Feature / Music / Year End 2018
2018: A Year In Review

January 2, 2019

2018: A Year In Review
2018: A Year In Review

Top 10 Most-Read SPB Reviews of 2018

Via some ghosts in the machine (well, website analytics), here's an automatically-compiled list of our most-read reviews across the entirety of 2018. Now, we're not suggesting that controversial bands attract lots of pageviews... but check out who's #1. These are our album reviews you wanted to read the most in 2018.

1

The Dwarves

Take Back the Night

Burger Records

Take Back The Night isn’t one of those experiment Dwarves records, like the industrio-tinge of Come Clean. On their latest offering, the long-running band alternates styles consistently between their unique and twisted take on bubblegum pop-pu ... Read more

2

Dödsrit

Dödsrit

Alerta Antifascista

After a couple of years of reviewing I’ve got a love-hate relation with genre definitions. I love ‘em because it makes my job so much easier. Just should a genre name and you, my dear reader, should have an idea about the sound of the record in question and if this ... Read more

3

Four Fists

6666

Doomtree

Four sixes, four fists, two rappers and some punchy production that’s equally space age and heavy hitting. It’s my own interpretation here, but the group name is more a reference to solidarity and kinship between rappers P.O.S and Astronautalis than it’s a st ... Read more

4

Daniel Miller and Terry Burrows

Mute: A visual document from 1978 – tomorrow

Thames & Hudson

For the uninitiated, and if you are, you might want to look at changing that immediately – shame on you: Mute Records (commonly known, referred to and stylized as “mute”) by and large is one of the most influential British independent platforms and record lab ... Read more

5

Stone Temple Pilots

Stone Temple Pilots

Atlantic

Jeff Gutt has a thankless task before him. Some might say impossible, even. He's replacing Scott Weiland, one of the most loved and recognizable frontmen of the last 30 years, who tragically died far too young.

He's also replacing Chester Be ... Read more

6

Baptists

Beacon of Faith

Southern Lord

Canadian hardcore is a weirdly veiled style. Like Canadian politics, it is highly deferential, often distinctly so. This means it both blends in with previous hardcore styles at the same time it writes original sounding songs, and it sounds highly derivative and mediocre despi ... Read more

7

Mark Lanegan

I Am the Wolf

Da Capo Press

I came late to the party when it comes to Mark Lanegan and his career.

It was him opening for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 2013 and I was instantly overcome with the feeling that I have missed out on an intriguing man and his works.

Delving into his oeuvre an ... Read more

8

Watain

Trident Wolf Eclipse

Century Media

Spending any length of time with Watain will convince you of at least one thing: this is a band who means it. For this Swedish horde, black metal is life. It’s everything and for frontman Erik Danielsson it’s an integral part of his personality. Interviews with him ... Read more

9

Street Sects

The Kicking Mule

Flenser

This deviant punk/industrial hybrid sprout onto the scene in 2014 with their EP Gentrification I: The Morning After the Night We Raped Death, introducing their aggressive, noisy and extravagant sound. However, it was their debut record End Position& ... Read more

10

Perturbator

DANGEROUS DAYS

Independent

If Daft Punk were commissioned to score a cyberpunk horror film of the likes of Hardware, the resulting work may sound something like what Paris musician James “Perturbat ... Read more

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— words by the SPB team • January 2, 2019

Main photo by Regan Walsh.

2018: A Year In Review
2018: A Year In Review

Pages in this feature

  1. Opening page
  2. Best Non Punk And Metal
  3. The Strangest Albums I Heard in 2018
  4. Top 10 metal EPs and split releases of 2018
  5. Top 5 Saddest Infinity War Deaths and Dustings
  6. Top 10 Most-Read SPB Reviews of 2018

Series: Year End 2018

Our summary of the best music (and more) of 2018.

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