Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco: Beautifully crafted experimental Folk/Americana album that has me going "I thought I didn't like country musicks but I guess I do nao!" (Highlights; Jesus etc., Heavy Metal Drummer)

Robots and Dinosaurs - Kokayi: Wow! Hip-Hop album of the YEAR! Carl Walker has an amazing flow and implements various forms of music that blends perfectly. (Highlights; Roxtar, Believe It)

Bleach - Nirvana: This album is Grunge (punk/metal/hard rock) personified. Krist's bass riffs will rip your face off and Kurt's raw howls and leads will leave you devastated. (Highlights; Floyd the Barber, Negative Creep)

Montrose - Montrose: Best hard rock album PERIOD! Hagar rivals most Power Metal vocalists in his delivery and Ronnie will crush you with his monstrous riffage. (Highlights; Rock the Nation, I Don't Want it)

Psych Ward - Decrepid Methods: How could I not mention the best White Rapper/Hardcore/Horrorcore album of all time? Best flow. Best production. $%!#, even Carcass would be jealous of their lyrics and subject matter! (Highlights; Altered Beast, 1000 Corpses)

Nirvana's Bleach scared the hell out of me when I was 13. Everything from the album cover to the scary lyrics.

Meatloaf - Bat out of Hell.


Seriously, one of the few non-metal albums I can listen from start to finish and never get sick of.

100% is a rare thing to find... I love many non-metal albums but only a few come to mind as actual 100% albums...

The Hellacopters - Payin' The Dues
Backyard Babies - Diesel & Power
Iggy & The Stooges - Raw Power
Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion 1 & 2
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Pearl Jam - Ten

That's all I can think of... unless Motorhead counts as 'non-metal' then I'd have about another 20 albums to add to that list:)

Certainly a good album, but my fav is probably VS.

I've decided on another one: The Bastard Noise - Rogue Astronaut. A complete flawless record, I've been binging on it for quite a while, and I can't think of anything I would change about it. Cannot recommend this one enough, as well as everything else they have done. Check out Man is the Bastard too.

discharges hear nothing see nothing say nothing the perfect fucking punk album

I tried listening to this a while ago and found it painfully boring. It was very influencial, I'll admit, but it really didn't do much for me. Strange, because I'm a big fan of most 80's hardcore.

I guess I'll have to listen to it more to really appreciate it.

Sorry for the late reply. Missed your quote for some reason. I'm not really a ambient expert. I'm just mostly into the bigger names like Lustmord, Nordvargr(everything he does is great!), and stuff put out by Cold Spring, and Cold Meat Records. I think the coolest thing about SRF is the concepts. I find it adds to the whole experience. Can't wait for another album.

He has another on the way, it was *supposed* to come out a long time ago but apparently Cold Spring are taking their damn time releasing it.

It's the same concept as Dead Weather Machine, except the source audio this time is a series of recordings of a stealth bomber going through repairs. For that reason, the album is simply called "Stealth".

That's all the info I have. I'm pretty psyched to hear it, I wish Cold Spring would haul ass already.

Sounds pretty cool to me. Wasn't Dead Weather Machine supposed to be about dust particles moving through in a dying air conditioner or something? Anyway both versions were good.

I want Cold Spring to hurry up with new Tenhornedbeast. Partikal 3 should be good too. I gather you bought All Hail The Transcending Ghost?

Just thought of another couple

Santana's Abraxas- The latin percussion with Carlos Santana's guitar awesomness is epic. Listen to Black Magic Woman if you havn't.

Also, REM's Automatic for the People is great.

Anything by Louis Armstrong or Stevie Ray Vaughn also gets a damn high score from me.

DEATH TO PUNCTUATION!!!

Billy Joel - The Stranger. This is all genius. The instrumentation, the progression, the melodies. The lyrics also have a lot of meaning in them. At least for me, they've helped myself view life with a new meaning.

That's the only one I could truly give a 100. These next ones come awefully close though.

Nick Drake - Pink Moon. I sure love my folk music. Simplicity at it's finest. Just a guitar and vocals besides one piano melody in the title track.

Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies to Paralyze. Very soothing in some places and energetic in others. The contrast helps create an epic atmosphere through and throughout.

EDIT: I'm actually kind of intrigued at the popularity of QOTSA here, (although they may be slightly outnumbered by Dead Can Dance, King Crimson, and Niel Young.) Kinda disappoinetd at no Billy Joel though.

Honestly, I really like what Billy Joel I've heard, which is to say, most of the "greatest hits" type stuff and Piano Man, the sole album I own. This needs to be rectified, especially seeing the track list for The Stranger. "Only the Good Die Young" is such an amazing song, as is the title track.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

This album is just fucking amazing, although it peaks with the first track. Four tracks, each roughly 40 minutes long, segue between cynicism, hope, depression and joy in an epic journey. Samples bridge the gap between the external and the internal, between the diegetic world created by Godspeed on this fabulous LP, and the real world.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?

Every song on here is a fucking classic. This is psychedelic rock with swagger, it's hard rock with imagination, its the lament of a poor african-american's struggle to express himself--and make it big.

Grateful Dead - Live Dead

This album contains the sprawling 23 minute version of Dark Star, probably the least accessible track on the album (barring Feedback, which I'll get to later). In fact, three of the four sides of the 2LP have only one song on them! This is the Dead at their most experimental, most psychedelic, and they were on fire when these songs were recorded! The version of St. Stephen is one of my favorite Dead song, The Eleven Jam is a timeless instrumental, Turn on Your Love Light may be a bit dated but it's still an intense song, Death Don't Have No Mercy feautures the original leader of the band, Pig Pen, on vocals and organ and man, oh man, do they tear it up! Probably the most palatable song on the album to metal heads, it's filled with wild, despondent solos, heavy blues licks and that gruff voice bellowing, "death don't have no mercy, in this land .... wake up one morning find your mothers gone, brothers and sisters are gone, I said, death don't have no mercy..." then Feedback is a mind boggling experiment, so far ahead of its time. Basically a dronebient song, with some psychedelic guitar work dispersed through the feedback.

Usually I look through my iTunes library to help me with these things, but I'm drawin' a blank. Suppose that's enough for now.

Pretty much, DWM was a recording of an old heater or something like that slowly breaking down and manipulated from there.

I've never even heard of All Hail The Transcending Ghost. I haven't bought anything from Cold Spring except the SR_F albums.

Well i highly recommend All Hail The Transcending Ghost and Tenhornedbeast.

I think Tenhornedbeast are even on the archives.

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=21271


http://www.coldspring.co.uk/reviews/csr122cd.php

This. A million times this. Every single song is as good as the last. Easily one of my favourite albums of all time.

I'd also say A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory. Another album that manages to keep me absolutely hooked from start to finish. 'Scenario' is easily one of the greatest album closers I've ever heard.

Probably not 100%, but Rosetta's debut album (which I do consider metal, but MA doesn't) would be really high up there. That album is like taking a morning stroll across the world's hemispheres, god damnit.

However, only if the songs on both discs were combined into each other, as it is on the mp3s that I have. If they're split up as it is on CD then it's a little annoying, but together they are godly.

X-Ray Spex - Germ Free Adolescents

One of the best female fronted punk bands that existed, fantastic!

L7 - Smell The Magic + Bricks Are Heavy

Heavy heavy heavy stuff, perfect grunge/riot grrrl

Babes In Toyland - Spanking Machine

Simply excellent riot grrrl.

Babes in Toyland are intense! Thanks a lot for mentioning them.

I only liked the catchier songs really, the rest might've been mind-blowing when the album was released but the sound never impressed me much at the time I heard it.

Although the beginning of the opening track Little Fury Things was awesome because it's exactly like some modern depressive black metal bands who think they're breaking new ground.

The only non-metal album I could justify a perfect score for would be Heaven or Las Vegas by Cocteau Twins. Their earlier material is spacier and more dreamlike; HoLV more direct, but no less lush and dense. Not one weak song, paced beautifully and with a (per usual) gorgeous performance by Liz Fraser, whose vocal utterings are more comprehensible than previous efforts. It's the ultimate early morning album.

I am a huge fan of Tangerine Dream's early-mid 1970s albums. I would possibly give Atem, Phaedra, and Rubycon perfect scores. At the very least I could never justify giving any of those albums below a 90%.

My eagerness to explore different genres of music has probably tripled my collection in the past year. While I have always enjoyed aforementioned acts such as Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, and MBV, there is a ton of stuff out there that every music fan can appreciate. Below are a few favorites that you guys may enjoy.

Asylum Party Borderline
Simply put, some of the gloomiest music that exists. This 80s French band creates incredibly bleak soundscapes using sparse instrumentation and copious yet tasteful application of reverb and chorus effects. However, it manages to feel more contemplative and brooding than maudlin. For those of you familiar with the 'post-punk' genre, think of early Cure, Joy Division, or the Chameleons, but much darker and more ethereal.

Aztec Camera High Land Hard Rain
For those of you that loathe Pop music, this may change your mind. This Scottish band creates music that is catchy, yes, but does so with a high degree of songcraft and musicianship by incorporating subtle jazz and 'world' influences into the array of jangly guitars. The lyrics are also excellent, I'd say up to par with Keats or, more appropriately, Elvis Costello.

Talking Heads Remain in Light
Few albums are so good they continue to blow you away with every listen. Everything about this is perfect: the Eno production, the Afrobeat rhythms, the unorthodox song structures, and that famous unusual synth line on "Once in a Lifetime". I'm particularly fond of Adrian Belew (who also did great things in King Crimson) and his mind-blowing guitar work.

The Replacements Let it Be
For me, this is possibly the pinnacle of American rock music. A bunch of Minnesota punks, years of drunken gigs and fast noisy songs behind them, build on their punk and hardcore roots with pop sensibilities, a nose for traditional American music, and even heavy metal influences (their cover of "Black Diamond" absolutely slays the original). As always, they have a great sense of humor, and create an album that is both hilarious and sincere.

Van Morrison Astral Weeks
This album completely changed the way I think of how emotion is expressed in music. Although much has been said about Morrison and his unique vocal style, I find his guitar playing as well as the backing instrumentation to be particularly fascinating. From a traditional Irish folk background, Van Morrison creates a work of great emotional complexity that is highly personal and truly connects with the listener. I think the sign of a perfect album is the ability to convey any mood you might be feeling, and this certainly does.

There are of course, many more that I don't quite have time or the ability to write about. For instance, I don't think I could do Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk justice, just listen to it!

Astral Weeks is fantastic, but needs a nice remaster. The vocals on my CD are too high in the mix.

Both Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock are pure gold.

I rarely give perfect scores. So I list albums I'd rate over 90 instead...

Toad The Wet Sprocket - Bread And Circus, Pale, Fear, Dulcinea and Coil. I grew up with this band. I was a kid when songs from Fear played on the radio, and I remember the tracks from Coil. Fear would be the one album I'd give a hundred to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QawpCqdmznQ

Sister Hazel - Absolutely - All of the other Sister Hazel albums would score in the 90s, but this album is my favorite since it reinvigorated my interest in this band and the other bands I listened to before getting into metal (such as Toad The Wet Sprocket). In 2007 I saw both Toad and Sister in concert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bN3J9eHG30

Aqme - Sombres Efforts - This album by a french nu-metal band isn't really nu-metal, it's more of a doomy grunge. Well, it has some nu-metal, but it is done well. Probably the precedent for my interest in doom metal. Their later albums are enjoyable, but none of them come close to the bleak atmosphere and grungy sludge this album puts out. I got this in 2004 while visiting France and had no idea what I was in for since I didn't have a CD player on the trip, but a few spins while playing Doom and I got into it. A year later it was still a regular spin and influenced my writing of the time - I typed out a 90+ post-apocalyptic novel partly inspired by this album and partly by 28 Days Later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V27TlxMnVHI

Get ready to laugh... but... Contact! by Eiffel 65. It's their best album. I was full on jacksturbating to this back in early 2004. All Eiffel 65 songs have a nostalgic quality to them, but this album is solid and gets a spin in full on every road trip, doesn't lose energy during its 70+ minute run time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-OStMJIm50

In Here We Fall by Electrasy, this is another album that I've been into, in this case mainly because of the song "Cosmic Castaway" which was from the Titan A.E. soundtrack. The whole album is solid, and I've been trying to find the other albums by this band. One thing to note, these guys gave the major record labels the middle finger and became completely independent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpuzbnV8mks

Priscilla Ahn - A Good Day. This is the debut album of a singer songwriter who currently lives in Los Angeles, but she used to live much closer to me. She graduated from my high school two years before I did and before she started touring and such, she was eking it out by playing at coffee house events the school held and occasionally at open mic gigs in Philly. This girl followed her dream and is now living it, she even appeared on Jay Leno and her songs have found their way into TV shows and even a feature film (Love Happens, shitty movie that I'm never going to see, but still, it's a start!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKfDwChOoHI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJzYy5encCk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=molo8uddROM

I don't review or rate albums but I'd just like to say it pleases me to see more and more Cocteau Twins mentions on this board. I feel like I didn't see them mentioned anywhere in the time I've been lurking and posting on this board until this past year. One of my all-time favorite bands.

Definitely would have to be Serj Tankian's Imperfect Harmonies. He explores different influences and mixes different elements together in one large musical experiment, but he does it so very well in this album it's hard to find anything bad to say about it. One of the few successful attempts at such a thing. Considering the music on IH is so much more different from Elect the Dead, it's impressive.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

I love this album. The passion is unbelievable, and the fact that it's 13 years old is crazy. It stands head and shoulder above the myriad bands who've attempted to emulate the sound. Fuzzy guitars, trumpets, noise, and lots of passionate, honest modern american folk, with that kind of singer who isn't a "good" singer (not terrible by any means though), but who puts so much fucking passion into their voice that you really don't care. In fact, you wouldn't want it any other way. At least, if you were me.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

I'm not going to say a lot about this album. It's Pink Floyd's most well known, and although it's not their most adventurous, it's just filled with classics. Speak to Me / Breathe, Money, Us & Them, and Time are among my favorite songs ever. Several other songs on the album such as Eclipse/Dark Side of the Moon, Every Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Great Gig in the Sky are also fucking AWESOME songs, they just sound better in the context of the album where as the other four are great stand-alone tracks.

Classic album. I even bought the LP.

Dead Kennedys - Fresh fruit for rotting vegetables

Really? Anyone? The epitome of hardcore. Every song in this album is a lesson in anti-conformism and a brilliant moment in extreme music history. Even less praised songs like "Ill in the head" and "Let's lynch the landlord" would easily made it in an all-time top of hardcore music.


Misfits - Walk among us

One of my very loved albums, violently funny at times but with so much energy that sweeps you away.

Bauhaus - Burning From The Inside

This album has a haunting feeling and an essence of decadence though romantic at times.

Covenant - United States Of Mind (the EBM ones).

A brilliant piece of electronic music with some of the best vocals in the genre. Joakim Montelius really does it for me.

Deine Lakaien - Dark Star

Love songs with a tragic twist. Dark but very sensitive pessimistic melodies accompanied by some particularly bitter vocals.

Noisex - Groupieshock

Industrial noise for headbangers!! "Enforce the power" is the "Toxic waltz" of industrial music! On top of that this album contains the most touching instrumental I've ever heard "Lonesomeloverslivelonger".

I have many more I would give 100% like Suicide Commando - Mindstrip,
quiet a few from Death In June, all from The Doors and the list goes on...

Doom- Total Doom (comp of their peaceville stuff)
Nausea- Extinction
His Hero Is Gone- 15 Counts of Arson
Infest- No Mans Slave

there are a few...and the only albums that fit under metal I'd give 100% are a few Grind and Sludge ones.

Disfear - Live the Storm

Don't understand why this band aren't considered metal to begin with, but that's just me. But yeah, this album is amazing, not a duff track on it, good length (rather than being overlong or really short like a load of these albums are), catchy choruses and a general 'fuck yeah' attitude to it.

regarding HHIG, 15 counts is a great album but MTT was a more complete album with every track in it a masterpiece and some even legendery (the unwanted child, cavities, like weeds)

Yeah I had a hard time choosing which one to put on the list, maybe I should have put both, such a great band..

I have to completely disagree. For me, Guns N' Roses were one of those bands that wrote either fantastic tunes, or complete rubbish. Songs like Estranged, November Rain, Coma, Rocket Queen and Your Crazy are fucking fantastic. By the same token though the vast majority of the rest of their catalogue sucks. Paradise City manages to be both rubbish and fantastic at the same time, the second half of that song is probably the best piece of music they ever did.

I would give 100% to Led Zeppelin I and Deep Purple in Rock. I don't consider Deep Purple to be metal, despite what the powers that be say.

That's too bad, as they have some obviously metal albums.

I'd also second or third whatever we are on Pearl Jam's - Ten. The entire album start to finish is amazing. Although I prefer the B-sides myself, because they aren't the radio hits. I so wish they had continued with the dual screaming guitar sound on later albums.