I spent most of 2022 listening to Jazz but as listening to Jazz is forbidden here at the Ometer. Here’s my top rock and metal picks for the year to make amends:
Back from the Dead features one of the greatest vocal performances I can recall hearing on a rock record. Up until hearing this album I would have told you Floor Jansen was the best female vocalist in rock and metal. After hearing Lzzy Hale on Back from the Dead, I’m not so sure anymore. The album is emotional, powerful and catchy as hell. Based on this album Halestorm deserve to hit the big leagues. Impressive stuff.
Otherness is one hell of a comeback album. The first album by Alexisonfire in 13 years and it is darker, moodier and maybe heavier than everything they have released prior. The three pronged vocal attack from Dallas Green, Wade McNeil and George Petit across the album creates a fluid, emotional and interesting dynamic within the song structures. The song and single ‘Sweet Dreams of Otherness’ is a standout.
L.S Dunes are a post-hardcore supergroup featuring vocalist Anthony Green (Circa Survive), guitarists Frank Lero (My Chemical Romance), Travis Stever (Coheed & Cambria) and bassist Tim Payne and drummer Tucker Rule (Thursday) and they sound exactly like you think they would without actually repeating any of the 00’s emo tropes. Past Lives is an utterly compelling and modern post hardcore album that doesn’t repeat the individual members past glories but does manage to sound strangely familiar. I urge every fan of post-hardcore to check it out.
As I said in my mid year review for this album: Night Gnomes is a great record full of meaty riffs, catchy songs and otherwordly samples. Spotify labels them as ’psych-prog and prog rock with heavy garage riffs, and after spending a further six months with the record that description is incredibly accurate. This is a hugely enjoyable album.
Heavy Pendulum is the most consistent and best Cave In album to date. Cave In have always been a fantastic band but with Heavy Pendulum thier mixture of post hardcore, metal and space rock is distilled evenly and beautifully across all the tracks making it sound absolutely captivating.
The Butterfly Effect were one of the best prog metal bands from Australia but disbanded in 2008. So to see them reunite in 2018 and deliver IV in 2022 is exciting. The album doesn’t disappoint either, equal parts ethereal, heavy and melodic. This album picks up where Final Conversation of Kings finished without a pause. It’s great to see them firing on all cylinders and delivering one off the best prog metal albums of 2022. They were always good, but this release definitely feels rather special. Shame it took 16 years.
The Atheist is a straight up pop/rock barn stormer and is fun to boot. ’This is all There is’ kicks the album off in raucous fashion. I think this is Jamie’s best album by some margin. The album has all the hallmarks needed to break in the mainstream without Jamie losing his indie/cult cred. Jamie is also turning into one of the very best songwriters in the UK. This is demonstrated across the album, but really sticks out in the songs ‘This is all there is’, ‘Hospital Tree’ and ’This Town will never let us go’. Highly recommended.
Released right back in January, this record has been on my playlist ever since. Bliss Fields are a power pop/shoegaze band from Toronto. The whole album is fantastic, but it was the first song ‘It Comes in Waves’ that kept me coming back. It is by far one of my favourite songs released this year. If you're a fan of any of the genres mentioned, there is plenty to fall in love with on this album.
It seems 2022 was the year for comeback records from some of my favourite bands. Silent Drive dropped the ‘emo‘ essential Love is Worth it back in 2004 and I have been waiting for a follow up ever since. By my calculation, that’s an 18 year gap between albums. Does it disappoint? Does it heck. Fairhaven picks up exactly where Love is Worth It ended and I couldn’t be happier. The early 00’s emo/post hardcore sound is back, and it's the old guard that is bringing the tunes. ‘Prescription for Death’ is essential listening.
The Deluxe Edition of Lightwork contains the Nightwork EP, which contains Devin’s heaviest songs since SYL, and it's welcome to hear him really going for it In these 3 songs. Lightwork itself isn’t particularly heavy, however it is his best album in a long time. It's consisitent, catchy, heavy when it needs to be and incredibly emotional. ‘Lightworker’ is one of my favourite songs of his since ‘Let it Roll‘ from Synchestra’. Devin still gets a lot of flack for not being heavy enough these days, but when the quality and the songs are this good I don’t mind at all.
If you saw my 2020 Year End List on here you will remember that Abrams previous album Modern Ways made my number 2 spot. It was an exceptional heavy, catchy rock record that would sit comfortably next to Foo Fighters on mainstream radio stations. In the Dark however isn’t. It completely threw me initially. It's denser, heavier and harder to digest. However, give it time and the melodies push through the grungy, sludgy sound and bring a the right amount of atmosphere to the record. After many listens, I can now confidently say In the Dark is the better album, and that is some achievement.
Deceivers should not be this good. Arch Enemy are eleven albums into their career and have been around for 25 years. Yet Deceivers is the best album they have ever released. They have always been a reliable metal band, but Deceivers takes them to the next level. Each song on the album is a banger but ‘Handshake with Hell’ for me is the standout. The album just had me coming back for more and has been a weekly staple since it’s release.
Polyphia are better than your band. Polyphia are better musicians than every band ever. Tim Henson is the best guitar player in the world right now. Remember that you will Die proves it. If you are thinking of starting a band, listen to this album and then just give up. You will never be as good as Polyphia.
Epic, cinematic, beautiful, and very long are all adjectives I would use to describe the new album from AYWKUBTTOD. I would also use bombastic, inter-dimensional and orchestral. It is genuinely a fantastic and an amazing sounding record. It’s been recorded in quadraphonic sound Just in case anyone is set up for it. Ok, there are probably too many songs. It's an hour and fifteen minutes long, but it flows incredibly well, and there are some stand out songs–notably ‘Our Epic Attempts’, ‘Penny Candle’, ‘No Confidence’ and ‘Growing Divide’. The album mixes, rock, punk, folk, orchestral and ambient styles across its runtime and the cumulative effect is mind-blowing. Persevere with this record and it will reward you like no other.
I have never really been a huge fan of Ghost. I never got the hype. Prior to Impera, I felt other bands were doing the Swedish retro classic rock/metal thing much better. So coming into this release, I was not ready to have my mind absolutely blown by this record. It is a near perfect arena metal record that is so catchy, every single song will be stuck in your head for weeks. It features everything I love about music: amazing songwriting, amazing playing, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, silliness, catchiness, heaviness and a kickass-sounding production. Oh, and the first 9 songs are the best run of any metal album I can remember. You still might be on the fence with Ghost, and that’s fine. But after an entire year of playing the life out of this record every day (ending up in the Spotify Wrapped top 1% of Ghost listeners the world!) I can honestly say Impera has moved into the hallowed position of being one of my favourite metal records of all time.
