My 10 Favorite Doom Metal Records of 2018

"Apocalypse has come and gone. We're just grubbing in the ashes."

Samuel R. Delany, Dhalgren

"You are nowhere."
Thunder, Big Trouble in Little China

"Don't be a whiny little baby about subgenres."
Dear Spirit, Opium Hum

10.

CHRCH

Light Will Consume Us All

Unsettling and extremely repetitive -- we're just over 8 minutes in before the second riff of the album hits -- drone doom, with a dark, demonic priestess for a vocalist, whose delivery ranges from nearly whispered incantations to sorrowful singing to a vicious, banshee-like shriek.

9.

Dautha

Brethren of the Black Soil

Perfect traditional doom à la Candlemass, with an air of gothic melodrama. Extremely powerful vocals, and some strings and quasi-choral backing vocals to tie the noose.

8.

Sunnata

Outlands

Slow-burning, psychedelic post-metal with a distinctly Eastern melodic sensibility. I rarely smoke weed these days, but I did so last month specifically to listen to this album, because it just seemed like, if I like it that much, I'd have to hear it stoned at least once. Was not disappointed.

7.

Eartaker

Harmonics

A sonically punishing fusion of harsh noise, industrial, and death/doom. Throbbing, red-lining electronics, distorted synth drones, and death growls projecting a terrifying, anxiety-ridden vision of industrial metal hell.

6.

Author & Punisher

Beastland

Speaking of punishment and industrial metal: Beastland is Author & Punisher's best album yet. It's goddamn merciless. There's a distinct lack of guitars, which some might say makes it not technically metal, but it's just too fucking heavy to call it anything else. You could level a city with this album.

5.

Assumption

Absconditus

The second coming of diSEMBOWELMENT. Warped, lysergic death/doom with haunting clean guitar passages and the occasional ethereal synth line.

4.

Hamferð

Tamsins Likam

A beautiful, dynamic, unrelentingly mournful take on classic doom metal, fleshed out with piano, cello, and more. Almost sounds like Opeth finally decided to make the full-on doom metal album that everyone wants.

3.

Convocation

Scars Across

Massive, enveloping funeral/death/doom. Sounds like the end of the world.

2.

Sinistro

Sange Cássia

A haunting, surreal sound that's unlike anything else I heard this year. Lushly layered, dreamlike guitars and an otherworldly voice front-and-center. Kinda like prime-era The Gathering, but heavier and much, much darker.

1.

Ancestors

Suspended in Reflections

Some of the most innovative, singular doom metal in recent memory. Ancestors pile it all on -- gauzy synths, layered clean vocals, piano, strings, acoustic guitars, and even some vocoder -- into a sound that's heavy, majestic, and undeniably sorrowful, but not without a glimmer of two of hope. Apparently, that's not inherently bad, even when it's doom metal.