Personal Faves
New to Sputnik, so here's a list of my favourite albums for no particular reason. Mostly British, mostly older,but hey. Feel free to recommend! |
| 1 |  | Therapy?
Troublegum
Was the best thing I'd ever heard back in 1994. Still is. |
| 2 |  | The Wildhearts
Earth vs. The Wildhearts
The album that made me realise music was good. Defined my teenage years. |
| 3 |  | Baby Chaos
Safe Sex Designer Drugs & The Death of Rock & Roll
Perfect mix of Wildhearts rock sensibilities and Therapy?'s edge and venom. My favourite switches between their 2 albums regularly. |
| 4 |  | Polkadot Cadaver
Sex Offender
Supremely high quality throughout, although only really nine proper songs. Kinda feels like a collection of the greatest choruses ever! |
| 5 |  | Dog Fashion Disco
Committed to a Bright Future 2019
Re-recording a back catalogue of iff-ily produced material was a great idea, but finishing with an already great album was risky. DFD pull it off with aplomb and then some. The whole thing sounds sublime, everything perfectly audible, and somehow the few not-so great tracks from the original (Dr Piranha, Scores For Porn) have become amongst this ones masterpieces. |
| 6 |  | Kerbdog
On The Turn
I wish this band had made more records. |
| 7 |  | Down I Go
You're Lucky God, That I Cannot Reach You
A band that started impressively, and got better with each subsequent release. Managed to finish with an album so unique and distinctive that it couldn't possibly be bettered. Would love to hear them try though. |
| 8 |  | Archspire
Bleed the Future
This finally opened up Death Metal to me, and how. Inhuman performances on every level yet never gives over to showy mess. |
| 9 |  | Enter Shikari
The Mindsweep
Take To The Skies was a game changer for me, a very distinctive blend of trancey synths and dancey beats meshed with awesome post hardcore and random lyrics. Still a very individual release now, it always felt like a 'they could never better it' type album. 3 albums later, brace for The Mindsweep. Tighter, more focused, heavier and somehow more melodic, and just plain killer song after killer song. |
| 10 |  | Faith No More
King For A Day... Fool For A Lifetime
Took me a while to get into this after Angel Dust, but was so worth it. |
| 11 |  | Captain, We're Sinking
The Future Is Cancelled
An album that has grown on me immensely since first hearing. An unusual amount of depth and complexity for an album that feels like pop punk, although the rough edges belie its uniqueness, and it features some of the most heartfelt lyrics around. |
| 12 |  | Cattle Decapitation
Terrasite
Band have been implroving since Monument, and tho Death Atlas was a slight mis-step, Terrasite improves immensely on everything that tried to do. |
| 13 |  | Nekrogoblikon
Welcome to Bonkers
Could just as easily be Stench, but the avant-garde vibe, smashing as many genre styles into the very distinctive Nekrogoblin synth-infused melodeath sound ultimatly gets this one the nod. If DFD played death metal, they would want to make this album. |
| 14 |  | Exit_International
Black Junk
They make the most unbelievable sound, considering they only use bass guitars and drums. Furiosly melodic noisy bass punk. |
| 15 |  | Dark Tranquillity
Fiction
Everything that is great about DT over the course of ten immense tracks. Their most concise run time helps it to be the most perfectly paced of their albums, finished off with the closest to perfect production these guysvhave ever had. Every single track is killer, the keyboards are lush but never overstated, and Michael Stanne has never sounded better. |
| 16 |  | Fair to Midland
Arrows and Anchors
A fabulous album that keeps on surprising with every listen. Heavy riffs and grooves almost disguise the prog feel, and the keyboard use throughout still lifts the soul every time. |
| 17 |  | Fear Factory
Demanufacture
An absolute belter of an album, which transcends all the genres in which it plays. Still sounds fresh and relevant all these years later. |
| 18 |  | Hell Is For Heroes
Transmit Disrupt
An album that took years to finally get a grip on. Features less uproarious heaviness than their debut, but the undercurrent of anger that flows through the whole album is undeniably transfixing and holds the listener in its thrall from the get go. |
| 19 |  | SikTh
Death of a Dead Day
Took a while to get, as it initially feels like a lessening of Sikth's trademark schizoid approach, but the extra focus and detail to the whole record develops it into a truly encompassing journey of an album. |
| 20 |  | Raging Speedhorn
We Will Be Dead Tomorrow
Where sludge metal meets hardcore with a splash of Motorhead style rock n' roll, the Speedhorn rule. We Will Be Dead Tomorrow is them at their peak, every track fixes the listener to their seat and bashes them round the head with greasy riffs, filthy bass and either breakneck or crawling beats, all topped off with the most throat-shredding dual vocal attack put to wax. |
| 21 |  | A Wilhelm Scream
Career Suicide
Tech punk masters, the shred on this is awesome as this album blasts past at a wonderfully frenetic pace. The Horse is the single best advert for bass-tapping ever. |
| 22 |  | Benighted
Obscene Repressed
Benighted's peak, not as technical or off-the-wall-nuts as Asylum Cave, but every song absolutely destroys and easily the mostbalanced of their albums. |
| 23 |  | Ideamen
Schemata
Glorious keyboard-led alt rock, with plenty of heavy riffage to keep it rocking. |
| 24 |  | Pitchshifter
www.pitchshifter.com
Went more punky and less industrial with this one, which made them sound much fresher and massively more relevant. |
| 25 |  | Miocene
A Perfect Life With A View Of The Swamp
Tool and the Aphex Twin jamming together, with DJ Shadow at the console. That it works is impressive, that it makes a cohesive sound that rewards the listener for repeated listens from beginning to end over and over establishes Miocene as genuine musical savants. Like nothing else anywhere, ever. |
| 26 |  | El-Creepo!
Aloha
Todd Smith solo(ish) album, acousticy and stripped down but totally creepy and unnerving with it. |
| 27 |  | Johnny Truant
In the Library of Horrific Events
Extremely heavy and brutal, but ultimately manages to just plain rock. |
| 28 |  | Mudvayne
L.D. 50
Far and away the best thing to come from the nu-metal scene around the turn of the century, although they display much more of a Tool style vibe than anything akin to the detuned Adidas-wearing brigade. |
| 29 |  | Lo Fidelity Allstars
How to Operate with a Blown Mind
An album that really expanded my musical horizons. Perfectly of its 'Big Beat' time, but has survived its aging better than anything else of its era. |
| 30 |  | The Venetia Fair
Every Sick, Disgusting Thought...
Big band punk rock, fronted by Michael Jackson crossed with JS Clayden. A proper room shaking out-and-out fun album. |
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