One of my goals in 2022 was to spend more time reading user content, which resulted in the monthly Best User Reviews lists. There is a a lot of talent hidden beneath the “official” ranks of this website, and below is a list containing many of those writers. Consider this a heartfelt thank you to everyone who put time and effort into creating worthwhile content over course of the past year. So without further ado, please join me in congratulating the below users for their efforts!
Category I: User Recognition
Tier 1: These reviewers made one appearance on the monthly “best-of” list for user reviews. We’d love to hear more from you!
anarchistfish, parksungjoon, ramon., Josh D., brendanstupik, Zig, TVC15, JayEnder, JamesW, untitled, theBoneyKing, Toad, deathofasalesman, TooManyFriends, SublimeSound, whitecastle142, brandontaylor, someone, arf, BrushedRed, AmericanFlagAsh, Valzentia, Shamus248, Batareziz, JayEnder, GiaNXGX, SitarHero, 0BSCURA, luci, SunBro, BlazinBlitzer, vult, gimo80, Toondude, nnpoc, thejoelsder, Romulus, 0range, MrToothbrush, combustion07, DePlazz, Poet, libraryofsalt, eMZ, BlackTemplarofAutism, TerraIncognita, SlothcoreSam, ChaoticVortex, nilsson, Boreque, victorhugotoffoli, pjquinones747, kaparoni, Slex, WoahHenny, johndavis33, trackbytrackreviews, Douglas, DoofDoof, MOYA, TheGreatEscaper, Invariance67, Gannoncannon, Edgehog61, LunaticSoul, JonWedge91, Maniac!, JoyfulPlaypus, Permafrost, Drbebop, shemson, GoldenGuy444, Chamberbelain, kildare, e210013, HstroX, ArsMoriendi, XfingTheSullen, counterparts24, Dizchu, frozencarl, claygurnz, pennyroyal22, davidwave4, Tundra, rabidfish, DeanBrown, daemonaria
Tier 2: Double Agents – These writers made the list twice!
PanosChris, NexCeleris, Biscuitborn, LemonBen, NicksMusicList, GarthAlgar, SandwichBubble, theBoneyKing, TheGlowingWeen, Get Low, hobblepot, YatMot, ConcubinaryCode, Purpl3Spartan, Scoot, SpiridonOrlovschi, DadKungFu, Minortimbo12
Tier 3: Triple Threats – These users made an impression with several appearances on the monthly list.
Clifgard, Dedes, STIGMATIZED, TheSpirit [RIP], ghostalgeist, gryndstone, Zakusz, iChuckles, Naomi Lores, turnip90210, Trifolium
Tier 4: Fourmidable Writers – I think you know where I’m going with these puns by now. Congrats to the below writers.
BitterJalepenoJr, Teal
Tier 5: High-Five Club – Not everyone is able to get as high as these folks.
ashcrash9, Muzz79
Tier 6: Sexy Sixes – These users were on a whole new level in 2022.
ReturnToRock, Odal, Crxmateo, Manatea
Tier 7: Supreme Sevens – their writing reigned supreme!
InfernalDeity, mkmusic1995, pizzamachine
Tier 9: Nifty Nines – These users found themselves on the Best User Reviews list a site-best NINE (9) times in 2022.
WattPheasant, PsychicChris, Zac124
*Please give a round of applause to all of the above writers for their efforts. I don’t care if you’re sitting in a cubicle at work or if you’re in the house with family/friends — no one will think it’s weird, trust me.
Category II: Best User Review
I elicited input from the staff to select the best user review of 2022.
The Nominees (10):
Norma Jean: Deathrattle Sing for Me by Crxmateo
‘Deathrattle Sing For Me’ is an intense album. With a reported over 200 individual audio tracks across the 13 songs, The album is weighted down by its sheer length and density. The record is structurally chaotic, adapting various styles such as sludge, grunge, punk, and alternative into the band’s already harsh metalcore sound. Despite this, the entire album feels incredibly cohesive, with many of it’s tracks leading into the next with dynamic production and passionate, emotive vocal performances from frontman Cory Brandan. This is perhaps best culminated in “A Killing Word”, a full-force assault of drum fills and bludgeoning riffs that blends unhinged aggression with the soaring rock choruses of “Sleep Explosion” and atmospherics of “el-roi”, feeling like everything the record tries to be condensed into one track. Due to its overwhelming nature, the album is a grower, taking repeated listens to fully digest, and while it doesn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor ‘All Hail’, its still an incredibly solid album and one of the best metalcore releases of 2022 thus far. While easy to miss the midst of its own chaos, ‘Deathrattle Sing For Me’ is bookended by two circular poetic hooks that sum it’s sound and lyrics up itself perfectly: “I think I’m witnessing the end of the world and I like it”, “This world was never meant for me, or I was never meant for it”.
Denzel Curry: Melt My Eyez See Your Future by InfernalDeity
Growth through the passage of time, is there any other way? Even if there was, would we be able to appreciate the evolution that father time has crafted? I’m not entirely sure which thought is more unsettling: Is it the stark reality that pain and loss are our teacher, or is it the fact that this is our baseline for measuring the significance of change? To say that Melt My Eyes See Your Future is a masterclass on introspection would be an understatement. With that being said, when you truly come to grips with yourself, you can start to understand the world around you, “But when I felt it, my eyes melted. The selfish are constantly profitin off the helpless.” So, will you avert your eyes or stare directly into the sun?
Wilderun: Epigone by ramon.
Navigating categorisation might just be a necessary evil for the inordinately dork-heavy fields of metaldom. There’s economy in dubbing Epigone’s intro track, “Exhaler”, nothing more than a proggy, folksy start to an adventure, as seen on such notable records as [insert proggy folk metal record], and it wouldn’t technically be wrong (hell, it’s even got a red-herring outro to keep you guessing). “Distraction I” does sound like something you could find on Addicted. Yet, I think a far more interesting question than who Wilderun stands as an epigone of would be one like “who are doing what Wilderun are doing this good”. He who is without a discography slump cast the first comparison; here stands a band who is constantly trying to push at what our expectations should be for the sounds we’ve come to know over the years. When “Distraction Nulla” erupted in a malevolent wind at the one-minute mark, I was yet again reminded of why mastery isn’t secondary to innovation. It’s the kind of controlled chaos that necessitates a reputation for year-on-year improvement. A flurry of cymbals and strings stained by a ghoulish fuzz brought on by some evil riffing, all underpinned by a melodic progression that reeks of cinema-pedigree villainy.
Disillusion: Ayam by Zac124
Like most progressive metal bands, Disillusion likes some of their tracks exceeding the ten minute mark, and Ayam has two of these ‘epics’. The first of these is the opener, Am Abgrund. It begins the album perfectly, where the intro slowly builds up until it eventually explodes with blast beats, subtle horns, and great harsh vocals. The cleans throughout the track provide some extremely catchy melodies. Furthermore, the riffs and solos throughout the eleven minutes are all engaging. All of this adds up to create an instant impact on the listener, keeping their interest for the rest of the album. The other ‘epic’ is Abide the Storm has crushing riffs paired with some great horn sections, making the song’s atmosphere sound vast and immense. The chorus implements more catchy clean vocals until it goes back to the heavy riff and horns filled verse with sinister screams. However, after the four minute mark, the song calms down, and Andy Schmidt’s skill at making excellent lead guitar melodies takes front and centre stage until it erupts into a cathartic climax with impressive solos and clean vocals. While both of these songs are long, they breeze past without you ever realising it, and it never feels like they need to be cut down either.
Pedro the Lion: Havasu by ashcrash9
Suffer quietly Bazan does here, and while his tales aren’t all gloomy, onset-pubescent melodrama, those adjectives admittedly do define a good chunk of the lyrical content on this record and amorphously blur into its musical palette of choice as well. Pedro The Lion have long since “found their sound” within the realm of neatly-arranged guitar-driven indie rock, and neither Phoenix nor Havasu radically depart from that safe spot. That said, this take on the style notably daydreams in comparison to its predecessor, not in timbre or tempo so much as structure, with select verses starting to feel like thematic overkill and musical tedium by record’s end. The hits—insofar as anything on Havasu could be considered a “hit”—are at least evenly distributed; “Don’t Wanna Move” and “Too Much” form an immersive opening duo, the album’s middle arc manages a potent consistency, and closer “Lost Myself” mesmerizingly ushers in the story’s next chapter where the family prepares to head further west to Santa Cruz. Amid it all, “Old Wisdom” seems positioned to be this chapter’s defining contribution to the greater Bazan catalogue, a short and sorrowful diagnosis on how evangelical settings stifle and gag inquisitiveness through intimidation. “Kids in turmoil thinking it’s their fault / with their souls wide open to authority / ‘till they’ve traded everything for a peace with no peace.” Like…f u c k, dude.
Static Dress: Rouge Carpet Disaster by JayEnder
Fans of the They’re Only Chasing Safety era of former legendary turned midlife-crisis-core band Underoath will rejoice, as Static Dress have seemingly perfected their craft and may even surpass them in due time. This impression mostly lies within the sheer charisma and talent of vocalist Olli Appleyard. Appleyard is an absolute force to be reckoned with behind the microphone, as he utilizes a variety of impressive tactics ranging from shrill, ear piercing shrieks to soaring, melodic clean choruses that just radiate mid 2000’s nostalgia. The rest of the band follows suit in the instrumental department. Their mysterious, faceless guitarist simply known as Contrast knows how to craft catchy melodies and energetic chord progressions that shine over the precise drumming of Aaron Gillespie lookalike Sam Ogden, as well as the slick bass and backup vocals by the man who is never seen without a black beanie on, Connor Reilly. These lads from Leeds are the torchbearers of the modern post-hardcore scene, and they are here to prove themselves worthy of being the next breakthrough act in music today.
Alex G: God Save The Animals by Slex
On God Save The Animals, Alex G once again revels in multitudes, wielding his considerable songwriting powers to conjure warped and kaleidoscopic pop songs that operate like a funhouse mirror: by accumulating so many auditory, thematic and lyrical sensations, it can be disorienting and exhilarating and challenging to know what exactly it is you caught a glimpse of. This modus operandi is not radically different than previous effort House of Sugar, but that album cloaked itself in an at-times impenetrable atmosphere of unease and kept listeners slightly at a remove through lyrics tied to an enigmatic concept. Keeping this in mind, God Save The Animals sounds like a slippery and self-conscious side-step to that more song-based and storybook frame of mind, harkening back to the kind of fractured and impressionistic indietronica the artist made a name on, but now bearing a newfound emotional directness and mastery over sequencing and flow.
Tumi Mogorosi: Group Theory: Black Music by mkmusic1995
“Group Theory: Black Music” is an album where I am not the target audience. I absolutely feel like an outsider peering into a space in time of deep social sorrow and resentment. Each song painted as an emotional vignette with strokes and splatters of animosity, sadness, chaos and faith. I know very little of South African drummer and compositionist Tumi Mogorosi other than the brief articles that I have perused in preparation for this review. I had no expectations and ideas of what was in store when I pressed play on the first track “Wadada.” I was initially hesitant, and the first track felt like your standard, run-of-the-mill, chaotic jazz track with oddly timed drum patterns and light horn flairs. I ended up being interrupted halfway through listening to that first track and found myself in a situation where my mental state had changed so I restarted the track and quickly was surprised by the composition itself. It flows wonderfully and felt completely like any other jazz song I had heard prior. The swells of a church-like choir coupled with the complex rhythmic placement of the drums creates an explosive, maximalist expression. It’s amazing what a couple hours can do for a listening experience.
Taylor Swift: Midnights by Odal
It’s difficult to reconcile that this is the same woman who penned the effortless poetry of “Delicate” or the stratospheric “Style” when many of these songs reek of effort and pushing against brick walls. Midnights is ostensibly about thirteen different sleepless nights that she has had, but many of the tracks come across as more anonymous or fictitious than the actually fictitious tales she elegantly penned on her last two folksy efforts. Normally I would take the easy route and suggest that this collection sounds like outtakes and discarded material, but puzzling enough the songs on offer in the special 3AM edition sound far more interesting and mature than what’s on offer in the main attraction suggesting that maybe the time was correct, but maybe the execution was in a different timezone. Midnights is an album with enough good ideas and built on enough goodwill to avert total disaster -it’s more her Solar Power than it is her Witness, but it’s perhaps the first true stagnation of her obviously legendary career. I am not betting against her bouncing back with far more ambitious records -again, that is simply a losing proposition- but let’s hope she does not choose to linger on this one for very long. Like the actual time on the clock, Midnights is a record that is best to sleep through.
Alvvays: Blue Rev by TheGreatEscaper
The child on the cover of Blue Rev is facing the turbulent sky now. After Rankin’s apartment was robbed, after the band’s music equipment was destroyed by a flood, and after a pandemic that kept band members separated for years, the core of Blue Rev’s songs were recorded in a single two hour session – an isolated moment of things coming together in a world so full of mess. In a way, the album is asking us listeners to seek these moments ourselves. Can we still recognise the infectious, bubbly sound of the bands infancy somewhere in the heart of these roughed-up songs? We are still that child on the edge of the wharf, but now that we navigate the clouds on our own, we must accept the blurriness of their edges, and remind ourselves to find wonder in their shapes anyway.
AND THE WINNER IS:
Pedro the Lion: Havasu by ashcrash9
Congratulations to all of our talented writers, especially ashcrash9, who wrote this exemplary piece which was chosen by our staff as the best user write-up of 2022.
Category III: Sputnik Musicians
The following users dropped new albums in 2022. Please congratulate them on their success, and give their hard work a listen below! (*Disclaimer* – I’m well-aware that this likely doesn’t encompass all of the site’s musicians, so if you released material in 2022, shoutbox me and I’ll eventually get it added to this list).
A Continent Named Coma: And Cicadas Will Be The Last Thing You Hear
Genre: Post-Hardcore/Post Rock/Emo
Released by: pjquinones747
Alone I Stand: In Backgrounds
Genre: Emo/Post-Hardcore/Math Rock
Released by: GreyShadow
Driftless: Perfect Blue
Genre: Post-Rock
Released by: efp123
Domestic Terminal: All The Stories Left to Tell
Genre: Emo/Indie-Rock/Shoegaze
Released by: YoYoMancuso, Bilbodabag
Kannatama: Hell Debris
Genre: Ambient/Experimental
Released by: Scoot
Khamsin: What’s Left of Life?
Genre: Indie-Rock/Post-Hardcore/Post-Rock
Released by: jcurry094
Nick & Jeff Discover Infinity: Wonderment
Genre: Indie-Folk/Experimental/Electronic
Released by: Deathconscious
Somewhere South of Here: Leave Me For The Crows
Genre: Punk/Emo/Alternative Rock
Released by: PitchforkArms
Spieglass: Toward My Hand
Genre: Ambient/Electronic/New Age
Released by: Josh D.
Svmmercamp: Willow
Genre: Alternative Rock/Indie-Pop/Hip-Hop
Released by: Conmaniac
*A Brief Note*: This is merely the first year in what I’m hoping will become an annual tradition. As I follow along with more/better planning in 2023 and beyond, I hope to include additional categories (best lists? most humorous soundoff? et al), so stay tuned as I get my bearings and learn how to flesh this out into an even more inclusive and interesting/exciting tradition. Thanks again to everyone for a wonderful 2022!
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12.29.22
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It’s great to see some recognition for our many talented writers and musicians!
12.29.22
12.29.22
Congratulations to all and thanks to Sowing for making the effort to showcase the talent of so many users and also for inspiring further writing.
12.29.22
Tim do be lurkin
12.29.22
Also a timely reminder that I need to review a bunch of stuff next year, so many worthy releases with non-existent threads… need to find that confidence!
12.29.22
there are so many great and more active writers on the site, I did not anticipate winning the Best User Review award. I'm humbled. Thanks so much for reading, and congratulations to everyone else featured here, especially the musicians (whose music I still need to get around to hearing). Cheers going into 2023
12.29.22
not interested thanks
12.29.22
Congrats ash
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12.30.22
Ultimately, I think these types of features strengthen and grow the community and encourage people who might never write a review to at least reconsider. Congratulations to everyone in here for your contributions to the site and thank you to Sowing and the rest of the staff for making the effort to recognize the newer or more casual users of the site.
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Congrats, Ash! The review was incredible.
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I did not expect this at all and this means a lot!
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