To my taste, the following albums were more metal than prog, so rather than place them on my Top 10 Prog Albums of 2018 list, I place them on a separate list of official recognition of their supreme excellence. Note that, as with my Prog list, the ranking is determined simply by consulting the number of times I listened to the album during the year 2018.

Top 10 Metal Albums of 2018:

#10 Wytch Hazel — II: Sojourn

#9 TesseracT — Sonder

#8 Distorted Harmony — A Way Out

#7 Michael Romeo — War of the Worlds, Part 1

#6 Judas Priest — Firepower

#5 Lucifer — Lucifer II

#4 Stryper — God Damn Evil

#3 Magick Touch — Blades, Chains, Whips, and Fire

#2 Haken — Vector

#1 Motorowl — Atlas

Metal Christmas, everyone, and a Heavy New Year!

UPDATED (Jan 8, 2019): Seventh Wonder’s Tiara is replaced in the #10 spot with Wytch Hazel’s II: Sojourn, with which it was tied in December 2018, but which has now been overtaken by Wytch Hazel in my January 2019 listening.