KMaN Top 30

Remember when we’d read the end of year lists in Metal Forces/Kerrang!/Metal Hammer, perhaps even Terrorizer, and we’d all (pretty much) agree on, or at least positively line up, with most? Not today, folks. I’ve read countless lists to this point and every one of them are completely different. Some Top 50’s, I only identified with a handful or less. The massive proliferation of music available now is mind boggling. I expose loads on my own Twitter blog and we cover a whole gamut here at BAZ, but in all reality, we are only scratching the surface.

The ‘Heavy Music’ genre is so splintered and fractured into a million smaller sub-genres that you can easily miss albums that you had no idea about. In a critical, definitive sense, metal lists are essentially pointless! Arguing and debating with others about why/why not is fun, but really the only point to them is for others to find those ‘missing’ gems that don’t appear on yours! This is exactly what the months of December and January of the following year are about – discovering what you missed and questioning why someone has an album rated so high (or not) and you thought the complete opposite! Or even the real possibility of saying “What…they released an album this year?”

Here is my Top 30. These are the albums that I connected with the most, especially my Top 20 or so…the rest are very interchangeable and in fact, since preparing this there are easily another 20 I could swap in with no issue. It’s been a great year. Hoping 2019 can maintain the rage!

#30

KRAKOW – Minus 
Karisma Records
Release date: 31 August 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#29

VOIDHANGER – Dark Days of the Soul
Agonia Records
Release date: 2 March 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#28

EARTHLESS – Black Heaven
Nuclear Blast
Release date: 16 March 2018
Listen on Spotify

#27

ASG – Survive Sunrise
Relapse Records
Release date: 15 June 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#26

JUST BEFORE DAWN – Tides of Blood
Raw Skull Recordz
Release date: 27 April 2018
Listen on YouTube

#25

BRAINSTORM – Midnight Ghost
AFM Records
Release date: 28 September 2018
Listen on Spotify

#24

AGRIMONIA – Awaken
Southern Lord
Release date: 26 January 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#23

GOZU – Equilibrium 
Metal Blade
Release date: 13 April 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#22

CHAPEL OF DISEASE – …And As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye
Ván Records
Release date: 23 November 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

 
#21

UADA – Cult of a Dying Sun 
Elsenwald
Release date: 25 May 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#20

AEOLIAN – Silent Witness
Snow Wave Records
Release date: 12 September 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#19

HARAKIRI FOR THE SKY – Arson
Art of Propaganda
Release date: 16 February 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#18

ALLFATHER – And All Will Be Desolation
Rotting Throne Records
Release date: 7 September 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#17

WAYFARER – World’s Blood
Profound Lore Records
Release date: 25 May 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#16

HINAYANA – Order Divine
Black Lion Records
Release date: 19 March 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#15

THE SKULL – The Endless Road Turns Dark
Teepee Records
Release date: 7 September 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#14

VOIVOD – Wake
Century Media
Release date: 21 September 2018
Listen on Spotify

#13

MANTICORA – To Kill to Live to Kill
ViciSolum Productions
Release date: 3 August 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#12

THRASHIST REGIME – Carnival of Monsters
Independent
Release date: 28 April 2018
Listen on Spotify

#11

BOREALIS – The Offering
AFM Records
Release date: 23 March 2018
Listen on Spotify

#10

STRYCHNIA – Into The Catacombs
Independent
Release date: 9 March 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#9

A FLOCK NAMED MURDER – An Appointed Time
Independent
Release date: 31 October 2018
Listen on Spotify

#8

SOLSTICE – White Horse Hill
Independent
Release date: 21 February 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#7

SATAN – Cruel Magic
Metal Blade
Release date: 7 September 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#6

HEADS FOR THE DEAD – Serpent’s Curse
Transcending Obscurity Records
Release date: 24 September 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#5

DECEASED – Ghostly White
Hell’s Headbangers Records
Release date: 16 November 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#4

SHYLMAGOGHNAR – Transience
Napalm Records
Release date: 29 June 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#3

ALTARS OF GRIEF – Iris
Hypnotic Dirge Records
Release date: 21 March 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#2

1914 – The Blind Leading the Blind
Archaic Sound
Release date: 11 November 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

#1

SEAR BLISS – Letters From the Edge
Hammerheart
Release date: 15 June 2018
Listen on Bandcamp

KMaN

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