Simon’s Top 10 Releases of 2022
By Simon Black
What an insane year! So, the stats first:
- Albums Reviewed: 144
- Web Sites Contributed To: 2
- Live Gigs / Festivals Attended: 6
- Articles from colleagues proof-read: 372
- Pints of Beer Consumed: ask me something I can record in a spreadsheet…
144 may seem a lot, but for me that’s a bit lower than in previous years, but I’ve also been helping run this place in the background, so you can’t have everything, (and I still contribute to the Musipedia of Metal as well to boot so you may need to pop over there to find a couple of these beauties in full). So first off, I am expected to list my ten favourites in order with a number one, but I will tell you now that this is an impossible ask. Just selecting ten was bad enough. Historically this has been a list of albums with the odd, noteworthy EP, but there’s more of those this year in my top decem this time round. That’s because the world is changing and many bands are opting for more frequent EP length releases, rather than albums. Why, well it’s obviously cheaper to produce, better at holding the attention deficit generation that dominates today who lose interest after three songs and gives the artist more excuses to get out on the road – which is the only way you can actually earn a crust from all this in the 2020’s. As ever, my methodology is a simple one: If I’m still listening to it after I reviewed it, then you may find Ant and Dec standing there saying “In no particular order… it might be you…“
Avantasia – A Paranormal Evening With The Moonflower Society
Avantasia ain’t everyone’s cup of tea, as let’s face it the whole Power Metal thing leaves many in the UK cold (and that’s before you add in the operatic avant-garde elements), but you cannot ignore the achievements clocked up by them. What started as a hiatus studio vanity project from Edguy frontman Tobi Sammet working with some of his musical heroes was at first a single song, then a full conceptual album (and a sequel) and has rolled on ever since for nearly 25 years, long since eclipsing the seemingly now defunct Edguy. Let’s face it, when your second ever live performance is as the headliner is to a sold out Wacken Open Air in 2008, you must be doing something right. And Avantasia has been ever since. But then this whole has ever been much greater than the sum of its parts… Those parts this time out include Michael Kiske (Helloween), Bob Catley (Magnum), Jorn Lande (Jorn and half of what Frontiers Records produce), Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Maids) Geoff Tate (Queensrÿche) and Eric Martin (Mr Big), with Nightwish’s Floor Jansen and Primal Fear’s Ralph Scheepers contributing for the first time, which is a who’s who of the rockin’ world that anyone would be proud of. Deeper and darker than its predecessors, this is an album born out of lockdown and for once Sammet’s own contribution is more front and centre as he delivers what may just be his own greatest hit.
https://musipediaofmetal.blogspot.com/2022/10/review-avantasia-review-by-simon-black.html
Highlights
- The Wicked Rule The Night
- The Inmost Light
- Misplaced Among The Angels
Chaos Over Cosmos – A Dream If Ever There Was One
A Progressive Melodeath record from a band that have never physically met on my top ten? Well, yes. Why, well because Chaos Over Cosmos have rather won me over since I first came across them a couple of years ago. Despite a revolving door of vocalists around the highly talented multi-instrumentalist shredder Rafal Bowman this is an act that has gone from strength to strength. Bowman is based in Poland, his various singers on other continents – none of whom have ever physically met him, and although many others have learned the art of home recording post-Covid, Bowman got there first. Add to that an incredibly strong grasp of the Progressive with some strong song-writing chops to go with the technical wizardry and what you get is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for when I started writing again – to find new bands that I love.
https://chaosovercosmos.bandcamp.com/album/a-dream-if-ever-there-was-one
Highlights
- Fire Eater
- Navigating by Moonlight
Evergrey – A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)
This is the only record on here that I did not actually write a review for on either site and is another band that I have come to very late in the party. Oh, I’ve heard them raved about but for some reason had never actually sat down and listened to them up to this point. The fact that I am doing this rather than giving one of my reviews a last hurrah is that this has been quite an exceptionally eye-opening experience. With a Progressive twist, this Swedish powerhouse delivered a powerful and beautifully crafted slab of Melodic Metal of the highest order, with the hauntingly charismatic and heart-tugging vocal delivery of Tom Englund the icing on what may be the most well-baked cake of the year. I don’t normally rank my top 10, but I may just have saved the best ‘till last.
Highlights
- Midwinter Calls
- Save Us
- Call Out The Dark
Lawnmower Deth – Blunt Cutters
For a band that for a very long time have effectively been their own tribute act, no-one expected these daft buggers to actually release a new studio album. The fact they have, and that it was done all grown up and properly, with labels, producers and actual care and attention is even more surprising – not least to the band themselves. But here we are, and it was a corker. Having inspired every comedy metal act that came after them, the daft masters have returned and blown the followers, and indeed themselves out of the water. In many ways they are exactly what they always were – a tongue in someone else’s cheek Punk Metal band, only these days they have budget to go with the arthritis. Here’s hoping that this is not the last time they venture into the studio.
Highlights
- Into The Pit
- Raise Your Snails
- Swarfega
Mad Symphony – Blood 2 Dust
These Canadian boys blew me away with their debut self-titled EP and have pulled off the unique (so far) trick of doing this for two years running. Again an EP, rather than a full album and whilst still infused with traditional Hard and Prog Rock vibes from another age, it sounds just as fresh and modern as its predecessor, with every track on here feeling like a living breathing entity – much like the band themselves. Slightly moodier in tone than its predecessor, it nonetheless pulls the same punch of leaving me wanting more. I’m not sure if this cycle of an EP a year is the permanent future, but it’s a great way of keeping fresh content out there, allows for subtle changes of direction incrementally whilst still retaining the attention of today’s attention deficit generation and keeps the audience hungry.
Highlights
- Blood 2 Dust
- Judgement Day
Magnum – The Monster Roars
50 Years. 50 Years this band have been going and going strong. Despite a hiatus in the late 90’s (although stalwarts Bob Catley and Tony Clarkin kept going under another band name) the band have cranked out solid new studio material every two years as regular as clockwork. Although sometimes guilty of being a bit lacklustre occasionally, there’s always a few strong gems on every release, but this meaty beast is positively chock full of them – no mean feat as it’s probably their longest record with an hour’s run time. It’s also the second with the revamped line-up that’s seen three of the five players renewed (one moved to the US, Harry James went back to Thunder and Mark Stanway just went, very spectacularly and publicly mid-tour), but the experienced hands that have filled those slots are clearly deeply imbued with the band’s history and have fused the more modern sounds post-reformation with some of the earliest more 70’s Prog infused material from way back when. It works a treat. Topped off by a darker and moodier tone, as you get straight from the cover, this is a soulful and thoughtful Magnum who with their twenty-second studio album have delivered one of their best.
Highlights
- The Monster Roars
- I Won’t Let You Down
- The Day After the Night Before
SiX BY SiX – SiX BY SiX
I didn’t see this one coming. Supergroups are often a triumph of marketing over perceived value, but occasionally, just very occasionally one comes along that really delivers the goods and is actually a little bit, well “super”. Formed by Robert Berry, Ian Crichton and Nigel Glockler, this is a hard hitting Prog Rock outfit that really knocks it out of the park. OK, anything with Saxon’s tub-thumper involved is always going to be ‘hard hitting’, but you get my drift. The best part? That this doesn’t sound like a manufactured “what if” product but is a real living, breathing band from a bunch of friends who’ve taken the time and the air miles whilst juggling lockdown challenges on various continents to cut a disk that is way stronger than the sum of their not inconsiderable parts. With its superb song-writing, fantastic playing and some darned catchy but clever songs, this caught me by surprise when it landed, and I’ve been listening a lot ever since. You may do too….
Highlights
- Yearning To Fly
- China
- Save The Night
Stratovarius – Survive
Despite being written off and constantly facing accusations that their best work is well behind them, I have to contradict this point of view. Considering I only discovered Stratovarius in this latest incarnation and worked backwards subsequently, this current line-up for me is the classic one. They caught my attention with 2013’s “Nemesis” and I’ve been hooked ever since. They may have no original members remaining, but for me Stratovarius remain a fundamentally crucial and contemporary part of the Power / Symphonic scene. They may not be as commercially successful as they were, but the song-writing and performance remain electric, and of this Strato 3.0 incarnation this may be the best one yet, with a record that really doesn’t have a duff track on it, and which touches all the right notes from across their history whilst still sounding of the moment.
https://musipediaofmetal.blogspot.com/2022/09/review-stratovarius-venom-inc-virgil.html
Highlights
- Frozen In Time
- World On Fire
- Breakaway
Therion – Leviathan II
I only came to the Therion party quite late with a review of the re-release of their 1996 “Theli” piece earlier this year on these very pages, but I can’t really include a twenty-five-year-old record on my top ten, so it’s probably just as well that what seems to be one of the best things they’ve done since that experimental opus inadvertently created the sub-genre of Symphonic Metal. Although they’ve been a staple of the genre ever since, that first record stands head and shoulders above much of the material by virtue of the fact it felt like a piece of classical music with some metal instruments first and foremost, and not the other way around. That wasn’t always the case, but this latest offering has the same feel and consistency of content for the first time in a long time. It’s the brave middle section of a three CD arc (and Therion are no strangers to this sort of epic approach) so reviewing it in isolation was always going to be an interesting experience, but it works. What makes it work is that you really could not tell that this was the case, and it stands on two firm feet on its own merit.
https://musipediaofmetal.blogspot.com/2022/10/reviews-therion-banco-del-mutuo.html
Highlights
- Litany of the Fallen
- Marajon Min Nar
The Treatment – Waiting For Good Luck
I was highly impressed with this album on first listen, but seeing them as a last minute support slot filler for Reckless Love recently they blew me away. They also blew the headliner away, but that’s another story. This young bunch of Cambridge-based Hard Rockers have been plugging away for a few years, but this was my first exposure, and the more I listen the more I want to. The biggest influence on their sound and lyrics is Bon Scott era AC/DC, and why the hell not, when most bands choose the later incarnation as their template. Soulful, charismatic and powerful as hell, vocalist Tom Rampton stands well on his own too feet both live and in studio, and with Kevin Shirley giving a fantastic Production job this really is foot tapping music to get an audience heaving. More soon please…
Highlights
- Rat Race
- Take It Or Leave It
- Devil In The Detail
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Simon Black and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.