JEREMY BECK

This is my first time doing a ‘year-end list’. There’s a list for literally everything, people enjoy lists, I think because it itemizes the things we’ve enjoyed and compacts them into our happy memories. Now, granted that the 2022 music charts are going to be full of pop laden bullshit; that’s where the country’s musical mindset is. This cannot be helped. When I started compiling, I went through and collected everything I’ve reviewed to this point and started to realize that I listened to a shit load of new bands. Brutal Death Metal, soul-crushing Black Metal, groove-laden Disco Death Metal… these different sounds all passed through my ears over the Spring and Summer. So now I get to do a list and I’m fucking excited about it, I’m not going to lie.

This is the top ten.

DRUMROLL!!

Album of the Year 2022 is: VHS!!!

1.VHS  – Deep Gashes and Long Lashes (HPGD Productions)

What more can be said about this album? It’s number one for a reason, it doesn’t sound like anything that came out in 2022. Ass-shaking grooves, I’ve never heard a record that’s this brutal and fun at the same time. This is why it is my number one choice for Album of the Year, it’s infectious, an earwig that will cause ridiculous dancing sickness and windmill headbanging.

2. Sigh– Shiki (Peaceville)

I’ve been a fan of Sigh since Hail, Horror, Hail! And their sound has been an everchanging serpent, shedding skin while the original sound remains. Creepy synths, thrashing and blasting away on a haunted highway to Hell, all the while being fun as hell. That’s why it’s in the number two-runner up slot, it’s like, sitting at the left hand of Baphomet.

3. Morgue Supplier–Inevitability (Transcending Obscurity Records)

Best album to listen to while driving to work, ready to tell your Boss to go fuck a Rhino. That’s my description for Inevitability, it’s violent and unrestrained. Eight tracks of righteous, vitriolic grindcore with Death Metal sewn into this pulsing corpse of an album. Paul Gillis and Stephen Reichelt created a great summer feeling album that added to the furnace of heat that the country was feeling.

4. Writhing – Of Earth & Flesh (Everlasting Spew Records)

I described Writhing as a massive, Australian beast and I stand by that description. They’ve created a seismically, earth-shattering record that binds full speed ahead blasting with cripplingly slow, double bass-driven brutality. Clinical and concise, Brutal Death Metal delivered on a blood-caked platter… the way it should be.

5. Snipers of Babel– Gabriel

Death Metal, Grindcore and Industrial Metal conjoin into a beast of an album, with guest vocals from Frank Rini (Internal Bleeding) adding his monstrous roar to “Gabriel” and “Your God’s War” and Richard “Grindfather” Johnson (Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Drugs of Faith, Enemy Soil) adding his vocal attack this album will shred your face, leaving only a bloody mess.

6.Casket Robbery – Rituals of Death (Blood Blast Distribution)

Bob Marley famously sang, “one good thing about music, when it hits you, you’ll feel no pain.” This is a good thing, indeed because getting beaten down by these Wisconsin Death Metallers would be a fatal experience (maybe, I feel like it would be a foam sword fight at best) but I digress because Rituals of Death is a solid pounder of an album. Grabbing you by the throat and not letting go for forty-five minutes. An incredible album from start to finish.

7. Castrator – Defiled in Oblivion (Dark Descent Records)

What do you get when you have an international collective of strong Women? You get Castrator, this record hooked me with its brutal attack. Listening to this is like watching shark attack videos on YouTube, savage carnage with blood and blasting death rolls. Even though this one came early in the year, I still find myself going back to it when I’m in a foul mood and don’t give a fuck. A beautiful and crushing release.

8. Deathspell Omega – The Long Defeat (Norma Evangelium Diaboli)

French unholy collective Deathspell Omega are consistent. Whenever they release an album it’s always different from its predecessor. The Long Defeat is a Black Metal horror through and through, conjuring up images of darkened corridors and stark ritual spaces. The black flame of Satan burns freely over the course of these five tracks.

9. Sedimentum– Suppuration morphogénésiaque (Me Saco Un Ojo/Memento Mori)

Cavernous production was certainly popular this year, but none did it better than these Canadian Death Metallers. Summoning the spirit of the 90s, they carve through these seven tracks of brutality with a singular purpose of eardrum destruction. I’m still digging this release; it’s been on heavy rotation since it came out. Absolutely crushing!

10. Azaab – Summoning the Cataclysm (Maxima Music Pro, Satanath Records)

This was one of the first albums I reviewed. I remember being blown away by their Technical Death Metal Morbid Angel meets Angelcorpse attack. It hit me then and still hits months later, like an armored column rolling across the Desert, these Pakistani madmen are definitely on my radar.

Best Gwar Album:

Gwar – The New Dark Ages (Pit Records)

The Big Black Metal top 5:

1. Bloodthrone – Phoenix of Destruction (Captorvision Productions)
2. Furis Ignis – Turm (Iron Bonehead)
3. Ad Finem Omnia – No Peace – No Dawn (Purity Through Fire)
4. Hats Barn – Y.a.HW.e.H (Osmose Productions)
5. Blackbraid – Blackbraid I (Self-Released)

The Big Death Metal top 5:

1. Coathanger Abortion – Plan C (Comatose Music)
2. Holocausto Canibal – Crueza Ferina (SELFMADEGOD RECORDS)
3. Ribspreader – Crypt World (Xtreem Music)
4. Weregoat – The Devil’s Lust (Iron Bonehead / Parasitic)
5. Sarcophagum – Conduits to the Underworld

Best of the Rest:

1. Aldaraan – Arcane Mountain Cult (Paragon Records)
2. Fall of Seraphs – From Dust to Creation (Memento Mori)
3. Aurora Borealis – Prophecy is the Mold in Which History is Poured (Hammerheart Records)
4. Serpents Oath – Ascension (Soulseller Records)
5. Blasted Heath – Vela (Wise Blood Records)
6. Ensanguinate – Eldritch Anatomy (Emanzipation Productions)
7. Thrall – Schisms (Impure Sounds/Brilliant Emperor Records)
8. Demiricous – III: Chaotic Lethal (Post. Recordings)
9. Blood Chalice (Finland)– The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism (Werewolf Records)
10. Bones (Belgium)– Sombre Opulence (Invictus Productions)

Best Singles of the Year:

2022 Is ending with two huge singles, as well. Obituary dropping the sick as fuck “Wasting Time” and Metallica releasing “Lux Aeterna”, a “Hit the Lights” Thrasher that sees the band continuing to return to their roots.

Best Live Experience:

Hypocrisy, Carach Agren, Agonist and Hideous Divinity; Launchpad, Albuquerque 5/22/2022