Top 10 Studio Albums of 2018!

It’s funny that ever since I started this blog come  every January I wonder how many new releases will come out in that given year! 2018 was no exception as there was some serious Rock N Roll that came out! Posted below are my TOP 10 Studio albums that I purchased from January to December 2018! 

Without Further Ado!

CAN CON @ #1!!

1-MONSTER TRUCK: True Rockers- When Monster Truck released the first single ‘Evolution’ everyone was confused as it sounded like Nickleback. I was one of the doubters as well. Over time though Evolution has grown on my old battered ears and is a great hard rock track… Period!  It was fellow blogger Brian ‘BOP’ Zinger when he reviewed True Rockers  a day before its actual release date that  I was onboard, Sure there are two tracks on here that have a modern sound but MT on the rest of the album jack up the Marshall/The Hammond/Drums/Vocals and deliver what I can honestly say is the best record I have heard this year! No Filler all Fuckin Killer! The old saying ‘Never Judge a Book by its Cover’ holds true with Music! Don’t Judge an Album by its First Single!  Nuff Said!

In other related Trucker News!

I see The Truckers have a Canadian Tour coming up (Feb/March 2019) called the “Down N Dirty” Tour. Yeah about that for a second.  How can you play all these places in Canada and not play the real ‘Down and Dirty’ place of em all that being Thunder Bay? 

2-GHOST: Prequelle- When Ghost main man Tobias Forge dropped ‘Prequelle’ back in June I stated this was the best album of 2018 so far that  I heard up to that point. Tobias wrote a record with Big Riffs and Catchy Satanic Hooks but not to the point where it would nauseate me with silliness! Prequelle when you strip away the gimmick Forge actually knows how to write kick ass songs! I mean Tobias tapped into the Classic Hard Rock Sounds of the 70’s/80’s/90’s and twisted it all around with a modern sound and released a near perfect record! Forge wants  Ghost to  sound like a Devil version of Kansas! Hell, there’s some Satanic Saxophone as well floating about on this album…. Carry On My Wayward Satanic Son!

3-QUEEN: Bohemian Rhapsody(The Soundtrack)- In what has to be a first here ever at this site is a Soundtrack denting no less in my Top 3. Well for starters its Queen. Plus this soundtrack has a bunch of Live Stuff I have never heard! Sequencing is a big thing that has been alluded to between Ladano/HMO and Moi! Brilliant album and I love it! What a talent these Cat’s were! All Hail John Deacon!

4-JUDAS PRIEST: Firepower- Another album I was skeptical about as the videos that were released before the album came out  were ummm…. goofy. Still though Blog Nation with HMO stating that Firepower was a decent spin. I bought it and HMO was right. Its  a pretty decent record from Priest especially as you get deeper into the albums 14 tracks. Standouts include Spectre/Traitors Gate/Lone Wolf. I always worry nowadays about albums going anything over 10 tracks but Priest man totally step up and well I guess what I’m getting at it is I can listen to this album and not skip tracks……

5-Slash with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators: Living The Dream- Slash and Myles whip up a batch of great tracks(12 in all) that if you’re looking for good old-fashioned hard rock, Living the Dream will tackle that for ya! Myles as he always does delivers a stellar vocal performance and along with Todd Kerns handling all the backing vocals and Bass is the unsung hero in this band.  Also give Slash props for keeping this lineup intact for the last 3 studio albums. None of that silly Whitesnake stuff that Coverdale does with his band…..

6-Ace Frehley:Spaceman- In what could count as another album that I had zero interest in until that troublemaker Ladano and John T Snow wrote on their excellent site’s how good the Spaceman record was! On their reviews I took the plunge and purchased it and Ace totally stepped up. Wrote a batch of great catchy Hard Rock Tracks and Ace basically did the whole album himself except for the drums just like how he recorded his all time great debut solo album from 40 years ago!  Well done Space Ace!

7-SLOAN:12- Sloan released a brilliant album delivering 12 power rock pop ditties as 12 signifies  the 12th album from Sloan and each dude of the band got 3 song’s each. Cool idea and all wrapped up neat n tidy  in under 40 minutes!

8-Myles Kennedy: Year of the Tiger- Myles released this brilliant solo album where he went outside the box of heavy rock and did the whole album himself along with a few friends. Year of the Tiger is a personal album of loss that Myles endured at a young age when his Father passed. Now before you think that it’s a real mellow yellow record. It’s not! Myles displays all his fine talents as a singer/songwriter/guitar player. Kennedy is the deal man!

9-RUSH:Hemispheres(Deluxe Edition)- Sure it’s 40 years old this year! But to me its a new release for two reasons! One being I have never owned this album and Two the fact this is given the Deluxe treatment is worth a spot in my TOP 10! I mean all I have to say about this album I can sum up in two words……‘LaVilla’ 

10-RED DRAGON CARTEL: Patina- A real late addition here to my list and out of all the acts/artists  this one is the biggest surprise as Jake E Lee has without a doubt sliced and carved out one big piece of Hard Blues Rock. Man, this album I was not expecting much like the Frehley album but this Patina album walloped me outside the noggin! YUP that good!

Well there ya have it folks! My Top 10 for the Year that was 2018! I want to thank all my Blog pals throughout the world who have taken the time to read/comment and generally have a good laugh round these parts! Even if your just a reader and don’t comment thats cool as well.

Check back in a few days time for my Top Live Albums of 2018!