We’ll get back to regular programming tomorrow with our first Pick of the Week of 2019. But for now, here is 2018’s Top 40 in list form. In case you’re new here, you also can read in-depth stories on the top 5, as well as a more comprehensive look at numbers 6-40 below. You’re welcome.

40. WINDHAND, “Eternal Return” (Relapse)

39. PIG DESTROYER, “Head Cage” (Relapse)

38. RUNEMAGICK, “Evoked From Abyssal Sleep” (Aftermath/Parasitic)

37. SLAVES BC, “Lo, and I Am Burning” (Fear and the Void Recordings)

36. WITCH MOUNTAIN, self-titled (Svart)

35. KHEMMIS, “Desolation” (20 Buck Spin)

34. HISSING, “Permanent Destitution” (Profound Lore)

33. SVALBARD, “It’s Hard to Have Hope” (Holy Roar/Translation Loss)

32. ICARUS WITCH, “Goodbye Cruel World” (Cleopatra)

31. ÆVANGELIST, “Matricide in the Temple of Omega” (I, Voidhanger)

30. PORTAL, “Ion” (Profound Lore)

29. INSECT ARK, “Marrow Hymns” (Profound Lore)

28. AGRIMONIA, “Awaken” (Southern Lord)

27. MARSH DWELLER, “Wanderer” (Eihwaz Recordings)

26. GLACIAL TOMB, self-titled (Gilead Media)

25. UN, “Sentiment” (Black Bow/Translation Loss)

24. WAYFARER, “World’s Blood” (Profound Lore)

23. HOREHOUND, “Holocene” (Doom Stew)

22. FÓRN, “Rites of Despair” (Gilead Media)

21. DEVOURING STAR, “The Arteries of Heresy” (Dark Descent/Terratur Possessions)

20. CLOSET WITCH, self-titled (Halo of Flies/Sass Bologna/Circus of the Macabre/Don’t Care/React With Protest)

19. ULTHAR, “Cosmovore” (20 Buck Spin)

18. BODY VOID, “I Live Inside a Burning House” (Crown and Throne Ltd./Dry Cough/Seeing Red)

17.AILS, self-titled (The Flenser)

16. TO END IT ALL, “Scourge of Woman” (Scry Recordings)

15. SLEEP, “The Sciences” (Third Man)

14. CHAPEL OF DISEASE, “…And as We Have Seen the Storm, We Have Embraced the Eye” (Van)

13. YOB, “Our Raw Heart” (Relapse)

12. BURIAL INVOCATION, “Abiogenesis” (Dark Descent)

11. TOMB MOLD, “Manor of Infinite Forms” (20 Buck Spin)

10. MESSA, “Feast for Water” (Aural Music)

9. PANOPTICON, “The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness Pt. 1 and 2” (Bindrune Recordings)

8. CHRCH, “Light Will Consume Us All” (Neurot Recordings)

7. EVOKEN, “Hypnagogia” (Profound Lore)

6. VILE CREATURE, “Cast of Static and Smoke” (Halo of Flies/Dry Cough)

5. KHôRADA, “Salt” (Prophecy Productions)

4. DEADBIRD, ‘III: The Forest Within the Tree’ (20 Buck Spin)

3. INEXORUM, “Lore of the Lakes” (Gilead Media)

2. THOU, “Magus” (Sacred Bones)

1. MOURNFUL CONGREGATION, ‘The Incubus of Karma’ (20 Buck Spin/Osmose Productions)