~
Well, fuck. Here we are again.
2022 has been a weird year for me. When I scan my mind for a definitive favorite, an unquestionable AOTY, nothing really stands out as readily obvious enough to take the crown (at least for now, I’ll probably have it figured out by May 2023!). But at the same time black metal has seen such a wide variety of fantastic releases in 2022… enough so that in order to wrap it up I basically just had to sit down and start writing, and really only AFTER I did that was I able to start getting it sorted to the extent that I did. So here’s that narrative, my journey through black metal 2022, although not in chronological order. Things to keep in mind:
[+ I spent more time with these albums]
[++ I spent the most time with these albums]
[*mentions as criticism are in asterisks*]
[AOTY contenders are in BOLD]
~
IMMEDIATE STAND-OUT ALBUMS & EPS
~
Most Difficult To Pinpoint Why It’s So Fucking Good, But It Is: ++ SAIDAN (US) – Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal
Most Unrecognized On The Top Shelf: ++ ETERNAL HELCARAXE (Irl) – Drown In Ash
Most Earworming: ++ MOONLIGHT SORCERY (Fin) – Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity (ep)
Most What The Fuck Another EP Already?!: MOONLIGHT SORCERY (Fin) – Nightwind: The Conquerer from the Stars (ep)
Most Chiptune: + SKRELLE (US) – Skrelle (ep)
Most Instantly Awesome: ++ SPECTRAL VOID (Fra) – Doomsday (ep)
Most Exclusive Physical: STARER (US) – Remorse Defines Me (ep) [Clear square 8″ lathe cut record from Gorbie Lathe Cuts. Hand numbered edition of 15.]
Most Short But Sweet: ANGELBLAST (Swe/Can) – Throne of Ashes (ep)
Most Album Released By Circle (Order) ov the Black Arts!!!: STRICHT (Aus) – Stricht (ep)
Most Band Name Which Fits The Music: ROSENKREUZGESELLSCHAFT (Twn) – Rosenkreuzgestllschaft (ep)
When considering 2022, the (black metal) albums which tend to come to mind first are SAIDAN’s irresistibly ensnaring and euphoric Onryō II: Her Spirit Eternal and ETERNAL HELCARAXE’s hopelessly catchy, subtly epic and incredibly beautiful Drown In Ash, plus a few others. But my mind immediately considers others and I can’t settle. Then my thought springs to what I have been playing the most and appreciating the longest in 2022. I think that the answer there would have to be MOONLIGHT SORCERY’s mind-blowing symphonic ep Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity, which was shortly followed by a second ep in November called Nightwind: The Conquerer from the Stars. Man, there were a few great eps this year. SKRELLE’s self titled is fucking awesome. SPECTRAL VOID’s Doomsday is fucking awesome too. Also STARER’s Remorse Defines Me, and ANGELBLAST’s Throne of Ashes. Also I was really fucking amped for Order ov the Black Arts’ creative wing/label Circle ov the Black Arts to release the hypnagogic, abberant, self-titled STRICHT ep. Finally, ROSENKREUZGESELLSCHAFT snuck in at the last minute with a wild little self titled flash of well-orchestrated atonality. Though brief, these releases do well to represent a recurring theme to a lot of what I appreciated this year: classic melody, blasting speed, symphonics, and a little bit of avant-garde dissonance.
~
MODERN CLASSICS
~
Most Swedish: + KVAEN (Swe) – The Great Below
Most Swedish But Not From Sweden: + FÄUST (Fra) – Death From Beyond
Most Interludes: ++ STORMRULER (US) – Sacred Rites & Black Magic
Most Half Swedish: IN APHELION (Swe/NL) – Moribund
Most Emperory: +GEISTLICHT (Ger) – Fading Light
Most Second-Wave Nostalgia: CRYPTOSPITAL (Blr) – The Epitome of Dystopia
Most Better Than I Thought It Would Be: ++ WATAIN (Swe) – The Agony & Ecstacy of Watain
Most Satisfying Return To Form: +BELPHEGOR (Aut) – The Devils
*Most Disappointing But Not Surprising Meh: BEHEMOTH – Opvs Contra Natvram*
Alright, lets talk about that classic melodic black metal, which I mostly associate with a traditional Swedish sound (ie old DISSECTION, SACRAMENTUM, WATAIN, NAGLFAR, DARK FUNERAL, NECROPHOBIC, VALKYRJA, etc.) and which seems to be experiencing resurgence this year with albums like KVAEN’s The Great Below (a rapid follow up to 2021’s The Funeral Pyre), FÄUST’s Death From Beyond, and STORMRULER’s Sacred Rites & Black Magic (a rapid follow up from 2021’s Under the Burning Eclipse). Those were my favorites in this particular vein, but I also enjoyed IN APHELION’s Moribund. GEISTLICHT bore a different sort of classicism with their second album of the year Fading Light, closer to 90’s Norwegian symphonic pillars like old EMPEROR, DIMMU BORGIR, and WINDIR, and thus might also be thought of as 2022’s answer to STORMKEEP. CRYPTOSPITAL returned in short order with The Epitome of Dystopia and their brand of moving raw nostalgia. And of course we can’t forget that WATAIN itself dropped a new album The Agony & Ecstasy of Watain which, while still not reaching the heights of their apex (Sworn to the Dark and Lawless Darkness), still managed to put out their best offering since then. A similar thing can be said for blackdeath titans BELPHEGOR, whose album The Devils is better than at least the previous 5 releases. The same cannot be said for BEHEMOTH.
~
BLASTERS & DISSONANT / AVANT-GARDE
~
Most Damn Fastest: ++BLACK SHADOW – Last Stage of Transformation
Most Misleading Album Art: VODOEM – Seasons of Silence
Most Relentless: + MISANTHROPÆ (US) – Untitled
Most I Was Forced To Concede: + DEATHSPELL OMEGA (Fra) – The Long Defeat
Most Lovecrafty: BLUT AUS NORD (Fra) – Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses
Most Like A Black Metal Ulcerate, Probably Because JSM Is Drumming: ++ VERBERIS (Ger) – Adumbration of the Veiled Logos
Most …Transformational: ANTECANTAMENTUM – Saturnine December
From BELPHEGOR, segway right in to mentioning a few releases which just fucking annihilate in terms of the aggression, driven primarily by percussion. BLACK SHADOW’s Last Stage of Transformation, for instance. Holyfuck. If anyone hasn’t heard that yet, get on it and at least get through that first solo in the first half of the first track to see just how it wants to burn your soul. Same with the avant-garde industrialesque barrage from VODOEM’s Seasons of Silence, sounding something like one might hear from the likes of REVERORUM IB MALACHT or ENTROPY CREATED CONSCIOUSNESS. The drums are programmed, but I don’t care, that shit annihilates. Even more so with MISANTHRPÆ’s self-titled and more dissonant offering of tireless blasting. Speaking of dissonance, DEATHSPELL OMEGA’s fantastic The Long Defeat won me over more than anything that they have put out since at least Paracletus and perhaps even back to Si Monvmentvm. It also won me over against BLUT AUS NORD’s predictably good Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses, and usually it’s the other way around. Inthis camp we also find VERBERIS’ Adumbration of the Veiled Logos which essentially sounds like a more blackened version of death metal enigma UCLERATE (no wonder since both projects have the same drummer) and the decidedly lighter, but incredibly complex, progressive avant-garde wall of sound which is ANTECANTAMENTUM’s Saturnine December.
~
MORE BLASTING!
~
Most Obligatory Mentions: NORDJEVEL (Nor) – Gnavhòl -&- NOCTEM (Esp) – Credo Certe Ne Cras
Most Headlining at Legion ov the Black Arts Fest!: BLACK FUCKING CANCER (US) – Procreate Inverse
Most Auditory Eternal Blizzard: + BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ (Swe) – De Dunklas Sorgeakt
Most Listenable Swartadauþuz: GREVE (Swe) – Föllo af Svavel, Lifvets Dimridå
Most At War With Heaven: ++ TROLLDOM (Swe) – I Nattens Sken (Genom Hemligheternas Dunkel)
Most Like An Owl’s Flight Through A Black Winter Night: + TROLLDOM (Swe) – Av Gudars Ätt…
Most Agonizingly, Fiercely Cathartic: NEAN (Fra) – The Ominous Catharsis
But I digress. About that blasting… There are always the obligatory mentions like NORDJEVEL with Dominator behind the kit on Gnavhòl, and NOCTEM’s deathened black battery Credo Certe Ne Cras. And then there’s the 1349-but-heavier-esque BLACK FUCKING CANCER (one of the headliners for our Legions ov the Order fest in July) release Procreate Inverse. Those aside, how can we not mention Swartadauþuz? Dude released NINE albums across seven projects this year, of which I am just starting to scrape the surface. For now I have been most impressed with BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ’s massive, dense, and frigid De Dunklas Sorgeakt, GREVE’s more melodic and accessible Föllo af Svavel, Lifvets Dimridå. But my favorites are TROLLDOM’s duel album drop: the infernal I Nattens Sken (Genom Hemligheternas Dunkel), an AOTY contender with full-on, raging astral symphonic black metal and basically zero restraint within those parameters and with relentless, almost mechanically captivating progressions -and- Av Gudars Ätt…, majestic in a much more “natural” and worldly sense, with drawn out and grandiose movements which focus on atmosphere, emotive variance, and epic soaring. It is entirely worth mentioning that any who may be a fan of that somewhat noisy but epic wall-of-sound approach of Swartadauþuz (particularly BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ) should definitely click on The Ominous Catharsis by NEAN.
~
COSMIC
~
Most Like Slowly Drifting Towards A Black Hole: NUMEN NOCTIS (Aus) – Sanctus Simulacrum
Most Rave Worthy: DÉHÀ (Bel) – Decadanse
Most Like Visiting Space Inside A Cool Spaceship: + VORGA (Ger) – Striving Toward Oblivion
Most Sloooooowwwww But Good: LUNE (Aut) – Hymns to the Lunar Realm
Most Lost Amidst A Vibrant Galaxy: JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS (US) – Infinite Universe, Infinite Death
Most Absolutely Beautiful: FORELUNAR (Irn) – Beloved and a Thousand Seraphim
It seems like a few of the mentions above start to edge near cosmic in sound, so might as well go further and mention the few specifically cosmic acts which caught my attention. NUMEN NOCTIS launched me into empyrean realms late this year, channeling the likes of DARKSPACE and BORGE with sophomore album Sanctus Simulacrum. One of DÉHÀ’s (many) releases this year, Decadance, had a similar sound although distinctly more industrialized, while VORGA’ Striving Toward Oblivion was one of the first things that I heard this year, providing a more traditional melodic cosmic orbit. LUNE’s incredibly grandiose and expansive Hymns to the Lunar Realm, complete with overt symphonics (including brass) and choirs, could only be described as blackened atmospheric funeral doom, whilst JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS graced us with Infinite Universe, Infinite Death, a modern deathened symphonic black metal goliath of galactic proportions. FORELUNAR (my last addition to this list) is technically regional (album is dedicated to women killed in Iran) but the sound is transcendent, celestial, lush, with almost a heavenly drone in its beautiful orchestrated melody, supported by ecclesiastical choirs.
~
REGIONAL
~
Most Cowboy: ++ DARK WATCHER (US) – Frontier (comp)
Most Native American: + VITAL SPIRIT (Can) – Still As The Night, Cold As The Wind
Most Frogs Excellently Used In An Intro: ++ SWAMPBORN (Rus) – Beyond Ratio
Most Siberian Hypothermia: GRIMA (Rus) – Frostbitten
Most Hopelessly Melodic Hooks: + MORGREIM (Pol) – XXII
A handful of releases I enjoyed immensely were quite the opposite of cosmic, regional tomes with specific endemic auditory themes. DARK WATCHER is at the top of my list with Frontier, and I’m cheating a bit here because this ‘debut’ album is really a compilation of previous eps Hymns to a Godless Land and Dark Watcher, but I don’t care because the band’s blatant use of spaghetti western black metal flavor is enough to make WAYFARER blush, and I fucking love it. The slightly deathier VITAL SPIRIT similarly infused Western Americana into their fantastic debut Still As The Night, Cold As The Wind, an ode to Native American decimation and violence. SWAMPBORN came out of nowhere with a fucking AWESOME debut Beyond Ratio, channeling some sort of Slavic ranine marshland gypsy vibes with an incredible array of instrumentation including keys, brass, cello, and accordion. And GRIMA returned once again with Frostbitten, a predictably enjoyable fifth stab at black Siberian folk atmospherics. MORGREIM’s album XXII, while more difficult to pin down a specific local sound, features over the top epic naturalistic melodies (sort of like a blacker, less layered Polish WINTERSUN), submerged screams, and lots of clean female vocals which are pretty good but sound a bit like an anime soundtrack, if one can handle that.
~
OTHER SUPERIOR ALBUMS
~
Most Powerful Slow Burn: ++ PANZERFAUST (Can) – Suns of Perdition Chapter III: The Astral Drain
Most Mysterious: ++ SKARE (UK? Fra? Aus?) – Skare
Most Ancient Demonic Bloodlust: +SUMERIAN TOMBS (Ger) – Sumerian Tombs
Most Well-Rounded: VANANIDR – Beneath the Mold
Most Portuguese But Better Than Gaerea: ++ ANZV (Prt) – Gallas
*Most Sticky Fingers: GAEREA – Mirage*
Most Wrenching Vocals: WOODS OF DESOLATION (Aus) – The Falling Tide
Most Grand Finale: + MOURNING BY MORNING (US) – A Step Away From Light; A Step Into Abyss
Most Unsurprisingly Fantastic: + MISÞYRMING (Isl) – Með hamri
Most …National: + HATE FOREST (Ukr) – Innermost
Alright, so where the hell does that leave us? PANZERFAUST, for one. Suns of Perdition Chapter III: The Astral Drain came out this year to wrap up the trilogy, and it is momentous. It is getting overlooked, but there’s a reason (and a remedy). The singles were misleading due to most of the tracks being slower, but there’s enough aggression to balance things out IF the tracks were rearranged and the fairly pointless short interludes were omitted: the order 3 > 9 > 8 > 5 > 7 > 1 is a fully satisfying listen, providing two calm-towards-aggressive waves with the instrumental in the middle and the long epic capstone to conclude. It might also be noted that track 7 is perhaps the best track they have ever written. SKARE’s self-titled debut is a bit of a mystery drop (bandcamp says origin is “France, world”, Encyclopedia Metallum says “Australia”), but an attentive listen convinces me that this is none other than another project from UK prodigy O.W.G.A., the man behind AULD RIDGE and ALBIONIC HERMETICISM, and the Hermetic Order of Ytene label. SKARE is similar in sound to both of those projects albeit slightly more melodic and atmospheric, and I have been absolutely obsessed with all three projects for the last 18 months. SUMERIAN TOMBS returned from the vampiric coffin with a tremendous self-titled tome of contemporary heavy warmth, epic density, and traditional savage and brazen demonic orthodoxy, while VANANIDR’s Beneath the Mold offered up a modern cohesive mix of classic melody, off-kilter savagery, and brooding calculation.
ANZV dropped debut Gallas hot on the heels of a couple of singles and immediately established themselves for me as absolutely the the most prominent band from Portugal (and one of the most prominent albums worldwide) this year with their ritualistic deathened black metal, far above the likes of their moody, “cathartic”, thieving brethren. If you want catharsis, I recommend WOODS OF DESOLATION’s hotly anticipated opus The Falling Tide. Pioneers of post-black melancholic melodicism, this album is no different and features a vocal delivery which is particularly unhealthy and wrenching but avoids that annoying wailing sound that a lot of DSBM bands seem to employ. MOURNING BY MORNING took me by surprise with a fantastic symphonic black metal offering A Step Away From Light; A Step Into Abyss, which features just a little bit of ‘core heaviness. Finally, a few late releases that could potentially evolve to take AOTY (but at the time of writing this I just have not listened to either of them enough yet). First, MISÞYRMING’s Með hamri, which brings unquestionable and orthodox fury similar in sound to labelmate FUNERAL MIST but with moments which are perhaps even more epic. Upon a cursory listen, I like it more than 2015’s Söngvar elds og óreiðu, but not as much as 2019’s Algleymi. Lastly, HATE FOREST’s Innermost. I have never really engaged with HATE FOREST up until this point, however Innermost turned the tide with it’s militant blasting, largely gutteral vocal style (with some variety), and engaging melody (which, according to reliable sources is a bit of an evolution with this album and is probably largely the reason that it is sitting so well with me).
~
“BLACKENED”
~
Most Seems Like It Came Out In 2021, I Have Played It So Much: ++ HATH (US) – All That Was Promised
Most Gratifying Anticipation: ++ AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION (Swe) – Woe
*Most Surprisingly Disappointing: SAOR (Sct) – Origins*
*Most Okay But Disappointing Compared To The Last Album: DISILLUSION (Ger) – Ayam*
Most Ambitious Debut LP: + TÓMARÚM (US) – Ash in Realms of Stone Icons
Most Warm Weather Jam: INEXORUM (US) – Equinox Vigil
Most Mind Fucking Blown In The First Ten Seconds: + FREEDOM OF FEAR (Aus) – Carpathia
Most Difficult To Describe: WAKE – Thought Form Descent
Okay, let’s delve into the margins of black metal and check some of that stuff on the “blackened” periphery. HATH and their form of irresistably catchy, modern, barely-blackened death metal fucking brought it at the beginning of the year with All That Was Promised (I have a feeling that one has a LOT of staying power). But AN ABSTRACT ILLUSION was perhaps my most anticipated release of the year besides SAOR and DISSILLION, and unlike those latter, Woe did not disappoint with their absolutely next level combination of progressive metal, melodic/semi-technical death metal and black metal, shifting seamlessly between elements of technicality, heaviness, darkness, brutality, suffering, and fragility whilst all wrapped up in epic melody to create a complete masterpiece. Same with TÓMARÚM’s debut full length Ash in Realms of Stone Icons, which features many of the same elements mentioned above but with black metal consisting of the foundation instead of progressive death metal, an incredibly ambitious work of maturity, complexity, and depth. INEXORUM flexed their optimistic wind-in-your-hair brand of blackened melodic death metal with Equinox Vigil, while FREEDOM OF FEAR seamlessly melded a greater diversity of upbeat elements of death, thrash, black, and even a touch of power metal with their new album Carpathia. WAKE made some waves with Thought Form Descent and their somewhat difficult-to-pin-down, bristling combination of progressive black metal and melodic grind.
~
DEATH METAL & OTHERS
~
Most Randomly Made Me Obsessed: ++ JADE (Ger/Esp) – The Pacification of Death
Most How TMDC Should Be Sounding – BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS (Aus) – Abomination of the Flames
Most How Gojira Should Be Sounding – NEUROTIC MACHINERY (Cze) – A Loathsome Aberration
Most How Behemoth Should Be Sounding – SIRRUSH (Ita) – Molon Labe
Most Shameworthy Pleasure: ++ LORNA SHORE (US) – Pain Remains
Most Trancelike Experience: ++ HEILUNG (Den/Nor/Ger) – Drif
I got struck with a gnarly recent obsession that has been JADE’s more melodic The Pacification of Death. BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS’ Abomination of the Flames did a damn good job of picking up where THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT has been lacking, NEUROTIC MACHINERY showed me what GOJIRA could have sounded like with A Loathsome Aberration and SIRRUSH’s Molon Labe may hit the spot for those pining for BEHEMOTH’s Demigod era. And then there’s LORNA SHORE’s Pain Remains. Fuck off, okay? I like it. It’s like DIMMU BORGIR took so many steroids that it bro’ed out into deathcore. Reminds me of FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE in some ways, although it has the drawback of it’s foundation being deathcore and not brutal death metal. Still though, butween fucking stellar blasting and outlandish orchestration, the engaging guitar hooks, and entertaining vocals, it is enough for me to be willing to tolerate the breakdowns. Special shout out though to the tribal ritualindustrial darkfolk act HEILUNG who dropped new album Drif. True to form, it contains a few tracks on it which are absolutely stunning (tracks 1-3: “Asja”, “Anoana”, and “Tenet”). I was fortunate enough to catch the subsequent tour date in San Francisco and it was one of the best live shows I have seen in years.
Well, that’s it for 2022… until February when I discover too late all those which “got away”. Sincere hails to anyone still reading. Hails to Black Metal Daily and Order ov the Black Arts. Hails to all the great artists and labels out there. Hails to Black Metal!!! Bring on the next round!
~
BLACK METAL DAILY’S LISTCRUSH 2022 WILL CONTINUE.
~
Follow Black Metal Daily on Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and Bandcamp HERE for more cult sounds and tonal blasphemy.
Black Metal Daily 