Any recommendations of new obscure gems are welcome here!

Some really good one's here, and some I need to check out myself here are a few I would recommend:

In Aphelion - Moribund (Melodic black)
The Spirit - Of Clarity And Galactic Structures (Melodic black/death metal)
Hath - All That Was Promised (Death metal)
Non Est Deus - Impious (Melodic black metal)
Darkened - The Black Winter (Death metal)
Vorga - Striving Toward Oblivion (Black metal)

If you want some weird death metal, listen to Urushiol

Great records 👍

Lord Belial - Rapture it's a decent album, not their best but it's worth a listen for sure

Nice list man Cool to see Hath, Lord Belial and Immolation on here, I really like their 2022 albums. And thanks for recommending Disfuneral to me earlier, it was some good stuff! I badly need to check out Vorga and Sakis Tolis's solo album.

As far as my recommendations go, I highly suggest Kvaen - The Great Below. Brilliant melodic black.

Written by Qualeen on 03.06.2022 at 13:07

As far as my recommendations go, I highly suggest Kvaen - The Great Below. Brilliant melodic black.

Yo! Brilliant is an understatement! Thank you for reminding me that I needed to listen to this.

This is the best I've heard this year! 10/10 for sure (see my rant on that album thread)

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 29.05.2022 at 16:10

Some really good one's here, and some I need to check out myself here are a few I would recommend:

In Aphelion - Moribund (Melodic black)
The Spirit - Of Clarity And Galactic Structures (Melodic black/death metal)
Hath - All That Was Promised (Death metal)
Non Est Deus - Impious (Melodic black metal)
Darkened - The Black Winter (Death metal)
Vorga - Striving Toward Oblivion (Black metal)

I've now added 50 noteworthy releases of 2022 (including my top Clandestine Cuts picks so far).

Thanks for the recommendations, by the way. Almost all of those albums made it onto my list!

It's interesting how our tastes appear at first pretty similar, but upon closer inspection there are many differences. For example, I think you like prog, power and rock more than I do, while I generally like more death metal than you do. My appreciation for black metal has grown a lot, so that I think we have a fairly similar taste in that regard. (Black metal comprises the most of the releases in this list at moment - much to my own surprise!) For doom, you seem to like the slower, more mellow side (like Arđ and Messa) while I like the catchy, crushing side (like Lucifer's Fall).
I've also started getting into a lot of sludge/post and stoner, which you seem not to be much a fan of, I think.

Hopefully I assessed your tastes somewhat accurately What are your thoughts?

Written by F3ynman on 17.06.2022 at 03:02


I've now added 50 noteworthy releases of 2022 (including my top Clandestine Cuts picks so far).

Thanks for the recommendations, by the way. Almost all of those albums made it onto my list!

It's interesting how our tastes appear at first pretty similar, but upon closer inspection there are many differences. For example, I think you like prog, power and rock more than I do, while I generally like more death metal than you do. My appreciation for black metal has grown a lot, so that I think we have a fairly similar taste in that regard. (Black metal comprises the most of the releases in this list at moment - much to my own surprise!) For doom, you seem to like the slower, more mellow side (like Arđ and Messa) while I like the catchy, crushing side (like Lucifer's Fall).
I've also started getting into a lot of sludge/post and stoner, which you seem not to be much a fan of, I think.

Hopefully I assessed your tastes somewhat accurately What are your thoughts?

I think your assessment is pretty much spot on At the beginning I did listen to alot of progressive, psychedelic and hard rock, starting with the late 60's and 70's, I was a big fan of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jethro Tull, Cream, Hawkwind, and Pink Floyd, which progressed to more experimental stuff once I discovered the Krautrock scene, and I also started listening to heavier stuff like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Rush. I always had a thing for the 70's folk rock scene too.

Eventually my tastes got heavier and I started listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica and Slayer, and all those 80's thrash and heavy metal bands, which I listened to for a good few years, then a friend randomly introduced me to the Norwegian black metal scene, which I surprisingly took an instant liking too, then after listening to the same bands over and over I decided to start scouring the Internet for new extreme metal bands, and discovered death metal, eventually this led me to discover this site a few years back. I've been using it as a source on a daily basis ever since.

It's only since discovering this site that I've been listening to more obscure bands, and genre's like sludge, deathcore, tech death, gothic, symphonic etc, occasionally I go to my softer roots where I began. So my music taste has grown over time.

Sorry for the long comment

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 17.06.2022 at 08:16

I think your assessment is pretty much spot on At the beginning I did listen to alot of progressive, psychedelic and hard rock, starting with the late 60's and 70's, I was a big fan of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jethro Tull, Cream, Hawkwind, and Pink Floyd, which progressed to more experimental stuff once I discovered the Krautrock scene, and I also started listening to heavier stuff like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Rush. I always had a thing for the 70's folk rock scene too.

Eventually my tastes got heavier and I started listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica and Slayer, and all those 80's thrash and heavy metal bands, which I listened to for a good few years, then a friend randomly introduced me to the Norwegian black metal scene, which I surprisingly took an instant liking too, then after listening to the same bands over and over I decided to start scouring the Internet for new extreme metal bands, and discovered death metal, eventually this led me to discover this site a few years back. I've been using it as a source on a daily basis ever since.

It's only since discovering this site that I've been listening to more obscure bands, and genre's like sludge, deathcore, tech death, gothic, symphonic etc, occasionally I go to my softer roots where I began. So my music taste has grown over time.

Sorry for the long comment

Nice! Yeah I've never really listened to prog rock other than Pink Floyd. I quickly became attracted to the fast and the dark music

And no need to apologize - I love long conversations!

Now nearing the end of the year, I'm revisiting my top picks of 2022.
I've arranged a bit already, but I dont guarantee it will be set in stone like this until the end of the year.
At the moment, the top ten are my absolute favorites of this year, while the top 30 are all pretty much in the running for their respective genre awards and will be revisited ASAP!