Ah yes, the most fun, light-hearted and gleeful list of them all :
1.) Messa - Close :
Three perfect albums out of three for Messa so far but this might be their most adventurous, diverse, cohesive and fully fleshed-out yet; what a breath of (sandy) fresh air!
2.) Dream Unending - Song of Salvation :
One of my most recent discoveries but I completely fell under the spell of the hypnotizing qualities of this simultaneously blissful, unsettling and heavy record.
3.) Elder - Innate Passage :
Perhaps THE single biggest return to form this year; Elder manage to make doom metal that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and let me tell you, that's not a very common thing around these parts.
4.) Conan - Evidence of Immortality :
Self-described as "caveman battle doom", Conan's reputation preceeds them. Stupidly heavy riffs and tones with classic rock/metal influences that just wanna make you go full goblin mode as the scholars would say.
5.) Deathwhite - Grey Everlasting :
More on the melodic side of doom, what I really enjoyed about this album is how well it transmits that feeling of going through a lonely and gloomy journey.
6.) Hangman's Chair - A Loner :
As gorgeous-sounding as it is heavy and downright depressing in both its sound and themes, this is doomgaze done right.
7.) Primitive Man - Insurmountable :
My least favourite material from Primitive Man so far and yet, their ability to consistently depict the darkest depths of misery through sound so well earns them a spot on this list.
8.) Breaths - Though Life... :
Earning the award for longest album title of 2022, the Virginia-based one-man doomgaze band Breaths offers a very personal concept album that is much more focused on what it is trying to achieve stylistically compared to last year's debut.
9.) Crowbar - Zero and Below :
Never mind the passing of time and the growing of age, Crowbar are still more than capable of bashing your head in with riffs alone.
10.) Jagannatha - Trimurti :
The French underground psychedelic doom trio offer an expansive journey that has a live improv/jam feel to it which I absolutely love.
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