I didn't go to a ton of concerts in 2018; obviously as a resident of the Washington DC metro area I made it to the Maryland Deathfest; the 2018 edition, despite losing headliners to health scares and visa issues, ended up being one of the best editions in the last several years. Sinister is an absolute beast of a live band. I had the opportunity to catch Demilich on tour as well as they were on a fantastic tour package with newcomers Blood Incantation, Artificial Brain, and Scorched. I also got to see Paradise Lost and Solstafir as well as the so-called "final" tour of Slayer. Per usual, I'm probably overlooking something.
At any rate, I certainly did manage to cram my CD shelves even more full of albums; 79 of them released in 2018 according my Collectorz.com software. Developing this year's list was difficult in that I heard a lot of albums I liked a lot, but I had a lot of trouble assigning a rank or preference to them.
Biggest Disappointment of 2018
Machine Head Catharsis
I could have said Behemoth here, but the truth is that Behemoth didn't release a bad record or one I haven't listened to a bunch at all. It was pretty good; just a radical departure from The Satanist, which right now is my current album of the decade. On the other hand, Machine Head isn't a band that I'd ever count among my absolute favorites, but I'm not going to say that I didn't really enjoy the majority of their back catalog. Excluding The Burning Red and Supercharger, I thought they were certainly enjoyable enough as a relatively easy to digest sort of metal; they were rather straight forward and only occasionally dipped their toes into anything resembling extremity but they were a logical progression of thrash rather than a rehash of Kreator and Demolition Hammer or anything like that. At their best, they were a modern sort of Metallica with a decent sense of "anthemic melody."
But Catharsis is the absolute drizzling shits. I'm absolutely convinced that the tool bags from Metal Sucks thought it would be funny to see if anyone would bite on a nu-metal revival. Turns out, exactly one person outside of dwindling 40 somethings that still attend the "Gathering of the Juggaloes" did: Robb Flynn. At the expense of literally tearing his own band apart, Catharsis not only revisited their mediocre era but double downed on it.
(Hey, we've got Dave McClain back in Sacred Reich out of it, which almost makes me rethink this disappointment thing...)
What makes Catharsis the year's biggest disappointment for me is a combination of two things. First, most of the other noteworthy releases that I heard really delivered. Second, this may be an unpopular opinion with the underground metal groupthink, but I actually think Robb Flynn is a pretty damn talented individual who writes songs that certainly have a distinct style; you know it's Machine Head when you hear the tone of their guitars; even when they play shitty nu-metal. Hell, while I think he is certainly virtue signalling and pea-cocking when he makes political statements, it's not like I've necessarily disagreed with the substance of what he was saying. This was just the unfortunate manifestation of a man's mid-life crisis.
Honorable Mentions:
Aborted Terrorvision
Abysmal Torment The Misanthrope
Ahtme Sewerborn
Amorphis Queen of Time
At The Gates To Drink From The Night Itself
Birth of Depravity From Obscure Domains
Bufihimat I
Convocation Scars Across
Cryptopsy Tome II: The Book of Suffering
Deiquisitor Downfall of the Apostates
Fixation on Suffering Confined in Obscurity
Galvanizer Sanguine Vigil
Harakiri For The Sky Arson
Hooded Menace Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed
Horrendous Idol
Immortal Northern Chaos Gods
Infuriate Infuriate
Mass Infection Shadows Became Flesh
Monstrosity The Passage of Existence
Mortuous Through Wilderness
Panopticon The Scars of Man on the once Nameless Wilderness Pt 1
Scorched Ecliptic Butchery
Un Sentiment
Wayfarer World's Blood
10.) Khemmis Desolation
My first criteria for what gets put on my list is how often did I really reach for it to listen to. I listened to Desolation a lot; their formula of Pallbearer-esque despair and heavy grooves with a smidge of classic heavy metal is very effective. Khemmis is one of the most "catchy" bands I've heard in the last few years.
9.) Necrophobic Mark of the Necrogram
Necrophobic has been around for quite a while, but this album is the first time I really dove into what the band does. They're an effective machine that straddles the line between death and black metal with precision. Nothing here reinvents the wheel, but this is a good album to get a speeding ticket to.
8.) Glorior Belli The Apostate
This French band somehow infuses their black metal with heavy doses of New Orleans-styled sludge and makes it work. When they rip, they do it as well as anyone, but when they restrain themselves and venture towards (dare i say it?) "-core" territory on tracks like "Runaway Charlie" and "Rebel Reveries", Glorior Belli truly distinguish themselves as one of black metal's boldest and most creative acts.
7.) Solstice (UK) White Horse Hill
This long running but seldom heard from doom troop from Britain delivered an album that's epic yet mournful, heavy as fuck with a flat out nasty guitar tone. To the uninitiated, this could be best described as somewhere between Candlemass and Primordial (or more accurately, their countrymen Mael Mordha.)
6.) Construct of Lethe Exiler
This band is actually semi-local for me; I've probably crossed paths with some of those involved at some point in the now distant past at shows at Jaxx Nightclub in the Washington, DC area (one of those forgotten local venues that every town has.) Exiler also features guest appearances from members of Benighted and Near Death Condition, and the result is a band that combines brutality with technique, drawing influence from Morbid Angel with judge a smidge of the current dischordant death metal that's out there (Ulcerate and Gorguts.)
5.) Uada Cult Of A Dying Sun
It seems somewhat popular to shit on these guys. Either because they got popular off their first album and therefore despised by people who refuse to listen to post-2000 black metal or because people believe in some sort of transitive property where if an apolitical black metal band shares a stage with a black metal band with some repugnant political/social/racial views, that in turn they must also be dirtbags.
I don't ascribe to this nonsense. What I hear is a band with catchy melodies, sufficient venom, and vibes that remind me of both MGLA and Agalloch. What they lack in true "originality" they more than make up for with execution and listenability. What makes this better than the debut is that there's more variety to the vocal intonations and the songs themselves are a bit longer and more ambitious. That said, I suspect that this is a band that people have unfortunately already made their minds up about before hearing them.
4.) Lago Sea of Duress
Tremendously well executed murky death metal in the vein of Morbid Angel and Immolation, with some tasteful guitar theatrics to boot. One of the best albums that Unique Leader Records has released in years, which is a bit of a surprise given the otherwise deathcore/slam direction the label has largely taken a direction towards. This band is probably a few high profile festival appearances away from getting some serious recognition.
3.) Agrimonia Awaken
Not the kind of album I'd expect to be released by Southern Lord Recordings, but apparently this band has its roots in crust punk and post-metal, yet released the type of album I've wished Opeth would have done years ago. Full of miserable guitar harmonies, thundering kick drums, and acidic vocals that stretch across 10 minute long proggish song structures, this album is definitely a grower in that you're not gonna hear 3 minute bangers, but if you put it on as background music while driving, you'll quickly find yourself captivated by the spell this band delivers. It's an intriguing and satisfying listen that got a lot of repeat listens from me.
2.) Augury Illusive Golden Age
Another Opeth-y album? Not exactly though there's some vibes of that or even long obscure Spiral Architect contained here. But make no mistake, Illusive Golden Age is a brutal death metal record and while they're ambitiously hypertechical, brutality and intensity is not sacrificed here. There's some vocal variation but it's all varying deliveries of raw throated and guttural growls. A cacophony of early Cryptopsy meets Atheist and Cynic but delivered with a tasteful restraint and razor sharp focus. In my opinion, more than the more popular Obscura, Augury assert their claim to the throne of tech-death world champs in 2018, and only their own lack of output (this was nearly 10 years after their previous outstanding album, Fragmentary Evidence) prevents them from keeping that title going forward.
1.) Hamferd Tamsins Iikam
2018 introduced this absolutely miserable six piece from the Faroes Islands to me. This actually sounds like a ship lost at sea being battered by brutal waves under a cloudy, rain drenched sky. Large crushing riffs that kinda remind me of Ahab and a songwriting style that builds to peaks and crescendos make for an involved listen. Vocalist Jon Aldara (apparently he also does vocals for Barren Earth) is immensely talented, both with a ghastly low death metal growl that would make most Finnish growlers wet themselves, as well as a painfully emotive operatic clean singing delivery. This tops my list because 1.) I listened to it a lot all year long, 2.) I can't really name another band that sounds like this (certainly no others that sing in Faroese...) 3.) the superb quality of what's contained here. I think once this album has had a couple years of exposure to be absorbed by doom metal bands, it'll be acknowledged as a classic the same way Turn Loose the Swans or Solinari or Antithesis of Light are.
