Mister Gold's Top 50 Albums - "Here at the End of All Things"

[Mister Gold]

15. Rush - Grace Under Pressure (1984)

This is where it's at. This is Rush's creative masterpiece. While I absolutely adore their work through out the Seventies, as well as most of their other albums from the Eighties, Rush has never put out a better album than Grace Under Pressure. The band manages to seamlessly blend together Alex's lush guitarwork with Geddy's textured and haunting keyboards to create a collection of sounds that is both beautiful and eerie. I get chills listening to this album. Unsurprisingly, some of Neil's best lyrics are on this album too.

While we all love to give Hugh Syme a lot of flack for how lazy and uninspired his album covers generally are these days, it's nice to go back sometimes and see covers where he did put in a lot of work. This is probably my favorite of his covers. It's so bright and colorful, but you can still sense that foreboding quality lurking within the music.

[?]

Not among my absolute favorite Rush albums, but probably my favorite synth era release - I like the dark vibe of the songs and the balance between guitars and keyboards is perfect.

[nicmos]

this definitely has some of Alex's greatest solos.  Afterimage and Between the Wheels come to mind immediately.  I'm surprised since I can't remember anyone else listing this as their favorite Rush album.  But there's nothing wrong with that!  I also agree that the lyrics are often great.  I think it was a step up from Signals in music and lyrics for sure.

[jjrock88]

fantastic Rush album!

[Lowdz]

this definitely has some of Alex's greatest solos.  Afterimage and Between the Wheels come to mind immediately.  I'm surprised since I can't remember anyone else listing this as their favorite Rush album.  But there's nothing wrong with that!  I also agree that the lyrics are often great.  I think it was a step up from Signals in music and lyrics for sure.

Agreed. The whole package was great - one of my favourite album covers too. I was close to including this or Power Windows in my top 50 but I had a 2 album per band limit and 2112 and AFTK exist. I wore the vinyl out in the 80s though.

[wolfking]

Probably my favourite Rush album, amazing.

[Mister Gold]

Probably my favourite Rush album, amazing.

Nice pick, then!

this definitely has some of Alex's greatest solos.  Afterimage and Between the Wheels come to mind immediately.  I'm surprised since I can't remember anyone else listing this as their favorite Rush album.  But there's nothing wrong with that!  I also agree that the lyrics are often great.  I think it was a step up from Signals in music and lyrics for sure.

Between the Wheels is sooo good. I love that song to death!

[nicmos]

Between the Wheels is sooo good. I love that song to death!

agreed.  probably my fave, I look forward to it at the end of the album.

[Mister Gold]

14. Conception - Flow (1997)

I mentioned earlier that both Tommy Karevik and Roy Khan have made better albums outside of their work in Kamelot. I made the mistake of forgetting to include Seventh Wonder's exquisite concept album, Mercy Falls, on this list, but I thankfully didn't make that mistake with Flow. This isn't Roy's masterpiece, in my opinion, but it's not far behind that album.

Conception's previous albums were all more musically complex and closer to the typical vision of what progressive metal is. Furthermore, Roy previously utilized a lot more of his upper vocal range on the previous albums and would even utilize it some more on his first two albums with Kamelot. Here he sounds eerily similar to how he sounded on The Black Halo. Flow is a smoother album and one of its strongest suits is how well it... err... flows. The songs are a little shorter than normal and more simplistic, but I wouldn't call this album a sell-out.

Why?

This album is incredibly atmospheric. In a way, this album is Conception's Rage for Order. It sounds and feels like an album that was way ahead of its time. In fact, I almost feel like modern music is just now starting to catch up with Flow.

[Mister Gold]

Looks like no one has any comments on this most recent update, so I'll just move along then.



13. Megadeth – Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? (1986)

Forget about Rust in Peace, this is Megadeth’s best album. While the former lineup might have been a more technically proficient unit, the original Megadeth lineup had something special. They had that illustrious “feeling” that people talk about all the time. They could play their asses off, but there was also an emotive quality to their music. My guess is that probably stems from the presence of Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland.

Speaking of Mr. Poland, he is my personal favorite of any guitarist to ever play in Megadeth. His work on the first two albums was terrific and it was hardly surprising that Dave Mustaine tried to coax him to rejoin the band twice (once while making Rust in Peace and then again with The System Has Failed Us). While Poland hasn't had a very successful career post-Deth, he has put out some quality instrumental work.

[Scorpion]

Yes yes yes yes yes! It's not my favourite Deth album, but it's up there. Poland is an incredible guitarist - Good Mourning/Black Friday would like to have word with anyone who disagrees. I do find the title track ever so slightly overrated - it's good, sure, but half the album is better, and it seems it's the only song that anyone ever talks about on this album. My favourites would be GM/BF, Devil's Island, Wake Up Dead and My Last Words. The cover is pretty bad, but the rest is amazing.

[Mister Gold]

Yes yes yes yes yes! It's not my favourite Deth album, but it's up there. Poland is an incredible guitarist - Good Mourning/Black Friday would like to have word with anyone who disagrees. I do find the title track ever so slightly overrated - it's good, sure, but half the album is better, and it seems it's the only song that anyone ever talks about on this album. My favourites would be GM/BF, Devil's Island, Wake Up Dead and My Last Words. The cover is pretty bad, but the rest is amazing.

YES. I absolutely love GM/BF! It seems we have similar opinions on the album, aside from rankings in the Deth albums and the cover.

Have you ever listened to Conception? Great band!

[Scorpion]

Nope! I love Roy Khan's voice though, and the fact that you place it higher than The Black Halo is intriguing. Put it down on mah "list of stuff to check out".

[Mister Gold]

Nope! I love Roy Khan's voice though, and the fact that you place it higher than The Black Halo is intriguing. Put it down on mah "list of stuff to check out".

As I mentioned, there's another album yet that I think is Roy Khan's masterpiece. Flow is definitely worth checking out though!

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Forget about Rust in Peace, this is Megadeth’s best album.

Nooooo way. Peace Sells is amazing but RIP is Megadeth at their absolute peak. Still, not gonna complain too much about it being here--not a bad song on it.

[bl5150]

you know I love Conception man..............just haven't been about.

I love about half of Flow but prefer the previous album.
Megadeth........like that too but much prefer RIP too.

[wolfking]

Top 3 Deth album.

Man, I gotta check Conception.  A lot of you guys have bugged me time and time again to check them, but man, I gotta do it.

[Mister Gold]

you know I love Conception man..............just haven't been about.

I love about half of Flow but prefer the previous album.
Megadeth........like that too but much prefer RIP too.

Shh... don't ruin the surprise! That being said, I love the whole album of Flow. But that's just me, I guess!

Top 3 Deth album.

Man, I gotta check Conception.  A lot of you guys have bugged me time and time again to check them, but man, I gotta do it.

Dude, definitely check 'em out.

[CrimsonSunrise]

I'm going to have to check Flow out.  I recently just discovered Kamelot, and Kahn.  He has an incredible voice.

[Mister Gold]

I'm going to have to check Flow out.  I recently just discovered Kamelot, and Kahn.  He has an incredible voice.

Also check out Parallel Minds and In Your Multitude.

[CrimsonSunrise]

Also check out Parallel Minds and In Your Multitude.

Will do!  Thanks man!  It's funny, my wife put's up with most of my music.  But she genuinly loves Kahn's voice on Black Halo. So hopefully your recommendations will give us some more common music. 

[Mister Gold]

Also check out Parallel Minds and In Your Multitude.

Will do!  Thanks man!  It's funny, my wife put's up with most of my music.  But she genuinly loves Kahn's voice on Black Halo. So hopefully your recommendations will give us some more common music. 

Hopefully! But I should warn you that Conception is a bit different from Kamelot musically (they're like a heavier, proggier Queensryche) and Khan sings a little differently on most of their albums than how he usually did with Kamelot, as he uses more of his higher vocal register. If you want to get your wife into them, I'd probably start her off with Flow, as that's the album where he sounds closest to how he did on Black Halo.

[The King in Crimson]

I definitely agree that Peace Sells... is the best 'Deth album. RiP may be the flashier, more famous album, but there is something very timeless about Peace Sells... If it wasn't for the presence of "I Ain't Superstitious," (which sucks something fierce) Peace Sells... would be the perfect thrash album.

Edit: Also props for having the best of Rush's 80's output on the list too.

[TAC]

I saw Megadeth on the Peace Sells tour. Was awesome to see Gar live!

A great album, for sure!!

[Mister Gold]

I saw Megadeth on the Peace Sells tour. Was awesome to see Gar live!

A great album, for sure!!

All of my envy and respect, TAC!

[Mister Gold]

12. Arch/Matheos – Sympathetic Resonance (2011)

This album was the other blind purchase I made in Pensacola and it was the album that led to my discovery of Fates Warning. While John Arch’s voice certainly takes some getting used to, I consider him to be one of the greatest vocalists in metal history. Yes, his tone is incredibly nasally and bizarre, he makes up for it with his positively brilliant vocal melodies. Arch’s voice slithers and coils around the music, accenting it perfectly. It’s like listening to Bruce Dickinson with a cold while he's trying to charm a cobra with only his voice.

The music itself is superb. It's like a modern day Rust in Peace, only more proggy.

[bl5150]

I have this (based on some very positive reviews at the time) but never got around to giving it a listen 

[Mister Gold]

I have this (based on some very positive reviews at the time) but never got around to giving it a listen 

LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM! ASAP.

It's absolutely glorious.

[nicmos]

a little late, but thanks for putting Conception:Flow on your list, I hadn't heard of that. listening on youtube and it sounds great.

[Lowdz]

The vocals kill Arch/Mattheos for me. And it felt one dimensional. Just  didn't do it for me.

[Mindflux]

Incense and Myrrh is absolutely my favorite track on the album too! Such a good disc.

[TAC]

A/M is an incredible album. One of the best albums released in the last 5-10 years IMO.

[nicmos]

I definitely see some parallels between Ride The Lightning-Master of Puppets and Peace Sells-Rust in Peace.  In both cases, I like the earlier one a lot, but I like the later one more.  I just feel like it's a little more polished and the songwriting is better.

[Mister Gold]

11. Fates Warning – A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)

I love Fates Warning. They’re one of the greatest progressive metal bands ever. As far as the classic bands go (i.e. Queensryche, Dream Theater, Crimson Glory), these guys are my favorite. They have never really put out a bad album in their whole career. As far as the Ray Alder era goes, this is their masterpiece. Ray gives an incredible performance while at the absolute height of his vocal capabilities, Jim Matheos’ playing makes up for the lack of Frank Aresti and Kevin Moore’s contributions set up a special atmosphere. A special sentence is reserved for drum extraordinaire, Mark Zonder, who is one of my absolute favorite drummers ever. The man is wildly creative with his drumwork, especially with his appearances on his FW albums.

The idea of an album that is one massive song is not a new one. Nor is the idea of a song split up into multiple different pieces. But I don't really know if I can think of any other album where both ideas were implemented together as one; a whole album-sized song that is split up into a bunch of different parts. In more ways than one, this entire album is Jim Matheos' creative masterwork.

But the title of my favorite Fates Warning album belongs to another album...
 

[TAC]

I agree with what you say, but to me, I feel APSOG is a bit overblown. That recurring theme drives me insane. And Jim Matheos has to be the most depressing guy on earth.

I will say that three songs on this are among my FW Top 10.
Part 6 We're Not Children Anymore
Part 9 Where You Are (I Am)
Part 11 Do You Think That I

Those are the titles I gave them on my iPod.