Best of 2022
Looking back on what was an incredible year for music, as the world finally got back to some form of normality. We have crowned our winners of Best Album, Single, Breakthrough Artist and a welcome return to the category of Best Live Act of 2022! The winners and reasons for their selections can be found below...
Best Album of 2022
FM - Thirteen
Released 18th March 2022
To regular listeners this should come as absolutely no surprise that my favourite album of the year is ‘the mighty’ FM’s ‘Thirteen’. If my Apple Music listening stats for 2022 were anything to go by, I’ve put a few thousand hours worth into this album alone. Of course the British AOR legends are a band that I hold in the highest regard, and excitement for their latest studio album, their thirteenth, just as the album title suggests, was already at fever pitch based on the pre-released singles alone.
The veterans once again unleashed a masterclass of melodic rock, released via Frontiers Records on the 18th March 2022. The album is the follow up to 2020’s highly regarded release ‘Synchronized’, and with only their own high standards to match, like a finely tuned machine they never failed to deliver.
The band released 3 singles from the album, firstly ‘Waiting On Love’, that by title alone tells you all you need to know about its lyrical content. If there’s one thing this band excel in, it's writing a good old melodic ballad, Steve Overland’s voice is made for these kind of songs, and whilst I stand by the fact the man could sing the phone book and I’d still listen, thankfully they know how to write a super catchy love song. This track in particular is one of the most typically FM sounding tracks on the album. Echo’s of that much loved 80s blueprint...
(Read full review HERE)
Best Single of 2022
Metallica - 'Lux Æterna'
Lifted from 72 Sessions released via Blackend Records 14th April 2023
In terms of best single release of 2022, this one came as a late contender. Metallica surprised the music world and almost broke the internet on the 28th November by dropping the track ‘Lux Æterna’ and teasing the release of their forthcoming new album '72 Seasons’, due out in April 2023. The album will be the follow up to 2016’s ‘Hardwired… To Self-Destruct’, and with an almost 7 year gap between new studio albums, you can be forgiven for the total surprise when Metallica do release new material. Gone are the days of churning out album after album in the heyday of the 1980s and 90s. Nowadays a band such as Metallica can tour their greatest hits and still earn a pretty penny without even thinking of entering a studio.
Why this track over other singles released? Well, like many music fans, hearing a new release from a major artist return to form is a special moment, especially one that has taken some heavy criticism in recent years. Music unites people, opinion divides, but as a rule most people I know have got behind this track and really believe that it’s one of their best in over 2 decades...
(Read full review HERE)
Breakthrough Artist of 2022
Scarlett Rebels
Album: See Through Blue released 28th January 2022 via Earache Records
Welsh five-piece rockers Scarlet Rebels are consistently proving why they are one of the finest up and coming talents in the UK music scene right now. In their relatively short existence under the name Scarlet Rebels, (known as V0iD prior to 2018) the band from Llanelli, have already gone on to sign for iconic record label Earache Records, and saw their second studio album ‘See Through Blue’ (2022), debut at #7 in the Official Top 40 UK Album charts last year.
The album sits firmly as one of my personal favourites of 2022, and I also had the pleasure of seeing the band perform tracks from it live at last years Winterstorm Festival in Scotland. They were fantastic live, true showmen, super-talented musicians, and one of the most impressive rising UK acts of 2022. Go see them live if you can, you won’t be disappointed...
(Read full review HERE)
Live Act Of 2022:
Those Damn Crows
@ Manchester Ritz 5th October, supporting Monster Truck
A welcome return to this category in 2022, after the previous two years of covid related lockdowns, cancelled and re-scheduled gigs, and general financial related reasons, it was great to finally get out and support live music again. It has been the hardest category to chose a stand out winner from, but in the end one particular band just stood out in my head that little bit extra.
Back in October, me, my cousin and her husband set off to Manchester to see one of our favourite Canadian bands, Monster Truck. Prior to covid, they had been one of the last bands we had all seen perform and we wanted to catch them again. This time, they were playing at the Manchester Ritz, with support from Welsh rockers Those Damn Crows.
Those Damn Crows have been a band that I have wanted to see perform live for ages, they have in the past even been at festivals I’ve been to, and I have for whatever reason missed their performance each time.
(Read full review HERE)
