Interesting list, quite different to Decibel's top 40. Haven't heard quite a few of these so time to get listening:

https://www.popmatters.com/best-metal-albums-of-2022

Interesting! Lots of good stuff on there. Besides Sigh, who I have never gotten along with, I can't argue with that top 5 at all.

I always look forward to The Quietus' list, they always have tons of stuff you've never heard of.

Good lists.

Aeviterne on 1 eh? Awesome seeing that album getting love. Based on that - and Sigh on 2, I'll definitely have to check out the albums I don't know.

I can never understand yearly lists that come out before the year is over, do they just expect everything released in December to be shit?

A lot of media actually receive albums before their release for that very reason. However, not all bands and labels send these to every media. So a lot of media don't get to hear everything, especially not stuff from late November and December. For that reason, I also tend to agree with you.

Some bands also tend to avoid releasing music in December for that reason.

Celebrating Judicator for sounding like Blind Guardian, and then not including a stellar Blind Guardian release in your list is an unusual move.

Love the shout out to the Scarcity record-that one is a strong contender for my year end list for the poll here. Probably my debut of the year as well (if that is a part of the poll).

I quite liked the Negativa and Locrian albums but im surprised to see them here.

Listening to Ashenspire now based on this list and i dont know what to make of it. I like the violin and jazzy instrumentation but not sold on the vocals and lyrics yet at all

I like a few of the records listed here, and can understand the inclusion of others. Love the newest Sigh record of course, but I didn't really enjoy the Aeviterne album enough to include it in my top 20 records of the year. Not a bad record though. Just not #1 of the year material for me.

No kidding. And their description of the album makes it sound like the worst Blind Guardian album ever.

Not including Deathspell omega is a weird choice but ok lol..

However that Scarcity album is def a top 20 for me

Great list! Seems like they chose a lot more experimental or avant-garde works for their top 20, and I'm all for that. Sigh, Aeviterne, Scarcity, Blut Aus Nord, and Artificial Brain are all solid choices. On the other hand, Ashenspire didn't do much for me when I heard that, but I can see how it would have fans.

I haven't heard some others on the list, but they do sound intriguing. I'll have to get listening.

I haven't heard any of the albums on that list, and I haven't even heard of at least half of the bands on there. Seems like it's a lot of avant-garde stuff which arguably isn't really my genre.

Same here. I'm not sure how these sorts of lists are normally put together, so I may be wide of the mark here, but it looks like only two people were involved with this. I'd have to wonder how many genres / albums got a look in. I'm not sure it's any different than randomly picking two lists from the album of the year poll we'd do here. Not that I really put much stock in these sorts of lists anyway.