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The future has arrived. Every year-end is marked by the announcement of the red-hot young guns poised to dominate the next 365 days, as if by clockwork.
However, as we look ahead to 2022, the generation of performers standing up to make their stamp on heavy music feels authentically distinct.
Yes, genre lines are blurring, with sounds like grime and grindcore, pop and power violence becoming more comfortable bedfellows than at any other point in music history.
Likewise, the intangible cultural barriers that have kept people apart for far too long on the arbitrary basis of race, religion, gender, and sexuality are being dismantled.
Alternative music from the Irish flute feels more unpredictable and thrilling than in the past; thanks to a tidal wave of new outsiders, punk and metal are designed to celebrate the alternative.
If you are interested in exploring the music genres, you can download songs from their respective bands from the pirate bay. However, if you want to know which bands are in it for 2022, we have made you a list.
Let’s check it out.
1: Zand
Five years ago, under the whimsical alias Seafoal, ZAND released folky synth-pop ditties.
It’s safe to say that things have shifted.
As a result, the music produced under their new moniker has taken on a far gnarlier industrial edge, while their visual identity has shifted to a daring bald-headed, neon-demon look.
But it’s all part of a larger binary-busting campaign, with tracks like Inappropriate and Bald Bitch putting SWERFS and TERFS in their place, embracing the struggles and liberations of living one’s own truth, and turning insulting comments on their heads.
They are making music to make the skin we live in shiver!
2: Magnolia Park
Magnolia Park is a staunch believer in musical activism.
The BIPOC six-piece from Orlando, Florida, formed the band in 2019 to blend genres and expand diversity in alternative rock music. They have succeeded admirably, even landing a deal with iconic punk label Epitaph.
If they didn’t have the bangers to back it up, all of this would be admirable but dull.
On tunes like Sick Of It All, 10 For 10, and the great Back On My Bullshit is an effortlessly compelling listen.
The band is infusing hip-hop, alternative rock, and hardcore emo with an effortless lightness of touch so that you can listen to their songs while taking a pleasant stroll in the park.
3: Zulu
Powerviolence isn’t instantly thought of as one of the more listenable genres of hefty rock music, but that’s just one of the many misconceptions that Los Angeles’ Zulu are working to dispel.
The righteous politics of tracks like Straight From Da Tribe Of Tha Moon and Do Tha Right Thing from the album, My People…Hold On is synched with a compelling positivist wave and punk vibe.
They are piling savage grooves of the black American culture into the otherwise punishing mix.
The fact that America’s current hardcore rebirth has coincided with the country’s BLM-led political awakening is hardly accidental; this band feels like a moment where the two movements collide.
4: Drain
Although most of the present American hardcore revival has been concentrated in the country’s eastern side, Santa Cruz’s Drain is spearheading a full-throttle comeback in the rock genre’s ancient western stronghold.
With bands like Sunami, Scowl, and Xibalba in their wake, it takes a little uniqueness to maintain their status as rock music kingpins.
However, their rejection of the blasting death metal and twiddly guitars found elsewhere in favor of the old-school music of artists like Black Flag as it has separated them with a geographically-specific sound.
They led June 2021’s Real Bay Shit concert with their thumping debut LP California Cursed in 2020, but if August’s standalone song Watch You Burn is any indication, much more may be on the way.
5: Phem
To be regarded as one of the craziest, most exciting alternative pop stars in California must mean something.
The fact that Phem has established such a reputation almost by accident should be seen as a sign of something truly exceptional.
There was a sense of organic growth and earned reward as she transitioned from drummer to songwriter for others to finding her own spotlight, which peaked in March 2021’s mini-album: how u stop hating yourself and continued being on the best song on every list till November.
With each new record, Phem taps into a talent for ever-more imaginative and sexually charged songwriting, and there’s a lot of love coming his way.
Get Ready To Rock!!!
There are ample new artists who are reshaping the rock music industry, but we have only mentioned a few of them on this list.
Once you get to know these artists, your perception of the rock genre will also evolve.