Twosuitsluke's "Top 50 Albums" #44 - Is Only For the Weak...

[Rattlehead]

Coheed is one of my favorite bands too. Their new album is pretty much all I've been listening to lately.

Ascension and Descension are both awesome, but I've always liked Descension more too. It has my favorite opener in their discography and is packed with some of the catchiest songs the band has to date. 

[twosuitsluke]

Coheed is one of my favorite bands too. Their new album is pretty much all I've been listening to lately.

Ascension and Descension are both awesome, but I've always liked Descension more too. It has my favorite opener in their discography and is packed with some of the catchiest songs the band has to date. 

Totally, Descension has some really catchy songs. Dark Side of Me though, I can't emphasise enough how big a deal to me that song was. The only song that I've been that obsessed with, since it came out, was 'Waves' by The Dear Hunter.

With their new album, I like it but I think, for the first time ever, I wish they'd made it a bit shorter and cut some of the middle songs. The beginning and end of the album are brilliant but there is a lull in the middle for me. Some of the songs are starting to grow each listen so we'll see what my thoughts are come next year; I'll probably love all of it 

Yeah I know for sure this isn't the last time we're seeing Coheed 
Good album though, I'd rank this behind IKS and NWFT but that's about it

Of course 

Interesting ranking. I know you love IKS but rating NWFT above Good Apollo I? I mean I love NWFT and rate both albums very close together, but that opinion is certainly in the minority 

[Rattlehead]

With their new album, I like it but I think, for the first time ever, I wish they'd made it a bit shorter and cut some of the middle songs. The beginning and end of the album are brilliant but there is a lull in the middle for me. Some of the songs are starting to grow each listen so we'll see what my thoughts are come next year; I'll probably love all of it 

I felt like that at first too... although there are still some songs that I don't particularly care for (yet, hopefully), the album makes up for it with songs like Toys, Queen of the Dark, The Gutter, It Walks Among Us, etc. Those songs contain pretty much every element that got me into the band in the first place. I still don't think the album is good enough to crack my top 3 for the band, but I'm really enjoying it.

[twosuitsluke]

Back to the summer of ska for this one...

#46 - Hello Rockview
Less Than Jake​
Genre: ska punk​
1998​

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This album was the second ska punk album I became obsessed with (the first being Favourite Noise by Reel Big Fish) back in 2004. I remember a girl I was seeing at the time lent it to me. I already knew 'All My Best Friends Are Metalheads' as it got quote a lot of radio play in the UK, but the album itself is just packed full of ska punky goodness. These songs are just infectious as fuck and make me want to dance around, all these years later. Ska punk gigs are the most fun to go to and LTJ have always delivered, every time I've seen them.

This isn't the sort of album that I imagine many people would rate around here but this was important to me as it is another album that a bunch of my mates were all into. Songs from this album were playing at all the house parties for years so they all take me to my carefree days of being in my twenties. Another thing I love about Less Than Jake, and this album, is how the bass is so prominent throughout.

I could list my favourite songs but it's pretty much the whole album. I know some of you will be familiar and some of the guys around my age will feel nostalgic about this.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you recognise the song that is arguably Less Than Jake's biggest hit? All My Best Friends Are Metalheads
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[cramx3]

I was a fan of Losing Streak before this album, but I remember being SO excited for release making my parents drive me to the local music store to pick it up and was so happy with what I heard.  I guess I put Losing Streak and Hello Rockview as my LTJ #1 and #2.  I went to my first concert ever that December of 1998 (wow 20 years of concerts for cramx3!) to see LTJ, made my Dad take my friend and I.  Was soooo much fun and was hooked to concerts from then on.  It's funny because I actually told that to Roger of LTJ last winter when they played at the same venue I had seen them in 98.  It used to be called Hunka Bunka Ballroom (now Starland Ballroom) and he actually talked about playing there in 98 during their set    I'll be seeing them again at the same venue this winter, they still are one of the funnest bands to see live, they just shine with working the crowd and being fun, not serious.  Sucks Vinny left the band though.

[ariich]

Not particularly a favourite of mine, but more lovely nostalgia from my late teens!

[twosuitsluke]

So Christmas was mental as I bought my first home a week before! I have been crazy busy but things are a little quieter now...

#45 Punk & Poetry
The King Blues​
Genre: ska punk/punk rock/folk punk​
2011​

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Punk & Poetry was the first album to be released by The King Blues after I discovered them, a few years before. This album was a big deal to me and a stellar example of the great UK punk rock scene. I'd be very surprised to find anyone on DTF who knows this album particularly well.

The King Blues mixed punk rock with folk punk, hip hop, a bit of ska, some spoken word stuff, a helping of political anger and a rude boy attitude. This album, whilst not being my number one of theirs, is still close to flawless. It's a social commentary that manages to line up with my political views whilst also being really relatable. I just can't seem to discover stuff like this anymore but I guess I'm not looking for it so hard. When this album came out I was about three months away from setting off to travel for 18 months. It became my soundtrack on my walk to work and back, as well as house parties before I jetted off. It holds a real nostalgia for me, as do a lot of albums on this list, as you've gathered.

These guys write the sort of songs that I just love to sing along to. They're catchy, the lyrics are clever and about real life stories. They conjure up images of real people living real lives, it's a generational and cultural thing I know. I love this album because it describes what it is to grow up in the UK in my generation, in the best way I could imagine. I'm not patriotic at all but shit like this makes me at least partly proud to be British. This album won't be for everyone but if you want an example of what the evolution of British punk rock should sound like, then this is it right here!
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[twosuitsluke]

No love for The King Blues? Can't say that I'm that surprised. This is an album that will be more up the DTF collective alley.

#44 - Clayman
In Flames​
Genre: melodic death metal​
2000​

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I remember getting into In Flames after hearing the single 'Take This Life' back in 2006. The only real melodic death metal band I was listening to around that time was Children of Bodom (and maybe Arch Enemy actually). After buying 'Come Clarity', and loving it, I ended up picking 'Clayman' next. I couldn't even tell you why, I probably found it cheap second hand, or something. This album quickly became my favourite though and I think of it as the quintessential In Flames album. I mean, the riffs on this thing!!!

I really wish In Flames could write an album as good as this again and I think it is criminally underrated when discussing great metal albums. I know I got into this album around the same time as I was discovering Lamb of God as these albums conjure up images of walking to work, headphones blaring, in late '06. I lost count of the times I listened to 'Bullet Ride', 'Pinball Map' and 'Only For the Weak' on those cold winter mornings. 'Only for the Weak' holds a particularly special place in my heart and I still consider it my all time favourite In Flames song, it just has it all. In Flames were firing on all cylinders and just wrote hit after hit on this album. I know I
mentioned the riffs, but there is some extraordinary riffage all over this record. If I was to recommend an example of what melodic death metal sounds like then this would be the one. It still astounds me how great this is.

I had a few friends who were only casual In Flames fans, but only one who loved this album nearly as much as I did. It's one of my greatest disappointments, seeing how this band have deteriorated (for me) as years have gone on. I'll always have 'Clayman' though.

[cramx3]

Really never got into In Flames, always loved their melodic guitars but the death metal part and vocals always turned me off. 

However, I really enjoy Cyhra with former In Flames member Jasper on guitar who brings that same melodic guitars that I liked to a more melodic vocal band.  In Flames is opening for Within Temptation this winter and I plan on seeing them so should be interesting to see if my opinion on them changes and I am definitely more receptive to their vocals now than I did when I last listened.

[ariich]

Yes Clayman! It was my first In Flames album. I think Bodom were the only death metal band I was listening to at the time because I found the whole neoclassical approach a lot of fun and that helped ease me into heavier vocal styles. So while I liked In Flames straight away it took a good few listens to really get used to it, but now it's one of my favourite albums in the genre (as is Colony, which is equally superb).

And I still dig the King Blues album you sent in my roulette (which I assume is coming up later on) but haven't checked out any more of their stuff yet.

[wolfking]

Brilliant album and it's actually not one of my fav IF albums.  Shows how good this band were.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

 

[twosuitsluke]

Yea, I'm getting married a week on Saturday so I've been in over my head with 'life stuff' 

I'll get back to this at some point