“Sometimes when you lose your way in the fog, you end up in a beautiful place! Don’t be afraid of getting lost!”

~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

December, January, months of looking back and looking forward. Which always puts the regular December edition at an awkward spot. Cause we will try to collect as many of the Personal Year End lists of all the Contributors as well, and post them during January and then ending that month, with the Doom Charts Top 100. Like we did last year… But all this looking back and looking forward does make things a bit hazy and blurry. We tend to listen more to the stuff we already loved during these months. And not as much to the stuff that is released in December. Which might even mean that the bands featured on the regular December edition, going up on Friday January 6, get less attention than they deserve. Cause there’s a lot of new stuff once again, a lot that almost gets lost in the fog… Hell, even the November Peroration Post was almost lost in that fog…

The following are professions of love and adoration by Doom Charts Contributors for albums they could not stop spinning. Each month, the Doom Charts critics submit their picks for the best new doom, sludge, metal, stoner, psychedelic and other sorts of heavy rock albums. The results are compiled and tabulated into the chart which is published monthly. However, sometimes a love is so great, but for whatever reason the album unfortunately did not make the published Doom Charts Edition or because there were so many contributors in love with that one album, that many decided to send blurbs for it, and only one got published… You can peruse that love here…

ABRAMS – IN THE DARK
Heavy Rock, Alternative Metal, Post-Hardcore
Denver, Colorado, USA
Small Stone Records

These Denver vets hit it out of the park with this heavy rock gem. ‘In The Dark’ will  take you back to the days when melody and aggression were being experimented on with the use of non-traditional forms of rock and metal. The two things that stand out on ‘In The Dark’ compared to the band’s previous releases (other than the songwriting itself) are the new and improved melodic high-vocal approach from frontman Zach Amster (twin brother of NEBULA drummer Mike Amster) and the stellar production thanks to the studio prowess of renowned producer Dave Otero. 
~ Matt Hartnett (Aftershocks TV)

ASHBREATHER – HIVEMIND
Death, Sludge, Psych, Prog, Metal
Montreal, Canada
Self-released

ASHBREATHER only sounds like ASHBREATHER: an incomparable fusion of brutality and extreme subtlety in which chaos and clarity intertwist. Hivemind is a one track full-length sci-fi conceptual masterpiece. Calm and slightly psychedelic parts alternate with furious or chaotic speed. The high points follow one another regularly, each one more enjoyable than the other. The trio proves us its excellence as much in the fury as in the atmospheric reverie. I can’t wait to write my 2022 AOTY chart to feel the joy of putting this album in the top of the list.
~ Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral)

BLACK MIRRORS – TOMORROW WILL BE WITHOUT US
Garage Rock, Blues Rock, Stoner Rock, Grunge
Brussels, Belgium
Napalm Records

Diatribes against the debilitating modern life architecture seldom flicker with sultry intensity but Belgium’s BLACK MIRRORS, with the album of their career flickering among the ruinous remains of civilised society, prove this is the way to go; spearheaded by Marcella Di Troia’s inimitably fervid voice, the soulful renditions Tomorrow Will Be Without Us coils itself around imbue an urgency so vivid, so immediate, they’ll knock you clean off your feet! 
~ JC Cansdale-Cook (The MotorFuzzin’ Ibex)

BURNING SISTER – MILE HIGH DOWNER CLUB
Acid Rock, Downer Rock, Heavy Psych
Denver, Colorado, USA
Sleeping Sentinel Records / Self-Released

Grainy, gritty heavily fuzzed out guitar refrains, low throbbing bass and slow deliberate percussion are the tools with which BURNING SISTER construct their grooves, along with low in the mix semi chanted vocals and occasional swirling synth effects, grooves that at times comes across as downbeat and slightly morbid yet will, despite their depressive nature. leave you sporting a huge shit-eating grin on your face.
~ Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist)

CALM COLLAPSE – MIRRORED NATURE
Stoner, Sludge, Doom, Psych, Indie, Shoegaze
Seattle, Washington, USA
Spartan Records

CALM COLLAPSE is made up of members from the Indie Rock scene and whilst their debut album Mirrored Nature has Indie Rock vibes, this album is purely made of Prog Rock, Noise Rock, Grunge with massive Sludge/Stoner Metal grooves akin to bands such as Mastodon and Melvins. The album also has influences from bands such as Soundgarden and Torche in Places. If you loved HUM or Museum Of Light most recent albums then there’s much to admire here with CALM COLLAPSE offering similar Psychedelic and Melodic compositions whilst still being original in its own right. The added bonus of Indie Rock sensibilities allows CALM COLLAPSE to release an album that is a breathtaking, bold and daring style of Sludge Rock/Stoner Metal that you don’t really hear that often. Mirrored Nature is an outstanding release that’s fast becoming one of my favorite albums of the year even this late in the game as well.
~ Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun)

CAPTAIN CARAVAN / KAISER – TURNED TO STONE: CHAPTER 6
Stoner Rock
Egersund, Norway / Helsinki, Finland
Ripple Music

I know we are getting close to Christmas, but it has come early for me with the release of another killer split LP from Ripple Music as a part of their Turned To Stone series. This time with Chapter Six we have two amazing Scandinavian stoner bands, CAPTAIN CARAVAN and KAISER who bring the killer heavy rock goodness that Ripple is known for.  Riffs for days from both bands and maybe their best songs yet from either discography. Todd from Ripple is the Stoner Rock Matchmaker ™.
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip)

DESERT WAVE – DEAFENING SILENCE
Stoner, Psych, Rock
Vicenza, Italy
Self-released

Oh, how much I love such sounds… These sounds! This DESERT WAVE album has everything you can expect from Progressive Stoner music. Many musical elements sound familiar and remind me of a handful of our beloved bands. They just all merge together so beautifully here and make it their own – in a very good way. Find out yourself, what bands these three Italian guys have on their music shelves.
~ Günther “Doktor420” (Stoner HiVe)

DIRT FORGE – INTERSPHERAL
Sludge, Metal
Copenhagen, Denmark
Majestic Mountain Records

DIRT FORGE channel powerful energies and crunching riffs, coupled with almost Choristic vocal harmonies on their sophomore release “Interspheral“. 7 tracks of prime Sludged-up Doom Metal that packs more punch-per-buck than Evander Holyfield!
~ Reek of STOOM (Doomed&Stoned, Stoner HiVe)

GONDHAWA – MÄANTHAGORÏ
Prog, funk, groove, psych, world
Angers, France
Stolen Body Records

Though only two songs, the EP-length split from GONDHAWA is too good to not rave about. This is wild, up tempo, bonkers-groovy prog rock with psychedelic touches akin to King Gizzard. The vocals are a particular standout, mixing melody, shouts, and even spoken word/rap into the carnival of sound that is Mäanthagorï. Do not stop, do not pass Go, do nothing but smash the play button.
~ Kyle SB / Shasta Beast (Stoner HiVe)

INCOGNITO THEORY – THE BROTHERHOOD
Grunge, Doom, Groove Metal
Kearny, New Jersey, USA
Self-released

INCOGNITO THEORY continue their ascension into the upper echelon of the modern day early 90’s grunge/doom/groove metal resurgence with the release of ‘The Brotherhood’, and leave no stone unturned with eleven booze-fueled tracks that’ll have you sucking back black tooth grins out of a straw. Produced by Danzig bassist/Samhain drummer Steve Zing, ‘The Brotherhood’ also features Symphony X/Ross The Boss bassist Mike LePond on several of the tracks. FFO Type O Negative, Alice In Chains, Texas Hippie Coalition.
~ Matt Hartnett (Aftershocks TV)

INTECHNICOLOUR – MIDNIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT
Grunge, 90s Alternative, Stoner
Brighton, UK
Small Pond Records

The first thing that came to my mind when I first played the Brighton, UK band’s sophomore album was “90s”. I see labels like “stoner” and “doom” on their Bandcamp page, but I hear more 90’s heavy alternative with some grunge then I hear anything remotely stoner.  There is an atmosphere to this record that you do not get from the more classic stoner style. These guys are more stoner adjacent, but whatever you want to call them there is one thing for sure: this record kills.
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip)

MAMMOCK – RUST
Noise Rock, Post-Punk
Athens, Greece
Venerate Industries

One of the best noise rock bands to ever have come out of Greece! Razor-sharp guitars with a brilliant rhythm section and melodies in the vein of the almighty Jesus Lizard, fronted by a vocalist that could make Jello Biafra blink first in a staring contest. Their debut album was a hidden gem, but their new one should bring them to a massive audience, as they truly deserve. For those of you that collect AOTYs, look no further! Check them out now!
~ Ioannis Valiakos (Desert Vulture)

MARC URSELLI’S STEPPENDOOM – STEPPENDOOM
Doom metal, Post-metal, Ambient, Throat singing
NYC/London, USA/England
Magnetic Eye records

Surrounded by prestigious guests, MARC URSELLI finally offers us this masterpiece that he has been building for a decade with musicians and singers from all over the world: SteppenDoom. The album is a symbiosis of doom metal with throat singing – two worlds, two cultures that feed off each other. The songs are at first very structured, then become more and more abstract until the last ambient track which lasts 33 minutes. The result is an almost shamanic journey, an ode to nature and wide open spaces.
~ Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral)

MOURN THE LIGHT – STARE INTO THE FACE OF DEATH
NWOBHW, Doom, Power, Metal
Connecticut, USA
Argonauta Records / Self-released

Connecticut’s MOURN THE LIGHT earn a shout-out for their new EP Stare Into The Face of Death. MOURN THE LIGHT play an interesting take on the doom genre mixing trad, power and epic metal into their sound, along with some keyboard embellishments. Check em out!
~ Chris Tighe (The Mighty Decibel)

NOTHING IS REAL – THE END IS NEAR
Black, Doom, Esoteric Metal
USA
Self-released

Nicholas Turner is a Sonic Cenobyte: Cleaving you to the bone with vicious hooks and bludgeoning force, then tenderly sewing you back together with passages of incredible beauty and invention. One of the very best purveyors of Esoteric Black Metal out there!
~ Reek of STOOM (Doomed&Stoned, Stoner HiVe)

ONSEGEN ENSEMBLE – REALMS
Prog, Psych, Jazz, World Music
Finland
Self-Released

Realms, the 4 th album from Finland’s ONSEGEN ENSEMBLE presents the band’s most fully realized vision to date. Seamlessly blending genres and eclectic instrumentation including horns, steel drums, ocarina, and digeridoo, Realms’ 6 tracks flow into each other as an almost continuous piece of music. Haunting, emotional, and cinematic in scope, the album manages to be as accessible as it is ambitious … and it’s exceedingly ambitious.
~ Ben Bellum (The Greatest Thing You’ve Never Heard)

RIVER FLOWS REVERSE – THE HOMING BIRD’S TRACE
Psychedelic Folk rock
Hungary
Psychedelic Source Records

Exploring is what RIVER FLOWS REVERSE does themselves as well. Exploring misty fields, dreamy conjurations, and ever flowing ambient jams. Stylistically we find ourselves at the ambient, triphop/chill out side of the psychedelic rock spectrum. Songs are allowed to stretch themselves up to ten minutes, or come and go in much shorter time, depending on the way the muse of inspiration presents itself. Beautiful warm production value, and great contributions by various guest musicians enriching the overall sound with their trumpets, zithers, sitar, and slide guitar do the rest.
~ Jasper Hesselink (Weirdo Shrine)

ROSY FINCH – SECONDA MORTE
Nineties, Alternative, Grunge, Metal, Sludge, Stoner
Alicante, España
La Rubia Producciones / Lay Bare Recordings / Discos Macarras

ROSY FINCH leaves us in shock with his new EP ‘SECONDA MORTE‘ Four dark songs that introduce us to the Alicante trio in its darkest and most intimate facet. A musical journey based on the poem “The Divine Comedy” where Dante Alighieri walks through hell, purgatory and paradise to meet his late beloved Beatrice and find faith in God. With this inspiration the trio, in their most different and personal work, fuses an eclectic mix of 90s grunge and alternative rock with influences of metal and sludge in gloomy songs in which the melodies play an important role. Atmospheric and with an aura of mystery and transcendental tones, the four songs delve into gloomy chasms in which doom, sludge and even a post-rock nod show us another facet of their alternative essence. Because without giving up his principles, ROSY FINCH decides to explore other ways to transmit his musical creativity.
~ Roberto Lucas (Denpa Fuzz)

TAVAT – TAVAT
Progressive Psychedelic Rock
Turku, Finland
Svart Records

Hands down, one of the best albums in the progressive psychedelic rock genre for the year. This is the impressive debut effort of Juhani Laine (ex-Sammal), with songs of a quality that allow it to easily look eye to eye with giants like Camel and Atomic Rooster. Had this album been recorded in the 1970s, today it would have been an undeniable classic. The Finnish language is a major plus, contributing to the album’s adventurous ambience and turning it into a ride into unspoiled sonic landscapes. No AOTY list for 2022 can ever be complete without this album. Brilliant stuff!!
~ Ioannis Valiakos (Desert Vulture)

UPUPAYÃMA – THE GOLDEN POND
Psychedelic Folk Eock
Parma, Italy
Centripetal Force / Cardinal Fuzz

The beauty of The Golden Pond is that even if we might not always have time to go out and be in around nature and stillness like Ferrari, we can actually have his experience by partaking in his records. It is this extra experience that music can bring that makes it so incredibly valuable, and artists like Upupayãma a phenomenon to cherish deeply.
~ Jasper Hesselink (Weirdo Shrine)

WARLUNG – VULTURE’S PARADISE
Stoner, Psych
Houston, Texas, USA
Heavy Psych Sounds

Houston, Texas’ WARLUNG is back with their fourth record, and it is a gigantic slab of heavy rock psychedelic awesomeness, with the key being gigantic. Vulture’s Paradise is huge. It sounds bigger than their other records, the songs are more epic, and the playing is just so next level that in starts to take over their entire already excellent back catalog as the one to beat.
~ Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip)

WITCHROT – LIVE IN THE HAMMER
Doom,Sludge,Psychedelic Metal
Toronto, Ontario
Fuzzed and Buzzed Records

NOT YET ON BANDCAMP

One listen to this live in the studio masterclass of psych tinted occult flavoured doom will have you wanting to don a black cape, a pointed hat, grow a wart on your nose and run off into the night to join a coven. Seriously though folks this is some bad-ass shit!
~ Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist)

WIJ – PRZEKLETE WODY
Doom metal, Occult metal, Proto-metal
Warsaw, Poland
Piranha Music

The drums pound powerfully, the low-tuned guitar plays very heavy, very doom riffs that create a dark atmosphere, and the outstanding voice of the female singer brings us light – so is WIJ. I imagine this band as a dark larva crawling and squirming in the shadows. But suddenly Maria’s outstanding voice sings and the beast metamorphoses, giving it wings and it’s now a death’s-head hawkmoth flying away in the night. It’s impossible to listen to this unfortunately short but breathtakingly beautiful EP without shivering. Please, gimme more… I need more!
~ Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral)

YURT – V – UPGRADE TO OBSOLETE
Experimental progressive metal
Dublin, Ireland
Self-released

Upgrade To Obsolete is a mind-blowing convergence of the cosmic flows of metal, progressive and psychedelia. On powerful rhythms YURT connects passages of doomy or crashing progressive metal which draw you towards a very personal universe where fantasy, horror and mysticism bubble together. Unless you’re deaf, there’s no way to escape the attraction of the Sonic Elders – Essential!
~ Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral)

And a special thanks goes out to Doktor420 for the cover image…

If you listen… It will Doom…

Special thanks to the ongoing contributors to the monthly Doom Chart.  You folks help give voice to the heavy underground:

Aaron Pickford (The Sludgelord); Adam Walsh (Earmunchies); Andy Benson (Nerve Salad); Andy Kovalcik (Bandcamp-NYP-Hard&Heavy); Ben Bellum (The Greatest Thing You’ve Never Heard); Bill Goodman (The Evil Engineer); Billy Goate (Doomed & Stoned); Bob “Mr. Weird Beard” Baker (More Fuzz Podcast); Bobby Rayfield (Monuments In Ruin); Brandon Collins (Super Dank Metal Jams); Bucky Brown (The Ripple Effect);  Clint Willis (Hand of Doom Radio); Chris Beck (Doom Tomb Podcast); Chris Latta (Ghost Cult Magazine);  Chris Tighe (The Mighty Decibel); The Doom Oracle (Spectral Ecstacy); Doomsday Jesus (DoomsdaysJesus); Duncan Evans (Alternative Control); ‘The General’ (Stoner Rock Army); Frazer Jones (Desert Psychlist); Fuzzy Cracklins (Fuzzy Cracklins); Geoff Leppard (Atom Heart Mutha); Graur Zaur (Crypt Guard); Gravitoyd HM (Gravitoyd Heavy Music); Gruby (Doomsmoker); Günther “Doktor420” (Stoner HiVe); Héctor “Mr. Heavyhead” Hurtado (More Fuzz); Hugo Hulleman (Metalfan.nl,Orange Maze); Ioannis Valiakos (Desert Vulture); Jamey Morris (Fistful of DOOM); Jasper Hesselink (Weirdo Shrine); Jay Morgan (High Desert Valley Radio); JC Cansdale-Cook (The MotorFuzzin’ Ibex); Jim Thompson (Heavy in the Hills); JJ “HP Taskmaster” Koczan (The Obelisk); John Gist, (Vegas Rock Revolution / The Doomed & Stoned Show); Jonny Pirie (Hour of the Riff); Joop Konraad (Stoner HiVe); Ken Elliott (Heavy Planet);  Kyle SB / Shasta Beast (Stoner HiVe); Leanne Ridgeway (Riff Relevant); Magnus Tannergren (Into The Void Radio); Marc-Eric Gagnon (Stonefly Effects); Marc C. Pietrek (Vitriol INC / A Dark United Front); Mark Partin (The Ripple Effect); Martin Doomed Desbois (Le Mellow Man, Metal Alliance Magazine) Matt Slighter (Cheeto) (Hwy 420, Core of Destruction Radio) Matthew Thomas (Taste Nation); Mathieu Van Der Hert (Dutch European Stoner Rock); Matt Hartnett (Aftershocks TV); Mel Lie (Sunday’s Heavy Tunes); Mike Williams (I Talk to Planets);  Mr Stone (More Fuzz); Nick Pipitone (The Third Eye, Monster Riff);Pat Schober (Monster Riff); Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker (The Ripple Effect); ‘Papa’ Paul Rote (Doomed & Stoned); Reek of STOOM (Doomed&Stoned, Stoner HiVe); Remi VL (Remi Post Too Many Links); Rich Piva (Musipedia of Metal, FuzzDoomRip); Roberto Lucas (Denpa Fuzz); Roberto Fuentes (La Habitación 235); Robert Pannell (Doom Loom); Rod Reinhardt (Captain Beyond Zen); Roman Tamayo (Doomed & Stoned); Ryan Foster (Slightly Fuzzed) ; Silvi Pearl (Doomed & Stoned, Electric Fire Records); Steve Howe (Outlaws of the Sun); Steve Rodger (God’s Holy Trousers); Steve Woodier (Deathrattle Podcast); Tanguy ‘Mr Fuzz’ Dupré (More Fuzz); Thierry “Pumpkin-T“ François (Metal Intégral); Tom Hanno (Tom’s Reviews); Tom Schmahl (Rock Circuz); Tony Maim (Black Insect Laughter, Stoner HiVe); Tony Van Dorston (Fast n Bulbous); Wombat Tarantino (Wombat Cult).

Feel free to send in your albums to stonerdoomcharts@gmail.com where they’ll be delegated to the crew above to determine their thoughts and gather the votes at the end of the month. Leave us comments below and let us know what you think about the Charts.

Here we are, you and me? At the very bottom? Well, why not leave a comment about your new favorite album on the list?