TOP 5 2014 ALBUMS

[BlackInk]

So many people put 'Pale Communion' in their top 10. Other than 'River' and 'Faith In Others being good, and 'Elysian Woes' and 'Eternal Rains Will Come' being sort of nice, that album really wasn't top 5 material.

[Zantera]

1. "Opinions, how do they work?"
2. A lot of the times people's lists are reflective of what kind of music fans they are. A very mixed top5 indicates that the listener might be very open minded and has listened to a lot of very different albums during the year, a top5 with five albums from the same genre might indicate that the person is mainly a fan of that one genre, and that might explain why some albums make it onto the list.
3. Some people aren't THAT interested in new albums so they might just check out a handful during the year, and those albums are the ones that make the list.

In the end it comes down to taste and opinions, but sometimes it feels like albums are just there because it's band X or Y. Like for example, the new Pink Floyd. Even if you are the biggest PF fan on the planet, I can't see that album being worth of any top5 spot unless you only heard five albums this year. That's just my opinion though.

[TAC]

With so many Opeth fans here, it should be no surprise that Pale Communion makes a lot of lists.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Pale Communion is about the same as their other albums for me. As in, the songs are good but I find it impossible to sit through in its entirety.

[BlackInk]

1. "Opinions, how do they work?"

I can't tell if you are joking, or if this is you being snappy, and only half-joking.

[JRundquist]

1.) Ne Obliviscaris- Citadel
2.) Devin Townsend Project- Dark Matters
3.) Anathema- Distant Satellites
4.) Devin Townsend Project- Sky Blue
5.) Nightingale- Retribution

[haceeb]

I have two sets:

1. Anathema - Distant Satellites
2. The Pineapple Thief - Magnolia
3. Opeth - Pale Communion
4. Epica - The Quantum Enigma
5. Pain of Salvation - Falling Home

1. Gazpacho - Demon
2. Syd Arthur - Sound Mirror
3. Tim Bowness - Abandoned Dancehall Dreams
4. Messenger - Illusory Blues
5. Cosmograf - Capacitor

[rosepetaljelly]

In no particular order:

Animals As Leaders - The Joy Of Motion
Anubis Gate - Horizon
Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel
Haken - Restoration
Chris Letchford - Lightbox

[SoundscapeMN]

Mike Portnoy https://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/m2914115.aspx

MP's Top 10 Albums of 2014
(in alphabetical order): 
1. Bend Sinister - Animals
2. Beck - Morning Phase
3. Foo Fighters - Sonic Highways 
4. The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger - Midnight Sun
5. Killer Be Killed
6. KXM
7. Opeth - Pale Communion
8. Pink Floyd - The Endless River   
9. Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter
10. Triggerfinger - By Absence Of The Sun

[Buddyhunter1]

Pretty meh year for me. I only got a handful of albums, and only a few of them stuck out as being great.

1: Devin Townsend - Z2 (If I were to count Sky Blue and Dark Matters as separate they'd be #2 and #1 respectively)
2: Dir En Grey - Arche
3: Periphery - Clear (EP, but it's better than nearly all of the albums I heard this year so I'm including it)
4: Alcest - Shelter
5: Agalloch - The Serpent And The Sphere

[Mister Gold]

1. Skyharbor - Guiding Lights

This album is an absolute masterpiece. Plain and simple. One incredible blend of TesseracT, Tool and Porcupine Tree!

Highlights: The whole damn album, but for the sake of samples, check out Allure, the title track and The Constant

2. Starbomb - Player Select

An unusual choice, I don't deny, but what can I say? I love this album! It's one of the best comedy music albums I've heard and it does a great job satirizing many classic video games that I grew up on, much like the first Starbomb album. This time however, the band "matured" and moved away from their usual schtick of dick jokes and coming up with more creative and versatile jokes.

Highlights: The Simple Plot of Metal Gear Solid, Smash!

3. Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

I'd expected this to be at the top of the list, but Once More wasn't quite as strong as I'd hoped it to be. It's not bad at all, by any means and I think it's a better album than The Hunter was. But for all the talent and catchy music they've created with this album, there does seem to be that magical "something" missing that was on albums like Leviathan or Crack the Skye.

Highlights: The Motherload

4. Animals as Leaders - The Joy of Motion

I'll be honest: aside from TesseracT's incredible Altered States in 2013, I hadn't been a fan of the djent movement that's been going on for the past few years. That's changed a bit now, thanks to this album. 'Nuff said.

5. Sanctuary - The Year the Sun Died

Sanctuary is pretty freaking amazing, as was Nevermore. The Year the Sun Died is a great album, but I don't think it's quite as good as either band's best works (Into the Mirror Black, Dreaming Neon Black), which Warrel Dane said were his go-to points for this album. But hey, this is a band that hasn't put out a new album in twenty-five years. The fact that it's actually a great album is impressive enough.

[BlackInk]

4. Animals as Leaders - The Joy of Motion

I'll be honest: aside from TesseracT's incredible Altered States in 2013, I hadn't been a fan of the djent movement that's been going on for the past few years. That's changed a bit now, thanks to this album. 'Nuff said.

I've never bean able to get into these guys. I have tried listening to their albums, but instrumental djent is quite a drag. I even saw them live a few months ago, and maybe 15 minutes in me and my friends felt like we've heard it all twice already. And by the end we were a bit tired of listening to Tosin basically doing various technical excercises over and over, and just wanted TesseracT to finally come on stage.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

The Joy of Motion proves that AAL are truly capable and have potential to do something great. While it wasn't one of my favorites from 2014, it was a huge step up from their previous two albums, which I honestly didn't really like at all.

[Jamesman42]

If y'all want good djent (I do like AAL), check out Cloudkicker. Albums are free online on his bandcamp.

[Mladen]

Mike Portnoy https://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/m2914115.aspx

9. Slipknot - .5: The Gray Chapter

[Newmz]

I always like reading through these threads because I see so many bands or albums I haven't heard of or listened to before.

[TAC]

I swear I haven't heard of 95% of the bands in this thread.

[ozzy554]

Kyng - Burn The Serum

Judas Priest - Redeemer of souls

California breed - California breed

Accept - Blind Rage

AC/DC - Rock Or Bust

[TAC]

Accept - Blind Rage

Awesome album. Made my list too!

AC/DC - Rock Or Bust

Wow! Like it that much? That's cool and all. What would you have to say about it?

[jjrock88]

Still haven't tired of that Accept release. Awesome album and it's still amazing the rejuvenation that this band has experienced

[adace]

Still haven't tired of that Accept release. Awesome album and it's still amazing the rejuvenation that this band has experienced

This.

[ozzy554]

AC/DC - Rock Or Bust

Wow! Like it that much? That's cool and all. What would you have to say about it?

I probably should have mentioned that my list is in no particular order (because i'm terrible at making lists.) This year wasn't a particularly big year in music for me, Just the fact that It's a new AC/DC album and its a solid album by them put it on my list. If I were to put the list in order Rock or bust would most likely be #5 with either Kyng or Judas Priest as my #1

[Accelerando]

1. Beck - Morning Phase
2. Mastodon - One More 'Round The Sun
3. Swans - To Be Kind
4. U2 - Songs of Innocence
5. Prince - Art Official Age

[Scorpion]

So I might have to revise my list slightly.

1. Ne Obliviscaris - Citadel
2. Need - Orvam: A Song for Home
3. Casualties of Cool - Casualties of Cool
4. Dog Fashion Disco - Sweet Nothings
5. Nightingale - Retribution

Honourable mentions:

Destrage - Are You Kidding Me? No.
Evergrey - Hymns for the Broken
Tryptikon - Melana Chasmata
Farin Urlaub Racing Team - Faszination Weltraum
Devin Townsend - Sky Blue

[Scorpion]

All of those would be 5/5 records for me, this has been an amazing year.

[TheLordOfTheStrings]

No particular order.

- Animals As Leaders - The Joy Of Motion
- Thank You, Scientist - Maps Of Non-Existent Places (remixed, rereleased) (highly recommend to those who haven't heard it, holy shit)
- Dream Theater - Breaking The Fourth Wall (yeah, it fuckin made it on my list)
- Transatlantic - Kaleidoscope
- Flying Colors - Second Nature

[Fluffy Lothario]

Since I've seen neither of the two albums that really blew me away this year get another mention, I will take it upon myself to pimp them.

Fire! Orchestra - Enter



A catchy description of this band I've seen thrown around this year is "Godspeed You! Jazz Emperor" - as in, an experimental jazz take on post-rock. It's not perfect, but you could do worse. This whole album is one suite with a theme that appears in I think all four of the tracks. There are about 30 members in the band, so it gets damn dense in parts, and the singers are both brilliant and batshit insane - the second track features perhaps the most committed screaming I've ever heard in music, and the third track starts with one of the girls making various animal noises. So yeah, this album's pretty out there, but if you like your avant garde / free jazz / post rock type shit, you could love this.

First track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpEF1nWCHrM


Ben Howard - I Forget Where We Were



(To anyone who follows The Walking Dead, if you remember the episode Internment in Season 4, the one where Hershel tries desperately to maintain the prison quarantine, there was a song used in the episode which the show writers regarded as The Hershel Theme. That song was Oats in the Water by Ben Howard. I mention this because that song, and The Burgh Island EP, was my introduction to him.)

Ben Howard's an English folk-rock singer-songwriter dude. While his first album wasn't full on sunshiney, it is largely acoustic and pretty, and there are some tracks that are blatantly upbeat, so it was considered a very happy album.

If that's the case, this album is the polar opposite, a full-fledged break-up album, and one of the bleakest I can think of. Damien Rice might have made an album like this had he thrown himself in a well for a few months. The acoustic guitar is mostly gone, and his playing reminds me a bit of The Edge in the late '80s - very effects driven and echoey (I don't play guitar, so I suck at describing it, sorry). Every track is great, and most of them are totally devastating. This is my favourite album since Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues, which came out in 2011.

The song that I've seen getting the most praise, Conrad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuM_UFXkIys

[m0hawk]

Firstly, I just want to say thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread. I've discovered some excellent prog thanks to you guys.

1. Linkin Park - The Hunting Party (for those who miss heavy Linkin Park, this is your salvation  )
2. Haken - Restoration
3. Steven Wilson - Cover Version
4. Hans Zimmer - Interstellar
5. Thank You Scientist - Maps Of Non-Existent Places

[BlackInk]

4. Hans Zimmer - Interstellar

I usually don't consider movie scores for 'top albums of the ear', but yeah, the score to Interstellar was amazing.

[idlewoodarian]

I suck at doing tops so I'll just put my most listened to albums for 2014:

05. Benighted: Carnivore Sublime
Extreme metal is rarely synonymous with fun for me, especially the gore/brutal stuff. But this deathgrind album is just so wild. Just enough brutal death metal to slow things down and make it groovy, but most of the time it's fast and loud. Extremely varied for the genre too.

04. La Roux: Trouble in Paradise
Perfect retro '80s pop.

03. Manic Street Preachers: Futurology
Refreshingly varied and creative album with an Empires & Dance-era Simple Minds influence, much more interesting than the stadium rock thing they've been doing in the 2000s.

02. Interpol: El Pintor
Almost as good as Antics, and at this point that's all I ask from Interpol.

01. Cloud Nothings: Here and Nowhere Else
Almost as good as Attack on Memory. Still a perfect mix of punk and indie rock, but noisier with a very Sonic Youth-esque track.

[Zantera]

I liked Here and Nowhere Else more than Attack on Memory actually. The latter was really good, but Here and Nowhere Else took it to another level.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Here and Nowhere Else is more consistent, but it doesn't have any songs half as good as Wasted Days. I mean, I don't expect them to top that song because of how unbelievably good it is, but my point being it didn't have any songs that I thought stuck out as amazing.

[The Curious Orange]

5. Miranda Lambert - Platinum
4. Drive By Truckers - English Oceans
3. Transatlantic - Kaleidoscope
2. The Tea Party - The Ocean at the End
1. Bruce Springsteen - High Hopes

Agree that 2014 was not a stellar year.

[idlewoodarian]

Here and Nowhere Else is more consistent, but it doesn't have any songs half as good as Wasted Days. I mean, I don't expect them to top that song because of how unbelievably good it is, but my point being it didn't have any songs that I thought stuck out as amazing.

What I especially liked about Attack on Memory were the more pop punk tunes like "Fall in" or "Our Plans" and they haven't really done anything similar on the new album. But it's okay because as far as poignant anthemic songs go, "I'm Not Part of Me" is even better.

[Zantera]

Here and Nowhere Else is more consistent, but it doesn't have any songs half as good as Wasted Days. I mean, I don't expect them to top that song because of how unbelievably good it is, but my point being it didn't have any songs that I thought stuck out as amazing.

I would say Pattern Walks and I'm Not a Part of Me comes close. Wasted Days is still their best song, but in terms of consistency and cohesiveness I gotta give the edge to the new album. Attack on Memory was fantastic, but I feel like the overall quality on each song has gone up, with maybe the exception of Wasted Days, which is one of those perfect home runs.