It's that time of the year again!
35.Elder - Innate Passage
34.Misery Index - Complete Control
33.Magnum - The Monster Roars
32.Axel Rudi Pell - Lost XXIII
31.Avatarium - Death, Where Is Your Sting
30.Watain - The Agony & Ecstasy of Watain
29.Long Distance Calling - Eraser
28.Wilderun - Epigone
27.Candlemass - Sweet Evil Sun
26.Therion - Leviathan II
25.Joe Satriani - The Elephants of Mars
Joe Satriani has nothing to prove, after almost 20 studio albums he has collected millions of fans and accolades. However, with The Elephants of Mars he demonstrates that standing still is not option. A dynamic album combining classic elements from the early albums with experimentation and fusion music makes this new album a pleasure to listen to. It's another delight also to inspire guitar players around the world.
24.Saxon - Carpe Diem
After more than 40 years on the road, Saxon brings their impressive new album with bristling steel-clad riffery and proud intent, the band draws on a variety of ingredients from its career to keep it loyal to their roots but also sounding fresh and modern. They kept simple and straightforward, pure traditional heavy metal flourishing from their 80's success. What else to say? Despite being frontloaded, a very good album, deserving the attention of new and old fans.
23.Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Revel In Time
Musicians and singers choices make total sense for the style or vibe of each song, Arjen knows how to pick them. And his song writing is top notch as always. He delivers the material so that those singers can perform at their best. Given the pandemic, it's even more impressive that he was still able to produce such a high quality album with so many top musicians. I can only highly recommend this one. If you like prog/power metal and clean powerful singing over great guitar work and amazing solos, you can't go wrong with Star One's best album to date.
22.Bloodbath - Survival of the Sickest
Bloodbath, Sweden’s undisputed masters of old school death metal, are back doing what they know best. This is a return to 90's death metal within the boundaries of the genre with a little flirting into death doom in the best Obituary veins. Old fans of the band or of the legends Morbid Angel or Death will have a great time with Survival of the Sickest. A very good death metal album deserving a sore neck.
21.Lamb of God - Omens
It took me a long time to get to this album (it is one of the only ones in this list that I didn't review on this channel). But I am glad I took the time because it's a voracious groove metal delight. Nothing that they haven't done before, but it's so well done that I couldn't find one song that I didn't like. No ballads, no BS, no clean singing, just modern metal madness from start to finish. It
s great to see the band going back to the basics and to their roots.
20.Arch Enemy - Deceivers
In terms of marketing and promotion, band and label went all in with Deceivers. It's understandable, they have a superstar line up, a charismatic front woman, good songs, and rich discography. And as we all know headliners are needed. So Century Media did not save money on their budget here: A fantastic production, a whopping 6 music videos, (so more than half of the album) and a long pre promotion of the album starting from October 2021 with the first single "Deceiver, Deceiver". Although the album was officially announced on January 2022. Overall I like the results, it's their strongest album with Alissa and a very good one.
19.Michael Romeo - War Of The Worlds, Pt. 2
As in Part 1, War Of The Worlds, Pt. 2 features a lot of super-heavy cinematic music and, obviously, lots of guitars to impress any seasoned player or prog metal fan. Musicianship is superb and the new singer Dino brought a lot of power to this album. The arrangements on this album are great, there's a lot happening and the symphonic parts are truly impressive. A very good album recommended for SX fans, prog metal in general and certainly if you liked part 1.
18.Slipknot - The End, So Far
Another one I didn't review on the channel, but I did spend some time with it and I think it's pretty good. It's different, experimental, but also heavy and full of future live favorites. It didn't seem to have scored many points with different reviewers and magazines, but I dug it. It's worth the time.
17.Evergrey - A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)
Less than a year after the previous record Evergrey delivered one of their strongest albums in years, it can even become my favourite. The album flows greatly and I could sense I'd be hooked on it after the first listen. And since them it only grew on me. An overwhelming journey through progressive heaviness and searing emotionality is repeatedly accented by sonic melancholy and gripping lyrics. There's a lot of heaviness in this album but masterly combined with melancholy and slower moments. Besides it's very catchy and musically featuring strong riff and solos. Very good album. A progressive metal lesson without overdoing it.
16.Avantasia - A Paranormal Evening with the Moonflower Society
Overall it's another very good symphonic power metal album from Avantasia. There are no surprises really, but it's fun, well written and executed. To me all songs but one are good to very good. The guests singers have all delivered great performances and the addition of Floor and Ralf was spot on. All in all, very good album, anyone who enjoyed the last four albums will like this one and any power metal fan should give it a try.
15.Kreator - Hate Über Alles
Kreator's 15th studio album is remarkably consistent with the previous records. Aggressive German thrash metal, well written, produced and executed from start to finish. It doesn't bring a lot of new things to the table, other than the song "Midnight Sun" featuring a guest female singer, but it's damn good. A very good album where there are no weak songs.
14.Threshold - Dividing Lines
Threshold keeps getting better with time and also takes the opportunity of the recent change of singers to evolve their sound while bringing back elements from the earlier albums. With Dividing Lines they fused their 2nd album signing style with the darker and heavier sound from the late Mac era but the band kept the adventurous side from the recent albums. Musically there's the heaviness of heavy metal acts such as Symphony X and Dream Theater combined with 80's Rush and 70's prog rock and Deep Purple. I just found this melting pot extremely interesting and satisfying. Musically the band is very talented but never overdo it. All in all ne of the top prog metal albums of 2022.
13.Ghost - IMPERA
One of the things I love about Ghost is how concise they are, the songs are short the albums are not too long. And yet the songs feature changes, variations and go to different places all of that while being super catchy and dark or heavy at times. It's a powerful combination and it's not a surprise that they have grown so much so quickly. To me this is a very good album from a band that will continue to grow and increase their fan base while not alienating (all) the older ones like myself.
12.Decapitated - Cancer Culture
Decapitated delivered an angry album with blasting energy and heaviness from start to finish but with enough variability and groove to keep it interesting throughout. You can expect to hear an outstanding production, enjoy a fantastic artwork, and benefit from a little something here and there that you would not expect from Decapitated before Cancer Culture. A very good album, and one that may grow further on me as I keep listening to it. And did, it made my Spotify top list of artists and songs that I listened the most in 2022.
11.Behemoth - Opvs Contra Natvram
Opvs Contra Natvram is a heavy album and a natural evolution from The Satanist and Loved You At Your Darkest, it's super aggressive but also epic and melodic. It's also dynamic showing several influences from death metal to black metal but also very melodic moments. I didn't expect much from this album and I thought I'd brush it off quickly, but the truth is I found myself addicted to it and I came to the realization that it's a very fucking good album. If you like this phase of the band you gonna love this.
10.Meshuggah - Immutable
I start the top ten with a surprise as I was not very kind with the initial review of this album. Immutable is less harsh sounding and more dynamic than previous albums. But it sounds like we come to expect from Meshuggah since Obzen. It features some good tracks, interesting moments, some risk taking and a lot to unpack. I think if you are new to this band, and you like this kind of music, this is as good as any of the last albums. But for seasoned fans like me, it did not stand out compared to recent albums. But it turns out that I was addicted to it and I listened this band more than any other one in 2022. Besides seeing some of those songs live in my first concert after the pandemic was a big positive factor.
9.Steve Vai - Inviolate
Vai continues to use his solo work to expand and explore. He has been continually challenging notions of traditional guitar playing and composition even at the age of 60 and having accomplished so much in his successful career. With Inviolate he has done it again. Not only he re-imagined the instrument itself with the Hydra, but also this time around, Vai quite literally invented a new guitar-playing technique. And those are just two highlights of the so many things he did and explored in this album. Besides all that, the music is fun and entertaining to listen to. So I can only say it's a very good album and the guitar album of 2022.
8.Cult Of Luna - The Long Road North
Cult of Luna have very productive the last few years. The emotions and dedication of the band in those albums in undeniable. The lack of fixed structures and templates gives the album an open and honest artistic vibe. The music takes you to different places from super heavy screams, to beautiful melodies, melancholic moments and ambient soundscapes. All these combined really appeals to me and I like this album a lot, another very good album.
7.Dark Funeral - We Are The Apocalypse
I came to this album with no expectations and I am now surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's nothing new or innovative, but it's damn good straightforward black metal with that black and roll flavour at times. But most importantly, for a Black Metal album, it is also really dynamic with variability and not just tremolo picking guitars and blast beats. It's well written, performed and produced. In sum a very good black metal album, the best of 2022.
6.Blind Guardian - The God Machine
Blind Guardian revisits their early heavy and raw sound with The God Machine. A straightforward, mostly fast tempo and heavy album with minimal orchestrations but as expected great hooks, melodies and big choruses. If you know the early work of the band, there's nothing new here, it's a natural reaction to previous albums and sets the scene for maybe taking some more risks in the next album. For now, this is a good album and a certain success among long time fans.
5.Porcupine Tree - Closure Continuation
Many would never expect to see a new Porcupine Tree album ever again, but here we are. It was worth the wait. Not a heavy album, but another interesting step forward in the band's discography. Featuring an interesting guitar tone, odd time signatures, unconventional song structures and beautiful melodies. It's everything I'd hope to see from those guys. It's one of the albums I listened the most this year, with 3 songs featuring in my Spotify top 5 list.
4.Machine Head - Of Kingdom And Crown
Specially compared to Catharsis, Of Kingdom And Crown is a heavier and more technical album. It builds from their roots, specially Burn my Eyes and The Blackening while paying homage bay area thrash metal, specially Exodus. To me it's a return to form and their best album since Unto the Locust which I like a lot. We get sick riffs and harmonics (it's nice that Flynn leveraged the writing music skills of new members), nice melodies, a good balance between clean and harsh vocals and a lot of aggressiveness. A very good album, enjoy it!
3.Battle Beast - Circus of Doom
I liked this album a lot, but I haven't seen many good reviews. That doesn't surprise me and it's one of the reasons I started this channel. Of course if you want extreme metal or prog metal adventures this is not the album. But we have to judge an album for what it is and tries to accomplish. In that sense Battle Beast stayed true to the formula of “100% heavy metal - 0% bullshit!” This is fun, catchy and contagious while delivering energy and quality song writing. It's a very good album and I keep listening to it and I am not ashamed. The band was also in my Spotify top 5 list. For me their best album yet. I also saw them live this summer and it was fantastic.
2.Soilwork - Övergivenheten
Soilwork has been evolving their sound for years into this perfect blend between Swedish Melo Death Metal meets Hard Rock/Traditional Metal. With Övergivenheten they may have found the perfect formula and it's their strongest album in many years. A very good achievement reaching easily the top of my list. If it would be just a bit shorter, it would've been number one. Overall for those who enjoy melo death and were happy with their latest albums, Övergivenheten will be a delight. And don't mind the Swedish title, my good friend Michael almost let is slide because of it.
1.Zeal and Ardor - Zeal & Ardor
I'm a big fan of Zeal & Ardor first two albums and the trend continues now with the self titled third album. Zeal & Ardor continue to build on their unique combination of Black Metal and African American music. But this time around they doubled down on the heaviness of some tracks and post-metal elements in others. The album is dynamic, heavy, catchy and super interesting. I saw them live twice this year and those new songs blend perfectly with the older ones. I knew it was going to be high on my list, and here it is as number one. It was also the second most listened band for me in 2022. So all good reasons to be my album of the year.
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Honorable Mentions:
Krisiun - Mortem Solis
Queensrÿche - Digital Noise Alliance
Amorphis - Halo
Megadeth - The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!
Amon Amarth - The Great Heathen Army
Stratovarius - Survive
Audrey Horne - Devil´s Bell
Scorpions - Rock Believer
HammerFall - Hammer of Dawn
Biggest Disappointments:
Parkway Drive - Darker Still
Architects - The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit
Favorite Album Cover Art:
Axel Rudi Pell - Lost XXIII
Dark Funeral - We Are The Apocalypse
Evergrey - A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)
Favorite Guitar Solos:
Little Pretty by Steve Vai from Inviolate
Hybrids by Michael Romeo from War Of The Worlds, Pt. 2
Sahara by Joe Satriani from The Elephants of Mars
We'll Be Back by Kiko Loureiro from Megadeth's The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!
Top 10 songs:
Passenger by Wilderun from Epigone
Cold Burn by Cult Of Luna from The Long Road North
Master of Illusion by Battle Beast from Circus of Doom
Candlepower by Steve Vai from Inviolate
Deceiver, Deceiver by Arch Enemy from Deceivers
Electric Again by Soilwork from Övergivenheten
Övergivenheten by Soilwork from Övergivenheten
Slaughter the martyr by Machine Head from Of Kingdom And Crown
The Abysmal Eye by Meshuggah from Immutable
Spillways by Ghost from IMPERA
Favorite Shows:
Helloween
Zeal & Ardor
Battle Beast
Disappointing Shows: None, after COVID...I think a concert will never be disappointing again in my life.
