Author Topic: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. 5. Six O'Clock on a Christmas Morning  (Read 24779 times)

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Offline Anguyen92

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Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. 5. Six O'Clock on a Christmas Morning
« on: February 16, 2016, 11:40:10 AM »
So, it has taken me 2.5 years of being in DTF, but I have finally made it to 1,000 posts.  I thought to myself on the backs of my mind that if I make it to 1,000 posts, I'm going to do a top 50 albums thread, and so here we are.  Now, for those wondering, who the heck am I and how did I get to DTF, here's a brief bio regarding me and listening to music throughout life.

Well, for starters, growing up with two parents that immigrated from Vietnam, I do recall hearing music from various worldly instruments that people in Vietnam used since my mother would always watch this variety show called "Paris By Night" and it would feature live performances, skits, music videos, comedy acts, etc. regarding Vietnamese culture from the past to the now. I guess the first times I actually hear a song on repeat was through my older sister.  Around the late 90s/early 2000s, she was into boy bands like Nsync, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, etc. and would have the MTV channel on to watch TRL and other stuff and watch music videos from songs like "Bye, Bye, Bye," "Hit Me Baby One More Time," Blink 182's All the Small Things, etc.  Then a bit later on, she kinda corrupted both of us with the Nu-Metal trend and we listened to Korn, Disturbed, and Limp Bizkit.  A few years back, when going through some boxes,  I found an album, it was Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water that she bought when it came out.  I showed it to her and stated, "what the blimey were we thinking back then???"

So with that opening paragraph, I think it's safe to say a guy like me getting into a band like Dream Theater with that background would be really tough, but there's still a lot more to the story.  Years later, I could not recall any music I heard from the ages of 8-12.  However, the 1st song that started my personal musical journey was Alter Bridge's Open Your Eyes.  I heard it from a fanmade Youtube highlight video of WWE's Royal Rumble 2004 match (one of my favorite wrestling matches of all time) and it was the first time ever I heard such a extensive instrumental section with a killer solo and the likes with lyrics that I can personally relate to and that was the beginning of my Alter Bridge fandom, nine years ago.  And then, since I was a WWE fan at the time (now I'm just a wrestling fan that shuns the WWE for the time being), theme songs for WWE PPV events was really my source of music back then was hearing those brief 30 second previews while watching Raw and Smackdown, and those songs help introduce me to bands like Seether, Rise Against, Skillet, Shinedown, Daughtry, and many more.

Going into 2012, after discovering that one of my favorite wrestlers Chris Jericho had a radio show on the Sixx Sense channel on iHeartRadio, I decided to check it out and then stuck around more to hear more songs from the radio stations and then I was introduced to some of the more radio bands that I would begin to dig (Halestorm, Breaking Benjamin, Foo Fighters, etc.).  Eventually, around late 2012, I found this music channel called Palladia and they were doing a big long rock marathon weekend and so I watched/heard some classic bands, but one of those classic bands really got to me with their story, songs, live performance, and that band was Rush and that was the start of something more progressive.

And then 2013 hits, Dream Theater made and was going to promote an album in Europe, Alter Bridge made and going to promote an album themselves in Europe, both are on the same record label, :soon: , and so eventually their paths had to cross.  Now naturally, for me, I'm going with the impression that if anyone from a name-value band found themselves talking and having pictures with guys from Alter Bridge, well, I'm going to have to check that band out, it's how I found about new bands that way. It worked for bands like Black Stone Cherry, Sevendust, and Trivium.  Anywho, so yep, they met up somewhere in England, had some pictures taken, JLB and Myles Kennedy did some short videos about being a vocalist and all. 

Around that same time, Loudwire did their cage match weekly polls featuring new singles and they pitted Dream Theater's The Enemy Inside and Alter Bridge's Addicted to Pain against each other.  So I thought to myself, I wonder how Dream Theater fans feel about AB?  So I googled Dream Theater Forums, found this forum, dug the vibe of it, and here we are.

I stuck around the forum as I like the community here in addition to having more outlets in terms of talking about a variety of bands and getting into new bands and 1000 posts, here we are, making a top 50 albums thread reflecting, pretty much, my musical journey that is highlighted in that long bulk of text I wrote.

So what's my schedule going to be?  I will do my best to get two album writeups posted a day around like 9-10 AM/PM PST, depending on stuff like school, and slowly reflect on my journey and hope you guys enjoy what I have to say about my writeups and albums.

Edit: Albums so far.

Honorable Mentions:

Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits
Lindsey Stirling - Shatter Me
Matchbox Twenty - Yourself or Someone Like You

#50: Sound City: Reel to Real
#49: Halestorm - Halestorm
#48: Decyfer Down - End Of Gray
#47: Zac Brown Band - Jekyll + Hyde
#46: Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators - World on Fire
#45: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
#44: Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy
#43: Stryper - Fallen
#42: Geddy Lee - My Favorite Headache
#41: Chris Cornell - Higher Truth
#40: Rush - Moving Pictures
#39: Breaking Benjamin - Dark Before Dawn
#38: Alter Bridge - AB III
#37: Trust Company - Dreaming In Black and White
#36: Soundgarden - Superunknown
#35: Tremonti - Cauterize
#34: Seether - Disclaimer II
#33: California Breed - California Breed
#32: Tremonti - All I Was
#31: Foo Fighters - There is Nothing Left to Lose
#30: Dream Theater - Breaking the Fourth Wall
#29: Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold
#28: Sixx: A.M. - This Is Gonna Hurt
#27: Rise Against - The Sufferer & The Witness
#26: Shinedown - Somewhere in the Stratosphere (Disc 2: Live from Kansas City)
#25: Daughtry - Daughtry
#24: Skillet - Awake
#23: Shinedown - Leave A Whisper
#22: Fozzy - Chasing the Grail
#21: Alter Bridge - Live From Amsterdam
#20: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls
#19: Seether - Karma and Effect
#18: Big Wreck - Albatross
#17: Rush - Rush in Rio
#16: The Mayfield Four - Second Skin
#15: Matt Nathanson - Beneath These Fireworks
#14: Alter Bridge - Fortress
#13: Sevendust - Time Travelers & Bonfires
#12: Ayreon - The Human Equation
#11: Alter Bridge - One Day Remains
#10: Black Stone Cherry - Folklore and Superstition
#9: Switchfoot - Vice Verses
#8: Daughtry - Leave This Town
#7: Breaking Benjamin - Dear Agony
#6: Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
#5: Dream Theater - Awake
« Last Edit: April 24, 2019, 12:07:03 AM by Anguyen92 »

Offline Train of Naught

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. 1000th Post - How Did We Get Here?
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2016, 12:27:39 PM »
First and foremost, I'll be following of course, eagerly been waiting for this top 50!

That's quite a story, I never dug wrestling or anything related but I hear lots of fans from those same bands being introduced to them through WWE intro songs and whatnot. (god, will the Metalingus-best-AB-song-debate ever stop?)
But yeah, lot of compatibility here, I may not have mentioned it before, but I'm also a pretty big Seether fan, Burrito is :metal
people on this board are actual music fans who developed taste in music and not casual listeners who are following current fashion trends and listening to only current commercial hits.

Offline Tomislav95

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. 1000th Post - How Did We Get Here?
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2016, 12:41:48 PM »
I'm following this :tup
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Offline Accelerando

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. 1000th Post - How Did We Get Here?
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2016, 04:04:37 PM »
You know I'm following this, buddy  :tup

Offline Anguyen92

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2016, 11:04:01 PM »
All right, all right, thanks for the support guys.  Let's begin this, shall we?  I will start with the honorable mentions.  These are the albums that I feel that I got to include as these albums are important to me in terms of my musical journey, but I feel that they are not as important as my Top 50.

Foo Fighters – Greatest Hits (2009)



Alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock

So most of us, I think, know who Foo Fighters is.  It is the band that Nirvana drummer, Dave Grohl, created after Nirvana disbanded due to Kurt Cobain’s death.  Grohl claims, I believe, during the time mourning on Cobain’s death for a long time, he just didn’t do anything musically, eventually, he needed to get out of the funk and do something and thus did a new project which eventually became the biggest modern rock band of our time (I like to think that).

Anywho, I know, I know.  Yes, putting a greatest hits album anywhere in a top 50 album thread, even if it’s in the honorable mentions section seems to be a bit of a cop-out and, with fair reasoning, I will agree with that.  However, as a guy that discovered Foo Fighters through the radio and the hits, well, this seems to be an easy way to get more into them, plus there is method of madness of putting it here.  As for the album, it’s what it is billed as.  A compilation of their biggest radio songs from their 6 albums at the time (Everlong, Learn to Fly, All My Life, Best of You, The Pretender, etc.) with some songs that didn’t make it to an official album release (Skin and Bones, Wheels, and Word Forward).  With that stated, now to explain why putting this album has meaning to me.

Aside from having their well-known songs on the album, they made two new songs just for this release: Wheels and Word Forward.  Now, when reflecting through life and all, I think Wheels may be one of the most influential song to me in life.  Wheels is a pretty introspective song that would relate well to someone that felt that they accomplish the things that they always wanted and when they got it, what's the next step for them?  It reflects times in life where I've done what I want to do and then things go a tad stale with how life is going and there may be a sense of complacent, and then I go, "now what?"  Makes sense with these lyrics, ”Well I wanted something better man.  I wished for something new.  And I wanted something beautiful. And wish for something true. Been lookin' for a reason man. Something to lose.”  Maybe I am still searching for something that is better or new or something with meaning.  Sure, it may not be one of the better Foo Fighters songs among the fanbase in their catalog, but Wheels holds the most meaning to me, so for that, that’s why I put Greatest Hits on it and yeah, it’s an easy outlet to get people into Foo Fighters.

Favorites: Learn to Fly, Best of You, Times Like These, Long Road to Ruin, and Wheels

Lindsey Stirling – Shatter Me (2014)



Classical crossover, EDM

Ahhh, so I went from Foo Fighters to Lindsey Stirling, ehhh.  How did I get there?  Well, for those that do not know, Lindsey Stirling is a violinist.  She was on America’s Got Talent, but got her name value through making Youtube Videos.  Her style, from what I can tell, is a mixture of incorporating violin sounds with the modern EDM vibe.  Now, I will admit.  EDM seems like something that is not for me.  The wub-wub or the beats or other sounds seems a little too scary for me, as a guy that is accustomed to guitars, bass, drums, sometimes keyboards, but Lindsey Stirling pulls off the style well.  Plus, she likes to incorporate more of showmanship performer flair, moving around, choreographed dancing as she is playing the violin in her videos and in her live shows.

So how did I hear of her music?  Well, like most things regarding me discovering music, I heard about Lindsey Stirling through another band that I like.  In this case, the band would be Halestorm.  I heard that Lzzy Hale, Halestorm’s vocalist, did lead vocals for a song from Lindsey Stirling called Shatter Me.  I took a listen at it, just for a curio, liked what I hear even if it seems foreign to me, and decided to take a listen to Stirling’s album since I am at that stage now, where I’m willing to listen to other stuff outside of the ballpark than what I am accustomed to.

Aside from two songs, Shatter Me and We Are Giants, sang by Dia Frampton, the rest of the album is instrumental.  Now for me, hearing a mostly instrumental album is actually tougher to get into than I thought it would be, since I can identify a song more on vocal melodies and lyrics than other aspects.  With that in mind, the album-listening experience was pleasant, to say the least, and maybe it was due to the instrumentals that made the listening a breeze to go through.  That stated, as a guy that used to play World of Warcraft, I would have enjoyed something like this to listen on occasions to while grinding it out, which makes not surprising that some of the Twitch.tv streamers, I watch, have Lindsey Stirling songs playing on their playlist.

Favorites: It’s mostly an instrumental album, I cannot really identify some good favorites, so check out the whole album if you want to relax or something, but check out Shatter Me and We Are Giants.

Got one more honorable mention to state, but I will get to that tomorrow.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2016, 11:14:02 PM by Anguyen92 »

Offline sneakyblueberry

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Offline Big Hath

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when you get to the top 50, could you add the release year of each album?
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Offline Anguyen92

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Oh crepes, oh yeah.  I'll put the year in, sorry about the faux-pas.

Offline Accelerando

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #9 on: February 16, 2016, 11:38:30 PM »
I saw a music video of Penatonix feat Lindsey Sterling doing a cover of Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, and thought it was fantastic. I'll be checking out this Lindsey Sterling, especially based on your honorable mention write up. Also, based on pictures i've seen of her, she is not bad on the eyes.

Offline Tomislav95

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2016, 12:39:45 AM »
Lindsey Stirling sounds like something I might like. Will check.
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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #11 on: February 17, 2016, 12:42:40 AM »
Lindsey Stirling's "Shatter Me" is fantastic. I should really listen to more of her stuff.
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Offline Fluffy Lothario

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #12 on: February 17, 2016, 12:50:28 AM »
Have you heard the Foos' actual albums?  Colour and the Shape is good, and One by One isn't half as bad as Grohl and a lot of the fanbase make it out to be. It does have a few weak songs, but most of it is the best stuff they ever did.

Offline Anguyen92

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #13 on: February 17, 2016, 12:53:11 AM »
Have you heard the Foos' actual albums?  Colour and the Shape is good, and One by One isn't half as bad as Grohl and a lot of the fanbase make it out to be. It does have a few weak songs, but most of it is the best stuff they ever did.

I have heard all of their albums.  I had my own rankings of all of them as I listened to all of them in preparation in seeing them at The Forum in Inglewood last fall.

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #14 on: February 17, 2016, 01:03:51 AM »
Wheels is easily my favourite Foos song. It really is incredible and a shame it's only on the greatest hits as some fans might not have heard it. Not only is it my favourite Foos song but one of my favourite rock songs, I have yet to tire from it!

Definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Offline sneakyblueberry

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #15 on: February 17, 2016, 01:09:07 AM »
Huh.  I thought Wheels was really fucking weak to be frank.  But if it holds personal meaning for someone then there's no way I can fault that.  Different strokes. 

One by One isn't half as bad as Grohl and a lot of the fanbase make it out to be. It does have a few weak songs, but most of it is the best stuff they ever did.

This, I wholeheartedly agree with.  I always say that after One by One they stopped pushing themselves and just started being AC/DC-brand formulaic.

Offline Fluffy Lothario

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #16 on: February 17, 2016, 02:28:04 AM »
Well, I think they were trying to do something interesting on Disc 2 of In Your Honor. It's not my favourite of their stuff, but it is good.

The first disc, on the other hand...

Offline sneakyblueberry

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #17 on: February 17, 2016, 03:37:13 AM »
I had completely forgotten about that album, tbh.  Which is usually a good indication of how much I like an album. 

I just had a thought - there are probably dozens of other examples, but Wheels and Word Forward remind me of Fortune Faded and Save the Population from the Chili Peppers greatest hits, back in 03-04.  Filler songs to entice people to buy a record full of songs they probably should've had already.  Though I do think Fortune Faded is a pretty good song.  Save the Population was shithouse.

Greatest Hits are a funny thing, I guess it largely depends on what side of the coin you're on.  They're awesome for getting into a new band, but utterly useless for fans of the band already.  I guess that's another reason they chuck a couple new tracks on there.  I don't have anything against greatest hits, really.  But putting new (usually pretty average) songs on a 'greatest hits' compilation is kinda shit. 

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #18 on: February 17, 2016, 08:03:43 AM »
Lindsey Stirling sounds like something I might like. Will check.

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #19 on: February 17, 2016, 08:25:30 AM »
Lindsey Stirling is awesome.

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: When The Wheels Come Down
« Reply #20 on: February 17, 2016, 08:28:09 AM »
The FF greatest hits are some of the best songs they have in the catalouge, so it's not that bad of a choice IMO.

Lindsey Stirling sounds like something cool indeed.
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Offline Anguyen92

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: It's 3AM, I must be lonely
« Reply #21 on: February 17, 2016, 10:48:02 AM »
All right, let's continue, onwards.

Matchbox Twenty - Yourself or Someone Like You (1996)



Alternative rock, post-grunge

The first time I’ve heard a Matchbox Twenty song was from another fanmade highlight video of another of my favorite wrestling matches of all time (Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit at Wrestlemania XX) and the song was How Far We’ve Come and that it sounded cool with its upbeat pace and somewhat pessimistic lyrics.  So, a long time ago, in 2011, I was having a rough time in life and through Youtube searching, after hearing How Far We’ve Come, I found this song called Unwell and the lyrics got to me very hard and I decided to hear more from this band.  So it leads to hearing their radio singles like Bent, Push, 3AM, Real World, How Far We’ve Come, etc. 

Years later, I went into listening to this particular album, which was their debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You, through DTF when we were talking about albums in the 1990s and after I saw a proshot of them on TV.  This album contains five singles, songs that I have definitely heard off before listening to this album (Long Day, Push, Real World, 3AM, Back 2 Good).  Real World was very relating in that there are times where "I wish the real world, would just stop hassling me," in that when everyone is asking you to do stuff, you just wonder what it is like if you are in another position.  3AM had a nice message about it as it was written by vocalist Rob Thomas on the backs of his mom being really sick, when he was a kid, and he had all sorts of ideas in lyrics talking about being a kid in that scenario.  The other songs on the album are pretty decent.  Kody is really a strong song that talks about dealing with loneliness, I believe. 

Yourself or Someone Like You was, I guess, the sort of album that helped shape the style of modern post-grunge and alternative-rock style that I grew up with as a teenager to the now, so this is an easy inclusion.  Got catchy singles that you cannot stop listening to and discovering and you may find something golden outside of that in this album and Matchbox Twenty was one of those bands that helped shaped that genre, along with bands like Creed and Foo Fighters, that lead to bands I got good respect for, so they are all right in my books.

Favorites: 3AM, Push, Real World, Argue and Kody
« Last Edit: February 17, 2016, 12:11:51 PM by Anguyen92 »

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. Honorable Mentions: It's 3AM, I must be lonely
« Reply #22 on: February 17, 2016, 02:07:58 PM »
Never heard the whole album, but some of the singles on it were okay. All over the place when it came out.

I think Rob Thomas’ best song (that I’ve heard) by a mile is Smooth, the song he did with Santana.

Offline Anguyen92

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All righty, then.  Let's officially begin this Top 50 album list with this one.

50. Sound City: Reel To Real (2013)



Rock

So, we officially begin the journey with this album.  Sound City: Real To Reel.  It all started after Foo Fighters finished their Wasting Light tour in around 2012 and, after Foo Fighters recorded Wasting Light (more on that much later in the list) in his house and garage, utilizing tape and all, Dave Grohl decided to make a documentary about Sound City Studios and had various musicians, that had recorded classic albums in that very studio, be on the documentary, and described the unique feeling of recording in that particular studio.
 
For that matter, since Dave Grohl also purchased various equipment in Sound City Studios around the time the studio were closing, and he was directing this documentary on Sound City, he decided use that equipment to make a soundtrack incorporating some of the musicians that, as I stated before, recorded classic albums in Sound City Studio.  The musician cast that contributed to this album was pretty good.  We got Dave Grohl, of course.  His Foo Fighters bandmates: Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mandel, Rami Jaffee.  The guest musicians include Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age/Them Crooked Vultures), Corey Taylor (Slipknot/Stone Sour), Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac), Paul McCartney, among many others.

As a result, the range in the spectrum of rock on this album seemed pretty varied.  We got a pretty attitude-ish punk song (Your Wife is Calling), we got some classic rock sounding songs (You Can’t Fix This), a song that had a stoner rock vibe QOTSA-vibe (Centipede), a song that incorporated electronic elements like NIN does with their songs, I believe, (Mantra), a song with acoustic sounds, like during Foo Fighters acoustic In Your Honor phase (If I Were Me), and modern sounding heavy rock songs were there (From Can to Can’t and A Trick With No Sleeve).

This was a solid album and enjoyed what it was going for which is to showcase the many spectrums of rock, I think.  It got me into looking into Corey Taylor’s stuff, especially Stone Sour (a little more on that later in this thread), since his vocal work was really good in From Can to Can’t (a song that had certain parts that reminded me of Alter Bridge’s Blackbird, much more on that way way later…).  Overall, I think if Dave Grohl wanted to show the beauty of recording on analog with different musicians he has known, in the span of about 20 years, and make songs on the fly and get some solid songs in the process, I think he did a good job of it.  I liked the documentary and his enthusiasm on recording and talking to many different musicians/producers which probably inspire the idea of Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways album (don't worry, that album is not on this list).

Favorites: Time Slowing Down, Your Wife is Calling, From Can to Can’t, A Trick With No Sleeve, and Cut Me Some Slack
« Last Edit: February 17, 2016, 11:24:34 PM by Anguyen92 »

Offline mikemangioy

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Oh gosh. This is the first time I see this mentioned here.

This album rocks! It has tons of great music in it, and the documentary is amazing too. I must have saw it four or five times, and it's really well done, shows how much of a great director Dave is. Amazing stuff to see in a top 50.
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Offline Anguyen92

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #49: I get off on you. Getting off on me
« Reply #25 on: February 18, 2016, 10:01:05 AM »
Moving onward with this one.

49. Halestorm – Halestorm (2009)



Hard rock, post-grunge

Let’s see here, when was the first time I got into Halestorm?  Well, during my radio phase in 2012, I heard some songs called Love Bites (So Do I), and I Miss The Misery and thought the female vocalist sounded cool and she had that sort of voice that I was looking for in modern hard rock radio.  I don't really think I heard much female lead vocals in modern hard rock at the time (aside from maybe Evanescence, but that was long ago).  Naturally, I read more about the band in the Alter Bridge Nation forums that I’m always at and found out that they opened a few shows with Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators (more on that band later), so they got to be good.  Took a listen of their stuff and they got a good vibe of youthful energy that can take them far into their careers.

So as for who Halestorm is, they are a band formed by siblings Lzzy (guitarist/lead vocals) and Arejay Hale (drummer) and they started out as a local school band.  In fact, their dad was the bassist during their teenage years.  As they move towards their adult age, the Hales added Joe Hottinger (lead guitarist) and Josh Smith (bassist) around 2003 and that line-up was solidified from there into the now.  Around that time period, they just slowly progressed and progress from playing in very small venues, local county festivals, whatnot and then found themselves with a record deal with Atlantic which lead to them releasing their first official album in 2009 called Halestorm.

To most people’s eyes, Halestorm is probably as generic rock as it can get, but as I keep venturing into and deeper stuff from other bands, I found that listening to a band like Halestorm is all right.  They seem to be the kind of band that you just want to keep rooting for to go far, even if their songs may seem a tad bit cliche.  As for their self-titled album, it’s a standard modern radio hard rock album, but I like it.  Got some solid singles songs (It’s Not You, I Get Off), got some moody ballads (Familiar Taste of Poison, I’m Not An Angel) and plenty of innuendo songs (Bet U Wish You Had Me Back, Dirty Work).  They even have a song that poked fun at the notions of being a female-fronted band (What Were You Expecting).

This album showed that this was a young band that is ready to go out into the world with their energetic vibe and show what they got.  It certainly paid off, later, as their later albums keep making them bigger and bigger like winning a Grammy, doing longer and bigger headlining shows, getting opening arena slots in the UK for bands like Alter Bridge and Black Stone Cherry, and other high-profile festival slots.  People have raved over their live shows in any setting (headlining, festivals, supporting, etc.) especially regarding Lzzy's live vocals and Arejay's drumming showmanship performance.  Sure, people probably would state that they are only popular since they have an attractive singer (it also helps that Lzzy Hale can really sing well without any pre-fab BS).  However, I always keep saying that they always make the most of all of the exposure they get and work very hard and consistently deliver in the live shows and manage to do everything to showcase what they got at the right times.  So I’m happy for them that they are moving up as a band indeed going forward.

Favorites: Innocence, I’m Not An Angel, Better Sorry Than Safe, Nothing to With Love, and Tell Me Where It Hurts
« Last Edit: February 18, 2016, 10:11:24 AM by Anguyen92 »

Offline Shadow Ninja 2.0

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #49: I get off on you. Getting off on me.
« Reply #26 on: February 18, 2016, 10:13:55 AM »
I think Lzzy is an amazing vocalist, but I admit I've always found Halestorm's songs to be rather lacking. I kinda wish she'd join another band with stronger songwriting, because she really is fantastic.

Online Evermind

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #49: I get off on you. Getting off on me.
« Reply #27 on: February 18, 2016, 10:30:09 AM »
I know Halestorm and I enjoy them in moderate amounts, but that's about it.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Anguyen92

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #48: Bring me back so that I can feel you again.
« Reply #28 on: February 18, 2016, 11:49:53 PM »
Carrying on now.

48. Decyfer Down – End Of Grey (2006)



Christian rock, hard rock, alternative metal

I’ve first heard about Decyer Down, like other bands, through watching fanmade videos of WWE events. In this case, I heard about this song called Life Again and the PPV was Royal Rumble 2001.  It sounded like standard radio hard rock, post-grunge, which is a style that I enjoy and sometimes want to defend its goodness against naysayers of it, but there’s this certain type of aura that Decyfer Down had in that song that I just cannot describe in words.  It’s the same feeling I had when listening to other modern Christian Hard Rock bands like Skillet, Red, Switchfoot where they can be heavy in a modern radio rock format, but they have some deep spiritual vibes in their lyrics and all that gets me thinking about life.  So as I venture more into Skillet (a band that I will talk about later in the list), people told me, "Hey, you should check out Decyfer Down.  The End of Grey album is pretty good and they toured with Skillet, so I was like, all right."

As for the album, End of Grey, it’s consistent stuff.  Not that much of a listen, 37 min., 10 songs, ranges from high-energy songs (Break Free, Life Again) with some touching ballads (Burn Back the Sun, Here To You).  There was a certain amount of oomph and heaviness while having a positive vibe (pretty similar to what JRundquist stated regarding with the latest Walking With Giants albums with it having a positive vibe in a well-crafted modern radio rock sounding album).  Listening to the songs from this particular album puts me in a solid motivating mood so that’s a good sign.

Favorites: Break Free, Life Again, Burn Back the Sun, Here To You, and Never Lost

Offline mikeyd23

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #48: Bring me back so that I can feel you again.
« Reply #29 on: February 19, 2016, 08:55:39 AM »
Jumping in late here, but I'm definitely following this! I expect to see some AB ranked pretty high on your list  :tup

As for Decyfer Down - I've been a fan since they released End of Grey. Great straight-forward hard rock album, I really wish we would have gotten the opportunity to hear more of Caleb as I loved his vocals on this record, but TJ can sing really well as well. What are your thoughts on the rest of their albums? I felt like Crash was a really good sophomore release, Scarecrow was a little lacking but they were trying something different which I can appreciate. They are releasing a new record in couple months I think, the single is really good.

Offline Train of Naught

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #48: Bring me back so that I can feel you again.
« Reply #30 on: February 19, 2016, 09:05:38 AM »
Well, can't say I'm really familiar with anything, except one or two Halestorm songs and a decent amount of Foo Fighter ones, though I personally can't stand songs like Best of You, I thought AC/DC was repetitive  :lol

Anyway, do you have an albums per artist cap?
people on this board are actual music fans who developed taste in music and not casual listeners who are following current fashion trends and listening to only current commercial hits.

Offline Anguyen92

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #48: Bring me back so that I can feel you again.
« Reply #31 on: February 19, 2016, 12:06:37 PM »
Jumping in late here, but I'm definitely following this! I expect to see some AB ranked pretty high on your list  :tup

As for Decyfer Down - I've been a fan since they released End of Grey. Great straight-forward hard rock album, I really wish we would have gotten the opportunity to hear more of Caleb as I loved his vocals on this record, but TJ can sing really well as well. What are your thoughts on the rest of their albums? I felt like Crash was a really good sophomore release, Scarecrow was a little lacking but they were trying something different which I can appreciate. They are releasing a new record in couple months I think, the single is really good.

Honestly, to be fair, I hadn't heard their other stuff yet.  I don't know why, but I keep hearing that End of Grey was their high mark and didn't just seem to bother with their other stuff.  I'll consider it though.

Well, can't say I'm really familiar with anything, except one or two Halestorm songs and a decent amount of Foo Fighter ones, though I personally can't stand songs like Best of You, I thought AC/DC was repetitive  :lol

Anyway, do you have an albums per artist cap?

For me, it is going to be three albums per artist, there is one exception though and it is not DT.....

Offline mikeyd23

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #48: Bring me back so that I can feel you again.
« Reply #32 on: February 19, 2016, 12:18:51 PM »
Jumping in late here, but I'm definitely following this! I expect to see some AB ranked pretty high on your list  :tup

As for Decyfer Down - I've been a fan since they released End of Grey. Great straight-forward hard rock album, I really wish we would have gotten the opportunity to hear more of Caleb as I loved his vocals on this record, but TJ can sing really well as well. What are your thoughts on the rest of their albums? I felt like Crash was a really good sophomore release, Scarecrow was a little lacking but they were trying something different which I can appreciate. They are releasing a new record in couple months I think, the single is really good.

Honestly, to be fair, I hadn't heard their other stuff yet.  I don't know why, but I keep hearing that End of Grey was their high mark and didn't just seem to bother with their other stuff.  I'll consider it though.

If you liked End of Gray that much you should definitely check out their second record, "Crash", same lineup, except with a new vocalist. Caleb, the vocalist on End of Gray only did that record with the band before leaving for personal reasons. Their third record Scarecrow is their weakest, IMO. It's not as heavy and almost has a southern rock feel to it. They just released a single leading up to their fourth album which comes out later this year, the single sounds really good.

Here's the new single, called "Nothing More":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db45zpKFQBw

Here are a couple really good songs off of their second record, "Crash":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrF9zwF4X5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksLGSY7cNxo

Hope you like!

Offline Train of Naught

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #48: Bring me back so that I can feel you again.
« Reply #33 on: February 19, 2016, 12:22:31 PM »
Well, can't say I'm really familiar with anything, except one or two Halestorm songs and a decent amount of Foo Fighter ones, though I personally can't stand songs like Best of You, I thought AC/DC was repetitive  :lol

Anyway, do you have an albums per artist cap?

For me, it is going to be three albums per artist, there is one exception though and it is not DT.....
Alter Bridge :2metal:
people on this board are actual music fans who developed taste in music and not casual listeners who are following current fashion trends and listening to only current commercial hits.

Offline mikeyd23

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Re: Anguyen's Top 50 Albums v. #48: Bring me back so that I can feel you again.
« Reply #34 on: February 19, 2016, 12:27:33 PM »
Well, can't say I'm really familiar with anything, except one or two Halestorm songs and a decent amount of Foo Fighter ones, though I personally can't stand songs like Best of You, I thought AC/DC was repetitive  :lol

Anyway, do you have an albums per artist cap?

For me, it is going to be three albums per artist, there is one exception though and it is not DT.....
Alter Bridge :2metal:

Deservedly so, I haven't thought about a top 50 albums list in a long time but at least 2, probably 3 AB records would be on mine, haha.