Favorite Concept Albums?

[Wicked Child]

y'KNOW, I also forgot Trans-Siberian Orchesta-Christmas Eve And Other Stories. Very good concept album.

 

[DiscipleOfPlato]

But the king of ALL concept albums is.......
-Queensryche-Operation:Mindcrime
Words can't express how much I truly love this album..it's been almost two and half years since i bought this masterpiece and i'm STILL not bored of it after a million listens and that is certainly a mark of a classic album. One of, if not, my all-time favorite albums EVER.

I whole-heartedly agree with this statement..."Operation: Mindcrime" is a TIMELESS album as it was released at the peak of Queensryche's musical creativity, and easily their best work...
Some other great ones are:

Pink Floyd-"The Wall": As if this needs any explanation.
Dream Theater-"Metropolis Pt. II-Scenes From a Memory": Simply put, a masterpiece.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra-"Beethoven's Last Night": Musically astonishing.
Fates Warning-"A Pleasant Shade of Gray": Very dark, emotionally-charged conceptual piece.
Spock's Beard-"Snow": Another timeless masterpiece.

 

[Brent]

-Every Pink Floyd album from Dark Side of the Moon to The Wall
-Blind Guardian-Nightfall in Middle Earth
-Iced Earth-Horror Show
-Fear Factory-Obsolete

 

[SculptedCold]

what is it with you and rhythm?! i wouldn't have said Tool was a 'rhythm' band....sure, there's a lot of focus on percussion in the composition but I don't think the objective is only for rhythmic quality. Tool are totally a 'mood' band first of all....and yes, I know rhythm is primally important for establishing some kinds of moods, but often I think Tool are more about texture and soundscape rather than trance-inducing percussion. Especially in the latter half of Lateralus. I like Undertow best because it's got an honest down and dirty rock feel to it....I don't like Aenima much because it's just got too much whacked-out filler in an effort to be 'weird' and ends-up backfiring into something pretentious and fake. Lateralus is an excellent album although I hardly ever listen to it now. The transition experienced from the beginning of the cd through to the end is...hmmm...powerful, anyway.

gah, why are you calling Mudvayne a rhythm band? the guitar is rhythmic and straightforward, but the bass and drums are usually completely out there, plus they have loads of extended and 'softer' compositions that explore mood, melody and spirituality. How anyone could call Mudvayne purely a 'rhythmic' band after hearing songs like Severed, Nothing to Gein, Death Blooms, Pharmaecopia, World So Cold, Skrying is beyond me. Admittedly, the third release has a more stacatto-based understructure, but there is always a definite focus in exploration and experimentation with mood and expression.


Concept albums.....Soilwork? Hmmm, well, if you consider lyrical themes to be a 'concept' then I suppose....but APP and TCM's lyrical themes between songs are far from hardwired to eachother......

 

[Night]

What is a concept album?

 

[Ravnanger]

Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse
Ayreon - Into The Electric Castle (track 2 is probably the best song ever.. especially when it takes of some minutes into the song.. yeah you know wich part I mean.. fucking orgasm!!! NGHAAA)