Your top 3 concept albums?

[kirksnosehair]

Triumph - Surveillance

A concept album?  I've never heard of that.  I even googled "triumph surveillance concept album," and nothing came up?  Did you maybe mean Thunder Seven (which is really only half of a concept album)?

I don't know i always just kind of assumed it was a concept album.   

[KevShmev]

Going with concept albums that tell a story and leaving off thematic ones (like Dark Side), I will go with:

Pink Floyd - The Wall
Neal Morse Band - The Similitude of a Dream
Dream Theater -Scenes from a Memory

[425]

Really hard to narrow it down to just three, but at the moment I think:

Kamelot - The Black Halo
The Dear Hunter - Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional
Dream Theater - Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

All three are albums that I've played over and over again. The first two are the only concept albums I can think of right now where I'm consistently made emotional by both the music and the story.

SFAM has a decent story with some moments that make me emotional occasionally (mainly One Last Time and Finally Free), but it's absolutely stood the test of time for me from a musical perspective after being only the second or third concept album I owned (after Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and maybe Clockwork Angels).

[Revenge319]

In no particular order:

Dream Theater - Metropolis, Part 2: Scenes From A Memory
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence

[v_clortho]

Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
The Dear Hunter - Act IV (Could also go with Act V depending on the day)
Marah in the Mainsail - Bone Crown

Too hard to only pick 3. I've left off...
Savatage - Streets
Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory
Pink Floyd - The Wall
and probably many others that will come to me later when someone mentions them.

[TAC]

Alice Cooper-School's Out
Dream Theater-Scenes From A Memory
Iron Maiden-Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime

[bl5150]

Would be 3 of;

WASP - The Crimson Idol
Savatage - Streets
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime

Those for me ..........about the only 3 concept albums I have bothered to read into the concept and understand the whole story.  An obscure one .....Morifade: Domination would be one more.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Dream Theater-Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory
The Beatles-Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Avenged Sevenfold-The Stage

[Peter Mc]

The first two are instant choices and they would be:

Dream Theater - Scenes From A Memory
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime

Number three is tough, it’s hard to ignore Dark Side Of The Moon, The Wall by Floyd or Brave by Marillion.  Even Snow by Spock’s Beard or some of the Neal Morse solo records.  There’s even Porcupine Tree and Steven Wilson ones that I love.

Right now though (and this could change) I would go with Apex by Unleash The Archers.

[wolfking]

Would be 3 of;

WASP - The Crimson Idol
Savatage - Streets
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime

Those for me ..........about the only 3 concept albums I have bothered to read into the concept and understand the whole story.  An obscure one .....Morifade: Domination would be one more.

I thought you'd be on board with me there.  I remember you pimping That Morifade.  Don't think I checked it yet.

[TAC]

Checking it now. Pretty nice.

[TAC]

Would be 3 of;

WASP - The Crimson Idol
Savatage - Streets
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
King Diamond - Abigail

Adding to this.  House of God would battle Abigail for KD's best concept album.

I gravitate more to Puppet Master and GMYS...P.

That said, The Graveyard is pretty fucked up.

[wolfking]

Would be 3 of;

WASP - The Crimson Idol
Savatage - Streets
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
King Diamond - Abigail

Adding to this.  House of God would battle Abigail for KD's best concept album.

I gravitate more to Puppet Master and GMYS...P.

That said, The Graveyard is pretty fucked up.

The Graveyard is an amazingly twisted story, plus I find the album very underrated.  The Puppet Master too is an excellent story and album.

I didn't mind Abigal 2 also just quietly.  Something about House of God gets me going.  The ending with This Place is Terrible is one of the coolest climaxes I've ever heard in a concept album.

[TAC]

Peace Of Mind is Schenkerific. I've always felt that.

[The Realm]

Really tough question this one. Like a few others above instantly to my mind is:

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Dream Theater - Scenes from a Memory

After that though, I really don't think I could name just one, so many I could chose from, all which have been previously mentioned.

[wolfking]

Peace Of Mind is Schenkerific. I've always felt that.

I can hear that.

Schenkerific. 

[Stadler]

No judgment, just observation, but surprising to me that the references to Brave outnumber the references to Misplaced Childhood by approximately 254 to 1. 

[TAC]

[Stadler]

HAHAHA

[HOF]

No judgment, just observation, but surprising to me that the references to Brave outnumber the references to Misplaced Childhood by approximately 254 to 1.

It’s partly because I’m more of an H fan, but I just think Brave is on a totally different level than Misplaced Childhood. For whatever reason Misplaced Childhood doesn’t resonate with me all that much. It has some songs I really like (Heart of Lothian, Blind Curve), and I enjoy most of the rest, but in terms of a concept album it starts and ends with weak tracks (Pseudo Silk Kimono and White Feather) and I’m not even sure what the concept is to be honest. It’s also overshadowed by Clutching at Straws, which is Fish’s best work and Marillion’s best work to that point IMO.

[ariich]

Like Kev, I'm leaving out thematic concept-y albums (so Anathema's Weather Systems or Haken's The Mountain for me) and only including full-on narrative concept albums.

1. The Dear Hunter - Act III: Life and Death
2. Pain of Salvation - Be

and then number 3 is too difficult to choose, but it'd be one of the following (in alphabetical order):

Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence
The Dear Hunter - Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise
The Dear Hunter - Act V: Hymns With the Devil in Confessional
Haken - Virus (or possibly Vector & Virus as a double album)
Pain of Salvation - The Perfect Element I
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
The River Empires - The River Empires (Epilogue)

[ProfessorPeart]

Had to pour over my library to get a handle on this.

1 - Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

The Other Two:

Ayreon - Into The Electric Castle
Savatage - Dead Winter Dead

Honorable Mentions:

Spock's Beard - Snow
Green Day - American Idiot
Neal Morse - Testimony
Rush - Clockwork Angels
Iced Earth - The Dark Saga
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Ayreon - The Human Equation

[Architeuthis]

Clockwork Angel's
Operation Mindcrime
SFAM

I was gonna say The Astonishing but I guess it's considered more of a rock opera.  I think it certainly qualifies to be a concept album too.

[Peter Mc]

The Astonishing would definitely qualify for this imo but it’s not in my personal top 3.

[jingle.boy]

The Astonishing would definitely qualify for this imo but it’s not in my personal top 3.

It probably makes my bottom 3.

[bl5150]

Would be 3 of;

WASP - The Crimson Idol
Savatage - Streets
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime

Those for me ..........about the only 3 concept albums I have bothered to read into the concept and understand the whole story.  An obscure one .....Morifade: Domination would be one more.

I thought you'd be on board with me there.  I remember you pimping That Morifade.  Don't think I checked it yet.

Definitely worth a listen .........probably a bit long and the first few tracks are a bit vanilla but from that point on there's more than a few good songs IMO.   And like Mindcrime it's an album where the drumming is subtle but stands out - not something that normally grabs my attention.

[lonestar]

No judgment, just observation, but surprising to me that the references to Brave outnumber the references to Misplaced Childhood by approximately 254 to 1.

Brave is just so much more a complete and fully developed concept in my opinion, and the album is such a lush soundscape to get completely lost in. While MC set a standard, for me, Clutching at Straws surpasses it as well.

[twosuitsluke]

The Astonishing would definitely qualify for this imo but it’s not in my personal top 3.

It probably makes my bottom 3.

...out of all the albums released in the last decade.

[crazy climber dude]

An egregious oversight....so far, after perusing two pages worth.....Seventh Wonder "Mercy Falls".

[ThatOneGuy2112]

.

[Stadler]

This is a tough one for me, in part because it depends on what you consider a "concept album". You have full on narrative-driven albums, and then there's albums with a central "concept" or theme as its focus. The title of the thread doesn't make the distinction, so I'm including those of either category.

1. Harmonium - Les cinq saisons
2. Aphrodite's Child - 666
3.  The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium

Honorable mentions:
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Pink Floyd - Animals
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
MF DOOM - Mm.. Food
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

I honestly forgot about Animals.   That's a good call, right there.

[Elite]

An egregious oversight....so far, after perusing two pages worth.....Seventh Wonder "Mercy Falls".

Definitely not.. if I had actually named progressive metal concept albums and if I could name more than three albums, this one could be on the list

[Lowdz]

I love. Good concept album

Q Operation:Mindcrime

2 SFAM

3 WASP - The Crimson Idol

Underneath those three would be

Savatage - Streets

Alice Cooper - From The Inside

Camel - Nude

The Avantasia albums

The Coheed and Cambria albums

My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade

Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage

KISS - Music From The Elder in the originally intended running order

Marillion - Clutching At Straws, Misplaced Childhood

Rhapsody- Dawn of Veeectoooory

Virgin Steele - House of Atreus

[MirrorMask]

This is a tough one for me, in part because it depends on what you consider a "concept album". You have full on narrative-driven albums, and then there's albums with a central "concept" or theme as its focus.

It's not really a thing, but I do make that distinction, a "themed" album.

I consider a concept album something that tells a story, like SFAM or Mindcrime.
I consider a themed album something where the songs have a unifying theme, but they don't tell a story from beginning to end.

if DT had released the title track of Six Degrees as a standalone "album", I would consider it a themed album. There's no story told there, it's just that all the "songs" are about the same subjects, mental diseases / issues.

[bosk1]

Alice Cooper-School's Out

I have never heard the album, and have never been an Alice fan in general.  I haven't disliked anything I have heard.  But nothing really grabbed me either.  Just another of many artists where, if a song of his came on, I enjoyed it well enough, but never felt compelled to seek out any of his music.  The other day, while having YouTube cycle through stuff on autoplay while I was working, a pro-shot Alice show from Wacken a few years back came up, and MAN what a fun, fanstastic performance that was!  School's Out (the song) was one of many highlights.