2022 is over and it is now 2023. I got to play a LOT more music in 2022 than I did in 2021! Here's what I did:
As THE SUN THROUGH A TELESCOPE, I put out the TORTOISE worshipping 2-song single FORM which I'm still pretty happy with (3 months later - that's usually enough gestation time to go from "like" to "loathe" so a good sign there). Check it out HERE!
My dream-pop/indie rock band GREATHUNTER finally managed to release our 2nd album ROAMER which we are also quite pleased with! Not only that, but the standalone track THE THINNING OF THE VEIL, as well as a contribution to the first edition of the OTTAWA GATINEAU COMPILATION SERIES (cofounded by GREATHUNTER's own Andrew Grosvenor). Check out some GH music HERE and the compilation HERE!
The punk/hardcore band CELLAR which was started up last year put out the RUBY EP this year. 5 songs in about 10 minutes! Ya can't say no to that! Check it out HERE!
PALLBEARER INDUSTRY managed to be the most prolific of my bands again this year with UNDEAD ANXIETY (our second full-length release), OVER THE CREST / ECLIPSE INAUGERATION (a 2-songer), and a live recording of our very first show! Said show was also my first time back on the stage since the pandemic (it would have been with GREATHUNTER but I managed to get Covid a week before the show). Awesome to be playing live again and especially with my fellow PI bandmates, both of whom I haven't shared a stage with since high school! Surreal! Check out some PALLBEARER INDUSTRY music HERE!
2023 promises to see some activity from COASTAL PIGS (we have a great many recordings in the can which we will surely release this year.....surely!), HAMN (we have a show booked in June!), and SOME kind of iteration of WORLD WAR 4 (whatever it is, it'll be less thrashy and more death metally). And more from the aforementioned bands as well.
But enough about me! Here are my favourite releases of 2022! As always, in no particular order:
1) BORIS - W / HEAVY ROCKS "As far as W goes...well, their last album 'NO' was a full-on hardcore/sludgefest so, naturally, the only way to follow that up is....incredibly abstract, minimal, and (mostly) very mellow post-rock? Sure! This stuff is quite textured with many disparate parts working against each other, or at least they should. Lots of Wata vocals too (does that explain the album title?). You think you're gonna remain in this one sonic realm...and then the crushingly heavy guitars come in (not til track 5 though).
And then we get HEAVY ROCKS (the 3rd time they've used this as an album title). Sounds like doom/hardcore/crust-punk being played by a garage band. Fuckin awesome. I tend to enjoy everything this band puts out."
2) BIOSPHERE - SHORTWAVE MEMORIES "I became aware of this Norwegian fellow through his collabs with HIGHER INTELLIGENCE AGENCY many a moon ago. Sadly, I keep forgetting to check in with his musical output. Before I know it, years have gone by and I've got some serious catching up to do. Glad I caught wind of this release in the moment because it's just lovely. An excellent blend of ambient, dub-techno, and downtempo groovy beats - all seamlessly blending together from track to track. It's a real journey!"
3) BLOOD INCANTATION - TIMEWAVE ZERO " What's that you say? A pretty cool death metal band has put out an entirely ambient album? You're talking wall-to-wall synths with nary a crunchy guitar chord in sight? You can bet your sweet bippy I'm on board with that! We're talking TANGERINE DREAM type ambience. Real analogue synth, 70s flavours (it really comes as no surprise if you've seen their episode of "What's In My Bag" - holy, what a bunch of NERDS!!!! [I love it]). And, when their next release (which will almost certainly be a return to straight up death metal) is available, I'll be checking that out too because they're pretty damn good at that stuff as well."
4) SOUL GLO - DIASPORA PROBLEMS "If RUN THE JEWELS were a fiery hardcore band, it would sound like this. It's breakneck punk one minute, lo-fi hip-hop the next. A bit of grindcore thrown in for good measure, some dirty soul with dirty horns. Awesome mish-mash of awesomeness!"
5) VOIVOD - SYNCHRO ANARCHY "Easily my favourite of the 80s French-Canadian sci-fi tech/thrash bands! Not to mention one station of the cross that is the Holy Trinity of Canadian Rock (along with SKINNY PUPPY and NOMEANSNO, of course)! So yes, another stellar late-period album from these guys. It was such a shame to lose Piggy so many years ago but his replacement Chewy has proven himself to be an absolute savant when it comes to emulating the very distinct VOIVOD guitar sound. The flavour on here is much the same as their last album - that being equal parts DIMENSION HATROSS, NOTHINGFACE, and ANGEL RAT. Works for me! Keep em coming, les gars!"
6) CAVE IN - HEAVY PENDULUM "The horribly tragic death of CAVE IN bassist Caleb Scofield seems to have drawn an undeniable line in the sand when it comes to the before and after. He was clearly a huge part of the songwriting process in this outfit since this album is quite different from everything that's come before. Not to say there aren't many, many trademark CAVE IN moments on here because there certainly are. Having said that, they seem to have shed all traces of the JUPITER sound. Is that a bad thing? I think it's a rad thing! This album rips!"
7) HELMS ALEE - KEEP THIS BE THE WAY "This band has proven to be extremely gosh darn reliable ever since they reared their incredibly unique collective head. This album features music that is textured, pastoral, meditative, as well as catchy, intense....grungy sometimes? I dunno! Adjectives! It's a great record!"
8) MAMALEEK - DINER COFFEE "Discovered this band as I was taking a look at what the excellent San Francisco-based weirdo metal label THE FLENSER had put out as of late. This grabbed me almost immediately and proved to be constantly intriguing and engaging with its many musical twists and turns. This sounds, to me, like the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie that doesn't exist. Or maybe what would happen if TOM WAITS decided he wanted to front a metal band and wrote all the music for it. Either way, it's jazzy, it's noisy, it's harsh, and it's waaaay out there, man!"
9) KEN mode - NULL "It's safe to say that, if this band of merry-makers put out an album, it's gonna make my list! NULL does not disappoint. It's the tried, tested, and true Km sound with some new elements in the mix (more horns, more synth parts). Some nice, long-form, cinematic tunes as well. Breaks up the usual pummeling quite nicely. Oh, and the opening line - 'I don't feel bad for insufferable people'. Perfect."
10) GREBER - FRIGHT WITHOUT "These cats are so damn feral and beastly, I can't not picture them playing their instruments with femurs and viscera and various ligaments and whatnot. But seriously folks, this dynamic duo are capable of some truly damaging stuff and this album is their best yet. Not only because of the constant, constant pummeling. There's some texture here too! And then it's back to the pummeling."
11) ZEAL & ARDOR - S/T "I heard their albums, saw them live, nothing really clicked for me. This album really grabbed me though. An excellent blending of sounds including blues, industrial, ambient, dreampop - all with a consistent black metal backdrop (this reminds me, at times, of that band SHINING [the proggy one, not the self-harm one]). Excellent vocals too. Equal parts bluesy torch song and shrieking witch black metal."
12) BRUTUS - UNISON LIFE "I always find myself at a loss when recommending this band to someone and trying to describe the sound. It's hardcore....but also new wave, dream pop, post rock, and......I guess we can just call it post-hardcore and leave it at that. Super intense and incredibly epic."
13) CHAT PILE - GOD'S COUNTRY "Been looking forward to hearing what this band would come out with next after a couple of really strong EPs released in 2019. They do not disappoint on this, their first full-length. It's a particularly brutal take on noise rock, that's for sure. Nowhere near as metallic as KEN mode but dipping into that realm for sure with some death metal style vocals here and there and I maybe heard a blast beat at one point? Maybe not. For all of it's metal edge (that was the name of a shitty metal mag, btw), there's just as much post-punk/new wave flavour. Creepy, chorusy guitars and are the drums programmed or is that actually a human playing, I seriously cannot tell??!?!?! Nevertheless, this is a sweet collection of dirty, ugly songs."
14) HOLY FAWN - DIMENSIONAL BLEED "Nice blend of mostly shoegaze with traces of black metal that come barfing through at times. Not sure how I came across this but I'm glad I did."
15) VIO-LENCE - LET THE WORLD BURN EP "Most of the 80s thrashers who are still at - God love em for continuing to put the pedal to the METAL but, more often than not, their contemporary studio work has very little substance to it (I'm looking at you OVERKILL, DEATH ANGEL, TESTAMENT). Such is not the case when it comes to this tightly wound batch of rifferama. This is a stellar tribute to the classic Bay Area sound c/o some classic Bay Area thrashers. These guys still got it!"
16a) PALE SKETCHER - GOLDEN SKIN "The moss does not get a snowball's chance in hell of collecting on the rolling stone that is J K Broadrick! First off, we have a welcome return to his PALE SKETCHER persona after leaving it silent for many years. I guess this would be the only real PS full-length as the first one was basically a JESU remix album. Apparently, this was originally supposed to be released by REPHLEX right before they closed up shop in 2014, so I'm guessing it's been sitting in the barn since then (which would explain the years of inactivity). Backstory aside, this is a lovely mix of unrecognizable samples that have been repurposed into an ambient.....techno isn't the right word but something along those lines. This basically sounds like WILLIAM BASINSKI's 'DISINTEGRATION LOOPS' with a dance beat."
16b) JK FLESH - NEW RELIGIONS OLD RULES / SEWER BAIT / VENEER OF TOLERANCE "Yeah, that's three fresh releases from Broadrick's industrial/dub/techno infused ugliness. Heavyweight beats, brain-shaking bass, and lots of eerie sounds overtop."
16c) JESU - PITY / PIETY "Getting one more in there right at the end of the year! A lovely 2-songer that features all the things we know and love about JESU. The hopeful hopelessness vibes are in full effect here in epic proportions, with each song clocking in at just under 18 minutes apiece. This man cannot be stopped!"
17) MARC URSELLI'S STEPPENDOOM - STEPPENDOOM "An excellent combination of psych/doom featuring a variety of guests, most notably the amazing Tuvan throat-singing group HUUN-HUUR-TU! Trey Spruance, Tanya Tagaq, Matt Pike, Steve Von Till are also on there, among others. I've always thought that throat-singing and doom metal were a hand-in-glove combination (check out the TSTAT 'ORANGE' EP for an example of that) so this is more than right up my alley!"
18) RUSSIAN CIRCLES - GNOSIS "I often forget this band exists which is a shame since I'm always into whatever album they manage to crank out every few years or so. Not that they're the kind of thing you can just throw on. Instrumental post-metal - definitely time-and-place kind of music that demands a little more patience than most stuff. Grindy, almost black metal guitar riffs with a variety of unlikely rhythms going on underneath. I love the cover art on this one too!"
19) DEAF CLUB - PRODUCTIVE DISRUPTION / BAD SONGS FOREVER EP "One can assume that, due to the untimely and horribly shitty loss of drummer Gabe Serbian, THE LOCUST are no more. DEAF CLUB serve as a perfectly fine substitute, filling the unfortunate void nicely. Both bands are equally crazy and spastic - it's in the finer details where the differences can be found. This stuff is more of a bulldozer of heavy riffs (compared to THE LOCUST's screechy, math-rock infused assault). But still with plenty of skronking synths (or synthy-sounding guitar pedals maybe?) and Justin Pearson's trademark nerd-screech to go around. Also, with a song title like 'BUT DOES IT FART?', how can you go wrong?"
20) DEAD CROSS - II "I was pretty hyped for this band when they first came out, then did an about-face when I heard Mike Patton was taking over the vocal slot. I've since come around on their first album. Not sure what changed, I just gave it another chance and it sounded damn good! This one, however, is a huge artistic side-step! The bombast is missed ever so slightly but I'll take these interesting new sonic avenues any day. Surf rock, post-punk, noise rock - it's a well-rounded package! And of course, the grindy hardcore parts do crop up here and there. Not to mention a song where Patton namechecks both SNFU and SNFU vocalist Mr. Chi Pig! Very cool!"
21) BLACK MAGNET - BODY PROPHECY "The fact that I really enjoy this album at age 46 is about as good an illustration as any that my musical tastes never had a hope in hell of maturing. I guess the most accurate way to describe this would be industrial-metal which should naturally send one barfing for the hills. I certainly wouldn't have hit play on this if those 2 words had been side-by-side in the recommendation. However! There's a lot more going on here than a techno beat with some token guitar chords at the end of every bar. Dark and moody EBM meets crushing riffs. This is like if THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL weren't a complete piece of shit! And I'm pretty sure it's just one guy doing everything on this album! Also, a remix c/o Justin Broadrick. Nice stamp of approval right there."
22) KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD - OMNIUM GATHERUM "These nutcases had a total of TEN official releases this year (most live, one remix album, but still!!!)! I've been loving this band for a few years now but a person can only do so much! I like other bands too! Even this particular album starts off with an 18 minute track and goes from there with an additional 15 tracks. Normally, this would be an immediate turnoff for me as, the older I get, the more my belief in "less is more" becomes more and more like religious fervor. But I can't resist these charming dorks. The pure love of all things musical just explodes off of their albums and this one is no exception. They just can't help it, the scamps!"
23) DIAMANDA GALÁS - BROKEN GARGOYLES "This woman has been unsettling the bejeezuz out of us for a few decades now. As is evidenced on this, her latest release, she has NOT lost her touch! Not one iota. Her voice is in as fine a form as it ever was (not bad for 67 years old). Her explorations into blues standards and whatnot over the past few years and releases were not really my cup of tea. This album is something of a "return to form" as it recalls the truly terrifying atmospheres that can be found on THE DIVINE PUNISHMENT and LITANIES OF SATAN. Music that would send even the most corpse-painted of black metal fiends crying to their mommies."
24) NO DEVOTION - NO OBLIVION "Nice blend of the less-heavy side of NIN and the more-anthemic side of TEARS FOR FEARS. All with a kind of shoegazing thread running through it. 80s, 90s....maybe some 70s too! It's all here! Enjoy!"
25) DARKTHRONE - ASTRAL FORTRESS "Probably their most black metal release in many years, though still through the tried, tested, and true NWOBHM filter. No punk or hardcore to be found here, nor is there much of anything in the faster tempo regions. This is slow, crawling, and very gloomy."
26) OFF! - FREE LSD "I was expecting some of that tried-and-true, classic BLACK FLAG style hardcore when I hit play on this. What I got instead? Well...THAT but through a serious stoner/doom filter! Much the same as when BLACK FLAG infamously took on the SABBATH mantle on MY WAR! Was this deliberate?? Actually, this stuff isn't so much SABBATH, more KYUSS meets SOULS AT ZERO era NEUROSIS. Shocking, to say the least! But it was probably time to try something new, rather than rewriting the NERVOUS BREAKDOWN EP yet again. However, that vibe is definitely still present. Long story short - this album rips!"
HONOURABLE MENTIONS - KRALLICE, THE YOUNG GODS, LAUNDER, ALEXISONFIRE, MINDFORCE, THE OTOLITH, BITCHIN BAJAS, HIGH VIS
And that is that. Nothing really blew my mind this year, it has to be said. But a solid collection of releases nonetheless. I can't believe I have anything positive to say about ALEXISONFIRE (I always thought they were the lamest band) but I saw them put on a fantastic show at Bluesfest this summer which prompted me to check out their latest album and it's pretty damn good! They are the RADIOHEAD of the punk/hardcore world. Who knew? Speaking of RADIOHEAD, I gave THE SMILE album a good, honest chance but I just don't get it. What is the point of having a RADIOHEAD side-project that sounds exactly like RADIOHEAD??? Of course, the answer might be - "because we only get to release RADIOHEAD music once every decade if we're lucky so please enjoy this workaround." Fair enough. Happy new year!
