Best Metal'ish albums of 2022

We use the term Metal’ish because some of our favorite albums could be considered metal adjacent, not metal necessarily, but awesome none-the-less and worthy of this list.
We are always on the hunt for the next awesome metal album and this year there was no shortage of great stuff, in fact, this list could have been a lot longer.
Finding all these albums on our own would be near impossible. What we do is wait until all the YouTube metal nerds put out their metal lists and we watch them - 20 or so videos so far -  and any albums we haven’t heard yet, we check them out. Basically we let them find all the good albums that we missed and then check them out and see what we think.
The criteria for this list is easy: is it a kick ass album? Yes or no?
If no, then it’s probably power metal.
If yes, we listen to it until we get sick of it.
Anyways, here is the list of top metal’ish albums of 2022.
We are reversing a trend and instead of making you wait to see what is #1, we will just start there…
 
#1 - The Best Metal’ish Album of 2022 is: Dream Widow - S/T

The reason this album is #1 is because it has become the great forgotten album. Why? Two weeks or so after its release, Taylor Hawkins passed away. This matters because Dream Widow is a Foo Fighters side project. That’s right, if you didn’t know already, arguably the best metal album of the year was done by one of the biggest rock bands in the world and it’s a really great album.
The music sounds like a playlist of the bands that Dave Grohl idolized in his younger punk/hardcore days. So, the songs sound like Sabbath, Sepultura, Slayer, Minor Threat, Metallica, etc. A metal album that harkens back to legacy bands, while also keeping the material original and stellar. It’s a kick ass album and we have no idea why we are the only ones who seemed to have noticed.
You can listen here:
https://youtu.be/mscdH3077Cs

#2 - Most played album of the year goes to: Russian Circles - Gnosis

This band is the reason why we used the term Metal’ish. Are they metal? Not sure they are but whatever they are, they kick major ass. This is a band we were introduced to years ago but had no interest in, for one reason or another. That all changed when they released Gnosis, because, goddamn! It’s a great album.
For those unfamiliar with the band, they are a three-piece instrumental band, which includes the guitarist from legacy mathcore legends, Botch. Just two guitarists and a drummer and they make enough melodic racket to please any fan of hard-hitting riffs and well written songs. 
Check it out here, you won’t regret it:
https://youtu.be/YJHzoLBLY8g

#3 - Might actually be the most played album of 2022: King Buffalo - Regenerator

Is stoner rock, metal? That’s a question many have asked and few have answered completely, probably due to being high.
The genre of stoner rock pretty much ran out of ideas once Kyuss and Clutch brought it to underground popularity. We're not saying it’s a dead genre, there are literally thousands of stoner rock albums released each year and when we put them on, we get bored, real quick, because most bands aren’t doing anything different or original. The two exceptions: GOGOLAK, aka our stoner rock side project, lol, and King Buffalo.
Discovering King Buffalo this year, via their video Mammoth, is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only is their new album one of the best of the year, it turns out they have been around for years! And have put out a ton of great albums. So, not only have we listened to Regenerator a ton, we’ve dug into their catalogue, and turns out they’ve been making great albums for years.
What makes them better than other stoner rock bands?
Originality and talent.
Check their album our here, you’ll thank us later:
https://youtu.be/Nlo5321RJOI

#4 - The most surprising album to hit this list: Spirit World - Deathwestern

This is an album that kept popping up in our YouTube feed and we thought: hell no, we're not listening to that album, forget that!
Well, after it popped up on a couple metal nerds YouTube lists, they made it sound pretty dope, so we had to check it out.
Turns out they were right, we were wrong.
We did very much listen to this album and are listening to it right now. It’s so good.
Definitely harkens back to early 90s metal and hardcore. Super aggressive, chuggy, a mix of hardcore and metal, aka metalcore but done with originality and with a weird western theme which we choose to ignore, due to our lifelong hatred of anything country’ish.
You like metal? Then you’ll dig this:
https://youtu.be/nd74ifxCFoc

#5 - It’s a toss up between this one and the next one: White Ward - False Light

If you haven’t heard of this band before, we understand. We’d never heard of them either.
What a discovery this album turned out to be. We guess the band slips somewhere into the progressive/experimental metal side of things, but there is a lot of breathing room between the dank and heavy riffs and the saxophone solos. Yes, you read that right.
We keep going back to this album, it just keeps drawing us back.
We guess it just has just enough weirdness and originality for us.
A treat for the ears:
https://youtu.be/yc1-qRCMmbQ

#6 - Probably should be the #1 album: An Abstract Illusion - Woe

We don’t toss around a word like masterpiece, lightly, in fact, this is the only album on the list we would say that about. A glorious, punch in the face.
We don’t even know what you would call it? Experimental Progressive Death Metal?
Good from the opening notes all the way to the end.
Why is it not #1? Too punishing for too long, not enough breathing room between the pummelling and kick to the gut riffing.
A masterpiece of: talent, songwriting and technical precision.
Inspiring and crushing:
https://youtu.be/PT1CmnjKTW4

#7 - Most unnerving album of the year: Chat Pile - God’s Country

It’s literally impossible to put out anything metal-related that’s original, it’s all been done and everything is just a combination of earlier work by better bands.
Or so we thought, until we were sent this album by Neil, he highly recommended it.
And so do we.
It’s heavy in a unique way, sounds like nothing else, which is strange because we didn’t think it was possible. The vocalist is unhinged and makes us feel awkward because it sounds like he’s always on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Play us a song from this album and we’ll know immediately who it is. Can’t say that about most bands.
A unique listening experience:
https://youtu.be/E0YQ2F_ejnY

#8 - Not necessarily metal but quite delightful: Crippled Black Phoenix - Banefyre

Another band we were introduced to years ago but just never got a taste for. That was, before we heard the new album. Engrossing, well-written, a combination of emotional heaviness and stunning riffs, making a dirty wall of sound that keeps you entranced.
We really can’t say enough about this album or the band itself. Add this band to the list of bands we need to see, asap.
Possibly the most accessible album on this list:
https://youtu.be/A7V7H2_GL1I

#9 - The only album on this list we still haven’t made it all the way through: Dead Cross - II

Why is it on this list?
It’s a kick ass album of weird experimental hardcore nonsense. And we love it.
We’ve listened to the first couple tracks a lot but it’s not an easy listen.
An amazing album, not for dinner parties.
Who are we kidding? We’d totally play this at a dinner party:
https://youtu.be/btExOmmsDcM

#10 - Only black metal on this list, and it’s American?: Morbikon - Ov Mournful Twighlight

You can add black metal to the list of genres, like stoner rock, where bands ran out of ideas after bands like Mayhem, Emperor and Dark Throne brought it to the masses. Everyone is just making a copy of a copy at this point.
So, is this album that much different than all the others?
Not really, but it’s a kick ass album and features one of our favorite drummers of all time, Dave Witte (Discordance Axis, Burnt By The Sun, Municipal Waste) and now Morbikon.
If you like black metal, you’ll like this album. It’s that simple.
We actually do really love this album:
https://youtu.be/rNiHR-CJApo

#11 - This shit is intense: Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems
Add hardcore to the list of genres that has been done to death. But, we love hardcore and are looking for bands that do something different or are just unforgettable.
Soul Glo land in both categories, creating music that is uniquely their own, heartfelt and fucking intense.
Modern hardcore done right.
We love it:
https://youtu.be/SeCgkBNOSSY

#12 - An Industrial band, are you kidding me?: Author and Punisher - Kruller

We don’t know how we discovered this band, think they just kept coming up on our YouTube feed. First video we ever watched had us enthralled, it was absolutely mesmerizing.
See, it’s not a band, it’s just a dude. A really smart one, because he made his own instruments to get the messed up sounds only he could hear in his head.
It’s like nightmare music, brought to life. Very dark and thumping and brooding, just a mixture of weird sounds that when combined, could arguably called music. 
Only one band can sound like this:
https://youtu.be/zlZyFLX7VdE

#13 - Most self-serving album on the list: UNKNOWN ENTITIES - The Eulogy

Yes, this is the dark, creepy and messed up album everyone has been waiting for. You’re welcome.
Lol.
Two weeks before Hallowe’en, while under the influence, we decided we should make a Hallowe’en album.
It actually had to be less than two weeks, because we’d still have to mix it and get it up before the 31st, which somehow we actually did.
And it’s our most popular album to date.
Funny how that works sometimes.
If you like messed up music, listen up:
https://youtu.be/43nmSqWN88w

And that's the list! Don't take our opinion about it, check it out for yourself, there is so much good stuff on this list, we promise.

Honorable mention goes to: Mass Worship, Panzerfaust, Clutch, Crowbar, Dark Funeral, Absent in Body and KENmode, for making awesome albums that I just didn't feel like writing about.