1.Ritual Dictates - No Great Loss

2.Messa - Close

3.Sonja - Loud Arriver

4.Dream Unending - Song Of Salvation

5.Ultha - All That Has Never Been True

      View entire list ››

Top 50 of this forsaken year from the top to the abyss (but still good). 8 & above

Album count: 329
Average rating: 6.73

1.Cult Of Luna - The Long Road North

2.Sylvaine - Nova

3.Luminous Vault - Animate The Emptiness

4.White Ward - False Light

5.Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses

      View entire list ››

So much music yet so little time!

These are all the 2022 albums that I've been able to check out so far.

1.Messa - Close

2.Shape Of Despair - Return To The Void

3.A.A. Williams - As The Moon Rests

4.Brutus (BEL) - Unison Life

5.Vanhävd - Vila

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Stuff I listened to and liked in 2022. WIP.

1.Natalia Lafourcade - De todas las flores

2.Richard Dawson - The Ruby Cord

3.tricot - 不出来 (Fudeki)

4.Park Jiha - The Gleam

5.Pintandwefall - Seventh Baby

      View entire list ››

even though 2021's list isn't final yet (are they ever?) - I'm compelled any-damn-way to rank the 2022's I've been bamboozled with the most... most of it happens to be metal in some way or another - but, like my previous ones... non-metal albums that kick my ass (softly?) will surely be included, as well - hope it helps or is at least interesting to even one MS'er! (even if that MS'er is me hehe)

updated - 5/19/22
updated - 1/18/23

1.Skin Tension - Omni

2.Devin Townsend - Lightwork

3.Persefone - Metanoia

4.Wilderun - Epigone

5.Sigh - Shiki

      View entire list ››

1.Messa - Close

2.Sumerlands - Dreamkiller

3.Sonja - Loud Arriver

4.The Otolith - Folium Limina

5.Phantom Spell - Immortal's Requiem

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Best of February 2022, when light returns ....

1.Scorpions - Rock Believer

2.Saxon - Carpe Diem

3.Ten - Here Be Monsters

4.Arð - Take Up My Bones

5.Shape Of Despair - Return To The Void

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All my top 2022 albums ranked in order that I have listened to completely. No EP's included only full length albums.

1.An Abstract Illusion - Woe

2.Psychonaut - Violate Consensus Reality

3.Panzerfaust - The Suns Of Perdition - Chapter III: The Astral Drain

4.Aenaon - Mnemosyne

5.Djevel - Naa Skrider Natten Sort

      View entire list ››

Only including albums I've listened to the whole way through.

1.Persefone - Metanoia

2.Ode And Elegy - Ode And Elegy

3.Non Est Deus - Impious

4.Confess - Revenge At All Costs

5.Zeal & Ardor - Zeal & Ardor

      View entire list ››

Thanks to MS for providing me with a place to list these albums. I only add the music i enjoyed (7+) to my lists.

1.Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems

2.Cloud Rat - Threshold

3.Chat Pile - God's Country

4.Knoll - Metempiric

5.Rolo Tomassi - Where Myth Becomes Memory

      View entire list ››

Honestly curious to see if I get anywhere near 2021's ludicrous album count (~900) this year; should hopefully be some very high-scoring albums in the first couple of months, but otherwise let's hope for some good stuff this year!

Edit: Somehow managed to reach the list character limit, so going to delete some of the comments

1.Persefone - Metanoia

2.Hath - All That Was Promised

3.Rolo Tomassi - Where Myth Becomes Memory

4.Playgrounded - The Death Of Death

5.Kardashev - Liminal Rite

      View entire list ››

Do you know this feeling when you stumble across a random word, and then suddenly that name pops up just about everywhere? That specific term haunting yours truly has long been "Portland, Oregon". It seems to me that every new discovery was founded in Portland, apparently every other album was mastered at Brad Boatright's Audiosiege Studio in Portland, and every single of my favorite bands had, at some point, performed on a stage somewhere in Portland.

In the 1980s, LA was undeniably the world's glam metal capital, alongside with San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal as a counter development. Then we witnessed the death metal boom of the early 90s, with Tampa, Florida as its global hotspot. Not to forget the New York punk and hardcore scene (NYHC), the rise of sludge metal from the swamps of New Orleans during the late 80s, grunge from Seattle gaining mainstream prominence in the early 90s...
Apparently, there has always been a tendency in the US towards rapidly developing, locally restricted music scenes, in whose environment a completely new style or genre could develop in order to have a lasting impact on the global musical landscape within a few years.

So I just had to find out if my mind was playing tricks on me or if Portland really is the current capital of the US for heavy music and extreme metal - hence this list.

Inclusion criteria:
featured on Metal Strom and
established in Portland or
a long-term creative phase in Portland or
still active and currently based in Portland
(that's why Leviathan is here but Lurker Of Chalice isn't)

Only one album (preferably the most recent full-length album) per band.

By the way, according to this article, Portland harbors the highest amount of active metal bands per capita in the US. Quite a surprise, isn't it?

While we are at it, what's your favorite Portland band?

1.Abhorrent Affliction - Forever Will He Reign

2.Acathexis - Acathexis

3.Ænigmatum - Deconsecrate

4.Ævangelist - Dream An Evil Dream III

5.Agalloch - The Serpent & The Sphere

      View entire list ››