365 Albums In One Year

That's true, so I won't try to persuade you otherwise since you seem mentally afflicted with incorrectness.

Anyway, top 3 Nightwish songs for me right now are "Nemo", "The Kinslayer", and "Bless the Child".
 
Hmm . . .

Nemo never did much for me, but I'm with you on the other 2 being quality tunes (not top 3 though . . . maybe top 10). Since we're exchanging: Ghost Love Score, Pharaoh Sails to Orion, and maybe Wishmaster
 
Hmm . . .

Nemo never did much for me, but I'm with you on the other 2 being quality tunes (not top 3 though . . . maybe top 10). Since we're exchanging: Ghost Love Score, Pharaoh Sails to Orion, and maybe Wishmaster

If I were to make Nightwish top 3, I'd probably pick those as well. "Pharaoh" is phenomenal, incredibly underrated song.
My top 10 would be (in no particular order) "Stargazers", "Dark Chest of Wonders", "Planet Hell", "Ghost River", "7 Days to the Wolves", "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "Shudder Before the Beautiful", in addition to the three above.

Albums I'd rank something like this:
1. Oceanborn
2. Once
3. Imaginaerum
4. Dark Passion Play
5. Century Child
6. Wishmaster
7. Endless Forms Most Beautiful
8. Angels Fall First
 
I've heard Iced Earth's last two albums, now it's time to see their humble origins...

ICED EARTH - ICED EARTH
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Album 17/365

Tracks:

  1. "Iced Earth" - Pretty good riff here. Oh my god, what are those vocals?? It's like a pig squealing into a microphone. I really like that change-up the song has. That second change-up is good, too. Outside of the horrendous singing, this is actually a pretty good song. Could've been a higher rating with someone else on vocals. 7/10
  2. "Written on the Walls" - Some good moments, but overall it's not as interesting as the first. Not terrible, but doesn't keep attention as well as it should. 6/10
  3. "Colors" - Also rather uninteresting with a few good moments. Feels like a retread of Maiden's "Killers" and not exactly a great one at that. The vocalist is more inconsistent than Di'Anno is, too. 6/10
  4. "Curse The Sky" - Vocalist is stronger here, as is the song as a whole. Doesn't top the best moments from the opener but it's good enough. 7/10
  5. "Life and Death" - Opening was kinda cool, the rest of the song is a snoozefest. Should've been shorter. 5/10
  6. "Solitude" - Okay interlude, nothing more. 6/10
  7. "Funeral" - Not the worst instrumental I've ever heard, but far from the best. Pretty boring overall. 5/10
  8. "When The Night Falls" - Way too long for its own good. Bland "epic". 5/10
Kinda uninteresting debut. It was heavier than I expected, but also worse. Bad vocalist, riffs don't really stand out, and the best moments are all on the first song and what's-his-name vomits over a good part of them. One other decent song, the rest are eh to outright boring.

Rating: 58%
 
I've heard Iced Earth's last two albums, now it's time to see their humble origins...

ICED EARTH - ICED EARTH
7053216_f520.jpg

Album 17/365

Tracks:

  1. "Iced Earth" - Pretty good riff here. Oh my god, what are those vocals?? It's like a pig squealing into a microphone. I really like that change-up the song has. That second change-up is good, too. Outside of the horrendous singing, this is actually a pretty good song. Could've been a higher rating with someone else on vocals. 7/10
  2. "Written on the Walls" - Some good moments, but overall it's not as interesting as the first. Not terrible, but doesn't keep attention as well as it should. 6/10
  3. "Colors" - Also rather uninteresting with a few good moments. Feels like a retread of Maiden's "Killers" and not exactly a great one at that. The vocalist is more inconsistent than Di'Anno is, too. 6/10
  4. "Curse The Sky" - Vocalist is stronger here, as is the song as a whole. Doesn't top the best moments from the opener but it's good enough. 7/10
  5. "Life and Death" - Opening was kinda cool, the rest of the song is a snoozefest. Should've been shorter. 5/10
  6. "Solitude" - Okay interlude, nothing more. 6/10
  7. "Funeral" - Not the worst instrumental I've ever heard, but far from the best. Pretty boring overall. 5/10
  8. "When The Night Falls" - Way too long for its own good. Bland "epic". 5/10
Kinda uninteresting debut. It was heavier than I expected, but also worse. Bad vocalist, riffs don't really stand out, and the best moments are all on the first song and what's-his-name vomits over a good part of them. One other decent song, the rest are eh to outright boring.

Rating: 58%
@Night Prowler Not sure how high you rate the debut, but I'm sure this would offend you in some way.
 
When the Night Falls is the only blasphemy, everything else is pretty accurate. Not a good debut.
 
Yeah, When the Night Falls is a monster. It suffers from bad vocalist and bad production on the album, though.
 
IDK, the music just seemed to be running around in circles. There's variation, but not enough for my liking.
 
Yeah, When the Night Falls is a monster. It suffers from bad vocalist and bad production on the album, though.
That's what Alive in Athens is for. The best Iced Earth album. I would just go straight to that rather than running the discography, at least to start out with.
 
That's what Alive in Athens is for. The best Iced Earth album. I would just go straight to that rather than running the discography, at least to start out with.
I'd recommend Alive in Athens over the first three albums, anyway. All the essential tracks are on AIA and they are significantly better. Dark Saga and Something Wicked are fantastic. Horror Show remains my favourite IE album.
 
I'm gonna be editing the opening post to included a list of the albums and a link to their reviews, btw. Make it easier and stuff.
 
I'd recommend Alive in Athens over the first three albums, anyway. All the essential tracks are on AIA and they are significantly better. Dark Saga and Something Wicked are fantastic. Horror Show remains my favourite IE album.
My Iced Earth essentials consist of Alive in Athens, Burnt Offerings, and Horror Show. Horror Show because it was recorded after Alive in Athens, and Burnt Offerings because it's not well represented on AiA and I actually kinda prefer the studio versions of the songs that are included. It's also my favorite Iced Earth Studio album. Horror Show was my favorite for a long time and is still a close second. There are a couple songs on there that keep it a notch below Burnt Offerings for me, but the best moments (e.g. Damien, Dracula) are among the best things the band has ever done. Love the concept too.

Dark Saga and Something Wicked are great but I'm not a big fan of the production style found on those and most later IE albums. I'll take the live versions of all those songs and AiA didn't miss anything important.
 
I'll only ever throw on Dark Saga and Horror Show. Something Wicked has some good stuff but for the most part it's pretty mehh. Same thing with Night of the Stormrider. Everything else is too cheesy or too dull for me.
 
I really, really still enjoy Incorruptible a lot. Not as big on the other Stu albums, but they're still pretty good. And I do enjoy 2/3rds of The Glorious Burden.
 
Well @Perun let's see if the Savatage fan in me springs out.

SAVATAGE - SIRENS
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Album 18/365

Tracks:

  1. "Sirens" - A nice quiet piece opens the album before we move right into pure unadulterated heavy metal. I actually heard this song a while ago on Dave Mustaine's show on Gimme Radio, and I've loved it since the first listen. It's heavy, it's catchy, it just sounds so good. Excellent song. Hopefully the rest of the album can match it. 10/10
  2. "Holocaust" - Not quite outstanding but I like the riff here. 8/10
  3. "I Believe" - Solid song but again, not outstanding. The chorus riff is cool and the faster bit is decent, but otherwise nothing terribly special, but nothing offensive at the same time. 7/10
  4. "Rage" - That first chorus with the long, raspy "rage!" shout was really cool, but the rest of this song is bland. Throwaway verses are the worst part to it. 5/10
  5. "On The Run" - Man, that opening riff was so good, but the rest of this song is just boring. 5/10
  6. "Twisted Little Sister" - God, this song is outright bad. Boring riff that other bands have done the same sort of thing with but ten times better than this. Those lyrics are horrible and the performance of them makes them worse. 2/10
  7. "Living For The Night" - The verses here are actually pretty good, but the chorus brings it down from what it could've been. Still, it's better than the last three songs. 6/10
  8. "Scream Murder" - Has some bleh moments, but also some pretty great ones at the same time (that solo is awesome). Not quite outstanding and could've been better, but I like enough of it to give it a 7/10. With further listens it may grow on me.
  9. "Out On The Streets" - A typical song that fits more of the hair metal genre than heavy / speed / power metal (which is what Wikipedia labels this album as), and while it's certainly not a stand-out by any means, y'know, it ain't half bad either. Pretty nice ending to a wildly inconsistent album. 8/10
Well, the Savatage fan in me hasn't sprung out yet, but that's okay because I wasn't expecting it to going into this anyway. Sirens is a weird debut with one absolutely amazing song, one absolutely terrible song, and seven other songs that range from bland to decent to actually kinda cool. I'm hoping they take the good stuff here and chop out the bad stuff for future releases, because what's good is pretty good.

Rating: 60%
 
I've heard a lot about these Brits and how they're masterful death metal artistes with absolutely no bad release on there record. So!

BOLT THROWER - IN BATTLE THERE IS NO LAW!
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Album 19/365

Tracks:

  1. "In Battle There Is No Law" - Some pretty solid stuff. It's fairly lengthy for this kinda music but it knows how to space itself out and I don't dislike it by any means.
  2. "Challenge For Power" - Another solid song. I'm quite liking this album so far, I doubt it'll be a stand-out for me but probably something I can throw on when I'm in the mood.
  3. "Forgotten Existence" - This one has a little more variation than the last two and I quite like it. Still solid stuff.
  4. "Denial of Destiny" - Frantic for the most part, but it's got a nice change-up in it, too. Still solid.
  5. "Blind to Defeat" - Wild and shit. Still solid.
  6. "Concession of Pain" - This is a banger. Still solid.
  7. "Attack in the Aftermath" - A building behemoth. Still solid.
  8. "Psychological Warfare" - Some great riffing here. Still solid.
  9. "Nuclear Annihilation" - Yep, this one's strong too. Great ending to a pretty great album.
Man, I fucking give up on trying to rate these songs, because it's so hard to do. There's not a single bad moment on this album, and while it's not the best death metal release I've ever heard, it's nonetheless a pretty awesome ride. Short and concise with a lot of good bits to it. Quite a banger. I like it and hope that the rest of their discography holds up as well as this album does.

Rating: 90%
 
Let's do another debut then, this time full-on power metal.

BLIND GUARDIAN - BATTALIONS OF FEAR
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Album 20/365

Tracks:

  1. "Majesty" - Holy shit, is that more carnival music? I really like that break into fast riffing. This is a pretty solid song, a little long but I can dig it. Lots of good moments here. 8/10
  2. "Guardian of the Blind" - This is another solid song, but less memorable than the previous one. I like that it's very Mercyful Fate-esque, but otherwise it's merely decent. 7/10
  3. "Trial by the Archon" - A Mercyful Fate-like opening before the drums from "Ides of March" kick in. Ah, this is just an instrumental? Well I love it! It's very strong and does what it sets out to do. A mix between Maiden and Fate and it's really, really good. Could be longer, but it does enough in its runtime to get a high score. 9/10
  4. "Wizard's Crown" - This is a really solid, catchy number. I've heard better songs about Crowley, but it's good enough for my liking. 8/10
  5. "Run for the Night" - A pretty solid song and easily the best one so far outside of the instrumental. Almost a 9. 8/10
  6. "The Martyr" - Another really solid song. Maybe not the best interpretation of the Passion of Christ, but it's good enough. 8/10
  7. "Battalions of Fear" - This didn't have the best beginning but by the end it was really good. Not the best title track maybe, but I guess it's good enough. 8/10
  8. "By the Gates of Moria" - Decent instrumental with some awesome moments but enough weirder ones to drag it down a notch. Also not the best ending to the album (the previous song would've worked better). Not as good as "Trial" was, by any means. 7/10
This is actually a pretty great debut, certainly better than Iced Earth's and Savatage's (though not quite as good as Bolt Thrower's). Pretty strong set of songs and I look forward to seeing where they go from here.

Rating: 81%
 
Another one of my favorite metal albums. "Majesty" is a personal favorite, but I also like "Trial by the Archon / Wizard's Crown" and "Run for the Night" very much. Regarding the ending, there's actually a bonus instrumental track called "Gandalf's Rebirth" that, in my opinion, ends the album on a much higher note. The track has actually been included on every edition after the original, so it might as well be considered a standard track on the album. You should check it out!
 
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