At the beginning of the year, I followed new releases in my favorite subgenres (mostly of doom and black metal) of metal music, but then I was not able to listen to much music here in Ukraine. At first, I couldn’t listen to any music at all because I had to have good audibility around me and "free ears" 24/7 in order to follow air raid sirens outside the window and always be prepared to run to the bomb shelter/or at least to the safest place in my flat, then we got a possibility to use special telegram channels/special mobile programs on the mobile phone - when you have a possibility to put your phone on vibrate or to see a message about those alerts on the screen - but still, there were many periods of time when I was in no mood to listen to anything but the voice of my closest relatives who, fortunately, are in relative safety (as much as it can be "safe" when you live in a world where there are nuclear weapons...) in another European country, - so, anyway, I must say that I rarely listened to music this year and almost did not follow the new releases, and even if I listened to new music after the beginning of the full-scale war, it was only music from Ukrainian non-metal artists (and purchases of their releases in many cases meant that part of the money would go to humanitarian aid donations to those people from Ukraine who are refugees in this war and who lost their homes/their health. I know, there have been metal artist from Ukraine who also donate, but I only follow Ukrainian metal artists in doom metal genre and there are not many of them these days; as for Ukrainian black metal, I stopped interested/discovered it long time ago), hope this is understandable.
The only month when I listened to metal relatively often was the month of mid-year poll - it was a great motivation to vote in the poll for the best albums of the 90s, and I saved the list with the results of that poll for the best times to discover interesting metal albums from that amazing period of time for metal music of my favorite genres. Thanks a lot again for this!
And even if I don't have a possibility to vote in this "Best albums of the year of 2022" poll, it will be interesting to see the results of the best albums of 2022 here on MA, and maybe I will find some interesting albums here from subgenres I usually follow and will be able to support a few bands from some other countries.

2022 ALBUMS

BLACK METAL
- Sothoris 'Wpieklowstapienie' (!)
- Dark funeral 'We are the apocalypse'
- Vanum 'Legend' (!)
- Owls Woods Graves 'Secret spies of the horned patrician' (!)
- Schrat 'Seelenfresser' (!)
- Storm Kvlt 'Europas weg zum grab' (!)
- Nokturnal Mortum 'To lunar poetry' (!)
- Eldritch (UK) 'I shall raise my burning sword' y 'Altar of the nameless ones' (!)
- Bannerless 'Mighty winds shall carry their names' (re Eldritch)
- Vorga 'Striving toward oblivion' (!)
- Pure Wrath 'Hymn to the woeful hearts' (!)
- Gleichmacher 'Kränkung, Fall, Verderben'
- Moonlight sorcery 'Piercing through the frozen eternity' (EP) (!)
- Downcross 'Hexapoda triumph'
- Non est deus 'Impious'
- Véhémence 'Ordalies'
- Sidious 'Blackest insurrection' (UK!)
- Ultra Silvam 'The sanctity of death' (!)
- Persecutory 'Summoning the lawless legions'
- Konvent 'Call down the sun'
- In Aphelion 'Moribund' (!)
- Sumerian Tombs S/T
- Glemsel 'Forfader'
- Kvaen 'The great below' (!)
- Grand Harvest 'Consummatum Est'
- Aesthus 'Hänen temppelinsä varjoissa' (!)
- Aethyrick 'Pilgrimage'
- Chaos Invocation 'Devil, stone and man' (!) Etc
- Ultha 'All that has never been true'
- Vimur 'Transcendental violence'
- Marrasmieli 'Martaiden Mailta' y 'Live rehearsal'
- Devoid of life 'Embracing emptiness'
- Saidan 'Onryo: Her spirit eternal'
- Black Altar y Vulture Lord split 'Deathiah manifesto'
- Archgoat 'All Christianity ends' EP
- Grand Belial's Key 'Kohanic Charmers'
- Incandescence 'Le coeur de l'Homme'
- Abhoria s/t
- Ruine 'Revolte et cranerie paysanne'
- Stangarigel 'Na severe srdca'
- The Spirit 'Of clarity and galactic structures' (!)
- Grafvitnir 'Tunes of Sitra Ahra'
- Watain 'The agony and ecstasy of Watain'
- Djevelkult 'Drep alle guder'
- Sakis Tollis 'Among the fires of hell'
- Funerarium '1692'
- Ceremonial Castings 'Our journey through forever'
- Ante-inferno (UK) 'Antediluvian dreamscapes'
- Synteleia 'The secret last syllable' (!)
- Aara 'Triade II: Hemera' y 'Phthonos' (EP)
- Horn 'Verzet' (!)
- Acherontas 'Malocchio: the seven tongues of Daemon'
- Sacred Son 'The foul deth of Engelond'
- Malphas 'Divinity's fall'
- In Twilight's Embrace 'Lifeblood' (!)
- Ash of Ashes 'Traces'
- Wallfahrer 'Den menschen so fern'
- Corpus Christii 'The bitter end of old'
- Negative Plane 'The pact' (!)
- Predatory Light 'Death and the twilight hours' (!)
- Slaegt 'Goddess' (!)
- Lifvsleda 'Sepulkral dedikation' (!)
- Nattehimmel 'The night sky beckons' (demo)
- Livssyke 'Solace in worms' (EP)
- Lord Belial 'Rapture' (!)
- Olhava 'Reborn'
- Thrall 'Schisms'
- Aegrus 'The carnal temples' (EP !)
- Gjendod 'I utakt med verden'
- Moribund Dawn 'Dark mysteries of time & eternity'
- Malaöun 'The forsaken spirit'
- Hulder 'The eternal fanfare' (EP) (fem)
- Bhleg 'Fäghring' (!)
- Muert 'Haeresis' (Canarias)
- Inexorum 'Equinox vigil' (!)
- Verberis 'Adumbration of the veiled logos' (!)
- Denouncement Pyre 'Forever burning' (!)
- Liber Null 'For whom is the night' (!)
- Mystic Circle s/t y
- Heinous 'Ritual, blood and mysterious dawn'
- Totensucht 'Trimurti' (!) Etc
- Boötes Void 'C.O.L.D.' (Mgla)
- Nite 'Voices of the kronian moon' (black/heavy)
- Lucifer's Child y Mystifier 'Under Satan's wrath'
- I am the Night 'While the gods are sleeping'
- Tómarúm 'Ash in realms of stone icons'
- Khold 'Svartsyn'
- Devils Tail 'Desolation'
- Afsky 'I stilhed' (EP)
- Blazemth 'The return of Lucifer' (Cat)
- Written in Torment 'Black command' (UK)
- Duir 'TSNRI'
- Entgeist 'Res gestae'
- Zemial 'To slay with silent dagger' (! )
- Asterean 'Cosmorama'
- Grima 'Frostbitten'
- Mystic Circle s/t (!)
- Bâ'a 'Egrégore'
- Orgrel 'The oath of the black wolf' (EP !)
- Craystayler 'Vision of death'
- Solipsism 'Our night never ends' (!)
- Occultum 'Apokatastasis'
- Autonoesis 'Moon of foul magics' (!)
- Blackbraid 'I' (!)
- White Rune 'Dawn of the white rune'
- Wachenfeldt 'Faustian reawakening'
- Mork 'Den svevende festning' (EP)
- Mournful Moon 'Rose velvet dynasty' (!)
- Lord Belial 'Rapture'
- Gaerea 'Mirage'
- Wake 'Thought form descent'
- Sorcier des Glaces 'Snowland 2022'
- Null 'Origin' (!) Etc
- Vaamatar 'Medievalgeist' (!)
- Saor 'Origins'
- Belphegor 'The devils
- Odium Humani Generis 'Zarzewie' (!)
- Mimorium 'The route of haeresis' (!),
- Condra 'Aeonic tempest from the abyss'
- Ancst 'Zorn' (EP !)
- Thos Aella 'Sempiternal mobocracies'
- Apocalyptic Leaders 'Destructive rage of the enemies'
- Likheim 'Alt skal svinne hen'
- Firtan 'Marter'
- Horrid Litany 'Lunar memoriam'
- Sitis (Croatia) 'Ruina'
- Atramentum (UK) 'Through fire, everything is renewed' (drums)
- Allocer Wolfe 'A man made from nowhere' (!)
- Blut Aus Nord 'Disharmonium'
- Stormruler 'Sacred rights & black magick' (!)
- Wormgod 'Where old curses rest' (!)
- Gevurah 'Gehinnom' (!)
- Darkthrone 'Astral fortress'
- Rebel Wizard 'The warning of three' (3 EPs)
- Toadeater 'Bexadde'
- Vastatum 'Mercurial states of revelation' (EP)
- Bran 'Odchazeni'
- Gudsforladt 'Friendship, love and war' (black/70s rock)
- Malist 'As I become darkness'
- Kampfar 'Til klovers takt' (!)
- Drudkh 'All belong to the night'
- Vananidr 'Beneath the mold'(!)
- Galicia (US) 'Precipice' (black/death/thrash/melodic/war !) Etc
- Ashes 'Gloom, ash and emptiness to the horizon' (re Mgla)
- Blood of the Wolf 'IV: The declaration of war eternal' (black/death)
- Djevel 'Naa skrider natten sort'
- Lykotonon 'Promethean pathology' (avant-garde)


DEATH METAL
- Undeath 'It's time... to rise from the grave'
- Abyssus 'Death revival' (!)
- Exhaustion 'Cold death embrace'
- Immolation 'Acts of god' (!)
- Angelblast 'Throne of ashes' (EP) !
- Desolate shrine 'Fires of the dying world'
- Disfuneral 'Blood red tentacle' (!)
- Epitaphe 'II'
- Inhuman Condition 'Fearsick'
- Sentient Horror 'Rites of gore' (!)
- Napalm Death 'Resentment is always seismic' (EP)
- Malefic Throne s/t (EP)
- Druid Lord 'Relics of the dead'
- Sepulchral 'From beyond the burial mound' (Eusk)
- Pharmacist 'Flourishing extremities on unspoiled mental grounds'
- Cryptworm 'Spewing mephitic putridity'
- Eucharist 'I am the void'
- Darkened 'The black winter' (!)
- Corpsessed 'Succumb to rot'
- Rotten Tomb 'Visions of a dismal fate' (!)
- Jungle Rot 'A call to arms'
- Scalpture 'Feldwärts'
- Dead Chasm (EP)
- Vulcano 'Stone orange'
- Demonical 'Mass destroyer' y 'In league with death' EP
- Lunar Blood 'Twilight insurgency'
- Pyrrhic Salvation 'Manifestum I' (EP)
- Cosmic Putrefaction 'Crepuscular dirge for the blessed ones' (!)
- Inanna 'Void of unending depths'
- Clairvoyance 'Threshold of nothingness' (EP)
- Sadist 'Firescorched'
- Slugathor 'Crypt of the ancient fire'
- Vile Rites 'The ageless' (EP)
- Krisiun 'Mortem solis'
- The Chasm 'The scars of a lost reflective shadow' (!)
- Church of Disgust 'Weakest is the flesh'
- Desecresy 'Unveiling the abyss'
- Grave Infestation 'Persecution of the living'
- Massacre 'Mythos' (EP)
- Misery Index 'Complete control'
- Tomb Mold 'Aperture of body' (Demo EP)
- Suppression (Chile) 'The sorrow of soul through flesh'
- Nihilo 'Resolution'
- Besieged 'Violence beyond all reason'
- Static Abyss 'Labyrinth of veins' (re Autopsy)
- Egregore 'The word of his law' (black/death)
- Feaces Christ 'Gimme morgue!' etc (death/punk)
- Father Befouled 'Crowned in Veneficum'
- Introtyl 'Adfectus' (fem Mex)
- Thorium 'Danmark' (!)
- Cryptivore 'Celestial extinction' (one-man !)
- Chaotian 'Effigies of obsolescence'
- Werewolves 'From the cave to the grave'
- Fetal Blood Eagle 'Indoctrinate'
- Thyrargo 'Impulses'
- Deathcult 'Of soil unearthed'
- Consecration 'Cinis' (UK)
- Slaughterday 'Tyrants of doom'
- Paganizer 'Beyond the macabre' y 'The flesh dwellers' (comp)
- Catalyst 'The great purpose of the lords'
- Haunter 'Discarnate ails'
- Grenadier 'Trumpets blare in blazing glory' (!!)
- Hissing 'Hypervirulence architecture'
- Obituary 'Slowly we rot' y 'Cause of death' live
- Death Breath 'The old hag' (EP) (!)
- Deathbringer 'It'
- Gorebringer 'Terrified beyond measure'
- Maul 'Seraphic punishment'
- Weaponry 'Everwinding slaughter' (Rotten y Jo Steele)
- Echelon 'Open wide the adamantine gates' (Dave Ingram !)
- Triumvir Foul 'Onslaught to seraphim'
- Necrom 'All paths are left here' (!)
- Mortify 'Fragments at the edge of sorrow'
- Inner Darkness 'Descent to darkness'
- Rise of Kronos 'Council of prediction'
- Heads for the Dead 'The great conjuration'
- Unbounded Terror 'Echoes of despair' (Esp)
- Bloodbath 'Survival of the sickest'
- Malignant Aura 'Abysmal misfortune is draped upon me' (death/doom)
- Mortuous 'Upon desolation'
- Autopsy 'Morbidity triumphant' (!)
- Cruz 'Confines de la cordura' (Cat !)
- Graceless 'Chants from purgatory'
- Miscreance 'Convergence' (tech rollo Death)
- Psycroptic 'Divine council'
- Ribspreader 'Crypt world' etc
- Consumption 'Necrotic lust' (re Carcass)
- Perdition Temple 'Merciless upheaval' (black/death)
- Origin 'Chaosmos' (!)
- Katakomba s/t
- Ripped to Shreds 'Jubian' (!)
- Reeking Aura 'Blood and bonemeal' (!) y EP
- Spectrum Mortis (Mad) 'Bit meseri' (!)
- Faceless Burial 'At the foothills of deliration' (!)
- Wake 'Thought form descent' etc (death/grind etc)
- Wachenfeldt 'Faustian reawakening'
- Molder 'Engrossed in decay' (!)
- Church of Disgust 'Weakest is the flesh'
- Catalyst 'A different painting for a new world' (tech)
- Exhumed 'To the dead'
- Rites of Daath 'Doom spirit emanation'
- Teratoma (Cat) 'Chaosmakers'
- Disillusion (Ger) 'Ayam' (melodic/progressive)
- Masakre 'Morbid extinction'
- Bones 'Sombre opulence'
- Ares Kingdom 'In darkness at last' (!)
- Bark 'Rambler of aeons' etc
- Soul Grinder (Ger) 'Anthems from the abyss'
- Aeviterne 'The ailing façade'
- Jade (Cat) 'The pacification of death' (atmo!)
- Sépulcre 'Cursed ways of Sheol' (EP)
- Detherous 'Unrelenting malevolence' (death/thrash)


THRASH METAL
- Nocturnal Graves 'An outlaw's stand' (!)
- Deathhammer 'Electric warfare'
- Sphinx 'Deathstroke'
- Solicitor 'All debts on death' (EP)
- Infernal Seer 'Blackened world'
- Vio-lence 'Let the world burn' (EP)
- Lawnmower Deth 'Blunt cutters'
- Municipal Waste 'Electrified brain' (!)
- Insulter '... To the last!' (!)
- Demoniac 'Judgement of death' (EP reissue !)
- Dead Head 'Slave driver' (!)
- Toxik 'Dis morta' (!)
- Blood Storm 'Cursedness of the cinder witch' (!)
- Witchery 'Nightside'
- Vulcan Tyrant 'Vulcanocide' (black/thrash)
- Tankard 'Pavlov's dawgs'
- Sadistic Ritual 'The enigma, boundless' (!)
- Sacrifizer 'Le diamant de Lucifer'
- Destruction 'Diabolical' (!)
- Schizophrenia 'Recollections of the insane'
- Morbid Cross 'Ungodly infestation' (!)
- Flayed Disciple 'A hell in living flesh' (EP)
- Solitary (UK) 'Live at Bloodstock'
- Protector 'Excessive outburst of depravity'
- Critical Defiance 'No life forms' (!)
- Hyperia 'Silhouettes of horror' (fem) etc
- Fugitive 'Maniac' (re Power Trip EP !)
- Gallower 'Eastern witchcraft' (EP)
- Bloodletter 'Malignancy' (EP)
- Ominum 'Monument'
- Vicious Knights 'Alteration through possession' (!)
- Wraith 'Faster than the fucking devil' (split)
- Traitor 'Exiled to the surface'
- Megadeth 'The sick, the dying...and the dead!'
- Mindforce 'New lords'
- Besieged 'Violence beyond all reason'
- Hydra Vein 'Unlamented'
- Ninth Realm 'A fate unbroken' (!)
- Xentrix 'Seven words' (!)
- Annihilation Process 'Sickening madness' (EP)
- Sarcator 'Alkahest' (!)
- Witchmaster (black/thrash) 'Kazn'
- Reaper 'Viridian inferno'
- High Command 'Eclipse of the dual moons' (!)
- Terrörhammer 'Gateways to Hades' (!!)


TRAD/SPEED/DOOM/POWER
- Cloven Hoof 'Time assassin' (!)
- Luzifer 'Iron shackles'
- Mount Saturn 'O, great moon'
- Evil Invaders 'Shattering reflection' (!)
- Venator 'Echoes from the gutter'
- Friends of Hell s/t
- Ereb Altor 'Vartigmman' (!)
- Mirror 'The day bastard leaders die'
- Satan 'Earth infernal'
- Soul Grinder (USA) 'Queen Corrosia' (EP)
- Hellhaim 'Let the dead not lose hope'
- Ice War 'Beyond the void' (!)
- Tony Martin 'Thorns'
- Fer de Lance 'The Hyperborian' (!)
- Harbinger 'Doom on you'
- Darkher 'The buried storm'
- Armory 'Mercurion'
- Famyne 'II The ground below'
- Tysondog 'Midnight'
- Vórtize 'Tienes que luchar' (!)
- Devil Cross 'Condemned' (!)
- Redshark 'Digital race' (Cat)
- Haunt 'Windows of your heart'
- Maule s/t (!)
- Crystal Viper 'The last axeman'
- Savage Master 'Those who hunt at night' (voz fem !)
- Sanhedrin 'Lights on' (! Voz fem)
- Raptore 'Blackfire' (Esp !)
- Acid Blade 'Power dive'
- Iron Brigade 'Winds of war'
- Tad Morose 'March of the obsequious'
- Blind Guardian 'The god machine'
- Bloody Hammers 'Washed in the blood' (doom/hard rock)
- The Otolith 'Folium limina'
- Steel Inferno 'Evil reign' (re early Overkill !)
- Iron Kingdom (voz fem) 'The blood of creation'
- Candlemass 'Sweet evil sun'
- Hell Fire 'Reckoning' etc
- Midnight 'Let there be witchery' y Whitespade (re Motorhead)

PUNK/GRIND/OTHERS
- Blood incantation 'Timewave zero'
- Pillaging Villagers s/t (!)
- Black Panda 'Viaje a la lona' (!)
- Truchlo Strzygi 'Gwiezdni Demon' (!)
- Wolfbastard 'Hammer the bastards'
- Devil Master 'Ecstasies of never ending night' (!)
- Spiter 'Bathe the babe in bats' blood' (!)
- Ironhawk 'Ritual of the warpath' (heavy/speed/punk) (!)
- Harrowed 'Poison death' (death/crust) split con Phantom Corporation 'Banner of hatred'
- Diabolical Evil 'Cursed by blood' (one-man, black/speed)
- Nechochwen 'Kanawha black'
- Ratos de Porao 'Necropolitica' (!)
- The Catatonics 'Hunted down' (reissue)
- Wormrot 'Hiss'
- Hiatus 'From resignation... '
- A.F.K (punk HC Ger) 'Another pair of eyes',
- White Ward 'False light' etc
- Final Light s/t (!)
- Mantar 'Pain is forever and this is the end'
- Triac 'Pure joy'
- Insurgency 'Primitive shrines'
- Depopulation Department 'Starvation' (re Haemorrhage)
- Excruciation 'Premature darkness' (EP)
- Crust 'Wanderers'
- Bastard 'Rotten blood'
- Candy 'Heaven is here'
- Lucifuge/Bunker 66 'Of night and lust'
- Saccage 'Charogne' (EP)
- Wormrot 'Hiss'
- Spiritworld 'Deathwestern' (thrash/death/hardcore)

Top 10 Albums of 2022:

1. Borealis - Illusions
2. Avantasia - A Paranormal Evening With the Moonflower Society
3. Threshold - Dividing Lines
4. Blind Guardian - The God Machine
5. Battle Beast - Circus of Doom
6. Dragonland - The Power of the Nightstar
7. Seventh Wonder - The Testament
8. Satan - Earth Infernal
9. Dynazty - Final Advent
10. Fellowship - The Saberlight Chronicles

Totally Should Count as 2022 Release:
Solarus - A Dance With Tragedy

Runner Ups:
Eh.

The Nominees:
10 out of 10


9 out of 10
Battle Beast - Circus of Doom
Blind Guardian - The God Machine
Borealis - Illusions
Avantasia - A Paranormal Evening With the Moonflower Society
Dragonland - The Power of the Nightstar
Threshold - Dividing Lines

8 out of 10
Satan - Earth Infernal
Dynazty - Final Advent
The Ferrymen - One More River to Cross
Eternal Ascent - Reclamation
Fellowship - The Saberlight Chronicles
Hexed - Pagans Rising
Seventh Wonder - The Testament
Kliodna - Way of Heroes
Galderia - Endless Horizon

7 out of 10
Wolf - Shadowland
Livewire - Under Attack!
Visions of Atlantis - Pirates
Fallen Sanctuary - Terranova
Victorius - Dinosaur Warfare 2
A Sound of Thunder - The Krimson Kult
Stratovarius - Survive
Queensryche - Digital Noise Alliance
Riot City - Electric Elite
Stranger Vision - Wasteland

6 out of 10
Planeswalker - Tales of Magic
Edenbridge - Shangri-La
Hammerstar - Hammerstar
White Skull - Metal Never Rusts

<5 out of 10
Ashes of Ares - Emperors and Fools
Sabaton - The War to End All Wars
Magica - Nebula Luna

1. Ashenspire - Hostile Architecture
2. Malthusian & Suffering Hour - Time's Withering Shadow
3. Negative Plane - The Pact...
4. Messa - Close
5. Pyrithe - Monuments To Impermanence
6. Cult of Luna - The Long Road Home
7. Wake - Thought Form Descent
8. Cavernlight – As I Cast Ruin Upon the Lens That Reveals My Every Flaw
9. Immolation - Acts of God
10. Father Befouled - Crowned in Veneficum