The end of 2018 is creeping up on us, and that means making a personal top ten of all releases from this year. This year was a great year for music, at least in my opinion. With so many releases it’s almost impossible to narrow it down to ten favourites. This year will also be the first time I make one of the top ten lists, since I am only writing for this website since March. While being excited to make the list, I also hope that I include everything that I think is worth mentioning. The music in this list is mostly as hectic as this year was for me, loads of (technical) death metal, some progressiveness and some traditional releases.

First of all, let’s start with a quick talk about some honorable mentions. There are some releases that are not in my top ten but deserve some recognition. First of all we have The Passage of Exsistence by Monstrosity. After eleven years the band finally released an album and I think they did a very solid job. The band has proven to be able to put some amazing crushing death metal out, while being able to compete with the modern day bands (read our review here). Talking about death metal, Bloodbath released The Arrow Of Satan Is Drawn, which is just a classic, amazing record like you would like to hear from them.

Some more death metal, this time from Belgium! Carnation released their album Chapel of Abhorrence. This full-length is absolute no-nonsense death metal and I would definitely recommend checking them out (read our review here). A heavy metal release that I liked is Cruel Magic by NWOBHM band Satan. It is just straight forward heavy metal, but I think it is pretty refreshing to hear some heavy metal between these death metal releases.

While this year was filled with awesome releases, I’m already looking forward to 2019. One release in particular really, since I think they are criminally underrated and are really good. Tech death formation Allegaeon is working on a new album that is to be released in the beginning of next year, called Apoptosis. If you like what is to come in my top ten, you should keep an eye out for this band!