Favorite cds from my collection

Living Colour was a great band and I got lucky and got see them open for The Rolling Stones.

'Stain' is my favorite by them, its heavy, diverse and lyrically incredible.

I only own one Machine Head album which is 'Burn My Eyes' which is a great release IMO and one I still spin from time to time.

That Lynam album is great! The one before that "Slave To The Machine" is great too!

And you're right about the Pyromania sound; I also hear occasional Bon Jovi influences too but something about their music still sounds fresh and modern.

This one should really be a given. It's impossible not to like every album this band has ever done. Yea, there are some songs that are throw away tracks on every album, but very few bands can release as many albums as Maiden has with each album being better than the last (in some instances haha)

The first album is just classic. Not really much to say about it but its just one great song after the other. This is the best Paul D'ianno led Maiden album.

"Number of the Beast" is probably one of the best (if not the best) metal albums of all time. There are tons of albums that are highly overrated about being the best album but not with this one. "Beast" influenced so many bands with this album and it truely deserves the praise that it gets.

"Piece Of Mind"....I wasn't going to add this to the list, but after thinking about it I come back to this album more than I think I do, even if its only for a few songs. The first half of this album is awesome and they are all classic Maiden songs. Where the rest of the album went wrong beats me, but it just seemed to fall apart after the Trooper.

With "Powerslave" they made up for the second half of "Piece Of Mind". "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is one hell of a song and a great song to end the album. This is probably my most played out Maiden album. I would practice playing drums to this album constantly. I just wanted to play these songs and get them just like Nicko plays them.

"Somewhere In Time" I think was the first Maiden album I ever heard but didn't know it at the time. A friend of mine gave it to me and just told me to listen to it. I think it said the bands name on the cassette but I just didn't put 2 and 2 together at the time. Yea sounds stupid but I wasn't into metal that much at the time and I didn't know who they were. I don't remember liking it as much as I do now or after I really started getting into Maiden. A lot of the sounds on this thing are out dated but Its still one of my favorite albums that gets regular play.

"Seventh Son" with the except of "Can I Play With Myself Madness" is a perfect album. I believe this is where they really started to make more longer songs on their albums. Well... maybe thats not true because "No Prayer" and "Fear Of The Dark" Don't have any long songs on it lol. Maybe lets just say this is where the idea to make longer songs on their future albums came into play.

"Fear Of The Dark" This is where Maiden really started for me. I saw the video for "Be Quick Or Be Dead" and I was hooked. I thought if thats what Maiden was all about I have to start getting into them. I quickly found out that, that was the hardest song on the album, and there was more to them than Bruce screaming his lungs out all the time. "Fear" isn't one of their best albums by a long shot, but this is where it started for me and it holds a lot of memories. The live version of the title track always gives me chills.

"X Factor" YES! I went there. Say what you want, it's not Maiden without Bruce blah blah blah. Before Bruce came there was D'ianno and before D'ianno there was....well I don't know who. Yes Bruce is the voice of Maiden but if he didn't want to be in Maiden anymore they couldn't just quit because of him. Instead of getting a Bruce clone they got Blaze Bayley, a lower range singer. He can't do the screams of even match Bruces voice but he fit perfectly on the darkest sounding Maiden album "X Factor" and he even contributed to the music the whole time he was with the band. The "X Factor" opened a whole new direction for Maiden which they kind of stuck with since, a more progressive sound and longer songs. I also love playing the drums with this album. Its not typical Nicko but its fun to play. Maiden needed a change and this was it. Whether or not you like the album Maiden needed to change with the times.

"Brave New World" Bruce is back and he couldn't have come back a better time. One of my all time favorite comeback albums. My gf at the time even liked this album.

"Dance Of Death" a lot of people hate this album and I have no idea why. Yea the artwork is bad but the songs are great. I don't get it.

"A Matter Of Life and Death" continues with yet again another classic Maiden album. No its the classic Maiden sound of the 80's but its the Maiden sound of now.

"The Final Frontier" I wasn't sure what to expect about this album, but I was pleasently surprised. It wasn't a first listen, instant hit with me. It took a while to sink in, but when it did I loved it. Just like all the albums I listed it gets played frequently.

I'm sure you noticed there was a few albums I didn't list. "Killers"....This has about 2 songs I really love the others I can give or take. "No prayer" that should go without saying and "Virtual XI" was a decent album but not the greatness of "X Factor".

Maiden was integral to my transition from 70's band fandom to the next thing. I was the first person at a high school of 5000 students to wear a Maiden shirt (1981) Saw them at The Allladin theater (Vegas) I can find not much wrong with nothin they done up to Somewhere In Time. I guess looking back in hindsight, boredom on my part was the reason and not Maisen's music ?

I havn't listened to the Blaze era stuff nor much from the last decade or so. I do have plans to change that but Maiden's stuff is hard to find used.

Maiden rules! That is all......

First Iron Maiden I ever heard was 'Piece of Mind' due to MTV when they actually used to play music videos, how quaint, a few days later bought that album and their self titled album, and have been a fan ever since.

Even got to see them on the Piece of Mind tour, with Quiet Riot opening at the Lakeland Civic Center, I was a strapping young lad of 13.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

The real "Black Metal" band HAR HAR HAR!.. seriously though they guys were just awesome at what they did when they came on the scene. "Vivid" may have a questionable song or 2 that make me cringe to listen to ("Glamour Boys" ) but in all its a great album. "The Cult Of Personality" never gets old for me.
Their second album "Times Up" they really grew as a band and wrote some heavier songs and even sent them into a darker direction in their song writing, "New Jack City" is a great example, even the title track "Times Up". It starts off heavy and pretty much doesn't let up from start to finish. Sure "Elvis Is Dead" is another one of those tracks I tend to skip, but when I was younger I loved it.
"Stain".....I remember when this was coming out I was hearing mixed reviews about it and I was also worried what might happen since their long time bassist left the band. When I heard the first single (I think) "Leave It Alone" I was pleasently surprised. Doug Wimbash(sp?) turned out to be a great replacement bass player and actually made the band more interesting with his style of playing. He was more experimental and it was definetly heard on "Stain". Once again the band seemed to get heavier with this album and it was a shame it was the last one they recorded for a few years. They lost the momentum way too soon and when they came back it was too late. Music has changed too much while they were away. "Collidoscope" was a horribly recorded album and "Chair In The Door Way" was a better release in the right direction just nothing hit me like the first 3 albums.

Wow ! Cool to see Living Colour on here. I really like Vivid. Picked it up through BMG or Columbia House when it was a new release based solely on the song Cult of Personality. That is a killer song. A couple others I like are Open Letter (To A Landlord),Middle Man and Broken Hearts. For some reason though, I had never tried any of their other releases. I may have to look into this a little further.

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

I wasn't into Hardcore music at all and I'm still not. I'm not sure this band can really be considered Hardcore but I always associated them with Hardcore by the way they dressed at the time. BUT!, when I heard Davidian for the first time I was just blown away. So much anger, and so heavy. They just sounded like they would come out from my speakers and beat the living crap out of me for thinking they were a hardcore band because they were anything but that. They were just a really really heavy metal band. At the time I thought it couldn't get any heavier than Metallica, boy was I wrong! This is a great album from start to finish.
"Through The Ashes Of Empire" finally saw them returning to their original sound. For some stupid reason this album didn't come out in the united states til after a year it was released elsewhere. It was definetly worth the wait though. Some of the newer style is thrown in this album but I think it works and I was happy to hear them back to normal.
With "The Blackening" they really stepped it up and went full throttle with what they are known best to do, being angry, heavy and in your face. Months would go by where I couldn't get past the first track "Clenching the Fists of Dissent" because it was that good. I think this was everyones favorite album when it came out and theres no question why.

I knew nothing of Machinehead when I bought Burn My Eyes through BMG on a whim. I had no idea what I was getting into. That thing was probably the heaviest album I had heard at that point. I was blown away by it and it still gets heavy play from me. I never felt like checking anything else from them though. I had read a few lackluster reviews of subsequential releases so they never ranked on my must buy list.

As for Maiden, what can be said about them that hasn't already been said. An iconic band that I have followed from just about the beginning,only catching them once in concert though (Somewhere In Time tour with Yngwie Malmsteen opening). The only setbacks by the band though are the non-Bruce albums. I had heard both of them through a friend and was not impressed. I just pretend they don't exist. Once Bruce came back teverything seemed to click again and they haven't looked back. I still need to get Final Frontier !

007 wrote:

Wow ! Cool to see Living Colour on here. I really like Vivid. Picked it up through BMG or Columbia House when it was a new release based solely on the song Cult of Personality. That is a killer song. A couple others I like are Open Letter (To A Landlord),Middle Man and Broken Hearts. For some reason though, I had never tried any of their other releases. I may have to look into this a little further.

If anything you should really check out Stained. Its a different sound from them in a way but its really good. I'm sure these albums are pennies on amazon lol.

Time's Up is my favorite Living Colour album, an excellent album. I remember spending a good month trying to figure out how to play "Type" on guitar.

How many hard rock bands during that era could pull off a track like "Solace of You"?

S.D. wrote:

Time's Up is my favorite Living Colour album, an excellent album. I remember spending a good month trying to figure out how to play "Type" on guitar.

How many hard rock bands during that era could pull off a track like "Solace of You"?

That is a pretty cool tune. No other band metal would touch a song like that at that time, or this time.

Moving right along....



Steel Train- Steel Train
This is one of my favorite newer bands that I discovered on Conan O'Brien one night. Actually, Conan did a special internet show before the first episode he did on TBS when he came back to late night. The show was pretty much just a joke all the guests would come on and leave after they were introduced. His guest band was Steel Train. The whole band came into Conans crammed office with their instruments, the band played one note and then the show was over. During the credits they played the song and I really liked it so I decided to find out what they were about and found out they were an indie band from NJ. They have a few albums which I quickly snatched up. Their earlier albums are more acoustic where the past 2 albums were more rock/indie rock, which if done right I will like it and this is one of those albums/bands.

This is the song they played on Conan.


another song I really like off of this but really I could pick any song.





Here's another one of those newer bands that I discovered which isn't new at all. I found out about these guys looking for The 69 Eyes songs on you tube. Tons of people were talking about The Sisters Of Mercy and how much they sounded a like. After checking them out I saw people mentioning things about the band "The Mission" which is the band Wayne Hussey started after he left Sisters Of Mercy. The first song I heard of theirs was "Amelia". The lyrics are very disturbing but the song just sucks you in. I was hooked and I had to get one album of theirs to see what they were all about and I got "Carved In Sand" first. When they first started out they were more Gothic but with this album they kind of strayed away from that style and that just fine because the band is more upbeat. The first half of the album is great. It kind of falls a little on a song or 2 with the second half but with the majority of the album being as good as it is those few songs can be over looked.

The other Mission album I really enjoy is "God Is A Bullet". This is 5 albums after "Carved In Sand", I like the albums in between but they kind of lost what they had a long the way. They kept trying to reinvent themselves and add things with each release some things were great but others just didn't come across well and they band was on the verge of braking up with each album. "God Is A Bullet" is their last album released in 2007. Supposedly its their last but who knows. They just reunited again for a 25th anniversary tour which is doing well so I'm hoping something will come of it. Anyway.... "God Is A Bullet" sees the band reinventing themselves but they did everything right. From the start of the album to the end its just consistently one good song after the other. There's 2 different versions of the album because the band is called "The Mission U.K." in the U.S. and the U.S. version has extra songs which I'm on the look out for.

From Carved In Sand
Amelia

Deliverence


From God Is A Bullet
Keep It In The Family

Blush

The Mission UK were a great band, love those early albums, used to have to them on cassette.

Like a lot of people I got into Diamond Head through Metallica. If it wasn't for Metallica, Diamond Head would probably have really been unknown despite how great their first 2 albums are. I first had the compilation "Behold The Beginning". It took me a while to really get into it. They didn't sound like what I had hoped them to, but I got used to it because I knew I loved the songs Metallica covered so I had to keep finding what was so great. I found another compilation called "Am I Evil?" and from there I started to get it and found more and more great songs like "Heat Of The Night", and "Borrowed Time". Finally I came across "Lightening To The Nations" and "Borrowed Time" so I had to get them and they are just as good as I hoped. The remastered versions are great too especially "Lightening" which has a lot of extra tracks.


Next up we have Avantasia, Tobias Sammets side project from Edguy. I liked the first album but it really didn't sound much different from what Edguy would do already. The second album was pretty much the same but not as good. The released "The Scarecrow" and it was almost like they were starting over. The sound was different as not being so heavily influenced by power metal and shaking off the Edguy sound.


I first heard of Dommin when I went to see HIM. I did some search on the opening bands and Dommin was the one that stood out to me. They remind me a little of Danzig especially the vocalist. After their set at the HIM show they came out and were selling their cds. I got it autographed and talked to them for a little while, but I must have sounded like a complete moron lol. They were nice guys though. It's rare to find a newer band that you like and for me this is one. I listen to this album a lot, not one bad song on it.

For me, the Iron Maiden s/t is the greatest album ever recorded. Never before in all of music history did a band play with so much intensity, ferocity, and passion on a recording.

Very true. I love that album. Some people who love Maiden though don't like those first 2 albums because they just can't see anyone else but Bruce singing but Maiden was a totally different band on those 2 albums and Dianno fit those perfectly.

i have looked at this thread and i am not sure i can pick my favorite ones. Its just too hard...

Haven't forgotten about this just finding the time to do it which is now.



Slaughter- Stick It To Ya
I'm not a fan of the so called "Hair Metal" or "Glam Metal" at all. When Slaughter came out I don't even think that term was used, but Slaughter was different from the rest of those bands that they get tied to. To me they were a little more edgier. "Up All Night" is an awesome song and the video wasn't too bad to watch either . I love every song on this album.


Type O Negative- Bloody Kisses

How does Type O and Slaughter go together in the same post? I have no idea, they don't I just happened to think of this album while I was going threw the Rate Your Music site haha. All of my friends were huge fans of these guys back in high school and actually they all still love Type O til this day. For most of them its still their favorite band. I never saw this band in the same light as they did but I have grown to see why my friends feel the way they do about them. They are just an awesome band. They never tried to follow anyone else, they never tried to fit in with what was popular, and they stayed true to their sound. I like just about all of their albums but they never topped "Bloody Kisses". It's just one great song after the other from start to finish. Everything was done right with this album.


Soundgarden- Badmotorfinger
Soundgarden- Superunknown

Again.. Where does Soundgarden fit in with these choices? I had no idea who Soundgarden was until Badmotorfinger came out and I was hooked when I heard "Outshined". Still to this day that song does not get old. I can still listen to it and sing along with it each time. My favorite song off the album is "Jesus Christ Pose" mostly because of the drums. To this day I have no idea how thats played. Matt Cameron is one of my favorite drummers. I don't care for him much with Pearl Jam because he seems like he's limited in what he can do with them but with Soundgarden he's album to be free with his playing. He's proof you don't need a big drum kit to get a big sound. "Superunknown" wasn't as good as "Badmotorfinger" but I still love the album. It's a little darker sounding and their song writing really started to get weirder. My favorite song off this album is 4th of July. The guitar sound is just so awesome with the way they are tuned down so low. Great song and probably my favorite Soundgarden song.

exact33 wrote:

i have looked at this thread and i am not sure i can pick my favorite ones. Its just too hard...

It is hard but like I said its not that I don't like the other albums its just that the ones I list are the ones that get more listens over the others. Over time I might add albums from bands I mentioned either cause I recently listened to it and thought differently about it than I used to or I heard the album for the first time.

Gamma Ray- Heading For Tomorrow
I think this was the first Gamma Ray I got and it was a cassette. I remember my friends being excited to hear Kai Hansen again and one of them got "Sigh No More" and they hated it. I really wish I had gotten it from them because I would have loved it. People were looking for a Helloween Clone with Gamma Ray. There are some similarities but the lyrical themes were different with Gamma Ray being more about outer space. "Heading For Tomorrow was a great album. It was also my first introduction to Ralph Scheepers who I thought was an awesome vocalist at the time and actually in all the Gamma Ray albums he was in. These days I'm kind of not so impressed with him. Not sure why that is but its just not the same, he's still a great singer though.

Gamma Ray- Land Of The Free
One night I was listening to a college radio station I used to listen to. There was this one guy that would play everything that I listened to and I even found some new bands because of him. He played Blind Guardian, which I never heard of at the time and then this one band came on and the voice sounded familiar but I wasn't sure. I didn't have the internet at the time so I had no idea about new albums from anyone unless I read it in a magazine. When the songs were done the DJ came on and said it was Gamma Ray and Kai Hansen was singing on the whole album... I nearly peed my pants. I had to immediately get that album which was an import at the time. $25 later I had it and I just could not stop listening to it. I'm actually listening to it as I'm writing this. This is one of those albums that if you had a choice to pick a handful of cds to be stranded on a desert island with, this one be one. It never gets old.

Gamma Ray- Somewhere Out In Space
I was glad to see they were continuing with Kai singing. I missed Scheepers but if theres a choice between Kai or Scheepers singing I'm taking Kai. This album was a little different from "Land Of The Free" some of the members changed which led to a different sound but its still a great album. "Land Of The Free" is better but I still love every song on this album.

Gamma Ray- Blast From The Past
Its a best of album BUT they redid all of the songs with the current line up. I usually hate when bands do this because their either change the songs around too much or they play them slower than the originals. This is neither of those, they played these even better than the originals and Kai sang them better or as good as Scheepers did. I actually like some of these versions better than the originals. Awesome best of cd.


Grave Digger- Tunes Of War
My first introduction to this band was the song "Symphony Of Death". The original singer that used to be in my old band Phoenix Reign used to give me tapes with all these bands that he liked and Grave Digger was on there. I liked the song but the vocals were so rough. It was really hard to get used to for me. After time I just kept blasting that song in my car so much that it grew on me. It's hard to pick which Grave Digger albums I like more than others because I do love just about all of them. "Tunes Of War" though is a classic album all the way through. I love the whole sound of this album especially the shredding sounding guitar. The Bagpipes on the intro to the album really set the mood and "Scotland United" really kicks the album into gear. I was going to sit here and name off the best tracks on this one but just sitting here going through it the whole thing is amazing. The best track though and probably my favorite Digger song out of all of them is "Rebellion". I love the middle part of this song, so cool.

Grave Digger- Excalibur
This is the first actual album I got of theirs and I loved it after the first listen. It was everything I was hoping for after hearing "Symphony Of Death" and it just made me want to find out the rest of their albums. I love the song "The Spell", mostly the music its just dark sounding but I also like the way Charlie changes his voice instead of his usually raspy singing.

Grave Digger- The Grave Digger
I was really sad to see that Uwe was out of the band but when I heard this album all was forgiven. I also didn't know at the time but Manny Schmidt was also in Rage, for some reason I just never realized it. I knew I heard his name before but couldn't think of where haha. Anyway he was a great addition to Grave Diggers sound. They also changed their lyric content with this album taking poems from Edgar Allen Poe. The Grave Digger is probably their heaviest sounding album to date. It just sounds like a monster and why they didn't stay with this sound is beyond me because its just so in your face. Just another great album with great songs.

Some great albums there, drummerboy!

Here's some of my all time favourites in my collection:

I love those two Soundgarden albums and still blast them to this very day.

When Slaughter's album came out, you are correct the term 'hair metal' did not exist, it was then called pop metal, I have this album on CD, and its not bad but I do not like it as much as you do.

I have never owned a Gamma Ray or Grave Digger CD so I have no opinions on those album but I am enjoying your thread.

Grimmo wrote:

Here's some of my all time favourites in my collection:

You trying to steal my thread!? Not cool man! Not cool!