Elite's top 50 albums v. - 3 Years Older: #1: love is the dance of eternity

[Mladen]

This album is 47 spots lower than it should be. 

[Nihil-Morari]

Love Sgt. Pepper. I don't think everything The Beatles did is great, or even good, but this is a classic record. As indeed is Abbey Road, most of The White Album and some of Magical Mystery Tour

[Elite]

Next one coming in!

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47. Circus Maximus – Isolate (2007)



You didn’t really think I was spoiling all the progressive metal albums in the honourable mentions, did you? No, there’s still quite some to come. ‘Isolate’ is an album I hold dearly, because it’s one of the first progressive metal albums I discovered by myself, of a band that was relatively unknown (compared to big names such as Dream Theater, Symphony X, Devin Townsend and Porcupine Tree). I’m not sure that really makes much sense, but you’ll have to deal with it. This album is full of amazing songs, there’s not a single song I would like replaced and compared with the bands later output, that is an amazing feat.

I think the first song off this album I ever heard was Arrival of Love and it was by randomly going through Youtube videos that I found this band. The main riff of this particular song is melodic and driving at the same time and by the time the vocals kick in, you know you’re in for a treat of progressive metal goodness. The rest of the album is even better than this song and the list of recommended songs down below is a testament to that. It opens brilliantly with A Darkened Mind, a mini epic many a prog band could be jealous of. The second song on the album is probably my favourite; Abyss is a very solid rocking tune, packing all that Circus Maximus is about into a relatively short song; it’s got riffs, solos and great vocal lines in the choruses.

The album reaches another height at the end of the album, giving you a one-two-punch of two epics (Mouth of Madness and Ultimate Sacrifice), interrupted by what’s probably the weakest track on the album, From Childhood’s Hour. Overall, I’d say this is essential material for any progressive metal fan, as often this band gets mentioned at least. This is a very enjoyable album all the way through and one that I happily return to whenever I have the desire to listen to it once again.

Favourite song: Abyss
Other songs worth checking out: Ultimate Sacrifice, A Darkened Mind, Mouth of Madness
Other stuff by this band: Their debut album ‘The 1st Chapter’ is excellent and almost on the same level as this one. The follow-up to this one, ‘Nine’ went into more radio-friendly territory and although it’s good, it’s not nearly the same Circus Maximus as on this album. Their latest release, ‘Havoc’ I haven’t heard enough to form an opinion yet, but my first listens were disappointing, to say the least.

[Prog Snob]

I'm not sure why this is higher than Sgt. Pepper.      Regardless, it's an awesome album.  I have been listening to CM since their first release.

Abbey Road is better, but Sgt Pepper is a classic!

Indeed, it is.

[Train of Naught]

Lost me with The Beatles, won me back with Isolate

I basically agree on everything. Mouth of Madness and Ultimate Sacrifice end off the album fantastically, it's just a shame From Childhood's Hour had to be inbetween, I'd rather have nothing at all or maybe a short passage song inbetween.

And Abyss is

[Elite]

I did say in my first post that the differences between these albums are minimal and are probably even a little bit random. Had I made this list on a different day than I did, the order might have been different. From about #20 on the order is more 'definite', so to speak.

[Crow]

I still need to get a circus maximus album, never got Nine after my roulette tho I liked architect of fortune a lot

[Elite]

To be honest, I think Architect of Fortune is by far the best track on Nine, though the last two aren't that bad either. Check out some songs from Isolate on Youtubeor something to get a taste of the band.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Maybe it's more telling of how distanced I am from a lot of prog metal recently, but I always felt Circus Maximus to be just simply decent.

Sgt. Pepper's on the other hand is great.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Isolate is pretty great, but I think the epics are actually the weakest part. The first four songs are the strongest, in my opinion.

[Sacul]

 

[senecadawg2]

Besides Havoc, Isolate is the CM I'm least familiar with. I definitely need to get on that, but seems every time I try I'm magnetically drawn to The 1st Chapter

[jingle.boy]

I see a lot of people that rank this above The First Chapter.  I've always been partial to the debut, but just a slight edge over it - mostly for Glory of the Empire.  Top 20 song of all time for me right there.  Still, Isolate is an incredible album.  In my books 1st Chapter>Isolate>Nine ... but the margin between each is very minimal.  Havoc I'll pretend to pretend doesn't exist.

[Elite]

Maybe it's more telling of how distanced I am from a lot of prog metal recently, but I always felt Circus Maximus to be just simply decent.

I can fully understand that. I've been distant from prog metal recently as well, but I've known this CM album for so much longer. Consider it a guilty pleasure if that justifies its place in the top 50 more.

Isolate is pretty great, but I think the epics are actually the weakest part. The first four songs are the strongest, in my opinion.

I can see why you say that. The first four tracks are all awesome rockers and more unique songs than the epics at the end. Regardless, they're all good in my opinion.

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@Nelson&Chad; it's a matter of random preference here. I really like their debut too as I stated in write-up. To me, the song-writing on 'Isolate' is a little more concise and to-the-point. That said, a huge downside of 'Isolate' is indeed that it does not contain Glory of the Empire, probably my favourite CM song as well.

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Next album coming up soon!

[Tomislav95]

I promise I'll recheck Circus Maximus today. When I was getting into prog metal, after discovering DT, I liked their first but somehow I stopped listening to them

[Elite]

It's been more than 12 hours since the last update, so here's number 46.

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46. The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)



Here’s an album that likely sounds like a jumbled mess of random instrument noises with a fat singing chipmunk on top of that if you’re not paying enough attention. In fact, I had a hard time digesting this album and to this day it’s still not an album I can enjoy at every moment. That’s not to say that it isn’t good, but The Mars Volta are probably somewhat of an acquired taste. This is also one of very few albums in the top 50 where I find it hard to distinguish between the individual songs. This is partly due to the weird song titles, but also because a lot of it sounds quite similar (or is at least in the same style). Of course there’s memorable parts (the weird anti-rhythmic chorus to This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed that’s strangely catchy for instance), but most of this album is very experimental.

For reasons stated above, I don’t really know which song is my favourite. I do however know that I think the weakest track, apart from the short segue-tracks, is the relatively dull Eriatarka. That track, as well as the weird noises and volume swells section in Cicatriz ESP are the only parts of the album I do not really like. Especially the latter seems out of place and almost unsettling on this record. Most, if not all of the rest of the album is really good, with my favourites being the obviously Queen-inspired Drunkship of Lanterns and the not-so-obvious ballad Televators which curiously enough fits very well on this album as the only songs that’s relatively down-toned.

Another highlight for me, and a moment of special craziness on this album, is the album closer, Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt and especially the guitar riff that starts around the 3:42 mark. It’s not often that I have no idea how a guitarist does stuff, but here I’m definitely clueless.

Last, but not least, I could not really mention this album without saying anything about the lyrics. As the (very weird) song-titles might suggest, the lyrics are definitely strange too. Although this album is supposed to be a concept-album of sorts, or at the very least supposed to tell a story, the lyrics leave you wondering what the hell happened. The first words of the album are therefore very fitting for the remainder of the album: “Now I’m lost.”

Favourite song: Drunkship of Lanterns
Other songs worth checking out: Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt, Televators, Inertiatic ESP
Other stuff by this band: I can recommend either ‘Frances the Mute’ or ‘The Bedlam in Goliath’. I must say I’m not overly familiar with the other three records the band put out, though I’m sure they’ll be good.

[Train of Naught]

I'm not huge on the 'epic' here, at least not as much as most seem to. My four favorites are the same as yours, Televators being the favorite. I just love how this album makes just barely enough sense for the listener to understand what's going on story-wise, while still keeping things very cryptic. Left me wondering a lot of stuff after first listens. Inertiatic ESP excels in this, indeed I'm totally lost.

That said, for a completely fictional story, Televators is one damn crushingly emotional song, this song could aswell have been about a close friend who commited suicide or something, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Maybe my favorite vocal performance in all of TMV's catalogue, and a relatively simple one at that.

Also, apart from the album mentions, Octahedron rocks

[jakepriest]

I don't get the fascination with Mars Volta. It's borderline unlistenable music for me.

[Elite]

It's borderline unlistenable music for me.

Prepare yourself for some albums later on in this top 50 then

[home]

I really love the lyrics, they are quite poetic I think, though they do borderline on nonsense sometimes

I don't get the fascination with Mars Volta. It's borderline unlistenable music for me.

Have you listened to Noctourniquet? I think it's their most accessible or focused album,

Here’s an album that likely sounds like a jumbled mess of random instrument noises with a fat singing chipmunk on top of that if you’re not paying enough attention.

[Sacul]

NNNOOOOOWW IIIIMMM LOOOOOOOOOOSSTTT

[Elite]

For some reason, I expected that reaction at some point

[Zantera]

Mars Volta is definitely one of the better prog bands. De-Loused is awesome but Frances is slightly better IMO.

[Fluffy Lothario]

On Sgt Peppers: I mentioned this in my Top 50 list, but that and The Wall are the two albums that have disappointed me the most in my life.

Which isn't to say I didn't like it at all. There are some good songs on there. But after hearing "SGT PEPPERS IS THE GREATEST ALBUM BY THE GREATEST BAND IN HISTORY" since I can remember, it fell miles short of the expectations I had. The experience crushed anything but a mild enthusiasm for the Beatles in me, and the masturbatory superlative-spewing of their fans is now one of my biggest musical pet peeves.

Within You, Without You is also my favourite on the album, and in fact my favourite by the band by a long way.

On Deloused: I prefer both Bedlam and Frances, but Deloused is still really really good. Tira Me... / Drunkship is my favourite part of the album (I originally sampled the album by downloading one song, and it was those two songs in one track, so I think of them as the same piece). After that, Cicatriz (I really like that ambient section) and the first two tracks.

[Prog Snob]

I have never listened to them, so maybe I'll check this out.

[Crow]

i dunno, compared to their later albums there's still a strong song focus here and i found it easier to get into, also because it's their best

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Love this album. Inertiatic ESP and Televators are my favorite tracks.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

The Mars Volta are amazing and De-Loused is most definitely my favorite album of theirs, Frances the Mute not too far behind. The frenetic energy and borderline schizophrenic lyrics of theirs has always been appealing to me. Cicatriz ESP remains my favorite TMV track as well.

[LordCost]

I never had much patience to listen to the last two songs of Frances The Mute (I cut start and finish of Miranda and a lot of minutes near the end of Cassandra Gemini when I rarely listen to it), but I really like De-Loused and Bedlam, they are my two favourite albums of them. My favourite songs though are probably Tetragrammaton and Day Of The Baphomets from Amputechture. I quite liked also the last two albums.

[Elite]

Good, keep the discussion going! Next album is one nobody on DTF has heard.

[Crow]

I kinda want to be able to prove you wrong but you probably won't be

[Tomislav95]

Inb4 Images and Words

[Elite]

Inb4 Images and Words

 

[Crow]

Imagio El Wordo

[Elite]

I told you nobody would know this one. Here's an album of special sentimental significance to me.

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45. Boudewijn de Groot – Voor de Overlevenden (1966)



Here’s an album nobody on DTF has heard, with the exception maybe of a random Dutch person. This is not only the oldest album on the list, but also the only album that’s entirely sung in Dutch. Because I don’t expect many people will hold any interest whatsoever in checking this album out, I’ll keep the write-up relatively short.

Boudewijn de Groot is a Dutch song-writer who, together with lyricist Lennaert Nijgh created a bunch of hit songs and albums. Boudewijn started playing the guitar as a student in the Ducth city of Leiden and is compared to Bob Dylan in style. The ‘Dutch Dylan’ was very popular in his day and age and some of his songs are instantly recognisable to any Dutch person. This album is one of the most important in the history of Dutch music and De Groot’s soft folk/pop music must have appealed to many, for he is still quite popular today. Musically this album isn’t very special, the songs are just ‘nice’, lyrically they’re often brilliant, but this album is on this list mostly for its sentimental value to me.

I can’t imagine anyone apart from some Dutch people wanting to listen to this though, because it’s so much unlike the rest of my list. Add to the lyrics that are sung in a language you can’t understand (and unfortunately, they’re the focal point of this album) and I can imagine this not being something that interests you. Sorry for this rather boring write-up, but I just had to include this album here. So there we have it, apparently my favourite Dutch record.

Favourite song: Testament
Other songs worth checking out: Naast Jou (“Next to You”), Verdronken Vlinder (“Drowned Butterfly”), Lied Voor Een Kind Dat Bang Is In Het Donker (“Song For a Child Who’s Afraid of the Dark”)
Other stuff by this band: I don’t know everything by Boudewijn de Groot, but ‘Hoe Sterk Is de Eenzame Fietser’ (“How Strong is the Lonely Cyclist”) is another excellent record.