Alright, everyone, and welcome to my second Top 50 list. I know there's some people in front of me on the list, but Big Hath's given me the okay to go, since there doesn't appear to be a lot happening on that front, so here we are! I hope that you, faithful reader, will stumble across music both known and unknown and that you will walk away from this list with feeling of having gained something by reading this. That would make my day, ladies and gentlemen.
My first list was primarily metal oriented, but in the past year or so, my tastes have broadened considerably. There's still quite a lot of metal here - probably still more than any other genre - but I wouldn't say that it completely dominates this list, like it did on the first, and there'll be quite a few surprises thrown in as well.
What should be noted is that this list doesn't really adequately represent my Top 50, nor does it represent my Top 51-100, so the title is probably a little misleading. What happened is that my tastes have changed quite a lot, but obviously, some of the albums on the first list would still make my list now, be it at similar or at different positions. However, since I don't want to double any write-ups, this is what I would consider my Top 50 now, if the albums of my first Top 50 didn't exist. To still have an accurate representation of my tastes in the DTF database, I'll post a revised REAL Top 50 list at the end, containing both albums from here and from my other list. That way, every album on that list will have a write-up and this one won't feature any repeats. Sound good?
And... off we go!
50. Insomnium – Above the Weeping World (2006)
Just making the list, we have Insomnium's masterpiece. For those that don't know, Insomnium are a melodic death metal band, hailing (like most of their peers) from Finland. However, while the music centres on the beautiful and haunting melodies that one knows from other bands of this genre, Insomnium, unlike other melodic death metal bands, don't use clean vocals. The closest that you come here are spoken words, which have just as much of a bone-chilling quality as the guttural, sorrowful growls of vocalist Niilo Sevänen. If I had to sum up Above the Weeping World with one word, it'd be “sorrowful”. Every melody, ever growl, every spoken word of this record has an incredible mournfulness, and yet, at the same time, an incredible beauty to it. Highly recommended if you like dark and depressing music and aren't averse to growls.
Favourite tracks: The Gale/Mortal Share, At the Gates of Sleep, Devoid of Caring, In the Groves of Death
49. Riverside – Anno Domini High Definition (2009)
Coming in at #49, we have my favourite Riverside album, barely edging out Second Life Syndrome, which made the honourable mentions of my first list. Why is this my favourite? Well, for starters, it's completely devoid of filler. Yeah, we only have five songs, but each and every one of them is completely awesome, whereas each of the other Riverside albums has one or two songs that I'm not too keen on. The other aspect that puts this ahead of other Riverside albums is that it has somewhat of a harder edge, making it sit firmly between progressive rock and metal, while still retaining that certain, unique Riverside element that is so hard to describe and yet so unmistakeable. The third and final aspect that makes this my favourite Riverside album is the sheer amounts of groove and atmosphere that this album has, more so than any other of their albums – just listen to Egoist Hedonist and tell me that it doesn't groove and I'll call you a liar. Highly recommended for everyone that likes... well, progressive rock, metal, atmospheric stuff, groove... you know, Riverside.
Favourite tracks: Egoist Hedonist, Left Out, Hybrid Times
Topic: Scorpion's Top 50 Albums, the 2nd v. All Going Away Now (Read 31021 times)
