My Top 10 Favorite Albums

Hello!

So, last month I posted up my top 10 album covers, and in the process I might have revealed some future releases (Some of which came true). Today’s top 10 marks the start of the break between both sides of this review tour, and begins some revisions/reviews/lists I’ve written in my spare time. The top 10 post you’ll be looking at today are my favorite albums of all time. Enjoy!

10) AC/DC: Black Ice

Like I said back in my Top 10 Singers & Bands post (Click “***” to read it), I wasn’t the biggest AC/DC fan growing up. Apart from 4 songs (Big Gun, Big Balls, Who Made Who, and Money Talks), I never really liked them. Then their Black Ice album shows up in 2008, and something just clicked for me. I don’t know what it was, but suffice it to say, I like these guys. I’m still not a massive fan by any means, but I guess it more of a “Not Love, But Respect” kind of thing.

9) Moonspell: Irreligious

I’ve definitely listened to a lot of Gothic Metal since I discovered the genre. American, German, and British Gothic Metal are just a couple types I’ve listened. When I discovered that a country like Portugal produced bands that performed Gothic Metal as well, my mind was blown into a dimension I never knew existed. As for the album in question, I can only say that Irreligious is quite possibly one of the most beautiful albums I’ve ever listened to. If I ever do a “Top 5 Most Beautiful Albums” post (Which I’ll more than likely do, now that I’m thinking about it), I would easily put it either at the number 3 or two spot on the list. Moonspell knows how to be fast & brutal like any other metal album, but they know how to slow down, and create some very atmospheric music.

8) Unheilig: Phosphor

Phosphor is on this list for two reasons. For starters, Der Graf’s English in this album was good. When he sings in English, you can tell that he really knows the language. Not only that, but his German accent never comes in, or if it does, it’s very difficult to notice. It is a shame that this is the only time that you hear him sing in English, because I would have love to have heard him sing in English maybe 1 or 2 more times.

The second reason that Phosphor is on here is because of emotion. Although bands like Rammstein are more than capable of putting feeling into their music, I find that they tend to more basic & crude in their songs (Not necessarily in their albums on the whole), sometimes becoming a little sexist in the process. With Der Graf and Unheilig, there is more to their music than many other Industrial artists. He uses many of the emotions that the previously mentioned artists, but he also attempts to make more uplifting songs as well, even if they don’t necessarily sound it.

7) Paradise Lost: Draconian Times

Although I’ve gotten into more of their albums since I’ve first discovered, I must say that out of all of them, Draconian Times is the first of their albums I got into. When I first listened to some of the songs off the album (Enchantment, Yearn for Change, I See Your Face), I was immediately hooked. While I definitely listened to metal before hand, I had never listened to anything like what Paradise Lost put out. It was dark, brooding, and reflected the more serious side of Gothic Metal. An album that has managed to transcend it’s birthplace in the mid-90s, Draconian Times is a collection of songs to darken the soul.

6) All of Type-O Negative’s Discography

This one might look like A cop-out to some of you, and I won’t deny that I agree slightly with your opinion. With that said, I sincerely mean it when I say that I love every album that Type-O Negative has every produced. Even their weakest album, Origin of the Feces, has at least two songs on it I like. Every single one of their albums is good, regardless of what the haters say. Dark with a dry humor edge, Type-O Negative is a band that is worthy of respect.

5) Ozzy Osbourne: The Ozzman Cometh

It’s really weird that I’m putting a compilation album up on this list, but it was The Ozzman Cometh that finally won me over. Filled with music from his early days in Black Sabbath, all the way up to Ozzmosis, it is a great album to introduce people to one of metal’s most iconic singers. Still waiting for The Ozzman Cometh 2!

4) Eisbrecher: Eisbrecher

Although I enjoy Eisbrecher a little more than Rammstein, As far as first albums are concerned I like this one a little less than my number 2. I don’t consider Eisbrecher’s debut album bad, as I actually find it to be really good for a band’s first album. What ultimately determined this album’s spot was it’s emotional impact: my number 2 spot simply hit me more in the right spot. Eisbrecher’s first album definitely hit me, but it didn’t hit me as hard as my number 2. If you want an alternative to more mainstream Industrial Metal, give Eisbrecher a chance.

3) Korn: Untouchables

Okay, bit of a story with this album. I was 17 years old, and I was about 1/4th to ½ through my 12th-grade semester, and I still didn’t own an album with the “Mature” rating label on it. All seemed bleak, until I came across Korn’s website. I had known about the band for sometime, and I even managed to receive a couple of their songs in mp3 format. Despite that, my mom was still vehemently opposed to me having such an album (Ironic, given the fact that my Father can swear frequently, depending on his mood, and I already had some songs with swearing/questionable content). I was reasonable for so long, there was only one course for me.....I had to act like a little kid.

Granted, I only pitched a fit (Whining, complaining, carrying on, etc) once or twice, but that was all I needed. She finally agreed to my desire/demand, and I finally got my first “Mature” album. While I still feel a little embarrassed about what I did, I don’t regret getting the album.

2) Rammstein: Mutter

The acquisition of my number spot is perhaps the most bizarre story to date!

Rewind the clock back to 2002. I’m 15 years old at the time, I’m about three-fourths through my 9th-grade year, and I had my dog Charlie for about 7 months (Might have been 8). Before I went to bed one night, I took out my dog so he could go to the bathroom, and I was listening to my walkman’s radio to pass the time. Then one moment, Ice Will came onto the air waves, and I had never heard anything like it. Up until that point, the music I listened to was rather safe/tame, mainly due to my Mother. With this, it was about as edgy as the more inappropriate music I came across, but because they were singing in German, I didn’t know what they were saying. My dad downloaded it for me, and I was a happy camper.

Flash forward to October of the same year, and I was wandering through a nearby FYE, and I coincidentally came across Mutter. It took me a couple seconds, but I recognized that the band that made the album was the same one that made Ich Will. After convincing my Mom to buy the album, I immediately put it into my CD player (At the time), and haven’t regretted the decision. 

1) Ministry: Rio Grande Blood

Once again, taken from my Top 10 Singer & Bands post:

“It’s August 27th, 2006, a day before my Fall 2006 semester at college. I wake up and come down stairs as usual, and I see my day hastily putting some clothes in a travel bag. When I ask why, I was told that my uncle (Which I saw a week prior at a family reunion) had died in a plane crash. I was in a state of shock. I couldn’t even cry because I was so shocked by what I was told. I didn’t even go through the day normal, but sometimes fate moves you in the weirdest of directions.

I think a couple weeks prior to his death, I was surfing through the TV, when I came across MTV (When they still kinda sorta played videos). On the screen was Ministry’s latest music video, Lies Lies Lies. I liked it, but I didn’t think much of it. About a week or two after, I was with my girlfriend at the time, and I managed to find a copy of the album the song came from. When my uncle died, I listened to the whole album, and somehow I was healed.....for the most part. Due to that act, Ministry will be my number 1 band for all time.”

Again, I don’t need to say more.

As with my top 10 album covers, I hope you’ve enjoyed my top 10 albums. See you next time, when we’ll take a month-long break from this music review tour, and catch up on some revisions & long-promised reviews. Until then, stay Otaku.