The 60 Best Metal Albums of 2018

The 60 Best Metal Albums of 2018

2018 was such a huge year for metal, and I know that every year is great for metal with the abundance of fantastic artists big and small out there, but this year felt so big to me, perhaps because of so much of what the music this year was the soundtrack to, but also for the sheer number of unexpected masterpieces. This year I reviewed 170 metal albums, not including the 15 I briefly talked about missing in 2017, which is more than the total number of albums I even listened to across all genres last year, which is weird because I have actually been busier this year than last. But I am rather pleased with how much more I was able to immerse myself into metal this year, at all levels of accessibility, and given the fact that the coming year might come with some changes and limitations to my output, here’s to 2018, and the 60 incredible albums (LPs and EPs alike) that captivated me this year.

Also, this should go without saying, but this is not just my opinion, these are objectively the 60 best metal albums of the year, and if you disagree, well then you’re wrong.

60. Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures

I was expecting to kind of tolerate this one at best, which is weird because I enjoyed the band’s last album quite a bit. But this album took me on such a little nostalgia ride through my adolescence and the music I enjoyed at that time in my life. I’m glad I got an album like this that can make me look back at that part of my life fondly, because God knows lots of other stuff makes me look back with a little bit of shame.

59. Harm’s Way – Posthuman

A fresh batch of lethal Chicago hardcore with a modern update, no bullshit, no nonsense, just punishing, crushing, proficient metallic hardcore that adds to the genre’s growing dominance within metal.

58. Unearth – Extinction(s)

I was so glad to hear Unearth put out an honest, classic metalcore album (with a few modern updates as well) instead of following so many of their peers into the clutches of radio rock pandering, and Extinction(s) is an excellent example of the punch the mid-2000’s style can still pack.

57. XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX – Gore 2.0

I’m amazed a comical grindcore album actually had the content to sustain an hour’s worth of songs, both playfully mocking and proficiently conjuring the absurdly gory brutality of the genre on a tremendous variety of creative tracks whose impossible-to-articulate lyrics are well worth reading along with.

56. Bloodbath – The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn

Even performing below their peak form, Bloodbath is a force to be reckoned with in death metal, and The Arrow of Satan Is Drawn is a fine representation of their continued mastery of the genre. The slight drop in chemistry due to their less frequent and consistent output since Mikael Åkerfeldt’s departure can be felt a bit on this project, but even so, it’s a crushing album that I am glad to have from them this year.

55. Jesus Piece – Only Self

An excellent debut from the hardcore freshmen, Only Self isn’t the most adventurous of hardcore albums, but it sure hits the nail on the head and makes up for its lack of novelty with fiery performances.

54. Chelsea Grin – Eternal Nightmare

It was a quiet year for deathcore, but not a bad one, as Chelsea Grin made a resounding comeback of sorts after their lackluster 2016 album. Eternal Nightmare finds the band seemingly taking noted from the likes of Carnifex and Fit for an Autopsy, who all trimmed the fat on their respective deathcore styles and modernized their sound to help them stand out more.

53. Deadspace – Mouth of Scorpions

Any EP that makes this list must be doing a lot right to surpass so many other albums, and the three songs Deadspace bring to this album are among their best, returning after their slightly disappointing LP last year, to the potent DSBM that drew me to them in the first place. The band have announced a new album for early next year, and this EP has me rather excited for it.

52. Summoning – With Doom We Come

With Doom We Come was definitely one of the most interesting pieces of folk metal I have heard in a long time, with Summoning taking their winding, cinematic, Tolkien-inspired ambient approach over the course of eight songs. I liked the way the band was able to transform he central motifs they based the songs around in interesting ways for the extended lengths they took.

51. Panopticon – The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness, Pt. 1

The heavier of the two discs from Panopticon’s double album this year showed Austin Lunn’s slight imbalance in his compositional strength when compared to his second, folk-driven disc.

50. Machine Head – Catharsis

I know a lot of people hated this album for Robb Flynn’s preachiness before and during the promo cycle and on a few moments on a few songs on the album, but honestly, it really wasn’t that preachy when you actually got into the lyrics, and there were a lot of good deep cuts on the album that I kept coming back to. As a pretty big fan of Machine Head, I do agree though, yes, this is rather subpar for them given we’ve been blessed with a string of truly tremendous albums over the past decade or so. But this album’s weakness lies not in its “SJW-ness” or Robb’s politics. It’s an album that shows the band’s creativity wearing thin, which makes sense in the wake of Dave and Phil leaving the band a few months ago. Catharsis sounds like a very natural progression from the diversity of the incredible Bloodstone & Diamonds, just an unfortunately watered-down version of that album. Nevertheless, I think there is enough quality on Catharsis to consider it a good album, even it will naturally be outshined by The Blackening, Burn My Eyes, and Bloodstone & Diamonds.

49. Impending Doom – The Sin and Doom Vol. II

Deathcore album of the year right here; Impending Doom came back after a relatively long break, sanded off the rust, and picked up where they left off with The Sin and Doom Vol. II, an album of straight-up early 2010’s-style djenty deathcore bangers.

48. Wreck and Reference – Alien Pains

This surprise, four-track EP showed a lot of Wreck and Reference’s experimental sides within black metal, as well as their proficiency at industrial rock on the two songs in the middle. It’s definitely a thirst-quenching appetizer for whatever their next album might be.

47. Innumerable Forms – Punishment in Flesh

One of my favorite debut releases, Punishment in Flesh was in many ways this year’s answer to Primitive Man’s Caustic, not a cheap rip-off of that project, but definitely one that carries a similarly pessimistic and relentlessly sludgy atmosphere, although much quicker and less drone-y than Caustic often got. It’s a great start for this band and one that has me eager to see where they take their sound next.

46. Frontierer – Unloved

The Car Bomb comparisons this album has been piled atop with are certainly warranted, though I’m not sure I’d say Frontierer show the same knack for groove that Car Bomb did on their 2016 album. Nevertheless, Unloved is a properly punishing and comprehensive mathcore album. At just under an hour, the band prove they can still hold attention spans with the sheer madness they harness.

45. Thou – Rhea Sylvia

This was the third EP to precede the release of Thou’s full-length album, Magus, this year. I enjoyed the grungy twist the band took on their signature sludge sound, especially on songs like “Deepest Sun” with some sorrowful vocal harmonies that hearken directly to Alice in Chains.

44. Holy Fawn – Death Spells

Holy Fawn take an incredibly beautiful and extremely nature-inspired approach to the sounds of ambient black metal on this album. It’s a truly welcoming and meditative album, and one that I think makes a great case for the lighter side of black metal.

43. Judas Priest – Firepower

Judas Priest came back with such an unbelievably powerful classic heavy metal offering this year, indeed a late-career masterpiece and one that proves how passionate and talented the band still are. It’s an album that showcases their expertise with the style without coming off as joyless exhibition.

42. Thou – Magus

Thou’s full-length album of 2018 is definitely their most well-produced and sonically pleasing release with the way everything from the down-tuned guitars to the drums and bass are allowed to shine simultaneously to best represent Thou’s signature sludgy doom. Compositionally it’s pretty on par with most of their work in this lane too, but it’s really an album more about the thick atmosphere than anything else, and that it certainly delivers.

41. Halestorm – Vicious

Definitely my favorite straightforward hard rock album of the year, this record has so many tightly composed rockers, and with such a tasteful note of heavy metal, I couldn’t help but repeat so many of the songs on here throughout the year. It’s a bit inconsistent, but when it’s high its really high.

40. The Body – I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer

Finally, after a few poor splits and collaborations that made me more irritated than hyped for their following full-length, The Body did pretty well on their new, focused LP. It’s in many ways The Body as usual, but with a few new twists that make it an interesting experience and not just a rehash of previous efforts.

39. Echo Beds – Buried Language

It was a good year for experimental black metal, and this one was one of my favorite pieces of it. Definitely in line with Wreck and Reference, this album takes a slightly more industrial approach than W&R usually do, and it is a thrilling, interesting listen all the way through.

38. Mamaleek – Out of Time

Speaking of experimental black metal, Mamaleek continues to push the genre’s boundaries into more hushed, folky territory that still retains the sinister quality of the genre, and this is probably their most comprehensive foray into the black metal unknown, yet they sound so comfortable and confident doing it.

37. Wayfarer – World’s Blood

Another American black metal release, World’s Blood is a more standard display of the style’s post-metallic power, though with a subtle Western flair itself. With five focused, well-constructed pieces, it’s a pretty engaging listen each step of the way, and one that does well to highlight its subtle differences from the rest of the ambient black metal crop.

36. Deafheaven – Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

And on the topic of American black metal, we have the fourth album from Deafheaven, one that I was a bit confused with at first but still ended up loving for its nice representation of the band’s brighter side. It’s an album that reminds me so much of the love I have for certain people and how unperfect, yet precious and beautiful it is.

35. Behemoth – I Loved You at Your Darkest

Along with Deafheaven’s new album, this was probably my most anticipated release of the year, and as much as I knew it was likely not going to outdo The Satanist, I was pleased with how well this album continued from where Behemoth left off on that album. Channeling the same grand, biblical style of blackened death metal the band had found their sweet spot in, it came with a bit odder experimentation, but not enough to sink the album. Overall, it’s a respectable follow-up to one of the best death metal albums of the new millennium.

34. Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals – Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue

I like the angry death metal anarchy that Phil’s band conjures on this album. It and Phil’s unfiltered vocal aggression are a nice match for each other, and it makes for a wild ride all the way through. It’s definitely an album whose appeal is based on the rawness of its delivery, but it’s not just senseless cacophony; the band clearly know how to harness this type of death metal and let it rage on a long leash in their favor.

33. Keiji Haino & Sumac - American Dollar Bill: Keep Facing Sideways, You’re Too Hideous to Look at Face On

This one is favorite collaborative release of the year with Keiji Haino and Sumac playing off each other’s respective styles so well, knowing how to ebb and flow within the waves the other creates, it’s a very noisy and odd release, but one that finds everything on here in such a complimentary form. I wish more collaborations in metal had this kind of well-worked chemistry between artists.

32. Of Feather and Bone – Bestial Hymns of Perversion

One of the year’s earlier and most punishing straight-up death metal releases, Bestial Hymns of Perversion is all meat, no fat, and such a quick, but ripping example of death metal at its rawest and most primal.

31. TesseracT – Sonder

As short as Sonder ended up being, I definitely found it to be a step up from Tesseract’s previous album, with the band doing well to craft the kind of shimmering progressive metal anthems that Daniel Tompkins can shine on.

30. Sumac – Love in Shadow

It was a good year for Sumac, coming through with a strong collaborative effort earlier in the year and then following up with their third LP. At only four songs, the album makes the most of the long time is has with each piece, and it’s one that I found myself coming back to so often throughout the year. I think the band outdid all their previous efforts, including their other collaboration this year.

29. Horrendous – Idol

Watching the evolution of Horrendous has been fascinating for the past several years, and seeing them transform into a fully-fledged progressive death metal juggernaut on Idol is one of the most rewarding sights to behold. The band channel raw, snarling growls and expert instrumental power on this album. The band still manage to retain their harsh, ugly roots, but pour that malice into a much more elegant form on this album, and I am definitely here for it.

28. High on Fire – Electric Messiah

It was a pretty big year for Matt Pike, and a major part of that was High on Fire’s follow-up to 2015’s Luminiferous. Taking a bit more of a proggy approach to their thrashy sludge metal worked out pretty well for the most part. It’s in many ways, High on Fire as usual, but also a more extensive application of their gruff, no-nonsense metal.

27. Portal – Ion

The wait between this album and their harrowing Vexovoid was well worth it as Ion captures the band’s most abysmal and spaciously apocalyptic sound in the form of chaotically collapsing technical death metal compositions that take a tremendous amount of listening to fully wrap one’s mind around.

26. Watain – Trident Wolf Eclipse

Watain’s long-awaited follow-up to The Wild Hunt finds them taking it back to basics in the shortest time frame yet, and as overshadowed as this album is likely to end up being next to albums like Sworn to the Dark and Casus Luciferi, it’s still a fiery piece of straightforward black metal that I have enjoyed all throughout the year.

25. Evoken – Hypnagogia

Definitely one of the most thrilling death/doom releases I’ve heard in a good while, Evoken go in for the long haul on this album and come through with a thick, well-cultivated atmosphere of gloom and remorse.

24. Thou – The House Primordial

This was he first-released EP leading up to Magus, and it did so well to concentrate Thou’s harsh black metal side into an interesting arrangement of songs that quickly establish a deep, sardonic atmosphere that takes that side of Thou to the extreme.

23. Thou – Inconsolable

The second EP of the three, and my favorite, is not really a metal album at all, but one whose sorrowful beauty I kept returning to. I love the vocal features the band brought on to give each of the moody, grungy songs on here a unique flair, and the band’s excellence with this softer style of music is incredible.

22. Architects – Holy Hell

One of the most triumphant metalcore albums I have heard in a long time, and one on which I think Architects managed to outdo themselves. Overcoming a crippling death to carry on with =, I think, their best album to date is certainly a feat to appreciate.

21. Sleep – The Sciences

This album took a while to grow on me, but grow it did, and I found myself enjoying and appreciating the thick walls of sound of a genre I had previously been apprehensive about. After finding the most fitting way to listen to this style of music, I can say now that I do enjoy myself some stoner metal.

20. Vein – Errorzone

Definitely one of the most punishing hardcore albums of the past few years, Errorzone is a bold amalgamation of nu metal and metalcore that takes the best of both worlds and smashes them together in an explosive array of violent noise that shoots Vein straight to the upper rungs of the genre.

19. Carnation – Chapel of Abhorrence

Another excellent debut album, Chapel of Abhorrence gave Bloodbath and Cannibal Corpse a run for their money with the dense brutality Carnation were able to conjure up on this album. Without any real notable weaknesses, this album is a tremendous opening statement for one of death metal’s most ambitious newcomers.

18. Polyphia – New Levels New Devils

This was such a fulfilling and unique math rock album that took the swagger of hip hop and made the band’s instrumental show-y-ness even cooler and flashier, elevating it above the autopilot mush of the style.

17. Hissing – Permanent Destitution

Another excellent debut album, this time channeling the experimental noisiness of black metal into a harsh, slightly industrially ambient experience that no other album has really ever captured before. It’s the kind of album that appears to be just standard abrasive black metal chaos on the surface, but the way the band work with so many different musical ideas and swirl them round so well o this album is what makes it so intriguing.

16. Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury

And on the topic of intriguing music, Imperial Triumphant come through with one of the most uniquely blues-y, jazzy incantations of death metal this year. Taking the eerie dissonance of traditional jazz and mashing it together with the apocalyptic sounds of death metal to convey the metropolitan filth of the Big Apple.

15. Andrew W.K. – You’re Not Alone

This whole album is the injection of positivity metal needed not just this year, but more of in general. While it’s on the borderline between hard rock and heavy metal, I still found it to be a refreshingly uplifting and encouraging set of songs that embody the type of positive outlook on life that I think needs more endorsement in heavy music. And of course, it opens with my song of the year, “Music Is Worth Living For”, which just perfectly captures my deep love and appreciation for music, which the rest of the album continues unashamedly.

14. A Perfect Circle – Eat the Elephant

Eat the Elephant was a lot softer in most parts than I and a lot of fans were expecting, but A Perfect Circle really proved that their return to music was really based on artistic inspiration and not financial desperation with the evolved and magnificently cohesive sounds they traversed on the album’s various tracks.

13. Infernal Coil – Within a World Forgotten

So many strong debut albums this year, and Infernal Coil’s was definitely one of my favorites. Channeling the heaviest side of Leviathan’s menacing and abysmal depressive black metal, Infernal Coil conjures a short, but enthralling experience on Within a World Forgotten. It’s one that I continually return to for its massive, abusive heaviness and one that makes me eager to see how Infernal Coil continue to shape their sonic identity in the years to come.

12. Obscura – Diluvium

As much as I like Obscura, I was surprised with how comprehensively thrilling Diluvium was. Wrapping up all the musical ideas that have enhanced the group’s progression through the years, the same band that made the stunning Akróasisreturn with clearly developed chemistry to expound upon their previous work

11. Ghost – Prequelle

It took bit of adjustment from what I usually enjoy about Ghost’s music to appreciate this one. It felt so off at first, but after a while the extra extra cheese melted over this album is really just the very essence of Ghost taken to such a campy and unpredicted extreme, and it is all executed so tactfully and brilliantly underneath the album’s fun externa.

10. Alrakis – Echoes from Eta Carinae

It’s one single song, but I chose not to include it on my top songs list because it would be redundant talking about it here too, and I did want to express its greatness in the context of its comparison to other albums. However, this song, unlike most extensive proggy epics, really is one long, sprawling piece that takes its time to push and pull and really swirl in a well-thought-out aura of ambient black metal that manages to stay fascinating all throughout its one-of-a-kind ride.

9. Anna von Hausswolff – Dead Magic

I know this one’s not really super metal, but the thick sets of horns, organ, and tom drum beating against the gothy appeal and dark ambiance Anna von Hausswolff constructs is something I have been enjoying so thoroughly this year, and for many of the same reasons I’ve enjoyed so much of the dark ambient metal on this list.

8. The Atlas Moth – Coma Noir

This was such a fulfilling album that captured the ascension of the band’s evolution beyond standard post-metal-flavored blackgaze and into a realm all their own. The grooves on here, the sludgy riffs, everything about this record from a stylistic and compositional standpoint was so satisfying as an elevation of the band’s sound.

7. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name

Such a breath of fresh air for technical progressive death metal and such an exponential continuation of growth for Rivers of Nihil, the pure emotion this album is album to pack into such an ordinarily soulless genre is something to behold and something I have loved relistening to all throughout the year. As nuanced as it is, it sacrifices nothing in the way of death metal brutality to get there.

6. meth. – I Love You

This has been by far the most criminally underrated debut by any band this year. Although only a five-song EP, the band showcase such a compelling excellence with the harsh, abrasive chaos they wrangle on here, mashing the harsh blackened noise of a band like Full of Hell with the whopping hardcore punch of the kind of metalcore pioneered by Converge and recently enhanced by groups like Code Orange. These few short songs are all such an incredible display of prowess with a bold blend of styles that makes meth. THE band to keep an eye on for future releases.

5. Revocation – The Outer Ones

Revocation quite possibly outdid their already phenomenal discography on this album with a shift in focus toward cosmic technical death metal while still maintaining a firm grasp on the thrash roots that have given their music the grounded appeal in delicious riffs and solos. The Outer Ones is such a tremendously technical yet tasty release, I have been so thoroughly enjoying it this year. I love all the delicious guitar work and tasteful bass on this album and of course the magnificent drumming too, it’s all so awesome. Hell yeah Revocation, hell yeah!

4. Gevurah – Sulphur Soul

After a strong enough debut in 2016, Gevurah made an even more emphatic perfection of their blackened death metal sound that rivals in-form Behemoth on this four-track EP. Somehow without simply aping the Polish giants’ sound, Gevurah manage to capture the grand carnal essence of albums like Evangelionand The Satanist in a few sharp pounders boiling with cultish aura to give the band’s ravenous death metal a sophisticated lining.

3. Zeal and Ardor – Stranger Fruit

I was completely and pleasantly surprised with the thoroughness and the quickness of the band’s remedying of the flaws the held Devil Is Fine back, while pushing their sound forward with confidence and justified assuredness into bold new territory, coming through with so many incredible and diverse songs. This was exactly what I wanted from Zeal and Ardor, and I’m amazed I got it so quickly after their debut last year.

2. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want

Such a hellish and truly terrifying comeback album that shatters expectations or boundaries set by the band’s previous work, this album has such a primal and theatrical appeal to it that really works its way deep into the psyche and exposes the darkness in all of us, which is catalyzed so fearsomely by the unreal harsh noise across the album that the band so neatly and meticulously weaves into their performances. This album really captures the darkness of the human condition and the degree to with civilization has enhanced, rather than mitigated it. I love this album; it’s like nothing else I have ever heard.

1. Khemmis – Desolation

My Twitter fed and my songs-of-the-year list definitely gave this away, but Khemmis’ third album, Desolation, is far and away the most perfect album I have heard since Gojira’s Magma in 2016, and definitely my favorite album of the year. This album is just dripping with catharsis at every step of the way, and I have not been able to resist it all year since hearing it. From start to finish, it is nothing but raw, emotive heavy metal with a somber doom edge that the band still manages to twist into something incredibly triumphant. I cannot give this album enough love. After sitting with it for so long this year, I can say it is undoubtedly an unprecedented improvement upon the already excellent Hunted, and one that established Khemmis as heavy metal’s most exciting new band.