Current Events > 2022 is at end. What were your favorite music releases of the year?

(+) Yeah! (+)

2022 was a great year for music, and i'd been constantly modifying my ongoing favorites list all throughout the year, x.x . There were tons of releases that I loved, but I don't feel it's helpful to make a list and then have way too many items on it... that being said, I tried to keep my own favorite albums list to just twenty items, so it was pretty hard to narrow them all down and decide what deserved a place the most. Aside from the top two items, in no particular order:

Albums
Vexes - Imagine What We Could Destroy (If Only Given Time) (Alternative Metal)
White Ward - False Light (Black Metal)
Cave In - Heavy Pendulum (Sludge Metal)
Moodring - Stargazer (Alternative Metal)
Tomarum - Ash In Realms of Stone Icons (Progressive Black Metal)
The Callous Daoboys - Celebrity Therapist (Mathcore)
Bloodywood - Rak Shak (???)
Spell - Tragic Magic (Heavy Metal)
Atlantic - Torrents (Black Metal)
Soilwork - Overgivenheten (Melodic Death Metal)
Blind Guardian - The God Machine (Power Metal)
Wailin' Storms - The Silver Snake Unfolds (Doom Rock)
Autonesis - Moon of Foul Magics (Black Thrash Metal)
The Halo Effect - Days of the Lost (Melodic Death Metal)
Elder - Innate Passage (Progressive Rock)
Antecantamentum - Saturnine December (Black Metal)
Wake - Thought Form Descent (Blackened Death Metal)
Dr. Acula - Dr. Acula (Deathcore)
Stormruler - Sacred Rites and Black Magick (Black Metal)
Chrome Ghost - House of Falling Ash (Doom Metal)

EPs
Epica - The Alchemy Project (Symphonic Power Metal)
Capsule 9 - Take As Prescribed (Alternative/Shoegaze)
Deathfiend - Beyond Life (Death Metal)
Limbs - Coma Year (Metalcore)
Au-Dessus - Mend (Progressive Black Metal)
Sobriquet - Apotheosis (Metalcore)
Blissing Stratus - Towards the Lonely Wind (Black Metal)
Sadness - Motionless, Watching You (Blackgaze)

Picking my album of the year was a really hard choice... both top contenders came out around roughly the same time, and for the longest time, I wasn't really sure which one I was going to pick. Time has passed since then (roughly six months), and I think I can decide now: Imagine What We Could Destroy (If Only Given Time). False Light is in some regards a more artistic triumph, but I can't help but be impressed with how much Vexes stepped their game up from their last release (which failed to make much of an impression on me beyond a song or two). Their album is one I find myself revisiting much more and is going to have much greater staying power for me in comparison.

The most unique thing i've listened to this year is (without a doubt), Rakshak by Bloodywood, though. I find it to have so many different elements that it defies characterization, and yet, it all blends together so seamlessly. It deftly combines a hefty dose of Indian influence with with metal and even rap into one seamless package, and i've never heard anything quite like it.

Also worthy of a special note is The Alchemy Project, by Epica. They never quite caught my eye in the past, but after I saw how many different musicians I recognized that they collaborated (some of which that I love, like Bjorn Strid from Soilwork and Tommy Karevik from Kamelot/Seventh Wonder), I knew I couldn't pass it up... and boy, did it not disappoint. Everyone was in top form, and I can see myself listening to this for a long time.

I liked The Alchemy Project after you recommended it o: nice write up!

Im not a huge music person but for me probably a tie between Harrys House from Harry Styles and Inside Voices / Outside Voices from k.flay

Voivod and Blind Guardian stood out most for me.

Do video games count? Because Sonic Frontiers OST for me!

DeathVelvien posted...

Voivod and Blind Guardian stood out most for me.

Love Blind Guardian

The Midnight's new album

Ethel Cain's Preachers Daughter is definitely the best I've heard this year. Probably a few others I've heard, but none standout compared to it.

Ivynn posted...

Love Blind Guardian

Their new album was their best in decades, imo.

ArchNemo posted...

I liked The Alchemy Project after you recommended it o: nice write up!

It's gud

Favorite album is Wir sind das Volk by Laibach.

This was a slow year for the small number of musicians I actively follow: Faye Webster released a mini-EP called Car Therapy Sessions that was mostly remixes: the catch is that she performed backed by an orchestra, a significant departure from her usual folkish country style. Though she is in many ways still unrefined as an artist, she has undeniable talent and a dorky charm, and hopefully her experimental nature will cure her bad habit: excessive repetition. Perhaps being a part of Courtney Barnett's orbit will also be helpful.

Bjork released a full-blown album, Fossora, replete with mycellic theming and a pair of songs dedicated to her late mother: Ancestress and Sorrowful Soil. I am very fond of the album's bassy opener (Atopos), personally. It's eclectic, varied, and brilliant, as she usually is, but something about it hit harder than her prior few albums.

Bump

Pink Floyd, somehow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saEpkcVi1d4

Florence and the Machine's Dance Fever ez