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User
Reviews 9
Approval 97%
Soundoffs 45
Album Ratings 1269
Objectivity 80%
Last Active 04-29-19 5:50 am
Joined 07-14-14
Review Comments 4,614
| My top 20 favorite albums of all time.
the 2016 version. A couple have moved around a little. A couple newer albums prove to be high risers, but the top 4 remain mainstays. | | 21 |  | Soundgarden
Superunknown
I knew I was forgetting something. Added this one after the fact, so I won't throw it where it probably belongs in the list.
Standout Tracks: Fell on Black Days, Let Me Drown, Spoonman | | 20 |  | The Cure
Disintegration
Is this not one of the heaviest albums in the history of man? Like...sonically, emotionally fucking crushing? It has to be in the patheon of top 50 albums of any genre, ever, if you ask me. Its not for every day, but when the day comes I melt with it.
Standout tracks: Prayers for Rain (why the fuck don't people talk about this track???), Lullaby, Fascination Street | | 19 |  | My Chemical Romance
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
I get it. MCR? Really? Don't look away, the good stuff is coming. This album is so good you can't ignore it. Kind of like when Brand New dropped The Devil and God and the world stopped. Same thing with Three Cheers. I'm not so hot on Helena, but damn near every other track is amazing. Just high energy, earworm jams. Gerard Way gives the performance of a lifetime.
Standout tracks: You know what they do to guys like us in prison, To the End, The Ghost of You | | 18 |  | Killswitch Engage
Alive or Just Breathing
The greatest metalcore album ever written. And thats coming from an intense Unearth fan. I'm not going to go on too much about this. I know damn well you bought this album too. Quickly, though, Jesse's voice is the biggest selling point for me. Amazing effort.
Standout tracks: Vide Infra, Self Revolution, Alive or Just Breathing | | 17 |  | Boy Hits Car
Boy Hits Car
Nobody ever talks about the pseudo-nu-metal bands from the early 2000s, at least not without a smirk. BHC, though, are disgustingly underrated. Very few bands write music that is this much fun without coming off as hokey. Unique riffs, unique vocals, and unique instruments abound. This album is a trip. Just listen to I'm a Cloud.
Standout tracks: As I watch the sun fuck the ocean, I'm a Cloud, Benkei, Before We Die | | 16 |  | Seal
Seal
Listen, this album is goddamned awesome. Front to fuckin back. You'll never believe me without giving it a shot, so don't bother hating. Just go listen.
Standout Tracks: Killer, Whirlpool, Future Love Paradise, Crazy | | 15 |  | A Perfect Circle
Thirteenth Step
Coming down off of a long period of Tool uber-fandom I finally slithered into the dreamy world of Thirteenth Step. As wonderful as the music is, most of the time, this is the Maynard Show. And I'll buy a ticket every time.
Standout Tracks: Vanishing, Blue | | 14 |  | Candiria
What Doesn't Kill You...
Candiria fans would hate me for this, but I really don't dig their earlier work much. Too nutso for me, kinda like I can't really listen to King Crimson that much. Dialing it back, for a more presentable package, worked wonders for me. I adore every track on this album. Especially the closer. Goddamn I love instrumental jerk fests from bands who earned a chance to jerk it.
Standout tracks: The Rutherford Experiment, Blood, Remove Yourself, Dead Bury the Dead | | 13 |  | Between the Buried and Me
Colors
BTBAM ruined music for me in 2007. I had to go back to the 70s to reinvigorate myself with Sabbath and the Doors because this album, I felt, would never be topped by modern music. I was wrong, of course, but for the genre this is largely untouchable - a watershed moment for modern metal and a raising of the proverbial bar. Beyond the theatrics of the first seven tracks, its White Walls that will continue to swoon me until I die. The final seven minutes of that song are pure musical bliss.
Standout Tracks: Decade of Statues, White Walls | | 12 |  | Alice in Chains
Dirt
Damn I love this album. Endlessly adore it. Lane's voice is just heart wrenchingly amazing, but its Jerry's work that really drives the album home for me. Also, he's a fucking riff king.
Standout tracks: Rain When I Die (why don't more people talk about this song...), Down in a Hole, Would | | 11 |  | Megadeth
Rust in Peace
I mean, this thing is just awesome, right? Can't get enough.
Standout tracks: Holy Wars...The Punishment Due, Hangar 18, Polaris (underrated fucking song, btw), Tornado of Souls | | 10 |  | Thrice
Vheissu
Call me crazy, but when all my friends were pumped for the new thrice and I bought it even though I didn't dig their prior work, I was the only one who liked this album. I fell in love with Dustin's voice when I heard Atlantic. Can't NOT sing this whole album when I hear it.
Standout tracks: The Earth Will Shake, Atlantic | | 9 |  | TesseracT
Altered State
Tesseract writes music specifically for me. Thats all there is to it. One still has a big hold on me, and I'm a Daniel Thompkins > Ashe O'hara guy, and yeah Deception is still fucking mindblowing, but Altered State is no doubt their best work. Front to back mesmerizing. Lose yourself in it.
Standout tracks: there are no tracks. there are only album. | | 8 |  | The Atlas Moth
An Ache for the Distance
Sometimes an album comes along and saves you. OK less dramatic would be that an album comes along that is perfectly representative of your life and mood at that time, and comes to define your existence for a while. Mine at least. And it was this album, during a dark time. It is just. so. good. Borderline genre-undefinable, nearly flawless. If you've never heard of it, I urge you to first close your eyes and listen to the title track. Tell me the hair on your arms didn't stand on end at the finale of that song.
Standout tracks: T/T, Holes in the Desert, Coffin Varnish | | 7 |  | Marilyn Manson
Mechanical Animals
This is his best work. Hoppin' on the Bowie train was an amazing move. If you were 10 years old in my town you had to be sneaky to try to listen to MM, but when MA dropped and people started talking about "The Dope Show" and how catchy it was, regardless of lyrical content, I had my chance. I joined in the underground middle school black market cd trade and moved Kid Rock for MA. Trade rape, motherfucks. The general consensus is that the album loses some steam in the middle, but I feel like Manson's vocal performance really carries it during that span. Some insanely good lyrics on this album.
Standout tracks: Mechanical Animals, Great Big White World, Coma White | | 6 |  | Metallica
Ride the Lightning
What is there to say? I got this when I was 11 - my 2nd Metallica album (load was first, and remains my 2nd favorite 'tallica album. fuck yourself, its amazing). I didn't know how to get into it, because I wasn't expecting how different it would be, but then Fade to Black happened. And it was all over from there. Creeping Death remains the quintessential Metallica song as far as I'm concerned.
Standout Tracks: Creeping Death, Fade to Black, Ride the Lightning | | 5 |  | Rosetta
The Galilean Satellites
The most dense, sonically fucking devastating album I've ever heard in my life. Rosetta would go on to release two more timeless albums, but TGS is the one that sticks with me the most. They shedded the catchiness and some riffage after this album and never looked back, and it bums me out. Itinerant is hauntingly gorgeous, EUROPPAAAAAAAAAA is highly memorable, and the unreal Au Pays Natal is one of the finest closing tracks of any album ever. Prepare your fucking ears. Oh by the way, in case you aren't in the know, I'm only speaking about disc 1. Disc 2 is a sonic journey through dreamscapes and space highways that are highly enjoyable on their own, but OH YEAH YOU CAN SYNC IT WITH DISC 1. It is incomprehensibly cool being familiar with both discs on their own and then realizing they can be played together to form a big, big, BIG album.
Standout tracks: Europa, Au Pays Natal | | 4 |  | Iron Maiden
Brave New World
IMO their best work. I love it front to back. I love that they've retained every bit of what makes them Maiden. Bruce's best work as well.
Standout Tracks: Brave New World, Blood Brothers, Out of the Silent Planet | | 3 |  | Rage Against the Machine
The Battle of Los Angeles
The first Rage album I got my hands on. I adore Zack's voice and delivery. I fell hard for them - bought my first guitar so I could learn how to play "New Milleunium Homes". The fact that they broke up just as I was falling for them might make me think that was the biggest reason I have fond feelings for them, but then I think about what would happen if I ever get to see the REAL RATM live. I'd fucking cry. No question about it. And I'd be in the pit. I haven't been in the pit since ETID played "Floater" in '07 and I couldn't resist.
Standout tracks: Maria, New Millenium Homes, Ashes in the Fall | | 2 |  | Tool
Lateralus
A monumental album for me. Adored it to death when it was released, but in '04 (first year in college) it took on new meaning for me as I began to transition out of my scared Christian stage and into atheism / young adulthood. Lateralus lyrics ended up tattooed on my wrists, the grudge still gives me chills, The Patient remains a top-5 favorite song. By the way - I will never not bang my fist / head / dick on whatever is closest to me when I hear the end of Parabola.
Standout tracks: The Patient, The Grudge, Lateralus | | 1 |  | Queensryche
Operation: Mindcrime
The most important album I ever listened to. Dad phoned me about it from Saudi Arabia (desert storm) when he heard I liked Empire so much (I was probably six or seven). Didn't take long to become my favorite album. If someone told me I'd listened to it in it's entirety 200 times I wouldn't be surprised. I know it note for note, and I still get the fuzzies in nearly every song. This album is perfect.
Standout track: They are all flawless. My favorite, though, is "The Mission". | |
heck
09.10.16 | seeing all these other albums (some more than others..) ahead of Disintegration is causing me physical and emotional pain
also you should check Elizium by Fields of the Nephilim | G0atC0re
09.10.16 | Cool list, just one excpetion though. Alive or Just Breathing is a good album, thats for sure, but "greatest metalcore albm ever writen". No, just no. You haven't heard enough metalcore. | 0GuyMan0
09.10.16 | To each their own, but I can assure you that I have heard all the metalcore I can handle for the rest of my life. I'm also far from alone about AOJB.
Would it change your critique if I said "quintessential" instead of "greatest"? I'm also pretty sure its the most important, in terms of launching the genre into the mainstream.
I'm not familiar with Fields of the Nephilim. Are they similar to someone on the list? | heck
09.10.16 | Elizium is a masterpiece of atmosphere similar to Disintegration | Storm In A Teacup
09.10.16 | What Doesn't Kill You... is one of my favorite albums of all time too man. Every song is killer. | 0GuyMan0
09.10.16 | I can't knock even one thing about it. Intense, yet surprisingly easy to listen to, astounding musicianship, great vocal delivery....I could go on and on. I never tire of it. | Storm In A Teacup
09.10.16 | Yeah. I usually listen to it in the shower. Good sing along music. | DrGonzo1937
09.10.16 | Decent list man. 20 is phenomenal | danielcardoso
09.10.16 | hey cool, another seal fan! his first couple of albums are legit jams. | Shemson
09.10.16 | I think I would've made a very similar list to this five years ago so no hate here and props for the bold move of including Three Cheers, it is an awesome album no matter what. A lot of the Maiden's and Metallica's have grown off me now though after hearing them for the first time like 15-20 years ago now though which is a shame. Rust is still one of the easiest 5s around though. | 0GuyMan0
09.10.16 | I'm pretty good at weighing personal impact and longevity with current tastes. Many of those albums are from the 90s and still hit me just as hard and hold regular rotation. | smaugman
09.10.16 | Lateralus lyrics ended up tattooed on my wrists
boy that's generic tbh | 0GuyMan0
09.10.16 | yet no less meaningful. | smaugman
09.10.16 | it's like tattooing carpe diem or some shit. text tattoos suck hard | 0GuyMan0
09.10.16 | It ended up being fairly hokey for a Tool fan, I would later find out, but these tattoos happened before facebook and most of the world caught up to the internet, so its not like the group mentality was an influence. In fact, I grew up in a small town in farmville america, and I'm pretty sure that nobody else was listening to Tool. Because I knew literally everyone in that town, and nobody metalled with me. | smaugman
09.10.16 | dont care if it's a trend or who's first, i find text tattoos clichéd and boring | Flugmorph
09.10.16 | this taste is called shite.
jk some stuff on here is cool
but dig deeper man | Rik VII
09.10.16 | 1 and 2 are among my 5s as well so yeah good list. 20's also probably a soon-to-be 5 | IronGiant
09.10.16 | "don't look away, the good stuff is coming"
immediately follows that with a Killswitch Engage album | oWhoadYo
09.10.16 | Why is 20 even on here wtf lol. It gave me so much hope and then I scrolled down | smaugman
09.10.16 | 11 and 1 rule | oWhoadYo
09.10.16 | 11+1 rules
So, 12? | smaugman
09.10.16 | you're stupid and wrong | oWhoadYo
09.10.16 | I apologize | Middle18
09.10.16 | Me and you have very similar taste in music! Will have to check the 1-2 albums on here that im not familiar with. | 0GuyMan0
09.11.16 | "jk some stuff on here is cool
but dig deeper man"
I dig much deeper. I can assure you I love the pyramids and the leviathans and ulcerates of the world, as well, but I won't stick them on my list just to add underground cred. (Though I will admit that "At the Heart of Winter" and "Marrow of the Spirit" were close calls.)
And really, the Atlas Moth, Rosetta, Candiria and even Boy Hits Car pretty much do just that.
"dont care if it's a trend or who's first, i find text tattoos clichéd and boring"
to each his own, i suppose, but a simple sentence to reflect how the album ended up impacting me seems an odd one to bitch about. | 0GuyMan0
09.11.16 | Also, fucked up and forgot Superunknown. Added at the end, though it doesn't belong there. |
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