Album Of The Year 2018

Sulphur Aeon – The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos

December 21, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Germany
Style: Death metal / Blackened death metal
Label: Ván Records
Release date: 21 December 2018

Released a few days before Christmas, after most year-end lists were already printed, Sulphur Aeon’s third album should have upended a few of them. The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos is less immediate than Gateway to the Antisphere, but it goes deeper. “Cult of Starry Wisdom” sets the tone with churning tremolo riffs and a chorus-like hook that M. bellows like a high priest. The drumming is relentless without being mechanical, and the guitars keep finding melodies in places where most death metal bands would just add another blast.

The second half is where it really opens up. “Sinister Sea Sabbath” is the longest haul and earns every minute, sliding from doomy sway into full-tilt fury and back. “Lungs into Gills” has the best riff on the album, a tidal, seasick thing that drags you under, and the epic closer “Thou Shalt Not Speak His Name (The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos)” ties everything together. Dense, ugly, gorgeous. It takes time, but once it clicks it doesn’t let go.

Best tracks:

Cult of Starry Wisdom
Yuggothian Spell
Sinister Sea Sabbath
Lungs into Gills

Author’s rating: 9.1/10

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Venom – Storm the Gates

December 14, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: UK
Style: Heavy metal / Thrash metal
Label: Spinefarm Records
Release date: 14 December 2018

Nobody comes to a Venom album in 2018 expecting reinvention, and Storm the Gates doesn’t pretend otherwise. Cronos produced it himself, and it shows in the best way: raw, loud, a bit rough around the edges, with his bass growling right up front. “Bring Out Your Dead” kicks the door in with a filthy punk-metal stomp, and “Notorious” keeps the swagger going.

Thirteen songs is too many, though. The middle sags under a run of mid-paced tracks that blur into each other, and the lyrics lean hard on the usual hellfire clichés. “100 Miles to Hell” and the closing title track are the moments that remind you why this band matters, all dirty riffs and sneering vocals. Fifteen studio albums in, the old beast still bites, just not as often as it used to.

Best tracks:

Bring Out Your Dead
Notorious
100 Miles to Hell
Storm the Gates

Author’s rating: 7.0/10

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Metal Church – Damned If You Do

December 7, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Heavy metal / Thrash metal
Label: Rat Pak Records / Nuclear Blast
Release date: 7 December 2018

Released in the dead zone of early December, this one slipped past a lot of year-end lists, which is a shame. Mike Howe’s second album since his return sounds like a band that has stopped trying to prove anything and simply gets on with writing tough, tuneful American metal.

The title track opens with a crunchy, mid-tempo riff and a chorus Howe practically barks, and “By The Numbers” picks up the pace with the kind of lean, galloping verse Kurdt Vanderhoof has been writing since the eighties. “Revolution Underway” is the best thing here, a sharp, aggressive rocker with a lead break that actually goes somewhere. New drummer Stet Howland hits hard and keeps it simple.

Not everything sticks. “Monkey Finger” is a goofy detour, and the second half loses a bit of bite until “The War Electric” closes things with real menace. Still, as a twelfth studio album from a band nearly four decades in, Damned If You Do is far livelier than it has any right to be.

Best tracks:

Revolution Underway
Damned If You Do
By The Numbers
The War Electric
Guillotine

Author’s rating: 7.6/10

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Einherjer – Norrøne Spor

November 9, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Norway
Style: Viking metal
Label: Indie Recordings
Release date: 9 November 2018

There’s something reassuring about a band that knows exactly what it is. The Haugesund veterans return with a record that doesn’t chase trends or pile on orchestras. Frode Glesnes still handles vocals, guitar and bass, Gerhard Storesund is behind the kit, and the whole thing moves at that sturdy, rolling mid-tempo Einherjer have made their own: big chunky riffs, gruff chanted lines, choruses built for a hall full of raised horns.

“Mine Våpen Mine Ord” is the obvious standout, a stomper with a hook that sticks after one spin, and “Kill The Flame” proves the English-language material can hit just as hard as the Norwegian songs. “Mot Vest” and “The Blood Song” have enough lift to keep the second half from blurring together. It isn’t a reinvention, and a couple of tracks lean on the formula a bit too comfortably, but as a solid, honest slab of Norse heavy metal it does the job well.

Best tracks:

Mine Våpen Mine Ord
Kill The Flame
Mot Vest
The Blood Song

Author’s rating: 7.6/10

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Architects – Holy Hell

November 9, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: UK
Style: Metalcore
Label: Epitaph Records / UNFD
Release date: 9 November 2018

There was never going to be an easy way to make this record. It’s the first Architects album since founding guitarist Tom Searle died of skin cancer in 2016, and it was produced by his twin brother Dan, the band’s drummer, together with guitarist Josh Middleton. Grief runs through every song, but Holy Hell never wallows. It hits back.

“Hereafter” shows the shape of the whole thing: a dropped, lurching riff and a vocal that flips from full-throat roar to a chorus sung like every word costs something. “Royal Beggars” is the obvious festival anthem, while “Doomsday”, first heard as a standalone single the year before, finally finds its home here and lands even harder in context.

The production is huge and very polished, maybe too polished on “Modern Misery”, where the groove goes a bit mechanical. Still, “Death Is Not Defeat” and the closing “A Wasted Hymn” hit as hard as anything modern metalcore produced that year. A heavy, honest record that earns its big moments.

Best tracks:

Hereafter
Royal Beggars
Doomsday
Death Is Not Defeat
A Wasted Hymn

Author’s rating: 9.1/10

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Silent Planet – When the End Began

November 2, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Metalcore / Progressive metalcore
Label: Solid State Records / UNFD
Release date: 2 November 2018

Metalcore records rarely reward close reading, but When the End Began almost demands it. Garrett Russell writes like someone who has done the reading and isn’t ashamed of it, and the band, with Will Putney behind the desk, finally sounds as heavy as the ideas are big. Once “Thus Spoke” clears the air, “The New Eternity” hits with a downtuned stagger, then opens into a soaring clean chorus.

“Northern Fires (Guernica)” is the clearest statement of intent: knotted rhythms, Russell’s throat-shredding bark, and a payoff that feels earned rather than slotted in. “Visible Unseen” and “Share the Body” lean harder on melody without going soft, while “Firstborn (Ya’aburnee)” slows down and lets the atmosphere do some of the heavy lifting.

At fourteen tracks it does sag a little in the back half, and the two “Look” interludes break the momentum more than they build mood. Still, “The Anatomy of Time (Babel)” and the closing “Depths III” pull it back together. Few bands in this scene manage to be this crushing and this thoughtful at once.

Best tracks:

The New Eternity
Northern Fires (Guernica)
Visible Unseen
Firstborn (Ya’aburnee)

Author’s rating: 8.3/10

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Haken – Vector

October 26, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: UK
Style: Progressive metal
Label: InsideOut Music
Release date: 26 October 2018

Short, sharp and heavier than anything they’d done before. Vector clocks in at roughly 45 minutes, and the band use that tighter frame to sound meaner: the djent-leaning grooves are thicker, Adam “Nolly” Getgood’s mix gives the low end real weight, and once the short intro “Clear” is out of the way, “The Good Doctor” bursts in with twitchy, almost funky riffing and Ross Jennings at his most theatrical.

The centrepiece is “Veil”, a twelve-and-a-half-minute epic that shifts from brooding verses to soaring, almost Gentle Giant-like vocal layering and back without ever losing the thread. “Puzzle Box” is a knotty, rewarding workout, and the instrumental “Nil by Mouth” is the closest Haken have come to pure metal aggression. Only “Host” drifts a little, a pretty but slightly shapeless lull before “A Cell Divides” slams the door. A bold, focused fifth album from one of prog’s most reliable bands.

Best tracks:

The Good Doctor
Puzzle Box
Veil
Nil by Mouth
A Cell Divides

Author’s rating: 8.6/10

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Disturbed – Evolution

October 19, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Alternative metal / Hard rock
Label: Reprise Records
Release date: 19 October 2018

Half of Evolution is a Disturbed record, the other half is something closer to arena rock with an acoustic guitar in hand. The split is deliberate, and it makes for the band’s most uneven album, even if the high points are high.

The heavy side is fine, if safe. “Are You Ready” has the familiar staccato chug and David Draiman’s barking delivery, and “No More” is a punchy, angry little thing that would sit comfortably on any of their early records. The surprise is how good the slower songs are. “A Reason to Fight” is a sincere, rousing anthem, and “Hold On to Memories” is a proper slow-burner that never goes soggy. Kevin Churko’s production is glossy, and occasionally that gloss smooths away the edges that made this band interesting. A record that will divide the old fans, but the ballads are some of the best things they’ve written.

Best tracks:

A Reason to Fight
Are You Ready
Hold On to Memories
No More

Author’s rating: 6.9/10

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High On Fire – Electric Messiah

October 5, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: USA
Style: Sludge metal / Heavy metal
Label: eOne
Release date: 5 October 2018

Matt Pike wrote the title track of Electric Messiah as a tribute to Lemmy, and it sounds like one: filthy, speeding riffs, Des Kensel hammering away like the drum kit owes him money, and Pike howling over the top. It’s the best High On Fire opening salvo in years, and it’s not even the opening track.

That honour goes to “Spewn from the Earth”, which wastes no time at all. The real meat comes in the longer songs, though. “Steps of the Ziggurat/House of Enlil” lets the trio stretch out into stranger, hazier territory before crashing back in, and “Sanctioned Annihilation” is a slow, grinding epic that rewards patience. Kurt Ballou’s production keeps it raw and loud without flattening Pike’s guitar tone into mush. A loud, sweaty record from a band that still sounds hungry.

Best tracks:

Electric Messiah
Spewn from the Earth
Steps of the Ziggurat/House of Enlil
Sanctioned Annihilation

Author’s rating: 8.5/10

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Behemoth – I Loved You at Your Darkest

October 5, 2018 Published by WeMetalheads

Country: Poland
Style: Blackened death metal
Label: Nuclear Blast / Metal Blade Records
Release date: 5 October 2018

Following The Satanist was a thankless job, and Behemoth sensibly didn’t try to make it again. This one is looser, more theatrical and, in places, almost rock’n’roll. “Wolves ov Siberia” is a short, vicious blast that sounds built for the pit, while “God = Dog” swaggers on a mid-paced riff with a chorus that a whole arena can chant back.

“Bartzabel” is the curveball and the best thing here: slow, ritualistic, with a clean-ish vocal hook that would have been unthinkable from this band ten years ago. “Ecclesia Diabolica Catholica” brings back the blasting fury, and the orchestral touches spread across the album add scale without smothering the guitars.

Not everything lands. A few lyrics and spoken passages tip into pantomime, and the back half loses some momentum before “We Are the Next 1000 Years” pulls it together.

What keeps it from feeling like a sell-out is the playing. The drumming is relentless where it needs to be, the riffs on “Sabbath Mater” and “Havohej Pantocrator” have real teeth, and the production gives the low end a weight that suits the slower, doomier passages. It’s a record that wants to be a spectacle and, mostly, gets there. A band this big taking risks this late is worth celebrating.

Best tracks:

Bartzabel
Wolves ov Siberia
God = Dog
Ecclesia Diabolica Catholica
We Are the Next 1000 Years

Author’s rating: 8.7/10

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Sulphur Aeon – The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos

Venom – Storm the Gates

Metal Church – Damned If You Do

Einherjer – Norrøne Spor

Architects – Holy Hell

Silent Planet – When the End Began

Haken – Vector

Disturbed – Evolution

High On Fire – Electric Messiah

Behemoth – I Loved You at Your Darkest

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