2022 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years for heavy music in recent memory. Earlier this month, we highlighted 50 albums that we're most excited for in 12 months to come, and the list is stuffed with heavyweights like Slipknot, Korn, Ozzy and Avenged Sevenfold — not to mention the vast sea of lesser-known bands who are planning to keep the underground heavy and healthy during this rotation around the sun.
That was our list, but we wanted to know which of 2022's prospective albums are sending our readers into fits of unhinged lunacy from all the excess anticipation. There was no right or wrong answer to this one, but the top five vote-getters are ranked accordingly below.
5. 3TEETH
3TEETH already specialized in doomsday-prepped industrial-metal before a world-altering pandemic, so whatever Alexis Mincolla and his fellow sonic soldiers cooked up in the time since 2019's Metawar is going to sound uniquely primed for our ongoing predicament. And if last year's collaborative single with punk-rap mavericks Ho99o9 is any indication, it's gonna melt our fucking faces off.
4. Avenged Sevenfold
Fans have now been waiting six years — double what was previously Avenged Sevenfold's longest gap between LPs — for the next A7X opus, but it seems like 2022 might finally be the Year of the Deathbat. Earlier this month, frontman M. Shadows said that, although the band have had the follow-up to 2016's The Stage recorded for a year, they still need to put the finishing touches on the LP and get it mixed. With a few shows lined up for this coming summer, pending another COVID-related disaster, we should be able to hear this bad boy before we change out our calendars.
3. Korn
Korn are 14 albums deep into their career and the thrill of hearing new music from them still hasn't waned an inch. That's because they've never shied away from bold creative swings that keep their now-classic nu-metal flair fresh with the times, whether that's injecting dubstep on 2011's The Path of Totality or channeling Jonathan Davis' goth-rock influences on their yearning new single, "Start the Healing." Requiem (out February 4th) can't come soon enough.
2. Slipknot
Slipknot make it easy to get excited for new music. Last year, frontman Corey Taylor and drummer Jay Weinberg introduced new masks absent a formal record announcement, and then the Iowa maniacs dropped the stompingly heavy "Chapeltown Rag," which sees Taylor exploring regions of his vocal range that are new to the 'Knot. All signs point to yet another left turn from the band who've never gone right. Excited is an understatement.
1. Megadeth
The people have spoken and, goddamn, they're stoked on new Megadeth. Although we've yet to hear a full single at the time of this writing, Dave Mustaine has hyped up his 16th thrasherpiece as an exploration of plague times throughout history, so the prospect of an especially dark and painfully relevant Megadeth LP has an immense appeal to the band's many loyalists. We're can't wait, either.
