Best New Music of 2018

This year's been a bit of a let down, I found two of my most anticipated albums - Blossoms' Cool Like You and Alice in Chains' Rainier Fog - to be quite disappointing. Not bad, far from it, just not as high quality as albums they've put out before. Priest's Firepower will take the title of my favourite for this year, but an unexpected highlight has been Reigning Days' debut Eclipse.

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First heard these guys on a Maiden tribute album about two years ago. It was mostly crap, but RD's version of "Speed of Light" was brilliant, one of the few Maiden covers I actually enjoy. I bought their EP, only four tracks but I thought it was great, fast forward two years and their first album is out. And I love it.

I can't think how to describe their sound, I suppose they're kind of like Royal Blood crossed with Biffy Clyro or Young Guns. They're not metal, but they have some really heavy moments ("Empire", "Renegade", "My Sweet Love") though also some really nice calmer songs ("Chemical", "Thrones", "Do You Feel"). It's hard to pick the best songs because it's all so good, but my favourites are "Boy Who Cried Wolf", "Renegade" and "Crazy Horse". The last two were on their EP, but the latter is slightly different (and much better) on the album.



My favourite new band. I can't wait to see where they go next and hope they get the recognition they deserve.
 
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Primitiai - The Calling
A surprisingly good little gem for anyone who is into melodic power metal that goes beyond Helloween-esque wailing and Rhapsody-like pomp. Nothing too extraordinary or original, but it's got a nice drive and some excellent guitar solos.
 
Some great releases this year. Like:

Amorphis - Queen Of Time
At The Gates - To Drink From The Night Itself
Dimmu Borgir - Eonian
Ghost - Prequelle
J.R. goes Status Quo
Tribulation - Down Below

Looking real forward to the new In the Woods... album.
 
I haven't read this thread so I don't if it's mentioned yet, but Shinedown's Attention! Attention! is a grinder. (most of it anyhow}
 
Black Wizard said:
A grinder as in its hard to listen to or does that mean it's good?
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It's a good thing. It's heavy & mostly dark.

There's been a disturbing trend on their last couple albums, though.

Brent Smith got sober, (which is a really good thing) and at times he goes overboard preaching harmony & every one can be united and we're all brothers, blah blah blah.

I saw them this past August, and he spent waaaayyy to much time talking. I mean, he had the audience 'shake the hand of the person next to you'. for cryin' out loud.
 
Daedalus said:
I mean, he had the audience 'shake the hand of the person next to you'. for cryin' out loud.
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He did that when Shinedown were supporting Maiden in London last year. I assumed it was due to the Manchester bombing having only occurred a few days prior.
 
Edington said:
He did that when Shinedown were supporting Maiden in London last year. I assumed it was due to the Manchester bombing having only occurred a few days prior.
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They definitely did it in Dublin too. Probably Glasgow and Birmingham too, but all the Maiden shows I've been to in the last couple of years are starting to blur into one. :rolleyes:
 
Bumping this thread as we get to the end of the year -- so you can treat a friend or loved one (or yourself!) to the gift of new, exciting music for the holidays!

I posted in June that my favorite 2018 releases at that time were Judas Priest's Firepower and Ghost's Prequelle,* and they still are at the top for me. Both have been discussed a lot on this forum so I won't say much more, other than: They're good. Listen to them.

But I also wanted to mention a few other releases -- one metal, the other two far from it -- that I highly recommend.

YOB - Our Raw Heart
It's sort of doom metal with other genres mixed in, including some old-school thrash elements. Cool riffs and melodies, while remaining unmistakably heavy. I expect that many folks on this forum will like it. Also, the backstory behind this album is noteworthy, as the leader of the band wrote the album while recuperating from a life-threatening and painful intestinal condition.

boygenius
This is an EP from a sorta supergroup consisting of three indie-rock women who each has been critically acclaimed individually: Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker. (You can tell who is who in the video by the intials on their jacket lapels!) Ms. Dacus -- she's the tall one -- released her own album in 2018 that ain't half bad either. This is just really very pretty music. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.

Sunflower Bean - Twentytwo in Blue
While I wouldn't say it's the "best" release of 2018, this is the one that gets me the most excited, simply because the band is so YOUNG and so GOOD. They are a power trio (not many of those any more) from Brooklyn that blend catchy melodies with a punk and sometimes even glam sensibility, and they are supposedly much better live than on record -- I haven't seen them live, but YouTube seems to confirm this. The most prominent band member is the bassist/lead singer, because she is a tall, striking blonde who has "star power" and looks a little like a young Courtney Love. But the guitar player is fantastic and really defines the band's sound, though he looks like a dork -- think Michael Cera with Bob Dylan's hair and Pete Townsend's wardrobe. The drummer is no slouch either. They're already great, and they are all only about 22 years old, give or take. So I'm crossing my fingers for big things from this group in the future. They have an EP slated for an early 2019 release, as well. Here is one of my favorite tracks on their 2018 full-length LP (performed live):
And a music video with the studio version of another track:

For those of you who like stoner metal, the Sleep and High on Fire releases this year are pretty fun too.

* Footnote re Ghost: I saw them at the LA Forum earlier this month and they were amazing. "Life Eternal", which closed out their first (of two) sets, was a highlight. I was pleasantly surprised to come away thinking it was one of the best concerts I'd ever attended. I saw them open for Maiden last year, and they were pretty good there, but they upped their game in the last year. They sounded as good as any band I've heard, as far back as I can remember. Highly recommended for those of you who have a chance to see them in Europe next year. I realize they are a polarizing band for some, but if you just accept the fact that they are a poppy hard rock band, not a metal band, and take them for what they are, they are pretty damn good.
 
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This is my 2018 Wrapped from Spotify. Interestingly it was initially telling me that my Top Genre was Pop but has since corrected that. @Lampwick 43 yours might not have random stand-up comedy clips now. The top artists and top songs are mostly based on which bands I've seen this year or have released new albums I've listened to a lot. Apparently I spent 57 hours listening to Epica this year, which is quite staggering even if I did see them in April and listened to their new EP many times. That's more than two days and 16% of my total listening time (923.75 hours or 38.5 days, 10.5% of the year!). In 2018 I listened to 1655 more minutes of music than in 2017, which is about 27.5 hours. Spotify also tells me that I listen to non-mainstream artists 112% more than the "average Spotify listener" although I don't know how "mainstream" is defined. The oldest song I listened to is 'Doctor, Doctor' by UFO.

If anyone is interested, this is my Top 100 most-listened songs of the year on Spotify. As I tend to listen to albums it ends up being dominated by songs at the beginning of albums. The top 5 in the playlist don't actually match the top 5 in the image, which is silly. There does seem to be a theme linking the top 5 from the image though. Water and tides in 'Hell or High Water' by The Amorettes and 'Tidebreaker' by Purest of Pain, and fire in 'The Fire (San Francisco)' by Vuur and 'Can You Feel the Fire?' by The Amorettes. The final song is 'The Martyr and the Saint (Beirut)' by Vuur, so did the martyr die in the flood at high tide and the saint walk through fire?


Below is a list of the albums I listened to this year. I will try to give a brief review of each by the end of the year.

Alien Weaponry – Tu
The Amorettes – Born to Break
Artillery – The Face of Fear
Ashes of Ares – Well of Souls
At the Gates – To Drink From the Night Itself
Beyond the Black – Heart of the Hurricane
Dimmu Borgir – Eonian
Epica – Attack on Titan
Ghost – Prequelle
Halestorm – Vicious
Jon Schaffer's Purgatory - Purgatory EP
Judas Priest – Firepower
Kamelot – The Shadow Theory
Light the Torch - Revival
MaYaN - Dhyana
My Indigo - My Indigo
Myles Kennedy – Year of the Tiger
The Night Flight Orchestra – Sometimes the World Ain’t Enough
Nordic Union – Second Coming
Northward - Northward
Purest of Pain – Solipsis
Redemption – Long Night’s Journey Into Day
Saxon - Thunderbolt
Slash – Living the Dream
Thrice – Palms
Tremonti – A Dying Machine
Visions of Atlantis – The Deep and the Dark
Witherfall – A Prelude to Sorrow
 
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Thomas Silver's The Gospel According to Thomas was announced something like 8-10 years ago after his exit from Hardcore Superstar, recorded in 2014 and finally released in November 2018. And it's spectacularly wonderful to note that every note is better than what Hardcore Superstar has produced in the last decade. Great!
 
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Black Wizard said:
Below is a list of the albums I listened to this year. I will try to give a brief review of each by the end of the year.

Alien Weaponry – Tu
The Amorettes – Born to Break
Artillery – The Face of Fear
Ashes of Ares – Well of Souls
At the Gates – To Drink From the Night Itself
Beyond the Black – Heart of the Hurricane
Dimmu Borgir – Eonian
Epica – Attack on Titan
Ghost – Prequelle
Halestorm – Vicious
Jon Schaffer's Purgatory - Purgatory EP
Judas Priest – Firepower
Kamelot – The Shadow Theory
Kobra and the Lotus - Prevail II
Light the Torch - Revival
MaYaN - Dhyana
Michael Romeo - War of the Worlds, pt. I
My Indigo - My Indigo
Myles Kennedy – Year of the Tiger
The Night Flight Orchestra – Sometimes the World Ain’t Enough
Nordic Union – Second Coming
Northward - Northward
Purest of Pain – Solipsis
Redemption – Long Night’s Journey Into Day
Saxon - Thunderbolt
Slash – Living the Dream
Thrice – Palms
Tremonti – A Dying Machine
Visions of Atlantis – The Deep and the Dark
Witherfall – A Prelude to Sorrow
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Right, here goes. I will be keeping each review brief, but hopefully of a higher quality than Froggy's aborted Maiden songs countdown.

Alien Weaponry - Tu
This a three-piece Thrash band of Kiwi teenagers of Maori ancestry who incorporate aspects of Maori culture into their music through tribal chanting and the lyrics with song titles such as 'Ru Ana Te Whenua' and 'Kai Tangata'. They've achieved the blend of Metal and indigenous culture far more successfully than Sepultura did on 'Roots'. Fortunately much of the album is also in English, making it somewhat easier for me to listen to, including parts of 'Whispers' - a song about oppression of the Maori people by white colonists. The riffs are heavy and solid, although some of the vocals could use some work but I suspect that will improve with age. Judging by their performance at Bloodstock Festival they're destined to become the next big thing in Thrash. Hopefully management and record labels won't lead them astray.

The Amorettes – Born to Break
Another three-piece, this time all-female and from Edinburgh. They have a fairly straightforward Hard Rock format and 'Born to Break' is somewhat slicker than their two previous albums, but still catchy and largely upbeat. The title track has a chorus Steve Harris would be proud of ("Born to break, born to, born to break yeah" x4) and 'Everything I Learned, I Learned From Rock & Roll' pays tribute to some of their musical inspirations (e.g. The Beatles, Sex Pistols, Rolling Stones). A fun, straightforward album which is definitely one of my favourites of 2018.

Artillery – The Face of Fear
I didn't discover Artillery until this year, although they've been around for a long time with a couple of breaks in the 90s and 00s. 'The Face of Fear' is a good Thrash album, although not one that will make any shockwaves. As good as the music is there is a tendency for a bit of cheese with the amount of alliteration in song titles: title track, 'Crossroads to Conspiracy' and Through the Ages of Atrocity' with more on previous albums. They're definitely a band whose discography I'll be looking deeper into.

Ashes of Ares – Well of Souls
The new album from police officer Matt Barlow's band is pretty bang average. I don't find anything bad about it, but nothing particularly memorable either. If anything it's nice to hear Matt singing on a Metal album again, but it appears to only be a hobby now.

At the Gates – To Drink From the Night Itself
The thing with At the Gates for me is that I think they're quite good, but only in small doses. 'To Drink From the Night Itself' sounds a lot like what I expect At the Gates to sound like: cacophonous, dark and intense. There's only so much of that I can deal with before I get fed up so abut 45 minutes of it is a bit too much for me. I like what I hear on this album but there's nothing I can use to identify one song from another. It does have the coolest album title of the year though.

Beyond the Black – Heart of the Hurricane
Incoming cheese alert! Beyond the Black's third album puts them in position to challenge Delain as the most poppy female-fronted Symphonic Metal band, but all together less interesting and not really befitting of the title "Symphonic" either. I was looking forward to this album and was a bit disappointed when it came out. It certainly has highlights - the opening track 'Hysteria' kicks ass, for example - but there are too many ballads and crappy male vocals (see 'Million Lightyears'). This album also drags on a bit with 15 songs really testing my patience. As Froggy would probably say, it needs to be cut down a bit. It doesn't really matter where, but needs to be shorter.
 
Dimmu Borgir – Eonian
Not a band I am overly familiar with, but I did enjoy their 2007 album 'In Sorte Diaboli' so thought I'd give them another go. 'Eonian' manages to create a really cool atmosphere throughout and have some great sing titles such as 'Interdimensional Summit' and 'The Empyrean Phoenix'. However, there's not much that really grabs my attention and makes me want to listen more than a couple of times. It's not bad but I still don't really get Black Metal.

Epica – Attack on Titan
This EP consists of songs from some Anime called, funnily enough, Attack on Titan that were translated into English and rearranged by Epica. There are four songs (plus instrumentals) which are mostly fairly good if unremarkable, but the final 90 seconds or so of the final track ('Dedicate Your Heart!') is something very special.

Ghost – Prequelle
I am far from the biggest fan of Ghost, but I enjoy some of their music. The vocals are too weak for the music and I think if the singer had a more powerful voice I'd enjoy them a lot more. 'Dance Macabre' is a big highlight from 'Prequelle' and catchy as hell. I'm not in love with the album but 'See The Light' and 'Witch Image' are also memorable, and 'Life Eternal' is a fairly impressive way to end the album. A headline slot at Download Festival is surely beckoning for Ghost in the coming years. If they continue to release albums like this then it's a matter of when, not if.

Halestorm – Vicious
One of the albums I was most eagerly anticipating in 2018. The opening song 'Black Vultures' is one hell of a way to start an album, with Lizzy Hale's powerful vocals kicking the album into gear from the outset. She sounds fucking incredible throughout and is definitely one of the great Rock singers at the moment. There are several great choruses on 'Vicious' - such as the title track and 'Killing Ourselves to Live' - but sometimes the verses let the song down as they are verging on rapping at times - see 'Uncomfortable' and the title track. This disrupts the flow of the album a bit for me, making it switch from impressive to mediocre. Lizzy Hale also has a habit of writing songs about her sex life a bit too often - 'Do Not Disturb' and 'Uncomfortable'. I like a lot of what I hear on 'Vicious', but more so in select moments rather than coherent songs.

Jon Schaffer's Purgatory - Purgatory EP
Something like the original Iced Earth line-up getting back together and recording some songs from before they got signed. I didn't find this as interesting as it might have been, but it was cool hearing Gene Adam (vocalists from Iced Earth's self-titled debut album) again. Aside from that I just see this EP as another thing Jon has been doing instead of touring 'Incorruptible' properly. Sad!

Judas Priest – Firepower
Prior to the release of 'Firepower' I was highly skeptical that Judas Priest could still produce top quality music. The previous album had passed me by and I've never been all that fussed by Judas Priest anyway. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I listened to 'Firepower'! It is definitely one of the very best albums of 2018 with several excellent songs - 'Never the Heroes' is my favourite, and 'Rising From Ruins' is also great. On the negative side, I find 'Firepower' to be a bit on the long side at 14 songs although thankfully there are no bad songs, and 'Evil Never Dies' has an anticlimactic build up to a chorus that would make Steve Harris proud. The positives about this album far outweigh the negatives though, and it's seriously impressive that Judas Priest were able to make an album this good this late in their careers.
 
Kamelot – The Shadow Theory
A fairly good album overall with lots of catchy stuff. I think I would prefer older Kamelot albums if I bothered to listen to them though. 'The Shadow Theory' has the usual guest appearances from female singers: Lauren Hart (Once Human) on 'Phantom Divine' and Jennifer Haben (Beyond the Black) on 'In Twilight Hours'. 'Phantom Divine' is a good song but 'In Twilight Hours' is quite insipid. If you're going to get a guest singer then don't waste her on a dull song like happened with Charlotte Wessels on the previous album.

Light the Torch - Revival
One of the highlights of the year for me. Light the Torch are fronted by former Killswitch Engage vocalist Howard Jones and were previously known as Devil You Know until one of them quit and kept the naming rights. 'Revival' is a more melodic approach to the typical Metalcore sound (much like Killswitch Engage) and stands out with Howard's soulful yet powerful clean vocals. 'Calm Before the Storm' and 'The Safety of Disbelief' are my favourites from 'Revival'.

MaYaN - Dhyana
MaYaN are very good at providing a sensory overload. There is a lot happening in almost every song with eighteen vocalists and forty guitarists or something like that. I found 'Dhyana' to be OK as background music or something to listen to while walking to work, but I feel there is too much going on for me to get to grips with the music. Much of it is too heavy for my tastes or too operatic, and one of the growly vocalists is unlistenable.

My Indigo - My Indigo
My Indigo is the solo project of Within Temptation's Sharon den Adel who decided to do something a little different musically to help deal with some family problems and writer's block while working towards the next Within Temptation album. It's a fairly nice and safe Pop album. That's pretty much all I have to say. It's definitely not bad but I won't be rushing back to listen to it again.

Myles Kennedy – Year of the Tiger
Another solo project, this time from the Alter Bridge frontman. We all know that Myles has a great voice but I'm not too bothered by this acoustic/country album. 'Songbird' is a very nice song though.

The Night Flight Orchestra – Sometimes the World Ain’t Enough
Now this is one hell of an album! The Night Flight Orchestra are the Rock side project of the Soilwork singer. They're a great fusion of Hard Rock and some pretty obvious 80s influences. Cheesey yet grandiose at the same time. There are plenty of big, memorable choruses such as 'This Time, 'Speedwagon' and 'Can't Be That Bad' to get stuck in your head. I strongly recommend this album!
 
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