jade

Huzzah, good riddance to another weird year, not only on both personal and professional fronts which basically prevented me from engaging in music writing, but also in terms of metal itself. Weird in the sense that multiple previous EOY luminaries released albums that failed to resonate, while bands that had not clicked for me on earlier albums decided to surprise me. Amidst all the oddity, there was thankfully a degree of cosmic justice and continuing reliability, as old favorites released their best work to date while relative newcomers delivered on the promises and potential for greatness that were teased on their initial releases. Without further ado, here are my 15 favorite metal albums of 2022.

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For those of you who celebrate it, welcome back from the throes of mass turkey consumption, of stuffing annihilation, and of pie decimation. For the rest of you, simply welcome back. I got a huge Thanksgiving gift when I learned Elder released their latest album Innate Passage a day early on Bandcamp, and then it just kept coming when I finally got to hear the totality of the new Spiritworld album. Both albums are putting serious crimps in my already drafted end of year list, so let’s kick off with them for this, the 259th Nine Circles Playlist.

The rest of the gang managed to pry themselves off the couch and offer up the usual assortment of metal maladies to get your body in shape for the holiday rush. We’ve got Jade, Fvnerals, live Der Weg Einer Freiheit, new Nothingness and Shedfromthebody. We’ve got a big ol’ epic from The Otolith, tracks from Esquela Grind, Intranced, and Reeking Aura. You want a little more moody and a little less extreme? Okay: we’ve got you dialed in with some Kathryn Mohr, some Silversun Pickups, and for the countryheads out there even a little slinky funk courtesy of Paul Cauthen. And one of the best bands in the world to close it out.