2022 – Music Retrospective

tl;dr

Music reveals the shared experience we’ve all had: a unique, and difficult path in life. Music encourages or discourages, but ultimately reminds me that I’m not the only lad barely afloat in troubled waters. Albums are diaries and history books, essential to the human experience. My point in all this? Music should have a unique, and impactful footprint.

I love music (which is why I’m such a critic), but I find that bands often give the expected and nothing more. Death and black metal albums especially do the bare minimum: heavy riffs, hammering drums, and brutal vocals. All the boxes are ticked, but any number of bands could’ve made the same album. Garbled vocals make potentially interesting lyrics buried, and tracks are ultimately forgettable white noise. The competition to be the loudest, most brutal band worked for Lorna Shore this year, but Wage War, Darko US, etc., didn’t fare so well.

I love metal, but when music fails to make me feel something, what’s the point? I’m thinking about bands like Born of Osiris and August Burns Red who give the same riffs and vocals over and over to the point where new music isn’t needed; they’ve cloned their preferred music style so many times, there’s nearly nothing further to say. Then there’s the annoying inclusion of repetitive, cliche lyrics from bands like “I still feel the paaaaiinnn”, and “it’s time to fight!!!”. Surely, something more nuanced could be done.

Music has the potential to be there when a friend is not, to entertain us so much we forget our worries – it should be a truly unique journey. Music is my therapy these days (until I get actual therapy), and I just wish every band understood the importance of music, and of words. In the effort to follow every trend, and what has worked before, a lot of creativity, and passion is absent.

This rant went a wee bit everywhere, but it’s frustrating watching potentially creative bands writing bland, uninspired albums. When a band phones in a performance it’s obvious, and when they play live it’s worse. Truckloads of solid albums came out this year, and there’s just as many I’ll soon forget about.

 

 

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