Greatest Metal According to Gowi/LedZep/Repo/Rocky and I!

[Mercury]

The Wall by Pink Floyd

Part of me was really dreading this. And I didn't know why. Maybe its just that I have never bought into its larger than life delivery, or the band who created it and their legend. As recently seen, when I re-ranked the BEA top 100, 3 of the last 5 spots were taken up by Floyd.

So when I got to this album, the longest and second best selling album of their classics, I thought "man, do I have to?". Then, I decided to just embrace it, and go into it with a fresh set of ears, try to shake off the tags of prtentious, self-serious, bloated, rock opera etc which have been become appendages on this album in me mind.

Now I am on track 6, "Mother". And not once have I felt like its been bad, not one groan not one eye roll. Instead I have enjoyed it. Like, a lot. The album is so far a pretty amazingly streamlined, layered album. And every time I have gotten close to saying "jesus, man, stop talking in your deadpan way about your shit! we already heard from you and your plight on WYWH and Animals!" the MVP of the show shows up to blast out an emotive, ingenious and short guitar solo.

David Gilmour really is special. Outside of Roy Buchanan and maybe Peter Green I can't think of a guitarist whose solos so consistently emote with such biting clarity as Gilmour. He rarely hits you with lots of notes, or with lots of fuzz or feedback. Usually he just sounds like he's crying out via the extension of himself which is his guitar.

The rest of the band is great. Even Waters is a good vocalist. The negative associations I had were the lyrics and the redundantly gauzy "epic" production. But as of yet, it seems those aspects were a mere shadow scaring me away. Now that I have passed through that perceived shadow which seemed to bar my interest, I am finally really hearing the majority of aspects on here which are in the positive.

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After the first 7 tracks, or about side 1/4, the side 2/4 does drop off in enjoyment for me. That whole run from about "Young Lust" through "Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3" is limp and uninteresting as far as I'm concerned. But the way side 2 is ended with the suicide note closer "Goodbye Cruel World" works nicely to sober up the joint. I paused it for 20 seconds there and thought about that end and how it worked thematically and musically with the rest of the first half. Then I pushed play on side 3/4, which starts with the 2nd of 3 massive hits, "Hey You."

Then side 3 so far is pretty solid. I love me some "Hey You". and "Is There Anybody Out There" is beautiful, and then the 3rd track "Nobody Home" is a sad, low key, beautiful little piano ballad I likes quites a bits.

Side three continues being nice and almost as good as side 1, then "Comfortably Numb starts. Then that greatness ramps up to one of the greatest solos of all time in the last 1:45 or so and I am dumbstruck. Yet again, Gilmour delivers just about the greatest and most emotive solo guitar in rock history. God damn. The Wall would be just a generally lifeless garbage album if not for this beast. Due to his spicey deliciousness this album is pretty great more often than I anticipated thinking on this revisit and first full AND attentive, close listen.

And now I am rolling into the home stretch of side 4. So far so good. Those big, lumbering chords in "In The Flesh" are fucking sick and I love them all out of proportion to what is logical. I loved hearing them again and I didn't realize how much I missed them. In The Flesh is dope, just as the less decisive In The Flesh? is.

Reading up on the album is interesting. Its an interesting story. I am okay with the general arc of it. I have never seen the film, which I will have to rectify at some point. Anyway, that was just a little side note bereft of all possible intrigue or flavor whatsoever.

Side 4 is solid as well especially love "Waiting for the Worms" and the way it segues abruptly into "Stop". The way the album is brought to wrap with the strange "The Trial" and finally the final track, is interesting and kinda cool, actually.

Anyway, in closing, I have decided this album was not deserving of the shades I cast upon it over the years. Much like a similar "statement" concept album of my generation, "The Suburbs, it is a bloated, inconsistent, album which tries for being the most general statement of life, and ends up falling short of its aspirations. But like "The Suburbs" much of the run time is consumed with touching and brilliant moments, inspired artistic choices, and really great songs.

Side 1 is a B or B-, Side 2 is a C or C-, Side 3 is a B+ (man, comfortably numb, did I mention how great that song is???), and side 4 is a solid B-. Overall Grade B-. Its pretty good and I shall listen to it again and see the film at some point hopefully soon (this year? maybe) and perhaps the trajectory of my enjoyment and respect of this classic will go even higher. As of now, yeah, I like it well enough.
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Mercury]

ranking those last 10 albums, goes a lil somethin like this:


1. Reign In Blood
2. Another Green World (probably up 2 spots)
3. Bootleg Series, Volume 4 (down a rank by virtue of AGW, but really the greatest live album ever).
4. Exile On Main Street
5. The Smile Sessions (up quite a bit. The music is quite astounding really)
6. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
7. Let It Bleed
8. Harvest
9. Siamese Dream
10. The Wall (whereas before I would have put this underground relative to everything else here, including an album I merely enjoy in Siamese Dream, now it is within spitting distance of Siamese Dream. Which is a win.)

New additions to chart based off this 10? yes! Another Green World will be added for sure. Its stunning. RIB, Exile and maybe I will re-add Bootleg 4 (Dylan fatigue be damned) are already on my chart. Solid group.

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An interesting development has taken place on the RYM top albums! Just in the last 2 days or so, Astral Weeks which was ranked 111 has moved up to 110 and knocked The Wall below it! This is a small win for humankind! Yay! the fact that Astral Weeks isn't top 100 is insane. But still, yay for that.

I'm gonna post the next 10 shortly. Spoiler: as I get further here, more and more albums need listens or revisits. So as a result the next 10 feature a whopping 7 albums to listen to as relistens and even 2 (or 3?) I have never listened to in full! That's exciting. and terrible timing as I almost never get much listening in on the weekend.
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Mercury]

Okay, the next 10 go as follows:

#111


Astral Weeks by Van Morrison

Not anymore. Now its #110. Rightfully so. It is one of those desert island albums. As great as it gets just about.

actual #111

The Wall by Pink Floyd

already covered a few minutes ago.

#112

Ege Bamyasi by Can

shits changing quick as this was 113 yesterday. anyway, I have heard this album. But I have not heard it nearly enough and not in awhile. I will get to this on this project. Drunk And Hot Girls is a great song.


#113

If You're Feeling Sinister by Belle And Sebastian

Another all timer for me. So sweet, so observational and some of the best written pop songs ever. I adore it.


#114

98.12.28 Otokotachi No Wakare by フィ...[Fishmans]

ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh.... I have never heard this! I have never heard this! I HAVE NEV ER HEARD THIS!!!!!!!

I am so excited to dive into this. I will do so asap. I will also listen to The Long Season studio album perhaps first to get a concept of that work not in the live context. But yeah when I saw this coming up, and I saw its insanely high rating on RYM which drove it so high in the ranks despite having 1/5 the votes all surrounding albums have, and I saw that these peeps basically were bum rushing the party and asserting themselves in these hollowed ranks by sheer enthusiasm of their fans, and I started reading about the story of 98.12.28, and all, I got moist. so moist. I am looking forward to this muchly.


#115

Mezzanine by Massive Attack

I bought this album when I was like 16 and I was hyped to get into it. Loved the name of the bad and the album, loved the cover, and was just super excited. Listened to it a few times and never got super into it. I remember being obseesed with songs "Teardrop" and "Inertia Creeps". But yeah I have not heard this album in full in about 12 years and even back then I heard it maybe 3 times front to back. So I will diving back into this soon.


#116

Grace by Jeff Buckley

Along with The Wall and Oasis and some U@ love on BEA, one of the albums I most consistently dissed and didn't understand the love around here for was this lil 90s album. I have however recently warmed to the idea of this album. And I have learned to love his dad, whose music is quite different I know, but whose voice is reminiscent of his son's. So This is yet another album to listen to. yippee yay.


#117

"Heroes" by David Bowie

Yet another classic Bowie album I've never given much attention to. I have heard it once or twice through and I liked it well enough. Now I will revisit it again for m,y diary with a bit more affinity and context.


#118

Rust In Peace by Megadeth

Grew up with this album. Always respected it. Never loved it. I a, familiar enough with it that I will not be listening to it for this project. Oh well. Its alright. Not in the same ballpark as the Slayer albums and Metallica albums ranked similarly.


#119

★ (Blackstar) by David Bowie

and yes another ANOTHER Bowie. But this is a full 39 years later than his next latest "classic". I listened to it in 2016 when he passed as many of us did. I swooned I cried. I moved on. After 2 listens I remember thinking "wow". But I don't remember much outside of that. and I will be listening to this several times over the next week and I will write up something on it here.


#120

Violator by Depeche Mode

Yep. In case you were wondering, this is the other album I can confidently say I have never sat down or stoof up or layed down and listened to in full. Maybe I had one of those halfsies sessions where I listened to the first half and then came back and half heartedly listened to side 2. But that is up for debate, quite dubitable, and happened 3 or 4 years ago. So yeah, I am gonna listen to this classic and I am hoping I love it. The singles are great.

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Okay, and there you go. The curriculum over the next week or 10 days is those 7 albums. They way I rank them now is...

#1 Astral Weeks

#2 If You're Feeling Sinister


#3 Ege Bamyasi
#4 "Heroes"

#5 Mezzanine
#6 Blackstar
#7 Rust In Peace

#8 Grace

!!!?? 98.12.28 ??!!!
? Violator ?
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Mercury]

Okay, mostly the last 5 days I've been listening to some Bitches Brew fusion offshoots. I like to think of Bitches Brew and In A Silent Way as the big explosion of a half a dozen great careers which followed em. I think of Enter The Wu Tang the same. Like, I like listening to the debut albums of Ghostface, Raekwon, GZA, ODB, Method Man, etcjust after they all came together and released their classic debut. That first wave of post 36 chambers albums is just fascinating to see how they align and differentiate from that big bang of the Wu.

Bitches Brew is the same, within 2 years of that album, all the kids went out and became disciple of the new musical landscape Miles created with them. They all took different main threads of that 2 album run of genius they were a part of and amplified it. It was really interesting.

Namely I talking about the immediate aftermath of Bitches Brew/In A Silent Way, which included the first Weather Report albums, Chick Corea's first Return To Forever albums, Mahavishnu's "The Inner Mountiung Flame", Herbie Hancock's trio of psychedelic/experiemntal releases starting with 1971's Mwandishi, and even The first Tony William's Lifetime album "Emergency!" which was recorded 3 months after he was in studio with Miles on the revolutionary "In A Silent Way. The list goes on I'm sure, but that is mostly what I've been delving into.

I'll give more thoughts perhaps later, but for now I will just say, this immediate explosion of these Jazz greats after their work with Miles just made me love and admire Bitches Brew and in A Silent way all the more.

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I've also been listening to a l;ot of YES. Namely these 3 albums


Close To The Edge by Yes

(over and over and over)


Relayer by Yes

and this gem which I finally feel is almost as deserving of love as Close to The Edge


Fragile by Yes

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I have listened to Mezzanine, Violator, half of that live Fishmans album (it's looooong but quite good and i am looking forward to completing a couple listens to it.), and Ege Bamyasi. I will write a small thoughts thing on each and then finish Fishmans album, those Bowie album, and Grace, hopefully soon.
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Mercury]

Long Season by フィッシュマンズ [Fishmans]

So I actually decided to jump into this studio album of the one big song "Long Season" before tackling their even more acclaimed live album 98.12.28 which includes as its most notable part the full 40+ minute live rendition of this "song".

I am so so so digging this. Its strangely ethereal, dreamy as anything I've heard, and the bass lines are so rock solid. The vocals are strange but work really well with the music and the little details, like the lonely strings toward the beginning and the little "back up vocals sounds, and that freaking drum change up into a gorgeous kinda shuffle or something at the 6:30 mark, and of course the emotive, cathgartic end, the guitar solo there, the way the song seems to get into your space and ash over you and before you know it the full 35 minute studio track album is over.

There is such a rich variety of sounds and textures all integrated into this dreamy epic. Those weird sound effects and wind shimes sounds, and water sounds mixed with that weird and almost creepy vocal repeating "yeeeaaahhh..." over and over at abou15 minutes to 17 minutes is so cool. Then the drum solo that comes in is so unexpected. So tribal, so aggressive and calculated as well. Idk. Its all pretty fabulous.

There is a 10 minute stretch in the middle ish area which is all interesting but not as brilliant to me, it slows to a crawl but imbues that period with lots of heart and interesting sounds. But it pays off at the 27 or so minute mark when the drums and bass come back and rock out, and then as mentioned earlier the guitar soars in and ends this album in epic and touching ways.

Anyway, Fishman's is such a strange phenomena. Like I had never heard of this band until recently (last few years). When I started seeing it rise and rise in RYM, I was caught off guard I figured it was a newer album/band that was picking up steam. But then I saw their music is over 20 years old by and large. And it just picked up such word of mouth, and hype from their growing internet fanbase that now here they are with an album, and a live album at that, at #114 and this studio album in the top 250 albums ever made. like, whoa!

And I just checked what Allmusic.com had to say about this album and band and there is nothing. Nothing? from Allmusic? that struck me as very surprising. Anyway, that is just an observation.

This album is very unique and not what I usually listen to. I think i'll have to try to delve into m,ore of this dreamy, relaxed and yet precise music like it. It's pretty cool.

8.9/10

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I think I'll be more engaged with the live album now that I've heard this album twice through. Maybe. The first half of that live album though was pretty stellar.
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Mercury]

Fragile by Yes

breaking away from the format of this diary, I just wanted to talk about this album whilst listening to it again.

It's great. And its really starting to click with me more and more. Not just this album, and not just this particular prog band, and not just this genre of Prog Rock, but the whole world of music which involves virtuosity and elaborate arrngements and technical ability to pull off, is starting to interest me. I mean along with Yes, I have been listening to and actually enjoying Fusion albums by Jaco and DiMeola and Stanley Clarke, etc, for the first time. For the longest time I valued grit and rawness more than clean playing and heady arrangements. Hell, I was much more likely to be impressed or gravitate towards music which was played by musicians who seems just a couple pegs above totally amateur than to anything marked as virtuosic.

I mean I have always been much more a fan of the vocals of Dylan over Freddie Mercury, all day every day (still true, but whatever). I would always be much more impressed by the ramshackle vibes of Pavement over the produced and more showy and produced music of The Smashing Pumpkins. I think my obsession with Miles Davis over anyone else is that while being technical and brilliant, his playing and his arrangements seemed raw and sad and mournful much more than cats like Bird or Gillespie or Sonny Rollins. The reason I think maybe I have always preffered delta blues and acoustic blues recorded roughly over electric blues post 56, was that those records were grimier and more "real".

And all these inclinations have lead to me avoiding like the plague genres like Prog, Fusion, Bebop, Prog Metal, and opther forms of metal, while embracing less obviously complex music which otherwise mirrored it such as art rock, punk, funk, soul, modal jazz/really just Miles and Coltrane, and more ragged and ugly metal genres and sounds.

So as I listen to Yes and this album now I am struck by how the recent discovery of my love of Close To The Edge has made it a gateway to embracing somewhat snooty (how I saw it until now), more complex, intricately arranged and worked over music with much more notes and tempo and key changes.

Recently I've reacting slightly differently to music. I will hear a good pop or rock tune in all its 3 or 4 minute glory and I've still enjoyed it, but I've tended to not go into these more straight forward short form, albums. Instead I'll gravitate to a King Crimson or Yes or Weather Report of Miles Davis album etc. Its just an interesting thing. It is probably a sort of phase or short term obsession and I will probably go back to listening to punk albums with great interest and love soon. But I don't think i'll ever go back to my close-mindedness again regarding genres and albums which are perhaps longer winded and more virtuosic. Which is a nice feeling. Its opened a few doors.

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Now more specifically about Fragile. Its a brilliantly structured album where there are indicidual tracks for each member to flex his muscle and show off a bit and also to contribute their arrangements to the work. You get Wakeman's classical maestro thing in "Cans and Brahms". You have the absolute stud on guitar Steve Howe showing off some of the greatest acoustic work I've ever heard in "Mood For A Day". You have the intricate vocal harmonies and general vocal heroics of Anderson on "We Have Heaven" and other parts. You have the real muscle and greatest strength (amongst nothing but strengths) the rhythm section of Drummer Bruford and bass legend Squire showing their clout all over the place without encroaching on the other 3 main mebers spotlight in their moments.

But these smaller parts just fill the gaps between the 3 absolutrely showstopping masterworks and longest parts where the whole band is clicking and is so insanely in tune with each other, that I can't help but let my jaw drop listening to them. Those longer songs are the opener "Roundabout", "South Side of the Sky" at about the halfway part of the album, and the greatest of them all the absolutely stunning on every level "Heart of the Sunrise" as the closer.

So I just love that. Its an album built on 3 epic 8-11 minute songs where the whole band is in lockstep and just absolutely killing. Then the other 6 tracks are shorter, all unique all beautiful in their owns ways, adorning and filling out the album. Just perfect the way the album flows in my opinion.

There are honestly dozens of moments on thsi album that take my breath away. Whether because some of the most beautiful vocal harmonies are making my eyes tear up, or because Bruford, Howe and Squire are unifyingly battering my ears with a metal assault, or because of the groove of the bass and the way the guitar is so cleanly coming in from the side adding little splashes, or maybe its because of the beatles-esque circus sounding ending to the album, etc. The sheer abundance of musical creativity on display here is just...how is it even possible???

In some ways this is a better album than even Close To The Edge. 2 very different albums with very different aims and structures. But I'd say while no one track is as gorgeous or long or stunning as the first side of Close To The Edge title track, the fact that this album starts and ends with as good and comparatively succinct an opening and closer as has ever been heard by this guy (pointing at myself with 2 thumbs). Man, I don't have much else to add now. But this will lilely been on my chart in the next few days or even today maybe. It won't be squeaking on. The Yes fever has overtaken me all the more.
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[FelixC]

I recently read an interview with the producer of The Wall, and he described how he thought the album should have a dance track on it, 1979 being the peak year for Disco, of course. But the band resisted the idea and really didn't want to do it. But he talked them into it, and so they reworked Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 into the version we know today. Originally it just sounded like an extension of Part 1. This would explain why I always thought it sounded like Good Times by the band Chic. With it's disco guitars and disco basslines. As it turns out, it was the biggest hit they ever had. A number one hit I believe. Then another song they also re-did in this style. I think it was Run Like Hell. To me, these are the only times the album comes to life. They're my favorite tracks on the album.

[Mercury]

[Mercury]

#116 all time on RYM


Grace by Jeff Buckley

Of all the albums highly praised and revered on RYM and even more so on our BEA ranks, this one may be in my top 10 most confusing. I just remember thinking this was an up and down, tonally all over the place adult contemporary singer songwriter album which at times masquaraded as an "edgy" mid 90s alternative rock album. And his vocals? I don't know, I thought they were pretty but over the top.

Recently I have gotten into his daddy's music and there are not much similarities musically here but vocally I hear it very much. So, the vocals changed in my estimation at the very least when I went to push play on this classic.

Now I am listening to this again, and I do quite like it. More than I ever had. Some of the compositions still seem a bit all over the place and not in a good way. And the loud-quiet dynamics which were all the rage at the time get kinda grating here, especially on "So Real". But the quiet, earnest parts are gorgeous. His vocals really are quite angelic and out-of-this-world. Some of the songs are great outside of the copious and unnecessary changes that work like whiplash to my mind. I'm thinking of great tracks like the opener "Mojo Pin", the stunning title track "Grace" (that the end almost hurts with its way way over the top crescendo), the very famous and truly mesmerizing Cohen cover of "Hallelujah", every famn aspect of "Lilac Wine" (god damn that song is unthinkably beautiful, the beautiful "Lover, You Should've Come Over", etc.

Actually full disclosure: as I listen to this album again and while reading a bit about it, I am starting to fall for it. I'm starting to push past my bias against handsome men with gorgeous voices making albums. The acclaim of this album maybe isn't based off only his looks, voice, or father. I mean maybe it really is a great album which can stand on its own and I was the asshole for all these years kinda brushing it off?... yeah I think that rin gs true.

Anyway, I'm gonna finish this one and give it its proper due with a 2nd straight back to back listen. I will sink in to its fatalistic, sad, gloomy, soulful, lost, sounds and emotions.

I still think some of the crescendos are copiously overdone and redundant. Like, I don't need every song or half of them for that matter to build up into these soulful loud climaxes. anyway, that's all for now.
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Mercury]

I’m just gonna leave this here and say this and many other greats are what I’ve been listening to the last 3 weeks. Basically just lots of blues.

And this is maybe the sludgiest, heaviest fudgin blues jam ever and it’s absolutely one of the greatest songs ever. Peace.


Link

_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!