30. Joe Satriani - Crystal Planet (1998)Satch was the first guitar hero I got into as I just started learning the guitar. His style, sense of melody, song writing and basic ability to make a song sing with just the use of the guitar was inspiring. Crystal Planet was one of the first albums I got from him, and even though Surfing and Blue Dream did take up a lot of my time, Crystal Planet floored me and IMO is Satch's best work to date. Furious guitar playing with lots of songs with plenty of balls, heaviness and exceptional melodies. When studying the guitar, I purchased the tab book and learnt most of the album. I loved these songs so much when I was doing guitar exams in my teens years, on three seperate occasions I picked songs from this album to play as the free choice. Brilliant melodies and guitar playing and simply one of the best instrumental guitar albums of all time IMO.
Best tracks - Up in the Sky, Crystal Planet, Ceremony, Lights of Heaven, Time, Secret Prayer, A Train of Angels
Up in the Sky -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H99CaTY3uoCrystal Planet -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZFWLEFLXqQ29. Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time (1986)Not much to say that hasn't been said about this album from most of you Maiden fans on here. The shift in style here worked so damn well for Maiden it was scary. A perfect bland of metal and synths made these songs incredible. Every track has great atmosphere, amazing sound and tones and just perfectly performed. Great to see Adrian take more of a lead role here and adding his style of melodic/AOR sort of rock on the hit singles. Being my fav band of all time and discovering this at the age of 13 rocked my world, and I still love it as much to this day.
Best tracks - Caught Somewhere in Time, Sea of Madness, The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner, Stranger in a Strange Land
Caught Somewhere in Time -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3fVDCtc0OYSea of Madness -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47gxm1m2jus28. Ark - Burn the Sun (2001)This is simply one of the best, most underrated prog metal albums of all time. The all star band only lasted two albums with this being the sophomore release. The lineup of this album consisted of; Jorn Lande, Randy Cover, Tore Ostby, John Macaluso and Mats Olausson. This band shoud have been bigger but unfortunely it just didn't work out. This album is dark, progressive, sometimes twisted, sometimes beautiful, heavy, melodic, simply wonderful. Lots of variety in the songs and every track has something different to offer. The mood shifts from prog, prog metal, AOR, acoustic, industrial with a class ballad too. Of course having Jorn Lande at the mic certainly doesn't hurt the quality either. Killer songs and amazing performances throughout, everyone should check this album out pronto. Also, check the song Noose for the inspiration for DT's This Dying Soul.
Best tracks - Heal the Waters, Torn, Burn the Sun, Noose, Feed the Fire, Missing You
Heal the Waters -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9zFICL-Lng (studio)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPyOUBZKu98 (live)
Torn -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNu4CsolUyM