It was fun and difficult for me to sort 2018 records in a chart, and there is plenty of good stuff that didn't make the top 20. Of course there's so much stuff out there, I didn't listen to everything, so very cool records could be missing. Feel free to suggest. Almost no EDM in the chart, pretty strange, but nothing came to my ears to be interesting enough to be in the top20 (except for...).
(20) Tomb Mold - Manor of Infinite Forms
Old school rotten death metal with a deep voice. Sort of Autopsy meets Incantation, but with all kind of speeds. Twisted tunes.
(19) The Crown - Cobra Speed Venom
Good stuff to listen in a car race. Fast, groovy and melodic-ish swedish death metal (don't worry: zero sadness, no clean vocals). Singer reminds of Tomas Lindberg, wich is not a bad thing of course.
(18) Evoken - Hypnagogia
Slow and hopeless as you would expect from masters of funeral doom metal. Not the most extreme Evoken album, but a very good one.
(17) XavlegbmaofffassssitimiwoamndutroabcwapwaeiippohfffX - Gore 2.0
This is a meme/comedy sideproject from Vulvodynia members. It's kind of crossover, or better slamming deathcore with a lot of different genres jokes/quotes. Stuff like hardcore, country, rockabilly, symphonic, shredding, progressive, latin, numetal, blues, groovemetal, fusion jazz, blackmetal, reggae, surf, hip-hop, trap, spacerock...
(16) Tu Carne - Acumulaciòn de Cadaveres
Really enjoyable, catchy goregrind as usual. I have a crush on spanish growling. I dance to this shit like an idiot, when nobody is watching.
(15) The Herbaliser - Bring Out the Sound
Lazy cover art, but great music. If you don't know this UK band, it's like jazzy hip-hop / funk / breaks / jazzhop with lots of instrumental parts.
(14) Nervosa - Downfall of Mankind
That's how you thrash. Screamed vocals are so powerful. Don't miss a Nervosa show if you can go, these girls destroy everything live. German thrash metal from Brasil :)
(13) Aborted - TerrorVision
Serious work here. Not as gory the as the early stuff I used to listen to, but man this is a well crafted piece of evocative death metal / deathgrind.
(12) Calibro 35 - Decade
Cinematic jazz-funk inspired by 70s (italian) crime movies. If you need an elaborate plan to steal that priceless painting, this will give you inspiration. Songwriting, arrangements and mixing are incredible. Best work from C35 in my opinion.
(11) Deracinated - Adoration of Decaying Carrion
Putrid slamming brutal death metal. Love the high pitched snare sound, wich you'll hear a lot. Short songs and great sounds, heavy but intelligible, definetely not shining or overproduced. If you like Hymenotomy and Ecchymosis, try this one. Drummer from Abominable Putridity is playing everything here, except for vocals.
(10) Kraanium - Slamchosis
These guitars will make your ears bleed. Seriously, bass helps a lot. Do not listen with cheap headphones or you will lose ability to hear mid frequencies :) Also I love the hyperblasting snare rolls. Not sure if it's my fav from Kraanium, but great slamming brutal death metal record.
(9) Voivod - The Wake
My expectations were high after last EP, and I'm not disappointed. These sci-fi metal masters are hard to describe, I like to think about them as a mix of Motorhead and King Crimson with punk and space rock influences, if that's possible.
(8) Sperm of Mankind - split EP with Pigtails
Groovy, downtuned, pitchshifted goregrind wich I find Sepultur-ish in a way (Roots). Better production than Godzilla.
(7) Ingested - The Level Above Human
Ingested continues to inject deathcore drama and breakdowns into slamming brutal death metal and the result is savage, but not over the top. Vocals now aren't the most extreme in the genre (definetely not soft) but I like how singer use multiple styles. Excellent perfomance by everyone as usual. Great production and sounds.
(6) Cryptopsy - The Book of Suffering: Tome II (EP)
This is my fav Cryptopsy release since None So Vile. Huge. First track is SO SICK. Technical brutal death metal with incredible riffs, crazy furious drumming, and pretty good vocals too. It's sorta Whisper Supremacy with a more appropriate singer.
(5) MDMA - Chemical Obliteration
Holy fuck this is an explosion of brutality. Hyperfast brutal death metal without compromises. Lots of palm muting and more complex riffs, with non-stop drum machine blast beats and disgusting vocals (some inhaled? I guess). Songs are about 3-4 minutes long, and there's a lot of stuff happening. Production is not fancy, guitar sound is often blurred, but I like a little swamp.
(4) Zeal and Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Crazy mix of soul, blues, blackmetal and Satan knows what. All stuff from Z&A is awesome at worst, and with this album they took a more metal oriented mix and production. Quality is more consistent between tracks, compared to previous releases (no fillers). They give up doing more electronic oriented tracks, I think it's a pity, but I understand.
(3) Infected Mushroom - Head of NASA and the 2 Amish Boys
Big IM fanboy here, everything they do is pure gold for me. Sound design is incredible as usual, they're the best on the market, since 2004 I would say.
Musically they continue with smart uplifting psytrance, similar to Return to the Sauce (wich I prefer ATM). This one is a little more various in terms of other genres mixed in, but not nearly as experimental as Converting II or innovative as previous albums.
I'm surprised the Spitfire single is not included, the album feels kinda short with 7 tracks. Yes, the record it's 50 minutes long, but time flyes when you enjoy music.
The last hip-hop track is the weakest IMO, while my favourite moment is the huge lead at the end of the titletrack.
(2) Nephrectomy - No Lives Matter
So much fun listening to this, my favourite Nephrectomy album so far. Slamming brutal death metal mixed to goregrind with simple and effective riffing, tons of distortion, over the top growling and beautiful production. I can't ask for more.
(1) Hollow Prophet / Scumfuck - Scumprophet (split EP)
And the winner is this allstar split. They are not from this world.
The Scumfuck singer did vocals in the Infant Annihilator EGG album. The other member of Scumfuck is from Browjob.
Hollow Prophet have the drummer of Within Destruction, the guitarist of Acrania and Slaughter to Prevail, and the singer of Shadow of Intent.
Hollow Prophet do an awesome brutal deathcore with black metal influences. Songs are constantly changing riffs, tempo, I love it. I wish them a great career, they deserve it hands down.
Scumfuck do something similar, but less frenetic and they add orchestration, so they deserve a "symphonic" tag. They don't lose brutality with keyboards, they just increase evilness.
Last track is featuring all members from the two bands, perfect... the mutation is complBREEEEEEE...
