Your top 2018 releases!

My top 20 list of 2018:

1- Riot V.
2- Judas Priest.
3- UDO.
4- Manimal.
5- Metal Church.
6- Ross the Boss.
7- Bonfire.
8- Artillery.
9- Saxon.
10- Ashes of Ares.
11- Grave Digger.
12- Axel Rudi Pell.
13- Primal Fear.
14- Iron Angel.
15- Powerwolf.
16- Stormwitch.
17- Stephen Pearcy.
18- Tokyo Blade.
19- Impellitteri.
20- Monument.

Tad Morose would be next on the list, followed by greek metal band Saboter and Visigoth.

What a year!

I can honestly say I didn't have a single album I hated this year. As a matter of fact, there were only a few I was disappointed in. Because of this, I always have a hard time with these lists as I feel bad about saying any one is better than the other, especially when there are some albums I like differently than others. However, I tightened up my belt, thought about it real hard, and with the help of a spreadsheet, I have compiled my top 30 albums of the year coupled with my favorite song from each album:

1:
Witch Image

2:
San Antonio

3:
Ride Of Your Life

4:
Rising From The Ruins

5:
Quarter To Four

6:
Walk The Plank

7:
Time Can Heal

8:
Magic Man

9:
Damned If You Do

10:
Nothing To Say

11: Dream Child-Until Death Do We Meet Again (One Step Beyond The Grave)
12: Amorphis-Queen Of Time (Brother And Sister)
13: Alice In Chains-Rainer Fog (Never Fade)
14: Ten-Illuminati (Rosetta Stone)
15: Destina -Metal Souls (Metal Souls)
16: Impellitteri-The Nature Of The Beast (Hypocrisy)
17: Dee Snider-For The Love Of Metal (For The Love Of Metal)
18: Grave Robber-Escaping The Grave (Escaping The Grave)
19: Grave Digger -The Living Dead (Zombie Dance)
20: Nordic Mission-Second Coming (The Final War)
21: Lizzy Borden-My Midnight Things (Long May They Haunt You)
22: Kamelot-The Shadow Theory (Amnesiac)
23: Powerwolf-The Sacrament Of Sin (Venom Of Venus)
24: Striker-Play To Win (Heavy Is The Heart That Beats For You)
25: Sunstorm-The Road To Hell (The Road To Hell)
26: UDO-Steel Factory (Rose In The Desert)
27: Metal Allegiance-Volume II: Power Drunk (Mother Of Sin)
28: Primal Fear-Apolcolypse (Fight Against All Odds)
29: WET-Earthrage (Elegantly Wasted)
30: Michael Romeo-War Of The Worlds Pt. 1 (Believe)

Albums that were enjoyable but didn't make the cut (I was too lazy to rank them):

Anvil-Pounding The Pavement
Redemption-Long Night's Journey Into Day
Stryper-God Damn Evil
White Wizzard-Infernal Overdrive
Ashes Of Ashes-Well Of Souls
Axel Rudi Pell -Knights Call
Dark Sarah-The Golden Moth
Doro-Forever Warriors
FM-Atomic Generation
Hatchet-Dying To Exist
James Christian-Craving
Loudness-Rise To Glory
Mob Rules-Beast Reborn
Refuge-Solitary Men
Saxon -Thunderbolt
Two Of A Kind-Rise
Warrel Dane-Shadow Work

While not pricey coasters, these three albums left me disappointed:

Enuff Znuff-Diamond
Nowhere near as good as their old stuff. It almost sounded like a completely different band just took the Enuff Znuff name. It was still a decent album, but not quite what I was expecting considering most bands from the late 80s/early 90s who release new albums these days do so much better.

TNT-XIII
Pretty much the same case with Enuff Znuff. Good music but not what I was expecting (no I wasn't expecting the helium high vocals of old, my disappointment was purely from a music standpoint).

Pop Evil-Pop Evil
One of the only modern rock bands I would give the time of day to are leaving me cold for some reason. The music isn't bad or anything, but it just doesn't hold my interest as much as the first two albums did. Could be the overuse of rapping vocals or a lack of interesting guitar work (which made the first two so enjoyable), or I'm just not much for modern rock. They had a certain je ne sais quoi that other bands of their genre was missing in the first two albums but now they've become too generic.

I just uploaded the video to my YouTube channel.

In no particular order;

Roxanne- Radio Silence
Greta Van Fleet- Anthem of the peaceful Army
Gama Bomb- Speed between the Lines
Judas Priest- Firepower
C.O.C- No Cross No Crown
Slash- Living the Dream
Stryper- God damn Evil
Alice In Chains- Rainier Fog
Lizzy Borden- My Midnight Things
The Skull- The Endless Road turns Dark

Ordered the latest Chris Caffery. Totally blind purchase. Hope it is a good album.

Thrasher73 wrote:

In no particular order;

Roxanne- Radio Silence
Greta Van Fleet- Anthem of the peaceful Army
Gama Bomb- Speed between the Lines
Judas Priest- Firepower
C.O.C- No Cross No Crown
Slash- Living the Dream
Stryper- God damn Evil
Alice In Chains- Rainier Fog
Lizzy Borden- My Midnight Things
The Skull- The Endless Road turns Dark

I still need to get that Roxanne cd. The Lizzy Borden cd has been getting lots of hate from some of the reviews I've read. But then I know some folks who say it's one of their best albums.

nevermore wrote:

Thrasher73 wrote:

In no particular order;

Roxanne- Radio Silence
Greta Van Fleet- Anthem of the peaceful Army
Gama Bomb- Speed between the Lines
Judas Priest- Firepower
C.O.C- No Cross No Crown
Slash- Living the Dream
Stryper- God damn Evil
Alice In Chains- Rainier Fog
Lizzy Borden- My Midnight Things
The Skull- The Endless Road turns Dark

I still need to get that Roxanne cd. The Lizzy Borden cd has been getting lots of hate from some of the reviews I've read. But then I know some folks who say it's one of their best albums.

I enjoyed the new Lizzy but, I understand why some wouldn't. It is quite an odd album.

DallasBlack wrote:

8:
Magic Man

Wait, what is this?! There's a new Caffery album nobody told me about?! I thought you were my friends!

Damn, I need to get to Amazon immediately. How did I not know about this?

Lari wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

8:
Magic Man

Wait, what is this?! There's a new Caffery album nobody told me about?! I thought you were my friends!

Damn, I need to get to Amazon immediately. How did I not know about this?

I also found out about it very recently and ordered my copy a few days ago.

It's all DallasBlack's fault. Trying to keep this to himself.

And all that time we were discussing the Spirits of Fire CD

I ordered now.

nevermore wrote:

The Lizzy Borden cd has been getting lots of hate from some of the reviews I've read. But then I know some folks who say it's one of their best albums.

I didn't care much for it. It's not terrible, but not good either. I loved his 2 previous albums, but this one fell flat. It's more hard rock than metal, not that it's a bad thing per say, but that was a little disappointing. I think he was trying to do something a little different and it doesn't really work.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

nevermore wrote:

The Lizzy Borden cd has been getting lots of hate from some of the reviews I've read. But then I know some folks who say it's one of their best albums.

I didn't care much for it. It's not terrible, but not good either. I loved his 2 previous albums, but this one fell flat. It's more hard rock than metal, not that it's a bad thing per say, but that was a little disappointing. I think he was trying to do something a little different and it doesn't really work.

I will eventually check it out. Not an immediate must-have though.

Lari wrote:

It's all DallasBlack's fault. Trying to keep this to himself.

And all that time we were discussing the Spirits of Fire CD

I ordered now.

Well, I have posted it in the playlist thread several times last year . I guess I just assumed people knew about it (though I was curious why I didn't see it on anyone's lists).

It is a fantastic album and I highly recommend it.

nevermore wrote:

Thrasher73 wrote:

In no particular order;

Roxanne- Radio Silence
Greta Van Fleet- Anthem of the peaceful Army
Gama Bomb- Speed between the Lines
Judas Priest- Firepower
C.O.C- No Cross No Crown
Slash- Living the Dream
Stryper- God damn Evil
Alice In Chains- Rainier Fog
Lizzy Borden- My Midnight Things
The Skull- The Endless Road turns Dark

I still need to get that Roxanne cd. The Lizzy Borden cd has been getting lots of hate from some of the reviews I've read. But then I know some folks who say it's one of their best albums.

I like it! Yeah it’s different than his last couple of albums but he does odd so well.

DallasBlack wrote:

Lari wrote:

It's all DallasBlack's fault. Trying to keep this to himself.

And all that time we were discussing the Spirits of Fire CD

I ordered now.

Well, I have posted it in the playlist thread several times last year . I guess I just assumed people knew about it (though I was curious why I didn't see it on anyone's lists).

Nope. And I'm a big Caffery fan. Shows how much went into promoting the album that I've been able to miss its existence.

DallasBlack wrote:

It is a fantastic album and I highly recommend it.

Glad to hear. I'll be getting it soon.