I only have two…
Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Not really typical guitar albums, but they are fantastic. The Janelle Monae album is my all time favourite. It’s not guitar related at all - just really great, well produced songs. If you want to hear a good singer working with some top songwriters give it a shot.
The Deafheaven album is a mix of post-rock and blackgaze. Really great stuff - normally I hate black metal style vocals, but this is listenable.
From a pure guitar music standpoint, Satriani’s latest, “What Happens Next,” was (IMO) the best he’s done in years.
I’m trying to remember if anything else really blew me away this year, and nothing’s coming to mind. Turning to 2019, though, I know Nick Johnston has an album in the works and I think Angel Vivaldi is hoping to have another out before year end, as well.
For non electric guitar stuff, I liked Gregory Alan Isakov’s “Evening Machines,” and while I guess this gets a nod for musicianship too, the Punch Brothers’ “All Ashore” was pretty great, too, though my favorite of theirsd is still Phosphorescent Blues.
For guitar heavy albums, I like the Alkaloid album. Crazy playing.
I like the Janelle Monae album, although not as much as ArchAndroid and Electric Lady.
Besides that, I liked Windhand, Lucifer, Pusha T haha
I actually listened to quite a bit of new music this year. Last year I didn’t bother with much. Mostly Nu-jazz and Heavy Metal.
The Great:
Arkona - Khram
Manacle - No Fear to Persevere
Wytch Hazel - II: Sojourn
Saxon - Thunderbolt
Nubya Garcia - When We Are
Maisha - There Is A Place
Satan - Cruel Magic
Visigoth - The Conqueror’s Oath
The Good:
Mansur Brown - Shiroi
Sean Khan - Palmares Fantasy
Solstice - White Horse Hill
Seven Sisters - The Cauldron and the Cross
Al Di Meola - Opus
Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
The Bland:
Steve Gadd Band - S/T
Judas Priest - Firepower
Cauldron - New Gods
Monument - Hellhound
Still need to hear the two new live albums from Chick Corea and also the live album from John McLaughlin/Jimmy Herring
Interesting
I’m so out of the loop
I not only don’t have a fav I honestly couldn’t name one in the last 10 years.
Wayne Krantz is tge last release I got excited about.
The revelation of the year for me was Ghost’s Prequelle. Fantastic album, not really a virtuoso album, but the songs, the production and the overall result was amazing. Very interesting project.
I also liked Mark Tremonti’s new record and Pete Thorn’s.
Last but not least was the amazing Jason Becker record. It has very good compositions, it features a lot of my favourite players and it’s very inspiring, like everything Jason does.
Huh. Didn’t know they’d made a record. What a killer tour…
Fun question! I listen to Spotify all the time here at work; excited to check out some of these suggestions.
I have a lot more listening to do of various year end best-of roundups (always a favorite hobby for me, an inveterate list-maker) but here is a non-exhaustive / unordered list of some of my 2018 favorites:
(Also really like the Janelle Monae and Pusha T albums mentioned above!)
Westworld season 2 soundtrack.
Some good albums mentioned here that I can check out. 
oh yeah forgot about this one. Real good stuff
I forgot about the Ariana Grande album. Her voice is beautiful.
It was a rough year for metal and extreme music which constitutes most of my listening. I don’t think much of anything stood out. I’ve been digging through old 90s bands to satisfy the cravings for new material I haven’t yet heard.
Surprised Me:
Jesus Piece - Only Self
Lying somewhere between metalcore and metal in delivery, a Philadelphia act with guitarists who are clearly well-versed in the older riffing styles of bands like Dismembered and Entombed. A few corny breakdowns are present, but this band is very angry, very focused, and with proper development of songwriting and riffcraft could become the heavyweights of their metalcore space. I want them to focus more on riffs, but given their hardcore roots their songwriting makes sense. I listened to this a bunch for two weeks and will likely never turn it back on again outside of the gym.
Bad:
Portal - Ion
This is a band I want to see succeed based on their terrifying aesthetics but they get trapped in appealing to that contingency of people who were/still are metalheads and go to school for jazz or classical music. You can only get so lost in the theory mix before you churn out nonsense, so they are a great example of metal that goes nowhere, has not much of anything to say, and is appreciated only for their superficialities by people who want to seem different for having an eccentric artist in their rotation (i.e., hipsters). I should also add this sort of music is the metal equivalent to people who earnestly claim to like and listen to free jazz; it doesn’t matter how sincere they seem, you know at their core they think its utter nonsensical crap but will never admit otherwise.
Replace with Deicide - Legion for your technical fix.
Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love
Wouldn’t call this band metal and as @aliendough more or less stated it’s music for people who don’t like black metal and would prefer screamo music in its place with a veneer of black metal over the surface, complete with blast beasts and black metal-style vocals. Airy, neutered, cliched are all adjectives that come to mind. I will give this band massive credit for finally dropping the act, appealing to the Pitchfork crowd, and embracing the fact that they were/are about as metal as the bowl of cereal I ate for breakfast. Anthony Fantano’s review of this album was dead-on accurate and the fact that it pissed off so many people just goes to show he hit a nerve with his delivery of the unfortunate truth.
Replace with Burzum’s Filosofem or Hvis lyset tar oss for music that will take you far away.