It's over 6 weeks into 2023 and I guess I have barely even looked at this thing since last year. Things come up and I'm determined that I could write something about that...then I get lazy and forget. Some of the ideas are still floating around, but considering we're already well into 2023 and I'm just now taking the time to finally compile my Best of 2022 list...well y'know.
Anyhow, it was quite a busy year in 2022 for M and myself. Concerts were a thing again, and while I didn't go to enormous amount of them, I did take the opportunity to see a few bands live. It seemed that metal shows all clustered around each other, and they all took place in Baltimore, Maryland. Roughly an hour away from my abode and extremely inconvenient to trek to on a week night. That said, I was able to see the Rotting Christ/Borknagar tour, Amorphis/Uada, Dark Tranquillity/Kataklysm/Nailed to Obscurity, and Nile/Incantation all in relatively short succession last spring. There was also the 2022 edition of the Maryland Deathfest. I'm not gonna try to recall every single band that played, but some highlights included the Cavalera brothers performing songs from the "Beneath the Remains" and "Arise" albums...which was way more awesome than any expectation I had it would be, as well as seeing Pyrexia, Hypocrisy, Immolation, Monstrosity, Massacre, Blood Incantation, Dark Fortress, Necrophobic, Sacramentum, Trypticon, Obituary, and Carcass. Quite a wild list of bands I just typed there, eh? Of course, there was an unfortunate pall over the proceedings as someone decided to "stage dive" from the top of a parking garage on the first full day. Towards the end of the year, I had the opportunity to finally see Mercyful Fate again, with Kreator, and Midnight opening. Of course, the following night I found myself at another venue, this time the famed Black Cat in Washington DC, to see Katatonia perform the best set I'd ever witnessed by them, thought the opening acts for that show were largely forgettable (I believe it was The Ocean and a newer act called Cellar Door?)
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| THIS was awesome. |
Beyond that, there were some ambitious adventures undertaken by M and I. There was an adventure to South Dakota, where we saw nuclear missile silos, bizarre metal sculptures, and a hilarious group of Indian tourists remarking about the pitfalls of hiking outdoors at Badlands National Park. Said trip also led us to Devil's Tower in Wyoming and several days at a casino with an amazing view and the best hot tub ever outside of Denver, Colorado. Another adventure took us to the redneck riviera in Florida for a week, a work trip for M actually resulted in me getting on an airplane for the first time where we spent too much money in theme parks I'm sure, there were multiple weekend trips to Cincinnati and Louisville because "bourbon", and perhaps the highlight was a week long adventure to the Canadian maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Halifax is a beautiful place full of friendly people who kept tipping M and I off to amazing places to eat and indulge in adult libations. PEI is absolutely beautiful in its own right...with rather tasty food in Charlottetown. (Also; crazy ass Canadians who swim in the freezing cold ass tidal Gulf of St. Lawrence.) Warning though; that Confederation Bridge has a $50 dollar toll and they hit you with it when you try to leave PEI (that's Canadian Dollar, so probably like $37.50 or so USD.)
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| This brewery was across the river from Halifax in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Ended up closing the place down with a very friendly older fellow who had traveled to the States on many occasions and seemed to be talking us into staying in Nova Scotia. |
Last year was one of adventures, but also general restlessness. For me, after grinding out a second post-grad degree, there's a sense of "what's next?" but also hesitation because of a slow-rolling recession where trying something different right when the bottom of the economy may collapse at any moment. Meanwhile, we have Russia invading sovereign countries like it's 1920 again, China engaged in amateur level chicanery involving spy balloons, a town in Ohio facing ecological catastrophe, and public spaces in my country have basically become shooting galleries for any delusional incel with a grievance. Certainly not optimistic times we live in. But hey, I did whitewater rafting for the first time in Colorado last year without dying and managed to not vomit on my first ever flight. Between that and an awful lot of interesting tours coming through later this spring, I feel like I can at least sufficiently distract myself away from impending doom.
And with that...my listening habits in review for 2022.
Most Disappointing Album/Trend/Thing in 2022
I thought the new Lamb of God album, Omens, was pretty uninspired. I don't look for that band to be elite or among the most interesting from a creative aspect, but I do tend to look at them as a band I'd expect to release competent, hook filled collections of songs. I thought their eponymous release in 2020 was excellent, with an incredible production clarity. This time? Bleh.
That said, and I feel like I've got a rant to deliver on this topic, but I think the worst thing happening in the "scene" is all of the internet crying about "gatekeeping." Essentially, as best as I can tell, if you don't share someone else's opinion about a particular artist...especially if that artist happens to be popular or flavor of the month...then you are guilty of "gatekeeping." The inability to call certain bands trash when their musical output sucks seems to be suffocating. Are people incapable of being offended? Has the rash of school shootings made the young crowd scared of upsetting anybody by suggesting they disagree? I dunno, but that bullshit is weak sauce.
Honorable Mentions
Top 10 of 2022
10.) Katharos Of Lineages Long Forgotten
Party like it's 2002? This Swedish band had been around for a minute, but 2022 was the first that I heard of them. Still, they perform the sort of ambitious, over the top sort of bombastic almost theatrical sounding black metal that was en vogue from around 1998-2008 or so. Some bands like Agathodaimon have returned from dormancy to release albums in this style as well, so maybe once that stupid nu-metal fat goes right back to hell like it should, we could see an updated take on this much like Insomnium Bezelbubs had done in 2019.
9.) Stabbing Extirpated Mortal Process
Holy fuckin' Devourment worship, Spiderman! This is text book TXDM style, full of pulsing blasts, clangy snare, guttural vocals that sound like gasping for air, and those swaggering grooves that are the trade mark of brutal death bands from Texas. You're not getting anything revolutionary here, but this is work of love for fans of this type of death metal, who in recent years have been frustrated by the proliferation of more "deathcore" oriented bands like Ingested who may be perfectly listenable but suck up the proverbial "oxygen in the room" that would otherwise allow artists like this to shine.That said, Stabbing's execution is top notch and not to be denied. Play this at high volumes and frighten your neighbors.
8.) Soreption Jord
A Swedish death metal band that sounds more California-tech death than either Gothenburg's melo-death or Stockholm's more punk-ish HM-2 bands. Lots of stop and go riffing and syncopation that maybe has a spiritual ancestor somewhere in its distant DNA of fellow Swedes Visceral Bleeding or Spawn of Possession. Perhaps where Soreption fits is as a melding of both of those aforementioned Swedish bands except with a cleaner sound, a bit more precision, and lot more song craft. Jord is a very catchy short and sweet 31 minutes.
7.) Origin Chaosmos
Origin have been playing this relentless, cataclysmic style of tech death for over 20 years now. Hell, how many pedals and drum triggers has John Longstreth gone through by now? At any rate, Origin has always delivered the goods to some degree of exceptionalism, but Chaosmos may rank among their best efforts, matched only by their legendary Informis Infinitas, Inhumanitas album from 2002. What sets this one apart from some of their prior efforts is there's an increase in "dynamics" here; while the blastbeats almost never cease for the 30 some minutes this one goes there's plenty of chugging riffs balanced by almost lofty tremolo picking that then lead into downright video-game-ish cosmic sounding tones. Origin has figured out to add enough "color" to their "palette of sounds" to be interesting and not just background music.
6.) In The Woods... Diversum
In The Woods... after their reformation are not the same band they were in their original 1990's incarnation. That era of the band was a product of the black metal scene and while they clearly had progressive tendencies long before the rest of that scene did until bands like Borknagar and Enslaved explored their identities further around the time In The Woods... broke up or became inactive following the Strange in Stereo album. Post-reformation, they still have the harsh/clean vocals dynamic but a lot of the black metal tendencies have subsided in favor of a more epic, proggy, somber metal style. Two great albums (Pure and Cease The Day) with then-newly hired vocalist James Fogarty followed...and I was fortunate enough to witness an amazing set by this version of the band at MDF in 2017. Unfortunately, Forgarty and his abundant creativity departed the band following Cease The Day and once again the most prominent role in the band has a new voice.This time it's a gentleman named Bernt Fjellstad who I had initially mistaken for JB Christoffersson, the voice of Grand Magus and formerly of Spiritual Beggars as well (I think he was on SB's On Fire album?) Any time a band changes vocalists, it can run the risk of ruining a great band...or it can lift a band to a new level. Or in the case of In The Woods... with Diversum, it just marks a new chapter as I think Fjellstad does a fine job with both his exceptional clean vocals and acceptable harsh vocals but In The Woods... isn't going to suddenly after nearly 30 years of existence shoot up the pop charts or anything ridiculous like that. That said, musically this is a further refinement and perhaps slightly more epic, darker sounding path that began with Pure. All in all, a more than solid effort.
5.) Desecrate The Faith III
When I first discovered this Texas death metal band in 2017 and heard Unholy Infestation, I thought they were a fantastic representation of that chunky, groovy brutal death metal sound. They fit well among the Prophecy's and Devourment's and Infernal Dominion's of that localized death metal scene and I would have been excited to hear them continue in that direction. Instead, they went for a sound far more aligned with Severe Torture, which is to say that they've got all of the brutal elements of the TXDM style, but write actual songs where riffs reappear and songs build up to guitar solos that act as cathartic release. When the term that a band is "maturing" gets used, normally it means they're getting soft or adding a bunch of fluffy froo foo nonsense to their sound. That doesn't apply here. Desecrate the Faith has "matured" without losing one iota of their venom; they've just improved as songwriters.
4.) Amorphis Halo
Amorphis has been around since what...1991? I think that's when the Disment of Soul EP came out we're talking a band that's been around over 30 years again. Their early years involved a lot of exploration as they shifted from a doom/death band into some kind of progressive folk/death metal act then into a smoother pop prog/metal band then whatever the hell those 2 albums with annoying saxophone were called. They then kicked out replaced their previous lead vocalist with Tomi Joutsen and kinda discovered their "identity" on Eclipse as something between "folk metal and goth-pop-rock meets death metal with underlying 70's prog indulgences" and have put it on cruise control ever since. I feel like for the time that coincides with Tomi's tenure as vocalist, only The Beginning of Times failed to live up to an expected level of quality that Amorphis delivers on each album. As Amorphis has now become what could be termed a "legacy" act, I think they get the short straw when it comes to most AOTY lists from the various reporting outlets online, especially because they've got a clearly distinct, un-imitated sound. So an album like Halo, which sounds aligned with the rest of the Tomi Joutsen-era of the band, may fly under the radar despite the fact that Halo is just a great collection of songs crafted by a band at the peak of their abilities. That can be enough, can't it?
3.) The Halo Effect Days Of The Lost
Let's be honest, this is a bit of a played out style of metal in 2023. The Gothenburg melodic death metal sound that was initially popularized by At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, and In Flames was a mid to late 1990's phenomenon. By the mid-2000's, the genre seemed to gravitate towards In Flames in particular, and hordes of bands like Children of Bodom, Soilwork, Norther, etc looked to fill that space as In Flames themselves became angsty, whiny emo-ish nu-metal following Reroute to Remain. Meanwhile, New England hardcore bands took inspiration from Slaughter of the Soul and the modern metalcore movement was born around the same time. Eventually At The Gates would reform and have since released 3 albums, while Dark Tranquillity morphed into a different sort of entity, still rooted in melo-death but a lot more atmospheric in nature. In Flames, on the other hand, has been a shitty band for longer than they were a good one at this point as they've become that far removed from the trilogy of albums (The Jester Race, Whoracle, and Colony) that made them underground darlings for a moment in time. Over those years, attrition and turn over in the band saw key song writer Jesper Stromblad depart as well as most of the original In Flames lineup...a lineup which in its infancy included Dark Tranquillity vocalist Mikael Stanne. Maybe it was nostalgia, or boredom, or a desire to give the current brain-trust of In Flames the biggest middle finger possible, but Stanne, Stromblad, along with 3 other former members of In Flames formed The Halo Effect, and recorded the album that logically should have come out between Colony and Clayman. To call this "death metal" feels like an incredible reach despite Stanne's predominately growled delivery (he basically sounds the same as he does in Dark Tranquillity here from their Projector era) but as just an album of well crafted, catchy songs with some aggression, some punch, and a whole lot of memorability this excels. For me, there's so much nostalgia in that because it's everything that was amazing about downloading mp3s off of Angelfire websites and hours spent in online chatrooms discovering new artists during a time when the European metal underground was fresh and exciting to me. Nostalgia is a power force. This album has gotten a TON of listens. Whatever novelty it lacks, it scratches an itch that hasn't been scratched in a very long time.
I don't think its a coincidence that In Flames decided to go back to playing something closer to this style after they saw all of the hype and love that The Halo Effect got for this album.
2.) Immolation Act of God
Death metal kings doing what they do. Dark, ominous, haunting, pummelling...hard to believe these guys have been doing this for so long. Also hard to believe that they keep doing it at this level of awesome.
1.) Undeath It's Time...To Rise From The Grave
It was really close for me between this and the new Immolation record, as I feel like those 2 releases are the step above everything else that came out in 2022. I think I'm giving the nod to Undeath mainly because it's new and they've got a little bit of novelty about them. I want to say this is their second album, and it's filthy, grimy Cannibal Corpse worship from their early Corpsegrinder days (think Vile or Gallery of Suicide.) There's nothing fancy here, as I believe this band almost takes pride in sounding like a bunch of lunkheaded cavemen. Still, there's some good riffs abound and I think they do a pretty good job of capturing the mid-90's Florida DM style. It sounds grimy and raw and not particularly technical, instead it just wants to get drunk and punch you in the face a few times. When executed well, that's a style I can get behind and Undeath did a great job on this one.
And there you have it. My Best of 2022. Truth is, I haven't bought as many records in 2022 as I did the previous several years. I still love the genre and get excited to explore new record stores and such...I just simply didn't find as much that excited me in 2022. Especially among newer bands.Hopefully 2023 sees that change, though so far the purchases I've been most excited about have been Katatonia, Obituary, ...And Oceans, and upcoming releases by Enslaved and Insomnium. I think the only "new" bands that have gotten my attention so far this year are Defy The Curse and Nothingness. I guess we will see if I can actually motivate myself to sit down and write when the notion is in my head over the course of 2023.
