Skull's Top 21 Albums

[Skull]

Oh look, I made a list of albums that I like and stuff. You should look at it. I'd appreciate it if you sort of skim over what I wrote, but I know there's no [bleep]ing way I would so it's cool either way. Albums are in the order I thought of them for the most part, but aren't ranked by best. Hope you dig it. Oh and the images are really big. Sorry. Also I make up a lot of stuff that makes it sound like I know what I'm talking about.

 

 

1.Relationship of Command - At the Drive-In

This album, in my opinion, is one of the most bad ass albums of all time. This is really ATDI's peak, opening with Arcarsenal, one of the most bad ass tracks of all time (again, in my opinion). Listening to Cedric screaming "Beware!" gave me chills the first time I ever heard it, and it was the song that hooked me on this amazing band. Other standout tracks on the album are One Armed Scissor, Invalid Litter Dept., and Rolodex Propaganda.

 

2.Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

A classic. Not sure there's any reason I should go into what makes it great. If you've never listened to this album, go do it, right now. Don't even finish reading this list. Seriously. Every single track is amazing on this album.

 

3.Madvillainy - Madvillain

Madvillainy is awesome. A collaboration between MF DOOM and Madlib, this album is raw and has an amazing atmosphere to it. This isn't you're average hip-hop album, the songs are short and gritty with no sugar coating. This album is real and leaves you feeling like you just went on a trip through the grimiest parts of New York. My favorite track of the album is Meat Grinder, although they're all quality songs. America's Most Blunted probably comes in second for me though.

 

4.Man on the Moon: The End of Day - Kid Cudi

Everyone should know Cudi by now. If you don't, he's one of the only rappers that have brought anything new to Hip-hop recently. Man on the Moon is a great album for anyone and makes great use of other artists like Ratatat and MGMT, and getting Kanye and Common on a track certainly doesn't hurt. Kid Cudi, is one of the few mainstream artists that I can relate to, which makes him even easier to get into. Favorite track is Pursuit of Happiness.

 

5.Labor Days - Aesop Rock

Aesop Rock is one of my favorite artists, of all times. While certainly not the easiest artist to get into, once you do you'll be a fan for life. Labor Days is an amazing album and it really showcases Aesop's talent. The lyricism is abstract at best, but if you really listen you can get a feeling for how he's trying to portray his struggles just to get by (Or as wikipedia would put it, "It is a concept album, painting a portrait of the day-to-day lives of the working class.") The standout track is obviously Daylight, which may very well be one of the best hip-hop songs of all time. The song that really sums up the whole feeling of the album is 9-5er's Anthem though. This album should be at the top of your To-Listen list if you haven't already.

 

6.Merriweather Post Pavilion - Animal Collective

Animal collective is a great band, although to be honest, I have a hard time listening to a whole album at a time, so I just picked the Album of theirs that I'm most familiar with. So take this album recommendation as more of a band recommendation. Top song on the album is probably either Brother Sport or My girls, although favorites tend to vary quite a bit from person to person.

 

7. - Justice

Cross (I don't feel like copy and pasting every time) is a very musically rewarding album from the French electronic duo, Justice. The layers of samples makes the songs extremely interesting and "textured". This is really the only electronic band I listen to, or have ever listened to (with the exception of maybe Dan Deacon and [bleep] Buttons) so I'm not sure how to really talk about the music. But they're good and fun to listen to. Favorite song would probably be D.A.N.C.E..

 

8.40 oz. to Freedom - Sublime

Just a very chill album. This is a great album to throw on and uhh... read to? :anxious: Sublime has a great feel to their music that makes it easy listening. My favorite songs are 40. oz to Freedom and Smoke Two Joints.

 

9.Monoliths & Dimensions - Sun O)))

This album is really a personal preference, either you're going to like Sunn O))) or you'll hate them and wonder how anyone could ever listen to this and call it music. The songs on the album go a little something like this: 15 minutes of droning guitars, ambiance, and a [cabbage] ton of feedback with stark vocals or nothing at all. The songs leave you begging for percussion, but you never get it. It's brilliant, haunting and surprisingly complex. The amount of instruments and personnel that goes into making it is astounding, there's everything from flute to french horn and even what sounds like it could be a vuvuzela. My personal favorite song is Alice.

 

10.Doppelgänger - The Fall of Troy

10 albums in and writing stuff is getting hard. Doppelgänger is my personal favorite album from The Fall of Troy. It's a great blend of melodic and harsh, with stunning guitar work and great vocals, although a lot of the album is reworked songs off of their self titled and Ghostship Demos. The album flows well and sounds great. Favorites off the album are I Just Got This Symphony Goin' and Mouths Like Sidewinder Missiles.

 

11.Never Better - P.O.S

If you like hip-hop and haven't listened to P.O.S (Not P.O.S. even though that would make more sense (I'm guilty of having him tagged wrong myself)) go listen to him now. His style is influenced by hardcore punk and is very aggressive (this is far more evident in his earlier albums). His flow is anywhere from ridiculously fast to more relaxed . Lyrically he ranges anywhere from Optimistic to Cynical (again, older material is going to be angrier and . P.O.S is one of the most promising artists around today, not only as a rapper but as a singer and on practically any instrument. If I had to pick anyone on this list for you to listen to, this would be my choice. P.O.S deserves to get big.

 

12.BuiikiKaesu - Maximum the Hormone

This band is a lot of fun but not one I can really take seriously. They sound good and since their lyrics are in Japanese, that's about all I can comment on. I'm not sure what I'd choose as a favorite since I honestly don't know the name of many of their songs/am to lazy to type out the weird titles.

 

13.United Nations - United Nations

[bleep]ing amazing band. For anyone who hasn't heard of United Nations, it's a super group consisting of members from Converge, Thursday, and Glassjaw, which alone should be enough to make you wet yourself in excitement. The music is loud and harsh, but still musically impressive. Vocals range from screamed to softly spoken and the effect is brilliant. The album culminates with my personal favorite song on the album, Say Goodbye to the General Figment of the USS Imagination, which starts of fast and violent and ends in a beautiful saxophone solo. I guess there's actually a bonus track after that, but it's 13 minutes of silence so I didn't count it.

 

14.Illmatic - Nas

The classic rap album. If you haven't heard it, listen to it. Favorite songs would be Life's a [bleep] and One Love.

 

15.Menos el Oso - Minus the Bear

Most of the music that I listen to tends to be pretty aggressive, so Minus the Bear is a nice way to break it up. The music is upbeat and lively, although still rather technical and the vocals are beautiful. It came as a really big surprise to me that I liked this band as much as I do, since I just sort of came across them and decided that I might as well pick up their music. I wasn't disappointed. Favorite tracks include Memphis & 53rd and Pachuca Sunrise.

 

16.Welcome to Jamrock - Damian Marley

I'm just a big fan of Damian Marley's. His style is somewhere between rap and reggae and it works great. Not much else to say about it. Road to Zion and Welcome to Jamrock are the favorites off this album.

 

17.Revolutions Per Minute - Rise Against

Honestly this is one of my favorite albums of all time. If I had put them in some sort of order, this would be very near the top. This album was really the one that got Rise Against the huge amounts of popularity that they have now, although that is generally attributed to The Sufferer and the Witness. RPM however was their pivotal record, coming out after Unraveling, which if you've heard the original edition of that album, you know it's extremely Low-Fi. RPM really put Rise Against on the map as being a band to be reckoned with and catapulted them into the punk scene. The album is probably their hardest, which is a big plus for those who like hardcore as opposed to melodic (or alt rock if you want to talk about Appeal to reason, which personally, I don't. I usually pretend it's by another band with the same name). Anyways, the album is great, and everything flows great. Hell, it even has a Journey cover (Anyway You Want It), what's not to love? Favorite tracks include every song on the album.

 

18.The Romance of Helen Trent - The Killing Tree

TKT was the side project of Rise Against frontman, Tim McIlrath, and what a side project it is. The band is somewhere between post-hardcore and metalcore, but has something that makes it unique. The music flows seamlessly and is beautiful in its own rage-fueled way, yet progressive and atmospheric. This band is probably one of the most underrated bands of all time in my opinion. It has smooth guitar rifts(angry yet clean), tight bass lines, great drumming, and Tim's amazing voice. Tim should kill off Rise Against and go back to The Killing Tree. It certainly would have been more productive than making Appeal to Reason. Favorites are Them's Fightin' Words and Counting to Infinity

 

19.Ænema - Tool

I've never been a huge Tool fan, but Ænema is just a beautiful album in the weird Tool way. I'm sure most of you know this album far better than me and I'm lazy so I'm not going to say anything else. Favorite song is Ænema.

 

20.Twilight Of The Thunder God - Amon Amarth

I really like Amon Amarth more than most metal bands I've listened to. The vocals are great and the music is clean but technical. Great band and a great album. My favorite song is Guardians of Asgaard.

 

21.Metaphorical Music - Nujabes

Nujabes made beautiful music, it's too bad he's dead now. His music is a mix of hip-hop, jazz, blues and awesome. The music is serene and for lack of better descriptive words, I'll use beautiful again. Because that's what it is. Check out his work. Favorite song is really hard to pick off this album, since they all have a different feel to them.

[ElkNight]

Im really surprised by some of the albums/artists. Wow.

 

(Sunn O))), madvillian, nujabes.)

[Skull]

All of those came off recommendations from a friend. Actually, Sunn O))) was on his blog, Madvillain he showed me one time for some reason or another, and for Nujabes either he or a different friend of mine posted on facebook about him dying and I looked him up. That's one of the benefits of being friends with people who listen to a [cabbage] ton of music.

[Nadril]

Check out Sleep's Jerusalem and Dopesmoker album if you liked Sun O))) :P

[i_love_burritos]

Know only about 50% of the albums, though I've heard all the names. Will definitely have to listen to some of this. :thumbup:

[ElkNight]

Check out Sleep's Jerusalem and Dopesmoker album if you liked Sun O))) :P

And Boris (Akuma No Uta, Heavy Rocks) and Church of Misery (Master of Brutality).

[Sam]

I've added this to the list on the top albums thread.

 

I can't really comment as I'm not into hiphop really, there are a few albums I recognise, and I have to commend :thumbup:

[Jernlov]

RIP, Nujabes. You're sorely missed.

 

One of the better lists right here.

[Kalphite]

Great list, I've heard about half of them and quite like those that I've heard.

[Skull]

Thanks guys, glad you like it. I'll look into those suggestions.

[TheDefiniteArticle]

I'm indifferent to Sunn O))). Just sayin'.

 

Perhaps more OT, more excellent bands that are similar to Sunn O))) are Earth (especially on their 'Hex' album), and to a lesser extent Burning Witch (try Crippled Lucifer).

You might also like some droney noise - try Mediocre Fin (hard to find, the first demo is available for legal download here), and I'd also recommend Moth In Flames.

Also try some funeral doom - start with Thergothon's 'Stream From The Heavens', Skepticism's 'Stormcrowfleet' and Esoteric's 'Subconscious Dissolution Into The Continuum'.

[ElkNight]

Necro

[TheDefiniteArticle]

Yeah, sorry, I realised after I'd posted. I just went to the bottom one in the sticky.

[Skull]

Oh hey, I made this thread. Maybe I'll make an updated version of it, since it has been almost a year and my music taste has changed a good deal.