Hey everyone! Looks like I'll finally be starting my Top 50 Albums thread!
I limited myself to only allowing two albums per band on the list, so that way the list wouldn't just be full of the same few bands. I'll try to get through this quickly so others can go ahead after I'm done.
That being said, here we go!
Mister Gold's Top Fifty Albums
50. DragonForce – The Power Within (2012) I wasn’t actually very surprised when I heard about ZP leaving the band, as an argument between him and Herman and Sam was documented in an article I had read in Guitar World magazine. I had a fair bit of fun watching the online auditions that popped up afterwards. Quite a few of them were hilariously bad; one example included an eight year old boy who could only hit the high notes because he hadn’t hit puberty yet. There were also plenty of female singers who tried out who could hit the notes, but were clearly non-professional singers and sounded awful otherwise. But the funniest example was definitely this pair of Russian twins who dressed up in tuxedos and sang “Through the Fire and Flames” in deep bass voices, polka-style.
That said, there were a few decent auditions out there. The first guy I saw that I thought had a chance at getting the gig was this blonde-haired dude named Marc Hudson. I remember thinking of Michael Kiske when I saw his audition videos for the first time, though that’s probably because Marc was wearing a Helloween t-shirt in those videos. I won’t say that I knew that Marc was going to get the gig, as there were several other really great auditions, but he was immediately my top candidate and the guy I figured the band would pick. I actually had a couple of brief exchanges with him via YouTube comments during those audition periods and he came across as a really nice guy. So I was very happy to see that he had indeed gotten the gig a year or two later.
Now for the album itself… well, The Power Within is hardly a groundbreaking album. It’s pretty standard as far as DragonForce goes. But I rank it as my favorite of theirs for a few reasons. Obviously I connected with it because of Marc, who I feel ended up becoming an improvement over ZP Theart, but I also loved that the band finally made an effort to cut back on all of the pointless, wanky instrumental sections and focused on the quality of the songs. Heck, I liked that they made sure not to use the phrase “So far away” at any point in the album too.
49. Opeth – Still Life (1999)I’m a casual Opeth fan. I like them, but they’ve never really made the album that I personally want out of them. I normally prefer clean vocals over screams or growls, but unfortunately the only two Opeth albums to only have clean vocals are their most mellow and non-metal albums. I don’t mind that, but I think Opeth is at their best when they’re heavy. It says a lot that my favorite song by them is their cover of “Remember Tomorrow” by Iron Maiden.
Still Life is the band’s best work, bar none. It’s heavy as hell, it’s inspired and energetic and you can feel the passion that Mikael injected into it. While growls aren’t normally my thing, Mikael does them rather well on this album. There's a palpable energy that accompanies the album. I'd probably rank it higher if I listened to it more often. We'll see where it ends up next time around.
48. Black Country Communion – Afterglow (2012)I think many of us will agree that it was a damn shame that this band didn’t last very long. I enjoyed all three albums and I always wanted to see them live, but alas, the band imploded just as this album came out. That said, the friction that led to the band’s destruction also resulted in their best album.
Afterglow is a darker and heavier affair than the preceding BCC albums. You can feel the frustrations that went on between Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa in the music. It’s rather explosive. I also like Derek Sherinian's work on the album.
47. Dio – Dream Evil (1987)I think Holy Diver is overrated. There, I said it. It was between Dream Evil and The Last in Line for me, but while the latter album had its title track, I feel that Dream Evil had more highlights for me. Its title track echoes back to Dio’s days in Rainbow with Ritchie Blackmore and while Sunset Superman has a pretty dumb chorus, I love the verses and the guitar work on that song. Of course there’s also the album’s highlight, All the Fools Sailed Away, which rivals The Last in Line as my favorite Dio song.
46. Slayer - Hell Awaits (1985)I’m not a Slayer fan by any means, but I am quite fond of this album. It’s a lot smarter than I think one would expect a Slayer album to be. I still remember listening to this album for the first time while Skyping with a friend of mine and then suddenly flipping out on him when Crypts of Eternity came on. It’s easily the best song the band has ever done. I’m also sure that my friend was probably laughing his ass off at my reaction to the album. It’s great.
While I like that the band has the likes of Gary Holt in their band now, I sincerely doubt that they will
ever come close to making another album as good as this. To put it simply, Hell Awaits is Slayer's masterpiece.
Topic: Mister Gold's Top 50 Albums - "Here at the End of All Things" (Read 46784 times)