2018 in Review: Top Albums

Prepare for a long one folks.  After the jump is every single new album I purchased in 2018, listed in descending order of preference.  I did not buy anything truly bad, so just because an album is last on my list, does not mean it is terrible.  I should also note that I have several 2018 albums still coming in soon that obviously will not make the list because I have not heard them yet (Metal Church, Arsis) and I was never able to check out some albums by bands that I normally would have (Voivod, Skeletonwitch, Psycroptic).  So this should by no means be considered an exhaustive list. 

Enough of that crap, here we go:

DIMMU BORGIR: EONIAN

Dimmu Borgir was very important in my conversion into extreme metal.  Their album Death Cult Armageddon was instrumental in me taking heavily to black metal, though it is by no means representative of the genre.  Dimmu Borgir's symphonic elements drew me in, but it was the extreme riffs and vocals that kept me interested and that I sought out thereafter.  Unfortunately, none of their albums since have held my attention as much and this album is no different.  I never checked out their last album and it was only after hearing talk of a return to form about this one that I decided to check it out.  It simply does not do much for me.  There are some decent songs on here, but it sounds so tame next to what came before.

ORPHANED LAND: UNSUNG PROPHETS & DEAD MESSIAHS

This was probably the biggest disappointment of the year for me.  I have loved Orphaned Land albums in the past, in particular Mabool, but this one mostly came across as boring for me.  I picked it up because I fell in love with the song and music video for "Like Orpheus", which is an absolutely amazing song that perfectly captures this band at their best.  It is catchy and features the Middle Eastern melodies that originally captured my attention and the message of the video is incredibly uplifting and positive.  But, that was the only really great song on the entire album.  Most of the rest were mostly boring or just plain bad.  It is incredibly disappointing.

SUMMONING: WITH DOOM WE COME

Unfortunately, the best part about this album is the album's name.  I took a chance on this band after having never checked them out before.  I had always heard great things about them so I was pretty excited to listen to them for the first time.  The album is slow and meandering with very little of interest happening.  The use of timpani is probably the highlight, which is saying something.  I also happened to check out Lugburz shortly thereafter, and that one I did enjoy.  This one just did not do much for me, and I have tried several times.  Unfortunately the best thing about the album is the title.

KATAKLYSM: MEDITATIONS

I always enjoy albums that I hear from this Canadian death metal band, but they are simply not a priority for me when a new one drops (the last one before this I picked up was in 2010).  I do not really know why this is.  Their brand of death metal is energetic and infectious and they always manage to put together good albums.  Maybe it is because they do not really attempt to expand their horizons.  They know what they do well and they continue to do it, without trying to reinvent the wheel.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that most of their albums have kind of sameness quality.  And so this one is simply not much different than anything the band has done before.

VOMITOR: PESTILENT DEATH

Keeping the spirit of groups like Vulcano, Sarcofago, and early Sepultura alive is this Aussie group.  They remind me quite a bit of Impiety, the Singaporean black/death/thrash metal band who unfortunately have not released an album since 2012.  Well, someone has to step in and apparently Vomitor have stepped up.  I previously had one of their albums, but I do not recall it really doing much for me, but Vomitor have apparently solidified their sound as this album is a monster.  With huge riffs and pounding drums, this is a great example of a band trying to capture the filthy, aggressive sound of the 1980's South American extreme metal scene.

SKELETAL REMAINS: DEVOURING MORTALITY

If this album had come out in 1992, we might be talking about a death metal classic.  Instead, it came out in 2018 and is just another band trying to put out a sound reminiscent of those bands that came before them, many of whom are still active and putting out stuff that is at least equal in quality.  Skeletal Remains's point of reference is the early work of Obituary with a little bit of Suffocation thrown in for good measure at times.  They have the kind of swampy groove that Obituary has made their calling card.  Vocalist Chris Monroy also does a damn good imitation of John Tardy, even throwing in the occasional Tardy-esque grunt.  The album is pretty damn good, but it definitely comes across as more of a tribute to the past than anything original.  We even have a Dan Seagrave-esque album cover.

IRON VOID: EXCALIBUR

Based solely on the album title, one could probably corrrectly guess that this is a concept album.  I am not sure if it is based on the Arthurian legends or the excellent 1981 movie Excalibur.  I can definitely see parallels in the structure to the movie and it starts off with a soundclip of Merlin casting the spell that leads to Arthur's birth, which is why I believe it might follow the movie.  If that is the case, then the traditional doom metal of Iron Void seems very appropriate.  The music is mostly somber and melancholic, dealing with treachery and pain.  It took me a couple of listens to get into this one, but it is a decent traditional doom album, just not terribly innovative.

DREADFUL RELIC: HYBORIAN SORCERY

Ah yes, the obligatory album-I-picked-up-because-it-had-awesome-cover-art-without-knowing-a-thing-about-the-band album.  This is the debut album from this trio, each member of whom resides in a different country.  We have members from the U.S., Greece, and Finland.  The band's sound is rooted mostly in old-school black metal from the first wave.  The band that most comes to mind when I listen to the album is the old Celtic Frost/Hellhammer releases before they became experimental.  The result is a decent facsimile, though it does not pave any new ground.  But damn, that album cover is awesome.

WHIPSTRIKER: MERCILESS ARTILLERY

Whipstriker possesses all of the hallmarks of a classic Hells Headbangers band.  They are raw, filthy blackened speed metal from South America, specifically Brazil.  And they are prolific at releasing music.  Their music is fast-paced and intense, with pounding drums, blindingly fast riffs, and snarled vocals.  The songs are not complex, typically keeping the structures fairly simple and short.  Only one song even reaches five minutes.  Most of the song titles seem to reference bands that came before, which is either a coincidence or the band paying tribute to their influences.  I am not sure which.  All that adds up to a fun album to listen to if you want something fast for half an hour.

NOCTURNAL GRAVES: TITAN

I absolutely love blackened thrash metal.  It is one of my favorite styles of metal and in particular Deströyer 666 is one of my favorite bands of all time.  That being said, there is a way to craft great blackened thrash and a way to complete foul it up.  Blackened thrash needs to be fast or with obvious aggression.  Unfortunately, Nocturnal Graves simply do not quite cut it on this release, which is particularly disappointing as two band members were in the aforementioned Deströyer 666 and the other two were in Denouncement Pyre.  Not to say it is bad or anything, but there is no real sense of fury and aggression and the songs tend to be somewhat mid-paced and plodding, other than "Silence the Martyrs" and the title track.  I like the album, most of the songs are at least decent and the band can clearly play, but it is not what I am looking for when picking up a blackened thrash metal album.  Maybe it will grow on me.

ANGEL OF DAMNATION: HEATHEN WITCHCRAFT

Angel of Damnation is a traditional doom metal band from Germany, much in the vein of classic albums by Pentagram, Candlemass, and Trouble.  The lyrics, as one might guess from the album title, mostly deal with the occult.  Vocalist Doomcult Messiah, aka Gerrit Mutz of Battleroar among other bands, uses a soaring style over the mostly downkey and simple riff style.  The vocals are the primary source of melody throughout the album and they definitely impress.  The atmosphere of the music with the melodic vocals adds to the overall occultish tone.  It is not difficult to imagine this being played at a Black Mass.  The album is just made up of six songs, but none are less than six minutes in length and are generally slow to mid-paced.  This is an impressive enough release and the band is one to watch for fans of traditional doom metal. 

REQUIEM: GLOBAL RESISTANCE RISING

First off, I absolutely love the Seagrave-esque album artwork here.  Requiem is a Swiss death/thrash metal band that has apparently been around for quite awhile, yet this is the first I have heard of them.  The band's sound is fairly straightforward, which is somewhat unusual for a Swiss band.  They produce mostly faster-paced songs very much in the vein of Bolt Thrower, with a general lyrical theme of violence and warfare.  There is some good stuff on this album (particularly the title track), but ultimately they are a little too into trying to sound like Bolt Thrower without forging enough of their own identity.  Ultimately this album makes me want to hear Bolt Thrower, and that can not be what the band was going for.

ANTIVERSE: UNDER THE REGOLITH

I got kind of sucked up in the marketing of this album that promised an album in the vein of mid-era Hypocrisy, latter Dissection, and some Naglfar thrown in.  That does pretty accurately describe the album, and it is a decent enough album.  Unfortunately it does not leave much of an impression once I am done listening to it.  It simply does not have the same kind of aggressive venom that those bands had.  It is a lot of fun to listen to when it is presently playing, but it is simply not terribly memorable.  That being said, I always find myself banging my head to the title track and "Derelicts" when I listen to the album.  There is something to be said for that.

CULTES DES GHOULES: SINISTER, OR TREADING THE DARKER PATHS

Gleefully old-school at times, Polish band Cultes des Ghoules has a sound that calls back to a time when black metal was dangerous and frightening.  Think pre-De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Mayhem or Under a Funeral Moon Darkthrone.  Other times, they combine that black metal with doom and gloom.  The Polish band's sound is stripped-down and dark, presenting an incredibly creepy atmosphere that sounds like the soundtrack to an occult horror movie.  I was not immediately impressed by the first track upon the first listen, but from there the album grew on me.  It does tend to drag a bit in the second half though.  This is possibly an album that will make even more of an impression on me with repeated listens.  I only heard it for the first time the last couple of days of the year.

BLACKRAT: DREAD REVERENCE

Blackrat is another one of those bands whose influences stopped at around 1984.  Their sound is based around a mixture of Venom, Bathory, and Sodom.  There are a lot of these types of bands around these days, playing an unholy concoction of speed metal and early black metal.  Of course Toxic Holocaust remains the standard-bearer.  Now this is a particular favorite style of mine, so any band that plays it competently is already pretty good in my book.  Blackrat does not do much to stand out, but their album is still goddamn fun to listen to.

RIPPED TO SHREDS: 埋葬

No, I have no idea what that means, but Ripped to Shreds gets points for topical originality.  The band is the product of sole member Andrew Lee, who is also the primary member of four other death metal bands.  Lee chose to cover Chinese history for this album, but with musical influences from early Swedish death metal plus some Bolt Thrower and Asphyx thrown in for good measure.  Nowadays, a lot of bands plumb the depths of old school death metal for sound, but Ripped to Shreds do a better job than most.

CEMETERY LUST: ROTTING IN PISS

Classy.  This is very raw, old-school black/thrash metal that manages to evoke the sounds of early bands like Sodom, Kreator, and Venom, yet Cemetery Lust is far more vile and disgusting.  That fact is quite obvious from the album title and the cover there.  Cemetery Lust is not at all concerned about who they offend with song titles like "Funeral Home Massacre" and "Witches Seduction".  But the music is just the kind of filthy, raw and dirty thrash metal that I can come back to again and again.  Who cares who they offend? 

SOULFLY: RITUAL

Last year, I picked up my first Sepultura album since I was in high school.  This year, it was ex-Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera's current band that I picked up for the first time since high school.  Soulfly's early material was entirely too focused on fitting in with the nu metal trend and it took a long time before the band started playing something resembling thrash metal.  The first track sounds a lot like the first Cavalera Conspiracy album, but after that it gets into a nice groove.  Most of the songs have the same general atonal rhythmic guitar riffs, much of the melody comes from frequent lead guitar solos.  This is significantly better than Soulfly's first album, but it still does not come close to matching Sepultura's peak.

UN: SENTIMENT

Un is yet another band from the Pacific Northwest in the vein of groups like Ash Borer, Bell Witch, and Lycus.  And like those bands, atmosphere is everything for Un.  The band plays a rather unique blend of funeral doom metal and sludge metal.  Oftentimes their sound is like a sludgy version of My Dying Bride's slowest material.  But the band is at its best when it is changing things up with a faster riff, such as the rumbling riff in the middle of "Pools of Reflection".  This is a very impressive that fits in well with the Cascadian metal scene.

MOURNFUL CONGREGATION: THE INCUBUS OF KARMA

We have apparently reached the funeral doom portion of the countdown.  Mournful Congregation's name is quite apt as they really do sound like the kind of music you would hear in a funeral scene in a movie, minus the deep, roared vocals.  The music is incredibly somber and emotional, flowing very slowly from one song to the next.  Yet, the riffs are absolutely crushing.  It is a dichotomy that continues throughout the long album.  Mournful Congregation's melancholic sound is not my favorite type of funeral doom, I generally prefer the more unsettling sound of groups like Ahab and Tyranny, but it is an impressive album nonetheless.

PETRIFICATION: HOLLOW OF THE VOID

This is the debut album from the Oregonian death metal band.  Petrification sounds mostly like a mix of Swedish death metal band Grave and New York's Immolation.  They occasionally strike the buzzsaw guitar tone of the early Swedeath masters but with the kind of angular occultish riffs that Immolation pioneered.  The album seems to be some sort of a concept album, complete with a brief interlude halfway through the album, but I have not figured out the story line at this time.  It is a very impressive debut album and even though old school death metal bands are a dime a dozen lately, Petrification could stand out.

WATAIN: TRIDENT WOLF ECLIPSE

Allegations of selling out (at least as much as a black metal band can sell out) were made against Watain with their last release The Wild Hunt, because the band had the gall to go more melodic and even feature some *GASP* clean singing.  Well the band must have heard that because this release is much more in the vein of their earlier work and features absolutely no clean singing, nor particularly melodic sections, much less songs.  Watain is back to being the evil, hateful black metal band they have been in the past.  Unfortunately, they don't quite reach the heights of their earlier material like "Waters of Ain", but they are still the closest thing we have to Dissection in their prime.  Man, I miss Dissection.

NACHASH: PHANTASMAL TRIUNITY

Norway is of course well-known for its black metal scene in the early 1990's.  Well bands are still being churned out, and Nachash is one of the most recent such bands.  This is the band's debut album after a short EP in 2015, and it is an incredibly impressive one.  For a new band, Nachash has some impressive range with each song sounding different than the one before.  The first song has precise, mechanical riffs, sounding like a machine steamrolling the listener.  And the band does not back off from that intensity throughout the rest of the release.  It is one of the better debut albums of the year and an example of melodic black metal done right.

MOENEN OF XESBETH: ANCIENT SPELLS OF DARKNESS...  

This is probably the best debut album of the year.  The Belgian band does a terrific job of combining first wave black metal in the vein of early Root and Master's Hammer with influences from dungeon synth music.  This is similar to the new Summoning album, but this one is much better.  The music is cavernous and dark, yet oddly beautiful.  It is an intriguing dichotomy and one which the band pulls off quite well.  This is one that takes some time to fully digest, but it is worth it.

GHOST: PREQUELLE

This is probably the 2018 album I have heard the most.  Part of that is how much I enjoyed the album, part of it is the fact that my wife has become such a big fan of the band, and part of it is due to the fact that this is one of the few bands to release an album in 2018 that I managed to see live.  This is probably Ghost's most varied album so far.  The first few songs are undeniably metal, followed by a lot of stuff similar to 70's arena rock.  The album features the absolutely infectious "Dance Macabre", one of the best rock songs of the year, in my opinion.  The only real downside to the album is that the second half tends to drag a little bit.  Otherwise it is a fun album that continues to push Ghost into the mainstream.

MEMORIAM: THE SILENT VIGIL

Well, that did not take long.  Just one year after former members of Bolt Thrower released the debut album under the name Memoriam, in tribute to drummer Martin Kearns, we have a new Memoriam album.  I kind of complained about the first one a little bit as many of the songs seemed to be lumbering, mid-paced songs.  Well, I am happy to hear that the band has fixed that for the most part.  Tracks like "Nothing Remains" and "From the Flames" are incredibly hard-hitting, heavy songs that would not have been out of place on Bolt Thrower's Realm of Chaos, which is my personal favorite of their albums.  While Karl Willetts's voice still sounds aged, the rest of the band sounds young and vibrant.  This is a worthy successor to Bolt Thrower's legacy.

JUNGLE ROT: JUNGLE ROT

It has been a long time since I have checked in with Kenosha, Wisconsin's number one metal export.  I think the last one I heard was 2011's Kill on Command.  Jungle Rot takes Obituary's swampy take on death metal and dials up the groove.  I am not sure why the band waited until their ninth album to go with the self title, but whatever.  Jungle Rot definitely does not reinvent the wheel with this release, they are all pretty much the same, but there is something to be said for good old-fashioned death metal from a band old enough to remember how it really was.  The appearance from Destruction's Schmier on "Fearmonger" is definitely a highlight, while their cover of Kreator's classic "Terrible Certainty" is a bit of a miss.

HOODED MENACE: OSSUARIUM SILHOUETTES UNHALLOWED

Hooded Menace is a criminally underrated Finnish doom metal band with some occasional death metal influences.  Featuring former members of Phlegethon, the band has a seriously unnerving sound.  The music is similar to the early death/doom metal bands such as early Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Asphyx.  It is slow and sludgy with mammoth riffs and deep, growled vocals and lyrics dealing with horror stories.  It is a very sinister combination.  Hooded Menace should be better known.

DRUID LORD: GROTESQUE OFFERINGS

This is a brilliantly filthy slab of death/doom from former members of U.S. black/death pioneers Acheron and released on Hells Headbangers, because of course it was.  The riffs are mostly slow, but with a lot of bottom end and blazing solos while the lyrics weave tales of terror and grotesque, horrific violence.  It is very similar to Hooded Menace above, but rawer and with more of a bite.  It is an absolute blast to listen to.  It also has one of the best album covers of the year.

BEHEMOTH: I LOVED YOU AT YOUR DARKEST

That's quite the emo title there for an album that is anything but emo.  Behemoth was a band I discovered early when getting into extreme metal and, if anything, they have only improved as the years have passed.  They have become much more dynamic and do not rely so much on brutality and punishing riffs.  They seemed to have really taken on that change with the release of The Antichrist in 2014.  That album was runner-up to Album of the Year here and was not far off.  This release really follows in its footsteps, with even more melody, while still maintaining an extremely evil atmosphere.  While it does not quite reach the heights of its predecessor, this is still a fantastic album from the long-running Polish black metal band.

GRUESOME: TWISTED PRAYERS

Gruesome is the project of Matt Harvey (Dekapitator, Exhumed) and some other veterans of a number of death and thrash metal bands to pay tribute to the early albums by Death.  Most of their songs are deconstructions of classic Death songs, which continues on this release.  Prior releases paid particular tribute to Leprosy and Scream Bloody Gore.  This time around, it is pretty clear from the album artwork and title that Spiritual Healing is the subject.  This is the third release by Gruesome that I have picked up thus far and it is honestly my favorite.  Gruesome does a terrific job at paying tribute to the masters while still sounding fresh.

DEATHHAMMER: CHAINED TO HELL

This is my third album by the Norwegian thrash metal band Deathhammer.  This band kind of kicked off my cassette obsession as they were the first band I bought a few years back.  Deathhammer's sound is rooted in the early 80's thrash metal style of groups like Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Sarcofago, and Sepultura, and other raw and filthy thrash metal bands that are less concerned about musicianship and more concerned with making a lot of ugly noise.  It is a hell of a lot of fun.  Everything is tongue-in-cheek from the cheesy album art, to the ridiculous song titles.  Deathhammer is an even better example than the earlier Whipstriker at possessing all of the hallmarks of a Hells Headbangers band. 

DRUDKH: Їм часто сниться капіж

That one apparently means "They Often See Dreams About the Spring", very poetic.  Drudkh, like Summoning, is a black metal band that I have often heard rave reviews about (particularly Blood in Our Wells), yet took until just recently to check out.  Unlike Summoning, I love this release.  Drudkh's lyrics all come from Ukrainian folklore and some of the music has influence from the country as well.  Drudkh does a fantastic job of blending that sound with often harsh, yet remarkably melancholic and melodic black metal.  It is one of the best black metal albums of the year and I will have to check out some of their older material.

SHINING: X - VARG UTAN FLOCK

Yet another black metal band who has had a long run of success that I finally checked out this year, Sweden's Shining is as infamous as they are famous.  Frontman Niklas Kvarforth is a madman on stage, and his vocals on recording are just as unpredictable.  This is an incredibly varied and dynamic album that goes from chaotic riffing with blood-curdling, shrieking vocals to a fucking Chopin piano cover.  Seriously.  It can be emotional and touching at one point and utterly terrifying the next.  I will definitely be going back through the band's previous releases.  This one is incredible.

IMMORTAL: NORTHERN CHAOS GODS

This one is something of a return to form for the long-running Norwegian black metal band, and is also the band's first release in nine years.  It sounds much closer to their early/mid 90's output where speed and intensity were the primary calling cards of the band.  I did like their more mid-paced stuff, but the early albums are classics for a reason.  Abbath is out of the lineup now, leaving Demonaz and Horgh as the principal members of the band.  This is a terrific album, even without Abbath, that sounds like the band at their best.

HORRENDOUS: IDOL

I discovered Horrendous within the last couple of years and thoroughly enjoyed them so much that I very quickly tracked down all of their full-length releases.  The band has gone through some changes over the ten years they have been active.  They started out as more of a simple death metal band, albeit one with a lot of melody, but they have been becoming much more progressive.  This particular album sounds much more like a progressive metal album with many of the death metal elements stripped away, and it is fantastic.  This was one of my most anticipated albums this year and it absolutely delivered.  What's more, it gets better every time I hear it because I discover something new every time.

TRIBULATION: DOWN BELOW

Tribulation released my Album of the Year in 2015 with the absolutely stellar The Children of the Night.  This album is not as good as that one, but it is still damn impressive as the band has built on the ideas presented in that album.  There was a time when Tribulation were more known for their blend of old school Swedish death metal and black metal.  They have almost entirely stripped these influences away and sound more like a blend of traditional metal and gothic metal.  Vocalist Johannes Andersson's sepulchral croaking vocals are really the only black metal element still present.  This is likely the catchiest album of the year with songs like "The Lament" and "Nightbound" leading the charge.

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY: NO CROSS NO CROWN

Of all of the different musical styles C.O.C. have played over the years, their Southern metal era is my favorite.  Deliverance is still one of my all-time favorite albums, and one that I still keep coming back to frequently, almost 25 years since I heard it for the first time.  And so when I found out that Pepper Keenan, the driving force behind that sound, was returning to the fold, I was excited.  And, if anything, this album exceeded my expectations.  This album is perhaps better than any of the band's other material of this style, with the exception of Deliverance, which is peerless.  Songs like "Forgive Me", "The Luddite", and "Cast the First Stone" sound rejuvenated and vital.  It is hard to believe this band has been around for over 35 years now.  This is the comeback album of the year by far.

NECROPHOBIC: MARK OF THE NECROGRAM

Remember earlier when I said that Watain is as close to prime-era Dissection as we currently have?  Well, that opinion has changed with this release, the first album I have heard from the Swedish blackened death metal band Necrophobic.  And UN-holy shit, this is an amazing album.  From the very moment the album begins Necrophobic brings speed, intensity, and a surprisingly melodic sensibility that has not been heard since the masterpiece Storm of the Light's Bane.  Many of the songs stick with the listener well after the album is done.  I cannot believe I have not checked this band out before.  This is an absolutely incredible album from start to finish.  It is well worthy of its lofty place on this ranking.

DECEASED...: GHOSTLY WHITE

Honestly, I think Deceased... might be the most underrated metal band going right now.  Sure they get some love among the underground metalheads, but not nearly as much for how great this band has been for almost 35 years.  That they have been around for that long and keep putting out quality release after quality release is astonishing.  Every time they release a new album I think they have released their best, and with each new album they prove me wrong.  This album is terrific from start to finish with the kind of death metal-tinged heavy metal that the band has been putting out since their formation.  Every song on this is an absolute classic.  Deceased... continues to top themselves.

AND THE BEST ALBUM OF 2018 GOES TO:

JUDAS PRIEST: FIREPOWER

Well, here it is.  The best album of 2018.  I had no idea what to expect from this one and it managed to hold off the late surge from the Deceased... album as well as a surprising Necrophobic album.  Since reuniting with Rob Halford, Priest's albums have ranged from mediocre to decent...until this one.  K.K. Downing is gone and Glenn Tipton has reduced his role in the band.  And yet, this is the best Judas Priest album since Painkiller, without any doubt.  The band sounds revitalized.  Halford's air-raid siren vocals sound like they are coming from a man decades younger.  The twin guitar attack of Tipton and Richie Faulkner is easily the equal of some of the best moments of Downing/Tipton.  The songs are all catchy as hell and could easily go down as metal classics.  Most of them have become instant staples for the live show.  I saw Priest in the Fall and though Halford cannot quite keep the higher-register vocals, they still slay.  For being able to turn back the clock three decades, Judas Priest have captured my Album of the Year.