Here’s another entry in the part of our annual LISTMANIA orgy where we re-post lists of metal from “big platform” web sites and print zines — the kind of places that get a lot more eyeballs on them than filthy little metal-only hovels like ours.
Rolling Stone magazine should need no introduction, so I’m not going to provide one. Two years ago we didn’t include a Rolling Stone metal list in our year-end LISTMANIA series — because they didn’t publish one. Though we surmised that they had jettisoned the idea permanently, their Top 10 metal list made a return in 2021, and this year they’ve expanded the list to 15 names.
Rolling Stone discloses nothing about the process they used to compile this list, but (not surprisingly) it leads to the inference that they must have felt commercially obligated to include some of these albums from big names. Otherwise it’s very hard to swallow that anyone honestly thought all of them were among the 15 best metal records of the year.
On the other hand, as they did last year but even more so this time, Rolling Stone included some records from truly underground bands that truly were very good, i.e., those from Blackbraid, Mizmor + Thou, Mo’ynoq, Wormrot, and Chat Pile. And lo and behold, Soul Glo and Undeath add to their accolades from sites like this one by taking the No. 1 and No. 6 slots, respectively.
Well, let us know what you think of the list. You can find it in its original form, with the magazine’s commentary, HERE. Also, just to be extra-clear, even after all these years: This is not our list. This is Rolling Stone‘s list.
15. Dead Cross, ‘Dead Cross II’
14. Blackbraid, ‘Blackbraid I’
13. Boris, ‘Heavy Rocks’
12. Lamb of God, ‘Omens’
11. Mizmor + Thou, ‘Myopia’
10. Slipknot, ‘The End, So Far’
9. Mo’ynoq, ‘A Place for Ash’
8. Wormrot, ‘Hiss’
7. Megadeth, ‘The Sick, the Dying … and the Dead!’
6. Undeath, ‘It’s Time … to Rise From the Grave’
5. Chat Pile, ‘God’s Country’
4. Ghost, ‘Impera’
3. Meshuggah, ‘Immutable’
2. Ozzy Osbourne, ‘Patient Number 9’
1. Soul Glo, ‘Diaspora Problems’
7 Responses to “LISTMANIA 2022: ROLLING STONE’S LIST OF THE YEAR’S 15 BEST METAL ALBUMS”
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That’s a pretty embarrassing mainstream list. Definitely Rolling Stone.
Never heard of Soul Glo…looked up a video (whogonbeatmyass)…um…just…ugh. no.
Rolling Stone doesn’t exactly dig deep into the bowels of the underground scene, do they?
Their colonoscope is very short and not very flexible and they miss a lot of the big polyps lurking deeper inside. 🙂
thats a numbered list alright, they even chose an album with a number in the title so they could have more numbers.
The biggest surprise on this list is the inclusion of Blackbraid… I didn’t see it coming…