Music You Keep Returning To

[S<issors]

I find that the albums I think of as my "favorites," or as all-time classics, are not necessarily the albums that spend the most time in my headphones. What bands/albums/tracks are consistently at the top of your most-played list? Do they match up to what you'd consider your favorites?

I'm especially interested in unusual stuff and newer albums that you've found have a lot of catchiness and staying power.

 

[Lateralus14]

The albums that make it into the "rotation" change once in a while because, like you said, our favorites/classics aren't always are most played (but they probably were at one point to earn such a status). So this is what I'm playing a lot right now:

The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Blut Aus Nord - The Work Which Transforms God
Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Dead Congregation - Graves of the Archangels
Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum
Deathspell Omega - Chaining the Katechon
Esoteric - The Maniacal Vale
Katatonia - Brave Murder Day
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
Tool - Lateralus
Tool - Opiate
Tool - Undertow
Teitanblood - Seven Chalices

Some notable absences that are usually in my top albums are Under the Sign of the Black Mark, Lightbulb Sun, Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice, Reign in Blood, Altars of Madness, Oceanic, Black Sabbath, etc. that I just haven't been listening to much lately.

 

[Dak]

I find that the albums I think of as my "favorites," or as all-time classics, are not necessarily the albums that spend the most time in my headphones.

I thought I was the only one.

 

[ZosKiaCvltvs]

Svartsot - Ravnenes Saga
Eluveitie - Slania's Song
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Mayhem - Deathcrush
Drudkh - Blood in Our Wells
Decapitated - Winds of Creation and Nihility
Thyrfing - Valdr Galga
Bathory - Hammerheart
Ensiferum - Ensiferum
Enslaved - Frost and Eld
Immortal - Pure Holocaust
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse and Morningrise

These seem to be the albums I keep coming back to when I'm stuck for something to listen to. Ensiferum and Korpiklaani's new albums are seeing a lot of plays recently as well.

 

[Draehl]

Metallica - AJFA
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Amorphis - Elegy
Rammstein - Sensucht

 

[ASD]

I thought I was the only one.

Same here, when it comes to albums I love a lot (like the one in my avatar) I only listen when I'm in the perfect mood.

 

[ossa]

Opeth- My Arms, Your Hearse
Moonsorrow- Viides Luku: Havitetty
Swallow the Sun- Hope
Negura Bunget- 'n crugu bradului

I'd definitely say all of these are some of my favorite bands, but Dissection and Agalloch, which I love more than most of these bands, don't get played as much for some reason. I have to be in the right state of mind for certain music.

 

[SkiesAtOurFeet]

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Deathspell Omega - Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining the Katechon
Deströyer 666 - Unchain the Wolves
Drudkh - Enstrangement
God Dethroned - Bloody Blasphemy
Lunar Aurora - Zyklus
Root - Black Seal

 

[no country for old wainds]

i understand the distinction between these and favourites, but i don't share it. all the albums that i really love receive heavy rotation from me, there's no way i could *wait for the perfect mood* or whatever, i breathe this stuff, it puts me in the perfect mood if anything. then again music is one of the only things that really affects my mood at all, 99% of the time what i listen to (or watch, read) determines my subsequent mood rather than the other way around.

anyway, my most listened to metal album of all time is definitely with fear i kiss the burning darkness, although there are many times when i've turned it off after primal breath.

 

[Manic Ferocity]

There's quite a few albums I rarely play anymore but still regard as classics.

These come to mind...

Dissection - The Somberlain
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Slayer - Hell Awaits
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Metallica - Ride the Lightening
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Metallica - ...And Justice For All
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden - Killers
Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
Autopsy - Mental Funeral
Impetigo - Ultimo Mondo Cannibale
Impetigo - Horror of the Zombies
Carcass - Necroticism-Descanting the Insalubrious
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Soilwork - Figure Number Five

Still not sick of this. Seriously.

 

[Einherjar86]

I find that the albums I think of as my "favorites," or as all-time classics, are not necessarily the albums that spend the most time in my headphones.

Same here.

An example for me would be Kiuas, which is one of my all-time favorite metal acts; but I don't think I've listened to them in several months now.

I believe the reason some of our favorites fall behind in the "most-played" category is because we come to know them so well that they lose their immediate thrill. We still enjoy them and love them for the same reasons, but those reasons are no longer new. We start looking for new acts to fulfill those same requirements, and we constantly compare them to our ultimate favorites, even if we don't listen to the ultimate favorites as much.

 

[The Ozzman]

Anything on here:

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/The_Ozzman/favorite_albums__work_in_progress_

 

[metal_wrath]

Centinex - Last four albums
Funeral - Last two albums
Opeth - MAYH, Morningrise, Still Life
Empyrium - several songs
Rapture - all albums

 

[Lateralus14]

Don't listen to Black Sabbath much any more and it's making Master of Reality that much more awesome right now

 

[audiophileguy]

these are in constant rotation

internal decay - a forgotten dream
judgement day - march of the apocalypse
cyclone - inferior to none
dissection - somberlain
solstice - halycon and lamentations(yet to hear new dark age)
adx - execution, suprematie/la terreur
god macabre - the winterlong
kreator - coma of souls
magnus(pol) - I was watching and scarlet slaughterer
artillery - everything cept for the new one
savage grace - after the fall.. and master of disguise
trouble - psalm 9
holy terror - mind wars
slough feg - traveller
bulldozer - ix and neurodeliri
apocalypse - s/t and faithless
candlemass - everything
therion - beyond and lemuria/sirius
amorphis - tales..
chemical breath - fatal exposure and values
dismember - pieces and like an ever flowing stream
impact - take the pain
griffin - flight of the griffin

 

[byrne]

I can understand "classics" not necessarily being the same as favourites. But like someone above, I play my favourites most - because they are my favourite albums ... if your favourite album(s) is/are seldom played, then I'd suggest that it isn't in fact a favourite.

*edit - yes i am conscious i said 'favourite' around a thousand times in that post*

 

[skeptik]

I don't really listen to anything consistently enough to qualify as something I constantly turn to. Albums I've had for years are lucky to get an annual spin unless I catch a particular fancy for it, for example. I guess the closest things would probably coincide with my last.fm charts for the most part, things like Countess, Bathory, Black Sabbath, Darkthrone, Burzum, Pentagram, Manilla Road, Revelation, Against Nature, Mercyful Fate, Candlemass, Judas Priest. I would probably add Rush, Queen, Swans, and Dead Can Dance at this point as well. And yes, these do happen to coincide with what I tend to think are among the best in their respective genres.

 

[Xorv]

Back and forth between the Type O negative and On thorns I lay that I've heard so far.

 

[Slayed Necros]

Rotting Christ - Thy Mighty Contract
Gorgoroth - Pentagram
Varathron - His Majesty at the Swamp
Aeternus - Dark Sorcery
Merciless - The Awakening


These are a few favourites that haven't worn their welcome - I still listen to each of them almost weekly. Albums like The Somberlain and Far Away From the Sun are still all time favourites, but seeing as I've had them for the better part of ten years and listened to each more times than I could count, they don't get such heavy rotation anymore.