Top 5 By Your Top 5

[Podaar]

Dream Theater:
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Train of Thought
Awake
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Falling Into Infinity

Tool:
Fear Inoculum
Aenema
10,000 Days
Lateralus
Undertow

Opeth:
Watershed
Pale Communion
Ghost Reveries
Heritage
Sorceress

Pink Floyd:
Wish You Were Here
Animals
Dark Side of the Moon
Meddle
The Wall

Led Zeppelin:
Physical Graffiti
IV
II
III
Houses of the Holy

[RoeDent]

Dream Theater:
1. A Dramatic Turn of Events
2. Images and Words
3. Octavarium
4. Scenes from a Memory
5. Awake

The Flower Kings
1. Space Revolver
2. Stardust We Are
3. Flower Power
4. Retropolis
5. The Rainmaker

Porcupine Tree
1. Fear of a Blank Planet
2. Up the Downstair
3. Deadwing
4. Stupid Dream
5. Signify

Beardfish
1. Sleeping in Traffic, Pt. 2
2. The Void
3. Sleeping in Traffic, Pt. 1
4. Mammoth
5. Destined Solitaire

Spock's Beard
1. Brief Nocturnes & Dreamless Sleep
2. Beware of Darkness
3. Snow
4. V
5. X

[Lethean]

It's fascinating how Rush is on pretty much equally as many lists as DT is.  I understand the similarities and historical lineage, but still, I don't think you'd see as much of the reverse on a Rush forum.

No, I'm sure you wouldn't.  Rush is a huge band and I think a number of Rush fans haven't heard of DT.  And some have heard of them but never really checked them out.  And then of those who have, it seems that there's a good number who just don't like DT.  A lot of Rush fans criticize DT for the same things that non-Rush fans criticize Rush for - being too technical, no emotion, etc, which I've always found a bit funny.  They're all wrong as far as I'm concerned, but I do get that not everyone responds the same way or has an emotional response to the same things.

The real question is how many Rush fans would have Van Halen on their lists. 

Not me, but it doesn't seem like it would be unusual.  I like a VH song here and there, but it's otherwise not my cup of tea.  But I think a few of my Rush friends/acquaintances are VH fans too.

[Lethean]

Katatonia

Dead End Kings
City Burials
The Fall of Hearts
Night is the New Day
Viva Emptiness

Katatonia

Dead End Kings
City Burials
The Fall of Hearts
Night is the New Day
Viva Emptiness

Katatonia

Dead End Kings
City Burials
The Fall of Hearts
Night is the New Day
Viva Emptiness

Katatonia

Dead End Kings
City Burials
The Fall of Hearts
Night is the New Day
Viva Emptiness

Katatonia

Dead End Kings
City Burials
The Fall of Hearts
Night is the New Day
Viva Emptiness

 

   I do like other bands, you know .   That might be more in evidence if this wasn't a DT forum where everyone knows DT and Rush.  In fact, I'd have a really hard time saying that my favorite band isn't still DT or Rush.  Certainly DT was during the DoT/Scenes tour.  (But yes, I'd also have a hard time saying it's not Katatonia, who is indeed the band I've listened to most for some time now).

[nick_z]

Iron Maiden
The Number of the Beast
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Piece of Mind
Somewhere in Time
Powerslave

No love for the Reunion Era?

These are the exact same albums from my top five...slightly different order, but still...

Can't speak for Bluefish, but as far as I'm concerned there is plenty of love for the Reunion era...it's just hard to beat these, in my book...

[JediKnight1969]

Dream Theater

- Scenes From a Memory
- Images and Words
- Awake
- A dramatic turn of events
- Systematic chaos

Pink Floyd:

- Animals
- Wish You Were Here
- Dark Side of the Moon
- The Wall
- A momentary lapse of reason

The Beatles

- Abbey road
- Rubber soul
- Sgt. Pepper
- Magical mystery tour (LP version)
- Revolver

Iron Maiden

- Somewhere in time
- Brave new world
- Powerslave
- Seventh son of a seventh son
- The number of the beast

Deep Purple

- Machine head
- Burn
- Now what!?
- Perfect strangers
- Slaves and masters

[Bluefish]

No love for the Reunion Era?

I love 15 of the 17 studio albums, including all of the reunion era releases.  But at the end of the day I had to pick five, and these are my favorites.

[Stadler]

The hardest part was trying to decide a Top 5 favourite bands. Aside from The Beatles and Beach Boys, the other spots change from week to week. This is how it looks today. Other contenders were Kiss, Iron Maiden, Genesis, Pink Floyd....

That's my problem.   I can't narrow it down to five.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Linkin Park
A Thousand Suns
Minutes to Midnight
Hybrid Theory
One More Light
Re-Animation

Fascinating.  No Meteora?  I love that album and HT, but they lost me after those two releases. 

[OpenYourEyes311]

Linkin Park
A Thousand Suns
Minutes to Midnight
Hybrid Theory
One More Light
Re-Animation

Fascinating.  No Meteora?  I love that album and HT, but they lost me after those two releases.

Yeah, actually not a huge fan of Meteora. When it came out, I thought it was fine, but it sounded just like a re-hash of Hybrid Theory. Like... ZERO difference. There was no step forward in the music. After Re-Animation (a literal re-hash of HT... but in a very good way), I just figured they would continue to grow in a different direction. When they didn't, it just didn't get me as excited as the first one. Minutes to Midnight, on the other hand, was exactly what I wanted a new LP to be. It was interesting, and Meteora was anything but interesting to me.

I didn't get into the stuff after MtM until after Chester died. ATS is their masterpiece. I'm sad I didn't give it a chance at the time of release. And the rest of the catalog is pretty strong. One More Light was pointing in a totally different direction again. They had so much to offer, it's very sad that their career was cut short.

[SoundscapeMN]

The hardest part was trying to decide a Top 5 favourite bands. Aside from The Beatles and Beach Boys, the other spots change from week to week. This is how it looks today. Other contenders were Kiss, Iron Maiden, Genesis, Pink Floyd....

That's my problem.   I can't narrow it down to five.

pick names out of a hat? (or use a random number generator or name wheel)

[Zantera]

Linkin Park
A Thousand Suns
Minutes to Midnight
Hybrid Theory
One More Light
Re-Animation

Fascinating.  No Meteora?  I love that album and HT, but they lost me after those two releases.

Yeah, actually not a huge fan of Meteora. When it came out, I thought it was fine, but it sounded just like a re-hash of Hybrid Theory. Like... ZERO difference. There was no step forward in the music. After Re-Animation (a literal re-hash of HT... but in a very good way), I just figured they would continue to grow in a different direction. When they didn't, it just didn't get me as excited as the first one. Minutes to Midnight, on the other hand, was exactly what I wanted a new LP to be. It was interesting, and Meteora was anything but interesting to me.

I didn't get into the stuff after MtM until after Chester died. ATS is their masterpiece. I'm sad I didn't give it a chance at the time of release. And the rest of the catalog is pretty strong. One More Light was pointing in a totally different direction again. They had so much to offer, it's very sad that their career was cut short.

Cool to see LP on one of these lists, that band pretty much got me into music and I still listen to them here and there and have enjoyed their evolution. Your ranking is interesting and I can buy into the reasoning, personally I really struggle with ranking their albums. Hybrid Theory is the classic that I have listened to probably 500 times in my life and it really had a huge impact on me, Meteora dropped when I was a huge fan and might even be more of a personal favorite as I enjoyed the more artistic flourishes (Breaking the Habit felt like them really growing as a band for example). Minutes to Midnight in general seems disliked but it has my favorite song of theirs (The Little Things Give You Away) and a couple of other songs I would say are on par with their 2 classic albums (Given Up and No More Sorrow). A Thousand Suns is one I've gone back and forward on a lot. I think it's a very well crafted album and I definitely see why some has it as their favorite, but I also have times where I feel the album is too many interludes/transition type songs and the actual 'meat' of the album isn't as strong as the album's reputation.

Living Things to me feels almost like a twin universe version of Hybrid Theory where the metal is replaced with keyboards for a more electronic poppy sound. I can't quite explain why but I listen to the songs and it feels structurally fairly similar except it's a different style. I do enjoy it and it has a couple of great songs, but in the bigger scope it would rank fairly low in their discography but I still like it a lot. I think The Hunting Party is up there with their best, not because it was a return to metal but I really just like the album. Some absolute strong hitters on there (Keys to the Kingdom and Mark the Graves being the two main standouts for me). One More Light to me is their worst album but I really like the title track and I did like Heavy as well, but aside from those I do consider it a letdown because the rest of the album doesn't quite 'feel' LP. I don't mind the calmer album as it has two great songs IMO, but I feel like they didn't really utilize the band.

So yeah my ranking would have probably Hybrid Theory, Meteora, Hunting Party and A Thousand Suns in my top4 (not sure what order) and then after those I'd have Minutes to Midnight, Living Things and One More Light would be dead last. I still consider all of them great except for One More Light which is more of a 'maybe once a year I'll throw it on' type album. Reanimation deserves some sort of special mention because that is a release I've listened to A LOT over the years, and some of those versions I might even consider superior to their Hybrid Theory counterparts. Just a very interesting experiment, even if it's a remix album.

[jingle.boy]

The hardest part was trying to decide a Top 5 favourite bands. Aside from The Beatles and Beach Boys, the other spots change from week to week. This is how it looks today. Other contenders were Kiss, Iron Maiden, Genesis, Pink Floyd....

That's my problem.   I can't narrow it down to five.

Yes you can.  Just got with your gut.  Don't think, what do your instincts tell you.  Kiss and Genesis are 2 no brainers, so who are the other 3?

[HOF]

The hardest part was trying to decide a Top 5 favourite bands. Aside from The Beatles and Beach Boys, the other spots change from week to week. This is how it looks today. Other contenders were Kiss, Iron Maiden, Genesis, Pink Floyd....

That's my problem.   I can't narrow it down to five.

Yes you can.  Just got with your gut.  Don't think, what do your instincts tell you.  Kiss and Genesis are 2 no brainers, so who are the other 3?

I’ll finish it for him. Zeppelin, Maiden, Beatles.

[DragonAttack]

Finally a chance to escape and do this while the wind isn't affecting the internets too much here:

QUEEN
1a.  Sheer Heart Attack
1b.  A Night At The Opera
1c.  A Day At The Races
4.  News Of The World
5.  Queen II
Honorable mention:  Innuendo, Live Killers

The BEATLES
1.  Abbey Road
2.  Sgt. Pepper
3.  Magical Mystery Tour [LP version]
4.  The White Album
5.  Help (this is where the 'change' began)

ALICE COOPER
1.  Billion Dollar Babies
2.  Killer
3.  School's Out
4.  Love It To Death
5.  (tie)  Welcome To My Nightmare
             Goes To Hell

LED ZEPPELIN
1.  Zoso
2.  II
3.  I
4.  Physical Graffiti
5.  In Through The Out Door

DREAM THEATER
1.  Octavarium
2.  Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence (for 'Misunderstood' and Disc 2)
3.  Scenes From A Memory
4.  Distance Over Time
5.  Images And Words
Honorable mention:  A Dramatic Turn Of Events

The very next level would be Jethro Tull, Styx, Yes, Van Halen, Chicago, REM, and Rush.  There's plenty of others I'd list, but they 'only' had 3-4 albums I would rate as 'very very goodly'.

[TAC]

ALICE COOPER
1.  Billion Dollar Babies
2.  Killer
3.  School's Out
4.  Love It To Death
5.  (tie)  Welcome To My Nightmare
             Goes To Hell

I really go back and forth with these two. I think for this exercise, for some reason I listed WTMN, but I usually list Goes To Hell a little ahead.

[cramx3]

ALICE COOPER
1.  Billion Dollar Babies
2.  Killer
3.  School's Out
4.  Love It To Death
5.  (tie)  Welcome To My Nightmare
             Goes To Hell

I really go back and forth with these two. I think for this exercise, for some reason I listed WTMN, but I usually list Goes To Hell a little ahead.

Speaking of.... heading out to see Alice Cooper in just a bit! 

[TAC]

ALICE COOPER
1.  Billion Dollar Babies
2.  Killer
3.  School's Out
4.  Love It To Death
5.  (tie)  Welcome To My Nightmare
             Goes To Hell

I really go back and forth with these two. I think for this exercise, for some reason I listed WTMN, but I usually list Goes To Hell a little ahead.

Speaking of.... heading out to see Alice Cooper in just a bit! 

 

[Stadler]

Let's do this:

The Beatles
1. Abbey Road
2. Sgt. Pepper
3. Magical Mystery Tour
4. Past Masters (the second one, if I have to)
5. Let It Be

Kiss
1. Rock And Roll Over
2. Hotter Than Hell
3. Creatures Of The Night
4. Destroyer
5. Sonic Boom

Dream Theater
1. Images And Words
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Octavarium
4. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
5. Awake


Genesis
1. Wind And Wuthering
2. Duke
3. Abacab
4. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
5. Selling England By The Pound (this could be Invisible Touch)


Marillion
1. Clutching At Straws
2. Misplaced Childhood
3. Seasons End
4. Fugazi
5. Brave

[nick_z]

Marillion
1. Clutching At Straws
2. Misplaced Childhood
3. Seasons End
4. Fugazi
5. Brave

You know, your top three is just like mine. I love those three albums so much, the order sometimes switches around, but I think I can get behind yours.

After that, it's probably Brave in fourth place and Afraid of Sunlight fifth - although some days Holidays in Eden wants in  (I know, I know, it's a little too "thin" sound-wise, but the songs themselves are for the most part great to me)

[Stadler]

All in lieu of Marillion:

Led Zeppelin:
1. Physical Graffiti
2. Zeppelin IV
3. Houses Of The Holy
4. Zeppelin II
5. Zeppelin I

Yes:
1. Going For The One
2. The Yes Album
3. Big Penetrator
4. Fragile
5. Tales From Topographic Oceans

Rainbow:
1. Rising
2. Bent Out Of Shape
3. Long Live Rock And Roll
4. Straight Between The Eyes
5. Down To Earth

Iron Maiden:
1. Senjutsu (yes)
2. Powerslave
3. Killers
4. Piece Of Mind
5. The Final Frontier

[The Realm]

Iron Maiden
The Number of the Beast
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Piece of Mind
Somewhere in Time
Powerslave

No love for the Reunion Era?

These are the exact same albums from my top five...slightly different order, but still...

Can't speak for Bluefish, but as far as I'm concerned there is plenty of love for the Reunion era...it's just hard to beat these, in my book...

Yep, agree with this. I would have a slightly different order but these are the top 5 Maiden albums, even though I still love the reunion era and the first 2 albums.

[Trav86]

Let's do this:

The Beatles
1. Abbey Road
2. Sgt. Pepper
3. Magical Mystery Tour
4. Past Masters (the second one, if I have to)
5. Let It Be

Kiss
1. Rock And Roll Over
2. Hotter Than Hell
3. Creatures Of The Night
4. Destroyer
5. Sonic Boom

Dream Theater
1. Images And Words
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Octavarium
4. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
5. Awake


Genesis
1. Wind And Wuthering
2. Duke
3. Abacab
4. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
5. Selling England By The Pound (this could be Invisible Touch)

Marillion
1. Clutching At Straws
2. Misplaced Childhood
3. Seasons End
4. Fugazi
5. Brave

[DragonAttack]

ALICE COOPER
1.  Billion Dollar Babies
2.  Killer
3.  School's Out
4.  Love It To Death
5.  (tie)  Welcome To My Nightmare
             Goes To Hell

I really go back and forth with these two. I think for this exercise, for some reason I listed WTMN, but I usually list Goes To Hell a little ahead.

Speaking of.... heading out to see Alice Cooper in just a bit! 

His vocals are finally showing some strain, he's letting the band and audience take over in spots, but him and his band still put on one hell of a fun show.  Had a great time Saturday (and, somewhat surprising once again, so did the wife).

As to my tie....'Nightmare' would still rate as his top solo effort, such a classic, and yet there's an equal amount of appeal with the follow up, and the mix is better.

[TAC]

As to my tie....'Nightmare' would still rate as his top solo effort, such a classic, and yet there's an equal amount of appeal with the follow up, and the mix is better.

I understand. His band on the Nightmare tour was incredible.

I absolutely love Goes To Hell. There's a bit of sophistication to it compared to WTMN. Songs like I'm The Coolest, Give The Kid A Break, and Didn't We Meet show just how talented of a vocalist he is.
And it has Tony Levin!

[Lethean]

Iron Maiden:
1. Senjutsu (yes)

Maybe I should get around to listening to this.

[cramx3]

Iron Maiden:
1. Senjutsu (yes)

Maybe I should get around to listening to this.

Yes, you should! I may not rate it as highly but it's very good

[JediKnight1969]

All in lieu of Marillion:

Yes:
1. Going For The One
2. The Yes Album
3. Big Penetrator
4. Fragile
5. Tales From Topographic Oceans

Wait... WHAT?

[JediKnight1969]

All in lieu of Marillion:

Yes:
1. Going For The One
2. The Yes Album
3. Big Penetrator
4. Fragile
5. Tales From Topographic Oceans

Wait... WHAT?

Still in shock

[romdrums]

I’ll take a stab at this:

Marillion
1a. Afraid of Sunlight
1b. Brave
3. Marbles
4. Clutching at Straws
5. Fugazi

Genesis
1. Selling England by the Pound
2. The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
3. A Trick of the Tail
4. Wind and Wuthering
5. Invisible Touch (come at me)

Rush
1. Moving Pictures
2. Permanent Waves
3. Power Windows
4. Presto
5. Clockwork Angels

Dream Theater
1. Awake
2. Images and Words
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Distance Over Time
5. Falling Into Infinity

Porcupine Tree
1. In Absentia
2. Fear of a Blank Planet
3. Signify
4. Up the Down Stair
5. Deadwing

[Stadler]

Except for Porcupine Tree - because I don't know them, not because your list is bad - those are some good lists.

[DragonAttack]

I’ll take a stab at this:

<snipped>
Genesis

5. Invisible Touch (come at me)

One of my top 5's as well, with 'And Then There Were Three' as my favorite (due in part to the quadraphonic sound and light show at Michigan State's Abrams Planetarium when I first heard it)

[The Letter M]

(Albums in no particular order)

RUSH
A Farewell To Kings
Hemispheres
Permanent Waves
Power Windows
Vapor Trails

DREAM THEATER
Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
Octavarium
Images And Words
Awake
A View From The Top Of The World

BIG BIG TRAIN
English Electric Full Power
Folklore
Grimspound
Grand Tour
Common Ground

TRANSATLANTIC
SMPT:e
Bridge Across Forever
The Whrilwind
Kaleidoscope
The Absolute Universe (Ultimate Mix)

THE TANGENT
The Music That Died Alone
The World That We Drive Through
A Place In The Queue
Le Sacre Du Travail
A Spark In The Aether

I didn't want to think too long or hard about my band and album choices. I figured a more honest answer would be closer to my immediate thoughts, so here's what I came up with. It was tough not picking bands like Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings, Genesis, Yes, etc., but these are what I'd probably consider my top 5 bands today. Rush and DT will always be top 2, and the other 3 have become Top 5 bands over the last decade or so, and I doubt that'll change anytime soon. I also figured BBT and The Tangent would make my list since I'm probably the biggest fan of both on this forum.

-Marc.

[emtee]

Degree of difficulty: 10/10

DT
Awake
I&W
SFAM
SDOIT
AVFTTOTW

JOURNEY
Evolution
Escape
Frontiers
Departure
Infinity

GENESIS
ATTWT
W&W
ABACAB
ATOTT
DUKE

YES
The Yes Album
GFTO
Drama
90125
CTTE

PINK FLOYD
WYWH
Animals
DSOTM
The Wall
AMLoR

[Trav86]

JOURNEY
Evolution
Escape
Frontiers
Departure
Infinity

GENESIS
ATTWT
W&W
ABACAB
ATOTT
DUKE

YES
The Yes Album
GFTO
Drama
90125
CTTE

PINK FLOYD
WYWH
Animals
DSOTM
The Wall
AMLoR

Against the grain on all of these. Nice. Evolution and ATTWT are such underrated albums!