Author Topic: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #1 "Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?"  (Read 47905 times)

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Offline Mladen

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #24 "There's a picture worth a thousand words"
« Reply #210 on: January 18, 2015, 05:10:03 AM »
Some damn good albums in here.  :tup

Offline Evermind

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[Unia is] by far SA's best album, and just a unique and magic album from beginning to end, love it.

Sorry, don't agree with you this time. Also, this is the end of the repeats streak for now.

#23
Ecliptica
Sonata Arctica
Genre: power metal
1999


Alright, just a little patience here folks, not a lot of repeats left. Initially I was going to put Ecliptica on my list, planning to include only Unia from all the Sonata Arctica works, but then two things happened. First, there was a Sonata Arctica concert in Moscow where they’ve played quite a lot of songs from the album; second, there was a rerecorded version of Ecliptica release I’ve received in the mail shortly after; both those things rekindled my love for this record and reminded me how fabulous it was. It’s one of those aforementioned perfect power metal records that just blow you away on the first listen. A lot of fans bashing Sonata Arctica for their current sound often refer to Ecliptica as the pinnacle of the band’s work, and this is where I definitely agree with them. That doesn’t mean I agree with the usual second part of their statements that goes like “this trainwreck of an album called (insert any album since Unia here) is a total shit compared to Ecliptica, SA should retire or change their name”, because the concentration of bullshit in those sayings is just over the top.

I don’t even know how can you compare Unia to Ecliptica because these are two completely different kinds of work, the genres are not the same even. It’s like trying to choose between apples and oranges, I don’t get it. Unia is intricate, complex and multilayered while Ecliptica is mostly in your face, sweeping and fervent. The musicians were quite young when they’ve recorded it, so there is that spark on the album you can’t recreate (this is what revisited edition totally lacks). From some fast and demanding guitar and keyboard solos to dubious vocal melody choices by Tony (Blank File at 1:35, anyone?), there are some awkward sections which add a lot of charm to the album, in my opinion.

It’s funny how there are some thoughts by Tony Kakko and Tommy Portimo in the Ecliptica Revisited booklet and Tommy says something along the line “oh, this one is my favourite!” about nearly every song (he did this on pre-Pariah’s Child interviews too :lol ); but I kind of see what his point is. I, too, had a hard time ranking all the tracks in the recent survivor, because the quality is so consistently high here. The classic rapid tracks like 8th Commandment or Kindgom for a Heart are stunning, and songs like sing-along oriented My Land and a constant live setting killer FullMoon add the necessary variety to Ecliptica; while ballads like Replica and Letter to Dana help to diversify the material even more. And of course great power metal album should (not always though) end with epic, so there’s Destruction Preventer to fulfill this requirement.

Releasing the outstanding debut album is a double-edged sword in a way; naturally, you would get a lot of recognition, many fans, a nice contract with label and so on; but from this point onwards you will always be judged by this album and there’s a chance all your works will be overshadowed by your first masterpiece (like with Dio’s Holy Diver). This can be fixed by creating something equally great or even better, and here’s when the people’s opinions come up; I personally think Unia does that job, someone thinks Reckoning Night is the best them, and so on, others may feel like Ecliptica is great and the rest of SA albums are weak; but anyway, the advantages or releasing a masterpiece largely outweigh the disadvantages, mostly because whatever you do next, you have already released something worthy of many listeners’ attention.

I actually have no idea why I’ve just written this last paragraph, so anyway, Ecliptica is awesome. Moving on.

Favourite tracks: My Land, 8th Commandment, Replica, Kindgom for a Heart, FullMoon, Destruction Preventer

If you suddenly decide to buy the album after my ramblings, be sure to buy the original 1999 version, not a re-release or re-recording. The original is much better (seriously!) and you can smirk at Tony’s accent at that time.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #22 "The seer of visions can now rest in peace"
« Reply #212 on: January 18, 2015, 12:13:20 PM »
And have another one just before I'm going to sleep.

#22
Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II
Helloween
Genre: power metal
1988


Continuing that power metal streak (well, excluding I&W), here‘s the album every fan of this genre should be aware of. I guess I can say Keeper of the Seven Keys defined the very meaning and sounding of power metal for me with those memorable and ambitious melodies, relentless guitar work, epic and sometimes humorous approach, and instantly recognizable voice of Michael Kiske. It’s a pity Kai Hansen left the band after this release and the quality of the few next Helloween albums went considerably lower; well, I doubt they could’ve topped Keeper material anyway, but it’s still a pity.

It’s the first time Helloween appears in this list, so I’ll write a quick introduction for those who are unfamiliar with them. Helloween is a German power metal band formed in 1984. The original band lineup for their first full-length album called Walls of Jericho included four members. Kai Hansen was performing vocal duties and also played guitar along with Michael Weikath, bass and drums were played by Markus Grosskopf and Ingo Schwichtenberg (what a surname!); then the band found Michael Kiske as a singer, who was about 18 years old when they started recording both Keeper parts. The band wanted to do a double album initially, but the label insisted on separate release, so Part I was released in 1987 and Part II in 1988.

Almost all the write-ups for this album I’ve seen on DTF included comparing both parts between each other, so I’ll try not to go there and instead focus on the album’s strong points. It’s an easy job to do because this record just filled with strong points to the brim. Nearly each song is a hit and a definite fan favourite, and while some tracks are a bit weaker than others, You Always Walk Alone being a possible candidate for this statement, the amount of awesomeness here is overwhelming. Kiske does a fantastic job singing all the unbelievably high parts (like on We Got the Right). All the short songs are so catchy they get stuck in your head instantly; while the epic title track of nearly fourteen minutes in length is just that, bombastic epic. Yeah, it’s full of clichés and can be called pretentious, but it doesn’t make it less awesome.

If you’re a fan of power metal and haven’t heard this record, it’s the right time to rectify this now; if you don’t like the genre at all, better don’t try this, because it’s basically one of the most power metal albums I know, and maybe even a bit over the top. That means every element you dislike is definitely there. I don’t dislike anything on this album though, hence why Keeper pt. 2 rests here on the 22nd place in my list.

Favourite tracks: Dr. Stein, We Got the Right, March of Time, I Want Out, Keeper of the Seven Keys

As I was listening to the album lately I’ve finally realized what irks me to no end in Nabataea (the song from Helloween latest album, Straight Out of Hell). It’s that part with “Children, children, have no fear” that goes slowly first, then speeds up and intensifies on second passage, ends with high-pitched screamed word “die!”, then the mellow guitar solo follows, and after there’s that intense epic conclusion to the song. Because that’s exactly what happens in Keeper of the Seven Keys the song from “Disease, disease, disease my friend” line onwards. Even the word is the same “die” again, wow. Here are the links for you to make a comparison:

The described passage from Keeper of the Seven Keys (goes approximately until 8:30)
The passage that irks me from Nabataea (goes approximately until 5:30)
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Sacul

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #22 "The seer of visions can now rest in peace"
« Reply #213 on: January 18, 2015, 12:35:10 PM »
I kind of agree on I&W, great album. But there are like 5 other DT records I like a bit more  ;D .

Offline mikemangioy

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #22 "The seer of visions can now rest in peace"
« Reply #214 on: January 18, 2015, 12:38:45 PM »
Ok so

I&W - That's a classic, but I too prefer other albums

Ecliptica - I know FullMoon from that album, nice song

Keeper Of The Seven Keys - the only Halloween songs that I know about are Ride The Sky and Nabataea and I have no idea why  :lol
Because Mike is better than Mike

Offline jjrock88

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #22 "The seer of visions can now rest in peace"
« Reply #215 on: January 18, 2015, 07:05:39 PM »
some outstanding albums on this list

Offline TAC

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #22 "The seer of visions can now rest in peace"
« Reply #216 on: January 18, 2015, 08:20:01 PM »
The last two albums made my Top 5, so I approve immensely.  Kiske and Labrie on these two albums turn in the single best vocal performances these ears have ever heard.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline ?

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #22 "The seer of visions can now rest in peace"
« Reply #217 on: January 19, 2015, 04:15:48 AM »
I&W = :hefdaddy

Although Ecliptica isn't my favorite Sonata album, it's one of the best debuts I've heard, and the fact that the band still plays at least 2 songs (usually more) from it at every show speaks for itself. The re-recording gave me a new appreciation for the album, despite the sterile production. I can't fathom how Tony can still pull off the wordy vocal lines in Kingdom for a Heart so effortlessly live :lol

Offline wolfking

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #22 "The seer of visions can now rest in peace"
« Reply #218 on: January 19, 2015, 04:16:17 AM »
No problem with Ecliptica at all, great power metal.  Keepr 2 is classic, but I have always favoured Part 1.

This is one of the best top 50 lists I've seen.

Since our tastes seem quite alike, I hope you'll join my upcoming roulette when it's time then.

I don't have much time at the moment, but hell, I can't turn that down, count me in.
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Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #21 "Waiting for big pumpkin to arise"
« Reply #219 on: January 19, 2015, 08:23:27 AM »
Keeper Of The Seven Keys - the only Halloween songs that I know about are Ride The Sky and Nabataea and I have no idea why  :lol

I have no idea either.  :lol

Kiske and Labrie on these two albums turn in the single best vocal performances these ears have ever heard.

I'm always in awe of Kiske voice on Keepers, it's just something out of this world.

I can't fathom how Tony can still pull off the wordy vocal lines in Kingdom for a Heart so effortlessly live :lol

He generally seems to be alright with all the wordy passages (unlike me; I had a hard time learning and singing along Don't Say A Word chorus. "You have to finish what-you-started-no-matter-what-now sitwatchandlearn" gave me a headache I think  :lol)

I don't have much time at the moment, but hell, I can't turn that down, count me in.

Great, sure thing! It would be still at least two weeks until I finish with this thread, and I'm not starting before I do. Also, there's Chad (where is he, by the way? Haven't seen him around here for a while) and Scorp in front of me in the queue, so apparently you have lots of time to think it over and maybe free some of your time for this thing.

Keepr 2 is classic, but I have always favoured Part 1.

I agree. Here you are:

#21
Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I
Helloween
Genre: power metal
1987


I said I won’t be comparing Part I and Part II in my previous write-up, and I didn’t compare them there, so I wasn’t lying! I will do it in this write-up.

Seriously though, when I get the urge to spin these albums, I always spin both of them; but as I decided against any ties in my list, I had to rank them, and after a few thorough listens I found out I love Keeper Part I just a bit more. And since you all know about who Helloween are and what their lineup was at the time, it seems a perfect time and place to discuss the differences between both albums now.

Both Keepers are stylistically and structurally similar in a way. Both albums have a bunch of short concise tracks and a big epic in the end. However, on closer (or even not so closer) inspection there are noticeable differences. First, look at the albums’ length. Part II is pretty long for an old power metal record (54:33) with most songs over five minutes in length, and aside from epic, there are eight full-fledged songs I think; Part I is shorter (37:08), with songs around four minutes in length, and again aside from epic, there are only five true songs, along with two short atmospheric pieces. Second, while Part II had more Weikath-oriented songwriting (he penned five songs there), Part I is more Hansen-centric. I think Kai was much better songwriter back in those days, and it shows on overall songs’ quality; Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I features my two favourite Helloween songs ever, A Tale That Wasn’t Right and Halloween, and of course there is also the biggest Helloween hit ever (in my opinion), called Future World. While the rest of material doesn’t live up to awesomeness of those three, it’s still pretty solid. Just like with Part II, there is not a single bad song on the record.

Despite all the differences, these two albums really could’ve been united to create a double album. Most of the things I wrote for Part II also apply to Part I, be that great soloing or impeccable vocal delivery. However, A Tale That Wasn’t Right is a clearly pronounced ballad on this album while Part II had no ballads; and Halloween as an epic is loads better than Keeper. And I still stand by my words that Keeper is awesome, it’s just Halloween is like ten times greater, and is probably my favourite epic in power metal overall. The other tracks are decent enough and the small piece called Follow the Sign is a nice touch to end this magnificent record.

Helloween released a lot of studio albums over the years, both with Michael Kiske and Andi Deris, and I still check their new records occasionally, but frankly, no record comes close to both Keeper albums. The quality gap between those two records and other Helloween output is outright huge. Even that Keeper of the Seven Keys – The Legacy album they’ve released in 2005 is only a faint echo of the perfection they’ve managed to show in 1987 and 1988, and while the band is clearly fine with how the things are going for Helloween now, their albums have no lasting power. I’ve listened to Gambling With The Devil, 7 Sinners and Straight Out Of Hell a lot when they were released, all the decent albums they were, but after two or three weeks I just left them lying on the shelf and never picked up again. Those two Keepers album though, I just can’t get enough of them; this is one of the best things that ever happened to power metal.

Favourite tracks: Initiation + I’m Alive, A Tale That Wasn’t Right, Future World, Halloween, Follow the Sign
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Mladen

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #21 "Waiting for big pumpkin to arise"
« Reply #220 on: January 19, 2015, 08:31:37 AM »
I also prefer part 1 to part 2, although both are power metal classics and two of my all time favorite albums. As for the Halloween versus The Keeper of the seven keys debate, years ago I would have probably chosen the former as a better one, but the title track keeps growing on me even after so many years, it's that good. Probably my dearest Helloween song.

Offline TAC

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #21 "Waiting for big pumpkin to arise"
« Reply #221 on: January 19, 2015, 11:47:36 AM »
You're on a roll Evermind. This album is great. One of the most important albums of my musical life. The first time I heard this, I will never forget where I was.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Evermind

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As for the Halloween versus The Keeper of the seven keys debate, years ago I would have probably chosen the former as a better one, but the title track keeps growing on me even after so many years, it's that good.

Both of them are that good.  ;)

You're on a roll Evermind. This album is great. One of the most important albums of my musical life. The first time I heard this, I will never forget where I was.

Well, you just can't go wrong with both those Keeper albums. One of the very best power metal efforts out there for sure.

And now the second and last update for the day; and by the way, we're already cracking the Top 20 here!

#20
Rising Force
Yngwie Malmsteen
Genre: neo-classical metal
1984


Even if a man is a giant douche, he can apparently release great albums. Well, not constantly and not all of them, but damn, were the first three studio works by Yngwie great. That is before he descended to mindless shredding almost everywhere. Being only 39 minutes in length, Rising Force consists of seven full-fledged songs with five beautifully constructed instrumentals among them. Two of them are based on classical works, but the new arrangements make this sort of cover sound incredibly competent and captivating. Yngwie isn’t the best man to write lyrics (seriously, those two songs are outright awful in lyrical department and I had a difficult time finding a line fitting for the thread title), but on this album he’s undoubtedly one of the best men to write music.

Here goes another paragraph of Wikipedia info, because aside from the first three albums, I have absolutely no interest in Yngwie’s work or his biography. Yngwie Malmsteen is a Swedish guitarist and songwriter. He played with the band called Steeler in 1983, then appeared on the debut album by Graham Bonnet’s band Alcatrazz, and also their live album. At first, Rising Force was meant to be an instrumental side-project of Alcatrazz, but since there were vocals (at precisely two songs!), Malmsteen left Alcatrazz shortly after the release of Rising Force. This album brought the considerable amount of fame to the man and even received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance in 1986. Aside from Yngwie, there were three more musicians performing on Rising Force. They are Jeff Scott Solo (vocals), Jens Johansson (keys) and Barriemore Barlow (drums).

So yeah, while there is still a lot of shredding on this album, it’s actually arranged and done in a nice way, resulting in splendid compositions. Both Black Star and Far Beyond the Sun are of astounding quality and probably the most popular tunes written by Yngwie; Evil Eye and Little Savage both has their charm too with a few acoustic touches and pace changes; both songs with vocals are great heavy numbers with catchy vocal melodies; and the eight-and-a-half minutes long Icarus’ Dream Suite Op. 4 is as good as it gets regarding Malmsteen instrumentals. It’s based on Remo Giazotto’s Adagio in G minor, and it’s simply fascinating to see the whole composition unfold, especially the ending from 6:40 onward. While this album has this ridiculous amount of instrumentals, they’re all going somewhere; they have purpose while not being plodding or boring or whatever, and that’s why Rising Force stands out both among the Malmsteen works and the whole genre. I guess he actually was a pioneer in this neo-classical shredding land (I’m not sure because I don’t follow this genre enough), and this album is a hell of an achievement.

Well, there isn’t a lot more to write about Rising Force, and I can’t even explain why it truly deserves the 20th place in this list. I guess if you listen to this album for a couple of weeks straight it just grows on you a lot. It’s a wonderful thing I’ve started to compose this list, because I had to run through all my musical library to pick the albums; I completely forgot about this one until the very end when I’ve reached that Y-letter, and only then realized how much I like this disc.

Favourite tracks: Black Star, Far Beyond the Sun, Icarus’ Dream Suite Op. 4, As Above, So Below, Little Savage
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline TAC

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Evermind, you are making my teenage years flash before my eyes! I remember Steeler, have it on vinyl, and remember the Alcatrazz stuff when it came out.

Rising Force is fantastic.  I ranked it in my Top 5 of 1984 in Brent's thread.
Far Beyond The Sun is probably my all time favorite instrumental.

You mention his first three albums being great, but I thought Trilogy sucked when it came out. Then I saw the promo shots for Odyssey and basically declared myself done with Yngwie. I basically came back to Yngwie a few years ago, and while Trilogy still sucks, Odyssey is freaking amazing. 
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Evermind

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You mention his first three albums being great, but I thought Trilogy sucked when it came out. Then I saw the promo shots for Odyssey and basically declared myself done with Yngwie. I basically came back to Yngwie a few years ago, and while Trilogy still sucks, Odyssey is freaking amazing. 

I'm the opposite here. Trilogy is easily the worst of the three, but I still love it; I can't stand Odyssey somehow. Not because of JLT though, he does a fine job, just for some reason the whole album doesn't appeal to me.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline jjrock88

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I always play the Keeper albums together; just awesome stuff.

Rising Force is second behind Marching Out for me from Yngwie. Too bad Soto and Yngwie couldn't have stayed together longer

Offline Sacul

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Neoclassical metal? Didn't know that genre even existed  :lol . Haven't listened to this dude - in fact, I'm missing on a lot of classic metal records and aartists, so I should give this a spin at least.

Offline sneakyblueberry

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Probably the only Yngwie album I know and like, Black Star and Far Beyond the Sun <3

Neoclassical metal? Didn't know that genre even existed  :lol . Haven't listened to this dude - in fact, I'm missing on a lot of classic metal records and aartists, so I should give this a spin at least.

Sacul, you never fail to amaze me :lol

Offline lonestar

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Saw them live opening for Metallica circa AJFA. :RJ:

Offline TAC

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Saw them live opening for Metallica circa AJFA. :RJ:
Who? Yngwie?
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline bl5150

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Can't argue with Rising Force - made my top 10.

I like plenty of Helloween and love Kiske but (aside from a few tracks) the Keepers albums never really did much for me I'm afraid.   I tend to find material written by Hansen very hit and miss , so perhaps that has something to do with it.
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Offline jjrock88

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I enjoy everything from the Kiske era, even Pink Bubbles and Chameleon. But I could only imagine the outrage when those two were officially released

Offline TAC

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I enjoy everything from the Kiske era, even Pink Bubbles and Chameleon. But I could only imagine the outrage when those two were officially released

I actually bought Pink Bubbles on import at this great Import record store in New Jersey called Sound Exchange. Bought Pink Bubbles and Metallica's Black Album at the same time. Still remember driving home to Massachusetts alternating both thinking WTF just happened to two of my favorite bands?

Both Pink Bubbles and TBA have aged remarkably well IMO.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline wolfking

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Part 1 is definitely where its at.

That Malmsteen album is amazing of course too.  Looking forward to the rest of this list.
Everyone else, except Wolfking is wrong.

Offline Evermind

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Neoclassical metal? Didn't know that genre even existed  :lol .

That actually made me laugh.  :rollin

I enjoy everything from the Kiske era, even Pink Bubbles and Chameleon.

Both Pink Bubbles and TBA have aged remarkably well IMO.

Totally agree with you guys, I quite like those Helloween albums too.

That Malmsteen album is amazing of course too. Looking forward to the rest of this list.

I'm back at one - two albums a day schedule due to work, but I'll try to keep the things moving.

Saw them live opening for Metallica circa AJFA. :RJ:
Who? Yngwie?

Yeah, that's my question too.

And now we're going forward to something more modern. Something very modern, in fact. If I had to make the best albums from the last five years, this one would've been on the 3rd place. I know, new car smell effect and so on, but I described my reasoning in the write-up, and I just can't stop listening to this album.

And a special shoutout to  :RJ: of course!

#19
The Road Of Bones
IQ
Genre: progressive rock
2014


Here’s the second and final occasion when the album makes this list not only because of its individual strength, but also because I want to kind of honor the band for their great work (first one was Unisonic waaaay back at #46, if you remember). Now don’t get me wrong, this album would’ve still made this list even if it was the only thing IQ ever released, because I love it to pieces, but it would be somewhere around the 30th place. I don’t know how it will stand the further tests of time, because it was only released this year, but I already have a feeling it will only get better and better. I’ll keep on talking about this in the third paragraph, but now I feel I should present a little information about the band here.

IQ is a British progressive rock band founded in 1981 by Mike Holmes and Martin Orford. They’ve put quite a lot of studio albums over this time and have been active for more than 30 years as of now, but for some reason they’ve never managed to get a lot of commercial success, despite the utter brilliance of the majority of their material. The lineup for the Road of Bones includes aforementioned Mike Holmes on guitars, Peter Nicholis as a singer, Neil Durant on keyboards, Tim Esau on bass and Paul Cook on drums.

So well, let me explain what I meant in the very first phrase on this write-up. I’ve enjoyed some IQ albums for a few years now, but I always felt there was something missing in each record, or some song or section that left me unimpressed. My three favourite IQ records before this one were Subterranea, Dark Matter and The Seventh House; Subterranea is a nearly flawless concept album with a lot of outstanding material until it comes to the grand twenty minutes epic called The Narrow Margin, which for me is incredibly underwhelming and kills all the excitement that is built up before it. Dark Matter is quite the opposite, the material on it ranges from just alright to good, but the big huge epic called Harvest of Souls is one of the most awesome things IQ ever recorded (I know RJ would totally disagree with this, haha). The Seventh House is just good stuff all around, but not great enough to make the list, even though the title track is unequivocally breathtaking. And all this brings us to The Road of Bones. The band decided to use an interesting approach here, instead of recording another huge double album they’ve put only five songs on the actual album, and labeled the rest as bonus tracks. This does all the wonderful things to the flow, really, and ensures there is no mediocre material on the record. They’ve put all the great songs on one disc, and placed the good stuff on the other, but as the actual album is Disc 1, we’ll be focusing on that. Given that there are only five songs, as I said, for some reason I felt it could’ve been either a disaster or an outstanding achievement, and it’s the latter. The material here might be just the best output from IQ. Shorter tracks like The Road of Bones (well, not really short, but it's prog, you know) and Ocean are full of feelings, slowly laying their impressive range of emotions before the listener; both rockers (proggers?) From the Outside In and Until the End have their kickass parts and totally beautiful, mellow sections; and the album’s epic, Without Walls, might just be the best long song IQ ever created, with a proper balance and sound transitions between all the parts.

Basically, The Road of Bones is IQ in a nutshell, but somehow the record manages to sound remarkably fresh compared to all the albums the band released in this thirty years span. It’s like the band collected all the best parts from their previous material, rehashed them in some hardly recognizable form, added a few brilliant parts here and there, and the output exceeded all expectations I could’ve possibly have. While this record is the most recent on this list, I felt I really have to place it here on #19, because the amount of transcendental songs IQ put out already plus this flawless record equals a high place among my favourite albums. IQ deserves all success and recognition in the world, yet doesn’t have it, so at least I’ll honor the band putting the album pretty damn high in my list.

Favourite tracks: From the Outside In, The Road of Bones, Without Walls, Until the End (from 7:42)

I wasn’t going to include Until the End in my favourite tracks, because the first three are already 35 minutes in length, but I just couldn’t ignore such beautiful ending to this magnificent album.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline jjrock88

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Never heard of these guys, but they sound cool

Offline Sacul

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 :justjen

Offline TAC

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Seen a lot of people list this album in their Best Of 2014 lists.
Never heard them.
Checking the samples now.

Edit: I can see why someone would like IQ, but they're not really my thing.
All Good!
« Last Edit: January 20, 2015, 03:13:31 PM by TAC »
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #18 "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly"
« Reply #238 on: January 21, 2015, 08:17:46 AM »
Yeah, I can see how IQ can be not someone's cup of tea too.

(And RJ didn't respond. I am mildly surprised.)

Now a few more obligatory (still amazing though) repeats. First, though I&W comes pretty close, here's the best DT album in my opinion:

#18
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
Dream Theater
Genre: progressive metal
1999


Here comes another Dream Theater album and another short (not) write-up. Well, who doesn’t like SFAM on this board? Unlike Images and Words, this is effort is heavier and definitely progressive metal to the bone. This album is ambitious; I mean, writing the concept album is always ambitious, and instead of taking a story already fleshed out and written the band went another way and just invented this whole plot with Nicholas, Victoria, The Miracle and the Sleeper, and cleverly tied the loose strings up with their Metropolis Pt. 1 song, which until this album seemed like a nonsensical, meaningless babbling in lyrics department. It sounded cool anyway though.

While Images and Words was warm and inviting, Scenes from a Memory turned out to be more progressive, more quirky and heavier record. I guess it’s fitting considering the whole concept, but it also has its mellow parts, so it’s not like it is heavy all 77 minutes throughout. The musical reprises are here and there, and they work flawlessly, allowing the listener to experience what the words “concept album” truly mean. While there may seem to be a lot of extensive instrumental passages on the first listen, all these parts grow on the subsequent spins immensely, providing the unique experience of a unbelievable journey through the very depths of progressive world; fasten your seat belts and prepare to be blown away.

The album also does an impressive job with closing the whole thing up; I mean, The Spirit Carries On does the job impeccably, shedding the light on the whole transmigration of souls thing, ending with this uplifting, reassuring note, and the album feels to come full circle with Regression reprise in the end of the track; and then the dark, crushing reveal from Finally Free appears, giving us enough information to figure all the rest. I love how it starts with ”Friday evening, the blood’s still on my hands”, and then goes into this happy part beginning with “Feeling good this Friday afternoon”. In fact, these might be my favourite MP lyrics ever.

While there are no songs from Scenes from a Memory in my top ten DT songs, the album is one of my favourites, hence its placement in my list. Despite a few weird plot decisions here and there that can ultimately be explained (or not), I love that the band decided to write their own story and enclose it within those lyrics, which are, let’s be honest here, almost not pretentious at all compared to a lot of other concept albums. This album is quite long, but there is no other way but to listen it in full, and when I do that, I’m always left in awe. How can you even write this whole piece? Wow.

Disclaimer: for the most satisfying experience you should listen to the whole album

Favourite tracks: Scene Two: I. Overture 1928, Scene Six: Home, Scene Eight: The Spirit Carries On, Scene Nine: Finally Free

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to include Youtube links for Dream Theater songs, so I decided I won’t do that. Everyone heard them anyway.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline TAC

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #18 "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly"
« Reply #239 on: January 21, 2015, 08:27:13 AM »
While there are no songs from Scenes from a Memory in my top ten DT songs, the album is one of my favorites,

Same here. Great album. Totally restored my faith in DT at the time. My second favorite album from DT.
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Offline ?

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #18 "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly"
« Reply #240 on: January 21, 2015, 09:47:03 AM »
The Road of Bones is great and one of my top 5 albums of 2014. Thanks for sending the title-track in my roulette, I might not have checked IQ out otherwise! :tup

Offline mikemangioy

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #18 "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly"
« Reply #241 on: January 21, 2015, 10:33:04 AM »
SFAM is #1, so no complaints here at all  :metal
Because Mike is better than Mike

Offline jjrock88

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #18 "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly"
« Reply #242 on: January 21, 2015, 11:27:07 AM »
Another great choice

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #17 "Constant longing for the perfect soul"
« Reply #243 on: January 21, 2015, 11:43:04 AM »
The Road of Bones is great and one of my top 5 albums of 2014. Thanks for sending the title-track in my roulette, I might not have checked IQ out otherwise! :tup

You're welcome! Amazing album indeed.

And yeah guys, SFAM is just SFAM, great album and I don't think there's anything more to add, so, let's move on to the next obligatory repeat! (Not a lot of them left, hold on.) Well, now it's the best Nightwish album right here:

#17
Century Child
Nightwish
Genre: symphonic power metal
2002


While Imaginaerum is really beautiful and magical, and truly deserves to be called a great Nightwish record, you can go and ask Chad to be sure that Century Child is the best them. Being more operatic and, I don’t know, more mature somehow, this album has established the standard of Nightwish sound for me. It’s often regarded as the pinnacle of Nightwish career along with Once, but while Once has a few duds like Dead Gardens, Century Child has no bad songs whatsoever. All the material is top notch and has you sitting on the edge for the whole record.

Century Child is not a concept album, unlike Imaginaerum, but I would say it’s even more concise musically. Imaginaerum has those wild dashes into jazz, circus music and movie soundtracks approach, and Century Child… well, it’s just a solid record, so solid, in fact, that I can’t get enough of it. There are basically two big differences between the records, and they’re linked tightly; the second one is a consequence of the first. So, well, the first is obviously the vocals. Anette Olzon sang on Imaginaerum, while Century Child was recorded with Tarja Turunen on vocals, and the distinction is so clear-cut it’s jarring even. Anette is more of a poppy singer, though we saw she does great on jazz-tunes like Slow, Love, Slow; anyway, Tarja is more of an operatic singer. The second difference is the songwriting: Tuomas obviously writes the songs with specific singer in mind, so small wonder the albums turned out to be that different. Otherwise, there are a lot of similarities between them. Both are featuring lead male vocals by Marco Hietala, who joined the band right before Century Child; both are ending with epic; and so on.

The album is diverse enough to please both fans of heavy, powerful Nightwish, and also fans of soft, serene side of the band. Opening with quite slow yet chugging Bless the Child, the record quickly picks up the pace into two more straightforward rockers, and then flows into more levelheaded Ever Dream only to go fully nuts on the heaviest tune on the record, Slaying the Dreamer. I mean, just look at this title, it’s so obvious this song has to have this balls-to-the-wall approach with Marco almost death metal styled screams. This song marks the ending of the album’s first half; it’s not actually divided in half, yet I can’t help but do it: the first one is more speedy, more headbanging worthy, and the second one is way more vivid; thus forming a bit of contrast in my mind which allows the album to sound even better. Both Forever Yours and Ocean Soul are breathtakingly beautiful, Phantom of the Opera is the whole new take on the famous Lloyd-Webber song done much better than his original piece, and Beauty of the Beast would rival Ghost Love Score in the “Best Thing That Nightwish Has Ever Done” competition if such thing existed. Funny, it includes the spoken part too; I guess the only epic from Century Child and onwards without the spoken part is Ghost Love Score, and it’s not like that’s an utterly awful thing, even though I wish for a change in this regard on their new album.

It’s interesting that according to Wikipedia, Tuomas was nearly ready to close this whole Nightwish band before Century Child was recorded. It’s a damn good thing he didn’t, because this album remains as my favourite Nightwish record and one of the best in symphonic power metal overall. There are a lot of bands who sound like their clone, for better or worse, but for me, Nightwish were and still are the leaders on the genre; the appearance of Imaginaerum in this list confirms their appeal to me as of now, and Century Child making it this high definitely speaks for itself about my affection to the previous band’s work. And with Endless Forms Most Beautiful coming our way soon, I’m prepared to be blown away.

Favourite tracks: Ever Dream, Forever Yours, Ocean Soul, Phantom of the Opera, Beauty of the Beast
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Sacul

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Re: Evermind's Top 50 list v. #17 "Constant longing for the perfect soul"
« Reply #244 on: January 21, 2015, 12:04:11 PM »
Sacul, you never fail to amaze me :lol
My job is done then ;D .


SFAM is unique and fucking awesome. I think it made #4 in my top 50, and it's still there. And will be for a long, long time.