21. Porcupine Tree - Closure/Continuation (Music For Nations/Sony)
Over a decade since their last release, prog luminaries Porcupine Tree announced their return in November 2021 with new single Harridan, taken from their 11th studio album Closure/Continuation. Thrumming with the electric buzz of the band's heyday, Harridan looks to be a sign of things to come from the band, scratching the A Perfect Circle prog rock/metal crossover itch with typical bombast and grandiose production. Roll on Wembley in November.
Release Date: June 24
22. Kreator - Hate Über Alles (Nuclear Blast)
Even if it hadn't been five years since Kreator's last studio album, after last year's utterly sublime Bloodstock headline performance we are absolutely gagging for new material.
Thankfully, the band look happy to oblige as they hit the studio in September with producer Arthur Rizk. If the finished product is even half as powerful as Satan Is Real, we're about ready to tear the fixtures off the walls.
Release Date: June 3
23. Slipknot - Album #7 (Roadrunner)
Even the barest hint of new material is enough to set people abuzz at the idea of Slipknot releasing a new album, so with the release of The Chapeltown Rag the band effectively chucked gasoline on the blaze, suggesting their seventh studio album could be expected sooner rather than later.
Quite what shape it will take is anybody's guess, but Chapeltown certainly hinted to the band leaning harder on their nu metal roots than they have in years. Described by Clown as "a cobra in a basket", we're very here for some sonic bedlam from Slipknot before 2022 is out.
Release Date: TBA
24. Avenged Sevenfold - Album #8
The six-year wait for a follow-up to 2016's epic The Stage already makes this the biggest gap between releases in Avenged Sevenfold's career. Between a lawsuit from their former label and the pandemic putting paid to any notions of global touring for the past couple of years, the wait seems somewhat understandable but we're hoping 2022 is the year we get Shadows and co. back at full force.
Considering what they were able to do with The Stage, we're hoping this long gap has given the band plenty of time to plot some seriously exciting developments from album #7. If Shadows' interview in the new Hammer is anything to go by, we should all be very excited indeed.
Release Date: TBA
25. Arch Enemy - Deceivers (Century Media)
With two singles released at the tail end of 2021, it was always a case of when and not if we would receive a new Arch Enemy record. The five-year wait since 2017's Will To Power will end on July 29 when the band's 11th album Deceivers arrives.
The already revealed singles Deceiver, Deceiver and House Of Mirrors play up to the band's longstanding capacity for epic songwriting, while vocalist Alissa White-Gluz intones some of the catchiest vocal lines in extreme metal.
Release Date: July 29
26. Skindred - Album #8
20 years since Skindred first blasted the walls down between reggae and metal with Babylon, the band have asserted themselves as one of the UK's most reliable - and lovable - bands.
Frontman Benji Webbe wasn't shy about telling audiences on the band's October UK tour that they had been in the studio working on new material and after a summer of seeing them consistently crush massive crowds (Download Pilot, Bloodstock, Slam Dunk - take your pick!) we're honestly all in for hearing some new anthems from the boys.
Release Date: TBA
27. Meshuggah - Immutable (Atomic Fire)
If we were betting types, we'd say there's a good chance we'll be getting new Meshuggah material before the band come over to the UK in May. Hammer caught up with the band in late 2021 to talk album #9 and were assured that the band's boundary-pushing tendencies were by no means being dialled back, guitarist Marten Hagström telling us "saying there are 'least-Meshuggah sounding' moments is basically admitting to failure. We want to be able to put our stamp on anything when we venture into music territories.”
Release Date: April 1
28. Kaoteon - Neither God Nor Master (Blood Blast)
Ever since the release of Damnatio Memoriae in 2018, Kaoteon mastermind Anthony Kaoteon has maintained a frantic work schedule, balancing time between new Kaoteon releases and his genre-hopping side-project Death Tribe.
With each new release, Anthony has built an increasingly impressive list of collaborators, drafting in At The Gates' Adrian Erlandsson and ex-Obscura bassist Linus Klausenitzer on Kaoteon's 2020 self-titled record. With both confirmed to return on Neither God Nor Master, we're expecting ever-grander sonic developments to add extra bombast to the immense blackened death metal fury that helped the Lebanese band earn international acclaim in the first place.
Release Date: TBA (first single due February 8)
29. Clutch - Album #13
Clutch just might be one of the most consistently brilliant - and effortlessly cool - bands in rock'n'roll today. The band celebrated their 30th anniversary with a tour at the tail end of 2021 that included a couple of new songs that (presumably) have been written for the band's upcoming 13th album.
While fan-shot videos on YouTube are hardly an arbiter of quality, Slaughter Beach and Strive For Excellence also made appearances in the band's Live From The Doom Saloon Vol IV, offering a first 'proper' listen to the new songs. By this point we largely know what we're getting with a new Clutch album, but that doesn't make us any less excited to get our funk on.
Release Date: TBA
30. Imha Tarikat - Album #3
German black metal project Imha Tarikat made a name for themselves across their first two records with an incendiary take on second-wave black metal that also drew on band mastermind Kerem Yilmaz's Turkish roots for a unique fusion of cultures. Album #3 was already being recorded when Hammer spoke to Yilmaz early last year, with the release expected early 2022. Considering the perfectionism and how emotionally tax the recording process was (Yilmaz discusses spending 10 hours getting one song 'right'), we can't wait to hear the results.
Release Date: TBA (Expected early 2022)
