Jan 25, 2023
Best Metal of 2022, Show 2, counting down to my #1 album! WIEGEDOOD (Belgium), album – There's Always Blood At The End Of The Road.
0:25-5:45
ALTARS (AU),
album – Ascetic Reflection, song – Ascetic
Reflection
— Chaotic, eclectic, excruciatingly
enjoyable death with teeth-gnashing technical. Reminds me of 2017’s
Venenum, album Trance of Death.
7:17-20:47
EPECTASE (France),
album – Nécroses, song – Confusion
— Doomy psychedelic with black metal
and noise rock and electronic.
21:08-25:04
XAOC (VA), album
– Proxime Mortis, song – Terror Forge
— Dissonant, blistering, proggy death
that is somehow a blast.
25:26-33:31
ARKÆON (Denmark),
album – Parasit, song – Forbrænde
— Cold, murky and menacing in an
opera of atmosphere creates horror black metal.
33:52-37:06
IMMOLATION (NY),
album – Acts of God, song – Blooded
— A powerhouse of death where
minimalist joins with layers of melody, and the vocalist and
drummer destroys.
37:31-44:00
LUMINOUS VAULT (NY),
album – Animate The Emptiness, song – Earth
Daemon
— Ascerbic black with psychedelic
synth, brutal and atmospheric, industrial and
electronic.
44:23-50:24
AEVITERNE (NY),
album – The Ailing Facade, song – Stilled The Hollows'
Sway
— Death with a harrowing pace,
melodic, progressive and sludge and a raspy black metal vocal round
it out.
50:50-57:34
GEVURAH (CAN),
album – Gehinnom, song – At the Orient of Eden
— A universe within one song.
Sinister black with nowhere to escape. Even the stillness
threatens.
57:59-1:02:24
CARRION VAEL (IN),
album – Abhorrent Obsessions, song – Disturbia
— Death with muscular and snarling
vocals add to that relentless pace. Intense guitar solos under the
rage of their incredible drumming.
1:02:47-1:14:10
LIMINAL SHROUD
(CAN), album – All Virtues Ablaze, song – Transmigration II -
The Cleansing Ash
— Misted black metal brings the
ethereal and fragile but builds into an epic mountain of
progressive strength and rhythm.
1:14:31-1:20:44
WHITE WARD
(Ukraine), album – False Light, song – Cronus
— Avant-garde cinematic black that
mesmerizes with jazzy overtones. Stunning and dramatic.
1:21:04-1:29:24
WAKE (Calgary),
album – Thought Form Descent, song – Bleeding Eyes of the
Watcher
— Epically throated masterpiece
exploding to a screech in a beautiful melodic storm of doom, black,
and death.
1:29:47-1:36:26
BLACKBRAID
(Adirondack Mts), album – Blackbraid I, song –
Sacandaga
— Melodic black with avalanche pace
breaks with organic instrumentation, strummed guitars, and synth
electronic.
1:36:56-1:41:14
REEKING AURA
(NY/NJ), album – Effigies Blood And Bonemeal, song – Blood And
Bonemeal
— A furnace of a death sound,
guttural baritone intertwined with demonic bursts, groove and
tightly paced drums.
1:41:45-1:48:05
GAEREA (Portugal),
album – Mirage, song – Laude
— Atmospheric black metal creating a
bludgeoning bleakness, splashes of emotion, still sharp within
multiple layers of percussion and guitar.
1:48:31-1:54:44
ARKAIK (CA),
album – Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts, song – To Summon
Amoria
— A rolling pummeling vocal that acts
as a rhythm section. Ethereal and ethnic against technical guitar
solos.
1:55:18-1:59:33
ESOCTRILIHUM
(France), album - Consecration of the Spiritüs Flesh, song –
Tharseîdhon
— An onslaught of demonic, raging,
bleak and weird, guttural mutterings of a mad man. Aggressive and
unholy.
#1 ALBUM
2:00:17-END
WIEGEDOOD (Belgium),
album – There's Always Blood At The End Of The Road, song – And
in Old Salamano's Room, The Dog Whimpered Softly
— This was also my number one vocal
of the year, a unique vicious blade of sound. Frantic guitar
hurtles after you. Sinister black metal with rhythm that mutates,
and all of it in an alien burning atmosphere. Beautiful, crisp,
cold and dark.