TOP METAL ALBUMS 2018 - Massive list from Cyprus' Metal Scene Members

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow metalheads through the lands and fires of hell.

As 2018 comes to an end, it's that time of the year again when we run back in time to review the past twelve months. It's that time of the year when people like you and me are going through their annual playlists to create their list of their TOP (10?) (20?) (100?) favorite releases of the year. And damn, 2018 was a fuckin blast!

To make it easier for you (or actually screw your mind - more than it is, yes) Cy-Metal.com asked more than 20 people involved in the Cyprus Metal Scene for their lists of TOP-10 releases of the year. We tried to have a variety of people representing the huge majority of metal genres. Some people for their own reasons (mostly lack of time) couldn't provide us with a list, but the majority thankfully did (even though I had to be "prixtis" for many of them). The result was 19 responses (+2 from us as bonuses) and a total of 116 different releases presented!! 

First our demographics: 

21 people in total, 20 male and one female (Hail to the Queen Nikoletta).

These people are/were heavily involved in the Cyprus Metal Scene, either as musicians, promoters, record-label owners, studio owners, etc. 

Bands represented among others were Arrayan Path, Blynd, Crusifire, Dark Poetry, Diphtheria, Dragonbreath, Hardraw, Kidius Shredius Maximus, Mortem Atra, R.U.S.T.X, Solitary Sabred, Stainlesz, Stormcast, Temple of Evil, Vomitile, Winters Verge.

Labels represented: Pitch Black Records and Deathhammer Records. 

It is worth-mentioning that this was not a poll! We didn't provided the titles ourselves, each person provided their own list independently.

The statistics:

Releases:
As mentioned before, 116 different releases in total made it to the final cut (nearly all of the full-albums, except from a handful of occasions where an EP or a Single was provided in the list).

Countries:
24 Countries made it to the selection (see Figure 1) , with the majority of the bands hailing from USA (30), United Kingdom (14), Greece (12) and Sweden (10).

Figure 1: Number of bands mentioned per country of origin

Genres: 

"Labeling" all these bands into categories can be a pain in the ass, debatable, controversial, non-political-correct, etc. However, to get a general idea, our statistics show that the predominant genres fall into the Heavy/Power/Speed categories (35). Runner-up comes the Black Metal genre (21), followed by Rock/Prog-Rock (18) selections and Death Metal -traditional, technical and melodic- (15). But not limited to the above categories we had gothic, stoner, avant-garde, etc. We even had the genre "Nintendocore" popping up in the lists!

Results: 

Figure 2: Results for the TOP Metal Albums of 2018

It goes without saying that Judas Priest's incredible "Firepower" would be the ultimate album of 2018! As you can see in Figure 2, the Metal Gods made it to 15 out of 21 lists! No surprises here since the album is considered by a number of fans as their second Painkiller. 

Second to the top, with just one vote more from its runner ups come the Greek speeders Sacral Rage with their second work "Beyond Celestial Echoes". Extraterrestrial sounds, outstanding vocals and sci-fi concepts comprise their recipe of success (7 Votes). 

Next in line, we had a draw between Amorphis - "Queen of Time", our own Arrayan Path - "Archegonoi" and the comeback album of Heir Apparent - "The View From Below", each getting 6 votes.

Another comeback, after a 20-year hiatus, that made it to the next spot in the list was Fifth Angel - "The Third Secret". The album received five (5) votes, alongside with Ghost - "Prequelle" and Riot V - "Armor of Light". 

The fight to make it to the TOP 10 of Cy-Metal.com brought the three following albums in a draw each receiving four (4) recommendations: Behemoth's newest opus "I Loved You at Your Darkest", Canadian Manacle's debut album entitled "No Fear to Persevere" and Saxon's "Thunderbolt". 

The list is expanding to a TOP-17 with the six additional releases receiving three (3) recommendations each. These are: Ashbury - "Eye of the Stygian Witches", Kamelot - "The Shadow Theory", Kriegsmaschine - "Apocalipticists", Primordial - "Exile Amongst the Ruins", Tesseract - "Sonder" and Urfaust - "The Constellatory Practice". 

An additional 26 releases received two (2) recommendations each, and another 73 releases were mentioned once. A complete list of all the releases mentioned alongside their home-countries and the number of mentions can be found at the bottom of this post.

Now take a look on what each individual person voted, and update your lists as you go through. We would like to hear your recommendations and comments so, please, FIRE AT WILL!!
*(Please note that all the lists in this post are in alphabetical order and not in order of preference!)

Cheers, 

Michalis and Andreas Benakis

www.Cy-Metal.com

December 2018

The complete list of the TOP 116 releases presented follows:

	Album	Country
1	Achelous - Macedon	Greece
2	Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog	USA
3	Alien Weaponry - Tu	New Zealand
4	Amorphis - Queen Of Time	Finland
5	Arcane Roots - Landslide	UK
6	Arrayan Path - Archegonoi	Cyprus
7	Ashbury - Eye of the stygian witches	USA
8	At The Gates - To Drink from the Night Itself	Sweden
9	Attacker - Armor of the Gods	USA
10	Audrey Horne - Blackout	Norway
11	Automaton - Talos	Greece
12	Battleroar - Codex Epicus	Greece
13	Behemoth - I loved you at your darkest	Poland
14	Beyond Creation - Algorythm	Canada
15	Black Label Society - Grimmest Hits	USA
16	Burial Hordes - Θάνατος Αιώνιος (The Termination Thesis)	Greece
17	Burning Witches - Hexenhammer	Switzerland
18	Carnation - Chapel of Abhorrence	Belgium
19	Cauldron - New Gods	Canada
20	Cirith Ungol - Witch's Game	USA
21	Craft - White Noise and Black Metal	Sweden
22	Creye - Creye	Sweden
23	Cultes des Ghoules - Sinister, or Treading the Darker Paths	Poland
24	Derdian - DNA	Italy
25	Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine	Canada
26	Dimmu Borgir - Eonian	Norway
27	Disturbed - Evolution	USA
28	Embrace of Thorns - Scorn Aesthetics	Greece
29	Fallen Angel - Cast Out Of Heaven	USA
30	Fifth Angel - The Third Secret	USA
31	FM - Atomic Generation	Canada
32	Funeral Mist - Hekatomb	Sweden
33	Gang - All For One	France
34	Ghost - Prequelle	Sweden
35	Gorod - Aethra	France
36	Haken - Vector	UK
37	Hate Eternal - Upon Desolated Sands	USA
38	Heir Apparent - The View From Below	USA
39	Howling Sycamore - Howling Sycamore	USA
40	Hypnosinosis - ῾Υπνωσίνοσις	Chile
41	Impelliteri - The nature of the beast	USA
42	Iskandr - Euprosopon	Netherlands
43	Joakem - Mind Matter	Cyprus
44	Judas Priest - Firepower	UK
45	Jungle Rot - Jungle Rot	USA
46	Kamelot - The Shadow Theory	USA
47	Kataklysm - Meditations	Canada
48	King Goat - Debt of Aeons	UK
49	Kobra and the Lotus - Prevail II	Canada
50	Kriegsmaschine - Apocalypticists	Poland
51	Krisiun - Scourge of the Enthroned	Brazil
52	Lord Vigo - Six Must Die	Germany
53	Madball - For the Cause	USA
54	Magoth – Zeitgeist : Dystopia	Germany
55	Manacle - No Fear to Persevere	Canada
56	Marduk - Viktoria	Sweden
57	Mare - Ebony Tower	Norway
58	Mass Culture - Primal | Ephemeral	Greece
59	Ministry - Amerikkkant	USA
60	Monstrosity - The Passage of Existence	USA
61	Necrophobic - Mark of The Necrogram	Sweden
62	Necros Christos - Domedon Doxomedon	Germany
63	Obliteration - Cenotaph Obscure	Norway
64	Obscura - Diluvium	Germany
65	Omnium Gatherum - The Burning Cold	Finland
66	Opeth - Garden of the Titans	Sweden
67	Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs	Israel
68	Powerglove - Continue?	USA
69	Powerwolf - Sacrament Of Sin	Germany
70	Primal Fear - Apocalypse	Germany
71	Primordial - Exile Amongst the Ruins	Ireland
72	Purgatory - Purgatory	USA
73	Riot V - Armor of light	USA
74	Riverside - Wasteland	Poland
75	Saboter - Architects of Evil	Greece
76	Sacral Rage - Beyond Celestial Echoes	Greece
77	Sadhus "The Smoking Community" - Big Fish	Greece
78	Satan - Cruel Magic	UK
79	Saxon - Thunderbolt	UK
80	Scars on Broadway - Dictator	USA
81	Serpent Lord - Towards the Damned	Greece
82	ShadowKeep - ShadowKeep	UK
83	Sigh - Heir To Despair	Japan
84	Sirenia - Arcane Astral Aeons	Norway
85	Skeletal Remains - Devouring Mortality	USA
86	Skull Fist - Way of the Road	Canada
87	Sleep - The Sciences	USA
88	Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology	UK
89	Soulfly - Ritual	USA
90	Stryper - God Damn Evil	USA
91	Stygian Oath - Stygian Oath	Greece
92	Summoning - With Doom We Come	Austria
93	Svartidaudi - Revelations Of The Red Sword	Iceland
94	Tales of Autumn - In Madness We Trust	UK
95	Ten - Illuminati	UK
96	Tesseract - Sonder	UK
97	The Ocean - Phanerozoic	Germany
98	The Pineapple Thief - Dissolution	UK
99	The Sword - Used Future	USA
100	Toska - Fire by the Silos	UK
101	Tremonti - A Dying Machine	USA
102	Tribulation - Down Below	Sweden
103	U.D.O. - SteelFactory	Germany
104	Urfaust - The Constellatory Practice	Netherlands
105	Varathron - Patriarchs of Evil	Greece
106	Veonity - Legend Of The Starborn	Sweden
107	Voivod - The Wake	Canada
108	Vomitile - Pure Eternal Hate	Cyprus
109	WarKings - Reborn	International
110	Warrel Dane - Shadow Work	USA
111	Witherfall - A Prelude to Sorrow	USA
112	Wolfheart - Constellation of the Black Light	Finland
113	Wolvennest - VOID	Belgium
114	Wytch Hazel - II:Sojourn	UK
115	YOB - Our Raw Heart	USA
116	Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit	Switzerland