Author Topic: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. Only once in a lifetime (#1)  (Read 30607 times)

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Online jingle.boy

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Very nice album, but when I'm in a mood for Urban breed, this for some reason isn't what I turn to.  Think I'll have to give it a spin to refresh my stance.
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Offline Evermind

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Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #141 on: December 08, 2018, 07:51:07 AM »
Chad, do it. This album is so fucking impressive.

I'll be giving both Cognitive and Tellurian a shot.

Let's keep going, then.



#32
Dead End Kings
Katatonia
Genre: progressive metal
2012
Recommended to me by: Tomislav


After you saw Soen appear on this list, who didn’t think that Katatonia will appear here? Man, I don’t know where to begin with this.

Katatonia was on my radar for a long time now. While I knew what their music was about, somehow I never dove into their discography. I checked some songs here and there, and I loved Jonas’ contribution on 01011001 for Ayreon, and I have no idea why I haven’t got into them earlier. But one day, during a plug.dj listening session in 2017, I think, I asked Tomislav—who was the biggest Katatonia fan on the board before Lethean from the Mike Portnoy forums migrated here—to recommend me a Katatonia album to dig into. Here comes the plot twist: when I asked him that, I was already pretty drunk, so I don’t exactly remember what album he picked for me. I think it was Dead End Kings. If not, well, I’m glad I checked out Dead End Kings anyway. Thanks Tomislav!

(now that I think about it, it might’ve been Dethroned and Uncrowned, which is basically an acoustic version of Dead End Kings)

Here comes the second plot twist: I couldn’t find Dead End Kings in our local music store, so I bought The Fall of Hearts, which I enjoyed immensely and then began to work my way backwards into the band’s discography. While every album has some good material—admittedly, I didn’t get past Last Fair Deal Gone Down as of now, there’s simply too much music for me to check out—it’s Dead End Kings that I found myself eventually returning to.

There are some albums that I tend to strongly associate with a particular season, a particular time of the year. The Mystery of Time and Imaginaerum are winter albums, as far as I’m concerned; Muna and Weather Systems are undoubtedly spring records; and so it goes. It’s no secret that winter is my favourite season of the year. In fact, I suspect it might be somehow related to when you were born for some folks. It probably isn’t, but it’s late, and I’m tired, and I suspect that it’s how it works for me, at least—born in winter, love winter since I was a child. Of course, it would depend on a place you live in. Place me in a city where there’s no snow in winter, and it would suck big time, as I love snow so much. How does Katatonia relate to all this? Good question.

Seriously though, in case of Katatonia, the whole band’s output—at least on the last few albums—has a distinct feeling of winter all over it, as far as I’m concerned. You know, the time when living things struggle to survive, dying from the cold, sleeping in slumber, awaiting the first hints of spring to come back to life. The silent white landscapes, peacefully staring into grey skies, no sounds of birdsong anywhere for miles and miles around. I used to live near a huge national park before I moved closer to our city’s center, and we went skiing every other weekend, and when you went about 15km into the forest, there were a lot of incredible sights—that is, if you knew the roads as well as my grandpa did. He began to teach me skiing when I wasn’t even in school—I think when I was 4 or 5 years old—and I’m forever grateful for that gift. Those trips deep into the forest were otherworldly. Frozen rivers and huge fields of clearest snow without a sign of life save for an occasional stag or a fox on this brilliant while blanket—damn, those were great times. Nature is so beautiful.

Now that my favourite season is coming again, my favourite three months of the year are coming in just a few weeks finally here, Katatonia is going to be heavily featured in my rotation again—and I won’t lie, this makes me giddy with excitement. Man, I love winter so much.

Perhaps I should rename this thread to ‘Life stories from Evermind’, as I didn’t really write anything about Katatonia’s music here. Oh well, that’s the perks of your own thread—write whatever you want!

Favourite songs: The Racing Heart (YouTube, Spotify), Leech (YouTube, Spotify), Lethean (YouTube, Spotify)
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #142 on: December 08, 2018, 07:59:46 AM »
I'm slow on this thread here.

I never listen to Circus Maximus. They have just never stuck. I don't think I even bothered with their last album. I have everything up through Nine. Maybe I should go back and spin them.
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
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Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #143 on: December 08, 2018, 08:05:05 AM »
I'm slow on this thread here.

I never listen to Circus Maximus. They have just never stuck. I don't think I even bothered with their last album. I have everything up through Nine. Maybe I should go back and spin them.

Don't bother with Havoc, but perhaps revisit Nine. As it should be obvious, I really like that one.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Kwyjibo

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #144 on: December 08, 2018, 09:38:47 AM »
Finally something I can comment on.  :laugh:

Katatonia is great. I still don't know their whole discography and I think The Great Cold Distance is even better, but Dead End Kings is nonetheless a great record.

Never really associated winter with it. For me Katatonia is more like music for a rainy and stormy autumn day.
Must've been Kwyji sending all the wrong songs.   ;D

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #145 on: December 08, 2018, 10:21:29 AM »
Haven't listened to Nine in years but I recall being quite into it back in the day  :metal
Not a big fan of Soen tbh, feel like a weaker Tool for the most part.
Haven't listened to much Katatonia, should probably give this album a try.

Offline Lethean

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #146 on: December 08, 2018, 11:17:25 AM »
Katatonia :) :) :)

Probably should be ranked #1 though... ;)

Also, this is the first time I've checked out this thread since it started - I'd just been busy and was only keeping up with Puppies roulette for a while.  So now that I had time to start reading it, the band most recently reviewed is Katatonia.  Coincidence?  (Well, yes of course it is but I can pretend otherwise).

Offline Lethean

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #147 on: December 08, 2018, 11:24:47 AM »
Also - it's cool that you chose Dead End Kings. It's been my favorite Katatonia album too, although I think The Fall of Hearts has probably worked it's way into a tie.  And then there is Night is the New Day, which seems to be less popular with the fans, but those fans are just wrong... I've been listening to that one a bit lately and it is sooooo good.

Winter is not my favorite season at all, but Katatonia makes it better. :)

Offline Tomislav95

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #148 on: December 08, 2018, 11:39:43 AM »
Just dropping in to say that's a pretty good album ;) I have a fond memory of it as it came out when I was in high school. I really liked listening to it as I was going home from school. Nothing special, it just worked perfectly in those rainy autumn days and clicked with me. But to be honest, it needed some time, I thought it was samey all the way through at first.
When it comes to their other releases, I like older ones more, especially Discouraged Ones - Viva Emptiness run.
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The burning shape of a gun (#32)
« Reply #149 on: December 08, 2018, 11:57:05 AM »
I think Jonas was still finding his voice on albums like Discouraged Ones and Tonight's Decision.  There are some great songs on those albums but also some where the song is good, but his voice isn't so great.  I think this lends a certain amount of charm to those albums, and I really like having that whole history to hear how they developed.  But I prefer the later ones overall.

Offline Evermind

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Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an endless highway (#31)
« Reply #150 on: December 08, 2018, 04:14:52 PM »
I dislike autumn a lot (and god I hate rain, it's the worst thing), so I usually associate shitty albums with it. :lol

Have a night update now, which, considering the album in question, is only natural and fitting. It's like I'm committed to this thread or something!



#31
Dracula: Swing of Death
Jørn Lande / Trond Holter
Genre: hard rock / classic metal
2015
Recommended to me by: Hard rock / Classic metal thread in GMD


You can adore his voice or hate it with passion, but there’s no denying that Jørn Lande is one of the most prominent heavy metal voices nowadays. Not only the sheer power and grit of his voice are incredible, but the amount of projects he does—to the point where it seems he’s everywhere, but not to the point of oversaturation, in my opinion, although you can argue this point—makes sure his roaring is heard on the metal scene. Ark, Masterplan, ongoing gig with Avantasia, the appearance on Ayreon’s 01011001, Allen/Lande (can we get Magnus back please?) solo career, singing for League of Legends even! Jørn sure does lend his voice to many projects, although perhaps not as many as Anneke van Giersbergen. And then there is this little gem of an album. A collaboration between Jørn, a perfect voice for Count Dracula, and a Norwegian guitarist Trond Holter, whose songwriting and guitar skills left me in awe after the first listen to this record.

I mean, there’s nothing mindblowing per se. It’s not genre-changing like Images and Words, and it’s not Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force. But that’s not what I was trying to say. What I was trying to say, is that Jørn is a fantastic singer—his sheer power and presence on stage is undeniable. While I only saw him once with Avantasia on the latest Ghostlights tour (he wasn’t there for The Mystery of Time, but I hope to witness him again on the upcoming Moonglow tour), seeing The Scarecrow performed with him live was an unforgettable experience. However, his outstanding skills in singing department do not make a good songwriter. I could never get into his solo albums, and while Chad recommended Life on Death Road to me, I didn’t enjoy that as much as, well, pretty much anything else with Jørn behind the mic. Avantasia and Ayreon and first three of Allen/Lande albums, that’s where Jørn shines. By now I’m convinced that he needs another songwriter to provide him the material to sing the hell out of it, and in case of Dracula: Swing of Death he got the right material indeed, and that’s why this album works so well on many levels.

I remember a commotion about this record in the classic metal thread, the surprise of how good it was, and I checked it out right away, I think. This record might’ve not made any of my lists for 2015 because, as I said, that year was freaking surreal in terms of new music, the sheer amount of the albums I discovered that year is still stunning to me. But then, come spring of 2016, I went to aforementioned Avantasia concert, and they had a lot of the CDs from the singers’ side-projects, which was a brilliant move, by the way. I’ve got the second Kiske/Somerville there, I’ve got this record, I might’ve bought other stuff too, and while City of Heroes was fairly meh (salvation, I can’t resist your temptation, damn, last time I’ve listened to this track was about two years ago and I still can’t get over how cheesy this line is, and that’s coming from me of all people), Dracula stood the test of time and is still in my rotation.

It might come as a surprise to you if you’re not familiar with this record, but there are also female vocals on it! And while the core of the record is still mostly guitar-driven heavy metal, there are some welcome deviations from the usual formula. For example, there is a swing-driven song (a title track, duh), there is an instrumental track, there’s some tracks with unconventional structures too, and I guess this diversity plays a big role in how this album still manages to sound fresh almost four years after its release.

So don’t let the label fool you, despite it being released by Frontiers Records, this album is worth your time if you’re a straightforward metal fan.

Favourite songs: Walking on Water (YouTube, Spotify), Masquerade Ball (YouTube, Spotify), Queen of the Dead (YouTube, Spotify)
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an engless highway (#31)
« Reply #151 on: December 08, 2018, 04:34:37 PM »
engless

i dunno the album at all though :P
except you sent me a song off it one time

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an engless highway (#31)
« Reply #152 on: December 08, 2018, 04:36:31 PM »
engless

i dunno the album at all though :P
except you sent me a song off it one time

It's like 2 A.M. here and I can't see the keyboard. :lol
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an endless highway (#31)
« Reply #154 on: December 09, 2018, 03:38:02 AM »
The Trail of Murder is amazing, Brent is an absolute legend for bringing that album to light here.

Also, the Dracula is very impressive.  Love Trond's guitar work too.
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an endless highway (#31)
« Reply #155 on: December 09, 2018, 03:41:30 AM »
and while Chad recommended Life on Death Road to me, I didn’t enjoy that as much

That's cause it's sucks.  Check Out to Every Nation and Worldchanger.  His old solo stuff is excellent.
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an endless highway (#31)
« Reply #156 on: December 09, 2018, 04:25:29 AM »
and while Chad recommended Life on Death Road to me, I didn’t enjoy that as much

That's cause it's sucks.  Check Out to Every Nation and Worldchanger.  His old solo stuff is excellent.

Both of you can bite me :biggrin:.  It's not Traveller or Bring Heavy Rock to the Land level of suck.  What I said about it was that it was his best since Out to Every Nation.  Give that one a spin, Ruslan.  If it doesn't click with you, then you definitely should take a complete 'pass' on his solo material.
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an endless highway (#31)
« Reply #157 on: December 09, 2018, 04:31:12 AM »
and while Chad recommended Life on Death Road to me, I didn’t enjoy that as much

That's cause it's sucks.  Check Out to Every Nation and Worldchanger.  His old solo stuff is excellent.

Both of you can bite me :biggrin:.  It's not Traveller or Bring Heavy Rock to the Land level of suck.  What I said about it was that it was his best since Out to Every Nation.  Give that one a spin, Ruslan.  If it doesn't click with you, then you definitely should take a complete 'pass' on his solo material.

I don't know, I'd probably take both of those albums over it to be honest.  Death Road was just the Frontiers Factory chewing the Jorn name up and spewing out the same crap.  I know they were trying to somewhat 'help' Jorn but IMO they went the other way.  At least the albums before were what Jorn wanted to do, not what Frontiers thought he should be doing.
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an endless highway (#31)
« Reply #158 on: December 09, 2018, 07:46:10 AM »
Apparently I missed both along the way.
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
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Offline Evermind

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Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. With open arms and eyes ablaze (#30)
« Reply #159 on: December 09, 2018, 09:18:59 AM »
and while Chad recommended Life on Death Road to me, I didn’t enjoy that as much

That's cause it's sucks.  Check Out to Every Nation and Worldchanger.  His old solo stuff is excellent.

Alright then, those are on my list now!

20 albums posted, 30 more to go, let's get to it.



#30
Vast Oceans Lachrymose
While Heaven Wept
Genre: classic metal / progressive metal
2009
Recommended to me by: Shadow Ninja 2.0


Monday write-up alert! Probably not much sense will be featured in it. Be careful.

What I love about DTF—I mean, not counting drunk-posting and making fun of the older folk—is that while our tastes may be far and wide apart, still there are some overlap between them with almost each and every one of you fine gentlemen I continuously interact on GMD board. I’m interested in classic metal and hard rock, and while I’m not the biggest fan of the genre itself, you metalheads have recommended me great albums over these years. I’m interested in progressive rock, but I think that a lot of albums in the genre feature clichéd not-so-well-made long songs for the sake of being long, and yet some of you keep introducing me to great progressive rock music. I don’t give two shits about most Zantera / Sacul music, yet there are albums they’ve got me into, and I’m grateful for that.

And that goes for my roulettes, too. For example, yes, Tyrias sent me music that I don’t care about, and yet he introduced me to Bent Knee and other great things. And because of the difference in tastes, it’s no wonder sometimes people receive 3/10 in my roulette, all the while holding onto an album like Vast Oceans Lachrymose. Shadow Ninja did exactly that, sending me Keldian in my first roulette which I didn’t enjoy at all, and then one night in plug.dj he played Vessel, a song from that very album, and a song which captivated me so much I saved it for the further listening.

It would be fair—and quite fitting, as we’re now down to the Top 30, and there’s only fantastic stuff left in this list—to say that I was honestly blown away with this record the first time I’ve heard it. A lot of classic metal influences, including a singer with a powerful voice, enhanced with the touches of progressive metal and sometimes even doom metal in the instrumental department—a reminder that the band used to play a full-on doom metal once—it honestly baffles me how this album isn’t way more popular among the metal crowd of DTF. It’s quite short—about 45 minutes, I believe—yet it manages to do a lot in that allocated time. For instance, it manages to astound me every time with its impeccable quality.

That should be a lesson all by itself: don’t be discouraged if you didn’t do too well in my roulette, or anyone’s, for that matter. Perhaps you did get eliminated halfway through the competition, or perhaps you didn’t win, or perhaps you sent me Native Construct—it doesn’t mean we’re incompatible in music. In most cases, it mostly means you picked wrong songs for the wrong audience. In most cases, you have something good right up your sleeve, and you simply don’t know it. And if you keep interacting with your roulette host after the show’s over and the thread is gone into the archive oblivion, perhaps one day, either on purpose on unknowingly, you will find the song that will win over this particular person’s heart, causing him to waste some of his precious funds on the band’s—pretty fucking difficult to find in Russia—discography. Shadow Ninja did it, and I see no reason why it couldn’t be true for everyone.

Now, let me link about 75% of the album in the next section, because for some reason, the division of album’s tracks on Spotify is… interesting.

Favourite songs: The Furthest Shore (YouTube, Spotify), To Wander the Void (YouTube, Spotify), Vessel (YouTube, Spotify)
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. This ride is an endless highway (#31)
« Reply #160 on: December 09, 2018, 11:12:13 AM »
I dislike autumn a lot (and god I hate rain, it's the worst thing)
:sadpanda:

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. With open arms and eyes ablaze (#30)
« Reply #161 on: December 09, 2018, 02:28:54 PM »
While Heaven Wept did well in my roulettes, haven't checked them out yet though.
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Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #162 on: December 10, 2018, 09:21:35 AM »
While Heaven Wept did well in my roulettes, haven't checked them out yet though.

Yeah, I think I sent them last time.

It's Monday, so only one update today, but no worries, we're still on schedule.



#29
Skyforger
Amorphis
Genre: progressive metal
2009
Recommended to me by: Scorpion, I think? Not exactly sure about this one


Amorphis! One of those growly bands that I enjoyed even before the huge breakthrough in my tastes after which I deemed that growls were acceptable. I’m not even sure it was Scorpion who pitched it to me—I might’ve accidentally just bought it in that Finnish online metal music shop which had Nightwish and Sonata Arctica items—but this album had been an excellent purchase on my part. A particularly tasty blend of growls and melodic vocals with delicious choruses, Skyforger was my first foray into Amorphis, and, obviously, a successful one.

Amorphis seems to be unable to do anything wrong lately, with their audacious 2015’s Under the Red Cloud and equally fascinating Queen of Time, both featuring some of my favourite Amorphis songs to date. That being kept in mind, I still have to give the edge to Skyforger. While the last two albums are, without any slightest doubt, are Amorphis at their best, Skyforger managed to capture a spark that I didn’t feel in any of the band’s work up until 2015, and therefore it’s quite special to me. One of the first records that made me believe the growls aren’t always evil and unnecessary, Skyforger has cemented its place in my heart as a fantastic and inspired record.

I have actually seen Amorphis on tour in, I think, 2015, except it wasn’t for Under the Red Cloud—it was just your usual, run of the mill festival in summer, except it wasn’t, because we never get metal festivals in Russia, and that was the last decent one which actually stopped existing after that year for some reason. We had Helloween headlining, Dark Tranquility, Primal Fear and Amorphis on the roster as well as Arkona (a well-known Russian band), and it was a blast. Helloween and Primal Fear put on a fantastic show, but I wasn’t too big on Amorphis show—too heavy and I think the songs were from the older material. I skipped further Amorphis shows—I think they had one here in support of Under the Red Cloud. I also skipped the Primal Fear show in 2017 because I was at Ayreon Universe. But now I’m ready to see Primal Fear if they ever come back here, and I hope they do. Speaking of Amorphis, they have a gig scheduled in Moscow next spring, and I’m already a happy owner of a ticket—I bet I will enjoy them this time.

I know you probably expected me to write something about the actual music, but as it’s often the case with the well-known bands, I think you all are already familiar with their work. Anyway, I think it’s way more entertaining to write about your personal experience with the band, devolving the writeup into some unrelated tangents, instead of following the tried and true approach, describing every song. That’s just boring.

Just kidding, folks. I know no one reads those anyway.

Favourite songs: Sampo (YouTube, Spotify), Silver Bride (YouTube, Spotify), Skyforger (YouTube, Spotify)
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #163 on: December 10, 2018, 10:35:26 AM »
I'M READING !!!!
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #164 on: December 10, 2018, 12:36:50 PM »
Yes, I am reading to, but not commenting much because I do not recognize the bands you listed to date, but plan to listen.  Amorphis has been a recent listen for me and I need to go back to Skyforger and Under the Red Cloud.  My favorite is Elegy, probably for the guitar tones and it is a bit different.

You mentioned the festivals and since my wife is from England and I plan to retire in a couple of years, I told her my dream is to go to England and drop her off in Darby with her relatives and hit the festivals in England and possibly other countries depending on funds and being able to communicate enough to get by.
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #165 on: December 10, 2018, 12:44:58 PM »
I'd describe Skyforger as an old favorite that has lost some of it's appeal over the years. Sampo and the title track are certainly my favorite songs as well, and I could throw From Earth I Rose in the mix too.
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #166 on: December 10, 2018, 08:08:20 PM »
Amorphis seems to be unable to do anything wrong lately, with their audacious 2015’s Under the Red Cloud and equally fascinating Queen of Time, both featuring some of my favourite Amorphis songs to date. That being kept in mind, I still have to give the edge to Skyforger. While the last two albums are, without any slightest doubt, are Amorphis at their best, Skyforger managed to capture a spark that I didn’t feel in any of the band’s work up until 2015, and therefore it’s quite special to me. One of the first records that made me believe the growls aren’t always evil and unnecessary, Skyforger has cemented its place in my heart as a fantastic and inspired record.
This is identical to my thoughts on the band and these albums.

Offline Big Hath

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #167 on: December 10, 2018, 10:39:45 PM »
Great, great album.  We named our cat Sampo.
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #168 on: December 10, 2018, 10:44:29 PM »
Yes, this album is cool. It’s been years since I heard this one. Maybe I should revisit it soon.
Hey dude slow the fuck down so we can finish together at the same time.  :biggrin:
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Offline Kwyjibo

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #169 on: December 11, 2018, 12:38:26 AM »
Amorphis rocks  :metal :metal :metal

This band is incredible in putting out quality albums after a little slump with Am Universum and Far From The Sun.

My favorite is still Under The Red Cloud but Skyforger is definitely up there.
Must've been Kwyji sending all the wrong songs.   ;D

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. A wonder is born (#29)
« Reply #170 on: December 11, 2018, 04:27:26 AM »
I'M READING !!!!

This Amorphis album is amazing, get your nuts around it Chad.  Probably still my fav from them.

Great, great album.  We named our cat Sampo.

Jon, this is the coolest thing I've read for a long time.  You turned your cat into the most badass fucking cat ever!!
Everyone else, except Wolfking is wrong.

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Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The world will find a way (#28)
« Reply #171 on: December 11, 2018, 10:01:13 AM »
You mentioned the festivals and since my wife is from England and I plan to retire in a couple of years, I told her my dream is to go to England and drop her off in Darby with her relatives and hit the festivals in England and possibly other countries depending on funds and being able to communicate enough to get by.

I've read this as "since my wife is from England, I plan to retire in a couple of years", and thought I need to find one of those England wives somewhere.

Great, great album.  We named our cat Sampo.

What a name. As a huge fan of cats, is there any chance to see a photo of him/her?

I'M READING !!!!

This Amorphis album is amazing, get your nuts around it Chad.  Probably still my fav from them.

I don't even think it's than offensive to non-growl folk. It's certainly less growl-oriented than Wintersun, at least it feels that way.



#28
The World Is a Game
Mystery
Genre: progressive rock
2012
Recommended to me by: jingle.boy


Just when I thought I was done with discovering progressive rock after a lot of incredible albums I’ve received in my roulette, I decided to play in another one of those—the host’s nickname was Kattelox, or Firewings. I didn’t know shit about his tastes, except that he apparently felt like he had “grown out” of power metal and became extremely picky about it. Well, I thought, it would never hurt to introduce him to IQ’s The Road of Bones, as this album is one of my favourite DTF discovers, and were it not for my rule of no-repeats-from-the-first-list, that one would’ve been sitting comfortably (pun!) in the Top 5. And those who played in that roulette, you guys might remember that IQ did pretty good, sharing the top round score with some stupid record by a band called Mystery, sent by Chad.

For some reason, I simply decided to check it out immediately. Which record could compare with that fabulous IQ album? In no imaginable way was it possible.

I’m so glad I did that.

As I mentioned before, as far as the neo-progressive rock bands and albums were concerned, I lived in a cave. I knew and listened to some of the older prog rock bands, namely Jethro Tull and Marillion and perhaps something else I’m failing to think of, and then my experience ended there. I’m not a big fan of Rush, or Yes, or Genesis, or King Crimson. Metal and hard rock is where it was for me all these years, starting with the older classics like Deep Purple, Rainbow, Scorpions, and then going into Helloween, Gamma Ray and whatnot. Even my discovery of Dream Theater was by accident, but that’s the story for another day, I guess.

I started getting into progressive rock bit by bit as my days and months of residing at DTF stacked up, and by this point I couldn’t deny the genre was beautiful as long as the band knew what they were doing. IQ did, and so did a bunch of other bands which are higher in this list—and yet I don’t think any of the records I’ve heard made as big of impact on me as The World Is a Game. I couldn’t stop spinning it for a whole month, spinning the hell out of those eight tracks, perfectly lined up on this CD. I might’ve ended being burned out of the album, and that might be a reason it’s only at the 28th place; or perhaps it’s just too early for me to say. All I know is that this record gave me a blissful month of progressive rock goodness, and while I’m not sure if this record will climb up in my rankings even higher, I can definitely say I’m grateful for its existence based solely on that month I spent with it. A flabbergastingly great effort from a band I’ve never heard of before.

I’ll omit Another Day—the album’s epic—in that section below just to save you guys the time. Spoiler: it’s also amazing.

Favourite songs: Pride (YouTube, Spotify), Dear Someone (YouTube, Spotify), Time Goes By (YouTube, Spotify)
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The world will find a way (#28)
« Reply #172 on: December 11, 2018, 10:53:55 AM »
It was only earlier this year that you discovered them!?!?  Oy Vey!  Man, please tell me you've grabbed Lies and Butterflies.  That's my AOTY so far.

But, The World is A Game is the grand-daddy of Mystery albums.  I'll throw out an assist to Doc DTVT and cheffy-poo on this one, as they were the ones that pushed Mystery on me when The World was released.  Top shelf album for sure.  I'm most partial to Pride and Dear Someone
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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The world will find a way (#28)
« Reply #173 on: December 11, 2018, 10:57:34 AM »
I have still not given Mystery a dedicated listen.
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

Offline Evermind

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Re: Evermind's v2 Top 50 Albums Thread v. The world will find a way (#28)
« Reply #174 on: December 11, 2018, 11:05:17 AM »
It was only earlier this year that you discovered them!?!?  Oy Vey!  Man, please tell me you've grabbed Lies and Butterflies.  That's my AOTY so far.

You did send me something by them earlier via e-mail, and I was so thorougly unimpressed with it I didn't check them out at all. I looked it up and the song was called As I Am.

Also I did not grab the latest, but I have them saved on the streaming platform I use. I will buy it if I see it in our record store.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.