Metal Reviews

I'd like to avoid turning this into a list thread so please type out the reasons why you adore said album and what keeps you interested in it long enough to spin for 24 hours. Anyways, here is my go:

Bathory's Hammerheart-There is a lot to be loved about this album from the epic heaviness to drawn out bombasity, Shore in flames and One Road to Asa bay are the majestic aspects as well as Fire and Ice bringing some crushing riffs.

Neurosis-Through Silver in blood One million different sounds from the monolithic riffs of Locus Star and the self titled, Aeon is the best in my opinion, but with so many sounds its an album that I can spin without getting bored. The tribal aspect of the album is something that I've never heard from any band, and combine that with doom heaviness and you have a trip through the Milky way.

Septicflesh-Ophidian Wheel An album that is interchangeable with Mystic places of the dawn, great leadwork, mesmerizing atmosphere, and an atmosphere that makes you question reality itself. The album itself is strongly Gothic influenced by the death metal aspect is still strong as well

Ancient Rites-Rubicon Combining a rapid tempo with so many folk elements sounds when done effectively adds for a rich experience, and Gunther and company truly outdid themselves on this album. Not to mention some of the epic battle parts such as the intro to Thermopylae and the thrashing tempo of Ypres, the album never gets old after repeated spins.

Skepticism-Alloy In truth, I like Skepticism's latter material much more than their early stuff, the sound is refined and the keyboards add a very otherworldly atmosphere along with the tribal sounding drums.

Lordian Guard-Lordian Guard Easily one of the best epic metal albums I've ever heard with Winds of Thor adding the triumphant intro to an album that epitomizes the familiar Christian legend of God vs Satan. The lyrical content breachy only at certain points but combine the otherworldly atmosphere with brilliant leads, constant melodies, and a soothing voice its an album that is unique as well as one of Tsami's best moments on guitar.

Suffocation-Effigy of the Forgotten Interchangeable with its sibling album Pierced from Within for all intents and purposes as both albums are classics, Effigy's crushing riffs and brutal vocals never get old and the album is crushing each spin. No death metal band since has ever made a riff that tops Liege of Inveracity or Seeds of the suffering, modern brutal death metal begins and ends here.

Black Sabbath-Master of reality One of the heaviest albums I've heard regardless of genre, Children of the grave, Lord of this world, and Into the void are all crushing songs. Add Ozzy's vocals and Solitude and you have a rich and beautiful album that is truly the best album Black Sabbath ever created. Also interchangeable with Paranoid and the s/t

Tiamat-Wildhoney The dreamy soundscapes of this album are something the band would never quite achieve again, as Do you dream of me?, Gaia, and a Pocket Sized sun are all songs that can be replayed with the same bemusing effect. Some call the album gothic metal I just think of the album as a great and spin worthy piece of music.

Cannibal Corpse-Tomb of the Mutilated Once again an album that is interchangeable with its sibling classic albums but more notably Butchered at birth, apart of a few weaker songs such as Beyond the cemetary and Post mortal ejaculation the album is loaded with thrashy pounding riffs. There is a lot going on from Barne's great vocals to the full out intensity of Hammer smashed face and Necropedophile.

Doomsword-Let Battle commence In truth one of the few Epic heavy metal albums I can tolerate without being bored, mainly because the vocals are incredible and the riffs and atmosphere are truly reminiscent of battle. There isn't much else to say about the album

Inquisition-Into the infernal regions of the ancient cult While I love Under the Sign of hell and De mysteriis dom Sathanas, the sheer amount of thought and evil atmosphere conveyed on this album trumps both. From dark acoustic passages to the creepiest black metal vocals I've ever heard, each song is unique and the album never ceases to amaze me with its mini-universe of sounds. In truth, its probably the only black metal album you'll ever need really.

Moonspell-Wolfheart The rich gothic atmosphere combined with the bands last flirtations with melodic black metal make for a unique album, not to mention songs such as Alma Mater just kick ass.


Honorable mentions: Dark metal, Destroy the Opposition, Blood, fire death, Close to a world Below, Thyrfing, Psalms of the Moribund, Autumn Aurora, Annihilation of the Wicked, Electric Wizard, Immortal Pride, Ultima Thulee, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, Storm of the Light's bane, Hordaland's Doeksvad, My soul for his glory, Warning and many more.
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Very few and even fewer in the metal department.

John Coltrane - Giant Steps, Ballads, A Love Supreme
Yes, I'm a sucker for Coltrane and these three get me every time. If I had to keep three jazz album in my whole collection, I would probably select those three.

Genesis - Selling England by the Pound
I love pretty much everything Genesis has released in the 70s but this one is flawless.

Faraquet - The View from This Tower
Indie rock meets Math rock meets progressive rock. I don't think I can ever get tired of this one's exquisite songwriting and superior musical skills. And its emotion too.

John Zorn - Book of Angels vol. 10, Lucifer
Zorn in a melodic mood. Perfect.

Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come
The best hardcore album of all times and a terrific collection of varied and entertaining songs that can fit any musical mood I'm in.

Nicolas Repac - Swing Swing
Electro-jazz by Arthur's H guitarist. As tasty as this kind of music gets and rich enough to endure multiple listens in a row.

The Beatles - Abbey Road
Flawless, legendary but that goes for pretty much anything the Beatles have released post-stage retirement. This one (and most of all the b'side) is something I can play on and on an on.

Rush - Moving Pictures
You should all know this and like it for the perfect album it is. Why play it repeatedly? Because it always has a few things you haven't fully comprehend before.

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Even with Still Life, Quest for Fire and Sun and Steel (no bad songs, mind, better than Invaders or Gangland for example) this is the one album from Iron Maiden I can spin again and again. Heavy Metal perfection.

This could be an interesting thread. I listen to none of those albums you listed, boss. This is oddly different than like a favorites thread.

Type O Negative - World Coming Down. Seriously the most well-rounded Type O album. There is something so upbeat about the doom this time around. I find Everything Dies oddly romantic and Pyretta Blaze as just a beautiful track that I feel like you could ballroom dance to.

High on Fire - Art of Self Defense. Oh, Matt Pike doing doom? Yes please. What is there not to love. Awesome riffs with just the hint of charging metal which HoF has become these days.

Black Sabbath - s/t. One of the best metal albums ever. I don't have to explain this.

Judas Priest - Stained Class. See above? Beyond the Realm of Death is beautiful. Best Priest song ever? Quite possibly. Savage, Invader and Exciter... what is there not to love?

Akercocke - Chronozon. My personally preferred Akercocke album.

Converge - Jane Doe. 24 hours of this? I'd either develop tinnitus or be in need of an ER trip from moshing and punching shit but yeah the album brings the intense.

Cryptopsy - None So Vile. So technical and extreme. Love me some Worm vox.

DsO - SMRC. Conjuring Satan.

PJ Harvey - any album of hers probably? I'd scream, I'd cry, I'd smile. She's amazing.

Salome - s/t. Sludgy doom with the best of riffs and probably the coolest vox on any doom album. Kat is amazing. I love Kats.

Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse. List needs more Ihsahn awesomeness. Winter night listening sessions abound.

Not much hardcores or grindcores on my list given the stipulation of listening all day.

Edit: Adding Coltrane's Soul Train to this. Thanks Stefie.

Great thread! My only pick off the top of my head would be Rush, and probably Hemispheres if I had to pick one. Cygnus X-1 Book 2 and La Villa Strangiato are goddamn perfect pieces of prog rock that bring the rockin' as much as the proggin', and Trees and Circumstances are excellent.

Good thread, Steve. I'm seconding your Through Silver and Blood and Wildhoney selections and Trapt's Nightside Eclipse pick.


Negura Bunget--Om
My favorite album ever, this one adds folk and ambient music to make it even larger than the epic, fairly complicated black metal being played here. Highlights abound, but this is an album to be listened to in entirety. One listen might wear you out, but that busyness allows listen after listen to sound fresh and engrossing.

Anubis Gate--The Detached
Everything I don't like about prog/power is thrown out for this brilliant album. The Detached is tastefully modern, heavy, varied, and built upon an interesting lyrical conception. Jacob Hansen is a tremendous vocalist, the rare kind from this genre that fails to irritate me. And most importantly, the album if full of monstrously powerful songs, like Yiri, Dodecahedron, Going Nowhere, and Pyramids.

Ulver--Bergtatt
Garm has always been one of the most talented vocalists in music, and his transitions between his angelic tenor and raspy screams are almost shocking. The music on this album is surprisingly clean and warm, and often sounds like the lush summers of Norway rather than the frostbitten winters. Ulver's serpentine sense of melody really makes this album.

Opeth--Morningrise
Yes, the compositions on this album are horribly awkward at times, but the music, in particular the acoustic guitar melodies and interplay with the fretless bass, are mesmerizing.

Nile--In Their Darkened Shrines
Here is where I thought Nile really came into their own. Heavy metal fans should be able to enjoy stuff like Sarcophagus, the 18 minute, four part title track, is where their compositional growth could be traced. This album is so much more than a brutal death record, it has nods to traditional metal, doom, ambient music...and features some surprisingly good melodies.

Enslaved--Isa
My pick is the standout among the post black metal Enslaved records, I've found it basically has infinite replay value. I heard Enslaved listening to Tool, Sigh, and Pink Floyd while producing this, but there are also spectacular references to their black metal past, like the track, Violet Dawning. Neogenesis merges the two strands nicely, as does the ethereal title track. Great music for moody college kids

Maybe I'll do some more later.

Dimmu Borgir- Every album, have been listening to them non stop for the past year since I saw them live. Really a band you have to catch live at some point in your life.

Metal

Immolation - Any album, but if I had to choose one probably Unholy Cult or Here In After.

Death - Symbolic.

Enslaved - Can't choose one.

Coroner - No More Color.

Ihsahn - After

Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines

Neurosis - Can't choose just one

Opeth - Orchid or Morningrise

Cynic - Focus

non-metal

Arcade Fire - Funeral

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯A♯∞

Mogwai - Come On Die Young

Modest Mouse - Everywhere and His Nasty Parlour Tricks

Radiohead - Kid A

Enslaved - Below the Lights: I think in terms of atmosphere this album beats even early Enslaved. Excellent guitar work, fantastic drumming, sinister and dark vocal delivery and the overall atmosphere is extremely captivating.

Agalloch - The Mantle: The Composition and the mixture of Post-rock and acoustic passages plus the instrumental and the emotional value put into this album is untouched.

Emperor - Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise: Emperor's last masterpiece. It's fascinating how complex and how at the same comprehensible this album truly is. After of course quite a few listens.

Brahms - Complete Symphonies. The formalism intertwined with Romanticism is truly outstanding.

Mayhem - Chimera: Darkness, powerful, pure occult energy!

Ihsahn - After: His ultimate masterpiece until now. Passing through all his former compositions. This man is constantly striving for innovation and creativity.

Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse: Dense, Excellent atmosphere and beauty, hope, and acquainted with the dark-side.

Camel - Snow Goose & Moonmadness: Hope and glory, melancholic and pure emotion.

Insomnium - In the Halls of Awaiting: Probably the best and most well-structured Melodic Death around.

Rotting Christ - Sanctus Diavolos: the arrangements and the overall extremely dark atmosphere of this album with layers of guitar and keyboards is very original and mesmerizing.

Honourable mentions: Negura Bunget (last couple of albums), Lunar Aurora (newer albums), Katatonia (last two albums), Primordial (last three albums) I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few. I'll add more later.

Pretty much any Gothic era Rotting Christ album I can spin all day, their black metal material such as Satanas Tedeum is respectable, but for me it doesn't have the impact of Aealo, Sanctus Diavolos, A dead poem, or Khronos. All of those albums are incredible.

Obviously, there's too many to list in one sitting, but i'll get through the ones that come immediately to mind.

I'll seperate metal and non-metal I guess.

Non-Metal
Pink Floyd - Wish you were here
My favourite album of all time. Not only can I spin this album day and night, I have done for a long, long time. Do I really need to say much more about this?

Pink Floyd - Animals
My second favourite album of all time. See above.

Cat Stevens - Tea for the tillerman
I fucking love this album. I've listened to it so much that for a while I thought I was sick of it but now I realise that's impossible. He has a talent for seemingly effortless songwriting brilliance, and the lyrics, god damn they're good.

Cake - Fashion Nugget
So this is mainly because of the age I was when it came into my life, but this is just one of those albums I can't tire of. This is the closest to hipster music I'll ever, ever listen to, but c'mon. The songs on this album are fucking killer.

Deep Purple - Deep Purple
Highly underappreciated gem of an album from before the classic line up got together. Features Ron Evans on vocals and Nick Simper on bass. Worth the price of admission for the 12 minute orchestral April alone, but you must hear the beautiful melancholy of lalena and blind.

Deep Purple - Burn
The first album from the not-as-popular Mark III line-up, this is probably my favourite Purple album. The title track is fucking classic heavy metal if ever I've heard it, Ian Paice goes fucking insane on the drums. The rest of the album is quite bluesy, but still heavy. The combination of Coverdale and Hughes on vocals is superior to Gillan, I think, even if alone neither is better than him.

Shulman - In search of a meaningful moment
This is highly psychadelic electronic ambience. Very slow, impossibly trippy, mind explodingly beautiful. You might need to be in the right mood to get into this for the first time, but once it's got you, you always want it.

Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses
Was always my favourite Tull. There's just something about the way he finally manages to find the perfect blend between rock, folk and prog on this one. There are ridiculously good vocal melodies all over the place on this. Can't ever get tired of it.

Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Go fuck yourself. This is a good album. Grew up on it.

Metal
Metallica - Ride The Lightning
Obvious choice? What can I say, it's the truth. Some of my favourite songs ever on here. Don't need to say much else.

Megadeth - Rust In Peace
See above.

Exodus - Tempo Of The Damned
Not my favourite Exodus disc, but the most infectiously playable. When I first got this I must have listened to it for 4 weeks straight. It's just so catchy and the recording sounds just right.

Death Angel - The Art Of Dying
Again, not necessarily my favourite Death Angel release, but there's just something about this comeback album that sits right with me. It's much thrashier than anything else they've done besides The Ultra-Violence. I never seem to get tired of spinning it.

Artillery - By Inheritance
So endlessly good. I would hope you've all heard this, but it's just the perfect blend of aggression, rough melodic vocals and compositional brilliance.

Judas Priest - Point Of Entry
So it's more like a hard rock album, but being Judas Priest I had to put it under metal. Anyway, this is often maligned, but the songwriting here is top notch and just anthemic enough to warrant endless plays. Between heading out to the highway, desert plains and solar angels, some of the rockingest songs ever on here.

Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Need I say more? I love all periods of Sabbath, but I think we all have a special spot for this and it's follow up.

Death - Scream Bloody Gore
The album that opened my eyes to DM. The first day I put it on, it was hard for me to remember the songs. But for some reason I kept wanting to put it on. Now I know the songs, but that feeling has never gone away.

Well there are probably tens more in each category, but I'll stop here because it's getting ridiculous.

Black Sabbath's Neon Knights? I didn't know that album.

Meh.

You knew what I was talking about.

fixed......

I feel like that is exactly not the case. Umm so many albums get tedious after a while regardless of how great they are.

Mayhem- Chimera is another one for me to.

Depending on how often you play them, yes. The title of this thread is a bit of an exaggeration. The albums I listed, I can play at least once a week. But nowadays I am constantly discovering new albums and new bands. I also have to add Deep Purple - Deep in Rock and Machine Head to the list plus Wagner's last 8 operas and Bach's Violin Concertos No. 1&2.

Now that you mention it, that's actually true. Still, I have quite a few. Probably still got at least as many as I listed above.

The June Frost - Mournful Congregation
The most mature out of their work as of now, the haunting tones of the guitars really draw me in, which is something a lot of funeral doom just can't do as well for me.

Unquestionable Presence - Atheist
Completely enthralling from start to finish as well as containing songs I could loop for hours and not get tired of.

Somewhere in Time & Powerslave - Iron Maiden
I always saw these two as their peak, definite classics in my eyes.

One as of One - Asha Vida
Once Lacedaemon kicks in when you press play, everything else melts away.

In Light - Small Color
Mellow and light, I can listen to this for weeks. It's especially satisfying after a grindcore binge.

Ooh...good call on the Atheist.