After two years of some rather interesting experiences, we are now witnessing some of the creative results that the isolation and uncertainty created. So many albums were written during the times of the pandemic combined with civil unrest, times of war and sheer division, which further proves the rather sad truth of the duality of art being at our best when we are at our worst. Some of the amazing albums served as soundtracks to the carnage we have witnessed, while others served as motivations to overcome these dire times. Either way, there is no denying that on a creative level, these dark times most definitely went to good use. Here are the top 15 albums of 2022.

15.) Revocation- Netherheaven

When the lockdown first happened, one of the first posts I saw on my Facebook Newsfeed was Dave Davidson saying, “well, time to write the new Revocation record”. Two years later, all of the anger and angst that was built-up from the isolation and uncertainty and frustration was all channeled into this 9 track killing spree of an album Neatherheaven. Opening up with sheer chaos in Diabolical Majesty to packing intense head banging inducing tracks such Nihilistic Violence, to a unsettling melodic track such as Galleries of Morbid Artistry and The 9th Chasm, Revocation has officially established themselves as a death metal veterans who will carry the torch of brutality for years to come. 

14.) Hoaxed- 2 Shadows 

One of the perfect soundtracks to this years Halloween. This ghostly and bewitching debut delivers chilling melodies over the sound of a familiar, yet fresh sound of down and dirty rock. This record brings a ritualistic atmosphere that will inflict any listener with goosebumps and standing hairs. With melodic tracks delivering an epic nature such as The Call, followed up a track as anthemic as For Love, and topping it with a track shrouded in mystery such as High Seas, Hoaxed is another band that manages to bring beauty to the macabre with their serenading and unsettling melodies. 

13.) Electric Callboy- Tekkno 

The ultimate album the proves the notion that all metalhead are angry and miserable people is wrong. Electric Callboy brings laughter and tears of joy with their intense riffs and screams over compositions that we would hear in the ultimate disco. Electric Callboy brings the pop into the realm of metal while also bringing metal into the realm of pop. All the things to describe this album may sound very cheesy on paper, but when you listen to tracks as Catchy as Pump It and We Got The Moves, it will turn the metalhead frowns upside down and bring out the evil in the innocent pop fans. With a track such as Hurrikan, you will never know what to expect from this album. With the groove and the moves to make you do all the violence on the drywall in your living room, Electric Callboy earns the title of the most professional unprofessional band of all time. 

12.) Dir En Grey- Phalaris 

One again, the J-rock masters from Japan continue to outdo themselves by continuously bringing new elements in their already experimental yet signature sound. Incorporating super down-tuned and relentless riffs in a track such as Schadenfreude while having the gentle vocals slowly build up to something beyond unsettling, to delivering all out sonic chaos in The Perfume of Sins and Eddie to also letting their anthemic and emotional atmospheric melodies shine full on in a track such as Hibiki or 13, Dir En Grey continues to make everything they incorporate have its own unique place in its catalogue of chaos and emotion. 

11.) Lorna Shore- Pain Remains

Lorna Shore has had to overcome many trials and tribulations throughout their career, and the results of this album shows that when you use those trials and tribulations to your advantage, you make an album that delivers the most savage essence of destruction that decimates through the weak and pulverizes any structure that surrounds you. When you open this dethcore masterpiece up with Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer, with an epic symphonic and operatic buildup before leading in with the ultimate squeals and growls of William Ramos, you know you are in a realm where in fact, only pain does remain and with its sonic brutality, that pain delivers sensation like no other.With the symphony elements continuing on in tracks such as Into the Earth and Sun// Eater, you are in for the ultimate symphony of darkness and breakdowns and riffs. OH MY! Lorna Shore has come such a long way from the days of Flesh Coffin and Immortal and now they have established themselves as leaders of this new dethcore movement. With bands such as Shadow of Intent, Enterprise Earth and more by their side, this is a new movement that will have a legacy of its own, and it will be this album many circle back to that demonstrates how it is done. 

10.) Malevolence- Malicious Intent 

Hard-hitting, relentless and emotional, Malevolence manages to bring new life to hardcore with their intense riffs that are sludgy, brutal and groovy while the vocals manage to have the growls of a total beast while bringing a unifying aspect with their melodies. The rhythms manage to keep any listener on their toes at all time throughout this 10 track monster. Melodies that bring emotion and imagery with tracks such as On Broken Glass and Karma to all out groove with tracks such as Still Waters Run Deep and Life Sentence, Malevolence pays amazing tributes to hardcore legends and brings their ultimate metal form as well. Many would say Metalcore is the bridge between metal and hardcore, well those two genres shine the most one here further proving that point. 

9.) Devil Master-Ecstasies of Never Ending Night 

Black metal and rock combined to create the ultimate hybrid of raw and dirty energy combined with groovy and badass melodies that will make a listener party as the descend down to the catacombs of hell. Every element in this very raw and dusty sound stands out that will immerse the listener into a realm of fire, darkness and dust. Such groove is demonstrated in a track such as Enamored in the Throes of Death to pull you in as it picks up speed in Golgotha’s Cruel Song, making you find pure catchiness in a track such as The Vigour of Evil to ending with horrifying melodies in Never Ending Night, Devil Master has the ability to seduce a listener with its brutally honest and raw sound. They managed to pull many listeners in from many crowds ranging from High on Fire, to Obituary to My Chemical Romance. You don’t have to seek this band out because this album will seek you out, forcing you to submit to this hard hitting and groovy sound of despair. 

8.) Astronoid- Radiant Bloom 

The masters of gaze and dreaminess with hard-hitting riffs and intense blast beats, Astronoid have officially established themselves as a band of their own with their third masterpiece in a row. Air shocked us all in 2016, their self titled pushed the further into the stratosphere in 2019 and now in 2022, Radiant Bloom have made them the ultimate kings of the genre some refer to as Black Gaze. Their songwriting on here delivers the ultimate serenading sounds that deliver harmonies and emotion to their intense and mesmerizing atmosphere. When you turn on an astranoid album, you are not listening to an album, you are immersing yourself into an experience like no other that takes you through multiple place in time, space and the universe. With catchy tracks instantly hit you in the gut with a track such as Sedative to the ultimate immersive realm of harmonies in a track such as Drown, to a consonant building momentum in a track such as Human, Astronoid continues to surprise us with their signature sound while creating the ultimate compositions that hypnotize, enlighten an deepen us. 

7.) Wolfheart- King of North 

Melodic death metal has been the ultimate soundtrack to inform us on the history and legends of nordic and viking culture. Wolfheart has established themselves as one of the ultimate story tellers in this genre as Tuomas Saukkonen continues to bring emotional melody and sheer intensity into Wolfheart’s sounds. This time, Wolfheart is able to deliver easily he best album in their catalogue as they bring the ultimate bridge of pure heaviness and chilling atmospheres and intense melodies to narrate their image, essentially creating the best album in their catalogue. Opening with Skyforger manages to instantly pull you in before getting slammed in the face with Ancestor, featuring Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage as well as hard hitting bangers with tracks such as Desolated Land. The range of keyboards in tracks such as Knell and The King manage to serve as the ultimate language in story telling. While melodic death metal serving as a storyline behind nordic history and culture is not an original concept by any means, Wolfheart manages to perfectly demonstrate on how it is done, serving as a lesson to both the veterans and the newcomers.

6.) Bleed from Within- Shrine 

From Bring Me the Horizon, to While She Sleeps, to Bury Tomorrow to Architects, the UK has established themselves as one of the ultimate capitals of modern day metal core, and Bleed from Within is another extraordinary example of that, but this time, they mange to completely break the mold with their latest offerings in Shrine. Bleed from Within delivers a formula that is familiar to many of us, but knows how to deliver such an essence of songwriting to continue to pump new leases of life into its already epic sound. Opening up with a very nerve wrenching and mysterious track in I am Damnation and then hitting you square in the face with Sovereign, you are continuously his square in the face with aggressive vocals and instrumentation as the melodic chorus completely bring you into a realm that is ever so epic. The anthemic classic of Levitate proves metal core has so much left to say as this track can easily serve as The End of Heartache of the 2020s. 

5.) Sylvaine- Nova

The second album of Sylvaine continues its serenading momentum in its beautiful and chilling signature sound of doom that serves as the soundtrack to our greatest dreams and most terrifying nightmares. Sylvaine has been able to bring sheer beauty in darkness with her voice and the atmosphere that it creates. Sylvaine manages to serenade us with the melancholic melodies in a track such as Nowhere, Still Somewhere, but also delivering track as uplifting as I Close my Eyes so I can See, Sylvaine creates the ultimate emotional adventure that makes us find beauty in the demons in our hearts, immersing us in a wonderland of enlightening and spiritual despair. 

4.) Ithaca- They Fear Us 

With the raw energy and power combined with technical excellence demonstrated on They Fear Us, Ithaca gives you every reason in the world to fear them. Ithaca manages to run all along the spectrum with post hardcore and metal core to create hard-hitting groove with blistering attitude and then delivers the ultimate essence of contrast with melodic vocals to continuously leave you wondering what is happening next. Ithaca manages to hold nothing back whether delivering to ultimate raw heaviness in a track such as The Future Says Thank You or They Fear Us but also manages to combine that said heaviness with immersive harmonies in a track such as Camera Eats First. Ithaca is the ultimate “fuck you” to the notion that just because a relentless album goes melodic and soft at times, doesn’t mean that it takes away from the heavy nature. This is an album that confronts all forms of internal and external demons. 

3.) Kardeshev- Liminal Right 

There are two challenges with this album. One of them is picking a favorite song, and the other is turning it off.When you turn on this album, there is no pausing, playing a tack over, or skipping to the next one. With their sound spanning many genres of modern day metal ranging from post metal, to some black gaze, to even some metal core, Kardeshev doesn’t just bring a new album of songs in Liminal Right, they bring a new world that consists of a mesmerizing journey that will make you look both outward and inward, essentially delivering a heavy spiritual awakening. After a brief narration guides you into the entrance of this album leading into Silvered Shadows, you are submerged into a sea of harmonizing coal and guitar melodies that guide your hand further and further into the void of heaviness that is present on this album. The screams in Apparitions of Candlelight elevates the intensity guided by the rhythm of the persuasion pushing you further into the universe, making you feel more at one with the universe that is created in Dissever. The narration further adds more context to the album in The Blinding Threshold before hitting you square in the face with Compost Grave Song. Regardless of what you would call this band, whether it be post metal, metal core, shoe gaze, Avantgarde, in the end, it is the sound of Kardeshev which is a sound like no other. 

2.) OU- One 

Another band that cannot simply be labeled with one genre, as it pulls apart the concepts of many genres and even basic song structure ideas and puts them back together to create a sound that is disturbing and epic at the same time. This amazing group from China manages to take some poppy aspects of prog metal and hits you with rhythms that move in so many directions, essentially making its own essence of chaos with its vocals and melodies. This is one of those albums that are appropriate in any setting whether it would be day or night or in the blistering cold or sweltering heat. The second the voice guides you in with its opening track Traveler, you know that there is no turning back. It manages to keep a consistent momentum going with track such as Farewell and Mountain while bringing mesmerizing melodies in tracks such as Ghost and Euphoria. Whether it would be a song on this album, or what the future holds, OU is a band that will make you ask continuously what is happening next. 

1.) Fleshwater- We’re Not Here to be Loved 

The past few years, we have seen two genres really rise to prominence and/or experience the ultimate rebirth. One of them being the modern day hardcore movement with the rise of bands such as Code Orange, Knocked Loose, Vein and Turnstile and the other being the rebirth of shoe gaze rock bands such as Tennis System, Narrow Head and Teenage Wrist. Some bands such has Loathe have been able to bridge those works very nicely, but when it comes to that concept, this simple 27 minute long album, We’re Not Here to be Loved by Fleshwater. 

In a short album, Fleshwater says everything it has to say and then some with blistering noise combined with harmonizing melodies that are unsettling and immersive at the same time. The duality of the different vocalists on here bringing their own form of melody and aggression makes for the ultimate raw duet if you will. A track such as Closet manages to show one side of the vocals while a track such as Backstairs Breathing shows another. Then with a track such as Baldpate Driver, The Razor’s Apple , Woohoo and Kiss the Ladder serve as the ultimate retrospectives of everything this band has to offer. From a variety of different rhythms to the art of manipulating sheer noise, Fleshwater manages to bring us through multiple eras of space and time, but most importantly, in a short time, this album showcases the best sides of everything that is relevant in today’s underground that will rise to prominence. Fleshwater earned the #1 album of 2022.