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General => Archive => General Music Archives => Topic started by: Zantera on January 04, 2012, 07:02:02 AM
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Hello everyone!
I've been looking forward to this list for quite a while now, and finally I get my turn on doing it.
The rules/the main-idea is probably well known for most of you, this will be a list of my favorite 50 albums of all time, which was really hard to pick, but one of my main ideas for this thread was that it's not just about the ranking. There are a few album I could have switched ranking-wise, but it's fairly accurate, and my main idea with this thread is to write about WHY I love these albums rather then just saying that they are good, because in the end, people are more interested in WHY then what album actually is on the list. (at least I think so) :P
As many before me have done it, I won't have any 2011-albums on it (though there is one exception that could fall under this category, but we'll get to that later), no EP's and no Live-albums.
I have tried my hardest to narrow the list down to as many artists as possible, because: a) it's not as fun if it's a list with 10 PT albums, 8 Opeth-albums and well.. you get the picture (even if that probably wouldn't have been the case at all) and b) I really do think my list is fairly accurate, so I didn't have to narrow it down as much as I had thought.
Some artists on this list has 3 albums featured, but there isn't a single example with more then that, and looking over these 50 albums, I have ~34 or 35 different bands/artists, so the journey shall be fun.
Before I begin, I'll just say that comments are always fun, the more people who follow this - the merrier, and while I might end up writing wall of texts for some albums, I'll try to not drift off too much. :lol
50. Dredg - The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion (2009)
(https://www.rock-vault.com/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/stories/ozel/2009/dredg.jpg)
First off on my list is my favorite Dredg-album, The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion which was released in 2009.
I remember getting into this band right around Christmas back in 2009, after reading quite a lot of praise here on DTF, I decided to start with their newest release. Back when I first heard this album, the music was very refreshing to my ears because it was progressive, but still not. A mix of pop-elements with rock, and a more concept-touch that made this band very unique in my ears.
I remember the first times I listened to this album very well, it was the week before Christmas and I remember that I listened to this album every day when I got home after school, when I just chilled in my room or played some Pokemon Silver.
While many people hold either "El Cielo" or "Catch Without Arms" as Dredg's best album, I still hold this album as their best, maybe because of my fond memories of it, or just because I think it's so solid throughout. I think that the major strength of this album is how solid it is, it has literally no lowpoints, and while there may be higher points on some of their other albums, I don't think they are as consistent as this album. If you're into catchy choruses, a mix of alternative rock and pop with a progressive touch, I would recommend this album instantly. Even people who listen to more Prog Metal-music and not so much softer music seem to like Dredg, and that makes me happy. :)
Favorite songs: Lightswitch, Cartoon Showroom & Ireland.
49. Eisley - Room Noises (2005)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514YPJD4WTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
For this next pick, I'll continue on the theme of "favorite album by this artist", in this case it's the indie-band Eisley.
I have very warm memories of getting into this band, it was right around the time when Sigz started talking about this band on the forum, and seeing as I share a very big part of my music taste with DTF, I always check out bands and artists that many people seem to appreciate.
Eisley was very different from what I was listening to at the time, Indie Pop music with 3 female singers (who are all sisters) was very new to me, but I've always appreciated diversity, so the band came into my life at a pretty good time. I must say that very small margins decided that Room Noises made it to this list, because I think this band has 3 very solid albums, and either could have made it, but The Valley was a no-no right away since it was released in 2011, and I still think Room Noises is slightly better then their second album, Combinations.
This album is more "fun" and more poppy then their latter albums IMO, pretty much all of the songs are good, has some really catchy choruses and great harmony-vocals throughout.
Favorite songs: Just Like We Do, Golly Sandra & Memories.
48. Gazpacho - Night (2007)
(https://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/925/cover_143316112009.jpg)
This is one of the most underrated albums I know, probably because the band isn't that well known everywhere, strangely enough. Gazpacho is a Norwegian band, their music is hard to describe, but a mix between Art-Rock, Progressive Rock and Post-Rock perhaps, their music has been compared to Porcupine Tree, Radiohead and Marillion for example.
"Night" remains my favorite album by them, it's a fairly dark album that I like to lump together with "Fear of a Blank Planet" by Porcupine Tree and "Rapid Eye Movement" by Riverside, two other albums that came out the same year. The thing all these three share (IMO) is that they are all fairly dark albums, but in slightly different ways.
Night has a very strong night-sound (shockingly enough!) and it's perfect headphones music, perfect to listen to when it's dark outside. It was exactly like that when I first heard the album, it took quite some listens to click for me, but when it did it was so worth it. The album has 5 songs, two of them (the first and the last) are over 10 minutes, the first clocking in at over 17 minutes and the last song is over 13 minutes, the three songs between are slightly shorter.
The album is fairly mellow, but it has some heavier sections and some nice dynamics, but it's not ultra heavy or on the edge of becoming metal. Some of the songs has an almost Kate Bush-feel in terms of build-up, execution and sound, the band still has a male singer, but both Gazpacho and Kate Bush are considered Art-Rock so I guess it's not that strange.
I still spin this album every now and then and I still love it just as much as I did back when I got into it, the last 1½ minute of "Upside Down" remains one of my favorite musical parts ever, it always sends shivers down my spine.
Favorite songs: Upside Down, Valerie's Friend & Dream of Stone.
I might drop in later today with another update. :)
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I think we have similar tastes, will follow this closely to discover some new music.
Yay for dredg and Eisley, never heard of Gazpacho.
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I'll follow but I'm not sure about the whole love thing. ;)
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Following... don't know any of these albums, but I just may have to finally have a listen to Dredg.
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I shall follow, but I have a feeling we have totally different tastes :P
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Always nice to see dredg on these lists, I haven't listened to the other two albums though.
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Following. :tup Great to see The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion.
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I'll be keeping an eye on this too. In b4 Frames at #1 though amirite? Not that I'd complain.
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that dredg and eisley albums are excellent :tup
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Room Noises and TPTPTD...off to a great start!
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Following.
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Definitely following......
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inb4 Oceansize #1
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Will follow like lat follows a lesbian
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Following. I tried gazpacho recently (firebird). Undecided so far, will have to listen more.
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please love me.
In other words, I'LL FOLLOW.
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Following. :tup Great to see The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion.
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>Room Noises not higher
(https://reaction.ralfvandenboom.nl/img/qYmTxozCzH.jpg)
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Have and love #50 & #49. Will follow.
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On this.
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I'm listening to that exact Dredg album on vinyl right now. Great choice :tup
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Cool to see some interest in here!
I think that one of the cool things about a diverse forum like this is that everyone doesn't have to share music-taste in everything, I think that anyone could still find something they could like from a list with unknown artists (to them), so it's still a good way of sharing stuff. :)
Also, I didn't come in just to write that, I'm also here to update with the next 3 albums!
47. Opeth - Deliverance (2002)
(https://www.progarchives.com/forum/uploads/27684/Opeth-Deliverance.jpg)
The first really heavy album on my list, and one of the more pure metal-albums on my list. Opeth is a band most people here on the forum knows, they play a mix between Progressive Metal and Death Metal, though they have decreased the latter influence on their last couple of albums, and the latest album was death metal-free.
Anyhow, this album is sort of their hidden gem in the middle of their discography, many people rank this album fairly low, mostly because Blackwater Park and Still Life are so highly regarded within the scene.
When I got into Opeth, I started out with their live-albums (after initially hearing Watershed), so The Roundhouse Tapes and Lamentations became my first exposure to old Opeth. As some here might know, Lamentations has several Deliverance-songs, and it peaked my interest to check the album out.
Needless to say, I love this album a lot. I don't care if people find the production dull or the album too heavy, to me it has only standout songs, and I would rank four of them in my personal top15 Opeth-songs. While the album might be slightly heavier then their other albums, it still has some of their best mellow sections, and the band is in superb form.
I got into this album around the autumn in 2008, perfect time for listening to Opeth. Many of the dark days were spent inside, listening to Opeth's discography. :lol
Favorite songs: Deliverance, Master's Apprentices & A Fair Judgement.
46. Alcest - Écailles de Lune (2010)
(https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Alcest_-_%C3%89cailles_De_Lune_artwork-300x300.jpg)
One of the more recent albums on my list, we have the French Shoegaze/Black Metal/Post-Rock (or whatever) band, Alcest.
Do you ever have that album you've been hearing loads of good things about, and you've been meaning to check out for ages, but it just hasn't happened yet? Ecailles De Lune was that album for me in 2010. It came out in March already, and I heard good things about it for ages, and I didn't check it out until December the same year, and I don't even know why I postponed it for so long.
Musically this album (and the band) has something very unique, the beautiful guitars create an almost dreamy soundscape, an ethereal sound that I haven't heard in many other places. Some people compared them to Agalloch, both have Black Metal-influences while still maintaining a very melodic sound, but I don't think they are that similar to be honest. If I would have one complaint about this album, it would probably be that I felt that it was a bit short. It clocks in at roughly 41 minutes, and I think another 10 minutes or so could have made it even more awesome, but again it could also have hurt the album.
About half of this album is sung in clean vocals, two of the songs are slightly heavier with more screamish/black metal-vocals, but all in all I think the album is fairly accessible for new listeners, the lyrics are all in french though, so that might take time adjusting to. What I remember the most about getting into this album was a mix of it's shortness and how good it was, which resulted in me listening to it almost 2-3 times in a row on some days, because it was all I wanted to listen to.
I would also like to add that the cover art for this album is simply gorgeous.
Alcest released a new album this week, so don't be surprised if you see many people talk about them here on the forum during the year, and if their album is represented on some top2012-lists at the end of the year.
Favorite songs: Ecailles De Lune (Part I), Ecailles De Lune (Part II) & Percees De Lumiere.
45. Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement (2007)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_bG9dBTX-KwQ/Sl4fkZV0TGI/AAAAAAAAAQk/pPFNNtFnULE/s400/rapid-eye-movement.jpg)
Next up we have the Polish Progressive Metal-band, Riverside.
Even though they have been compared to bands like Porcupine Tree and Anathema, I still think they share some more Prog Metal-sound with a band like Dream Theater.
I've been a fan of these guys since about 2 years ago, but what really made them click even more was seeing them live a few months ago. They were really fantastic live, and after seeing them live, their albums sounded even better then they had done before.
For starters, picking this album was not easy, because Second Life Syndrome and Anno Domini High Defenition (two of their other albums) were very close, but I decided to go with this one. Some of you might recall me mentioning this album in the write-up for Gazpacho, Rapid Eye Movement is slightly darker then Riverside's other albums. Some of their best songs are on this album, but all in all I think it offers a nice amount of variety, and really displays many of the band's different sides.
It has both shorter songs that are more catchy and sing along-friendly, but it also has some longer songs with some really epic guitar and keyboard-solos.
The singer, Mariusz Duda is one of my favorites in the Progressive Metal-scene, he can sing very good both clean vocals, and more harsh vocals. (though he never growls, he has more a singing style which he can adapt to both softer and heavier songs)
While I'm not as much into Prog Metal as I used to be, Riverside still remains one of my favorites from the genre, and I would recommend this band to anyone who likes Dream Theater, Symphony X, or bands like Porcupine Tree and Anathema.
Favorite songs: Ultimate Trip, Beyond the Eyelids & Parasomnia.
New update tomorrow morning or something. :)
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FUCK YEAH ALCEST
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Great to get a top 50 list from you, I think we have similar tastes. I definitely need to check out Dredg, Gazpacho, and Alcest. Not so sure about the others yet though (except for Opeth who I already have much respect for)...
I'm excited to see where this goes.
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Again I love the Opeth and Riverside CD's. I need to check out Alcest.
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Following.
>Room Noises not higher
(https://reaction.ralfvandenboom.nl/img/qYmTxozCzH.jpg)
Agreed. Although, it's nice to see it at all.
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Riverside :metal
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Good stuff! Following.
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I don't know if I'd put Deliverance in my Opeth top 5, but since I don't know what Opeth is to come I can't really criticize.
That Alcest album is awesome, picked it up a month ago and now I'm excited for the new one.
The first 3 Riverside albums are all very good and trying to rank them would be splitting hairs.
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I thought I would drop in and post an early morning update, but I think it's rather late for most of you Americans now. :biggrin:
Anyhow, will post the next 3 on my list, I think these 3 are maybe a bit more unknown around here, but maybe it can create some interest and result in someone finding a new artist they like, because that's one of the good side effects from lists like this one.
I also have some really nice ones in store for the second update today, so make sure you look into this thread later. ;)
44. Kaki King - Dreaming of Revenge (2008)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fXR6ErnkL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Next up on my list we have a solo-artist, the guitarist/singer-songwriter Kaki King.
Like many of my other favorite artists and bands, I discovered her through DTF and the thread she has here. I'm not quite sure if it was thanks to Sigz, Reaper or Sonata that I checked her out, but probably a combination of all three. Before going into detail about this album, I just found out a very interesting thing recently that I honestly had no idea of. For those who are fans of Foo Fighters, Kaki King actually plays guitar on the song "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners", which I had no idea about until very recently, and that is from my favorite Foo Fighters´ album. :lol
Moving on, Kaki King has become one of my favorite guitarists, she has a very distinctive style, and most of the guitars you'll find on this album are acoustic ones, but she really blew me away right from the start just with her playing-style and skill. She has a very distinctive fingerstyle-playing, and apart from that she also plays bass, piano and drums on this album.
Most of the songs on this album are instrumental, acoustic songs revolving around simple melodies, but there are a few songs with singing in them, and those have become my favorites, especially "Life Being What It Is", which I think is her best song.
I still have it on my list to check her stuff out further, apart from this album (which I know very well) I have listened to some of the others, but they need more time, and I just haven't had much of that. Oh well, gotta listen to her more.
Favorite songs: Life Being What it is, Pull Me Out Alive & Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be a Bad Person?
43. Neil Young - After the Gold Rush (1970)
(https://ceoideas.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/aftergoldrush.jpg)
Next up, we have an album which is the oldest on my list. Released in 1970, After the Gold Rush is Neil Young's third studio album, an album many people consider his first big breakthrough. Before going into detail about it, I would just like to point out that it was a very tight race between this album and his next album, "Harvest" and that either or both could have made it, but in the end only this one did. Most people get surprised when I express my love and appreciation for Neil Young, because for most people, I'm that guy who listens to "new" music, and to some extent that is true. I don't have anything against old music, but being a bit of an audiophile, I sometimes have demands regarding the sound-quality on an album, that only newer albums can live up to. Anyhow, Neil Young. My dad got me into him way back, probably in the late 90's already, but it wasn't until modern time (3 years ago) that I decided to check him out more. His two live-albums; "Live at Massey Hall" and "Live Rust" have become pinnacles of it's genre for me, two of my all time favorite live albums, and for the longest time those were the only albums I listened to. Neil Young is an artist who has several sides, but he is mostly known for two different versions, the first is the guy with the guitar who plays solo, singer-songwriter songs, and the second is the guy in the band (when he plays with Crazy Horse, his band) and there we get a more rock-sound. After the Gold Rush is my favorite album by him right now, but I must admit that I have slacked with checking his studio-albums out. (there's 33 studio albums in total)
It has some of his classic songs, but it's also very solid and has no lowpoints. Neil has a very special voice that isn't for everyone, but if you have an open mind about vocals and enjoy a mix of singer-songwriter, country-rock and a small touch of folk music, I would recommend his music to anyone.
Favorite songs: Only Love Can Break Your Heart, After the Gold Rush & Don't Let It Bring You Down.
42. The River Empires - Epilogue (2010)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61%2Blwg2RkOL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
Jumping forward 40 years to 2010, we have this album which I fell in love with instantly when I heard it.
For those of you not familiar with The River Empires, they're almost like the lost twin sister of The Dear Hunter, Casey is even featured on the album, and he also did loads of work behind the stage, aka production and other stuff. (his touch is on the album) Imagine that cinematic-sound that The Dear Hunter has, but instead of being Progressive and Rock-ish, The River Empires are more Folk, Indie, Bluegrass with a hint of experimental stuff in it. While this list will prove me wrong, I sometimes consider this album to be better then all of The Dear Hunter's albums (not that they are bad, but proving how amazing this is), right now I would say that it's very much up there with Casey's work.
So how does this twin-sister of The Dear Hunter sound? As I mentioned it is very cinematic, there's a story so it's very much conceptual, and like The Dear Hunter it has a main story that will be spread out on several albums, like with the Act-albums. There aren't many electric guitars on the album, instead many songs are based on piano, there's also heavy use of many odd instruments (don't make me name 'em all!), some brass instruments and some acoustic and banjo-stuff.
Despite taking away the electric guitar, there's still ton of variety on this album. "Our Neighbor, the Earth" is a piano-based song that almost becomes Post-Rock in the second half, "A Toast to the Snake King" sounds like the theme-song to the Wild West and "Witches Blossom" sounds like a blues infusion, with one of the most powerful guitar-solos on the album.
The album has 27 songs and is about 1 ½ hour long, if you haven't checked it out but you enjoy The Dear Hunter, this is definitely something worth your time. If you have no idea about The Dear Hunter or The River Empires, I suggest you check this album out asap. ;)
Favorite songs: Witches Blossom, A Toast to the Snake King, The Coventry & Our Neighbor, The Earth.
Stay tuned for another interesting update later today. :)
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Nice to see some Neil Young on your list :tup
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Dreaming of Revenge :heart :heart :heart :heart :heart :heart :heart :heart
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Wow, you have an awesome musical taste Zantera and to be honest I haven't heard quite a bit of the stuff you've posted but you've made me want to check it all out!
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So far I have heard none of these albums haha. Lots to add to my playlist
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So far I have heard none of these albums haha.
I thought you would have heard Opeth at least
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Oh Oh Oh I'll follow!
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I'll follow, but you've only posted one album I would be interested in so far, so I can't promise that I'll stay. :)
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A lot albums of bands that I used to be very interested in, but never checken and thus lost interest in.
If you follow me.
But I'll be checking this out!
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Thanks for all the comments, it's always interesting reading feedback and other positive comments. :)
As promised, I'm here with the second update for today, some more "known" picks around this forum then the first update today.
41. The Dear Hunter - Act II (2007)
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-o0thgjeLGo/Sa83pC38pXI/AAAAAAAAACA/HDkprxvrTeU/s320/The+Dear+Hunter+-+Act+II.jpg)
The Dear Hunter is fairly popular here on DTF, so many of you are probably already familiar with them.
When I first heard of this band, I decided to check out Act III through a recommendation from Rich, and I fell in love with the album almost instantly. Despite really loving Act III, for the longest time I never got further then that, it wasn't until late 2010/very early 2011 when I heard the news about The Color Spectrum, and I was somehow reminded that I had more listening to do with this band. Act II was a really big grower, the first time I heard it I knew it had high potential, and I continued to listen to it more and more, and it became better and better. I haven't done much research about the concept and the story in the Act-albums, but musically I just love them (and the band in general), it's a nice mix of genres, resulting in a neat little Progressive package.
Act II is the band's second album, and I think it's slightly more mature then the first (Act I), and has stronger songs then the follow-up (Act III), all in all a superb album.
This album has so many standout songs that it's almost impossible to pick them, while The Color Spectrum was a huge achievement by the band, I still think this album is their finest work.
Favorite songs: Red Hands, The Lake and the River & Smiling Swine.
40. Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun (1999)
(https://static.boomkat.com/images/299311/333.jpg)
Sigur Rós became one of my biggest music discoveries last year, a band that is truly unique in every way. One of the big questions is where they fit in musically, while their music fits under the Post-Rock label, they still have a distinctive sound that few other bands come close to, incorporating elements from genres like ambient and noise into the music as well.
Jonsi has to be one of the most unique singers I know, while many of the lyrics are in Icelandic, (some are even in hopelandic, which is jibberish), many people think that Jonsi's singing becomes another instrument with the music, and I think that's a valid point. I have very little knowledge about what the songs are really about, but they still manage to evoke emotions within me, and they have created some of the most beautiful songs I know.
Ágætis byrjun is the band's second album, also considered their breakthrough by most people, and it was the album that really opened doors for the band. They have a very natural "down to earth"-feel, the music has the classic instruments like guitar, bass and drums, but there's also a lot of focus on piano, especially on this album.
This album is incredibly strong, I don't think it has a single weak point throughout, and it's only flaw (for me) is that it has the tough competition of battling with two other Sigur Rós albums who are just as good.
Favorite songs: Ágætis byrjun, Svefn-g-englar & Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása.
39. Tori Amos - Under the Pink (1994)
(https://www.bcncultura.cat/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/tori.jpg)
When I talked about Sigur Rós just before, I said that they were one of my biggest discoveries in 2011. If there's any discovery I consider equal or even greater, it's Tori Amos who I also really fell in love with last year. I had known about her for about 2-3 years perhaps, but I didn't feel "ready" to check out her music, I had heard so many good things about it that I wanted to make sure that I was prepared for what was to come, and not in a mood that I would reject it.
I started going through her discography chronologically, and since this is her second album it didn't take long before I had fallen in love with the music. I also want to point out that her discography overall is incredibly strong, so narrowing it down to just a few albums was almost impossible.
While her debut-album (Little Earthquakes) was fantastic on it's own, Under the Pink is possibly more mature, slightly more polished and maybe a tad more variety. It has more simple piano-songs focusing on Tori's singing (and combined playing), some songs are more band-oriented, and the album closes with the majestic and epic, 9 ½ minute song - Yes, Anastasia.
The album also has her arguably most known song, Cornflake Girl which was a really big hit in the 90's, and still remains one of her most famous songs. Tori Amos could in some ways be described as a female version of Steven Wilson, she has an amazing ability at writing catchy songs, she has proven over the years that she masters many different genres, and I think that one of the best things about her is that she creates albums that are good all the way through. Even some of her more "hated" albums (by fans), "American Doll Posse" or "The Beekeeper" still have very much a great concept, an album-feel and personally I think they're still fine. Anyhow, to not drift off completely, I'd recommend her to anyone who enjoys piano-music, catchy songs or just good music in general.
Favorite songs: Cornflake Girl, Cloud on My Tongue & Yes, Anastasia.
More updates to come! :tup
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Agaetis Byrjun is their best to me. :heart :heart
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So far I have heard none of these albums haha.
I thought you would have heard Opeth at least
I'm actually not a massive Opeth fan. I have a few of their albums but that's not one of them. I have heard a few songs from that Eisley album though, but not the whole thing.
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Just recently got into The Dear Hunter and I'm liking it a lot. Sigur Ros is awesome all the way. Great update :tup
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Oh Oh Oh I'll follow!
Great picks so far, too.
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Agaetis Byrjun is their best to me. :heart :heart
This album would probably make my top 10 :hefdaddy
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Wow, I've heard all these, they are all great! Great picks!
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:-[ The Dear Hunter out of the running. While I agree that Act Two is their best, I have it placed much, much higher.
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TDH is really cool. I love listening to all three Acts in one sitting
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Love Act II
Tori as brilliant as she is, I can only take her in small amounts.
And I hear so much about Sigur Rós but never tried them. Another on my list to give a whirl.
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Great list so far!
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Great list so far!
Yeah definitely better than Ryan's list
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I'll follow, but you've only posted one album I would be interested in so far, so I can't promise that I'll stay. :)
Seems like kind of a pessimistic attitude to approach with. Maybe give some of them a try and it will change your mind on something?
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I'll follow, but you've only posted one album I would be interested in so far, so I can't promise that I'll stay. :)
Seems like kind of a pessimistic attitude to approach with. Maybe give some of them a try and it will change your mind on something?
This.. There's good music in every genre so it's important to hear for yourself.
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Seems weird to follow these lists just based on how much you agree with them or what may or may not interest you, but whatever.
Under the Pink is a great choice. :tup
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I read all of these even if I don't post. It's always interesting to read about others' tastes in music.
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I read all of these even if I don't post. It's always interesting to read about others' tastes in music.
I do the same. I've read through everyone's list even ones who might not list a lot of bands I enjoy. Will be reading here!
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Popping in to give you this morning's update, but for most of you I guess it's rather late. :biggrin:
Anyhow, as I've done the previous days I'll also update later today, but for now.. here are the next 3:
38. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41bfN%2BPBYnL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Let's take a walk down memory lane.
Jump back two years, I spent the summer at my aunt's house with my dad and sister. During the week we spent there, I had the important job of deciding/picking all the music for playing in the car, and since I had recently purchased this album, it was one of the 4 or 5 that I chose.
This album was spinned quite a lot that week, when we were out driving in the nice summer-weather, and while the music it self has some sadder songs, all in all it was an experience I won't forget. Cranking up "Float On" on high volume while driving was epic, this album quickly went from a new album, to an album I felt like I had known for my whole life.
This is Indie Rock at it's finest, many people talk about bands like Bands of Horses and Arcade Fire, and while those are certainly great, this album remains one of the best within the genre for me. It has some songs that are impossible not to sing along with, and it's a well crafted album all in all. After falling in love with this album, I checked up the follow-up, "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank", but sadly it didn't click nearly as much. I've been meaning to check out more of their earlier stuff, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Luckily we still have this superb album. :tup
Favorite songs: Float On, The World at Large & The Good Times are Killing Me.
37. Björk - Vespertine (2001)
(https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/covers/vespertine.jpg)
Next up we have the queen of electronica/pop with lots of experimental stuff included, of course I'm talking about Björk!
I can honestly say that Sonata here on the forum was the reason I checked her out, and it was at the perfect time also, cause I had already developed a bit of an interest in electronic music, so Björk really fitted into that. I soon discovered however that Björk was so much more then just electronic or pop, and that all of her albums are very unique.
This album is her fifth album, and considered by many to be her best album. (myself included)
An interesting fact is that I got into this album during summer-time, and listened to it almost endlessly, but I would almost classify it more as a winter-album, both because of the cover and the music, but also because of song-names like "Frosti" and "Aurora".
Björk has a really special voice that might take time getting used to, but when you do it's just so worth it. Her music is really interesting and has tons of layers, even though I've listened to some of her albums loads of times, I can still hear new things underneath it all.
This album is perfect for winter mornings for me, I tend to listen to it if it's chilly outside.
Favorite songs: Hidden Place, Aurora & Harm of Will.
36. Amplifier - Amplifier (2004)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/52/Amplifier_cover.jpg)
This is an album that I really wanted to rank higher, but I still consider the band and this album a fairly new acquaintance, but it certainly has the potential to climb more.
Amplifier is sort of the brother-band of Oceansize, they are both from Manchester and they are both in the sort of "modern prog"-genre, though there's certainly differences between the bands. When Oceansize broke up earlier this year, Steve Durose (guitar) joined Amplifier, and they're one of my current favorites, and they have only released 3 albums, this is their debut album.
For those wanting more Oceansize-related trivia, Mike Vennart and Steve Durose both perform backing vocals on the songs "Panzer" and "UFOs", these bands were really tight, for those who are are huge Oceansize-fans like myself, there's a song called "Sizeofanocean" where Sel Balamir of Amplifier sings backing vocals and plays guitar as well, so they really enjoyed playing with each other.
Anyhow, to this album instead. Imagine of Oceansize, Tool, Pink Floyd (and to some extent) Black Sabbath had an orgie which resulted in a child. That child would be Amplifier.
Their music is unbelievably epic considering that they are only a trio, they have a very nice mix of mellow parts and heavy parts, and they have an almost "wall of sound"-guitar vibe, which is especially noticeably on the heavier songs.
As I said I wanted to rank this album higher, because out of the 10 songs on it, I would rank all of them 8/10 or higher, several perfect songs on this album, and while it has a certain sound throughout, it still never gets boring or dull.
(Just want to point out that there are 2 different versions of the album, one has 13 songs, the other has 14 songs, but spread out on two albums with 10 on the main disc, I have the latter)
The album is a perfect modern Progressive album, mixing elements of metal and Space Rock into it, resulting in a very fresh and modern sound.
I'm in a huge Amplifier-period right now actually, and I've been spinning their albums a lot the last week, and this album just gets better with time. The incredible thing is that, after every song you almost think "it cant get better then this", and then it does.
Truly fantastic debut-album, one of the best on that field. :hefdaddy
Favorite songs: Airborne, Post Acid Youth & UFOs.
I dedicate this post to Sonata (The Björk and Modest Mouse-parts at least!), and I'll be back later today with an update. :tup
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Wow, I'm very interested in checking out that Amplifier album after reading your description! Sounds like something I would love.
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Surprised to see MM - good album though. Bjork :heart
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Haven't heard of these but I'll get round to them one day!
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Nice read... loads to check out!
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Vespertine is amazing. I definitely agree with you that it's Bjork's best album.
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FUCK YES RIVER EMPIRES AND KAKI KING!
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Whoa awesome picks so far definitely will be following this list!
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Hey ho! Time for the second update for today, I brought some more albums. :angel:
35. The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt (2010)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YU9p2%2B9OL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Time for a solo musician, when we dive into the next pick, Swedish singer/songwriter Kristian Matsson. (more known as The Tallest Man on Earth) This is his second full length album which came out in 2010, apart from this one he has also released one other full length album, and two EP's.
This is another artist I picked up through DTF, some people would probably assume that me being Swedish would result in me knowing him before everyone else, but sadly he hasn't become as big here as he has internationally. Luckily he has gotten bigger though. :tup This album and his debut (Shallow Grave) are very close for me quality-wise, and it's by a very small margin that I prefer this album. One reason could be that it was the album I started with, much thanks to recommendations from Sander (Voxyn), and while his voice took some getting used to, I just fell in love with it after a while. It's unique, it's personal, and that really is an important feature for a singer/songwriter.
The Wild Hunt is perhaps slightly more polished then Shallow Grave, it features some of his best songs, and some of hist most known songs, like "King of Spain" for example.
This guy is only 28 years old, but he has already done so much good stuff, that it makes me very excited about following him in the future.
For people who love acoustic, singer/songwriter music that touches the deep corners of your soul. :tup
Favorite songs: Love is All, Troubles Will Be Gone & Kids on the Run.
34. Pain of Salvation - Entropia (1997)
(https://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/284/cover_5959232182008.jpg)
As many here on the forum knows, I've loved this band for ages...... Nah, just kidding. :lol
I tried to get into the band for the longest time, and while I felt like there was something "there", I just didn't get it to click, and I wasn't the biggest fan of the band. (to put it mildly) Anyhow, when I bought tickets to see Opeth last year, I saw that Pain of Salvation would be the opening band, so I figured, "this is probably the best shot I have at getting into them, ever."
Instead of listening to Scarsick and Road Salt One (which was pretty much what I had tried before), I decided to check out some of their other albums, and I started with Entropia and One Hour by the Concrete Lake.
Entropia especially clicked huge for me, and for the longest time I even considered it their best album. (Now I think it's tied with two of their other albums) It's one of those almost perfect debut albums, the first song on the album (Foreword) is one of the band's best songs, and I think that in 6 minutes it manages to sum up what Pain of Salvation is all about, and we are talking about a very diverse band here. I think that accomplishment is rather brilliant, coming from the first song on their first album. Being a Progressive Metal-band, I think that this album fits more under that label then some of their latter albums, while they still have heaviness, I feel like they have drifted more towards the "Prog Rock"-label then Metal, but when they want to be heavy, they can be really heavy. Apart from the brilliant opening-song I have already mentioned, it has more songs that are among some of their best, "classics" like "Winning a War", "People Passing By", "Nightmist" and "Oblivion Ocean".
This album clocks in at roughly 70 minutes, and it is packed with quality music. This album is one of the best debut-albums I know. but there are a few more on the list (which we will get to later)
Favorite songs: ! (Foreword), Winning a War & Nightmist.
33. Tori Amos - Abnormally Attracted to Sin (2009)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61GfPrZTgGL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
I'll go ahead and claim it right away: MOST CONTROVERSIAL PICK on my list.
This is a more modern album by Tori Amos (compared to Under the Pink from 92 earlier on my list), and to put it softly, an album most fans have fairly lukewarm feelings about.
As most of you already know, I certainly don't care about what other fans think, and I went into this album being 100% neutral, despite bad things I had read.
While this album maybe doesn't have the sort of "album-sound" that many of her albums has, I think it's packed with variety and very interesting genres being tackled.
"Police Me" starts off almost industrial and has that vibe throughout the verses, but when the chorus kicks in, it's almost that spring time-feel that the chorus from "Blackest Eyes" by Porcupine Tree has, a stunning turn. "Give" is a pretty dark and electronic little piece, "Lady in Blue" is quite possibly her best closing song on any album, "That Guy" sounds like it could have been the theme song to a Bond-movie or something like that, a song that has a very strong "musical"-feel to it. I could be namedropping for ages, I think that almost all of the songs on this album are interesting and well executed, some more then others, but despite what many people say, I think this is a brilliant album.
"Lady in Blue", "That Guy", "Fast Horse" and "Fire to Your Plain" are some of her best songs IMO.
Favorite songs: Lady in Blue, That Guy, Fast Horse & Fire to Your Plain.
More updates tomorrow!
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THE WILD HUNT!!!!! :heart :heart
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Haven't heard Tallest Man but the other two are great picks! Though not my favourite albums by those artists they are still great :tup
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I need to listen to Entropia...
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I'm following and definitely need to check out Tallest man on earth, Amplifier and Alcest.
But where's Post Rock? When I was still lurking I always thought you were one of the biggest Post-Rock Fans around here?
Fake Edit: Just saw Sigur Ros at number 40... my fail...
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Hm, Amplifier sounds pretty interesting...
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Lots of great picks (TDH, MM, SR), a few meh things (Tallest Man on Earth I'm looking at you), and some stuff I've yet to check out, like Tori.
But good picks so far overall!
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Agaetis Byrjun is their best to me. :heart :heart
This album would probably make my top 10 :hefdaddy
Same here. :biggrin:
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modest mouse is fucking horrible i hate that band
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modest mouse is fucking horrible i hate that band
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Modest Mouse and Björk hmm :tup
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modest mouse is fucking horrible i hate that band
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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trolol
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THE WILD HUNT!!!!! :heart :heart
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I need to listen to Entropia...
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Thanks for the comments everyone! :D
I really like these threads because it tends to get other people interested in music, and hopefully find something they'll enjoy. I know so, because I've found several artists and bands through recommendations myself.
Tyrias @ I am a big Post-Rock fan indeed, interestingly enough when I made this list I had about 60 albums which I had to narrow down to 50, and in those 10 which were cut, there were several Post-Rock albums actually. There's about 3-4 albums left on my list that will fall under the Post-Rock category though, and some other picks who has Post-Rock in their music, so stay tuned for that. ;)
Here with the first update for today, as I've done before I'll pop in later today with another update as well.
32. Anathema - Judgement (1999)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51E4%2BetkVhL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
A masterpiece among the atmospheric rock/modern prog rock-scene, "Judgement" is Anathema's fifth album, and by many considered their magnum opus. I discovered Anathema a few years ago when I had begun checking out more Modern Prog-music (like Porcupine Tree), and after hearing the song "Fragile Dreams" (which is not on this album btw) I fell in love and had to check out more. By recommendation I started with this album, and I remember hearing it the first times so well! The first few times I listened to this album it did very little for me, it wasn't until after 6-7 plays or so that it really started to click. Many people probably think it's crazy to listen to an album that doesn't click early on, but for starters I'm a fairly stubborn person (and really want to get into stuff), and I honestly felt like there was something in the music, but I couldn't quite tell what it was.
It was also one of those albums where I felt like it was hard to pick out favorites, was it because the album lacked powerful songs? No, the answer was that all of the songs were truly amazing in their own ways, something I discovered more and more with each listen.
While Anathema can be connected to bands like Porcupine Tree, Oceansize, Pineapple Thief (and other Modern Prog-bands), they are more atmospheric and more depressing then either of those bands.
The lyrics, or at least the emotions in the songs could be compared to some of Blackfield's songs, the song "One Last Goodbye" is not only one of the band's most known songs, or one of the best songs on this album, it's also one of the most heartbreaking and sad songs I've heard. The music is rather catchy, melodic and has some really good melodies, and I swear that every time I listen to this album, I have a new favorite song. The first four songs on the album are almost like a medley, they flow into each other perfectly and create almost a 12-14 minute song. After that the album continues with strong songs, and when the album is over, you have just been blown away. ;)
Favorite songs: Forgotten Hopes, One Last Goodbye & Emotional Winter.
31. Thrice - Vheissu (2005)
(https://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l60f2k4MAJ1qao5tco1_400.jpg)
Another band that has been highly praised here on DTF after Sigz(?) got everyone into them a while ago. While I loved The Alchemy Index and Beggars instantly, this album took more time to grow, but when it did it grew very fast.
The band has been described as being sort of a mix between post-hardcore and experimental rock, I'm not quite sure how to describe them, I guess it's easier to get an opinion if you hear them yourself. This album is certainly a good starting point, because it has both some heavier songs and some softer songs, mixing it up between the band's earlier catalog (which was more heavy) and their latter half which is slightly more melodic. This album is full of standout songs, I would also recommend to check out the two bonus songs that are only on the Japanese version (and also on Red Sky EP); "Flags of Dawn" and "Weight of Glory", both are brilliant.
Anyhow, some songs on the album are more acoustic, some are more piano-focused, some are full out heavy with guitars, some of the songs also has some more harsher vocals from Dustin Kensrue, who is an incredibly talented singer. He can sing so the vocals fits almost any genre out there.
This album (and the band) is certainly worth checking out if you haven't. :tup
Favorite songs: For Miles, Like Moths to Flame, Stand and Feel Your Worth & Between the End and Where We Lie.
30. Opeth - Ghost Reveries (2005)
(https://www.rankopedia.com/CandidatePix/62008.gif)
Next up we have my favorite Opeth-album, an album that I think is pretty flawless. (yet sadly it's not higher on the list)
I'm not quite sure why I have so warm feelings about this album, but I feel like the band really hit a homerun with this album, a perfect heavy/soft-ratio, some of the band's best songs and possibly a more mature album then Still Life or Blackwater Park. (No offense to those albums, they are amazing on their own rights)
One thing that made me appreciate the album even more, was when I early on discovered small tie-ins between songs on the album, small details that made me (as a fanboy) very excited. I'm talking about name-dropping songs in other songs, for instance in the middle section of "The Baying of the Hounds", Mikael sings "Beneath the mire" (which is a reference to the next song), in "Harlequin Forest", Mikael sings "Baying behind me, I hear the hounds" referencing to the song "The Baying of the Hounds".
Small things like this makes me pretty happy, because I'm more of an album-person rather then a song-person, so if there are links (apart from the flow on the album being good), I really enjoy that.
Otherwise the reasons for loving this album are obvious: "Isolation Years" - their best mellow song. "The Baying of the Hounds" - best song on the album. "Ghost of Perdition" - one of their most known songs. "Harlequin Forest" - Epic, Progressive masterpiece. "The Grand Conjuration" - so evil and twisted that even Iommi would shit his pants.
Favorite songs: Isolation Years, The Baying of the Hounds, Ghost of Perdition & Harlequin Forest.
Will be back later today with another update!
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Ghost Reveries :hefdaddy
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I much prefer a natural disaster to judgement myself, but great album none the less. Deep :metal
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Judgement and Ghost Reveries :tup
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Great picks, Ghost Reveries is amazing!
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Mmmm Ghost Reveries
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3 great albums in a row. :)
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Time for another update, a bit earlier today then I've posted the second updates previous days, but mostly cause I have time for it now.
Here are the next 3 picks:
29. Agalloch - The Mantle (2002)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41JSG1K4YJL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Another album fitting under the "want to place it higher, but simply cant"-category.
Agalloch is an American band, playing a mix of Black, Doom, Post and some Folk-Metal, add to that a Progressive touch and you have their style printed down a bit. They also have some ambient and noise-elements, but those aren't that present on this album, their second full length entitled "The Mantle".
Like Opeth, Agalloch utilizes lots of acoustic guitars in their music, especially on this album and "The White EP". They're also quite progressive and has a harsh vocals/soft vocals-thing going on, add to that the very strong Autumn/Winter-feel they have in their music, and you have quite a few similarities with Opeth.
There are a few differences though, I think Agalloch might be a bit more melodic, more acoustic guitars and they have another vibe. John Haughm has (since I discovered the band) become one of my favorite singers, the clean parts are handled very carefully, he switches between whispering out the lyrics and singing them, during some of the heavier/darker parts, he has the ability to shriek and almost scream them out, but compared to the other 3 Agalloch-albums, this is possibly a bit easier to get into.
Most of the album is acoustic, it has a few "between two songs"-instrumentals that really adds atmosphere and flow to the album, and the journey the album takes the listener on is amazing.
I used to listen to this album a lot when I got into the band (during a cold winter), and the winter days were just perfect for spinning this album.
For people who love acoustic guitars, lovely melodies and music not too far from Opeth. (in terms of sound)
Also, huge props to Portrucci for getting me into the band. I'm not sure if he still lurks around here, but he had the album cover as his avatar, for those of you who might remember. :D
Favorite songs: In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion, I am the Wooden Doors & The Lodge.
28. The Pineapple Thief - Little Man (2006)
(https://www.kscopemusic.com/wp-content/KSCOPE140-350.jpg)
Time for another modern Prog-album, this time we have The Pineapple Thief, a British band who has opened for bands like Anathema and Porcupine Tree.
I discovered this band about 2 years ago, when I was listening heavily to Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Anathema (to name a few), and I read that this band was like a mix of PT and Radiohead, sounded cool to me.
This is a band that I get into periods with, I can listen to them and reach 200 plays in a week, and then not listen to them again for a few months. Despite the rollercoaster, they have established themselves as one of my favorite modern bands, they have a Progressive-touch in their music, while playing a mix of Alternative and Indie-Rock, incorporating elements of Electronica and similar into their music.
They're still quite indie despite having released 8 albums, which is a bit sad for me as a fan, but I think doors have opened more and more, and they will release a new album now in 2012, hopefully something that will get them even further.
While their discography is very solid and consistent, I feel fairly confident in the fact that Little Man is my favorite album by them. It has a nice mix of all of their elements, some songs are more progressive, some are acoustic, some are piano-based, and the album has one of their most known songs - "Snowdrops", to me it feels like their "Trains". (The Porcupine Tree-song) Possibly because it also has a clapping-part, but just a very catchy tune and one of their finest.
While the music is quite heartbreaking at times, it's also uplifting and filled with emotions. Definitely a band I think more people should check out, a mix of Progressive, Alternative and Space Rock.
Favorite songs: God Bless the Child, Wilting Violet & Snowdrops.
27. Tool - Lateralus (2001)
(https://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/album_review/edd2b5089a5fa24d73b932845fc93f4d25107155.jpg)
Another album I consider a classic that Prog-fans just HAS to know, it's that trivial IMO. For the longest time this was one of my all time favorites, the fact that it isn't anymore doesn't really have much to do with it's quality, rather the fact that Tool has fallen a bit off my map by being so dead. While 10 000 Days and Aenima are great albums, Lateralus is their untouchable masterpiece for me, despite being almost 80 minutes long, it's consistent from beginning to end.
Tool was actually one of the gateway bands for me from Metal to Progressive music, and I got into Tool way before I got into bands like Opeth and Dream Theater, so in that sense I have Tool to thank for a lot of things, mostly getting me into Progressive music, which later has lead to where I am now.
This album is rather dark, progressive, long, and fairly heavy at times. While I rarely use the word myself, and I know many hate it, for those who think music can be pretentious, Tool would most certainly qualify as that, but not in a bad way. The fact that they did this album in a specific way, or time period resulted in the uniqueness it has, and I honestly don't think anyone else has managed to make an album that sounds similar to this one.
I first heard Tool when I played the game Guitar Hero: World Tour, the songs Parabola and Schism from this album are represented there. (as well as Vicarious from 10 000 Days)
Since the Tool-songs was the funniest ones to play in the game, it was natural for me to check the band out, and I immediately fell in love with their music.
The music has a very special "feel" to it that is hard to describe, Tool certainly have a unique sound, and if you don't know the band or this album, I recommend you to check it out.
One of the most important albums released in the 00's IMO.
Highlights? Try all of it. The way Parabol leads into Parabola, the concept of the title-track (seriously, check it out on Wikipedia or something), most of the songs are killer.
Favorite songs: The Patient, Schism, Parabol/Parabola & Lateralus.
More updates tomorrow!
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I should check out Pineapple Thief.
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Ghost Reveries :hefdaddy
Great picks, Ghost Reveries is amazing!
Mmmm Ghost Reveries
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The Mantle is a masterpiece. It should be higher (lower!).
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Bloody hell I've fallen behind with this but it's such a great list, probably more albums I know and love than any other list I've seen here (except mine obviously!). The Amplifier and Modest Mouse albums in particular were very nice surprises, and it's great to see Act II make it into the list having been a recommendation from yours truly. :D
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Last 6 albums are awesome especially that THRICE ALBUM :hefdaddy
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The Mantle and Lateralus :metal
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Another awesome update! Haven't heard Pineapple Thief though.
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All three albums are amazing, and my favourite from each.
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Thanks for all the comments, really glad that you guys are digging the list so far. :D
It's time for yet another update!
26. Porcupine Tree - Signify (1996)
(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ciD4Uvw85wk/TLcy2Ee9m2I/AAAAAAAABPg/9zOlAEeiLUQ/s320/signify.jpg)
Porcupine Tree enters my list at nr 26, with their fourth studio album entitled "Signify".
I discovered PT about 3 years ago, through Opeth (since Mikael mentioned them here and there, and SW being featured on some of the albums), naturally I checked them out.
The band was a blast getting into, I spent a whole summer listening to almost nonstop PT, and they quickly became my favorite band, a title I never thought they could lose, but eventually did. :p
Anyhow, Signify is pretty much the first "band-effort", Steven Wilson has said himself that he wrote pretty much the first three albums by himself, but that they went into this album intended to write it as a band.
The album has a nice mix between how older Porcupine Tree sounded (more Space/Prog Rock) with how the newer Porcupine Tree sounds (Alternative Rock, catchy melodies etc) and the result is amazing.
The album has a slightly darker atmosphere then the previous and following albums, it also has a bit of a Psychedelic touch to it, while still sounding very much like Porcupine Tree.
This album features some of the band's best songs, it's an amazing journey to listen to from start to finish, and personally I would take it over their other albums like "Lightbulb Sun", "Deadwing" or "In Absentia" every day.
Favorite songs: Dark Matter, Waiting (Both Phases), Sever & Sleep of No Dreaming.
25. Pure Reason Revolution - The Dark Third (2006)
(https://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/1fb9bfcecb396dd5275ce49e35be0a94/527881.jpg)
Time for another "modern prog"-album on my list, we have the debut album by the British band "Pure Reason Revolution".
The band had a very unique style, incorporating some nice electronica into their music (especially on their second and third album), sadly the album broke up last year, which made me pretty sad since I had high hopes for the band. :sadpanda:
With the case of this band, I think they hit a homerun with their debut album, it's a perfect Prog-album, and while their other two albums are certainly great and worth checking out, they're not as good as this album.
There's one annoying thing regarding this album, and that is the fact that it has 3 or 4 different releases, there's one release in the US, one in the Europe and a 2 Disc version, so the tracklist differs a bit.
I had the 2 Disc-one for the longest time on my computer, but when the harddrive died and I got a new computer, sadly I haven't been able to get it yet, but I'm working on it! ;)
What makes this band unique compared to other bands like PT, Anathema and Pineapple Thief, is that Pure Reason Revolution focuses quite a lot on harmony-vocals, both male and female vocals - which results in a very nice variety in songs. As I mentioned earlier they also have a thing for Electronic-music which they like to incorporate into their music, it's more something you might notice on their other albums, but it's a bit on this album as well.
The album is packed with standout songs and interesting music-parts, and it's another album that falls under the "Debut-album that is so awesome you can't believe it"-category, and I have a big amount of respect for it, purely based on the fact that it's the bands first effort.
Favorite songs: Goshen's Remains, Apprentice of the Universe, Bullitts Dominæ & The Twyncyn / Trembling Willows.
24. No-Man - Schoolyard Ghosts (2008)
(https://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/462/cover_2918192632008.jpg)
Time for another band on my list, we have the collaboration between Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness, also known as "No-Man".
No-Man was actually a project before Porcupine Tree pretty much, formed back in 1987 already, and they could quite possibly have become bigger then PT if SW had focused more on this project.
No-Man is quite different from SW's other projects, for starters he doesn't sing (except for harmony-vocals), as usual he plays tons of instruments though. The music itself is sort of a hybrid between Art-Rock and Post-Rock, many of the songs are heavily piano-based, "All Sweet Things" (one of their most known songs) is the opener on this album, and it's piano-based for example.
While this album certainly has a Progressive-touch to it, (especially the almost 13 minute long-track Truenorth) it's not metal or Progressive Rock in THAT sense. If you're going into the album hoping for some heavier guitars you will most likely get disappointed, there are electric guitars, but many of the songs are more in the piano/acoustic guitar-style.
"Pigeon Drummer" is quite possibly one of the most haunting and disturbing songs Steven has released (even counting his solo-albums), it's an almost industrial and dark piece of music with some haunting vocals over it, the song has the heaviest sections on the album, but again... not in the classical sense of heavy guitars like that. Listen to it, you'll see what I mean. ;)
The album is a wonderful experience, while it took some spins for me to get into, I consider it one of Steven Wilson's best albums, and while it isn't the case on this list now, there are days when I think this is his best release. (there's still a few to come on the list) It's packed with standout songs, and sadly there hasn't been much fuzz about this project compared to Blackfield or his solo-stuff, but hopefully that will change. :)
Favorite songs: Truenorth, Streaming, Song of the Surf & Beautiful Songs You Should Know.
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Signify :heart
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Have only listened to Signify, not one of my fave PT records but still good.
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Ok. Mad love for,
Pineapple Thief
Tool
Porcupine Tree
Thrice
Opeth
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I have that PRR disc but I have yet to listen to it. I only know the Trembling Willows song, and it is great.
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Ok. Mad love for,
Pineapple Thief
Tool
Porcupine Tree
Thrice
Opeth
Same here. Some others I've wanted to try for a while (Anathema, Pain of Salvation, Agalloch) so it's nice to have starting points for them.
Great list so far.
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Astonishingly good picks so far, I just don't rate Signify at all but other than that I'm completely in agreement. I'd place/did place Lateralus higher, but oh well.
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Time for the second update for today!
23. Sigur Rós - Takk (2005)
(https://popblerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Sigur-Ros.jpg)
Up next we have another Sigur Rós album, quite possibly their most accessible album, and one of their best.
This was the first album of theirs I heard, and I remember listening to it almost every day at the time, this album was one of those albums that really clicked more and more with each listen.
The combination of consistency and having some of the band's best songs make this album absolutely trivial for anyone interested in the Post-Rock scene, or just anyone who appreciates really beautiful music. The album has "Glosoli" and "Hoppipolla", two of the band's most known songs, the latter is a song I think most people would recognize, the piano-intro specifically has been used here and there, and is very easy to spot.
Interestingly enough, the last 4 albums by Sigur Rós are strongly related to seasons for me, Takk is a spring time-album, Med Sud... is a summer album, Agaetis Byrjun is an autumn album, and ( ) is a winter album. The positive thing to come out of this is that I can pretty much listen to the band the whole year, something that isn't the same for me with a band like Opeth for example, where it almost has to be autumn or winter for me to enjoy it on the same level. :biggrin:
Anyhow, this album is pure beauty from start to finish, and I have only good things to say about it.
Favorite songs: Milanó, Sé lest, Sæglópur & Hoppípolla.
22. Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here (2010)
(https://www.metalkingdom.net/album/cover/d3/26831_anathema_were_here_because_were_here.jpg)
At number 22 we have my favorite album by Anathema, just barely beating out Judgement. (and to some extent some of their other albums) I must say that this album is quite different from the band's catalog, and comparing this to Judgement is like comparing night and day.
Anathema has for the longest time been a fairly depressive band (lyric-wise, some sad music as well), but with this album they really made something drastically different, they made an album that is rather uplifting, positive and light. (compared to the darker earlier albums)
While the change (and if its good or not) could be discussed endlessly, I'd rather focus on the music and it's quality, in this case it's top notch, and while it took the band 7 years to come out with this album, the result more then enough weighs up for that.
While Porcupine Tree and Anathema have been fairly even for me since I discovered both, this album (I think) is divisions better then The Incident. (Porcupine Tree's latest album, which is still good) It's just one of the best albums that has come out recently, it takes everything the band has done so well for the last 15 years, and pushes it to another level. Musically, Anathema has never sounded so good, so tight, it is easy to notice how almost a burden has been lifted from their shoulders with the change from dark to light, this album is uplifting, positive and will make you smile even if you are going through rough times.
It contains some of the band's best songs, "Thin Air", "Summernight Horizon", "Universal" just to name a few, the latter starts off fairly slow with a melody building, the song ends with a bombastic climax, a piano outro which makes the song one of my all time favorites, the outro itself is quite possibly the most brilliant piano part anyone has EVER written.
The album takes you on a journey containing everything from Progressive, Atmospheric and Post-Rock, the album begins with the uplifting and hauntingly beautiful "Thin Air", and ends with the epic instrumental-piece "Hindsight", quite possibly one of the best instrumentals to have come out in the 00's.
The cover-art of this album fits the music on it perfectly, and I have no idea how the band will ever top this album, though I'm confident that they can do it. If you haven't heard this album, you simply have to!
Favorite songs: Universal, Thin Air, Summernight Horizon & Hindsight.
21. Blackfield - Blackfield (2004)
(https://www.mostlypink.net/pics/blackfield.jpg)
Finally for this update, we have my favorite Blackfield album, their self-titled debut album. I really wanted to place this album even higher, on some days it's quite easily up in my top10, some days it's top20, but despite the nr21 part, it rarely falls much lower then that.
Sad melancholic lyrics and music is what Blackfield is all about, art-rock/pop music, mostly written by Aviv Geffen but polished by Steven Wilson, who has also written some stuff.
This album is very easily my favorite by the band, the consistency of this album is crazy, the lowpoints are the songs that are only 9,5 out of 10, while the high points are some of the best songs SW has ever been involved with. (in any project)
The album has some of the band's most known songs like "Open Mind", "Blackfield", "Cloudy Now", but while those songs are certainly good, I think the best songs are the other songs. Songs like "Scars", "Lullaby", "Pain", "Summer" and "Hello".
Many of the songs have rather short names, the lengths are around ~4 minute on each song (pretty much pop-formula), while the album is just below 40 minutes, not a single second is a waste.
This is heartbreaking, beautiful and soulcrushing music, all wrapped up in a neat little package. Blackfield - A classic.
Favorite songs: Summer, Scars, Lullaby & Hello.
More to come tomorrow!
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Some great picks so far, I think you and I are one of the few that like Blackfield I over Blackfield II :lol
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WHBWH = WIN
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This is an awesome list. :tup
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Great picks again!
Also, just so you know Zantera, and I hate to be the guy that says this, but the word "trivial" means unimportant or insignificant, so it's kinda saying the opposite of what you want it to say I think. But I'm sure everyone caught your drift anyway. Sorry :p
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WHBWH = WIN
This.
I rank Alternative 4 and Judgement above WHBWH but it's still a great album and I agree that everyone should hear it.
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Jirpo @ Ah, you're probably right there, that's what I get for updating when I'm tired. :lol
My bad, but on the contrary here are the next three albums!
20. Bass Communion - Ghosts on Magnetic Tape (2004)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3a/Bass_Communion_-_Ghost_On_The_Magnetic_Tape.jpg)
My only pure ambient-album on the list, Bass Communion is one of Steven Wilson's projects where he makes ambient/drone-music, "Ghosts on Magnetic Tape" is the project's fourth studio album.
What makes this album stand out among the other BC-albums is the dark atmosphere, think about some of Edgar Allen Poe's work, this album would fit almost like a soundtrack to one of his texts.
The album-title fits perfectly, because there are sounds and noises on this album which are hard to describe, the sources could be almost anything, and that is what makes it so frightening, yet interesting.
I remember when I first heard this album, it was when I was heavily into Porcupine Tree and Blackfield, and to earn more fanboy points I wanted to check out SW's other projects, but also due to interest. I started out with this album by recommendations, and I listened to it in headphones one dark night, there was a storm outside, and the clock was somewhere around 2 A.M, so it was dead quiet here, I felt so alone. :D The music really managed to grab me, peak my interest and get me very excited. While the other BC-albums are very good as well, this one is my current favorite.
Favorite songs: I, III & V.
19. Pendulum - Immersion (2010)
(https://www.callupontheauthor.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/pendulum-immersion-album-art1.jpg)
Time to shake this list up a bit with Pendulum, a band that is very different from the rest on my list. While the band has it's roots in Drum n Bass-music, they have slowly progressed from that sound towards a more electronic rock sound, with a few progressive elements in their music. On their third album "Immersion", they really mix a lot of different genres, and you'll find songs fitting under many different subgenres of Electronica.
Another thing that made me very interested in this album when it came out was the fact that it has 3 collaborations, Steven Wilson is featured on "The Fountain", In Flames plays on the song "Self VS Self" and Liam Howlett of The Prodigy plays on "Immunize". To earn some extra fanboy points, I was actually a fan of this band way before this album came out, I discovered them back in 08 already. ;)
What makes this album so good is a combination of variety and quality, while many fans compare this album to the band's debut "Hold Your Colour", it's really hard to compare two albums that are so drastically different. HYC was much more a DnB-oriented album, meanwhile Immersion has almost one song for each subgenre, but after the band's second album "In Silico" (which I still think is great btw), the variety comes in as something very fresh.
While I don't feel particularly interested in checking out a genre like Dubstep, I have no problem with it in a Pendulum song, because they manage to take something and make it their song. Another hilarious thing is that when you have heard Pendulum quite a lot, you'll start noticing that every song has the same drum-pattern, and the drums seam to go KA-BOOM all the time, maybe I just have been listening to the band for too long. :lol
Like I said, this album is so amazing because the individual quality on songs, but also on the variety it offers. "The Island" is a great example, part 1 is a more house-oriented song that you could probably hear at a club or something, part 2 is where hell breaks loose, and it's quite drastically different from the first part, apart from sharing the main melody. The Fountain is a very nice and catchy tune, perfect result of SW collaborating with Pendulum. The In Flames-collaboration is also pretty unique, and I would love to see more "heavy guitars combined with DnB" in the band's sound, because it's pretty badass.
This album is really strong overall, but a song that really shines for me is the closer: "Encoder", which is catchy and simple, yet has an epic ending (suiting the album) and sounds very much Pendulum still.
I might also add that I love the artwork on the album. :tup
Favorite songs: Encoder, The Fountain, The Island (both parts) & Under the Waves.
18. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (2007)
(https://rikowski.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/fear-of-a-blank-planet.jpg)
Time for my favorite Porcupine Tree album, "Fear of a Blank Planet" ranking in at number 18. If someone had asked me two years ago, this would have been my all time favorite, but I haven't really listened to PT much since I burned out on them (about 1 ½ years ago), so the fact that it has dropped isn't THAT surprising.
While many people tend to talk about the lyrics on this album, I really don't find myself much of a lyrics-person, a song doesn't have the best lyrics if it's great in other ways, and while many people hate on the "theme" of this album, it doesn't bother me.
The album is quite possibly Porcupine Tree's heaviest album, but it's still not a full out heavy album, it's more of a modern progressive masterpiece, this album has a darker and more "epic" atmosphere then the other PT-albums.
The album contains 6 songs, clocks in at roughly 50 minutes and is nothing less then perfect. I wouldn't want to change a single second on the album, because I think it's THAT good.
Picking favorite songs on an album like this is hard, we have "Anesthetize", the 17 minute track which becomes many people's favorite, and while it's a superb song indeed, I find myself liking the slightly shorter songs more. "Sleep Together" is one of the best closing-songs I know, incorporating electronic-music into PT's sound like if they did it all the time, it suits the song perfectly, and the way the song closes the album with the strings of doom and the climax at the end... candy to my ears. :hefdaddy We have "Way out of Here" which despite it's mentioning of an "iPod" remains one of the band's sadder songs, it was written in dedication to a young girl who was a fan of the band, who died at a very young age. We have "Sentimental", which I think is superior to it's twin-song "Normal" (while the latter is still good), we have "My Ashes" which is quite possibly one of the band's best ballads in the 00's, and has some of the best lyrics by the band in latter years. The opener, the self-titled "Fear of a Blank Planet" is quite possibly the closest the band will get to Prog Metal, it starts off with some great acoustic guitars but soon becomes very heavy, and the middle-section/solo is just heavy. "Anesthetize" as I already mentioned is the long song, the epic song. While it can be divided into 3 pieces, as a whole it's just a beast.
Favorite songs: Sleep Together, Way out of Here, Fear of a Blank Planet & Anesthetize.
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WHBWH & FOABP :heart
Win list.
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I love FOABP, probably my fave PT album too! Though LBS and Deadwing are very close.
Haven't heard the other two, but Pendulum is very popular where I live because it is where they came from lol.
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I've been meaning to check out the Anathema album. Maybe I'll do it tonight.
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Bass Communion!
My god, that project gets waaaaaay too little love around here. I adore that album!
*scrolls bak*
And No-Man too!
:heart
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Some great picks so far, I think you and I are one of the few that like Blackfield I over Blackfield II :lol
Count me in. In fact Blackfield I is the only one I enjoy from start to finish, the others have some weaknesses here and there (specially DNA which I haven't been able to get into).
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I'll follow, but you've only posted one album I would be interested in so far, so I can't promise that I'll stay. :)
Seems like kind of a pessimistic attitude to approach with. Maybe give some of them a try and it will change your mind on something?
No, not pessimistic at all. I've followed all along and as I suspected, there is very little congruity here with my tastes. No big deal, I like hearing about new stuff that I might like. I've sampled all of the ones I never heard of and none of it really did much for me, but I definitely appreciate these threads.
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Some great albums on the list and a lot I haven't heard yet.
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I'll follow, but you've only posted one album I would be interested in so far, so I can't promise that I'll stay. :)
Seems like kind of a pessimistic attitude to approach with. Maybe give some of them a try and it will change your mind on something?
No, not pessimistic at all. I've followed all along and as I suspected, there is very little congruity here with my tastes. No big deal, I like hearing about new stuff that I might like. I've sampled all of the ones I never heard of and none of it really did much for me, but I definitely appreciate these threads.
Oh, alright. I took your post a different way than you meant it is all. :tup
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While the main idea for a thread like this is to spread the love, it is understandable that not everyone will enjoy it as much as some others do, still it's always nice to get people interested in new bands and artists. :)
Zydar @ If you listen to Anathema, I hope you'll enjoy it!
I thought I should bring the next update, mostly cause I have some TV-watching and studying to do later, so I have a little bit of time on my hands now.
Since we're getting closer to the top, I'll narrow it down to 2 albums per update, but I'm still gonna have 2 updates per day (so 4 albums), I have no plans on slacking out of it like some others has done before me, don't worry. :lol
17. Amplifier - The Octopus (2011)
(https://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/1911/cover_03217122010.jpg)
Remember my first post and how I talked about one album on the list being an exception of the 2011-rule? This album is that album. There are two reasons why I decided in having it on the list, the first is that it fuckin' rocks, and the second is that it came out in the very first stages of 2011, literally in the first or second week, and I heard it back then already, so I've known the album for about a full year now.
As I mentioned earlier, Amplifier are a modern prog/space rock/prog metal/psychedelic rock-band, their first two albums "Amplifier" and "Insider" are quite drastically different from each other, I had "Amplifier" at spot nr.36, and I might add that "Insider" easily could have made it to the top50 list as well, being that good.
"The Octopus" however is more of an epic thing, it's a double album clocking in at 2 hours in total, featuring 16 songs (8 on each disc), and the album covers pretty much the different aspects of the band's sound.
This album is in one sense much more progressive then the other albums by the band, not only for the conceptual part, being a double album and having some really long songs, but everything about the album screams PROG to me. It has by critics been compared to everything from Rush, Led Zeppelin to Oceansize, Tool, Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath, Amplifier has such a wide sound that it's very hard to narrow it down to just a few similar artists.
As the cover-art suggest, the album has a sort of water/ocean-theme going through it, some of the songs are named: "The Wave", "The Octopus" and "White Horses at Sea", but it's much more majestic then just that. While the first disc clicked almost immediately for me, the second took a bit more time, but when it finally clicked it was such an awesome moment.
If you think any of the write-ups for this band has sounded interesting, I might add that this album was praised by almost every critic anywhere, I've seen about 10 reviews for it, all of them were 10/10 or 9/10 for example, which makes me happy that I'm not the only one who loves the band. :D
Favorite songs: White Horses at Sea, The Wave, The Octopus & Forever and More.
16. Oceansize - Effloresce (2003)
(https://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/1595/cover_5130152992008.jpg)
From one Manchester-band to another, we jump to the debut-album by Oceansize. As some of you already know, this is my favorite band, and despite the fact that they only released 4 full length albums, 2 EPs and a few B-sides here and there before their break up last year, they still remain almost untoppable for me.
I've talked earlier about debut-albums that are masterpieces, and this album certainly falls under that category. While the band's sound is hard to describe, imagine a mix of Modern Prog and Post-Rock, but with tons of other interesting elements added to it. What blows me away with the band is not only how incredibly talented musicians they were, but how they managed to find their sound right away on the first album, something that normally takes a while for a band. Musically the band blends heavier and softer elements in their music, without ever sounding forced, it flows naturally.
As I mentioned I think the guys are stellar musicians, they know when to end a song, when to do this, when to do that, and without making it sound like a cliché, I love every song the band has released. Some music parts that might stand out on the album; Mark Heron's drumming on "Saturday Morning Breakfast Show" and during the climax of "Massive Bereavement", or how about Mike Vennarts vocals on songs like "Catalyst" and "Long Forgotten", the guitars are another highpoint.
The album has a very nice mix of shorter and longer songs, with some "breather"-songs in between, for people into longer and more build-up songs we have "Massive Bereavement" (one of the band's best songs) and the beautiful and heartbreaking "Long Forgotten", for fans of the shorter more catchy songs, we have "Amputee" or "Remember Where You Are". For fans of Post-Rock we have several interesting songs, but "Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs" is a standout, especially the second half of the song, which won't disappoint any Post-Rock fans out there.
Favorite songs: Massive Bereavement, Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs, Long Forgotten & Remember Who You Are.
More updates to come tomorrow!
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Great list so far Zant, I'm a few posts late but I wanted to show some love for The Dark Third- I'm surprised more peeps around here aren't crazy about that album. I freaking love it, and am really sad the band is no more. "The Bright Ambassadors of Morning" is one of my favorite songs ever!
Lots of other great records in the last few updates too- Vhiessu, Ghost Reveries, The Mantle, Signify, We're Here Because We're Here, etc.... :tup
Count me in amongst those who need to check out The Pineapple Thief. I've been meaning to for like a year now.
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I'll follow, but you've only posted one album I would be interested in so far, so I can't promise that I'll stay. :)
Seems like kind of a pessimistic attitude to approach with. Maybe give some of them a try and it will change your mind on something?
No, not pessimistic at all. I've followed all along and as I suspected, there is very little congruity here with my tastes. No big deal, I like hearing about new stuff that I might like. I've sampled all of the ones I never heard of and none of it really did much for me, but I definitely appreciate these threads.
Oh, alright. I took your post a different way than you meant it is all. :tup
It's all good :)
There have been a few interesting ones, like the Pineapple Thief....been wanting to check them out for a while now. Sounds good, so that's a win right there :tup
These threads are great. I might do one myself pretty soon. Turn you young whippersnappers on to some real old-school stuff :lol
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Yes Oceansize!
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That's to Zantera for getting me into Oceansize and their album Effloresce. Great music.
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I'll check both of those out! They sound great.
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Am I the only one who really hates the cover for Immersion?
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Cool picks again and again!
Am I the only one who really hates the cover for Immersion?
Yeah it's not the greatest cover ever... :\
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I love it!
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I didn't know FOABP was your favorite PT album. It's mine too!
Awesome picks!
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Cool picks again and again!
Am I the only one who really hates the cover for Immersion?
Yeah it's not the greatest cover ever... :\
It's the people and the font I think. The things surrounding that look pretty neat.
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Yeah the people are weird.
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I like the wierdness of the people, I think it adds to the alien effect of the cover.
The only bit I don't like is that tiny humpback whale at the bottom. It's just so unrealistic :p
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I keep wanting to listen to The Octopus, but 2 hours is more time than I want to invest for an album these days. I'll go off of your top tracks and ease into it. yeahhhh
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by the way, i, too, have been following, and i'm gonna check out a few of the albums i haven't heard.
...but don't forget, you owe me love.
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I owe many people some love. :biggrin:
Jamesman @ 2 hours is quite something indeed, but you could always listen to the discs separately as well. At least until they click or something, or just check out some songs.
Anyhow, time for the next 2 albums!
15. Steven Wilson - Insurgentes (2008)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/Steven_Wilson_Insurgentes.jpg)
Time for the last Steven Wilson-related album on my list, "Insurgentes" is his first solo-album which was released back in late 08, early 09 for some.
Unlike with his different projects, here he doesn't have any restrictions or limitations, he does pretty much what he wants musically, and the result is something very interesting. While there's still a certain Progressive touch and beautiful Art-Rock, the album has many interesting influences such as Drone, Ambient, Noise and just Experimental music in general.
The album has a nice little mix of "easier" songs, like "Harmony Korine" which probably could have been a Porcupine Tree song, we have longer and more complex (weird) songs like the majestic "No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun", which just breathes King Crimson. "Salvaging" is quite possibly one of the heaviest Steven Wilson song to date, the guitars reach an almost Drone-status, and while the guitars keeps grinding the song just keeps smashing you in your face over and over.
While Steven Wilson's last solo-effort "Grace For Drowning" certainly was a brilliant album, it's far too early for me to judge if it will surpass Insurgentes or not, this album has after all had some to grow and really shine. There's quite a lot of influences on the album as I said, but for someone who haven't heard the album, I would describe it as "weird shit". It's brilliant for many reasons, and if you have time you should also check out the bonus disc with 5 additional songs, they are all superb. :tup
Favorite songs: No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun, Salvaging, Get All That You Deserve & Insurgentes.
14. Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element (2000)
(https://www.painofsalvation.com/albums/images/tpe1-300.jpg)
Time for another Pain of Salvation-album, "The Perfect Element" is the band's third album, by fans it's generally considered one of their best. (Many people tend to have TPE or Remedy Lane as their favorite PoS-album)
While "Remedy Lane" and "The Perfect Element" can be compared on a musical level (they're both not far from each other musically), they're still quite different from each other sound-wise. I feel that The Perfect Element has a much more clean sound, something I enjoy more, and I also think it's a better album with stronger songs.
Being a Progressive Metal-band, it's hard to describe exactly how Pain of Salvation sounds, but they have a singer (Daniel Gildenlöw) who has the vocal-range to sort of fit in no matter what kind of music they play. "The Perfect Element" is pretty much perfect from start to finish, I wouldn't have switched a single song on this album even if I could, it has more fan-favorites like "Ashes" and "Song for the Innocent", but also long, epic, progressive songs like "King of Loss", "Her Voices", "Idioglossia" and the title-track.
Pain of Salvation has a very interesting sound, some of the songs can be pretty darn heavy but then have very calm sections following, some songs are more soft focusing on Daniel's voice and some songs are more a showcase of how great the band is musically.
Favorite songs: The Perfect Element, King of Loss, Her Voices & Reconciliation.
More to come later today!
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Two of my favourite roughly around the place where I'd put them.
Good, good, good list.
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Great update :tup
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Lots of great stuff in the last few updates. :tup
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Another awesome update! Those two albums are great, particularly TPE which is also easily in my top 50.
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That is Pain of Salvation's best album ever. Nice choice there :hat
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Great list so far. I especially love the appreciation for Ghosts On Magnetic Tape. Do you have Cenotaph, the sequel? I've heard bits and pieces on the Grace For Drowning Blu-ray menu, and it sounds quite awesome.
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Ħ @ Yes I have Cenotaph, it's a rather brilliant album. (top10 for me in 2011)
Anyhow, since I'll be watching TV and slacking later, I thought I would update this slightly earlier then I normally do, so enjoy the next 2 on my list!
13. Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P3vR0C71L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Next up on the list, we have my current favorite album by Tori Amos. As I mentioned in earlier write-ups I discovered her last year, and she quickly became one of my all time favorites over the course of 2011, and I know consider her a solid top10 artist.
As I also mentioned, I started checking her discography out chronologically, and after 3-4 weeks I had gotten to this album, which is her fourth studio-album, released in '98. I remember the first spins of this album very clearly, I had seen a lot of love for this particular album from some of the DTF-members, and it's generally regarded one of her best, so since I loved the first 3, my expectations were high for this album. Compared to her other albums, this album and it's twin-album (To Venus and Back) are more Electronica-influenced, not as much singer/songwriter stuff, but rather a more focus on electronic sounds combined with Tori's voice.
The album quickly became my favorite Tori Amos album after a few listens, and it has several elements which I think makes it unique compared to other albums in her catalog. The sound on the album is mainly Electronica and Baroque Pop-influenced, Tori also sings with a great range on this album, on the song "Hotel" she reaches an almost opera-voice during the chorus, something that is quite unique for her, and not very common in her catalog. "Raspberry Swirl" is catchy and groovy enough to be that song you hear at the club, that everyone is dancing along with, and while the lyrics have been interpreted in many different ways, it still remains one of her more upbeat and fun songs. The album also has more piano-based songs like "Black-Dove (January)", which features some great playing, and Tori doing her thing pretty much. This album is generally considered her last classic, among her first classic 4 (her first four studio albums), but if you enjoy the album I would also recommend To Venus and Back (the twin-album), which in my opinion is not far behind, another great album.
Favorite songs: Black-Dove (January), Raspberry Swirl, Hotel & Spark.
12. Radiohead - Kid A/Amnesiac (2000/2001)
(https://quasherthoughts.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/kida.jpg)(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c5/Radiohead.amnesiac.albumart.jpg)
Next up on the list, we have not one but two albums! You might think I'm crazy or breaking some rule with putting two albums in one spot, but it's my thread and my rules. :biggrin: Kid A and Amnesiac are two twin-albums by Radiohead, and while they were released separately, they still belong together, musically, lyrically and well everything.
Where do I begin? Maybe my history with the band would be a good place. I got very interested in Radiohead a few years ago, mostly due to my huge Porcupine Tree-addiction. Back then I checked out pretty much everything that Steven Wilson mentioned as influences, and Radiohead was one of them. I decided to start with their latest (at the time) album "In Rainbows", which didn't do much for me at all. I must have listened to that album about 15-20 times before I started liking it, I desperately wanted to get into the band, and I blame the high amount of listens required on the fact that I needed to adjust to their music a bit. So, after that I started checking out the rest of the band's albums, and Kid A followed, an album I loved instantly. The experimentation and the robotic-vocals on "Everything in its Right Place", the whole atmosphere on the album was quite dense, electronic, there was something fascinating with the whole thing. Naturally it took quite a few spins to fully digest, but it continued to grow with each listen, and soon became another favorite. What makes me admire Radiohead very much is how they were one of the biggest rock-bands in the world, but instead of playing it safe with another rock-album, they did something nobody would expect, and made two electronic albums. I just love it when a band can do the whole "fuck you" to the fans, and by that I mean doing the unexpected. :lol
Literally, due to my huge love for the album, I just HAD to check out the twin-album "Amnesiac" asap, it was much more interesting on my radar then checking out "The Bends" or "OK Computer". While Amnesiac is very much a similar album to Kid A, it still has a few differences which makes the both albums compliment each other very well.
There's a bit of a jazz-influence on Amnesiac, particularly noticeable in songs like "Life in a Glass House" and "Pyramid Song", but I also feel like Amnesiac is quite possibly more experimental.
Despite the fact that many people like to diss on Amnesiac, I almost enjoy it more then Kid A. These are both two very fantastic albums, and together they hold some of my all time favorite Radiohead-songs.
Favorite songs: Everything in its Right Place, Morning Bell, In Limbo, Idioteque, Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box, Pyramid Song, Dollars and Cents & Like Spinning Plates.
More to come tomorrow! :)
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Kid A :heart
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Yeah, I still need to get round listening to that.
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this list is fucking awesome
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Two more awesome picks!
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Ħ @ Yes I have Cenotaph, it's a rather brilliant album. (top10 for me in 2011)
Anyhow, since I'll be watching TV and slacking later, I thought I would update this slightly earlier then I normally do, so enjoy the next 2 on my list!
Do you have them on vinyl? I don't think vinyl's necessary in most cases, but it seems like it really would make a world of difference here, since those albums are pretty much all about a vinyl atmosphere.
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Sadly I have it on cd. I've been meaning to get a vinyl-player for quite a while, but it will probably cost a bit, and I have to wait until the moment is right and I have some extra cash over. I also feel lost in the jungle of LP-players that I have no idea what to get. :lol
Anyhow, time for another update, here's the next 2 on my list. :)
11. Oceansize - Everyone Into Position (2005)
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FZmre0YPL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Up next we have the second album by Oceansize, which is also the final album with Jon Ellis as bass-player. The album in comparison to their other albums is perhaps slightly more accessible, it still sounds very much like Oceansize, but it has a few songs (especially on the first half of the album) that certainly seem to click pretty easy for people. This is also an album where the band started to get some popularity, the song "Meredith" was played in an episode of The O.C, "Music For a Nurse" was featured in the 2007-movie; "The Invisible".
How does this album stand in comparison to "Effloresce" and their other albums? As I mentioned it's slightly more accessible, it doesn't have those short interlude-songs that you can find on the debut, the songwriting is a bit more mature on this album. While the album has more instant "hits" (in lack of a better word) like "The Charm Offensive", "Heaven Alive" and "Meredith", it also has the longer, more epic songs, "Music For a Nurse" is one of the most Post-Rock songs the band has done, and also one of their very best. "Ornament/The Last Wrongs" won't disappoint anyone who likes a long progressive closer.
To me this album is fairly close with "Effloresce" in terms of quality, one day I might prefer this one, another day I might prefer Effloresce, because they are both two very well crafted albums. When I really got into the band (back in 2010), I started out with Effloresce and moved on with this album, and Everyone Into Position probably clicked a bit faster. "Music For a Nurse" became one of my all time favorite songs after the first time I heard it, I just knew it had something special, and it became a tune I listened to quite a lot in the first days. Even despite the clear Radiohead-influence/ripoff with the robotic vocals in "Mine Host", the band still pulls it off beautifully, and the song itself is a nice mix of Post-Rock with the Stephen Hawking-voice. "Ornament/The Last Wrongs" has a quite epic build-up in the first half, and contains several sounds and noises that were recorded in the Amazon-jungle. There are loads of small and interesting factors that makes this album so wonderful for me, but the most important thing is that it's so good musically.
Favorite songs: Music For a Nurse, Mine Host, The Charm Offensive & Ornament/The Last Wrongs.
10. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41KH38DE79L._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Going into my top10, we have possibly the best mix of most pretentious band and album name ever, I'll do us all a favor and just refer to them as "GY!BE" in the text, and the album as "LYSF", otherwise we might have a wall of text on our hands. :biggrin:
This is a band that I think most people on the forum has heard about now, there was a period of time here on DTF last year when a wave started and many people listened to the band, discussed it, talked about the music in general. Even if you weren't a part of that little group, you still probably heard the name being dropped here and there, and hopefully this write-up can explain why.
GY!BE was a Post-Rock band that released 3 full albums and one EP between 97 and 02, though I may add that they released a demo-cassette thing in 94, and they are active again, but so far only for touring. (though a new album is confirmed to be in the works) They are generally considered one of the BIG pioneers within the genre, what Metallica and Megadeth are to Thrash Metal, what Pink Floyd is for Prog Rock, what Dream Theater is to Prog Metal, GY!BE has an equal status within the Post-Rock scene. The band has a huge following, and it's by no means a surprise that a band like Agalloch has taken loads of influences from this band.
What makes GY!BE special compared to other Post-Rock bands is their music. The majority of their songs are very long, really takes their time to build, and are normally divided into smaller movements. The band utilizes several instruments that you wont hear in other Post-Rock bands, violin is a great example. They have a much more build-up kind of sound, a song can slowly be building for 3 minutes before exploding out in a huge climax, and climaxes are a huge part of their sound.
While I started with their last studio album "Yanqui U.X.O", and then later their debut "F♯ A♯ ∞", it took me quite a while before getting around to "LYSF", which is a bit weird considering it's high status among fans. Generally regarded their best album, and praised by members on the forum, after hearing Ryan and Zack praise this album in the DTF-chat, I decided to check it out.
4 songs - average song length over 20 minutes, interesting. The album and the music is entirely instrumental (as with most Post-Rock), but GY!BE often uses clips from movies and similar things to incorporate into their music, so you can often hear some voice in the background, which gives the sound something a bit haunting.
This album takes a few spins to really get into, but when it clicks... :hefdaddy "Storm", "Sleep", "Static" and "Antennas to Heaven", these 4 are all amazing songs, and some of my favorites by the band.
Favorite songs: Storm & Sleep.
Next update later today. :tup
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I can't decide whether I prefer Everyone Into Position or Frames. Think Frames edges it tho (I expect we'll see a writeup for it soon enough ;))
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Great write-up for GY!BE.
I have to say, I'm really enjoying this list :tup
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Love Lift Your Fists.
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Hey ho, I thought I would bring the next 2 albums on my list.
Also, why does it feel like mine has gone super quickly compared to everyone else's? The list will be completed on Friday night with my current pace btw. ;)
Anyhow, the next 2:
9. Thrice - The Alchemy Index (2007/2008)
(https://spotibot.com/img_cache/originals/69WKGZPQFhDeNsulI4XQEz.jpg)(https://www.merchlackey.com/product_images/1205262396.jpg)
Thrice! The Alchemy Index. The band's most epic release, and also their best. Where to begin, where to begin?
The Alchemy Index is a 4 part-divided album (or whatever you want to call it), with each of these 4 EP's covering one of the basic elements. Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Each EP has 6 songs, in total this little thing has 24 songs. The songs on each EP represents the element not only musically but also lyrically, and there's a very clear "theme" flowing through it. "Fire" for example is quite heavy, has some harsher vocals and is more aggressive in tone, lyrics are about arsonists and other fire-related things. "Water" is more oceanic in sound, keyboards are more in focus, but it's hard to describe how "oceanic" sounds, but when you hear it you will most likely agree with me. There's also some effects which makes the music sound like it's coming beneath the surface (no pun intended), which is quite rad. "Air" is quite possibly the hardest to describe, but it's quite ethereal in sound, very airy, not so much compressed but with a fairly light sound. And lastly, "Earth" is more acoustic and back to basic, simple and fairly mellow.
While I knew about Thrice before I checked this album out (really liked Beggars back then), the whole concept and the idea was the main thing that attracted me to this majestic album. I'm a sucker for ideas like this one, and I think people who appreciated what The Dear Hunter did with The Color Spectrum will appreciate what Thrice has done here. One of the best things about this album is that the 4 EP's are very different from each other, and that all the songs on each EP gives a really nice representation of how the element would sound in music-form.
As you can imagine it's rather hard to pick out a few standout songs from a big thing like this, but I'll do my best here, and have additions from each EP. :)
Favorite songs: The Messenger, The Whaler, A Song For Milly Michaelson & Digging My Own Grave.
8. Pain of Salvation - BE (2004)
(https://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/284/cover_186212582004.jpg)
Time for another Pain of Salvation, and their last on this list. Before I start, I would just like to point out the funny thing that about 50% of the band's fanbase doesn't like this album, the other half loves it. Rarely have I come across such a fan-dividing album before, and I must say that it made me very intrigued about the album before I had even heard it.
This album is like most other Pain of Salvation albums very concept-based, while I love concepts on albums I must admit that I haven't quite read up on the concept on this album, but I love it musically and enjoy it lyrically as well. To sum up the story shortly (and I hope I don't get this wrong), it's pretty much about God and his existence, and many of the songs have dialogues and other parts that really add to the story.
This was interestingly enough the last PoS-album I listened to after going through their catalog, and it felt like I had saved the best for last. I already knew "Diffidentia" from The Second Death of (Live-CD), but apart from that it was very much all new to me. It's a very hard album to compare to the band's other albums, while I think that The Perfect Element has some individually stronger songs, the whole journey and experience this album takes me on is something very special. Again, I don't quite know all about the concept, but the different talking-parts are really nice, because they add parts to the album where I can just sort of breathe out, take a new breath and just relax for a few minutes before the next music-part starts.
Without a question, I'd say this is Daniel Gildenlöw's best vocal-performance on a studio album, he gets to cover both softer parts, heavier parts, rapping parts, and it pretty much suits the music beautifully (That scream at the end of Iter Impius!). Another thing I love about this album is that pretty much everyone I talk to about it has different favorite songs on it, which really says something about the quality of the album. And while the "real" songs are the best on the album, I think that a song like "Vocari Dei" which includes lots of phonecalls/prayers from people or well messages to God pretty much. I think it's a nice touch that makes the album more personal and unique, and the voices combined with the background music is pure beauty, and one of the most beautiful songs the band has done IMO. For some reason, the guy who starts talking roughly 50 seconds in sounds like Aviv Geffen for me, and I just imagine his face everything I hear it. :lol
This album is full of quality-music, and I think that people should maybe try to focus less on the concept at first, and maybe fall in love with the album before they check out the concept behind it.
Favorite songs: Lilium Cruentus, Vocari Dei, Diffidentia & Iter Impius.
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The last two updates have been nothing short of amazing, the albums as well as the writeups. You manage to include some of my very favourite albums every time. I think once I'm doing my list it might well turn out quite similar to yours :lol
I'll definitely check out Oceansize and to the last update:
BE :heart
The Alchemy Index :heart :heart
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I've tried BE about a thousand times, and I kinda hate it. Sorry. :lol
But I've tried that Thrice album only once, and everyone says it's great, so that's going on my list right now!
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Yes, do that. And buy it..
thrice.
:neverusethis:
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RADIOHEAD
GODSPEED
THRICE
:heart
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I go back and forth on that "Be" album. Sometimes I really enjoy it, other times, it seems kind of dull
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I love BE so much, it was my first PoS album :heart
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Whoa man suh-weet update. All of those are amazing albums, man especially BE and Alchemy Index. I can't wait to see what your no. 1 pick will be.
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I feel an Ulver album will come up soon enough. Which is obviously a good thing.
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Ħ @ Yeah, as I mentioned "BE" doesn't really seem to be for everyone. Some people hate it, some people love it. I think it's weird. But I honestly think it's more weird when people who love the rest of PoS´ catalog hates "BE", cause musically it isn't that different. :P
Gorille @ You could be right. ;)
I thought I would update with the next two albums on my list, these two are drastically different from the previous couple of updates, and will be slightly different compared to what's to come. But hey, what's a list without diversity right?
7. Pendulum - Hold Your Colour (2005)
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Next up on my list we have Pendulum's debut-album, "Hold Your Colour" which is also my favorite album by the band. Since the album is generally a mix of Drum and Bass, breakbeat and electronic rock, I understand that it might not be for everyone on the forum.
I first heard Pendulum back in '08 when a friend sent me "Propane Nightmares" (which isn't on this album), but the song made me interesting enough, so I decided to check the band out. This albums is not just consistently great, it also has a couple of the band's best songs, the title-track is IMO their best song, it also has some really great ones like "Girl in the Fire", "Plasticworld", "Another Planet" and "Still Grey". (though on the re-issue the latter two are replaced with Blood Sugar and Axle Grinder)
The music is mostly instrumental, while there are several songs that features vocals, I'd say the songs are maybe 50/50 split between instrumental songs and songs with vocals, but the band also uses a lot of movie-samples and similar things in their music, the beginning of "Fasten Your Seatbelt" has a line from Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man 2 for example.
The album is considered by many to be a classic within the Drum and Bass-scene, the album features some of the band's most known songs, like "Slam", "Tarantula" and "Blood Sugar" (if you have the re-issue). While this type of music isn't for everyone, I got into it surprisingly easy, and while it has always been on my list to check out more Drum and Bass-music, I have never really done it. I don't know why, lack of recommendations perhaps. But what I do know is that Pendulum is my fifth most scrobbled band on lastfm, and that really says something. Sometimes I like to have what I call "Pendulum-Fridays", like the name suggests it's pretty much a Friday where I listen heavily to Pendulum to get extra psyched for the weekend, and it normally works like a charm. :lol I also think the album has a certain "progressive"-touch over some songs, and if you look at latter albums by the band, it's even more clear. But Rob Swire (singer, main-writer, brain behind the band) himself has stated that Porcupine Tree is a band he really loves, so yeah.. maybe some influences here and there, buried deep in the music.
Favorite songs: Hold Your Colour, Another Planet, Still Life & Plasticworld.
6. Ulver - Perdition City (2000)
(https://good-evil.net/wp-content/uploads/extra/top200/2000/ulverpc.png)
Marc was certainly onto something when he suggested Ulver was on my list, and here they are! ;) Ulver is a quite impossible band to explain for someone who hasn't heard them at all, if people think Opeth did a 180 with Heritage, Ulver is gonna shock you even more. :lol The band started out as a pure Black Metal-band, released two albums that are both pretty kvlt in the Black Metal-scene. Their second album however (between the two Black Metal-ones) was pretty much a pure Folk music-album with acoustic guitars and not so much metal, so already then they were trying stuff. "Perdition City" is the band's fifth studio album, and it came out back in 2000. This album is nowhere near the previous albums musically, sound-wise it's a mix of Electronic, Ambient and Avant-Garde, with a few hints of Jazz here and there. Have you ever played games like "Max Payne" or "LA Noire"? This album has a very strong Noire-feeling over it, and I couldn't help but think strongly about Max Payne when I first heard the album, the atmosphere on the album suits a Noire-game (or movie) perfectly.
While the album has it's share of electronic guitars, the album is by no means heavy. It's quite dark and intriguing, lots of electronic landscapes, and you can also hear a saxophone on "Lost in Moments" and "Dead City Centres".
Kristoffer Rygg Garm has become one of my favorite singers, because he can adapt his voice to make it fit music like on this album, but also when they played Black Metal, or on any of their newer albums. If I could say anything remotely negative about this album, it would be that it doesn't have much vocals on it. There's about two songs where Garm sings (Porn Piece or the Scars of Cold Kisses and Nowhere/Catastrophe), the rest of the songs are mostly instrumental but has a lot of sounds here and there. "Dead City Centres" also has a voice speaking and a few screams, all in all that song just SCREAMS noire for me. While some of you might not get my reference, I think the song reminds me loads about that Fun house in Max Payne.
Anyhow, some of the other songs have little vocals, the opener "Lost in Moments" for example, but it's not as much clear singing, compared to the other two songs that has it. Anyhow, this is a very small complaint from my part, I consider this album to be pretty much perfect, one of my favorite albums ever to listen to in headphones at night time, and the top6 spot proves that.
Favorite songs: Porn Piece or the Scars of Cold Kisses, Dead City Centres, Lost in Moments & Nowhere/Catastrophe.
I also realized that we have only 5 left to go, which means that later today we'll be entering my top5. :)
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I quite like BE, although it's pretty heavy going at points. Pendulum is a cool band to see on your list, the amount of time I spent raving to their tunes during uni haha
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Ulver deserves that spot. Such a good album.
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I could also add that I wanted to include more Ulver in my top50 list, but like some other artists, I had to narrow it down as much as possible, but oh well.
Anyhow, will be busy later tonight, so here's the next update, two other albums that are fairly popular on DTF.
Let's enter my top5!
5. Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain (2006)
(https://images.wikia.com/lyricwiki/images/5/5c/Ashes-AatG.jpg)
So first album up in my top5 is Agalloch's third full length, "Ashes Against the Grain" which came out in August in '06. Like the album cover suggests, the album is quite bleak, the black/white/gray contrast is quite obvious, and the album is quite cold, much like the band's other albums. While this isn't your first pick for a warm summer or spring day, it's a perfect album for dark winter days, or just very cold autumn days. As I mentioned in the write-up for "The Mantle", the band's sound is quite hard to explain, but a mix between Post-Metal, Progressive Metal, Doom Metal, Black Metal, Neo-Folk and genres like Ambient and Noise. While many Agalloch-fans are in the "The Mantle is their best album"-group, personally I have always loved this album slightly more. It's a perfectly constructed album, has some killer tunes, and overall has a great mix of awesome metal-riffs and beautiful Post-Rock influenced moments, but also more clean and soft parts. The album also has a quite dark and twisted side to it, which is quite obvious on the closing track, "The Grain", which is almost a pure Noise-track.
To be honest I consider this my all time favorite metal-album, and while there is one pick left on my list that will certainly qualify under the same conditions, that album has it's high spot for other reasons.
"Ashes Against the Grain" is just a perfect album from start to finish, from the echoing guitars in the intro to "Limbs" to the last Noisy tones in "The Grain", this album takes you on a journey, and after an hour you just find yourself completely mangled by it all. When I first got into this album, I listened to it pretty much once every day for the longest time, quality-wise it's THAT good, but it has new elements that pops up, and I can even listen to it today and hear things that I didn't a year ago.
The album has most of my favorite Agalloch-songs, and some of their best musical-moments ever. The outro in "Falling Snow" which is easily on par with the outro to "Deliverance" by Opeth (to name another rad outro), the middle-section leading to the climax in "Fire Above, Ice Below" or John Haughm's shrieks in "Bloodbirds".
Oh yeah, did I mention the album has a 3 part-divided title-track? That alone gives it prog-points enough to make it worth checking out.
An album for people who loves beautiful guitar-melodies, a nice mix between heavier and lighter, Metal that isn't "just" metal, but rather influenced by loads of different things.
Favorite songs: Falling Snow, Limbs & Fire Above, Ice Below.
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/In_Rainbows_Official_Cover.jpg)
Next up on my list, we have a Radiohead milestone album, their seventh studio-album: "In Rainbows". My memories with this album are very tied with my initial experiences with the band, seeing as "In Rainbows" was the first album by the band I checked out, hadn't heard a single song by the band before that. Initially I didn't quite like them, they weren't bad or anything, but coming from a more Progressive-period in my life, it took about 15 spins with this album before I had adjusted somewhat to their style, it was all very new to me. The band went from sort of "why are they so big?" to "why aren't they bigger?" in 2 weeks or so, they clicked so hard after I got through In Rainbows, and I'm very glad that I stuck with it through the initial spins. :angel:
The album itself is quite mixed, fans of the more rock-oriented Radiohead won't be disappointed with songs like "Bodysnatchers" or "Reckoner", fans of the more electronic sound and piano-songs won't be disappointed with songs like "15 Step" or "Videotape", the album offers a nice variety and quite nicely sums up the band's sound. There's a 2 Disc-version of the album which is almost better then the ordinary version, the main disc is brilliant by itself, but the second disc has several songs that are really good, like "Down is the New Up", "Go Slowly", "Up on the Ladder" and "Bangers and Mash".
This album remains their best album for me, if it depends on the fact that it was the first I heard or not is hard to say, but while Kid A/Amnesiac (ranking it at nr12) are masterpieces in their ways, In Rainbows is a masterpiece in other ways.
For people who enjoy Alternative Rock with influences from Electronica.
While it's almost impossible to narrow it down to a few favorite tracks, I'll do my best. "All I Need" for being beautiful and going all Post-Rock near the end, "Jigsaw Falling into Place" because it's one of their best "hit"-songs (has been played on CSI New York for example), and "Videotape" because Thom Yorke playing the piano and singing is quite possibly the most beautiful thing ever.
Favorite songs: All I Need, Jigsaw Falling Into Place & Videotape.
Top 3 left now. ;)
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My guesses for the 2 of the top 3.. One from 2002 & one from 2007?
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Number 1 is going to be Static Crap - Trippin' On a Rock.
I'm calling it now.
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ULVER :heart and I love that Radiohead album too! :tup
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I hear that Agalloch are a pretty good band.
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I'm not too familiar with these bands, but Radiohead deserves a :tup
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Cool picks!
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Good god, so many good to amazing albums on this list.
Jimmy, I love you.
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i wasn't expecting the In Rainbows selection after zantera's kid a/amnesiac write up.
sadly, i havent checked out a new release by radiohead since Hail to the Thief came out (i was pretty big into them 10-14 years ago) and i was rather disappointed by it.
could the heavy album in the top 3 be some BTBAM? ...zantera digs that isht i do believe.
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Some of the guesses are not completely off, as you will notice in this update particularly.
Also good to see that most people seem to enjoy the list, good stuff.
Anyhow, will bring you guys the next two picks now, number 3 and 2 on my list, and save the last one for tonight, hopefully these albums won't disappoint any of you. ;)
3. Between the Buried and Me - Colors (2007)
(https://www.folkwaysmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/between-the-buried-and-me-colors.jpg)
At the flattering third spot, we have the heavy album I mentioned in the write-up for Agalloch, "Colors" is generally regarded BTBAM's best album, but also a pinnacle in the Progressive Death Metal-scene. (Progressive Metalcore sounds too lame for me)
I've often seen the band compared to Opeth, and while they are both progressive and have harsh vocals, there are quite a few differences to separate the bands. First off, you won't find that many acoustic guitars in BTBAM. Their music is generally heavier then Opeth I would say, while they have clean-parts in almost all songs, Opeth has slightly longer clean-sections (mostly).
While "The Great Misdirect" and "Alaska" are tied for my second favorite BTBAM-album, I feel like "Colors" is the clear winner. It has the perfect balance of heavy/clean, and the band really managed to make a homerun with this album.
The first time I heard this album I was blown away by the heavy stuff on it, it was all so "IN YOUR FACE!", but while the vocals and the band needed time to get into, I felt like it would be worth my time, since I felt that the music had something. Eventually the album clicked really hard, and it quickly started to climb among my favorite albums, and made it up to the top 3.
Sound-wise the album is fairly heavy, while there are cleaner parts on the album, they're more subdued and not as present as the heavy stuff, but still complementing it in a great way. The album has 8 songs, all flowing into each other beautifully, and the album is designed to be like one 65 minute-song, but divided into 8 movements or sections, it's a cool thing that you really start to notice when you've heard it a few times. I think one of the best things about the band and it's clean vocals/sections, is that while they aren't many of them, the ones that are on the album are REALLY good. They really do compliment the rest of the song in an amazing way, and the clean section around 9.40 into "Ants of the Sky" is my favorite section on the whole album, so awesome. :heart "Sun of Nothing" is another song that has some really good melodic parts in the second half, and the opening-track "The Backtrack" is quite possibly one of the best intro-songs ever made. In about 2 minutes, the song goes from soft to heavy, and it really manages to sum up the band in a great way, the sweeping synths are pretty cool as well.
While the album might be hard to get into initially, I recommend people to stay through the first few spins, I promise that there's something for everyone to discover on this album, and in the best case scenario, someone else might start loving this album as much as I do. ;)
Favorite songs: The Backtrack, Sun of Nothing & Ants of the Sky.
2. Sigur Rós - ( ) (2002)
(https://spotibot.com/img_cache/originals/1w39eKgHPPnfYl7BoQC0Aa.jpg)
Placing in at second place and winning the silver-medal, we have the Icelandic band Sigur Rós´ third studio-album, ( ) also known as just "Untitled". Some pretentious facts about the album before I start: The first 4 songs on the album are more light, more optimistic, the latter 4 songs on the album are more bleak and melancholic. The two half's are divided by a 36 second-silence, the album both opens and closes with a click of distortion. The album is entirely sung in "hopelandic", which is a made-up language consisting of jibberish, it has no meaning. All songs are untitled, while they have small names, they are generally called "Untitled I", "Untitled II" and so on.
These facts can make the album sound very pretentious, and perhaps the whole concept is a bit pretentious. But it's also what made me intrigued in checking the album out when I first got into the band, it sounded very interesting to me. As I wrote earlier, Sigur Rós makes music that is very hard to explain to someone, without playing it for them. A combination of Post-Rock, Ambient and Art-Rock (on this album at least), the album is a very wintery album for me personally. Maybe because of it's white/gray and almost pale cover, it makes me think about bleak and cold landscapes, and it's not really an album I listen to on a hot summer day.
While the lyrics doesn't make any sense (it's more vocals for the sake of being vocals), it doesn't really care for me, because even if they sing it in Icelandic, I won't get what they're singing unless I look it up, so there's not much of a difference. Musically it contains some of the most beautiful music I know, "Untitled III" is one of the best instrumental-songs ever written for me, such a beautiful music-piece that has been featured here and there, but I remember hearing it in one of the episodes for the TV-show Skins.
The music takes me on an emotional journey that seems to touch the deep corners of my soul, while the first half contains some of their most beautiful music, the second half is packed with more depressive music and haunting music, "Untitled VII" is my favorite Sigur Rós song, and quite possibly my favorite Post-Rock song ever. This album is nothing short but perfect, and I guess the only downside would be that it's pretty much a seasonal-album for me, and I can't possibly play it during the spring or summer for example. Still, that might also be a good thing, cause it makes me appreciate the album even more the times I spin it, and while I've heard it so many times by now, it still continues to grow for me. :heart
Favorite songs: Untitled III, Untitled VII & Untitled VIII.
Only one album left now. :omg:
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( ) is amazing! Great pick. Haven't heard any BTBAM.
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You already know I love Colors. My favourite metal album of all time. It really is something absolutely special.
SLEEEEEP ONNNNN, FLLLYYY ONNNNN
( ) is cool too, but I've not got into it as much as Colors
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IN YOUR MIND, YOU CAN FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Ahh, brings back memories. I should listen to it again, it was been too long.
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My '2002' guess was () :tup. I prefer agaetis byrjun but () is still amazing. And my other guess looks solid for #1 :)
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Two more classic albums! :tup
And what do you mean the lyrics on ( ) don't make any sense? "Eee sigh a-looow..." doesn't make any sense to you? Open up your mind dude :P
Still callin Frames for #1- do I get a cookie if I'm right?
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Before I post the last album and my number 1, I would just like to thank everyone who has followed the list, and I really hope that someone has found a new artist or band to check out, and if you happen to like something feel free to share that experience. :)
Some people have already guessed it, and I guess the choice wasn't completely shocking for the people who know me somewhat, so here you have it, my favorite album of all time:
1. Oceansize - Frames (2007)
(https://music4u.eu-imimobile.com/Fulwebmain/1408868203.image)
The first time I heard Frames was back in ~08 I believe. While the first song, "Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt" sounded really cool, the music on the album did nothing for me. I don't particularly blame it, at the time I was listening to a lot of metal and hadn't quite gotten into Progressive music yet, which eventually became my bridge over to more mellow stuff, and stuff that isn't "just" metal. Scared off by that initial reaction, I didn't really think much about the band for almost 2 years, and it wasn't until 2010 that I checked the band out, but then it was their newest album; "Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up". While I loved the three other albums immediately, I was still a bit afraid of checking out Frames. I remembered the not-so-good first spin I had, and even though it was 2 years prior, I guess I was afraid that I wouldn't like it.
The album took a few spins to click, but it's such a massive grower, and I can find new things to love about the album with each listen. While "Effloresce" and "Everyone Into Position" were two masterpiece-albums, this album is just the band's big album, the most mature in terms of songwriting, it has the best songs, the best flow, and is a modern classic.
The album takes you on a journey from start to finish, with the 8 songs it has, it offers a lot of variety and the band displays several parts of their sound, everything from the more progressive and technical "Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt", to the more heavy and Meshuggah-inspired "Sleeping Dogs and Dead Lions", to the doomy and atmospheric "An Old Friend of the Christy's", to the title-track, and quite possibly one of the most beautiful songs ever written; "The Frame".
The album has so many different aspects that speak to me, it has all the variety and dynamics I could ask for in music. Progressive songs? Check. Heavier songs? Check. Mellow and beautiful songs? Check. An instrumental? Check. There are several sections on this album that would qualify as the best musical moments the band has done, the harmony vocals in "Trail of Fire", the strings in the outro to "Savant", the part in "Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt" where the drums kick in, adding an awesome groove to the song, or the amazing outro to "The Frame".
The band really managed to peak with this album, while their other 3 albums are also very high up among my favorites, this album has that little extra bit which makes it so forged into my first spot. The whole band is performing at their best on this album, and Mike Vennart's singing in particularly has never been so diverse on their other albums. He sings clean with a great range and variety, and he also does more groovy vocals on "Sleeping Dogs and Dead Lions", really fitting into the song.
I honestly can't understand how I didn't care for this album initially, while it was over 3 years ago I first heard it, now I just want to travel back in time and slap myself in the face. :lol
Favorite songs: Commemorative 9/11 T-Shirt, Trail of Fire, Savant & The Frame.
Thanks for following! :heart
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Kind of schizo at the end there. Agolloch, then Radiohead. BtBaM, then Sigur Ros.
I really haven't been into mellow stuff for a while, but I can't argue with most of your heavier picks. Colors, Ashes, BE...all great albums.
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Still callin Frames for #1- do I get a cookie if I'm right?
So about that cookie...
Great album, absolutely love it! STOP TRYING TO KEEP YOUR COMPOSURE, I'M ONLY HAVING A LAUGH...
Great list all around Zantera, a lot of my faves are on there and a few artists I need to check out now- Amplifier being chief among them.
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Yeah sure, I'll mail a box of cookies or something. But that will make me poor seeing as a few people called it. :lol
Oh yeah, check out Amplifier! :)
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Great list, most of the artists are either favorites or bands I want to check, so this thread will definitely be helpful when I get around to listening to new stuff.
Congratulations and thanks for the good writeups!
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interesting list. so far, the only band i hadn't heard before that i've now given a shot is Amplifier. that self titled sounded really good right away (given it 3 spins so far)...tried their newest one last night. only listened to the first disc. it was...i dont know...different. seemed less tool-esque, anywayz.
oh, and i'm checking out some oceansize on youtube right now. i feel like i've heard a few songs of theirs before but have never really explored them. im spinning commemorative 9/11 t shirt. i give it a :tup (actually, musically, this also has something of a tool vibe. at least to me, it does.) (insta-edit: actually, even vocally it does at parts).
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Definitely a nice list. I'll check out at least The Pineapple Thief and Oceansize, they seem quite interesting.
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Kind of schizo at the end there. Agolloch, then Radiohead. BtBaM, then Sigur Ros.
Or, you know, extensive and open-minded music tastes.
Definitely a good list :tup
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Definitely the most shocking #1 pick ever, totally didn't see that coming.
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Frames. A great #1. Great list Zantera.
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Love the list, many acts I enjoy immensely and some new ones for me to check out! :tup
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Awesome list Zantera!
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Cool list. :tup
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I enjoyed the list Zantera! I'm almost done finishing the write-ups on my list so I'll be checking out Amplifier asap.
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Really cool list. Now I'm motivated to check out pre-"Self Preserved..." Oceansize, and judging from your write-ups I should definetely check out Amplifier, The Alchemy Index and "Lift Your Skinny Fists..", maybe even some Pendulum (even though that's about as far away from what I usually listen to as elephants from birds.)
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Really cool list. Now I'm motivated to check out pre-"Self Preserved..." Oceansize, and judging from your write-ups I should definetely check out Amplifier, The Alchemy Index and "Lift Your Skinny Fists..", maybe even some Pendulum (even though that's about as far away from what I usually listen to as elephants from birds.)
Pendulum do stick out like a sore thumb in the list, they are good though..
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Pendulum are quite different indeed, but I do think that they can work as a bridge from Progressive stuff to more Electronic, though I admit I haven't explored much else within Drum and Bass.
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Really enjoyed your list Zantera, however I could never get into Oceansize
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I really need to listen to Frames.
Great to see BTBAM so high! Fantastic list. :)
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So glad you have Ashes Against the Grain over The Mantle. It really is a superior album in almost every way.
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I'll never understand why people think Ashes is better than The Mantle.
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It really is a superior album in almost every way.
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OH LOL
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While I love The Mantle, the biggest flaws is that I can find it dull at times, because of the huge amount of instrumental songs on it.
Don't get me wrong, they're all beautiful songs, but unless I'm in the right mood, they tend to drag a bit, but Ashes is pretty much flawless.
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While I love The Mantle, the biggest flaws is that I can find it dull at times, because of the huge amount of instrumental songs on it.
Don't get me wrong, they're all beautiful songs, but unless I'm in the right mood, they tend to drag a bit, but Ashes is pretty much flawless.
I'd say the exact same thing about Ashes
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Oh you di'nt.
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As always, Mantle > Marrow > Ashes
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Marrow > Ashes
lol
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I also think Ashes has individually stronger songs then The Mantle. While In the Shadow of Our Pale Companion is awesome (and the best on The Mantle), Ashes has Falling Snow, Limbs, Fire Above & Ice Below etc.
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great list bro
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Ah, the great Agalloch debate. I knew I'd see you again, dear bruthah!
The Mantle, to me, succeeds because of those long instrumental sections. It is one of the very few albums I own that manages to perfectly create a cold, desolate atmosphere. The lyrics, the production, the music, all work together in harmony. It is a beautiful album to listen to. Even if it's just on 'in the background' it works. Ashes is a great album, with great songs, but it has yet to recreate that magical feeling that I experience with The Mantle. Maybe it's because The Mantle was the first Agalloch album I really got into, but to me, Ashes remains 'only' a great album with great songs, while The Mantle is over an hour of perfection.
As for Marrow, a while ago, I would've agreed that it was their weakest, but I listened to it again and it was much, much better, so now I have a hard time ranking it against Ashes.
EDIT: Regardless, any Agalloch is good. What a fantastic band.
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Marrow is a great album, but was slightly a disappointment to me personally. (maybe cause it had to follow up Ashes)
I would probably rank it just below or on par with Pale Folklore, which is also brilliant.
Is this the Agalloch-thread? Oh wait. :lol