Vaim’s Albums of the Year 2018

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Every year the same misery… at least it’s sort of a good thing: too much great music being released the whole year through. Those people who dare to say that new music can’t offer anything good, interesting or creative anymore, just have their ears clogged up. So I underwent the difficult task of sifting though the releases I’ve listened to, reviewed, didn’t check out yet, possibly missed,… to figure out who was going to get a spot in my 10 best albums of the year 2018 and here it is!

Honorable Mentions Top EP’s 10 – 7 6 – 4 3 – 2 1

Tricked you! I’m not starting with my top 10 just yet. Every year I also listen to a bunch of EP’s that are often damn good, but I have the rule for myself that I usually don’t include them in my shortlist for best albums of the year. So since this year was a top year for me on the amount of EP’s that passed by me, I thought of taking a fine selection of a handful of them here for you to check out!

While everyone seems to be drooling over the so-called “Led Zeppelin reborn” rock outfit Greta Van Fleet, in Finland there’s something more interesting and exciting brewing in my opinion. Blue Eyed Sons delivered again with their Cold Blooded Men EP. They actually went beyond my initial expectations, more and more finding their own voice. The potential and artistic integrity they show on the release begs for more recognition throughout the world. People need to pick this up and make everyone in their surroundings listen. Mark my words: they are going to become big with the proper love and care by the right people! For the full review go here.

And then there’s the Belgian synthpunks of Hatchling. Geeky and cheeky, fun and upbeat but dark and broody all at the same time. They very much fits into the synth wave/rock craze of lately. Mind you, they’re doing something with their own touch and signature sound by adding a punky feel, some sci-fi kitsch and a geeky pride that tries to show you that they don’t take themselves too serious or care what you think as long as you end up destroying everything with them. Eleqtrobats are go! Everything must be destroyed! For the full review go here.

2 EP’s that I really loved as well was the 2 track post-rock offering from Myrkur, who showed yet again how versatile she really is as an artist and musician. But the real surprise was the Swedish HELGA. A release with some haunting tracks, bringing an almost trance-inducing sound at times in poppy songs that could appeal to lovers of pagan folk and related music, making me think of artists like Björk or Eivor, just listen to ‘Battle Song’. One of the first releases that got to my attention coming from the label Icons Creating Evil Art, a very promising label I must say. Curious to see what else HELGA and the label will bring in 2019…

But I’ve dragged this out long enough, time to actually get to my top 10 now…

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