Ov Sulfur continues their noise parade, building on last year’s Oblivion EP, releasing two singles in 2022 that demand your attention for as long as you can stomach the beat down. “Stained in Rot” is a beacon for their up-and-coming full-length debut.

Ever since their second album, 2021’s Lifeblood, Brand of Sacrifice has been slowly releasing singles with collaborators: Underoath’s Spencer Chamberlain, We Came As Romans, and, on this track, Ryo Kinoshita (who, at the time, was Crystal Lake’s vocalist). The effect of the collaborations have yielded some serious metal songwriting alongside a unique flavor to each new work. The band dropped “Exodus” — notably, with no collaborators — right before the end of this year, so here’s hoping something from a new album ends up on this list next year.

Ask me at the end of next year, and I’ll look back at this list and say this song should have been higher.

“Yesterday’s price is not today’s price.” That’s right. Pusha T can charge more now than ever.

Not the first time I listened to Post Malone in 2022 (spoiler alert). Put him up against any modern artist for a hook. Turn this up when you’re on the yacht at 6:30 p.m. in the Caribbean.

Pop-punk songwriting is timeless. Billie Joe Armstrong was said to have only written Green Day songs on an acoustic guitar so that the songwriting first could be unassailable. “Gasoline” is a track that follows in these footsteps.

I loved iwrestledabearonce and I loved what Courtney LaPlante brought to the band when she joined in mid-2012. That fervor foamed forward when I heard LaPlante had started Spiritbox with husband Mike Stringer in 2015. I am in the minority, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the work on their 2017 and 2019 EPs; they broke through to mainstream rock fame, but almost all the music edged a little too close to Evanescence for my tastes.

And then they wrote “Hysteria,” which has the second heaviest breakdown I’ve heard on a track this year.

The lyrics to this song are particularly bad. Vocalist Hayley Williams decided a direct approach would be the poetic approach here, and the first time I heard it, I really thought she was taking the easy way out: have thought, write thought, sing lyric. The needle hasn’t moved far away from this benchmark for me — and still I found myself listening to this song over and over again. It moves your feet, and Williams charms even if the lyrics don’t much move to a second level.

It’s tough to write a perfect pop song, get dropped by your label, go independent, and then release this. It’s Michelle Branch reincarnate.