Daniel P. Carter on the bands to watch in 2022

First one of these of the new year. Regardless of all the other shit that’s going on, we can still look forward to a year of amazing new music from artists we already love and some we are yet to discover. With that in mind, here are a bunch of new artists that are doing great things that you may not have fallen in love with quite yet…

So, let us begin. Edinburgh's Happydaze just released the EP Underground Summer Sound and it’s five tracks of shimmering, summery, melancholic pop-punk / alt.rock that rules hard. Opener With You’s skittering drum loop intro leads into a soaring chorus that fans of Neck Deep will clutch to their heart like a long lost friend. Great songs are great.

Connecticut five-piece Anxious all met in high school and just put out their debut Little Green House on Run For Cover Records. It's a record that occupies that late-’90s emo sweet spot made by bands like Texas Is The Reason, Elliot and The Promise Ring into the more imploring post-hardcore of Turning Point. The fact the album makes me think of a bunch of those bands I loved way back when and that the lyrics tell a coming-of-age story, all makes me feel old as dirt. Which I am. If you dig Basement, One Step Closer and Teenage Wrist, you’ll be stoked on it, for sure.

Next up are New Haven hardcore band Almighty Watching. The band have taken their name from lyrics in the title track of Bad Brains' 1986 masterpiece I Against I, and it gives you a pretty clear heads up of where the band are at sonically. They're an amalgamation of hardcore influences that nods to the Brains, Inside Out and the whole Youth Crew era of NYHC, with super-rad riffs and vibes that balance the nostalgic references with a modern posi feel. The past couple of years have been great for hardcore, with bands like Zulu, Scowl, Drain, Gel along with the post hardcore of bands like Turnstile or Drug Church. Check out these guys' last EP Doubtless to see why they should be on your playlist as well. Vocalist Kyle Nil, and has moments that really made me think of Rollins and McKaye, so that settled it for me.

Up next are bleak French avant garde cacophony Plebeian Grandstand. The band have been around for quite some time, but I only just listened recently to the last record Rien Ne Suffit, and it’s unreal. Definitely one of those ones I regret sleeping on, as it's a horrendous and abrasive blast of modern angular black metal and grinding industrial tones, all tempered with crawling sections of power electronics, shrieking and general bad vibes. Absolutely wonderful. The wavering hissing static interludes and intros only add to the tension. If the fantastic new Wiegedood album There’s Always Blood At The End Of The Road has done it for you, you’d be advised to give Plebeian Grandstand a listen.

Whilst wandering in the noisier realms, Cower from the UK are a clanking, scathing onslaught of noise-rock and goth-edged post-punk crooning that brings to mind bands from the golden days of AmRep Records tussling with The Birthday Party. The most powerful trio is made up of members of Pet Brick, USA Nails and The Ghost Of A Thousand, if that is something you’d need to cosign the recommendation. Their debut album Boys is out (all vinyl sold out) on Human Worth Records.

Listen to Daniel P. Carter host the Radio 1 Rock Show every Sunday night from 9pm. Listen again for a month after on BBC Sounds.