a lot of you need to either look up the definition of perfect sometime or raise your standards. this isn't a favourite albums thread. on the flipside i'd like to see some arguments for claims that "there can be no such thing as a perfect album", as i see no reason to believe that either.
anyway, many of my absolute favourite bands are too wild and bursting with ideas to sustain their power throughout (some obvious examples are arch-era fates warning, early at the gates, mercyful fate), and that ain't a bad thing. the vast majority of consistent albums tend to be consistently decent (or worse) rather than consistently exceptional - volatility is a condition for greatness, more often than not.
still, there are a few which manage the latter (or almost manage, as i can't think of a single album i've heard that's amazing from the first second to the last), and those tend to be written by bands who are so in command of the medium that they don't need to reach at all, they know exactly what they're capable of and where they're trying to get to, and it all ends up feeling so organic and logical it may as well have been born fully formed. the foremost examples to me are 'sad wings of destiny', 'king of the dead', 'hvis lyset tar oss', 'captain beyond'. the hendrix experience is another possible example as ozzman suggested.
there is the occasional band that always sounds like it's reaching and yet almost manages to be perfect anyway, such as the chasm on 'deathcult' or the mad river s/t. incidentally my two favourite albums...
