Best music from 2018!

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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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