Top Albums of 2018

Following on from last years top albums of 2017 post, I've compiled by top 50 albums ( or more technically, artists since Between The Buried And Me released Automata as parts I & II ).

Once again I've found my musical journey all over the place again this year, bouncing between my love of progressive/symphonic rock/metal, doom, and old school thrash.

Tourniquet - one of my all-time favourite Christian progressive metal bands returned with Gazing At Medusa featuring none other than Tim Ripper Owens (Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Charred Walls of the Dammed) and Chris Poland (Megadeth, Lamb of God, OHM) brings both a sound and feel that's reminiscent of Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance - which instantly elevates the album to my favourites list.

Reactivated Deliverance return with some much-needed Christian thrash metal with The Subversive Kind - interestingly the line up features former Tourniquet bassist Victor Macias, founding guitarist Glen Rogers and long running front man Jimmy P. Brown II - all rounded out with Jim Chaffin (The Blamed, The Crucified, Mortal) on the skins making this a veritable whose-who of 90s Christian Metal.

Coming in 3 for 3 with in this year's top list comes Stryper with their somewhat controversially titled God Damn Evil) - except for the questionably shouted chorus of Take It To The Cross Michael Sweet is as strong as ever with the vocals on this release.

In what takes to the complete other extreme - Bloodbath return with The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn - the Swedish death metal supergroup now with Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost) at the helm is a different beast than its earlier incarnations - but is still a grim, wretched force of metal ready to tear you apart.

Progressive rock was once again in high rotation this year, with the reawakening of Roine Stolt's The Flower King, Gazpacho, The Pineapple Thief, Arena and All Traps On Earth (made up of members of Anglagard), along with the more metal end of the progressive spectrum with releases from Alkaloid, Gorod, Angra, Antimatter, and what is undoubtably two of the best releases of the year - Haken and Symphony X mastermind Michael Romeo's solo album.

Funeral Doom once again made its bleak mournful presence this year with releases from Evoken, Eye of Solitude, Mournful Congregation along with sludgy stoner doom greats from High On Fire, Yob and Sleep.

So without further ado - my Top 50 "Releases" of 2018:

A Flock Named Murder - An Appointed Time
Aeonian Sorrow - Into The Eternity A Moment We Are
Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy
All Traps On Earth - A Drop of Light
Alterbeast - Feast
Angelus Apatrida - Cabaret De La Guillotine
Angra - OMNI
Antimatter - Black Market Enlightenment
Arena - Double Vision
Audrey Horne - Blackout
Barren Earth - A Complex Of Cages
Between The Buried And Me - Automata I & II
Bloodbath - The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn
CANNOT - Chained Giant
Carpe Noctem - Vitrum
Coheed and Cambria - The Unheavenly Creatures
Cor Serpenti - Phenomankind
Deliverance - The Subversive Kind
Dimmu Borgir - Eonian
Eryn Non Dae. - Abandon Of The Self
Evoken - Hypnagogia
Eyes of Solitude - Slaves To Solitide
Gazpacho - Soyuz
Gorod - Aethra
Haken - Vector
High On Fire - Electric Messiah
Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed
Howling Sycamore - Howling Sycamore
In Oblivion - Memories Engraved In Stone
Judas Priest - Firepower
The Konsortium - Rogaland
Loneshore - From Presence To Silence
Michael Romeo - War of the Worlds Pt 1
Moonparticle - Hurricane Esmeralda
Mounful Congregation - The Incubus of Karma
Mourning Dawn - The Dead Years
The Pineapple Theif - Dissolution
Redemption - Long Night's Journey into Day
Rikard Sjoblom's Gungfly - Friendship
Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name
Roine Stolt's The Flower King - Manifesto Of An Alchemist
Seventh Wonder - Tiara
Sleep - The Sciences
Stryper - God Damn Evil
Subsignal - La Muerta
The Tangent - Proxy
Tesseract - Sonder
Tourniquet - Gazing At Medusa
UN - Sentiment
Yob - Our Raw Heart

top listMark DerricuttDecember 14, 20181 Comment