Guaporense top 100 albums (2019 edition)

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15. Beethoven - 9th Symphony (19th century)



While I am not the world's biggest fan of classical music it is indeed true that Beethoven's 9th is an unparalleled masterpiece. Proof of its genius is that is has found itself very near the top of my top 100 albums list which is almost entirely populated by modern pop music. It is just EPIC (well this is indeed a characterization that applies to most music that I like, well I like this feeling the grandeur when I listen to music and nothing is more epic than this (except Wintersun )).



14. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)



Talking about epic, how about we check out Maiden's most EPIC epicness album! Powerslave is widely regarded as Maiden's best album and for very good reason: it represents the culmination of the band's super-fast evolution from 1980 to 1984, which evolved from a heavily punk-influenced metal to perhaps the definitive classic heavy metal sound with Powerslave. This is indeed a zenith and it is as timeless as the pyramids in the cover.



13. Kreator - Pleasure to Kill (1986)



My favorite thrash metal album of all time. Pleasure to Kill is pure undiluted aggression: total destruction all over the place. It is one of the 3 classics of the unholy trinity of 1986, together with Reign in Blood and Darkness Descends. This one is the best because of its rather disjointed style: they are playing the fastest they could even though each bandmember fails to fully coordinate with each other which lends the album its atmosphere of complete mayhem. A masterpiece indeed.



Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
It has been 5 years since I did my top 100 albums list
Well, I can't see much progression in your taste. It's still as bad as it used to be.



60. John Coltrane - My Favorite Things (1961)
Okay, that one is spot on. And some metal picks like Melissa are fine, too.
__________________
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.



15. Beethoven - 9th Symphony (19th century)



While I am not the world's biggest fan of classical music it is indeed true that Beethoven's 9th is an unparalleled masterpiece. Proof of its genius is that is has found itself very near the top of my top 100 albums list which is almost entirely populated by modern pop music. It is just EPIC (well this is indeed a characterization that applies to most music that I like, well I like this feeling the grandeur when I listen to music and nothing is more epic than this (except Wintersun )).
Heck yeah it’s epic! So glad this made your list, it is a certified masterpiece and would make my list too if I ever made one.



12. Judas Priest - Painkiller (1990)



Painkiller is perhaps the definitive heavy metal album from the definitive heavy metal band. It is very rare that a band achieves a peak in their discography in their 12th album (although Black Sabbath's Tyr, released on the same year is also their 14th album if I recall correctly. eek.

Painkiller's greatness is that it is just completely unpretentious and completely uncompromising: pure unadulterated speed metal, it is the quintessential Judas Priest album in many ways as it represents the culmination of the band as Judas Priest just removed all shackles from their sound, after selling out 5-6 million albums with Turbo they felt like they had enough money to go by and just do what they wanted to do. It rocks and it is one of the albums I have listened the most times according to LastFM.



11. Ensiferum - Iron (2004)



Iron is a solid album, in fact, an IRON solid album. Hard as iron it exudes the purest feeling of uncompromising sublimity. This stuff is just soooooooooooooo good... Amazing music indeed of the greatest folk metal band in the world at its peak.



And opening the:

TOP 10

10. Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane (1995)



It had to be Dissection, right? Perhaps not the purest but still the most effective album of black metal ever made. Darker than a black hole, colder than liquid nitrogen, more evil than Stalin and Hitler combined is Storm of the Light's Bane! By the way, I discovered this album rather recently, a couple of months ago and it prompted me to do this list.



A system of cells interlinked
16. Wintersun - Time I (2012)



Now this is what EPIC is supposed to sound like. Wintersun basically took melodic death metal and infused it with neoclassical symphonic metal to create this kind of beast. It is indeed magnificent and worthy of each of the 8 years that Jari has spent producing it: 3 songs took 8 years to be recorded into an album indeed But it was completely worth it!
One of my favorite concert moments of the recent years was during Wintersun's performance of Sons of Winter and Stars.

During this section:

"Until we fade away - Fate will find it's way
Until we drift into the dark
It's not too late to find a way - Fate will find it's way
And fly in cold embrace of stars"

The entire venue was singing along, while a giant group of people in the floor section (where I was at the time) all got down on the ground and acted like they were on a ship, rowing with invisible oars. Meanwhile, Jari et al. were just killing it on stage. Jari definitely seems happier now that he has handed his guitar duties off to Asim, so he can focus on singing and working the crowd. Teemu's playing was nasty, as well.
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



One of my favorite concert moments of the recent years was during Wintersun's performance of Sons of Winter and Stars.

During this section:

"Until we fade away - Fate will find it's way
Until we drift into the dark
It's not too late to find a way - Fate will find it's way
And fly in cold embrace of stars"

The entire venue was singing along, while a giant group of people in the floor section (where I was at the time) all got down on the ground and acted like they were on a ship, rowing with invisible oars. Meanwhile, Jari et al. were just killing it on stage. Jari definitely seems happier now that he has handed his guitar duties off to Asim, so he can focus on singing and working the crowd. Teemu's playing was nasty, as well.
I have to see them live! Among the bands with albums in my top 20 Wintersun is the only one I have not seem live. Too bad they never tour in South America.



9. Iron Savior - Unification (1999)



Iron Savior, the world's most underrated speed/power metal band. This album, in particular, is their masterpiece perhaps the best example of melodic speed metal ever made (sorry Painkiller). Iron Savior's style can be described as an evolution of 1980's metal with is faster and more melodic at the same time. After this album, which was their clear peak, their sound lost a bit of richness and complexity in the lead guitar department (especially since Hansen left the band after Dark Assault).



8. Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth (1998)



Nightfall in Middle Earth is perhaps the peak of symphonic power metal. It represents the culmination of everything that Bling Guardian stands for and their artistic development, in fact, this album is so great and enormously superior to anything they made in the last 20 years that it feels like it was their final album.

Now they exist mostly as a orchestral-metal band rather than a power metal band: As they started out as a speed metal, evolved into power metal, then became symphonic here, now they kinda lost themselves into their orchestral adventures, their latest album does not feature any guitar parts! This album, by contrast, still features tons of great riffs.



7. Ensiferum - Ensiferum (2001)



Ensiferum's classic debut remains their definitive album. While I considered placing Iron higher (as I did in my "preliminary top 10"), I decided that this album is the one I would place higher, mainly because both albums are of similar quality but this one has more songs, so it is stronger overall: it is the definitive Viking metal album, it does not get more epic than this.



A system of cells interlinked
7. Ensiferum - Ensiferum (2001)



Ensiferum's classic debut remains their definitive album. While I considered placing Iron higher (as I did in my "preliminary top 10" I decided that this album is the one I would place higher, mainly because both albums are of similar quality but this one has more songs, so it is stronger overall: it is the definitive Viking metal album, it does not get more epic than this.
I listened to both this and Iron last night, and I do think this album gets the edge, even if Jari's clean singing is better on Iron. Alas, I just like the music a bit more on the debut, which is my favorite folk metal record ever. Great choice for your top 10!



5. Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny (1976)



It actually pains me to put this in 5th place instead of higher. This is such a godly album: Judas Priest's seminal album, the album that made them immortal. It is also perhaps the first expression of pure heavy metal (yes, Black Sabbath was earlier but this album has a compared to Sabbath a reduced level of blues influence and instead has some songs that sound similar to thrash/speed metal, although these elements would come fully in Stained Class).

The production is pretty bad, however, the poor production actually lends this album a certain ethereal, mystic quality. Certainly, it has a unique atmosphere (with Priests' other albums being Sin After Sin and Stained Class completing their classic trilogy, with Painkiller being Priest's culmination in terms of their artistic trajectory).



4. Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys (1987-88)



Widely regarded as the seminal album of the power metal genre it is still the best album the genre has to offer. Kai Hansen has said that he disliked the label "power metal" instead he would name it "rock and roll metal" because it indeed sounds like a rock band like Led Zeppelin or Queen decided to make a speed metal album.

Amazing quality: this album has perhaps the highest entertainment value among all my favorite albums. It is so great because the songwriting is more sophisticated than classic heavy metal but it is not overly pompous as more modern power metal (which is the main flaw with Blind Guardian's last 20 years of albums).



A system of cells interlinked
We dang. I had tried to guess your overall number 1 album, and I had Keeper of the Seven Keys in the slot. Now that this has been posted, I think I might know what your number 1 will end up being...



I actually considered Keepers as number 1 but on further re-listens, I decided that there were some albums I liked more. Keepers still is the only album that managed to distract me enough while I was driving to it that I crashed my car (and that was back in 2008).