Author Topic: Most powerful album closers by decade?  (Read 1472 times)

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Offline nicmos

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Most powerful album closers by decade?
« on: November 28, 2022, 04:34:16 PM »
Album closers have a tendency to be quality songs.  In particular, some of them tend to pack more of an emotional punch than the average track on the album.

Curious what you all think the most powerful album closers are.  Not just the best, but in particular the most powerful.  For example, Brain Damage/Eclipse or When the Levee Breaks are course a wonderful way to close an album, but I don't know that they're the most emotionally powerful I can think of (see below).

Also, there's many cases where Epics or multi-part songs are at the end.  I am going to stay away from those, as there are any number that might qualify.  I'm more thinking of songs that are roughly on equal footing with the other songs on the album.

To start, here's some possible picks off the top of my head.  Many of them are from ultra-popular bands, but they don't have to be.

60's: Beatles - A Day in the Life
70's: The Who - Love Reign O'er Me
80's: Metallica - Damage Inc.
90's: Live - White, Discussion
00's: ??
10's: Devin Townsend Project - Angel
20's:??

Curious what you all think.  I was having trouble thinking of non-epics from the 00's.

Offline soupytwist

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2022, 05:44:32 PM »
Does 'White, discussion' count as Throwing Copper has 'Horse' as a final secret track on the CD - and is now listed on streaming services

For the 80's I'd throw Hallowed be thy Name and Purple Rain into contention.

As for the 00's I'd go with Comforting Sounds by Mew.
« Last Edit: November 28, 2022, 05:55:55 PM by soupytwist »

Offline coz

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2022, 09:12:22 PM »
For 00's my favorites are:
Rush - Crossroads
Johnny Cash - We'll Meet Again
Dream Theater - Losing Time Grand Finale
Spock's Beard - Made Alive Again / Wind at My Back
"Weird Al" Yankovic - Genius in France
 Iron Maiden - The Thin Line Between Love & Hate
Avenged Sevenfold - MIA
Oysterhead - Owner of the World
System of a Down - Aerials
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Offline Lethean

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2022, 07:02:39 AM »
Are we purposely avoiding epics?  Because Finally Free seems like it would be my choice for the 90s...

Offline Lonk

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2022, 07:21:16 AM »
For 00's, I would go with either:

Gojira - Global Warming
Coheed and Cambria - The Final Cut

For 20's:

Mastodon - Gigantium
Coheed and Cambria - Window of the Waking Mind
Porcupine Tree - Chimera's Wreck
Vmadera has evolved into Lonk

Offline twosuitsluke

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2022, 07:25:46 AM »
For 00's, I would go with either:

Coheed and Cambria - The Final Cut

For 20's:

Mastodon - Gigantium
Coheed and Cambria - Window of the Waking Mind

Can't fault these choices at all! Global Warming is great ad well, just not as good as these three!

Online King Postwhore

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #6 on: November 29, 2022, 11:54:56 AM »
I actually made a playlist to my favorite ending album songs titled, "The End is Everything. "







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Offline pg1067

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #7 on: November 29, 2022, 01:19:20 PM »
'60s: The Beatles - Day Tripper (not a lot of competition here)
'70s: Yes - Awaken or Ritual
'80s: Iron Maiden - To Tame a Land or Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys
'90s: Dream Theater - Learning to Live
'00s: Dream Theater - Octavarium
'10s: Fates Warning - And Yet It Moves
'20s: ??
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Online Stadler

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2022, 01:31:39 PM »
'60s: The Beatles - Day Tripper (not a lot of competition here)
'70s: Yes - Awaken or Ritual
'80s: Iron Maiden - To Tame a Land or Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys
'90s: Dream Theater - Learning to Live
'00s: Dream Theater - Octavarium
'10s: Fates Warning - And Yet It Moves
'20s: ??

Do you mean "A Day In The Life"?   "Day Tripper" was originally only released as a single.    Good call with "Learning to Live", though.

Offline HOF

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2022, 02:10:10 PM »
70s: King Crimson - Starless
80s: Queensryche - Eyes of a Stranger
90s:  Marillion - King
00's: Transatlantic - Stranger In Your Soul
10's: Big Big Train - Curator of Butterflies 
20's: Marillion - Care

Others from the 70s:
- Genesis - Los Endos
- Genesis - Afterglow
- Steve Hacket - Icarus Ascending
- Camel - Ice
- Yes - To Be Over
- King Crimson - Islands

Others from the 80s:
- Rush - Available Light
- Tears for Fears - Famous Last Words
- The Blue Nile - Automobile Noise
- Talk Talk - Wealth
- Marillion - The Last Straw
- Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes
- Journey - Why Can't This Night Go On Forever
- Camel - Long Goodbyes
- U2 - MLK
- Rush - Between the Wheels

Others from the 90s:
- Dream Theater - Trial of Tears
- The Flower Kings - The Road Back Home
- Eric Johnson - Venus Reprise
- King's X - Life Going By
- Kip Winger - Here
- Queensryche - Someone Else?
- Rush - Everyday Glory
- Winger - Who's the One
- Dream Theater - Learning to Live
- Peter Gabriel - Secret World
- Toad the Wet Sprocket - I Will Not Take These Things for Granted
- The Blue Nile - Soon
- Genesis - Fading Lights

Others from the 00s:
- Spock's Beard - The Great Nothing
- Enchant - Comatose
- Big Big Train - Summer's Lease
- Peter Gabriel - The Drop
- Porcupine Tree - Collapse the Light Into Earth
- Ty Tabor - I Don't Mind
- King's X - Move Me/Move Me Pt. 2
- Mike Keneally and Beer for Dolphins - Kedgeree
- Neil Finn - Into the Sunset
- Mew - Comforting Sounds

Others from the 10s:
- The Clientele - The Age of Miracles
- Spock's Beard - Beginnings
- Marillion - The Sky Above The Rain
- Flying Colors - Cosmic Symphony
- The Fringe - Yours to Steal
- Big Big Train - Telling the Bees
- Fernando Perdomo - Gold
- Sweet Billy Pilgrim - These Sudden Stars

Others from 20s:
- Dyble Longdon - Heartwashing
- Big Big Train - Endnotes
- Tears for Fears - Stay
- Dim Gray - Meridian
« Last Edit: November 29, 2022, 02:21:07 PM by HOF »

Offline emtee

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2022, 02:19:38 PM »
I have to give a +1 to QR's Someone Else. I think it may be my favorite recorded vocal performance of all time.

Offline twosuitsluke

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2022, 02:20:56 PM »
OK let's do this...

60s -
The Beatles - Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End (yea I always consider this as one song)

70s -
Pink Floyd - Shine on You Crazy Diamond Pt. 2

80s -
Metallica - The Call of Ktulu

Honourable Mentions:
Slayer - Raining Blood

90s -
Megadeth - Rust in Peace...Polaris

Honourable Mentions:
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Pantera - The Art of Shredding
The Offspring - Pay the Man

2000s -
Coheed and Cambria - The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut

Honourable Mentions:
Children of Bodom - Downfall
Coheed and Cambria - 2113
Opeth - Isolation Years
Dream Theater - Octavarium
Tenacious D - Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)
Turisas - Miklagard Overture
The King Blues - What if Punk Never Happened
Scar Symmetry - Ghost Prototype II: Deus Ex Machina
Opeth - Hex Omega
Trivium - Shogun
Mastodon - The Last Baron
Metallica - My Apocalypse

2010s -
Haken - Visions

Honourable Mentions:
Diablo Swing Orchestra - Justice for St. Mary
Haken - Celestial Elixir
Dream Theater - Illumination Theory
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Han-tyumi and the Murder of the Universe Suite
Caligula's Horse - Graves
Mastodon - Jaguar God
Avenged Sevenfold - Exist
Leprous - The Sky is Red

2020s -
Coheed and Cambria - Window of the Waking Mind

Honourable Mentions:
Mastodon - Gigantium
Frank Turner - Farewell to My City

Offline Revenge319

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #12 on: November 29, 2022, 02:46:51 PM »
I don't really know much from before the 90s, so I'll just be ranking my favorites from the 90s, 00s, and 10s. Some of these are emotionally powerful in different ways than one might expect, but I love all these album closers a lot.

1990s:
1. Devin Townsend - Things Beyond Things
2. Dream Theater - Finally Free
3. Dream Theater - Trial of Tears
4. Dream Theater - Learning to Live
5. Dream Theater - Space-Dye Vest
6. Liquid Tension Experiment - Three Minute Warning

2000s:
1. Dream Theater - Octavarium
2. Dream Theater - The Count of Tuscany
3. Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Porcupine Tree - Glass Arm Shattering
5. Riverside - Hybrid Times
6. Transatlantic - Dancing With Eternal Glory/Whirlwind (Reprise)
7. Porcupine Tree - Collapse the Light Into Earth
8. The Dear Hunter - Vital Vessels Vindicate
9. Transatlantic - Stranger in Your Soul

2010s:
1. Dream Theater - Illumination Theory
2. The Dear Hunter - A Beginning
3. Haken - Visions
4. Haken - Somebody
5. The Dear Hunter - Lost But Not All Gone
6. Between the Buried and Me - The Grid
7. Lemm - ASTER

Offline pg1067

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #13 on: November 29, 2022, 03:27:14 PM »
'60s: The Beatles - Day Tripper (not a lot of competition here)
'70s: Yes - Awaken or Ritual
'80s: Iron Maiden - To Tame a Land or Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys
'90s: Dream Theater - Learning to Live
'00s: Dream Theater - Octavarium
'10s: Fates Warning - And Yet It Moves
'20s: ??

Do you mean "A Day In The Life"?   "Day Tripper" was originally only released as a single.    Good call with "Learning to Live", though.

No.  I don't really care for A Day in the Life.  My '60s catalog is limited to Beatles albums and the first two Zeppelin albums.  I'm not a big fan of How Many More Times or Bring It on Home, so I ran through the Beatles catalog and mostly came up empty.  However, while Day Tripper was originally released as a single, it's also the last track on the Yesterday and Today album (the one with the butcher cover).  If it weren't that, I'd go with Tomorrow Never Knows or Get Back.
"There's a bass solo in a song called Metropolis where I do a bass solo."  John Myung

Offline wolfking

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #14 on: November 29, 2022, 03:43:23 PM »
A couple not mentioned by the looks;

Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name
Between the Buried and Me - White Walls.
Everyone else, except Wolfking is wrong.

Offline coz

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #15 on: November 29, 2022, 04:48:23 PM »
'20s
Trivium - The Ones We Leave Behind
Foo Fighters - Love Dies Young
~Carlos
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Offline pg1067

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #16 on: November 29, 2022, 05:24:47 PM »
Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name

Maiden was particularly strong here.

- Hallowed Be Thy Name
- To Tame a Land
- Rime of the Ancient Mariner
- Alexander the Great
- Fear of the Dark
"There's a bass solo in a song called Metropolis where I do a bass solo."  John Myung

Offline TAC

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #17 on: November 29, 2022, 06:09:36 PM »
I'm going to play...A few off the top of my head..

60's: Before my time  ;D

70's:
Alice Cooper-Killer
Kiss-Black Diamond
UFO- Love To Love or Martian Landscape

80's:
Thin Lizzy-It's Getting Dangerous
Iron Maiden-Hallowed Be Thy Name
Helloween-Keeper Of The Seven Keys
Megadeth-My Last Words

90's:
Dream Theater-Learning To Live, Space Dye Vest, Finally Free
Iron Maiden-Fear Of The Dark
Gary Moore-Business As Usual
Michael Kiske-Do I Remember A Life?
Metallica-The Outlaw Torn

00's:
Dream Theater- Octavarium, The Count Of Tuscany
Iron Maiden-The Thin Line Between Love And Hate, The Legacy

10's:
Lost Domain-...In The Waiting Room Of Death
Iron Maiden-Where The Wild Wind Blows

20's:
Iron Maiden-Hell On Earth
Michael Schenker-In Search Of The Peace Of Mind
Dream Theater-A View From The Top Of The World
would have thought the same thing but seeing the OP was TAC i immediately thought Maiden or DT related
Winger Theater Forums........or WTF.  ;D
TAC got a higher score than me in the electronic round? Honestly, can I just drop out now? :lol

Online nick_z

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #18 on: November 29, 2022, 06:12:19 PM »
I mean, a ton of fantastic closers already mentioned here...Can't disagree with Maiden, Rush, Queensryche in the 80s...Dream Theater in the 90s...

(also great call on High Hopes, a truly stunning "final" song...and I'm not even much of a Floyd fan)

Difficult to add to this, but here some I haven't seen that I like. A bit random at times, but trying to avoid repeats:

80s:
Marillion - The Space...
Skid Row - Midnight/Tornado

90s:
Blind Guardian - The Last Candle
Blind Guardian - And the Story Ends
Alice in Chains - Would?
Everon - Until the Day Breaks
Conception - Would It Be the Same
Amorphis - Summer's End

00s:
Tori Amos - Gold Dust
Nevermore - The Godless Endeavour
Dredg - The Canyon Behind Her
Sentenced - No One There
Sentenced - End of the Road
Ra - Sky
Paradise Lost - Over the Madness
Imogen Heap - The Moment I Said It

10s:
Rush - The Garden
Metallica - Spit Out the Bone
Unleash the Archers - Apex
Voyager - As the City Takes the Night

20s:
Ghost - Respite on the Spitalfields


Offline Cool Chris

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #19 on: November 29, 2022, 10:02:16 PM »
70's: The Who - Love Reign O'er Me

That is one cathartic end to a fantastic musical journey.
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Offline cfmoran13

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #20 on: November 30, 2022, 03:43:51 AM »
10s:
Rush - The Garden
I'm shocked it took 19 posts for this to show up.

Online Stadler

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #21 on: November 30, 2022, 07:06:30 AM »
10s:
Rush - The Garden
I'm shocked it took 19 posts for this to show up.

I am too, though I don't say that with any sort of lament.  It's not even in the top three RUSH closers (Something For Nothing, La Villa Strangiato, Mystic Rhythms, Countdown, and Available Light all are at least as good), let alone for an entire decade.

Offline pg1067

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #22 on: November 30, 2022, 09:52:15 AM »
10s:
Rush - The Garden
I'm shocked it took 19 posts for this to show up.

I am too, though I don't say that with any sort of lament.  It's not even in the top three RUSH closers (Something For Nothing, La Villa Strangiato, Mystic Rhythms, Countdown, and Available Light all are at least as good), let alone for an entire decade.

I think High Water, You Bet Your Life and Carve Away the Stone are the only Rush closers I'd rank below The Garden.  Rush's closing game was ridiculously strong:

- Working Man
- In the End
- The Fountain of Lamneth
- The Voyage
- La Villa Strangiato
- Natural Science
- Countdown (for me at least)
- Between the Wheels
- Available Light
- Everyday Glory
- Out of the Cradle
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Offline Lethean

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #23 on: November 30, 2022, 09:18:45 PM »
Available Light is probably my favorite Rush closer, though maybe I put La Villa and the longer tracks in a separate category.

Offline The Realm

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #24 on: November 30, 2022, 10:34:48 PM »
A couple not mentioned by the looks;

Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name
Between the Buried and Me - White Walls.

Two great ones here. Not sure you can beat White Walls for 'powerful' album closer, the way that song climaxes is epic.

And Hallowed is the great song of all time :)

Online Stadler

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #25 on: December 01, 2022, 06:22:23 AM »
Diary Of A Madman
Spiral Architect
Fading Lights

Online nick_z

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Re: Most powerful album closers by decade?
« Reply #26 on: December 01, 2022, 06:34:00 AM »
Diary Of A Madman
Spiral Architect
Fading Lights

Yes! Good call on that one...and I don't think it had been mentioned yet.

(Diary of a Madman is fantastic, of course)