You might not have noticed, but our annual LISTMANIA extravaganza at NCS has begun, as evidenced by this post from a week ago. But we didn’t really give this project a proper introduction, so we’re doing that now. For those of you new to the orgy, our LISTMANIA blockbuster comes in four parts:
First, like that post linked above, we re-print assorted lists of the year’s best albums, leeched from other big web sites and magazines. Second, we will provide a post in which our readers can share their lists of the 2022 albums and shorter releases they enjoyed the most (we’ll be asking for those on December 1st, so get ready). Third, we will post the year-end lists of our own staff and assorted guest writers, and that will begin on December 9th.
And fourth, I’ll again roll out my list of the year’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs — which still seems especially well-named in this third year of covid, doesn’t it? That list is the subject of this request for help.
In case you’ve become an NCS reader since this time last year, here’s what this Most Infectious Song list is all about:
This is about individual songs, not albums, EPs, demos, etc. It’s also not our list of the best individual extreme metal songs of the year — though some of the songs might actually be among the best of the year. Instead, this is a list of the most infectious extreme metal songs I’ve heard this year. Yes, it’s my list, but I do take into account ideas from others.
The idea here is to think of songs that might produce involuntary physical movement, songs that have got catchy melodies or irresistible grooves, or anything else that sticks the song in your head and makes you want to keep listening to it.
To be one of the most infectious songs of the year, it should be something that you revisit often, something you put on playlists, something you mentally replay at unexpected times — songs you go back to repeatedly for listening. “Most played” might be a good synonym.
As is true every year, I do already have my own working list of candidates — and as in every other year, there are a ton of songs on there already. I’ll get more ideas from some of our other writers. But I have no doubt we’ll overlook some songs we really liked, especially from earlier in the year, and there are inevitably a lot more that we just never heard at all. And so here’s where I’m asking for your help:
Please leave Comments to this post with your own lists of Most Infectious Songs that you think ought to be on our list — or if you’re bashful, you can e-mail your ideas to me at: islander@nocleansinging.com
I’ll then pick what I think are the most infectious tracks of the year and start playing those songs for you in groups of two or three as we get closer to year-end. The first year we did this (2009), I limited the list to 10 songs. In 2010, I expanded it to 30. In 2011 it grew to 39. In 2012 it topped out at 56. In 2013 I worked really hard and got the list all the way down to.. gulp… 73. In 2014, life got in the way and I never finished the complete rollout, though I announced 62 songs before I gave up.
In 2015 I stopped at 75. The list for 2016 included 71 tracks, and I included 78 of them in 2017. In 2018 I stopped at 99 (double-gulp!), and in 2019 I partially came to my senses and stopped the list at 60 tracks. In 2020 I stopped at 47 tracks — again because I simply ran out of time. Last year the list swelled again, to 99 tracks, tying the 2018 record.
As you can tell, I have a really fuckin’ hard time making lists. Of course, I have no idea how many songs we’ll feature this year, because I tend to make it up as I go along and because I can’t foresee the extent to which outside interferences in my work or personal life might distract me.
So, please reflect on the songs you’ve found most addictive this year and let us hear from you. By leaving your list in the Comments, you’ll also help make this post a way for other metalheads to find good music from the year that’s now rushing to an end. Thanks for your help.
29 Responses to “THE MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS OF 2022: OUR ANNUAL APPEAL TO READERS FOR HELP!”
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Here Are The Ones I Found To Be More Infectioust Ones…
1.Aborted / Infinite Terror
2.Behemoth / The Deathless Sun
3.Immolation / The Age Of No Light
4.Obituary / The Wrong Time
5.Exodus / The Fires Of Division
6.Misery Index / The Eaters And The Eaten
7.Goatwhore / Angels Hung From The Arches Of Heaven
8.Ultar / Innsmouth
9.Noctem / Credo Certe Ne Cros
10.Invictus / Get Up
11.Abduction / Kernos Crown
12.Deviser / Absence Of Heaven
13.Maceration / Epiphany Of The Past
14.Meshuggah / The Abysmal Eye
15.Torture Killer / Dead Inside
16.Decapitated / Iconoclast feat. Robb Flynn
17.Revocation / Nihilistic Violence
18.Tallah / For The Recognition
19.Nordjevel / Spores Of Gnosis
20.Dysgnostic (Denmark) / Beneath Abysmal Plains
Thanks for starting us off!
Great Islander…This year i feel like some of these veteran bands are coming back stronger than ever recently.
Ultha – Rats Gorged the Moon…and All Fell Silent
Gudsforladt – Heads Bowed in Silent Prayer
Wiegedood – FN SCAR 16
Grave Pilgrim – Molten Hands Reach West
Lune – Hymns to the Lunar Realm
Vananidr – The Watcher
Vital Spirit – Lord of the Plains
Glyph – Lost Beyond Time
Uzlaga – The Lighthouse
Saccage – Charogne
Northmoon – Jagdpanzer 666
Vimur – Transcendental Violence
Orm – Floden, som kan skabe
Daeva – The Architect and the Monument
Bad Manor – The Study, Filled with Books
Devouring Famine – The Mentor’s Skull
Tomb Mold – Prestige of Rebirth
Autonoesis – Moon of Foul Magics
Serpent Antique – La Mue
Kostnatění – Plevne Marşı
Also heard today: Seed of the Sorcerer, Womb of the Witch – Curse of Corrosive Castration
Vital Spirit and Glyph are awesome, Autonoesis is overflowing with riffage damn, thanks for the tips :))
Goatwhore – Ruinous Liturgy
Coathanger Abortion- Millville Madness
excellent goatwhore pick
Blood incantation – Ea
Astral Tomb – Transversing the Wandering Star
Amon Amarth – Saxons and Vikings
Temple of void – Deathtouch
Botch – One Twenty Two
Worm – Shadowside Kingdom
Mother of Graves – Where Shadows Adorn
Vacuous – Matriarchal Blood (more cowbell!)
Laparatomy – Ascendancy Through Hypnagogic Thought Process
Universally Estranged – Universally Estranged
Disillusion – Tormento
Floating – Gag
Kathaaria – The Judas Principle
Battlegrave – We Die Here
Vexation – Hadean Eternity
Magnatar – Event Horizon
Moon Tooth – Back Burner
Furis Ignis – Guarding The Gate
Ashenspire – Tragic Heroin
Gutvoid – Delivered To The Altar Lich
Swampborn: Muscarum
White Ward: Leviathan
Worm: Shadowside Kingdom
Wake: Venerate (The Undoing of All)
Gevurah: Memento Homo …
Immolation: Noose of Thorns
Nostromo: IED (Intermittent Explosive Disorder)
Haserot: Incantations at Dusk
Aeviterne: Penitent
Veilburner: VI (Vulgar Incantations)
Blut Aus Nord: The Apotheosis of the Unnamable
An Abstract Illusion: Tear Down This Holy Mountain
A terrific year for metal, and a terrible one for almost anything else.
Thank you NCS for all your efforts!
‘Incantations at Dusk’ immediately made me think of the breakdown riff on ‘flying whales’ by Gojira, but of course it is quite different in the end.
Deathless Void – Crossing the Threshold
Bekor Qilish – Self-Destructed Destruction
Decapitated – No Cure / Suicidal Space Programme
Undeath – Human Chandelier
: )
My song of the year is for sure, Shadow Haven from MMXX. Dan’s vocals are amazing, he should sing wayyy more often.
Every song on Acts of God by Immolation.
Misery Index – Complete Control
Immolation – The Age of No Light
Brutus – Victoria
Undeath – Bone Wrought
Every 200 Stab Wounds songs even if it’s late 2021!!!!!
Firtan – Mentekel
Disillusion – Abide the Storm
White Ward – Leviathan
Cavernous Gate – Old Graves Stir
Cult of Luna – The Long Road North
Aenaon – Trauma Cultura
Swampborn – Transitions
Perish – Sleepless
Panzerfaust The Far Bank at the River Styx
Wallfahrer – Denunziantendoktrin
Negative Plane – Three Doors to the West
Ultha – Bathed in Lightning, Bathed in Heat
Zeal & Ardor – Götterdämmerung
Persefone – Katabasis
Wormrot – When Talkin Fails, It’s Time For Violence
Plague Years – Suffer
Cult of Luna – Cold Burn
Messa – Pilgrim
Misery Index – The Eaters and the Eaten
Blackbraind – Barefoot Ghost Dance on Blood Soaked Soil
The Otolith – Andromeda’s Wing
Obsidious – Sense of Lust
Konvent – Grains
Kanonenfieber – Stop the War
Wiegedood – FN Scar 16
Obituary – The Wrong Time
I AM – Surrender to the Blade
Veilburner – Lo! Heirs to the Serpent
Absent in Body – Rise from Ruins
The Black Moriah – Just a Taste
Entrails – Possessed
Conan – Righteous Alliance
Cruz – Als Peus de la Creu
Gaerea – Mantle
Autonoesis ‘Moon of Foul Magics’
Autonoesis ‘Nihility, Endless Winter’
White Ward ‘Leviathan’
Venator ‘The Seventh Seal’
Lurid ‘Unchained’
Riot City ‘Eye of the Jaguar’
Vorga ‘Starless Sky’
Disillusion ‘Am Abgrund’
Feminazgul – A Las Barricadas
Kanonenfieber – Der Fusilier I & II
Spider God – Baby
deafheaven – Mombasa
Forelunar – Seraph
The Callous Daoboys – Star Baby
Bloodywood – Gaddaar
Lune – Lustrous Gates
Gudsforladt – The Prisoner and His Willing Sacrifice in Repentance
Blackbraid – Barefoot Ghost Dance on Bloodsoaked Soil
Hulder – Sylvan Awakening
Lamp of Murmuur – Nocturnal Vengeance
Falls of Rauros – Poverty Hymn
Krallice – Arrokoth Trieme
Glass Ox – Aisle Contact
Suffering Hour – Crawling Embers
Might – Lucky Me
Veilburner – Repulsed by the Light
The Callous Daoboys – Title Track
Sigh – Kuroi Kage
Haunter – Overgrown with the Moss
Cosmic Putrefaction – Cradle Wrecked, Curtains Unfurled
White Ward – Cronus
Cult Of Luna – Cold Burn
Bekor Qilish – Ocean of Malice
The Mars Volta – Black Light Shine
Wormgod – Blossom of Fear
Atruta – Pustata, Što Zaviecca Budučyniaj
Bedsore – At the Mountains of Madness
Voak – Atemzüge Der Wölfe
Et Moriemur- Haneda+Sagami
Downcross – Invariant Fall of The Doomed
Arkheth – Clarity Came with A Cool Summer’s Breeze
Worm Shepherd – Ritual Hymns
Kanonenfieber – Der Füsilier II
Maul – Of Human Frailty
Final Light (Perturbator X Johannes Persson) – Final Light
Synteleia- Harvest the Forest
Vengeur – Imitatory Tenets
Nachtrab – Nachtrab
Incantvm- Lamie
Tzompantli – Ohtlatocopailcahualuztli
Predatory Light – Death and The Twilight Hours
Acephalix – Abyssal
Daeva – The Architect And The Monument
more:
Devil Master – Neverending night
Disinter – The hell we’ve become
Swampborn – Beyond ratio
Unto others – Heroin
Messa – Dark horse
Acid mammoth – Black rites
Mantar – Odysseus
White Ward – Silence Circles
Deathspell Omega – Our Life is Your Death
An Abstract Illusion: Slaves
An Abstract Illusion: Tear Down This Holy Mountain
Tomarum: Condemned to a life of grief
Inexorum : Creation myth
Djevel: naa skrider natten sort
Drudkh : thé nocturnal one
Audrey Horne: Devil’s bell
A Blank Canvas of Flesh – Sensory Amusia
Neolithic – Shattering Vessels
Tishina – Iz Mrtvog Ugla [Из Мртвог Угла]
Doldrum – The Knocking
Falls of Rauros – Known World Narrows
Worm – Bluenothing
The Callous Daoboys – A Brief Article Regarding Time Loops
In Silence – Kvaen
Celeste – de tes yeux bleus perlés
Hanging garden – On the Shore of Eternity
Dawn of solace – Skyline
Tersivel – Moving On
Hath – All That Was Promised
Gloson – Tirsa Vassals
Rammstein – Dicke Titten
Rise to the Sky – Every Day, a Funeral
Septicflesh – A Desert Throne
Kardashev – Glass Phantoms
Winds of Ruin – A Cold Grave
Darkane – Inhuman Spirits
White Ward – False Light
Wake – Bleeding Eyes of the Watcher
Rolo Tomassi – Presience
The Halo effect – Shadowminds
Machine Head – Slaughter the Martyr
An Abstract Illusion – Tear Down this Holy Mountain
Wolfheart – Desolated Land
Gaerea – Mirage
Crone – No One is Ever Alive
Evadne – Silhouettes of a Faceless Sun (this was technically released last year, but so late they missed the opportunity to be mentioned then)
Disillusion – Tormento
Strigoi – Redeemer
Ultar – Through the Golden Gates of Dawn
Karg, E-L-R – EBBE//FLUT
Harakiri for the Sky – Homecoming: Denied!