BravePicks 2022 - The Scribes Speak!
Greg Pratt

Top 20 Of 2022
1) MISERY INDEX – Complete Control (Century Media)
2) KREATOR – Hate Über Alles (Nuclear Blast)
3) VOIVOD – Synchro Anarchy (Century Media)
4) CAVE IN – Heavy Pendulum (Relapse)
5) GUTVOID – Durance of Lightless Horizons (Blood Harvest)
6) KRISIUN – Mortem Solis (Century Media)
7) AUTOPSY – Morbidity Triumphant (Peaceville)
8) TZOMPANTLI – Yaohuehuetl (20 Buck Spin)
9) DEAD CROSS – II (Ipecac Recordings)
10) EXHUMED – To The Dead (Relapse)
11) DEAF CLUB – Productive Disruption (Three One G)
12) CROWBAR – Zero And Below (MNRK Heavy)
13) STRIGOI – Viscera (Season of Mist)
14) ERIC WAGNER – In The Lonely Light Of Mourning (Cruz del Sur Music)
15) RAZOR – Cycle of Contempt (Relapse)
16) KEN MODE – Null (Artoffact Records)
17) BONES – Sombre Opulence (Invictus Productions)
18) CORPSESSED – Impetus Of Death (Dark Descent)
19) GROUND – Habitual Self-Abuse (Hibernation Release)
20) PESTILENGTH – Basom Gryphos (Independent)

Top 5 Brave Embarrassments:

BLOOD INCANTATION – Timewave Zero (Century Media)
Look, it's a whole album of the stuff I don't like on DM albums.

ANNIHILATOR – Metal II (earMUSIC)
Oh Jesus Christ.

UDO DIRKSCHNEIDER – My Way (Atomic Fire)
Fun for him to record, no doubt. But I'm not really happy I sat through it.

GREG PUCIATO – Mirrorcell (Federal Prisoner)
Actually kinda neat, but when your previous band was world-destroying, everything else just kinda leaves listeners feeling bummed.

LAMB OF GOD – Omens (Epic)
I originally had this in my top 30. Cut to a month later and I can't remember a damn thing off it and have had no urge to revisit it. What happened to this band's incredible urgency?

Thoughts on 2022
Misery Index nailed it, didn't they? Although Kreator and Voivod are hot at their tails with incredible records, and Cave In with a shocking return. Gutvoid round out the top five with what I like to see: incredible new blood in DM. Krisiun and Autopsy offer few surprises but do their sounds up like no one else, and, man, Tzompantli crafted some death metal art with their record. Dead Cross and Exhumed round out an excellent top 10 with manic, grinding hardcore and you-know-it gory DM respectively. Another good year all around, one where I found myself falling behind a bit in keeping up with new releases, which is a sign that there's no shortage of great new extremity out there.

What / Who Needs To Stop In 2023
I've been saying this for a while now, but old-dog musicians complaining about there being too many subgenres in metal, bickering publicly with ex-bandmates, forming multiple versions of the same band, all this get-off-my-lawn stuff, it just makes us all look bad. Be like Kreator and Napalm Death and just kick ass.

Metal Predictions For 2023
More fresh blood taking over DM, as Undeath's sudden rise to popularity hints at and the creativity of bands like Gutvoid shows is possible. Bands like Wake and KEN Mode will continue to prove brains and heavy music can co-exist, and Blood Incantation and others will continue taking death metal to outer space and back thanks to the backing of labels like Dark Descent and Transcending Obscurity, who are both consistently proving this stuff can be treated as the art that it is.

Read our BravePicks 2022 countdown where Bloodbath’s Survival Of The Sickest reigned supreme at #1 here.

More Scribes Speak 2022:

Aaron Small