MMA Best of Year 2018 Results

We all know that as far as stoner doom metal goes, Sleep is one of the true big deals, thanks to monumental works such as Sleep's Holy Mountain (1993) and Dopesmoker (2003), The Sciences being their first album since that latter record. It's clear, just in case you had any doubts, that they've lost nothing.

The high profile deathgrind act return with their first album since 2012's Hordes of Zombies and in spite of line-up changes since their inception that has left them with just one constant member, it's clear that Terrorizer remains strong. 

It's fair to say that when it dropped, the long-winded Pandaemorthium (Forbidden Formulas to Awaken the Blind Sovereigns of Nothingness), the second album of French act Esoctrilihum and first of two released in 2018, wasn't what was expected after debut album Mystic Echo From A Funeral Dimension in 2017. While still atmospheric at its core, the sound changed to become a whole lot more death metal based, a sound only hinted at on the debut. The result? An artist that found it's only sound within extreme metal - no easy feat even for acts with much more experience than this one.

MaYaN has always tried to associate themselves with death metal, but it's clear on Dhyana, their third album, that it's increasingly hard to say they just make death metal albums. This is so much more. If you started by calling them epic symphonic progressive power-death metal opera you may at least have gone some way to describing what MaYaN actually sounds like, but they're the kind of band who just needs to be heard rather than simply stick a label on them. 

Another band that many find hard to put a label on, but Swedish act Tribulation does at least seem to have settled on a sound (for now) with Down Below, their fourth album which picks up where 2015's The Children of the Night left off. Many call it gothic metal, but others go into their work and find it to be many other things to their ears. An exciting band, to defy genre as they do. 

One of those bands who could easily be considered as being simply consistently reliable, Finland's progressive metal act Amorphis clearly aren't satisfied with just being simply reliable. No, they're reliably strong, as latest effort Queen of Time once again proves, only just missing out on a top 10 slot on this list by a single point.

Not always the best performing genre in the MMA best of year vote, Sludge Metal has certainly struck one back in 2018 with acts such as The Ocean Collective and Entropia making the top 100. Topping both is these though and securing a top 10 place is Sinstro, whose third album Sangue Cássia secures their place as one of their genre's essential acts.

It's been a long time coming and expected long before now, but finally Canadian death metal act Augury managed to deliver their follow-up to 2009's Fragmentary Evidence. While perhaps less adventurous than some of their earlier songs in terms of outside influences, Illusive Golden Age stands as a tour de force on progressive/technical death metal that shows that even though these guys have been away, they're still a major player in the genre. 

A household name as far as technical death metal acts go, Obscura tops a 20th place in 2016 for their last album Akróasis in the MMA Best of Year vote by coming it at #8 (their highest placement yet in an MMA vote), fortunately not leaving another five year gap as there was between that and Omnivium (2011), 14th in it's year on MMA. It's well deserved, as Diluvium is a fine slab of technical death metal. Obscura is now firmly established as one of the genre's major players.

Let's be honest about this, we were all sceptical in some way about Immortal's return to making music following the exit of frontman Abbath. Sure, Demonaz was always the main writer and yeah, thanks to surgery he's back in action as a guitarist (and also vocalist) with the band, but for many years and eight albums, Immortal was always about Abbath and Demonaz being together. Even when he couldn't play on the albums, Demonaz still wrote for them and managed the band, so Abbath not being on the record isn't the same thing, not at all. Turns out though that although it does sound a bit different in the vocals department, Abbath wasn't needed for Immortal to deliver one of their most aggressive records to date. Now excuse us, we have to go eat our hats.

Mike Howe rejoining Metal Church for XI in 2016 was a big deal in the metal world. Of course that's by no means a disrespect to Ronny Munroe, but Howe had the benefit of being on earlier albums as such Blessing in Disguise (1989), widely considered to be among the band's best. Many heralded XI as the best Metal Church album in years. If anything, Damned if You Do from 2018 goes one better. With a cover that again recalles the Explorer guitar featured on their self-titled debut, but this time with the closest Metal Church has ever came again to their classic early sound, Damned If You Do simply blows XI out of the water.

Perhaps a dark horse among all of the technical death metal albums receiving recognition here on MMA in 2018, Beyond Creation was a band that first came to our attention with debut album The Aura for being the band that Augury bassist Dominic "Forest" Lapointe was playing in during Augury's absence from the scene. But with Forest returned to Augury, Beyond Creation knocks one out of the park without him on Algorythm, becoming the highest ranked death metal album of the year, also beating big name acts such as Obscura and Revocation. Well done guys, it's well earned.