Best Of 2022 – Last Rites Combined Staff Top 25

I have spent the better part of a full morning kicking over rocks in all the corners of my brain in an attempt to recall any sort of crucial trends, significant controversies or major Pants-Filling News™ that put a few twists in the heavy metal legend for 2022, but nothing really consequential has come to mind. Of course it’s extremely possible I’m just forgetting something, but maybe we can revel just a tiny bit in the fact that it might have actually been a fairly “on the level” year in our heavy sphere.

There was plenty of good stuff worthy of celebration in 2022, of course. Most notably, bands and fans finally began to return to all our favorite diners, arenas and dives (the dives that managed to survive a pandemic that continues to do its very best to drop a deuce into life’s punchbowl). Plus, the music delivered unto us was certainly good-to-great enough to fully stock the hundreds of year-end lists you will see over the course of the next month or two. That’s nice. That’s nice and good. We like nice and good.

As for the bad… Well, we lost Trevor Strnad and Steve Grimmett, two heroic souls whose presence in our realm was exceptionally meaningful, not only because of the music they helped create, but also thanks to their positive physical presence and the way they interacted with fans. Life can be a fragile matter, and it’s quite adept at throwing down brutal challenges.

Far less crushing, but negative nonetheless: the continued distress related to vinyl availability. Sorry, chum, you’ll have to wait until well into 2023 for the vinyl version of your favorite 2022 grindcore record, but at least Tay Tay’s new LP has enough variants to cover the entire color wheel. Whew!

Do we need to discuss the new Metallica album cover? That was a late and notably unfavorable curveball that hit every single batter square in the forehead. Once you see it, you will very literally never unsee it, as it will be permanently burned into your retinas like staring at the sun from three inches away. Yellow darkness, my old friend…

Here’s one thing I know for sure: You do not want to rely on the good souls behind Last Rites to predict the future. We are TERRIBLE at predicting the future. Every year in and around January, we throw down a series of predictions for albums we expect to blow us away in the coming months, and this year our 25 most anticipated albums (not counting the one EP that we did nail from Napalm Death) revealed a total of… 2 selections that also landed on this Combined Staff Top 25. I’m pretty sure that sort of test score comes stock with a See Me After Class blazing across the top of the page. Even more awkward is the fact that I’m pretty sure we knew those two releases were great because we already had the promos in hand before we dropped the January Most Anticipated lists. Hey! Hey. Hey… What we lack in forecasting skills we more than make up for with our stunning good looks*.

* falls down several flights of stairs.

As always, we owe an immeasurable amount of gratitude to any and all who continue to read our words. The Last Rites road has been long and not always the smoooooooothest, but we’ve always been in this game together, which is one hell of a great way to march into battle. THANK YOU. Here’s to hoping you all had as solid a year as possible, and holy crap do we ever demand that everyone has the best 2023 ever.

Are you ready to rumble?

THIS. IS. SPARTA!!! I mean, THIS. IS. THE LAST RITES COMBINED STAFF TOP 25!!!

[CAPTAIN]

25. TÓMARÚM – ASH IN REALMS OF STONE ICONS

Practically, Ash in Realms of Stone Icons is a remarkable amalgam of metals, mostly black but also death, technical, and progressive, and as heedless of those boundaries as it is aware of them. It’s full of cold blasts and plaintive melody and solos that lift as high as they sear deep. It’ll remind you of bands you know and love from Death to Cynic to Emperor and from Opeth to Ne Obliviscaris to Wolves in the Throne Room.

More meaningfully, Ash in Realms of Stone Icons is a thoughtful existential meditation, the creosote-coated contemplations of a beleaguered man yearning for the light. It’s dark and sullen and bright and beautiful and brutal and sophisticated and relatable and run through with contradictions. Ash in Realms of Stone Icons is a beautiful work of art born from despair, shaped by desperation, and realized finally with peaceful resolve. [LONE WATIE]

• Bandcamp

24. FER DE LANCE – THE HYPERBOREAN

“The Hyperborean simply reaps maximum benefit from the sort of ‘live in the studio’ loose & gravelly approach Quorthon regularly practiced to give records like Hammerheart infinite grip. That specific era of Bathory is in fact very well represented here, not only because The Hyperborean features more waves than the Macy’s Day Parade, but mostly due to the equally epic narrative that feels similarly forged from a rustic furnace. Fer de Lance separates themselves from Bathory by pushing a more doom-centric perspective, though, so we also get very strong notes of Scald or perhaps DoomSword.” [CAPTAIN]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

23. PHANTOM SPELL – IMMORTAL’S REQUIEM

“…a slightly more succinct and metallized form of classic adventure prog rock, but the record also doesn’t mind stretching its legs a bit more to bolster that true sense of a widened voyage. The two longest songs are easy marks for anyone wanting explicit proof of this, as both dip, climb, swing and sail through altering tempers without ever losing sight of that deep admiration of fiery guitars… …It’s soaring, sullen, frisky, intricate and often galloping, and McNeill’s strong voice carries the narrative with a fully matched level of flair.” [CAPTAIN]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

22. THRESHOLD – DIVIDING LINES

“…And at the core of it all lies Threshold’s defining and most enduring strength, the almighty hook. Groom and West have prioritized the catchy tune above all else but with the critical understanding that it’s meaningless without a strong song around it. This means that after a few listens, the listener is sure to wake up with choruses and ascendant harmonies already worming around in their ears only to also recall it’s song; they’re inseparable.” [LONE WATIE]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

21. VÓRTIZE– ¡TIENES QUE LUCHAR!

A side project of Demoniac’s Javier Ortiz, Vortize feels like the NWOBHM cousin to Demoniac’s blitzkrieg thrashing madness. Both have coexisting perspectives on searching for sense in a world gone mad: the bleaker, more introspective assault of So It Goes and the more open, upbeat feeling of ¡Tienes Que Luchar! There’s that triumphant spirit that only heavy metal could capture, sure, but this is one of those traditional records that feels weighted by the darkness it faces. There’s something very real about it in the way bands like Satan and Slough Feg translate observations to heavy metal–and neither comparison is a coincidence when it comes to the songwriting either.

The soul of the album is draped in melody, twisting and turning around every corner like a motorbike on a mountain pass. Occasional straightaways allow for reflection, delightfully sprinkled with Javier’s inspired choices of instrumentation. The guest musicians blend in effortlessly, breathing fresh perspective into the vision and making the album feel like a labor of love among a few friends that trusted an idea and brought it to life. It’s all heart, and in this world, that’s something you have to fight for. [RYAN TYSINGER]

• Bandcamp

20. QUEENSRŸCHE – DIGITAL NOISE ALLIANCE

“…Digital Noise Alliance is a hands-down massive triumph, the result of a confident band making incredible metal – nothing more, nothing less. As that longtime fanboy, this is exactly the record I wanted Queensrÿche to make in 2022, though I will admit that the bonus cover of Billy Idol’s ‘Rebel Yell’ was unexpected – but also… surprisingly great. If you like Queensrÿche, then you need this album because this is why Queensrÿche is one of the greatest there ever was.” [ANDREW EDMUNDS]

• Last Rites review
• YouTube

19. STRATOVARIUS – SURVIVE

“…this new album is a reliable reflection of Stratovarius as a band more than an assemblage of players. Even more, Survive is a faithful instance of the Stratovarius ideal; that is, as a product of a band that has endured any number of difficult circumstances, adapted, and emerged stronger for it, looking ever upward and onward.” [LONE WATIE]

• Last Rites review
• YouTube

18. HEAVING EARTH – DARKNESS OF GOD

“Like a good anthology, each song has its own story but those repeated phrases and elements that fire off in every song contribute to a larger tale. That’s not to say that Heaving Earth is a one-trick snake charmer. They can kill with a quick-hit poison that takes you out in three minutes with ‘Forever Deceiving Dismal Gods’ just as easily as they can slowly constrict the life out of you with a seven-minute beast-like ‘The Lord’s Lamentations,’ which has an absolutely diabolical opening by the way.” [SPENCER HOTZ]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

17. BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS –
ABOMINATION OF THE FLAMES

“The crux of the matter is actually quite simple: If you like the idea of getting smoked by a smoldering death record that finds a unique way to sew together influences from Morbid Angel, Nile and, say, Sarpanitum into a fully molten venture that sounds equal parts doomed as it does annihilative, then don’t let Abomination of the Flames slip through the net.” [CAPTAIN]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

16. MESSA – CLOSE

“…Messa’s use of detail feels so naturalistic and radiant that if the band were to record these exact songs again tomorrow, they might be radically different. Messa is not building that sort of pristine architecture, then; instead, they seem to be documenting a precognitive type of communication – a musical anthropology of imagined community.” [DAN OBSTKRIEG]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

15. MOTHER OF GRAVES –
WHERE THE SHADOWS ADORN

“If the preponderance of superlatives above didn’t hammer it home, I’m quite enamored of this album, as anyone should be who appreciates the power of the Peaceville Three, or Katatonia, or Amorphis, Hooded Menace, or Daylight Dies. Where Shadows Adorn may be Mother Of Graves’ first full album, but like the shorter In Somber Dreams before it, it’s a brilliant start…” [ANDREW EDMUNDS]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

14. ARES KINGDOM – IN DARKNESS AT LAST

War metal, the subgenre, can be (beyond several crucial cornerstone albums) a sloppy mess. Ares Kingdom does not play war metal in the subgenre sense, but in a more just world, the only thing permitted to be called war metal would be Ares Kingdom. That is, only music that summons the whipping heat and deafening thunder of war and mythic violence as well as Ares Kingdom does deserves to claim such a mantle. On their fifth full-length, In Darkness at Last, Ares Kingdom continues their unbroken winning streak, absolutely tearing through ten songs of blazing, searingly sharp death/thrash that melds utter savagery, gruesome melodicism, and impeccable songwriting into the kind of display of supremacy that, to be frank, cannot be fucked with. Rabid, ravenous, regal death/thrash of the highest order. [DAN OBSTKRIEG]

• Bandcamp

13. THE OTOLITH – FOLIUM LIMINA

Do you miss the emotive violin-driven doom of Utah’s SubRosa? Of course you do because you are a person with perfectly refined taste, just like the League of Extraordinary Idiots that created this list. With the departure of Rebecca Vernon, SubRosa was no more. The rest of the band, however, had plenty of somber musical ideas still in mind, so they created The Otolith and blessed us all with a debut that can comfortably cry alongside the likes of More Constant Than The Gods or For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages. The exceptional violin work dances between slow, lumbering doom and perfectly balances the morose and quiet against rage and crashing heaviness. Plus, where else will you hear Charlie Chaplin’s famous speech from The Great Dictator become even more potent by accompanying it with crushing guitars and weeping strings? [SPENCER HOTZ]

• Bandcamp

12. DARKTHRONE – ASTRAL FORTRESS

“Darkthrone continue to age gracefully on Astral Fortress, and, most importantly, they do it in a way that is still no less than 100% Darkthrone. Amongst cries of selling out or ‘resting on their laurels,’ Ted and Fenriz feel as conjoined as ever in realizing just what Darkthrone has the potential to become. They do so one step at a time, setting their own parameters and promptly breaking them as the music demands.” [RYAN TYSINGER]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

11. AUTONOESIS – MOON OF FOUL MAGICS

“Something you can recommend to fans of At The Gates, Aura Noir, Vektor, Death, Opeth, Dark Tranquility, Emperor, Yngwie, Bathory, Sadus, Mekong Delta, The Chasm, Dissection, Necrophobic, Anacrusis, and on and on. There’s plenty of cross appeal, yet no element feels watered down. Every instrument, every riff is seamlessly intertwined, as if suspended between equal gravitational pulls. Moon Of Foul Magics truly is a testament to the perseverance and potential of underground metal in all its forms.” [RYAN TYSINGER]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

10. ARTIFICIAL BRAIN – ARTIFICIAL BRAIN

“The record boasts a fantastic flow, myriad fabrics and tempers, wonderfully apposite guest-spots, complex whatthefuckery without ever crossing into anything that’s outright overwhelming, and it’s all accomplished in a winningly tidy 46 minutes. What really pushes it to the next level and gives it that necessary infectiousness, though, is the return of the moodiness that gets maximized to an even greater effect in 2022.” [CAPTAIN]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

9. ASHENSPIRE – HOSTILE ARCHITECTURE

“Great art doesn’t need a crucial message to captivate hearts, and a great message doesn’t need wonderful music to make its point, but they sure can make for a truly powerful force when they find that perfect match. In Hostile Architecture, Ashenspire has crafted an album that is as harrowing and horrifying as it is stunning and cathartic. It is a truly powerful force, indeed.” [ZACH DUVALL]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

8. SIGH – SHIKI

“Shiki is an utterly magnificent album that, for Sigh at least, seems almost deceptively simple at first. The reason for that is mainly that the songs are built up from the ground level of riffs, but despite that scaffolding, the additional instrumentation feels just as necessary for the full emotional coloring of the music. If you’re a long-time fan of the band, Shiki is equal parts righteous and cozy; if you’re a first-time visitor, this is a fantastic entry point into the world of one of the greatest progressive metal bands ever.” [DAN OBSTKRIEG]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

7. VOIVOD – SYNCHRO ANARCHY

“If just these basic pieces were in place at this level of quality, Synchro Anarchy would be a good album. But it’s a great album because of all the extra that Voivod adds, each member contributing something that pushes this part of a song or another over the top. And, actually, every member gets first kudos in this regard, as the band is credited with production, a major factor in why these songs hit the ears so effectively.” [LONE WATIE]

• Last Rites review
• YouTube

6. INANNA – VOID OF UNENDING DEPTHS

“While all three of Inanna’s full-length albums are class epochs in their own right, something about Void Of Unending Depths feels closer to the fever dream one would imagine a young Diego Ilabaca had so many years ago. If Converging Ages is a proof of concept, Transfiguration In A Thousand Delusions is a proof of ability, then Void Of Unending Depths stands triumphantly as a vision manifested into reality. It’s a journey worth taking time and again to appreciate both its magnitude and its nuance.” [RYAN TYSINGER]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

5. HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE – OVERTAKER

“We like things a little weird, no? That’s been a huge part of HoM’s draw these many years, and Overtaker definitely cranks that element to a curious degree. First and foremost, it is absolutely bananas hearing mellotron welded to hyper thrash like this, and in the hands of anyone else, it would likely sink faster than a lead whale wearing concrete underpants. Here, however, we get speed kraut-prog catawampustry of the highest order—like ‘Dark Brennius,’ which is thick with classic HoM theatrical oddness, including stacks of medieval keys and howling guest vocals from none other than one-time Hammerer / perpetual Lord Weird Slougher Mike Scalzi…” [CAPTAIN]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

4. BLIND GUARDIAN – THE GOD MACHINE

“These are all solid reasons why tacking a bunch of words to a record such as this could be seen as a wholly ineffective endeavor. However, I’m also the guy who stops the microwave with seven seconds left every single time because I think it somehow adds positive karma to my world, so, yeah, let’s get crazy. For the sake of the attention-challenged, however, here’s a headline that gets straight to the point: Everyone Should Buy The God Machine, Including Newborn Babies.” [CAPTAIN]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

3. IMMOLATION – ACTS OF GOD

“You don’t become a death metal institution well past your 30th year without your core members being among the best, and this record is as great a showcase for Dolan and Vigna as Immolation has released in many a year. Even the pickiest of nitpickers that feel Acts of God is a mite long for an Immolation album would have a hard time finding a filler track to cut. They’re all packed to the rafters with great, purposeful vocals, a container shipload of abrasively catchy riffs, and nutty drumming ranging from blasts to grooving.” [ZACH DUVALL]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp

2. WORMROT – HISS

“Hiss is, from a tonal standpoint, strikingly different from Wormrot’s prior albums, but despite the more unusual elements (chanting clean vocals, squealing violins, jangly guitars with more similarity to Kvelertak or Beaten to Death than Insect Warfare, shades of post-black metal melodics), it is primarily a great goddamned grindcore record. A song like the utterly shit-kicking “Voiceless Choir,” for example, packs more diverse musical payoff into 2.5 minutes than plenty of bands can muster in 30. Hiss is entirely uncompromising and completely exhilarating.” [DAN OBSTKRIEG]

• Bandcamp

1. THE CHASM –
THE SCARS OF A LOST REFLECTIVE SHADOW

“…delivers a terrific sense of explosive urgency from start to finish, and with it crackles an incendiary energy that feels as if Scars had to be laid down NOW to save the duo from detonating on the spot. If this were a competition show, Corchado and León would step to the stage on their own and rip through these 43 minutes with nary an extra breath, setting fire to commercial breaks and judges with demonic fury. It’s this overall sense of raw, incendiary ferocity that not only recalls classics such as Merciless’ The Awakening and Sepultura’s Morbid Visions, it turns back the clock on the band’s discography to the glorious Deathcult for Eternity days.” [CAPTAIN]

• Last Rites review
• Bandcamp