Diesel 11
As you scream into the web of silence...
Thanks to @Dick Brucinson 's threads today I've gone back over some of my favorite albums by decade and I think I can come up with a pretty satisfactory Diesel 11 overall Top 11 for me right now:
1. Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding (1998)
2. Iron Maiden - Live After Death (1985)
3. Nightwish - Once (2004)
4. Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell (1993)
5. Ahab - The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006)
6. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)
7. Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell (1977)
8. Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth (1997)
9. (tie) The Beatles - 1962-1966 (1973)
9. (tie) The Beatles - 1967-1970 (1973)
11. Iron Maiden - Rock in Rio (2002)
I know that in the '80s thread I put Powerslave higher than Live After Death, because I often don't play the fourth side since it's on a separate disc, but when I really think about which album I go back to more often than not, it's usually LAD. I'm a person who generally loves the album as a format so while I feel a little inconsistent here about ranking a record I usually only listen to three-fourths of as my #2 album, I think you can blame Maiden's CD manufacturing for that lol. But it's an album I can really rock out to and which I usually grab if I just need a burst of Maiden.
Lots of these rankings are pretty hard to iron out. Nightwish over Meat Loaf? LAD vs Powerslave? Bat I vs Bat II? But this seems like an accurate list for me right now. There are plenty of other records that just missed the cut, like Metallica's Master of Puppets, Tool's Ænima, and Stone Temple Pilots' Core, but these 11 are all phenomenal records that I would consider to be pretty much perfect from start to finish (again, you can argue with me about how to properly categorize LAD here).
I like the balance here. There's two live albums and two compilations offsetting the other seven studio records. I love these formats when they're done right; Maiden are a killer live act that crafted perhaps the best live album ever in 1985, and rivaled it in 2002. If performances and production were cleaned up a bit they may have had a few more contenders here.
Powerslave is the best Maiden ever got as a studio band. What it lacks in parts when it comes to dynamics it more than makes up for by being dialed-in, focused, and blasting on all cylinders. It also helps that it was the first Maiden CD I ever bought (although not the first Maiden album I ever heard), so playing that again and again made me fall in love with every single detail on that album. The guitarwork is insane. Bruce is insane. The whole band sounds insane on that album.
The Beatles' Red and Blue compilations were the first two albums I ever owned, so there's a lot of nostalgia there for sure. That said, they are also fantastically arranged compilation albums that, across four records tell an abridged story of the most beloved band ever. From their inauspicious start with "Love Me Do" to their emotional finale of "The Long and Winding Road", this is history across 54 of the greatest songs ever recorded.
Both of the Bat Out of Hell albums written by Jim Steinman and performed by Meat Loaf (and a host of talented musicians) are here. It's hard to pick which one is better than the other. The first Bat is a very '70s sounding album that combines theater with rock and, thanks in large part to Todd Rundgren helming the production, doesn't have much in the way of empty space but also allows its songs to sprawl when they want to. It's also a bit of a '50s throwback at times, which makes it feel both dated and yet free to exist on its own. But Bat Out of Hell II feels like the logical conclusion of the first Bat if you let Steinman fully direct the project. Despite sounding very '90s, its production is also clean, expansive, and utterly immaculate. The transition to the CD format also means that there's no need to limit any runtimes, so a lot of these songs get drawn out to their furthest extent. Both albums are awesome; I think I like the sequel just a tad more.
The Call of the Wretched Sea is the album that got me into funeral doom and remains, in my book, the best the genre has to offer.
Nightwish have never released a bad album, but Once is where they bridged the gap between Oldwish and Newwish, with more modern metal influences yet not completely overblown and bombastic like they were about to become. The switch to the London Philharmonic Orchestra brought additional life to their material, and there's a lot of flourishes here that feel like a crisp and blustery winter that you can engage in from the comfort of your own home. Not to mention the band's two best singers in fine form and Tuomas's songs kicking ass from beginning to end. Fantastic record.
Finally, the solo career of Bruce Dickinson. A lot of people will look at Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding and go, "Yeah it's better than anything Maiden were doing in the '90s." No, it's better than almost everything Maiden ever did, period. This is one of the best bands you never think of: Bruce's voice in PEAK form, Roy Z and Adrian Smith dividing guitar duties, and Eddie Casillas and Dave Ingraham keeping the rhythm section locked the fuck down. The fact that the whole ensemble is remembered as just one facet of Bruce's many solo endeavors is criminal. It's a group of talented people coming together to blend styles old and new and creating something incredibly unique from it. This is renaissance metal. There's nothing else like it.
I love Accident of Birth, with its fairytale influences and its ability to just rock the hell out whenever it wants to. But the night that The Chemical Wedding clicked for me, it immediately went to #1 in my heart and has stayed there ever since. This is everything great about the album as a format rolled up into one near hour of music. It bridges the gap between a concept record - with small interludes and similar thematic aspects and lyrics to keep the songs unified - and a regular collection of songs, each with their own world, each with their own story. It's spellbinding. It's everything I love about the art of music performed to perfection and speaking to the very depths of my soul. It's magical.
11 albums from 6 artists. I'm okay with that. I love what I love and I love talking about what I love. This list will undoubtedly change in the future, but right now it feels like an accurate representation of my favorites from the world of music.
1. Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding (1998)
2. Iron Maiden - Live After Death (1985)
3. Nightwish - Once (2004)
4. Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell (1993)
5. Ahab - The Call of the Wretched Sea (2006)
6. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)
7. Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell (1977)
8. Bruce Dickinson - Accident of Birth (1997)
9. (tie) The Beatles - 1962-1966 (1973)
9. (tie) The Beatles - 1967-1970 (1973)
11. Iron Maiden - Rock in Rio (2002)
I know that in the '80s thread I put Powerslave higher than Live After Death, because I often don't play the fourth side since it's on a separate disc, but when I really think about which album I go back to more often than not, it's usually LAD. I'm a person who generally loves the album as a format so while I feel a little inconsistent here about ranking a record I usually only listen to three-fourths of as my #2 album, I think you can blame Maiden's CD manufacturing for that lol. But it's an album I can really rock out to and which I usually grab if I just need a burst of Maiden.
Lots of these rankings are pretty hard to iron out. Nightwish over Meat Loaf? LAD vs Powerslave? Bat I vs Bat II? But this seems like an accurate list for me right now. There are plenty of other records that just missed the cut, like Metallica's Master of Puppets, Tool's Ænima, and Stone Temple Pilots' Core, but these 11 are all phenomenal records that I would consider to be pretty much perfect from start to finish (again, you can argue with me about how to properly categorize LAD here).
I like the balance here. There's two live albums and two compilations offsetting the other seven studio records. I love these formats when they're done right; Maiden are a killer live act that crafted perhaps the best live album ever in 1985, and rivaled it in 2002. If performances and production were cleaned up a bit they may have had a few more contenders here.
Powerslave is the best Maiden ever got as a studio band. What it lacks in parts when it comes to dynamics it more than makes up for by being dialed-in, focused, and blasting on all cylinders. It also helps that it was the first Maiden CD I ever bought (although not the first Maiden album I ever heard), so playing that again and again made me fall in love with every single detail on that album. The guitarwork is insane. Bruce is insane. The whole band sounds insane on that album.
The Beatles' Red and Blue compilations were the first two albums I ever owned, so there's a lot of nostalgia there for sure. That said, they are also fantastically arranged compilation albums that, across four records tell an abridged story of the most beloved band ever. From their inauspicious start with "Love Me Do" to their emotional finale of "The Long and Winding Road", this is history across 54 of the greatest songs ever recorded.
Both of the Bat Out of Hell albums written by Jim Steinman and performed by Meat Loaf (and a host of talented musicians) are here. It's hard to pick which one is better than the other. The first Bat is a very '70s sounding album that combines theater with rock and, thanks in large part to Todd Rundgren helming the production, doesn't have much in the way of empty space but also allows its songs to sprawl when they want to. It's also a bit of a '50s throwback at times, which makes it feel both dated and yet free to exist on its own. But Bat Out of Hell II feels like the logical conclusion of the first Bat if you let Steinman fully direct the project. Despite sounding very '90s, its production is also clean, expansive, and utterly immaculate. The transition to the CD format also means that there's no need to limit any runtimes, so a lot of these songs get drawn out to their furthest extent. Both albums are awesome; I think I like the sequel just a tad more.
The Call of the Wretched Sea is the album that got me into funeral doom and remains, in my book, the best the genre has to offer.
Nightwish have never released a bad album, but Once is where they bridged the gap between Oldwish and Newwish, with more modern metal influences yet not completely overblown and bombastic like they were about to become. The switch to the London Philharmonic Orchestra brought additional life to their material, and there's a lot of flourishes here that feel like a crisp and blustery winter that you can engage in from the comfort of your own home. Not to mention the band's two best singers in fine form and Tuomas's songs kicking ass from beginning to end. Fantastic record.
Finally, the solo career of Bruce Dickinson. A lot of people will look at Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding and go, "Yeah it's better than anything Maiden were doing in the '90s." No, it's better than almost everything Maiden ever did, period. This is one of the best bands you never think of: Bruce's voice in PEAK form, Roy Z and Adrian Smith dividing guitar duties, and Eddie Casillas and Dave Ingraham keeping the rhythm section locked the fuck down. The fact that the whole ensemble is remembered as just one facet of Bruce's many solo endeavors is criminal. It's a group of talented people coming together to blend styles old and new and creating something incredibly unique from it. This is renaissance metal. There's nothing else like it.
I love Accident of Birth, with its fairytale influences and its ability to just rock the hell out whenever it wants to. But the night that The Chemical Wedding clicked for me, it immediately went to #1 in my heart and has stayed there ever since. This is everything great about the album as a format rolled up into one near hour of music. It bridges the gap between a concept record - with small interludes and similar thematic aspects and lyrics to keep the songs unified - and a regular collection of songs, each with their own world, each with their own story. It's spellbinding. It's everything I love about the art of music performed to perfection and speaking to the very depths of my soul. It's magical.
11 albums from 6 artists. I'm okay with that. I love what I love and I love talking about what I love. This list will undoubtedly change in the future, but right now it feels like an accurate representation of my favorites from the world of music.
Ten hours of shift in the group home (where I work) make me creative. There's really NOTHING to do at all on those weekend shifts, so there's plenty of time for other things. Great my todays input had a good effect on you and maybe others too, and it's nice to see there's so much response to my threads. I really appreciate that. 
