DreamTheaterForums.org Dream Theater Fan Site
General => Archive => General Music Archives => Topic started by: Anguyen92 on February 16, 2016, 11:40:10 AM
-
So, it has taken me 2.5 years of being in DTF, but I have finally made it to 1,000 posts. I thought to myself on the backs of my mind that if I make it to 1,000 posts, I'm going to do a top 50 albums thread, and so here we are. Now, for those wondering, who the heck am I and how did I get to DTF, here's a brief bio regarding me and listening to music throughout life.
Well, for starters, growing up with two parents that immigrated from Vietnam, I do recall hearing music from various worldly instruments that people in Vietnam used since my mother would always watch this variety show called "Paris By Night" and it would feature live performances, skits, music videos, comedy acts, etc. regarding Vietnamese culture from the past to the now. I guess the first times I actually hear a song on repeat was through my older sister. Around the late 90s/early 2000s, she was into boy bands like Nsync, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, etc. and would have the MTV channel on to watch TRL and other stuff and watch music videos from songs like "Bye, Bye, Bye," "Hit Me Baby One More Time," Blink 182's All the Small Things, etc. Then a bit later on, she kinda corrupted both of us with the Nu-Metal trend and we listened to Korn, Disturbed, and Limp Bizkit. A few years back, when going through some boxes, I found an album, it was Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water that she bought when it came out. I showed it to her and stated, "what the blimey were we thinking back then???"
So with that opening paragraph, I think it's safe to say a guy like me getting into a band like Dream Theater with that background would be really tough, but there's still a lot more to the story. Years later, I could not recall any music I heard from the ages of 8-12. However, the 1st song that started my personal musical journey was Alter Bridge's Open Your Eyes. I heard it from a fanmade Youtube highlight video of WWE's Royal Rumble 2004 match (one of my favorite wrestling matches of all time) and it was the first time ever I heard such a extensive instrumental section with a killer solo and the likes with lyrics that I can personally relate to and that was the beginning of my Alter Bridge fandom, nine years ago. And then, since I was a WWE fan at the time (now I'm just a wrestling fan that shuns the WWE for the time being), theme songs for WWE PPV events was really my source of music back then was hearing those brief 30 second previews while watching Raw and Smackdown, and those songs help introduce me to bands like Seether, Rise Against, Skillet, Shinedown, Daughtry, and many more.
Going into 2012, after discovering that one of my favorite wrestlers Chris Jericho had a radio show on the Sixx Sense channel on iHeartRadio, I decided to check it out and then stuck around more to hear more songs from the radio stations and then I was introduced to some of the more radio bands that I would begin to dig (Halestorm, Breaking Benjamin, Foo Fighters, etc.). Eventually, around late 2012, I found this music channel called Palladia and they were doing a big long rock marathon weekend and so I watched/heard some classic bands, but one of those classic bands really got to me with their story, songs, live performance, and that band was Rush and that was the start of something more progressive.
And then 2013 hits, Dream Theater made and was going to promote an album in Europe, Alter Bridge made and going to promote an album themselves in Europe, both are on the same record label, :soon: , and so eventually their paths had to cross. Now naturally, for me, I'm going with the impression that if anyone from a name-value band found themselves talking and having pictures with guys from Alter Bridge, well, I'm going to have to check that band out, it's how I found about new bands that way. It worked for bands like Black Stone Cherry, Sevendust, and Trivium. Anywho, so yep, they met up somewhere in England, had some pictures taken, JLB and Myles Kennedy did some short videos about being a vocalist and all.
Around that same time, Loudwire did their cage match weekly polls featuring new singles and they pitted Dream Theater's The Enemy Inside and Alter Bridge's Addicted to Pain against each other. So I thought to myself, I wonder how Dream Theater fans feel about AB? So I googled Dream Theater Forums, found this forum, dug the vibe of it, and here we are.
I stuck around the forum as I like the community here in addition to having more outlets in terms of talking about a variety of bands and getting into new bands and 1000 posts, here we are, making a top 50 albums thread reflecting, pretty much, my musical journey that is highlighted in that long bulk of text I wrote.
So what's my schedule going to be? I will do my best to get two album writeups posted a day around like 9-10 AM/PM PST, depending on stuff like school, and slowly reflect on my journey and hope you guys enjoy what I have to say about my writeups and albums.
Edit: Albums so far.
Honorable Mentions:
Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2103794#msg2103794)
Lindsey Stirling - Shatter Me (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2103794#msg2103794)
Matchbox Twenty - Yourself or Someone Like You (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2104190#msg2104190)
#50: Sound City: Reel to Real (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2104603#msg2104603)
#49: Halestorm - Halestorm (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2105008#msg2105008)
#48: Decyfer Down - End Of Gray (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2105702#msg2105702)
#47: Zac Brown Band - Jekyll + Hyde (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2106564#msg2106564)
#46: Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators - World on Fire (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2107153#msg2107153)
#45: Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2107383#msg2107383)
#44: Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2107697#msg2107697)
#43: Stryper - Fallen (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2108506#msg2108506)
#42: Geddy Lee - My Favorite Headache (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2109285#msg2109285)
#41: Chris Cornell - Higher Truth (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2109711#msg2109711)
#40: Rush - Moving Pictures (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2110120#msg2110120)
#39: Breaking Benjamin - Dark Before Dawn (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2111002#msg2111002)
#38: Alter Bridge - AB III (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2111619#msg2111619)
#37: Trust Company - Dreaming In Black and White (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2111820#msg2111820)
#36: Soundgarden - Superunknown (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2112277#msg2112277)
#35: Tremonti - Cauterize (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2112770#msg2112770)
#34: Seether - Disclaimer II (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2114316#msg2114316)
#33: California Breed - California Breed (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2115997#msg2115997)
#32: Tremonti - All I Was (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2117268#msg2117268)
#31: Foo Fighters - There is Nothing Left to Lose (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2117660#msg2117660)
#30: Dream Theater - Breaking the Fourth Wall (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2117763#msg2117763)
#29: Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2123503#msg2123503)
#28: Sixx: A.M. - This Is Gonna Hurt (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2124273#msg2124273)
#27: Rise Against - The Sufferer & The Witness (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2126437#msg2126437)
#26: Shinedown - Somewhere in the Stratosphere (Disc 2: Live from Kansas City) (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2127742#msg2127742)
#25: Daughtry - Daughtry (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2128679#msg2128679)
#24: Skillet - Awake (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2129527#msg2129527)
#23: Shinedown - Leave A Whisper (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2130328#msg2130328)
#22: Fozzy - Chasing the Grail (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2130928#msg2130928)
#21: Alter Bridge - Live From Amsterdam (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2131393#msg2131393)
#20: Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2132613#msg2132613)
#19: Seether - Karma and Effect (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2135668#msg2135668)
#18: Big Wreck - Albatross (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2136102#msg2136102)
#17: Rush - Rush in Rio (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2136338#msg2136338)
#16: The Mayfield Four - Second Skin (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2140338#msg2140338)
#15: Matt Nathanson - Beneath These Fireworks (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2144750#msg2144750)
#14: Alter Bridge - Fortress (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2150510#msg2150510)
#13: Sevendust - Time Travelers & Bonfires (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2176742#msg2176742)
#12: Ayreon - The Human Equation (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2176918#msg2176918)
#11: Alter Bridge - One Day Remains (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2177045#msg2177045)
#10: Black Stone Cherry - Folklore and Superstition (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2179207#msg2179207)
#9: Switchfoot - Vice Verses (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2179773#msg2179773)
#8: Daughtry - Leave This Town (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2199668#msg2199668)
#7: Breaking Benjamin - Dear Agony (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2202456#msg2202456)
#6: Foo Fighters - Wasting Light (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2203183#msg2203183)
#5: Dream Theater - Awake (https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=46041.msg2545242#msg2545242)
-
First and foremost, I'll be following of course, eagerly been waiting for this top 50!
That's quite a story, I never dug wrestling or anything related but I hear lots of fans from those same bands being introduced to them through WWE intro songs and whatnot. (god, will the Metalingus-best-AB-song-debate ever stop?)
But yeah, lot of compatibility here, I may not have mentioned it before, but I'm also a pretty big Seether fan, Burrito is :metal
-
I'm following this :tup
-
I'm following this :tup
-
You know I'm following this, buddy :tup
-
All right, all right, thanks for the support guys. Let's begin this, shall we? I will start with the honorable mentions. These are the albums that I feel that I got to include as these albums are important to me in terms of my musical journey, but I feel that they are not as important as my Top 50.
Foo Fighters – Greatest Hits (2009)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/35/FooFightersGreatestHits.jpg)
Alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock
So most of us, I think, know who Foo Fighters is. It is the band that Nirvana drummer, Dave Grohl, created after Nirvana disbanded due to Kurt Cobain’s death. Grohl claims, I believe, during the time mourning on Cobain’s death for a long time, he just didn’t do anything musically, eventually, he needed to get out of the funk and do something and thus did a new project which eventually became the biggest modern rock band of our time (I like to think that).
Anywho, I know, I know. Yes, putting a greatest hits album anywhere in a top 50 album thread, even if it’s in the honorable mentions section seems to be a bit of a cop-out and, with fair reasoning, I will agree with that. However, as a guy that discovered Foo Fighters through the radio and the hits, well, this seems to be an easy way to get more into them, plus there is method of madness of putting it here. As for the album, it’s what it is billed as. A compilation of their biggest radio songs from their 6 albums at the time (Everlong, Learn to Fly, All My Life, Best of You, The Pretender, etc.) with some songs that didn’t make it to an official album release (Skin and Bones, Wheels, and Word Forward). With that stated, now to explain why putting this album has meaning to me.
Aside from having their well-known songs on the album, they made two new songs just for this release: Wheels and Word Forward. Now, when reflecting through life and all, I think Wheels may be one of the most influential song to me in life. Wheels is a pretty introspective song that would relate well to someone that felt that they accomplish the things that they always wanted and when they got it, what's the next step for them? It reflects times in life where I've done what I want to do and then things go a tad stale with how life is going and there may be a sense of complacent, and then I go, "now what?" Makes sense with these lyrics, ”Well I wanted something better man. I wished for something new. And I wanted something beautiful. And wish for something true. Been lookin' for a reason man. Something to lose.” Maybe I am still searching for something that is better or new or something with meaning. Sure, it may not be one of the better Foo Fighters songs among the fanbase in their catalog, but Wheels holds the most meaning to me, so for that, that’s why I put Greatest Hits on it and yeah, it’s an easy outlet to get people into Foo Fighters.
Favorites: Learn to Fly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VQ_3sBZEm0), Best of You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_L4Rixya64), Times Like These (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhzmNRtIp8k), Long Road to Ruin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At-p5loXVy8), and Wheels (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEUcFYZeiU4)
Lindsey Stirling – Shatter Me (2014)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/02/Shatter_me_album_art.jpg/220px-Shatter_me_album_art.jpg)
Classical crossover, EDM
Ahhh, so I went from Foo Fighters to Lindsey Stirling, ehhh. How did I get there? Well, for those that do not know, Lindsey Stirling is a violinist. She was on America’s Got Talent, but got her name value through making Youtube Videos. Her style, from what I can tell, is a mixture of incorporating violin sounds with the modern EDM vibe. Now, I will admit. EDM seems like something that is not for me. The wub-wub or the beats or other sounds seems a little too scary for me, as a guy that is accustomed to guitars, bass, drums, sometimes keyboards, but Lindsey Stirling pulls off the style well. Plus, she likes to incorporate more of showmanship performer flair, moving around, choreographed dancing as she is playing the violin in her videos and in her live shows.
So how did I hear of her music? Well, like most things regarding me discovering music, I heard about Lindsey Stirling through another band that I like. In this case, the band would be Halestorm. I heard that Lzzy Hale, Halestorm’s vocalist, did lead vocals for a song from Lindsey Stirling called Shatter Me. I took a listen at it, just for a curio, liked what I hear even if it seems foreign to me, and decided to take a listen to Stirling’s album since I am at that stage now, where I’m willing to listen to other stuff outside of the ballpark than what I am accustomed to.
Aside from two songs, Shatter Me and We Are Giants, sang by Dia Frampton, the rest of the album is instrumental. Now for me, hearing a mostly instrumental album is actually tougher to get into than I thought it would be, since I can identify a song more on vocal melodies and lyrics than other aspects. With that in mind, the album-listening experience was pleasant, to say the least, and maybe it was due to the instrumentals that made the listening a breeze to go through. That stated, as a guy that used to play World of Warcraft, I would have enjoyed something like this to listen on occasions to while grinding it out, which makes not surprising that some of the Twitch.tv streamers, I watch, have Lindsey Stirling songs playing on their playlist.
Favorites: It’s mostly an instrumental album, I cannot really identify some good favorites, so check out the whole album if you want to relax or something, but check out Shatter Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsysh9VWEv0) and We Are Giants (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ircIECJ-NyM).
Got one more honorable mention to state, but I will get to that tomorrow.
-
I'm following this :tup
...sans pants
-
when you get to the top 50, could you add the release year of each album?
-
Oh crepes, oh yeah. I'll put the year in, sorry about the faux-pas.
-
I saw a music video of Penatonix feat Lindsey Sterling doing a cover of Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, and thought it was fantastic. I'll be checking out this Lindsey Sterling, especially based on your honorable mention write up. Also, based on pictures i've seen of her, she is not bad on the eyes.
-
Lindsey Stirling sounds like something I might like. Will check.
-
Lindsey Stirling's "Shatter Me" is fantastic. I should really listen to more of her stuff.
-
Have you heard the Foos' actual albums? Colour and the Shape is good, and One by One isn't half as bad as Grohl and a lot of the fanbase make it out to be. It does have a few weak songs, but most of it is the best stuff they ever did.
-
Have you heard the Foos' actual albums? Colour and the Shape is good, and One by One isn't half as bad as Grohl and a lot of the fanbase make it out to be. It does have a few weak songs, but most of it is the best stuff they ever did.
I have heard all of their albums. I had my own rankings of all of them as I listened to all of them in preparation in seeing them at The Forum in Inglewood last fall.
-
Wheels is easily my favourite Foos song. It really is incredible and a shame it's only on the greatest hits as some fans might not have heard it. Not only is it my favourite Foos song but one of my favourite rock songs, I have yet to tire from it!
Definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone.
-
Huh. I thought Wheels was really fucking weak to be frank. But if it holds personal meaning for someone then there's no way I can fault that. Different strokes.
One by One isn't half as bad as Grohl and a lot of the fanbase make it out to be. It does have a few weak songs, but most of it is the best stuff they ever did.
This, I wholeheartedly agree with. I always say that after One by One they stopped pushing themselves and just started being AC/DC-brand formulaic.
-
Well, I think they were trying to do something interesting on Disc 2 of In Your Honor. It's not my favourite of their stuff, but it is good.
The first disc, on the other hand...
-
I had completely forgotten about that album, tbh. Which is usually a good indication of how much I like an album.
I just had a thought - there are probably dozens of other examples, but Wheels and Word Forward remind me of Fortune Faded and Save the Population from the Chili Peppers greatest hits, back in 03-04. Filler songs to entice people to buy a record full of songs they probably should've had already. Though I do think Fortune Faded is a pretty good song. Save the Population was shithouse.
Greatest Hits are a funny thing, I guess it largely depends on what side of the coin you're on. They're awesome for getting into a new band, but utterly useless for fans of the band already. I guess that's another reason they chuck a couple new tracks on there. I don't have anything against greatest hits, really. But putting new (usually pretty average) songs on a 'greatest hits' compilation is kinda shit.
-
Lindsey Stirling sounds like something I might like. Will check.
-
Lindsey Stirling is awesome.
-
The FF greatest hits are some of the best songs they have in the catalouge, so it's not that bad of a choice IMO.
Lindsey Stirling sounds like something cool indeed.
-
All right, let's continue, onwards.
Matchbox Twenty - Yourself or Someone Like You (1996)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4e/Matchbox_Twenty_-_Yourself_or_Someone_Like_You.jpg/220px-Matchbox_Twenty_-_Yourself_or_Someone_Like_You.jpg)
Alternative rock, post-grunge
The first time I’ve heard a Matchbox Twenty song was from another fanmade highlight video of another of my favorite wrestling matches of all time (Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit at Wrestlemania XX) and the song was How Far We’ve Come and that it sounded cool with its upbeat pace and somewhat pessimistic lyrics. So, a long time ago, in 2011, I was having a rough time in life and through Youtube searching, after hearing How Far We’ve Come, I found this song called Unwell and the lyrics got to me very hard and I decided to hear more from this band. So it leads to hearing their radio singles like Bent, Push, 3AM, Real World, How Far We’ve Come, etc.
Years later, I went into listening to this particular album, which was their debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You, through DTF when we were talking about albums in the 1990s and after I saw a proshot of them on TV. This album contains five singles, songs that I have definitely heard off before listening to this album (Long Day, Push, Real World, 3AM, Back 2 Good). Real World was very relating in that there are times where "I wish the real world, would just stop hassling me," in that when everyone is asking you to do stuff, you just wonder what it is like if you are in another position. 3AM had a nice message about it as it was written by vocalist Rob Thomas on the backs of his mom being really sick, when he was a kid, and he had all sorts of ideas in lyrics talking about being a kid in that scenario. The other songs on the album are pretty decent. Kody is really a strong song that talks about dealing with loneliness, I believe.
Yourself or Someone Like You was, I guess, the sort of album that helped shape the style of modern post-grunge and alternative-rock style that I grew up with as a teenager to the now, so this is an easy inclusion. Got catchy singles that you cannot stop listening to and discovering and you may find something golden outside of that in this album and Matchbox Twenty was one of those bands that helped shaped that genre, along with bands like Creed and Foo Fighters, that lead to bands I got good respect for, so they are all right in my books.
Favorites: 3AM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Naa1HXeDQ), Push (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAkHqYlqops), Real World (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwJazZIWNgg), Argue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8o0ohBnPXg) and Kody (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqUalKrZpg4)
-
Never heard the whole album, but some of the singles on it were okay. All over the place when it came out.
I think Rob Thomas’ best song (that I’ve heard) by a mile is Smooth, the song he did with Santana.
-
All righty, then. Let's officially begin this Top 50 album list with this one.
50. Sound City: Reel To Real (2013)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f1/SC-cover-album.jpg/220px-SC-cover-album.jpg)
Rock
So, we officially begin the journey with this album. Sound City: Real To Reel. It all started after Foo Fighters finished their Wasting Light tour in around 2012 and, after Foo Fighters recorded Wasting Light (more on that much later in the list) in his house and garage, utilizing tape and all, Dave Grohl decided to make a documentary about Sound City Studios and had various musicians, that had recorded classic albums in that very studio, be on the documentary, and described the unique feeling of recording in that particular studio.
For that matter, since Dave Grohl also purchased various equipment in Sound City Studios around the time the studio were closing, and he was directing this documentary on Sound City, he decided use that equipment to make a soundtrack incorporating some of the musicians that, as I stated before, recorded classic albums in Sound City Studio. The musician cast that contributed to this album was pretty good. We got Dave Grohl, of course. His Foo Fighters bandmates: Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mandel, Rami Jaffee. The guest musicians include Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age/Them Crooked Vultures), Corey Taylor (Slipknot/Stone Sour), Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac), Paul McCartney, among many others.
As a result, the range in the spectrum of rock on this album seemed pretty varied. We got a pretty attitude-ish punk song (Your Wife is Calling), we got some classic rock sounding songs (You Can’t Fix This), a song that had a stoner rock vibe QOTSA-vibe (Centipede), a song that incorporated electronic elements like NIN does with their songs, I believe, (Mantra), a song with acoustic sounds, like during Foo Fighters acoustic In Your Honor phase (If I Were Me), and modern sounding heavy rock songs were there (From Can to Can’t and A Trick With No Sleeve).
This was a solid album and enjoyed what it was going for which is to showcase the many spectrums of rock, I think. It got me into looking into Corey Taylor’s stuff, especially Stone Sour (a little more on that later in this thread), since his vocal work was really good in From Can to Can’t (a song that had certain parts that reminded me of Alter Bridge’s Blackbird, much more on that way way later…). Overall, I think if Dave Grohl wanted to show the beauty of recording on analog with different musicians he has known, in the span of about 20 years, and make songs on the fly and get some solid songs in the process, I think he did a good job of it. I liked the documentary and his enthusiasm on recording and talking to many different musicians/producers which probably inspire the idea of Foo Fighters' Sonic Highways album (don't worry, that album is not on this list).
Favorites: Time Slowing Down (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-4hEx-5cvw), Your Wife is Calling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhQtI2uRpmM), From Can to Can’t (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2GCp8vs168), A Trick With No Sleeve (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um3wul9oo8A), and Cut Me Some Slack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBd9330h9kI)
-
Oh gosh. This is the first time I see this mentioned here.
This album rocks! It has tons of great music in it, and the documentary is amazing too. I must have saw it four or five times, and it's really well done, shows how much of a great director Dave is. Amazing stuff to see in a top 50.
-
Moving onward with this one.
49. Halestorm – Halestorm (2009)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/Halestorm2009albumcover.jpg/220px-Halestorm2009albumcover.jpg)
Hard rock, post-grunge
Let’s see here, when was the first time I got into Halestorm? Well, during my radio phase in 2012, I heard some songs called Love Bites (So Do I), and I Miss The Misery and thought the female vocalist sounded cool and she had that sort of voice that I was looking for in modern hard rock radio. I don't really think I heard much female lead vocals in modern hard rock at the time (aside from maybe Evanescence, but that was long ago). Naturally, I read more about the band in the Alter Bridge Nation forums that I’m always at and found out that they opened a few shows with Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators (more on that band later), so they got to be good. Took a listen of their stuff and they got a good vibe of youthful energy that can take them far into their careers.
So as for who Halestorm is, they are a band formed by siblings Lzzy (guitarist/lead vocals) and Arejay Hale (drummer) and they started out as a local school band. In fact, their dad was the bassist during their teenage years. As they move towards their adult age, the Hales added Joe Hottinger (lead guitarist) and Josh Smith (bassist) around 2003 and that line-up was solidified from there into the now. Around that time period, they just slowly progressed and progress from playing in very small venues, local county festivals, whatnot and then found themselves with a record deal with Atlantic which lead to them releasing their first official album in 2009 called Halestorm.
To most people’s eyes, Halestorm is probably as generic rock as it can get, but as I keep venturing into and deeper stuff from other bands, I found that listening to a band like Halestorm is all right. They seem to be the kind of band that you just want to keep rooting for to go far, even if their songs may seem a tad bit cliche. As for their self-titled album, it’s a standard modern radio hard rock album, but I like it. Got some solid singles songs (It’s Not You, I Get Off), got some moody ballads (Familiar Taste of Poison, I’m Not An Angel) and plenty of innuendo songs (Bet U Wish You Had Me Back, Dirty Work). They even have a song that poked fun at the notions of being a female-fronted band (What Were You Expecting).
This album showed that this was a young band that is ready to go out into the world with their energetic vibe and show what they got. It certainly paid off, later, as their later albums keep making them bigger and bigger like winning a Grammy, doing longer and bigger headlining shows, getting opening arena slots in the UK for bands like Alter Bridge and Black Stone Cherry, and other high-profile festival slots. People have raved over their live shows in any setting (headlining, festivals, supporting, etc.) especially regarding Lzzy's live vocals and Arejay's drumming showmanship performance. Sure, people probably would state that they are only popular since they have an attractive singer (it also helps that Lzzy Hale can really sing well without any pre-fab BS). However, I always keep saying that they always make the most of all of the exposure they get and work very hard and consistently deliver in the live shows and manage to do everything to showcase what they got at the right times. So I’m happy for them that they are moving up as a band indeed going forward.
Favorites: Innocence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CRNN5fiEwI), I’m Not An Angel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GLkb-6TULk), Better Sorry Than Safe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIZP2bBbOS0), Nothing to With Love (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuZZttqxi1Y), and Tell Me Where It Hurts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TraIJVYbqVU)
-
I think Lzzy is an amazing vocalist, but I admit I've always found Halestorm's songs to be rather lacking. I kinda wish she'd join another band with stronger songwriting, because she really is fantastic.
-
I know Halestorm and I enjoy them in moderate amounts, but that's about it.
-
Carrying on now.
48. Decyfer Down – End Of Grey (2006)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/77/End_of_Grey_album_cover.jpg)
Christian rock, hard rock, alternative metal
I’ve first heard about Decyer Down, like other bands, through watching fanmade videos of WWE events. In this case, I heard about this song called Life Again and the PPV was Royal Rumble 2001. It sounded like standard radio hard rock, post-grunge, which is a style that I enjoy and sometimes want to defend its goodness against naysayers of it, but there’s this certain type of aura that Decyfer Down had in that song that I just cannot describe in words. It’s the same feeling I had when listening to other modern Christian Hard Rock bands like Skillet, Red, Switchfoot where they can be heavy in a modern radio rock format, but they have some deep spiritual vibes in their lyrics and all that gets me thinking about life. So as I venture more into Skillet (a band that I will talk about later in the list), people told me, "Hey, you should check out Decyfer Down. The End of Grey album is pretty good and they toured with Skillet, so I was like, all right."
As for the album, End of Grey, it’s consistent stuff. Not that much of a listen, 37 min., 10 songs, ranges from high-energy songs (Break Free, Life Again) with some touching ballads (Burn Back the Sun, Here To You). There was a certain amount of oomph and heaviness while having a positive vibe (pretty similar to what JRundquist stated regarding with the latest Walking With Giants albums with it having a positive vibe in a well-crafted modern radio rock sounding album). Listening to the songs from this particular album puts me in a solid motivating mood so that’s a good sign.
Favorites: Break Free (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSu-i2KK4Lw), Life Again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ag8bFGkptM), Burn Back the Sun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZy1_rOMuu4), Here To You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqOladO_DVo), and Never Lost (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39j3JU_gzws)
-
Jumping in late here, but I'm definitely following this! I expect to see some AB ranked pretty high on your list :tup
As for Decyfer Down - I've been a fan since they released End of Grey. Great straight-forward hard rock album, I really wish we would have gotten the opportunity to hear more of Caleb as I loved his vocals on this record, but TJ can sing really well as well. What are your thoughts on the rest of their albums? I felt like Crash was a really good sophomore release, Scarecrow was a little lacking but they were trying something different which I can appreciate. They are releasing a new record in couple months I think, the single is really good.
-
Well, can't say I'm really familiar with anything, except one or two Halestorm songs and a decent amount of Foo Fighter ones, though I personally can't stand songs like Best of You, I thought AC/DC was repetitive :lol
Anyway, do you have an albums per artist cap?
-
Jumping in late here, but I'm definitely following this! I expect to see some AB ranked pretty high on your list :tup
As for Decyfer Down - I've been a fan since they released End of Grey. Great straight-forward hard rock album, I really wish we would have gotten the opportunity to hear more of Caleb as I loved his vocals on this record, but TJ can sing really well as well. What are your thoughts on the rest of their albums? I felt like Crash was a really good sophomore release, Scarecrow was a little lacking but they were trying something different which I can appreciate. They are releasing a new record in couple months I think, the single is really good.
Honestly, to be fair, I hadn't heard their other stuff yet. I don't know why, but I keep hearing that End of Grey was their high mark and didn't just seem to bother with their other stuff. I'll consider it though.
Well, can't say I'm really familiar with anything, except one or two Halestorm songs and a decent amount of Foo Fighter ones, though I personally can't stand songs like Best of You, I thought AC/DC was repetitive :lol
Anyway, do you have an albums per artist cap?
For me, it is going to be three albums per artist, there is one exception though and it is not DT.....
-
Jumping in late here, but I'm definitely following this! I expect to see some AB ranked pretty high on your list :tup
As for Decyfer Down - I've been a fan since they released End of Grey. Great straight-forward hard rock album, I really wish we would have gotten the opportunity to hear more of Caleb as I loved his vocals on this record, but TJ can sing really well as well. What are your thoughts on the rest of their albums? I felt like Crash was a really good sophomore release, Scarecrow was a little lacking but they were trying something different which I can appreciate. They are releasing a new record in couple months I think, the single is really good.
Honestly, to be fair, I hadn't heard their other stuff yet. I don't know why, but I keep hearing that End of Grey was their high mark and didn't just seem to bother with their other stuff. I'll consider it though.
If you liked End of Gray that much you should definitely check out their second record, "Crash", same lineup, except with a new vocalist. Caleb, the vocalist on End of Gray only did that record with the band before leaving for personal reasons. Their third record Scarecrow is their weakest, IMO. It's not as heavy and almost has a southern rock feel to it. They just released a single leading up to their fourth album which comes out later this year, the single sounds really good.
Here's the new single, called "Nothing More":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db45zpKFQBw
Here are a couple really good songs off of their second record, "Crash":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrF9zwF4X5g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksLGSY7cNxo
Hope you like!
-
Well, can't say I'm really familiar with anything, except one or two Halestorm songs and a decent amount of Foo Fighter ones, though I personally can't stand songs like Best of You, I thought AC/DC was repetitive :lol
Anyway, do you have an albums per artist cap?
For me, it is going to be three albums per artist, there is one exception though and it is not DT.....
Alter Bridge :2metal:
-
Well, can't say I'm really familiar with anything, except one or two Halestorm songs and a decent amount of Foo Fighter ones, though I personally can't stand songs like Best of You, I thought AC/DC was repetitive :lol
Anyway, do you have an albums per artist cap?
For me, it is going to be three albums per artist, there is one exception though and it is not DT.....
Alter Bridge :2metal:
Deservedly so, I haven't thought about a top 50 albums list in a long time but at least 2, probably 3 AB records would be on mine, haha.
-
3/4 made it on mine, the only one that didn't was AB3. Fortress was even a contender for top 5 albums.
-
3/4 made it on mine, the only one that didn't was AB3. Fortress was even a contender for top 5 albums.
Sounds about right.
-
ABIII made it on my honorable mentions because there is still a lot to like about that record. It's not amazing as ODR, Blackbird, or Fortress, but in my opinion, some of Alter Bridge's best moments like that fuggin bridge on All Hope Is Gone are on ABIII
-
Apologies for me not posting a write-up, this morning. I had school stuff to take care of. Also, I will probably not post a write-up tomorrow morning as well as I'm going to do a volunteer tax program and stuff. Anywho, I will leave this one though.
47. Zac Brown Band – Jekyll + Hyde (2015)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d8/JekyllHyde.jpg/220px-JekyllHyde.jpg)
Country, country pop, hard rock, Southern rock, dance-pop, EDM (yeah, seriously. This album had songs that incorporated these genres.)
You know, five years ago, I probably would have never cross paths into listening to something like Zac Brown band, but I'm willing to admit that I'm wrong and Zac Brown Band was one of the more surprise good bands for me to discover in the last few years.
I first heard about them while watching a live stream when they and Foo Fighters was doing this concert the day before The Super Bowl in 2014. Seeing like 7-8 guys on stage playing some upbeat country stuff like their songs Unchained, Chicken Fried, Keep Me in Mind, Who Know, etc. and, in between, then they switched into covers like playing a snippets of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir into transitioning into The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Metallica’s Enter Sandman, and Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name Of and they were having a blast which was enjoyable to see. Afterwards, I heard their catalog and it was solid to hear with some good lyrics to reflect on. One of my favorites is Day That I Die as the lyrics are so good and I would like think that, oddly enough, that song probably reflects Lemmy well during his last few days.
So flash-forward to 2015, I hear word that Soundgarden vocalist, Chris Cornell, was going to do some vocals with these guys. I knew that Chris Cornell is a great vocalist, and Zac Brown Band are great players so this was going to be an interesting experiment. Was Cornell going to sing country, or is ZBB going to switch it up and go heavy rock? For this track, they went heavy rock with their song, Heavy is The Head. It started out with this nice meaty bassline with some of the verses reminded me of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs for some reason. As for the song, both Zac Brown and Chris Cornell trading lead vocals really well and and Cornell hit some solid high notes on that one and that song convinced me well enough to listen to this album, Jekyll + Hyde. It probably convinced others to do the same as that track hit #1 in Active Rock Radio (guys like Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, and Five Finger Death Punch, etc. are the dominators of that category).
Anywho, one of the stronger points of Jekyll + Hyde was that it had huge variety to it from upbeat country single (Homegrown), excellent harmonizing vocals (Remedy), island/Hawaiian vibe (Castaway), modern pop/electronic stuff (Tomorrow Never Comes), big band (Mango Tree), an acoustic ballad song that climaxed huge (Bittersweet), a damn good slow deliberate 7 min. song (Junkyard) that incorporated bits of Pink Floyd's "Is There Anybody Out There?" in part of their bridge and somehow they make each of these styles work well without looking awkward for a country band. To me, Zac Brown Band was something different than my perceptions of country (hearing about beers and pickup trucks and what not) and they look very authentic and nothing like any pre-fab nonsense that big pop/country acts appears to look like.
Here’s what Dave Grohl stated about them, while producing an EP with them, “They're unbelievable, the band is so good they can be tracked live; we didn't fuck with computers, we tracked live, four-part harmonies around one microphone. It's rocking. People are like, 'Oh, it's country.' 'No, it's not, it's like the Allman Brothers.' 'No, it's not, it's jam band.' I don't even know what you would call it, it's fucking great." It all sounds good to me and I look forward to hear more from them.
Favorites: Junkyard (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQfVzyC8zeg), Heavy is the Head (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWBm4Tx2bRo), Bittersweet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPvyfLtlI-A), Castaway (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc8GK7kEO7o), and Remedy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GdiVv-SoqQ).
-
Ok, then. After I got through what I needed to get through in these last few days, I am now back to my usual album posting schedule, so let's continue on.
46. Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators – World On Fire (2014)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/ff/Slash_-_World_on_Fire.png/220px-Slash_-_World_on_Fire.png)
Hard Rock
This is the 1st of many albums on this list that will have Myles Kennedy playing a big role in it. He is my favorite vocalist of all time, and one of two guys I claimed to be the biggest non-family inspiration of my life (it's obviously whose the other guy, but I'll get to him eventually in this list.)
Anywho, I first heard of the guitarist Slash when I heard word in 2010 that Alter Bridge’s lead singer, Myles Kennedy, did some songs for Slash’s solo album in 2010. I first heard Starlight. Thought the guitar work and the overall ballad, blusey, vibe really fitted well and thought, "Hey, that was a well-built song from Slash and Myles. These two gel well together. I wouldn’t mind hearing more of that." Then I heard something different that I didn’t expect a guy like Myles to sing, but the results worked out well, Back From Cali, with its high energy vibe that totally sounded like a Slash hard rock song.
So then, Slash wanted to tour with a solo band, as the old GNR line-up was not happening, since he and Axl were in a big tiff at the time, and Velvet Revolver was not happening because the band did not trust Scott Weiland, may he RIP, at the time and could not really agree on a suitable lead singer. They considered Corey Taylor at one point, I believe. I also heard rumors that they wanted Myles do be in that role, but that would have marked the end of Alter Bridge, and that is a world I do not want to be in, so thankfully that did not happen.
So with Myles having a lot of free time, at the time, since Creed was doing their reunion tour/album (I wasn’t happy about that at the time) and he was only working on a solo album (I will guarantee that if he had released his solo album before I made this list, I would have included it. I just trust and love the guy’s musical work that much), he decided to be Slash’s lead singer for his solo band joining Todd Kerns (bassist, backing vocals) and Brent Fitz (drummer) in the group. What started off as a one-time thing has now became a full-on legit band with resulted in two (going to be three eventually) albums, I’m going to discuss the 2nd one.
World On Fire was probably one of the more, I don’t know if I’m using this word right but, ambitious albums that Slash/Myles/Conspirators had created. With 17 songs and filling the disc at 77+ min., most people feared that there would be a good amount of filler. Well, they were kinda right. Getting out of the way, one of the things that I do not really like about Myles’ work with Slash is that he falls into the trap of cliché sleazy-sounding hard rock lyric tropes that I just do not like in their songs. One of them in this album was Dirty Girl. Now with the title like Dirty Girl, it just did not gel with me. I mean look at these lyrics, "She gonna go all night yeah. She does like it when you take it real slow. All night, my dirty girl. She make me feel alright yeah. She runs clean until the lights are down low. Say all night, my dirty girl." Yep, my inspiration, that had great lyrical content in Alter Bridge and the Mayfield Four, is not perfect. It's all right, no one is.
All right, getting the negative out of the way, this album had a lot of good stuff. We had a strong ballad-like song like Battleground with Myles hitting some good high notes, especially in the bridge. They had a Hey Jude moment with them singing, "lalalalalala," on and on. The lead single, World on Fire, was a solid high-energy lead single and it was no surprise it hit #1 on active rock radio and Todd Kerns filled in the rhythm vocals well. Him and Myles gel well together when singing. While my gripes about cliché sleazy hard rock tropes in the lyrics and sound holds strong in some of their songs, Beneath the Savage Sun was a different story. Excellent instrument, great solos and bridge sound from Slash, lyrics was very clear and had deep meaning as it was about how disgusting elephant tusk poaching is (the whole band is all about animal rights). The Unholy was probably their best crafted song from the album. It was very dark and broody (I read from people in forums that stated that it was like a Black Sabbath/Soundgarden vibe to it with its lyrics and sound) and was about something regarding priests being pedophiles and child abusers or something. 30 Years to Life was a super fun song to hear right from the opening lines, “So the story goes. This is a tale that must be told. For what could be your destiny. You never know” describing a man’s perspective of being in prison.
Despite me disliking the idea that it feels like Slash is monopolizing Myles’ time working with him and the Conspirators and Myles not committing enough to other projects that I want to look forward to now (especially Alter Bridge and his potential solo album), I cannot deny that this band is solid which makes me look bad at times. World on Fire was one of their stronger showings and they certainly made the most of it, in the touring end, and further establishes them of being a more legit band. However, thankfully, they are currently taking a break due to Slash doing the GNR reunion and, most importantly, Myles working with everyone else in Alter Bridge for AB V and maybe he may release his solo album in the summer, it’s nice to dream.
Favorites: 30 Years to Life (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4ySsES7hyA), Bent To Fly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueRm3WgSNRA), Battleground (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3BZiVcCbjM), Beneath the Savage Sun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM1GlPOvQ6U), and The Unholy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufpmYcOw_-E)
-
Myles Kennedy is the man :metal
-
Still nothing I'm familiar with :/ but I have to check Alter Bridge. That's one band I'd surely like but I never checked.
-
Great update, I do like thus album and have spinned it many times.. Just one problem that kept me from putting it on my list.
...
17 songs?? Man, this album has some killer tracks, but you already mentioned Dirty Girl, which totally feels like filler to me. I have like 5 more of those in this album. I've never been a huge fan of Slash but I gotta say he impressed me with this album and Apocalyptic though, Beneath the Savage Sun, Anatasia and Battleground are some personal favorites.
-
Still nothing I'm familiar with :/ but I have to check Alter Bridge. That's one band I'd surely like but I never checked.
Check either Blackbird or Fortress.
-
All right. Time for something a little more classic and old.
45. Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV (Zoso, etc.) (1971)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/26/Led_Zeppelin_-_Led_Zeppelin_IV.jpg/220px-Led_Zeppelin_-_Led_Zeppelin_IV.jpg)
Hard rock, folk, blues, blues rock, rock and roll
Obviously, this is the oldest album I'm going to have on this list. As a guy that has been listening to a lot of hard rock over the last decade or so, Led Zeppelin has to cross my paths, eventually. I won’t bore you with the story of how I first heard of them (it’s probably because of I forgot or I heard one of their singles on the radio or something), but I have heard all of their albums thanks to a challenge that Jack Black mentioned called the Zeppathon where you have to listen to all of the Led Zeppelin albums, including Coda, in one sitting. Well, I hadn’t completed that to the fullest yet. The closest I got was listening to everything in a 24 hour span, so that doesn’t count.
Anywho, one of the albums that did stood out to me, and probably stood out to everyone else that has heard and liked Led Zeppelin, is Led Zeppelin IV. I’ve stated during the Led Zeppelin discography thread that if one band wrote any of Zeppelin's big songs on that album and released it before Zeppelin, their careers would be made. Well, for this album, three of the songs are ingrained in people’s minds, pop culture, radio and the whatnots: Black Dog, Rock and Roll, and Stairway to Heaven. I’ve always had a fondness for Rock and Roll since it had that big-time drum intro, and the opening lyrics "It's been a long time since I rock and rolled," and the closing moments of the song where John Bonham goes crazy with the drums at the end, and when I saw Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones play it with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins during Foo Fighters’ Wembley Stadium show proshot, and you see Dave Grohl's grin when he's playing the drum opener to the song, and when I saw a youtube video of Alter Bridge doing a cover of it. Black Dog just had a solid bad-ass aura and groove without feeling overproduced or anything. Basic guitar, drum, bass, and vocal. That's all they needed for this song, the aura of the song just looms large. Back when I stated about AB’s Open Your Eyes being the first song I heard that had such an extensive instrumental/bridge/solo section, I would really like to think Stairway to Heaven was one of those songs that pioneered the format that led to extensive solos. A very well-crafted song, great keyboard stuff from John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page's solo, obviously, was awesome where it's up there in terms of the greatest guitar solo of all time, Robert Plant's vocal work was at its peak.
The other non-big songs on it were solid as well. I enjoyed Misty Mountain Hop and its upbeatness, and in the case of the Celebration Day version, Robert Plant and Jason Bonham harmonizing vocals and all. I’ve seen here that Four Sticks was received to be not that great of a song, but I sure as hell enjoyed it. Makes me think that I’m driving through a dessert, going on and on, driving without a care and whatnot and letting the road dictate its pace like a trance or something. Going to California was a nice acoustic song.
Overall, I can see why many people stated this as a classic album even without the long and epic, and ground-breaking at the time, Stairway to Heaven. Had some catchiness and groove to it, got some upbeatness to it, and manage to bring the tempo down at the right time and continuing to influence the heavy rock genres that is been defined today. To me, this album was the album that cemented Led Zeppelin's legacy as being eternal superstar legends.
Favorites: Black Dog, Rock and Roll, Stairway to Heaven, Misty Mountain Hop, and Four Sticks
-
Awesome album :hefdaddy I can't choose my favorite from it since every song is great and it's quite diverse but usually I'm fond of bluesy part of IV.
-
Classic album, etc.
Dunno if I could handle the Zeppathon though. I think I'd overdose on sugar baby mama darling honey-ness.
-
From the old to the newer stuff.
44. Stone Sour – Audio Secrecy (2010)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3b/Stone_sour.jpg/220px-Stone_sour.jpg)
Alternative metal, heavy metal, post-grunge, hard rock
All right, moving on to Stone Sour. As stated before, I first heard of Stone Sour when I first hear Corey Taylor’s voice in the Sound City Soundtrack song, From Can to Can’t. Not to be prejudice or anything, but I felt as though the sound that Slipknot brings would probably not be to my liking, so I asked around, “I do not think Slipknot would be the band for me, but I love Corey Taylor’s voice in From Can to Can’t. What songs or band from him should I look into?” and they told me Stone Sour. Around that time, I heard House of Gold and Bones Part II and enjoyed it a fair amount. After a while, I went backwards into hearing Part I and find that ok, and then I ventured into this album, Audio Secrecy.
My first impressions was that the first few songs had a strong heavy modern rock sound in songs like Mission Statement, Digital (Did you Know), and Say You’ll Haunt Me. Then they went into something pretty ballady in songs like “Dying”, “Hesitate,” “Imperfect” and then I was like whoa whoa whoa, I didn’t wanted something too balls in the walls, but I didn’t expect anything like these sappy ballads. However, when real life experience happens, certain songs you heard had a better meaning than you initally thought it would be, and to me, that was the case regarding Dying. It’s odd, but around that time, I was dealing with a rough time regarding a certain dynamic/relationship with a person and I didn’t know what I was thinking regarding that person. Makes sense in these lyrics, “If I can't live without you. But I can't breathe when I'm with you. What are we really doing here?” and that was really all I was feeling around that time and it was not a pretty feeling to go through. The other ballads had its place and I really appreciate them for what it was on multiple listens.
After Hesitate, the heaviness and the stuff that I love about alternative metal really kicked in gear once again, especially with Pieces which was to me, probably the strongest song of the album for me. The drums in that intro verse has me anticipating for something strong and it certainly delivered. I also liked it when Corey Taylor was switching from very clean and audible vocals into an effect that seems a bit muffled? during the verses.
Overall, I’m glad that there is a band like Stone Sour around for a vocalist like Corey Taylor. If his only band was Slipknot, I probably would have casted him aside and I probably would not appreciate the range of emotions that he brings to the table regarding his vocal work and Audio Secrecy showcased that range well. The guitar work between Josh Rand and Jim Root was strong as well.
Favorites: Mission Statement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSbyowvA9QM), Dying (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tjsWXAg3WM), Unfinished (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKMnqFT6OQ4), Pieces (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDvddhgvkZM), and The Bitter End (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcnYanobCuE)
-
Awesome update! I don't think Stone Sour is ever being mentioned around here with the exception of The House of Gold and Bones. For me personally, my favorite songs are scattered around all the albums so I never had a standout Stone Sour album, but Come Whatever May and House of Gold and Bones are probably my favorites if I had to pick. 30-30-150 is just :metal
I have to say I still prefer Corey on Slipknot, not even the full-out agressive Corey most people associate the band with, some of the most beautiful and heartbreaking songs in my library are from Slipknot.
-
Just catching up....
World on Fire is a great modern rock n roll record. Pretty much anything Myles Kennedy works on is an automatic buy for me, and I have really enjoyed consistently playing World on Fire since it came out.
Led Zep IV is a classic, period. Not much else to add.
Diggin the list man, keep them coming!
-
Again, sorry for not posting a morning album update. The usual "school is hammering my ass at the moment," excuse applies here. At this point, I do not know if I can guarantee two album write-up posts a day with the way the week's schedule is piling up on me, but I'll try to post when I can, and I will guarantee I will finish this album list within a month or so. Anyway, let's move forward with this one.
43. Stryper - Fallen (2015)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/25/%22Fallen._the_11th_album_by_Christian_band%2C_Stryper.jpg%22.jpg/220px-%22Fallen._the_11th_album_by_Christian_band%2C_Stryper.jpg%22.jpg)
Christian metal, Christian rock, hard rock, glam metal, power metal.
Let’s see, when was the first time I heard about Stryper? Well, it all started when I was reading Chris Jericho’s first autobiography, "A Lion’s Tale: Traveling Around the World in Spandex," and aside from Jericho listening to the heavy metal bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, etc. in his youth, he wondered what the sounds of Christian metal was like and whether it stacks up well with the classic bands. Well, he was right regarding Stryper. In fact, Stryper was technically an influence on him training as a professional wrestler as one of his first ideas for a wrestling gimmick is that he would be named Christian Chris Irvine and he goes around to the ring throwing bibles at people in the crowds (Stryper is known for throwing bibles to the crowd). Yeeesh, the internet writers would have a field day with this one if there is any aspiring wrestler out there that has a gimmick of throwing bibles to the crowds and have Christian tones. All right, all right, even though, the gimmick idea was stupid, Jericho decided to honor Stryper in a different way, by deciding to incorporate the black and yellow patterns that Stryper used in their clothes for his wrestling attire. I believe he manage to get a wrestler friend’s mom, whose did his outfit, and make Jericho some wrestling tights that had Stryper colors.
All right, now that I bored you with that “pointless” story, fast-forward to 2013. Jericho decided to plug Stryper vocalist, Michael Sweet’s solo song, The Cause, around September. I took a listen to it, sent a tweet to Jericho on Twitter that states that this song rocks, and then all of a sudden, Michael Sweet gave me a follow. I don’t know why, but he did. So, since he gave me a follow, I might as well give a courtesy follow and check out Stryper’s latest album, at the time, No More Hell To Pay. When I heard it, that was a kick-ass classic metal sounding album built in modern times, with powerful vocals, kick-ass duel guitar work, and with them being a glam and Christian band, some sappy ballads, but at least these ballads had a lot of power to it in my view. Afterwards, I thought, that was a good album. I guess I’ll somewhat keep a look-out for them during the times they are going to have new material.
Flash-forward to 2015, I heard word that Stryper was going to do a track with Sevendust (more on that band later) guitarist, Clint Lowery for their next album, and the previews I heard from it sounded like Alter Bridge’s Cry of Achilles (more on that song and album that is on later) and had this epic feel to it. So that got me excited in anticipation for they have to offer and that album was Fallen. Now, I think they went another level higher in the heaviness for Fallen than in No More Hell to Pay and, in this case, it was for the better since they still retained a melodic sound, their Christian tone and talking about Jesus lyrics, and showcased Michael Sweet’s vocals excellently. Yahweh showcased a more heavier, epic-feeling to it. The title track was excellent and Sweet’s vocal delivery when he sings the chorus, “Now you're fallen, fallen, fallen. The end is calling, calling, fallen” was superb. The track, Heaven, to me showed a solid Iron Maiden-vibe in the opening riff for some reason. I'm not complaining about it though. Then they went all Aerosmith-balladly with All Over Again, but they managed to deliver well on this one. Then, I heard After Forever. It was a cover of Black Sabbath’s song. I wouldn't think Stryper would play a Black Sabbath song, but they killed it playing "Heaven and Hell" on their Covering album and it all kicks all sorts of ass anyway. The album ended with King of Kings and with a title called King of Kings, it better be bad-ass sounding and it was.
Stryper delivered a solid album in Fallen that outdid their previous album, No More Hell to Pay, which was good already. To me, it sounded like a classic metal album sound. They went heavier, did not go too overboard with the sappy power ballads, the solos were stronger, and Sweet going in his 50s was sounding great. Overall, I don’t know where people get the connotations that people playing Christian rock/metal music are wusses and do not know what it is like to be heavy, because Stryper has rocked hard and heavy as much of the classic metal bands, probably even better than the best of them in today’s age (with one exception, but I’ll get to those guys, eventually, in this list.)
Favorites: Yahweh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRyXDlPthH0), Fallen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBdoO1FUdng), Heaven (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe7DjW-OTrI), After Forever (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PyFAgttKcg), and King of Kings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NFbZCEhPCI)
-
I used to love To Hell With The Devil when I was a kid, there were some killer tunes on that - I will have to check this out.
-
That's my fav Stone Sour album up there. Just missed my 50.
That Stryper was a nice surprise last year, great album.
-
Continuing onward.
42. Geddy Lee – My Favorite Headache (2000)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/51/GL_My_Favorite_Headache.jpg/220px-GL_My_Favorite_Headache.jpg)
Progressive rock, alternative rock, hard rock
So we now move on to My Favorite Headache, the solo album of Rush bassist, Geddy Lee. I first heard this album when DTF was doing the Rush discography thread, took a listen to it, decided this is better than Test for Echo, and I liked Test for Echo. Anywho, the events that occurred before the album was out are this. After Rush finished their Test For Echo tour in 1997, tragedy stuck to Neil Peart as his daughter passed away due to a car accident and then his wife passed away, a year later, never really overcame the shock of her daughter’s passing. During these events that most people would most likely never overcome in their life, Neil decided to take a long road trip across Canada and the nice roads of the West Coast of the states and other places and reflect on the "now what?" parts of life. Therefore, Rush was on their hiatus where they did not do anything Rush-related for about three years. However, in 2000, Geddy Lee came out with this album, My Favorite Headache.
When listening to the album, I would like to think some of these musical ideas were something Geddy had in mind for the next Rush album after Test For Echo, but I think this solo album was for the best for numerous reasons. One thing, Rush was inactive and if Geddy had ideas lying about, then he should strike while the iron was hot. Another thing, at that point, Rush was rolling for 20+ years and it was quite clear that around the 90s, they pretty much were in a state of spinning its wheels around. Most people found Test For Echo to be pretty bland for Rush standards. I don’t mind it, but I can see what people mean about it.
For Geddy, this solo album gives him a chance to get outside of working with his Rush bandmates, Alex and Neil, and have a different perspective to work with. For this album, he had Ben Mink on the guitars, a friend of Rush who is known for doing the electric violin on the song, Losing It. He also had Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden on the drums. Sure, these guys are not Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart level of their craft, but I do not think they are no slouches as evident on My Favorite Headache. The album starts off strong on the title track, with the bassline, and leads to a journey of the unknown with the lyric line, “One Man Standing On The Plains Of Abraham. Watching A Damaged Sunrise. One Man Standing Near The Edge. Of A Quiet Breakdown” and leads people to something different when the tempo shifts during the lyrics “Just Between The Ice Ages Anyway. I Want To Talk But I Haven't Got. Too Much To Say. I Don't Mean To Be So Nihilistic. Forgive Me If I Seem To Be Too Realistic,” before going back to a sense of paranoia tempo.
Working on Perfeckt was a very dramatic sounding that incorporated electronic elements and had strings. The Angel’s Share is one of those tracks that that grabs me immediately and definitely had one of the more alternative rock vibe and the chorus just grabs me, “If We Are Only Members Of The Human Race . No Supernatural Beings. From A Supranatural Place. If You Can't Solve The Problem. Come And Tell Me To My Face.” On another note, the outro solo was one of the finer moments of Mink on the guitar. Home on the Strange had one of the more groovier sounding stuff that I heard, I think pretty similar to something like Roll the Bones (the song).
The last three tracks though was one of the better runs to close the album, I’ve have ever heard, and I think it all connects with each other well. Slipping utilizes the piano great and the lyrics was solid highlighting the things that people have gone through in life and admitting about a person's faults and in spite of their best intentions, the person screws up and want something to change things for the better. Still was one of those ballads that makes you think and gives you hope that the next day will be better from the last day. Whereas Slippinggets a person to admit their faults and downfalls, Still was the transition where you find the realization that hope is still out there and you just got to keep going. The album ends with probably my favorite track from the album, Grace to Grace. A high-energy song that talks about despite a person's faults and horrible experiences, one can find the way to experience these events and still be able to present themselves with as much grace and beauty and composure as possible in the aftermath, and coming out feeling alive.
Even though this was the only album that any of the members of Rush made during their hiatus, from what I can tell, I like to think My Favorite Headache was a great album to hear. Geddy looked very on with this one and seemed to look rejuvenated during the hiatus, which bold well for the guys in Rush, as they were approaching their next era of Rush, and what an era it was going to be that seemed to have just has much meaning as their 1st 20-25 years of their lineup.
Favorite: Working at Perfeckt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DFTAWz_5gU), The Angel’s Share (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v69BZAq1TRA), Slipping (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8TxI8uDKoI), Still (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU3oPCYN3ZA), and Grace to Grace (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R66l7iv-3TY)
-
Hurrah! I can get an album write-up in this morning!
41. Chris Cornell – Higher Truth (2015)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/83/Chris_Cornell_Higher_Truth.jpg/220px-Chris_Cornell_Higher_Truth.jpg)
Rock
Well, in recent times, I’ve been digging the living hell out of Chris Cornell's work where now I have placed him in my top five vocalists. Of course, I have heard of him through his big Soundgarden tracks and some Audioslave tracks. So when I hear the idea of him doing a solo album and it was going to incorporate acoustic elements and whatnot, I was instantly like, “Sign me up for it, baby.” However, some people were still skeptic of what he was going to do after the debacle that was his Scream album. I found the Scream album all right, but the biggest flaw from that album was that the role he was in and the musical styles incorporated just did not fit Chris Cornell well. The elements in that album may have been suitable for a style like Timbaland or Justin Timberlake (nothing wrong with those guys), but a guy with the vocal powers of Chris Cornell just did not gel well.
Thankfully, Higher Truth immediately wiped away any of those skeptisms. It did not sound anything like Soundgarden or Audioslave, but the vibe totally fit Chris Cornell. Take the track, Nearly Forgotten My Broken Heart. It incorporated all sorts of worldly instruments like a mandolin and having a folky vibe. I first heard and I was like, “Yes, I shall listen to this album, please.” Dead Wishes was one of those acoustic ballads that just keeps captivating me. Before We Disappear, to me, was one of those songs that gets me thinking about life and, sure on 1st impressions, it sounded like a pop-ish acoustic track that gets people clapping on beat, but it sounds so authentic. One of my favorite tracks was Josephine and, to me, that track was the essence of great acoustic Chris Cornell is. The voice, the lyrics, it incorporated strings, and I think it was like a love confession and outright honesty. Murderer of Blue Skies is also another good favorite from me as well.
Overall, sure, this album is not ground-breaking or anything, but at his early 50s, and numerous accolades and being in two big bands, Chris Cornell did whatever he wanted for his solo album, and it was at his best in an intimate setting so I'm happy with hearing Higher Truth.
Favorites: Nearly Forgotten My Broken Heart (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hPxc2hJ2oM), Before We Disappear (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsW2mJG9BtQ), Josephine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-0LLI1IhRA), Murderer on Blue Skies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl9EVym7MEY), and Misery Chain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-hEOYGrLyA)
-
All right, enough of the solo albums write-ups for now. Time for something a little more classic and known in these parts.
40. Rush – Moving Pictures (1981)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Moving_Pictures.jpg/220px-Moving_Pictures.jpg)
Progressive rock, hard rock
All right, now we move on towards, probably, my favorite acclaimed classic rock album of all-time, Moving Pictures and, to do that, I'll like to take the time to tell you guys how I got into Rush. Oddly enough, the 1st time I heard a Rush song was when they did the cover of Summertime Blues as it was the theme song of the WWE PPV, Summerslam 2004. My first impression of that song that the vocalist was weird, but it was a good song about yearning to get summertime feeling going that had a killer instrumental ending, and I thought that Rush was a decent band, although it’s going to be one of those bands that I’m probably never going to hear from ever again. I was so wrong about that.
Flash-forward to late 2012, and the music channel that I just got into, Palladia, was doing a big rock marathon during Thanksgiving weekend and I was like, “Cool. I’m going to watch as many documentaries and concerts as possible and have a good time doing it.” Two documentary/concert stood out to me above all else. It was Rush’s Beyond the Lighted Stage and the Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland concert. After watching the Time Machine concert, I was like, "Man, for a bunch of old guys, they played really well, despite the vocals sounding weird.” Then I watched Beyond the Lighted Stage and heard the story of the ups and downs of Rush during their lengthy careers and found myself rooting for these guys to succeed as they talked about all of their eras and ended up to the point where they are one of the most revered bands of all time with the same line-up going on for 40 years. I would like to think that their overall story is what got me really into Rush. With that stated, since I mentioned the Time Machine tour, the main attraction for the show was this, playing their biggest album, Moving Pictures, in its entirety. Now I’ll talk about the album.
Well, there’s not much to say anything different that others said before. The 1st side of Moving Pictures are basically must-listen essentials when getting into Rush: Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, and Limelight. I particularly enjoyed Limelight from the bunch, cited that this is my favorite Rush hit ever, with that intro and the lyrics talking about having to deal with the success of being a rock superstar and dealing with the attention from the public, and how it could affect one's personal life. The opening lines just sold it for me, “Living on a lighted stage. Approaches the unreal. For those who think and feel. In touch with some reality. Beyond the gilded cage.”
The other side of the disc is all right stuff. I’m not too keen on The Camera Eye, but it was still a solid song and still has historical value as it was the last Rush song up to this point that crossed the 10+ min. mark. Witch Hunt was ok with its opening and hearing the angry mob. I enjoyed Vital Signs the most from that side. I enjoyed the reggae vibe and the synths so it was a good closer for me.
Well, yep. Moving Pictures. Great Rush album. Most recognizable. Cemented their legacy, even though they still keep going to churning out solid stuff till the now. Go listen to it if you hadn’t.
Favorites: All of the 1st side and Vital Signs are the really great tracks to me.
-
Only a bit familiar with Soundgarden but enough to know Cornell is a beast of a singer, so I'm noting that album :metal
I'm not really into Rush, but YYZ is amazing.
-
Finally something I'm familiar with. Moving Pictures is great album but I like few their albums better.
-
Moving Pictures is such a great record, good pick!
-
And so the journey continues after getting out of the 40s.
39. Breaking Benjamin – Dark Before Dawn (2015)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/92/Dark_Before_Dawn_album_cover.jpg/220px-Dark_Before_Dawn_album_cover.jpg)
Hard rock, alternative metal, post-grunge
All right, I’m going to talk about Breaking Benjamin’s latest album now. Well, the first time I heard Breaking Benjamin was during my radio phase, and I heard The Diary of Jane. I dig the sound, I dig Benjamin Burnley’s voice, I dig the lyrics. Probably, it was one of the better mainstay modern radio rock songs I have heard. In fact, during my superstitious ways, I think I played that song at least once a day before the hockey games where the Los Angeles Kings took on the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup.
Flash-forward to 2015, a couple of people at the Alter Bridge Nation forums, I go to, were discussing the latest Breaking Benjamin songs that came out like Failure, Angels Fall, and Defeated and I took a listen to all of it, and I rather enjoyed it a lot better than I thought I would, so much that I considered giving the album a listen.
So I took a listen to Dark Before Dawn, and it was their first album released in 6 years, as Ben Burnley was having some legal matters to be taken care of regarding the name, Breaking Benjamin, as his bandmates sent some tracks to their record label to put on their compilation album, Shallow Bay, that he did not approve of, which lead to one big mess, which caused the whole line-up other than Ben Burnley to change. Nevertheless, Dark Before Dawn was out and after I heard it, I was like, “Wow. This is the album sound that I really want in my alternative metal radio bands, nowadays.” To most people, they thought it sounded like a standard Breaking Benjamin album and, honestly, they were right. That stated, a standard Breaking Benjamin album is what the band needed to reintroduce themselves and what I wanted to hear out of them and I think the public reception validated this album being received well as it hit #1 on the Billboard 200, sold more copies in their 1st week than their last album, and got some songs at #1 on active rock, cementing the fact that Breaking Benjamin is back and I'm glad they are.
So, onward to the album content, we start off with Dark, which was a small brief two minutes intro. It was similar to a short intro that they incorporated with their biggest album, Phobia, which was called Intro. Anyway, Dark set the tone for the album before leading to their next track, Failure. I guess the best way to describe Failure is that it is along the veins of The Diary of Jane. I do not know if the decision to make the song that way deliberate or as a way to reintroduce the band, but hey, I love the Diary of Jane so this was an easy winner of a song. Angel’s Fall was really good, was very upbeat, loved the chorus. Was one of the stronger songs of the album, to me. Close to Heaven had this Alice in Chains vibe to it, I like to think. The album then had a solid four song run that I really dig in Never Again, The Great Divide, Ashes of Eden, and Defeated. Ashes of Eden was a touching ballad although I was waiting for something to take it to a crescendo, I guess. Defeated was probably one of the better “never give up, fight until the end,” sort of song I like. The chorus just keep playing in my head a lot throughout last year. "As I fight for one last prayer. I keep holding on. No love to believe in. As I drag the Devil down. I will stand alone. No longer defeated." Finally, the album ended with Dawn, another short instrumental song to close the album, similar to how Phobia ended with Outro.
Overall, I was happy to listen to this album. I’m sure not a lot of people care too much about Breaking Benjamin in these parts. I’m just thinking to myself, how could I have not dug any more deeper into this band, sooner? They seem to have a sound that I really desire in my modern rock, alternative metal palate, nowadays, and, in times, where Three Days Grace's latest album was just so blah to me and Shinedown went probably a tad too overboard with a poppy sound in their latest album, Breaking Benjamin delivered an album that I really desired in times like these. Dark Before Dawn was a good way to reintroduce Breaking Benjamin back to the rock world and I hope they keep going.
Favorites: Angels Fall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCA7xipW2J0), Hollow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqz6xBd-xKk), Never Again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aglz3MZhP0U), The Great Divide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCq3JKzFjgQ), Defeated (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7O-FGSkUJk)
-
All right, it's go time. This is going to be a lengthy write-up.
38. Alter Bridge – AB III (2010)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/ca/AB_III.jpg/220px-AB_III.jpg)
Alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge.
All righty, then, we now move on to talk about the first Alter Bridge album on this list. It is the ever-so polarizing among the fanbase, AB III. What makes this album pretty polarizing? Well, let’s go into some detail here. No wait, that would take too long. To sum it up, the year was around late 2009 – early 2010. Creed reunited, GNR guitarist Slash wanted Myles Kennedy to sing lead vocals for his solo band, so where does that leave Alter Bridge? Hard to say at the time. Thankfully, Mark Tremonti, Myles Kennedy, Scott Phillips, and Brian Marshall assured us that Alter Bridge was going to release a 3rd album and out comes AB III.
Coming off the backs of their best album, at that point, maybe ever (hard to say), in the form of Blackbird, the follow-up sure does have a lot to live up to. In the fans’ eyes, did it live up to the hype? I want to say, not initially. I don’t know what was up in the air around that period, but I can easily say when I first heard AB III, I was a bit disappointed. I don’t know why. Maybe it was because they didn’t have a near 8 min. song like Blackbird in AB III? Maybe, them releasing their ending track, Words Darker Than Their Wings, as a free download ruined the album listening experience? Maybe, there was too many radio-structured songs in the middle portion of the album thus had an ebb and flow to it where having the album be 66 min. and 14 songs didn't benefit the album but rather made it weaker? Whatever the case, it was certainly a polarizing album for AB at the time.
However, looking back at the album now in 2016, I can appreciate it for what it is which is just another well-crafted album, didn’t top their last album though, from my favorite band that a lot of meaningful songs to me. AB III, as the band described it, was kind of a loose concept album. They structured it depicting a tale of a guy that was going into the lowest point of his life, trying to find meaning and, in 2011, I can relate to the story, because I felt like the guy that they were depicting, and it was not an easy feeling to go through at the time.
The album started off with Slip to the Void, a track that started off with some keyboard programming for 1:30 with Myles singing about the guy that has slipped so hard, to a point where he may not get back up, and the great kicker about that song was after that intro, the song kicked into high-gear and pretty much never looked back from here with a powerful chorus. “Left to face this alone. Left to die with nothing you can own. Left to break in the cold. In the void that you made. The moment you let love go.” The scary part about that song is that they kept kicking butt during the bridge verses with some awesome guitar licks into between words before going back to the awesome chorus, setting the tone really strong for the album (which sadly the album really couldn’t handle for the most part).
Then comes Isolation, the first single of the album, and I think it was a strong choice. This song represents the high-energy single that they probably wanted to get out first as oppose to the more mid-tempo like (Open Your Eyes, Rise Today) songs in prior singles. This was their biggest song in terms of mainstream rock radio media as the track hit #1 in active rock, first time they were able to do so, and got a guest appearance on Jay Leno. To sum it up, despite the whole Creed reunion and Myles with Slash, this song represents that Alter Bridge is back, baby.
Ghost of Days Gone By was next, and yeah, it had some poppy flair to it which lyrics that hit me hard about yearning to go back to a time where things were well in life, and it seem way too poppy for an AB song, at the time, and then there was a shift during the bridge, when Myles sang “I don’t wanna DIEEEEEEEE!!!!!,” where all of a sudden the song got darker and darker which sets well to All Hope Is Gone. To me, that song had this interesting pirate/medieval vibe with a very extensive instrumental bridge and another solid Mark Tremonti solo.
Show Me A Sign was probably their darkest and most broody song ever. Clocking at 6 min., it was the longest song of the album and I think they had one of the more better bridge structures they had with the instrumental part, then a solo, then a bridge verse, and then they had this voice changing thing that sounded like Myles was a demon or something and a great closer.
Fallout was probably my favorite song from this album. Had bit of a bluesy vibe in the pre-verses. I think this is an example of an Alter Bridge style-song with regarding their usual structure done right. I enjoyed the lyrics in the bridge a lot “He left behind, he's walking, a burning still he tries to unearth the meaning to this life. Cast aside, he's weary, a bleeding to behold. Disconnected, still he fights to belong.” Also once again, Mark delivered another tremendous ending solo.
Coeur D’Alene was one of more deeper songs for the band. Myles, being from Spokane, Washington, which was somewhat close to the lake, seemed very inspired when creating this song. It was dark, it was yearning for some hope. It’s all good.
Then comes out Life Must Go On. Another one of my favorite tracks. Sure, after the guitar intro when the drum kicks in, it sounded familiar to Creed’s My Sacrifice. As I stated earlier with Geddy Lee’s Still, I like these sorts of songs that gives you hope to carry on with life, in light of all the wrong that has been experienced, and that we may find some form of light at the end of the tunnel.
Words Darker Than Their Wings is the closing track of this really long album for Alter Bridge. It plays off as a conversation of the guy of the story, sang by Myles, talking with a friend of his regarding everything that has happened. To make this work, we had another guy on the vocals. For the 1st time ever, Mark Tremonti stepped up and did some lead vocals and, I think, while it was weird at first, he did well which may have give him enough inspiration to go ahead and do a solo band with him on lead vocals (more on that later). The song was strong, obviously Myles and Mark’s voice molded well which Myles hitting probably his highest high note ever (legend has it that one of the reasons why they do not want to play this track live is that Myles is afraid he might blow his voice out trying to hit that note) and ended the album on a good note.
Well, after that long write-up, I think it’s safe to say that AB III was a damn good album for me. Just not as good as the other albums I will talk about in this list, but this album still has done good for them. After getting themselves on :soon: in areas outside of the US, they were finally able to get good promotion as themselves which help grew a bigger fanbase and got themselves playing in bigger venues than before, including arenas in the UK. In the US, they got a #1 single for the first time.
Anyway, AB III. Good album. Helped further establish the band’s own identify and presence in this unpredictable music industry.
Favorites: Slip to the Void (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PABO3RC2c7k), Ghost of Days Gone By (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CBoHFC4f94), Show Me A Sign (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QroGnBeZBGg), Fallout (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujUIZVVfP9w), and Life Must Go On (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOb7JJtjDBw)
-
Thankfully, this write-up won't be as long as the other write-up.
37. Trust Company - Dreaming In Black and White (2011)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/57/TrustCompany-DIBAW.jpeg/220px-TrustCompany-DIBAW.jpeg)
Alternative metal, hard rock, and post-grunge.
All right, Trust Company. Another band I got into via the WWE. Heard their songs, Falling Apart and Downfall through PPV events. At one point, they took a break after two albums that had some decent songs and came back around 2010-2011 with this album.
I guess to describe their style, they do incorporate some nu-metal tendencies, similar I would like to think the kind that people associates Linkin Park with and got some well-placed screams, I would like to think. That's probably the only comparison I can make with regarding the lead vocals of Trust Company. I think you can classify these guys under bands like Saliva or Drowning Pool and the likes where they got a good sound, and some good songs, but nothing that really took them the big time when the Nu-Metal era was over.
The lead single was Heart in My Hands, a type of song that would describes a relationship and how a person would be attracted over that person with everything they do, I guess, and how they have their heart or something. Almost There reminds me on how we are chasing a holy grail, a prize, something like that, and how we just keep getting closer. Liked the solo in it. Stumbling is a ballad about finding comfort in a person, late at night, maybe lying down on each other's shoulder and all of that warmth and corny stuff. I don't mind it. Reverse and Remember, Dreaming in Black and White, and Skies Will Burn are probably more of the high-energy stuff from the album. The album ends with the song Don't Say Goodbye which is about, obviously, a song that states that someone just do not want to say goodbye to another person that they adore and they do not want that person out of their life.
Overall, I can't quite describe in good detail how good this album is in comparison to the AB III write-up, but as I keep having the time to listen to this album, there's just a lot of fun songs in there to listen to. Guitar work is fine. Lyrics may have too much to do with relationships, but I like it and the vocals are not as annoying as Linkin Park's Chester Bennington.
Favorites: Almost There (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeXcVXsFl4k), Alone Again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MvmnmDtZuU), Dreaming in Black and White (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aqpM_zyNnI), Skies Will Burn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYFA9IiqPo0), and Heart in My Hands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdERqroZf0)
-
AB III i s the only AB album I have left to check :metal
-
I remember being into Breaking Benjamin way back when but teetered off even before all their legal issues, so I didn't even know they had a new one out. :lol
I might give it a shot, but I'm not so sure they'll appeal to me as much anymore.
-
For some reason Breaking Benjamin always had the alternative elements that I didn't like about alternative metal, I never knew why, never will, just not my kind of thing I guess.
AB3 is great of course, but I rarely find myself listening to the whole album nowadays, Slip to the Void though, it has everything I love about Myles, the first verse and first chorus together is my favorite AB moment ever.
-
Catching up!
- Led Zeppelin IV is such a classic. It has the best of Zeppelin, from the blues to the experimental, and all around great musicianship from all four members. When The Levee Breaks is their opus, even though they didn't originally write it. They reworked that song to perfection.
- I also had a hard time getting behind Geddy Lee's vocals, and probably why for so long I didn't get into Rush. But like you, I couldn't have been more wrong. Their music is fantastic, and I love Moving Pictures. Unfortunately for me, whenever I hear The Camera Eye, I think back to a horrible break up experience with an ex of mine, and this song was playing. Long story :-X
- I didn't get into Breaking Benjamin when they first came out, but the more stuff I hear from them, the more I like them.
- I've said many times, some of the best musical moments in all of Alter Bridge's catalogue are in AB III. I fucking love All Hope Is Gone, and it's straight up a rock n roll pirate shanty, through and through. I think of Captain Jack Sparrow sailing on the Black Pearl when I hear it. That bridge is just solid gold. Isolation has one of the grooviest riffs of the past 5 years that's so fucking :metal The one thing that I think hurts AB III that it has two or three songs too many. Also, there are few B-Side tracks like Home and Never Born To Follow that love more than some of the songs that made the final cut. All and all, it's a very good album.
-
Thanks for the responses, guys. Let's continue on then, shall we?
36. Soundgarden - Superunknown (1994)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3a/Superunknown.jpg/220px-Superunknown.jpg)
Hard rock, Heavy metal, Alternative Metal.
All righty, now we move on Soundgarden. As I stated earlier, I have gotten to appreciate Chris Cornell's vocal work in his big acts, in recent times, to the point where now he is in my top five vocalists of all time and his voice shines best during Soundgarden's peak and this album, Superunknown, was probably their peak.
I, first, heard of Soundgarden, during my radio phase, hearing their staple radio tracks: Spoonman, Black Hole Sun, Outshined. The one song that sealed the deal, though, getting into them was Burden in My Hand. So, going into 2014, I heard word that they were going to play Superunknown, in its entirety, in honor of its 20th anniversary of it being out, in a live stream for SXSW Music. I watched the stream, was blown away with their performance which led to me to listen to the studio album and it was still good.
The main singles of the album were Spoonman, The Day I tried to Live, and Black Hole Sun. I'm not as keen on Black Hole Sun for some reason, but Spoonman and The Day I Tried to Live were top-notch singles. I enjoyed the fact that they incorporated actual spoons in the bridge of Spoonman. As for the overall album tone, it was as good as blend of the Black Sabbath meets Led Zeppelin vibe as it can be with the album having dark tones in their sound and lyrics with Cornell's voice.
The non-single tracks are good as well. Head Down, for some reason, reminds me of Burden in My Hands. I don't know why, it just does. Limo Wreck sounds cool. Fresh Tendrils was great, especially with the "Long-time coming" parts. Like Suicide is probably my favorite song from the album. Clocking in at 7 min. and worked a very subtle style, great build-up, pretty depressing lyrics though, didn't go too crazy at all with the high-energy bits, and had a great solo in the end.
Soundgarden, at the height of the grunge scene, didn't seem to compromise at all with watering down their style to accommodate new radio listeners and instead did that album that they want to make which so happened that it hit #1 on the Billboard 200 with Superunknown. Lots of good songs, some of them mainstays on rock radio, and the album cemented their place as one of the more better bands of our time.
Favorites: Spoonman, The Day I Tried to Live, Fresh Tendrils, Limo Wreck, and Like Suicide
-
I'm not very familiar with the album, but I know the title track is fantastic :metal
-
stellar album. the only track I never dug was the title track, but even that's still killer, there are just some amazing songs all through the album.
-
Great, great album, it's a lot of fun to listen to and it just barely got cut from my own top 50.
Though your favorite songs are almost entirely opposite of mine :lol only Spoonman is among my favorites out of those.
-
It would be an understatement to say that I like this album.
-
Soundgarden was my favorite band when I was in early high school. I loved this album back in the day.
-
All right, then. Here we go.
35. Tremonti - Cauterize (2015)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/aa/Tremonti_-_cauterize.jpg/220px-Tremonti_-_cauterize.jpg)
Heavy metal, Alternative metal, Hard rock
So, we move into Tremonti's Cauterize. Tremonti is the solo band of Alter Bridge's lead guitarist, Mark Tremonti. He claims that he decided to do a solo project since he has all sorts of song ideas that did not quite fit the mold of Alter Bridge or Creed. Felt the song ideas were too heavy for those bands. Rather let these ideas sit in his vault of numerous riffs and stuff, never to be used, he decided to make a solo album out of it. After the first solo album got a better reception than Mark thought it would, he decided to now make this project a solo band for when Alter Bridge and Creed is not happening which now leads to the second album, Cauterize.
Joining Mark Tremonti for his solo band is Garrett Whitlock (drums) and Eric Friedman (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), guys that were in this small band called Submersed that Mark helped produced their first album on and had kept touched with. They did the first album with him and joining them for their 2nd album is Van Halen bassist, Wolfgang Van Halen. Another friend that Mark had kept in touch with and thus solidify a solid line-up.
The Cauterize album starts off with Radical Change, what a beast of a song and a kick-ass opening. In recent times, Mark's albums starts off with a slow building up intro in opening songs like Slip to the Void, Leave it Alone, and Cry of Achilles. For Radical Change, they just shooting straight away for the high-energy. This was a song, I believe, was about Mark reflecting on the break-up from Creed in their first run into an unknown future with a new band.
Cauterize has a good intro, man. I can imagine the circle pits just forming in high velocity, pretty fast, with that intro, before they shift towards having these interesting "wanting hope"-vibe verses and choruses. "Take the sun and cauterize. Make us pure again. All the ways we victimize. Time and time again." Good stuff. Interesting ending, though. Simple as Mark and Eric Friedman trading soft sounding licks.
Fall Again has something where the intro sounds like something Metallica utilizes in their intros in songs from Master of Puppets. This was one of those moments where I felt more of a Creed-style in this song as a oppose to an AB-style song. I like it though. I also like how the ending is similar to the beginning.
Sympathy had become one of always-listen kind of songs to me. I don't know why, but I imagine towels being waved around when hearing this song, with the crowd getting amped up in anything (a concert, a sports game, etc.) A good song to get you ready for something. The bridge verse was really awesome. "Grown oh so tired I'll always chase a dream. Pulled by something inside. Led by the light I always fail to reach. How it calls how it pleads, how it shines. Where are you now my friend. Where could you be my friend."
The album closed off with Providence. I'll say it, in actually, this is pretty much as close to Blackbird 2.0 as it can be, and I'm not sure it is a good thing or not. The beginning parts plays off like a faster version to Blackbird. That stated, it has an epic vibe like Blackbird, so I still enjoy it. The bridge really makes the song different than Blackbird though. Just slowly building it up while you get like three guys on vocals all layered nicely and all during the bridge verse. Had the longest solo of the album, I believe. A worthy enough song to close off a Mark Tremonti album, he's had plenty of those in his career.
The rest of the album is pretty much solid heavy stuff from them, heavier than his other bands, while taking some interesting turns like in songs from Flying Monkeys, Dark Trip, Arm Yourself.
Overall, Cauterize showed to be another great album from Mark Tremonti. It was enough of a different sounding album to separate from the two bands he is a main songwriter of, Alter Bridge and Creed, while still giving some solid nods in terms of style of those bands in his solo album. The usual praise for his stuff goes: excellent solos, lyrics that gets you thinking, and his voice is not that bad at all. More than acceptable enough for a guy that spent the first 15 years of his music career on backing vocals.
Favorites: Radical Change (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvhUlQIwcH8), Cauterize (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azbe5ookaC4), Fall Again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpTcjYpdvhc), Sympathy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vscBOgsXr9Q), and Providence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49mj_gghI4M)
-
Cauterize is a pretty great straight up metal record! LOVED Mark's vocals and playing on this record, also the drumming from Whitlock is sweet. Good pick.
-
I never really got into Cauterize as much as All I Was, Cauterize was still one of the highlights of 2015 for me, but that was more about the hype than the actual music.
-
All right, I took yesterday off due to obvious reasons, let's get this out of the way.
34. Seether - Disclaimer II (2004)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/62/SeetherDisclaimerIIAlbumCover.jpg/220px-SeetherDisclaimerIIAlbumCover.jpg)
Alternative metal, post-grunge
Ahhh, Seether. I don't know what happened to me, nowadays, but I just could not get into these guys as I used to, now, than I did back in 2008-2010. At one point, before finding bands like Dream Theater, Rush, Foo Fighters, etc. Seether used to be my #2 favorite band. For those that do not know, Seether is a band from South Africa. They were on the same record label that Creed, Evanescence, etc. was/is (I don't know what the state of the label is nowadays), Wind-Up Records (the label that became a huge bane to Alter Bridge). Being on the same label means they got exposure through the same media channels. In this case, I heard of them through WWE. WWE used so many songs from Seether in the 2000s for their PPV events. Songs like Remedy, Sold Me, Fake It, etc. What drew me into these guys was the raw emotion that vocalist, Shaun Morgan, had in their earlier songs that when it calls for a scream or a sense of anger, to me, he unleashed it well that I can get behind.
Which leads to, technically, their second album, Disclaimer II. Disclaimer II was basically Disclaimer (their original album) slightly reworked due to their growing popularity and they added eight new songs for this occasion. The two main singles from this album that stuck well with me was Fine Again and Broken. The music video for Fine Again was pretty deep as it had people with signs of why they have a broken heart that they cannot reveal out loud. The song depicts how one person is wallowing in their own hell thinking that, one day, everything going to be fine.
For Broken, this was probably the one of the most meaningful Seether song to me. One day, I was watching the late, great wrestler, Eddie Guerrero's documentary, "Cheating Life, Stealing Death," and there was this song that was played after they highlighted him winning the WWE Championship and I heard the words, "The worst is over now and we can breathe again. I wanna hold you high, you steal my pain away," and I thought "wow, what is this song? I must hear it in full." So thanks to the magic of Google, and the likes, I found the song, but I heard another version of the song. For Broken, there were two versions in the album. One version, that was played in the documentary, had a more acoustic, laid-back vibe. The other version, it was an electric, fuller hard rock track with strings and it had Amy Lee from Evanescence on guest vocals. She sang the 2nd verse to the song and her and Shaun Morgan's voice molded well with each other, that it was so seamless when they sang together in the chorus. It felt very real and authentic to me. It helped the version of the song that they were in a relationship with each other during that time of the song.
The other songs from the album are very good as well. Pride, at one point, was probably the most angriest song that I have ever heard. Sympathetic was a really good song in terms of trying to overcome stuff, like addiction, relationship issues, etc. Made me reflect on my own life and its issues. The bridge verse was excellent to me, "The same old feelings are taking over and I can’t seem to make them go away And I can’t take all the pressure sober, but I can’t seem to make it go away." Your Bore for me back in the day, it had a big-time feeling to it, even if it wasn't an epic length song. It just felt a huge song to me in terms of its sound. It probably helped that I kept watching this fanmade highlight video of a Wrestlemania that had this song on it and the timing in terms of the action was awesome.
Man, I actually listened to this whole, for the first time ever, a few weeks back and I was already familiar with a good amount of songs on it, but man, Disclaimer II is like nostalgia to me (and I'm not one to usually get nostalgic). These guys were really good at what they wanted to portray in their sound and vocals and did it great and had some good songs.
Favorites: Broken featuring Amy Lee (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPC2Fp7IT7o), Fine Again (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET3-t1jFmo0), Sympathetic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5igzre6aG3Y), Cigarettes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHPnPELXnyM), and Your Bore (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwDYkGCn71g)
-
I knew this one from the title :laugh:
Don't know a lot about this album honestly, the only one I know in full is Karma & Effect, but Broken is a truly beautiful song, love it.
-
Onwards!!!!!
#33. California Breed - California Breed (2014)
Hard Rock
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/72/CaliforniaBreed-CaliforniaBreed.jpg/220px-CaliforniaBreed-CaliforniaBreed.jpg)
Ahhh, here's an interesting case. Well, I guess California Breed is probably the first band mentioned on this list that I go into through DTF. I saw a thread here that stated "California Breed (Hughes/Bonham/Watt)" and the names on it intrigued me. I heard that Glenn Hughes, former Deep Purple member among other things, is a great singer and is really great friends with Myles Kennedy and they really hit it off when a supergroup cover band, Kings of Chaos, which involved Hughes, Myles, Slash, Matt Sorum of GNR, Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, Duff McKagan, and a couple of other guys, toured South Africa in June (which took place during Alter Bridge's Fortress album recording, which if I'm honest, I was not really too pleased with Myles touring with those guys during that period when he was suppose to be recording vocals for the Fortress album (he already six songs sung done though and already had ideas for the rest anyway, but still not too pleased)). I heard about Jason Bonham, of course, due to his Led Zeppelin association, so I thought, "All right, let's see where this goes."
Heard the song, Sweet Tea here, and the first thing that came to my mind was, "Whoa, this has like a Bon Scott-era AC/DC vibe to it," has a very great classic hard rock sound to it. Heard another song, posted here, Midnight Oil and liked the intro with the duh duh duh duh duh loop and the female backing vocals and thought it sounded cool. So being convinced that the songs I heard so far were solid enough, I took a listen to the album and quite liked it a good amount.
The album starts off with The Way with an awesome groovy intro and the opening lyrics stood out well to me. "I shake it ground, take it slow, beside the river, down to Mexicoooooooo." Chemical Rain had a nice slow broody vibe to it. The Way was a very good high-energy song with Hughes and guitarist Andrew Watt trading chorus lines well. Breathe had a solid start with an acoustic vibe and then it kicked into high-gear at one point.
Overall, I think California Breed had a solid classic hard rock vibe to it. I was very fortunate that I saw them in LA opening for Alter Bridge, which included Glenn Hughes singing Highway Star with AB, and I was pretty blown away during their 45-50 min set. It's a shame that they broke up since Bonham wanted to play with Sammy Hagar more than these guys and Hughes felt that it was not right to continue on without him. Oh well, at least, they had a good album and one of the more pleasantly surprised albums I heard in 2014.
Favorites: The Way (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWHFRzcNpow), Midnight Oil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF_pm7mLqXs), The Grey (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5GX5yQ0E54), Invisble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izL38kqU9go), and Breathe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LC_iYR6j90)
-
Slowly, but surely getting updates in.
32. Tremonti - All I Was (2012)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/Tremontialliwascover.jpg/220px-Tremontialliwascover.jpg)
Heavy metal, Hard rock
So we made it to All I Was, the first solo album by Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti and the first album to primarily have him do lead vocals. It's a funny thing about perception. After hearing Starlight from Slash and Myles, I would have thought their album, Apocalyptic Love, would have been my album of the year of 2012, but after hearing it, it just did not wow me though it was still an ok album. Going into hearing All I Was, I didn't have too much expectations honestly. Sure, Mark on lead vocals seems intriguing enough, but it is hard to say on whether or not my anticipation was really high for it.
Heard You Waste Your Time and thought, "All right, still sounds weird to hear Mark on lead vocals, but this was a very heavy high-energy song with yet another well-built bridge and solo from him." Then I heard Leave It Alone and how he built that intro made it seem like a big-time feel to it, and the lyrics started hitting me well regarding how people want the assurances and signs that if things are not working with something are somewhere, then they will back off and of course, the solo and how he timely built it well. So You're Afraid was really a speed metal song where Mark just totally let it rip, especially during the bridge, building the suspense before shredding like crazy. Wish You Well, to me, was certainly the first sign in Mark's solo work where I really noticed a huge shift in direction where this was nothing like AB or Creed sounding and was probably the most thrashiest song that he had ever constructed. Heck, when he sang the chorus to it, I almost heard hints of Hetfield in his vocals. The Things I've Seen was probably the most Creed-sounding song that he had ever made that was not in Creed. Very somber, moody-vibe, depicting the hard turmoil moments going against record labels, the things that made playing music not as fun as it should be for a guy that is insanely passionate about guitar.
New Way Out is another song that I can relate to in terms of lyrical content at the time. Depicting on how something is golden now and that something golden is gone the next day or something like and you are just trying to find another way to get to the direction you want to go. Makes sense in these lyrics, "Here today and gone tomorrow. Hope that there's just some other way out. Fighting too long to be the last to know. Hope that there's just some other way."
Proof was one of the more sleeper songs that I enjoyed in that when the closing fading outro hits, you just can't stop headbanging. All I Was was another track certainly in the realms of the heaviest songs that Mark had ever constructed. Heck, the intro reminding me of AB's One By One. Doesn't Matter, to me, was probably the song that best represented the AB sound from Mark's end without it being a carbon copy of an Alter Bridge song (though it is still good, like Providence). Had, you guessed it, another well-built bridge leading up to another awesome Mark Tremonti solo. The surprisingly great album ended with Decay and I just love how he built up to the words, "Fading like decay. Fading like decay. Fading like decay. Fading like decay." Heck, he modifies that build-up to those lyrics well in the live shows to give anticipation and getting the crowd involved.
Well, I think given how the two main albums released in 2012 by AB guys turned out and my expectations, I would like to think this album really made me slightly favor Mark over Myles in terms of top favorite musician (Myles just need to release that solo album and then I can rethink things). The usual praise for Mark goes, lyrics are awesome, guitar-work is great, solid rhythm section (though he was venturing into working a different rhythm band like Eric Friedman, Garrett Whitlock, Wolfgang Van Halen (he did not partake in the recording, but he did fill in as the touring bassist which eventually lead him to be their main bassist) as oppose to Myles, Flip and Brian).
The surprise here is how good the vocals were and that for a guy that was a rhythm vocalist for two bands, he delivered his end of the bargain for a full album for the first time. I think Mark didn't really think on how well-received this solo album was going to be, initially, and that the public perception of All I Was gave him the justification that he can turn this into something bigger than expected. I'm happy about it.
Favorites: Leave it Alone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auuy8LRFPB0), So You're Afraid (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtjrxhaDVo8), Proof (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u3nA7hcB_o), Doesn't Matter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsTOOZsZWm4), and Decay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn8dE7HZsNc)
-
Great pick :metal
What's amazing about the Tremonti solo project is that he originally was just going to put all those songs on the interwebs for people to buy and download. I'm glad he realized this was going to be bigger than that. This band absolutely rocks
-
Managed to get an album write-up out in daylight for once. Excellent.
31. Foo Fighters - There is Nothing Left to Lose (1999)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8b/Foo_Fighters_-_There_Is_Nothing_Left_to_Lose.jpg/220px-Foo_Fighters_-_There_Is_Nothing_Left_to_Lose.jpg)
Alternative rock, post-grunge
So, on the backs of Foo Fighters', break-through album, The Colour and the Shape, the band had suffered a fair amount of inner turmoil during the time they recorded the album to the time the tour on it ended. One, their former drummer William Goldsmith left after hearing that Dave Grohl was not satisfied enough with his drum parts and instead Grohl did it without him knowing. Two, guitarist Pat Smear left because he was just burnt out of touring. Three, their touring guitarist, Franz Stahl, was asked to leave as the band felt that he did not gel as well with Dave Grohl, Nate Mandel, and Taylor Hawkins.
Man, when things like that happened, the overall stress and fatigue could have led to the band to break-up, but the three remaining guys felt a sense of calmness and decided to leave the crazy and busy lifestyle of LA and move to a house in Alexandria, Virgina where Grohl grew up and decided to make an album there without any record label interference, and recording without protools and autotune, and other sorts of nonsense and the result came out to be There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
Now that I think about it, I prefer Foo Fighter albums where they do not need a lot of stress in their lives to make a big expensive album and come off short as they did with albums like One By One, Sonic Highways, and, to me, The Colour and the Shape. I prefer the albums where Dave Grohl has the idea to just get away from standard high-production recording studios and record in an location that he can call his actual house. I think it captures the direction that he wants Foo Fighters to go in well and it reflects well with There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
The album starts off with Stacked Actors a song that depicts the fakeness and phoniness of the Hollywood celebrity lifestyle that he had witness in his time in LA. It sounded very low-stereo in the best way possible. Then we move to Breakout, a very occasional live track, that had a poppy high-energy rock vibe to me. Learn To Fly was next and, yes, this was a track that is up there in terms of the most recognizable Foo Fighters songs ever and I would like to think that this was the song that legitimately made me a fan. Generator had a cool vibe to it as they incorporated a talk box in the song. Aurora had an awesome chill vibe to it. Live-in Skin had a huge big time feeling to me, very energetic song. Next Year was an awesome ballad song that depicts the idea of coming home after a long journey. The album ends with one of my favorite tracks from these guys, M.I.A, the intro and how they built it was cool, "Call and I'll answer at home in the lost and found. You say that I'm much too proud. Someone who's taking pleasure in breaking down."
Overall, yeah, this album did not break any ground or whatnot, but overall it is a fun album to hear, and the idea that Dave Grohl and co. recorded it in a house in somewhere in Virgina makes it more appealing to me.
Favorites: Learn to Fly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VQ_3sBZEm0), Aurora (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6t_g8UZACA), Next Year (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnEOxEvotHE), Live-In Skin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlACfhvX-3E), and M.I.A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlBW4tPLMzs)
-
All right, I'm in a good mood. Let's have another write-up. This one will probably be something no one expected, but here we go.
30. Dream Theater - Breaking the Fourth Wall (2014)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/77/Dream_Theater_-_Breaking_the_Fourth_Wall.png/220px-Dream_Theater_-_Breaking_the_Fourth_Wall.png)
Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock
Ahhhh, a live DVD, ehhh? I've asked around, whether or not, live DVDs are allowed and some say that they would not advise it. However, my ruling regarding live DVD is that if I can find it on Spotify and there is an audio CD version of the release, it's all fair game, imo, and quite frankly, live DVD releases are a good vital part of my personal musical journey so yeah.
So with that stated, the first live show album release I will pick is Dream Theater's Breaking the Fourth Wall. We all know the story about the tour. Dream Theater released their self-titled album the previous year and they were going to tour on the backs of it. The additional kicker, though, is that the year they are touring is the year of the 20th anniversary of their Awake album and the 15th anniversary of Metropolis II: Scenes from a Memory so they decided to give nods to that by incorporating some of those songs in their set.
The show starts off with False Awakening Suite and an awesome playful video giving nods to all of the albums that DT had released at this point before kicking it off with The Enemy Inside. For me, though, The Shattered Fortress was really the first song that I noted that there was a huge buzz in the air and the crowd felt electrified and amped for the show. Overall, I really dug the crowd in this release more than all of the crowds from prior DT releases. The Boston crowd did not sound too obnoxious, reacted with the right oomph, at the right parts of the song, and showed great respect for DT's performance. I did not get that feeling of excitement and anticipation from the crowd at all in the other DVD releases I watched, so this crowd in BTFW is a huge plus.
The rest of the 1st set includes songs from their last two albums, at the time, and FII's Trial of Tears rounding off a solid 1st hour. The 2nd hour, though, was glorious stuff with regards to the Awake album. The one-two punch of The Mirror/Lie set the tone well. Band sounded great, crowd reacting well to it, it's all good. Then they dialed it down with Lifting Shadows Off a Dream and brought good emotion in that song. I, for one, enjoyed Space-Dye Vest and read that some were hesitant about hearing that song on the set, but I thought it turned out well. The final song of the 2nd set was the piece de resistance of the show, Illumination Theory, completed with the Berklee College of Music orchestra and choir. It's a good feeling to see students of a music school take part of this show and work with a great band like Dream Theater, and encourages themselves to keep going and pursue what they want to do. The song was excellent, of course, and the overall aura was a high point of the show indeed.
The show closes off with the songs from SFAM with the choir and orchestra still around and the song that convinced me to buy the DVD was Strange Déjà Vu when I watched that youtube video that DT released, it looked busy, fun to be there, all of that good stuff that makes a great show so that was a good note for me.
Overall, I think the overall presentation of BTFW was really good. Had a great crowd, band looked and played great, song selection was excellent. It made me feel like I was there myself in person so that's another positive note. I was happy with the purchase and I was convinced by the good people of DTF that this was going to be a worthwhile purchase, and it was.
Favorites: The Shattered Fortress, Lifting Shadows Off a Dream, Space-Dye Vest, Illumination Theory, and Strange Déjà Vu.
-
Loving the Tremonti album of course! And BTFW is a great DT live release! Good picks man!
-
Wasn't expecting live release but great pick. It is special for me because the only DT live show I attended was on that same tour.
-
Never thought of picking a live album, but if I did that, BTFW would be very high, favorite DT live DVD right there. Both the setlist and performance are phenomenal.
-
I'd argue Score is the best live release of DT :P
-
Nah, Live at the Marquee
-
Or LSFNY
-
Finally......., Anguyen has come back to doing write-ups!!!! Let's proceed on.
29. Avenged Sevenfold - Avenged Sevenfold (2007)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/76/Avenged_Sevenfold_cover_2007.jpg/220px-Avenged_Sevenfold_cover_2007.jpg)
Heavy metal, hard rock, symphonic rock.
Ahhh, Avenged Sevenfold.
It seems like A7X, sometimes, gets a lot of flack from various metal communities for whatever reason whether it is due to their image, due to them saying that they are the next generation of metal to hold the crown that Metallica and Iron Maiden has, from people blaming them that the Download Festival in the UK, when they headlined it, did not sell as well as it should on their day, from ripping off Metallica among other stuff.
Regardless, of that, I always have a good spot for these guys. For the most part, they seem to have a playful vibe in their music that I thoroughly enjoyed. I got into them during my radio phase when I heard their main singles at the time, Buried Alive and Welcome to the Family. When Chris Jericho had a radio show, he would normally plug their stuff and a certain song stood out to me (I'll get to that later) and that song probably made me a fan of theirs which in turn got me into this album.
With that said, the album I pick for them on my list is their 2007 self-titled album. I'll be honest, I'm not really a huge fan of their earlier screamo, metalcore stuff and their self-titled album really showcased that they can do more than that. The album kicks off with a staple live track, Critical Acclaim with an awesome intro with an organ that has a vintage A7X sound to me. It took me a while before realizing that the person singing the verse, "I've had enough. It's time for something real. I don't respect the words you're speaking. Gone too far. A clone," was the Rev. I honestly thought it was a woman that was did that part. Then, they move into the radio-friendly, in a good sense, track Almost Easy. I'm sure this got blasted a lot on radio during that time, but I sure enjoy it.
The only track, I do not really dig on the album is Scream. It just sounds meh to me. The rest of the album is golden though. From the symphonic vibe of Afterlife, to the Southern acoustic intro vibe, appropriately named, Gunslinger to the song that captures, to me, the quintessential vibe to an A7X song in the form of Lost (which was the song that Jericho played that got me into these guys).
The last two tracks to the album are tremendous in different ways. A Little Piece of Heaven could very well be their epitome of their catalog. It's playful, long and epic, symphonic, pretty visually depicting of an interesting story regarding the relationship of a man and a woman, and it totally fits their vibe. The album ends with Dear God, a song that is really a huge departure to their heavy sound. It takes on a country-ish vibe reflecting about the long grinding life on the road and a person thinking and praying to God that their loved ones, maybe a woman, a beloved, is safe and sound. I've seen this song gets some flack, but screw it, I love this track. It's always seems to be the songs that makes me reflective of life, especially regarding this relationship, non-romantic, with this certain person, even if it is totally different than what I am accustomed to from a certain band, that gets me. I'm weak like that, all right. Dear God is a good song to me, end of story.
Well, to some people, the Hail to the King album may be regarded as their "sellout" album where they took blatant nods of classic bands, incorporate it with their music, and release it to increase their fanbase. That stated, their Avenged Sevenfold album may very well be the one that got a lot of non-metal listeners into A7X while retaining a relatively original and good sound and had a good range of styles from metal, to radio hard rock, to symphonic, to country and so forth. With their recent record label issue, hopefully, they can keep going as a band and see what else they can bring to the table.
Favorites: Afterlife (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNpy2K27PKU), Gunslinger (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QvynPljE_k), Lost (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VUrskFjfhc), A Little Piece of Heaven (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL7lEe36MYs), and Dear God (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyYazI3B09A) (yes, seriously).
-
Eyes over easy, eat it, EAT IT, EAT IT
I like how you describe A Little Piece of Heaven as "an interesting story regarding the relationship of a man and a woman" :lol
This album is hard for me. Lots of killer tunes, and, what most people believe to be, 2 of the very best A7X songs in Critical Acclaim and A Little Piece of Heaven. But a lot of songs are just 'okay' to me, nothing more. Almost Easy, Dear God, Lost fit the bill.
Gotta give you props for listing Gunslinger though, fantastic song that doesn't get enough love. Surprised not to see Unbound and Critical Acclaim on the list, but different strokes I guess.
-
^^ It's not like I find Unbound and Critical Acclaim to be bad songs. They are great songs as well. I just really prefer what I picked as favorites over those songs.
Anywho, carrying on.
28. Sixx: A.M. - This Is Gonna Hurt (2011)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/87/Sixxam_this-is-gonna-hurt.jpg/220px-Sixxam_this-is-gonna-hurt.jpg)
Hard rock, alternative metal
If there was one band that I literally have never heard of before, but got into them due to my radio phase, this would be the band. For bands like Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, and Breaking Benjamin, I already had an inkling on who they were, but prior to listening to a Sixx: A.M. track, I never heard of these guys before.
For those that do not know, Sixx: A.M. is a band that is, I guess now was, a side project of Motley Crue leader and bassist Nikki Sixx. I believe he claimed in his book, also called "This Is Gonna Hurt: Music, Photography, And Life Through The Distorted Lens Of Nikki Sixx," that this was one of those bands that was really founded and run through pretty unconventional means. I don't think Sixx intended this band to be a "legit" band. It was just him and a bunch of musical friends: producer and lead vocalist James Michael, and guitarist DJ Ashba (yes that Ashba that used to be in GNR, let the jokes commence) just trading ideas together out of the blue. Then when Sixx wanted to do a soundtrack for another autobiography he wrote, The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star, he picked these guys to work with and before you know, they felt this sort of chemistry with each other and found really easy to write songs together and before you know, they decided to be a band.
Sixx: A.M. is one of those bands, to me, where I prefer that band over the more commercially or influential successful bands that the key guy is a part of. It fits the mold of preferring Stone Sour over Slipknot with regards to Corey Taylor. Preferring Alter Bridge over Creed and Slash's solo band with regards to Mark and Myles. I guess, to a lesser extent, preferring Foo Fighters over the very influential Nirvana with regards to Dave Grohl. Sixx: A.M. is definitely the band that I prefer over Motley Crue where Sixx is the leader of. They have that alternative metal/modern radio hard rock vibe that I just absolutely dig and prefer over the hair metal style of the Crue.
So we move towards their second album, This is Gonna Hurt. Whereas their first album, The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, is a concept album that depicts Sixx's life at the highest point of his heroin use which lead him to actually nearly die, This is Gonna Hurt talks about the strange, the unknown, the weird, the unconventional people, and how it should ok for society to embrace these kinds of people that appears unconventional to the world although that has not always been the case. I guess this album is like an anthem to these weird people on how they should not be ashamed that they are not like everyone, that they do not look like supermodels or something like that and that they should embrace the weirdness they have which could, in turn, is a beauty in itself. That's something I can totally get behind.
The album starts off with the title track, This is Gonna Hurt which has like a building techno-like intro. Oddly enough, I think this is an interesting track to play at a rave or something and it still works out well as a rock track. Then they kick into their two singles, Lies Of The Beautiful People and Are You with Me Now which goes into the main theme regarding the weird people and going into the notion that we are not alone in our minds. The chorus to "Are You With Me Now" is really catchy. "Are you with me now. Come back from the dead. You've been inside your head for too long. Are you with me now. Find the places that scare you. Come on I dare you. Are you with me"
Eventually, the album moves into the ballad, Sure Feels Right, reflecting on a person's current scenarios and think, "Yeah, we got a good life going, atm." while throwing references regarding LA. Another ballad, Smile, talks about that one person that inspires another person to feel good about life. Help Is On the Way is one of the more poppier songs they have, and I do not think it's a bad thing while Oh My God talks about the immoral flaws that the world has in general. Goodbye My Friends I think some people described it as a Muse song and it talks about how you ready to go down without any regrets while saying goodbye to those you love, and so forth while Skin closes off the album sending a message to that one person out there to not conceal the real you and that you should be all that you can be inside as oppose to the perception on how people see you.
I guess, on the outside, people may write off Sixx: A.M. as another one of those generic radio hard rock radio bands in the veins of Shinedown, Halestorm, Three Days Grace, etc. and if you can get past the perception that the band has Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue and that guitarist that butchers GNR tracks live, you can find that this is a good band. Good music, solid vocals, good quality guitar work and solos, and lyrics that can grab you deep in places that you did not expect to be grabbed at. This Is Gonna Hurt is a solid album and I'm glad they decided to now become more of a touring band with Crue retired and DJ Ashba leaving GNR as their touring guitarist to take this chance with Sixx: A.M.
Favorites: Are You With Me Now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOZz_puHGj4), Sure Feels Right (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKLAt3XO03s), Help Is On The Way (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEiphB6T4F8), Oh My God (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P65vouRrEC8), and Goodbye My Friends (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1hwwqQu2sI)
-
this is the second time Sixx AM has been mentioned in a top 50 list. CrimsonSunrise had The Heroin Diaries at #33.
-
On break from school for a week or so, time to get some more write-ups, thankfully!
27. Rise Against - The Sufferer & the Witness (2006)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/73/Rise_Against_-_The_Sufferer_%26_The_Witness.jpg/220px-Rise_Against_-_The_Sufferer_%26_The_Witness.jpg)
Melodic hardcore, punk rock.
So, now we move towards a little different direction, a sort of punk-ish direction when talking about Rise Against and this album. The similar story goes with a lot of bands on this list. One of their songs was a theme song for a WWE PPV event and then I somehow stumbled upon a fanmade WWE highlight video with them using a song from that band. For Rise Against, I heard this song called Drones and it was used for the Royal Rumble event in 2007 and I noted on how it had this big-time feel presence in its intro. Then I stumble upon this song called, Ready to Fall, and it had an epic feel and I noted how awesome the pre-chorus was when vocalist Tim McIlrath sang, "Wings won't take me. Heights don't phase me. So take a step. But don't look down. Take a step." That was the song that made me take more notice on these guys.
So eventually, I heard the album, The Sufferer & the Witness, and I liked it. It starts off with Chamber the Cartridge with its intro having a train station mumbling and one guy saying, "This is noise." and then goes into a building-up intro before they started moving at a frantic pace, but still somehow managed to be melodic. For the majority of the album, that was basically the premise. Them going at a fast pace with McIlrath saying lyrics as fast as possible, but still find a way to make it sound coherent and melodic. The Approaching Curve took a different approach with the verses being in a spoken-word form discussing a car going as fast as possible without turning or stopping at all. Probably my favorite from the album is Worth Dying For. I dug the bridge of it. Behind Closed Doors, to me when I hear, had this image where I just imagine all sorts of things being thrown and everything is flying and it's hard make sense of it all. We move towards a ballad called Roadside, had a female vocalist in the chorus. The album closes with Survive and it's a strong closer.
You know something? For an album that did not have a song that went 4+ min., they sure as hell packed a lot of punch in this 41 min., 13 songs album. Had a fast pace throughout most of the songs in the album, the vocals were saying lyrics pretty fast, but still maintained good melody that fits the tone. Rise Against is a solid band and this is a solid album, The Sufferer & the Witness. Pretty different than what I would usually hear, and that's all right.
Favorites: Ready To Fall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnmlw38KzxE), Prayer of the Refugee (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TC_-cU2FiU), Worth Dying For (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjvHdACLOM4), Behind Closed Doors (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjR-lFq4J90), and Survive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsKk5_xftNI)
-
All right, time for another live DVD/album write-up.
26. Shinedown - Somewhere in the Stratosphere (Disc 2: Live from Kansas City) (2011)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/17/Somewhere_in_the_Stratosphere.jpg/220px-Somewhere_in_the_Stratosphere.jpg)
Alternative metal, Alternative rock, Hard rock, Post-grunge
So now, I'm moving into talking about Shinedown. Back when I getting into rock music by means of WWE, one of the bands that I've always hear good praise about was Shinedown and WWE used a lot of songs from them for their PPV events. Songs like I Dare You and Save Me. However, it was back in 2011 when I heard Diamond Eyes and thought, "all right, that's the song that's going to make me look deeper into them." That stated, heard the studio albums and thought they were solid stuff which eventually leads to me to talk about their DVD/Live album, Somewhere in the Stratosphere.
For those that are wondering why I had Disc 2: Live from Kansas City in the title, well, Somewhere in the Stratosphere has two shows in the package. The first disc is an electric arena show when they were headlining the Carnival of Madness tour in 2010. The second disc, however, was an acoustic theater show when they wanted to do an acoustic tour and named it "Anything and Everything." I'm mainly going to talk about the acoustic set since I really like that one a lot over their electric set.
The difference between these two shows is really big and it's more than just switching from electric to acoustic. Where the Carnival of Madness tour was more of a touring festival which high production values and four bands on the bill, the acoustic tour was more of an intimate show with only one opener, but Shinedown added a few more musicians, some of their touring tech guys, for the show add more ambiance to the acoustic vibe. Also, how vocalist Brent Smith sang in those two types of shows was different as well. For electric shows, he gets a fair amount of flack where he has been accused allegedly of either miming, relying on backing track vocals, or just talking too damn much in between songs about nothing but buzzwords to get the crowd hyped as oppose to just playing more songs. For this acoustic show, however, there was no backing track vocals, just him and the band singing well in an authentic matter. He still talks a lot in between songs, but at least, this is an intimate show and he adds some good context in terms of the motivation in creating the songs that they were going to play.
The show starts off with guitarist Zach Myers playing a intro before everyone else, Eric Bass (bassist), Barry Kerch (drums), a couple of their touring tech guys, came one at a time and add on to the intro before Brent Smith came out and off they go starting off with a strong performance of Heroes. They played a relatively mixed bag from their three albums, leaning more towards their latest album at the time, The Sound of Madness. They also added a few more covers in the set. Foo Fighters' Times like These where Bass and Myers sang part of the 2nd verse. The Beatles' With a Little Help from my Friends where their opening act, Will Hoge, joined them in doing some vocals. Finally, they did Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man, a cover that Shinedown were most known for.
There's nothing more to say about this show other that the acoustic-vibe really added a lot to these songs, which were already great in studio, not so much in live electric though and Brent Smith adding meaning context to these songs enhanced the song as well. For instance, he stated that one of my favorites, I Dare You was about a firefighter friend of theirs and how they were encouraging that guy to pass the test to become a firefighter. Makes sense in these lyrics, "I dare you to tell me to walk through the fire. Wear my soul and call me a liar. I dare you to tell me to walk through the fire. I dare you to tell me. I dare you to." Even their drum tech that was playing xylophone, percussion, etc. got a nice little moment in that song. Sound of Madness, normally a heavy song, was still a heavy song acoustically and got the crowd going. The Crow & the Butterfly was really good with the acoustic setting and the ambiance-vibe. Fly from the Inside made a solid set closer while Second Chance was a great encore ending with Smith stating, "It's never good-bye, it's just till next time."
Overall, this was the CD/DVD that convinced me that these guys are legit even though they had been good speculations with evidence that they were not legit. The acoustic setting in Midland Theatre in Kansas City was a great atmosphere for a show like this and the crowd really solid and Shinedown have always noted that they always get a good reaction in Kansas City out of all of the places they tour in. With all the times, where I feel like I'm not as a big fan of Shinedown as I used to, mainly it was just due to their last few albums (Amaryllis and Threat to Survival) being a tad lackluster to me in comparison to their other albums, I'm always reminded of this acoustic show from Somewhere in the Stratosphere where they were really on and as authentic as they could be.
Favorites: Heroes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYSwGeiMcMk), If You Only Knew (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqkxIUt6Neg), I Dare You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n0VrSRHxPA), Devour (Long backstory on this one, song starts at 8:15) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjnhl9fWk6M), and Fly From the Inside (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oowyed-zVSY)
-
Missed the Rise Against update, not actually familiar with the ebtire album as I'm more of a casual fan. Ready to Fall and Prayer of the Refugee are :tup
Haven't heard this live DVD from Shinedown, Heroes is one of my favorite songs by them, but I know they have an alternate acoustic version of the song that really ruins it for me. Hope this one's the regular version, might just check it out.
-
Time to talk about a band that I have not really seen anyone talk about here in these parts.
25. Daughtry - Daughtry (2006)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/40/Daughtry_Band_Cover_Album.jpg/220px-Daughtry_Band_Cover_Album.jpg)
Post-grunge, alternative rock, pop rock, and hard rock.
All right, I'm going to now write about probably the most pop rock band that I have on this list, Daughtry. For those that do not know, Daughtry is a band fronted by, well, Chris Daughtry. He was an American Idol contestant in 2006. The songs he sang in that season had a good amount of commercial modern rock tracks (Fuel's Hemorrhage (In My Hands), Creed's What If, Seether's Broken, Shinedown's I Dare You, etc.). I like to think that the public consensus was that he was really good and probably should have won the season, but instead, he got eliminated in fourth place. Still, he manage to get a record label deal with RCA, released an album called Daughtry, and it surprisingly sold really well at the time, making him one of the more accomplished singers in American Idol, even though he did not win the thing.
As per usual, WWE got me into Daughtry when they used the song, There and Back Again, for the PPV, Backlash in 2007. I noted how it had a such a big-time vibe even though it was a short 3 min. track. Also, WWE used the song, Feels Like Tonight, as a highlight reel song when they did the Tribute to the Troops show where wrestlers would do a show overseas in front of US troops to give the troops some good entertainment.
Anywho, the album, Daughtry, kicks off with It's Not Over a song that is about a person going through a lot of hard times in life and trying to figure out whether they can make good in their life and try to start over from scratch. Then comes one of my favorites from the album, Used To, which is a song that describes a healthy solid relationship in the past, but it is not the case anymore and this person wanting this relationship to get back to where it used to be. The song, Home, is next and it is a ballad that talks about heading home after the long grind of work (could be something like the long grind of touring).
Another one of my favorites is called Over You and it had a good contrast difference between the prior few songs. Whereas stuff like It's Not Over and Used To could be about not giving up on a relationship and wanting things to be the way it used to be, Over You is about a person finally getting to that part where they can feel good about moving on from a past relationship and can breathe easy. What I Want is a pretty fast burst of a song that had Slash play rhythm guitar and did a solo on it. All These Lives is one of those deeper songs that talks about the wrong that is domestic child abuse. The album ends with What About Now and, yes, it is another moody ballad that talks about a person's relationship and pondering whether or not the person can survive with the presence of a loved one. I'm a sucker for those kinds of songs, all right, even if it can be sappy and all.
Overall, some people may write this album off as a carbon copy of a Creed or Nickelback album, and I won't blame them if they do, but damn it, this album hits really hard to me. Chris Daughtry has a great voice and that it was good that that voice was heard in front of millions, and that he and his band was able to construct a solid commercial rock album that sold a lot of copies and had meaningful songs that the general public can relate to. The Daughtry album was a good debut album to start that road off for Daughtry.
Favorites: Used To (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEO9QCMaYr8), Home (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnX-6sJZBw), Over You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADQ9CAavPY4), All These Lives (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po9AOl_p_fg), and What About Now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cMlPo9XjZQ)
-
Time for something a bit more spiritual but still fits with my palette of music preferences.
24. Skillet - Awake (2009)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/95/Skilletawake2009albumart.jpg/220px-Skilletawake2009albumart.jpg)
Christian rock, hard rock, alternative metal
Ahhh, Skillet. Another one of my current fave five bands is now being mentioned. Actually, the last of my fave five bands to be mentioned on the list for the 1st time as Alter Bridge, Rush, Foo Fighters, and DT was already mentioned so far in this list. The first time I heard of Skillet was when, again, WWE used their song, Monster, for one of their PPVs. When I heard it, I thought, "it's not bad, but it just sounds like something of a standard radio rock track," which is not an issue, because well, I like the genre anyway, but I think it was hard for me to distinguish them at that point from all of the other bands. Also, it was an issue that Monster sounded like Three Days Grace's Animal I Have Become so yeah. That stated, my perception of Skillet changed in 2010 when WWE used another song of theirs for another PPV, the Royal Rumble 2010 (which featured two songs, the other I will get to soon on this list). That song was called Hero and it was probably my first true exposure of hearing male/female vocals utilize so well in a rock track aside from Seether's Broken with Amy Lee. Eventually, I heard more stuff from them, liked the themes they discuss in the lyrics and the music and so I became a fan of theirs. Heard the album, Awake, and liked it a good amount.
The album starts off with Hero and as I stated before, had great female/male vocals. Lead vocalist and bassist, John Cooper, and drummer and backing vocalist Jen Ledger had their vocal timing well in that song. The song is about needing a hero in people's lives when times get grim. One could interpret Hero in different forms. Those that are big fans of Christian Rock/music could obviously think the Hero in the song was Jesus. Others can interpret the hero as everyday good heroes like good firefighters and policemen among others, as was shown in their music video (which had the weird combo of the band playing in the rain with pyro shooting off in the background). Then comes their lead single, Monster, and I admit it. It took a while to get into the song, but as I further got into this manga series called Naruto and relate the monster to this relatively evil beast spirit that the main character has where if this spirit was unleashed, it could cause destruction to the world, the song become much clearer to me and something that I can enjoy.
The album eventually transitions into Awake and Alive which had another strong showing of the Ledger/Cooper vocal duo as they talk about approaching to face the problems of whatever and getting ready to confront it and it's their time to do something about it. Soon enough, the album hit an interesting three song arc that was going over the same topic. It's Not Me, It's You is an in-your-face song talks about this person realizing that another person in their life is causing their problems and misery. Should've When You Could've discusses on how that person that was causing misery could have done something to help fix that relationship between them and the person that is feeling pain. Believe closes it off with someone thinking that they were at fault and is asking that person to not give up on them and continue to believe and all will end well.
The last two songs on the album ends strongly for them. Never Surrender is one of my favorite songs from Skillet. Good sound. Great inspirational message on if you're down and feel like giving up, you got to keep going. Got to get back up, put yourself back together, and overcome. Sounds cliche, but sometimes they are cliches for a reason and getting that pep talk to keep going is always something we need in times like these. Lucy closes the album with a somber ballad. The general topic of the song is about regret. The specific title of the song, however, was about a young couple going through an abortion and how they immediately regret the decision and regrets that they took a life away and will never know what that person could become.
Well, in some ways, Stryper and Skillet are very similar in terms of their paths. For Stryper, they made it big in the glam metal world that bands like Motley Crue and Skid Row were dominating with their album, To Hell With the Devil. For Skillet, the Awake album was the album that can get them closing in on par with Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, etc. and the alternative metal/post-grunge world. Both bands had their breakthrough albums in those era and presented a similar style of music that was commonplace, but their Christian tones and inspiring lyrics made them different than their contemporaries and had managed to grab a massive broad audience that likes that sort of stuff. Skillet presented a solid album with Awake and got people like me to look further back into their stuff and became fans of theirs.
Favorites: Hero (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGcsIdGOuZY), Awake & Alive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aRlxHtB0pg), Believe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnXqV6Mh2jY), Never Surrender (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4KhSDxvngw), and Lucy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7sjrjiOYYQ)
-
The album I know :o I liked them maybe 7 years ago (one of first rock bands I listened to) but it's not my taste anymore :-\
-
What a difference that 13 years can make.
23. Shinedown - Leave A Whisper (2003)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/Shinedown_leave_a_whisper.jpg/220px-Shinedown_leave_a_whisper.jpg)
Alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge
So I'm going to talk about Shinedown's debut album, Leave A Whisper. There was a huge difference between when Shinedown started in the early 2000s and where they are to the now. In the now, they are the guys that sells a lot of albums, have numerous top five hits in active rock radio, and have a solid looking arena show presentation and is a standard bearer of the modern post-grunge music with their arena rock songs. However, of course, none of that happened when they started it out. Back then, Shinedown had a different line-up (only vocalist Brent Smith and drummer Barry Kerch are the only guys from the original line-up) and had quite a different sound. Whereas in the now Shinedown had perfected the radio rock sound in their pallet to where thousands of fans at a time can flock to see their shows and their catchy tunes, around the time Leave A Whisper came out, they had more of a rawer and pure sound though it was still an alternative metal/post-grunge sound.
Leave A Whisper starts off with a relatively live staple song, Fly From the Inside. It is a song about having the weight and the pressure on your shoulders and everything you can triumph against all odds. Note how the song starts in the opening line, "Is the weight of the world on my shoulders?" and how the chorus began, "Cause I found a way to steal the sun from the sky." Left Out to me represents some of the more rawer and, I guess, heavier form of Shinedown that they do not have in the now. In Memory is one of my favorites of the album and it's a song about not being driven by nostalgic memories and trying to find a way out of a person's destructive habits or relationships. The chorus line is pretty riveting and it's message is something I want to strive for in life, "Because I can't wait for you to catch up with me. And I can't live in the past and drown myself in memories" To me, probably the best song of the album was Crying Out. It had a big-time feeling to it and probably was one of Brent Smith's finer vocal moments. The album closes off with one of their popular tracks, 45. Sure, it may have a standard radio song structure, but I like to think this can be considered one of their epics, not in song length, but really in vibe.
The deluxe edition of the album had some good tracks as well. It had a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man, another song that Shinedown is known for. One of my faves from that version was Start Over. I note how very heartfelt that song was in their message on trying to overcome problems and starting from square one.
Overall, Leave A Whisper was a solid debut for Shinedown and the difference between this album and their latest album is really noticeable. It had lots of good things. It was relatively raw, catchy, and honest, the things that their later albums just do not do for me, sadly. At least, they start off well with this album and was able to build a fanbase.
Favorites: Fly From the Inside (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzup2yBRXOQ), Left Out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-16pnXXCHI), In Memory (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4HyAPF9Cs), Crying Out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4tMpfnlEas), and 45 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMtOuK0KZHE)
-
All right, well, here's a metal band that one may not think I would put on this list, but I'm doing it anyway.
22. Fozzy - Chasing the Grail (2010)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/58/Fozzy_chasing-the-grail.jpg/220px-Fozzy_chasing-the-grail.jpg)
Heavy metal
Unless Big Hath wants to correct me, I would like to think that this is the first time a Fozzy album has been mentioned in a DTF Top 50 list. For those that do not know, Fozzy is a heavy metal band that is fronted by semi-retired WWE superstar Chris Jericho. One might think, "Ah, a professional wresler singing in a heavy metal band? They can't be good," and while there are times where Fozzy may have some stinkers for the most part, they have some actually good songs.
The band started it out around 1999 when Chris Jericho was injured while wrestling for WCW (and was on his way out before heading to WWF at the time) and Jericho got in touch with a band called Stuck Mojo led by lead guitarist Rich Ward. They were doing some video stuff with Diamond Dallas Page (a WCW star and current yoga miracle worker) and Ward asked Jericho if he was interested in doing a tribute band called Fozzy Osbourne and do a few shows with them and Jericho stated yes without any hesitation as he wanted to do two things in his life be in a band and be a professional wrestler and he is now on the slow path to the other goal of being in a band. After the shows were done, Fozzy Osbourne felt this good chemistry with each other and with their somewhat name value (Jericho being somewhat of a star in WCW and Stuck Mojo had some decent name value), they got some offers from record labels and off they go into being a band.
Fozzy's first two albums were mainly cover albums, as they were somewhat of a parody band at the time (think Steel Panther without the boobs and the success). They covered Dio, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Sabbath, etc. However, at one point, they decided if they were really going to make it as a band, they got to drop the gimmick of a parody band and the covers and go out it by themselves which led to them creating the All That Remains albums, their first album full of original material. However, they got a lot of guest musicians on this thing to give them some credibility. They had Marty Friedman of Megadeth on it. They had Zakk Wylde. Heck, they even managed to get Alter Bridge's Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy to guest on a song. The album was a relative success backed with their biggest song, Enemy.
So they move into the Chasing the Grail album which is probably their best album in terms of it being a serious metal album without any covers or any gimmicks or any notions of going grunge (Jericho thought they were going in that direction with All That Remains which makes sense given his hair style compared to when Fozzy started and where they were at in 2005). The album starts off with a balls-to-the-walls track, Under Blackened Skies. I initially did not think they had this sort of track in them where the vocals were totally bearable and the guitar work and solo was top-notch. Then they moved into their first single, Martyr No More, which was the song that got me into Fozzy as it was the other theme song for the Royal Rumble 2010. It's a solid song that talks about not being anyone's puppet or fall guy and can be much more than that and, during the bridge, it had this seriously random out of nowhere guitar solo by Annihilator's Jeff Waters. Grail was probably one of their more heavier tracks that was not a fast-paced track. There were moments where their instruments sounded like barrels of firepower just keep shooting. I thought it sounded cool. They did have some catchy songs like Let the Madness Begin and a live staple, God Pounds His Nails. They did have a bizarre song, though, called New Day's Dawn where Rich Ward decided to take a shot out at some lead vocals. Nothing wrong with that. The problem was that he was going for one of those sounding like a woman metal singer kind of vibe which just made the song bizarre.
Then comes one of my favorite songs, Broken Soul. Jericho, according to his autobiography, when he had the lyrics mapped out, he envisioned it to be a thrash song. However, Rich Ward had different ideas and turned it into a heartwarming ballad. I sure love it as it gave the band some more honest depth that I did not think they had without coming off as cheesy or something. The rest of the album had some solid heavy sounding tracks like Prey For Blood, Paraskavedekatriaphobia (Friday the 13), and Revival.
The album closed off with Wormwood. For the longest time before getting into Rush and DT, Wormwood was the longest song I have ever heard clocking at almost 14 min. I thought at the time, "holy smokes, are you guys insane? How can one pull off a 14 min. song?" Well, they did all sorts of weird stuff in that song as they wanted to go into a prog-rock vibe to it talking about something in The Book of Revelations. I honestly thought that this had one of Jericho's best vocal performance as the long length helps to make his notes count well without trying too much as the vocal work is spaced out appropriately. Just a magnificent track that certainly shows that Fozzy can have the musical chops to write something pretty daring.
For some, people may write off Fozzy as a crappy band with a professional wrestler as a singer. That stated, to me, the Chasing the Grail album certainly showed that they have the musical talents to do whatever the f' they want in their music and make some pretty damn compelling songs that are actually really good.
Favorites: Under Blackened Skies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVOXdoRXtKM), Broken Soul (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpqHeXlVup0), Watch Me Shine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ith229kA4U4), Paraskavedekatriaphobia (Friday The 13th) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_ReKCKcfi0), and Wormwood (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_a3AzUre3g)
-
the fun thing about your list is that despite a fair number of well-known bands here i have only even listened to two albums on this list thus far, and own zero of them :lol
-
Unless Big Hath wants to correct me, I would like to think that this is the first time a Fozzy album has been mentioned in a DTF Top 50 list.
actually GentlemanofDread had Fozzy - Sin and Bones at #45 on his list.
-
Leave a Whisper is okay, but IMO there's too much of a step down from the good/great songs to the mediocre ones. All the songs in your honorable mentions are amazing though.
-
Time for what could be another lengthy write-up and for good reason.
21. Alter Bridge - Live From Amsterdam (2009)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f6/AB_-_Live_in_Amsterdam.jpg/220px-AB_-_Live_in_Amsterdam.jpg)
Alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge
The year was 2008 and Alter Bridge was riding relatively hot, despite not having too much record label support to believe in them, again. They released an album, the previous year, that most claims is their very best album (more on that very later) and they were started to get a good growth in terms of their live show attendance in Europe due to their very loyal fanbase. For that matter, they wanted to record and release a live DVD to document their success at the time. Initially, they wanted to film this at the Brixton Academy in London, a show where allegedly Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones was at, but due to logistic issues it did not happen there. So they decided to move the show to the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. In hindsight, I think it was the better decision as they played a slightly longer set compared to the London show (London show at 16 songs, Amsterdam had 18 songs).
The sad part about all of this was that they were gunning to have this DVD, Live From Amsterdam, out in stores like Best Buy and the likes in 2009, but for some reason it got delayed numerous times to the point where it wasn't in stores until early 2011. Why for some reason? Could it be due to record label issues? Perhaps, AB did not had the greatest record label relationships with Wind-Up and Universal, thank goodness for :soon: . Was it due to their production company that did it, DC3? Maybe, given what we have experienced in 2014-2015 regarding DC3 (with a subpar boxset that had numerous delays and their Live From Milan DVD not getting released for whatever reasons), it was all one big headache filled with empty promises and high hopes getting shattered. Hopefully, a company that guitarist Mark Tremonti has an investment stake in, Fret12, can help right some wrongs here in that front in the future.
It was not all bad things that came out of the delay though. Due to the loyal support of the AB fans, when Amazon released it in 2009, Amazon had expected to sell only few hundred copies, but thousands of copies were sold where AB hit #1 on Amazon's "Bestsellers in Music Videos & Concerts" chart. It's achievements like these that I like to see to to prove that AB has validation to keep going as a band where some people feel like, "What's the point of Alter Bridge existing? The big money-winners are Creed and Slash's solo band." and while it could be the case, Alter Bridge are no slouches when it comes to drawing a supporting crowd. It may not be the biggest support, but it's a very loyal support through all these ups and downs.
Now then, let's get on with the show. The show opens out of the gate with Come to Life and from there you can sense a big-time vibe where people are jacked and the band is playing at their very best. Then it comes Find The Real, a strong live track as vocalist Myles Kennedy gets the crowd into it with a call and response during the bridge. Afterwards, comes Before Tomorrow Comes and Brand New Start. Now in today's period, we're pretty much tired of hearing these songs in their live sets, but back then, it was relatively fresh and Brand New Start was one of their stronger tracks and you can see how much Mark Tremonti was getting into it with his guitar solo of it. Another crowd participation song, White Knuckles brings the heaviness and excitement while One Day Remains brings a positive laid-back feeling to it and the crowd was on to the responses when Myles ask for it in certain parts of the song. Heck, as this is one of the few songs on the show that Myles do not play guitar, they brought their guitar tech, Ian Keith, out there. Also that song had a cool guitar camera angle where you can see Mark just ripping on it during the solo.
Next comes Watch Over You with just Myles on a stool and an acoustic guitar, and about 5,000 people with their cell phones and lighters in the air as this song always gets one of the greatest receptions of the show. Then comes their masterpiece, Blackbird, which the Beatles' Blackbird being played a prelude to it, and they played it as masterfully as it is and Myles went a little higher than he would normally do on his notes at the end. Afterwards comes In Loving Memory. Now Mark rarely shows in any deep expressions in general, not that he's a emotionless guy as he makes awesome guitar faces, but for that one, you can see him tear up a bit while playing this song, as he was the one that wrote it in memory of his mother and you got the Amsterdam crowd singing like they are in a choir as well which makes another top-notch performance. The regular set closes it off with Open Your Eyes, another crowd favorite as they sing the bridge that eventually leads to the solo, capping off a solid set.
Now, as much as I think that they do not really surprise us as much in their live sets anymore, for this show, they brought a good treat playing New Way to Live, a great bonus track on the Blackbird album that could be only be obtained if they bought the Blackbird album at Best Buy, and yes, they did a great job of it and bassist Brian Marshall's bass tone was very audible on this one, making it another plus. The show closes it off with the song that they always close the show off, Rise Today, and while some complain about it being a closing song, it's a good positive song and message to send the crowd happy.
Overall, I think it is safe to say that their first live DVD/album was a good hit for them that cements their reputation as a solid top-notch band for those that have heard of Alter Bridge. Good setlist for its time, had a great and full crowd in Amsterdam, and the band was playing at its peak. Sadly, this show was a big indicator that them being a full-time band was coming to an end as afterwards, Creed reunited and Myles was starting to work with Slash. However, this DVD represented the great magic that is Alter Bridge at a prime.
Favorites: One Day Remains (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZRjuxEteFQ), Blackbird (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv-EZx-qI_8), In Loving Memory (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LzJst0_HbE), Open Your Eyes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1nZSnOqOCI), and New Way to Live (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SC-rG1kk7A)
-
And I finally made to the top 20!!!!
20. Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls (2015)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Iron_Maiden_-_The_Book_of_Souls.png/220px-Iron_Maiden_-_The_Book_of_Souls.png)
Heavy metal
So, it's clear we all know who Iron Maiden is. They have their fair shares of ups and downs, mainly ups, in their 35+ years of being in the metal spotlight as one of the most influential metal bands and, currently, one of the biggest ones, headlining major festivals and stadiums all over the world. Now, to me, I have heard about them, but did not really get into them until the last few years, where I sent a tweet to one of my high school friends asking if I should listen to them and where do I start. He stated, "You should, and you should start with The Number of the Beast onward into the rest of their 1980s catalogs from there." Then I stated, "How are their new releases?" He mentioned that he liked their last four albums, giving the implication that they are the albums from Brave New World onward. Basically, the albums that they had been released since vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith had return to the line-up.
So I heard it, and it sounds good, but nothing really too gravitating for me, yet. Then I saw one of their documentaries and live DVD, Flight 666, and I thought the concept around their Somewhere Back in Time tour was just fantastic. The idea to rent a plane big enough to carry everyone and everything that is needed to do an Iron Maiden show and tour (band, roadies, Eddie, gear, managers, family, etc.) and have Bruce Dickinson fly the plane was golden. This idea let Maiden travel in areas in countries that their fans in those countries did not think they could get an Iron Maiden show, but they did, and this documentary showcased how big of a global fanbase Iron Maiden has and how good chaps they are. Oh, and the live concert footage and performances were top-notch. From there, I would be a more of a casual fan of theirs which was better than not knowing anything about them.
So, we move into 2015. With so many albums and great hits, you would think Iron Maiden would take it easy going into their 15th album right? Wrong!!! They wanted to go all balls out with everything they got with their latest album, The Book of Souls. Making it a double-album, clocking at 92 min., with three 10+ songs with a couple of lengthy tracks as well. The album and cover has a Mayan-inspired flair to it taking about, of course, souls and life and mortality in general.
The album kicks off with If Eternity Should Fail, with a chilling intro, makes me think I'm like in a desert or something and something is about to go down. For a track that was 8 min., it just grabbed me the whole time and was compelling making this a very strong intro to the album. Bonus points also to the spoken word at the end that sounded like an evil spirit or something. Then we go into Speed of Light, the first single. Had a cowbell in the intro. Good solos. A solid single to reintroduce Iron Maiden back after not hearing a new song in five years. Eventually, we move into the first 10+ min. song of the album, The Red and The Black. I liked the intro which reminded me the intro of Metallica's Battery before they kick into a galloping sound, reminded some people of Rime of the Ancient Mariner. If there was one flaw to this, it probably overstayed its welcome in the instrumental bits. Maybe it could have been cut down a bit, perhaps, to make it go smoothly. I also liked how the ending mirrored the opening. After that long 13 min. song, they move into When the River Runs Deep, I like how the chorus is paced out with the pacing slowed down a bit compared to the pace in the rest of the song. The first disc closes off with the title track, The Book of Souls. It just had a bad-ass aura throughout the whole time. I liked the strings in the background. I can imagine a festival/stadium crowd, if they have any flags, waving those flags timely with the chorus. A tremendous closer to the first disc.
The second disc kicks off fast with Death or Glory. Eventually, we move to Tears of A Clown, a song dedicated to the late Robin Williams. Honestly, even though from what I've read throughout the forums I've read that talks about this album, not a lot of people like this song. I like it though. I like the lyrics discussing on how can one guy can cheer many people up, but cannot cheer himself up and live in despair and so forth. The strings have been once again used tastefully. The album moves towards the very somber and moody, The Man of Sorrows. Appropriate title, fits the song. The album close off with Iron Maiden's longest song ever, Empire of the Clouds, clocking at 18 min. The question is that Iron Maiden can do a song with that long length and do it justice like Rush, like DT, etc.? I think it is safe to say yes. Bruce on the piano help set the song so that they do not go all balls out and exhaust themselves and trying to come up with filler to fill the time. The song was paced nicely for the most part. It may be an 18 min. song, but it's structured in a way where you kinda have to finish listening to the song when it starts, since it's so compelling. There was good bombastic elements to it at one point like an orchestra sound as oppose to just strings. It made me think it was like a James Bond track at one point or something.
Overall, to me, Iron Maiden has really cemented themselves as one of the long-lasting greats in metal, with this album. Not just because they had so many great albums in their prime, but the fact that they are still able to put a lot of dedication and effort into their latest releases which is not a regurgitation or a generic carbon copy of their past work. For me, Rush and Iron Maiden are the best long-lasting bands because they care a lot about their albums which is why they do their best to emphasize it in their live shows when touring the album which sets them totally apart to a general older band that only plays the hits and not really put too much care into a new album. Is The Book of Souls Iron Maiden's best work ever? Hard to say, as they had a long catalog of top-notch stuff, but for a band going in 35+ year strong, this is a damn good album.
Favorites: If Eternity Should Fail, When The River Run Deeps, The Book of Souls, Tears of a Clown, and Empire of the Clouds.
-
This is a really good album. It's hard for me to say that an album that came out six months ago would go into the category of my all-time favorites, and I think I still would choose the previous two Maiden albums over this one, but this is still an absolutely stellar effort.
-
Brilliant
-
Terrific album but I don't think it will get this high on my list.
-
Finally an album I know. And what a great choice. :tup
-
AB Live in Amsterdam is a great live record. Captured that band at what I still consider their live performance peak as a group.
-
All right, getting back on it now.
19. Seether - Karma and Effect (2005)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Seetherkarmaandeffect.jpg/220px-Seetherkarmaandeffect.jpg)
Alternative metal, post-grunge
So getting back to talking about Seether, I'm going to discuss my favorite album from them, Karma and Effect. I think like most really great albums, Seether took what was good regarding their previous album, Disclaimer II, and just made it better. Made their songs a tad more angrier, emotional, heavy, catchy, etc. I think the end result was really good.
The album starts of with Because of Me, and they started off very heavy. Heck, when I was listening to this song during a high point of me watching wrestling, I imagined people throwing German Suplexes to this song and taking their enemies to Suplex City. The bridge was built with good suspense before vocalist Shaun Morgan let it out with a big "growl". Next comes a solid radio single, certainly one that contributed to me getting to known them, Remedy. It's a post-grunge radio single done well and was successful in the charts. Nothing more to ask for than that. The follow-up song is another single called Truth and I guess the best way to describe this song is that if you are getting ready for an official fight (whether it is in UFC, boxing, WWE, NJPW, etc.) or watching a fight, this is a good song to get pumped for.
Eventually, then comes The Gift, a very somber ballad. Feels like it had a Mexican flair to it in the intro. Here was a quote I found somewhere that talks about the song meaning. "The song is about a man who killed a young girl in a car accident. The gift is the forgiveness she gives him." and how the guy cannot live with the guilty described in this chorus, "I'm so afraid of the gift you give me. I don't belong here and I'm not well. I'm so ashamed of the lie I'm living. Right on the wrong side of it all." Furthermore, the album just keeps giving and giving with one of my favorites, Burrito, one of the songs that best describes the band's sound well for their time. It had this Korn influence, I think, in a good way. It's pretty dark sounding with another great bridge with once again, Morgan letting his vocal powers soar with such angst.
Tongue is another one of my favorites. Another one of these songs about trying to make it in this world, needing something, someone in their life and survive and not let depression take over them. Very powerful stuff. Simplest Mistake had one of those epic feeling vibe to it with its intro and the song was solid in terms of how they progress along. Diseased is not one of my favorites though from this album. Sure, like most of the songs in the album, it is a dark-sounding song, but it just did not grab me as well as the other stuff.
Overall, whenever I write off Seether in today's age, I revisit this album and I'm like, man, they struck gold with this one. So many good songs that fits their vibe well that their later albums, to me, could not capture. Maybe, it is due to how I'm growing up as a person and how my musical tastes have developed. That stated, Seether's Karma and Effect album was certainly one of the more nostalgic albums I've heard, but still holds up really well and an album I still really like.
Favorites: Because of Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MerXMn80Xwo), The Gift (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-gqUusgEOk), Burrito (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUu0hcjRXcA), Tongue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5niZqt00CkQ), and Simplest Mistake (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSxI8qXVXkw)
-
Burrito might be my favorite Seether song :metal (and one of the only Seether songs I listen to these days, not into them as much anymore) that riff kicks ass, and I love how it switches to that dark mood from time to time.
-
Indeed, a good song. One time when I was writing this high school letter to myself in five years, I wrote "Remember Seether's Burrito in case you forget about the band," and it still holds up well. Moving on though.
18. Big Wreck - Albatross (2012)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/91/Albatross_%28Big_Wreck_album%29.jpg/220px-Albatross_%28Big_Wreck_album%29.jpg)
Rock
Well, the first time I heard about Big Wreck was at the Alter Bridge Nation forums that I frequent in and around the summer of 2014, I keep hearing great praises about this band called Big Wreck and their recent album, Ghosts. I took a listen to it, not knowing what to expect, and it was this album that had this atmospheric vibe incorporating all sorts of different sounds (from being broody in a metal Black Sabbath-ish sense, to outright pop-ish in a good sense, to somber, to having a sort of funk-ish vibe) on the guitar with some catchiness to it even though the songs were relatively lengthy. I liked it, and I found that Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy did a song with them called Breakthrough before he joined AB, and that convinced me enough so I went back to hear their other stuff which leads to me talking about the album before Ghosts, Albatross.
Albatross starts off with Head Together with some good layering "Ahhhhh" by vocalist Ian Thornley before kicking into another gear and talks about trying to keep our marbles in our minds intact. Wolves was solid and I think incorporated a banjo in this one and had good catchiness to it. One of my favorites from the album is the title track, Albatross, where it had this very light-sounding intro before kicking it to high gear and back to a softer vibe. Chorus is really good. "Ah that’s OK, and I’m alright. I guess I’ll be lost again For one more night. Ooh and that’s alright, I’m OK. I'll wear the albatross. For one more day." I also enjoy what they did after the chorus is sung where it had this certain guitar sound that I cannot describe. Another one of my favorites from the album is Glass Room where it had this alternative rock vibe like Foo Fighters as oppose to the usual post-grunge radio rock sound I'm accustomed to like Breaking Benjamin and Shinedown.
Another great track, All Is Fair had a certain uplifting vibe. The album slows things down a bit with Control with a long three minutes outro. Rest of the World went heavy discussing about the topic of greed. Do What You Will had fun, having a good time feeling that keeps you jumping for some reason. The ending of the album closes it off with Time, a song with that started off with some acoustical arrangements talking about all things regarding the concept of time. About how it is just passing us by, about how if we could go back in time, what can we do differently, about wondering if time moving forward does heal all wounds. Then, during the 2nd chorus, the tempo of the song shifted into something that had this big sounding climax, that officially made this a very suitable closing song.
Well, based on my write-up, I had a hard time putting the words together on why I dig this album, but I just enjoy how they incorporate all sorts of different tones and styles in their guitar sound where there can be a certain distinction in the song. Big Wreck was gone for roughly about a decade before releasing Albatross, and I think they came back strong, and it is good that they came back since I got another band to listen to and they have solid stuff.
Favorites: Albatross (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HmW9rVAtVs), Glass Room (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiPrKIK80ys), All Is Fair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuLF7N42A-E), Do What You Will (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2YW2CZeL4k), and Time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeNW5dFn-Vg)
-
Okey doke, onto the last live CD/DVD I will put in this list and it is a great one.
17. Rush - Rush In Rio (2003)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/Rush_in_Rio.jpg)
Progressive rock, hard rock
Ok, the second time this list I will talk about Rush and I think this is a good showcase for them. The story behind this album was that the year was 2002 and Rush was back about drummer Neil Peart decided that it is time to come back after his long journey across North America after mourning the deaths of his wife and daughter. They released Vapor Trails that year and was met with mixed reactions, mainly due to the sound quality of it. I thought the remixed version was good and considered putting it in this list, but I feel like this live DVD was a better presentation of that period where they are coming back. One of the beautiful parts about them coming back was that they were starting to slowly hit new territories outside of the usual US, Canada, Europe, and go into areas like Mexico and Brazil. For their trip to Brazil, they played in three soccer stadiums and decided to film the last one in Rio de Janeiro for their DVD, Rush in Rio.
From the get-go, you can tell this was going to be a great crowd based on how they reacted to the opener, their biggest hit song, Tom Sawyer, singing along with Geddy Lee on the words and you can tell that they were going to be amped for the long show. The first set started it off with some relative staple tracks like Distant Early Warning, Roll the Bones, Big Money, Closer to the Heart (that I think they played relatively exclusively in Brazil). They played one of the songs from Vapor Trails, Earthshine. Crowd reacted really well to songs from a not that popular era of Rush in the form of Bravado and The Pass which to me was one of the standouts of the set. However, the crowd exploded really strongly during YYZ when they were singing along to it. An instrumental and a Brazilian crowd was singing along to it? That's awesome. The set closes it off with Natural Science, before Geddy Lee declaring that they were going to take a break for some "brain surgery." I got to admit, it slowly grew on me, but now Natural Science is getting up there in terms of one of my favorite Rush songs.
The second set starts off with some pyro as they were playing their lead single at the time, One Little Victory as this set was going over stuff from their last few albums at the time, playing stuff like Secret Touch, Ghost Rider, Driven, Leave That Thing Alone. Then Neil had his usual long almost 10 min. drum solo spot, before Geddy and Alex did an acoustic spot playing the song Resist and I think from there you can look at them and how the crowd reacted and think, "Man, from being childhood friends in Middle School to playing in a soccer stadium in Brazil in front of 40,000 hyped Rush fans. That's an awesome feeling those guys have to have." Then comes their usual big tracks, 2112's Overture/The Temples of Syrinx, Limelight, and The Spirit of Radio (which did not quite get the crowd reaction I thought it was going to get). Another standout from that set was La Villa Strangiato with the crowd reacting really well to it and Alex had his weird stream of consciousness thought before introducing the band as Milton Banana on the skins, The guy from Ipanema on the bass, and Stan Getz. Man, that was an interesting thing to say the least on top of that 10 min. instrumental.
The set closes it off with the awesome prologue to Cygnus X-1 and some of the really early tracks like By-Tor & The Snow Dog and Working Man closing off this tremendous show.
Overall, man, if there was a big exclamation point to cement that Rush was back and ready to go again, this would be it in the form of Rush In Rio. A great setlist, a mixed bag where all albums at the time with the exception of Hold Your Fire and Caress of Steel was represented, and they played great. On top of a very hot crowd in Brazil, and you get yourself a great live DVD.
Favorites: Tom Sawyer, Bravado, The Pass, Natural Science, and La Villa Strangiato
-
Pumped to see some Big Wreck on your list! Great band!
-
All right, it's been awhile. Trying to get my mind together to get this one just right.
16. The Mayfield Four - Second Skin (2001)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/Second_Skin_The_Mayfield_Four.jpg)
Alternative rock, hard rock
So, for those that know Alter Bridge and Myles Kennedy, a good amount, you might have heard about this band before. It is the band that Myles and a group of friends from his hometown of Spokane, Washington formed before Myles became more well-known for his work in Alter Bridge and with Slash's solo band. They released two albums. Fallout, which had more of a soft and moody-ish, some might say soul, vibe and the album that I am going to talk about, Second Skin, which has a sound that is in my ballpark.
The first time I heard a Mayfield Four song was through a youtube video of a live version of it. Myles was doing a charity acoustic gig in 2009 while everyone else was doing the Creed reunion and he brought three Mayfield Four songs in the set (Mars Hotel, Eden (Turn the Page), and White Flag) and as usual with Myles on the acoustic guitar, he played it beautifully and had a good reaction, and turns out, after hearing the album, those are my absolute favorites from the album.
Second Skin starts off with a song called Sick and Wrong. As much as there are songs that I do not like in Slash's solo band, due to its lyrical contents, this song is pretty up there as one of those songs Myles had a role in that did not gravitate with me. That stated, Loose Cannon came out, bursting with energy before going into a ballad-sounding, Mars Hotel, and I think when I started discovering the Mayfield Four and I heard this song, this song definitely up there where its lyrical content resonates with my life. Lyla is certainly one of the more interesting songs of the album to me. A high-pace acoustic-ish intro with Myles talking about this person called Lyla who has experienced a lot of tragic and turmoil in her short age of living, "Lyla in bloom. Her innocence and youth stripped away. Eighteen years old. But she's lived the life of sixty-eight" and wanting to break free from this turmoil. This is some fine lyrical poetry to fill in just 3 minutes.
Then we move towards another favorite of mine, Eden (Turn the Page). Another solid ballad from Myles reflecting on not wanting a certain relationship to end, because we are so unsure that the results are going to turn out well. The more I listen to it, it seems to be a perfect reflection with what I am going through with this person. Want to be with this person, can't happen for whatever reasons, don't want to be with anyone else because that person makes me feel comfortable the most, but I'm wishing her the best. Damn, and this song was created 10+ years before I went through that. Myles just knows how to write some damn good lyrics to get me going. We move towards Carry On and oddly enough, I think got a Creed-vibe from this particular song for some reason. Can't describe why. It seems dramatic in that sense. We move towards the soft-ish stuff back into something more upbeat like Backslide and a more attitude-ish like Flatley's Clutch. For those that do not think that Myles is capable of singing something with a bit of attitude to it, Flatley's Clutch is a good example of him doing that.
We move into another one of my favorites from the album, White Flag. It is a song, I think, is one of those songs to me that really made me appreciate The Mayfield Four. That bridge verse was a powerful moment to me especially with how Myles sang it and the set-up to it was great as well. "The grace you give will always fill me up. And I'll savor every bit of that fortune. But if in time this love turns to dust. I pray I don't endure that torture." The album ends with Summergirl. Now I stated that White Flag helped made me appreciate these guys. I think Summergirl was the song that the majority of Myles Kennedy fans really appreciate The Mayfield Four. They did not need to put too much in this song. Just a simple soft acoustic first half of a song, then a brief pause, before hitting a crescendo at the end before Myles let it rip with one of the highest sustained notes he had ever hit, ever......
Overall, Second Skin was a great album and knowing how Myles Kennedy's music career turned out in the end, it is a good listen to hear where he came from before being more well-known in the rock community. The Mayfield Four had a good sound, but just could not get that exposure to keep going, and I think it affected Myles mentally as well, since it seemed that after the band disbanded, he considered quitting the music industry and being in a band and whatnot and decided to go teach guitar. In fact, rumors were that he turned down an audition for Velvet Revolver in 2002 because he was just too distraught at the time. That stated, thankfully, Mark Tremonti and Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall found the right singer for their new band and, 12 years later, here we are. Going into AB album #5.
That stated, it is quite shocking that Mayfield Four are more well-known now, due to the Alter Bridge and Slash association, than they were when they were active. Maybe they could have been up there with the big radio rock bands with enough support. Hard to say. Oh well, it is safe to say that their Second Skin album was really a hidden gem.
Favorites: Mars Hotel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDE_DRfZLDY), Lyla (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSaSsvHlGbM), Eden (Turn the Page) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fos50a8PH8), Carry On (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFtq_2bIYKY), and White Flag (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKNgO4k7khQ)
-
Personally I prefer Fallout, but both albums are great!
I know that Myles was singing in two other bands (Cosmic Dust and Citizen Swing) before Mayfield Four but I never listened to any of them
-
Fantastic album. I have literally cried openly to Summer Girl. One of the most emotional vocals I have ever heard.
-
A great album that was completely under the radar in it's time
-
Time for something that is actually really very different from the overall list.
15. Matt Nathanson - Beneath These Fireworks (2003
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f7/Beneath_These_Fireworks_.jpg/220px-Beneath_These_Fireworks_.jpg)
Rock, pop, acoustic
So how do I, a guy that listens to a lot of alternative metal/post-grunge bands that stumbled upon this beautiful forum and band in the form of DT, manage to get into a guy like Matt Nathanson, who plays mainly acoustic, adult contemporary stuff? For those that do not know, Matt Nathanson is a singer-songwriter from San Francisco. The best way for me to describe his music is this. Do you know when watching a drama like NCIS, Grey's Anatomy, or a show like How I Met Your Mother, and you would hear a song in the background after a big scene in the episode had happened and it is typically played by some indie band you have no idea who they are and may not stumble into them again? Matt Nathanson may fit that bill. Some of his songs appeared in shows like NCIS, One Tree Hill, The Vampire Diaries, and The Bachelor. On another note, he is a fan of hard rock himself, mainly being a KISS fan and Van Halen fan. In fact, he was on an episode of That Metal Show with Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy and they along with the hosts had some decent conversions, mainly regarding which Van Halen album was better (the first or second).
The first time I heard a Matt Nathanson song was during an episode of Scrubs in 2011. It was during that episode where JD and this woman doctor he got pregnant were contemplating on what they are going to do with the unbirth kid, and then a song was played. It was I Saw and the softish, calm, acoustic melody really got me attention. So after watching that episode, through the magic of Google, I found that I Saw was created by a guy called Matt Nathanson. So I looked at his other songs. One of his biggest hit was Come On, Get Higher which was about a relationship and a person that misses being with that other person. Another song I heard which sealed the deal for me to get into him was All We Are which reminded me of a church song that I hear frequently.
So, eventually, I heard Beneath These Fireworks which I believe was the first album he released with a major label (he's got other albums prior to that) and there was a vibe that really got to me. It started off with a short acoustic song called Angel before moving into Suspended which to me was totally a single that could fit well into the Adult Contemporary demographics. Eventually, we move into Little Victories which was another song I heard through watching Scrubs. The tempo quickens slightly with the song Pretty the World which talks about how much a person inspires another person and wanting that person to continue to inspire for whatever reasons.
Then we move into Curve of the Earth and the one thing that stood out to me was this very cheery-vibe in the intro. Another good favorite to me was Bent and I enjoyed this strings section he incorporated in the middle of the song. We move into Weight of it All and it is a song that started off slowly and hit a good dramatic point in the song which was about a guy that was going through heartbreak and a relationship that is becoming not mutual. The album ends on a good cheery poppy mood with Sing Me Sweet.
Overall, sure, Matt Nathanson may not be a technical master or something, but he is really good at creating some emotional-provoking laid-back songs. Overall, Beneath These Fireworks is a great album to listen to if one likes that acoustic singer-songwriter stuff.
Favorites: I Saw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFzZ7P2gEfY), Pretty The World (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP0FZlZ8znQ), Curve of the Earth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbzi4WdunKg), Lucky Boy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoDf7utFOGo), and Weight of it All (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMHVrV-XF8g)
-
Once again, sorry for the delay, but I hope this write-up is worth it.
14. Alter Bridge – Fortress (2013)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/87/Alter_Bridge_-_Fortress_album_cover.jpg/220px-Alter_Bridge_-_Fortress_album_cover.jpg)
Hard Rock, Alternative Metal
So, what happened to Alter Bridge during the interim between AB III and Fortress? Well, Myles Kennedy worked with Slash and the Conspirators and released Apocalyptic Love, a decent album, but I did not enjoy it too much though. On the other side, Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips, and Brian Marshall decided to take another shot with Creed and did a tour (I think they did some shows where they were playing My Own Prison and Human Clay in its entirety every other night) and had some writing sessions with Stapp. In addition, Mark released the surprisingly great All I Was and found that his solo project may have some traction after all. As usual with all of these other projects, people questioned Alter Bridge’s future and whether they can release another album and play shows again. Then the Fortress album came and all questions were answered.
With the numerous other projects AB had, the direction, this album could go, seemed a bit unknown. After all, Creed had the alternative rock/post-grunge front covered, Slash/Myles/Conspirators had the classic hard rock sound covered, and Tremonti had the heavy metal sound covered. What can AB do?
This question is actually harder than it sounds since, at times, it is hard for me to quantify the AB sound. Some people see them as too heavy/too intricate to be a radio rock-sounding band like Black Stone Cherry, Halestorm, and Shinedown. Some people see them as too radio-sounding to be a heavy metallic/progressive-ish band like other Roadrunner Record bands like Trivium, Opeth, and DT. I guess the best way to describe their sound is that Alter Bridge sounds like Alter Bridge and I guess the Fortress album seems to be a more amplified version of them, merging all of the elements I’ve just described albeit having a heavier sound than prior albums.
We got the 6:30 minute opening song, Cry of Achilles, which is already their second longest song in their catalog, right off the bat, and I guess the best way to describe this song is that it is probably the epitome of everything Alter Bridge is known for and can do well on. It starts off with Myles doing an acoustic intro on a nylon-string guitar before a thunderous drum sound from Flip comes in and off they go with all sorts of twist and turns in the first minute or so before the vocals kicked in. I’ll admit it when I first heard the song, the vocal layering in the 1st verse freaked me out a bit afterwards it settled in well and had a great big sing-a-long chorus that Alter Bridge is known to deliver well. After the second chorus kicks in, something unexpected happen, Brian Marshall a highlight with a nice bass solo while Myles singing about how it is not too late to save tomorrow before our regret will take us down and how it is not the end before Myles did a guitar solo. After the final chorus, Mark then ended with a good closing solo, or so it seems, as Myles ended the song about how it is never too late to hope capping off a phenomenal song.
We move into Addicted to Pain, the first single of the album and it served its purpose well. A great high-energy single to reintroduce the radio rock world to AB once again and it gets people pumped for the live show as they utilized a strings intro before playing this as their opening song. Then comes Bleed It Dry, probably their heaviest song ever, and playing off with that medieval-like theme that All Hope is Gone had in the last album. I really liked the soft part in the bridge with Myles singing the bridge verse before Mark lets it rip with a solo that continues to build from it.
Lover moves into a territory where it is a pretty dark and dramatic ballad. Usually, AB’s ballads are hopeful and want to see the good of a person or mourning about a deceased person and how much impact that person made on someone. However, Lover was totally not the case as it was dark and talked about how everything has fallen apart. Myles’ delivery on the bridge verse was fantastic; “Did you have to throw it all away? Did you have to shove it in my face? Did you have to tear my world apart? Did you have to take so selfishly? No matter how you hurt the ones you need? Did you have to fall so very far?” Afterwards comes, The Uninvited. I read that it has a Tool-influence to it. Regardless, I did not enjoy that song as much as most people though. Peace is Broken, however, its intro showcased the rhythm section of AB well and had great harmonic vocals in the bridge verse between Mark and Myles. Calm the Fire displays something a little different from AB. They decided to incorporate some synthesizer effects and, to some people, had a more Queen and Muse influenced to it. The song discusses about the wrong in how people treat others negatively and how we should do our best to be better people and treated all with the dignity that they deserve.
Waters Rising shifted gears a good amount as AB decides to put Mark Tremonti more as a focus singing lead vocals. He does a good job of it. Song had a White Knuckles-like vibe, but it does not seem like a carbon-copy and talks about an apocalyptic world and a guy that had it all but lost everything. Myles, however, once again, does a tremendous vocal delivery in the bridge verse: “Staring down the end of time every fear is realized. Crying out it's much too late there's nothing we can do to save. For the time has come.” The ending solo once again was tremendous capping off another favorite song of mine in the album. We move into Farther Than the Sun and Cry A River. Farther Than the Sun is ok. It is standard radio rock track, good bridge section. Cry A River sounds more attitude-ish than a typical AB track, but this is one of the lesser favorites for me.
All Ends Well is a very heart-warming ballad. Probably the most positive ballad they have ever had and those that may hear may think “Oh man. They are going Disney-sounding with this one,” but I like it. Sometimes in a world full of negativity, we got to see the positives and strive to make it to the light at the end of the tunnel and strive to have that All Ends Well result.
Finally, we move into the final track, and this is probably the best track of the album for me. The title track of Fortress. Clocking at 7:30 minutes, this has now become the second longest track AB had released and this is probably one of their best songs ever. This song talks about how a solid relationship and how it is slowly deteriorating and if this relationship goes more south, everything will fall apart for a person and a metaphorical fortress is coming down. On top of a great lyrical content that I can heavily relate to, this song has four solos stacked between Mark and Myles, making this probably the most solo-heavy song that Alter Bridge had ever built.
Well, I cannot say in good conscious that they dogged it with this album, but Alter Bridge delivered a tremendous album during these times of doubt and uncertainty for the band’s future. Everything you expect them to deliver was on. Vocals, yes! Lead guitar work, yes! Solid Rhythm section, yes! Lyrics, yes! Drum sound, yes! A bass highlight, yes! Solos from both Mark and Myles, yes! It’s always a good sign when a band got everything well in an album, I just cannot wait to see what they have to offer in AB V.
Favorites: Cry of Achilles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFSP_n3llTU), Bleed it Dry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aekMHt6E23M), Waters Rising (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyB1CNAsRjk), All Ends Well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgGCvPOwmbc), and Fortress (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVItMBAfaCI)
-
Fortress is hands down Alter Bridge's best album, and Cry of Achilles is prime A1 sauce :metal
-
I've been debating for a while whether Blackbird or Fortress is my favorite AB. I think at this point Fortress is. Simply a fantastic record from start to finish, with each member shining throughout.
I'm pretty sure if someone asked me to recommend a good modern, rock n roll record...This would probably be the record I would recommend.
Here's hoping ABV lives up to it!!
-
I don't like this album as much as others here - sure, it's pretty :metal but I prefer Blackbird by a long shot.
-
I think the highs of BB (mainly the title track) are a bit better than Fortress's highs. But the lows of BB (Break Me Down, etc...) are lower than any thing on Fortress for me. So its close, but for me I think Fortress has the edge because it consistently track by track has a higher level of quality.
-
i might check out an alter bridge album at some point dunno
-
really strong album
-
I'm finally done with school which means that I can finally go back into finishing this list and write-up without stressing too much. So, here we go.
13. Sevendust - Time Travelers & Bonfires (2014)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ea/Time_Travelers_%26_Bonfires_by_Sevendust.jpg/220px-Time_Travelers_%26_Bonfires_by_Sevendust.jpg)
Acoustic rock, soft rock, alternative rock, post-grunge
The first time, I heard a Sevendust song was, like many other bands, was through the WWE. I heard this song called Enemy and I recall enjoying the chorus and noted the contrast of tone between the verses and the chorus. Where the verses had a nu-metal vibe, the chorus had a very anthemic vibe where vocalist Lajon Witherspoon shined well in that one. However, it was a few years later where I noted their great musicianship when I heard the song Angel's Son. It was this beautiful acoustic-ish song that dedicated to a friend of theirs, James Lynn Strait of this band Snot, who died away due to a car accident. It had this certain sense of urgency and epic vibe and it sounds exactly like a song that would celebrate a loved one's life right to the bitter end. To me, I think that was their big song. That key song that would most people would pick that represents a great Sevendust song. Like Alter Bridge's Blackbird or A7X's The Beast and the Harlot, the song that would define a band.
Anywho, fast-forward to 2013, and I heard they had a new album coming out called Black Out The Sun. Heard it, I did not like it too much. I pegged it the least favorite album I've heard that year. Felt that there was too much nu-metal riffs, too much uncleaned vocals, and that their heavy sound of that album was just too fatiguing for me to enjoy. That stated, a year later, I heard that they were going to crowdfund their next album through PledgeMusic where fans would donate money and in return, depending on how much they donate, they would get not only the album but other stuff like acoustic guitars, name in the linear notes, cymbals, private concerts, etc. I think they manage to hit their goal within 3-4 days or so. Also, they were going to donate some of the proceeds to St. Jude's Hospital as well. The big kicker with this particular album is that it was going to be more an acoustic-ish album where they would record six new songs and redo six songs that they released over the years but it would have an acoustic flair. Given how much I really enjoyed Angel's Son, an album done in that arrangement seems very compelling and off I go listening to Time Travelers and Bonfires.
The album kicks off with Come Down and from the get-go, I knew this was going to be a promising album compared to Black Out The Sun. With the acoustic arrangements, it felt like the band had new life and felt reinvigorated. There was still some electric elements like the guitar solo in Come Down (I don't know who does the solos, Clint Lowery or John Connolly). Next came Under It All and hearing Sevendust in a different light, they managed to deliver a big chorus that represents that breathing new life. For those that thing acoustic albums cannot be heavy and high-paced, out comes Upbeat Sugar. It is exactly what the title says. It's pretty darn upbeat. The first half of the album, which are the new songs, ends well with Bonfire.
The second half of the album starts with Gone, a song that could have different meanings and perspectives. It could be from a perspective of a soldier's life in the battlezone or a musician's life on the road. As I mentioned before, I'm not too keen on unclean-ish vocals, but I thought the deliver in the second verse was well-placed and well-timed. "Another piece of me is dead and I'm afraid of the blind. Leading the blind until the road runs out. No matter where it ends, STOP, where it ends, STOP. Was this all for something that I give for nothin'. Stop with the fake delivery, stuck in the middle, I'm gone." Next comes Denial. A very powerful song. Then came one of the my favorites of the album, Trust and I'm just noting now that Sevendust sure does love having one word titles. Anywho, Trust is one of very good heartwarming and genuine ballads. It's about a person that has wronged another person (maybe someone in a relationship) and now is feeling guilty over it. The album ends with the first song that they released in support of the album, Black, and it's a strong single to give people a taste of the overall theme of the album.
Overall, this album was the change in terms of my perception of Sevendust. They had the least enjoyable album I've heard in 2013, and yet, Time Travelers & Bonfires was the most enjoyable album I heard in 2014 in a year where Foo Fighters and Slash/Myles/Conspirators had an album out. Them making the album in a relatively acoustic arrangement was indeed a difference making and was not as fatiguing to hear than their prior album. I can't say that they should always make albums like this on a regular basis, and they had an all right album the year later with Kill The Flaw. Nevertheless, I believed Time Travelers & Bonfires reignited the band and they were just spot on with everything.
Favorites: Come Down (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SfunV67iYo), Upbeat Sugar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht2sjyJTIno), Gone (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewh1DwG7NTA), Denial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pFgbaPQ23k), Trust (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLXugs2PrAA).
-
I don't think I checked out this record yet. I didn't realize it was an acoustic album
-
^^ Yep, it was an acoustic album.
Anywho, here we go, my favorite progressive metal album ever.
12. Ayreon - The Human Equation (2004)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cc/Ayreon_-_Human_Equation.jpg/220px-Ayreon_-_Human_Equation.jpg)
Progressive Metal
Oh boy, where do I want to begin when talking about this album? Like I would usually do with other albums, how I found out about it. The simple answer is that I heard about the album.... right here.... on DTF..... ;D . All right, back in maybe 2014 or so, I found a thread that stated that JLB will be playing Me in the Theater Equation shows. There was a youtube video that had a choir rehearsing Passion's lyrics in Day Two: Isolation, "Can't you feel it burn. Deep down inside? Won't you ever learn. Don't try to hide" and I thought that sounded great and this sounded like something that JLB could fit well in. Then I heard the album, and I was just mesmerize with it.
I won't talk about the majority of the individual songs like I would in the other album write-ups since there are 20 songs in this album and doing this sort of thing could take lots of paragraphs, so I'm just going to note why I just love this album and give praise to certain songs. First off, the musicianship was just tremendous. Arjen Lucassen obviously is a tremendous musician and had a great vision for this album and delivered everything well in this from his end. He was a fine singer in his end and convey good emotion regarding Best Friend feeling guilty, concern, frustrated, etc. when dealing with his best friend. Obviously, regarding Ayreon albums, there were going to be numerous guest vocalists and James LaBrie was indeed one of the standouts of the album. Not just because of he was playing the main character of the album, but his vocal delivery in these lyrics conveyed the right amount of emotion and feelings as it calls for it when Me was interacting with his emotions in his mind.
I also enjoyed the plot of the story as well. It is something that I can connect with hearing about a story of a guy that had a rough childhood, became this businessman that would do what it takes to get to the top and never make any doubt and regrets. Pretty much became isolated from his best friend (heck, I think he sold out his best friend and got him fired) and his wife, and saw those two together in a tender moment and got into a car accident and going into a coma, dealing with the emotions of his mind, and reliving the majority of the events of his life and realizing what he must to make it all right.
As for the songs, Day Two: Isolation was a strong standout as Me started knowing where he is in his mind and trying to deal with his new surroundings dealing with guys like Fear, Reason, Passion. I also enjoyed Day Five: Voices' intro when the emotions now realize that there are people near Me and the emotions are trying to figure out what the heck are they talking about. Day Seven: Hope is another good one as Best Friend talks to Me and reminisce of the good times and wants to those days back and it had a good poppy vibe. A great standout though was Day Fourteen: Pride where the emotion Pride is telling Me that you are this guy. This guy filled with confidence and arrogance that knows what he wants and will get what he wants. One of the heavier songs of the album for me that had a great bridge instrumental with flutes and keyboards before an awesome guitar solo just rips. One of the songs I despise is Day Sixteen: Loser and it's not because of the musicianship and vocals. The Dad in the song just seems to hatable to me where I just want to punch that guy so badly although I really liked it when Rage at the end just came wailing with vigor and anger.
The last three songs was a very amazing stretch of songs to close the album though. Day Eighteen: Realization was an awesome instrumental in the first half and set the tone well where since everything is now revealed, what will Me do? Give up in the real world, or come out and confront everything. Day Nineteen: Disclosure had Best Friend and Wife telling Me about what their actual relationship was and Day Twenty: Confrontation was a good definition of an ending song where it ties everything together in the last 100 minutes of the album and a great way to close the album off where Me, Best Friend, and Wife is going to be all right with each other.
Overall, this was just a fantastic album. Great storyline, great musicianship, an excellent cast of vocals. I'm really glad that all of the albums Ayreon could have made to recreate in a live setting that they choose The Human Equation. Now, The Theater Equation awaits and I've already pre-ordered the album, just waiting for it to get shipped and I'm sure I'm going to love it.
Favorites: Day Two: Isolation, Day Five: Voices, Day Fourteen: Pride, Day Eighteen: Realization, Day Nineteen: Disclosure, and Day Twenty: Confrontation
-
this is legit the first album on this list i have :corn
i disagree with a lot of those favorite tracks but it's a good album for sure
-
All right, feeling like I'm on a roll now here we go.
11. Alter Bridge - One Day Remains (2004)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/20/Alter_bridge_one_day_remains.jpg/220px-Alter_bridge_one_day_remains.jpg)
Hard rock, alternative metal, post-grunge
The album that started it all for this band. The backstory was this. Back in 2002, Creed, despite Brian Marshall being fired from the band, was on top of the world in terms of commercial success and people making fun of them due to songs like With Arms Wide Open and Higher. However, there comes a time where Scott Stapp was not at his professional best and Mark Tremonti and Scott Phillips was getting very burnt and they felt like being in a band was getting to the point where it was not fun anymore, and I think there came a time where they wanted to get out of the music game, but both Mark and Flip realized they still want to make and play music, just not as Creed at the time.
So they laid down the foundation for a new band in 2003, having some ideas for songs. They got Brian Marshall back on bass and now they needed a singer. Apparently, they had auditioned a couple of singers, some Mark felt were really good, but not really the fit he was looking for. I think, in recent interviews, Mark was looking for a vocalist in the veins of a Chris Cornell style. Something different from Creed where Stapp had been known to be singing in an Eddie Vedder style. Then, he found a guy from a band called The Mayfield Four named Myles Kennedy and, in 2004, Alter Bridge has finally been born and, in August 2004, came out with their debut album, One Day Remains.
The album kicks off with Find The Real. A song that talks about a guy whose been hiding a lot of personal skeletons that has been exposed and wanting to feel free from it all. One thing to note was an excellent bridge where Myles sang about wanting to be free from all of these demons before Mark lets it ripped with an excellent solo, the first of many many many great solos for Alter Bridge. Next, came the title track to One Day Remains and it certainly had a really exciting feel-good vibe. Whereas the latter-day Alter Bridge tracks have gone in a more darker and pessimistic direction, early Alter Bridge was filled with hope and optimism and the title track to One Day Remains reflects that especially in the chorus. "'Cause I see in you. More than you'll ever know. And I ask you, "Why You question the strength inside?" And you need to know. How it feels to be alive." Once again, Mark Tremonti lays down another excellent solo that reflects the light and goodness of the song.
The 3rd track was the song, to most people, that started it, Open Your Eyes. I recall this story many many times here, but I'll say it again. The first time I heard this track when I was watching a youtube fanmade video of a WWE PPV, Royal Rumble 2004, and the song that was playing was Open Your Eyes. Probably the first ever song that I felt this sort of connection regarding anything music relating where the song was so easy to relate to. The chorus is so catchy to sing along and the first song I've ever heard such a very long extensive bridge that was building towards an amazing solo. That song just cements me being a huge fan of Alter Bridge, no matter what, and the crowds in the live shows probably felt that way as well, singing during the bridge when it was one of the last songs of the night.
Then came the first of many somber songs, Burn It Down. Fun fact, before Blackbird and Fortress and Cry of Achilles became their longest songs in their catalog, this was the longest song of the album clocking at 6:11. We move towards probably the song that jumpstarted their popularity among the mainstream and pop culture, Metalingus, due to former WWE wrestler Edge using it as his theme song from late 2004 to the end of his active career and still uses it when making appearances on WWE TV. To long-time fans, this was another song that got them into Alter Bridge. Essentially, the first song of the album that was going towards a more heavier and metal-ish direction and certainly a sign that Alter Bridge was going to be different than Creed. They slowed the tempo down much in Broken Wings with an excellent bluesy-influenced intro and had that big chorus and this was the song where they had their most cinematic music video ever (especially nowadays where they just do performance video and just play the song, no frills, no story.). Then, we move towards a very sad song, In Loving Memory. Another excellent intro, and a song that highlights mourning a loved one's passing. I think the first time I heard this particular song was when I was watching a video highlighting the life of the late WWE Wrestler Eddie Guerrero and this was hitting me hard, even though I never really knew the guy and his career that much at that point, but the song was really powerful.
We move back towards being optimistic with another favorite of mine, Down To My Last. It is essentially a song that talks about what it says on the title. A song about a lot of hardships in life and now you got this chance, this last chance, to make it all right. Another awesome Mark Tremonti solo was a highlight of the song. Next came another heavy-sounding song, Watch Your Words. I guess a song that really gets overlooked in terms of how heavy Alter Bridge can get during the One Day Remains era. The 10th track was Shed My Skin. People have been claiming that this is the best track of the album, and for some reason, I just do not see it that way. Felt like it was too much poppy for me, especially at the end where Myles was going "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." The album ends with The End Is Here and it starts off with this, I don't know how to describe it, very-eastern worldly sounding-ish guitar intro from Mark. The song had a good amount of big-time feel and was a strong predecessor for AB ending their albums on a really strong note since their last song of the album have been one of the stronger ones of the album (The End is Here, Wayward One, Words Darker Than Their Wings, Fortress).
So, I'd say this was a really strong debut album for Alter Bridge. Sure, it could have been influenced by ideas that Mark may have had in mind for a future Creed album, but you can also see certain things that this band was going to be onto something in songs like Metalingus and Watch Your Words and that they can go heavy. This is certainly an album, even though the band really changed their style going heavier and being more darker, that certainly aged really well about 12 years later. I can still hear it well in full and enjoy it like I did back in 2008. The album sold pretty good as well. It went gold and it is their highest-seller album. Too bad Wind-Up really did not see it that way and felt that it was a failure since it did not do Creed numbers and wanted to pressure Mark and Flip to go back to Creed. They thought, "Naww." and had to buy out of their contract with AB for a huge sum (a sum that they are slowly chipping off to this day, 10 years later), but, at least, they are still around and got four amazing albums in their belt with a fifth on their way. However, going back to the debut, One Day Remains was the start of something amazing for Mark Tremonti, Myles Kennedy, Scott Phillips, and Brian Marshall.
Favorites: Find The Real (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcYOS4btnmE), One Day Remains (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkMOXsY1nDo), Open Your Eyes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T99he2Hi3Vc), In Loving Memory (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcQ3iegpZTc), and Down To My Last (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b6gSS8Iu3A).
-
One Day Remains is one of my favorite debut albums ever.
-
A long journey, but I finally made it to the top 10.
10. Black Stone Cherry - Folklore and Superstition (2008)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/53/Black_stone_cherry_folklore_and_superstition.jpg/220px-Black_stone_cherry_folklore_and_superstition.jpg)
Hard rock, southern rock, post-grunge.
Ok, so the first time I heard of the band Black Stone Cherry was when I heard the news that Alter Bridge was going to headline an arena tour in the UK in 2011 and Black Stone Cherry was going to be main support. Pretty much, throughout most of the Alter Bridge shows in 2011 in America and Europe, Black Stone Cherry was playing main support for them. For those that do not know, Black Stone Cherry is a band from Kentucky that even though they are really unknown in the mainstream rock radio, they got a huge UK fanbase, just like Alter Bridge. So, I decided to hear some of their songs and I enjoyed their blend of modern hard rock with a touch of southern rock. One album stood out to me though and it was Folklore and Superstition.
The album kicks off with Blind Man, a pretty upbeat track, and when the chorus kicks in, it's hard not to raise your fist in the air. Next came Please Come In with a Led Zeppelin-ish riff (I know long ago I read a comment that stated that it reminded them of a certain Led Zeppelin song, I just can't recall which one atm. Probably something from the House of Holy album? IDK.) Anywho, it is a pretty ballady song when the chorus kicks in after that very "crunchy" riff. Then came Reverend Wrinkle, I think this is pretty much the first song that goes well with the overall theme of folklore and superstition talking about this guy that is going to lead people to somewhere they call home. What I like about this was the bridge, and you hear something drop like glitter or diamonds or something like that.
Another upbeat track came, this one is Soulcreek. Another good sing-a-long chorus where you scream "YEAHHHHHH" at the top of your lungs. Then came the ballad The Things My Father Said. The song talks about reflecting on all of the words and all of the wisdom that someone's deceased father had said to them. It's a good ballad, and one of the more popular tracks among BSC fans. After that heartwarming ballad, came one of the more darker songs in the album, Long Sleeves. The chorus is pretty dark and moody, "Don't ask why, I've seen children die. Watched men take their lives. I've seen women cry. My momma always said, to wear long sleeves" They utilized an awesome effect like a talkbox or something. Another slow and popular song came and one of their more powerful songs in meaning, Peace is Free. A song that talks about bringing unity and love and peace together in a world so cold.
Devil's Queen came on and now we got some sweet organ sounds here and talking about all the things that happens in the nightlife in the South. The best way I can describe this song is this is the high-energy Southern party song. Eventually, one of my favorites came up You and it talks about how much one person can inspire another person and that one completes the other. Makes sense in this chorus: "It takes a village to raise a child. It takes an army to march a mile. It takes true love to stand the test of time. And it takes you babe to make me smile." The album ends with Ghost of Floyd Collins, a track that talks about this guy that was trapped in a cave and died and his ghost is coming back to haunt everyone.
So, Black Stone Cherry made a really great album with this gem. Good catchy songs, songs that made you think, good natural heartwarming-ballads. It is all good right? Well, for some reason, they somewhat dropped the ball in their next album, Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, after this, and utilized the worst tropes that modern hard rock has. The album after that, Magic Mountain, was better though the lyrics was just talking about getting high. Thankfully, the album they just released, this year, Kentucky was a major improvement is among my favorite albums to listen to in 2016. However, the bar will always remain to be Folklore and Superstition.
Favorites: Soulcreek (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq1CY8SE-u4), Things My Father Said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VNthEJlSdw), Peace is Free (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-1gYb5sNmg), You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXMEbK62rFE), and Ghost of Floyd Collins (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTzQ2DtubMw)
-
Thanks for recommendation for Blackstone Cherry. I live about 90 miles from their hometown, but have never heard of them. Listened last night and plan to buy the cd. The great thing about these lists and youtube is you can listen for free and then decide to buy.
-
^^ Glad you enjoyed it. From what I hear, they are a solid live band, and good people to be around with. Moving onward.
9. Switchfoot - Vice Verses (2011)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/73/Vice_verses.jpg/220px-Vice_verses.jpg)
Alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock
Going to talk about Switchfoot, now, which probably has become my most-listened to band in some time now. They are a band from San Diego, California. The first time I've heard about them was probably in my youth, actually, when hearing their big songs like Dare You To Move, and Meant to live on radio and they were one of these bands that I keep heard about, but not really listen to for some reason. Then, one day, back in 2014, I read that they had an album out, "Fading West" and there were some good inspirational songs like When We Come Alive and Love Alone Is Worth The Fight, but the album felt a little too poppy for me at the time. Later that year, I heard that they were doing a live stream on Yahoo, and I thought, "Cool. Might as well watch it as a curio," and it turned out to be a good stream as I felt that the band was very welcoming to those that may not know too much about them which is an aura that I can appreciate. So I heard the albums like Hello Hurricane and their biggest album, The Beautiful Letdown, but one album seemed more gravitating to me and that was Vice Verses.
The Vice Verses album was an album that talked about the polarity of life. The album starts off with Afterlife and it had this AC/DC-ish galloping riff and it talked about discussing why do we have to wait to die to change ourselves for the better when now is the time to make something out of ourselves. One verse stood out to me though, "I still believe we could live forever. You and I we begin forever now. Forever now. Forever. I still believe in us together. You and I we're here together now. Forever now. Forever now. Or never now." Those lyrics come into play later in the album. The second track of the album is The Original and it had this indie rock vibe to me, I do not know how to describe it. The War Inside is next and the best way I can describe the sound is that it reminds me of the music that gets played before the start of sport games. Very slow-placed, and atmospheric, and builds anticipation for something to happen. Then came Restless and it is a ballad that talks about a journey and a goal and how a person won't stop in the journey to get what they are looking for.
Eventually, the album plays this song called Selling the News and it is a song that had vocalist Jon Foreman do some "rapping" and I think this song talks about the fabrication of news and how news media goes for the most craziest assumptions as oppose to actually doing research and know the facts before making their statements. They just want to tell the stories, no matter how farfetched it is, that get the highest views and ratings. The first single of the album, Dark Horses, showed up and it is a good song that can be made for active rock radio. Very energetic with a good message to not count out the underdogs in any scenario. Afterwards, came one of my favorite songs of the albun, Souvenirs, which is a song that reminisce of a time when a person is younger and thinks about the memories and talks about another person in that past where everything was so simple back then.
A feel-good song came next, Rise Above It, and this was a song that, to me, really captured was Switchfoot was about. It had a very chill vibe in some parts, had a good uplifting chorus, and had the lyrics talk about overcoming obstacles. I really enjoyed the bridge verse there, "Hear our voices rise. Hear our battle cry. We've been under the curse. With our arms raised high. Hear us sing tonight. Like the last night on earth. We will rise like the tide. Like dead men. Coming back to life. We are rising. Rising." It was very captivating. Then came, a primarily acoustic song, the title track, Vice Verses, I did not enjoy this song as much for some reason. The final track of the album was Where I Belong and it is the longest song of the album clocking at 6:52. This song had a good build-up to the verses and it talked about how we are mortal, there will come a moment, where our time will come to an end, but the song says how we should make the most of our time in between and head to the place and position in life where we feel like we are at home. The funny part about this song was that the final words of Where I Belong mirrors a verse in Afterlife, "I still believe we can live forever. You and I we begin forever now. Forever now. Forever. I still believe in us together. You and I we're here together now. Together now. Forever now," causing a solid bookend for the album.
Overall, Switchfoot crafted a very enjoyable album in Vice Verses ranging for the ballads, to the high-energy stuff, to the moody stuff and discusses the nuisances of the things we experience in life. As I mentioned earlier that they bring a good welcoming vibe in their songs and their personality which makes it really easy for people to get into them and Vice Verses is a good representative of that.
Favorites: Afterlife (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkyhJSU3AUY), Restless (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFJMGWuhSDM), Souvenirs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0o5Wvag7d4), Rise Above It (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRZ6iwkU7-0), and Where I Belong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3-7fjhYm2g)
-
Getting way too lazy to do these write-ups, especially since with the way I construct my posts as evident in these lengthy album write-ups, but I'm almost at the finish line, so let's get to it.
8. Daughtry - Leave This Town (2009)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/15/Daughtry_leave_this_town.png/220px-Daughtry_leave_this_town.png)
Alternative rock, pop rock, post-grunge, hard rock
So you're Chris Daughtry, a finalist in American Idol, and you somehow managed to release a debut album that was a very big hit at the time. What do you do as a follow up? Well, some people say that the sophomore album could be the death of a band as the follow-up to a big debut album could not possibly live up to the hype. Well, for me, I think it is quite the opposite as I found with bands like Alter Bridge and Sixx: A.M., the follow-up album is a great way to find out what made the debut good, what are your band's strengths, and how can we amplify it and release an album that shows that we're not a one-album wonder. I think the same can be said for Daughtry and it shows in this album, Leave This Town.
The album kicks off with You Don't Belong and I honestly feel that this song felt a little more moodier than most of the songs in the debut album. Had some good "angst" and emotion in the chorus. A good way to set the tone and show what this band can be made of outside of this is American Idol finalist, Chris Daughtry's band. Next came No Surprise, the first single of the album. It's a song that talks about making a decision that's going to be life-impacting where we know that the result is probably something we're not going to like, but it's one that has to happen, that's expected, that's no surprise. Oddly enough, I feel like this song talks about Chris Daughtry's time in American Idol, pretty much figuring out which songs he wants to sing, and how he wants to sing them, and he knows that whatever impressions he wants to make, he's only got one chance and that chance could affect the whole trajectory of his musical career.
Then came the upbeat Every time You Turn Around, followed by a heartwarming ballad Life After You, co-written by, yes, Nickelback's Chad Kroeger..... Life After You is pretty much a relationship song and how one person feels like life is meaningless without their beloved one. Eventually, came Open Up Your Eyes which goes back to a more somber mood, describing how after getting through an ordeal, we're finally able to see the light and how our life can officially begin after that ordeal in peace. Hence the chorus, "For the first time you can open your eyes. And see the world without your sorrow Where no one knows the pain you left behind. And all the peace you could never find Is waiting there to hold and keep you. Welcome to the first day of your life. Just open up your eyes, eyes."
It eventually lead to another big single, September. A song that talks about growing up and remembering certain enjoyable times in life and maybe in the town our childhood was, but there comes a time where we have to "Leave This Town" and make our mark out there. Following September was Ghost Of Me and this was another well-emotionally vocally delivered track from Daughtry. Learn My Lesson was another good ballad. There was one track I was not too keen of and that was Tennessee Line. Felt like it was too much of a "country ballad" to enjoy it. The album closes off with Call Your Name and it was acoustic for most of the song, but in the bridge, it had this nice heavy electric moment, making it a good closer.
Overall, Leave This Town was a great album from Daughtry, probably their best album. I think they certainly show that they are not an one-album wonder and Chris Daughtry shown that he's got the vocal chops to evoke good emotion from being cheery, to frustrated and angry, and in between.
Favorites: You Don't Belong (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Kg0jMUTK8), Life After You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n-TqUtbAv4), Open Up Your Eyes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv7jSt0KYPk), September (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvodfuIK8MY), and Ghost Of Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSKMifai37c)
-
Slowly getting to the finish line, one album at a time.
7. Breaking Benjamin - Dear Agony (2009)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6d/Breakingbenjamindearagony.jpg/220px-Breakingbenjamindearagony.jpg)
Alternative metal, post-grunge
So, Dear Agony. This is the follow-up to I think their biggest selling album, Phobia. For most fans, they think that Phobia is the best Breaking Benjamin album, but for me, I just did not enjoy that album as I did with Dear Agony, so let's get into the songs.
The album kicks off with Fade Away and if the verses sounds familiar to those that heard it, it sounds awfully familiar to their big track from the previous album, The Diary of Jane, however the chorus, thankfully, gave the song enough distinction where Fade Away does not sound like a direct copy of The Diary of Jane. Then came their first single of the album, I Will Not Bow and it's a good radio single, and talks about not conforming or giving in when things get tough.
Eventually comes Give Me A Sign, another single. Funny thing, I think I may have heard this song when listening on the radio back around 2009-2010, but I had no clue who the band was. All I knew was the chorus "I can feel you falling away. No longer the lost . No longer the same . And I can see you starting to break," so it was nice surprise back in 2015 hearing this album and hearing that chorus and think "Oh, this is the band that did that chorus," and it's a great song as well.
Other songs like What Lies Beneath, Crawl, Dear Agony, and Lights Out are great representatives of why I just enjoy this band and why I enjoy radio-friendly, post-grunge, and alternative metal music in general and I don't think anyone really did it better in that front than Breaking Benjamin did in terms of good, catchy songs and still find their way at the top of the active rock charts. Anthem of the Angels brought a more symphonic flair incorporating strings in the mixture and it actually sounds like something you would hear in a Disney film, to be honest, not that it is a bad thing. I still enjoy it.
I really enjoyed the two closing songs of the album the most, Into the Nothing and Without You and how they close the song with another verse, especially the closing words in Without You. "Holding the hand that holds me down. I forgive you, forget you, the end. Holding the hand that holds me down. I forgive you, forget you, the end." I had a great blast singing the karaoke tracks on Youtube of that song.
Overall, Breaking Benjamin created a great album and sound that suits their genre. Sure, Phobia gets all the craze in terms of that album making Breaking Benjamin a household name in rock, but I find Dear Agony a lot more enjoyable. Catchy singles, good songs, memorable choruses. Nothing innovative here, but they represent the alternative metal genre well. Sadly, this was their last album, before it all went to hell for Breaking Benjamin as Ben Burnley decided to kick out his bandmates for releasing some tracks to their record label that he did not approve, however, he did came back with a new line-up and released Dark Before Dawn, six years later after Dear Agony, and it was a good hit. Dear Agony still remains to be my favorite Breaking Benjamin album though.
Favorites: Give Me A Sign (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU2SoKWC68E), Lights Out (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIq9LCGgsdY), Dear Agony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47jKtdW3bI), Into The Nothing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q-BEIw9mds), and Without You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyklg6tKxiY)
-
All right, let's keep going.
6. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light (2011)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/Foo_Fighters_Wasting_Light_Album_Cover.jpg)
I quite like the story and inspiration behind the creation of Wasting Light. The backstory is this. So Foo Fighters had finally reached a pinnacle in their careers where they can say they are one of the biggest rock bands in the world around 2007-2008 and they solidify that point by doing two nights in Wembley Stadium in 2008. After reaching that point, where can they go from there? After the album tour of Echos, Silence, Patience and Grace, they did try to fiddle around and have song ideas, which the end result turned out to be Wheels and Word Forward that ended up in the Greatest Hits compliation, and some fans were not too enthused about it. I liked those songs, but I can understand it if it felt like Foo Fighters were just in cruise control rather than giving it their all creatively. Eventually, Foo Fighters decided to just call it a break as a band and spend 2009-2010 on side projects where the most notable one was obviously Dave Grohl with Them Crooked Vultures.
Anyway, after the side projects ran its course, around September 2010, they decided to get cracking on their 7th album and enlisted the producer that did Nirvana's Nevermind, Butch Vig, do be the producer of Wasting Light. Another interesting kicker is that if you know Dave Grohl, he really likes music to sound more natural and authentic and captures the human element of music without any computer tinkering and pro-tools and whatnot. For Wasting Light, he wanted Foo Fighters to record the album primarily on analog tape, and wanted to have a good atmosphere in making the album so they recorded it in Dave Grohl's own house.
The album kicks off with a bang with Bridge Burning and one of the few examples where I can clearly hear three guitars especially with how they start off with the intro. It started with Grohl, first, I think, then Chris Shiflett joined in, then Pat Smear gave an aggressive tone, before the bass/drums kicks in and Grohl sang these words "These are my famous last words!" and off they go with a solid opening song. Next came, their lead single Rope. I say it's a solid lead single that represents what Foo Fighters was trying to go for in terms of direction of the album. Eventually, came White Limo, and I think it is one of their most aggressive song ever where it really sounded like they made that song in a garage. I think they won a Grammy for that song, which DT's On the Backs of Angels was a nominee. Usually, in the live shows, White Limo segue into Arlandria, and the same came be said about in this album. Arlandria is a solid song, has solid soft sounding lyrics with a powerful chorus.
Another song that most people overlook, imo, when talking about this album was Back & Forth and it certainly had good punchyness to it and it talked about wanting to responses and answers from a person. Eventually came one of their deepest songs, I Should Have Known. The song describes about if a person had known that a person, they known for a long time, would make such a horrifying decision that leads to horrifying results, they may have prevented it somehow. Some people thinks that this song was about that if Dave Grohl knew that Kurt Cobain did what he did on his last day on Earth, maybe Grohl or Krist Novoselic could have done something about it. Speaking of Novoselic, he delivered a nice bass solo in the bridge of I Should Have Known. The album ends with one of my favorites of the album and probably the song that got me into Foo Fighters, Walk. I felt like it was a really exciting song that makes you feel motivated and makes you want to keep going in what you do best. That bridge was very excellent where Grohl just kept singing and after I read the bridge lyrics, and sang the lyrics, I was so gassed out. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if Grohl's face turned pink/purple while singing them. Anyway, Walk was an excellent closer and a great way to end the album on a fantastic note.
If anyone thought Foo Fighters was in a slump around the mid-2000s, they certainly rallied back nicely with Wasting Light, everything they wanted to do was going their way. They had motivating songs, aggressive-punk like songs, catchy singles, deep-gets you thinking songs, album hit #1 on Billboard 200, and numerous hits. Sadly, they stumbled a bit and probably took on a bit too much and kinda under-delivered with Sonic Highways, but Wasting Light still remains my favorite Foo Fighters album out of the bunch.
Favorites: Bridge Burning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtXDeCd_URc), Rope (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3rZUgQsh8), Arlandria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkHp_JLtxck), Back & Forth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J-4uLwkoBA), and Walk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax6UXyAXSZo)
-
Wow, two years ago since I've touched this. I apologize for the delay, but I think those that read my posts regarding albums probably have a good idea of what my top 5 is anyway, but still I want to finish it and give my fleshed out thoughts about them and why these albums mean so much to me in life. The reason for me pretty much putting this on hiatus was for many reasons. One thing, I got a job so that takes up my time. Another thing, I got back into playing World of Warcraft so that takes up my time as well. I'm really hoping that I can finish this by next week, but I can't promise anything. Before I get to my Top Five albums, since music is always ever changing and our tastes are ever evolving, I like to give a shout-out to some albums I have heard within the last two years that I would have definitely put on this list.
Alter Bridge - The Last Hero (2016)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c3/Alter_Bridge_-_The_Last_Hero_%28album_cover%29.jpg/220px-Alter_Bridge_-_The_Last_Hero_%28album_cover%29.jpg)
Everyone here that reads my posts know how much a big Alter Bridge fan I am, so I would have definitely put it in this list. Sadly, I would place it in the lower end of the list, lower than AB III. The production leaves to be much desire and that Elvis' production of having that wall of noise have reared its ugliness end and it affected this album making this fatiguing to listen to and layering Myles Kennedy's vocals so much in the tracks has made it harder to piece a lot of things in the songs. Still in light of its flaws, this is still a great album and my favorite album to listen to in 2016. All of the components to make a great AB album is here (vocals, riffs, solos, creative bridges, and of course the catchy choruses) and in full, very full, force. I did feel like their playing felt more urgent and chaotic at times given the overall subject matter of the album (trying to contemplate whether there is a hero left in our lives that everyone can look up to with the way our world is ever-changing).
Favorite: Cradle to the Grave (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOP0xDHnFxA), Crows on A Wire (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q0f4PXV6pw), Twilight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XbZsY7tMSc), Island of Fools (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=439eFObl61Q), and The Last Hero (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSf19GiD8-8)
Owl City - The Midsummer Station (2012)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bf/Owl_City_-_The_Midsummer_Station_cover_art.jpg/220px-Owl_City_-_The_Midsummer_Station_cover_art.jpg)
Laugh all you want, I would have definitely put an Owl City album in my Top 50. I won't give you the backstory of how I got into Owl City, I actually mentioned it in another thread, if you want to look at it. Sure, it's mainly pop and electronic music, but the cool part about it is that most of the instruments played is done by one guy, Adam Young, and that guy actually plays all of the instruments on it (piano, guitar, drums, keyboards, synthesizers, etc.). You are got your big singles, Shooting Star and Good Time (I hate that song due to it being overplayed so much at the time, but you got admit, it can be a catchy tune). You got a song that sounds like one of the more "mature" and experimental Blink-182 songs in the form of Dementia (part of the vocals were sang by Blink-182's Mark Hoppus). You got some good upbeat stuff in Speed Of Love and I'm Coming After You. I think what I like about Owl City albums is that there's a certain amount of innocence and whimsical that I feel like it's lacking at times in today's music. So if you like well-crafted pop and electronic music, you can't go wrong with Owl City. Just be aware of the whimsical puns that Adam Young puts in his music at times.
Favorites: Gold (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gpzr_v5PZA), Dementia featuring Blink-182's Mark Hoppus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGAgL6zb4Cg), I'm Coming After You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Kh_msmQnE), Dreams And Disasters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLxcTDQOZC0), and Take It All Way (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrBbvXwbRhQ)
Sixx:A.M. - Prayers for the Blessed (2016)
(https://i.siteapi.org/SUziOzJy1sBbSqGNJgy6gtPGRGo=/fit-in/330x/top/94cc808b8a8fab6.ru.s.siteapi.org/img/c02eab1a7cdfefcd445ea9144d39fe1be3813e56.jpg)
You know when you hear previews for an album and you get excited about it and you think, there is no way this album can live up to its hype? Somehow for me back in 2016, this Sixx:A.M. album lived up to the hype. Sixx:A.M. wanted to release two albums in 2016, Prayers for the Damned and Prayers for the Blessed and Prayers for the Blessed to me was the better album. This album to me represented why I love good post-grunge/alternative metal so much. Nikki Sixx, DJ Ashba, and James Michael really knocked it out of the park with good radio rock songs, a song whose bridge kinda resembled something along the veins of Queen (Riot in My Head), and probably the best song for them to end the double album saga on (Helicopters). This may be the best Sixx:A.M. album I may have ever heard and they have come up with some good stuff.
Favorites: Barbarians (Prayers for the Blessed) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38KYZGBJvxg), We Will Not Go Quietly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAX5zB6Rsj4), Wolf At Your Door (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouDikLkSpvw), Suffocate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnKPa7l_uss), and Helicopters (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylky4KIoC_c)
All right, there's plenty more albums I may want to give a shout-out to, but I've already took too much time writing this. Maybe if I'm in the mood, I'll do a V2. In any case, I shall finish rounding off my top five, hopefully by next week, let's see.
-
Wow, I didn’t realize you did not finish this! Sometimes life gets in the way...happened to me doing my Top Movies years ago while I was in the middle of moving to California. I finished it, but never jotted down my thoughts, just listed them. It takes time, especially when you have a busy life!
I’m digging The Last Hero (of course ;)) and Owl City selections.
I wonder what could be your Number 1 :lol
-
All right, guys. Post #2000. To commemorate this, I’m going to go ahead and commit to finish this thing. For real. Plus, I needed to get this post out of the way so I can go ahead and post on a lot of stuff (cellphones in concerts, new concerts that I bought tickets for, and playoff hockey). So that last post I made in this thread didn’t pan out well in terms of finishing my list due to the same reasons as the last time I finished my list (work, WoW, laziness, etc.). Don’t worry, I actually written out the last few albums writeups so therefore, I know I can finish this within the span of a week. So let’s finish this well.
5. Dream Theater - Awake (1994)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/65/Dream_Theater_-_Awake.jpg/220px-Dream_Theater_-_Awake.jpg)
Progressive Metal.
For the longest time, I really wanted to put DT12 as the 5th spot and there was good reasons to that. It was the latest album that Dream Theater released when I started getting into them around 2013. It was the album in promotion when I started posting in DTF. The songs was well-crafted. The lyrics in songs like The Bigger Picture and Behind the Veil really resonated with me at the time as it relates to my personal problems with relationships and stuff. I didn’t even mind the instrumental track, Enigma Machine as much as people disliked it at the time. Plus, they delivered a tremendous epic in the form of Illumination Theory. All in all makes this an easy album to include and rate highly in my Top 50.
That stated, when I first really listened to Awake, in full, probably around late 2017 or so, this was one of the rare albums pre-2000s that I didn’t dislike. Everyone that have read my posts here knows that I’m not much of a classic rock guy and that I only listed three albums pre-2000s in this list before I went on the hiatus (Led Zeppelin IV, Moving Pictures, Superunknown), but dang it, Awake was really good and I think it still holds up in terms of enjoyment factor for me better than DT’s other classic albums in the 90s (Images and Words and Scenes From a Memory).
To me, this was one of the albums that DT really delivered that has just the right amount of everything that makes them great (lyric-writing, going heavy at the right moments, instrumental sections that doesn't seem bloated, ballads with some vivid lyrics, etc.) Everything in this album has a nice blend of everything. 6:00 is a great opener, plus how can you not love “6:00 on a Christmas morning” opening line? Caught in a Web sounds like it would have been a tremendous radio single that wouldn't bore mainstream rock listeners if people were more into metal than the grunge bands. Innocence Faded sounded like it would have belonged as a theme song on TV dramas like Beverly Hills 90210, but the lyrical topic about losing innocence and relationships deteriorating as you get older hits so hard. It had that sound that has that “that’s so 90s” vibe, but I still like it.
I loved the A Mind Beside Itself series and I think I would pegged Erotomania as my favorite DT instrumental. I loved how they seamlessly went from one section to another section in that instrumental so smoothly. I think Voices was not really one of my faves, but still a good song, but A Silent Man really showed what they can do in a non-heavy acoustic setting and not make the song feel out of place with their discography. Plus, JP's guitar work on the bridge is so well-crafted.
The latter half of the album I think I already discussed in the Breaking the Fourth Wall album, but I still enjoy The Mirror/Lie combo. Lifting Shadows off a Dream is a great song. John Myung wrote some great lyrics in that one (we all know he has such a great track record when it comes to lyric-writing) and the last chorus with the backing vocals was well done. Scarred is a solid 11 minutes song, and Space-Dye Vest is a weird song, but a very potent song since it was a Kevin Moore song and he left the band not soon after the album was done. I enjoyed when they did the live version of it better than the studio album though. I feel like they really nailed the last section of it with the JP’s solo.
Anyway, Images and Words and Scenes from a Memory may get all the praise, and rightfully so, in the DT lore as their best albums, but I feel like Awake really highlights the absolute best of DT. It’s a bloody shame what happened in the aftermath that causes this album to be more of the unsung hero of albums (Kevin Moore leaving, JLB blowing his voice out in the food poisoning incident, album sales wasn’t as hot as Images and Words, which as a result, caused their record label to want them to go another direction, etc.). Still, looking back now, Awake still holds up nicely in the now which is quite a feat since this album was 25 years ago and I have no argument rating this as my favorite Dream Theater album.
Favorites: 6:00, Innocence Faded, Erotomania, Lifting Shadows Off a Dream, and Space-Dye Vest
All right, that's out of the way. I got #4 already written and #3 in process of being written. These posts moving forward are going to be long like my posts always are in that stream of consciousness kinda vibe. Hope I can make it to the end this time.
-
eagerly awaiting your next update in 2020 :corn