Merry Christmas! What a year. I promise I will try to be more active next year, and we're already having a very, very busy beginning of 2019. However, we mustn't forget what good albums we had in 2018, so here are my personal favorites. Like last year, we'll start with some honorable mentions.
1. Post Malone - Beerbongs and Bentleys
Post's record this year was full of hits and surprisingly good. All of the tracks here are great, but it also came out during a time when music was moving very slowly, so after the last few months it kind of faded into the background. I initially had it on the actual list, but I had to throw it out because of an album that came out a couple of days ago.
2. Ski Mask the Slump God - BEWARE THE BOOK OF ELI / STOKELEY
Ski Mask is one of the best rappers around these days, and he releases a lot of music. His songs are great, but his albums are inconsistent in quality, so I can't confidently put either on the list. Be that as it may, some of the best tracks this year have his name on them.
3. Lil Yachty - Nuthin' 2 Prove
For some reason, I absolutely adore Yachty's style of music. I know it isn't that good quality-wise, and sometimes it could come across as boring, but I am convinced he deserves a mention when discussing my 2018 listening habits.
4. Gruesome - Twisted Prayers
I truly used to love Gruesome and their constant homage to one of the best bands of all time, but after Twisted Prayers and noticing that they basically steal some of Chuck's riffs I'm not that happy to praise them anymore. It's still great to have them around, but I could never put them on another list, and it's a shame, because Spiritual Healing was one of my favorite albums.
5. Within Destruction - Deathwish
I really like this band, and I am a fan of the fake slam crowd, but I don't know what happened to this album here. I guess it just never left a big enough impression on me, because I gave it a lot of chances. It's always fun to listen to some WD, and I acknowledge they are among the leaders of this new era of deathcore and slam, but they just didn't get on my actual list.
Okay, we're done with those, and I urge you to check out those albums if you haven't, but now we should get into the real list. It's in no particular order.
1. Twenty One Pilots - Trench
Let's start off with a controversial one. I knew this would be number one ever since I heard it. Yeah, this isn't metal, but I have to say, rarely have I found an album where every song is distinct and has its own personality. For weeks, I couldn't get this record out of my head, playing it over and over and having fun each time. I love the variety, the production and the effort that is apparent here. Also, the way the bass is used on cuts like My Blood and Cut My Lip is so good I still can't get over it.
Twenty One Pilots - Trench
2. Trappist - Ancient Brewing Tactics
This being the year when powerviolence entered my field, I was surprised to find out that not only was Mr Chris Dodge, of Spazz and Infest fame, still active within the scene, but that he released this record with his new band in the middle of autumn. I can't understand why Ancient Brewing Tactics got so little attention, because I loved the hell out of it. I usually like gimmick bands, and singing about beer is about as generic of a subject if you lack conviction. However, the boys here treat the piss-colored drink like fine wine, showing huge respect towards the experience, and I can appreciate that.
Trappist - Ancient Brewing Tactics
3. Klysma - Sick
Slam fell out of my radar this year, but not enough for me to miss the best newcomers in the scene. Klysma are fueled by the pit-opening slams of the ones before them, while still creating a worthwhile album based on their own ideas. I must admit, I was very surprised by how good this was. The numerous features make this seem more like a community effort than an individual piece, which makes it even more lovely for me.
Klysma - Sick
4. Black Tongue - Nadir
Deathcore isn't something I dabble in a whole lot, but there's some albums I can't help but love. Usually, they come in the form of trendy records, with modern and clean production and brandishing an Olofsson type art. This time, it is the 2018 album from Black Tongue, a band who immediately caught me in their sticky web of brutality with their debut album, The Unconquerable Dark. Both are untameable beasts of slow, well thought riffs and thick atmosphere, all filled with an air of morbidity that you can't shake off easily.
Black Tongue - Nadir
5. Satan - Cruel Magic
Satan are one of the superstars of modern speed metal, ever since their 2013 resurgence with Life Sentence, which was clearly referring to the fact that we're sentenced to get a new platter of some of the best heavy metal recorded in the 2010s every few years. Cruel Magic is another brick in their evergrowing stellar reputation, with a great, live feeling in the recording, and energy you barely get these days from fresh faces.
Satan - Cruel Magic
6. Kraanium - Slamchosis
Kraanium returned this year with a new vocalist, and ever since Slamchosis came out, it has barely left my playlists. It's clear the boys wanted to prove that they could still deliver as a band, even without their original vocalist, and in my opinion that's exactly what they did. The production is a bit wonky at times, but in the end Slamchosis won't leave your playlists once you get it and gve it a chance.
Kraanium - Slamchosis
7. KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS
Kanye West is one of the most controversial public figures of this decade, but that doesn't mean the summer of 2018 didn't belong to him and him only. As June began, he released 4 consecutive great albums, but the most impressive was his collaboration with Kid Cudi, on their 23-minute collaboration named Kids See Ghosts. Everything about this record is creative, as you see the duo work together to explore their musical capabilities.
KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS
8. Deicide - Overtures of Blasphemy
I have talked a whole lot about this album already, and deservedly so. The riffs here are stellar, some of the most creative and engaging in Deicide history. The band works together extremely well and makes you feel that the wait since 2013 was reasonable since it meant getting this album.
Deicide - Overtures of Blasphemy
9. Aborted - Terrorvision
Aborted are neither the best nor the most impressive death metal band, but you have to appreciate the fact that they released an excellent album during this year, when the scene was moving much slower than usual. Also, the art gracing this record is excellent and incredibly impressive.
Aborted - Terrorvision
10. Pyrexia - Unholy Requiem
Pyrexia, forgotten slam kickstarters from NY, have had a rough time maintaining relevancy within the genre. After their stellar debut, which was a more hardcore tinged take on Suffocation's albums, was lost within the annals of time, and future albums didn't improve their reputation by much. As 2018 came, they finally managed to release another great album. It has many, many flaws, like the production, editing and length, but those make me like this record even more. They are true underdogs, and there is huge potential within this record and if they start working harder on new material, with Unique Leader's support they could become one of the best bands within the genre.
Pyrexia - Unholy Requiem
11. Cold Hell - S/T
Cold Hell are an excellent powerviolence band. Their aestethic is incredible, it reminds me of classic bands within the genre like Spazz and Crossed Out. I found their self titled album during summer and immediately became a fan of their sound, and I'll follow them closely.
Cold Hell - S/T
12. Muse - Simulation Theory
Apparently this record is a pretty controversial pick, since most long-time Muse fans consider this a trainwreck. A close friend even told me he shed a tear because of how bad this was. I, for one, loved this from the first time I listened to it. It's probably a matter of expectations. I was expecting a record I'd have called "art-fart", but the album was actually extremely fun, drenched in 80's atmosphere and electronics, going through numerous styles and displaying nice variation. I really loved this one.
Muse - Simulation Theory
13. Anaal Nathrakh - A New Kind of Horror
This album isn't really one of their best, but the duo keep improving their formula. The early controversy caused by the machine gun sampling on "Forward" didn't really matter once the full album dropped, because the atmosphere that was established by the band held strong through the run time. Also, the First World War is an excellent subject, even though you would probably want a more subtle band than this to cover it. That's what 1914 are for, but this is still my favorite war-themed album of the year.
Anaal Nathrakh - A New Kind of Horror
14. Soulfly - Ritual
Soulfly were one of the bands that I had basically no opinion on previously to 2018, but as the singles for Ritual came rolling in, my enthusiasm grew more and more by the day. My opinion on them used to be that they are a pretty generic post-Sepultura mix of nu, thrash and death metal, but with Ritual Max convinced me to follow this band. Most of the songs sound like broken necks in the mosh pits, others are groovy, headbangable tracks, and the last song is a jazzy instrumental that closes the album perfectly.
Soulfly - Ritual
15. Cryptopsy - The Book of Suffering (Tome II)
Cryptopsy, Canada-formed monster of tech death and kings of blue-balling, are in the middle of their 3-EP journey named The Book Of Suffering. The first EP I didn't get for a long while, since I didn't respect short releases, but after the second installment in the series I started to understand. Combining the two releases, you get one of the best "albums" in the band's discography, having no filler and being amazing at every turn. I am absolutely sure that by the time the third one comes around, the album you'll get from combining the three will be above classics like None So Vile.
Cryptopsy - The Book of Suffering (Tome II)
16. Psycroptic - As The Kingdom Drowns
With time passing, my enjoyment of tech death has been declining slowly but surely, being now at a point when any of these albums that I've been hearing in 2018 just went by and was a tiring and boring experience, with the main perpetrators being Cognitive, Bloodtruth and Beyond Creation. However, Psycroptic have always been more creative, efficient and smart than most of their peers. Their new album is incredibly well-packed and basically the best case scenario for a tech-death record in 2018. Obscura aren't far behind, but this year Psycroptic won.
Psycroptic - As The Kingdom Drowns
17. Denzel Curry - TA13OO
I had no idea what to expect when I listened to TA13OO, and that turned out to be the best approach I could have taken. Denzel Curry's album is structured into 3 parts, the first one having these amazing and chill beats that helped reveal his more mellow side, the middle part being all rap, with an amazing J.I.D. verse on the song Sirens, and the last part being incredibly aggressive. As you can guess, the combined experience of listening to the entire project makes for a very diverse journey into one of rap's best albums in 2018.
Denzel Curry - TA13OO
18. Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos
The most recent of all the albums on the list, Suplhur Aeon have a tremendous reputation in the scene, being well-respected for their Lovecraftian-themed death metal albums. This is my first record from them, with no expectations, and I am amazed by what this band created here. It balances brutality and melody like few others, while managing their themes of cosmic horrors well. While I usually detest long albums, I will say that The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos was the shortest 50 minutes of 2018 in terms of music.
Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos
19. xxxtentacion - ?
Young musician xxxtentacion was one of the huge losses this year, and one that I'm sure will not leave my mind for a very long time. His music was diverse and appealed to so many people and took away from numerous genres, and nowhere is this more obvious than on his first album this year, titled simply "?". For 38 minutes, x goes through his 17-flavored emo folk, puts in a harsh track that stands toe to toe with songs like #ImSippinTeaInYoHood, and raps along Joey Bada$$. Truly, ? is his most comprehensive and complete release, and deserves to be remembered after his untimely death.
xxxtentacion - ?
20. Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
Grindcore superstars Pig Destroyer have spent most of their career releasing excellent platters of aggression, receiving a reputation of being the thinking man's grindcore band. People have been complaining about Phantom Limb and Book Burner, but the cries of disappointment really rose up this year, with the release of Head Cage, and it's easy to see why. The vocals have lost their formal vicious nature, the production is weird and the addition of a bass player really made the songs sound more generic. However, like with most PD albums, this one took a bit to settle in, but with every revisit of this record (because god, do I constantly feel the need to relisten to this one) I liked it more and more. At the end of the day, maybe it ain't Prowler, but it's excellent hardcore punk and you'd be a fool to miss it. Also, Army of Cops is excellent and the drum sound offers Head Cage more personality.
Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
21. Death Grips - Year of the Snitch
This band is honestly one band I'm too much of a pleb to get, fully. Or at least older albums like NLDW I don't get yet, because I fucking love Year of the Snitch. From the disturbing artwork to the diverse songs, the group take us through half an hour of intriguing exercises in creativity. The samples of previous Death Grips songs are the cherry on top, and The Fear, with its jazzy theme, is one of their best songs.
Death Grips - Year of the Snitch
22. Napalm Death - Coded Smears and More Uncommon Slurs
Yeah, yeah, I'm so much of a sucker for grindcore titans Napalm Death that I'd put even their god damn leftover trash on my AOTY list. But honestly, how could I not? The songs are excellent, bubbling with the style that made the band one of the best in their genre for so many years. The modern era of Napalm is honestly their best incarnation, and receiving two albums' worth of material out of nowhere was the perfect gift from them this year. Some of these still haven't left my mind even after months, and the killer grooves and vicious riffs here are enough to last us for years.
Napalm Death - Coded Smears and More Uncommon Slurs
23. Serocs - The Phobos / Deimos Suite
I know I said that Cryptopsy are the kings of blue-balling us, but no worries, there's a solution for that: Serocs. This album reminds me of them, so much that I'd almost say they're ripping them off, but in a good way. The instruments are absolutely mind-blowing, they are intricate and unrelenting in their brutality and technicality. Also, the excellent, excellent art helps the entire experience.
Serocs - The Phobos / Deimos Suite
24. Fleshless - Doomed
To be honest, this band sits comfortably among my favorites among the brutal death metal crowd. Their earlier albums, like Grindgod, are excellent in terms of raw viciousness and deathgrind sound, but since their 2011 effort Slaves of the God Machine they have been on a roll. Doomed came late in the year, but it surely made a great impression. As expected, the songs are all great, and I can see that their older sound is creeping up on Noise 5, while the melodic part feels less present than before. It really feels like the perfect balance between old and new Fleshless.
Fleshless - Doomed
25. Pestilence - Hadeon
This band is one of my favorites within the death metal genre, with their entire alien themes and sci-fi flavored instrumentals, and their 2018 album is one of my favorites from them. Progressive tendencies are much more tame than last time around, and the songs are simpler and more straight forward, but it's been a while since we've had an easy to understand death metal Pestilence album, so it's a good change. I also love that they changed the artwork, but I guess tat doesn't matter that much to most. I'll continue to support the band, because I really love the path that they're on.
Pestilence - Hadeon
First day done! We're doing good. Come back tomorrow for the second part.
I've been cicrling back aroung Pig Destroyer's discography these last few months and Head Cage is as close as it gets to early PD, circa Prowler, which is not the common opinion, but who cares? This was a great effort and I am way into this realse. Thanks for sharing!
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