Top 10 (or however many you want to rank) albums of 2018 so far...

[Tomislav95]

I guess I should start to catch up on this year's albums Only have 9 I listened to enough times so far:

1. Ghost - Prequelle
2. CHVRCHES - Love is Dead
3. Amorphis - Queen of Time
4. Rae Morris - Someone Out There
5. Tribulation - Down Below
6. Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
7. Visigoth - Conqueror's Oath
8. Harakiri for the Sky - Arson
9. MGTM - Little Dark Age

[Accelerando]

Myles Kennedy - Year of the Tiger. I keep giving new albums a spin, but always going to back to this record. I always hear something I never notice before, and there's always something that speaks to me. It's going to be hard to beat for me. Not even my love for Mark Tremonti and his latest solo effort was able to top Kennedy's americana journey.

Other than that, and A Dying Machine by Tremonti, i've been going back to Daytona by Pusha T and Firepower by Judas Priest.

[TAC]

5. Tribulation - Down Below

 

Love this album and I have it rated higher!

[Nachtmerrie]

Discovered some great albums out of this topic. Thanks again

Top 2018 (no particular order) so far:

Redemption - Long night's journey into day
Tesseract - Sonder
Between the Buried and Me - Automata I & II
Oceans of Slumber - the Banished Heart
Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name
Gleb Kolyadin - Gleb Kolyadin
Halestorm - Vicious
Ihsahn - Amr

Still planning to check out some albums over next weeks including Messa, Orphaned Land, Long Distance Calling and Ostura

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Discovered some great albums out of this topic. Thanks again

Still planning to check out some albums over next weeks including Messa, Orphaned Land, Long Distance Calling and Ostura

Mmmm, that Messa album has yet to release it's hold on my #1 spot for the year. The only album that may have a chance at this point is the new Alkaloid. I also have high hopes for the new Redemption, Manticora, and Mystery albums, but I haven't got to those yet...

[Crow]

I listened to the new Messa album and it was solid but not super my thing

I do feel like there will be a decent bit of competition for my AOTY though, especially with haken, thrice, the ocean, and possibly east of the wall still to drop albums alongside a fair number of really cool stuff I already have/just ordered recently 

dunno, feels better than 2017 at least where there was a small group of reeeeeally good stuff and then a lot of stuff I liked but didn't love

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Some relatively big changes in my top 10.

1. Messa - Feast for Water (Bluesy Jazzy Doom Metal)
2. Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy (If Yes & Rush Merged to make Technical Death Metal)
3. Ostura - The Room (Symphonic Progressive Metal)
4. Oceans of Slumber - The Banished Heart (Progressive Metal)
5. Solar Fields - Ourdom (Ambient Downtempo)
6. Night Verses - From the Gallery of Sleep (Instrumental Progressive Metal)
7. Ihsahn - Àmr (Mildly Blackened Progressive Metal)
8. The Night Flight Orchestra - Sometimes the World Ain't Enough (Hard Rock)
9. Аркона - Kram (Pagan Black/Folk Metal)
10. Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs (Progressive Death/Folk Metal)

I also have enough EP's rated to have a top 10 EP list now...BEHOLD!!....

1. Progenie Terrestre Pura - starCross (Alien Space Black Metal)
2. Night Verses - Copper Wasp (Instrumental Progressive Metal)
3. Horn - Retrograd (Pagan Black Metal)
4. Drottnar - Monolith II (Black Metal)
5. Starkweather/Concealment - Starkweather/Concealment (Technical Metalcore)
6. Chthe'ilist - Passage Into the Xexanotth (Technical-ish Death Metal)
7. Yndi Halda - A Sun Coloured Shaker (Post Rock)
8. Lunatic Soul - Under a Fragmented Sky (Ambient Acoustic Rock)
9. Candlemass - House of Doom (Doom Metal)
10. Ben Frost - All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated (Dark Ambient)

[Train of Naught]

Wait, Night Verses released an EP and an album this year, but the EP literally just contains 3 songs that are also on the album, is that a normal way to release music?

[Crow]

ahh, night verses, a band i should be way more into than i am

listened to their debut earlier this year. was okay. but a lot of the post-hardcore i've heard before (and heard since) impressed me more.
listened to their new album. should totally be my thing. bored me. turned it off halfway through my second listen

[The Walrus]

Stratovarius's new compilation album is technically gonna cheat its way onto my list, I know it. Even though it only has 3 new songs.

[RandalGraves]

Anna von Hausswolff - Dead Magic

Ugly and Vengeful is easily my SOTY so far.

I listened to quite a few albums listed in this thread, but holy hell, this is the one that blew me (tee hee hee) away. I listened to the album from top to bottom, and there were moments I appreciated, but it didn't quite click. But I kept coming back to it and after a few listens, I found it all very compelling and beautiful. It was challenging and rewarding in a way that only progressive music can be.

While you're not the only one to recommend this one, these were the comments that stuck out when I was looking up artists...so thank you for introducing me to a new favorite!

[Crow]

1. Poly-Math - House of Wisdom | We Are the Devil
2. Monotheist - Scourge
3. Extremities - Gaia
4. Lumnos - Ancient Shadows of Saturn
5. Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
6. Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology
7. Huntsmen - American Scrap
8. The Earth and I - The Candeman and the Curtain
9. Alrakis - Echoes from Eta Carinae
10. Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name

something like this atm. Poly-Math is way better than it has any right to be. I actually did buy the EP they released earlier this year too without even listening to it, haha

Morrow and Journal are both probably going somewhere on here but I need more listens to figure out where they fall. I expect 8 thru 10 to all be kicked off this list eventually. also reconsidering my lumnos score because tbh i've barely gone back to it since then so oops 

i have like a dozen or so albums in my latest order all from 2018 so this entire list could see some shakeups in the coming months really. but the biggest factor i think is just, how much i come back to these albums, which is why i think lumnos might be too high, i'll figure it out eventually

[ariich]

Ok, let's give this a go!

Updated list time:

1.  Haken - Vector
2.  Amorphis - Queen of Time
3.  Between the Buried and Me - Automata
4.  Nested Shapes - Grain EP
5.  Frank Turner - Be More Kind
6.  Tremonti - A Dying Machine
7.  Submotion Orchestra - Kites
8.  Jon Hopkins - Singularity
9.  TesseracT - Sonder
10. Kindo - Happy However After

Other very enjoyable albums, in alphabetical order:
Borealis - The Offering
Dog Fashion Disco - Experiments in Embryos
Dream the Electric Sleep - The Giants' Newground
Floex & Tom Hodge - A Portrait of John Doe
Kamelot - The Shadow Theory
Kobra and the Lotus - Prevail II
Machine Head - Catharsis
Mike Shinoda - Post Traumatic
Myles Kennedy - Year of the Tiger
Ostura - The Room
The Sea Within - The Sea Within
Spock's Beard - Noise Floor

Also potential to end up in top 10 but only discovered very recently in my roulette:
Odd Palace - Things to Place on the Moon
The World Is Quiet Here - Prologue

[Crow]

curse you, vector fool

[Train of Naught]

Meh, Rivers of Nihil album is 100% not going to reach my top 10 anymore, too many better albums. Poly-Math is good but seriously #1 of the year?

I listened to Monotheist today, first half totally not my thang, sounds like a worse version of Ezerath (which I guess is decent?), second half better. Infinite Wisdom was the only song I'd call great, and I'm pretty sure it was the only song without vocals. Slugdge album is awesome but it's been too long since I've spun it so I don't know if it will reach the top 10 yet.

1.  Haken - Vector

+1 to Dog Fashion Disco and potential The World Is Quiet Here

As of now this is my thing:

1. BTBAM - Automata
2. TesseracT - Sonder
3. The World Is Quiet Here - Prologue
4. Parius - The Eldritch Realm
5. Greyhaven - Empty Black
6. Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It
7. Distances - Diableries
8. Conjurer - Mire
9. The Family Crest - The War: Act I
10. Hypno5e - Alba - Les Ombres Errantes

Honorable mentions:
- The Dali Thundering Concept - Savages
- Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
- King Goat - Aeon of Debts
- Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs
- Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name
- Hundred Year Old Man - Breaching
- Dog Fashion Disco - Experiments in Embryos

[Crow]

Poly-Math is good but seriously #1 of the year?

says the man who sent me Lo!
sorry that poly-math is like 100% up my alley 

[Dreammajesty]

Best album for 2018 so far to me is - Kindo - Happy however after  , second comes Spock's Beard - Noise floor. Other than that i have no real favorites this year for studio albums.Maybe Riverside will change something.Fates Warning - live over Europe is my favorite live album

[faizoff]

Man these lists everyone has are some really obscure stuff I've never heard of.

My 2018 purchases so far are only

Between The Buried And Me - Automata I & II
Nine Inch Nails - Bad Witch

Others I need to listen/on my radar

Alice In Chains - Rainier Fog
Spock's Beard - Noise Floor
Machine Head - Catharsis
Lunatic Soul - Under the Fragmented Sky
Riverside - Wasteland
And will probably check out this Myles Kennedy fella everyone's raving about.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Fates Warning - live over Europe is my favorite live album

I can second this. Most enjoyable live album I've heard in a while.

[bosk1]

There just hasn't really been anything much good in 2018 thus far.  Unfortunately, there isn't a ton on the horizon either.  I might be able to squeeze together a top 5 at the end of the year. 

Thus far:
Delta Deep - self titled
Stryper - God Damn Evil

Okay, the year has gotten a bit better.  If I am allowed to include live albums, I at least have a top 5 now.

1.  Redemption - Long Night's Journey Into Day:  I expect this to be album of the year.  Fantastic release.
2.  Epica - Attack on Titan Songs:  I hate to be the guy that says "lyrics don't matter; I only listen to the music."  But this band has grown on me through the years as one where I find their lyrics to be utterly ridiculous, but I can honestly say I love listening to their music and watching them play without paying attention to...whatever it is they are singing about.
3.  Michael Romeo - War of the Worlds, pt. I:  Fun release.  Yeah, a lot of the music could very well be Symphony X leftovers.  But I have no problem with that. 
4.  Neal Morse - Similitude Live:  Similitude is a fantastic album, and the performance here is great.  I only rank it so low because this live presentation does not bring anything new to the table.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  But I hate to take away from fully original album releases by other bands for a live album that is pretty much a by-the-book presentation of an album that was already an album of the year contender the year before last.
5.  Delta Deep - s/t:  If you told me Phil Collen was going to release a blues album, my curiosity would not likely be piqued.  But having seen most of the songs live on G3, I gained an early appreciation for what he did here.
6.  Stryper - God Damn Evil:  Yeah.  Stryper. 

I still don't think I will get to 10 by the end of the year.  But I am liking how my list is shaping up now.

[Zydar]

So far 'Prequelle' by Ghost has been my Album Of The Year, but I'll wait and see if Haken can top that. My hopes are high that they will.

Paul McCartney will release his new album next Friday (my favourite songwriter of all time) but his three released tracks so far off it hasn't impressed me much. Perhaps they're better in an album setting.

[The Walrus]

Attack on Titan is an anime, if you weren't aware, bosk. Not a very good one, but hey, that's where the songs are from. Makes sense the lyrics are batshit wacky especially if they're translated from other languages into English

[bosk1]

Oh, I know.  I wasn't specifically referring to those lyrics, but Epica's lyrics in general.  Yeah, I would expect lyrics based on anime to be a bit wacky.  I don't know specifically what those lyrics are about.  But as is the case with a lot of Epica's music, I can't tell what the heck they are singing about anyway unless I take the time to actually read the lyrics.  And with them, I usually don't find the need to.  They are one of those bands where, for whatever reason, I don't feel compelled to sing along, and just enjoy listening and soaking up the atmosphere.

[The Walrus]

Oh, I know.  I wasn't specifically referring to those lyrics, but Epica's lyrics in general.  Yeah, I would expect lyrics based on anime to be a bit wacky.  I don't know specifically what those lyrics are about.  But as is the case with a lot of Epica's music, I can't tell what the heck they are singing about anyway unless I take the time to actually read the lyrics.  And with them, I usually don't find the need to.  They are one of those bands where, for whatever reason, I don't feel compelled to sing along, and just enjoy listening and soaking up the atmosphere.

Ahh. Epica's lyrics are pretty horrible in my opinion; they're either super blunt with political commentary, or they shoehorn as much philosophical BS into a verse as they can. But in general I agree, I tend to not pay attention to them when I do listen to them (or I listen to songs like Unleashed rather than Deepwater Horizon ).

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Some new additions to my top 10

1. Messa - Feast for Water (Bluesy Jazzy Doom Metal)
2. Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy (If Yes & Rush Merged to make Technical Death Metal)
3. Ostura - The Room (Symphonic Progressive Metal)
4. Between the Buried and Me - Automata II (Progressive Metal)
5. Oceans of Slumber - The Banished Heart (Progressive Metal)
6. Solar Fields - Ourdom (Ambient Downtempo)
7. Night Verses - From the Gallery of Sleep (Instrumental Progressive Metal)
8. Immortal - Northern Chaos Gods (Black Metal)
9. Ihsahn - Àmr (Mildly Blackened Progressive Metal)
10. The Night Flight Orchestra - Sometimes the World Ain't Enough (Hard Rock)

Аркона and Orphaned Land drop out of the top 10, but they are both still stellar albums.

And my EP list as well....

1. Progenie Terrestre Pura - starCross (Alien Space Black Metal)
2. Night Verses - Copper Wasp (Instrumental Progressive Metal)
3. Horn - Retrograd (Pagan Black Metal)
4. Drottnar - Monolith II (Black Metal)
5. Starkweather/Concealment - Starkweather/Concealment (Technical Metalcore)
6. Chthe'ilist - Passage Into the Xexanotth (Technical-ish Death Metal)
7. Yndi Halda - A Sun Coloured Shaker (Post Rock)
8. Lunatic Soul - Under a Fragmented Sky (Ambient Acoustic Rock)
9. Candlemass - House of Doom (Doom Metal)
10. Ben Frost - All That You Love Will Be Eviscerated (Dark Ambient)

Live Albums

1. Fates Warning - Live Over Europe
2. Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine – Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv

[Crow]

i gave the new immortal a few spins before and wasn't super into it but it was pretty solid. for a band going on like, what, 25? 30? years? it still rocks pretty hard

[Elite]

- King Goat - Aeon of Debts

Okay, this list is gonna suck, because I haven't listened to that much stuff, so I'll just do a top 5.

1. Messa - Feast for Water
2. BTBAM - Automata II
3. Tesseract - Sonder
4. Huntsmen - American Scrap
5. Oceans of Slumber - The Banished Heart

Need to catch up on a lot of stuff.

[lonestar]

I got a few to add to my list, but I'm gonna hold out till the new Kingcrow comes out next week, since that'll surely get a spot.

[nattmorker]

This year I have listened to many albums, many more than previous years. Last year, when I read your top albums of the years listings I realized that I didn't listen that many new albums, I usually listened to them months or years later. So, this year I've tried to listened the new albums of bands I like and new bands (that I notice thanks to this thread).

So, long story short... this is my top 10 albums of the year, so far:

1   Ghost - Prequelle
2   Between the Buried and Me - Automata II
3   Between the Buried and Me - Automata I
4   Amorphis - Queen of time
5   Obscura - Diluvium
6   Ihsahn - Ámr
7   Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs
8   The Night Flight Orchestra - Sometimes the World Ain't Enough
9   In Vain - Currents
10   Angra - ØMNI

[Stadler]

Wow.  My list:

Myles Kennedy - Year Of The Tiger
Wetton/Downes - Zero (a collection of demos from the '80's)

[home]

Woo haven't posted here in a while, it took me some time before I recognised Parama as Parama. (I always look at avatars instead of names)

1: Ólafur Arnalds - Re:member (it's not out for that long yet but atm I'm reaaally loving it)
2: Death Cab For Cutie - Thank You For Today
3: God Is An Astronaut - Epitaph
4: Post Malone - Beerbongs and Bentleys
5: Nils Frahm - All Melody
6: We Made God - Beyond The Pale

I should really check out more 2018 albums, been so fucking busy.

[Crow]

lol @ post malone 
tbh coming from you that's not even super surprising

[home]

heya Better Now is a great break-up song 

[twosuitsluke]

My top 20 as it stands:

Frank Turner - Be More Kind
Ghost - Prequelle
Between the Buried and Me - Auotomata I & II
Boss Keloid - Melted on the Inch
Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name
Dimmu Borgir - Eonian
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Ihsahn - Amr
Thy Catafalque - Geometria
Amorphis - Queen of Time

Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology
Alkaloid - Liquid Anatomy
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Ostura - The Room
Weedpecker - III
Oceans of Slumber - The Banished Heart
Mad Caddies - Punk Rock Steady
Good Tiger - We Will All Be Gone
The Sea Within - The Sea Within
Orphaned Land - Unsung Prophets and Dead Messiahs

This is likely up for a major reshuffle over the next two and a bit months, as there's so many albums I'm looking forward to!

[Train of Naught]

1: Ólafur Arnalds - Re:member (it's not out for that long yet but atm I'm reaaally loving it)

I'm not super familiar with him but they've been playing this at work quite a lot the past 3 days and it's really nice work music. Also that Post Malone album ain't bad either though it's not something I spin front to back