Best concept albums?

I like some concept albums, but I find that many concept records focus to heavily on the story and not enough on the songwriting. However, some I do like, in no particular order:

Dio - Magica
Alice Cooper - The Last Temptation
Alice Cooper - Welcome to my Nightmare
King Diamond - Them
King Diamond - The Spider's Lullabye
W.A.S.P. - Crimson Idol
Rush - 2112
Coheed & Cambria - No World for Tomorrow
Pink Floyd - Animals
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Kiss - Music from the Elder
The Who - Tommy
Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Nektar - Recycled
Nektar - Down to Earth
Savatage - Dead Winter Dead
Savatage - Edge of Thorns

No OPERATION MINDCRIME on your list, Ult? I'm shocked and appalled!!

Anyway, I'm totally down with WASP's CRIMSON IDOL and the Savatage titles which you mentioned, tho my favorite Savatage concept/rock opera disc is STREETS: A ROCK OPERA personally. THE WAKE OF MAGELLAN is pretty damn sweet as well.

Fat Freddy wrote:

No OPERATION MINDCRIME on your list, Ult? I'm shocked and appalled!!

No a big fan of Operation Mindcrime. To me that was the start of the fall of Queensryche. Never thought that CD was "all that".

ultmetal wrote:

No a big fan of Operation Mindcrime. To me that was the start of the fall of Queensryche. Never thought that CD was "all that".

Really? Wow. EMPIRE was the "start of the decline" for me. I thought O:M was the Ryche's last good album, personally.

Fat Freddy wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

No a big fan of Operation Mindcrime. To me that was the start of the fall of Queensryche. Never thought that CD was "all that".

Really? Wow. EMPIRE was the "start of the decline" for me. I thought O:M was the Ryche's last good album, personally.

I like Empire and Promise Land better than Operation Mindcrime. I know my opinion on this album isn't a popular one. I don't know many people who agree with me, but I just thought Mindcrime was "ok" and not great.

I'm with Ult on this one.
Thought the album was Ok, but nothing too spectacular.

My Friend's Girlfriend swears by this album though. She thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread.

Well, I love conceptual bands in general, so it's hard for me to choose just a couple.


I of course love all of the albums Ult mentioned. I also love Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle-earth. Great music, and great source material (in truth they coulda made an entire cycle of concept albums for The Silmarillion, since it's got a TON of information in it). I also love Bathory's Hammerheart, as I'm a sucker for those old Norse folk.

I'm also not sure if it's exactly a concept album or not, but I also kinda like HammerFall's Threshhold. The lyrics certaintly suggest some kind of underlying concept, as alot of things turn up over and over again in the album's lyrics.

ultmetal wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

No OPERATION MINDCRIME on your list, Ult? I'm shocked and appalled!!

No a big fan of Operation Mindcrime. To me that was the start of the fall of Queensryche. Never thought that CD was "all that".

I totaly agree. I thought i was the only one that thought OPERATION MINDCRIME was overrated.

Iron Maiden's Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (based on the works of Orson Scott Card).

Epica by Kamelot. The sequel The Black Halo is a continuation of the same story/theme/concept, but it's not half as good. I've not listened to their 'Ghost Opera' yet. Any opinions?.

'Quadrophenia' by The Who. Not as instantly gratifying as 'Tommy', but once you've listened to it a few times and it starts to sink in, it begins to take a hold of you. Film is crap, though.

'S.F. Sorrow' by The Pretty Things. Late 60s British bluesey/hard rock. A truly great 'lost' album by a band that history has insanely overlooked.

'Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)' by The Kinks.

'Thick as a Brick' by Jethro Tull.

plancha2 wrote:

I've not listened to their 'Ghost Opera' yet. Any opinions?.

They tried too hard on that one and while individually the songs are Kamelot worthy, the album as a whole is hard to get into and is the weakest one IMO. What helped me to get into it better was hearing the material performed live but it still doesn't hold my interest that long-and I LOVE everything from Fourth Legacy to Black Halo.

DallasBlack wrote:

plancha2 wrote:

I've not listened to their 'Ghost Opera' yet. Any opinions?.

They tried too hard on that one and while individually the songs are Kamelot worthy, the album as a whole is hard to get into and is the weakest one IMO. What helped me to get into it better was hearing the material performed live but it still doesn't hold my interest that long-and I LOVE everything from Fourth Legacy to Black Halo.

Well stated. I've had this CD sitting in a pile "to review" for months. I can't get into it at all. I've described it as "metal-lite". They just seem to "light and fluffy" to me, if that makes sense.

The Grave Digger by Grave Digger.

ultmetal wrote:

DallasBlack wrote:

plancha2 wrote:

I've not listened to their 'Ghost Opera' yet. Any opinions?.

They tried too hard on that one and while individually the songs are Kamelot worthy, the album as a whole is hard to get into and is the weakest one IMO. What helped me to get into it better was hearing the material performed live but it still doesn't hold my interest that long-and I LOVE everything from Fourth Legacy to Black Halo.

Well stated. I've had this CD sitting in a pile "to review" for months. I can't get into it at all. I've described it as "metal-lite". They just seem to "light and fluffy" to me, if that makes sense.

Makes perfect since. A while back I listened to Fourth Legacy, Karma, Epica, Black Halo, and finally Ghost Opera and the heaviness is quite diminished (closer to Edenbridge than anything else-I like Edenbridge but that kind of sound just doesn't fit Kamelot very well IMO).

Back to the subject at hand I will list some of my favorties:

Neal Morse-all of his
Spock's Beard-Snow
CIIC-Burden Of Truth
Ayreon-all of them
Dio-Magica
Savatage-all of them
TSO-all of them
Royal Hunt-Paradox
Kamelot-Epica and Black Halo
Blind Guardian-Nightfall In Middle Earth
King Diamonds-again, all of the ones I've heard (Abigail-Voodoo)
Iced Earth-The Dark Saga and Framing Armegeddon (also Gettysburg trilogy)
Edenbridge-The Grand Design
Dream Theater-Scenes From A Memory
Iron Maiden-Seventh Son
Opeth-Ghost Reveries and Still Life
Balance Of Power-Book Of Secrets
Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime (though it is highly overrated)
Jag Panzer-Thane To The Throne
Bruce Dickinson-The Chemical Wedding
Rhapsody and Luca Turilli-all the ones I've heard
Symphony X-V and Paradise Lost
Alice Cooper-Brutal Planet and Dragontown
Amorphis-Elegy
Battleore-Evernight
Stratovarius-Elements Pt.1
Evergrey-Inner Circle and Recreation Day
Leaves' Eyes-Vinland Saga and Legend Land (all based on Norse mythology)
Saviour Machine-Legend Series
Avantasia-all three
Marillion-Misplaced Childhood
Vision Divine-The Perfect Machine and The 25th Hour
Pyramaze-Legend Of The Bone Carver
Amaran's Plight-Voice In The Light
Shadow Gallery-Tyranny and Room V
Dragonland-Starfall

https://heartofmetal.niceboard.com/heart-of-metal-f1/concept-albums-t3644.htm?highlight=concept


wow, i beat eyesore to it

ultmetal wrote:

Alice Cooper - The Last Temptation
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Kiss - Music from the Elder

Ditto on these, and I'll add one of my favorites of all time:

ALICE COOPER - From the Inside

and an often overlooked:

THE WHO - Quadrophenia

and:

PINK FLOYD - The Final Cut
(a pseudo-sequel/prequel to The Wall, IMO)

ultmetal wrote:

Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare

You really see this as a concept album? Maybe a couple of the songs are tied together, but I've never really looked at it as a full concept album...

ultmetal wrote:

Rush - 2112

Side one is conceptual anyway, but side two wasn't part of the story. They did the same thing with Hemispheres and made the first side a conceptual sequel to the song "Cygnus: X1" from the A Farewell to Kings album, but the rest of the album wasn't part of the story either.

Black Sabbath - TYR

Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

ultmetal wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

No OPERATION MINDCRIME on your list, Ult? I'm shocked and appalled!!

No a big fan of Operation Mindcrime. To me that was the start of the fall of Queensryche. Never thought that CD was "all that".

Saviour Machine - The Legend Series

candlemass wrote:

Saviour Machine - The Legend Series

Yes! I'm not the only one then.

pretty much all of King Diamonds stuff. Abigail, Them, The Eye...

I guess since Ult owns the forum I can't tell him to use the search function, so I'll just repost this.

Eyesore wrote:

I wrote the blurb below for the 2006 yearly awards at MetalReviews.com. This was in my top 15 of the year. So instead of typing something like this again, I'm cutting and pasting. Plus, it's 4am and I don't need to be up much longer than this. Haha.

Adultery is one of the coolest concept albums I've ever heard.



You’re a normal, respected, and honest man. You’ve lived an honest, upstanding life. But you've been diagnosed with terminal cancer. You have a very short time to live. What do you do with your remaining days? Why, of course, you indulge in every dark desire you could possibly imagine: drinking and drug binges, sharing bed space with some prostitutes, making romance explosions inside them, and then killing them, and all other manner of dark, twisted fantasy. This is Adultery, a concept album following a man through his final days as he wreaks havoc on what remains of his life and all those around him, indulging in the dark side of life before he inevitably dies.

Dog Fashion Disco is virtually impossible to slap a genre label on, mainly due to their melding of styles ranging from jazz to death metal to nu-metal to R&B, often in a single song. Vocalist Todd Smith is a dead ringer for Mike Patton, and thus have always been called a Mr. Bungle copycat; but Mike Patton and Mr. Bungle could never stay focused long enough to come close to the brilliance that is Adultery. Mr. Bungle has brilliant moments. Dog Fashion Disco is brilliant. All day, every day. Sadly, though the band’s best work to date, Adultery is their swan song. They announced their disbandment in on December 5, 2006. Adultery is the real deal, however; one of the coolest concept albums ever written.

I think that before one can come up with a list of "best concept albums", one has to first define what makes up a concept album. To me, a concept album has a protagonist and a story that is further developed in every song. Albums like Iced Earth's "The Glorious Burden" or "Horror Show", Sabaton's "Primo Victoria", or Bruce Dickinson's "The Chemical Wedding" are often labeled as concept albums. IMO, these are not concept albums because there is no central strory. I consider them "theme albums".


For the purposes of this list, I judge a concept album on both the story, and the strength of the songs. Some concept albums have good or even great songs, but the story is either too complicated, confusing or just plain not interesting. "Framming Armageddon" or "Magica" are perfect examples. Very few concept albums have both an interesting, easy to follow story, and great, catchy songs.

That being said, here are my favorite concept albums:

Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
Blind Guardian-Nightfall In Middle Earth
King Diamond - Abigail
W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

Blind Guardian - A Night At The Opera

I freakin' love this LP!

romeolimagolf wrote:

I think that before one can come up with a list of "best concept albums", one has to first define what makes up a concept album. To me, a concept album has a protagonist and a story that is further developed in every song. Albums like Iced Earth's "The Glorious Burden" or "Horror Show", Sabaton's "Primo Victoria", or Bruce Dickinson's "The Chemical Wedding" are often labeled as concept albums. IMO, these are not concept albums because there is no central strory. I consider them "theme albums".


For the purposes of this list, I judge a concept album on both the story, and the strength of the songs. Some concept albums have good or even great songs, but the story is either too complicated, confusing or just plain not interesting. "Framming Armageddon" or "Magica" are perfect examples. Very few concept albums have both an interesting, easy to follow story, and great, catchy songs.


That being said, here are my favorite concept albums:

Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
Blind Guardian-Nightfall In Middle Earth
King Diamond - Abigail
W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol

Picky, Picky, Picky!