Listmania: Metal Noise Top #5 Singles of 2022!

Chapter #3 of Listmania Awards season and a conundrum presents itself like a beast from the black lagoon. In a modern world where the waterfall release strategy is prevalent how do we give you a list of our top #5 singles of 2022? There are so many to choose from, it’s like being a five year old in a candy store at Christmas. We sandblast it down the bare essentials, removing the rust and rot from the adamantium infused skeleton. In order to qualify, each one must be from a band not featured on our EP or Album awards lists. Let’s Go!

The competition was fierce this year but the first single to really stand out when writing the notes for this list was “Bad Dreams” by My Latest Failure. A stand alone single appearing between “Vol. 2” and their upcoming 2023 releasing EP “Vol. 3“, the song is something of an old flame for the band, having been kicked around for a while by vocalist and guitarist Chris Underhill with some help from Ross Walker of Sore Teeth. The subject is the recurring nightmare that leaves someone standing on the edge and starring into the abyss and this one is as dark and melancholic as they come…

“Modern Messiah“, the first of four singles that Essex Nu-Metalcore crew Spoiler released in 2022 via Blood Blast Distribution no less blew us away, having heard it in the live arena in January at our first live show of the year. Crossing the boarders of Deathcore and DJent with KoRn inspired eerie intricate leads towards the end and Fear Factory influenced programming, it’s a powerhouse cut that simply says we’re here and we’re here to stay, while providing the kind of anvil heavy foundation that every band needs to build upon…

Taking a risk can either be brave or stupid and often the line between the two is cigarette paper thin but at the Ranch Production House with Daley George (Creeper, Funeral For A Friend), Post Hardcore heroes Weaponry tried to do a few things differently in recording EP “Forever Nothing“. Big single “My Name Is Glory” got the earworm riffs and majestic lead parts as well as bravely embracing some cleaner vocal stylings to get an anthemic chorus nailed after a few diction issues in the recording studio. The rest as they say is history and the final presentation is a ripper.

Sounding like the combination of self titled album era Chimaira and more recent offerings from Unearth, “Walk Into The Flames” by Matricide is the kind of neck snapping anthem that can not be ignored. A lyrical metaphor for reincarnation, the flames burning away the past and allowing the dawn of a new era in Groove Metal from a band hailing from  Tel Aviv in the heart of the Middle East, it’s simply unstoppable and quite how they got it mastered by Jens Bogren (Sepultura, At The Gates) remains something of an OMG moment.

Last but by no means least for this tougher than a bare knuckle boxing champion level of competition has to be “To Be Alive” by Gutlocker. The title track of their album of the same name which ironically enough was recorded at The Ranch Production House, this time produced, mixed and mastered by Lewis Johns. A bulldozer of a cut from an album of pure catharsis, it not only raises the bar for what the band have done thus far but also sets it for anything they may do in the future, soaked in the bands Groove Metal formula but also having a new found power to it…

The honourable mentions in this category are far to many to name them all but the 2022 version of “Bartender” by (hed)p.e. featuring Dropout Kings and DJ Lethal, “Hyphae Reign” by Pennsylvanian Technical Death Metal Plague Existentia, “The Narrow” ft. Josh Davies of Monasteries from Suffer, “Nihilus” from Carcosa and “The Perfect Storm” by Hardcore Punks State Of You are all pheonomonial cuts…

We’ve given you EPs, albums and singles, tomorrow will be time for the next chapter… what will it be?