HYLI - Andy's Best of 2022 (The Metal One)

Andy's favorite albums from 2022

Patrick loves lists. I’ve known this kid for a decade plus and the way I always introduce him is “Hey, this is my great friend Patrick. He loves ranking things and making lists.” It’s true (Patrick: I am a person online, it’s not that uncommon lol). Ask anyone. I knew we’d be doing a 2022 End of the Year list. I’m only doing 20 because who cares (Patrick: please take our newsletter seriously, Andy). I urge everyone to give these albums a chance even if you’re not into metal. You might be surprised to find you connect with something.

Thank you all for reading our nonsense this year. We’ve enjoyed doing it. It has been fun for me to check out new music and annoy my good friend Patrick with metal. Here is to another year. Cheers.

Here is a link to my playlist in Apple Music since I can’t get Apple Music to embed here.

Andy’s AOTY List 2k22

20. Pool Kids - Pool Kids
19. Cult of Luna - The Long Road North
18. Angelmaker - Sanctum
17. Goat - Oh Death
16. Upon A Fields Whisper - Sorry For Your Loss

Andy: A couple of non-metal albums (Pool Kids, Goat) made my End of the Year list (Patrick: you’re telling me an album called Oh Death by a band named Goat isn’t metal??)(Andy: I am.) Pool Kids really came out of nowhere and has just dominated my listening over the last few weeks. Shoutout friend of the newsletter Spencer. Goat is also not-metal so there, you have two out of the first five. Don’t expect any more. Goat is just great jazz/psychedelic shit. Cult of Luna and Upon A Fields Whisper are two great Atmospheric Black/Sludge or whatever dumb genre tag they deserve. UAFW has a song with Ceschi which rules, so extra points. They’re great at what they do. Angelmaker is the lone deathcore album to make the list. I’m not apologizing to Pat for making him listen to a singular deathcore song over an entire year of doing this newsletter.

Patrick: Pool Kids also made my list. A good band imo. I talked about them here so please read that for further thoughts. I’ve liked Cult of Luna for about a decade now, good band, I cannot say this album was particularly memorable by their standards but it was Fine. Absolutely hated Angelmaker. I won’t apologize for disliking a bad subgenre. I really, really enjoyed the Goat track. Truly shocking to hear this is what they sounded like, based on the name and album title. Super fun vibe. Did your brother show you this lol? Upon a Fields Whisper had some great vocals but the riff seemed a little plain and the drums seem weirdly buried in the mix. Still was interesting enough for me to make a note to check out the album (Andy: You love Ceschi.)

15. Lifetaker - Der Ietzte Raum
14. UNDEATH - It’s Time… To Rise From The Grave
13. Wake - Thought From Descent
12. Bodysnatcher - Bleed-Abide
11. Woods of Desolation - The Falling Tide

Andy: Lifetaker is a classic “cool looking album art on Bandcamp so i’ll check it out” scenario, with great results. Nothing on that album is longer than two and a half minutes. Just a visceral 25-ish minute album. If you haven’t listened to death metal in 20 years you should try Undeath’s new album (Patrick: who do you think this applies to that is reading our newsletter). Wake continues to progress further into the post-black metal sound while their grindcore influences still noticeable. Great album. I love a blast beat man. Cue Patrick bitching about Bodysnatcher because he doesn’t appreciate the pit. Bleed-Abide is easily the best beatdown of 2022, a genre that I will never stop stanning (Patrick: stan culture needs to be stopped). Woods of Desolation would almost definitely be in the top 10 if I got more listens but it came out like a week ago so it is not. Just pretend it is.

Patrick: Lifetaker really ripped, immediately adding it to my list to check out, cool post-punk instrumentals with kinda hardcore-meets-Sex Pistols vocals. Super into it. I was also into the Undeath record, maybe I like death metal? (Andy: you definitely like death metal) The Wake album narrowly missed my list. It was hovering in the top 20-25 for a lot of the year and then the fall hit and every album ever came out so it fell a bit, just really good stuff if you liked the Deafheaven album but wanted them to become heavier instead of gothy. Beatdown is intolerable (Andy: you are intolerable), I won’t apologize for saying Bodysnatcher sucked shit. When I think of music I identify with Andy, stuff like the Woods of Desolation release is what comes to mind (Andy: glad my branding is solid in your mind.) This shit rules. Beautiful. I will check out this album.

The Top 10 of 2022

10. Scarcity - Aveilut

Andy: A collaboration between a classical composer and metal vocalist. What more could you want? Nothing. That’s the dream. Scarcity absolutely nails it. Just a suffocating atmosphere throughout the composition’s entire runtime. Just a stunningly dark and immersive release.

Patrick: This was a cool little vibe for sure. The strings were super unsettling and gave a feel like they’d be something from an A24 movie’s score but then some little turd is screaming over it. Really enjoyed.

9. Kublai Kahn TX - Lowest Form Of Animal

Andy: It’s an EP. I don’t care. Take a swing at me. This shit hits like a ton of bricks. No one is doing this sound quite as well as the boys from Texas are right now.

Patrick: I’m into this. Reminds me of heavier Cave In/Old Man Gloom-type stuff. Just good driving sludge stuff with some vocals closer to hardcore than most stuff Andy sends. Also checking this out.

8. Felvum - Fullmoon Mysticism

Andy: Man, this album just feels good in my ears. I know most people will disagree but, respectfully, go kick rocks. This is some straight from the early 90s black metal-type stuff. I would believe you if you told me this was just a bunch of stolen Darkthrone riffs.

Patrick: I agree with Andy’s take. Feels very Darkthrone/Mayhem styled. Please read my thoughts on Darkthrone here and then you can copy/paste that exact response for this band.

7. Liminal Shroud - All Virtues Ablaze

Andy: I was convinced that, with the release of the “Hypoxic” single, Liminal Shroud would be my album of the year. While “Hypoxic” is easily one of the best songs of the year, the rest of the album failed to live up to the hype it set. Regardless, All Virtues Ablaze is some of the best atmospheric black metal released this year.

Patrick: This was also in the same category as the Wake (which I liked more) album for me as a favorite metal release for much of the year that kinda fell off as more stuff came out. Really good riffs, cool drums, and awesome vocals. Bonus points for sounding like you took the care to actually hire a producer and make this listenable.

6. Tómarúm - Ash In Realms of Stone Icons

Andy: I already ranted and raved about Tómarúm in our midpoint post so you can read more there if you’d like. TLDR: amazing progressive black metal songwriting from two dudes in Atlanta.

Patrick: You can read my thoughts at the link above too. I revisited this album more since our mid-year post than I did Liminal Shroud but probably less than Wake. Really cool vibe. The guitars sound immaculate.

5. Toadeater - Bexadde

Andy: What a monster of an album. Dumb band name aside, Bexadde is one of the best post-black metal albums in recent years. “Ashe” is an all-timer song. What a riff in the second half of that song. I could listen to that riff for an hour straight man. It’s so good.

Patrick: What the absolute fuck. The second I heard the wail of the feedback introducing this song, I fell in love. I restarted the song like five times before it made it 30 seconds in just to hear it again. Andy likes to pretend I’m some little baby that hates everything, but I can be so easily won over. Man. This rocked. I want more.

4. Anachoret - Syndrom

Andy: This very easily could have been number 2 or 3. Spots 2-5 are actually extremely close. I love a solo black metal musician. Syndrom is an expertly crafted album with some really good production, robust compositions, and sweet sweet black metal riffs.

Patrick: Cue this newsletter up next year whenever Andy turns into a fucking dork about how I hate everything. Please recall how much he has won me over with almost every pick here (Andy: I’m doing the best at this) meanwhile he turned into an absolute dipshit about all of my picks because of things such as “melody” and “lyrics” and “twang.” Yeah. This ruled. I will be checking out more. Please listen to this despite the artwork.

3. Knoll - Metempiric

Andy: I feel like I’ve done a good job ‘growing’ this past year with all of the music Patrick has suggested for me (Patrick: i love you). Plenty of it was stuff I sorta liked and, with multiple listens, found a way to love. There is absolutely a place for the softer side of music that he sends me. However, how can you fully grow to love it when shit like this exists (Patrick: i hate you)? Just literal chaos. This album is literal chaos. Just manic. This is why we are alive man.

Patrick: This reminds me of Nails. I will be adding it to my Gym playlist so I can deadlift more than God when it comes on.

2. Faceless Entity - The Great Anguish Of Rapture

Andy: What are we doing here? Just slather your face in corpse paint, get on your knees (Patrick: ?) and scream along to this masterpiece of an album. Yes, I used that word. “The Great Anguish of Rapture” is an all-timer of a black metal song. Complete with bad clean vocals that I just love. The perfect blend of atmosphere and melodic riffs.

Patrick: Another one that narrowly missed the list. Below Wake (maybe Thought Form Descent ended up being my 34th-placed Album of the Year at this point) but above the others. There’s a cool blown-out nature to the distortion of the guitars that a lot of the others don’t have. The others sound like amps cranked up or distortion pedal-assisted whereas Faceless Entity just sounds like a speaker about to burst. Very cool. Vocals are among the best on this list too.

1. 156/Silence - Narrative

Andy: Shocking right? Anyone who knows anything about me knows this is far and away my favorite album of the year. I’ve been all in on the guys in 156 for a while and Narrative is their best record to date. There is an overbearing depressed/angry atmosphere throughout the record. These songs feel massive.

The combo of “I Am A Fault” to “To Take Your Place” has entered legendary status for me. “Live To See A Darker Day” is an all-timer of a closer. Jack Murray is one of my favorite vocalists in metal today. His breath control is out of this world. His rapid-fire vocal delivery borders on “angry poetry” and he has one of the nastiest screams around. “Say The Phrase” is the perfect encapsulation of the album as a whole. Heavy riffs, guitar screeches, that nu-metal-inspired talking, and an ending that will make you want to throw down.

I beg of you. If you’re a fan of this newsletter please do me the favor of giving Narrative a listen. They’re deserving of every bit of success that is coming to them.

Patrick: While I’ve mentioned Wake like six times at this point, 156 actually did make my list. Andy can be so negative sometimes about things that are merely Good and not great, and it warms my heart to see my bud won over so entirely by something. Good band. I love their one-off bonus track cover of Alice in Chains too lol. Not my #1 heavy release of this year but very close. Album rips.