All-time favorite's

[symphonyXjapan]

This is pretty much my metal album pantheon:

Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth (1998)
Symphony X - V: The New Mythology Suite (2000)
Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe (2008)
Elvenking - The Pagan Manifesto (2014)

I'm disappointed that my favorite metal band, Kiuas, never made it into the list. Their debut The Spirit of Ukko is so close, but it's just too short.

Ah, the new Elvenking is simply amazing! I don't want to put it on my list since it just came out this year. But it could possibly end up proving to make it through the long haul in my life and end up on it in the future! I will definately be adding it to my 2014 list in that thread once I get it all together though.

 

[Indestructible]

Yeah I agree about Awake, it has its highs but it is an extremely inconsistent album. Their first two are gold from start to finish.

The only bad thing I have to say about WDaDU is that it sounds sometimes like Charlie Dominici is trying to imitate John Arch, and he's not as good at it as John Arch is (Only a Matter of Time in particular). But the whole album is dark, adventurous, and memorable. It sounds a lot different, even from I&W, too -- the bass tone is completely different, and so are the keyboard sounds. Clearly an album that is not going to be replicated any time soon (like SFaM already has been and will be again a million times over).

Yeah, some albums just were released in a really unique timing. No album that gets released in the 2000's or the 2010's will ever have the feeling that WDaDU had in 1989. It was all timing, it was a time when they didn't acquire LaBrie yet, and it was their debut album. It seemed like they weren't 100% sure about the musical direction they were going for, so that's probably why WDaDU came out so unique and original like this. From what I've read, it didn't get the attention or praise it deserved at the time of release(1989), same goes for the Sym X debut album. That's what makes it so special, though. It was overlooked at the time of release, but as years passed by it started to gain that praise it deserved only years later.

And john arch - never heard him before, I know he was in fates warning though. I'll go ahead and give their first albums a listen now. If he sounds similar to charlie dominici, then I will probably like his voice. Thanks for the discovery, mate.

edit - just heard him, yeah I can understand the comparison between him and charlie now.

 

[Drahcir]

My #1 favorite album of all-time:

Kamelot - The Black Halo

 

[uhhhhmmmm4]

Finally decided to get off my ass and put some thought into this.

Shut up, I know im lazy!

(In no particular order)

Symphony X- Twilight in Olympus
Dream Theater- Images and Words
Testament- The New Order
Emperor- Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Neil Young- After thr Gold Rush
Symphony X- V
Opeth- Morningrise
Blind Guardian- Nightfall in Middle Earth
Immortal- At the Heart of Winter
Black Sabbath- Master of Reality
Entombed- Left Hand Path

It varies and I could add more nonmetal but it would be even harder.

 

[Postulate]

Ok, a more historical list (all metal) --

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian
Helloween - The Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 1
Watchtower - Control and Resistance
Sieges Even - Steps
Fates Warning - A Pleasant Shade of Gray
Symphony X: V - The New Mythology Suite
Winds - The Imaginary Direction of Time
Planet X - Quantum
Blotted Science - The Machinations of Dementia

 

[Indestructible]

Gonna have to add the first 3 fate's warning albums to my all-time favorite's. Just...wow, I just gave them a few more listens and "WOW MAN" certainly fits my reaction right now. And for some reason it was this amazing guy Postulate that made me discover it. Shit thanks so much bro. I find it a tiny bit ignorant of me for not have discovered these albums before...

 

[Progbass]

Gonna have to add the first 3 fate's warning albums to my all-time favorite's. Just...wow, I just gave them a few more listens and "WOW MAN" certainly fits my reaction right now. And for some reason it was this amazing guy Postulate that made me discover it. Shit thanks so much bro. I find it a tiny bit ignorant of me for not have discovered these albums before...

Yea, that reminds me I should have also added few Fates Warning albums to my list and also Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime

 

[Indestructible]

Yea, that reminds me I should have also added few Fates Warning albums to my list and also Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime

For me in the first 3 by Fate's warning there were 2 main things that attracted my ears to it when I listened - 1. John Arch's voice(WOW!! Like charlie dominici but somehow even better) 2. the compositions. Holy shit, some songs have incredibly unforgettable riffs and prog passages in them.

I wish Fate's warning would have had John Arch stay with them to perform on all albums. Some bands tend to lose their important singers because of really petty and trivial stuff, and that's sad.

But hey, look at the bright side guys, atleast he didn't leave after one album like Charlie did with Dream Theater. 3 albums have definitely left us lots of material left to enjoy from that period of time.

 

[donKyle]

this is a tough one for me.....because typically with music i listen to a handful of things a lot, and then put them away for a long time as i find new things that sound good to me.

iron maiden- somewhere in time
agalloch- the mantle
symphony x- v
mooonsorrow- v: havitetty
iced earth- night of the stormrider
testament- the gathering
testament- the legacy
omnium gatherum- new world shadows
persefone- spiritual migration


these are all albums that have probably been way overplayed by myself, but i never get tired of listening to. i almost never skip any tracks, and like to listen all the way through without stopping whenever possible.

the last 2 are more recent, but i wanted to include them in the list, especially spiritual migration, because there is just some pretty amazing stuff going on in that album imo.

i wanted to add skyforger by amorphis, but i almost always switch to something else towards the end of the album, because it just isn't as good as the first half or so.

i also wanted to add versus the world by amon amarth, buuuuuut they are a band who i can only take so much of because it starts to get a little repetitive sometimes.

i also think dragonforce's debut is a great power metal album

 

[uhhhhmmmm4]

Yes to Iron Maiden
Yes to Symphony X
Yes to Moonsorrow
Yes to Iced Earth
Yes to Testament!!!
Yes to Persefone
Never heard Omnium Gatherum(ill give it a listen)
Not at at all to Agalloch, like not even a little bit(sorry dudes)

 

[Baroque]

Symphony X - V
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Antidote - The Truth
Vektor - Black Future
Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I
Obliveon - From This Day Forward
Death - Symbolic
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Exmortus - Slave to the Sword

Honest favorites, ignoring popular opinions.