As usual, let’s just get this out of the way right now:
THIS IS ROLLING STONE’S LIST. IT IS NOT OUR LIST.
THIS IS ROLLING STONE’S LIST. IT IS NOT OUR LIST.
If you thought that was already so obvious that only an idiot would need to be told, well, you obviously don’t remember the famous/infamous Comment No. 7 to our re-post of Rolling Stone’s list in 2013. Though you may have seen how that has been transformed into a running joke every fucking year since then. The only uncertainty now is who will be the first person to do it on this post. The line forms to the left.
Anyway, Rolling Stone magazine published their list of the 20 Best Metal Albums of 2018 today. One of my NCS comrades characterized the list as “shockingly… decent?”… albeit with some oddball picks such as Scars on Broadway, and I’d probably add The Armed, since I’m still not convinced we can justifiably call that a metal album. Actually, there are some others on the list I probably wouldn’t label as such either, but no one asked me.
As is almost always true of these “big platform” lists, I’m happily surprised to see a few unexpected picks — most prominently Frontierer’s album, which I also really enjoyed — along with the bigger names that have been popping up everywhere else. And on the subject of “the usual suspects”, if you’ve been keeping track, albums by the following bands on the Rolling Stone list have also appeared on most of the lists we’ve re-published so far from larger sites and selected print zines: YOB, Portal, Tomb Mold, Daughters, Sleep, At the Gates, Vein, Deafheaven, Immortal, and Judas Priest.
Now that I’ve already sort of given away some of the game, I’ll just go ahead and step aside, and allow you to view the Rolling Stone list and then comment to your hearts’ content.
(To read the magazine’s explanations for each pick, go HERE.)
20. The Armed – “Only Love“
19. Deceased – “Ghostly White“
18. At The Gates – “To Drink From The Night Itself“
17. Frontierer – “Unloved“
16. Tomb Mold – “Manor Of Infinite Forms“
15. Idles – “Joy As An Act of Resistance“
14. YOB – “Our Raw Heart“
13. Portal – “Ion“
12. Windhand – “Eternal Return“
11. Haunt – “Burst Into Flame“
10. Uniform – “The Long Walk“
09. Turnstile – “Time & Space“
08. Voivod – “The Wake“
07. Immortal – “Northern Chaos Gods“
06. Vein – “Errorzone“
05. Deafheaven – “Ordinary Corrupt Human love“
04. Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway – “Dictator“
03. Judas Priest – “Firepower“
02. Daughters – “You Won’t Get What You Want“
01. Sleep – “The Sciences“
14 Responses to “LISTMANIA 2018: ROLLING STONE’S LIST OF THE “20 BEST METAL ALBUMS OF 2018””
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Something… something… Gorguts!
Gorguts. That’s laughable. Deafheaven put out the best METAL album this year
…I don’t think I’m doing this right.
Also, total props to Tomb Mold’s marketing department. Somehow they’ve managed to get on both Revolver and Rolling Stone’s radar
Outre Tomb >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
That joke kind of passed you by, didn’t it?
WHUT JOKE
Well now you’re just trying to hurt my feelings
I gotta say, this isn’t a terrible list at all, with a few exceptions. Who the fuck is Daran Malakian??
He’s the guitar player for System of a Down. Not sure how that made it on the list.
I’m down with Immortal though!
The Armed is indeed metal. I will fight everybody on that point. On the web, anyway. Not in real life. I’m delicate.
Wait, is this your list?
🙂
I like voivod
A fair number of these are quite good picks, but WHY is the Idles’ album on this list?? It is a great album, but it is so dyed-in-the-wool punk that it could not possibly even be seen as anything bordering on metal. Islander, what on earth were you and Jann Wenner thinking?
I can’t speak for Mr. Wenner or any of his writers, but will say for myself that I did note there were a few entries on this list I wouldn’t call metal. Also, THIS IS ROLLING STONE’S LIST. IT IS NOT OUR LIST.
🙂