Best music from 2018!

The year of 2018 have to come to an end, and it’s time to summarize the best albums of the year.
Ulf Backstrøm’s favorites of 2018
There has been a lot of amazing music in 2018. Setting up a ten on the top list is really impossible, but here it is. It had been possible for me to reschedule the order, and many of the ones mentioned below could have been on the top 10 list!
1.Gøsta Berlings Saga – Et Ex
A criminally underrated band and probably relatively unknown band. They deliver top quality music again and again. Et Ex is a awesome collection of songs.
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2. Vola – Applause Of A Distant Crowd
The Danes are a unique sounding progressive rock and metal band, and with many good and well played songs with a fair amount of nice complexity.
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3. Far Corner – Risk
Far Corner plays aggressive and insanely complex instrumental chamber rock, modern classical meets prog rock.
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4. Phideaux – Infernal
Infernal has a gripping story filled with turns and some of the best and most original music I’ve heard in a long while.
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5. Riverside – Wasteland
Wasteland is still Riverside but expressed in a much deeper and more mature way, and they return to a darker sound.
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6. Laktating Yak – Origin Of The Yak
Zeuhl from Texas. A very interesting band; fresh and innovative. The music features violin and dueling saxophones as elements of their eclectic sound.
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7. Overhead – Haydenspark
The music ranges from from rock, prog and heavier riffs to more acoustic atmospheres, The band combines the sound of the earlier albums with a new and exciting, more guitar-driven direction.
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8. Malum Sky – Diatribe
A sprawling juggernaut that shows the band’s creative energies flowing together to create something epic.
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9. Presto Ballet – The Days Between
The fifth release from Presto Ballet The Days Between shows a band that is probably at the height of the career?
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10. Anima Mundi – Insomnia
The band make an intriguing music and has a distinctive character. A distinctive character that comes from the band’s combination of multiple styles that fit near perfect together.
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Other very good release from 2018 in random order:
Coma Rossi – Coma Rossi – Very Exciting music indeed!
RanestRane – A Space Odyssey, Final Part – Starchild
Lazuli – Saison 8
Oaksenham – Upon All The Living And The Dead
10:13 – Result Of An Iron Age
Orphaned Land – Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs
Asael Iannelli – C2H5OH
Voivoid – The Wake
Thödol – Future Was The Brighter Yesterda
Tangent – Proxy
Oceans Of Slumber – The Banished Heart
Mystery –Lies And Butterflyes
Perihelion Ship – To Paint A Bird Of Fire
Koenjihyakkei – Dhorimvisha
Nemus – See Mench
Gryphon – Reinvention
Haken – Opus 1880
Oh – Metallia
Roine Stolt – The Flower King: Manifesto Of An Alchemist
Ostura – The Room
Toundra – Vortex
Vespero – Hollow Moon
Samurai of Prog – Archiviarum
Haika Funeral – Decadent Luminosity
Alexandra Zerner – Vector
Sonar – Sonar & David Torn: Vortex
Anima Mundi – Insomnia
All Traps On Earth – A Drop Of Light
Crippled Black Phoenix – Great Escape
Progeland – Harmony Of The Universe
Glass Hammer – Chronomonaut
Daal – Navels Falling Into A Living Origami
Ovrfwrd – Blurring The Lines …..A Democracy Manifest
Soft Machine – Hidden Details
Jean-Pierre Louveton – Retrospections – Volume III
Jon Skjeseth’s favorites of 2018
This year I have further shifted away from listening to just progressive rock and metal, which my list will show, though there were still some killer albums that was released under the prog metal-label this year.
1. Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
From its release in mid-March, I kept going back to this record throughout the year.
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2. Slugdge – Esoteric Malacology
Odd name, but a band that mixed sludge and extreme death metal to perfection through melodic excellence.
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3. Haken – Vector
At their latest album UK prog rockers drew influence from all their previous records. When does this band fail anyway? Great record.
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4. Tim Hecker – Konoyo
I’ve had a taste for Hecker’s music for many years now, and on his latest installation he managed to created something out of the ordinary.
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5. Vola – Applause of a Distant Crowd
It’s only their second album, but the danish band have already marked themselves as one of the best newcomers on the progressive rock-scene.
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6. Michael Romeo – War of the Worlds part 1
A great substitute for all those who awaits a new Symphony X-album.
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7. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want
A Dark and atmospheric noise rock album, that drew me back into the genre.
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8. Slift – La Planète Inexplorée
Dirty and heavy psychedelic rock ‘n’ roll-album that got many spins.
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9. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bon Voyage
Fluffy psychedelic pop that drew inspiration from the late 90’s post-rock.
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10. Mildlife – Phase
Ear-friendly Australian psychedelic rock.
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