Top 10 all-time favourite Metal albums

[HamburgerBoy]

Pretty hard to argue with those. Especially with Irae Melanox. I'm curious as to why you picked The Spectre Within over Awaken the Guardian though.

Spectre just sounds like Awaken's superior in nearly every way. Awaken has the "advantage" in that it's a little more progressive in the usual sense of the word, songs are longer on average and there's more time-signature changing and whatever, but that's not really a plus for me. Despite the increased song-lengths they feel more verse/chorus than the preceding. It's easiest to demonstrate just looking at Epitaph and Exodus, the former full of huge movements and constructed like a proper epic, the latter could have been condensed to maybe five minutes without losing much. Spectre is also much more dynamic in terms of tempo and mood, whereas Awaken mostly stays in the same mid-tempo, kind of atmospheric place, which could have been amazing on its own merits but I think losing Arduini caused them to lose their ability to write riffs (like, a significant amount is basically just slower thrash riffing). Nothing on Awaken gets close to the energy of tracks 2-4 on Spectre. Arch's vocal melodies could carry the songs further, but then the production on ATG is fucking stupid putting him at the bottom of the mix, whereas Spectre is probably tied with Epicus Doomicus Metallicus and Piece of Mind having the greatest 80s metal production around, perfect clarity but guitars that still sound like saws.

I mean, despite all that it's still a 7.5-8/10 album for me, there are no songs worse than good, it's still a completely individual album and Giant's Lore is an all-time favorite, but it doesn't come close to Spectre.

 

[Talos of Atmora]

Arch's vocal melodies could carry the songs further, but then the production on ATG is fucking stupid putting him at the bottom of the mix

That's actually one of the things that kind of annoys me about that album.

 

[no country for old wainds]

spectre is obvs more dynamic and energetic but atg is going for something different, a quieter more dreamy mood, it's not like it's trying to be just as dynergetic but failing. spectre definitely peaks higher and is a little more consistent overall though. 'fata morgana' remains their most perfect song but nothing in metal beats the last few minutes of 'epitaph' for me, that is peak music.

 

[Phylactery]

Slayer - Hell Awaits
Aeternus - ...and So the Night Became
Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian
Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
The Chasm - Procession to the Infraworld
Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
Judas Priest - Stained Class
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Gorgoroth - Pentagram
Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos

Honorable mentions:

Graveland - Thousand Swords
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Beherit - Drawing Down the Moon
Adramelech - Psychostasia
Morbid Angel - Blessed Are the Sick
Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead

Great list! Nice to see ItNE getting some love. I think I also prefer that Aeternus album over the debut as well these days but I can never decide.

DMDS might also be my favourite of the Norwegian classics currently, but it took me the longest of them all to fully appreciate.