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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