Top Ten Metal Albums of 2022
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Although it seemed like 2022 brought forth a radical shift in the outside world, it felt oddly normal musically. Albums were being churned out. Concerts happened. We got through a whole year largely unscathed from a cataclysmic disaster. It felt like spontaneity was finally allowed to proliferate; I personally did not have “see Eyehategod in three different cities in three months” in my 2022 bingo card. And while it wasn’t without its controviersies, I do consider 2022 a success for metal.
2022 featured a variety of innovative releases, from old favorites continuing to do what they do best to newer bands testing the peak of their powers. Below are my personal favorite albums of 2022, untainted by an incentive to sell ads.
1. Artificial Brain - Artificial Brain
Death metal
With ChatGPT ushering a new level of robot sentience allowing anyone to write Shakespearean sonnets to their AI generated waifus, it’s only fitting that the most transcendent metal album of 2022 is Artificial Brain’s self-titled masterpiece. But even the most sophisticated machines wouldn’t be able to engineer an album this brilliant. Artificial Brain embodies the dystopian space opera it creates from beginning to end.
This is not your prototypical soulless tech-death wankfest. The technical brilliance throughout Artificial Brain is delivered with purpose, to express various degrees of primal emotion or to build a desolate, deep space atmosphere. The guitar effects sprinkled throughout are an excellent touch, at times sounding like being shot from a laser beam. These gigabrain riffs are mind-melded Will Smith’s disturbing caveman vocals, which sound like a hog squealing toned down eight octaves. This is an album that is experienced holistically rather than track by track, but Celestial Cyst may just be my most played song of 2022, with its desolate melody lulling the listener into a trance so hopelessly addicting. Artificial Brain is one of the most terrifying sound albums I’ve ever listened to. If this is what the future sounds like, then I humbly embrace our AI overlords.
Favorite tracks: Celestial Cyst, Artificial Brain, Glitch Cannon, Parasite Signal, Embalmed With Magma
2. Cult of Luna - The Long Road North
Post metal
If I had to describe The Long Road North in one word, it would be grandiose. Immediately upon playing, it’s like you walked in the middle of the climax of a blockbuster action movie. The production values reflect its grandeur, with an impressive diversity of percussion, strings, and synths that resemble a symphony for a film soundtrack. Prominent amounts of reverb are tastefully placed throughout the album to complement the intensity emanating from the aggression pouring from the guitars and Johannes Person’s tortured wails.
The Long Road North is 2022’s most ambitious metal album. Experimentation in the genre is alive and well, and Cult of Luna proves that metal can be much more than the proverbial box it oft places itself in. The Long Road North is a must listen, not just for those who just like metal, but for anyone who can appreciate music that expands the boundaries of the medium itself.
(Note: I actually didn’t know that Person was also a director known from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before writing all this, and it all makes sense!)
Favorite tracks: Cold Stone, Blood Upon Stone
3. Drudkh - All Belong to the Night
Atmospheric black metal
Who knew that being under constant threat of nuclear war yields itself to creating emotionally powerful music? Amidst the backdrop of geopolitical chaos, Ukrainian black metal legends Drudkh put forth the dreary All Belong to the Night onto this desolate world. Drudkh is no stranger to exploring the depths of somberness in their music, but this one just hits different.
I’m an absolute sucker for atmospheric black metal about autumn – I even made a fall playlist full of it with Drudkh prominently featured. Taking inspiration from history and nature, Drudkh deftly links music with the world around us, making listening to them feel like a spiritual experience. All Belong to the Night is an album to crack open once the leaves turn color once more.
Favorite Tracks: The Nocturnal One, November
Prog metal
Voivod has come a long way, from their punk roots to the reinvention into prog metal overlords. They have nothing left to prove in their legendary 40 year career, yet they’re still churning out the goods. I admit to have an unconditional fanhood for the band but that shouldn’t take away from my praise of Synchro Anarchy. Voivod is an acquired taste, so allow me to make the case.
Synchro Anarchy has all the elements of a classic Voivod album: the unconventional basslines, Chewy’s scratchy tone seemingly running away from Away’s frantic drumming, and Snake’s hoarse inhospitable voice cracking through the soundwaves. Snake shouting boomer commentary on the dystopian present state of doomscrolling and unsatiable hunger for consumption is endearingly cartoonish; Voivod was never a band that took themselves too seriously. Voivod noticeably slows down in Synchro Anarchy compared to their other albums, instead doubling down on their signature, eccentric charm to craft an inhospitable atmosphere unfit for the weakest of lifeforms. It shouldn’t make sense, but Voivod has made a career cobbling parts that don’t seem to fit together to create beautifully ugly albums. Overall, Synchro Anarchy is a worthy addition to the already stacked Voivod canon with many tracks worthy of being setlist staples.
Favorite tracks: Planet Eaters, Sleeves Off
5. Panzerfaust - The Suns of Perdition - Chapter III: The Astral Drain
Black metal
War is hell. And it’s great source material for black metal these days. War-themed melodic black metal is experiencing a mini-renaissance over the past five years (See: 1914, Kanonfeiber, Kriegsmaschine, Minenwerfer, Funeral Mist). Panzerfaust is supporting the war effort by loading the third shell of The Suns of Perdition series: The Astral Drain.
The Astral Drain has that signature drumming that Darkside of Mgla has pioneered and since become a signature of the subgenre: blast beats pounding you like artillery when aggression is called for, sprinkled in with tasteful cymbals at more somber moments. The main guitar tone is dark and resonant, perfectly complementing the burst-fire tremolo as the songs shift in melody. While this album has a few too many interludes – there’s one in every song except the intro – they serve their purpose in setting up the heavy hitters.
Favorite Tracks: The Far Bank of the River Styx, Death Drive Projections, Bonfire of the Insanities
Funeral doom metal
Worm gets right to the point in this short but sweet EP. 30 seconds into the intro and title track, you run into a brick wall of an opening riff and… a guitar solo? Most of the rest of the album is your classic funeral doom affair: deep growls, dungeon synths, and dumptruck riffs. And just when you think you’ve heard it all, Worm hits you with one of the best solos I’ve ever heard in a doom metal song in their closer, Shadowside Kingdom. Bluenothing is a uniquely dynamic album in a subgenre that prides itself in repitition. At 26 minutes, Bluenothing clocks in only slightly longer than the average Mournful Congregation song, proving that funeral doom can be self-contained without being an afternoon-long commitment.
Favorite tracks: Bluenothing, Shadowside Kingdom
7. Midnight - Let There Be Witchery
Black rock n’ roll
Let There Be Witchery may have Midnight’s most SFW album cover of their entire discography, but I still wouldn’t play this album on a first date. Pontificating on a Midnight studio album is pointless; this is just trademark Midnight: fun, catchy, and mischievous. Midnight albums are best judged on how the tracks are played live. Having seen them live a few times in 2022, there is no shortage of bangers to shout along and mosh to. Just like their live sets, the album abruptly ends as you start to get into a groove. But it’s only apt for Midnight to do this on purpose to make you lust for more.
Favorite tracks: Telepathic Nightmare, In Sinful Secrency, Nocturnal Molestation, and Szex Witchery
8. Darkthrone - Astral Fortress
Proto-black metal
If early-90’s Darkthrone is a Siberian husky, leading the pack amongst its second wave of black metal peers, then mid-2000’s onward Darkthrone is that ugly pug rounding out the pack. I mean this in the best possible way. Nobody is more qualified to churn out proto-black metal revivalism than the master OG’s themselves.
After releasing Eternal Hails the year before, Darkthrone has graced us with Astral Fortress, another strong entry in Darkthrone’s ugly dog era. Its raw simplicity induces you to a trance, punishing you with machine gun riffs here and there. Fenriz and co has yet to miss after 30 plus years.
Favorite Tracks: Caravan of Broken Ghosts, The Sea Beneath the Seas of the Sea
9. Destroyer 666 - Never Surrender
Blackened thrash/speed metal
There are cultural expectations we’ve devloped as a polite society. Don’t send emails over the holidays else you’ll get ghosted till the new year. Don’t release an album on December lest you get left out of end-of-the-year lists. Or maybe it has something to do with some naughty things KK Warslut has said in the past that upset the sanctimonious cabal of the corporate metal press.
But, Destroyer 666 always defied authority and I’m glad they still don’t give a shit in 2022. Never Surrender is an uncomprimising onslaught of blackened speed metal rich with anthemic moments and big D666 energy that does not relent for its 40 minute run-time. If you like its predecessor Wildfire, you’ll also enjoy this. I hope Destroyer 666 continues to blaze their trail their way.
Favorite Tracks: Guillotine, Never Surrender, Andraste
10. The Chasm - The Scars of a Reflective Shadow
Progressive death metal
For a band with a prepondence for overly verbose song titles, The Chasm excels at speaking volumes with little to no words spoken. The Chasm’s disonnant composition style mirrors the word salad title tracks themselves, yet produces a strangely cohesive experience from end to end. The thrash operas A Keen But Empty Sight and An Occult Gift Responds are amplified by the dazy instrumentals Return of the End and The Constellations Stagger that surround them The Scars of a Reflective Shadow transports you to a realm of dark introspection. It’s a triumph in technical brilliance that creates a compelling atmosphere rather than for wankery’s sake. Those not in the correct headspace may find the numerous consecutive verses from Scars meandering at times, to which I recommend you download a mindfulness app and relisten to this album.
Favorite Tracks: A Keen but Empty Sight, An Occult Gift Responds
