2022's fair and finest

10. Goatchrist - The Sacred Teachings of Aleister Crowley

A Bacchanalian Bouillabaisse of Arcturian obumbrations by way of Hekalothian desecrations…a must have and must listen.

Mr. Crowley

9. Book of Sand - Seven Candles For An Empty Altar

Kaleidoscopic outré black metal from what has become one of my favorite projects of the last decade. Moments reminiscent of Varése, Nazxul’s Totem and Gnaw Their Tongues make for an enigmatic and engaging listen.

Seven Candles

8. Wyrmwoods - No Sun Nor Moon

Reminds me of a psych-folk/ black metal take on Beheaded Zombie’s Happiness mixed with some L.A. Woman era Doors…which is certainly an idea whose time has come, and I’m oh so glad it did! Overrun’s Forest is wacky enough to get me bopping in my chair at work…zany stuff for the true die hard maniacs.

Sun and Moon

7. Sunrise Patriot Motion - Black Fellflower Stream

An experimental pop/goth/post rock-flavored black metal concept album about one man’s maniacal quest to dig a hole deep enough to strike oil. Of course this is on my list.

Liquid Gold

6. Negative Plane - The Pact...

Over a decade since their last album and Negative Plane are back with another amazing album full of cryptically graceful proto-black metal inspired tunes. Perfect riffs (especially all those little trills), awesome atmosphere, infectious drumming…great, great stuff.

The Pact...

5. Kekal - Envisaged

Kekal just keep surprising me year after year….still with their patented framework of weirdo Holocaust/mid-era Voivod metal, but this time the electronic moments have really got me swooning like never before….entrancing and elating!

Envisaged

4. Medwegya - Medwegya Album

A lethally catchy burst o' raw psychedelic vampire synth from this ever prolific Italian project.

Medwegya

3. Pensées Nocturnes - Douce Fange

Circus metal par excellence, and if you don’t like circus metal, you ain’t French….or something like that.

Douce Fange

2. Momma - Household Name

I’m just a sucker for hooky alt-rock with sweet laid-back Vox. The one two punch of speeding 72 and Medicine is enough to rocket me off to never, nerverland

Great Medicine

1. Circle of Ourobrous - Autuala

CoO are nothing if not prolific and really nothing if not consistent, and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Still the finest purveyors of quirkily strident black-post-rock in the game, and thank god they have kept the moaning falling down the well style vocals…they are my favorite.

CoOooooyeah!!!

Most Honorable Mentions

t
Bleeding - Infected Sanity
Luminous Vault - Animate the Emptiness
The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow
Sadist - Firescorced
Antigama - Whiteout
Bernard XOLOTL - Mexecho
GUDSFORLADT - Friendship, Love and War
Dream Unending - Song of Salvation
Behrosth - День и ночь
XEXYZ - Gamera
T. A. Schafer - Magnificat in Pumpkin Palace

EPs/splits/Demos

Nazgûl - Omne Est Paratum
Defect Designer - Neanderthal
Olatom Amespïrïa - demo1
Wapentakal Holocaust & Opiated Devilsperm - Selenrites of Pataphisia
Fire-Toolz - Rainbow Bridge: Remixed By My Friends
Liturgy - 93696 single
Vermes x Medwegya x Gonemage split
Homeskin - Frogskin
Tropical Fuck Storm + King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Satanic Slumber Party

Artwork

Nebuleth - Micro Cosmic Voices

Gonna toot my own horn here and give props to Nebuleth for using some of own "neural mixed media" artwork. The album is awesome and the whole aesthetic with the artwork/layout and music worked really well together!

Micro Cosmic Voices

Monday, December 19, 2022

Beast of 2022

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