In 2022, Scuttlegoat listened to 666 reecords. This is a collection of Scuttlegoat's favorite albums and EP's among those. They are not bound by genre. In the pursuit of fairness and accuracy, we post our lists when the year is actually over.
Scuttlegoat's Favorite EP's of 2022
Mournful Congregation - The Exuviae of Gods - Part 1 (Funeral Doom, 20 Buck Spin)
Mournful Congregation serve up their usual quality of Funeral Doom with snaking, neoclassical guitar work and a fluid approach to structure and development. The rerecording of an early demo track is a nice bonus.
Worm - Bluenothing (Death / Doom Metal, 20 Buck Spin)
Worm's last album, Foreverglade goes in and out of my rotation all the time and I can never quite make my mind up about how much I like it. With the addition of Phil Tougas at lead guitar, Worm is much shreddier, less doomier and maybe a little more consistent - at least on this shortened length.
Tomb Mold - Aperture of Body (Death Metal, Independent)
Tomb Mold are Death Metal darlings for a reason, but I never quite found they went hard enough on their most extravagant tendencies. Aperture of Body is the most experimental and progressive one yet - hopefully serving as a thesis statement to the next era of the band.
Full of Hell - Aurora Leaking from an Open Wound (Grindcore / Noise Rock, Independent)
If "Full of Hell doing the Jesus Lizard" sounds like something you could be into, you find it here. This is their trebliest, least percussive guitar tone yet and their least heavy album - but it works, it is nasty and yet again, something new from Full of Hell.
Defect Designer - Neanderthal (Grindcore, Transcending Obscurity)
Yes, this is undeniably an EP, even if Grindcore album lengths can be debatable. Still very much a worthwhile release of trad metal infused grindcore, full with the necessary guitar theatrics and other whacky ideas.
Honorable Mentions
Abyssal / Tchornobog - Split
Genre: Death / Doom Metal / Atmospheric Death Metal
Label: Lupus Lounge
Release Date: 25-11-2022
The collaboration between Abyssal and Tchornobog was not something I was expecting in advance, but it is one of the most logical collabs two metal artists could have. The two prime examples of atmospheric death metal sharing a split was just inevitable in the long run. At first, I was very much inclined to view the two tracks as seperate and judged them for their own specific qualities: Like the longform, more abstract build on Tchornobog's side or the groovy odd meter section on Abyssal. It turned out that the work is more cohesive than I had even thought initially, though, with the two works feeling somewhat imitative of each other. It really seems like two artists interpreting the same idea, trying to reach the same goal. It is this cohesiveness that ultimately led me to include the TchorByssal Split in the honorable mentions, despite the production issues - which I fear could have been quite avoidable. Still, there hasn't been much this year that has been this cavernous and so sempiternal in the most abstract ways.
Autopsy - Morbidity Triumhant
Genre: Oldschool Death Metal
Label: Peaceville
Release Date: 30-09-2022
How often do you put a movie on only to then realise that, right now, that kind of quality isn't what you want? Begrudgingly, you take There Will Be Blood out of the Blueray player and grab for the Three-Word-Title Steven Seagal film of your choice. This is why scores can be deceiving. Something does not need to be objectively good to get a high score - objective quality doesn't exist. Something doesn't need to be profound, smart or subtle. It doesn't even need to be perfectly executed. It just needs to be enjoyable and hit the right notes. Autopsy hits these notes very well. Always relegated to the B-Grade of Death Metal, there is an undeniable charme to the punk infused, drug addicted, booze chugging cavemancover that Autopsy have always delivered. Not to say they're not doing well on here - Morbidity Triumphant might be their best album of their comeback era. Murdurous rock and roll grooves are the highlights of the album, but the bumpy high velocity sections serve as an ideal contrast. I'd be tempted to say Autopsy are back from the gutter - but they have never left. And that's why we love them.
Knoll - Metempiric
Genre: Deathgrind
Label: Independent
Release Date: 24-06-2022
It is nice to see a young band that showed a lot of promise on their debut record to actually delover on that promise on the followup. Knoll has managed to surpass their debut in every way and - for the most part - to get rid of the issues they had before. The experimental angle is still strong, but the awkward pace and the sections that we would just have to sit out are gone and in their place, we have magnificiently constructed songs that go well from one section to the next. The way the band commands different tempos, textures and feelings is wonderful and I particularly like it when the band settles into a groovier section. The restraint the band shows in these is also an asset, as Knoll never overcommits to groove. The experimental ideas, like the trumpet that appears in multiple songs, produce a kind of apocalyptic atmosphere more often than not, so the album feels engulfing despite being a relentless pummeling. Last but not least: The vocals are absolutely barbaric. This is a type of high vocal that I can't place into a specific technique, like a mutated miniature pig squeal. After all this praise you might ask yourself why this isn't on the list proper. Knoll made one huge blunder: They end on 4 minutes of unstructured noise that goes nowhere and doesn't seem to have a purpose. A minor quibble, surely - but I do ask myself every time if I should turn the album off. Still, Knoll are one of the most exciting young bands out there. Metempiric is essential 2022.
Sadist - Firescorched
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Label: Agonia Records
Release Date: 20-05-2022
As one of the only extreme metal bands inspired by the Italian brand of progressive rock - Goblin, specifically - Sadist always had a lot to live up to in my mind. Their debut record, Above the Light, is one of my favorite examples of progressive Death Metal, but the band seemed to never be able to replicate its success. The issue is that the stylistic elements are hard to wrangle even when no Death Metal is in the mix: Italian Prog is at the constant threat of not sounding dark, mystical and profound but corny by virtue of using only the cheapest and most silly sounding synths. It seems like Sadist had stopped caring about the corny angle for the longest time, fully embracing badly sounding symphonics and simpler song structures. With some fresh blood on the rhythm section - Jeroen Paul Thesseling on bass and Romain Goulon on drums - it seems that the band has figured out how to bring some aggression, inventiveness and playfulness back into the mix. Firescorched is about everything that Above the Light was, without being an outright copy. That includes the strengths as much as it does the weaknesses - Firescorched appears similarly frontloaded as Above The Light. But I won't complain, because Firescorched is the album I would have never excpected to ever get from Sadist again.
The Lovecraft Sextet - Miserere
Genre: Dark Ambient / Dark Jazz / Neoclassical
Label: Debemur Morti
Release Date: 20-05-2022
The albums that sit comfortably between active and passive listening, in a space where you notice it is on at all times but never quite feel inclined to analyse or follow specific performances are the hardest ones to rate. To put it plainly: Miserere is a vibe. It is a vibe I enjoy tremendously and a space that I love to get lost in. It is less like I am listening to the album, but more that it is around me. Opposition to this could only be ideological ("Music is meant to be actively listened to"), and frankly, it's an ideology I have on occasion subscribed to. At this point however, I believe that an art piece should be rated on what it is trying to achieve, not what I want it to be. It is clear that an immense amount of work, craft and talent has gone into Miserere and that the musicians involved were quite passionate about this unique mix of Darkjazz, Droning Black Metal and Classical Music. Every element, as disparate as it is, serves as another part of the ever involving texture. If less craft and care would have gone into this album, it could have drifted into either direction: Pure banality and unlistenability on one end, and becoming an active listening and sacrificing the vibes on the other. As it stands, The Lovecraft Sextet achieve just what they aim to achieve and do just what they need to do.
#10: Wretched Inferno - Cacophony of FIlth
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Label: Frozen Screams Imprint
Release Date: 28-10-2022
As mentioned in the review, I slept way too long on Cacophony of Filth. I had known the kids other projects and encountered a couple during Slamuary which all had the usual quality you would expect from teens making Goregrind and Slam. On Cacophony of Filth, they strangely get everything right that you could get right about a BDM album. The bass tone is filthy and thick, so thick in fact that the opening notes make my car vibrate in ways that probably make it a road safety hazard. The snare needs to go to a special school and yet is never too loud and fits the mix perfectly. The guitars are percussive but have a nice tone overall and the performances accompanying them are varied and sometimes surprisingly technical - for caveman brutal death, that is. The variety in general is a huge asset of Wretched Inferno: If a thing can be done within that narrow framework of Slamming BDM, Wretched Inferno will do it. A personal highlight is the sudden Goregrind explosion on "Mortal Entombment". Even the bands sample game is on point, as they're short, transgressive and relatively funny. If you like to swing some hammers and slam hard, there is no way around Wretched Inferno.
#9: Chat Pile - God's Country
Genre: Sludge Metal / Noise Rock
Label: The Flenser
Release Date: 29-07-2022
"Damn, thats an ugly drum reverb" I thought to myself when I first listened to God's Country. The odd gated sound on the drums, noticeably artificial and processed, is a choice of course. Very deliberately, Chat Pile make decisions that not only make them uglier, but also weirder and harder to listen to. This kind of deliberately edgy "Zoomer Core" approach to extreme metal and hardcore has often been becried by older generations. But to me, it feels like an approach to musical writing and musical identity that is decidedly more honest. The world is going to hell - or it has always been hell, but we didn't notice. The bluntness of it all - screaming out in agony as to why homelessness exists or that a former McDonald's mascot has manifested in your room consuming drugs - is laughable only at face value. There is no nuance to Chat Pile, only the bitter truth that is as horrible as it is absurd. And it is this surprising lack of nuance that, ironically, makes the album so endlessly quotable.
Purple man, get out of my room.
#8: Scarcity - Aveilut
Genre: Avantgarde Black Metal / Drone
Label: The Flenser
Release Date: 15-07-2022
The Flenser was on a roll in July. Shortly before Chat Pile releases, who made the last spot on this list, the label also released probably the best "Atmospheric Black Metal" album of the year. I have to use airquotes, of course, as most atmoblack listeners probably have zero interest in what Scarcity dish out. The microtonal approach to Black Metal is often frighteningly academic and lacks expression that goes beyond the strict theoretical framework it sets up. Aveilut, however, is a wonderful work of five seamlessly flowing songs. An ever evolving texture, masterfully supported by a strong rhythm that gives it just enough groove and form to appear like actual songs that go somewhere. Make no mistake though: This is a blackened Drone album at heart. There are no melodies to hum and there are no sections to dance or crowdkill to. What you get, however, is what most Atmoblack ironically lacks: Atmosphere. Aveilut ultimately feels like being trapped in a vibrating void, a kind of sensory deprivation chamber where you get just enough stimulation to drift off into cathartic tension.
#7: 40 Watt Sun - Perfect Light
Genre: Slowcore / Singer Songwriter
Label: Independent / The Skippy
Release Date: 20-01-2022
I did not want to admit it in january, but in some way, I always knew that 40 Watt Sun would make this list. Warning's Watching from a Distance is one of my very rare 10/10 albums. It hits a very specific emotional spot - lost love, but without the unnecessary grandiose gestures. The fear of losing each other and drifting apart and for nobodies fault. Warning talked about those feelings not in gigantic epics. Warning's mythology doesn't span countries, it spans to the other end of the living room. Warning never idolised love or attributed any magic to it. And that's what made the album so harrowing. Warning's perspective actually means something.
Perfect Light is the ideal companion piece to Watching from a Distance. 40 Watt Sun make you feel how much time has passed. And after all the heavy emotion, Patrick Walker has survived. Perfect Light shows that despite everything, it is possible to carry on to grow. You might be hurt and some wounds will always show. But you can be happy with who you are and where. If the protagonist of Watching from a Distance can do this, we all can.
#6: Veilburner - VLBRNR
Genre: Avantgarde Blackened Death Metal
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Release Date: 02-12-2022
Initially, I had voiced my disappointment about this new Veilburner album. And yes, I do think Veilburner should consider slowing down. Legend has it that the 3 albums before VLBRNR had been written as a cohesive whole and then released one by one. If I understand correctly, VLBRNR supposedly is the start of another trilogy. We will see if Veilburner can keep the quality up with a release schedule this frequently.
At the same time, I can only reiterate that nobody does what Veilburner does. Similarly to Chat Pile, Veilburner are not afraid of doing things that are usually considered to sound silly. Unlike Chat Pile, Veilburner's main goal seems to be musical exploration. VLBRNR is stuffed with musical timbres and ideas that the more mainstream wing of the metal subculture would probably find unbecoming of the genre. Veilburner love old westerns, 50s sci-fi films and old horror movies but more importantly, they don't only like the hollow visuals of them: They like how these movies sound. Veilburner love to treat their guitars and vocals in unexpected ways. On VLBRNR they trade the slowly, almost puzzle-box like songstructures of their previous album for a groovier, syncopated approach. That the band is able to make their stylistic obsessions work in this new context is impressive and despite my worries, I am stoked to see what they'll do next.
#5: Imperial Triumphant - Spirit of Ecstasy
Genre: Avantgarde Blackened Death Metal
Label: Century Media Records
Release Date: 22-07-2022
For Imperial Triumphant, I knew that my expectations were probably too high. They had made my favorite album of 2020 and one of my absolute favorites of the decade with Alphaville. The difference in album cover design also signaled to me that, in some ways at least, the approach would be different. The album cover reminds me of more conceptual art from the 60s and 70s that references the 20s and 30s. It seems to me that in some ways, Imperial Triumphant have moved forward musically. In time, that is. A lot of their non-metal influences seem to be more contemporary than before. There is a Lounge Lizards/esque jerkyness to the whole thing and more than before, the band embraces noise collages and Penderecki style aleatorics for suffocating effect. This comes with the challenge that Spirit of Ecstasy is not particularly riff oriented. Even when the band plays more rhythmic material, the chosen production style makes it more of a pulsating mass. Spirit of Ecstasy is less musical and more about the vibe of it all. Only with repeated listens did the album open up for me. Beyond the complex and dissonant harmony, it is particularly the rhythm section that my ears always gravitate to. If you want bass to play a more central role in extreme metal, this is probably the album to check out this year.
#4: Wormrot - Hiss
Genre: Grindcore
Label: Earache Records
Release Date: 08-07-2022
We at Goatreviewâ„¢ have always tried to champion the genres most scoffed at by the metal public. The one that metal's mainstream audience seems to have the most negative preconceptions about seems to be grindcore. In recent years, some grind acts have made some buzz in the more enthusiastic and nerdy circles of the metal scene but the mainstream seems to still think that grindcore is icky and made by talentless edgelords. I feel with Hiss, Wormrot have made spewing this narrative at least a little harder. Wormrot are clearly incredibly talented musicians: They're tight and creative. Their songs have direction. Their songs have, as the metal normie likes to say, riffs. But Wormrot does more than simply rip your face off. Over the course of about 33 minutes, the album morphs from a hardcore inspired riff fest to an emotional avantgarde grind record, full with abstract noise scapes and contemporary classical violin eruptions. Almost like the band doesn't only manage to sell Grind to the normies, they also attempt to sell the idea of metal as art - something many people in the scene are still very much opposed to. Luckily, the band never drops the ball. Never is the album self-indulgent, self-serving or even drops the momentum. I would still pick Voices over this personally - it is a bit tighter and the emotional beats connect stronger, in my opinion. But as the last album Wormrot will make in this formation, it is the ideal thesis statement and album to go out on.
#3: Aeviterne - The Ailing Facade
Genre: Atmospheric / Industrial / Post Death Metal
Label: Profound Lore
Release Date: 18-03-2022
In march, the year 2022 seemed dreadful. Sure, there had been some good music here and there, but March through April is usually when it really heats up and hard decisions have to be made about what to commit to and what not. In march, we basically only had Aeviterne in the extreme metal realm. For that reason, I wrestled with the thought of The Ailing Facade seeming better than it actually is for a long time. Did I only like the album so much for a lack of alternatives?
I ended up returning to Aeviterne though. Again and again. While it never ended up being an album I would replay immediately, it would worm itself back into my mind and end up being replayed. The Ailing Facade is maybe not the flashiest album to put on a year end list. Structurally, it approaches Death Metal from a very unique point though. Other than most Atmospheric Death Metal acts, it seems like Aeviterne don't try to make Death Metal atmospheric by force. Instead, they seem to view Death Metal as a fundamentally atmospheric affair. After all, what is atmosphere beyond suggesting a space and a feeling connected to it? The somewhat industrial soundscapes are maybe different than the abstract obsessions or nature worship of other atmospheric acts, but ultimately, they convey exactly what the album cover already suggests: A lack of understanding and clouded vision of an increasingly alienated world. By always being rhythmically clear, the band manages to tell stories through their songs that go beyond what the words might suggest. The Ailing Facade is maybe the most cinematic album of the year for that very reason.
#2: Cécile McLorin Salvant - Ghost Song
Genre: Vocal Jazz
Label: Nonesuch Records
Release Date: 04-03-2022
It seems like it is becoming a tradition that I am placing something non-metal high up my list. I often suspect that it is not that I like Heavy Metal more by default than other genres, but rather that I have an immense amount of cultural context for the genre that I don't have for others. So often, the albums from other genres that I end up liking hit me on a very primal level: less about interacting with the history of their own style, less about subversion and more about what they do to me in the moment. Now, I do have some context for jazz - I took classes in Jazz History while in University and I have played it at Jam Sessions here and there. But still, I can say that Cécile McLorin Salvant just hits me on a gut level and in ways that no other albums have done this year.
Ironically, the album is very much playing with conventions and Jazz History. The way rearranged Jazz Standards meld with English Folk music, Kate Bush covers or the minimalism of Steve Reich could be viewed as an ironic deconstructivist effort. However, I feel the album rather feels like a loveletter to music itself. Ghost Song is a holistic approach to music where Jazz is not the be all end all, but just one way into music - everything is Jazz, and Jazz is everything. It would all fall apart if Cécile wasn't such a skilled singer and couldn't gather such talented musicians around her, of course. It is rare that an ensemble is this talented but also clearly shows how much they love music in ever note. Ghost Song is the kind of album that, independent of genre, makes me remember why I myself became a musician and why I think about music so much.
Album of the Year 2022
Messa - Close
Genre: Doom Metal / Progressive Rock
Label: Svart Records
Release Date: 11-03-2022
It has been a long time since Messa's last album. Messa was already the best band of the small "Female Fronted Stoner Doom" wave that happened around the time for their willingness to be different and more personal. Feast for Water and debut Belfry had been takes on Doom Metal that attempted to infuse it with Dark Cabaret and Jazz ideas. Similarly to a lot of other 70s worship, Messa's guitars have never really been all that heavy. There is a gentle fuzz to the guitar playing that nicely scales with volume, leaving room for dynamics. It is not really surprising then that the band dials back the heavyness even more on Close. I am almost tempted to say that Messa aren't really metal anymore. However, they are more doom than ever: The mood has never been heavier on a Messa album. The album is a showcase about how to get to that smoky, depressed Doom Mood. From the jazzy solo in the opening song, to the MENA instrumentation in songs like "Orphalese", the trebly almost alt-rock guitars of "Rubedo" or outright dropping the distortion out in big parts of "0=2" so vocalist Sara's vocals can shine the best, Messa never forgets what Doom means and how it should sound. As a huge Doomster, no album gave me what Messa gave me this year.