Well hello everyone, and welcome to my top 50. I'm pretty sure a lot of you here may not be the most familiar with who I am, but I'm hoping that making this may change that a little.
Let me start off by giving a few details about this list
-No Repeats
-This list will be mostly metal (of all kinds, melodeath, power, black, thrash, you name it, it's probably on this list)
-there is one album on this list that was released this year
-I'll try to update this daily, and if I have to take a break of any for a few or more day's I'll make sure to post in here about it.
-3 albums at a time since i tend to write a lot about them when I get to it.
So without and further wait...let's begin!
I decided to start off this list at #5 with the first metal album I ever heard.
#50. Persuader - Evolution Purgatory (2004) It's September 2010, and I'm sitting at my computer bored as all get out, talking to one of my friends who I've known online for little over a year at this point. Up to this point I had only really listened to a few bands (Dave Matthews Band, 3 Doors Down, a few 80's pop bands, and some generic radio country), but I was getting tired of the things I was listening to, and this friend was the only real friend I had who listened to any kind of music I wasn't familiar with (That being Metal obviously.) So I decide that day to actually ask for a recommendation or two, and so after a minute or two he comes back with a small list of stuff (mostly nu metal, melodeath, and power metal stuff). One of the songs on this list is the song To The End by a Power Metal band called Persuader, and even though a lot of the other songs on the list was good, and one band on this list would go on to be one of my favorites (more on that later) this song was the one that really grabbed me, and was the first time I had ever heard a metal song and thought "wow...I've gotta listen to this album." So I did after a couple of days...and what I heard changed the way I listened to music forever.
The album itself is a blend of power metal of the like of Blind guardian, but with a bit more of an aggressive, almost thrashy approach (Think Iced Earth meets Blind Guardian). The songs are catchy, but at the same time aggressive and relentless. If there was ever an album I'd use to get someone into power metal, it would most certainly be this one, seeing as how this isn't your typical cheesy power metal album, but at the same time this album is also one I could recommend to pretty much anyone who's a fan of Power/Traditional heavy metal, and yes even though the vocals of Jens Carlsson are very similar to that of Hansi Kürsch of Blind Guardian, his voice (much like this band's music) is a lot more aggressive and really compliments the style of the band.
Definitely recommended to fans of: Power Metal/Traditional Heavy Metal
Stand out Tracks:
To The End, Sanity Soiled, Strike Down#49. Saxon - Linoheart (2004) Saxon is a band that's actually been around quite a while, having come out of the same wave as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, however unlike their contemporaries, they never quite received the same recognitionas they did. Between 1976 and 2012 they have released 20 studio albums, and this one I'm reviewing today is their 2004 album Lionheart.
Much unlike many other well known metal bands that came out of their time, I feel that they've managed to not only remain true to their original sound, but actually make better and better albums as time went on, coming up at this album, which i feel is their best. This album manages to sound like a classic 80's heavy metal album, without sounding too dated, and for a band to have been around this long and manage to still stay relevant like that I've definitely gotta give them a lot of credit for that.
This album is one that is full of great songs, from the intense shredder Witchfinder General, to the cassical vibes of English Man o'War, to the epic war ballad Lionheart, and is definitely one that fans of classic metal and modern metal alike can enjoy.
Highly Recommended to: fans of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, or any tradiontal heavy metal
Stand out tracks:
Lionheart, Witchfinder General, To Live By The Sword, English Man O'War#48. Rush - Moving Pictures (1981) I almost don't really need to write up anything for this album, so I'll keep things brief.
This album is another that was quite important to my growth as a music fan, as it allowed me to get into prog-rock which eventually led to me getting into prog-metal bands like Symphony X, Dream Theater, Opeth, and so on.
An all around classic that I feel everyone who's a fan of rock, or hell music in in general, should listen to at least once, and is one that even in times I've burnt the hell out on Rush, I can still go back and enjoy just as I did when I was 13 and had just started listening to them.
Recommended to: Everyone
Stand out tracks: all of them pretty much, I can't really bring myself to choose.
That's all for my first update (I might post another one later today if any one is interested, since I have to go out of town tomorrow). I hope at least someone might be turned on to something new by this list.