I'm still besmithered (yes, I made up a word) by anxiety and the obsidian reaches of depression, so lower your expectations immediately. Also, without sounding too dramatic (too late), 2022 has been the worst year of my adult life. It's a landslide, folks. I only mention bullshit to stress that my ability to receive metal was compromised in the last twelve months. Like, literally. I was out of commission for two of those months, entirely unplugged from the rest of the world. You can only play catch-up so much, you dig? I should thank my mother for playing songs on her phone in the hospital, as these were not songs that she would normally stream.
It's true. I previewed then-upcoming albums from Deathwhite and Wachenfeldt from a bed of institutionalized convalescence. The other music on this list...my comments will be curt and crisp. I didn't spend as much time with music as I would have liked. Really, 2022 was just fog. Dope fog. Read into that description as you will.
5) Behemoth - Opvs Contra Natvram: I'm surprised that this record was so divisive, what with it being a creamy admixture of the kind of igneous noise that Nergal and the gang are known for. The overcast, disconsolate black metal pairs well with blocks of death metal din. And the leads! Nergal is one of the more underrated solo players out there, in my opinion.
4) Moonlight Sorcery - Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity: This is an EP, but I don't care. If you want icy, well-calculated black metal with a melodic bent, listen to this fucker.
3) Wachenfeldt - Faustian Reawakening: How in the hell is this Swedish project obscure? Okay, I suppose I understand that not everyone is up on Scandinavian extremity, but holy Hostess snack cakes, this thing is a killer. Beefed-up blackened death metal with plenty of "catchy" to spare. Seek out the debut as well.
2) Deathwhite - Grey Everlasting: I've praised these doomsters before. Their solemn hymns of...well, doom just speak to me on a gut level. Sample "Formless."
1) Messa - Close: Italian doom with a redheaded siren singing you to your watery grave. Hints of blues, world music, and even basic hard rock abound. Here again, I've praised them before, but that hardly matters now. Doom wins!
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Queensryche - Digital Noise Alliance
Kvaen - The Great Below
Lord Belial - Rapture
Inexorum - Equinox Vigil
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