Newer releases vs. the classics...

[Ascension]

l am almost polar opposite. l would choose to listen to Blackout, Heaven & Hell, Images & Words, and Power of the Night in their entirety as opposed to Recreation Day, The 1st Chapter, This Godless Endeavor, and The Odyssey. The latter would be single songs picked & chosen from to add to a playlist & hardly ever (if ever) played through in completion.

While l do continuously seek out new material, they never seem to get the playbacks that the more proven, seasoned classics get. Just this past weekend l played JP's Screaming for Vengeance & Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak (ok l know it's not metal, but it's a classic) all the way through. Nothing else got that kind of attention.

l just haven't heard anything that could be considered "classic" being released. Even from bands that l consider my favorites. While every now & then something new does make me "sit up straight in my seat" in an immediate sense...within a short period of time the "bright & shiney" wears off and l'm left with derivative, mediocre, & trivial.

 

[General Zod]

Reading through these posts and noting all the suggestions makes a realization markedly clear: My eyes and fingers will pass right over these classics in the rack and find something newer to listen to 99.9% of the time.

I'd say I'm not far off form this. I go through periods where I'll play only Dio for three or four days, or listen to Rage for Order ten times in a row. Most of the time, I'm leaning towards something new.

Zod

 

[adaher]

I'd much rather listen to Mabool, Sirius B, 11 Dreams, Temple Of Shadows, Century Child, Metus Mortis, or dozens of others. In comparison to these the classics just seem primitive, old, and boring.

Yup. And they sound like crap too. Which is weird, because back then I thought some albums just sounded awesome and powerful. Today they sound like peanuts.

 

[eaeolian]

Yup. And they sound like crap too. Which is weird, because back then I thought some albums just sounded awesome and powerful. Today they sound like peanuts.

Uh, OK. I'd put "Piece of Mind" or "Rage For Order" up against any of these (or just about anything "modern") for sonics. The original CD mastering of both was shit, but that's been fixed.

 

[Everblack]

At The Gates : Slaughter of the Soul (The birth of "`Swedish" melodeath)

Carcass : Heartwork (best metal disc ever made...IMO)

Meshuggah : Destroy, Erase, Improve (Showing a whole new way to deliver metal to the people)

Just my 5 cents....for those who care

Mike/Mercenary

 

[Iced Ray]

Angra - Temple of Shadows & Rebirth

When I first heard these albums, I was just floored at how great they were. And I still feel that way. I just sense that many years from now, these albums will be talked about as power/prog metal classics.

 

[sccaldwell]

I'd list the following as classics of modern Metal:

Zero Hour's Towers of Avarice
Nevermore's Dreaming Neon Black
Opeth's Still Life
Symphony X's V: The New Mythology Suite
Iced Earth's Something Wicked This Way Comes

I believe that Redemption's new disc should be on this list, but feel a disc first needs to stand the test of time.

I agree with three of those: The Zero Hour, Symphony X, and Redemption. I'd also add:
Ark "Burn The Sun"
Circus Maximus' debut
Conception "Flow"
Enchant's "Break"
Fates Warning "APSOG"
Kamelot's "The Black Halo"
Liquid Tension Experiment "LTE"
Pain of Salvation's "The Perfect Element, Pt. 1"
Power of Omens' "Eyes of the Oracle"
Stride Imagine (listened to this again yesterday....AMAZING disc)
Vanden Plas "The God Thing"

As far as "why they're classic?" It's simple. I don't get tired of them. Ever. I have listened to at least part of EVERY DISC on my list (except the VP) in the past two weeks (and I don't do "shuffle play").

And it's not like I don't have choices. I have over 1200 CDs to choose from, and I've actually been *trying* to focus lately on listening to some *other* stuff I've bought in the last couple of years but never really given it enough listens to *really* decide if I like it.

And yet I still keep getting drawn back to these "classics."

Craig

 

[sccaldwell]

...back then I thought some albums just sounded awesome and powerful. Today they sound like peanuts.

This is why CD's like Boston's debut STILL blow me away. That CD was released THIRTY-ONE YEARS AGO, and (at least to me), it *STILL* sounds awesome and powerful.

THAT'S a classic.

Craig