Guaporense top 100 albums

Since I did several top 100 lists I decided to do a top 100 list of my favorite music albums. Brimming with great diversity of genres and 35 different artists (hence 2.9 albums per artist). From classical to film music to popular music (in several genres ):

Edit: added videos for a song sample from each album.

100. Power Plant (1999) (Gamma Ray)


One of the definitive speed/power metal albums by Kai Hansen, the genius . It synthesises the German power metal scene of the 1990's but with a more speed metal sound than typical for Gamma Ray, resulting into one of the best and their heaviest album.

99. Seasons in the Abyss (1990) (Slayer)

(sorry for the video, apparently Slayer couldn't resist removing all videos with the studio recording of the song from youtube)

Slayer's last great album is a great and accessible work in the genre of thrash metal, being perhaps their second most accessible album (among their good ones of course, their bad ones are complete garbage though).

98. Endless Pain (1985) (Kreator)


Kreator's debut album, this thrash metal classic should be in the collection of every lover of music just for it's historical importance. Also represented an important influence on black metal and hence is classified as such by some people.

The specific track, Total Death, represents one of my favorites from the band's whole discography. Simply beautiful and dynamic music. Kreator is the heaviest band I ever listened to IMO because they don't appear to compromise anything besides trying to find the sound that express pure unmitigated aggression.

97. ... and Justice for All (1988) (Metallica)


A mix of doom metal with thrash metal, Metallica's 4th album is also among their best (which is not hard considering they made 4 good ones). Featuring a sound without any audible bass after their bassist died, it was also a very creative album in that regard as the guitar sounds more precise and "cutting".

This should be interesting. Bring it on

...And Justice For All is my favourite Metallica album

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"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

96. Branded and Exiled (1985) (Running Wild)


Running Wild is one of Germany's leading Pirate Metal Bands, and this is second album, their last before they developed the Pirate Metal genre of Heavy Metal is also was one of their albums where they achieved their greatest proximity with pure heavy metal before they made these drastic innovations. The title track sound almost like a parody of this music medium and that's the reason I love it!

95. Eternal Nightmare (1988) (Vio-Lence)


Vio-Lence's best album, Eternal Nightmare, is one of the few thrash metal albums that achieve a near pure thrash sound. Like perfectly pure steel before the development of scientific siderurgy, it's very hard to approximate. Vio-Lence does in their first and best album. The track here, Serial Killer, exemplifies the rest of the album: 35 minutes of the purest furious headbanging fun. One minus is the punk style of the vocals.

94. My Neighbor Totoro OST (1988) (Hisaishi)


Hisaishi is the best film composer of all time and My Neighbor Totoro is one of his finest compositions. Not exactly alike the previous entries on this list (). More emotion per note than this is impossible.

93. Possessed by Fire (1986) (Exumer)


Exumer's debut album, like Vio-Lence is is also their best album. Exumer was a German Thrash metal band who is not very well known but whose style reflects an almost 100% pure thrash metal, but instead of Vio-Lence, their vocals are not punk but traditional thrash vocals and hence better.

92. Angel of Retribution (2005) (Judas Priest)


Just because of Hellrider, one of the greatest songs ever made, as it represents Judas Priest, the greatest music group of all time, gathering all of their glorious metal history from the 1970's through 2005 and summing it up into a single song which numerous references from their previous work and with a style simultaneously reminiscent of many of their previous works though with a modern production.

91. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part 2 (1995) (Virgin Steele)


Glorious the whole album is on youtube, this masterpiece of American progressive power metal. Virgin Steele is IMO the best North American music group of all time. In fact, I would dare to say that Virgin Steele is the best thing that ever came out of the continent.

90. The X-Factor (1995) (Iron Maiden)


Two classic progressive heavy metal albums, two bands, same year: 1995. Steve Harris was on fire composing this album featuring longer and more complex compositions (specially Sign of the Cross) for the lower register voice of Blaze, compared to Dickinson's.

89. 7th Symphony (1800's and something) (Beethoven)


Beethoven is the greatest of all classical composers and hence the only one to make this highly selective top 100 albums. I actually had to exclude more stuff that I love from here than from my top 100 live action films list (or any other top list I made on this site), considering that I actually know more music that I love than film or TV.

88. Restless and Wild (1982) (Accept)


Featuring some prototypical speed metal and some of the best AC/DC style vocals ever, Restless and WIld is one of the best albums of the German heavy metal legends Accept.

87. Gambling with the Devil (2009) (Helloween)


Helloween's brand of "Happy, Happy, Happy Helloween" German power metal, is the type of music that I listen to the most being simultaneously relaxing and energizing. Cute and brutal. Light and heavy. Nothing nicer to relax after a day of heavy work, specially their 2009 album, and here I posted one of the most representative tracks, Kill It. Notice the similarities of Gamma Ray, whose primary composer, Kai Hansen, was previously one of the two composers of Helloween. Though this album features only Weikath's compositions and his characteristic style being obviously quite different from Hansen's style.

86. Kill 'Em All (1983) (Metallica)


Metallica's first album, one of their best and perhaps their most succesfull in trasmiting energy and force: basically this is 4 kids playing heavy metal. nothing less and nothing more. Every later effort feels rather artificial if compared to this (specially anything after the 80's when the band died from an artistic point of view).

85. Hellbound (2008) (Torture Squad)


One of the finest Brazilian thrash/death metal bands, Torture Squad unique style of "abstract" music is excellent and Hellbound was their album which I found the most memorable. All around excellent and heavy, here Torture Squad focus more on sounding thrash metal rather than death metal (which is a musical genre that I prefer).

Needs to be more eclectic.

Waitin' for a rap album as number one.

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

More eclectic than this? Impossible, of the 16 albums I included already covers classical music, film composition and popular music and inside popular music about a half dozen genres, such as thrash metal, power metal, speed metal, heavy metal, black metal and death/thrash metal.

84. Night of the Stormrider (1991) (Iced Earth)


Brilliant thrash metal album from the American band Iced Earth (too bad they become cr*p a few years later). Yes, it's trash metal but with significant superficial influence from power metal, however, the music is thrash at the core. It's not a mix of thrash and power as some say. In fact, the guitar play appears to be the among the most generic sounding thrash guitar play (which sounds incredible, thick and powerful).

83. Battering Ram (2004) (Iron Savior)


Now, that's an example of proper power metal sounding. Like Helloween, Iron Savior is one of the German bands that I listen the most because they are light and accessible, good for relaxing after a day of heavy work. The album artwork is cr*p however, but I love the "videogame" sounding metal. Also the band's lyrical themes are usually science fiction as the band's lead creative force, Piet Sielck, is a fan of science fiction literature. The whole band is named after a self sentient starship Iron Savior and most of the songs relate to the journey undertook by the ship.

82. Land of the Free (1995) (Gamma Ray)


Super epic power song at the beginning of this power metal album by Gamma Ray, Rebellion in Dreamland, still the best composition that Kai Hansen made after leaving Helloween. One of the best songs in the genre of power metal.

81. Crusader (1984) (Saxon)


Now end with the flowery metal BS above: Saxon's (a British Heavy Metal band) best album IMO perhaps because of this single super awesome song, Crusader, one of the best compositions ever.

80. Nausicaa OST (1984) (Hisaishi)


To vary a little bit nothing is better than some Hisaishi's film score. Now we have the combination of classical and romantic compositions with Hisaishi's signature minimalistic music (which apparently seeks to maximize the amount of emotion per note).

MOAR BEETHOVEN as Minio would say.

79. Heaven and Hell (1980) (Black Sabbath)


Black Sabbath began as a prototypical heavy metal band. However their early compositions were still a bit limited and primitive compared to the metal that was developed a few years later. After a decade in the field, however, thanks to feedback from the rest of the artistic community Black Sabbath managed to increase the purity of their metal to acceptable levels to classify for my top 100 albums. Also, the fact that Tony Iommi's band got a decent vocalist, Dio (R.I.P.) helped a great deal to improve the band's sound to achieve timeless greatness.

78. Pile of Skulls (1992) (Running Wild)


A extremely dynamic album, Pile of Skulls remains one of Running Wild's best albums. Specially the last song, Treasure Island, my favorite song of the Pirate Metal Genre. Simply epic. Though I found the guitar tone used in this album a bit dry, arid, less organic and rich sounding than in earlier Running Wild albums. Still this small flaw does not

77. The Dark Ride (2000) (Helloween)


Helloween made a sightly darker sounding album this time. Still a great album and one of the least relaxing of their discography but still nothing really inaccessible like black metal.

76. Killers (1981) (Iron Maiden)


One of Maiden's first albums, Killer's remains an immortal classic of heavy metal though with heavy punk influence. Iron Maiden can be understood as essentially a mixture of punk with classical heavy metal in the view of Judas Priest 1976-78, such as other NWBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) bands like Saxon and Diamond Head as well.

75. VIctims of Deception (1991) (Heathen)


After Metallica ended in 1989 when the band's bus was hit by lighting killing all the band members (though the record companies managed to make the band officially continue by hiring doubles and using the song written by professionals from the music industry )., the sound of Metallica continued to exist for a few more years thanks to other American thrash metal acts such as Heathen. Heathen's songwriting is specially strong and their style is classic thrash metal, not very heavy and aggressive like Kreator but also not radio friendly hard rock like Megadeth.

74. Angel's Cry (1993) (Angra)


The full album of the Brazilian power metal virtuoso group. Indeed the two guitarrists of the band have a strong classical training in music and their tecniquice is unmatched among musicians in Brazil (with the possible exception of Eduardo Ardanuy). Angel's Cry was the band's first album and also their best, boasting brilliant performances from all members.

Kiko Loureiro's doing some guitar neck masturbation:



73. The Crimson Idol (1992) (W.A.S.P.)


W.A.S.P. is one of the best North American classical heavy metal bands, too bad they are not well known. This album is among their best, including a heavy dose of pure emotion that is hard to find in heavy metal and even art in general. All around brilliant with perhaps the lack of technicality of the band as a negative of small significance (if they don't try to play anything too complex it is not a problem).

72. 5th Symphony (1800's) (Beethoven)


Brilliant work, extremely famous as well which can hurt the experience but if one listens to it ignoring all the overexposure it's brilliant. The 1st movement is one of Beeth's heaviest songs, featuring some monster riffs that would even scare Iommi away.

71. Blazon Stone (1992) (Running Wild)


Another absolute classic, Blazon Stone by the German Pirate Metal act Running Wild is perhaps one of the most defining albums of the band's career being their best selling album of all time and also one of their most accessible and melodic albums.

70. Spirited Away OST (2001) (Hisaishi)


Now we are talking, a strong candidate for the best film score of all time. Sometimes I think that I watch Miyazaki films just to hear the music. They are indeed a strong element of his films, that play a much more active role than in conventional films.

69. Somewhere far Beyond (1992) (Blind Guardian)


A masterpiece of the genre of power metal, combining the aggression and brutality of thrash metal with the musicality of traditional heavy metal and there are significant classical influences incorporated as well. A great album all around, good to listen when I am tired as well (like other albums from the genre).

68. Condition Red (2003) (Iron Savior)


And talking about power metal, Iron Savior's Condition Red is perhaps one of the most generic sounding metal albums in it's mix of traditional heavy power metal with a stadium rock sound in a certain way. And for me the most generic sounding the better! Loved the guitar tone of Iron Savior as well, truly pleasant and representative of early 21st century heavy metal. Notice how epic they try to sound as it is the genre's main aesthetic objective.

67. Screaming for Vengeance (1982) (Judas Priest)


Judas Priest great commercial breakthrough album is also a great one. One of the best metal albums which sold millions of copies it helped to actually define the standard 1980's heavy metal sound which influenced these second rate glam metal bands. The guitar tone is thinner and riffs are simpler than in previous Judas Priest albums, contributing to it's commercial accessibility.

Rep for Judas Priest, W.A.S.P and Iron Maiden. Three of my favourites.

"Oh, we got both kinds of music! We got country and Western!"

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

This thread killed my browser.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Oh look, it's a thread full of metal, metal, more metal, even more metal, some classical, more metal, and a few anime soundtrack songs. Why does this not surprise me at all?

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It'd be boring if it was just album covers, though.

Well, there's only Beethoven for classical. And 80% heavy metal. It seems a little far-fetched to call this list diverse. Hopefully there will be more "eclectic" stuff coming up.

Over 9000 genres!

I know what the top five is already though:

5. Generic Metal - Guys With Long Hair
4. Anime OST - Some Japanese Guy
3. Pretty Obscure Metal - Blokes with Tattoos
2. Light Years - Kylie Minogue
1. Metal That Actually Kills Listeners - Men With Knives

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If you are not interested in heavy metal you shouldn't even look at this thread (it's not like people here don't know where genres interest me), for the next 66 albums: 63 are heavy metal. And inside heavy metal there is indeed an enormous amount of diversity, people who do not listen to it of course wouldn't know it (to an experienced ears each album here sounds completely different, for inexperienced ears they certainly sound the same). Usually heavy metal fans do not listen to anything outside of the genre, why? Well, I personally never loved conventional music (i.e. all popular music that shows up on the radio) and I began to take music seriously after I listened to Iron Maiden. Conventional music is weak and lacking in power, seriousness and complexity. Still haven't found much that I love besides the genre (liked some classical/orchestral music though only a select few to make my top 100 albums list, and Hisaishi's compositions are not "anime music", as if such thing existed, they are orchestral/electronic film music, Nausicaa's OST actually "steals" from several classical composers in it). As Helloween's Are you Metal, "happy metal" song:



I regard this as my best 100 top list by far, I rate everything here , perhaps because albums are shorter than movies so I listened to a lot more music than film and music is a far larger field than cinema which allows for the existence of artistic niches that better satisfy people's tastes. Never found any genre in film that I love comparably to heavy metal, though most metal bands are mediocre even a mediocre heavy metal album still sounds better than music produced outside of the genre.

66. Agent Orange (1989) (Sodom)


Like Possessed by Fire, Agent Orange by the German thrash metal band Sodom exemplifies pure thrash metal. The guitar tone attained in this album is excellent and the riffage is diverse and impressive. This is my favorite Sodom album and is perhaps their most accessible as well, selling over 50,000 copies in Germany in 1989!

65. The Black Halo (2005) (Kamelot)


Presenting a mature mix of progressive power and symphonic metal, Kamelot has been the best north american band of the 21st century so far. Primarily influenced by European artists, their brand of . Differently from the pure thrash metal above, here compositions get a little more sophisticated and much more emphasis is put on melody.

64. Gates to Purgatory (1984) (Running Wild)


Running Wild's first album also perhaps their most enthusiastic and aggressive effort. Bands begin playing loud with all aggression and later on become less aggressive and begin to incorporate more progressive influences resulting in less heavy but more complex compositions. One classical example is Running Wild, their first album is their heaviest and one of the purest heavy metal albums on this list brimming with pure focused steel cutting aggression (as in the cover).

63 . De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994) (Mayhen)


A more atmospheric album from previous entries. While traditional heavy metal and power metal focus on using distorted guitars to create melodies and Thrash Metal focuses on pure aggression, Black Metal, here exemplified by one of it's purest incarnations, is a genre that seeks to create a dense atmosphere by using very fast riffing (tremelo picking) that evolved from thrash metal, it's a more atmospheric and abstract form of music (one could say it's the musical extension of abstract painting):



62. Iron Maiden (1980) (Iron Maiden)


Accessible, sophisticated, rich, heavy and all around great. Iron Maiden is a band that featuring the enormous talents of Steve Harris (perhaps the greatest and most brilliant composer in popular music), Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and co. and in their first album their exceptional artistic significance was already very apparent. Many fans regard as Iron Maiden as simply the best band of all time and it's easy to see why. While lighter than average heavy metal and incorporating punk rock influences, their artistic richness more than compensates for it. They are still my number 2 band and can be number 1 depending on my mood. Their sound also started to exclude the punk metal influence over the next few years, by 1983 the punk influence was almost completely gone.

Still in their first album we have one of their finest compositions:



61. Symbolic (1995) (Death)


The American band Death is one of the founding bands of the Death Metal genre and Schuldiner was one of the finest guitar players of all time and Death's lead songwriter. Here is one of their finest albums because they incorporate progressive influences in being of one their later albums so it's more melodic and lighter on the aggression, being more accessible and artistically sophisticated music. Note the use of growls in the vocals, Schuldiner was one of the first to use it and too bad as a couple of years after this album he got throat cancer and died in 2001. His mother said she liked his music as well.

60. Alice in Hell (1989) (Annihilator)


The first album of the Canadian thrash metal band, Annihilator. Really incredible combination of brutality and melody, reminds me of Judas Priest's Painkiller in that regard (though an album in a completely different genre). Too bad the band's quality declined continuously after this first success.