The Music 2017 Writers' Poll: Mark Hebblewhite

album of the year

1. Propagandhi — Victory Lap
2. Mindsnare — Unholy Rush
3. Paradise Lost — Medusa
4. Anathema — The Optimist
5. Deep Purple — Infinite
6. Integrity — Howling For The Nightmare Shall Consume
7. Kreator — Gods of Violence
8. Memoriam — For The Fallen
9. Toe To Toe — Rise Up
10. Run The Jewels — RTJ3

artist of the year

1. Mindsnare
2. Black Sabbath 
3. Cannibal Corpse 
4. Morbid Angel
5. Toe To Toe 

international artist performance

1. Night Birds
2.  Pete Rock & CL Smooth
3. Descendents
4. Pennywise
5. Napalm Death

australian artist performance

1. Mindsnare
2. Toe To Toe
3. Clowns
4. Hostile Objects
5.  Nursery Crimes

top tv show

1. The Good Place
2. Designated Survivor
3. Vikings

2017 highlight of the year

Another great year for Australian hardcore with top LPs from veteran acts and a raft of newer bands delivering the goods

prediction for 2018

Well, I'm hoping for new records from Bad Religion and Pennywise. On the metal front, it's about time Tony Iommi got around to re-releasing deluxe editions of The Headless Cross and TYR. More broadly the death metal underground has been percolating nicely — I think we'll have an explosion of good releases in 2018.