Top Metal Albums of 2022

With 2022 in the rear view mirror, it's time to share your favorite releases from the year. This is for all Metal albums both Christian and Secular. Try to include at least 10 if you can. Go!

I have posted mine below with an image of the album covers and a link to my Rate Your Music page with ratings and comments on each album (give me a follow if you have an account there!).

1. Molder - Engrossed in Decay
2. Cryptic Hatred - Nocturnal Sickness
3. Eric Wagner - In the Lonely Light of Mourning
4. Morbific - Squirm Beyond the Mortal Realm
5. Last Retch - Sadism and Severed Heads
6. Monasterium - Cold Are the Graves
7. Grenadier - Trumpets Blare in Blazing Glory
8. Jungle Rot - A Call to Arms
9. Undeath - It's Time to Rise From the Grave
10. Autopsy - Morbidity Triumphant
11. Saxon - Carpe Diem
12. Paterikon - The Way Down
13. Abysmalist - Vile Possession
14. Trinity - Memories of the Ancient Presence
15. Phobophilic - Enveloping Absurdity
16. Suppression - The Sorrow of Soul Through Flesh
17. Obscene - From Dead Horizon to Dead Horizon
18. Stryper - The Final Battle
19. Temple of Void - Summoning the Slayer
20. Inhuman Condition - Fearsick



SonOfNun's Top Metal Albums of 2022

Blind Guardian was a lock for number one until Insidious came out of nowhere to tie them. After that in no particular order:
Megadeth
Saxon
Traitor
Phobophilic
Amon Amarth
Disillusion
Inhuman Condition
Origin
Sedimentum
The Halo Effect
Eruption
Riptide

Top 10:

1. Sabaton: The War to End All Wars
2. Civil War: Invaders
3. Preterist: Blood Moon Rising
4. Reign of Glory: All Will Bow
5. All Things Fallen: Shadow Way
6. Stryper: The Final Battle
7. Saint: Heaven Fell
8. Trinity: Memories of the Ancient Presence
9. Mosh-Pit Justice: Crush the Demons Inside
10. Traitor: Exiled to the Surface

Others I enjoyed (no particular order):

Terraphobia: Rise
Flames of Fire: s/t
Becoming the Archetype: Children of the Great Extinction
Angelic Forces: Arise
Seventh Servant: The Tree of Life
Testimony of Apocalypse: None Escape the Judgment
Omegashift: Doctrine of Dust
True Strength: The House, the Holy, the Third
Flood: Polarized
Fear Not: Fields of Sorrow
Skid Row: The Gang’s All Here
Xentrix: Seven Words
Advocata Nostra: Per Viam
Theandric: Fight among the Tombs
Les Carlsen: He’s Coming
Lordchain: Surviving the Wicked Storm
Sorrowstorm: Triune Eminence
Obsidious: Iconic
Confessions of a Traitor: Punishing Myself before God Does
Demon Hunter: Exile
Queensrÿche: Digital Noise Alliance
Phobophilic: Enveloping Absurdity
Riverwood: Shadows and Flames
Stratovarius: Survive
Infidel Rising: A Complex Divinity
Hyperia: Silhouettes of Horror
Hatriot: The Vale of Shadows 
Eruption: Tellurian Rupture
Municipal Waste: Electrified Brain
Critical Defiance: No Life Forms
Chemicide: Common Sense
Power Paladin: With the Magic of Windfyre Steel
Arcane Tales: Steel, Fire and Magic
Wind Rose: Warfront
Saor: Origins
King’s X: Three Sides of One
Blind Guardian: The God Machine
Megadeth: The Sick, the Dying…and the Dead!
Hammerfall: Hammer of Dawn
Saxon: Carpe Diem
Voivod: Synchro Anarchy
Sevenoneself: The Treasure of the Crucible
Brotality: The Woods Will End You
Skillet: Dominion
Molder: Engrossed in Decay

I could add Sabaton, QR and Hammerfall, Skid Row and Xentrix.
It was an amazing year for metal and this is just the secular stuff.

Top 10 for 2022:

1: Riverwood - Shadows and Flames
2: Galderia - Endless Horizon
3: Arcane Tales - Steel, Fire and Magic
4: HammerFall - Hammer of Dawn
5: Vanaheim - Een Verloren Verhaal
6: New Horizon - Gate of the Gods
7: Power Paladin - With the Power of Windfyre Steel
8: Wind Rose - Warfront
9: Blind Guardian - The God Machine
10: Ash of Ashes - Traces


There are some releases that could very well have been included in this list if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't have enough time to listen to them:

Aeternam - Heir of the Rising Sun   --- can only be ordered from Belarus and with the shipping costs it becomes a bit too expensive
Ërendil - Ërendil                            --- was a late release, will be released on CD later
Preterist - Blood Moon Rising          --- no CD release (yet, hopefully)

You like Aeternam you should check out Disillusion.

Pethead, I thought True Strength: The House, the Holy, the Third was one of your Top 10 at one point. Were there just too many other great releases?

Sevenoneself wrote:Pethead, I thought True Strength: The House, the Holy, the Third was one of your Top 10 at one point. Were there just too many other great releases?

Yep. It got crowded out.

Black Rider wrote:You like Aeternam you should check out Disillusion.

Pretty good, but when I listen to this style of music I want a good portion of symphonic and/or folky elements. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Had two Christian releases in my top 10.

1. White Ward - False Light
   
2. An Abstract Illusion - Woe
   
3. Kvaen - The Great Below
   
4. Bran - Odcházení
   
5. Bâ'a - Egrégore
   
6. Ripped to Shreds - 劇變 (Jubian)
   
7. Marble Tomb - Dawn of the Vertical Flame
   
8. Grima - Frostbitten
   
9. Flood - Polarized
   

Oddly I'm pretty sure Flood is going to get more listens from me than Marble Tomb, but I am excited to hear what Marble Tomb does in the future.

I think I'm gonna have to revise my list. I've found a few more gems or had things click since then. So much good Metal coming out these days.

Son of Nun wrote:I think I'm gonna have to revise my list. I've found a few more gems or had things click since then. So much good Metal coming out these days.

I went back and added Molder to mine. Gonna probably have to keep updating for a while.

My list is a lot smaller. I think I just missed a lot of smaller bands stuff.

1. Darko US "Oni"
2. Lamb of God "Omens"
3. Broken By The Scream "RISE into CHAOS
4. The Interbeing "Icon of the Hopeless"
5. Becoming the Archetype "Children of the Great Extinction"

A lot of bands I love released albums this year, but the albums just didn't click with me. 
1. Megadeth 
2. Evergrey 
3. Nightrage 
Each of these had good solid releases, but they're probably gonna have to grow on me a little over the years before they're favorites.

I had a pretty unfocused year for listening. Didn't spend a ton of time with Metal, listened to a lot of Synthwave and Electro J-Pop. Weird year.

Scott had a pretty good list this year:

And he has a cool shirt on.

Black Rider wrote:And he has a cool shirt on.

Truth!

My list is not just metal, I have some blues rock and jazz in there too:

The Top 4:   (2 Christian, 2 not)

1. Robin Trower - No More Worlds To Conquer
2.  Preterist - Blood Moon Rising
3.  Life Like Gravity - Break The Silence
4.  Albert Castiglia - I Got Love

The Rest:

5.  Teramaze - Flight Of The Wounded
6.  Sumerlands - Dreamkiller
7.  King's X - Three Sides of One
8.  All Things Fallen - Shadow Way
9.  Reign Of Glory - All Will Bow
10.  Black Leather - Ride Over Death


Honorable mentions:

- Julian Lage - View With A Room
- Talas - 1985
- All For The King - Let There Be Light
- Theandric - Flight Among The Ruins E.P. 
- Fear Not - Fields Of Sorrow
- Tinsley Ellis - Devil May Care
- Light Unseen - Visions of Archetype & Apocalypse


As I discover other artists / albums from 2022, I will make edits here and there.