Honorable Mentions:
Everyday - Billie Idle
Sick Idols - Melon Batake a GoGo
Non-Tie Up - BiSH
Monster - Aldious
Nebagiba - You'll Melt More
Lightning Strikes - Judas Priest
Rainer Fog - Alice in Chains
Autonomous nerve on business trip - PEDRO
Secret Maiko Lips - BAND-MAIKO(BAND-MAID)
15) Raise Your Banner - Within Temptation.
A return to form for Within Temptation. Their previous release was more poppier but the two singles release this year off of Resist have been harder and darker. More like the Heart of Everything album.
14)Sky of Rubble - Yanakoto Sotto Mute
A group I haven't posted about yet but they have a great grungier poppy rock sound.
13)Firepower - Judas Priest
Firepower was a good album but the end is nigh for Judas Priest. The title track is my favorite off the album. Halford proves even nearing 70 he can still scream better than 98% of the singers out there.
12)Domination - BAND-MAID
Band-Maid really grew this year releasing probably the best album of the year and going on a short world tour while also headlining a small festival named after them in Japan. Domination is the title track of the album World Domination and won't be the only song from that album on the list.
11)P.S.R.I.P - Billie Idle
Billie Idle picked up Pour Lui this year as she joined her former BiS group mates. So far their new releases with Lui haven't been as punky as Billie Idle's other stuff and P.S.R.I.P found its way on to my playlists more often.
10)Cockroach - Screaming Heana Cat
A collaboration album from Screaming 60s, who will collaborate with almost any rock band in Japan, and The Heana Cat a guitar, keyboards, and bass duo who play a wide variety of rock music.
Originally Posted by GloucesterChief:
Here is the best of what I was spinning in 2018.
Honorable Mentions:
Everyday - Billie Idle
Sick Idols - Melon Batake a GoGo
Non-Tie Up - BiSH
Monster - Aldious
Nebagiba - You'll Melt More
Lightning Strikes - Judas Priest
Rainer Fog - Alice in Chains
Autonomous nerve on business trip - PEDRO
Secret Maiko Lips - BAND-MAIKO(BAND-MAID)
15) Raise Your Banner - Within Temptation.
A return to form for Within Temptation. Their previous release was more poppier but the two singles release this year off of Resist have been harder and darker. More like the Heart of Everything album.
14)Sky of Rubble - Yanakoto Sotto Mute
A group I haven't posted about yet but they have a great grungier poppy rock sound.
13)Firepower - Judas Priest
Firepower was a good album but the end is nigh for Judas Priest. The title track is my favorite off the album. Halford proves even nearing 70 he can still scream better than 98% of the singers out there.
12)Domination - BAND-MAID
Band-Maid really grew this year releasing probably the best album of the year and going on a short world tour while also headlining a small festival named after them in Japan. Domination is the title track of the album World Domination and won't be the only song from that album on the list.
11)P.S.R.I.P - Billie Idle
Billie Idle picked up Pour Lui this year as she joined her former BiS group mates. So far their new releases with Lui haven't been as punky as Billie Idle's other stuff and P.S.R.I.P found its way on to my playlists more often.
10)Cockroach - Screaming Heana Cat
A collaboration album from Screaming 60s, who will collaborate with almost any rock band in Japan, and The Heana Cat a guitar, keyboards, and bass duo who play a wide variety of rock music.
I was skeptical of the new AIC, but it’s damn good! Very impressed with it!
I am a big AiC fan and like pretty much everything they put out. Rainer Fog was a great album and is typical AiC: somber lyrics with excellent guitar and
vocal harmonizing. Duvall isn't Staley but he fits well with the band's sound.
4)Strange Aeons - Necronomidol
It was a good year for Necronomidol. They did a tour of Europe and performed as a headliner for a festivals in Portland and Anaheim. Along the way they released two versions of Strange Aeons once as a single and another on a full length album. Unfortunately, the end of the year also came with the announcement that two members, one a original, would be leaving right after the new year.
3)hate!hate!hate! - Hikari Shiina
Shiina has had a strange career. Starting off as a teen model in fashion magazines she then expanded into being a pop idol, which she was half hearted with. A meeting with the then management and producer of the original BiS led her to doing more of her own thing including using her growling 'death voice'. From there she built a following doing death pop, pop songs with growling vocals in them and a macabre sense. Her latest release ditched the pop sounds completely going straight to metal.
2)Soil - There There Theres
The There There Theres are one of the most experienced alt-idols groups starting off as Bellring Heart Girls before disbanding and reforming under a different name even keeping the same stage costumes. Soil is typical of their style gloomy yet very catchy. The b-side of the single that this song comes from is also very good.
1)Turn Me On - Band-Maid
2018 was the year of Band-Maid for me. Their only misstep was the Start Over single other than that they put out the album of the year and went on a small world tour. Turn Me On shows off Kanami Tono's, the band's main songwriter, influences from Metallica and is all around a damn great hard rock song particularly the live versions which feature a bass and drums intro.