ToN's Top 50 Albums! #1: Just Push Play

[Sacul]

maiden will continue to be a "they're alright and important historically but i have never been too interested in them" band for me

omg I agree with Parama the fuck is happening

[mikemangioy]

I agree, Maiden have this 'nostalgic power' to them. Each song sounds like a classic to me. TNOTB is a great album 

[wolfking]

I agree, Maiden have this 'nostalgic power' to them. Each song sounds like a classic to me. TNOTB is a great album 

That's cause each song is a classic.

[TAC]

maiden will continue to be a "they're alright and important historically but i have never been too interested in them" band for me

omg I agree with Parama the fuck is happening

You guys have really missed out. (Not trying to sound like a dick.)

[Prog Snob]

This is actually the only Iron Maiden album I like, so  .

Is it the only one you've heard also?

A reasonable conclusion.   

[Evermind]

TNotB, my favourite Maiden album and certainly a classic. Awesome pick.

[Sacul]

maiden will continue to be a "they're alright and important historically but i have never been too interested in them" band for me

omg I agree with Parama the fuck is happening

You guys have really missed out. (Not trying to sound like a dick.)

Well I'm neither fond of their style nor they were one of the first metal bands I got into - I never went through that metalhead phase (started with prog lol) so when I came to check them, they didn't really grab me or anything. They're just not my cup of tea, and I prefer modern metal by a long shot, so... 

[TAC]

maiden will continue to be a "they're alright and important historically but i have never been too interested in them" band for me

omg I agree with Parama the fuck is happening

You guys have really missed out. (Not trying to sound like a dick.)

Well I'm neither fond of their style nor they were one of the first metal bands I got into - I never went through that metalhead phase (started with prog lol) so when I came to check them, they didn't really grab me or anything. They're just not my cup of tea, and I prefer modern metal by a long shot, so... 

All good.

[Train of Naught]

I know I know.. redundancy, but come on, having 4 Metallica albums in my top 50 is more than Justified ()


#4: Metallica - …And Justice For All (1988)


Genre: Thrash Metal

If you’ve read my other Metallica write-ups you’d see that I deliberately avoided saying that said album is the best, and if you know me well enough (which is pretty unlikely given the time I’ve been around on this forum) it’s clear …AJFA is in my eyes the best of Metallica, ever. Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, though terrific, I feel are not as unique. Justice has the pure anger with Hetfield’s vocals that doesn’t come across as fake or poorly written, which is how I feel about St. Anger. I don’t which of Kirk/James does exactly which guitar solos, but 99 out of 100 times it’s easy to hear, so I will say this: The solos that James does on this particular album are completely out of this world. The To Live Is to Die solo by him is one of the best things in Metallica history IMO, they’re all great though. I don’t think they realized at the time how big this was going to be, being the follow-up to the big Master of Puppets. But most of all, that a song like One became such an iconic song of theirs, yea it has the mellow verses and touching intro, but eventually it does return to the AJFA style. Regarding the bass on this album, I never thought there really was a very noticeable lack of bass, but I guess I can kinda see where people are coming from. At this point it looked like Metallica were going to have an instrumental song on every album, which would’ve been more than fine to me, there’s not a single instrumental by them that I find remotely bad. Anyway, I hope I don’t mess up the honorable mentions on this one, but it’s pretty much inevitable.

Favorite song:
Blackened: Opening an album with Blackened? Hell yes. LOVE the drumming on this one, I can’t say that about a lot of Metallica songs, they usually don’t stand out as very unique. The chorus is fucking amazing. And finally, dat guitar solo.

Honorable mentions:
To Live Is to Die: Call of Ktulu may be my favorite instrumental, but this one is very close. It does repeat itself a lot, but the repeating riff is killer so I don’t mind it. Like I said, James’ solo on this one is beautiful.

…And Justice For All: They just make it look so damn easy.. 10 minute song with a great buildup to the chorus, but most of all, sick instrumental break with some very groovy soloing.

One: Couldn’t pass on the famous power-ballad (if I can even call it that). I called this a weaker version of Fade to Black, but that’s only slightly, and competing against a song like Fade to Black is a lost cause. I like the intro and the chorus a lot, but the second part of the song is truly where it’s at.

[TAC]

A phenomenal album. Saw them 5 times on that tour. Felt like I played that album 3 times a day for about 6 months, and then some..

[Fluffy Lothario]

Justice was my favourite Metallica album for years, and would still be 2nd or 3rd.

I have much bigger issues with the repetition in the title track than To Live Is To Die. They could have cut several minutes off of it and lost almost nothing.

[jakepriest]

Not really a huge Metallica fan, but this is my favourite record they've put out. I kinda like the dry production.

[Sacul]

Looking forward to the top 3

[Bolsters]

I like some Maiden songs quite a bit, but overall they don't impress me all that much. Definitely a more filler than killer band, to me.

I've never been able to get into AJFA.

[bl5150]

I like some Maiden songs quite a bit, but overall they don't impress me all that much. Definitely a more filler than killer band, to me.

I've never been able to get into AJFA.

I would mostly agree with that.  My appreciation for Maiden is probably the highest ever at the moment (and I still have some albums I haven't checked out)  but I don't get the giddy reaction to almost anything they do.  I thought the recent album was solid but that's about it.

As far as Metallica go ............IMHO AJFA isn't in the same class as MoP.

[425]

Justice was my first Metallica album. It's still probably my second-favorite behind Ride the Lightning (which is by far my favorite from 'tallica).

Fluffy Lothario is right that the title track is too bloated. If that and a couple of others were trimmed down and the album featured an actual bass player who could be heard, I would have no complaints at all and would rank it really close to RTL.

[mikemangioy]

Justice is also my favorite 'Tallica 

[jjrock88]

My second favorite Metallica album behind MoP.  Good pick.

[Prog Snob]

AJFA is my favorite Metallica album, and Frayed Ends of Sanity is my favorite song of theirs, so excellent choice! 

[Train of Naught]

AJFA is my favorite Metallica album, and Frayed Ends of Sanity is my favorite song of theirs, so excellent choice!

Love that main riff, reminds me of Black Album a bit. But yeah every song beside the 4 mentioned is a small step down for me, but still fantastic, hence the #4 spot

[Prog Snob]

I love that riff. I wish I had seen them play it live at least once. 

[Train of Naught]

I love that riff. I wish I had seen them play it live at least once. 

I haven't even seen Metallica live, ever.. I had the chance to see them at Pinkpop festival 2 years ago but I had to work the day the ticket sale started, my friends messed it up as tickets were sold out in only a few minutes. (which by the way was because of the Stones performing on another day of the festival, I don't even like Rolling Stones apart from 2 or 3 songs  )





#3: Dream Theater – Images and Words (1992)


Genre: Progressive Metal/Rock

You all saw this coming, didn’t you? With a total of 5 Dream Theater mentions in the top 50 and 1 in the honorable mentions, this might be one-sided as fuck. But how could someone with half the DT discography in his list not include the famous Images & Words. Far from the album that introduced me from DT, but I bet that was the case for many of you, and it must’ve been one hell of a ride. James taking over the Charlie’s spot of lead vocalist was definitely the game changer for me, WDADU had some incredible potential instrumentally. Needless to say, James fits the band more than any other vocalist, which makes him such a great contribution. Moving on, I can’t name a single song flawed, while I used to think Surrounded and Another Day were weak links to the album, I now call myself crazy for that statement. Kevin Moore I feel did tons better on Awake, but he does play his part on I&W incredibly well. John Petrucci of course nails his solos, Learning to Live, Under a Glass Moon, Another Day, you name it, but his overall creativity in terms of songwriting is what made him such a key factor to the success of I&W. And most of all, the atmosphere of this whole album is just... well you guessed it, dreamy. I hate when people compare ADTOE to I&W, but I honestly love both albums for a lot of similar reasons, the atmosphere being one of them. I started out with Dream Theater as a simple metal fan, Train of Thought, Black Clouds, Systematic Chaos, etc.. This band made me a prog fan, this very album being the reason.

Not doing this section for Images and Words, just going to stir up the discussion with my top half I&W songs 

1. Metropolis
2. Take the Time
3. Learning to Live
4. Another Day

 

[Crow]

take the time is the best actually
anyways nice 

[jakepriest]

Overrated album imho. I love Learning to Live and Wait for Sleep but I rarely listen to the other tracks.

[Elite]

Wrong songs chosen, my #1 album, even though I don't really know why anymore, as I rarely listen to it.

[425]

Two spots lower than I would have it. 

And I like it and ADTOE best for pretty much the same reasons you said.

[jingle.boy]

Agreed.  Rating is too low.

Flawless album.  Absolutely flawless.

[Train of Naught]

Which is exactly why #2 and #1 will be very interesting. I'm pretty sure most of you will be disappointed in me for picking this album as my #2 because it's believed to not even be the best album by that band, either that or you don't even know the album. It's also a band that has already been mentioned once in this list.

#1 I won't go into yet.

[Prog Snob]

Images and Words is two spots too low.   

I love that riff. I wish I had seen them play it live at least once. 

I haven't even seen Metallica live, ever.. I had the chance to see them at Pinkpop festival 2 years ago but I had to work the day the ticket sale started, my friends messed it up as tickets were sold out in only a few minutes. (which by the way was because of the Stones performing on another day of the festival, I don't even like Rolling Stones apart from 2 or 3 songs  )

I have seen Metallica live five times, and at neither of them did they play FEOS. The last time I saw them was when they did the show with the orchestra and it was probably the worst show I've ever been to, excluding Pearl Jam during which I fell asleep.

[Crow]

i'll go against the trend and say "images and words is a fair bit too high"

i forgot where i put it on my top 50 list tbh was it somewhere between 20 and 30? i think

[TAC]

Flawless album.  Absolutely flawless.

My #1.

[jjrock88]

perfect album

[mikemangioy]

Of course I like I&W, but I seem to prefer other albums to it.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

My #2 DT album.

The truth on this though:

1. Metropolis

[Train of Naught]

I have seen Metallica live five times, and at neither of them did they play FEOS. The last time I saw them was when they did the show with the orchestra and it was probably the worst show I've ever been to, excluding Pearl Jam during which I fell asleep.

A shame, S&M seemed killer on DVD but probably wasn't for everyone. I'm on the same page regarding Pearl Jam probably, I like a few of their more energetic songs like Animal, but most of it really bores me.