2018 Best of Metal: #8 Sleep-The Sciences

Release Date:  April 20, 2018

Personnel:  Al Cisneros-vocals/bass, Matt Pike-guitar, and Jason Roeder-drums

Origin:  San Jose, CA

So, 19 years in between album releases.  Yeah, I’m not really sure where the old trope about weed sapping your ambition comes from.  At any rate, it turns out that when the old stoners decide to finally pull their shit together, they can still manage to create something really magical.  This record is just tight.  And that’s not something I really didn’t quite expect from the kings of stoner metal.  I kind of expect Sleep to just kind of meander around, bump into things and take their sweet damn time getting to the point of things.  And, there is some of that on this album, but overall this is a really focused album.  Matt Pike has laid down some of the more tasty leads of his career on this thing.  Bravo, stoner dudes!  Let’s not wait nearly two decades for the next one.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

8.  Sleep-The Sciences
9.  Tomb Mold-Manor of Infinite Forms
10.  Revocation-The Outer Ones
11.  All Them Witches-ATW
12.  Redemption-Long Night’s Journey Into Day
13.  Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats-Wasteland
14.  Panopticon-The Scars of Man Upon the Once Nameless Wilderness
15.  Arkona-Khram
16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For the Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #9 Tomb Mold-Manor of Infinite Forms

Release Date:  June 8, 2018

Personnel:  Payson Power-guitar, Derrick Vella-guitar, Steve Musgrave-bass, and Max Klebanoff-drums/vocals

Origin:  Toronto, Canada

This is damn near a perfect death metal album.  It’s aggressive, but not monotonously so.  So many death metal albums that are on the grittier side such as this one tend to get bogged down by a repetitive formula and it ends up being a little too much grind for the album to fully breathe.  This guys get it.  There are so many creative parts on this thing.  This is one of those albums in which I really had a hard time not listening to over and over.  The true mark of a really amazing album.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

9.  Tomb Mold-Manor of Infinite Forms
10.  Revocation-The Outer Ones
11.  All Them Witches-ATW
12.  Redemption-Long Night’s Journey Into Day
13.  Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats-Wasteland
14.  Panopticon-The Scars of Man Upon the Once Nameless Wilderness
15.  Arkona-Khram
16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For the Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #10 Revocation-The Outer Ones

Release Date:  September 28, 2018

Personnel:  David Davidson-vocals/guitar, Dan Gargiulo-guitar, Brett Bamberger-bass, and Ash Pearson-drums

Origin:  Boston, MA

The first ten we have visited so far have been fantastic.  So, you’re in store for a treat with the remaining albums.  We enter the Top 10 of 2018 with Revocation’s new one.  Revocation is another band that has been a model of consistency since their inception.  They have perfected their trademark sound of thrash/death metal hybrid.  To me, these guys will always seem like this generation’s Megadeth.  Leader David Davidson is one of the true guitar heroes going today.  He combines a great deal of technical wizardry with some very uncanny guitar riffs that form the structures of their songs.  These aren’t your ordinary run-of-the-mill guitar riffs.  They’re creative and it leads to some really interesting directions.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

10.  Revocation-The Outer Ones
11.  All Them Witches-ATW
12.  Redemption-Long Night’s Journey Into Day
13.  Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats-Wasteland
14.  Panopticon-The Scars of Man Upon the Once Nameless Wilderness
15.  Arkona-Khram
16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For the Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #11 All Them Witches-ATW

Release Date:  September 28, 2018

Personnel:  Charles Michael Parks, Jr.-vocals/bass, Ben McLeod-guitar, and Robby Staebler-drums

Origin:  Nashville, TN

This one is just a flat out rock-n-roll album with splashes of grunge, southern rock, indie rock and classic rock.  All Them Witches just falls into that category of band that provides a little something for everyone.  This is an album that I really found myself returning to time and again since it came out.

The list so far:

11.  All Them Witches-ATW
12.  Redemption-Long Night’s Journey Into Day
13.  Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats-Wasteland
14.  Panopticon-The Scars of Man On The Once Nameless Wilderness
15.  Arkona-Khram
16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #12 Redemption-Long Night’s Journey Into Day

Release Date:  July 27, 2018

Personnel:  Tom Englund-vocals, Nick van Dyk-guitar, Sean Andrews-bass, Chris Quirarte-drums, Vikram Shankar-keyboards

Origin:  Los Angeles, CA

Redemption saw a switcheroo in the vocalist department in 2018 with former frontman Ray Alder (Fates Warning) stepping aside and Tom Englund (Evergrey) now manning the mic.  Overall, the switch was fairly painless with Englund providing a similar delivery to that provided by Alder.  Musically, this latest album just flat out smokes.  If you are a geek for flashy guitar leads, this one should scratch that itch for you.  And it’s not all flash.  The songs are really put together well and this is definitely a bounce-back album for Redemption, who seemed to be in a bit of a rut over there past couple of albums.

4.5 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

12.  Redemption-Long Night’s Journey Into Day
13.  Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats-Wasteland
14.  Panopticon-The Scars of Man Upon the Once Nameless Wilderness
15.  Arkona-Khram
16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #13 Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats-Wasteland

Release Date:  October 12, 2018

Personnel:  Kevin R. Starrs-vocals/guitar/organ, Vaughn Stokes-guitar, Justin Smith-bass, John Rice-drums

Origin:  Cambridge, England

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats saw some personnel changes recently, but main man Kevin R. Starrs is still at the helm and is steering the 2018 incarnation of the band with the same steady hand he has always used.  Wasteland just continues Uncle Acid’s consistent level of quality albums put out since their inception.  They are one of the keystones in the retro/psychedelic metal movement.  Wasteland is just a joy.

The list so far:

13.  Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats-Wasteland
14.  Panopticon-The Scars of Man Upon the Once Nameless Wilderness
15.  Arkona-Khram
16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #14 Panopticon-The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness

 

Release Date:  April 20, 2018

Personnel:  Austin Lunn-all vocals and instruments

Origin:  Somewhere in the woods of Minnesota

Best damn bluegrass black metal band in all the land.  Well, probably the only bluegrass black metal band in all the land.  This is one of those albums you are either going to embrace wholeheartedly and really love or it’s not going to speak to you in the slightest and you’re going to hate it.  I am firmly in the camp that loves what Panopticon is doing.  It’s another of these blending of non-metal styles of music into an extreme subgenre of metal.  In the past, Panopticon has blended the two seamlessly within the same album.  This recent release is more regimented in that it is a double album with Part I being more focused on the black metal side and Part II being all bluegrass/Americana/folk.  Underlying the whole is a lament of humankind’s wretched history with nature.  This is a special one.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

14.  Panopticon-The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness
15.  Arkona-Khram
16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #15 Arkona-Khram

Release Date:  January 19, 2018

Personnel:  Maria “Masha Scream” Arkhipova-vocals, Sergei “Lazar” Atrashkevich-guitar, Ruslan “Kniaz” Rosomaherov-bass, Vladimir “Volk” Reshetnikov-wind/ethnic instruments, Andrey Ishchenko-drums

Origin:  Moscow, Russia

Pagan metal and folk metal are a couple of sub-genres in which the line between cheese and awesome is very thin.  There are a lot of bands in these sub-genres that completely jump the shark in their embrace of a weird mixture of over-the-top power metal tropes with traditional native and ancient style instruments.  A lot of time these bands are just a little too jaunty and goofy for me to take all that seriously.

Arkona, on the other hand, deliver the goods as far as pagan metal goes.  They manage to blend traditional Russian instruments with a dark death metal sound and the result is something meaty.  Their latest album, Khram, does a really nice job of using traditional instruments and pagan tales with a forward thinking and progressive sound to the metal elements on the album.  There is a ton of diversity on this record and I really think that it is one of mine favorite all-time pagan albums.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

15.  Arkona-Khram
16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

2018 Best of Metal: #16 Agrimonia-Awaken

Release Date:  January 26, 2018

Personnel:  Christina Blom-vocals, Magnus-guitar/keyboards, Pontus Redig-guitar, Martin Larsson-bass, and Bjorn Eriksson-drums

Origin:  Gothenburg, Sweden

It really seems like you can’t have a credible year-end list without including at least one Gothenburg band.  Agrimonia carries on the tradition of their forefathers of pounding melodic death metal.  This one is full of creative riffs and songwriting that has depth that a lot of the death metal albums that came out this year were solely lacking.  Vocalist Christina Blom gives a performance that should have her recognized as one of the preeminent voices in the death metal game.  She is just harsh in her delivery and it provides the perfect voice for the music that is flat-out ominous.  In a just world, this is another band that should be enjoying a much larger stage.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

16.  Agrimonia-Awaken
17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest

Best of Metal: #17 Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II

Release Date:  March 9, 2018 and July 13, 2018

Personnel:  Tommy Rogers-vocals/keyboards, Paul Waggoner-guitar, Dusty Waring-guitar, Dan Briggs, bass, and Blake Richardson-drums

Origin:  Raleigh, North Carolina

I’m counting this damn thing as one complete album.  For some reason, Between the Buried and Me decided to release their latest album in two parts.  I’m going to put the blame on this one squarely on the label because I just can’t see a reason for splitting this thing up into two separate entities.  Even length-wise, it really doesn’t make sense to split it up.  Anyway, if you take both of these semi-albums as a whole, you end up with a pretty solid outing.  BTBAM is another past winner of my album of the year award with 2015’s Coma Ecliptic.  As with Behemoth’s album this year, the new BTBAM doesn’t quite measure up to their previous masterpiece, but it is still among the top releases of the year.  The dudes really pushed the sound further into a proggier direction and it really feels as if BTBAM is overtaking Dream Theater as the preeminent prog metal outfit going today.

4 flip flops out of 5

The list so far:

17.  Between the Buried and Me-Automata I & II
18.  Clutch-Book of Bad Decisions
19.  Harakiri For The Sky-Arson
20.  Behemoth-I Loved You At Your Darkest