The All Things Old School Awards is back one last time! Yes sir, set up your living room, it's time for some serious slam dancing and couch diving as this year gave us plenty of heavy music to mosh by, as old school as this website can be, these are the 2022's highlights plus the BEST OF playlist at the end. For that, I had to move back to Spotify because YouTube has been deleting my ass ruthlessly.
SKULLCRACK - ADDICTED TO THE UNDERGROUND (Indecision Records)
Hats off to Indecision Recs for their continued work with old and fresh new bands! Here they've teamed-up once again with Californian SKULLCRACK to deliver an insanse 11-track album, fast as hell! If you haven't heard about them begin by the art cover, it's the labor of love, very appealing.
They've been on my radar for awhile but Addicted To The Underground made me do several elbow drops from the couch and had me going to the nearest skatepark to steam off some of that heat entering my nervous system. Redbull can suck it go with SKULLCRACK anyday! FFO: Vitamin X, Second Opinion, WWF.
WEIGHT - VIOLENCE OF THE DIVINE (The Essence/Control Records)
Ohh yeah, NYHC hardcore by the way of OLSO CITY. The dudes in the WEIGHT got their shit together and finally brought us this masterpiece in late 2022, read more about it here.
COMBUST - ANOTHER LIFE (Cash Only Records)
COMBUST is the synthesis of All Thing Old School the difference is that they only get better with time this blog don't. Another Life is probably the hardcore album I listened the most last year.
FIREWALKER - DEMO 2022 (Self-Released)
Why everyone wasn't talking about this? I feel most people totally missed this one. Anyway, if this is the demo, whatever comes next will rule the galaxy! Sick SUBZERO cover btw.
BLOODSUCKER - SELF TITLED EP (Blindsided Records)
BLOODSUCKER (formerly known as Vexation) is the perfect breed between Best Wishes' era Cro-Mags and Only Living Witness, this is exactly the type of sound of why I still do this blog shit. Dutch hardcore represented big time in this short and sweet EP. Its release year is blurry to me, similar to the DEAD LAST album but I decided to add both in '22.
FORESEEN - UNTAMED FORCE (Quality Control HQ)
If you look through new releases with persistence you will find A LOT of great stuff, so to even make one last highlight of the year is tough but for those who are checking this blog for a few years or less may have a hint that I have a soft spot for Thrash and these Finnish guys do it with mastery. Being a trendy style or not I've been following FORESEEN's work for over 10 years already and after catching them live in Europe moshing to S.O.D. (plus the fact that recently they received the seal of approval from Max Cavalera for their previous stuff) Untamed Force was a natural choice to be featured here. Mosh like it was 1986!!
Worth mentioning here also is the consistent work of UK based Quality Control HQ, 12 years in activity never compromising with killer releases this past year i.e. TS WARSPITE, ANTAGONIZM, MASTERMIND, ARMA X... the list is long. The Queen may have passed away but I hope this label go full strength for another decade at least! One of the best in the game right now, if not THE best.
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My final considerations are regarding the damn streaming playlist which consolidates thousands of hours of listening (again), this edition ended up being the most comprehensive, diverse and lengthiest while trying to make it cohesive to what this blog represents: bullshit-free underground music made from the chest. From heavy tunes to melodic ones reaching the dirtiest alleys of the planet, including even some hardcore-related Traditional Heavy Metal by the likes of ETERNAL CHAMPION (ex-Iron Age/Powertrip) and SUMERLANDS (ex-War Hungry). Other fun aspect while reviewing 2022 was seeing the girls stepping in in the Crossover zone which seems more male dominated than hardcore, bands like PEST CONTROL, S.O.H. and DENIAL OF LIFE are repping the gender with prime!
The biggest Honorable Mentions here goes to HIGH COMMAND (which seems to be present in almost every edition), the chilean Crossover act INSECURTY that brought a truly late 80's nostalgic sound, the australian OUTRIGHT that came back with the boldest album yet Keep You Warm, THE FLEX and BURNING LORD for keeping it real and EXHIBITION and HEAVY DISCIPLINE for the sickest promos. Also, props to many big names in the Thrash scene for putting new music out this last year, namely TANKARD, KREATOR, VIO-LENCE, TOXIK, XENTRIX, RAZOR, SODOM and even VOIVOD. Be sure to give a listen, Thrash till death.
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