My Favorite Albums

In case you don't know I listen to a large variety of music from different genres, and each genre communicates different emotions. For me each an album should first have great songs, and second it should be a journey. An album should tell a story, and when you listen to an album it should evoke an emotion in the same what that specific songs do. For me, when I listen to an album, I actually appreciate the individual songs more. Here are my favorite albums from different genres, and why [Please note I'm passionate about music, so this'll be a long post. Just read the reviews you're interest in and feel free to comment]:

> Ashes of the Wake - Lamb Of God [New American Metal]

This is probably my favorite album ever. I've been listening to it for over 2 years now, and I'm still not tired of it. Every song is strong, communicating emotions without losing the fact that it's brutal and heavy. The songs are fast, technically difficult and heartfelt. From an engineering standpoint it's great too, perhaps a bit too clean in the mid range for my liking, but the bottom end is strong, with great separation throughout the frequency spectrum. And everything is well recorded, catching the small details in the guitaring and an awesome balance of compression and percussiveness on the drums. As I've said I wish it were a little 'dirtier', but their following album was dirtier in the mids, so all's well that ends well. Luckily for us Lamb Of God isn't finished...

The thing about Lamb Of God that makes them so awesome is how they write their songs. Their guitarist are both super good, and very technically fast an accomplished, but because neither of them are formally schooled the riffs they write are extremely creative and sound amazing. Along with that you put one of the most creative and melodic drummers of all time and you have a winning formula. Chris Adler [the drummer] says he writes his drum pieces to enhance what the guitars are doing, and it shows. His double kick skills are amazing, and when working with the right riff, it's amazing. Another thing I love about LOG is the fact that they seldom have a guitarist just chugging away in the corner, everything is dual riffs, so both guitars are playing either harmony lead stuff, or they're playing two completely different things to make life interesting. And of course there are AMAZING solos, and the guitarists have beautiful tone. In short, tied for my favoite band.


> Bleed the Fifth - Divine Heresy [Extreme Metal / Death Metal]

This was the first 'extreme metal' album I really enjoyed. The vocals are a little more 'metalcore', but the guitaring and drumming put it firmly in the 'extreme metal' playing field. So what makes it extreme? Well, for starters the guitarist plays an 8 string guitar, with the tuning going from low to high: F#,B,E,A,D,G,B,E. All of the song's on the album have a tempo above 210bpm, and one of the songs is at 236bpm, and the drummer plays 16th notes on his feet. I worked it out that he kicks over 870 times per minute in that song, which means more than 7 kicks per second on each foot. That's extreme.

But it's actually not the fact that it's extreme that makes it great. The drummer and guitarist work so well together, which is what has made their sound. The guitarist plays very low, with fairly heavy distortion, so his riffs come across as very percussive, but the drummer works with that using his toms and kicks to place emphasis on what the guitar is doing. With great lead melodies, and a few solos, and great arrangements this is a mean album.


> Lost in the Sound of Separation - Underoath [Screamo]

This is a new album from Underoath, but it's amazing. If you listen to the album you can hear by the way things fit so well together that a lot of time went into tracking. The great thing about this album is that there is more lead work than before but the band have still retained their signature sound of strong downbeats and synths which create epic atmospheric chants. When these guys play live it is awesome because there are so many parts for the crowd to sing along, it makes for an amazing show.

The thing about this album which makes it unique is the journey you go on, where the first three songs are about desperation, moving through to strength and eventually realising that life goes on and all we can do is make the best of it. I love this album.

> Train of Thought - Dream Theater [Prog Metal]

Dream Theater are tied with Lamb of God for my favorite band. If you don't know who they are, they're amazing. I don't know how to describe Dream Theater, but let me do my best. DT is a band of four of the best musicians in their respective fields playing the most technically satisfying music they can. They have a drummer [Mike Portnoy], bassist [John Myung], keyboardist [Jordan Rudess] and guitarist [John Petrucci], and along with their vocalist [James Labrie] they have changed the way progressive music is written.

They are all just so creative on their respective instruments, if you listen to their music and actually try to understand what each of them are doing, you're head will explode. I love their music, not least because their songs are all mini journey's [their longest song is 45mins, while their shortest is 4:50 and average is around 8mins long] and together they tell a story. This particular album is great, with a lot more of an old school metal sound to it, with some great guitar solos, keyboard lead riffs and brilliant bass lines, as well as some of the most creative drum fills I've ever heard. The albm tells the story of becoming a father [both John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy had just had kids when it came out] and the responsibilities thereof.


> Fear of a Blank Planet - Porcupine Tree [Prog Rock]

Porcupine Tree are a progressive rock band from England who's music isn't extremely technical or fast but rather very melodic and enticing. Don't get me wrong, some of the guitar solos are super difficult, and their drummer has two instructional DVDs out on coordination and layering, but the amazing thing is that while they ARE that good, they don't flaunt it all the time. There are passages in tracks where the drums go crazy, or the guitars steal the limelight, but most of the time everyone just plays straight down the line progressive rock.

So if the songs are fairly normal [with the occasional flash of brilliance] why do I love it so much? Two reasons. Orchestration and arrangement. The songs are all very linear, meaning there are a lot of different synths and guitar lines being looped, dropping in and out through the songs, with great drum and bass work creating a solid foundation for the melodies and lead lines to come in and just command a real authority thorught out the album. The last track, Sleep Together, has one of the best pieces of orchestration in it, including an entire philharmonic orchestra [The London Philharmonic Orchestra to be precise].

The lyrics are also very interesting, as the album is a commentary on the state of society, and how children and teenagers interact with each other and their responsibilities, or lack thereof.


> Professor Satchifunkilus and the Munsterion of Rock - Joe Satriani [Instrumental Rock]

If you don't know who Joe Satriani is, you have been cheated in your life. He is one of the best guitarists to have ever lived, and his latest album is one of his greatest. There are no vocals, and the entire focus of the album is on the music, nothing else. With each of his albums he focuses on a different aspect of music, so in the past he's done blues type albums, metal type albums, but this album has a really strong focus on rock.

Joe Satriani has a way of using his music, as well as his guitar, to tell a story. Without words he conveys emotion and you can feel what the character in the story is feeling rather than just hearing what happened. And of course the music is extremely technical and in many cases very fast and heavy. To be honest, Satch's tone isn't my favorite, but it works for his style of music, which is heavily influences by classic rock.

With Satch being one of the best in the world, he works with the best too. The drummer, Jeff Campitelli, and bassist, Matt Bissonette, are very creative within the song and play extremely well so as to drive the song while still creating enough space for Joe to come in and play beautiful, flowing lead lines.

The recording is also amazing, with the engineer focusing on different styles of recording drums and guitars, and keeping bass fairly standard throughout the album. Of course these styles were specifically chosen for the song in question, so it works to communicate what's going on with the guitar too.


> Viva La Vida - Coldplay [Altern Rock]

Everyone knows Coldplay, and for good reason. They write brilliant music. Their stuff is very simple, but together it works very well, and their lyrics are very accessible to the average person. Their albums in the past have been super popular, and their live show is great.

viva La vida is their fourth studio album, and it's very experimental in comparison to their older stuff. When the first single, Violet Hill, came out a lot of people didn't like it, but I thought it was interesting. When I heard it in context of the album it was awesome.

That's the thing about this album, if you listen to the tracks as singles, you don't really understand the context while if you listen to it as an album it'll blow you away. Give it a try...


> The Gospel According To Jazz Volume 2 - Kirk Whalum [Jazz]

This guy is amazing. He is a Christian who plays primaraly sax, but also the clarinet and a few other flutes and the like. He got his start as a session musician and ended up playing for Whitney Houston and others, and now he writes and records his own jazz, playing with other brilliant Christian artists.

This particular album is a more modern jazz sound, and I love it so much I bought the DVD and watch it fairly often. The music is filled with brilliant little touches from each musician, but spacious enought for everyone to have a little solo in each track. If you know music you're likely to know the following names of people who played on this album: Paul Jackson Jr [Electric guitar], Jonathan Butler [vox, nylon string], Tyrone Dickens [Hammond, keys], George Duke [piano], Luis Conte [percussion], Shawn McCurley [drums], Michael Manson [double bass] and of course Kirk Whalum [sax and clarinet].


> The Golden Era of Dance - Radio Rhythm Orchestra [Big Band Jazz]

I love jazz, but I love big band jazz even more. It's the most energy filled music I've ever heard. You listen to it and there's nothing you can do but start tapping your feet. There's something about how the energy and power of brass instrumets mould with a well written drum and bass part. Add in some piano and guitar lead lines and you've got the perfect dance music.

This band in particular are very good and recorded all their music live, giving everything that extra bit of energy. Quite a few of the songs are very fast, with light but intricate drumming, a strong driving bass line and a full quartet of brass to give the song more energy than any pop song I've ever heard. The vocals are classic '50s so it's got a great old school vibe. Even my gran enjoys this album.


> Mozart's Requiem in D Minor - Wolfgang Mozart [Opera / Orchestral]

Many people don't enjoy operatic music, but I love it. There's something about it that communicates so much emotion, it's almost unbearable to listen to at times. I love the way that this particular piece is written, to work with the orchestra, as well as using percussive instruments to add power to the 'downbeat' in certain parts. The vocals are performed by a choir so it's more atmospheric which works extremely well for this piece.

If you don't know what a requiem is, here's what the dictionary says: "A mass for the rest of the souls of the dead". The whole thing is in Latin, and for me it's part of the appeal. I've listened to the three opening movements so many times, and I just can't get enough of the power found in the way it's written to rise and fall.

The full piece is a little under an hour long, but well worth the journey.