Heavy Blog Staff’s Top 10 Albums of 2018

As is the case every year we do this, the exact makeup and composition of the fine (and not so fine) people who build our ranks here at Heavy Blog shifts and changes with every passing year. In a way it’s inevitable that over time you might see the general direction of the site gravitate closer to certain musical areas and further from others because of it, or ebb and flow over time. For instance, it’s surely no coincidence that in a year where we added multiple contributors with strong backgrounds in post-rock/metal, emo, and more it followed that a couple of notable albums floated their way into our aggregate top 25 that perhaps may not have made it there previously.

By and large though, our overall taste as a group and unit has remained fairly consistent over time, to the point that you could pretty easily identify certain sounds or genres as fitting well into the realm of “Heavy Blog-core.” This might make it seem like our tastes within staff itself is rather homogenous and monolithic. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. As you’ll see below in our individual contributors’ top 10s, there is a humongous breadth and variety to what we all listen to and enjoy. We like posting these to give you all a window into what had the greatest impact on each of us on an individual level and to allow you to connect to our writers and editors who perhaps you find yourself aligning closest to your own tastes and who would be most likely to help expand your own listening.

So here you go. Over 20 individual lists covering dozens upon dozens of albums, all incredibly worthy of your time.

Ahmed Hasan

1. Revocation – The Outer Ones
2. Sectioned – Annihilated
3. Zeal and Ardor – Stranger Fruit
4. Good Tiger – We Will All Be Gone
5. Frontierer – Unloved
6. Obscura – Diluvium
7. Tesseract – Sonder
8. Carpenter Brut – Leather Teeth
9. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
10. Kindo – Happy However After

Aly Hassabelnaby

1. Between the Buried and Me – Automata I & II
2. Obscura – Diluvium
3. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
4. Orphaned Land – Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs
5. Ihsahn – Àmr
6. Augury – Illusive Golden Age
7. The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
8. At the Gates – To Drink From the Night Itself
9. Omnium Gatherum – The Burning Cold
10. Inferi – Revenant

Brandon Klemets

1. Haken – Vector
2. The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
3. Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology
4. Zeal & Ardor – Stranger Fruit
5. Rivers Of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
6. Ihsahn – Àmr
7. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
8. Between The Buried And Me – Automata
9. Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
10. Night Verses – From the Gallery of Sleep

Claire Qiu

1. Night Verses – From the Gallery of Sleep
2. Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury
3. KEN Mode – Loved
4. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
5. Sumac – Love in Shadow
6. Ancestors – Suspended in Reflections
7. Greyhaven – Empty Black
8. Basalte – Vertige
9. Portrayal of Guilt – Let Pain Be Your Guide
10. Boss Keloid – Melted on the Inch

Cody Dilullo

1. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
2. Uada – Cult of a Dying Sun
3. Arsis – Visitant
4. Ihsahn – Àmr
5. Beyond Creation – Algorythm
6. Mask of Judas – The Mesmerist
7. Obscura – Diluvium
8. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
9. The Lion’s Daughter – Future Cult
10. Coheed and Cambria – The Unheavenly Creatures

Colin Kauffman

1. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
2. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
3. Manes – Slow Motion Death Sequence
4. Tomb Mold – Manor Of Infinite Forms
5. Baring Teeth – Transitive Savagery
6. Infernal Coil – Within A World Forgotten
7. Bosse-De-Nage – Further Still
8. Horrendous – Idol
9. Zealotry – At The Nexus Of All Stillborn Worlds
10. Entropia – Vacuum

David Zeidler

1. Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures
2. HOLY FAWN – DEATH SPELLS
3. LUME – Wrung Out
4. Trna – Earthcult
5. Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
6. Coastlands – The Further Still
7. There’s A Light – A Long Lost Silence
8. Ben Howard – Noonday Dream
9. IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance
10. Deafheaven – Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Eden Kupermintz

1. Ancestors – Suspended in Reflections
2. The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
3. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
4. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
5. Soldat Hans – Es Taut
6. Snowpoet – Thought You Knew
7. Night Verses – From the Gallery of Sleep
8. Howling Sycamore – Howling Sycamore
9. Tangled Thoughts of Leaving – No Tether
10. Floex & Tom Hodge – A Portrait of John Doe

Jimmy Rowe

1. The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
2. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
3. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
4. Between the Buried and Me – Automata I & II
5. Coheed and Cambria – The Unheavenly Creatures
6. Zeal & Ardor – Stranger Fruit
7. Author & Punisher – Beastland
8. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
9. Horrendous – Idol
10. Ghost – Prequelle

Jonathan Adams

1. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
2. Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury
3. Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology
4. Burial Invocation – Abiogenesis
5. Sleep – The Sciences
6. Sumac – Love In Shadow
7. Mournful Congregation – The Incubus of Karma
8. Thou – Magus
9. Zealotry – At the Nexus of All Stillborn Worlds
10. The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic

Jordan Jerabek

1. Sumac – Love In Shadow
2. Sleep – The Sciences
3. Judas Priest – Firepower
4. The Armed – ONLY LOVE
5. Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury
6. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
7. YOB – Our Raw Heart
8. Bosse-de-Nage – Further Still
9. Mutilation Rites – Chasm
10. KEN Mode – Loved

Joshua Bulleid

1. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
2. Don Broco – Technology
3. Parkway Drive – Reverence
4. Psycroptic – As The Kingdom Drowns
5. The Atlas Moth – Coma Noir
6. Slugdge – Esoteric Malecology
7. Harakiri For The Sky – Arson
8. Judas Priest – Firepower
9. Lucis Absentia – Gehenna Gate
10. Machine Head – Catharsis

Karlo Doroc

1. The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
2. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
3. Eartheria – Awaken the Sun
4. Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer
5. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
6. Psycroptic – As the Kingdom Drowns
7. Immortal Guardian – Age of Revolution
8. Bleed from Within – Era
9. Irreversible Mechanism – Immersion
10. Voices from the Fuselage – Odyssey II: The Founder of Dreams

Matt MacLennan

1. Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
2. Sectioned – Annihilated
3. Ernia – Ernia
4. Frontierer – Unloved
5. Jesus Piece – Only Self
6. Fawn Limbs – Towing Heads
7. KEN mode – Loved
8. Aborted – Terrorvision
9. LLNN – Deads
10. Portrayal of Guilt – Let Pain Be Your Guide

Matthew Landis

1. High on Fire – Electric Messiah
2. Arabrot – Who Do You Love?
3. Soulglo – Tour Tape 2k18 (for the homie)
4. Thou – Magus
5. James Booker – The Lost Paramount Tape
6. Donny Mccaslin – Blow
7. Author & Punisher – Beastland

Nick Cusworth

1. Monobody – Raytracing
2. Holy Fawn – Death Spells
3. Tangled Thoughts of Leaving – No Tether
4. Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
5. Black Peaks – All That Divides
6. The Ocean – Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic
7. Floex + Tom Hodge – A Portrait of John Doe
8. Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer
9. Night Verses – From the Gallery of Sleep
10. Hago – Hago

Noyan

1. Immortal Guardian – Age of Revolution
2. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
3. Within the Ruins – World Undone
4. Sigh – Heir To Despair
5. Nekrogoblikon – Welcome to Bonkers
6. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
7. Ihsahn – Àmr
8. Krosis – Solem Vatem
9. The Lion’s Daughter – Future Cult
10. Mask of Judas – The Mesmerist

Pete Williams

1. YOB – Our Raw Heart
2. Rivers of Nihil – Where the Owls Know My Name
3. Ihsahn – Ámr
4. Sleep – The Sciences
5. Zeal and Ardor – Stranger Fruit
6. Khemmis – Desolation
7. Revocation – The Outer Ones
8. Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology
9. Skeletonwitch – Devouring Radiant Light
10. High on Fire – Electric Messiah

Ryan Castrati

1. Soccer Mommy – Clean
2. Dance Gavin Dance – Artificial Selection
3. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Sex & Food
4. Pinkshinyultrablast – Miserable Miracles
5. Sectioned – Annihilated
6. Night Verses – From the Gallery of Sleep
7. Krosis – Solem Vatem
8. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
9. Aegaeon – Age
10. Ariana Grande – Sweetener

Scott Murphy

1. Kamasi Washington – Heaven & Earth
2. Imperial Triumphant – Vile Luxury
3. Sumac – Love In Shadow
4. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
5. Monobody – Raytracing
6. Toby Driver – They Are The Shield
7. Tangled Thoughts of Leaving – No Tether
8. Soldat Hans – Es Taut
9. Entropia – Vacuum
10. COAST – COAST

Simon Clark

1. Boss Keloid – Melted On The Inch
2. Black Peaks – All That Divides
3. Conjurer – Mire
4. Frontierer – Unloved
5. Toska – Fire By The Silos
6. Hypophora – Douse
7. Press To MECO – Here’s To The Fatigue
8. The Arusha Accord – Juracan
9. Sectioned – Annihiliated
10. Palm Reader – Braille

Simon Handmaker

1. Mutilation Rites – Chasm
2. Yob – Our Raw Heart
3. Visigoth – Conqueror’s Oath
4. Of Feather And Bone – Bestial Hymns of Perversion
5. Tomb Mold – Manor of Infinite Forms
6. Wayfarer – World’s Blood
7. Infernal Coil – Within A World Forgotten
8. Mournful Congregation – The Incubus of Karma
9. Hooded Menace – Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed
10. Haunt – Burst Into Flame

Trent Bos

1. Respire – Dénouement
2. Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
3. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
4. Alkaloid – Liquid Anatomy
5. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
6. Manes – Slow Motion Death Sequence
7. Holy Fawn – Death Spells
8. Slugdge – Esoteric Macalogy
9. Svalbard – It’s Hard to Have Hope
10. Night Verses – From the Gallery of Sleep