If you want a more detailed review of jazz from 2018, please go to Heavy Blog Is Heavy’s Jazz Club post, of which I’m part, where I’ve listed different categories and their winners and honourable mentions. In total, I’ve devised eleven categories, each with up to five nominees, adding up to a total of over sixty albums! On top of that, the other editors inside our Jazz Club also contributed their own picks and selections. If you want more jazz, please hop there and bask in the beautiful glory of this year-end post! Since I’ve already exposed myself at length on the Heavy Blog™, I’ll keep it short here.

Best Jazz Album: Death Drag – Shifted (Iluso Records)

There’s just something about this wonky, noisy, aggressive avant-garde metallized jazz record that makes it stand out above everything else. It is so good and challenging and unintuitive… I’ve already written my thoughts on it here, but let me simply say they are still felt, and this album is amazing!

Honourable Mentions

Verneri Pohjola & Mika Kallio – Animal Image

Big Heart Machine – Big Heart Machine

Patrick Shiroishi & Arturo Ibarra – LA Blues

Poline Renou, Matthieu Donarier & Sylvain Lemêtre – Adieu mes très belles

Albatre – The Fall of the Damned

Bernhard Meyer – Murmuration

Andrew Bernstein – An Exploded View of Time

Ill Considered – Ill Considered 3

Electric Coconut – Here It Comes

Masada – The Book Ber’iah