GNMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 2018

[CiG]

2 0 1 8

Obviously make sure to hit up RYM yourself and search your favourite genres.

No deadline! Ends sometime in early 2020.

The rules:
- submit at least 5 releases.
- first place in your rankings gets 10 points, 2nd gets 9, etcetc, 10th gets 1.
- feel free to post more than 10, but only the top 10 will get points.
- feel free to post less than 10, the same scoring will apply.
- feel free not to rank your picks, in which case all ten picks will get 5.5 points.

GNMD = General Non-Metal Discussion, so NO UNAMBIGUOUSLY METAL ALBUMS are to be included in anybody's list.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Land of the Lustrous Soundtrack
きくお [Kikuo] - Kikuo Miku 5
KOTO - ばいばいてぃーんずららばい (Bye Bye Teens Lullaby)
Cheer-Accident - Fades
惑星アブノーマル [Wakusei Abnormal] - 私は怒りでできている
Jose Veselý - 2018

All I can list for now, but I really like that top 4, and the Wakusei Abnormal was a strong improvement over their two preceding EPs. And Jose Veselý is a legend and hero even if some of his stuff is redundant. Need to hear the Maison Book Girl and P-Model albums from this year.

 

[Einherjar86]

1. Zeal & Ardor--Stranger Fruit (if this counts as metal, just ignore it; but I'm inclined to let it pass since they strike me more as a avant-folk/spiritual group with metal aesthetics)

2. Janelle Monáe--Dirty Computer

3. The Glitch Mob--See Without Eyes

4. Ólafur Arnalds--re:member

5. Jon Hopkins--Singularity

6. Nils Frahm--All Melody

7. Tim Hecker--Konoyo

8. Holy Fawn--Death Spells

9. Rome--Hall of Thatch (Rome's taken a major slide down, in my opinion, but I'm still enthralled by Reuter's output)

10. Mitis--'Til the End

 

[challenge_everything]

Rome--Hall of Thatch (Rome's taken a major slide down, in my opinion, but I'm still enthralled by Reuter's output)

I agree Rome has taken a slide, but Hall of Thatch is the outlier in that trend. One of the best things that Reuter's ever done IMO.

 

[Einherjar86]

I think his material's gone downhill since Die Æsthetik. Hall of Thatch and Hyperion Machine are the stronger releases of the later stuff; not sure I'd call Thatch one of his best (in my opinion, anyway--nothing tops Masse Mensch Material, Flowers from Exile, and Die Æsthetik). I thought the most recent release was, actually, quite bad.

 

[CiG]

 

[challenge_everything]

I think his material's gone downhill since Die Æsthetik. Hall of Thatch and Hyperion Machine are the stronger releases of the later stuff; not sure I'd call Thatch one of his best (in my opinion, anyway--nothing tops Masse Mensch Material, Flowers from Exile, and Die Æsthetik). I thought the most recent release was, actually, quite bad.

Recent release being Ceneri? If so, agreed... there is another vinyl called Kaferzeit I haven't got my hands on yet.

Anyways, I love Hall of Thatch, Reuter's finest vocal performance and it has a sharper edge than perhaps anything he's done. 'Martyrs' is pure Swans worship but it's great. The bookends 'Blighter' and 'Clemency' I find incredibly haunting and ritualistic, and 'Hawker' is career top 5 material for me.

My Rome ratings would be something like - Die Aesthetik --> Flowers from Exile --> Hall of Thatch --> Nera --> Masse Mensch --> Confessions --> Hyperion --> Nos Chants Perdus --> Coriolan --> Hell Money --> Ceneri --> Rhodesia

 

[Einherjar86]

Yeah, Ceneri. I was even prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt with his recent ambiguous bows to ethnocentrism (I don't think it's that simple by any means, and his association with the Death in June crowd has always been up for debate); but the songwriting was just bad. Very uninspired, I thought. I haven't heard the newest vinyl either.

I agree mostly about Thatch, but I've always been a Masse Mensch Material fan. It may have to do with that record and Flowers being my intro to Rome. But I've found that it ages well, and strikes a perfect balance of martial industrial and neofolk.

I think my ratings would be really similar to yours, except flip Thatch with Masse. I'm also not really sure between Die Aesthetik, Masse, and Flowers. They're all top notch in my opinion. Lastly, I would probably put Rhodesia ahead of Ceneri. There were a couple decent tunes on that album, I thought.

 

[Bloopy]

1. Wax Chattels - Wax Chattels
2. Mr Sterile - Haters, Wreckers and Other Friends
3. Ave Teth - MMXVIII
4. Melancholia Pines - Natural Reflections
5. Threat.Meet.Protocol. - Where Did You Put My Marbles?
6. Nö Class - Painted in a Corner
7. Shady Brain Farm - 19 Years in the Same House
8. Dizzy Gear - Dizzy Gear
9. Group X - The Return of Peppermaint Joe
10. Daphne & Celeste - Daphne & Celeste Save the World

HM:
Dizzy Gear - Breaks the Internet
Seiji's Doll - Zaoinji

My non-metal listening gets a bit thin in recent years. When the metal's taken out my lists become a bit silly. Not as silly as my own album released in 2018 though. Here's the links if anyone's looking for more weird shit to consider:

Spotify or YouTube are where it's streaming in full. The Megadeth cover isn't up for preview on Bandcamp.

 

[Bloopy]

I thought it was funny that anyone would need 365 extra days and then some for this. Though so far I've only got 3 non-metal albums to list for 2019, so in 12 months I could be in the same boat scrambling to expand that to 10 somehow.

 

[Sophii]

This all I got.

1.) Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts
2.) Lena Raine - Celeste Original Soundtrack
3.) Kamasi Washington - Heaven & Earth
4.) Koenji Hyakkei - Dhorimvishka
5.) Toby Driver - They Are the Shield
6.) Oh Sees - Smote Reverser
7.) Ghost - Prequelle
8.) TWRP - Together Through Time
9.) Author and Punisher - Beastland
10.) The Algorithm - Compiler Optimization Techniques

 

[Burkhard]

1. Gåte - Svevn
2. Qntal - Nachtblume
3. The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices feat. Lisa Gerrard - BooCheeMish
4. Dead Can Dance - Dionysus
5. Oslo Domkor -Sæle

 

[CiG]

Anybody else planning on doing this?

 

[Bloopy]

Looks like you need some mofos to come in and agree with someone to break the tie, otherwise I guess this just sits open. Have you heard the other 10 releases from Jakprogresso in 2018? lol. I only listened to some of Toadmilk and enjoyed it a bit but then started to lose interest.

 

[CiG]

I checked out G U T S 2 and Moss and they were just okay. I'm not a huge fan of Boxguts' style so I knew I wasn't going to love it going in. Toadmilk rules though, his best in a long time for me. I tend to skip his more experimental stuff and try to seek out his stuff closest to straight up rap.

I heard good things from friends about his Black Tar Magician and Die Fest EPs but haven't bumped them yet. I feel like the old school idea of being a musical workhorse and pumping out material to assert dominance doesn't work at all anymore, best to be more tactical and patient with releasing stuff. Jak needs to slow down and focus on releasing definitive pieces of music IMO.

 

[mutantllama]

Die Fest rules. Really like his Goats Head Broth album from last year.

 

[CiG]

( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)


1. Warm Bodies - Warm Bodies
Favourite song: "I'm in the Sky"


2. Adrianne Lenker - Abysskiss
Favourite song: "Terminal Paradise"


3. The Aces - When My Heart Felt Volcanic
Favourite song: "Volcanic Love"


4. The Vee Bees - Yeah Nah, Yeah Nah
Favourite song: "How's Get Fucked Sound?"


5. Haley Heynderickx - I Need to Start a Garden
Favourite song: "Worth It"


6. Donny Benét - The Don
Favourite song: "Santorini"


7. MGMT - Little Dark Age
Favourite song: "Me and Michael"


8. Roosevelt - Young Romance
Favourite song: "Shadows"


9. Fickle Friends - You Are Someone Else
Favourite song: "Bite"


10. Peach Kelli Pop - Gentle Leader
Favourite song: "Don't Push Me"

 

[Slammed]

Ah shit, some how I missed the deadline for this one.

 

[CiG]

Ah shit, some how I missed the deadline for this one.

 

[Slammed]

This does not go well with my FOMO!