20 Best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Albums Of 2018 (So Far)

Well, this is awkward. In my “10 Bold Predictions for Heavy Metal in 2018” list back in January, I stated that Harakiri for the Sky’s fourth album, Arson, was destined to be the best metal album of this year. And now, three months down the line, it fails to even crack the top ten of the greatest heavy discs to have come in 2018.

I suck at my job.

Regardless, Arson is still as phenomenal as progressive black metal could ever be, living up to the masterful and epic despondency of both its creators and its subgenre. Despite an inability to penetrate the upper echelon of this list, this record is still indomitable as pure, visceral, primal, depressive heaviness.

Arson is unabashedly raw – not from a production standpoint, but in its compositions. Frontman J.J. breaks out some of the most emotive and distressing wails of all of 2018’s metal scene on this disc, furthered by the uncompromising and whirring guitars of instrumentalist M.S.

The sheer weight behind massive tracks like “Heroin Waltz” and “Tomb Omnia” is astounding, their length creating a haunting and grinding atmosphere through aggravating (in a good way) song-writing and depressive themes.