#38. Esoteric – The Maniacal Vale (2008) 
Some albums are heavy because of how fast and aggressive the music is…and some are heavy because of how brutally slow and crushing they are…and then some albums are Esoteric albums.
Let’s get a little explanation out of the way, Esoteric plays funeral doom metal…and if you’re not familiar with funeral doom metal, well it’s basically what you get if you take standard doom metal and slowed it WAAAAAAAAAY the fuck down. FDM is usually very atmospheric and very emotional (depressed) music, and is certainly a genre that is not for everyone (more so than almost any other genre of metal)
Now Esoteric is a FDM band, but this album goes a little bit beyond your typical funeral style, and almost feels like an album that’s hard to pin down, as I’ve seen many different tags for this (Extreme Funeral Doom, Psychedelic Doom, Progressive Funeral Doom, you name it). The album really sells itself on it’s dark atmosphere, and build up in the song structure.
Take the 20 minute opening track Circle, the song starts out with a simple guitar intro, but as more and more instruments start to join in you start to feel the song build and build, and as the song progresses on your treated to what can only be described as a descent into insanity, it’s very powerful stuff imo.
To keep this relatively short (I could do a long drawn out review of this album, but I won’t for the sake of this top 50) this album will probably crush your very soul, with it’s brutally slow tempos, and dark desperate atmosphere. It’s definitely only one for the extremely open minded, and one that will likely take many a listen to truly appreciate (for me it took about 4 or 5)
Recommended to: Crazy masochistic people like me with a tolerance for almost anything metal
Stand out tracks: I won’t list any since this album really lends itself to the full experience.
#37. Porcupine Tree – Deadwing (2005) 
Now for the other side of the coin.
Most everyone here is familiar with this album so I’ll keep it short.
Being the music fan I am, and preferring metal over prog 9 times out of ten, this album is my favorite Porcupine Tree album, sure other works like In Absentia and Fear of a Dead Planet have individual songs I like more, on an overall level, this album is the one that just sticks with me most.
The album manages to blend Prog-rock with metal in a way that few other albums I’ve heard have, and is definitely one that any fan of either genre could get into.
Recommended to: prog rock fans, and metal fans
Stand out tracks:
Arriving Somewhere, Deadwing, Lazarus, Shallow #36. Undead Corporation - 一撃 (2011) 
Okay…so a lot of you may be wondering what the fuck you’re looking at here.
Well Undead Corporation is another melodic death band, who plays metal in the vein of bands like In Flames and Soilwork…but unlike those bands this band writes all of their songs based around songs from the semi-famous Japanese PC game-made-by-one-lonely-guy-in-his-basement called “Touhou”
I won’t talk much about the games because I’m almost 95% sure no one would care, but they’re basically shoot ‘em up game except you play as a magical girl,
oh and the games are insanely hard even on easier settings. But what draws a lot of people to the games is the soundtrack, and this band (and many other bands) took it upon themselves to make metal remixes of various songs from the game.
This band takes it to the next level though, by actually including vocal arrangements (which isn’t all to uncommon in this here “scene” but still commendable.
Also, for those who aren’t fans of harsh vocals, you’re in luck, since the album actually comes with instrumental versions of all the tracks.
Recommended to: Fans of In Flames, Soilwork, and other melodeath bands
Stand out tracks:
The Silent World, Put a Curse on You, Magus Night Fever, World No Hope Remains.
Topic: BanksD's Top 50 Albums V. It's over (Read 24939 times)
