Korn, and the genre of nu-metal hit their commercial peak in 1998 with the success of 'Follow The Leader', with the final single from the band, 'Freak On A Leash' becoming the band's best-known song to this day. 'All In The Family' is one of the few tracks to feature Fred Durst that I'm able to listen to, and the dig at the media pitching Limp Bizkit and Korn against each other as rivals is great. The iconic cover was drawn by current Batman artist, Greg Capullo. I only found this out last week.
Best Songs: It's On!; Freak On A Leash; Dead Bodies Everywhere
215) Marilyn Manson - Portrait Of An American Family (1994)
'Portrait Of An American Family' is the Trent Reznor produced debut album from the legendary "shock rocker". Opening with a creepy rendition of the poem recited by Willy Wonka during the boat ride scene in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, the album truly kicks off with the exclamation of 'I am the God Of Fuck' in the intro of 'Cake And Sodomy'. It was obvious that Manson had more to say than this, which sounds a lot like a White Zombie album, but as a statement of intent, it's pretty impressive.
Best Songs: Lunchbox; Cake And Sodomy; Misery Machine
214) Ozzy Osbourne - Diary Of A Madman (1981)
Ozzy Osbourne's second solo album. A few months after its release, whilst Ozzy and his band were on tour, guitarist Randy Rhoads was killed in a plane crash. Out of everything bad about the situation, the least important is that Ozzy's music floundered for years from this point on, and didn't really get back on track until the discovery of Zakk Wylde.
Best Songs: Over The Mountain; Diary Of A Madman
213) Nightwish - Wishmaster (2000)
Nightwish's first two albums were the work of a speed metal band who incorporated classical musical elements. It wasn't until 2000's 'Wishmaster' that the band's unique sound really began to take shape, with the speed and heavy sound being replaced with a more atmospheric and melodic one. The subject matter is mostly the usual European metal fare, with lyrics based on fantasy novels including Lord Of The Rings and Dragonlance. By the time their next full length album was released, the band's sound would be complete.
Best Songs: She Is My Sin; Dead Boy's Poem
212) My Chemical Romance - Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys (2010)
After 'The Black Parade' got them pigeonholed into the "emo" subgenre, My Chemical Romance released this album, which is just insane. Anyone who's seen the video for lead single 'Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)' - featuring comic book writing legend Grant Morisson - knows just how far and away from emo this album is. My personal favourite track, though, is 'Party Poison', featuring crazy Japanese news report style spoken word vocals from Airi Isoda in between verses.
Best Songs: Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na); SING; Party Poison
211) Black Label Society - Order Of The Black (2010)
So far, this is Black Label Society's last full length release of all original material, and if it turns out that they don't release anything else, then I can't imagine people would be upset with the swansong. Easily the best album in BLS's catalogue.
Best Songs: Crazy Horse; Overlord; Godspeed Hellbound
210) Kyuss - Welcome To Sky Valley (1994)
The third and best album from the California stoner rockers. By this point, bass player Nick Oliveri had left the band and been replaced by Scott Reeder.
Best Songs: Gardenia; Demon Cleaner
209) Elton John - Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)
Elton John's ninth studio album, and the last for a few years to feature his "classic" backing band featuring Davey Johnstone, Dee Murray, Nigel Olsson, and Ray Cooper.
Best Songs: Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy; Someone Saved My Life Tonight
208) Lynyrd Skynyrd - Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd (1973)
The debut album from the legendary Southern rockers is very helpful for people who didn't know how to pronounce their bizarre spelt name. With this album, the band set the benchmark for every band of a similar style to meet, and to date they are the only band that have met it. When most people think of this album, they think of 'Free Bird', but I'm more partial to 'Tuesday's Gone' and 'Simple Man', myself.
Best Songs: Tuesday's Gone; Simple Man
207) Black Sabbath - Sabotage (1975)
By this point in Sabbath's career, the cracks between Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne were beginning to show, but at the moment it wasn't enough to prevent them from releasing a great album.
Best Songs: Symptom Of The Universe; Am I Going Insane (Radio)
206) The Jacksons - Destiny (1978)
After finally being released from their highly restrictive contract with Motown (which among other things, prevented the group from writing their own material), The Jacksons signed to Epic and released the self-produced 'Destiny' - the album that would end up saving their then flagging career. The singles 'Blame It On The Boogie', and 'Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)' became massive hits that still receive regular rotation today. It was still obvious that Michael was the true star, and he was anxious to go solo full-time.
Best Songs: Blame It On The Boogie; Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)
205) Kanye West - The College Dropout (2004)
When this album was released in 2004, after years of attempting to get his career of the ground only to be told he couldn't rap, Kanye West finally managed to turn the world of hip hop on its head. Far more melodic and soulful than most rappers, his production style was previously showcased on recordings by Jay-Z, but it fits better with West's voice. Since then, he hasn't quite managed to live up to the promise shown on this fantastic debut, and his ego has just kept on growing out of all control, but 'Jesus Walks' on its own I believe is reason to at least give the man some credit.
Best Songs: All Falls Down; Jesus Walks; School Spirit
204) Robbie Williams - Escapology (2002)
Released at the peak of Williams' solo success, 'Escapology' marked the moment where he began taking risks with his music. Along with the pop songs meant to be released as singles for mass consumption, the album is also littered with some moments where he embraced his love of rock music fully. It received mixed reviews, but it's my favourite of his albums, and after this point his output went rapidly downhill.
Best Songs: Sexed Up; Me & My Monkey; Cursed
203) Within Temptation - The Unforgiving (2011)
Within Temptation's 'The Unforgiving' is part of a multimedia project that also includes a comic book series, and a series of short films that expand upon themes and characters from the music on the album. I haven't had a chance to check those out yet, but thankfully the music doesn't seem to have suffered from the band's multi-tiered approach to telling this story.
Best Songs: Shot In The Dark; Sinead; Lost
202) Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra - Theatre Is Evil (2012)
After a few years of releasing novelty records as a way of both celebrating the fact that free from a record label she could now do what she wants, and to give her time to figure out what she wanted to do, last year finally saw the release of Amanda Palmer's first "proper" independent album. Paying for the recording of the album entirely with her own money, she then made history with her Kickstarter campaign which helped her with her plans to give the album a full, high-profile release. A request for $100,000 ended up raising over $1,000,000. For some reason, there was a lot of vitriol being thrown her way for this, but as far as I'm concerned the fact that she managed to entirely record, market, release and tour behind her album whilst still retaining 100% artistic control over each aspect of it because she didn't rely on a record label, and that's something that all artists should be aspiring to. It helps that the actual music is actually of great quality, too... an ode to her favourite pop music of the 80's, the record often bears some similarity to The Killers, except it's superior. I'd still admire this album even if I hated it, but luckily, I love it.
Best Songs: Do It With A Rockstar; Melody Dean; Berlin
201) Aerosmith - Draw The Line (1977)
Aerosmith's fifth album was the last great thing they did before briefly going off the rails spectacularly towards the end of the decade. Luckily they managed to pick themselves up and become re-established as purveyors of anthemic stadium rock, but according to many fans of the band's 70's material (and guitarist Joe Perry himself), this was the end of Aerosmith's classic period.
Best Songs: Draw The Line; Critical Mass
200) Deep Purple - Machine Head (1972)
Known throughout the world as "the album with 'Smoke On The Water' on it", 'Machine Head' is actually a great album all-round, despite being only seven tracks long.
Best Song: Space Truckin'
199) The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks (1977)
The controversial album that somehow became the centre of the punk rock craze of 1977. The Sex Pistols were basically a punk rock boy band formed by Malcolm McLaren as a way to advertise the clothing designed by himself and Vivienne Westwood whose entire career was a carefully calculated publicity stunt. I still maintain that they are the very antithesis of the anti-corporate message that punk rock of the time was about, Sid Vicious was an absolute joke, only ever actually learning to play one song with Glen Matlock and guitarist Steve Jones having to play bass on all other tracks,and I really can't take their post-Pistols careers seriously (with the exception of Jones). But this album, the only studio album that they ever completed (though other tracks, demo's and rough cuts have been included on countless compilations) is undeniably a great listen. I'm glad that Virgin finally released it after the band were signed and then rejected by both EMI and A&M, as without them we'd have missed out on some absolute classics.
Best Songs: Bodies; Anarchy In The U.K.; Pretty Vacant
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.