Another great year of Death Metal! But what has happened to the great Dutch Death Metal!
#1 Sentient Horror (US) - Rites Of Gore, these guys aren't ready to knock out my favorite US bands Massacre, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Jungle Rot, Monstrosity, These Are They, or the great Malevolent Creation, and Obituary! BUT, as far as newer US bands these guys are #1 and kicking to get up higher on the above list! What we have here is 10 songs at 44 minutes of nothing but death metal and a great cover song that I believe is better than the original!
2) Unbounded Terror (Esp) - Echoes Of Despair, These guys have been around for over 30 years now but went 28 years silent. In the last 2 years, they have kicked some ass with 2 great albums! Spain is climbing my list of favorite death metal countries thanks, especially to these guys!
3) Pure Massacre (Ger) - Pure Massacre, Germany is back again, and this time with the best new band I've encountered in 2022! Great riffs, great vocals, great music! Let us hope these guys give us more great Death Metal soon and don't change this great sound!
4) Blind Salvation (Pol) - Eyes Of Nebulas, the Poles are making a comeback in recent years! We have Eteritus, Uerberos, Chainsword, Everdead, Hegony, Disarm, Vishurddha, and now the mighty Blind Salvation with 46 minutes of pure, straight-up great death metal!
5) Immolation (US) - Acts Of God, I have been a good fan of these guys, have most of their CDs in my collection, known & respected them since they came out of the womb but never considered them a favorite band in my long history of death metal. But this one is great and to me their best release ever!
6) Cryptic Hatred (Fin) - Nocturnal Sickness, what we have here is 10 songs at just under 40 minutes of great straight-up, pure death metal! As close as they are to the Swedes the Fins have never given me many favorite bands but these guys are kicking ass to catch the great Shrapnel Storm who are at the top!
7) Disfuneral (Fra) - Blood Red Tentacle, not many French bands get up high on my list but this is some really solid great death metal from a new band with only a previous EP from a couple years back. The only negative is it's a little short at 33 minutes but very good death metal so give us more guys.
8) Entrails (Swe) - An Eternal Time Of Decay, another band that has been a big favorite of mine but their last two albums were very different to me. Their 2017 World Inferno made #12 on my list yet their 2019 Rise Of The Reaper came in at #37! They have made some vocal changes over the years that impact me but they do keep kicking ass with great Swedish death metal & 2019's Rise Of The Reaper should be higher!
9) Okult (Cze) - Postmortal Interrogation, these guys have 2019 & 2020 releases out that I wasn't aware of but after listening just aren't grabbing me like this new one. I'm not sure if they've changed vocalists or what but they sound much better to me.
10) Death Apocalypse (Ger) - Scars To The Flesh, these guys gave us a really good EP in 2020 that I have given many plays! Here we have another very good slab of Death Metal from them with members of an old favorite German band of mine, Veneral Disease! Let's hope they keep it up and don't try to fix what ain't broke, great Death Metal!
11) Fear Disease (Bel) - Floodgates, we had a slow August, then Sept hit and these guys jumped out of the womb! Metal Archives has them listed as Melodic Death and never being a fan of MDM I hear nothing but pure Death Metal in this 49 minutes of great stuff but as I've said, I'm not good at genres, I just know I've never liked any melodic!
12) Cryptic Carnage (Mu) - Scriptures Of Torment, in the 8,782 albums by 4,029 artists of Death Metal I have in my iTunes I have not one band from the country of Mauritius! These guys are very appealing to me and although not liked by some of you guys this one really grabs me with great guitar riffs! Only a slight negative is a worthless intro & 2 of the songs have backing vocals I don't care for, otherwise a great 11 songs at 42 minutes!
13) Maceration (Dnk) - It Never Ends..., like Unbounded Terror above, these guys have ghosted us since their 1992 full length, other than a 1995 Promo! What we have here is 9 songs at just under 39 minutes of nothing but pure 100% Death Metal! Don't sleep on this as it is a good solid album!
14) Carnal Savagery (Swe) - Scent Of Death & Worm Eaten + a single, gives us 25 songs at 1 hour & 25 minutes from these guys after good 2021 and 2020 albums! They get a little tricky with their releases, putting different bonus songs on the cd and digital releases, so if you are a fan make sure you get both versions! They are also twin brothers of Sweden's Desolation due to sharing their vocalist Mattias!
15) Jungle Rot (US) - A Call To Arms, another good solid release from this underrated band! These guys are probably the perfect example of a band that doesn't try to fix what isn't broken! They also are great at leaving bullshit out of their music and I thought their 2018 release was their best, but this one is great also, so keep it up JR!
16) Casket Grinder (Col) - Sepulchral Trip, these guys have a good 2020 that I liked a little bit but this one is a great improvement and has really been good to my ears! Plus we get 12 songs at 50+ minutes and that is a great thing! Their country mates Twilight Glimmer gave us one also & last year some Ossuary. Both bands were favorites of mine but didn't grab me like this one does.
17) Corrosive (Ger) - Death As A Process, a band I've been aware of and a mild fan of over the years but started really getting into them with their 2020 album! To me, this one is easily their best and they do it the way it should be done, 11 songs at 44:45 of nothing but pure death metal! Only negative to me is the 17-second intro to song #1!
18) Slaughterday (Ger) - Tyrants Of Doom, I have been a big fan of these guys and really loved their recent 2020 so it was great to get another so quickly but unfortunately, there is just so much other great stuff that I'm not loving this as I much as I did their 2020 album. We get 10 songs at 48+ minutes with the only negative a 2:07-second intro.
19) Necrophagous (Swe) - In Chaos Ascend, here we go, just what we need! Some great new Swede, Dutch, or German Death Metal! Other than a worthless 1:20 intro this is 10 songs at 44 minutes of great quality death metal! With ex-members of the great Entrails, you know this is good! When this came out in January 2021 it was #1 on my list for a while!
20) Last Resistance (Ger) - Tons Of Steel / Made For Kill, tough call here as Metal Archives has this as a 2021 release that we got in late December yet some refer to it as a 2022! I couldn't leave it out as it is some real solid pure Death Metal with 10 songs at 45+ minutes and not one-half second of bullshit!
21) Hegony (Pol) - Turpistic Ecstasy, as I said above, Poland is making a comeback and this is another great solid slab of death metal! Great vocals, great riffs, 9 songs at 3 to 4 minutes each and only a couple negatives! There is one song at 1:07 of nothing but spoken words that I don't understand bands doing and song #6 is titled "Karl" when it should be "Carl"!
22) Corpsegrinder (US) - Corpsegrinder, is a really great release to me! This is labeled Death Metal/Hardcore on Metal Archives and with me never being a hardcore fan I don't understand that, but as I've said before I'm not good at genres. I just know this is some more Cannibal Corpse greatness to me with the only negative of being just 32 minutes long!
23) Hellfrost And Fire (Dnk/US) - Fire, Frost and Hell, what we have here is some really good riffs with vocals by the great Dave Ingram from Benediction fame! Put them on a random playlist with last year's Stygian Dark release and another Rogga band, Echelon vvv with a good 2022 release and they all sound the same to me!
24) Echelon (UK/Swe) - Open Wide The Adamantine Gates, another Rogga band, with Dave Ingram on vocals! Read the above ^^^ as it sounds like twins to me!
25) Wretched Path (Fin) - Heavy Lies The Crown, another good new solid Finnish band with members having experience with many other bands. Very pure Death Metal with the only slight negative is only 30 minutes of death! Scandinavia has really been on a roll this year & the Fins have had a good couple years with Kruor, Revulsion, Slugathor & Cryptic Hatred!
26) Scalpture (Ger) - Feldwarts, these guys have been a favorite of mine, but their previous went down the list and this one has also. I still like it and have given it many listens but song #2 has monks chanting (insert angry emoji here), song #3 has screaming clean vocals but otherwise, this is a good 10 songs at 43 minutes!
27) Infantry (Nth) - Terminal Society, this good band from the land of our great buddy DDM has me confused. At Metal Archives they are labeled "thrash/death" and as I say I'm not good at genres, but they sound Death Metal to me. Only small negative is the guest female vocals on song #3 Destination Wonderland!
28) Teraset (Nzl) - Bones Of Contention, these guys have been around a few years now with 3 full lengths released every other year and a different vocalist on every release! I really like this one, but if you don't like drab, pure, everyday Death Metal don't try it!
29) Infected Plague (Esp) - Horrors Of The Terminal Earth, these guys are a new band but also an old band as they have a 2010 Demo, but nothing else till now. Spain is fastly climbing my list of favorite Death Metal countries with Unbounded Terror, Mass Burial, Deimler, Aposento, Decraped & old favs Neter, Human Carnage, Lapidated, Morbid Flesh & Visceral Damage! Now we have these guys!
30) Demonical (Swe)-Mass Destroyer, these guys are rated the highest at 5*s in my collection but recently they haven't appealed to me like in the past. Are they and the German band Slaughterday both getting a little melodic on me? I don't know as I still like it but not like past stuff from them that I loved. They were one of my favorite bands a few years ago!
31) In Pain (Swe) - The Thing From The Grave, very strange release here! These guys have a 2019 album that in all of my music is at #4 in most plays with 126! As our buddy SourceRa has told us, even your most favorite band can't give you a better album every time! Also, some of the songs have spoken words throughout them that I don't understand bands doing.
32) Sloow (Aut) - Declaration Of War, I've said before I'm not a fan of doom metal, but do like a little slow-death metal at times, such as Asphyx & Graceless. These guys don't really get too doomy or real slow to me and I find it to be decent death metal. A pretty solid release with some great groove. Give song #7 "Total Defense" a listen and it is very difficult not to do some headbanging to it!
33) Inhuman Condition (US) - Fearsick, a lot of experience in this band! Plus, they are on a roll with their first full-length last year and now this one! Good solid 10 songs at 41 minutes of pure death metal with a good cover of the great Metallica song Whiplash & damn does that bring back memories! Let's hope these guys don't sell out like Metallica did!
34) Inner Darkness (Esp) - Descend To Darkness, I'm not much into one-man bands but this guy is good! Other than a worthless intro we have 10 good songs at 37 minutes of good solid Death Metal.
35) Necrom (Ukr) - All Paths Are Left Here, is a very good album! I love the vocals and the music but damn, why do they have to have symphonic or church music in the background of some songs! I want pure death metal! If they didn't have that this would be a great album and easily top 5!
36) Deadflesh (Dnk) - The Fifth Assault, what we have here is some solid straight-up death metal from a band that has been around for damn near 30 years with 3 previous full-length albums that I must admit I have ignored! This one has really grabbed me and don't you love it when you get 45+ minutes of music on an album and with a good cover of the great Bolt Thrower's song Mercenary.
37) Introtyl (Mex) - Adfectus, what a great band! A little bit short at 31 minutes but what you get is nothing but pure, straight-up death metal, no bullshit, no intros or no outros. If I ever lose my hearing in old age this is one band I will continue to watch...as long as I have my vision!
38) Decipher (Nor) - Breed of an Obsolete Kind, more good Scandinavian death from a band with a 2006 demo and nothing since! Labeled Black/Death but I hear Death Metal in this!
39) Those Who Bring The Torture (Swe) - Cosmos Osmosis, another Rogga band, and one thing I seem to experience with any of the bands he is involved in is they don't have consistency in sounding the same. The previous album by these guys had backing screeching vocals I didn't like but he doesn't have that on this release. His other bands are similar, I'll love one release and not like the next, or vice versa.
40) Graceless (Hol) - Chants From Purgatory, these guys had a great 2017 that made #10 on my list, then a 2020 that dropped to #32, and now this one that has dropped farther down! I loved them so much in 2017 and don't know if they are becoming too doomy for me or if I am just changing. I still enjoy them but not like in the past & with the great Remco on vocals, I don't get it!
41) Cryptobiosis (Ger) - Chainsaw Crucifixion [instrumental version], not too often but occasionally I really like instrumental versions of death metal albums and the great Abysmal Dawn used to make instrumentals of most of their releases! This is another, like Canada's Cannibal Invader that does it good!
42) Carve (Swe) - Procession Of Fools, hard to believe it's been since 2004 that these guys did their last album! They have come back with a real good one but again, it is Rogga so you know what you get! This time he does pure death metal vocals and keeps it just as I like it!
43) Homicide (Chl) - Tyranvs, I loved my Chilean Death Metal in the past and along with #1 Melektaus, #2 Orategod, Soulinpain, Cererbus, Diabolical Messiah (who have one due as I'm writing this) & Sadism, these guys were in the top 3 but I've lost them. This is a good listen but not like in the past!
44) Painstorm (Esp) - Devouring Entrails, some good Death Metal from a new Spain band with only a 2021 EP! Hopefully, we'll get some new stuff from them in the future. As I said up there ^^^, Spain is really kicking some ass!
45) Vephar (Pol) - Ascension Through Torture, another really good new Polish band we have to look forward to! This is really a one-man band...with one woman, doing vocals and she is good, in more ways than one!
46) Corpsessed (Fin) - Succumb To Rot, more solid straight-up death metal with no negatives from a successful band with now 4 solid releases! Never a big fan but not on them, on me for having so many other favorites!
47) Carnal Ghoul (Ger) - Back From The Vault, the first full length from these guys and unfortunately, after the death of their vocalist Sven from Burial Remains & Fleshcrawl! They've got 11 songs with a different guest vocalist on each one, including Dave Ingram, Remco Kreft, Leif Jensen, Paul Speckmann & the great Martin van Drunen!
48) War Magic (Swe)-Foreverwar, more new Rogga, nothing special or nothing different, just more good solid Rogga Metal! This time Rogga has joined with members from bands Heir Corpse One, To Descend & One Day In Pain!
49) Oshiego (Sgp) - Jaljalut, another good band that if we didn't have so much great death metal I could enjoy a bit more! Also from the country of Singapore which has given me very little music I like! What we have here is more of what I like, 45+ minutes of just music and it has a bit of a technical edge to it.
50) Revolting (Swe) - Born To Be Dead, of all the Rogga bands these guys have probably been my favorite. This one is more of the same and maybe should be higher but with so much other better stuff it might be lucky to have made my list.
HAD TO LIST SOME GREAT EPs!
Rotten Casket (Int) - First Nail In The Coffin, what we have here is a band with 2 previous EPs but guess what, this 4 song EP has a new vocalist, the great Martin Van Drunen! They are International with German & Dutch blood and let's hope there is another "nail in the coffin" coming! This band is great and if this was a full length it would probably be #1 on this list!
Cerecloth (Swe) - Remnants Of The Cross, I have gotten some good EPs in the last couple of years but this is in a fight with Rotten Casket and Impur to be the best! These guys do some great pure death metal and I love all 4 songs so my fingers are crossed that we get something new from them soon!
More bands with great EPs/Demos, Malevolent Assault (Swe), Flesh Crusher (Swe), Centinex (Swe), DeathCollector (UK), Thyrargo (Fin), Death Reich (Swe), Pesthole (Swe), Hammer Of Gore (Ger), Gravecrusher (Hun), Lennart (Swe), Severe Torture (Hol), Abysmal Winds (Swe)!
