22 new albums to get excited for in 2022

Already, 2022 looks like it could be presenting some increasingly familiar problems, but for many of us, music has provided a point of light in recent dark times. It looks like live music might face yet more disruption, but the good news is that a whole slew of amazing artists are set to return with brand-new albums over the course of the next 12 months.

Here, then, are 22 (obviously) records to look forward to in the New Year…

It will have been five long years since After Laughter came out, but Hayley Williams gave a heavy hint that Paramore will return in 2022. In a November newsletter she thanked fans for supporting the two solo albums she’d released in the meantime, adding, “Besides, Paramore can’t be ‘on a break’ forever now, can we? I love y’all. See you sometime next year?" If a new album does emerge, it might see a step back from the synth-pop of After Laughter. Back in May 2020 Hayley told the NME: “Taylor [York, guitarist]’s mentioned things like: ‘Oh, God – I miss guitars.’ We’ve found ourselves listening to a lot of older music that we grew up being inspired by.”

A7X are another band who look set to return after a long lay-off. They’ve spoken previously about not wanting to release an album without being able to tour, but speaking on Louder Than Life Festival’s Twitch channel, M. Shadows said, “We’re booking shows for next summer [2022], and the record will be out before then.” As for the direction, back in 2020 the singer told us the forthcoming album “sounds nothing like The Stage – it’s a completely new direction, and it sounds nothing like anything we’ve done. That’s all I’ll say about it: it’s over the top, and it’s very eclectic and wild!”

Mainman Tobias Forge told Sweden Rock Magazine back in October 2020 that the spooky Swedes were ready to hit the studio in 2021, but Ghost were another band reluctant to put out an album without being able to tour. We’ve since had a new Papa and the single Hunter’s Moon. The latter was tied to the soundtrack for slasher film Halloween Kills but, with U.S. and European mega-tours on the 2022 horizon, a full-length follow-up now seems likely.

Having already showcased a return to her pop-punk roots with the single Bite Me, Avril says her forthcoming seventh album will be fast, fun and “pure rock'n'roll from front to back”. She told Entertainment Weekly: “To the core, I’m a kid from a small town who listened to bands like blink-182 and Green Day and NOFX in high school, and I tapped into that.” We can also expect collabs with some “bands that have been around for a while” along with the likes of WILLOW, Machine Gun Kelly and blackbear, with the album due out “at the top of” 2022 on Travis Barker’s DTA Records.

The duo are set to follow up explosive single Antagonist with their second full-length album in 2022. They were reportedly five songs in by October and the NME quoted bassist Georgia South as saying: “We’re definitely experimenting with things, and it sounds more like us than ever, in a way. All those little details and the scrappiness of things, that’s what feels ‘Nova’. To stay DIY but to keep progressing, it’s cool to send a message that anyone can do it… Just get grafting, and you can make magic.”

And here we are at the annual ‘Will a new Metallica record emerge in the coming 12 months?’ entry. They’re certainly working on one. Speaking on The Fierce Life podcast in May, James Hetfield said they had “quite a few songs” written that would hopefully become an album. "Well, hopefully a new album," he added. "Whatever you call it these days – I guess it's an album, a CD, a group of songs, a collection, whatever, a stream or however you get your music now.” Then in September Lars Ulrich told SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk: “We’re on that path. I don’t know if it’s cohesive enough to call a record, but we’re dipping our toes.” Whether that means an album as soon as next year, we’ll just have to wait and see…

Speaking on HardDrive Radio a couple of weeks ago, Corey Taylor revealed that Slipknot are eying a spring release for their forthcoming seventh album. "The goal is to get it ready for mix [in] January so we can get it out two or three months after,” he said. The singer had previously told Consequence that the new music was “an expansion of where we were at on We Are Not Your Kind”. He added: “There’s definitely some pit openers that are gonna fucking freak people out. It’s got the heavy… There’s so many different elements on this one.”

Ozzy’s new album, expected early in the year, looks like being even more star-studded than 2020’s Ordinary Man. He’s now confirmed guest appearances from the likes of Metallica​’s Rob Trujillo, Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith and guitarists Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Tony Iommi and Zakk Wylde. "The good thing is it's interesting to work with somebody else. But the bad thing is if it don't work, you can't [just let it go] 'cause they'll get all pissed off," he explained in an episode of Ozzy Speaks on SiriusXM's Ozzy's Boneyard.

Higher Power look all set to follow up their awesome second album, 2020’s 27 Miles Underwater. Talking to Kerrang! ahead of the release of recent single Fall From Grace, frontman Jimmy Wizard said: “We’re not really internet people. We don’t really keep fans updated on social media like a lot of other bands do. But we wanted to show everyone where we’re at as a band right now: even though we’re a member down, this is what we’ve been working on, and we’re stoked!” Us too, Jimmy, us too.

Okay, this one is a bit more speculative, but the fact that Code Orange released new music in the form of Out For Blood hints at more to come in 2022. The band’s heavyweight North American tour with Loathe, Vended and Dying Wish is built around that standalone single, but we’re still hopeful of a follow-up to 2020’s stunning Underneath later in the year…

Billy Talent’s long-awaited sixth studio album is recorded and ready to go! Crisis Of Faith was recorded at the band’s own Toronto studio and produced by guitarist Ian D’Sa. It will be released on January 21, 2022 via Spinefarm, and singer Ben Kowalewicz told Kerrang!: “From 1993 until now, if something is pissing us off then we’re going to let you know you about it. If there’s something we believe in, we’ll try and shine a light on it.”

Venom Prison will unleash the follow-up to 2019's 5/5-rated Samsara on February 4 via Century Media. The Welsh death metal crew have been playing their cards close to their chests regarding the content, but if the two singles released so far – Judges Of The Underworld and Pain Of Oizys – are anything to go by, we’re in for something both special and surprising.

BMTH have said they are aiming to have their next release ready by the time they headline Reading & Leeds in August. The follow-up to Post Human: Survival Horror will be the second of four planned EPs, but the first offering was closer to album-length, with nine tracks weighing in at just over half an hour. Keyboardist Jordan Fish told K! that EP number two would be “more influenced by emo and screamo” than its predecessor. “These records are about the music that we grew up listening to in the order that we discovered it,” he explained. “We all started listening to Linkin Park, Deftones and Slipknot. Then we moved into that more emo/post-hardcore sound of bands like Glassjaw. It’s still a rock record at its core: there’s still heavier stuff and big songs on there. [Latest single] DiE4u is a good glimpse of the direction it's going in.”

At the start of 2021, Travis Barker revealed that blink were “60 per cent done” with a new record, adding that they had done some surprising collabs with the likes of Grimes, Lil Uzi Vert and Pharrell. The situation changed of course, with Mark Hoppus rightly diverting his energy into his health, but with the bassist/vocalist declared cancer-free, fans are hoping the album might now get finished. For Mark’s part, he’s not ruling anything out – including a reunion with Tom DeLonge. "We haven't really talked about that, but I'm open to anything in the future," he told GQ. Imagine that!

Swiss extremists Zeal & Ardor will release their self-titled third album on February 11 via MVKA. Frontman Manuel Gagneux said: "The most important thing for an album of ours to do is transport you instantly into our mood, our world. Even though this might not be the one you might expect from us, this record certainly delivers on that front. We had time to hone in to what we think makes us interesting and what sounds we would like to explore through this we have found our home. Home is burning. Welcome home."

The Aussie metalcore titans have already announced a huge European tour for 2022, and we’re hoping there will be a new album to go along with it. The band had previously revealed they started writing during lockdown in 2020 and frontman Winston McCall gave an update in September. “By the time we start playing this festival [Knight and Day in Australia], we’ll be into the recording process,” he told Music Feeds. “We’ve written the majority of it and the recording of it starts in the next couple of weeks and lasts for several months. So the next Parkway Drive record exists, conceptually, but it’s time to actually make it real and record it and that process takes some time.”

Rolo Tomassi will release their sixth full-length, titled Where Myth Becomes Memory, on February 4 via eOne. It was recorded in challenging circumstances, with vocalist Eva Korman locked down in New Jersey, 3,000 miles from her bandmates. But, ultimately, that challenge was turned into a triumph. “I think it's the most ambitious and creative that our band has ever sounded and something that we've all needed to get through the last few years,” said keyboardist James Spence. “We can't wait to share it and to have you help us bring it to life."

Rammstein have a new album in the pipeline… and it’s going to be out of this world! "The album is expected to be released next year before the tour," confirmed Richard Kruspe on 24 Hours World in November. The previous month, drummer Christoph ‘Doom’ Schneider revealed that the band had played a new song to an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS). "He was the first to listen to one of our new songs from the upcoming album. It premiered in the sky, which is an honour for us,” he shared.

When the UK cult heavyweights signed with Nuclear Blast they initially planned to have a new album out by the end of 2021. That hasn’t happened yet, but they have confirmed that the follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2018 debut Mire is set to be released “in the not too distant future”. Details remain sketchy but expect something heavy, inventive, textured and absolutely awesome.

Not content with releasing two albums in 2021 (OK Human and Van Weezer), the band are set to release a set of four in 2022 and, like a rock Vivaldi, each will have its own seasonal theme. Speaking on Good Morning America in the summer, frontman Rivers Cuomo revealed, “I guess I’ve had a lot of time on my hands so I wrote four albums that we’ll put out next year. It’s called Seasons, and each album comes out on the first day of the season. Spring is kind of like happy chill. And then we move through to dance rock, like a Strokes-style album for the fall, and then sad acoustic, Elliott Smith-style for winter.”

Prior to their U.S. tour in 2021, PVRIS announced the start of a new phase. “Welcome to the new era,” they wrote. “We are debuting three new songs on tour to give you an advanced preview of what’s to come.” We’ve since had a couple of singles in Monster and My Way (as well as the Sacrificial collaboration with Rezz) and it seems like the Lynn Gunn-fronted act is now gearing up for a full follow-up to 2020’s Use Me at some point over the next 12 months.

Behemoth have delayed the release of their follow-up to 2018’s huge I Loved You At Your Darkest, waiting for normal touring life to resume, but Nergal told K! it will “come out whatever happens” in 2022. “The time will come when we give you all the information you need but for now I’ll just say we hired a top-class mixer to work on the record and it’s the next step, a new level for us,” he revealed. “It's still us. Behemoth is Behemoth like Slayer is Slayer and Gojira is Gojira, but it just feels so fresh and rejuvenated and empowering and I can't wait to unleash that on the Albion legions in mid-2022.”