I was just listening to Deceased's As the Weird Travel On and I was thinking "Ya naw, this band doesn't have a single bad song" and for twenty-plus years and for six studio albums that's damn good going. Seriously, there's not any real weak point in their discography just some albums I prefer over others. Fearless Undead Machines is probably my least favourite, to be honest, but it's far from bad - pretty good, actually - I'm just not completely sold on the concept and I prefer their earlier death metal stuff or the later more heavy metal influenced albums. It's actually one of the best-loved albums in their discography, so maybe I'm just wrong. On the other hand, I'd be hard pressed to pick a favourite from their discography; maybe their latest, maybe their debut... but I'm really into the sick atmosphere on The Blueprints of Madness and I think that one's a very unique album.

Satan, too, are another band who just don't have anything less-than-good in their discography. Everyone rightfully hails Court in the Act and I can see that Life Sentence will be topping a lot of "best of 2013" lists. But their late-1980s Michael Jackson era stuff is just as awesome to me. I could listen to their discography back-to-back and I'd never hear a less-than-good song.

Other honourable mentions: Saint Vitus (I'm not completely sold on C.O.D. but it's pretty good), Bolt Thrower (duh) and Manilla Road (excluding the track 'Throne of Lies' )

So what are your "most solid discographies" (that phrase feels somewhat awkward, but I'll let myself off, it's a Saturday)? No bad albums, nary a bad song and completely cool from beginning to the end (so that means no "X band were cool up until 1994 when their guitarists left to pursue a career in ice cream and after that all of the albums blow).

Hm, looking at my last.fm top 20, most bands have released something I don't like. Motörhead have Another Perfect Day, which is just crap, and that awful duet with Ozzy on March ör Die. Master's Collection of Souls and Faith is in Season don't really convince me. Obituary have their two albums with Ralph Santolla that are just unlistenable to me. Pentagram have a whole load of crap after their third album. Autopsy have Acts of the Unspeakable and Shitfun, neither of which I can listen to. And Slayer, well, you know the story.

What does that leave for most solid discographies listed in my last.fm top 20? Three bands: Incantation, Totenmond, Bolt Thrower. Love everything those three bands recorded. Every album, every song. Most consistent bands I know.

Of course there are things that are out of my top 20 that are just as consistent, but they never made it as high up in my charts because they have very short discographies. Prime example I can think of is Morpheus Descends, amazing band, not a single weak spot in anything they released.

you mean still active bands or also dissolved one?

I will probably be alone on this, but to me, My Dying Bride can do no wrong. Just about every song they've written has something to love, and they most certainly don't have any album that I'd call bad or even mediocre. Yes, that includes Evinta. Deal with it.

Special mention also goes to The Lord Weird Slough Feg, who also seem to release great album after great album. Even better, each new release always sounds completely different from the previous, while still retaining that good ol' Slough Feg sound.

And of course, there's Type O Negative. Enough said.

Vader is more or less the band that always pops into my mind when a question like this is asked. From the mid 90's onward there has always been something released every two years, be it full-length, EP or DVD and it is always of high and consistent quality. Even the bands' weaker albums are still solid thrashy death metal goodness. Add onto this the fact that Vader is an absolute tour-machine (I read that one single tour comprised of like 180 shows once!) and it's quite remarkable the level of consistency Peter puts into every studio release. The latest album ranks among the bands best too.

While perhaps not the most sizeable discography to come up in this thread, Aura Noir have given us five albums worth of consistently top notch material, and that's a large enough sample size to consider it good indeed. From Black Thrash Attack right through to Out to Die, there's literally no compromise in quality. Slow stylistic shifts, yes, but each record is solid as a rock.

Definitely agree with Deceased- over the years, they've tinkered and refined their style while still keeping everything they're good at, and their modern albums are maybe some of their best yet- which is not something you usually say for a band that's been around for so long. I like how Fowley's been blending a lot of the old heavy and speed metal elements into Deceased as opposed to just keeoung them all for October 31, great stuff.

Sigh's a band that's perfect for this thread, especially due to the large degree of variance in their releases. Mirai is credited with over twenty different instruments on the most recent album, but no matter what kind of shit he throws at the wall, be it in In Somniphobia or the entirety of Sigh's back catalogue, it always seems to stick. Every Sigh album has its own distinct, unique little flavors and traits that make them what they are, but you can still characteristically define them as Sigh albums without hesitation. Everyone has their favorites and weak points, but to call any of their albums less than legitimate releases would be malicious and dishonest. They have more different ideas in their music than maybe any other metal band in existence, and they STILL have enough left in the tank to make material for an upcoming album. They're better than your favorite band and you know it.

EDIT: Just saw Ancient_sorrow's post regarding Aura Noir when I went to go post mine, and interestingly enough they're the kind of band I wouldn't want to see in this thread. Obviously I'm a bit biased because I don't like their music much to begin with, but their music is consistent up to the point where it gets downright boring- it's sort of a negative-space crossroads between black and thrash metal that excises the sort of gothic, vampiric mystery of classic black metal and the muddiness and I guess thickness in the guitars excises the raw ferocity of thrash. Their albums struggle to maintain an identity, so you could say they have a consistent discog, but not a solid one, know what I'm sayin? Anyways, I traded my copy of Deep Tracts of Hell away to Tony for some new Katatonia and 1349, both of which proved to be marginally more engaging than that album ever was.

I'll expand this by adding Blind Fury and Pariah, which to the lay person were albums by Satan under different names, mostly with vocalist Lou Taylor. They also kick ass.

Anaal Nathrakh for sure, then there's Rotting Christ. Those are the two bands that come to mind for me

I agree. I love every one of Sigh's albums, even Gallows Gallery and Scenes From Hell, which seem to be the only two I ever really see any complaints about.

But what if they are your favorite band?

I also agree on Bolt Thrower.

How about Sabbat (jpn)? Granted, I haven't heard everything they've done, but every album I've picked up from them I've enjoyed, and they seem to be very consistent overall.

i seem to remember seeing a thread titled "most complete discographies" or somethingrather not that long ago...

anyway, there's a distinct lack of immolation in this thread

Arghoslent. All their full lenghts are flawless, filled to the brim with excellent riffing. I think they don't have a single song being utterly bad or mediocre, even the instrumentals are awesome!. Their splits are also great, at least the Arghoslent tracks.

I'd say Blind Guardian. While a lot of their albums haven't been as good as others (I'm looking at you A Twist in the Myth) no album has been bad.

Rage? I have yet to hear a bad album from them. Again, some not as solid as others, but no album has been full on bad, or even below-average, and considering they've made 21 albums, that's saying something.

There are many bands that have perfect albums, though they only have at most 3.

Bands with long solid discographies: Incantation, Immolation and Bolt Thrower.

Summoning as well. Grave Digger and Rage very solid too, same with Therion.

I'm going with Immolation. Every single song they've made is at least of adequate quality. Shadows in the Light is the last album to feature an outright incredible song, Lying With Demons (Unholy Cult was the last one before that), but overall, both Majesty And Decay and Kingdom of Conspiracy are better albums. I can't disagree that they've lost the greatness they once had. There have been no albums like the first four, and Unholy Cult remains unsurpassed too by the last four full-lengths, but the band remains solid. Kingdom of Conspiracy is somewhat better than Majesty And Decay, too, as is Providence, so it's not all decline.

There's not a single album by them I'd rate below 80%. Incantation is the same, of course, but they never released quite the gems that Immolation's first couple of albums are.

Horna's career in full-length albums is very solid as well. Not a single rotten one among them, even though Sudentaival has somewhat obnoxious production.

There are a few bands who have an untainted record in full-lengths, who have released only a couple, like Anata and Intestine Baalism. I think Anata will never release a weak album. They might never release an album anymore, either.

As a whole Immolation has a bit more solid discography, BUT Onward To Golgotha beats anything that Immolation ever did.

Neurosis would be the most obvious one for me, but I've ranted about them enough here so I'll just leave it at that. Definitely agree with Bolt Thrower, Honour - Valour - Pride is the only one I'd give below 80, and I'd give a good number of them 90 or more. Type O Negative would be another one, Life Is Killing me is their only real hiccup, and that still has a few really good songs.

Having all of their studio albums I can say they've been very consistent, even through stylistic and lineup changes. Everything is good to great, but I am a bit of a fanboy too.

As far as prog metal goes, I love all the four albums of Psychotic Waltz equally. Top-notch stuff for a genre I don't care about all that much.

Totenmond is a good call. They're criminally unknown outside of Germany which is a shame since their brand of simplistic, punk-influenced death metal is unlike anything else I've ever heard. Reich in Rost even adopts some Neubauten influences which raises the already primitive and pummeling music to another level. Phenomenal band, needs to be heard to be believed.

I dunno, Strings to a Web and Carved in Stone are pretty lame.

I'll have to go with Death, really. I know that The Sound of Perseverance is a bit maligned around these parts, but personally, I like it, and I even have kind of a soft spot for it, what with TSOP being the album that introduced me to Schuldiner's work. The only significant difference in quality from one Death album to another for me is the fact that I just feel like spinning some more often than others.

Also, I've been listening to Seasons of the Wolf's discography rather extensively for the past couple of weeks, and I have to say that none of their four albums strike me as anything less than quality metal. The debut is not as developed as its successors, and my least favourite, but even then it has a couple of honestly amazing songs in October Moon and Electric Dimension. Truly an outstanding band.

Speaking of prog metal, I'd like to be so bold and mention Threshold and Magellan.

Threshold's albums always sound wholesome and well thought out for me. "Wounded Land" and "Critical Mass" are my favorites but everything in between and after is just as sonically rewarding. I always love heading into their discog. There's stuff that doesn't click the first time but goes down well after a good number of listens and with a discog like that, you know you'll always hit on something pure and new every time.

Magellan is Trent and Wayne Gardner's band and is the ultimate crossover prog rock/metal band. They have some serious jazz fueled moments and some monster riff constructions. The albums "Symphony For A Misanthrope" and "Impending Ascension" are goldmines but there's not a dull moment on the others either. Highly recommended.

They're as close to perfect as a band can get. Love 'em. I bet they'll sound even better once it gets cooler and Halloween is around the corner.

Oh yeah, don't even tell me about it. I'm already adding them to my Halloween playlist!

U.D.O. and Motorhead are the most consistent for me. Except the early albums in both cases. I always feel bands have to get a few records out of the way before they hit their stride. Motorhead didn't start really clicking until No Remorse and U.D.O. had to go back to Accept and then restart his solo band in the late 90s.

I completely agree with you, I just think Dreams Like Deserts should be included as well.

And I'd like to add Windir. Back when I started to listen to metal a friend recommended me Likferd. I don't understand why he didn't just throw the entire discography at me while he was at it. I know, like Aura Noir not a very sizeable one, but solid IMO.

That Blind Fury album's a little goofy, but still far from bad. I've got the two 1980s Pariah albums waiting for me when I get home, so that's something to look forward to.



Either will do, your majesty.

Inquisition, for sure. Basically the only thing that sets their albums apart for me quality-wise are preferences for particular production styles. In terms of sheer songwriting, though, the band has been incredibly consistent throughout their discography. Like Bolt Thrower, this could simply be because the band has an extremely distinct yet simple and catchy riffing style that serves as a source of boundless wealth. Based on the teaser I heard, the new album sounds like it's going to be another slab of pummeling, groovy, occult black metal goodness.

as already said I think bolt thrower never did a bad album (well except for the vocals of honour valour pride that fucking sucks but willet re recorded them and I hope it will see the light of day in the future).
I recently revalued shitfun a lot so also autopsy can be considered part of this category
in this very moment I can't think of any other established active band

in the unactive field I can name:
at the gates
carnivore
...damn it's fucking difficult to name bands with flawless discographies
something more will probably come up in mind later on

I also like Carnivore, but I think that saying that a band with only two full length albums under their belt has a flawless discography is pushing it a bit. Shouldn't we stick to bands with more material than that?

you are right but I didn't came up with any other band to contribute to this thread. consider that entry invalid

Blind Guardian, easily. They've only done one album that might be seen as a misstep ('A Twist in the Myth'), but that's still a fine album. Their 90s run of albums is one of the most amazing I've ever seen, and includes my favorite album of all time ('Somewhere Far Beyond').

Agreed with those who have said Deceased. 'Luck of the Corpse' is the weakest, but still good, raw death metal. Starting with 'Fearless Undead Machines' though, they've been completely unstoppable. 'As the Weird Travel On' especially is fantastic. If only they'd play 'The Kept' live!

Being the Katatonia fanboy that I am, I must mention them. 'The Great Cold Distance' disappointed me a bit, but I still enjoy it; hell, I'm listening to it right now. 'Tonight's Decision' is one of my favorite albums of all time, and on the whole this band has been really special to me for a long time now.

Symphony X also deserve a mention. Their first album is a little iffy, mostly owing to its weak production and Rod Tyler's vocals, which, while not bad, don't hold a candle to Russell Allen's. Beginning with 'The Damnation Game' they became a major force to be reckoned with, producing at least two flawless (or near enough) albums: 'The Divine Wings of Tragedy' and 'V: The New Mythology Suite'. I wish they'd return to a more well-rounded sound instead of the super heavy direction they've taken on the last two (or three) albums, but hell, I love those albums too, so that's a fairly minor quibble.

I'll even include Fates Warning in this list. 'Disconnected' and 'FWX' didn't do a whole lot for me, but I love the rest of their discography; the first six albums are timeless classics to me. I hope 'Darkness in a Different Light' returns to the quality of those; we'll just have to see.

And, of course, there's Death. I find a lot to enjoy on every album they did, regardless of the prevailing opinion on sites such as this one. 'Human' and 'Symbolic' especially are flawless.

I've been rapidly acquiring the whole The Chasm discography, and, having heard all but the first record now, they've all ranged from 'good' to 'completely astounding'. Therefore, I think they deserve a place on this list.

Blind fucking Guardian!

Its just a shame that A Twist In The Myth was pretty average for them but still decent.

edit: guy above me posted a few seconds before i clicked submit lol

What about EyeHateGod? I don't think they've ever released any weak album

Pentagram haven't got a single bad album and peaked mid-way their discography with Review Your Choices. Sabbat (Jap) is another obvious one, although I have far from everything they've put out, but generally a very consistent band. Incantation is also a candidate, never releasing anything that is sub-par. I agree with whoever mentioned Saint Vitus.

I'm going to second (third?) the vote for Death, but I favor Individual Thought Patterns and The Sound of Perserverance, especially, which seem to be the most frowned upon.

I also submit Agalloch as an excellent example of a band incorporating many different elements and changing with each successive album, and doing a flawless job each time.

Well, sadly, my personal answer would have to be "none".

A bit depressing, yes, but I can't think of any band with a reasonably-sized body of work and not a single bad thing in it. Bands I really love tend to either have released a couple of wonderful albums and then forever disappeared (Holy Terror, Hollow, Mania...), or they had longer careers and they sucked at least at some point (Helstar, Jag Panzer...) or just plain sucked for a longer time than they were great (most of the bands I know).

If you start counting at three albums or so, I guess Liege Lord and Rigor Mortis would be good examples for me.

To me, i'll go with three bands that nobody mentions often here but everyone knows them and they are incredibly solid in their releases. First Desaster, almost 30 years thogether, very little lineup changes and they're still sounding very brutal, i don't know very much their EP catalog, but the full-lengths are awesome...

Second, Deströyer 666, pretty popular and everyone seems to like them a lot, great discography and really solid, they took their time to release the albums but they make sure that really kicks asses. I like Defiance too, i like it a lot, i don't care if doesn't par with their previous material, it's very good anyways.

And third, one of my favourites bands ever, The Crown, more than 20 years, just 3 changes in their lineup but no change of direction in the songwriting or brutality. I love every album so much, whenever i seem to like one more than the others, they remember me that they have what it takes to be the best too. I can't pick one above the others. I didn't listen the new one yet, i'm afraid of not liking it, i didn't like the cover and even when i don't care that much for the art, sometimes it's a sign for a change in the sound. I'm looking for the right time. But apart from that, The Crown can do no wrong, they're masters in the furious death/thrash department.


PD. sorry for my english, it's not my mother tongue.

Esoteric are probably the only one I can go whole heartedly on with over four or five albums. Subconscious... is less brilliant, but still very good and absolutely everything else they've done is 95% worthy with three I'd consider top 10 ever releases. They've never released the same album twice and they've even undergone some major shifts in sound without losing even the slightest amount of quality and uniqueness. They're clearly the best band to ever exist for me and can do no wrong.

After that there are a few consistently good bands without that sort of progression, which tends to leave me listening to two or three albums over and over, even if individually the other albums are still of a high quality. Incantation fit this well I pretty much only listen to the first three plus Blasphemy) and as for one which hasn't been mentioned, I nominate Vomitory in the same boat. They're the most consistently fun catchy high energy modernized d-beat n blasts band to ever exist and they've never put out anything deviating from their goals, but on the other hand there's no real reason to listen to anything other than Revalation Nausea and Blood Rapture.

Moving away from metal, I think God is an Astronauts streamlined, poppified post rock is always endearing, and the last two have really added in a lot of "bigness" and made them netter than ever. After that I suck at non-metal.

To finish the post I'll weigh in on a few mentioned previously, leaving out the bands I plain dislike like Sigh and Type O Negative. Anaal Nathrakh are very, very close to this for me, they're likely my second favourite band of all time and as far as I'm.concerned they've never releaeed the same album twice, even if they've developed a signature sound. They've had a major shift in sound which they handled perfectly, and have three god teir albums (eschaton, the debut, Constellation) possibly my favourite EP ever, and three of their other four albums are still good... but that last one is a pile of shit. Domine may have their quintessential modern track and possibly their best in "Do Not Speak", but the rest of the album is borderline metalcore shite.

And finally Blind Guardian, I might have to go and put a post in for A Twist in the Myth in the maligned albums thread, ai like its poppy accessibility more than the two previous albums pretentious symphonized bloatedness, and it stopped the issue of producing all the vigor out of Hansi's voice. The albun that really keeps them out of this for me is the last one, which I found particularly listless and drab, sure it was faster but it had absolutely zero bite to it thanks to the production, I HATE that album.

A Twist in the Myth is their best album of the ones they did after Imaginations, easily.