BanksD's Top 50 Albums V. It's over

[BanksD]

#9. Benighted – Asylum Cave (2011)



Have you ever listened to a song and literally wanted to vomit because what you were hearing was just so god awful? Well that’s how I felt when I first heard this band, like seriously; this band had good music but good god these vocals made me seriously want to throw up. They were too guttural, too ugly, to…ugh.

But the music I was hearing was just…man, never had I heard such groove laden goodness, mixed with blistering, machine gun death metal riffs, mixed with melodic interludes you could almost sing along with, I was torn, I wanted to love it, I seriously did, but the vocals were just too much. But since I’m a masochistic fuck, I decided to subject myself to various songs on the album, until I found that one day…you know…these vocals aren’t all too bad.

I started to justify it by saying that the vocals just add to the level of craziness and fun of this album, just like another instrument basically.

If you’re a fan of death metal or classic death/grind, this album will be worth your time, as it’s some of the most fun death metal I’ve ever heard, and outright my favorite death metal album of all time

Recommended tracks: all of them lolololol

[jjrock88]

scary cover lol

[BanksD]

I always thought of it as "laughably bad cover"

[pain of occupation]

anaal nathrakh made me feel like puking the first time i heard it. and maybe all subsequent times. not that thats necessarily a bad thing.

[ariich]

Cool inclusion of the Pendulum album, really dig that one!

[wolfking]

I always thought of it as "laughably bad cover"

I actually think it's quite incredible for some reason.  Never heard the band, but your description is interesting, might check it out.

[BanksD]

#8. Falconer – Falconer (2001)



Alright #8 on this list just so happens to be my favorite power metal album of all time, and there’s actually a funny story about that.

I was watching a friend of mine’s livestream (which he used to use to showcase his art and stuff), and as I logged on that night he was playing one of the songs off of this album, and instantly I knew that I needed to hear this album right then and there. So after a little while of waiting he began playing the album…and by the time we got to track 5 I had already ordered a copy of this album off of Amazon

I was seriously flabbergasted by this album, I had listened to plenty of power metal by this point (Gamma Ray, Iron Savior, Edguy, Masterplan, etc.) but I’d never heard an album like this, an album so majestic, so emotional, so fun, in power metal beforehand.

The music of the band is your typical power metal riffing, however the vocal style on this album is something quite unique, you see as opposed to normal power bands who utilize vocalists with high vocal ranges, however vocalist Mathias Blad, is clam, reserved, almost angelic in a sense, and barely breaks an octave on the album, however is just as emotional and pleasing to the ears as any of my other favorite power vocalists.

It’s a shame, however, that Falconer never managed to come close to making an album as good as this, sure Chapters From A Vale Forlorn was good, but it wasn’t THIS good.

Recommended Tracks: Substitutional World, Royal Galley, Under The Grave of Guilt, Lord of The Blacksmiths

[wolfking]

Falconer are good.  I own a couple of their albums but not this one.

[jingle.boy]

hhhmmm... sounds intriguing.  Added to 'the list'.

[wolfking]

hhhmmm... sounds intriguing.  Added to 'the list'.

  I can't image how big that list is at the moment!!

[jjrock88]

hhhmmm... sounds intriguing.  Added to 'the list'.

  I can't image how big that list is at the moment!!

I was just thinking the same thing. How many pages is this list and how big of a loan do you have to take out to complete it lol

[jingle.boy]

hhhmmm... sounds intriguing.  Added to 'the list'.

  I can't image how big that list is at the moment!!

I was just thinking the same thing. How many pages is this list and how big of a loan do you have to take out to complete it lol

Let's take a count shall we (and I'm sure that many of these albums will lead into more deeper exploration of the band's discography)

16 just from the recent Top 50 lists.
12 in my "check it out" folder in Spotify
15 in my "re-glam" folder in Spotify... checking out the post 90s releases from my favorite 80s glam artists.
4 still from the suggestion list after my Roulette

Oh, and 'the list' also includes a shit-ton that I've only listened to once or twice and I still want to get more ... "intimate" with.  There's easily 60-70 albums there alone ... Helfuelled, Last Tribe, Vanishing Point, Evergrey, Eden's Curse, Pride of Lions, House of Lords, Winger, ARP, Silent Force, Sunstorm, Burning Point, Seventh Wonder, Sieges Even, Pendragon, Within Temptation....

Too. Much. Awesome. Music.

Spotify and Grooveshark are my friends!

Sorry to derail your thread Banks... back to the regularly scheduled programming now.

One thing's for sure, your choices certainly have awesome artwork!

[Big Hath]

ha! sounds a lot like my list.  After the first ten or so top 50 lists I looked through, I had compiled a list of approx 80 albums to check out - it has since spiraled out of control.  And since I joined DTF earlier this year, I've purchased no less than 70 albums.

[BanksD]

#7. Kalmah - 12 Gauge (2010)



Anyone familiar with Children of Bodom? Well this band is basically (in my eyes at least) their sister band, their much bigger, more masculine sister, who also makes better music. You see, unlike COB, instead of going down the road of mediocrity after a few albums, this band only got better and better with each album they made, all culminating in this, their 6th album 12 gauge released in 2010.

So this album musically basically is the extreme power/melodic death style of bands like CoB and Norther, but adds a level  of balls that the other two bands never had, you see instead of using raspy high pitched shrieks like those two bands, Kalmah's vocals on this album are more of a low chesty growl. The music also has a lot more of a "crunch" so to speak, while still keeping some really heartbreaking melodies.

The solo work on this album is also top notch, practically every song on this album as a fucking awesome solo, especially Rust Never Sleeps, One Of Fail, and Swampwar.

I can't think of anything more to say about this album, because I think it's perfection speaks for itself when you hear it.

Recommended Tracks: Rust Never Sleeps, Swampwar, Sacramentum, One Of Fail

[Scorpion]

#7. Kalmah - 12 Gauge (2010)

I actually know one Kalmah song (They Will Return), but I don't know that album. Still, the cover alone has me intrigued.

[Elite]

#7. Kalmah - 12 Gauge (2010)

Anyone familiar with Children of Bodom? Well this band is basically (in my eyes at least) their sister band, their much bigger, more masculine sister, who also makes better music.

Fucking yes.

I've only heard Swamplord, They Will Return, Swampsong and The Black Waltz (albums) in my Melodic Death period, so not this one yet, but they're good. I used to listen to melodeath big time a couple of years ago, but I barely do nowadays. Looking at your list, if there's more of the genre to come, I might have some clues as to what they could be.

[BanksD]

#7. Kalmah - 12 Gauge (2010)

Anyone familiar with Children of Bodom? Well this band is basically (in my eyes at least) their sister band, their much bigger, more masculine sister, who also makes better music.

Fucking yes.

I've only heard Swamplord, They Will Return, Swampsong and The Black Waltz (albums) in my Melodic Death period, so not this one yet, but they're good. I used to listen to melodeath big time a couple of years ago, but I barely do nowadays. Looking at your list, if there's more of the genre to come, I might have some clues as to what they could be.

There are about 2 or 3 if you choose to count one of them as melodeath

[Elite]

Can you give a summary of all the albums up to this point?

[BanksD]

Can you give a summary of all the albums up to this point?

Sure thing! I had planned to do this anyway

7. Kalmah - 12 Gauge
8. Falconer - Falconer
9. Benighted - Asylum Cave
10. Strapping Young Lad - Ailen
11. Mercenary - 11 Dreams
12. Pendulum - Immersion
13. Rotting Christ - AEALO
14. Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes
15. Disarmonia Munid - The Isolation Game
16. Warbringer - Worlds torn Asunder 
17. Nile - Annihilation of The Wicked
18. Anubis Gate - The Detatched
19. Annihilator - Never Neverland
20. Queensryche - The Warning
21. Omnium Gatherum - New World Shaodws
22. Masterplan - Masterplan
23. Solution. 45 - For Aeons Past
24. Iron Savior - The Landing
25. Symphony X - Paradise Lost
26. Raunchy - A Discord Electric
27. Gamma Ray - Majesty
28. In Flames - The Jester Race
29. Freedom Call - Eternity
30. Sodom - In War And Pieces
31. Angra - Temple of Shadows
32. Candlemass - Nightfall
33. Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time
34. Obituary - Cause of Death
35. Testament - The Gathering
36. Undead Corperation - That one album with the japanese character i didn't feel like copy pasting
37. Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
38. Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale
39. The Devin Townsend Project - Addicted
40. Death - Symbolic
41. Helloween - The Keeper albums
42. Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini
43. Chthonic - Takasago Army
44. Nocturnal Rites - The 8th Sin
45. Neaera - Armamentarium
46. Artillery - By Inheritence
47. Nevermore - This Godless Endeavor
48. Rush - Moving Pictures
49. Saxon - Lionheart
50. Persuader - Evolution Purgatory

[Lowdz]

Love that Falconer album, but didn't like any of their others. The bonus track sung in Finnish (?) is my favourite track.

[wolfking]

hhhmmm... sounds intriguing.  Added to 'the list'.

  I can't image how big that list is at the moment!!

I was just thinking the same thing. How many pages is this list and how big of a loan do you have to take out to complete it lol

Let's take a count shall we (and I'm sure that many of these albums will lead into more deeper exploration of the band's discography)

16 just from the recent Top 50 lists.
12 in my "check it out" folder in Spotify
15 in my "re-glam" folder in Spotify... checking out the post 90s releases from my favorite 80s glam artists.
4 still from the suggestion list after my Roulette

Oh, and 'the list' also includes a shit-ton that I've only listened to once or twice and I still want to get more ... "intimate" with.  There's easily 60-70 albums there alone ... Helfuelled, Last Tribe, Vanishing Point, Evergrey, Eden's Curse, Pride of Lions, House of Lords, Winger, ARP, Silent Force, Sunstorm, Burning Point, Seventh Wonder, Sieges Even, Pendragon, Within Temptation....

Too. Much. Awesome. Music.

Spotify and Grooveshark are my friends!

Sorry to derail your thread Banks... back to the regularly scheduled programming now.

One thing's for sure, your choices certainly have awesome artwork!

Damn!  That seriously is an amazing list of bands to check, you definitely won't be disappointed.

[wolfking]

I have one Kalmah album but never really gave it much of a chance, might pull it out and listen again.

[MoraWintersoul]

I really like your list so far - we have a similar taste in melodeath and recent heavy/power metal

[BanksD]

I really like your list so far - we have a similar taste in melodeath and recent heavy/power metal

Glad to see some other people who have similar tastes as mine. I honestly wasn't expecting some of the things on this list to get recognized.

[BanksD]

alright you guys...my next album is a really obscure one...








like....












i'm actually worried about the hate i'll get for posting this one



But here goes...















#6. Dream Theater - Images and Words (1992)



Lol fooled you guys

but yeah, this is my favorite Dream Theater album, It wasn't the first I ever heard (that was SFAM), and I didn't even like it all that much, but the first time I actually sat down and listened to it, I was blown away, it opened my eyes to a sound in music I never had heard before, and all that jazz.

Yeah I'm sure there isn't a lot I really need to say about this album so I'll just list my favorite tracks

Favorites: Learning To Live, Surrounded, Take The Time, Under a Glass Moon, Pull Me Under, Wait For Sleep, Another Day, Metropolis Part. 1


Oh wait that's all of them

[senecadawg2]

Still on my list of albums to check out at some point.

[jjrock88]

I've heard it's decent.

[BanksD]

Yeah it's okay


Just okay

[lonestar]

Not indie enough, I'll pass.

[Dr. DTVT]

Bunch of amateurs.  They'll never make it in the prog metal world.

[Cedar redaC]

It's not the worst album I've ever heard....

[Elite]

Right DT album, but too low.

[jingle.boy]

Haven't listened to this one (in about a month ... I should spin it again sometime)

[TAC]

Let's take a count shall we (and I'm sure that many of these albums will lead into more deeper exploration of the band's discography)

16 just from the recent Top 50 lists.
12 in my "check it out" folder in Spotify
15 in my "re-glam" folder in Spotify... checking out the post 90s releases from my favorite 80s glam artists.
4 still from the suggestion list after my Roulette

Oh, and 'the list' also includes a shit-ton that I've only listened to once or twice and I still want to get more ... "intimate" with.  There's easily 60-70 albums there alone ... Helfuelled, Last Tribe, Vanishing Point, Evergrey, Eden's Curse, Pride of Lions, House of Lords, Winger, ARP, Silent Force, Sunstorm, Burning Point, Seventh Wonder, Sieges Even, Pendragon, Within Temptation....

Just saved you a few minutes!

[Nekov]

Go I&W!!!!