I don’t recall having seen this pop up in this community. Give a rundown of your favorite albums. Top slot, top 3, top 5, 10… whatever’s easiest to you since I know it can be tough to narrow things down to a specific degree.
It’ll be interesting to see where everyone is coming from in this regard. Could create for a good opportunity to discuss albums, find people with similar tastes, argue that a different album from someone’s catalog is better, etc.
I’ll throw mine down in a separate comment once I get it figured out.
Alright, Top 13 for me, because 13 and this is what I could figure well enough and be satisfied with right now. Ordering subject to roughly change somewhere around fifth slot depending on what mood I’m in on any given day, but these are solid mainstays in my rotation (most of them for decades at this point). Doesn’t reflect how broad my interests go, but you can see that I gravitate a lot toward black metal, and I favor stuff that isn’t afraid to be its own thing. Weird is good. Non-metal albums removed though there are a couple in my top 10 if I weren’t being genre specific.
- Dødheimsgard - A Umbra Omega
- Ved Buens Ende - Written in Waters
- Murmuüre - Murmuüre
- Emptiness - Not For Music
- The Skaden - You Will Hope I Had Died
- Solefald - The Linear Scaffold
- Samael - Eternal
- At the Gates - The Red in the Sky is Ours
- Ulver - Bergtatt - Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler
- Cryptopsy - None So Vile
- Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn
- Rotting Christ - Khronos
- Akercocke - Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone
Pssst, Take this: ø
>:D
Yeah, my oversight there. Done.
At the gates and not slaughter of the soul? 😲
Alf Svensson era AtG >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Based
Many of these bands are new to me so I’m making my way down your list and Murmuüre is blowing my mind
Fuck. Yes.
That’s what that album does. There’s nothing like it.
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Between The Buried and Me - Colors
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Mr. Bungle - California
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Opeth - Blackwater Park
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Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
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The Dear Hunter - Act III
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The Dear Hunter - Act II
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Eyedea & Abilities - First Born
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Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
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The Ocean - Pelagial
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Sleep Token - This Place Will Become Your Tomb
Edit: I didn’t realize this was a metal community post. I just responded for my all time top 10.
If I am focusing on metal, I remove dear hunter, porcupine tree, bungle, and sleep token.
I add both Necrophagist albums, Nobembre’s ‘Everasia’, Animals as leaders self-titled, Opeth’s Still Life, and At The Gates slaughter of the soul…
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Between The Buried and Me - Colors (2007) [Progressive Metalcore]
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Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001) [Progressive Death Metal]
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Necrophagist - Epitaph (2004) [Technical Death Metal]
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Novembre - Everasia (2002) [Progressive Death/Doom Metal]
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Necrophagist - Onset of Putrefaction (1999) [Technical Death Metal]
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The Ocean - Pelagial (2013) [Progressive Metal]
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Animals as Leaders - Self-titled (2009) [Progressive Metal/Djent]
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Opeth - Still Life (1999) [Progressive Death Metal]
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At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul (1995) [Melodic Death Metal]
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Darkest Hour - Deliver Us (2007) [Melodic Death Metal/Metalcore]
I don’t know about the other artists, but why remove Mr Bungle? In my opinion they’re metal af!
California isn’t! Lol. I mean there’s heavy parts of air conditioned night are and goodbye sober day but all in all, it’s a pretty bright album.
I see, you’re referring to that specific album. It’s just that extremely experimental including all kinds of sounds and styles that it seems very difficult to say what genre it is.
Thank you for that small interaction, it lead me to change my last night’s plans, getting my headphones out and listen to Mr Bungle and other Mike Patton bands like FNM and Fantomas. Was a great night!
In case you didn’t know, there are some badass recordings from earlier days or cut together tapes like this one.
Check out Peeping Tom. That was a fun project, and more recent than the rest afaik.
I actually got to see Patton and Bungle perform My Ass Is On Fire very recently. They e been touring again if you weren’t aware!
Thank you!
I’ve been listening to Perping Tom before, so far they haven’t caught me as much as the heavier bands. However, today I started the first time listening actively to Mondo Cane and really like it.
I guess they started touring after releasing The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny again?
Anyway, this man is a powerhouse! I am very thankful that he dedicates his life for so, so many great projects!
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Some faves off the dome:
Unearth - The Oncoming Storm
Unleash The Archers - Apex
Strapping Young Lad - City
Misery Signals - Mirrors
Entheos - Time Will Take Us All
Striker - Ultrapower
Astronoid - Air
Meshuggah - Chaosphere
Shai Hulud - Misanthropy Pure
My first extreme metal haul was three CD’s I bought at Best Buy, and Chaosphere was one of them. That album is burned into my brain.
I tend to listen to a lot of symphonic metal. I know some folks are turned off if the vocals aren’t harsh enough, so some of these are probably a total miss, but some of my favorite albums are:
- Delain - The Human Contradiction
- The Agonist - Lullabies for the Dormant Mind
- Within Temptation - The Unforgiving
- Opeth - Blackwater Park
- Nightwish - Endless Forms Most Beautiful
- Frantic Amber - Burning Insight
- Infected Rain - 86
- Dream Theater - Train of Thought
- Iron Maiden - Killers
- Epica - The Holographic Principle
I find a lot of times I’m more skirting around the edges of symphonic metal without landing dead center. I like female vocals a lot, so I get into stuff like Tristania and The Gathering pretty hard. And I like some stuff that’s more in the neoclassical darkwave spectrum like Autumn Tears, Rain Fell Within, Dargaard, etc. Elis is probably the most on the nose symphonic group that I enjoy a lot.
Hoo boy, The Agonist… It’s unfortunate they disbanded, but yeah, Lullabies for the Dormant Mind is one of their better albums. Great pick 👍
I’ve never gotten too deep into symphonic metal but Blackwater Park is a masterpiece
Agalloch - The Mantle. It’s an absolute work of art that makes me want to disappear into a frozen forest.
In alphabetical order:
. Amon Amarth - Fate of Norns
. Leaves Eyes - Vinland Saga
. Manowar - Louder than Hell (and the epic Gods of War)
. Metallica - Metallica (black album)
. Moonsorrow - Voimasta ja Kunniasta
. Nightwish - Wishmaster (Century Child, Oceanborn and Once are great too)
. Sabaton - Art of War
. System of a Down - Toxicity
. Wintersun - Wintersun
. Within Temptation - Mother EarthThe Wintersun self-titled has had surprising staying power for me. I wouldn’t consider it something that’s squarely in my wheelhouse, but I still love it after… damn, that album is 20 years old…
The album is packed full of good songs, such as Starchild, Death and the Healing, and Sadness and Hate.
but I still love it after… damn, that album is 20 years old…
Obviously, we’re both getting old ;-)
Dream Theater — Metropolis Part 2 is the best metal album ever written and I’ll die on the hill.
There are albums I like more, albums I definitely listen to more, but if we’re talking overall quality Metropolis pt 2 is an absolute masterpiece.
Recent favourites, in no particular order:
Prog or adjacent : The ocean - Pelagial
Kglw - petrodragonic apocalypse (was my album of the year last year and one of the most fun albums I’ve heard in a long time. Felt like listening to painkiller or master of puppets for the first time. Legit top 10 all time album for me, I think)
Katatonia - the fall of hearts
Haken - affinity
Pain of salvation - in the passing light of day (or remedy lane or perfect element)
Soen - Lotus
Opeth - Ghost reveries (or any of the preceding albums, really)
Leprous - the congregation
Mastodon - crack the skye (or leviathan or emperor of sand)
Doom and adjacent: Warning - watching from a distance
Yob - our raw heart
My dying bride - feel the misery
Anathema - judgement
High on fire - death is this communion
Bongripper - Satan worshipping doom
Black and adjacent: Agalloch - the mountain
Negură bunget - virstele pamintilui (or OM)
Blackbraid - Blackbraid I or II
Bucovina - Sub stele (folk metal, really)
Power metal and such:
Dragony - viribus unitis
Blind Guardian - nightfall in middle earth (altho most of their stuff is awesome)
Adamantis - Far flung realm
Sellsword - unto the breach
Ominous Glory - the elven dream
And maaaaany more that would take me ages to list. If anyone vibes with any of the lists and wants more, hit me up, would be happy to talk more.
Yeeeah, some new doom to download! 🤟
Awesome :D enjoy!
Not in order and from the top of my head.
- Paul Chain, Park Of Reason
- Devin Townsend, Ocean Machine: Biomech
- Korn, Issues
- Type O Negative, Bloody Kisses
- Arcturus, The Shame Mirror
Ocean Machine is such a clutch album. One of my favorite non-SYL Townsend albums, along with Punky Brüster.
Fuck yeah, not enough Type O fans out there. Bloody Kisses and October Rust battle it out in my mind for top position
What about World coming down or Life is killing me? I find the album’s that document the band and Peter’s struggles easier to connect with at an emotional level than the previous - admittedly great - albums where it sometimes felt like the band was intentionally parodying the goth scene.
Love that Arcturus album. Probably my favorite of theirs, though Aspera Heims… has my favorite guitar solo of all time on it, so I waffle on that sometimes.
Yes that’s a strong contestant for me as well :)
Hard to narrow down favorites because my feelings change often, but these 5 have been in rotation most often lately (in no particular order)
- King Woman - Celestial Blues [doom]
- System of a Down - Toxicity [alt metal? nu metal?]
- Violet Cold - Empire of Love [post-black metal]
- Liturgy - 93696 [black metal]
- Thou - Magus [sludge]
And I’ll say that I don’t necessarily think these are the best albums ever… I don’t think I could ever make up my mind about that! Looking forward to seeing everyone else’s picks.
Holy shit. I haven’t encountered another person that has listened to Violet Cold until now. I’m literally wearing a Violet Cold shirt right now.
Violet Cold goes so hard. What’s your favorite album?
It’s between Empire of Love and Noir Kid for me.
Morning Star is such a good song
I saw them live last month and Morning Star was a transcendent experience!!!
1/2 both Acid Bath albums
3 Burning Witch - Crippled Lucifer
4/5 Khanate - Khanate/Things Viral
6-9 Black Sabbath - first 4 albums
10 Gorguts - Obscura
Which Acid Bath album is in the top spot? You MUST choose. (sorry)
And fuck yeah, Obscura is brilliant.
Definitely When the Kite String Pops, it’s my favorite album.
Right on. I feel like with them it’s one of those deals where there is no wrong answer. Both albums are so good it makes complete sense why someone might like either one over the other. I go for Paegan… myself, but When the Kite String Pops is still pinnacle level stuff.
Agreed. As far as I am concerned, both perfect albums, or as close as anything can get. WTKSP has my favorite tone/vibe, but Grave Flower is my favorite song. Like you said, no wrong answer. Except maybe not digging Acid Bath.
I grew up downloading songs a la carte and now I use services like Spotify and YouTube Music, so I never paid much attention to albums as a whole.
But there’s a couple of standouts for me, albums I have listened all the way through multiple times, and they’re both from Iron Maiden:
- Rock in Rio live, 2001
Most of my life, I thought concerts were stupid because I’d only been to ones at like, the county fair, with shitty country music from amateur cover artists on blown out speakers and surrounded by drunk and rowdy rednecks.
This is the album that convinced me that live shows were worth seeing. In my opinion, this is the gold standard for live albums. I’ve never seen any other band with so many in their discography, and it makes me wish that other bands released more. But it makes sense: Iron Maiden has always been a show band first, and a studio band second.
The crowd has the perfect amount of presence in the mix. Someome took the time to make sure you can always hear them, adjusting the levels so that they never drown out the band and vice versa. And you can feel how large the audience is. And they’re total putty in Bruce’s experienced hands.
It inspires a real sense of community that I’ve come to crave from live shows, even as an introvert, and it helped kick off a life-long addiction.
- Brave New World, 2000
I think we can all agree that almost every album has a weak track or two. One that’s just boring or doesn’t fit with the rest, that seems just kind of thrown in.
Not this album.
This album heralded the triumphant return of lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith after 7 and 10 years, respectively.
It’s the first album with the full-bodied, punchy Iron Maiden sound that I’ve come to love. Instead of firing Janick Gers to make room for Smith, they just said “fuck it, let’s have three guitarists,” and it fucking works. And they still have the same lineup almost a quarter century later.
Not every song is iconic, but they’re all enjoyable, and several of them would end up being staples of their setlists going forward. (They also played many of them at Rock in Rio as part of the supporting tour.)
It’s not explicitly a concept album, but it very nearly works as one. And the album art is actually really fucking cool (Iron Maiden’s album art is admittedly hit or miss cough Dance of Death cough).
I don’t usually listen to whole albums, but let’s see what looking though my spotify yields:
- d’Artagnan - Felsenfest
- Scooter - God save the rave (ik, not metal)
- Nightwish - Imaginaerum
- Saltatio Mortis- Brot und Spiele (anything by them)
- Disforia - The Age of Aether
- Mandowar - Hellboys from cow
- Electroc Callboy - Tekkno
- Powerwolf - Blood of the saints
- Beast in Black - Dark connection (any of their 3 albums is great)
- Dream Evil - Dragonslayer
- Gloryhammer- Return to the kingdom of Fife
- Lord of the lost - Judas
- Demons & Wizards - Touched by the Crimson King
- Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth
- Leaves’ Eyes - Symphonies of the Night
- Edguy - Hellfire Club
- Alestorm - Curse of the crystal coconut
- Visions of Atlantis - Pirates
- Ye Banished Privateers - Legend of Libertalia
- Van Canto - Voices of Fire
- In Extremo - Quid pro quo
- Feuerschwanz - Das Elfte Gebot
- Avantasia - Moonglow
- Nanowar of Steel - Stairway to Valhalla
- Brothers of Metal - Emblas Saga
Yeah, I think that’s enough :)
I can’t really or an order to them as they’re all favorites of mine, but there’s a top 10:
Iron Maiden - Somewhere in time
Life of Agony - River runs red
At the gates - Slaughter of the soul
In Flames - Colony
Sentenced - Down
Black Sabbath - Master of reality
Iced Earth - Alive in Athens (I know this is cheating as it’s basically a best of album, but so what)
Kyuss - Welcome to sky valley
Queensryche - Operation mindcrime
Death - The sound of perseverance
Honestly though, I could put together a top “whatever” and still have too little space to place all the entries.
Random albums that come to mind:
Hatebreed — Concrete Confessional or Supremacy
Pantera — Vulgar Display of Power
Alice in Chains — Dirt (yes I group it in with metal)
Gorguts — Obscura
Cannibal Corpse — Torture
Deftones — Diamond Eyes
GODFLESH — A World Lit Only By Fire
Godsmack — debut or Oracle
Lamb of God — Ashes of the Wake
Mayhem — Daemon
Chimaira — Impossibility of Reason
Nine Inch Nails — anything before Bad Witch tbh
Type O Negative — October RustThis. This is a good list.
Thanks 🤘
