My Personal Top 10 Favourite Albums!

...Not that anyone probably cares, but I often get asked what some of my favourite albums are, and there are about four that always come to mind immediately, however I often have to really stop to think about it. 

Now as all good lists do, these have and probably will again, change at some point or another (although I will admit No.1 has been number one since I basically first listened to it). 

So sitting here with my cup of coffee, and my computer blasting music, I have thrown together this list, of which tremendous thought and caffeine has gone into. 

Now just to be clear, this is just a list of my personal favourites. There may be (and certainly are) better albums out there than some of these listed, however these are the ones that have really stuck with me.

I thought I'd also share a bit about why the album is where it is on the scale, and why I love it as much as I do.

Ok... Lets do this...

10. With Teeth ~ Nine inch Nails

First off, I am a huge Nine inch Nails fan, easily one of my favourite bands. So you may be wondering, why this album? Why not The Downward Spiral, or The Fragile? One of the more epic albums! ... Well for some reason I have always had a special place for this album. Mainly because it was the first NIN album I had ever heard, and I'll never forget thinking "what the hell sound is this!?" It is groovy, and aggressive and has a 'I don't give a fuck' attitude which was great at the time (First heard in my mid high school years, go figure). But songs like Every Day Is Exactly the Same, Beside You In Time and Right Where It Belongs all had these lyrics that just flat out impressed me. Trent Reznor's style of singing/talking/whispering/chanting just wow'd me. With Teeth opened up many new doors and paved the way into a totally new genre of music for me. I owe this album a lot, and it is still constantly thrown on repeat.

9. Vol.1 ~ Hurt

So one night I had stayed up late trying to get my art portfolio completed. Rushing along nicely, I had channel 4 playing music in the background, when suddenly one song made me drop everything and  glue my attention to the screen. The video of that song is above (Although the album version of the song is far better). The sound just grabbed me, and I had to have the album. Unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere, and nobody knew what the hell I was talking about which didn't help. Anyway by a stroke of luck, a couple weeks later I went to Canada and wouldn't you know, the first cd store I walk in has it sitting there.
I love so much about this album. The vocals and music harmonize and compliment each other so well, going from soft chilling sounds to inexplicably heavy riffs in the flick of a switch. The perfectly timed bursts of aggression really brings out the intended emotion of the songs (the overall theme of the album being heartbreak). But it was the stunning array and use of various instruments that really made me fall in love with this album. Vol.1 is not your typical rock or metal album by any means. It is complex and twisting at times, lyrically beautiful, and heavy when it need be. 

8.  The Ballad Of John Henry ~ Joe Bonamassa

It was by an complete fluke that I stumbled upon, what I can only describe as, one of the most talented musicians of this era. While trying to find some other blues song on Youtube, I happened to click on The Ballad Of John Henry... and it just blew my mind how cool it was, and not only that, how fantastic the guitar playing was. So I listened to the rest of the album, and before it had even finished I was ordering it online. In a time when dubstep was annoyingly everywhere, THIS! This gem of an album fell into my lap. Soulful and, at times, haunting vocals back some of the best modern blues guitar playing I had ever heard. Joe Bonamassa is a guitarist who can certainly make his guitar sing, and that's why (this album of his especially) spent a lot of time being played on repeat during summer. 

7. Toxicity ~ System Of A Down

Ok, the first time I heard this album I have to admit, I had no idea what I was in for. I had heard Chop Suey! on the radio once or twice and thought it was quite a cool song, so when I found Toxicity sitting there at the library, I thought I'd give it a shot. Up until then Rage Against the Machine and some Metallica was really the heaviest things I had heard, and I had only just got into those. Nothing could have prepared me for the 12.57min onslaught of the first five songs. By the time the album had drawn to a close, that was it. I wanted more. I was officially a metal addict.
This album reigned number one of my favourite albums for a very long time indeed, and although I dont listen to it anywhere near as much as I use to, every time I throw it on I still get the same intense feeling from the first time. An adrenaline pumping album if ever there was one!

6. Masters Of Reality ~ Black Sabbath

I've always loved Black Sabbath. It was one of the bands I grew up with in the background, but never paid real attention to until later on in my life. I just happened to be in a Sabbath mood one day and went looking for anything Black Sabbath. Masters of Reality was the first thing I found. It was great, and the more I listened to it the more I loved it! When I went to Scotland it was constantly being blasted through my ear phones. There was something fantastic and right about wandering around all these old stunning castles while listening to Children of the Grave. It was kind of eerie, and made the album even more epic! 

This is even my favourite Sabbath album, with easily some of their best riffs. Not to mention the impressive and emotionally riling Solitude.  It is an album that I always find something new to love about it, and thats why it is where it is on the list.

5. Welcome To Sky Valley ~ Kyuss

I got into Kyuss  a little while after falling in love with Queens of the Stone Age (And at the time I had no idea Josh Homme was their lead guitarist), all I knew was this sludgy stoner rock sound was great, and I lapped up what I could of it. Welcome To Sky Valley was actually the last Kyuss album I got into, but after immediately falling in love with the track Space Cadet its safe to say the album spent a lot of its time being played very loudly and air guitared to. It is just straight up an insanely cool album. The jams and long bluesy grooves in the middle of most songs really inspired me to pick my bass gat back up again and jam. The dirty sound and rough roaring vocal, sparked my love for stoner rock and sludge metal. Some of Josh Hommes best guitar work for sure.

4. Frogstomp ~ Silverchair

Say what you will about Silverchair now, but this, their first album, kicked serious arse. I remember first hearing this and thinking "What the fuck! 15 year olds made this!?" It was pure, grimy, hard-rock fury, and I couldn't get enough of it. Strangely though, it took me a long time to even realise it was one of my favourite albums. I played it all the time, and it was certainly the best album to air guitar too (and still is). Over the last couple years I think I've grown to appreciate how much of a fantastic album it actually is, and how much it has influenced my music taste over the years. Not too mention it always reminds me of playing Call of Duty at the old flat, since it was always in the cd player when we turned it on, so it just always got played.
It is certainly an album I feel that just gets better with age. 

3. Superunknown ~ Soundgarden

This is an album that my best friend loved long before I did. He always lent it to me and raved about it and apart from Black Hole Sun, I never really go into it... until one day it just clicked. I guess I was in a certain mood and everything about it was suddenly amazing and I totally understood what he had been raving about. It is a very interesting album indeed, with every song coming off with a totally different sound and vibe from the other tracks. And at 16 tracks, there is a lot of diversity.
A perfect showcase of Chris Cornell's voice in its prime, and Kim Thayil's wonderfully abstract guitar playing. This album is just so damn unique, which is one reason why I love it so much. I am sure I have been obsessed with every track at one point or another, many tracks such as Head Down, Fell On Black Days and Half, being played over and over while doing a painting.

2. Blood Mountain ~ Mastodon

The moment I first heard the opening track, The Wolf Is Loose, my jaw dropped and my mind exploded as I knew I was in for a serious ride. And disappoint me it did not. I know everyone raves about Crack The Skye being this epic amazing piece of art (And they are in no way wrong), but to me, Blood Mountain is Mastodon's perfect album. It is the perfect middle ground between their full on sludge metal brothel of Leviathan, and the psychedelic driven Crack the Skye. It is heavy, and aggressive, but then you get these beautifully arrange pieces of music that just paint pictures of the most epic exploits. The drumming in particular on this album, is some of the best I have ever heard. From anyone. Period. (Big call I know, but I don't care. They are amazing to the point of blatant blasphemy against all other great drummers)
The thing that I think made me love this album even more, was that my copy came with the 'making of ' DVD. It is not only hilarious, but a great look at how incredibly talented and how incredibly humble and genuinely good guys they are.

1. Lateralus ~ Tool

So this is it... My favourite album, and as I said at the start, it basically has been since my ears first got a taste of it. I had heard a bit of Tool before, but wanted to get an album to really give them a good listen. So into the local Warehouse I went and began flicking through the albums... it was a toss up between Ænima and Lateralus. Seeing my dilemma, a store clerk wandered over and quietly said "Buy Lateralus. Best album ever. Track 10 will blow your mind".... So I did... and it was.... and it did!
Musically, lyrically and vocally, it was like nothing I had ever experienced. The sheer depth and complexity to every song, and the epic scale of the album overall just warped my mind. Justin Chancellor's bass work in particular was a big inspiration to the way I tried to play mine. Maynards voice is mesmerizingly powerful, Danny Carey's drumming is absolutely outstanding, and Adam Jones guitar work is haunting and wondrous. I always struggle to fault this album at all, for there is really nothing I don't like about it. 

It still invokes the same emotions from me as it did all those years ago. A , sometimes, overwhelming sense of nostalgia is present with every listen, and afterwards I remember why I love it as much as I do.

So there you have it. My personal Favourite albums and why.

I have to give honourable mentions to the following albums, as they all were very close in the running.

• Rage Against The Machine ~ Rage Against The Machine
• Blast Tyrant ~ Clutch
• Thirteenth Step ~ A Perfect Circle
• Rated R ~ Queens of the Stone Age
• Antenna ~ Cave In
• Baby 81 ~ Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
• Urban Hymns ~ The Verve
• The Height Of Callousness ~ Spineshank
• Tenacious D ~ Tenacious D
• No More Tears ~ Ozzy Osborne
• Legend ~ Witchcraft

Plus many many more albums that I love so very much.

With that, I leave you

Alex.