2022 End Of Year Top 20

2022 was another great year for “speed of the heavy kind” (© Rob Halford) and, although it was fairly easy to pull out the twenty albums I’ve enjoyed the most over the past twelve months, yet again it has proved almost impossible to rank them in any kind of order. So I haven’t. There was one album though that, for me, stood out above all others, and that was Hei’An’s debut ‘Imago’ (reviewed earlier this year), a clever and beautifully crafted release which ticks every box as far as I am concerned. So, in strictly alphabetical order, aside from ‘Imago’ taking the top spot, here’s my favourite albums of 2022:

HEI’AN – ‘IMAGO’ (SAOL)

Amorphis – ‘Halo’ (Atomic Fire)
Anthrax ‘XL’ (Nuclear Blast)
Avatarium – ‘Death, Where Is Your Sting’ (AFM Records)
Battle Beast – ‘Circus Of Doom’ (Nuclear Blast)
Clutch – ‘Sunrise On Slaughter Beach’ (Weathermaker Music)
Rosalie Cunningham – ‘Two Piece Puzzle’ (Machine Elf Records)
Epica – ‘The Alchemy Project’ (Atomic Fire)
Hanging Garden – ‘Neither Moth Nor Rust’ (Lifeforce Records)
Leatherwolf – ‘Kill The Hunter’ (Roar Records)
Machine Head – ‘ØF KINGDØM AND CRØWN’ (Nuclear Blast)
Mostly Autumn – ‘Back In These Arms’ (Mostly Autumn Records)
Oceans Of Slumber – ‘Starlight And Ash’ (Century Media)
Osyron – ‘Momentous’ (Factor)
Derek Sherinian – ‘Vortex’ (InsideOutMusic)
Space Elevator – ‘Persona Non Grata’ (On Stage)
Star One – ‘Revel In Time’ (InsideOutMusic)
The Dead Daisies – ‘Radiance’ (SPV)
Toundra – ‘Hex’ (InsideOutMusic)
Tysondog – ‘Midnight’ (from The Vaults)

See you next year...
John