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
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
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...
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
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...
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
