Search the Community

BOOM! This is where it gets super tough for me...so much choice! Have fun!

1. Sonata Arctica- Reckoning Night =. Within Temptation- The Silent Force 3. Jimmy Eat World- Futures 4. Alter Bridge- One Day Remains 5. Mastodon- Leviathan Such a strong year for me! Every one of these albums were worthy contenders: KillSwitch Engage- The End Of Heartache Nightwish- Once My Chemical Romance- Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge The Killers- Hot Fuss Arcade Fire- Funeral Green Day- American Idiot The Used- In Love And Death Leaves' Eyes- Lovelorn

I AM GOING TO REVISE MY THREE PREVIOUS LISTS. THANK YOU J2112YYZ FOR THE WIKIPEDIA TIP! 2003 was a ridiculously amazing year of music for me. Two of my top five albums here make their place due to the impact they had on my listening experiences that year (Beyonce and Evanescence). All these years later, I still love those two albums. Thrice and Sonata Arctica were VERY close. But so were many others. 2003 stands out for the brilliance that was AFI releasing a punk album awash with goth influence that managed to sound like nothing else, as well as the brilliant return to form from Machine Head (though the album was buried by subsequent releases). The Juliana Theory released their major label debut only to sink without a trace (the world's loss), and HIM released what I thought would be my album of the year (I didn't realise AFI and Juliana were 2003 releases). 1. AFI- Sing The Sorrow 2. HIM- Love Metal 3. The Juliana Theory- Love 4. Beyonce- Dangerously In Love 5. Evanescence- Fallen The Gathering- Souviners Linkin Park- Meteora Sonata Arctica- Winterheart's Guild Brand New- Deja Entendu Thrice- The Artist In The Ambulance Death Cab For Cutie- Transatlanticism Machine Head- Through The Ashes Of Empires Dream Theater- Train Of Thought

1. Lacuna Coil- Comalies 2. Nightwish- Century Child 3. Rush- Vapor Trails 4. Idlewild- The Remote Part 5. Bruce Springsteen- The Rising Just short of the top five: Mastodon- Remission Dream Theater- Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence So many great album from this year!

So again! Now onto 2001! Music is slowly getting better this year... 1. Lacuna Coil- Unleashed Memories 2. Paradise Lost- Symbol Of Life 3. Jimmy Eat World- Bleed American 4. Sonata Arctica- Silence 5. No Doubt- Rock Steady Honourable mentions: Aaliyah- Aaliyah Destiny's Child- Survivor

So I thought with the forum being very quiet lately and that we generally enjoy lists and the like, it could be fun to start discussing music of the modern era. We discuss a lot about older music, but many here, such as myself, grew up in the new millennium. As such, I am interested in hearing what everyone enjoyed each year of the first decade of the new century!

10. Mastodon- Cold Dark Place The Emperor Of Sand was a decent release, and I will be honest, I nearly put it at 10 as a double with this glorious EP. But that is the issue, this EP is so good I didn't need to second guess if or where it should have been placed. Like all great EP's, the only flaw I can think of is that I would have liked more from them in this very personal vein. 8/10 9. As Lions- Selfish Age http://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/as-lions-selfish-age.jpg Bruce Dickinson's son formed a new band. And they are not remotely original, but they are very good pop-metal songwriters, and Austin Dickinson is blessed with tremendous pipes, not unlike his dad's, but with all his own personality. 8/10 8. Royal Thunder- WICK http://www.spinefarmrecords.com/usa/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/01/2.jpg I love Royal Thunder, and WICK might just be the bands finest work to date! It has received an excellent response from both mainstream and underground critics, which is quite surprising, as this rather heavy album doesn't try to please, with its Mastodon meets Fleetwood Mac as they clash in the american south sound and the raspy vocals of lead frontwoman Miny Parson's about as unpretty as they come. Still, a truly great album that for a little while was my sure winner for Album Of The Year title. 8/10 7. Soen- Lykaia http://www.metalinjection.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/soenlykaiacd.jpg I know very little about this band. What I do know is that Soen create beautiful songs that sound only an inch away from having mainstream crossover potential. Beautiful, soaring, delicate, this is what I love about a lot of Scandinavian music. The melancholy really suits my palate. 9/10 6. Leprous- Malina http://www.themidlandsrocks.com/wp-content/uploads/Leprous-%E2%80%93-Malina.jpg Of all the bands and albums on this list, this is my most recent first time listen. And I can imagine burning out fast on this band, because they are so addictive, there is a high chance I could overplay it. But with killer songs like Bonneville, Mirage, Malina and the killer Queen meets Muse hooks of Illuminate, I cannot quite imagine ever being completely over this record. Melodic and instantly gratifying, Leprous create a sound that lacks originality, but they make up for it instead with great vocals, stunning musicianship, and a lot of rather off kilter moments that ensure the listener is kept attentive throughout. 9/10 5. Paradise Lost- Medusa http://www.metalinjection.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/paradiselostmedusacd.jpg Paradise Lost are my favourite metal band, and I will always support them, even though I found Tragic Idol a pretty great, if verging on generic, goth metal record, and the Plague Within an almost impenetrable wall of sound, one that lacked the bands signature use of melody that helped them win over a wide audience. But whilst Medusa arguably offers more of the same, they somehow do it better. Fearless Sky, The Longest Winter, Blood And Chaos...there is a purity to this record that ensures that, whilst it remains a VERY heavy return to their doom metal roots, minor fragments of their melodic past shine brighter in the mix. In my opinion, Medusa is a high work of art and incredibly beautiful. The finest Paradise Lost album since 2009's Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us. 9/10 4. Trivium- The Sin And The Sentence http://www.hmv.com.hk/data/upload/goods_photos/2017-10-30/59f6bce474742.jpg Trivium are very easy to hate. After two albums that catered almost embarrassingly to the metal mainstream (the rather tepid, if catchy Vengeance Falls and the undeservedly maligned The Silence In The Snow), Trivium return to their best form: killer hooks, huge riffs, and experimental ambition. Songs such as Sever The Hand, The Revanchist, Thrown Into The Fire and the terrific title track hark back to their genre defining earlier efforts Ascendancy and Shogun, which helped to bridge the gap between the growingly tiresome metalcore movement and the great thrash and prog-metal bands of the eighties/nineties. Trivium, however, did not become popular without a little help from killer melodic hooks, and this album balances the poppier sound that helped them breakthrough into the general mainstream with their more ambitious side. Beyond Oblivion, Other Worlds and The Heart From Your Hate could all have been, in an alternate universe, radio hits, whilst The Betrayer, Beauty In The Sorrow and Endless Night take the shameless commercial blandness of their less esteemed material, and pump them up with adrenaline and more complex arrangements. Lead vocalist Matt Heafy has always been, in my opinion at least, one of modern metals most endearing vocalists, and with The Sin And The Sentence he gives his best ever vocals. But the true star of the album is the new drummer Alex Bent, who injects a startling amount of energy into this record. The bands finest album since 2008's masterful Shogun. 9/10 3. Taylor Swift- Reputation Few on this forum will appreciate my love for this girl. But this is exactly the album she needed to release, and lyrically she bites, croons, sulks and laughs, often at herself, to the sound of the eighties as heard by the leaders of the modern EDM movement. ...Ready For It, I Did Something Bad, Endgame and the divisive Look What You Made Me Do are killer pop songs, whilst Delicate, Gorgeous and the rather wondrous Getaway Car hark back to her roots. Album highlight for me is Delicate. 10/10 2. AFI- AFI (aka "The Blood Album") AFI are one of the defining bands of my youth. Black Sails In The Sunset, Sing The Sorrow and the wildly successful Decemberunderground have all been addictions I have joyously battled in the past, these records often never leave my player for months at a time. But the same cannot be said for the bands last two records: the underappreciated, if pedestrian Crash Love and the rather clumsy Burials. But they came back to the top with their self-titled 2017 release. Every single track is great, the entire record hums to its own tune, and the band sounds both nostalgic and revitalised by a sudden surge of new inspiration. Dark Snow, Aurelia, Snow Cats (possibly my song of the year!) and the closing slower number The Wind That Carries Me Away all stand out. But the truth of the matter is that AFI is an album full of nothing but standouts. Punkier, and even catchier, than they have been in years, there is also a return to their gothic roots that inspires me, and the end result is not only one of my favourite albums of the year, but also my favourite AFI album to date. 1. Fleet Foxes- Crack Up Fleet Foxes really delivered with Crack Up. I don't just mean they released a great album, rather, they released a true masterpiece, which is something I felt they were incapable of doing again. Three classic albums in a row. Folkier, proggier and even more emotional than they have ever been before, Fleet Foxes may never be able to top this. If You Need To, Keep Time On Me, Fool's Errand and the astonishingly beautiful Third Of May/Odaigahara are all great songs. But Crack Up has got to be consumed whole. I have had a shockingly painful year. I have suffered the worst abuse, nearly died, lost my head completely at several points and made some grave errors of judgement. 2017 has been the worst year of my adult life thus far. But I also found love (thank you John), and no album could have done a better job at soundtracking the schizophrenic nature of my year better than this. 10/10

Many will be shocked by mine. 2006. Why? 1. Lacuna Coil- Karmacode 2. Khoma- The Second Wave 3. Mastodon- Blood Mountain 4. Taking Back Sunday- Louder Now 5. Trivium- The Crusade 6. Killswitch Engage- As Daylight Dies 7. Iron Maiden- A Matter Of Life And Death 8. In Flames- Come Clarity 9. My Chemical Romance- Welcome To The Black Parade 10. AFI- Decemberunderground 11. Brand New- The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me 12. Evanescence- The Open Door 13. Muse- Black Holes And Revelations 14. All That Remains- The Fall Of Ideals 15. Celtic Frost- Monotheist 16. Katatonia- The Great Cold Distance 17. The Sword- The Age Of Winters 18. SiKth- Death Of A Dead Day 19. Textures- Drawing Circles 20. Mogwai- Mr Beast So many other great albums released that year, and also 2005 and 2007 were great too. I just loved 2006! EDIT: OH MY DAYS I FORGOT: 21. Fightstar- Grand Unification 22. Placebo- Meds 23. Deftones- Saturday Night Wrist 24. Alexisonfire- Crisis 25. Peeping Tom- Peeping Tom 26. Bleeding Through- The Truth

Wowsers! Really digging Rush hard after like...two years not really listening. In two days: 6 albums! LOVED THEM ALL! How I rank them: 6. Presto 5. Permanent Waves 4. Power Windows 3. Roll The Bones 2. A Farewell To Kings 1. Hold Your Fire Now move along this thread sucks just felt like sounding enthused for a damn moment.

So this week, one of the defining bands of my generation, and also the biggest selling band of this century to date, werr dealt a painful blow. But we have a thread about that. This is about the band. Of which I doubt there are too many fans of on TRF. But what do you guys think of Linkin Park? For me, they are up there with the likes of U2 or REM, as a band that took various influences and forged there own last identity, in spite of experimentation. I love this band. I've really reconnected with them this week. They used to be a major favourite and I now realise...they still are. My favourite album is likely A Thousand Suns. But aside from the recent, possibly final album, One More Light, I love everything.

I am in total shock. This actually has devestated me.

An amazing event occurred today. Segue Myles hit a milestone on TRF. 30000 posts Yes, that's correct. 3-0-0-0-0 For those of you who can't read numbers, that would be Thirty Thousand. ;) Congratulations, Segue! Since you don't appear to be a beer slugging kind of guy, have a few martinis. :martini: :martini: :martini: :martini: :martini: :martini: :cheerleader: :yay: :cheerleader: :yay: :cheerleader: :yay: :cheerleader: P.S. I couldn't get any gifs to work. They've changed the format since I've been MIA. My apologies, Segue.

Not sure if one of these threads already exists but even if there is one, it's likely time for a new one! I grew up with R.E.M. But as with a lot of things, over time I left them behind and started enjoying more music, most of it far away from this style. But lately I've been listening to them constantly, and not only do I still love these albums, I appreciate them even more than before because I can hear just how special they are. Murmur, Reckoning and Monster are my current favourite albums. I noticed in the last week, as I have moved house, that I do not own a single one of their albums except for Automatic For The People. I've changed that. I've bought the bands first ten albums (the ones I grew up with). So, what are your thoughts on this band? Any favourite songs? Any reasons why you might strongly feel the opposite to how I feel about them?

So I've loved this forum for many reasons. The biggest reason, after the cool guys I've met, is the music. When I came to this forum I thought I had a very diverse music taste. Nearly four years later, I feel like I don't know enough! So, here are my favourite bands I've come to know since joining: Black Crowes King's X Kansas Post-power Windows Rush Tom Petty Dream Theater (possibly my favourite love hate relationship ever) Styx Dokken Ratt Tonnes of cool stuff Treeduck listens too

Ok for many this might be a head scratcher. But I happen to love a lot of Finnish music (Scandinavian in general tbh): 1. Nightwish 2. HIM 3. Sonata Arctica

Okay dokay! Let's have some fun and let's have some classic TRF arguments! Your own personal top three bands from the UK: 1. Paradise Lost 2. Idlewild 3. The Beatles This might change............. Have fun!

Here we go! 1. Schindler's List 2. The Lion King 3. Gone With The Wind 4. Brief Encounter 5. The Flowers Of War 6. Kingdom Of Heaven: Directors Cut 7. The Black Book 8. Beauty And The Beast (1991) 9. Princess Mononoke 10. Laputa: Castle In The Sky

So: Vapor Trails Feedback (not for me but who knows?) Snakes And Arrows Clockwork Angels Vapor Trails Remixed I include the remix separately as I think for many of us they are two totally different albums. For example: I love Freeze on the original. Not the remix. Others prefer the remix.

Presto Roll The Bones Counterparts Test For Echo The worst era...still bursting with killer tunes!

Carrying on from where we left off, now it's time to discuss our favourite songs from this very diverse group of albums: Permanent Waves Moving Pictures Signals Grace Under Pressure Power Windows Hold Your Fire

No arguing about whether Permanent Waves counts or not! This isn't labelled "seventies", I'm just curious about what you guys would rank as top ten from these albums: Rush Fly By Night Caress Of Steel 2112 A Farewell To Kings Hemispheres We have tonnes of these threads. But to know what? I haven't played Rush properly in months. I'd like too change that! Let's start celebrating the music we love! Share your favourites. These records I think are tough as their are so many classics.

I have a huge music collection and would like to make it more compact so with some bands I am collecting box sets where available to try and save space. Now this is blasphemy, I know, but I do not own a single live Rush album either. So...these sets have all the original albums AND the live albums up to whatever date they stop (how deep was that hehe), and the box sets themselves look gorgeous to my eyes. Not too expensive considering what's is contained within (and I bought the original albums for less than £5 up to Hold Your Fire anyway...). So, worth getting?

Pros of tags: they give a respectful nod towards a member or X (other) Cons of tags: they're ultimately useless and very annoying I bring this up because the new Albums You've Listened To version has the "babycat" tag (why I don't know, she doesn't even post in that thread) and now we are plagued with that disgusting and intrusive block of threads at the bottom of the thread. When I post in a thread I like to hit the [end] key and then start writing my post.. But now it's not so easy if I'm using a smaller window. I have to [end] and then [pg up] and then scroll to re-position myself in order to post. Even if this wasn't a problem in making me take an extra second before writing my post, it's a problem in that the related threads block is a massive eyesore. I understand the purpose of tags, but I doubt anyone actually values their serious use... At best, tags are a silly little feature used for fun, but at worst they soil board experience. You like Babycat? Cool, so do I, I love Babycat, but what's the point of the tag? If there's a way to disable the "Also tagged with one or more of these keywords:" block from appearing in every thread with a common tag, I suggest it should be done. This would solve the problem.

JUNE 21st , 2016 - KANSAS, America’s legendary progressive rock band, will release their intensely anticipated new studio album “The Prelude Implicit” on September 23, 2016. The album is the first new release in 16 years for the band that has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, and is famous for classic hits such as ‘Carry On Wayward Son’ and ‘Dust In the Wind,’ to progressive epics like ‘Song for America’ and ‘Miracles Out of Nowhere.’ “The Prelude Implicit” features 10 all new tracks written by the band and co-produced by Zak Rizvi, Phil Ehart, and Richard Williams. KANSAS’s signature sound is evident throughout the album. It showcases Ronnie Platt’s soaring lead vocals, David Ragsdale’s blistering violin, Williams and Rizvi’s rocking guitar riffs, the unmistakable sound of David Manion’s B3 organ and keyboards, Ehart’s thundering drums, and Billy Greer’s driving bass and vocals. KANSAS returned to the studio in January 2016 after signing with Inside Out Music. Says Inside Out founder and president Thomas Waber, “KANSAS is the biggest and most important Prog band to come out of the United States. I grew up listening to them, and their music is part of my DNA. ‘The Prelude Implicit’ undoubtedly adds to their already impressive musical legacy. I can’t stop listening to it, and we are proud to be releasing the album.” The result of the time in the studio was even more than the band imagined. “This is definitely a KANSAS album,” remarks original guitarist Richard Williams. “Whether it is the trademark Prog epic like ‘The Voyage of Eight Eighteen,’ biting rocker such as ‘Rhythm in the Spirit,’ or mindful ballad like ‘The Unsung Heroes,’ there is something on this album for every kind of KANSAS fan. After years of pent-up creativity, the entire band is very proud of ‘The Prelude Implicit.’” Lead Vocalist Ronnie Platt adds, “Recording ‘The Prelude Implicit’ was an incredible experience, and I couldn’t be happier with the results. It is my hope that, knowing the intense listeners that KANSAS fans are, the continuity yet diversity of this album will be pleasing to them.” The album title, The Prelude Implicit means, "Without a doubt, this is a new musical beginning," explains Ehart. Tattoo artist, Denise de la Cerda, did the oil painting of the front and back cover. “It shows a Phoenix flying from the past into the future.” “The Prelude Implicit” will be released September 23, 2016, on Inside Out Music and is distributed by RED. The album will be available on CD, Double 180 Gram Vinyl, and digitally on iTunes and Google Play. Pre-order opportunities will be available starting later this summer at KansasBand.com and Amazon.com. The Prelude Implicit Track Listing: “With This Heart” “Visibility Zero” “The Unsung Heroes” “Rhythm in the Spirit” “Refugee” “The Voyage of Eight Eighteen” “Camouflage” “Summer” “Crowded Isolation” “Section 60”

So a hot topic debated recently on this forum is whether or not rock is still alive. Yesterday, ReGor started a great new thread where we discuss what the ultimate list of defining classic rock albums would contain, and it is very interesting to say the least. But how about we give some attention to new music. This is not to swipe away the focus on classic artists and their work (that thread I hope will have long legs), but just to shed light on new generations, new sounds, a new era. The criteria for this list is simple: Classic rock bands of course deserve the honour of inclusion (Rush, Europe, and Maiden have had some great successes, for example), but the albums HAVE to be from 2000 onwards (90's releases deserve their own thread, but this thread is meant to shine a light on the 21st Century). As always, be respectful. Music is not always a topic that needs to be argued, and I would like to ask that if we get any foolish messages about "rock is dead" or "these artists/albums suck in comparison to old music", we linger on the pro-active comments instead. Because truth be told, it is getting boring and the negativity from certain quarters is exhausting (and I will take some of the flack for being too confrontational myself at times)). This should be a thread to celebrate or introduce new music. We can agree, or agree to disagree. But let's just keep things interesting. If you disagree with a release, but agree on the band, spotlight the album you think is more deserving rather than tear apart someone else's addition to the list. Feel free to discuss, just be nice about it.