Stabscotch played too? xp

Another year, another Lustre album. I disagree with the title, the season for this is now. Gentle autumnal music, at peace with itself and the world.

the Duma stuff I have from Bandcamp is super good, didn't know they were touring.

new Abyssic album is very, very good. much better use of strings than most "symphonic" bands, really engrossing songs.

I love how Lustre is classified as Metal

Funny thing is that as the Lustre dude gradually upgrades his gear and levels up the clarity of his production, it starts sounding more and more like Schiller with guiters - I mean how far is he now from something like this?

Really enjoying Woe, the new album from Swedish progressive deathers An Abstract Illusion. Lots packed into this one, some mid-period Opeth, big guitar solos, lots of synth, a little space rock. All pulled together pretty well, imo.

Some bonkers raw gothy black metal that sounds like Cultes des Ghoules in miniature, hints of ... Scooby Doo? Mad doctor vocals. I dunno. Came out on Halloween on Avantgarde so that's probably a better summation.

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-haunting

I've seen comparisons to Old Nick but idk what Old Nick is. Maybe I should.

BTW returning to Lustre - after now hearing it on a proper system at high volume instead of crappy computer speakers, I've noticed that the guitars are now much, much heavier than on previous Lustre material, looks like he has dropped his tuning and bought a HM-2 pedal for that crushingly heavy buzzsaw sound. It's now bordering on full-on Doom Metal, although the melodies are way to wistful to call it "proper" Doom.

It's nice, yes. I like the extra crunch

If you like modernized versions of the melodic metal/hard-rock thing that I think of as beginning with Lita Ford, there are two new songs from what I assume is an upcoming album by the great Norwegian singer Issa.

https://open.spotify.com/track/10yUHaUegv4jPNNDVysW9e
https://open.spotify.com/track/1S99nbSU0hfsuriiVrHB6Y

Can confirm the new Ripped to Shreds both rips and shreds.

Thirded -this shit rocks.

New Darkthrone is great, these guys have settled into such a good groove of late. Really dig the slightly spacey outro on "The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea".

New Obituary album in January! It's called Dying Of Everything, which is awesome. So is the first single, "The Wrong Time":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoKRsHSPfw4

Decibel announced their Top 40 albums of the year:

40. Temple of Void, Summoning the Slayer, Relapse
39. Gaerea, Mirage, Season of Mist
38. Sigh, Shiki, Peaceville
37. Still/Form, From the Rot Is a Gift, Hex
36. Midnight, Let There Be Witchery, Metal Blade
35. Doldrum, The Knocking, or the Story of the Sound That Preceded Their Disappearance, Katafalque
34. Amorphis, Halo, Atomic Fire
33. Imperial Triumphant, Spirit of Ecstasy, Century Media
32. Black Anvil, Regenesis, Season of Mist
31. Municipal Waste, Electrified Brain, Nuclear Blast
30. Castrator, Defiled in Oblivion, Dark Descent
29. Daeva, Through Sheer Will and Black Magic…, 20 Buck Sin
28. Ripped to Shreds, 劇變 (Jubian), Relapse
27. Mother of Graves, Where the Shadows Adorn, Wise Blood
26. Eight Bells, Legacy of Ruin, Prophecy
25. Tzompantli, Tlazcaltiliztli, 20 Buck Spin
24. SpiritWorld, Deathwestern, Century Media
23. Escuela Grind, Memory Theater, MNRK
22. Vanum, Legend, Profound Lore
21. Satan, Earth Infernal, Metal Blade
20. Mizmor + Thou, Myopia, Gilead Media
19. Dream Unending, Song of Salvation, 20 Buck Spin
18. Phobophilic, Enveloping Absurdity, Prosthetic
17. Negative Plane, The Pact…, The Ajna Offensive
16. Sumerlands, Dreamkiller, Relapse
15. Terror, Pain Into Power, Pure Noise
14. Voivod, Syncro Anarchy, Century Media
13. Chat Pile, God’s Country, The Flenser
12. Wake, Thought Form Descent, Metal Blade
11. Oceans of Slumber, Starlight and Ash, Century Media
10. Mortuous, Upon Desolation, Carbonized
9. KEN mode, Null, Artoffact
8. Kreator, Hate Über Alles, Nuclear Blast
7. Nechochwen, Kanawha Black, Bindrune
6. Soul Glo, Diaspora Problems, Epitaph
5. Immolation, Acts of God, Nuclear Blast
4. Blackbraid, Blackbraid I, self-released
3. Sonja, Loud Arriver, Cruz Del Sur
2. Cave In, Heavy Pendulum, Relapse
1. Undeath, It’s Time… to Rise from the Grave, Prosthetic

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

Sonja, man. Love that record to bits.

I've heard seven of those (Imperial Triumphant, Black Anvil, Sumerlands, Chat Pile, Oceans of Slumber, Kreator, Immolation) and would maybe put three (Imperial Triumphant, Sumerlands, Immolation) on my own year-end list. I'm honestly surprised the new Goatwhore didn't make the Decibel list; it's the first album of theirs I've ever liked.

Will never understand the love for the new Undeath

New Dream Unending out today. I loved their 2021 album. This sounds exactly the same, melancholy and diaphanous death-doom.

Can confirm the new Ripped to Shreds both rips and shreds.

speaking of which, I dug the first houkago grind time record more than the other RtS records but the new HGT just isn't doing it for me. frustrating but maybe I'm in less of an anime grind mood lately or something? (this would be weird if true tho stranger things have happened I suppose)

classical, jazz & gorenoise thrown in a blender, you say? but a literal blender?

https://effluence666.bandcamp.com/album/liquefied

owns

Beautiful review of Dream Unending today on Pitchfork. Sam Sodomsky is very good.

I loved their 2021 album. This sounds exactly the same

I want to amend that a bit. This is better than the last album. The production feels richer, the textures seem to mesh better. And the album structure makes a difference - this one flows extremely well. There are long moody stretches which are more like Pink Floyd's "Echoes" or something from ECM than anything death-metal.

(an album may be years away, you know with these guys, but) Darkspace still exists & have a new bass player - first their wikipedia page said they were looking for a replacement, but now this has been updated: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Darkspace/13746

this, too: https://www.darkcyberspace.com/incmngtrnsmssn.html

new Candlemass is good as ever. I'm liking their material post Johan's return on vocals. just find it amusing how different his voice is now, and I don't mean "lol he older", like he does a more gravelly thing than he did on Epicus Doomicus

https://rottedlife.bandcamp.com/album/phantasmal-scourge

Digging this Night Hag album, filthy and rotten death doom.

"Piach" was one of my favorite metal albums of 2018, and on first listen, this new one from Gorycz seems every bit as massive:

https://gorycz.bandcamp.com/album/kamienie

Also recommended for fans of Furia.

The title track from the forthcoming Obituary album Dying of Everything is out and it fucking rules:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EhlsxrkzmM

I am unreasonably excited about this album.

Woods of Desolation, Australian melancholic black metal, are (or rather "is" - it's just one guy) back with a new album, out this week: https://woodsofdesolation.bandcamp.com/

his last one - released way back in 2013 - was awesome, imo. i thought that project was done, excited to see it back.

FYI because I know there are (or were?) some Hammers of Misfortune fans around here, but they've got a super limited CD version of the new album up on Bandcamp, 250 total copies and only 22 left as of my post.

Thanks for the tip off.

I guess December is ok by my standards to start listening to metal from the year.
Close by Messa reminds me of Mandylion by The Gathering, that's nice.

very late to the Phobophilic. definitely agree w/ people who said it has a little bit of that ole Demilich/similar bands sound, though the riffs aren't so angular.

just simple, good songwriting, atmosphere galore, plus my favorite lil 90s death metal trick of pairing a power chord riff with a higher string single note riff that propels it.

why didn't anybody tell me this year's Castrator album was so good? all-female, feminist old school death metal.

top quality writing. not anything innovative, but simply a high quality album within the style, with the punch of early 90s death metal riffs, plenty of breakdowns too (but not the annoying kind). I have hit saturation point with death metal but this one was easy to like.

i will admit the chaos from this year has led me to quickly forget about albums that came out, this is what I've bought and am digging from this year nonetheless.

Candlemass - Sweet Evil Sun
Darkthrone - Astral Fortress
Ripped to Shreds - Jubian
Gaerea - Mirage
Sigh - Shiki
Faceless Burial - At the Foothills of Deliration
Bloodbath - Survival of the Sickest
Wormrot - Hiss
Kreator - Hate Uber Alles
The Chasm - The Scars of a Long Reflective Shadow
Pharmacist - Flourishing Extremities on Unspoiled Mental Grounds (I'm an idiot who accidentally bought this twice)
Sentient Horror - Rites of Gore
Corpsessed - Succumb to Rot
Satan - Earth Infernal
Phobophilic - Enveloping Absurdity
Autopsy - Morbidity Triumphant
Venom, Inc - There's Only Black
Blind Guardian - The God Machine
Soulfly - Totem
Krisiun - Mortem Solis
Origin - Chaosmos (lmao I forgot about this entirely)
Devil Master - Ecstacies of Never Ending Night
Meshuggah - Immutable
Dark Funeral - We are the Apocalypse
Ghost - Impera (fuck you it counts)
Midnight - Let There Be Witchery
Embryonic Devourment - Heresy of the Highest Order
Immolation - Acts of God (top tier baby)
Voivod - Synchro Anarchy
Saxon - Carpe Diem
Venom Prison - Erebos
Exhumed - To the Dead

probably a bunch else I forgot about

The metal albums that made my complete Best Music of 2022 list (I put out the first half at the end of June, the second half this past week):

Abhorrent Expanse - Gateways to Resplendence
Analepsy - Quiescence
Antigama - Whiteout
Black Sky Giant - End of Days Pilgrimage
Buñuel - Killers Like Us (noise-rock; it counts)
Dead Neanderthals - Metal
Demiricous - Chaotic Lethal
Early Moods - s/t
Ecstatic Vision - Elusive Mojo
Faceless Burial - At the Foothills of Deliration
Goatwhore - Angels Hung From the Arches of Heaven
Golgothan - Leech
Grave Infestation - Persecution of the Living
Immolation - Acts of God
Imperial Triumphant - Spirit of Ecstasy
Krisiun - Mortem Solis
Mass Worship - Portal Tombs
Maule - s/t
Messa - Close
Misery Index - Complete Control
Mythic Sunship - Light/Flux
Neptunian Maximalism - Finis Gloriae Mundi
Organectomy - Nail Below Nail
Orthodox - Proceed
Oxbow & Peter Brötzmann - An Eternal Reminder of Not Today: Live at Moers
Sahg - Born Demon
Soulfly - Totem
Stabbing - Extirpated Mortal Process
Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
Eric Wagner - In the Lonely Light of Mourning
Wolf - Shadowland
Wormrot - Hiss
Writhing - Of Earth & Flesh

hah! didn't know there was a new Organectomy!

still too sad about the Eric Wagner incident to listen to that one.

still too sad about the Eric Wagner incident to listen to that one

It's so good. I wrote about it at length in March.

he was a funny dude that last time I saw him live (fronting The Skull).

was really drunk but he put on a hell of a show. at one point he said "what's that song Billy Joel wrote about the microphone smelling like a beer? well, this one smells like SHIT!"

i'll get around to checking it out soon.

gosudar & malignant altar split is quite good. love the opener on gosudar’s side.

https://rottedlife.bandcamp.com/album/gosudar-malignant-altar-split

appears this will be the last one from MA, at least for now:

https://metalinjection.net/news/breakups/malignant-altar-broke-up-to-due-health-issues-distance

unfortunate…

Nice to see some love for that Ecstatic Vision record, love it. For the hell of it, here's my longlist of what I'd recommend for this year, not saying each and every one is AOTY contender, but each of these I really enjoyed and played multiple times. Imho it was a great year for metal and heavy music.

Aara - Tirade II: Hemera
Abbath - Dread Reaver
Absent in Body - Plague God
An Abstract Illusion - Woe
Aeviterne - The Ailing Facade
Amorphis - Halo
Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain
Ashenspire - Hostile Architecture
Astronoid - Radiant Bloom
Autopsy - Morbidity Triumphant
Besvarjelsen - Atlas
Behold! The Monolith - From the Fathomless Depth
Big Scenic Nowhere - The Long Morrow
Black Death Cult - Diaspora
Blackbraid - Blackbraid I
Blind Guardian - The God Machine
Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium - Undreamable Abyss
Bog Body - Cryonic Crevasse Cult
Boris - Heavy Rocks
Bunuel - Killers Like Us
Cachemira - Ambos mundos
Cave In - Heavy Pendulum
Chat Pile - God's Country
Clutch - Sunrise on Slaughter Beach
Conan - Evidence of Immortality
Cosmic Putrefaction - Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones
Daeva - Through Sheer Will and Black Magic
Darkthrone - Astral Fortress
Devil's Witches - In All Her Forms
Dreadnought - The Endless
Dream Unending - Song of Salvation
Druid Lord - Relics of the Dead
Early Moods - Early Moods
Earthless - Night Parade of One Hundred Demons
Ecstatic Vision - Elusive Mojo
Egregore - The Word of His Law
Elder - Innate Passages
Exhumed - To The Dead
Friends of Hell - Friends of Hell
Gevurah - Gehinnom
Gnod - Hexen Valley
Hath - All That Was Promised
Haunter - Discarnate Ails
Hazemaze - Blinded by the Wicked
High Command - Eclipse of the Dual Moons
Hissing - Hypervirulence Architecture
Imperial Triumphant - Spirit of Ecstasy
Incandescence - Le couer de l'homme
Kaleidobolt - This One Simple Trick
Keiji Haino + SUMAC - Into this Juvenile Apocalypse...
KEN Mode - Null
King Buffalo - Regenerator
Konvent - Call Down the Sun
Krallice - Crystalline Exhaustion
Krallice - Psychagogue
Kreator - Hate Uber Alles
Kvaen - The Great Below
Liminal Shroud - All Virtues Ablaze
Locrian - New Catastrophism
The Lord + Petra Haden - Devotional
Mares of Thrace - The Exile
Mass Worship - Portal Tombs
Messa - Close
Mike Scheidt - The Complexity of Distance
Moon Tooth - Phototroph
MWWB - The Harvest
My Sleeping Karma - Atma
Nebula - Transmissions from Mothership Earth
Negative Plane - The Pact
Night Hag - Phantasmal Scourge
Nite - Voices of the Kronian Moon
Orthodox - Proceed
Oxbow & Peter Brotzmann - An Eternal Reminder of Not Today
The Otolith - Folium Limina
Pure Wrath - Hymn to the Woeful Hearts
Reeking Aura - Blood and Bonemeal
Ripped to Shreds - Jubian
Russian Circles - Gnosis
Sigh - Shiki
Slaegt - Goddess
Somali Yacht Club - The Space
Somnus Throne - Nemesis Lately
Sonic Flower - Me and My Bellbottom Blues
Soulfly - Totem
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer
Tomarum - Ash in Realms of Stone Icons
Tzompantli - Tlazcaltilizti
Ufomamut - Fenice
Undeath - It's Time... to Rise from the Grave
Vanum - Legend
Vitskar Suden - The Faceless King
Voivod - Synchro Anarchy
Vorga - Striving Toward Oblivion
Wake - Thought Form Descent
White Ward - False Light
Witchery - Nightside
Wo Fat - The Singularity
Wucan - Heretic Tongues

Seven years later, Mare Infinitum has finally released a follow-up to their masterpiece of space sludge, Alien Monolith God:

https://mareinfinitum.bandcamp.com/album/cryosleep

Looking forward to spending some quality time with this one.

I don't think this was posted yet but Ulthar announced 2 albums for next year. Pretty stoked for this and basically anything Steve Peacock (Mastery, Spirit Possession) is involved with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcr8EF3GBS8

https://distortedsoundmag.com/ulthar-announce-two-new-albums-anthronomicon-and-helionomicon/

!!! holy shit that's great news!! thank you! xp re: mare infinitum

wooooow ditto! excited to check that one out. didn’t realize they were still active!

I haven't been to a metal show since 2019 (if not earlier) but holy fuck, this Vader/Krisiun/Decrepit Birth tour is seriously tempting.

3/18/2023 Nile Theater - Mesa, AZ
3/19/2023 Sunshine Theater - Albuquerque, NM
3/20/2023 Amplified Live - Dallas, TX
3/21/2023 Come and Take it Live - Austin, TX
3/22/2023 White Oak Music Hall - Houston, TX
3/24/2023 Gramps - Miami, FL
3/25/2023 The Conduit - Orlando, FL
3/26/2023 The Masquerade (Hell) - Atlanta, GA
3/27/2023 Canal Club - Richmond, VA
3/27/2023 Warehouse on Watts - Philadelphia, PA
3/29/2023 Le Poisson Rouge - New York, NY
3/30/2923 Middle-East Downstairs - Boston, MA
3/31/2023 Studio TD - Montreal, QC
4/01/2023 La Source de la Martinière - Quebec City, QC
4/02/2023 Brass Monkey - Ottawa, ON
4/03/2023 Lee's Palace - Toronto, ON
4/04/2023 The Sanctuary - Detroit, MI
4/05/2023 Reggies - Chicago, IL
4/06/2023 Skyway Theater - Minneapolis, MN
4/07/2023 BLVD Nights - Kansas City, MO
4/08/2023 Denver, CO - Marquis Theater
4/09/2023 Metro Music Hall - Salt Lake City, UT
4/11/2023 El Corazon - Seattle, WA
4/12/2023 Rickshaw Theater - Vancouver, BC
4/13/2023 Bossanova Ballroom - Portland, OR
4/14/2023 DNA Lounge - San Francisco, CA
4/15/2023 Backstage Bar - Las Vegas, NV
4/16/2023 1720 - Los Angeles, CA
4/17/2023 Brick by Brick - San Diego, CA

man we got clubs around here but I guess our promoters don't offer a decent guarantee, these shows always skip us. I love Krisiun, it's not like they reinvent the wheel but I happen to like the wheel fine the way it is....maybe a drive to Richmond.

yeah Krisiun came here as an opener last year but it was 2 hours away on a work night and I had classes to teach that week. love pretty much all their albums and they are pretty great live (or were the one time I saw them in 2010).