The Philadelphia progressive metalcore outfit Kaonashi just self-released their EP Why Did You Do It? (order here). Filled with seven-tracks of brutal riffs and melodic movements that delivers the EP’s concept following the characters of manic-depressive high school student Jamie, Morgan the bully, and the love interest Casey. As 2018 is coming to a close, we asked the group what their Top 5 favorite metal albums of 2018 are.

1) Jesus Piece, Only Self

I love seeing a band from my area evolve, and that’s exactly what Jesus Piece did with Only Self. From the songwriting to the performances on this record, they solidified their own sound. Songs like “In the Silence” and “2” perfectly display their post-metal and industrial influences. I can’t wait to hear where they go next. – Peter Rono (vocalist)

2) Intervals, The Way Forward

This album tells such an incredible story the whole way through and doesn’t need a single word to help paint the picture. Each song has a completely different feeling from the next, yet all flowing seamlessly. There are songs like “Belvedere” that sound like Justin Timberlake is about to feature for a hook, and then songs like “Leave No Stone” that provide immersive guitar rhythms fit for any prog head. Intervals found a perfect way to integrate synths across the whole record without sounding cheesy, and that emphasized with the guitar melody lines create some choruses any crowd could sing along to. The Way Forward really proves that you can make a song evoke a specific emotion by giving it the correct audio context. The use of intentional resolutions, rhythms, techniques on this record all work together for some amazing soulful material. This is a huge step up from the previous album, and I would recommend it to anyone. The Way Forward is not just an instrumental album for prog guitar nerds, it’s a brilliant piece of art fit for all. It’s an awe-inspiring representation of constant progression and that is why it sticks out as my top album of 2018. – Alex Hallquist (guitar)