Metal Mixtape 2022 Favorites

It was the year of Soul Glo. Which I guess shouldn’t be surprising, given that not only did they win the bracket, but they were the most consensus thing we all liked on the most contentious bracket ever. So I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they show up here. Much like the way the year went, any hopes to compile a great representation of folk’s lists ended up instead as just Mike and I talking about the records we liked. So if that’s your kind of thing, dig in. We’re all over the place genre-wise, so there’s gonna be something for you here somewhere.

1. Soul Glo – Diaspora Problems (Epitaph)
Genre: Hardcore Punk, Noise Rap, Screamo
A triumph of personal, uncompromising, music-advancing, eclectic hardcore punk. – Mike Tri // The ultimate Soul Glo release for me, this one wrapped up all of their elements into one unabashedly amazing, completely unique whole. – SteveO

2. Saidan – Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal (Jems)
Genre: Melodic Black Metal, Melodic Hardcore
Memorable riffs and indescribably soaring leads give Saidan a distinct hypermelodic identity. – Mike Tri // There are few bands who can mix and match the rawness of black metal with bombastic and majestic flourishes like Saidan. – SteveO

3. Fellowship – The Saberlight Chronicles (Scarlet)
Genre: Euro Power Metal
Singalong Disney metal on one of the most wholesome and sincere metal albums ever. – Mike Tri // The wholesome, uplifting, unabashedly cheesy power metal record we all needed for a year like 2022. – SteveO

4. Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture (Code666)
Genre: Avant-Garde Metal
A grief-stricken analysis gives way to a fiery call to action against the rising tides of fascism with gripping art metal poetry stacked with sax and violin. – Mike Tri // Come for the proggy, avant-garde black metal. Stay for the radical anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist screeds. – SteveO

5. Zeal & Ardor – Zeal & Ardor (MVKA)
Genre: Avant-Garde Metal
Z&A pulls its black metal spirituals to new realms of blues, industrial rock, and alt metal. – Mike Tri // Manuel Gagneux already pulled tons of influences into his music and somehow found a way to cram more into what’s his best release yet. – SteveO

6. Véhémence – Ordalies (Antiq)
Genre: Black Metal
An exercise in just how epic traditional black metal blasts and buzzsaw riffs can be made. – Mike Tri // Frenchman craft epic, melodic, medieval black metal with some of the most impressive vocals (blackened and choral) of the year. – SteveO

7. Blind Guardian – The God Machine (Nuclear Blast)
Power metal legends unleash their most stripped down and intense tunes in a while, throwing things back to their 90s/early 00s golden era. – SteveO

8. White Ward – False Light (Debemur Morti)
Stunning, theatrical-quality post-black metal stars some expansive instrumentals and saxophone highlights. – SteveO

9. Callous Daoboys – Celebrity Therapist (MNRK)
Genre: Mathcore, Post-hardcore, Alt metal
A Dillinger Escape Plan successor brings a tight album of listenable, memorable, emotionally deep and enthralling mathcore. – Mike Tri

10. Blackbraid – Blackbraid I (Self-Released)
The atmo-black record of the year, where an Indigenous reverence for nature meshes with furious riffs. – SteveO

11. The Otolith – Folium Limina (Blues Funeral)
From the ashes of SubRosa, The Otolith carries on with haunting, epic, long-form (nothing under nine-minutes) violin-driven doom. – SteveO

12. Chat Pile – God's Country (Flenser)
Genre: Noise Rock, Sludge Metal
Godflesh, The Jesus Lizard, post-punk, and Korn combine to blur the lines between comedy and tragedy and put a searing spotlight on the nihilism of a violent culture. – Mike Tri

13. Kreator – Hate Über Alles (Nuclear Blast)
The Teutonic thrash bands of the 80s don’t get enough credit on these shores and with the world reprising the vibes of that decade Kreator enters a simultaneously pissed and expansive release to the thrash canon. – Steve O

14. Tribal Gaze – The Nine Choirs (Maggot Stomp)
Genre: Death Metal
Meat and potatoes combine for something greater than the sum of its parts on a viscerally simple, crushing death metal record. – Mike Tri

15. Sigh – Shiki (Peaceville)
If there’s one thing to expect from Mirai Kawashima and crew, it’s the unexpected. Embrace the psychedelic, avant-garde, and traditional instruments alongside some blazing guitar works and their trademark weirdo black metal. – SteveO

16. Black Fucking Cancer – Procreate Inverse (Sentient Ruin)
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
A multifaceted, dirt-covered work of evil ritualistic chaos. – Mike Tri

17. Cloud Rat – Threshold (Artoffact)
Genre: Grindcore
Blistering eclectic melo-grind from a band that has sharpened their sound to the keenest edge. – Mike Tri

18. Ripped to Shreds - 劇變 (Jubian) (Relapse)
With the right mix of melody, brutality, hammering drums, throat-ruining growls, exquisite soloing, and impressive songwriting, Ripped to Shreds is quickly becoming my favorite in a crowded modern death metal field. – SteveO

19. Hath – All That Was Promised (Willowtip)
Genre: Blackened Death Metal
A roaring, intricate, yet melodic and catchy work makes for one of the most fun and absorbing metal albums of the year. – Mike Tri

20. Morbikon – Ov Mourning Twilight (Tankcrimes)
Municipal Waste members recruited Finntroll’s vocalist for a mid-90s melodic black metal worship, right down to the Necrolord-inspired cover. – SteveO

21. Knoll – Metempiric (Self-Released)
Genre: Grindcore
Facemelting scorched earth mathgrind. – Mike Tri

22. Ernia – How to Deal With Life and Fail (Transcending Obscurity)
Genre: Grindcore
Emotive, technical, groovy, 100-ideas-per-minute deathgrind. – Mike Tri

23. Nechochwen – Kanawha Black (Bindrune)
If you wanted your folk metal to be more darkness like Agalloch and less rowdy, beer-swilling like a whole host of European bands, Nechochwen is the band for you. – SteveO

24. Origin – Chasomos (Nuclear Blast)
Genre: Technical Death Metal
One of the grandaddys of technical death metal applies their usual face-melting to some gripping, groovy, well-written songs. – Mike Tri

25. Gaerea – Mirage (Season of Mist)
Truly impressive and intense, in the vein of bands like Mgła or Uada. This kind of black metal has been having a moment and with records like Mirage it’s easy to see why. – SteveO

26. Messa – Close (Svart)
Genre: Doom Metal
A warm, comfy, dazzling blanket of eclectic, cozy, and just a bit untraditional doom. – Mike Tri

27. Celeste – Assassine(s) (Nuclear Blast)
Underappreciated French black metal draws in all sorts of post-metal, hardcore, sludge feels for some intense, powerful, and unique sounds. – SteveO

28. Trhä – Vat Gëlénva!!! (Self-Released)
Genre: Raw Black Metal
A stream of consciousness of beautiful melodic motifs, strange detours, synths, and wild riffs. – Mike Tri

29. Algebra – Chiroptera (Unspeakable Axe)
My surprise of the year, some really impressive technical thrash out of Switzerland from a band who’ve been at this for a decade already. – SteveO

30. Asunojokei – Island (Self-Released)
Genre: Blackgaze
Lovely J-rock infused melodic blackgaze with colors of black metal, post-hardcore, and screamo. – Mike Tri

31. Dreadnought – The Endless (Profound Lore)
Proggy, doomy, and somehow with poppy hints swirled into post-metal vibes, The Endless is an ultimate mood record. – SteveO

32. Tallah – The Generation of Danger (Earache)
Genre: Nu Metal, Hardcore
A nu-metalcore gravitron: a berzerker's smorgasbord that may please fans of early Slipknot, Code Orange, and maybe even Sikth. – Mike Tri

33. Falls of Rauros – Keys to a Vanishing Future (Eisenwald)
These Mainers keep churning out solid atmospheric black metal, but simplify the game a bit on their latest. – SteveO

34. Conan – Evidence of Immortality (Napalm)
Genre: Sludge Doom Metal
A beefy, traditional slab of sludge doom with that low-end that feels great. – Mike Tri

35. Wormrot – Hiss (Earache)
Singapore’s grindcore masters up both the chaos and darkness quotients with some of the most experimental and impressive grind in a long time. – SteveO