Author Topic: Katt's Top 50 Albums v. I bless the rains down in Africa [#1]  (Read 66860 times)

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Offline The Walrus

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I remember I came home from college late in the morning and had both albums ready to go, so I put on Wicked Symphony and it blew my mind. Went back to class later that day blasting the album down the interstate and holy cow. So damn good. Makes me want to make a 'top 10 Avantasia songs' list. Hmm...
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Offline 425

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I need to give The Wicked Symphony a bit more of a chance, but my early impressions were not that positive. My Avantasia preferences are most strongly met by the three most recent releases.

Watershed is an amazing pick. It's my second favorite Opeth album (not second to that one, or to that one, or to that one either... to Heritage, of course). Heir Apparent is my "I'm not huge into growls, but..." song. And Coil is one of those songs that's really distinctive and beautiful. And I will share your praise for Hessian Peel.
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I think Moonglow is a better album  :biggrin:

The title track is fantastic though, it's not a bad album at all, but I find their other albums are just better overall.  Dying for an Angel is definitely a top Avantasia song too, maybe their best "single" type song

Offline Grappler

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I prefer The Scarecrow to Wicked Symphony, but it's still a great record.  I don't listen to it as often as I should.

Offline The Walrus

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Scarecrow's very close. It just dips a little towards the end for my liking. Can't stand Cry Just A Little or Carry Me Over. I've warmed up to I Don't Believe In Your Love in the last few years though.
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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I'm alright with this. After TMO pt. 2 I've almost wrote a joke that you'll probably feature the worst three Avantasia albums on your list: Metal Opera pt. 2, Moonglow and Angel of Babylon. Then I realized I probably like Moonglow more than Ghostlights. Then I became a hundred percent sure you'll feature Ghostlights as their best album and deleted the post. :lol

Love how diverse The Wicked Symphony is. Good favourite picks, too.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Crow

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How many more avantasia albums left on the list, Katt?  :corn

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Scales Of Justice :metal
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 pg1067

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I don't know much about Rush, but I see Marathon is on this album and I got that one in my last roulette, reaaaally not my thing.

Marathon is hands down the best song on Power Windows, so if that's not for you, then the rest of the album definitely isn't.
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Offline The Walrus

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How many more avantasia albums left on the list, Katt?  :corn

I said it was the last one at the start of the writeup :neverusethis:
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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Offline The Walrus

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I'm alright with this. After TMO pt. 2 I've almost wrote a joke that you'll probably feature the worst three Avantasia albums on your list: Metal Opera pt. 2, Moonglow and Angel of Babylon. Then I realized I probably like Moonglow more than Ghostlights. Then I became a hundred percent sure you'll feature Ghostlights as their best album and deleted the post. :lol

Love how diverse The Wicked Symphony is. Good favourite picks, too.

Ghostlights has a pretty horrible Dee Snider song, Isle of Evermore, and a section in Storm that ruins the entire middle of the song, so it's out of the running. :)

Angel of Babylon is an abomination IMO. It's barely better than Mystery of Time and that's ONLY because of Stargazers, Your Love Is Evil, the title track and Promised Land. Mostly because of Jorn, tbh. But I CAN'T STAND Angel or Mystery.
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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Offline Crow

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How many more avantasia albums left on the list, Katt?  :corn

I said it was the last one at the start of the writeup :neverusethis:
Yeah I guess I'm not too interested in reading writeups about avantasia oops  :P
I'm surprised at that tho tbh considering they make up a quarter of the list so far

Offline The Walrus

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Well there's a few bands that repeat a lot but we haven't even seen them yet. I like Edguy more than Avantasia, for example... the list gets pretty predictable real soon, if it isn't already. *shrug* tastes!  :biggrin:
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Offline wolfking

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That's a very good Avantasia album.
Everyone else, except Wolfking is wrong.

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Well there's a few bands that repeat a lot but we haven't even seen them yet. I like Edguy more than Avantasia, for example... the list gets pretty predictable real soon, if it isn't already. *shrug* tastes!  :biggrin:
I was kind of hoping there wouldn't be any Edguy on the list. Every time I've tried to listen to them I get like 2 songs in to the album and just cant finish it. To me it's very vanilla power metal and I really don't care for Tobias as a vocalist. I like Avantasia more because the guest singers usually make up for his ineptitude in singing.
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Other than the fact that I can get thru a whole album, I’m pretty much the same vis-a-vis Edguy. I enjoy it whenever I spin them, but don’t reach for them very often.
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Offline Crow

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I can't get over how funny of a band name Edguy is. I'm surprised Avantasia wasn't named like, Bobdude instead

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I can't get over how funny of a band name Edguy is. I'm surprised Avantasia wasn't named like, Bobdude instead

 :rollin :rollin :rollin

That's funny.
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

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I can't get over how funny of a band name Edguy is. I'm surprised Avantasia wasn't named like, Bobdude instead
I think it was a nickname of sorts for one of Tobias' teachers in school or something....
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Offline The Walrus

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It was. They just kind of went with it ever since they were in school.

Edguy fucking rules and has some of the most acclaimed power metal albums ever. Not liking Mandrake or Theater of Salvation is like me saying A Farewell to Kings blows... er...  okay, carry on.  :lol
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Offline bl5150

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I can't get over how funny of a band name Edguy is. I'm surprised Avantasia wasn't named like, Bobdude instead

 :rollin :rollin :rollin

That's funny.

Reminds me of.............



:)
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 :lol

He should've named the album Testosterone!
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

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Offline The Walrus

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WTF  :lol
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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what about his distant cousin, Girl Lady-Chick

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Or his weird perverted uncle Stadler-Kingshmegland-J Boy
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 Cool Chris

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I've always considered Tesla to be a poor man's Aerosmith. And Aerosmith is a terrible band.  :corn

I know this is a few pages old, but I was behind and just saw it and :lol'ed

Also, I also never would have thought Edguy was anything but a emo-band made up of 17 year olds. If they named their band after a teacher, did that guy work with Leonard Skinner*?


*Just looked him up to make sure I got the name right, and found he has his own wikipedia page, complete with quote from the NYTimes: "Arguably the most influential high school gym teacher in American popular culture" Nice cred to add to the resume. 
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Offline The Walrus

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You jest, but Edguy have some fucking bangers. Seriously good hard rock and metal.

The next 10 entries are Edguy records. Screw y'all. :hug:
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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Online Evermind

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Edguy is alright, but almost each album has some great songs and some meh songs.

I saw them live on Monuments tour where the setlist was pretty much most of their hits and that gig rocked hard.  :metal

I'll take Avantasia over Edguy any day though.
This first band is Soen very cool swingy jazz fusion kinda stuff.

Offline Nekov

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Yeah, more power metal.... :puke:
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Offline The Walrus

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Power metal rules when done correctly. (Correctly being the way I like it... obviously!) That's my home turf, musically speaking.

#38 coming in hot.
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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Offline The Walrus

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38.
GUNS N’ ROSES
USE YOUR ILLUSION I

Hard Rock / Heavy Metal

released September 17th, 1991 by Geffen Records



1. Right Next Door to Hell [3:02]
2. Dust N’ Bones [4:58]
3. Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney and Wings cover) [3:04]
4. Don’t Cry (original) [4:44]
5. Perfect Crime [2:23]
6. You Ain’t the First [2:36]
7. Bad Obsession [5:28]
8. Back Off Bitch [5:03]
9. Double Talkin’ Jive [3:23]
10. November Rain [8:57]
11. The Garden [5:22]
12. Garden of Eden [2:41]
13. Don’t Damn Me [5:18]
14. Bad Apples [4:28]
15. Dead Horse [4:17]
16. Coma [10:13]

USE YOUR ILLUSION I is

W. Axl Rose (Lead and backing vocals / Piano / Synthesizer / Acoustic guitar)
Slash (Lead, rhythm, acoustic, slide, classical guitars / Dobro / Bass / Backing vocals)
Izzy Stradlin (Lead, rhythm, acoustic guitars / Backing vocals / Lead vocals on 2, 6, 9)
Duff McKagan (Bass / Backing vocals / Acoustic guitar)
Matt Sorum (Drums / Percussion / Backing vocals)
Dizzy Reed (Keyboards / Backing vocals)

WITH

Alice Cooper (Lead vocals on 11)
Shannon Hoon (Lead vocals on 4 / Backing vocals on 3, 6, 10, 11 /)
Johann Langlie (Programming on 3, 10, 12 / Sound effects on 16)
Bruce Foster (Sound effects on 16)
Michael Monroe (Harmonica, saxophone on 7)
Reba Shaw (Backing vocals on 10)
Stuart Bailey (Backing vocals on 10)
Jon Thautwein (Horn on 3)
Matthew McKagan (Horn on 3)
Rachel West (Horn on 3)
Robert Clark (Horn on 3)
Tim Doyle (Tambourine on 6)
West Arkeen (Acoustic guitar on 11)

Yeah this is another lengthy writeup. I grew up with GnR, damn it, and I will SPEAK!  :)

The history of GnR and the recording of the UYI albums is fascinating to me. Matt Sorum gets to shine because there’s so much variety across both records, and Steven Adler only gets credit for the paltry single he played on, “Civil War.” Drugs are bad, mkay? As for that “November Rain” drum fill, it was a conscious decision by Axl to repeat that. “Don’t Cry” and “November Rain” are actually part of a loosely related musical trilogy, and the third part is “Estranged” on Use Your Illusion II. You can hear that same drum fill in “Estranged,” and kinda-sorta hear it in “Don’t Cry.” Good stuff.

The introduction of Dizzy Reed was a point of contention for the guitarists in the band, especially Slash, who didn’t want a pianist joining the fold, but I think Dizzy’s playing adds a very cool old school rock element to the mix that the album benefits from in a big way. “Dust N’ Bones” just wouldn’t sound the same without him. Although “November Rain” is played by Axl, and it’s funny on the UYI concert films when you see Dizzy play a tambourine for half the show, I still love his work in the band on these albums.

Axl’s voice is the best voice in rock and roll and nothing will change my opinion on that; I love how he can croon and sing gently, but in an instant can turn on the rasp and grow seamlessly into a banshee-like roar. Pair that with some emotionally charged, deep lyrics and you got yourself a badass singer. I love everything here and Axl’s a big part of that, but Izzy Stradlin also gets the spotlight for a few songs and he’s always good on those bluesier tracks. Even Alice Cooper gets in on the action and has a killer guest spot on “The Garden.”

“Coma” is one of the finest rock epics I’ve ever heard, and it’s almost mythical status for a lot of GnR fans having only ever been played four times (maybe five? I can’t recall if they played it in the last couple years). It’s a journey. The last few minutes have a relentless energy that builds and builds; Axl’s voice gets stronger and steadily rises while underneath Slash plays a solo that grows and grows until the band explodes in the last couple bars, with the guitar carrying the song home by imitating a flatlining heart monitor. Amazing. A real gem that I think everybody should listen to.

In Summary: One of the best rock albums, from the best rock band on the planet, in my opinion. I love everything about GnR, from the members to the attitude to the most overlooked lyrics. Use Your Illusion I is the angrier half of the two records, but also has some of the band’s most beautiful and most impressive moments. It irrationally bothers me when people slam these albums for not being Appetite, or for somehow not sounding like GnR, which I just don’t understand. It’s 100% rock and roll, but the band is creative enough to throw in all sorts of new elements to make this record stand on its own and not just be another fun hard rock record like Appetite. There’s a darkness bubbling just beneath the surface of this record and would explode not long after its release. I’m not as angry as I was when I was a teenager, but I still hold on to some of that attitude, and this record is still fun as hell to play.

Katt’s Favorites: Dust N’ Bones, Back Off Bitch, The Garden, Dead Horse, Coma

Listen to "Use Your Illusion I" by Guns N' Roses on Spotify except Bad Obsession and The Garden aren't available here for some reason  :facepalm:
« Last Edit: June 14, 2019, 08:43:40 AM by Kattelox »
From a Mega Man Legends island jamming power metal to a Walrus listening to black metal, I like your story arc.
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Offline Nekov

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A band that I like to listen to sometimes but never really been a fan of.
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Offline Grappler

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I could probably condense Use Your Illusion I and II into one really kickass album.  They come off as a totally bloated project that could have used some editing. 

As for I, Back off Bitch is such an awesome and underrated song and November Rain deserves all of the praise that it gets - the image of Slash standing on the piano playing the solo at some MTV awards show in the 90's is completely iconic.  Live and Let Die is an amazing cover that beefs up the original and gives it so much more power without taking anything away from it.

I prefer Appetite to each of these as a full album, but kudos to Axl for his creative vision.

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Seriously?  Dude, you need to listen to more albums if this is in your top 40.  UYI I & II were the biggest fucking disappointments of my life.  It's got barely one album of good/decent material, and handful of gems, and a ton of outright tripe.

I did see Skid Row/GnR about 2-3 weeks before this album dropped, and the one new GnR song that I vividly remember from that show was .... November Rain.  That is my 2nd fave GnR tune, so I'll give it that.

But overall, massive massive disappointment given the circumstances.
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