Oh, 2022. What can I say about you? The year I turned 30. The year I went to my perfect holiday destination (don’t worry we’ll get to that). However, the most important to me that was the year I returned to going to gigs. Being a part of a live crowd again has meant the world to me and I have seen some pretty epic gigs this year. There’s also been a tonne of albums to boot. Like, I think there has been a little something for everyone this year. There’s been a tonne of great rock, metal, and country music this year to get my ears to. I didn’t know how to approach this year. Usually, I make a top-something album of the year list. Last year I shook things up with an album award blog. However, in all honesty, I didn’t like how that turned out. How about we reinvent the wheel again for 2022? Let’s summarise some of my favourite moments in music this year: my favourite albums, my favourite gig memories and other things.
I was getting a bit bored of these blogs going amiss. Sometimes, artists just care about their position on a best-of list or the rating you give them and not so much what you thought of the album or gig. So let’s take numbers out of the equation. Let’s discuss the music of this year. Instead of trying to talk about some arbitrary number of albums. Let me tell you about the albums that hit home for me this year.
Weirdly enough I think there are two bands that, for lack of a better term, owned my year. At least in terms of hype, excitement and adoration. They would be The Devil Wears Prada and Evergrey. Both of those bands have been high in my opinion this year. The release of Color Decay from The Devil Wears Prada was such an emotional ride for me. They started to come back with a vengeance with two new singles and the way they teased it throughout the year was simply a genius-level marketing strategy. When the album finally dropped I was so happy. That album just hit so damn hard. Songs like “Cancer”, “Watchtower” and “Time” were probably my personal favourites but honestly, the whole album is more than worth your time. It’s been fascinating to hear this band grow and develop over the years. However, Color Decay should be recognised as one of the brighter spots of my year. Also, getting to see them live (opening for Wage War) was such a treat.
What about Evergrey then? Well, they put out two excellent albums this year. Firstly put out the live record Before The Aftermath which was an expression of pure joy and elation. We finally had a new live record from them that was a bit more reflective of their current style. I would encourage you to get the live DVD if for nothing else just to see Tom’s face of pure joy as he plays to a crowd again after the COVID lockdown. However, their crowning achievement was yet to come. Later in 2022, they released their thirteenth album A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament). A titanic album that I think more than outdoes their 2021 album Escape of the Phoenix. I was so blown away by this album. Even listening to it now, my jaw is still on the floor. The production is on another level. It’s all just so glorious. Songs like “Save Me”, “Wildfires” and “Call Out The Dark” automatically hit the top of my favourite Evergrey songs ranking. Also, I got to see them live in Manchester. Which was simply one of the best gig experiences of 2022. They were simply amazing live. They just bring such energy and charming charisma to the stage. Their music translates so well to the stage, the booming bass and drums, the charged guitar work and the atmospheric keyboards. All of it was tied together with Tom’s vocals. I’ve not had that much fun at a gig in a long, long time. 2022 was the year I got back to gigs after the dreaded dark times of 2020 and 2021. My first gig of 2022 was something super special. So, for my 30th birthday, I flew to St Louis in the USA. it was an amazing holiday and an experience I will never forget. When I was over there I went to see a singer I’ve admired for years, Cassadee Pope. She was absolutely wonderful. Not only did she fill the set with her own massive hits, she even reprised some songs that she wrote with her old pop-punk band Hey Monday. It was a truly splendid show and getting to experience a gig in the USA was a fun novelty of the time. I don’t know if I truly had the American gig experience, it felt like attending a small bar gig in the UK. I had the best time though, rum and coke, pizza and live music. I don’t know about you, but for me, that’s a great night.
This was also the year I finally got to the shows that I had been waiting for since before the pandemic. The four shows that I finally got to attend were: Brian Fallon & The Howling Weather at Manchester Academy, Hatari at Manchester Club Academy, Flogging Molly at Birmingham’s O2 Institute and finally the big, big one… Within Temptation & Evanescense at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham. I’ve already written full blogs about the first three and splurging mini-review for the last. Needless to say, all of them were more than worth the wait. In all honesty, all of the bands could have come on stage and played anything and I think it would have been more than worth the wait. Honestly, it was such a relief to finally get to these shows. Especially the Within Temptation & Evanescense co-headliner. That show was just a release of ecstasy, it was a rush like no other and finally getting to hear Evanescense perform live left me with such a feeling of elation. Another band off the bucket list!
On top of all of that, I’ve also been back out in the field as a reviewer for WeShootMusic. Which has been an absolute blast and also tested my endurance for this writing malarky again. Spending an entire day reviewing at Twatterfest in September, which tested my resolve after not doing this sort of thing for two years. I got to see Nina Nesbitt again, which is always a pleasure. This was the third time I got to review her live show for the site and she always manages to impress me. Her new album Älskar was an inspiration to go on this year. Her new music is pure pop perfection. From a songwriting and production aspect, it’s pretty damn flawless and the way she brought that music to the stage was immaculate. Following that, I got to review the mighty Alter Bridge at Manchester Arena. Holy cow! That was certainly a highlight of the year. Getting to review one of my all-time favourite bands was a privilege and something I will never truly forget. I’ve appreciated every opportunity I’ve taken this year. Hopefully, I will continue this into 2023.
It seems like no matter the time of the year, there was always something to look forward to. There were so many points of the year where I was hyped for something, either a new album song or artist information. Anything I could sink my teeth into, I did. Be it the release of the new album, Pirates from Visions Of Atlantis or the release of the new album from Alter Bridge, Pawns And Kings. I think, for me, one of the biggest music events I was looking forward to was regarding one of my favourite artists LiSA. Not only did she put out her seventh studio album, Lander. She also released her live concert film, Live at Nippon Budokan and released a documentary about her career up to now titled Another Great Day. I have to say that the documentary hit me emotionally. This documentary was filled with life lessons, great humour, despair and joy. Again, I did a full review of this on the blog already, where I went into more detail and analysis regarding the documentary. Looking back on it though, the more I smile and think about everything that film taught me. From learning to cope with failure to actioning the change you want to see in yourself. Seeing how much work and passion she still puts into singing after all this time is inspiring.
After spending a long time away from reviewing over the last few years meant I also passed up the opportunity to listen to new music and I also passed on the opportunity to interview artists. Which is something I didn’t even realise I would miss. But it’s been therapeutic. Though I haven’t done many, three to be precise, they’ve been fun to arrange and go through. Big thank you to Master Sword, Dave from The Outlaw Orchestra and Ryan from SOiL for being so cool and for their great answers to my questions. Hopefully, more will be coming in 2023 but I wanted to give those guys a bit more of a shout-out.
2022 has brought out some absolute banger anthems. Some of the songs I’ve had on constant repeat are: “Bang On The Gong”, Twin Atlantic’s pop smash tune; there were a few great songs from the Australian hard rock collective The Neptune Power Federation “Loving You Is Killing Me” and “My Precious One” Were standouts; Visions Of Atlantis cam back this year with one of their best albums in a long time “Legion Of The Sea” and “Master Of The Hurricane” were bold anthemic tunes to set sail and have fun too. As It Is came out swinging with a banger album this year that had the nostalgia fill “I Miss 2003” in there which had me singing along every time I heard it. Moonlight Haze released their third album this year to rapturous applause from this critic and songs like “It’s Insane”, “Kintsugi” and “A Ritual of Fire” kept me going through the summer. I gotta say, no matter the point of the year there was always a new track or new earworm that wiggled its way onto my playlist.
I’ve also managed to complete some projects this year for the blog. Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows put out their long-awaited second album and that is really impressive. Craig Owens managed to make it feel like the last 10 years didn’t happen. So diving into that and rediscovering my nostalgia was fantastic. Also, KT Tunstall finally finished her trilogy and I had a really fun time dissecting them and putting together my blog reviewing them all. I liked making the connections between the songs and finding the themes laced throughout them. I think my blogs on Man With A Mission, Moonlight Haze and A Sound Of Thunder have been some of the best work in years. I’ve mostly just enjoyed the process of writing.
All in all, this has been an engaging year of music and a great year for the blog. I’m hoping to continue this into 2023. I have some amazing adventures upcoming. Rammstein in Germany, Hans Zimmer in Austria and the Stream Of Passion reunion show in Eindhoven. Also a bunch of gigs here in the google old UK. I’m looking forward to the upcoming album releases this year. Some of the albums I have pinned in my calendar are: the self-titled album from Beyond The Black, Dark Waters from Delain, Tear Me To Pieces by Story Of The Year, Lighting Up The Sky by Godsmack and The Other One from Babymetal. Just to name a few. Whatever the year ends up throwing at me, I’m sure there’ll be a load of great music to help me through.
For those of you that have stuck around and want to know a list of my favourite albums of the year. Here’s my arbitrary top 20:
01: Everygrey - A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)
02: Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows - Destroy Rebuild
03: Silent Skies - Nectar
04: Moonlight Haze - Animus
05: LiSA - Lander
06: The Devil Wears Prada - Color Decay
07: The Neptune Power Federation - Le Demon de L’amor
08: The Shires - 10 Year Plan
09: Steak - Acute Mania
10: Unlucky Morpheus - Evolution
11: Alter Bridge - Pawns And Kings
12: Visions Of Atlantis - Pirates
13: Man With A Mission - Break and Cross The Walls II
14: Flogging Molly - Anthem
15: Nina Nesbitt - Älskar
16: Metric - Formentera
17: KT Tunstall - NUT
18: Pulled Apart By Horses - Reality Cheques
19: Tegan And Sara - Crybaby
20: Hammerfall - Hammer Of Dawn
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