Best of 2022

 9) Verberis - Adumbration of the Veiled Logos

Up until December, this spot was occupied by Deathspell Omega, begrudgingly. It wasn't a great record, somewhat plodding and directionless, so I thought number 9 was appropriate, but I was only going to put them here out of loyalty, not the best reason. Luckily in December I was looking at Ulcerate's metal-archives page curious what they were up to. Lo and behold I found out Ulcerate's virtuosic drummer was attached to the line-up on this record. Upon the first few spins my begrudging loyalty was eschewed for an album actually worthy of this position. Verberis has a very similar feel to Deathspell Omega, blasting dissonant black metal occasionally capitalizing on well placed atmospheric interludes, and in the year 2022 they have the better album.