Best New Music of 2018

Alter Bridge - Live At Royal Albert Hall
Myles Kennedy - Year of The Tiger
Judas Priest - Firepower
Slash - Living The Dream
Halestorm - Vicious

Only 5 new albums I bought from this year although Alice in Chains Rainer Fog is on my list just haven't actually seen it sold anywhere.
 
The Dissident said:
Alter Bridge - Live At Royal Albert Hall
Myles Kennedy - Year of The Tiger
Judas Priest - Firepower
Slash - Living The Dream
Halestorm - Vicious

Only 5 new albums I bought from this year although Alice in Chains Rainer Fog is on my list just haven't actually seen it sold anywhere.
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@The Dissident And what are your opinions on the new music you listened to in 2018? What was your favourite album/song etc.?
 
Black Wizard said:
@The Dissident And what are your opinions on the new music you listened to in 2018? What was your favourite album/song etc.?
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Alter Bridge's Live album/video gave me chills when I was watching to it. Specifically Blackbird, The End is Here, Words Darker and Slip to the void. It is one of my favourite live albums to listen to with UFO's Strangers in the Night, Scorp's Tokyo Tapes, and Maidens Flight 666 and Live After Death.

Myles Kennedy's album is solid but not entirely my style, I really enjoy Love Can Only Heal, Mother and Haunted By Design. I really wish we could have seen his unused album since Myles is an incredible Vocalist and song writer.

Judas Priest, honestly only bought the album a few days ago because I bought priest tickets for next year and wanted to hear their new record. I quite enjoyed the first half of the album the 2nd half was solid as well. Standout was definitely Evil Never Dies and Lightning Strike.

Slash, Bought the album and my computer died before i could upload it so I've only gotten through roughly half of it. I really enjoy the opener Call of the Wild. Definitely a fun album from what I've been able to hear.

Halestorm, Black Vultures is an amazing opener and overall one of my top 3 songs of the year. It honestly should of been the single instead of Uncomfortable. Overall I like the album. BV, Killing ourselves to live, white dress, the silence are my top 4 from the album but I genuinely enjoyed the entire thing. I think that with Vicious they finally got themselves enough material to have a really strong and balanced live show since when i saw them they played basically half the set from the 3rd album and personally id prefer a larger Strange case of... and Vicious presence in the set with 3-4 songs from the other 2 albums.

Alice In Chains, While I haven't heard the whole album I have heard the singles and All I Am. Never Fade is my favourite of the 4 and is one of my top AIC songs overall. All I Am is a strong song. The One You know is pretty cool as well.

Also forgot I bought Greta Van Fleets new album but only gave it a quick listen in the car a few months back but definetely enjoyed Lover Leaver (Taker Believer) quite a bit

Top Songs of 2018 [Excluding Live At Royal Albert Hall]

1. Black Vultures [Halestorm]
2. Call of The Wild [Slash]
3. Never Fade [AIC]
4. Shadow of Your Love [Guns N Roses]
5. Killing Ourselves to Live [Halestorm]
6. Love Can Only Heal [Myles Kennedy]
7. Don't Stop Me Now... Revisited [Queen]
8. Lover Leaver (Taker Believer) [Greta Van Fleet]
9. Take You With Me [Tremonti]
 
I bought/received a whopping six albums this year, one of which I still haven't listened to (Ghost's Prequelle) and one I'm not familiar enough with to form an opinion on (Slash's Living The Dream, which I got for Christmas). The other four range from incredible to average, but I'd say there were at least a few truly great songs on each.

  • Judas Priest - Firepower. I was losing faith in Priest after the Epitaph fiasco and the lackluster Redeemer of Souls album so I had extremely low expectations for this one. I took a listen to Lightning Strike expecting Priest to sound tired, uninspired and make me lose even more faith in them. I was wrong. Tremendously wrong. I still can't believe this is the same band, who'd have thought a group going for 50-odd years could release some of their best material so late? Favourite songs are Firepower, Never The Heroes, Necromancer, Rising From Ruins, Traitors Gate and Lone Wolf.
  • Reigning Days - Eclipse. I posted a longer review of this album earlier in this thread. Basically, it's heavy, ballsy Royal Blood-esque rock and I bloody love it. Very much looking forward to seeing where they go next. Favourite songs are Boy Who Cried Wolf, All I Wanna Do, Crazy Horse and Renegade.
  • Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog. Given that I wasn't that into the idea of a new Priest album, this was probably my most anticipated of this year. It took a little while for me to get into it, but even now I don't love it as a whole. I'd say I love The One You Know, Rainier Fog, Red Giant, Never Fade and All I Am, everything else is in the "pretty good" to "average" range.
  • Blossoms - Cool Like You. I loved their first album, couldn't get enough of it, so for them to release a second album so soon (less than two years) after it had me very excited. Sadly, that excitement was misplaced. I really like the sound of this album, it has a great eighties-synth feel, but the songs just didn't grab me as much. It's hard to describe, although I don't dislike the album I feel like I got bored of it really quickly. The only two songs I'd say stuck with me are "Unfaithful" and "Between The Eyes".
 
I could have sworn Firepower was released last year, it seems so long ago. Unexpectedly strong return for a veteran band I thought had gone completely off the boil.

The only other albums I bought/acquired (legally!) this year were Ghost's Prequelle, which I enjoy the hell out of (pun intended), Queen of Time by Amorphis - not as catchy and easy-access as Under the Red Cloud, but more experimental, and most recently, Unleash the Archers' Apex. Thanks to LC for the recommendation on that last one. I was taken by the first couple of tracks I heard, but then held off on listening to the rest and asked for the album for Christmas, and it was worth the wait. I've liked some of their songs in the past, others not so much, but Apex is far more consistent. Britney Slayes' voice has developed a lot since I first heard them. It's much more powerful, and she's making great use of those lower notes, which is the opposite of what most female singers go for. The music's far less reliant on recorded vocal harmonies now. They've also got a lead guitarist - sorry no idea what his name is - who puts in some very nice solos. A few times over I've thought I was listening to Adrian, until he goes off at a different angle completely. My only complaint is a lot of the tracks on this album end up sounding too similar.
 
Thanks for the link. I didn’t keep up with new music this year though, the only album I heard was Firepower.
 
Aye, I've heard good things about several of the albums on the list and I may mark them down for future listenings.
 
My three favorite albums released this year were the following...

Alice in Chains - Rainier Fog
Ghost - Prequelle
Judas Priest - Firepower

Rainier Fog ended up being my favorite album out of the bunch. It’s a very atmospheric and dark album. With each new release Alice In Chains continues to push their iconic sound to new limits. The best song and my personal favorite of the year was ‘All I Am’. It’s one of the darkest and most depressing pieces of music I have ever heard. The rest of the album ended up containing some instant classics such as ‘Rainier Fog’, ‘Never Fade’, and ‘Red Giant’.

Prequelle is an album that I have praised repeatedly throughout the year. It was definitely the next step Ghost needed to make to expand their career. No bad songs on the album. The best song is ‘Life Eternal’

I only recently started listening to Firepower, and I was blown away. This album is Painkiller 2.0 and I’m not exaggerating. Every song is just so in your face and aggressive. ‘Rising From Ruins’ is my favorite track. Other favorites include ‘Firepower’, ‘Lightning Strike’, ‘Flame Thrower’, and ‘Traitors Gate’ . The album does falter a little bit during the end but overall it’s one of Priests better albums. Hopefully we can get another album this good. But if this is the last album then it’s a heck of a way to go out.

Fun Fact: Once I see Priest in June I will have seen all of these bands tours promoting said albums.
 
Nordic Union – Second Coming
This band is the side project of Pretty Maids singer Ronnie Atkins and a Swedish guy called Erik Martensson - the combination of a Dane and Swede leading to the band name. Although 'Second Coming' (their second album, surprisingly...) was released in November I only started listening to it shortly before Christmas but it quickly became one of my favourite albums of the year. The songs are quite anthemic, melodic Hard Rock with the highlights (e.g. 'My Fear and My Faith', 'It Burns') stacked towards the beginning of the album.

Northward - Northward
Yet another side project, this time a collaboration between Floor Jansen and a guy from Pagan's Mind. It's a Hard Rock album, something new to Floor, so don't expect Nightwish B or anything like that. The songs are enjoyable enough and show, yet again, that Floor Jansen can do anything. What next? The World?

Purest of Pain – Solipsis
Does anyone remember In Flames up to and including 'Clayman'? If you can remember that far back and yearn for the days when In Flames made good Metal, then this is for you. Purest of Pain are Delain guitarist Merel Bechtold's Melodeath band and not technically a side project as she's had thing on the go since she was 15 or something. This is a seriously great album. The guitar stuff sounds awesome and the vocals are the kind of growling I can listen to, i.e. the words are actually discernible. I definitely hope to hear more from Purest of Pain and see them love someday, but I suspect Delain is a more lucrative venture for Merel. You should all definitely check out this album though!

Redemption – Long Night’s Journey Into Day
A Prog Metal band whom I had not heard of before until last year when one of their songs appeared on a Spotify playlist and I thought "That sounds like the Evergrey singer". Indeed it was. Tom Englund is the current singer for Redemption but in such a way that it doesn't interfere with his Evergrey schedule. It is a good album but as a fairly big Evergrey fan it was strange to listen to Tom Englund's vocals on another band's album!

Saxon - Thunderbolt
My first impression of 'Thunderbolt' is that it definitely sounds like a Saxon album. If it's not broke, don't fix it I suppose. 'Thunderbolt' sound much more interesting to me now that I'm revisiting it. At first I felt it was too much Saxon-by-numbers and as I am not too bothered by Saxon I was quite underwhelmed. While I would prefer to just hera the handful of Saxon classics that I know I am happy to upgrade my opinion of 'Thunderbolt' and call it a good album.
 
Slash – Living the Dream
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators isn't really a band name that rolls of the tongue, is it? Thankfully the music is much more straighforward and the kind of Rock you'd expect to hear one one of those Driving Rock Anthems compilation albums. I guess if Slash's name wasn't on the album then it wouldn't get the same exposure though because it's a bit unremarkable, but still upbeat and enjoyable though.

Thrice – Palms
'Palms' is the second Thrice album since their return from hiatus and is in much the same vain as its predecessor 'To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere'. It is much more melodic than their original angry, Post-Hardcore style which I loved when I was a teenager and marks a maturing of the band and their musical style. I definitely prefer their older music but can understand why they've moved on. The first two songs ('Only Us' and 'The Grey') had my hopes up for a slightly more aggressive album than the previous one, but the rest is much mellower. I can summarize 'Palms' by saying it's pleasant if a little underwhelming.

Tremonti – A Dying Machine
Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti's imaginatively named side project definitely provided one of the best albums of 2018. Walking the line between Hard Rock and Metal with songs like the title track and 'Throw Them To The Lions' on the Metal side, and the Foo Fighters-esque 'The First The Last' and the more melodic 'Trust' on the Rock side. Many Tremonti songs are far better live though, so I strongly recommend getting to one of their concerts when you have the chance.

Visions of Atlantis – The Deep and the Dark
And the award for cheesiest album of the year goes to....Visions of Atlantis! Ultra cheesey, catchy Power Metal with a female singer (Clementine Delauney). It's good fun to listen to but a definite Cheesevivor candidate.

Witherfall – A Prelude to Sorrow
This is a really good gloomy Prog Metal album. Not one to listen to if you want to be cheered up. I hadn't heard of Witherfall until this year and was very impressed by 'A Prelude to Sorrow'. For a Prog album the songs are kept at quite conservative lengths, with two 11-minute songs kept at each end of the album with a good number of short songs in between, thus avoiding the problems that Iron Maiden caused me with 'The Final Frontier' where I was bored to death by the length of the songs.
 
Black Wizard said:
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.
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Black Wizard said:
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.
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Black Wizard said:
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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Black Wizard said:
Nordic Union – Second Coming
This band is the side project of Pretty Maids singer Ronnie Atkins and a Swedish guy called Erik Martensson - the combination of a Dane and Swede leading to the band name. Although 'Second Coming' (their second album, surprisingly...) was released in November I only started listening to it shortly before Christmas but it quickly became one of my favourite albums of the year. The songs are quite anthemic, melodic Hard Rock with the highlights (e.g. 'My Fear and My Faith', 'It Burns') stacked towards the beginning of the album.

Northward - Northward
Yet another side project, this time a collaboration between Floor Jansen and a guy from Pagan's Mind. It's a Hard Rock album, something new to Floor, so don't expect Nightwish B or anything like that. The songs are enjoyable enough and show, yet again, that Floor Jansen can do anything. What next? The World?

Purest of Pain – Solipsis
Does anyone remember In Flames up to and including 'Clayman'? If you can remember that far back and yearn for the days when In Flames made good Metal, then this is for you. Purest of Pain are Delain guitarist Merel Bechtold's Melodeath band and not technically a side project as she's had thing on the go since she was 15 or something. This is a seriously great album. The guitar stuff sounds awesome and the vocals are the kind of growling I can listen to, i.e. the words are actually discernible. I definitely hope to hear more from Purest of Pain and see them love someday, but I suspect Delain is a more lucrative venture for Merel. You should all definitely check out this album though!

Redemption – Long Night’s Journey Into Day
A Prog Metal band whom I had not heard of before until last year when one of their songs appeared on a Spotify playlist and I thought "That sounds like the Evergrey singer". Indeed it was. Tom Englund is the current singer for Redemption but in such a way that it doesn't interfere with his Evergrey schedule. It is a good album but as a fairly big Evergrey fan it was strange to listen to Tom Englund's vocals on another band's album!

Saxon - Thunderbolt
My first impression of 'Thunderbolt' is that it definitely sounds like a Saxon album. If it's not broke, don't fix it I suppose. 'Thunderbolt' sound much more interesting to me now that I'm revisiting it. At first I felt it was too much Saxon-by-numbers and as I am not too bothered by Saxon I was quite underwhelmed. While I would prefer to just hera the handful of Saxon classics that I know I am happy to upgrade my opinion of 'Thunderbolt' and call it a good album.
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Black Wizard said:
Slash – Living the Dream
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators isn't really a band name that rolls of the tongue, is it? Thankfully the music is much more straighforward and the kind of Rock you'd expect to hear one one of those Driving Rock Anthems compilation albums. I guess if Slash's name wasn't on the album then it wouldn't get the same exposure though because it's a bit unremarkable, but still upbeat and enjoyable though.

Thrice – Palms
'Palms' is the second Thrice album since their return from hiatus and is in much the same vain as its predecessor 'To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere'. It is much more melodic than their original angry, Post-Hardcore style which I loved when I was a teenager and marks a maturing of the band and their musical style. I definitely prefer their older music but can understand why they've moved on. The first two songs ('Only Us' and 'The Grey') had my hopes up for a slightly more aggressive album than the previous one, but the rest is much mellower. I can summarize 'Palms' by saying it's pleasant if a little underwhelming.

Tremonti – A Dying Machine
Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti's imaginatively named side project definitely provided one of the best albums of 2018. Walking the line between Hard Rock and Metal with songs like the title track and 'Throw Them To The Lions' on the Metal side, and the Foo Fighters-esque 'The First The Last' and the more melodic 'Trust' on the Rock side. Many Tremonti songs are far better live though, so I strongly recommend getting to one of their concerts when you have the chance.

Visions of Atlantis – The Deep and the Dark
And the award for cheesiest album of the year goes to....Visions of Atlantis! Ultra cheesey, catchy Power Metal with a female singer (Clementine Delauney). It's good fun to listen to but a definite Cheesevivor candidate.

Witherfall – A Prelude to Sorrow
This is a really good gloomy Prog Metal album. Not one to listen to if you want to be cheered up. I hadn't heard of Witherfall until this year and was very impressed by 'A Prelude to Sorrow'. For a Prog album the songs are kept at quite conservative lengths, with two 11-minute songs kept at each end of the album with a good number of short songs in between, thus avoiding the problems that Iron Maiden caused me with 'The Final Frontier' where I was bored to death by the length of the songs.
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And thus concludes my reviews of 2018 albums. I did listen to a few more (Kobra and the Lotus, Blaze Bayley, Orphaned Land, Leave's Eyes and one of the two Symphony guys who released solo albums) but not enough to warrant a review.

These are my top 5 of 2018:

5. The Night Flight Orchestra - Sometimes The World Ain't Enough
61P1UTi1IIL._SS500.jpg


4. The Amorettes - Born to Break
01-241692.jpg


3. Tremonti - A Dying Machine
41mSNdUFEuL._SS500.jpg


2. Judas Priest - Firepower
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1. Purest of Pain - Solipsis
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It was only the final post that was a list, and it had images to make it look pretty. Listen to the Purest of Pain album though.
 
I think the name of the thread speaks for itself.

IMO 2018 was a surprisingly great year for music. The reason I say that is because the amount of quality releases was distributed throghout a spectrum of genres like I haven't seen in years (from indie pop to grind core). Plus, there was a couple of bands I didn't knew that literaly caught me off guard out of nowhere.
Here are some examples (in no orderexcept the last one):

God Is An Astronaut - Epitaph: I'm a longtime fan of this Irish post-rockers and if it's true I was expecting quality (and quality I got) I wasn't expecting the most polarized record of their carreer. The heavy parts are even heavier than usual and the ambient ones more soothing. Another great chapter in GIAA's legacy.

Bishop Briggs - Church Of Scars: Don't let yourself get fooled by the Princess Leya gone Hip Hop looks of this young lady. Beneath there's one of the best and more versatiles Indie rock voices and composing brains I've witnessed in years. Yes, the hype around Church Of Scars is totally justified.

Judas Priest - Firepower: Really? How can it be that 42 years after their ground breaking masterpiece Sad Wings Of Destiny (with more than a handful of 10 out of 10 essential Heavy Metal albums in between) this guys still are able to record a monument to the gods of metal like Firepower? Simply remarkable!

The Prodigy - No Tourists: Appart from a couple of avoidable high pitch modulated choirs here and there, No Tourist shows The Prodigy doing what they do like no one: taking you hostage in a breakbeat roller coaster of a thousand punches in the face per minute strobbing adrenaline.

Terrorizer - Caustic Attack: Speaking of a thousand punches in the face per minute... oh boy! Sandoval and friends' last offering is one of the best Grind Core records I've heard in years. Make no mistake: this beast sweats intensity so much that leaves all that gore drenched and pig squealling bozos sounding like a Disney soundtrack.

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit: Get a little bit of Mike Patton a la Fantomas, Nick Cave, Black Metal, Garage Rock and Gospel music and you'll get the single most surprising and ground breaking album I've heard in decades. This mix had everything to go wrong. It didn't in any possible aspect. Amazing.

Legend Of Seagullmen - Legend Of Seagullmen: In a year marked by the somewhat predictable new Mastodon record, Brent Hinds joins forces with Danny Carrey and presents us a true gem. There's something in this record that unlike Sleep's last one (a good yet overhyped record.. especially when compared with the rest of their catalogue) sounds truly retro.

Voivod - The Wake: Another excellent conceptual sci-fi album from the Canadian prog metal masters. It has multiple swings, heavy and quiet parts, dissonant and melodic moments and bears the quality seal of one of the best veteran bands still in the business.

Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog: The day Jerry Cantrell writes an album of questionable quality is yet to come as far as I'm concerned. Rainier Fog carries everything that addicts me (no pun intended) to this band without sounding dated or recycled. AIC reinforcing the idea they're still one of the best rock acts around.

But as far as I'm concerned my favourite 2018 album is:

IHSAHN - ÀMR: Eremita and Arktis are gems only a genius hell bent to push metal boundaries towards can manage to pull out. But I wasn't ready for something like what Ihsahn managed with Àmr. It is complete, crafted, mind boggling, complex yet full of hooks grab you in an addictive manner. If you have an open mind and like out of the box metal, do yourself a favour and listen to this masterpiece.
 
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