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2022 Was Good For Music
So much amazing music came out in 2022 that I can barely believe it. In the last few years I’ve been discovering new bands and they’ve all been leaping to new and more amazing levels of awesomeness. Hämatom, Lord of the Lost, Saltatio Mortis, Feuerschwanz and Electric Callboy, Rabbit Junk, Wind Rose, Stabbing Westward, Trollfest and Powerwolf all put out some world-class metal this year.
I also discovered some old tracks from new and known bands like Savant and Snapski. And so many more!! Gosh, my playlists are bursting. You can have a look at what I’ve been buying over on my Bandcamp profile (hail Bandcamp) if you want. A lot of the stuff below isn’t available there, and if I can’t buy it, I’ll pirate it. No regrets.
Make your stuff easy to buy or I won’t. Soz. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Let’s start off with yesterday’s Dec 20 release of Lord of the Lost‘s cover of The Look by Roxette. It’s a real banger. The new album is loaded with neat stuff that’s a lot faster and more cheerful than their last album. I really dig Destruction Manual as well.
Electric Callboy changed their name, which was a very excellent thing for them to do. And they released some stomping tracks to cement their place in my playlists. Arrow of Love is a wonderfully silly song, Spaceman is a very good time, as is Fuckboi.
HÄMATOM has been really making me happy for a long time. This year was no exception, as they released some strong songs by themselves and along with Saltatio Mortis, in a Metal Fight Club series of videos on Youtube that were all in German and incomprehensible to me… but then they release two songs based on the same riff, with videos featuring one band being served by the other in maid costumes. And then remixes of both, and different-sounding English versions, and… Fuck yeah, I am here for all of this.
Hämatom’s Es regnet Bier and the English version, It’s Raining Beer. They also released Gaga which is even better with the video. As a matter of excellence if not enjoyable music, Olympia is a song with lyrics that translate to something that praises athletes, with a video all about corruption in the World Cup. I do love the social awareness, and speaking of which… It came out late in 2021, but I’m letting Dagegen through because it is awesome and also carries a strong socially aware vibe in the video.
Meanwhile, Saltatio Mortis (which is Latin for Dance of the Dead, if you were wondering) released Alive Now based on the same riff as It’s Raining Beer, and is the better song IMO. Though it seems it’s less popular, based on the number of views. And here’s a different version of Alive Now with bonus Hämatom.
They also released Keine Regeln which is a heavy folk-metal dance track featuring FiNCH, who was also in the above-mentioned Spaceman by Electric Callboy.
Powerwolf is a band that doesn’t always hit with me, but Sainted by the Storm is a great track. The combination of deep operatic vocals along with excellent metal is exactly my jam.
Which brings us to Italy’s Wind Rose, with a similar sort of vibe but more, shall we say, dwarf-focused. Their 2022 album Warfront is fucking perfect. A lot of great songs, but the two standout tracks for me are Army of Stone and One Last Day
I discovered Trollfest this year, and while their particular brand of screaming vocals doesn’t work really well for me, they did two fantastic tracks that I really loved. Dance Like a Pink Flamingo is a ridiculous song that makes me fucking happy. And the video is really great too, with strong Eurovision vibes. I love a band that isn’t afraid to have fun, and then ramp that up and go a little nuts. Then there’s Pina Colada which is a loving diss of a hundred alcoholic drinks that aren’t the titular beverage. “Just give me some pineapple juice, coconut milk and rum.” Yes.
Rabbit Junk released an album that blends five or six different genres into a masterful work that really shows off a whole new level of competence and confidence for this one man band. And his wife, who describes her singing as sounding like “a psychotic ten year old”. Apocalypse for Beginners is about humanity wiping themselves out with such ease that it’s a… Well, as the title says. My favourite track by far is The Grind.
Which brings us to two non-metal creators. A few years back I bought Savant Ascent which is a short, explosive sort of game with a wonderful soundtrack from Savant. Most of his stuff is too all over the place for me, but Living iPod has been pleasing me for a while.
And Snapski is someone I just stumbled across, with two great tracks, Keep Grinding and Unimaginable.
Finally, the end of this painstakingly assembled post. I rediscovered some Scooter, I’m still listening to 80s era Judas Priest, Japanese rock and a lot of game tunes.
Here’s to an amazing 2023, which will have to go some way to be half as good as 2022. Musically at least. The rest of it was a fucking trash fire. Good riddance.
--NFG
[ Dec 31 2022 ]
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