CW: sick pet (terminal), near-death experience, suicide mention
2022 was one of the worst years I’ve had since I escaped from my abusive parents’ house. My beloved cat, my ESA B’Elanna, had a health crisis that I thought was caused by her diaphragmatic hernia, but I (and her regular vet) were wrong; B’Elanna has terminal cancer in her lungs. She was on chemo for a few months, but it stopped working a few weeks ago and now there’s nothing we can do but keep her comfortable. Oh, and I almost died too. That sucked. (Yes, really. Double pneumothoraces and cardiac arrest during a paraesophageal hernia repair surgery.)
However, there was a MASSIVE amount of great rock, metal, and punk that came out this year, and I mean a MASSIVE amount. It was hard as hell to narrow this list down to 15. I had to winnow it down from almost 30 songs. So these songs really are the cream of the crop as far as my tastes go, and except for the top spot, you can mostly ignore the ratings. These are all fantastic pieces of music.
Also, if you’re new here, be aware that this is meant to be a rock list. Well, rock, metal, punk, and maybe alternative or indie. Songs that don’t fit those genres aren’t eligible. Otherwise, “Surface Pressure” by Jessica Darrow (from Encanto) would be somewhere in the top five. “Give it to your sister, it doesn’t hurt and/See if she can handle every family burden…” Lin-Manuel Miranda, did you have to tear my heart out of my chest and then show it to me? Was that entirely necessary? And Jessica Darrow does an admirable job with the dense lyrics and huge range in the song, too. But again, that song is not on here, because it does not fit the criteria. Also, only studio performances are eligible for the list, otherwise Dolly Parton’s “Rockin’” song that she premiered at her Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction would definitely be on here.
One more thing: if you’re not new here, you know I often use math to rank songs for lists. I did not do that with this list. I ranked by one criterion: how much I loved any given song.
With that said, let’s get to the list!
Honorable mention 5: “This Hell” by Rina Sawayama
This is a phenomenal song. The production is great as always for Rina Sawayama, it’s catchy as fuck without being annoying, and it’s about how if queer people are going to Hell, we are going to make Hell a massive queer party. What’s not to love?
Well…this isn’t really a rock song. It’s not rock, metal, or punk. I wouldn’t even call it alternative or indie. It’s pop with a country rock flavor, especially with the inclusion of that guitar solo. But it doesn’t technically meet the criteria I use for this list, so it’s an honorable mention.
Yes, I know I just said that songs that don’t meet the criteria don’t get on the list. I made an exception for the guitar solo. Die mad about it.
Honorable mention 4: “Angel of the Lake (Tribute to Alexi Laiho)” by Mute Prophet
The band Mute Prophet has been described as “Nightwish meets Children of Bodom,” but I think “Simone Simons if she could scream fronting Darkest Hour” is a little more accurate description. Full disclosure: I feel like I’ve heard better symphonic metal than Mute Prophet, even though vocalist Adrienne Odenthal is voice goals and it’s really cool that the bassist/keyboardist is also female. I can’t quite put my finger on what’s missing. Maybe I just am not a big fan of the prog influences in their music because I’m not a prog fan? Regardless, I still really enjoy Mute Prophet, especially their guitar solos and Adrienne’s voice. And this song makes the list for being not just a solid song with stellar vocals but also being a touching tribute to Alexi Laiho (z’’l), the guitarist and frontman of Children of Bodom, who passed two years ago at the too-young age of 41.
Honorable mention 3: “Blood Red Ink,” The Prize
Remember my favorite power metal singers blog entry? (If you don’t, it’s here: https://rockrollnstim.wordpress.com/2021/10/16/favorite-power-metal-singers/), and Magali Luyten was number 1 on that list. She’s currently fronting a band called The Prize. And when I first listened to The Prize, I was honestly disappointed because I wanted more Beautiful Sin. The Prize isn’t Beautiful Sin. They aren’t even power metal. They’re a straightforward hard rock band.
That said, they’re a REALLY FUCKING GOOD straightforward hard rock band. Magali is still a powerhouse, and she’s even using that scream of hers that I love more. There were a lot of great songs on The Prize’s eponymous debut album, but “Blood Red Ink” had my favorite screams. Yeah, I’m predictable as hell at this point. Okay, fine, I’ll say at least one other thing about this song: it’s delightfully spooky. I love the downright creepy air the opening guitar riff sets up for the song. This song also made it onto my Halloween playlist for that reason. Also, the chorus is a lot of fun to sing/scream along to (or it will be when I can sing again…I can’t sing or scream until 3 months after my surgery).
Honorable mention 2: “the kids aren’t alright,” Pinkshift
It about killed me to put a band as good as Pinkshift on the honorable mentions list, but there was just so much music I loved that came out this year. Pinkshift, if you aren’t familiar, is a Baltimore-based punk band influenced by grunge and aughties pop punk. The frontwoman, Ashrita Kumar, is immensely talented and charismatic, especially for fronting a band that just came out with its first LP. The other band members include Myron Houngbedji on drums, Paul Vallejo on guitar, and Erich Weinroth on bass. Why yes, only one of the band members is white.
The entirety of Pinkshift’s album Love Me Forever is excellent. There were several songs on that album I could have put on the list. I eventually picked this song because of its kickass bass intro and incisive lyrics. Yes, Ashrita performs the verses in what I sometimes call the “artless punk yell,” which is when punk vocalists yell without any particular vocal technique behind it, and I don’t especially care for that style of vocals. But Ashrita sells it so fucking hard that I get over that weird choir geek preference of mind when listening to her holler. I will definitely be paying attention to whatever Pinkshift does next.
Honorable mention 1: “VICTORY OR DEATH (WE GAVE ‘EM HELL),” Anti-Flag featuring Campino
It also about killed me to put Anti-fucking-Flag, one of my all-time favorite bands—the only band whose logo I have as a tattoo—in the honorable mentions. But there were 10 other songs that I liked better than this one this year. That said, I love this song. It’s a slower track, and punk bands doing slower songs usually makes me sad and/or bores me, but I love the bittersweet, somewhat melancholy vibe this song successfully pulls off. The “whoa”s sound both catchy and wistful, and I cannot get the chorus out of my head. Not to mention the lyrics in this song are some of the strongest Anti-Flag have written, and there are a lot a lot a LOT of great lyrics on this album.
Also, Anti-Flag’s new album LIES THEY TELL OUR CHILDREN just came out and I can’t stop samealbuming it, so maybe a song from that album that wasn’t a single in 2022 will make the 2023 list proper. We’ll see.
10) “Bull” by Enter Shikari featuring Cody Frost
Kicking off the list proper is Enter Shikari, who have graced my favorite songs of the year list before; their excellent song “satellites* *” was number three on my list in 2020. “Bull” is not as good a song as “satellites* *”, but it’s still a damn good song. It’s something new from Enter Shikari: a song with more personal lyrics that don’t seem political or related to activism at all. Also, they don’t have features very often, and this song features Cody Frost, who…I’m afraid I was totally unaware of before this song. She has a really cool voice, in any case, and her voice works well alongside Rou’s and suits Enter Shikari’s sound super well.
Speaking of Enter Shikari’s sound, this song sounds like a continuation of the sound Enter Shikari was exploring on Nothing Is True and Everything is Possible, especially with some of the vocal effects, but it’s less chaotic and clattery than the songs on that album, more like something off of The Mindsweep or A Flash Flood of Colour. The song definitely has that Enter Shikari energy that was missing on most of The Spark (I SAID WHAT I SAID) and unmistakably has their electronicore sound even with Cody Frost taking the lead on most of the vocals.
This song works great as a whole, but it also has some really cool parts, such as the percussion and guitars dropping out to leave just the driving bassline under Cody’s part in the first pre-chorus and Cody and Rou harmonizing in the second verse and second pre-chorus. And that drum fill before the instrumental break isn’t particularly complicated, but damn if it’s not effective. And that last chorus with both Rou and Cody going HAM on the vocals with the drums and guitars blaring in the background? Hells yeah.
I hope Enter Shikari continues this musical direction on their next album, and I may go check out more of Cody Frost’s music now.
9) “Riptide” by Beartooth
Beartooth? Writing a POSITIVE song!?
WHAT UNIVERSE IS THIS!?
I mean, it’s the worst universe, but yeah, Beartooth wrote a positive song. And it still sounds like Beartooth, and it still kicks ass. There’s something surreal about hearing Caleb Shomo, who usually sings/screams things like “I’m nothing but sick and disgusting” and “Looking for answers, finding a rope” sing “I want to feel euphoria” and “Don’t want to sing another hopeless song,” but it works. It still feels honest and genuine, especially when Caleb screams “This is way too much” before the second chorus.
Caleb is still as strong a composer and performer as ever, and that bass riff in the verses absolutely kills. (Actually, there’s a lot of great bass work in this song, and readers know that I love cool basslines.) The simple but effective breakdown is great too. Something I really like about the instrumentation of this song is that while it still sounds like Beartooth, it also works with the more positive lyrics, particularly that nice guitar noodling that’s definitely in major but still fits with the rest of the song while Caleb sings “I’m done explaining my pain” after the breakdown.
Honestly, the only thing I’m not wild about regarding this song is the line “It’s the last time I romanticize the riptide that’s trying to drown me,” because…have people been accusing Caleb of romanticizing depression? Dude’s been extremely consistent about how debilitating and miserable depression and alcoholism are. The guy who wrote “It’s dark, it’s cold, my mind is not my home” and “When did my king start living in a glass bottle?” is not romanticizing jack shit. If Caleb thinks that speaking (er, singing and screaming) frankly about how hard it is living with depression and/or alcoholism is romanticizing, uh…he’s wrong. I know a lot of ableist fucksticks think that trying to combat saneism in any way—including open discussion of mental illness symptoms and experiences—is romanticizing mental illness, but it’s really not. (Oh, look, there I go talking about ableism on my music blog again.)
Anyway, this song is amazing, and I am excited to hear what else Caleb does for the next Beartooth album.
8) “Soul Revolution,” Fire From the Gods
Fire From the Gods keeps getting better and better. My favorite song from them may still be “Truth to the Weak (Not Built to Collapse),” but I feel like Soul Revolution is their strongest album overall. I had a hell of a time picking just one song from this album for this list, but I think I personally connect with this song more than the rest of the album. Also, AJ Channer’s scream on this song is absolutely brutal. I like. When he screams “chaos” at the end of the bridge, I literally get chills.
This song is about, well, a soul revolution; what happens internally when you realize that who you are as a person means that society’s boot is on your neck and that you want to dedicate yourself to fighting back. How the hell was I, an Autistic, multiply Disabled, queer, soon-to-be Jewish, female activist not supposed to relate to that? There are also so many good lines in this song. It might be one of the strongest songs lyrically that Fire From the Gods has ever written. I mean, there’s one section near the end of the second verse that goes “Labeled outsider, I’m the audio pariah/I set the world on fire/Fuck the New World Order, fuck fighting for oil and water/All power to all people, we are law and order/Fuck your bottom line, it don’t mean shit to me/’Cause your house is built on blood lines and hypocrisy.” I mean, g-dDAMN.
I also love Fire From the Gods’ sound, and this song is fairly typical of them; a heavy rap metal track with some touches of reggae. I have to say, though, that I think this song was a bit of a risk as a title track and a first track on the album. It’s heavy as fuck. I haven’t listened to a lot of older FFtG lately, but Soul Revolution feels heavier than their previous work. Maybe I’m wrong about that, but either way, this banger of a song is not only excellent in its own right, but it typifies the sound of Soul Revolution the album, which I think makes it a good choice for a first track. Even though bands going heavier sometimes loses them mainstream acceptance.
Fire From the Gods won’t be your thing if you don’t like rap metal or similar, but seriously, if you are a leftist who has been missing Rage Against the Machine, maybe check out Fire From the Gods. I said this about FEVER 333 too, and neither FEVER nor FFtG have Tom Morello’s peerless guitar work, but trust me, they’re both amazing in their own right. Especially this song.
7) “Weapon,” Stick to Your Guns
You ever have a song grip you by the throat and demand you listen from the first notes? That’s what this song did to me. I’ve long felt like Jesse Barnett is one of the most powerful vocalists in hardcore, and his opening “MY HEART IS A WEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPOOOOOOOOOOOOON” is extremely effective to say the least. I also love the idea of one’s heart being a weapon when it comes to activism. This song’s message is similar to that of “Soul Revolution,” actually, albeit about the heart instead of the soul, but with the same idea: if society is going to oppress you for being who you are, make the person you are into a weapon against the oppressive forces.
This is also just a really fucking good song from a sonic standpoint. The intro I love so much has only a few guitar chords underneath the vocals, but then the percussion comes crashing in to introduce the “Whoa-oh” refrain (which, I might add, is catchy in the best kind of way), and if the song didn’t already have your attention from the opening, it does after that drum fill. Then the instrumentation becomes quieter for the first verse, and Jesse starting out on a lower octave when he sings “Torn between/You can’t grow from the apathy” in the first verse and then taking it up an octave when he sings those same lyrics in the second verse is a great way to increase the energy and urgency of the song, which can be a hard thing to do with hardcore songs that start out at fast tempos. The song has a fairly standard progression for a hardcore song, but it still sounds ear-catching, passionate, and ferocious; not in any way stale.
I’m honestly not sure what else to say about this song. I suppose I can say that this is the song I hoped Stick to Your Guns would make for this album when I heard “More of Us Than Them” last year and it only made the honorable mentions for that year’s favorite songs list. That bassline from “More of Us…” still kills, but I think “Weapon” is a better song than “More of Us Than Them.” Honestly, “More of Us Than Them” is my least favorite song on Spectre. Granted, Spectre is a no-skip album for me—with the exception of the intro track—but still.
6) “Rotoscope,” Spiritbox
Yes, I know a lot of Spiritbox fans—and metal fans in general—don’t like this song.
I do not care. I mean, come on, people, this song isn’t even that much of a departure from other Spiritbox songs. Electronic elements? They added those to “Sun Killer,” the opening track of Eternal Blue. A groove-heavy guitar/bass instrumental? Hello “Holly Roller,” which was one of Spiritbox’s most successful singles. A chorus that’s on the catchy, dare I say poppy side? “Secret Garden” and “Yellowjacket” from Eternal Blue and “Trust Fall” from Singles EP all have catchy choruses. A song with little screaming? “Constance” and “We Live in a Strange World” have no screaming, and “Constance” was a single! The rhythm of “Rotoscope” is the most danceable of any song that Spiritbox has released, sure, but did you catch the music video for “Belcarra”? Courtney dances in that one too! Tl;dr it’s a good song and the fact that you can dance to it doesn’t make it bad.
Honestly, I have always had a soft spot for heavy music that you can dance to. “Zombie Dance” by Escape the Fate is on my Halloween playlist, and if you aren’t familiar with that song…well, honestly, you’re not missing much—unlike “Rotoscope,” it is not a good song—but it is a heavy song with a very danceable beat. I’ve always found music like that fun. So of course I like “Rotoscope.” It also has my favorite element of Spiritbox’s music (aside from the stimmy guitar work): Courtney’s vocals. Courtney’s vocal performance is unparalleled on this song just like it is in all of Spiritbox’s other work. Her lyrics are also great as usual. There’s a lot to love about this song, and I love it, and it’s number 6 on my list.
I realize I haven’t said all that much about “Rotoscope” as a song, but honestly I’m not sure what else I can say. It’s deliciously heavy and danceable, and Courtney’s vocals and lyrics are stellar as always. That’s the story, Wishbone.
5) “MONEY,” The Warning
The Warning, a three-piece Mexican rock band comprising three sisters (Dani on vocals and guitar, Ale on bass, and Pau on drums and backing vocals), released an amazing album, ERROR, this year. “MONEY” is not my favorite song from that album.
So why is it on this list?
Because I don’t have a favorite song from that album. Well, okay, “CHOKE” and “DISCIPLE” might be candidates for my favorites from that album—”CHOKE” because of that monstrous, catchy chorus and “DISCIPLE” because of that sick bassline—but both those songs were released as singles in 2021. “MONEY” was released as a single as well, albeit in 2022, and while it may not be my favorite on the album, it is the song that convinced me to listen to The Warning in earnest. You see, I first heard of The Warning about eight years ago when a college classmate showed me a video of Dani, Pau, and Ale (then 13, 11, and 9, respectively) covering “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister. I didn’t realize until I wondered a few months ago “Hey, maybe the members of The Warning are old enough to release their own material now, wonder what that sounds like” after finding out that they had covered “Enter Sandman” for The Metallica Blacklist.
I searched YouTube, found “MONEY,” and the rest is history. Those who read my blog entry on my favorite bassists know that Ale is #3 on that list even though she is only 18. She’s that ridiculously talented. But let me talk about the song “MONEY” now. It’s catchy as fuck, it’s biting commentary on crapitalism, and all three sisters’ performances are top-notch. Okay, “MONEY” is not Pau’s most elaborate drum work, but it’s rock steady and very effective. I could say something similar about Ale’s slick bassline and Dani’s solid guitar work, and Dani has delivered more technically impressive vocal performances…but all three sisters are still kicking ass and sound fantastic together. Some The Warning songs have drum fills that make me headbang, basslines that give me chills, or vocal lines that make me unbelievably sad that I still can’t sing (doctor’s orders after my repaired diaphragm), and those elements stand out to me. Granted, those songs with standout elements are all amazing—ERROR is full of back-to-back gems—but on “MONEY,” everything comes together especially beautifully, even that little “cha-ching” sound effect. And that repeated guitar/bass riff under Dani’s cry of “HEYYYY, WHOAAAA” absolutely kills.
So, yeah, “MONEY” is an excellent song that deserves its spot on this list, but if you like it, you should probably go listen to the entirety of ERROR. I’ll wait.
4) “Black Sheep,” Dorothy
Yes, okay, this hard-rocking song sung by a badass female vocalist with grit for days about being an outsider is total Amaranthe bait. I admit it.
But come on; that first repetition of the first line of the chorus when the song starts grabbed you by the throat too. This is a really good song, okay? Dorothy probably has one of the best voices in straightforward hard rock right now. I’d even call her better than Lzzy Hale. (Yeah, I went there. If I ever write that blog entry on bands that do Halestorm better than Halestorm, I’ll be talking about Dorothy.) One thing I love about her voice is how effortless she sounds while belting out the massive chorus of “Black Sheep.” She’s not pushing on her larynx at all to produce that grit. Her technique is excellent. I also just really love her timbre.
Let’s talk about the most Amaranthe-bait part of this song: the lyrics. I mean, the first lyrics are “Hail, hail, the black sheep.” As someone who assuredly became the family black sheep (stealing the title from my oldest cousin, who not only has tattoos like me, but once cut off all her hair and bleached it) when she estranged herself from her shitty abusive parents, how am I not supposed to love that line? I also love the found family aspect of the song, which talks about how black sheep “are blood, we are family” and “from the streets to the gutters/we’re sisters and brothers.” (Okay, that lyric is a little exorsexist.)
And…okay, yes, some of the lyrics are…Xtian-y. The whole “pray the L-rd my soul to keep” thing…yeah, I could do without that. Although it may be a reference to “Enter Sandman,” which samples…a classic children’s bedtime prayer…sigh. I hate Christonormativity. But I do like most of the lyrics, which find inventive ways to talk about being an outcast (“the rules I broke/helped me build my throne”). The inventiveness is nice because there are so many I’m-an-outcast songs in rock, and some of them are kind of pedestrian. Even though I’m probably still a sucker for them.
I don’t want to ignore the instrumentals, either. The first repetition of the chorus a cappella works really well, and then the guitar, bass, and drums start off with a hell of a bang, and I love it. I particularly like the guitar and bass tones, the bass tone especially. I can actually hear the bass really well in this song, and if you’re reading this, you probably know how much I like a loud, present bass. The guitar line during the bridge is also nice; I like when instrumentals get more complicated during the bridge, and often write my own songs that way.
Okay, okay, I’ve gushed enough about this song. On to the next one.
3) “The Foundations of Decay,” My Chemical Romance
No, this isn’t the official video. I don’t like maggots. BUT I LOVE THIS SONG.
MCR IS BACK! HALLEFUCKINGLUJAH! And there was much emo rejoicing! Okay, okay, I know there’s some controversy over whether or not MCR is technically emo, and I used to be staunchly on the side of “not emo,” but now I can jokingly call MCR emo because I acknowledge I know fuckall about musical genres.
This song. Is so. Well. Crafted. I love how the tension and energy slowly build in the verses, leading in nicely to the chorus, and then the instrumentals drop out near the end of the chorus to set up the verses again without the transition feeling jarring. This is the sound of a band that has been in this for a long-ass time and they know what they’re doing. Especially that massive-sounding guitar chugging and expert drum work during the breakdown. The guitar line during the bridge sounds like it was ripped directly from The Black Parade in the best way. (If you missed Ray Toro’s guitar lines while MCR was gone, you’ll probably like this song.) And then the instruments drop out almost entirely for Gerard to softly sing the last “to lay in the foundations of decay” before coming back in to support Gerard’s scream of “Get up, coward!” This song is six minutes long and keeps your attention the whole time. It’s that good.
This may also be the most inspired set of lyrics Gerard has ever written. MCR has always been amazing at conveying a mood with their music, be it the peppy Crapsaccharine World sound of songs like “Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back” that use Lyrical Dissonance expertly or how “Welcome to the Black Parade” tells its story with the instrumentals as well as the lyrics. (More on “Welcome to the Black Parade” from 12tone’s excellent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HeRf5EidjA&t=2s.) This song directly refers to the trauma of the 9/11 attacks (“the day the towers fell”), which, if you didn’t know, is the whole reason MCR formed. It’s a beautiful exploration of what aging feels like when you have trauma, and it also touches on Gerard’s struggles with alcoholism, as his relapse contributed to MCR’s breakup. He even discusses what might have happened if he had died by suicide during the height of MCR’s popularity (“and if by his own hand his spirit flies/take his body as a relic to be canonized”).
By the end of the song, though, you realize it also has a message: “you must fix your heart.” It may comfort you much more to lay (it should be “lie” dammit Gerard) in the foundations of decay, but at the end of the day, that’s cowardly, and you should face your fears and your problems. The scream of “wake up, coward” also reminds me of the scream of “wake up” at the end of “Sleep” on The Black Parade, which makes me happy.
Honestly, I have barely touched all the layered meaning in the lyrics of this song. I could probably write a paper as long as my master’s thesis about all of the meanings in this song’s lyrics. But I have to keep going with this blog entry, so on to number 2.
2) “Aaj,” Bloodywood
Ah, hell yes, Bloodywood. I wrote about them in my most recent entry about how a shitty trashcore band opened for them at the show I saw and they ruined my concert-going experience permanently. Anyway, I think Bloodywood is one of the best new names in metal to come out in the last 10 years, and their debut, Rakshak, is a 10/10 no-skips album for me. Well, okay, I skip “Yaad” because it’s about pet death, and my ESA has terminal cancer, but you get it. As you may have guessed, it was unbelievably hard to pick just one song off of Rakshak to put on this list, especially because “Gaddaar” took the number 3 spot on my favorites list last year. (Honestly, it should have been number 2; I gave Rise Against the number 2 spot because I adore Rise Against, but “Gaddaar” is a better song than “Rules of Play.”)
Helping me choose was the fact that several of my other favorite songs on Rakshak were released as singles earlier than 2022 (specifically, “Jee Veerey,” “Machi Basad,” and “Endurant”). “Aaj” won out because it was the song that helps me drag my sorry ass to work on the days I have to go to the office. I do want to go to work in the mornings, but it’s hard to motivate myself to get my Autistic ass on a bus, especially when I was struggling to learn a new job (I’ve only been at my current job for a year) so I needed a song that would help me battle my brain raccoons in the morning. “Aaj” was that song this year. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog entry, Jayant Bhadula, the singer and screamer for Bloodywood, said in a live performance that that song is about how everyone has “dreams [that are] worth chasing.” The description of the music video for “Aaj” says, “We all have our demons, our reasons to be stuck in a rut of harmful patterns and our fears of trying something new. This track is meant to act as a spark to light a fire within the listener to overcome all of that, it’s about the fearless pursuit of the next level for as long as your heart continues to beat.”
“Aaj” is a very motivational song, and its sound is incredibly uplifting. It does sound a lot like other Bloodywood songs, seamlessly blending Indian classical elements with western metal sounds, but it also has those beautiful treble vocals and even a kickass flute solo. There are even some electronic elements, which are unusual for Bloodywood, but Bloodywood can make basically any combination of disparate sounds work. It’s not Raoul’s best performance—that honor goes to “Dana-Dan,” in which Raoul spits some of the fastest lines I’ve ever heard in metal—but it’s still a damn good one with a lot of passion in it, and some of his lines in “Aaj” are still wicked difficult to rap. Jayant’s vocals are impressive, too, especially his use of his higher range, and he screams some amazing patters too.
I feel like I should say more about the sound of “Aaj,” especially because…well, what am I even doing talking about an Indian folk metal band if I’m not talking about their sound? I guess I’m talking about how their sound is so well-suited to the message of this song. Just from the opening notes, I know exactly what this song is going to be about, and that was enough to get me to face another day in the clusterfuck that was 2022.
Speaking of songs that got me through 2022…
- “Father Said” by Red Handed Denial AND “Where Angels Fear to Fly” by Battle Beast (tie)
Remember last year when I said “”Eye of the Storm” is a great Battle Beast song, but Battle Beast has done better, particularly on their 2017 album Bringer of Pain” in my blog entry on my favorite songs of 2021? Well, “Where Angels Fear to Fly” is better. It’s my favorite song Battle Beast has ever released, and it may be one of my favorite power metal songs, period. Like “Aaj,” it helped get me through this year, and I can tell how uplifting it’s going to be from the opening notes. It came out in January, and I knew way back then that it was going to make my favorite songs of 2022 list.
And it’s tied with an intensely depressing song about being abused by a parent.
What did you expect? It’s me writing this list.
I’ll talk about the depressing one first so I can end on a positive note. The album that “Father Said” comes from, I’d Rather Be Asleep, is excellent, and I love every song on it. However, it was very easy for me to pick “Father Said” as my favorite song from that album. Not only is this song that kind of djenty metalcore that I find extremely stimmy, the vocalist of Red Handed Denial, Lauren Babic, is one of my favorite female screamers. (I didn’t know of her work when I wrote my blog entry on my favorite female screamers, so the list has changed.) Lauren’s performance on this song is masterful, demonstrating lots of range and dynamics with both her unclean and clean vocals.
But if you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know the real reason this song made #1 on the list is because it’s about being abused by a parent. So, let’s talk about those lyrics. This is the chorus:
“For years I was locked in a cell/Pretending for your sake I was somebody else/Tormented for being myself/I came to terms with life in a personal hell”
I mean…I could have written that, specifically about the way my parents treated me. My mother was the main abuser with my father being an enabler, but still. The accuracy. Same with “My father’s calling me/To tell me I should change/He says it’s best for me/But I don’t feel the same.” Both my parents tried to force me to be the child they ordered instead of the person I actually was. For example, my mother did weird shit like insist that I couldn’t possibly like metal and that I should stop pretending to like it. But both my parents tried to convince me that I wasn’t queer and/or that my life would be easier if I just tried not being queer. I could write an entire blog entry just on all the facets of my identity that my parents tried to abuse out of me.
So when this song comes along, being extremely stimmy with amazing vocals and lyrics that I can relate to because my parents tried to abuse the Autisticness out of me, how was it not going to take the number one spot?
Well…it takes that spot, but it shares it with “Where Angels Fear to Fly.” This is because “Where Angels Fear to Fly,” while not being as relentlessly relatable or as stimmy, is sung by one of my favorite power metal vocalists, and also I could tell I loved it within the first ten seconds. The first four seconds, even. That opening riff with the backing vocals is just the most inspiring sound I’ve heard in a long damn time (don’t tell that to the rabbi who delivered the Rosh Hashanah service I attended in 2022). This song just spoke to me in a way few songs do, both instrumentally and lyrically. I love power metal, and power metal often sounds inspiring to me, but…I’ve been making favorite songs of [year] lists since about 2018, and while power metal songs often make my end-of-year lists, they’re never even in the top 5. In fact, the highest a power metal song has ever ranked on one of my year-end lists was “Killers With the Cross” by Powerwolf, taking the #6 spot in 2018. You see, while I love power metal, its lyrics are often too esoteric or goofy for me to connect to them enough to put a power metal song really high on a favorites-of-[year] list.
Until “Where Angels Fear to Fly.” I love this song’s lyrics so much that I changed one of my potential tattoo designs entirely. For the past…I want to say at least 10 years, I have planned to get a phoenix backpiece with text reading “Stronger than the flames,” which is a Tarja lyric. Now I want the text to read “Like the midnight sun I will be rising,” from the chorus of “Where Angels Fear to Fly,” and instead of a phoenix, I want a midnight sun. (I’ll do something with the design to indicate that it’s a midnight sun. Still figuring that out.) I just love that chorus so much. It manages to be inspiring and uplifting without being painfully cheesy or unoriginal. Speaking as a songwriter, that’s hard to do. I especially like the twist the song puts on the tired “darkest before the dawn” idea (name-dropped in the pre-chorus). Also, that mention of the glass ceiling in the bridge…does that make this a feminist anthem? I’m going to say yes.
This song is the Platonic ideal of an amazing power metal song to me. The vocals are tremendous, which…of course they are; it’s Noora fucking Louhimo, but I feel like she especially kills it on the bridge, and during that last triumphant “where angels fear to flyyyy” that ends the song. I also have a huge weakness for songs that use the melody of the vocal line as the melody in the guitar part too, and not only does this song do that, there’s a kickass guitar solo. If you’re reading this, you probably know how I feel about kickass guitar solos. This song also has some really cool parts to it, like the Nightwish-esque backing vocals in the verses and that little cymbal hit right before the chorus hits. There is nothing about this song that I dislike or think doesn’t work. It’s just an exceptionally well-crafted song, and it got me through this year.
And that’s the list! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you had a better 2022 than I did.
Eternal thanks to my wonderful Patreon supporters: Ace, Emily, Hannah, and Max! It’s only $1 a month to be as cool as them (and you’ll also get perks like seeing blog entries two days early and being able to vote in polls on my next entry topics).
The tl;dr of the list:
- “Father Said” by Red Handed Denial AND “Where Angels Fear to Fly” by Battle Beast (tie)
- “Aaj,” Bloodywood
- “The Foundations of Decay,” My Chemical Romance
- “Black Sheep,” Dorothy
- “MONEY,” The Warning
- “Rotoscope,” Spiritbox
- “Weapon,” Stick to Your Guns
- “Soul Revolution,” Fire From the Gods
- “Riptide,” Beartooth
- “Bull,” Enter Shikari featuring Cody Frost
- “VICTORY OR DEATH (WE GAVE ‘EM HELL),” Anti-Flag feat. Campino
- “the kids aren’t alright,” Pinkshift
- “Blood Red Ink,” The Prize
- “Angel of the Lake,” Mute Prophet
- “This Hell,” Rina Sawayama
Rock, Roll, 'n' Stim 