Feature / Music
Scene Point Blank's Favorites: The Year So Far (July 2022)

July 3, 2022

Scene Point Blank's Favorites: The Year So Far (July 2022)
Scene Point Blank's Favorites: The Year So Far (July 2022)

Cheryl's Top 5 of 2022 So Far

Is anyone else exhausted? So tired, all of the time, that even doing things that you like has become a chore. Listening to music has always been a favourite but this year has been tough. It's been tough to find the time to enjoy albums and it's been tough to find the time to enjoy life. But, there has been some slivers of hope in live music making a comeback and people being able to get together in bigger numbers. Let's hope for better days ahead.

Here are five albums that I've really enjoyed so far this year. 

1

40 Watt Sun - Perfect Light

40 Watt Sun - Perfect Light

Svart Records

40 Watt Sun's brand of emotional doom touches on subjects of the heart that are so deep and tangible that you feel as though you are a part of the songs themselves. Led by Patrick Walker, 40 Watt Sun render heartache through delicate compositions that are weighed down heavily by the pressures of live and love and filtered though a doomy lens for all to experience. Perfect Light is an album of retrospection and for this you need perfect quiet, a dark room and only yourself in order to bathe in the light of Walker's voice.

2

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses

Debemur Morti Productions

Blut Aus Nord are never a band to do things by halves and with Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses the French trio have created a Lovecraftian monument to Old Gods and terror. With mastermind Vindsval at the helm, Blut Aus Nord have long been at the forefront of experimental and curious black metal and with this latest offering they are taking their cosmic black metal further than ever before. 

3

Negative Plane - The Pact...

Negative Plane - The Pact...

Invictus Productions

Waiting for Negative Plane's new album was certainly a lesson in patience as it came over a decade after their last full-length release. The Pact... more than makes up for that as it conjures images of curious rituals and cloaked figures covertly casting their spells upon unsuspecting victims. Negative Plane's approach to black metal is curiously disharmonic as Nameless Void's voice moves against the guitars in ways that, on paper, shouldn't work. However, it is so cleverly done that the band create bizarre melodies in unexpected places and the lyrics follow a thrilling path through life and death that are as deep as the best novels of our time. 

4

Thou and Mizmor - Myopia

Thou and Mizmor - Myopia

Gilead Media

Are you even at Roadburn Festival and wondering what the huge gap on the Main Stage schedule is and then you learn that Thou have collaborated with Mizmor and are playing a portion of their secretly recorded album as a surprise for the attendees? If you answered yes, then you would have been blown away by this coming together of sludge and black metal on the stage and gotten goosebumps as the two bands performed. If you answered no, then you still would have been blown away upon hearing Myopia because it is honestly one of the most intense pieces of music to be released this year. 

5

Trhä - Tálcunnana dëhajma tun dejl...

Trhä - Tálcunnana dëhajma tun dejl...

Independent

Tálcunnana dëhajma tun dejl bënatsë abcul’han dlhenisë ëlh inagat, jahadlhë adrhasha dauzglën nu dlhevusao ibajngra nava líeshtamhan ëf novejhan conetsë danëctsë kin, ëf tu dlhicadëtrhënna bë ablhundrhaba judjenan alhëtangrasë shidandlhamësë inkom is hardly the easiest of album titles to digest but Trhä is not a project that set out to be accessible, but rather to channel otherworldly feelings and experiences. Previously unknown and recently unmasked as the person behind several other well-respected bands, Trhä's sole member Thét Älëf uses atmospheric black metal to work through life and all it can throw at them with a masterful touch. 

- Cheryl

Skip to page View as a single page

Scene Point Blank's Favorites: The Year So Far (July 2022)
Scene Point Blank's Favorites: The Year So Far (July 2022)

Pages in this feature

  1. Opening page
  2. Cheryl's Top 5 of 2022 So Far
  3. Christopher D's Top 5 Midyear Review
  4. Dennis' Top 5 Of 2022 So Far
  5. Loren's Top 5 Of 2022 So Far
  6. Piro's Top 5 Of 2022 So Far
  7. Sarah Jane's Top 5 of 2022 So Far
  8. Spyros' Top 5 Of 2022 So Far
  9. Steph's Top 5 Of 2022 So Far

Related features

Scene Point Blank's Favorites: The Year So Far (July 2025)

Music • July 6, 2025

We're halfway through the year: when did that happen?! Luckily for you, SPB is on hand to share the music we've enjoyed most in 2025 thus far. Read on to hear about the records that have made our top list for this year as it stands, and also some bonus … Read more

Shane Herrell: A Tribute

Music • July 6, 2025

Shane Herrell: Rest In Power(pop) (1980-2025) The Rocker I try to live my life with as few regrets as possible. Sadly I never got the chance to hear my friend Shane Herrell karaoke Thin Lizzy’s "The Rocker." As a singing bass player we don’t have enough heroes. It might just … Read more

Unseemlier

One Question Interviews • June 27, 2025

Mike Assatly (Unseemlier - guitar/vocals) SPB: Do you have a preferred model of van for touring? Assatly: Chevy G-20 Gladiator! It was my first van, I got it from my uncle with 115,000 on it. He got rid of it for a new van because it was "old" and would … Read more

Dollar Store

One Question Interviews • June 26, 2025

Dave Slaverave (Dollar Store - bass) SPB: This band hits a lot of styles, all kind of overlapping at the same time. How hard was it to find “your sound” when bringing these influences together? Slaverave: Not very hard at all actually. We're all old-ass adults who've soaked in a … Read more

Golden Shitters

One Question Interviews • June 25, 2025

Matt (Golden Shitters) How nervous were you the first time you played a show? My first show was around 2002. I was 15 years old and it was a basement house party in my hometown of Welland, Ontario. I’d just proved myself to my high school buddies by singing The … Read more

More from this section

Scene Point Blank's Favorites: The Year So Far (July 2025)

Music • July 6, 2025

We're halfway through the year: when did that happen?! Luckily for you, SPB is on hand to share the music we've enjoyed most in 2025 thus far. Read on to hear about the records that have made our top list for this year as it stands, and also some bonus … Read more

Shane Herrell: A Tribute

Music • July 6, 2025

Shane Herrell: Rest In Power(pop) (1980-2025) The Rocker I try to live my life with as few regrets as possible. Sadly I never got the chance to hear my friend Shane Herrell karaoke Thin Lizzy’s "The Rocker." As a singing bass player we don’t have enough heroes. It might just … Read more

Caterwaul 2025

Music • May 13, 2025

Each year in late May, the 4-day party and noise-rock festival Caterwaul takes over multiple venues in Minneapolis. It’s a stacked lineup this year, to put it mildly, with each night’s headliners FACS, Young Widows, Naw, Pissed Jeans, and Uniform -- and that’s leaving a ton of other great bands … Read more