Smashing Pumpkins Albums (And some notable EPs/Compilations) Ranked:

This list feature is based on my subjective personal opinion, not fan consensus or journalistic research. They are ranked from best to worst, best being simply “my own favourite” and worst being “the one I personally like the least.” I know it is customary to rank from worst to best, but I prefer to lead with the positive. Check out the rankings home page for more albums-ranked lists.

Today I’ll be discussing Chicago’s own genre-defying, ever-evolving, hard to define band, The Smashing Pumpkins, and their somewhat intimidating discography. (Feel free to add your own ranknigs in the comments).

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1. Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (1993) – Its quite hard to pick a number one album when the band have two of the most definitive albums of the 1990s, both of which are always featured on every list and retrospective of the most important / most iconic / most famous / best albums in every book, magazine, website, blog etc. that you can think of. (Almost like Pink Floyd having both The Wall and Dark Side Of The Moon in their catalogue). Which one you will prefer will ultimately come down to personal choice: Do you want a tighter more direct ride to your destination? Or do you want the more scenic diverse route that covers more ground, and gets you there in a slower but more colourful way?
I like every album the Pumpkins have made so far, but it is fair to say the most famous two are the most famous for a good reason, and the two best starting points for a new fan. I was almost tempted for half a minute not to pick either the perfect-flowing Siamese Dream or the epic double-album Melon Collie’ for first place, but ultimately decided that was just being deliberately awkward, and inaccurate. After deep consideration, I do honestly believe Siamese Dream is my favourite Pumpkins album and deserving of the top spot, even if it is an obvious choice.  

Great drums, heavy moments, soft moments, grungey moments, occasional proggy tinges and some very memorable hits. Enough has already been written about Billy Corgan’s masterpiece that I won’t write too much steamy praise here, but if you haven’t heard it yet, I’ll just echo the hundreds of voices online that say it absolutely lives up to its reputation, deserves all the plaudits, and gets better on each listen.

And to think, I took a strange dislike to this band as a teenager due to the song “Today” and its music video, and didn’t give the band a fair listen until my brother got me this album as an unrequested gift, only about 4 or 5 years ago. All that time wasted, not realising how good this band are. Oh well, guess I’ll have to make up for it now.

Best hits: “Cherub Rock” & “Disarm”

Best deep cuts: “Silverfuck,” “Geek USA” & “Hummer.”

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2. Smashing Pumpkins – Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (1996) – As hinted above already, this huge sprawling eccentric record is another masterpiece, and has an equal chance of being thought of as their finest hour. It is almost difficult to take in during one listen, there’s more creativity and ideas popping off here than in some of their peer’s whole discographies.

It takes all the ideas of their previous two albums, amplifies them, expands upon them and then introduces dozens more new ideas on top of that to create a two-hour voyage through numerous facets of rock, pop and metal music with a loose dreamy passage of time theme, some trippy artwork, and some very evocative lyrics. There are songs for every mood you could be in, for every type of rock fan – perhaps that’s why it was such a monster seller?

Speaking of its sales, I almost find it hard to believe that such a borderline reckless album with seemingly no creative restraint ended up being so financially successful (gold, platinum, multi-platinum and diamond selling, in different territories). Sometimes it doesn’t even seem to know if it wants to be Smells Like Teen Spirit, Pink Moon, Colony Of Slippermen or Enter Sandman. Then again, a few listens, and you get to see how good the songs are, and as mentioned above… there’s something for everything, so I guess it makes a lot of sense.   
 

Best hits: “Tonight, Tonight,” “Zero” & “1979.”

Best deep cuts: “An Ode To No One,” “X.Y.U” & “Where Boys Fear To Tread.”

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3. Smashing Pumpkins – Gish (1991) – This is one of the band’s tightest, most efficient, consistent and succinct records to date. Whereas the next two albums made a great success out of being broad, expansive, and diverse, this album’s strength is in its relative straight-forwardness and cohesion.

That’s not to say the album is boring or repetitive, there is a mixture of hard rockers, ballads and sleepy psychedelic moments – its just focused, flows well and has a clear direction. I know the band started off in the ‘80s with a bunch of goth and New Wave influences, but by the time they got into the 90s, their debut album sounds more like early Monster Magnet and peak Kyuss to me than it does like New Order or The Cure. Maybe that’s just my ear. Rock fans who have only heard the big singles like “1979” and “Today,” or “Tonight, Tonight” might be quite surprised with the fuzzed out attacking moments on this record. If you like your “Demon Cleaner” with a side of “Dinosaur Vacuum” – check this one out, you might be pleasantly surprised.

In terms of a well-crafted album, this is pretty damn great. The others are just trying to be “more than an album” and, arguably succeeding. Still, in such a long and very varied career, with members coming and going, with exploration into all sorts of different musical territories, through various breakups and comebacks… whichever album managed to come in at third place behind the two obvious always going to be number one or two shouts must be pretty must-hear, right? Well it is. I feel like every music publication in the rock world will tell you to listen to Siamese’ and Melon Collie, but if you have even the most passing interest in the band, you need to get some Gish in your life too, at an absolute minimum.

Best songs: “Bury Me,” “Siva” & “I Am One.”

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4. Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist (2007) – This album usually features pretty low on critic’s Pumpkins album ranking lists, but I don’t care. This blog isn’t about the common consensus, this is just my own personal taste, and personally, I love this record.

The Smashing Pumpkins have one of the most frustrating and hard to please fanbases in the rock world, and the critics seems twice as unpleasable as that. This album was already written-off by the press before it was even released because bassist and guitarist D’arcy and James were gone, and then upon review, the specifics were added in. It was poo-pooed for being too metal and too simple, despite critic’s favourite Pumpkins albums being full of highly metallic songs like “Zero” and “Bodies” and “Quiet” as well as despite critics previously poo-pooing parts of Machina for being too experimental and proggy, on top of the fact that D’arcy and James contributed the least musically to all the albums the critics do like… its just a weird bandwagon for everyone to jump on.

When the Pumpkins came back with a cool striking artwork and theme (that carried through to all the merch and singles and videos and stage image etc), and a vague promise in interviews to return to the immediacy of Gish, and kept the two most important members of the band, in hindsight it just seems a little weird and off that this album is thought of by so many people as a stinker.

Imagine being Billy Corgan in 2007, or even nowadays looking back at rankings and seeing this at or near the bottom. What must he be thinking? “You’re mad at the Pumpkins because they’re being more simple, like you wanted them to, and writing more metallic songs again, like you wanted them to, and because the band members who make the least difference to the overall Pumpkins sound are gone – but the really noticeable drummer and the voice and writer of 90% of the music is still there…the guy who physically played all the bass on Siamese Dream anyway? – And on top of that, this record and marketing campaign are both really cool and that’s all being ignored in favour of those really nit-picky complaints?”  Yeah, ok, I wouldn’t know how to process that either.

When I personally listen to the excellent music, which has some great Hard Rock / borderline metallic bangers ala the best moments on the first three albums, as well as some great melodic modern moments that rival or even exceed the best moments on Machina (“That’s The Way My Love Is,” “Bring The Light” etc), and even a near-ten-minute Tool-sounding drum fuelled epic (“United Stated”)… I definitely get what I want from the Pumpkins.

I guess some people wanted Dream Pop, or Shoegaze or New Wave or Avant-Garde, and fair enough, those aspects are in shorter supply here, so if that is what you were expecting, those elements aren’t as well represented this time, and if that was the actual criticism, I could respect that. But don’t try and tell me with a straight face that “Death From Above” is a bad song, or that you can really hear the lack of D’Arcy on this album.

Some people don’t like the production, especially on the vocals, and fair enough, that’s personal taste. I can get if you don’t want all the overdubbed vocals and effects. For me, personally, the production here still sounds a lot better than Adore or either volume of Machina did, so its not a deal-breaker level bad production to my ears.         

Best songs: “Doomsday Clock,” “Tarantula” & “United States.”

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5. Smashing Pumpkins – Shiny And Oh So Bright’ (2018) – This eight track album (initially called Volume 1, although there seems no sign of a volume 2 at time of writing) is the Pumpkins’ shortest album to date, at just over half an hour.

While other Smashing Pumpkins albums tend to have a hook or angle of some sort (eg. broad, diverse, eccentric, arty, commercial, electronic, heavy, quiet, proggy, back to basics, etc) this one just seems to focus entirely on “good song writing” which for my money, is a very admirable goal.

There are only eight songs here, but all of them are a winner, nothing is skippable, all are immensely memorable.     

The Rick Rubin-produced affair sees the return of guitarist James Iha (absent since 2000) and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain (absent since 2009), which makes for good headlines, although early bassist D’arcy Wretzky is still absent, which rankled some critics, so I guess you could only consider it a partial reunion… kind of like Guns N’ Roses getting Slash and Duff back in the band, but not Adler.

Oh well, if the results are this good, I can live without the optics of a full reunion.

PS. I don’t mean to come across like I dislike D’Arcy or anything, not at all, I just really don’t understand when some people online or in the media come out with a real hard-line “No Pumpkins album without D’Arcy is any good” attitude. I just don’t see it. They’ve released some spectacular work without her.   

Best songs: “Seek And You Shall Destroy,” “Marchin’ On” & “Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts).”

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6. Smashing Pumpkins – Machina II: The Friends & Enemies Of Modern Music (2000) – Smashing Pumpkins are years ahead of their time. They gave an album away for free on the internet more than half a decade before Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails made it cool. They had some alternate-reality marketing before a similar idea made Reznor look like a genius. Hell, they even had the idea of an animated band before the Gorillaz.
If you are wondering what the heck I’m talking about, have a good old read online about the stillborn double album Glass And The Machines Of God. Ok, it wasn’t all completely original…  the idea of a rock opera about a rock-star thing had already been well explored by bands like WASP and Savatage a decade prior, and of course by Pink Floyd over a decade before that. But the they handled/were going to handle it, seemed like quite a cool update / twist on the basic premise.   

When the record that was initially to be a double eventually morphed into two separate records, Machina 2, (the one that didn’t unfortunately get a proper commercial release and which you have to listen to online or via dodgy bootlegs), was actually the better of the two, with the best songs, the best ideas, and the most clear narrative.

Until this eventually gets rereleased in some glorious deluxe edition, you’ll just have to search-engine your way to a trustworthy copy, and the sound won’t be perfect, but for the tunes its worth it.

Although it has such an interesting backstory, it is not a mere gimmick, and if it was just an album you could always get in the shops just like anything else, it would still be one of their best. I can’t even think of the Pumpkins without thinking “Shattering fast…”  

Best songs: “Glass’ Theme,” “Cash Car Star” & “Dross.”

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7. Smashing Pumpkins – Monuments To An Elegy (2014) – This album has the somewhat weird distinction of having Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee on drums. As odd a pairing as that is on paper, Lee actually fits the music tastefully and you wouldn’t even know he was there unless you were told.

Similarly to Shiny And Oh So Bright, it is barely over half an hour in length. With the exception of the quite rocking opener, the musical direction is quite upbeat, poppy, synthy. It’s a very pleasant listening experience.

If you want blistering guitar solos, throat rending screams, and gen-x angst, you’ve very much picked up the wrong disc, but if you want to hear the band in a more contemplative, mature, less aggro space, this is a nice diversion. Simple, elegant, understated. I guess you could see it as Billy exploring what songs you can write at the polar opposite point to the complex, ostentatious, over the top end of the spectrum that brought us Melon Collie. I wouldn’t like them to live here full time, I love it when they go big, but as a one off album, I really love that this exists.

Best songs: “Tiberius,” “Drum + Fife” & “Anaise!”

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8. Smashing Pumpkins – Pisces Iscariot (1994) – Ok, this isn’t a real album, its actually a B-sides compilation, but its as good as most band’s real albums. In fact, there’s many a Pumpkins fan who would place this as their second or third best record, almost up there with the top tier classics.

Its well sequenced, and flows like a real album, moreso than a compilation, and if someone told you it wasn’t just their second album between Gish and Siamese Dream, you could easily fall for that line.  

For that reason, I’ve decided to include it on the list here. If you’re using this list as a buyer’s guide, seriously treat this compilation like a true album, its unskippable.

Best songs: “Frail & Bedazzled,” “Pissant” & “Starla.”

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9. Smashing Pumpkins – Oceania (2012) – 2012’s Oceania is the first full-length Pumpkins album with Jeff Schroeder officially on it, even though he’s actually been in the band since the comeback shows of 2007.

After the press and even a lot of the fans unceremoniously took a dump on the fantastic Zeitgeist album, in which the band had tried to be simplistic and go back to basics, but also took a dump on the live shows of the time in which the band tried to be creative and progressive and boundary pushing, (see the excellent documentary / live DVD “If All Goes Wrong” for context), then also ignored their ahead-of-their-time, creative new “we don’t do albums anymore, we’ll just release stuff online” approach of the next few years… the Pumpkins were at a bit of a cross roads. People aren’t happy when the band go back to their roots, people aren’t happy when the band making progress… the only thing people can really seem to ever agree on is liking  Siamese Dream. Everyone likes Siamese Dream. So, Billy and company decided with Oceania to deliberately try and remind people of Siamese Dream. Not so much obvious retreading, but “capturing a vibe.” Well, I say not obvious retreading, but you’d have to try very hard to find a review of this album that doesn’t mention “Cherub Rock,” or “Disarm” or maybe even “Spaceboy” and “Luna” …everyone is tripping over themselves to hear hints of Siamese Dream on this album, and tell .

Its not all Siamese-nostaliga though. You can actually hear as much were they would be going on future albums like Monuments’ and Cyr in some of the poppier and synthier moments as much as you can riffs or drum rolls that remind you of the glory days.

In terms of ranking it, it is a pretty strong album, but a bit of filler holds it back from the absolute top tiers. If it had either been a tad more adventurous, or else a tad more succinct, it would have been even better. As it stands, its just pretty good, but not an utter classic.

Best songs: “The Celestials,” “Inkless” & “Quasar.”

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10. Smashing Pumpkins – Teargarden By Kaleidyscope EPs & Singles (2010) – As mentioned above, after the music journalists savaged basically everything Billy and his merry band did since they returned, the decision was made to abandon the traditional album format, and instead just release digital EPs and singles.

This was quite forward thinking, but like Lars was right about Napster at the time, and people are starting to realise it in hindsight, but it seemed crazy at the time and people just didn’t rally around it like they should have. It seems like the whole “lets eschew albums in favour of just digital singles or short but frequent EPs” mostly idea is more relevant today than ever. You can’t switch on a music podcast these days without some artist or industry insider pondering about whether the album format is old fashioned in the era of streaming and downloads.

Technically, Oceania and Monuments’ are part of this overarching project too, but they work as well (if not better) as distinct albums, so for this entry, I’m just talking about the rest of the material. If you take the EPs The Solstice Bare & Songs For A Sailor plus the rest of the Teargarden single tracks, they basically all add up together to form a third album’s worth of material, and so for ease of organisation, I tend to just think of them as one album, and have actually just formatted them as one album in my music library. A sort of missing album between Zeitgeist and Oceania if you will.

You know how they say don’t look a gift horse in the mouth? Yeah, well, considering these are totally free tracks, it’s a very enjoyable set. Alright, if you want to get your critical analysis skills out, sure, it isn’t as accomplished as the upper half of the list, but for a free record, it’s a heck of a lot better than you’d expect.

Best songs: “Song For A Son,” “Freak USA” & “Cottonwood Symphony.”

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11. Smashing Pumpkins – Cyr (2020) – The newest album on this list at time of writing, Cyr is a double disc synth-pop album. It was talked up as being their attempt to create something modern, but to me it sounds like ‘80s worship. I wonder is this in fact closer to the vision inside Billy’s head when they started the band, than a genuine attempt to be modern?

At first, I wasn’t quite as into this record as most of the others. My main concerns were basically, “What’s the point of having a drummer as good as Chamberlain back in the band if you are going to have programmed beats and restrained songs?” and “what’s the point of having a double album if its all sort of one pace and all sort of one duration, with no peaks and valleys?” but from repeat listens, it has really grown on me. At the end of the day, a good song is a good song. Yeah, it isn’t as heavy and aggressive as I like, or as proggy and weird as I like, or as acoustic and beautiful as I like, or as diverse and surprising as I like, or as virtuosic and instrumentally impressive as I’d like… but do I spend a lot of the week humming choruses or melody lines from it… so Billy must have been on to something.

Best songs: “Ramona,” “Anno Satana” “Tyger, Tyger” & “Wyttch.”

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12. Smashing Pumpkins – The Aeroplane Flies High Boxset (1996) – Originally this was a box set collecting all the singles from Melon Collie, but nowadays you can just get it on iTunes or Amazon etc, and if you ignore the hit Mellon Collie songs, its kind of works like a (less-good) follow up to Pisces Iscariot. In contrast to that very wonderful compilation though, this doesn’t flow like an album, isn’t consistent all the way through, and isn’t a must-have. If you love the Pumpkins and just want a bit more, it is worth seeking out, and there are some great tunes on it, but it is definitely uneven and for-fans-only.

Best songs: “God,” “Pennies” & “Marquis In Spades.”

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13. Smashing Pumpkins – Machina / The Machines Of God (2000) – I really like the album, but I’m going to have to try and justify putting it so far down the list, lower than things that aren’t even real albums, between albums you can’t even buy on CD and between albums without most of the original line up. Far below albums many critics outright panned. It would be easy to just say “personal preference” chalk the whole thing up as a good job, and knock off early for ice cream, but I suppose I better try and come up with a rationale anyway.

The production on this one has a bit of a harsh sheen on most of it, and sort of hurts my ears. It’s a bit too bright, brittle and loud.

The record is also a bit overlong and although there is some diversity and some totally new ideas, it suffers a bit from filler in the middle and so unfortunately feels like it doesn’t justify its length.  

The heavy, energetic, intensely memorable opener is one of the best songs in the band’s history, and there are some nice trippy experimental moments here and there, but most of the album is a bit too syrupy.

Also, for a concept album / rock opera, the narrative doesn’t really come across as clearly as you would expect.

If either they had combined this and Machina 2 into one giant epic, or else they had trimmed this down to its best moments, and toned down the production a bit, then perhaps it would be a bit higher up the list, but as it stands, it is a good Pumpkins album, but not a great one.

Best songs: “The Everlasting Gaze,” “Try, Try, Try” & “Wound.”

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14. Smashing Pumpkins – Adore (1998) – It feels harsh having this album last, and indeed it will be utter blasphemy to some fans, but something has to be in last place, and although I like it, it is unarguably my least favourite. The songs, for the most part, aren’t just quite as good as the Pumpkin’s best. There’s definitely good stuff here, but there’s better stuff elsewhere.

I don’t mind them not playing hard or metallic, I don’t mind them not having Chamberlain’s drums, and I don’t mind them using synths or being gothy elsewhere, so don’t think I’m some kind of luddite just rejecting this album because it was a big sonic shift for the band.

Its just a bit plain, unadventurous and dreary when compared to the Pumpkins’ bigger more beloved albums, and also not as memorable, concise and well-written as their lesser well-known material. Even compared to their other ‘80s and electronic tinged album, its not as fun.

I’m sort of making it sound as though I don’t like it, but that is not the case, I do still like it… I’m just trying to explain how it can be last on the list, so the hardcore fans put down their pitchforks and flaming torches. It has some memorable moments, a unique aesthetic in the band’s catalogue, was historically important. I’m not denying that. It is an interesting portrait of a dark, bereaved time for the Pumpkins and confused time for the music business. But its just not as much my cup of tea as all the others.

Oh wait, did I essentially just say “personal preference” and knock off early? Woops. Anyone for ice-cream?

Best songs: “Ava Adore,” “Blank Page” & “For Martha.”

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Also, the EPs American Gothic and Lull deserve honorary mentions. You can do with “Slunk” and “The Rose March” in your life if you like good Pumpkins.

Clutch Albums Ranked:

This list feature is based on my subjective personal opinion, not fan consensus or journalistic research. They are ranked from best to worst, best being simply “my own favourite” and worst being “the one I personally like the least.” I know it is customary to rank from worst to best, but I prefer to lead with the positive. Check out the rankings home page for more albums-ranked lists.

Today, I’ll be discussing the studio albums from the one of a kind, eccentric and diverse Maryland Rock band, Clutch.

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1. Clutch – Earth Rocker (2013) – This is one of those albums like Dr. Feelgood or Permanent Vacation where it seems like someone sat the band down, sobered them up, got them into a laser-beam focus, and said “ok, you have to make the biggest album of your career now.” Its one of those career defining albums like Back In Black, or British Steel or The Black Album where it feels like the band were making a concerted effort to “step up.” Its one of those albums like “Paranoid” where the album plays more like a greatest hits compilation than a single album and almost every song could have been a hit. Its one of those albums like Formation Of Damnation or Hordes Of Chaos that come later in the band’s career and somehow set a new standard for excellence and start a new golden age for the band.

Its all of those things and more. It’s the biggest, boldest, liveliest, punchiest record of the band’s career; with a level of quality control, focus and singular-vision that makes this something truly rare, truly special….a perfect record! It’s the band’s supercharged, hyper-focused, ultra-consistent, perfect-all-the-way-through, “THIS.IS.CLUTCH.” defining statement.

The album just explodes out of the speakers, crackling with life, bursting with colour, oozing personality, throwing gem after gem after gem at you and never letting up. “Coming at you in all 3-Ds.” Its larger than life, its almost too good to be true. Its Earth Rocker, motherfucker!  Blurgh-haw-hah-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Best songs: “Earth Rocker,” “Cyborg Bete,” “Crucial Velocity” & “Unto The Breach.”

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2. Clutch – Blast Tyrant (2004) – This thing could be described as “Personality, the album.” This record is the refinement, crystallisation and then expansion of everything the band had been building up to until this point. This album forever set Clutch aside from the pack. All the way up until Earth Rocker (almost a decade) this must have been their Ace Of Spades type “cannot escape the shadow” album.

This album is like a colourful alternate reality dreamworld. Lots of little Funk, Soul, Gospel, Gogo, Southern Rock and Blues tinges mix with a bombastic foundation of high energy Hard Rock, filtered through boundless creativity in an effortless air of cool. The band clearly tapped into an embarrassment-of-riches vein from the mine of earworm choruses, toe-tapping beats and make-you-smile riffs n’ basslines. Every musician is like the best musician in any other band.

Add to that an outrageously good opening run of six classics, some diversity with a smoky ballad, an instrumental and some virtuosic jamming. Its packaged up in bizarre memorable artwork and a gorgeous clear vibrant production job… mix it all up and you’ve got a straight up classic album on your hands.

Frontman Neil Fallon also seemed to take this moment to ascend from cool singer with quirky lyrics into a God-tier contender for best rock frontman in history. If this guy had been around in the ’60s or ’70s when the history books were still unwritten he would no doubt be up there in the top-10 with the likes of any icon you dare to name. Its like he did some soul searching, figured out what his “best qualities” were, then just made his whole being the best bits, and then upped his game tenfold again! Remember the idea of how Dimebag decided to make every riff “the money riff”? Here its like Neil decided to make every verse, chorus and bridge the vocal equivalent of “the money riff.”

As if all that if that wasn’t enough…. they then also managed to write “The Mob Goes Wild” …which for my money is unarguably one of the best songs in human history. If you don’t love that song, you are no friend of mine! The fact that it isn’t talked about daily in the same breath as “Smoke On The Water,” “Whole Lotta Love” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” is nothing short of a crying shame.    

Best songs: “The Mob Goes Wild,” “Subtle Hustle” “The Profits Of Doom” & “The Regulator.”

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3. Clutch – Clutch (1995) – The band’s “real” debut in the eyes of many, and for many their crowning achievement. Self-titled for a reason. This is one superb set of songs let me tell you and a real genre-classic for the Stoner Rock scene. (I mean Clutch are a weird, unique outlier for the scene and more than just Stoner Rock, but its definitely a part of the sound, particularly on this record).

It was great enough for them to play it in its entirety for a live album, and they have always played a hell of a lot of it live over the years.

This is such a humongous step up from Speedway’ and the early EPs. The same DNA is there, but the results are very different. For example, the bounce of ‘Marcus can be heard updated on “Animal Farm,’ the groove of “El Jefe” can be heard evolved on “Tight Like That.” The clever lyrics and badass attitude of “12 Oz Epilogue” and ‘Monster Trucks can be heard evolved on, well… all over this album. This album takes the best most charasmatic and memorable moments of the last a builds a whole album out of the cream of the crop.

If you have this as your own number-one in your own rankings, I’d totally get it. The only reasons I can think of to knock it down lower are personal preference issues, and just because they’ve released better stuff since. If I was to try and justify it not being first like so many online Clutch rankings would have it, all I can come up with is that the production is a bit rough, the vocals are a bit unrefined, the last few songs could have been cut for a tighter experience… but all that is just nitpicking and I love this record. At the end of the day, it does have some of the band’s finest tracks, is a fan-favourite and really helped define who and what Clutch are, and it is chocked to the brim with charm.

Best songs: “Texan Book Of The Dead,” “Escape From The Prison Planet” & “Animal Farm.”

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4. Clutch – The Book Of Bad Decisions (2018) – The band’s newest album at time of writing, and the one that has grown on me the most over time. Every single time I listen to this I like it more and more, and I liked it plenty when it was released. If you deleted tracks 2 and 3, I think you could even bump this album up another place, as it would then be close to perfect.

It almost goes without saying, since we are talking about Clutch, but this album is so big, fun, memorable, and full of personality, with such unique lyrics and charismatic vocals, immense drumming, and stick-in-your-head-for-weeks basslines & riffs.

How many bands twelve albums deep (and numerous EPs and compilations more) into their career are still putting out one of their best albums and seeming more relevant and exciting now than when they broke through? It’s a pretty exclusive club.

Imagine being decades into your career and still being able to knock out a song as memorable, powerful and immensely fun as “How To Shake Hands” …that’s almost unfair, leave some quality for the rest of the bands in the world! I never get tired of imagining President Fallon flying around in a UFO.

Best songs: “Ghoul Wrangler,” “Paper & Strife” “In Walks Barbarella” & “Hot Bottom Feeder.”

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5. Clutch – Robot Hive/Exodus (2005) – Blast Tyrant was like their equivalent of coming out with The Blackening years after Burn My Eyes. It can’t have been easy following that up. No matter what you do it won’t have quite the same impact for most fans.

Despite gigantic shoes to fill, Robot Hive’ is a superb follow-up and near as good. Its more diverse, more eclectic and tries more things, and sacrifices a little bit of focus for variety, but it is certainly worth it and much more hit than miss. Bazumph.

I always think of this and Blast Tyrant as a set, and often don’t listen to one without the other, so it is purely academic ranking them or having one higher or lower than the other. You need to buy both, it’s as simple as that.

Best songs: “Burning Beard,” “Circus Maximus” & “The Incomparable Mr. Flannery.”

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6. Clutch – Psychic Warfare (2015) – Like Robot Hive’ is the follow-up companion to Blast Tyrant’s excellence, so too is Psychic Warfare the worthy follow-up companion to Earth Rocker’s perfection. This album is pure class, the only reason it isn’t higher being it had to follow up a surprise world-beater. If this had have came out first and Earth Rocker never existed, then this would be talked about in much the same way as Earth Rocker is.

Certainly they were on a fine run on form, and you can take the albums from Earth Rocker onwards as a set, and it would be an absolutely fantastic set, a golden era. This is what the phrase “its like someone lit a fire under their ass” was made for. Few bands ever have (or ever will) released three such strong albums in succession. It goes against my catholic upbringing, I admit it, but I’m a sucker for this album!

Best songs: “Sucker For The Witch,” “A Quick Death In Texas” & “Your Love Is Incarceration.”

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7. Clutch – Strange Cousins From The West (2009) – Most fans might have this one a bit lower in the rankings, but its one of my favourites, and I have an emotional attachment to it as it was the first “new” Clutch album in my time as a serious fan. ‘90s fans would probably want to slap me for having it above Elephant Riders, but hey, this is my list, make your own list if you want this lower. This album is the band’s blues-iest, roots-iest album to date, perhaps leaning hard in on the success of “Electric Worry” and doubling down on it.

It’s a far cry from the days of “Impetus” and “Pitchfork” style face-smashing, and instead sits in a “the world’s greatest bar band” territory. Its like John Bonham, Jimi Hendrix and a coked-up gospel preacher decided to play at your local blues bar and knock out some of the most good-time music they could. It also has fabulous, Monster-Magnet-quality, memorable, unique, quirky lyrics. Lyrics have always been a selling point for Clutch and I feel like this album has some of their absolute best.

This album is all about the feel. Its all about being in the pocket, in the groove, in the vibe. It’s the idea of Jam Room for the new millennium, but the execution is a thousand times better. If you dislike this, I have a hard time taking you seriously.

Best songs: “Struck Down,” “Freakonomics” “Sleestak Lightning” & “50,000 Unstoppable Watts.”

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8. Clutch – The Elephant Riders (1998) – “Uneven” is a very harsh, pedantic and easily counterargued criticism for the album, but short of just having all albums be “joint first” and calling it a day, there has to be some way of differentiating the albums and ranking them…even if having this one lower than some of the other ones might be blasphemy to many fans.  

It is painful to have this album so low, but we are into the ultimate “they’re always brilliant, how do I choose?” splitting hairs territory now. This album is an absolute classic of the subgenre, one of the best albums of the 1990s and contains some of my personal all-time favourite songs ever written by anyone.

In fact, if the whole album was as good as the highlights, this could have a shout for being one of the best albums of all time. Yes, I do like other records better, but I still consider this still “must-have,” and still recommend it to all fans no matter how casual.

Best songs: “The Elephant Riders,” “The Soap Makers” & “The Yeti.”

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9. Clutch – From Beale Street To Oblivion (2007) – If any other similar band put this out, it would be the greatest achievement of their whole career. Sixty Watt Shaman, Five Horse Johnson and Monster Truck will never, ever release anything even close to this good, so the fact that it is so low down on this list makes me feel very conflicted.

An album with an opening three song run as good as this, or a moment as joyous and infectiously mood-lifting as “Electric Worry” can’t honestly be ever considered one of a band’s “lesser” albums can it? Well that’s just testament to how ridiculously good Clutch are.

Sometimes I will hear people talk negatively about this album and it just seems offensive to me. If this was a one-off album by a band that broke up afterwards, it would be such a beloved cult classic. Ok, its their ninth best album, but its better than 90% of the albums in whole subgenre.

Best songs: “You Can’t Stop Progress,” “Power Player” & “The Devil & Me.”

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10. Clutch – Pure Rock Fury (2001) – This album was a bit of a hit, due in no small part to the rap-rock satire of its most famous track. It also contains the title track that became the does-what-it-say-on-the-tin badge that all fans and journalists use to describe the band with when they go a bit harder and faster. It is very well liked by fans of a certain vintage. It is however, just a bit “different.”

A lot of this comes down to the fact that it has a very different production for the band, seemingly going for the opposite of their loose, groovey Stoner Rock stylings of their previous three albums and attempting something more fitting in with modern Metal productions of the era. The results are a tighter, stiffer sound than any other Clutch record before or since.

Musically, this is also a transitional album that doesn’t fit neatly into any era of the band’s varied discography. It is heavy in places and dark at times, but it isn’t the punishing bruising hardcore dirge of the early days, it isn’t the funky stoner mashup of the preceding albums or the unique career defining new direction of the albums that follow it. It is an island.  Its still 100% Clutch; the musicianship, the exploration, the blue-collar vibes, the wit and humour of the lyrics, the variety and eccentricity of the vocals… and yet it is also kind of nothing like they’ve done before or since at the same time. Unique.

If you check out the Live At The Googolplex live album, these songs sound much more like Elephant Riders/Self-Titled era songs live, stripped of that tight stiff production, and similarly, if you look at the demo version of “Sinkemlow” on the 2004-reissue of Jam Room, you can really get an idea of what a difference the producers (the pseudonymed combo of “Uncle Punchy” and “Machine”) made here.

All talk of production jobs and stylistic directions aside though, this is a solid collection of good songs, with some really high highlights that make the overall package even better.  

Best songs: “Pure Rock Fury,” “Red Horse Rainbow” & “Careful With That Mic.”

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11. Clutch – Jam Room (1999) – The band’s “we’re sick of record label disappointment, let’s just jam in a garage and have a good time” type album. It is a lot looser, more “live” sounding, freer and “jam”-feeling than any of the albums that preceded it (and certainly the one that followed it).

The band weren’t trying to write hits, the band weren’t trying to win over legions of new fans, the band weren’t trying to make a definitive magnum opus, this is just four dudes knocking out some music. For what it is, Jam Room is a complete success.

The only reason it is so low on the list is that Clutch are one of the best bands to ever pick up instruments and this album isn’t as good as their usual output by comparison. It’s a deliberately low effort, low brainpower, unrefined version of the band, and gloriously so, but the fact remains, they’ve done better.

Definitely not “skip it” but don’t let it be your first Clutch album either, wait until there’s almost nothing else you haven’t tried before giving it a go.   

Best songs: “Raised By Horses” “Big Fat Big” & “Who Want’s To Rock?”

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12. Clutch – Slow Hole To China  (2003) – This list doesn’t cover some of the band’s catalogue, such as the various early EPs or reissues and compilations thereof, the mid career Basket Of Eggs EP, various live albums, the Weathermaker Vault series, or spin off material like The Bakerton Group.  

However; there is one non-studio-album release I felt needed to be included – the B-Sides album, Slow Hole To China. Slow Hole’ is sequenced and arranged like a real album, features many fan favourites that the band still play live and have been on live albums and generally, compared to other bands this B-Sides compilation is not just random loser-material for superfans only, but rather an “essential album” for all but the most casual of fans. Ok, its not Earth Rocker, Blast Tyrant or The Self-Titled… but it is worth your time.

Best songs: “Hoodoo Operator,” “Willie Nelson” & “Easy Breeze.”

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13. Clutch – Transnational Speadway League’ (1993) – The band’s debut album is stylistically quite different than most people’s idea of the Clutch sound. When I first got into the band, I didn’t like this album at all and have very-gradually warmed to it over the years. When you hear songs from it live in amongst songs from Elephant Riders or The Self-Titled you sort of “get it” a bit more, and because the music is pretty dense, thick and sludgy it takes a lot of repeat listens for it to sink in.

It’s the band’s heaviest, nastiest, most aggressive album to date (all usually things that make an album my favourite) and some of the band’s trademark wit, humour and inventive lyrics/vocals are starting to come through, but the reason this album sits in last place is that only about half the songs are what I’d describe as “good” and only about a quarter of them are what I’d describe as “fun” so basically, I usually listen to the very good band Clutch and have a fun time, but when I listen to this album all the way through in one sitting, I’m only getting that part of the time. Instantaneous this is not, but that doesn’t mean it is devoid of quality. For collectors.

Best songs: “A Shogun Named Marcus,” “El Jeffe Speaks” & “Walking In The Great Shining Path Of Monster Trucks.”

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Machine Head Albums Ranked:

Hate list features? Feel free to skip this article and others in this series.

Here I’ll be ranking the albums by certain bands in order from Best (actually my subjective favourite) to worst/least good (subjectively, in my opinion). Number 1 is obviously the best. The lowest number is my least favourite.

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MACHINE HEAD:

01. Unto The Locust (2011): This album in my opinion is their finest hour, the best balance of aggressive and melodic, the best balance of fast and slow, the most tasteful lyrics and vocals of their career, one of the best production jobs in their career (that guitar tone is killer!).  This album is their most focused and succinct outing to date, seven songs and absolutely no filler, not even flab on indivdual songs (the only thing I would lose is the children’s choir in the intro of the album closer, but that’s just a couple of bars anyway).

‘Locust takes the formula set up over the past two albums and utterly perfects it. There is not one song on here I don’t want to see live. (When I have seen them live, songs from it have invariably been highlights of the whole night!). I’ve had a locust poster on my wall for most years since this albums release. I still have the keychain that came with it on my keys to this day. This may not be the one that gets all the magazine coverage and list features, but it is my personal favourite.

Best songs: ‘Locust,’ ‘Darkness Within’ & ‘Who We Are.’

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02. The Blackening (2007): A truly classic album and one of the best heavy metal albums of the decade.  This album has been called the Master Of Puppets of this generation. While that is a big statement and will likely shock and appal some people, it was absolutely beloved here in the UK and will be the highpoint against which all future records will be judged. There was such a swell of buzz and hype around this album cycle and the band were at their most respected and critically acclaimed since their debut. It also helped that they absolutely nailed the imagery, artwork and music videos. Everything just gelled.

The quality of the song writing is near peerless and it does feature some of the best guitar solos and most fired-up performances of their whole career. This album is the high water mark for the Demmel/Flynn guitar trade off.

There is really no denying the sheer energy and enthusiasm on display throughout the record. Everything just bursts out of the speakers. For example the level of musical, vocal and lyrical venom/anger in the Dimebag-honouring, troll-shaming anthem ‘Aesthetics Of Hate’ is almost breathtaking.

I may prefer Locust more personally, but the majority of fans and critics will opt for this one, and the band have featured huge doses of it in every live set since its release. If you only buy one Machine Head album, it should probably be this one.

Best songs: ‘Clenching The Fists Of Dissent,’ ‘Aesthetics Of Hate’ & ‘Wolves.’

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03. Burn My Eyes (1994): The original classic album. When this was new it was the fastest selling debut album Roadrunner Records ever had at that point. This is a definitive metal album of the 1990s. Its up there with Vulgar Display, Demanufacture & Chaos AD in the most important and influential metal albums of my youth (and to some extent the 1990s in general). Like The Blackening it is a cannonised stone cold classic album, widely respected and prominently featured in many list features and retrospectives.

This album is really the definition of Groove Metal for me. There were traces of this sort of music developing one riff at a time over the late ‘80s and early ‘90s in various Thrash Metal and Hardcore Punk albums, but it truly comes together into something new, fresh and exciting here. Up until they released The Blackening, it seemed as though they would never be able to follow up this iconic record. So many live favourites. Such a perfect gelling of art, videos, music, productino and performance. A real complete package.

If you are new to the band and didn’t grow up in the ’90s, its worth pointing out that this album is a lot rawer, harder and dirtier than their later work, with a lot less melody, but what it lacks in fineness it makes up for it attitude and sheer umph.

Best songs: ‘Davidian’ ‘The Rage To Overcome’ & ‘Blood For Blood.’

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04. Bloodstone & Diamonds (2014): I view the three album run of The Blackening through to this album as the pinnacle of the band’s career. This album would be higher if only their debut wasn’t so great. I really love this record, the strings and keys add an extra dimension of variety to the formula of the last two albums, it’s a bit more varied and there is a lot more light and shade than even before.

This was their first album without bassist Adam Duce, who was always one of the most important band members and the ying to frontman Rob Flynn’s yang (very much the David Ellefson of this band), so it was hard to imagine how they would sound without him. It is a real testament to the band that they carried on so strongly given the circumstances.

I caught the band live on this album cycle, and material from this record stood toe to toe with the very best of their back catalogue and was not found wanting.

Best songs: ‘Killers & Kings’ ‘Game Over’, ‘Eyes Of The Dead’ & ‘Night Of The Long Knives.’

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05. The More Things Change (1997): The first album with Sacred Reich drummer Dave McClain who really helped the band define their sound. This album had the unenviable task of having to follow up such an iconic debut, and as such it is often a bit overlooked when people think of definitive metal albums of the ‘90s, definitive Groove Metal albums or even the best Machine Head albums, but it is essential listening for any fan of the band.

In some ways it is a continuation of the style of Burn My Eyes, certainly on the first half, but the second half showcase the band being a bit darker, slower and creepier. It does most of the same things that made the debut so enjoyable and adds its own dimensions into the mix too.

I feel almost guilty not having this higher on the list. If you had it higher on your list I’d totally understand why.

Best songs: ‘Ten Ton Hammer’ ‘Take My Scars’ & ‘Struck A Nerve.’

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06. Through The Ashes Of Empires (2003): This record was something of a comeback. The band were an absolute punching bag in the media before this, they got dropped from their record label, people were starting to go off the band. This record was the path to redemption.

It wasn’t a rehash of the early days, or a continuation of the Nu Metal years, but its own new thing. There was still a bit of the distasteful lyrics, a bit of the string scratching and reverby noises and some of the vocal deliveries were still a bit rapped and rhythmic. However; The riffs were starting to be heavier. The songs were starting to be longer and broader. The band were starting to head in a new direction. I guess there’s just a little less technicality, a little less Thrash influence and the addition of guitarist Phil Demmel into the line up came too late to affect the song writing and recording.

This fit perfectly alongside the new bands gaining ground at the time such as Killswitch, Chimaira and Shadows Fall, bringing back guitar solos, traditional metal fashion but not just rehashing the past. It learned lessons of melody from the previous records but delivered it in a new way, covering more ground.

In hindsight it was sort of a stepping stone towards their real comeback The Blackening (kind of like how Aerosmith’s Done With Mirrors gave way to Pump).

However, that is not to detract from this album’s quality. The definitive track ‘Imperium’ will never not be in the Machine Head setlist ever again.

Best songs: ‘Imperium’ ‘All Falls Down’ & ‘Vim.’ (& ‘Seasons Wither’ if you buy the best edition).

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07. Catharsis (2018): This album got an absolute critical lambasting when it was released.

Between some people hating Rob Flynn’s politics on the anti-trump anthem ‘Bastards’ and some other people hating the swearing, sex-and-drug fuelled lyrics, and indeed some other people hating the band both allowing a little bit of Nu Metal to creep back into the sound while simultaneously following some fashionable modern trends like electronics and autotuners… it seemed like every fan, critic and casual bystander seemed to have something rub them up the wrong way about this record, and let the world know about it online.

In the age of the internet it got absolutely slaughtered up and down blogs, websites and comments sections in every relevent corner of the web. Phil Demmel and Dave McClain quitting soon after really didn’t help the album’s reputation either.

The thing that people tend to overlook however, is that the things people dislike about this record are a relatively small part of the album. Most of the album is the same groovy thrashy guitar tone as before, the same distinctive drum style as before, the same vocal style as before. Most of the best parts of the last four albums are still here.

People who don’t like the politics obviously never listened to ‘Slanderous’ on The Blackening, or ‘A Nation On Fire’ on the debut, or ‘In Comes The Flood’ on the previous album. The band have always been political.

People who don’t like the addition of modern touches are forgetting that from their very ’90s debut to their Nu Metal period to their guitar and metal focused renaisance period happening at the same time as the Thrash revival and melodic metalcore being popular, the band have always tried to stay modern and relevent.

People who don’t like the lyrics are overlooking lines like ”Fuck you you cocksucker, fuck you you whore” on Through The Ashes Of Empires.

If you see the millions of negative reviews out there, you may want to skip this album entirely. I’d advise you treat it with caution, but don’t just skip it altogether. This is not the train wreck it was made out to be. A little different, yes. A bit unpalatable, yes. Misguided. Certainly. But rubbish? Not even close.  

Best songs: ‘Volatile’ ‘Heavy Lies The Crown’ & ‘Hope Begets Hope.’

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08. The Burning Red (1999): This album has a bit of a mixed legacy. Fans who were there in 1994 often cite this as a horrendous stain on the band’s legacy.

Ross Robinson’s production and the music videos for this do clearly show a band getting involved in the popular trends of the day and many people called this record a sell out. Fans who got into the album after Nu Metal broke but before Through The Ashes Of Empires however tend to have a really high opinion of it.

For me, I sit somewhere in the middle. As you can guess, given how low down this is on the list, this is not my favourite Machine Head record. That being said I can still appreciate the good moments, and I do have a soft spot for it. I guess it helps that I grew up in the Nu Metal era, and can forgive its trapping a lot more than someone who grew up in the Thrash Metal or NWOBHM eras usually can. The tracks from it are a lot better live, such as on the Hellalive album or Elegies DVD.   

Also, in hindsight, you can see how the melody, slow moments and variety on here would give way for future ideas on Through The Ashes Of Empires, which was in turn the begining of the band’s best run of albums, so this was an essential lesson the band needed to learn in order to have a long career instead of just burning out as a one trick pony and never taking risks.

Best songs: ‘Nothing Left’ ‘Exhale The Vile’ & ‘The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears.’

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09. Supercharger (2001): Its weird, but while this album features one of the best songs in their whole career (live favourite ‘Bulldozer’) most fans seem to utterly hate this record. While previous album The Burning Red has a mixed legacy, this album has pretty much always been viewed as the absolute nadir of the band’s career. I don’t think you’ll find anyone call this their favourite Machine Head album.

The production is a lot better than on The Burning Red but unfortunately the performance is a bit more mechanical and the lyrics are quite unpalatable. Most of all though, outside of a few notable exceptions listed below, the songs are either unmemorable (I can’t remember how ‘Nausea’ ‘Blank Generation’ or ‘Deafening Silence’ go off the top of my head, and I’ve listened to this album dozens and dozens of times) or conversely memorable for the wrong reasons (‘American High’ is the lyrical template for all the cringey bits on Catharsis, and also comes with an amusing David Draiman-meets-Tarzan style vocal intro that people love to make fun of).

Once again, songs from this album come across a lot better live. Lead single ‘Crashing Around You’ in particular is great on the Hellalive live album.

While I have always been a bit defensive about supercharger, and have at times called it underrated, there is no denying that the other albums in the list are better.

Best songs: ‘Bulldozer’ ‘Trephination’ & ‘Supercharger.’

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DevilDriver Albums Ranked

Hate list features? Feel free to skip this article and others in this series.

Here I’ll be ranking the albums by certain bands in order from Best (actually my subjective favourite) to worst/least good (subjectively, in my opinion). Number 1 is obviously the best. The lowest number is my least favourite.

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DAY 7 – DEVILDRIVER:

01. Pray For Villains (2009) – When Devildriver first came on the scene, they were looked at with unparalleled scepticism due to singer Dez Fafara’s history in the Nu Metal band Coal Chamber. Over the years with relentless touring, incendiary live performances at major festivals and sheer word of mouth, they worked their way up bills, up end of year albums lists and up in the public’s estimation to become a really well regarded act. This album was arguably their peek both in terms of public perception of the band as a whole and also in actual quality of the individual album. This has some of their most distinct and catchy tunes, and leans heavier on the Groove Metal aspect of their sound than any previous or subsequent album. Its still very much Devildriver but with extra flavour, its got kind of a more Pantera, Machine Head and at times even White Zombie vibe than their usual formula.

Best songs: ‘Back With A Vengeance,’ ‘I’ve Been Sober’ & ‘Another Night In London.’

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02. The Last Kind Words (2007) – The best album in the typical Devildriver format, this is simply the best written collection of songs in their usual style, less generic and repetitive than the later albums and more fully-fleshed out than the early works, it is a damn fine record and if you called it your favourite I’d fully understand why. The vocals are memorable, the heavy parts are pounding, and the rare clean moments are shimmering and add good variety to the proceedings. I reckon this would be the best starting point for a new fan, even if the next album is my personal favourite, it’s a close race, and this one is more representative of the band.

Best songs: ‘Clouds Over California,’ ‘The Axe Shall Fall’ & ‘Monsters Of The Deep.’

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03. The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hands (2005) – This album features some of the band’s live favourite songs, there were tracks that got good rotation on music TV channels, one of the songs was in an episode of Scrubs. Basically, this album is when the momentum really started rolling, when the music festival crowds fell in love with the band and their big pits, and when the critics started finding it harder to keep up their scepticism. It was the first album with the classic line up, as Mike Spreitzer replaced Evan Pitts. Although it doesn’t have any one song as catchy as ‘I Could Care Less’ from the debut, it makes up for it by being more consistent and having more of a cohesive vision all the way through.  

Best songs: ‘The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand,’ ‘Sin & Sacrifice’ & ‘Hold Back The Day.’

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04. DevilDriver (2003) – I remember before this album came out, Metal Hammer magazine said Dez was in a heavy new band called Death Ride. Then when the album came out it was called Devildriver. Seemed like a silly variation on the driving theme, but it turns out Devildriver was actually an old Italian superstition to drive away demons and bad spirits that Dez’s grandmother believed in, a story oddly reminiscent of how Dio popularized the horns.

When the album came out it was a breath of fresh air. There were two short super aggressive songs with slightly Black Metal influenced screams, there was the mega catchy lead single (although that is not really representative of the overall sound of the band or the album) and for most of the album, a whole host of fat and groovy modern metal songs with Melodeath, Groove and Thrash influences that at the time sounded quite futuristic when blended together.

I got on board with this album from the get go, but always had a hard time convincing people in my peer group to give them a chance due to Dez’s past. I’m glad the band proved everyone wrong in the end. Over the next two album cycles most of my friends ended up even bigger fans than me!

Best songs: ‘I Could Care Less,’ ‘Cry For Me Sky’ & ‘Swinging The Dead.’

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05. Beast (2011) – The last album with the classic line up, Beast is a fine album, but in some ways, it was the beginning of the end. It may not be quite up to the same high standards as the previous four albums. Every song is good here, and this is another solid collection of typical Devildriver tunes in the classic formula. If you like the band, it’s a good addition to your collection. I wouldn’t make it your first album, but if you like them I wouldn’t skip it either. It is however, a bit of a worry when the best song on any album is a cover song.

Best songs: ‘Shitlist,’ ‘Bring The Fight (To The Floor)’ & ‘Black Soul Choir.’

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06. Winter Kills (2013) – Their first and only album with new bassist Chris Towning, and the last album with Jeff Kendrick & John Boecklin who were really key to making the band sound the way it did. I always liked them both on record, and they seemed like good guys on the band’s You May Recognise Us From The Stage documentary.

It has quite a good cover of that ‘Sail’ song by a band called Awolnation, although I admit, I was so out of the loop at the time I didn’t hear the original until after I’d heard this. I wouldn’t have known it was a cover for at least a year if I hadn’t read about it on the press for this album cycle.

The rest of the album is ok. Its basically a continuation of Beast, but the songs aren’t just as memorable. There’s nothing wrong with the album in the moment when you are listening to it, but its kind of a step down in quality and it’s the first record I would describe as skippable.

Best songs: ‘Tripping Over Tombstones,’ ‘Winter Kills’ & ‘Gutted.’

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07. Trust No One (2016) – This album sees a major line up change, with new guitarist, bassist and drummer. It’s a bit livelier and more aggressive than Winter Kills, but similarly skippable. Maybe the new line up just needed time to gel, maybe the Coal Chamber reunion that preceded it somehow diverted attention, maybe the band has just been heading down one particular direction for too long, I don’t know exactly what it is.

While there is nothing massively wrong here, I can barely remember anything about it after I’ve listened to it, and I’d certainly call this one for fans only. Hopefully the next album (which is apparently a double album) sees the band reverse their current slightly downward trajectory.

Best songs: ‘For What Its Worth,’ ‘This Deception’ & ‘Trust No One.’

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Avenged Sevenfold Albums Ranked

Hate list features? Feel free to skip this article and others in this series.

Here I’ll be ranking the albums by certain bands in order from Best (actually my subjective favourite) to worst/least good (subjectively, in my opinion). Number 1 is obviously the best. The lowest number is my least favourite.

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DAY 6 – AVENGED SEVENFOLD:

Its strange, but Avenged Sevenfold are a band I feel kind of embarrassed to like. I don’t know why, but I would never wear an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt or list them in a list of my favourite bands. I probably would give a non-committal answer and look at the floor if someone asked me if I was a fan. I have no idea why, other than I associate them with people I disliked in high school and an ex-girlfriend I’d rather forget. I mean, it can’t be because of how they look or act, because I will happily call myself a fan of Limp Bizkit or Twisted Sister or many others who don’t fit the exact metal sound or look respectively. That being said, after years of sticking my fingers in my ears and hoping they would go away, I eventually got into them through sheer force of recommendation from various friends, magazines and podcasts until I couldn’t justify ignoring them anymore. I slowly picked up all their albums, and I’ve seen them live twice, and they were excellent both times. I really have to work on whatever mental block makes me reticent to give in fully to being a fan.

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01. Avenged Sevenfold (2007) – It is kind of hard to imagine the same band recorded this album and the debut. I’ve heard people call this an experimental album, which I can kind of see as there’s an 8-minute comedy track about necrophilia with Danny Elfman sounding bits and a guest vocal from Randy Blythe. There’s a song with vocoder. There’s some political lyrics which you wouldn’t really expect from this band. It ends with an overly earnest country-tinged ballad.

 That being said, I would actually consider this one of their more normal albums. I mean, it’s a mess of different tempos, styles and tones, but then all of their albums are.

The real thing that elevates this album above the rest (except perhaps confidence) is simply good song writing. No prototypes of things to come. No good ideas lost amongst confusion. The songs here just work. The songs are memorable, the majority of the album is catchy and well balanced, it flows relatively well and doesn’t seem choppy.

Best songs: ‘Critical Acclaim,’ ‘Scream’ & ‘A Little Piece Of Heaven.’

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02. City Of Evil (2005) – This album is most fan’s favourite. Its definitely the most likely to make it into a Top 100 albums list. There’s a few things that rub me the wrong way, like the artwork and music videos, (and while we’re at it the bands pseudonyms have always seemed silly to me, but by this point they should have outgrown it) but after getting into the band I’d be crazy to have it any lower on the list than this.  

There’s a reason its popular with guitar fans. I feel like this was the record where Synyster Gates really stepped up and transcended the subgenre to become this generation’s guitar hero. Speaking of which, I feel like songs from this album are always popular in Guitar Hero video games.

What separates this album and the two which preceded it (apart from presumably budget) is a humongous influx of colour, fun and character. No one, not even massive skeptics could call this one samey. No one could call it boring. It’s a big hyperactive child running in four different directions wearing a propeller-hat showing off all the things it learned. I’ve never heard a song sound like a spring break beach party, a redneck sweaty metal show and a beard stroking prog metal track in one go before I heard this. I’ve never heard anyone combine Guns N’ Roses vocal patterns with Helloween lead guitar and NoFX drumming before. There is a basic framework of melodic metalcore, but they flip-flop through so many ideas it can be a bit dizzying. Its not always to my taste, but no one can deny the talent involved.

Best songs: ‘Beast & The Harlot,’ ‘Trashed & Scattered’ & ‘M.I.A.’

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03. Hail To The King (2013) – This album got a lot of grief in the press for so shamelessly ripping off riffs from Megadeth’s ‘Symphony Of Destruction’ and Metallica’s ‘Sad But True’ – check out ‘Heretic’ and ‘This Means War’ if you missed all the internet fury. But there’s a lot more to this record that the questionable choice to pinch other band’s iconic music (ok, it does sound pretty bad when I say it like that).

Besides the above taking wearing your influences on your sleeves too far, this album is a damn fine stompy, simplified, arena ready version of the Avenged style. Its Avenged made for pyro and inflatable 20 foot skeletons and it does a superb job of it.

That’s not to say it is dumbed down or unentertaining. The stompier pace allows for even better guitar solos, the first two songs are so catchy they cancel out the bad taste of the thievery and the album gets interesting and bombastic towards the end, foreshadowing a bit of the sounds that they would go into on the next record. Overall, it’s a hell of a lot better than its given credit for if you can overlook the fact that its been ‘cancelled’ by the internet.

Best songs: ‘Shepherd Of Fire,’ ‘Planets’  & ‘Hail To The King.’

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04. Nightmare (2010) – This was my first Avenged album and as such, I have slightly more regard for it that some of the fanbase. I remember I was absolutely opposed to the idea of even listening to one of their songs all the way through, but a friend who was a drummer turned me on to it with his seal of approval and the news that Mike Portnoy played drums for them.

Some people don’t like this album, thinking it is either too dark or too sappy, and not fun enough (but hey, it was finished by a bereaved group who’d just lost their childhood friend). If I was being super critical I’d say it’s a bit uneven. Even though there aren’t, due to the way the record is sequenced and the way some of the songs are structured it feels like there’s way too many ballads.

It does however have two of their absolute best songs to date on it, the title track and the fan favourite ‘Buried Alive’ are absolute classics at this stage and I don’t want to hear any playlist or see any concert without them ever again. Even when I watch their live DVD filmed on the album cycle prior to this, I still feel like it could use those two songs. If anyone wanted to know if this band was for them, those are the two songs I’d give them to try out.

Best songs: ‘God Hates Us,’ ‘Save Me,’ ‘Nightmare’ & ‘Buried Alive.’

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05. The Stage (2016) – Their newest album. Surprise released. Third album in a row to have a different drummer. Loose existential/space/religious themes.

The music on here is a lot more progressive and expansive than anything they’ve done prior. They’ve always been eclectic and diverse, they’ve always had medium to long songs, and they clearly like Prog if Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater drummed on one of their albums, but this is another step further than they’ve ever taken before. I guess the previous album was making things more simple and straightforward, so when that wasn’t as critically acclaimed as usual, they went completely the other direction and made it bigger, grander and broader.

Its got a very thick satisfying production with superb sounding drums which is always a plus for me. The vocals are a bit more tasteful. There’s a slight Soundgarden influence to it at times that doesn’t get talked about enough. Quite a strong album, I’m quite fond of it. Maybe a bit long, and not what people where expecting at the time of release, but it’s a grower and I think it will be looked upon kindly by the history books.  

Best songs: ‘God Damn,’ ‘Creating God,’ ‘Sunny Disposition’ & ‘Fermi Paradox.’

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06. Waking The Fallen (2003) – Some people think of this as the definitive Avenged album. I like it ok, but just not quite so much as all the others. I almost feel bad not liking it more, like somehow I’m doing it wrong. Imagine listening to Killswitch but not liking Alive Or Just Breathing. Doesn’t sound acceptable somehow, even though enjoyment of music is subjective.

This album probably has their most Pantera-influenced material to date on it, and the least clean vocals. It sounds kind of silly to say about a band as famously eclectic and diverse as Avenged Sevenfold, but the album sounds a bit samey to my ears. There’s usually the In Flames & At The Gates influenced sections, there’s usually the hardcore influenced sections, there’s usually twin guitar, then there’s usually a big clean catchy bit, and the transitions are usually a bit jagged which makes it sound kind of technical, and several times they used a mixture of harmonised guitars and clean vocals to create a bit of a Tim Burton flavour here and there. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was formulaic, but compared to other Avenged albums its closer to formulaic than it should be.

I think any one or two songs off the album are good in isolation and am happy to hear any of them on shuffle or live, but sometimes listening to the whole record just makes my eyes glaze over a bit. Especially in the early days of owning it, before I got more familiar with it and put the time in. The thin sounding production doesn’t help either.

There’s loads of memorable bits, but I often find myself thinking ‘what song was that bit I like in?’ and I can’t really tell them apart too well apart from my favourites. Although for a while it was ‘’that one with the power metal verse’’ or ‘’the one with the Spanish guitar and Axl Rose voice’’ and ‘’that one with the Pantera ending.’’

I’m very much in the minority here though. People go nuts for this record.

Best songs: ‘Eternal Rest,’ ‘Chapter Four’ & ‘I Won’t See You Tonight Part 2.’

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07. Sounding The Seventh Trumpet (2001) – I know, I know, I’m boring. The least favourite album is once again the weird demo-ish debut album from before they got famous, which isn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t recommend as your starting point, yadda yadda yadda, it’s a recurring theme with me at this point. I definitely listen to this album the least of anything they’ve ever recorded. I even listen to the B-sides collection which came free with their live DVD more than this.

Best songs: ‘Streets,’ Warmness Of The Soul’ & ‘Turn The Other Way.’

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Chimaira Albums Ranked

Hate list features? Feel free to skip this article and others in this series.

Here I’ll be ranking the albums by certain bands in order from Best (actually my subjective favourite) to worst/least good (subjectively, in my opinion). Number 1 is obviously the best. The lowest number is my least favourite.

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DAY 5 – CHIMAIRA:

01. The Infection (2009) – This album is the perfect distillation of everything the band had done up to this point, blended together with perfect flow, and the best song-writing of their career. 2009 may have been one of the best years for this type of music.  Everything about this album slays. The lyrics are more tasteful than usual. The production makes everything sound massive. The balance of groove, punch and speed is optimal. Every time I hear that opening guitar line I get chills. I feel like this album didn’t get enough credit as being the genre defining masterpiece it was, but I’ll never stop repping for it, this is one of my favourite albums of the past 20 years.

Best songs: ‘The Venom Inside,’ ‘Destroy & Dominate’ & ‘The Disappearing Sun.’

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02. Chimaira (2005) – There’s an argument to be had that all the best Chimaira albums have Andols Herrick on the drums, but this album definitely bucks that trend. This album was a bit darker, grander and more technical than their breakthrough album. There was more atmosphere, more mood and more variety than the previous record, but it still kept everything that worked and did it harder and on a bigger scale. Some reviewers and fans weren’t just as keen on it as the previous record back in the day, but it’s a grower and time has been kind to it. For me it was love at first listen and its only got better since.

Best songs: ‘Save Ourselves,’ ‘Left For Dead’ & ‘Lazarus.’

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03. The Impossibility Of Reason (2003) – When you think of this subgenre, this is one of the album covers that pop up in the collage of your mind’s eye. A classic. Iconic. A must-have. The fact that its only number 3 on my list tells you everything you need to know about how good I think numbers 2 and 1 are. This album is really dear to me. I bought it when it was really new and got to see the band grow in size all through the album cycle, I was the first person in my peer group that got into it and really enjoyed trying to convert other people to the cause, and then when their Dehumanizing Process DVD came out and showed the story of the band making and touring it, it was like a crowning moment. I watched that DVD over and over and over again for years. The band members have become like fond sitcom characters in my mind.  None of that overshadows the quality of the material though. The lead guitars are superb, the riffs and double kicks are thrashier than a lot of their peers, the vocal patterns are hooky. The electronics make them stand out from their peers and the overall song-writing was really futuristic and exciting at the time. There’s basically no song on here I wouldn’t want to see live. If you were to assemble a best of playlist almost any song on here would fit. This is definitely the album to try first if you are new to the band.  

Best songs: ‘Cleansation’ ‘Power Trip’ & ‘Implements Of Destruction.’  

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04. Resurrection (2007) – Basically a clever combination of the darker attitude of the self-titled album with the ass kicking metallic nature of Impossibility’ – Resurrection is a must have for any fan of this band. Its one of those albums that is even better than you remember it. The fast songs are fast. The slower songs are impressive. It sees the guitarists really expanding their scope and broadening their range. Its not exactly progressive, but its certainly ambitious and adventurous. There’s also more strings to singer Mark Hunter’s bow, who finds more ways to utilises his voice without resorting to big radio rock choruses like a lot of bands from this subgenre do. And hey another album in the top half of their discography with Andols behind the kit, nailing it.

Best songs: ‘Six,’ ‘The Flame’ & ‘Killing The Beast.’

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05. The Age Of Hell (2011) – This album gets a bit overlooked. After the pure bliss that was The Infection this is a solid follow up, but the press around the album cycle was too focused on the band falling apart at the seams and the audience getting tired of this style of music, and not enough on the album itself.

Maybe it suffers from not having Andols (or an actual band member) on drums – producer Ben Schigel played drums here, or not having Chris Spicuzza on keys and electronics… or indeed not having Jim LaMarca on bass, it really was quite a line-up shift. Maybe the track listing, starting off with the less heavy material first and scaring away part of the fanbase was a mistake. Maybe there’s too many guest musicians – most notably Emil Werstler of Dååth (who would later join the band), and Phil Bozeman of Whitechapel. Maybe the songs just aren’t quite as good as before, but people didn’t seem to go for this album the way the did for the previous four.

Ok, they have made better albums, but I still enjoy this one a lot. I caught them live on this tour, and songs from here fit really well in with the fan favourites. That being said, don’t make this your first Chimaira record.

Best songs: ‘Year Of The Snake,’ ‘Trigger Finger,’ ‘Born In Blood’ & ‘Samsara.’

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06. Crown Of Phantoms (2013) – If The Age Of Hell is overlooked and had a significant line-up change, then Crown Of Phantoms makes it look like business as usual by comparison. Basically every member of the classic line-up except singer Mark Hunter is now gone. Half of the band used to be in Dååth. Additionally, it felt like absolutely no-one got on board with this album at the time. Critics, bloggers, fans, casual concert goers. It felt like everyone just gave up on the band. Which was totally unfair. This is still a good album, and the band really didn’t deserve the fate they got, I was gutted when they split up. I really regret not seeing them live when they toured it, I almost bought tickets but it was in a venue I hadn’t been to before and was afraid to go at the time. One of my many concert regrets.

Considering the album features almost all new members, it still sounds really like Chimaira, arguably more so than even the album which preceded it with more original members. If they had have stayed together for longer and released more records under this line-up it would’ve helped it be less of an odd duck and more of a new era. Its actually got a lot of good material and I hope that history judges it fairly. If they ever get back together, I hope they still keep tracks from this in the set and not act like it never happened. It may have been painted as just a contractual obligation at the time, but its much more than that.

Best songs: ‘All That’s Left Is Blood,’ ‘Plastic Wonderland’ & ‘Wrapped In Violence.’

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07. Pass Out Of Existence (2001) – This album is stylistically a lot close to Nu Metal than the albums they would become famous for. As such, its slower, less heavy and there are far fewer guitar heroics on display. The production is also comparatively dated sounding. The main problem however, is that the songs just aren’t up to the same high standard as the band’s future works. Its not without its merits, and songs from it can work live, but it’s a tougher album to listen to all the way through than all the others.

Best songs: ‘Severed,’ ‘Painting The White To Grey’ & ‘Dead Inside.’

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08. This Present Darkness EP (1999) – Like most people I got this free with The Dehumanizing Process after the fact. Maybe that’s played into why I havn’t listened to it as much as I perhaps should have. Not going out and choosing to get it somehow devalued it. Or then again, maybe its just not their best work. It’s an independent EP. A lot like Killswitch’s debut independent album, songs from it were rerecorded later, it’s the roughest and most hardcore the band have ever sounded, its short and its an interesting historic document for fans but not the go-to starting point. You can see where they were going, but they hadn’t quite gotten there yet.

Best songs: ‘This Present Darkness’ & ‘Painting The White To Grey.’

Lamb Of God Albums Ranked

Hate list features? Feel free to skip this article and others in this series.

Here I’ll be ranking the albums by certain bands in order from Best (actually my subjective favourite) to worst/least good (subjectively, in my opinion). Number 1 is obviously the best. The lowest number is my least favourite.

DAY 4 – LAMB OF GOD:

01. Wrath (2009) – Ok, ok, I know I should be subjective, but its hard to because I love this album so much. It was my first LoG album which may well have something to do with it, but I reckon its more than that. There’s just so many memorable songs. There’s so little filler. There’s shedloads of personality. Its full of character and non-stop entertaining throughout. From the guitar hero opener to the moody album closer, and all the way betwixt the two via the great run of distinct songs that don’t really sound like each other or the band’s back catalogue.

Best songs: ‘Set To Fail,’ ‘Broken Hands’, ‘Grace’ & ‘Contractor.’

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02. Sacrament (2006) – Wrath is my personal favourite, but I feel like the history books and most fans will go for Sacrament, Ashes’ or Palaces.’ Of those three, Sacrament gets my highest ranking because it is the most consistent all the way through, because of my fond memories of the Sacrament-loaded Live At Download Festival feature on their Walk With Me In Hell DVD, and because it has the single best song they’ve ever written (‘Redneck.’)  It also has one of the best mixtures of Thrash and Groove in their career, I think they get the ratio just right.  If you need to choose a first Lamb Of God album, I reckon this is your go-to first draft pick.  

Side note: There was a good 3-4 years where I would sleep most nights in a sacrament T-shirt (I accidentally bought one way too large and it only worked as pyjamas).

Best songs: ‘Beating On Death’s Door,’ ‘More Time To Kill,’ ‘Pathetic’ and the aforementioned ‘Redneck.’

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03. As The Palaces Burn (2003) – This is the album when Lamb Of God really found themselves. It has three of their best songs to date, it’s a lot more adventurous than the debut and it introduces the groove that defines so much of the band’s work. Its faster, harder, nastier and darker than the albums which would follow, but not so abrasive and unpleasant as the debut. What else is cool is there is a guest appearance here from Chris Poland who played guitar on Megadeth’s early albums, and Lamb Of God’s drummer Chris Adler later went on to play drums on the latest Megadeth album. The only real flaw with the record is the production (by Devin Townsend, who you would expect more from) but luckily there was a 10^th anniversary reissue where Josh Wilbur and Brad Blackwood remixed and remastered it, and if you are coming to this album for the first time I heartily recommend you get that edition, as it sounds a hundred times better. (Like, its not just a little bit better and only an audiophile would tell the difference, it is a huge honking goose suddenly in the front room kind of difference).

Best songs: ‘Vigil,’ ‘11^th Hour’ & ‘Ruin’

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04. Resolution (2012) –  Lamb Of God got a bit of stick in the press for this one at the time, as it was the first time they didn’t really reinvent themselves (Kind of like Tool with 10,000 Days). There’s only so much you can reinvent yourselves though, and for me, this album is giving me exactly what I want. There’s a moody closer, there’s a few tracks that sound a bit like ‘Redneck’ again, there’s some fast tracks all about attitude and there’s enough new ideas that it doesn’t just feel repetitive and by the numbers the whole way through. It’s the perfect balance of giving the fans what they want and not just repeating yourself too much (well, they repeated ‘Redneck’ a bit, but that’s a good thing, and to never explore that sound again would be utter madness!).

Best songs: ‘Desolation,’ ‘To The End,’ ‘Ghost Walking’ & ‘King Me.’

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05. Ashes Of The Wake (2004) – It feels criminal having this album so low on the list, but I guess that’s just a testament to how good the albums above it are. In many circles this is considered a classic, its definitely a fan favourite and it has many of their hits on it. The production is a huge step up from the first two albums, the lyrics are very interesting, the vocals are more dynamic than the early days and the sound is less abrasive and nasty, choosing instead to be crunchy and satisfying. Its heavy, but it’s a more pleasant type of heavy. Also, just to up the Thrash credentials, on the title track there is a guest guitar solo from both Chris Poland of Megadeth and also Alex Skolnick of Testament.

Best songs: ‘Omerta,’ ‘Hourglass’ & ‘Laid To Rest.’  

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06. VII Strum Und Drang (2015) – At time of writing, this is their newest album (although their new self-titled album is about to drop). It is their last album to feature drummer Chris Adler who has since been replaced by Art Cruz. It has some guest vocal appearances by Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato and Deftones’ Chino Moreno, it is the first Lamb Of God album with clean singing, but the biggest thing it will be remembered for is the story prior to its release. If you don’t know, long story short their singer was accused of killing a fan in a stage diving accident and spent time behind bars while the trial was being arranged and going on, it was a real big deal in the metal news for several years, people wore ‘free Randy Blythe’ t-shirts, it was a whole thing. There is a great documentary about it called ‘As The Palaces Burn’ (not to be confused with the album of the same name) which if you live in the UK is available to stream for free on Amazon prime, or otherwise you can check it out on DVD.

Anyway much like this article, the conversation about the record is much overshadowed by those events. The album itself is ok. It’s a bit samey at times, and it doesn’t really have that many stand out tunes that can really go toe to toe with material from earlier albums. Its one of those albums were everything is fine and nothing is egretiously wrong with it, but it just doesn’t pop, it doesn’t excite, there’s no wow factor, no huge anthems and no ‘’holy shit’’ moments. I saw them live with Slayer recently, and the songs from this album were the songs I enjoyed least (although the crowd seemed to love ‘em, so its not like the album is a car crash).  

Best songs: ‘Delusion Pandemic,’ ‘Overlord’ & ‘Footprints.’

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07. New American Gospel (2000) – I seem to be developing a theme here, but at bottom place on the list is the pre-breakthrough debut album. The production and vocals are so much harsher and more abrasive than on their later works. The general sound is more violent and at times angular. Its probably their only record where you can see some Dillinger Escape Plan similarities (not many, but its technical and abrasive and there is a lot of hardcore in the sound). I remember the first day I heard it, I was listening to it on headphones and the kick drum production and panning literally gave me a headache. Of all their albums this one took the most amount of effort for me to get into, and I’ve listened to it the least. That all being said, it does have some great tunes. Some of which they were playing for 2-3 album cycles afterwards (one of which was their set closer for most of their career). So once again, its not without merit, and if you like things rawer, heavier and more hardcore influenced then you’ll enjoy it more, but for the average listener, don’t make this your first choice, even if it does open with a track that has been made iconic live.

Best songs: ‘The Subtle Arts of Murder & Persuasion,’ ‘Terror & Hubris In The House Of Frank Pollard’ and ‘Black Label.’  

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Parkway Drive Albums Ranked

Hate list features? Feel free to skip this article and others in this series.

Here I’ll be ranking the albums by certain bands in order from Best (actually my subjective favourite) to worst/least good (subjectively, in my opinion). Number 1 is obviously the best. The lowest number is my least favourite.

DAY 3 – PARKWAY DRIVE:

01. Ire (2015) – If you recall my albums of the decade list, then I think you could have guessed already, but there is no chance this album would not make it to the top spot. This is not only my favourite album by the band, but also my favourite album of the subgenre, and my favourite album of the decade it was released. Not bad going for an album I wasn’t sure about on first listen! This is a big stylistic change from the band’s early direction. They’ve injected so much personality, variety and ‘’umph’’ into their sound, and took the ballsy decision to make a grab at the big time (and seemingly succeed, based on the venues and how high up festival bills they’ve been ever since!).  

The Maiden/Priest leads have always been there, but never so well, they absolutely slay it on this record. The clean vocals were only hinted at previously and the big influx of Slipknot & Machine Head influences are new, and they nail it first time. If any criticism could be levelled at their early albums, it may be that the songs were not always distinct enough from each-other, and this album fixes that so completely, never a dull moment, no two songs alike, every second memorable. In my mind this is a stone cold masterpiece.   

Best songs: ‘Dedicated,’ ‘Crushed,’ ‘Vice Grip’ & ‘Destroyer.’

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02. Reverence (2018) – Proving that Ire was not just a one off, PWD followed up my album of the decade with an album nearly as good. They made it even more melodic, more varied and more polished. While it is a bit shorter, and it loses the wow factor for first album in this new style, it is still a terrific album in its own right and a superb sequel.

I caught the band live twice on this album cycle. They were the best band live at Download Festival 2018 even though Guns N’ Roses played after them with Slash and Duff back in the band.  Their headline concert in Cardiff early the next year was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.

I feel like this may be the band’s most dramatic and expansive record to date. If you came from the Hardcore scene and have a Killing With A Smile tattoo you may be sat there with a confused expression wondering what the hell happened, but if are happy to go with them on their cinematic catchy new journey, then this is a must have.

Best songs: ‘Cronos,’ ‘Absolute Power’ & ‘Prey.’

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03. Deep Blue (2010) – This was my first Parkway Drive album, for a long time it was my favourite, and it will always have a special place in my heart. I have very fond memories of this record. This is the band perfecting their early sound and is the pinnacle of phase one of their career. It is a must have for any fan of this subgenre.

At first glance it may not seem that original, not have that much of a unique selling point, but while they may not have been in all the magazines from day one, they simply wrote some of the best songs, better than most of their competitors and peers.

The album works best as a journey I feel. Maybe because it’s a concept album, but its best to put it on with no distractions and sink (not pun intended) into the glorious underwater world the band create. Even the shimmering clean guitar lines sound like water half the time. I almost went to see them live on this album cycle, but I skipped it to go on a date that was cancelled with a girl who was very soon an ex. Quite the mistake.

Best songs ‘Sleepwalker,’ ‘Deadweight,’ ‘Karma’ & ‘Leviathan I.’

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04. Atlas (2012) – This album was a bit of a let down when it first came out, but I feel time has been kind to it. Horizons and Deep Blue were so well received and really covered all the ground in this particular furrow, that at the time it kind of felt at the time that Parkway had said all they had to say already. Its strange because the press at the time was kind of about how Parkway had run out of ideas, but in hindsight this was quite a change for the band already. (Not as big a change as Ire was mind you, but a change none-the-less). There were strings, a ballad, a darker vibe, environmental lyrical themes, and even surprisingly some DJ scratches at one point. It wouldn’t be my instant recommendation for first Parkway Drive album, but its not one I’d tell you to skip either.

Best songs: ‘’Old Ghosts/New Regrets’ ‘Wild Eyes’ & ‘Dark Days.’

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05. Horizons (2007) – This is a lot of people’s favourite Parkway Drive album and was a lot of people’s first. It has a very good reputation and songs from it seem to go down a storm live. For some reason, personal choice, who knows, but it is never the album I reach for when I am in the mood for some PWD.

If I was being hyper critical I may say that it is a wee bit samey and it doesn’t have as much personality as later albums, but on the whole I don’t really have anything bad to say about it, and the only reason it isn’t higher on the list is that the albums which followed it were better.

Best songs: ‘Carrion,’ ‘Idols & Anchors’ and ‘Five Months.’  

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06. Killing With A Smile (2006) – For some reason, I never got this album until 2020, every time I went into a shop to buy it (which I have planned to on numerous occasions) it was always 7 or 8 quid more expensive than other albums I saw and always walked out without it. Import costs perhaps? And up until recently, every time I looked for it online I was only finding second hand copies and then the band wouldn’t make anything off it, so I always chose to wait. I finally pulled the trigger on it in the hype building up to their new live album (check back for a review here soon).

I’ve been listening to it pretty consistently since then. Its definitely a little rawer, more rough and ready, less metallic with less guitar hero moments. That being said, all the essential PWD elements are on display here; crunchy riffs, dynamic transitions, dirty beatdowns, memorable guitar lines and savage screams. They didn’t really have the lyrics down yet, but I guess they would have been quite young at the time.

Best songs: ‘Smoke Em If You Got Em,’ ‘Romance Is Dead’ & ‘Anasasis (Xenophontis)’

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07. Don’t Close Your Eyes (2007 reissue compilation / 2004 original) – Like Ember To Inferno, or Killswitch’s self titled debut album, this very early independent album is a solid prototype for what the band would go on to do later, but in the modern day is pretty much ‘’for fans only’’ and the last thing you should pick up when you’ve exhausted all other avenues but still crave a little more. You can see the potential, but the best was yet to come.

Best songs: ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’ & ‘Hollow Man.’ (And ‘Smoke Em If You Got Em’ too, but they rerecorded that for Killing With A Smile as above)

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Killswitch Engage Albums Ranked.

Hate list features? Feel free to skip this article and others in this series. Here I’ll be doing a run down, buyer’s guide, what’s hot and what’s not, best to worst, whatever kind of way you want to call it… I’ll be ranking the albums by certain bands in order from Best (aka. My subjective favourite) to Worst/Least Good (subjectively, in my opinion)… and then pretending it is a factual list of truth and wisdom. Number 1 is obviously the best. The lowest number, well, I think you’ve seen enough of these types of articles over the years to gather where this is going…

I’ll chose one band per day.

DAY 2 – KILLSWITCH ENGAGE:

01. Disarm The Descent (2013) – When this was first announced I was a bit skeptical, I was always a big fan of Howard Jones and was sad to see him go. From day one of actually hearing it however, I was utterly convinced, and it has only grown on me since then. Individually, it has some of the absolute best songs the band have ever released.  As a whole, it flows well and makes a good journey. The production is great. Jesse’s vocals are better than the early days and the lyrics are pretty great too. Inspirational even. I know that the history books are probably already written and that ‘Heartache and ‘Just Breathing are the ones that will make all the Top 100 Lists, but in my mind this should be right up there with them. Its my favourite for sure.

Best songs: ‘In Due Time,’ ‘The Turning Point,’ ‘You Don’t Bleed For Me’ & ‘A Tribute To The Fallen.’

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02. The End Of Heartache (2004) – I may personally prefer Disarm’ more, but if you need to choose a first Killswitch album, this is probably the one you should choose. Its consistent, strong, confident, perfectly paced and it has utter classic songs on it that will never not be in the live set, will never not be on a compilation and will never not be on playlists. Definitive all time Killswitch anthems. Even the on the nose artwork is iconic. It is probably the ultimate example of the band, and one of the ultimate examples of the whole subgenre. Its one of those top 100 list classic albums that every Metal fan should own.

Best songs: ‘A Bid Farewell,’ ‘When Darkness Falls’ & ‘The End Of Heartache.’

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03. Alive Or Just Breathing (2002) – The breakthrough album and the one where a lot of people first heard of the band. When ‘My Last Serenade’ first came on music tv in the midst of the Nu Metal era it was unlike anything else on the air at the time. The band seemed so futuristic at the time. Although Jesse’s vocals have improved considerably over time, they are still pretty great here. Although the band have become more diverse and also become more polished over time, this album represents the rawer, heart on sleeve, idealistic recipe for what the band what the band would go on to perfect with the next album. (Without being too unrefined, like the one that preceded it). If you like your hardcore, you’ll probably in fact prefer this one over ‘Heartache. Most of all it has monster tunes.  

Best songs: ‘Fixation On The Darkness’ ‘Temple From The Within’ ‘Self Revolution’ and the aforementioned ‘My Last Serenade.’

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04. Atonement (2019) – Their newest album sees the band focusing on choruses. It feels a bit more streamlined, its high on melody and catchy as hell. Its also one of the most even and least frontloaded of their career. Add to that a guest vocal appearance from Testament’s Chuck Billy and ex-singer Howard Jones and you’ve got a damn strong album. I’ve heard a few reviewers not liking this one, but I don’t get that at all, with songs this good and choruses this memorable, its an absolute winner to me.

Best Songs: ‘I Can’t Be The Only One,’ ‘The Crownless King,’ ‘The Signal Fire’ & ‘Know Your Enemy.’

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05. Incarnate (2016) – Following up the masterpiece that was Disarm’ can’t have been easy, and on top of that, being just another album and not having a hook like ‘’the first album with Jesse back’’ or ‘’the first one with Howard’’ also puts it at a bit of a disadvantage in the reasons to recommend it stakes, but this album shouldn’t be overlooked. I think I like this record more than the average fan. It may not be their best album ever, may be a bit uneven, and may be their most frontloaded album to date, but it is still absolutely worth your time. It’s a really worthy sequel to Disarm’ and while it may not reach quite the same heady heights, it isn’t the disappointment some people make it out to be. Its also nice to see them trying new things, one of the songs* sounds like Megadeth at points and one of them sounds almost Djenty.

Best songs: ‘Hate Be Design,’ ‘Alone I Stand,’ ‘Until The Day*’ & ‘Strength Of The Mind**’  

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06.  As Daylight Dies (2006) – Sort of the Incarnate of the Jones-era, it follows up a classic so has to live in its shadow a bit, it has some utter bangers and a very strong lead single, but although its still good it’s a little bit more uneven and not quite as good as the previous record. If all the songs were as good as the best songs, you’d have a contender for the number one stop, but as it stands now, unfortunately its just a good Killswitch album but not an all-time great. Still totally worth owning, but maybe not one you’ll be listening to in full over and over for years and years to come. I can’t foresee them playing the whole album live in full, even if it does feature one of their biggest hits*.  If you can, try and get the version with a cover of Dio’s ‘Holy Diver’ on it.

Best songs ‘My Curse*,’ ‘The Arms Of Sorrow,’ ‘This Is Absolution’ & ‘Still Beats Your Name.’

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07. 2^nd S/T (2009) – This one got a bit of a critical panning at the time due to its lighter production job and the public’s patience for metalcore wearing thin after so many years. History hasn’t really done much to change that opinion. I’ve always been a staunch defender of this album (in and of itself) but there’s no arguing that the albums above it on this list are better than this one. That being said, it does have three of my top ten ever Killswitch songs. It’s a real shame that this album tanked, as I’ve seen the band live three times since its touring cycle and they didn’t played a single song from it live at any of them. Baby with the bathwater scenario if ever there was one. I truly believe if the best 3 songs on this record were on a different album, they’d have a completely different reputation.

Best songs ‘Never Again’ ‘The Forgotten’ & ‘This Is Goodbye.’

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08. Early S/T (2000) – This album is their pre-fame debut album on a smaller label, but you can sort of look at it more as a demo, many of the tracks from it have been re-recorded over the years. Its their shortest album, its their most abrasive sounding album and its got the rawest production of their career. Its not really my thing though. Everything it does right, is done better elsewhere. The best songs have been recreated better elsewhere. The songs which haven’t been remade aren’t all that amazing. Its got the weakest drumming and vocals of any Killswitch album. Its worth a look for curiosity, but it isn’t a must-have.

Best songs: ‘Temple From The Within,’ ‘Vida Infra’ & ‘Irreversal.’

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Ranking Albums: Part 1 – Metalcore, NWOAHM and Melodic Metal of the ‘00s.

Hate list features? Feel free to skip this article and others in this series. Here I’ll be doing a run down, buyer’s guide, what’s hot and what’s not, best to worst, whatever kind of way you want to call it… I’ll be ranking the albums by certain bands in order from Best (aka. My subjective favourite) to Worst/Least Good (subjectively, in my opinion)… and then pretending it is a factual list of truth and wisdom. Number 1 is obviously the best. The lowest number, well, I think you’ve seen enough of these types of articles over the years to gather where this is going…

I’ll chose one band per day.

DAY 1 – TRIVIUM:

01. The Sin & The Sentence (2017)

Their most energetic, savage, exciting and interesting record. The performances are the best of their career, and the new drummer is the best they’ve ever had. A near flawless album and my definite recommendation for your first Trivium album.

Best songs: Betrayer, The Sin & The Sentence, The Wretchedness Inside.

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02. Shogun (2008)

Their most technically accomplished and ambitious album. The songs are bursting with ideas and go in multiple directions. The album can be considered their ‘…And Justice For All’ in terms of song construction and complexity.

Best songs: Insurrection, Like Callisto’ , Into The Mouth Of Hell’

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03. Silence In The Snow (2015)

The best version of them going melodic, with crazily good vocals and damn catchy melodies. Big in Germany! Not their heaviest effort to date, but certainly one of their catchiest. It will also speak more to the Maiden and Hammerfall fans more than earlier records would, if aforementioned fans are usually put off by Metalcore.

Best songs: Silence In The Snow, The Thing That’s Killing Me, Pull Me From The Void.

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04. Ascendancy (2005)

The classic, the fan favourite, the one in all the Top 100 lists. It has a lot of their most recognisable songs, and for years made up a large portion of concert setlists. The Download Festival performance from the album’s live cycle is talked about in hallowed tones in certain circles. No further explanation needed.

Best songs: A Gunshot’ , Like Light To The Flies, Pull Harder’

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05. In Waves (2011)

Going back to my review from the time, I was a bit skeptical about it, but I can’t imagine why now. The title track is one of the best songs of their career. There is such a good mixture of catchy and heavy throughout the album, and a good mixture of simple and complex. A real good stylistic summary of the previous 4 albums melded together, executed with very memorable tunes.

Best songs: In Waves, Black, Caustic Are The Ties That Bind

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06. The Crusade (2006)

The first of the critical flops. Not as bad as people would have you believe. They’ve made better albums over the years, but there’s still a lot to love on here. ‘Becoming The Dragon’ is a perfect song.  

Best songs: Becoming The Dragon, Tread The Floods.

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07. Vengeance Falls (2013)

This one got a lot of criticism in the press because Disturbed’s David Draiman produced it and it was a bit commercial sounding. Didn’t seem to affect them live at the time, they were killer when touring this record and songs from it live held up well. Again, its not perfect, and it can be a bit repetitive, but it isn’t a disaster like people make it out to be.

Best songs: Through Blood And Dirt And Bone, At The End Of This War.

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08. Ember To Inferno (2003)

The debut album is a fair example of the style and direction of Ascendancy, but the songs aren’t quite as good yet. Its definitely worth checking out, and a good addition to a fan’s collection, but shouldn’t be your first Trivium album as a newcomer, its good, but its not all the way there yet.

Best songs: Pillars Of Serpents, Requiem.

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??. What The Dead Men Say. (2020)

[The new album is too new to fairly position, but I estimate it will probably end up in the top half, depending on how long the metaphorical flavour stays in the chewing gum long term. If you want to know what I think prior to that, check out my recent review].

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