Is there even any point in writing an introduction for this? The title is pretty self explanatory. I listened to some albums in 2018, and these were my favourites. If you didn’t get that from the headline then there’s very little one paragraph of text can do to help you. I didn’t even call them the best albums of 2018, just so there was no confusion whatsoever that these are my opinions. The title really did the heavy lifting on this one.
Architects – Holy Hell
After losing founder member and guitarist Tom Searle to cancer a couple of years ago, it’s incredible that Architects even made another album at all. More incredible still is that Holy Hell is as strong as anything they’ve ever done. On its own, this album absolutely slams, but in context it’s triumphant – proof that these guys can not only stay at the top of their game after a huge tragedy, they can turn it into cathartic, beautiful art. It’s a sad, emotional listen for longtime fans; this album is haunted, and hearing Sam Carter (perhaps the finest metal vocalist of his generation) confront his grief head-on really hurts.
Rolo Tomassi – Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
This is the album in which Rolo Tomassi finally became the band I always wanted them to be. Their previous efforts were a bit too esoteric and challenging for me, but in Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It they pull off huge melodic anthems without compromising on their trademark nightmare jazz weirdness. It’s an ambitious yet coherent album, moving seamlessly between abrasive, angular heaviness and uplifting slow builds, particularly on masterfully sustained seven to eight minute epics like “The Hollow Hour”, “Contretemps” and “A Flood of Light”.
Don Broco – Technology
Technology is an album I love almost in spite of myself. It’s overproduced, over long, inconsistent, and I skip about a third of the tracks whenever I listen to it. But when it works it really fucking works, and some of my favourite songs of the year are on this album. Catchy riff-heavy bangers like the title track and “T-Shirt Song” are classic Don Broco, “Come Out to LA” is the band’s most successful synth-heavy pop experiment, and the supremely hooky “Everybody” fantastically ping pongs between the two singers’ vocal styles. As usual with Don Broco, it’s hard to tell whether they’re slyly mocking lad culture or the ultimate embodiment of it, but this album is best enjoyed if you don’t think it about it too much.
Marmozets – Knowing What You Know Now
It feels like Marmozets are exactly the kind of band we need right now: slick pop songwriters who still feel like a proper rock band. When a band becomes more accessible, it usually means they get rid of everything you like about them. And while Knowing What You Know Now ditches a lot of the math-rock elements of Marmozets’ debut, they’ve still got the chops to make more arena-friendly songs feel like a real kick in the teeth. It helps that Marmozets have Becca Macintyre, a once-in-a-generation firecracker of a frontwoman who shows off her depth and range as a singer on this album.
The Dirty Nil – Master Volume
Green Day was one of my early gateway bands into guitar music, so I get a real fuzzy nostalgia feeling listening to The Dirty Nil. Here’s a band that reminds me what it was like to hear Dookie for the first time: the excitement of a straight up, kinda dumb rock album played with a tonne of heart and charisma. Master Volume is big riffs and overdrive and vocals screamed till the voice strains, and it’s not terribly groundbreaking but it’s still a fucking great. Plus, it contains “Pain of Infinity”, a song I could listen to on repeat probably until the end of time.
Black Peaks – All That Divides
What a giant leap forward for these guys. Their debut, Statues, was solid, but this album, coming barely two years later, is a huge step up in every way. Now they can effortlessly pull off complex, dynamic prog metal epics that are clearly influenced by Tool, Mastodon and Dillinger yet still sound utterly fresh and unique. If Black Peaks keep improving at this rate, album number three could make them one of the biggest metal bands in the world.
Møl – Jord
On paper, there’s nothing that really differentiates Møl from the numerous post-Deafheaven bands trying to make melody a more integral part of the black metal experience. But Møl have just absolutely nailed the fundamentals on Jord, delivering a tight, controlled album that doesn’t overstay its welcome. My favourite debut of the year.
Foxing – Nearer My God
This one’s a bit of a late addition because I only started listening to it while writing this list, but god it’s good. I haven’t had the time with it yet to properly figure out what I think, but it grabbed me on my very first listen and I keep going back to it. Interesting, textured, immaculately produced, and very much filling the Brand New-shaped hole in my life left by the revelation that Jesse Lacey is a Very Bad Man.
Jonny Muir Writes Things 