What's good, folks? Once again it's that magical season when we heavy metal media people celebrate another year closer to the sweet embrace of the grave by reflecting on our favorite albums of the past 12 months! It's a lot of work rooting through a mountain of mediocre-to-bad promos to find these diamonds in the rough to share with you, but it's worth it when I'm rewarded with comments like "your list sucks you stupid fucking idiot" and "WTF is all this hipster bullshit?!"
I've been putting these lists together here at Metal Injection since 2013 and I think this might be my most stylistically jarring entry yet. My top 15 albums of 2018 range from aggressively cheesy escapism to music that's born from fury about the increasingly awful world we live in. I think that makes sense though. Amaranthe's over-the-top pop metal and Visigoth's tales of high fantasy provide a break from the reality that the United States (and an increasing number of other countries) is being governed by deeply corrupt, hateful imbeciles while huge corporations wreck the environment. At the other end of the spectrum, Pig Destroyer and Thou provided me with a cathartic release for the anger and frustration that inevitably results from watching the shit show unfold in real time and knowing there's virtually nothing any of us can do to stop it.
But that's enough talk from me. I know you're here to discover new albums to steal off the internet, so let's get this show on the road. The following list consists of 15 albums which gave me the most enjoyment over the course of this rotten year. These are the records I revisited over and over again in 2018 and expect to continue listening to for years to come. I've also included shitty haikus which I made up while listening to this music. I hope you find one or two new favorite records, and please know, in my heart of hearts, I'm truly not interested in hearing what albums you think I should've included. I literally could not care less.
Amaranthe – Helix
Big, dumb, fun record
Pop, melodeath, EDM
How is this so good?!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDVycjDLx4Y][/youtube]
Tomb Mold – Manor of Infinite Forms
Rancid death metal
Crawling chaos and sick riffs
Canucks did good, eh?
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7g8EEGYric][/youtube]
Outer Heaven – Realms of Eternal Decay
Great debut album
Old school death metal style but fresh
Shoot this in my veins
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP9uYbCy2Rk][/youtube]
Visigoth – Conqueror's Oath
True metal from Utah
Sick riffs and tales of the bold
Feel the fire and steel!
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raBpZfbSX10][/youtube]
Svartidauði – Revelations of the Red Sword
Where did this come from?
New Svartidauði hooray!
Black metal that's great
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCPPAMGVpjo][/youtube]
Mahr – Antelux
Prava Kollectiv
Don't know names but they kick ass
Mind warped black metal
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLRB42PBrME][/youtube]
Vile Creature – Cast of Static and Smoke
Caustic doom metal
Beauty and destruction mix
Angry queer gloom cult
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjWHCHvSXL8][/youtube]
Outre-Tombe – Necrovortex
Quebec death metal
Knuckle-dragging old school sound
All killer, no crap
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xf6S4v3jr4][/youtube]
Dire Peril – The Extraterrestrial Compendium
Power metal kings
Songs about sci-fi movies
What more do you need?
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIf1imW3Cro][/youtube]
Messa – Feast for Water
Doom, blues and some jazz
Sounds like a mess but listen
Dark songs for dark times
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__s2YhdDbt8][/youtube]
Frozen Crown – The Fallen King
Power metal rules
What a beast of an album
Truly great debut
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUtMHL_TeaQ][/youtube]
Ghost – Prequelle
"But Ghost sucks" you say
Fuck you, Prequelle is the best
You just don't like fun
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_ijc7A5oAc][/youtube]
Churchburn – None Shall Live…The Hymns of Misery
Death doom steamroller
Massive guitars, brutal drums
Sounds like the end times
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo62Yv-RDfk][/youtube]
Thou – Magus
Best thing Thou's ever done?
Teeth scraping on the sidewalk
It's what we deserve
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aGuuMEQx68][/youtube]
Pig Destroyer – Head Cage
The world is awful
And Head Cage is the soundtrack
The best Piggy D
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ5HxdNlpMk][/youtube]
Keep up with all of our Best of 2018 Coverage here.
