Albums of the year: 2022

[pdw1]

I will start early. This year has been a great year for music after a rather flat 2021. Here is my top 10

1 Coheed And Cambria - Vaxis II: A Window Of The Waking Mind
2 Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder - Get On Board (The songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee)
3 Porcupine Tree - Closure/Continuation
4 Envy Of None - Envy Of None
5 Marillion - An Hour Before It's Dark
6 Pure Reason Revolution - Above Cirrus
7 Eric Wagner - In The Lonely Light Of Mourning
8 Ian McNabb - Nabby Road
9 King's X - Three Sides Of One
10 Kenn Nardi - Trauma

My only worry is that the average age of band members in that list is probably way past retirement age    Having Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and Dug Pinnik in the list doesn't help 

[Nickslikk2112]

I've only bought re-releases of 70s albums. Says it all really.

Old Music Good, New Music Bad.

[Nickslikk2112]

Hmmmm, much to my surprise - and shame - ten new releases HAVE made their way into the Slikk Fortess of aged Metal:

1. Von Hertzen Brothers - Red Alert in the Blue Forest
2. Birth - Born
3. Rosalie Cunningham - Two Piece Puzzle
4. Motorpsycho - Ancient Astronauts
5. Devin Townsend - Lightwork
6. Audrey Horne - Devil's Bell
7. Mikael Åkerfeldt - Clark
8. Mariusz Duda - Lockdown Trilogy
9. Candlemass - Sweet Evil Sun
10. Hällas - Isle of Wisdom

Thankfully, I didn't have to invoke Envy of None...

[Slim]

I haven't bought much this year. Didn't know there was a new Rosalie Cunningham album out and I haven't heard the Motorpsycho record yet.

My list is pretty modest:

Sea Power : Everything Was Forever
The Bug Club : Green Dream in F#
Kit Sebastian : Melodi
Mamas Gun : Cure the Jones
Flora Purim : If You Will
Envy Of None : Envy Of None
Tood Rundgren : Space Force


.. those are the new albums I remember buying this year, there may be others. Most of them are very good.

[pxr5]

Black Country New Road - Ants From Up There
Big Big Train - Welcome to the Planet
Von Hertzen Brothers - Red Alert in the Blue Forest
The Tangent - Songs From The Hard Shoulder
Porcupine Tree - Closure / Continuation
Birth - Born
Marillion - An Hour Before its dark
Tiger Moth Tales - A Song of Spring
Motorpsycho - Ancient Astronauts
Bubblemath - Turf Ascension
Evership - The Uncrowned King Act 2
iNFiNiEN - Beyond the Veil
Galahad - The Last Great Adventurer

As last year my Best album of the year is by black midi - Hellfire

[Matt2112]

Muse - Will Of The People

Album Of The Year. Absolutely magnificent - one of the world's biggest bands rediscovering their mojo and more than justifying their position; this is overflowing with bombast, melodrama, operatic tragicomedy, epic downtuned riffs and subwoofer-worrying double-kick pedals, 80s electronica and occasional bursts of shred guitar - and all satisfyingly over the head of the sort of aloof, snooty critics who wanted it to be Origin Of Symmetry II.

I may do a track-by-track review of this in the other dedicated section, actually.

Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

How do a bunch of old pro 60-somethings produce an album 82 minutes long where 70% of the tracks last over 7 minutes and still manage to make it all sound so compelling and cinematic?  I'm not sure, but, bugger me, that's damn sure what happened with this album.

King's X - Three Sides Of One

I actually found this very underwhelming and a bit of a disappointment.  Yet they are so capable of reaching the musical heights that your Muses and your Maidens can manage.  Shame.

[R6GYY]

Muse - Will Of The People

I don't think I can add anything to Matt's words. Well ok maybe a little. I absolutely adored (and still do), Simulation Theory, but the latest album is WILD, outrageous. Talk about make you sit up and pay attention.

Absolutely brilliant. A short album it is true, and all the better for it. As the saying goes, all killer, no filler.

Inglorious - Heroine
A strange one this. An album of covers of originally female-voiced rock songs. Definitely worth checking out the great cover of Heart's Barracuda.

FM - Thirteen
Ok, this is a slight disappointment following on from the mostly excellent Synchronized from 2020, but nonetheless, it is a slab of quality AOR with some good toons.

[Ali]

Haven't bought many but here's a few that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

The Blackheart Orchestra - Hotel Utopia
Threshold - Dividing Lines
Ork - Screamnasium
Muse - Will of the People

plus a live double out today and great introduction to the excellent

Mostly Autumn - Back In These Arms

[Matt2112]

FM - Thirteen
Ok, this is a slight disappointment following on from the mostly excellent Synchronized from 2020, but nonetheless, it is a slab of quality AOR with some good toons.

Agreed - FM seem to have a bottomless bucket of solid-gold hooks and this album proves no exception. Never got round to purchasing it though - I listened through their official channel on Youtube - so I didn't feel I could include it in my list, if that makes sense.

Similarly for Envy Of None, except I didn't really enjoy the tracks released to Youtube very much at all.

For me, Will Of The People was like an albatross around the neck of rock in 2022 - very little else came close to it.

[R6GYY]

Actually Matt - I haven't purchased physical copies of any of those albums. I mostly listen through Amazon devices these days. Mostly.

[pdw1]

Muse - Will Of The People

Album Of The Year. Absolutely magnificent - one of the world's biggest bands rediscovering their mojo and more than justifying their position; this is overflowing with bombast, melodrama, operatic tragicomedy, epic downtuned riffs and subwoofer-worrying double-kick pedals, 80s electronica and occasional bursts of shred guitar - and all satisfyingly over the head of the sort of aloof, snooty critics who wanted it to be Origin Of Symmetry II.

I may do a track-by-track review of this in the other dedicated section, actually.

Biggest disappointment of the year for me. 2nd underwhelming album in a row.
Perhaps it will grow on me like fungus but no

[pdw1]

Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

How do a bunch of old pro 60-somethings produce an album 82 minutes long where 70% of the tracks last over 7 minutes and still manage to make it all sound so compelling and cinematic?  I'm not sure, but, bugger me, that's damn sure what happened with this album.

great album but released in 2021 

[Thenop]

Oh dear, I am bad at this, I have a huge list of new albums I really enjoyed listening to.
I have to echo the biggest disappointment, although I adit I did not expect mich, but the Muse album did not do anything for me.
The one album that surprised me most in positive way was the new Megadeth, I am really impressed by that one.There are a lot of usual suspects for me, Motorpsycho, Voivod and also the Smile. Liked the Black Keys' Dropout Boogie but mostly some more obscure and left of field stuff intrigued me.
Forgive me for posting so much stuff...

Alter Bridge    -    Pawns & Kings
Audrey Horne    -    Devil's Bell
Behold! The Monolith    -    From the Fathomless Deep
Birth    -    Born
Blut Aus Nord    -    Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses
Brutus    -    Unison Life
Dream Unending    -    Song of Salvation
Dream Widow    -    Dream Widow
Elder    -    Innate Passage
Falls of Rauros    -    Key to a Vanishing Future
Geezer    -    Stoned Blues Machine
Hammers of Misfortune    -    Overtaker
Hellacopters    -    Eyes of Oblivion
High Command    -    Eclipse of the Dual Moons
JD Simo Trio    -    Songs from the House of Grease
Megadeth    -    The Sick, the Dying...the Dead
Messa    -    Close
Midnight    -    Let There Be Witchery
Motorpsycho    -    Ancient Astronauts
Nebula    -    Transmission from Mothership Earth
Pike vs the Automaton    -    Pike vs the Automaton
Porcupine Tree    -    Closure Continuation
Ruby the Hatchet    -    Fear is a Cruel Master
Star One    -    Revel in Time
Sumerlands    -    Dreamkiller
The Black Keys    -    Drop Out Boogie
The Smile    -    A Light for Attracting Attention
Venus Principle    -    Stand in Your Light
Voivod    -    Synchro Anarchy
Warlung    -    Vulture's Paradise
White Ward    -    False Light
Whitespade    -    Whitespade
Wo Fat    -    The Singularity
Worm    -    Bluenothing
Wovenhand    -    Silver Sash

[pxr5]

^ Alter Bridge - I'd never heard of them before today. My son and his girlfriend won a competition on Kerrang Radio for back stage/VIP passes to see Alter Bridge at the Manchester Arena tonight. She loves them and is super excited - should be fun for them.

[Matt2112]

Iron Maiden - Senjutsu

How do a bunch of old pro 60-somethings produce an album 82 minutes long where 70% of the tracks last over 7 minutes and still manage to make it all sound so compelling and cinematic?  I'm not sure, but, bugger me, that's damn sure what happened with this album.

great album but released in 2021 

Ah yes - true; it just took ages for me to get round to buying it.