1995...had this one ready to go
This thread is a great excuse to revisit those years...and to ramble about the albums that made those years special
The top 15, with pretty fluid ranking…all metal, but lots of variety…
Paradise Lost - Draconian Times (a more “refined” Icon? Another fantastic album from them)
Blind Guardian – Imaginations from the Other Side (my favorite BG, no doubt)
The Gathering – Mandylion (Anneke’s debut. Still a mini-classic, a magical combination of doom, gothic and…shoegaze?)
Sentenced – Amok (a unique album, even within their discography. Fantastic stuff)
Moonspell – Wolfheart (another one-of-a-kind album. Classic, black, ethnic metal? Never quite replicated)
Fear Factory – Demanufacture (an absolute classic from the 90s)
Meshuggah – Destroy Erase Improve (just enough thrash left as Meshuggah was starting to morph into a different beast. Another classic from that decade)
Death – Symbolic (tough contest with Individual Thought Patters as my favorite Death. A little more classic metal influence creeping in)
Dark Tranquillity – The Gallery (furiously melodic and complex. One of my favorite melodeath albums)
At the Gates – Slaughter of the Soul (yes, it’s responsible for generating hundreds of copycats. But it’s hard to argue with the original!)
Nightingale – The Breathing Shadow (from the genius of Dan Swano. The debut is much darker than rest of Nightingale's discography. A mix of gothic and Marillion?)
Skyclad – The Silent Whales of Lunar Sea (the production gets worse, but the songs are some of their best. Love it)
Lake of Tears – Headstones (Lots of influence from Icon-era Paradise Lost, but it’s more than just that. Doomy and dreamy, great songs)
Faith No More – King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime (even more all over the place than usual. A step down from The Real Thing and Angel Dust, but still a lot of fun)
Decoryah – Wisdom Floats (haven’t quite heard anything like this, before or after. Incredibly unique atmosphere, like a doom version of Dead Can Dance or something. Rough sounding, but fascinating stuff)
Plenty of other great album this year. Notable is, of course, Blaze’s debut with Iron Maiden. The X Factor is not a
great album, but I like it. And it's Maiden doing something different, with a good degree of success. My Dying Bride put out my favorite amongst their albums, with The Angel and the Dark River. On the classic metal front: Rage’s Black in Mind wasn’t quite as good as The Missing Link but still highly enjoyable. Gamma Ray did very well with Land of the Free and Kai Hansen back on vocals. Savatage went with their “concept/musical” route: Dead Winter Dead has some excellent moments and I guess it spawned the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with Sarajevo 12/24… Good stuff on the prog front too – in addition to DT’s classic A Change of Seasons, we have Conception, Eldritch, Elegy, Everon, Marillion, Shadow Gallery, Sieges Even, Symphony X. On the more mainstream front, I loved Collective Soul, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins (many good memories there)...and Radiohead’s The Bends (probably my favorite of theirs)
Abstrakt Algebra – Abstrakt Algebra
Anathema – The Silent Enigma
Ayreon – The Final Experiment
Celestial Season - Solar Lovers
Collective Soul – Collective Soul
Conception – In Your Multitude
Crematory – Illusions
Dissection – Storm of the Light’s Bane
Down – NOLA
Eldritch – Seeds of Rage
Elegy – Lost
Everon – Flood
Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters
Gamma Ray – Land of the Free
Garbage – Garbage
Goo Goo Dolls – A Boy Named Goo
Grip Inc. – Power of Inner Strength
Iron Maiden – The X Factor
Marillion – Afraid of Sunlight
Monster Magnet – Dopes to Infinity
Motorhead - Sacrifice
Movida – Against It All
My Dying Bride – The Angel and the Dark River
Oasis – (What’s the story) Morning glory?
Ozzy Osbourne – Ozzmosis
Pyogenesis – Twinaleblood
Radiohead – The Bends
Rage – Black in Mind
Rammstein – Herzeleid
Savatage – Dead Winter Dead
Shadow Gallery – Carved in Stone
Sieges Even – Sophisticated
Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie
The Storm – Eye of the Storm
Stratovarius – Fourth Dimension
Symphony X – The Damnation Game
Tad Morose – Sender of Thoughts
Theatre of Tragedy – Theatre of Tragedy
Therapy? – Infernal Love
Toto – Tambu
Virgin Steele – The Marriage of Heaven and Hell – Part 1
White Zombie – Astro Creep: 2000
The Wildhearts – P.H.U.Q
A couple of notable EPs:
Dream Theater – A Change of Seasons
In Flames – Subterranean (some of their very best songs)
‘nother round of relatively obscure prog (and whereabouts) metal albums:
Head or Tales – Eternity Becomes a Lie
Ivanhoe – Symbols of Time
Nation – Without Remorse
Parish – Envision
Ricochet – Among the Elements
Topic: Retro Albums of the Year 2010's: 2020 (Read 58999 times)
