Reports from the Underground: 2022 Albums of the Year

Andy’s Picks

10. Disillusion – Ayam (Germany)
Style: Prog Melodeath (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Insomnium

Opethian metal makes all of us a little excited, even curmudgeonly old Chris, so when Ayam finally clicked at the last minute (quite literally only days before this post went up), I had to squeeze it into my list. Chris said it best in his review: “[Ayam is] a grandly ethereal contemplation in sonic form, bobbing on the waves—adrift, alone, and beautiful.”

Recommended tracks: Am Abgrund, Tormento, The Brook
You may also like: Wilderun, The Reticent, Descend

9. Toxik – Dis Morta (US-NY)
Style: Prog/Tech Thrash Metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Vektor, Coroner, Voivod, Megadeth

This is the best thrash metal since Terminal Redux itself, full stop. Dis Morta revels in its manic insanity. It is intense, never sacrificing the almighty riff, and it’s also wildly technical. Add in some loony samples and endlessly fire riffs to keep it engaging, and I’d wager it’ll be years before we get another better thrash album again. 

Recommended tracks: The Radical, Hyper Reality, Chasing Mercury
You may also like: Mekong Delta, Xoth, Watchtower

8. Obsidious – Iconic (Austria)
Style: Prog/Tech Death (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Obscura, Devin Townsend, Persefone

The Diluvium gang brings in a varied, strong clean vocalist… need I say more? Technical riffs and solos enough to make most other tech bands blush AND paradigm shifting power/prog cleans. Iconic is genuinely a wonderful album that will whip you into shape and leave you begging for more.

Recommended tracks: Under Black Skies, Sense of Lust, Iconic
You may also like: Stortregn, Alkaloid, Freedom of Fear, Eternity’s End, Hannes Grossmann

7. Scarcity – Aveilut (US-NY)
Style: Avant-garde Black Metal/Drone (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Blut Aus Nord, The Ruins of Beverast, Sunn O))

Aveilut is TERRIFYING. The microtonal assault on the senses strangles in dissonance as the artist fights against the inevitability of death. At times, everything happens at once: moments feel like a nuclear bomb dropping, and the black metal devolves into the fallout of pure drone afterward. On top of all of this, Doug Moore (Pyrrhon) barfs out his blunt poetry just to add more fuel to the slow-burning, complex, and classical take on black metal that Scarcity offers.

Recommended tracks: Aveilut
You may also like: Pyrrhon, Xenoglyph, Jute Gyte, SkyThala, Warforged

6. Ashenspire – Hostile Architecture (United Kingdom)
Style: Avant-garde Black Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: A Forest of Stars, Altar of Plagues, Imperial Triumphant, Zeal and Ardor, Thy Catafalque, White Ward

Leftist black metal in the realm of A Forest of Stars with Imperial Triumphant aesthetics… I don’t think an album can be much more Andy™ than this. Several moments in just the first track bring poetic anger into my heart as the vocals zealously shout about injustices: I’m not sure I can ever get the pained scream of “if I pour it into my eyes” from “The Law of Asbestos” out of my subconscious. An album as bad as it is subtle (not very for both), Hostile Architecture is sure to make you go outside and protest in front of your local city hall. 

Recommended tracks: The Law of Asbestos, How the Mighty Have Vision, Tragic Heroin
You may also like: Dawn of a Dark Age, Pensées Nocturnes, Voices

5. An Abstract Illusion – Woe (Sweden)
Style: Blackened Prog Death (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Kardashev, Insomnium, Opeth, Ne Obliviscaris, Kauan

Another one that my peers will undoubtedly mention in their top 10s, this is the peak of pure progressive death metal in 2022. Flowing as one behemoth (joke intended) track, Woe balances delicate cleaner moments with crushing, blackened maelstroms with skillful execution. This album is a must listen to for fans of Opeth back when they were consistently really awesome. 

Recommended tracks: Woe
You may also like: Aquilus, Countless Skies, Burial in the Sky, Amiensus, Hands of Despair, Wills Dissolve, Virvum, Descend

4. SkyThala – Boreal Despair (US-TN)
Style: Avant-garde Symphonic Black Metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Blut Aus Nord, Gorguts, Emperor 

This is high art black metal of the elitist, patrician variety I love. While you don’t need a background in modernist classical to enjoy the variety of dissonant, lurching black metal riffs and symphonic turns, it would certainly help piece together what’s happening. The album is sublime in its stratospheric heights, and every time it comes crashing back down in dissonance, I’m left stunned and aching for more. 

Recommended tracks: Variegated Stances of Self Mockery, Boreal Phrenological Despair, Yielding Quivers of Revolution
You may also like: Ad Nauseam, Dordeduh, Scarcity, Imperial Triumphant, Panegyrist, Krallice

3. Aeternam – Heir of the Rising Sun (Canada)
Style: Folk/Symphonic Melodeath (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Orphaned Land, Septicflesh

Al Qassam was great, top five of 2020: Heir of the Rising Sun expands on that same sound by making the album more cohesive with an epic narrative of the rise of the Ottomans, and the jubilant orchestrations and shocking songwriting twists really elevate the album above all current melodeath contemporaries. I have known Aeternam was a band to look out for regarding an all time album for a while, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon.

Recommended tracks: Irene, Nova Roma, Where the River Bends, The Treacherous Hunt, The Fall of Constantinople 
You may also like: Subterranean Masquerade, Wilderun

2. Wilderun – Epigone (US-MA)
Style: Symphonic/Progressive Death Metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Opeth, Persefone, Devin Townsend

I’ll keep this one simple because I’m sure my co-conspirators at the blog will sufficiently beat this dead horse into glue, but Wilderun are still on top of the world after the all time greatest album Veil of Imagination. With a couple small tweaks, Epigone would run away with the competition, but as a meta-concept album–a concept album about creating an album–it tells a great story with aplomb and bombast.

Recommended tracks: Distraction Suite, Woolgatherer, Passenger
You may also like: Lör, Iomair, Aquilus, Xanthochroid

1. Bríi – Corpos Transparentes (Brazil)
Style: Minimalist Folk/Experimental Atmoblack/Trance (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Fishmans, Kaatayra

Three years in a row, Caio Lemos has been first or second for my album of the year, so this third one should come as no surprise. Channeling nature to convey a sense of anticipatory loss, Corpos is masterful in its songwriting tact and instrumental performance. If there is a God, they themself could not top Caio Lemos in natural creationary flow. 

Recommended tracks: Corpos Transparentes
You may also like: Wreche, Plague Orphan, Heimsrkingla

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