The Year in Rock 2022: Don’t call it a comeback, they’ve been delayed by a pandemic for years

While touring picked up again in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic completely shut down the concert industry in 2020, it returned in full force in 2022. The much-anticipated reunion tours of My Chemical Romance, Rage Against the Machine and Mötley Crüe, which were originally scheduled for 2020, finally took place this year.

The launch of the MCR tour was accompanied by a new song from the “Helena” rockers, marking their first fresh material in eight years. Meanwhile, the Crüe outing, which was co-headlined by Def Leppard, and also featured Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, was the highest-grossing tour of the band’s career.

2022 also saw Red Hot Chili Peppers finally hit the road with guitarist John Frusciante, who’d rejoined the band at the end of 2019. The “Californication” outfit played stadiums across the globe in support of not one but two new albums, Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen, which marked their first records with Frusciante since 2006’s Stadium Arcadium.

Another band that released new music in 2022 with a beloved returning member was Blink-182, who reunited with Tom DeLonge for the single “Edging,” their first new material together since 2011. A Blink-182 world tour is planned for 2023.

Though not quite a reunion, Pantera got back together at the end of 2022 for their first tour since 2001. Longtime members Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown reformed the “Walk” metallers with Black Label Society‘s Zakk Wylde and Anthrax‘s Charlie Benante in place of the late Abbott brothers, “Dimebag” Darrell and Vinnie Paul, respectively.

Pantera will be opening for another metal giant next year: Metallica, who returned in 2022 with their first new song in six years. The track “Lux Æterna” is the lead single off the new ‘Tallica album, 72 Seasons, due out in April 2023.

Paramore also ended a long wait for new music with “This Is Why,” the lead single and title track from the much-anticipated follow-up to 2017’s After Laughter. The upcoming record arrives in February 2023.