The 30 Greatest BRITISH Metal Albums of 2022
British, British, British, British, British.....
Cryptworm – Spewing Mephitic Putridity
Genre: Death Metal
Released: March 11th, 2022 via Me Saco un Ojo Records / Pulverised Records
With the entrails of prime Demilich oozing all over Cryptworm’s vomitous foul-smelling fetidness (god damn, we love a Thesaurus), Spewing Mephitic Putridity was a highlight in what was a ridiculously good year for old-school death metal.
Be disgusted. Be repulsed. Be anything but ashamed for diggin’ the shit out of such fetid nonsense and revel in the fact that bands like Cryptworm are still churning out death metal as gloriously rancid as this.
Spewing Mephitic Putridity slapped you in the meat-chops with 30 straight minutes of gloriously mindless death fuckin’ metal….what’s not to like?!
De Profundis – The Corruption of Virtue
Genre: Death Metal / Progressive Death Metal
Released: October 7th, 2022 via Transcending Obscurity Records
Why De Profundis aren’t a world renowned death metal act by now is beyond our comprehension. These guys are consistently better at this progressive / technical death metal lark than 99% of all other bands out there. That’s a fact. However, they still don’t seem to receive the dues we feel they so richly deserve.
We’ll just have to take solace in the fact we know how good they are and The Corruption Of Virtue reinforced our opinion. De Profundis wisely let their music to do the talking and they excelled themselves here; fashioning an album that was compact, concise and generally capable of crushing its enemies with as little fuss as possible. At heart, this was simply extreme metal at its absolute finest, with an exhaustive collection of ideas perfectly executed via 9 astonishingly succinct tirades.
Better than 2018’s fucking fantastic The Blinding Light Of Faith? Hard to say. We’ll just have to give The Corruption Of Virtue a few more spins and give it time to bed in!
Eliminator – Ancient Light
Genre: Traditional Heavy Metal
Released: January 14th, 2022
If the snooze-fest that was Iron Maiden‘s Senjutsu (yep, we weren’t fans!) left you feeling cold and in dire need of the warming embrace of some top-tier UK heavy fuckin’ metal then the roaring fire of Eliminator‘s Ancient Light was the album for you!
Twin guitar leads, galloping bass, soaring vocals….Ancient Light had the lot, but it was no mere retread of NWOBHM glories either. Utterly convincing and bursting at the seams with ideas, whether Eliminator were firing on all cylinders – such as on the ironically merciless “Mercy” – or embracing the epic on album closer “The Nightmare of Aeon”, every inch of Ancient Light was trimmed of fat and as lean and taught as they come.
Masters of trad metal!
Fellowship – The Sabrelight Chronicles
Genre: Power Metal
Released: July 13th, 2022 via Avalon
Where to start with Fellowship‘s The Saberlight Chronicles? This album was beyond cheese (even die hard cheese lovers dry-heaved upon getting a whiff of its uber-cheesy stench) and even Disney wouldn’t be brave enough to pop this in their latest saccharine-soaked venture into the kingdom of Arendelle (or wherever). And yet, here we are placing The Sabrelight Chronicles at number 1. No nepotism involved, British or not this album was simply one of the most joyous and empowering things to come out of 2022!
Us Brits aren’t particularly renowned for this kind of Euro-pomp (blame the weather) but we’ll be damned if Fellowship didn’t put a mile wide grin on our sour ol’ faces upon first hearing it…..and we found ourselves coming back for more and more.
Ridiculously talented and 100% committed to lifting the mood of a nation (no matter where you may reside), Fellowship didn’t falter for 12 straight tracks. This was a perfectly balanced exercise in both wonderment and gluttonous overabundance and anyone doubting The Sabrelight Chronicles‘ authenticity needs to just give in to its power….you Scrooge’s you!
Halberd – Parastic Humanity
Genre: Thrash
Released: Independently on May 1st, 2022
Halberd‘s debut album, Parasitic Humanity, had one simple agenda – to get you grooving and the mosh pit moving!
Fast and feral, Halberd‘s ripping blend of thrash and death metal hit fuckin’ hard (particularly on “We Are The Horde”) with the band encouraging absolute carnage on each and every track. While Halberd may not be doing anything new, they do deliver on the kind of old-school, ugly-ass thrash that ignites pits and brings the fun back to swinging your arms around like a demented dickhead. Death by death!
Let’s not forget that “Legion In Arms” – a single released back in September – was a work of genius; a track that galvanised the UK thrash scene by roping in guest musicians from bands such as Acid Reign, Bangover, Devilment Imperium, Tempashot, Thrasherwolf and Worship The Sacrifice amongst others.
Leave a comment