Can't fault your list - those albums I know, anyway, but I would definitely add to this list my absolute favorite album of the 2010s, Tesseract's "Altered State".
Wow, I don't think I've ever agreed more with this type of a list (seems like we have very similar tastes!). Out of all of the albums you've talked about (including HMs) I would put 6 or 7 on my own list and that's probably only because I've never heard some of the rest like The Similitude of a Dream and Holy Vacants. I was epecially happy that you've included Arcane (the better Jim Grey project), Wilderun's Veil of Imagination and Gazpacho's Demon in honorable mentions. The only records that I would add to your overall expansive list would be Elder's Reflections of a Floating World, Vektor's Terminal Redux and, my favorite album of all time, Dreadnought's Bridging Realms. Anyways, I'm very happy that I found your channel through the recent discussion on The Prog Corner regarding the best modern prog bands!
Totally agree that the decade of the 2010s was an incredible decade for metal. My top 10 albums (in no particular order) are: Opeth - Pale Communion Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I Pallbearer - Heartless Cattle Decapitation - The Anthropocene Extinction Allegaeon - Proponent for Sentience Black Crown Initiate - The Wreckage of Stars Between The Buried And Me - Coma Ecliptic Periphery III Select Difficulty Ocean - Pelagial Haken - The Mountain And it was hard to leave out Wobbler's From Silence To Somewhere but I actually didn't listen to that until the 2020s.
I love all the bands you put on your list (but never heard Trophy Scars)! For some I might pick different albums though. My top 25 albums of the 2010s (limit 1 per band): 1. BTBAM - Parallax II 2. Haken - Aquarius 3. The Human Abstract - Digital Veil 4. Tesseract - Altered State 5. Native Construct - Quiet World 6. Protest the Hero - Scurrilous 7. Today I Caught the Plague - Lore 8. Caligula’s Horse - Moments from Ephemeral City 9. Art by Numbers - Reticence: The Musical 10. Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare 11. Periphery - Periphery 12. Devin Townsend - Empath 13. Tool - Fear Inoculum 14. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis 15. Thank You Scientist - Maps of Non-Existent Places 16. Xanthochroid - Of Erthe and Axen Act II 17. The Contortionist - Language 18. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand 19. Other by No One - Book I: Dr. Breacher 20. Symphony X - Iconoclast 21. Opeth - In Cauda Venenum 22. Leprous - Malina 23. Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) 24. Destiny Potato - LUN 25. Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events
Here's all of my perfect 5-star albums I have from the 2010's. (so, 1 through 4) Pepe Deluxe - Queen of the Wave The River Empires - Epilogue Hotel of the Laughing Tree - Terror and Everything After Small Leaks Sink Ships - Face Yourself and Remove Your Sandals 5 through 10+ Foals - Total Life Forever Cloud Cult - Light Chasers Fjokra - Thoughtsteps The Dear Hunter - Act IV Mutemath - Odd Soul Janelle Monae - The Archandroid Lehto & Wright - Chldren's Songs Eldren - Miss Information Aged Dirt Poor Robins - The Raven Locks (I-III) Kaddisfly - Horses Galloping on Sailboats Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here Kimbra - Vows Everything Everything - Get to Heaven East of the Wall - The Apologist sElf - Super Fake Nice edit: Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears - Daffy's Elixir
Some albums I would like to add to the conversation: Symphony X - Underworld (2015) Vanden Plas - The Seraphic Clockwork (2010) The Aristocrats - Self-Titled (2011) Subsignal - Paraiso (2013) Threshold - Legends Of The Shires (2017) Frost* - Falling Satellites (2016) All tremendous albums worthy of recognition 🎉
Great list. Mine, in no particular order and probably forgeting some: Wobbler - Rites of Dawn or From Silence to Somewhere Echolyn - Echolyn (2012) Rush - Clockwork Angels Ayreon - The Theory of Everything, Anekdoten - Until All the Ghosts Are Gone Riverside - Love, Fear And The Time Machine Steven Wilson - The Raven that Refused to Sing Anathema - Weather Systems King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana Iamthemorning - Belighted
I agree about both the mountain and Pelagial I can also see a psychological comparison in Pelagial. It's the only album from the ocean I've fully listened to, outside of the epilogue first track, considering I've not really enjoyed mood setting tracks (with some exceptions) I love the mountain as a track by track basis, but if I had to pick anything from Haken, it would be Aquarius It's neat, little instrumental parts inside Celestial Elixir excite me, and I follow them easily as I'm very familiar with things like that due to having done band for eight years. I love the rest of Aquarius as I have listened to it in its entirety. Top 10 (in no particular order and varying genres) Haken - Aquarius The Ocean - Pelagial Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Pinata DragonForce - Extreme Power Metal Septicflesh - The Great Mass Aberrant Vascular - Aegisthus Molllust - In Deep Waters Morlas Memoria - Mine of Pictures Solefald - norronasongen, Kosmopolis Nord The Night Flight Orchestra - Skyline Whispers I picked these albums because I can listen to all of their tracks (or have previously or will as time goes on) Most have no weak spots except for some epilogue tracks (very beginning of Pelagial) or a track that doesn't jive with the rest of my favorites of an era (justice for Saint Mary - Diablo Swing Orchestra) it's too dissimilar and isn't my liking of their first era (before their 2017 album and vocalist switch)
Love to see some Diablo Swing Orchestra! Their last album was great, but man did it suffer from some scrappy production, hoping the next one is a bit fuller-sounding!
@RhymeSignatures The production is why I avoided their fifth album like the plague. Their first four albums are much more preferable even though changes did occur between the third and fourth album, which is why the third album is on my list, whereas the fourth wouldn't have even been an honorable mention due to it's enjoyment inconsistency.
Devin Townsend's Empath has become one of my favorite albums of all time, any decade. The fact that it just barely got in at the end of the decade means it's gotta take the top spot for me. Off the top of my head the next couple would be SW's Hand and Raven, Parallax 2, Affinity, and NMB's Similitude.
I consider the 2010s probably my favorite decade for metal and rock together with the 70s of course. BTBAM - The Parallax II Opeth - Pale Communion Haken - Affinity TDEP - One of us is the killer Katatonia - Dead end kings Twelve foot Ninja - Outlier Native Construct - Quiet World Archspire - Relentless Mutation Car Bomb - Mordial Periphery - Juggernaut
Haha loved that Honorable Mentions roll off! Admittedly, I haven't heard most of your top 10...but I have a sneaking suspicion that once I do...more than a few will be added to my list! Thanks for your videos and recommendations! Here's mine: Favorite Albums of the 2010s no particular order: Prog/Metal: Anathema- Weather Systems Riverside- Love, Fear and the Time Machine Avenged Sevenfold- Nightmare The Dear Hunter- The Color Spectrum The Pineapple Thief- In Exile Trivium- In Waves Wintersun- Time I NON PROG/METAL: The War On Drugs- Lost in the Dream Tyler Childers- Purgatory Chris Stapleton- Traveller The Midnight- Endless Summer Matt Pond PA- The Dark Leaves City And Colour- Little Hell Mikal Cronin- MCII Josh Garrels- Home HAIM- Days Are Gone Waxahatchee- Cerulean Salt The Parlor Mob- Dogs Phosphorescent- Muchacho Rebelution- Count Me In Stick Figure- Burial Ground Jason Isbell- Southeastern The Head and the Heart- The Head and the Heart Film Soundtracks: The Theory of Everything Far From the Madding Crowd A Hidden Life Interstellar The Artist Instrumental: Tony Anderson- Chasm Olafur Arnalds- For Now I Am Winter Tambour- Chapitre I Paul Cardall- New Life Niklas Paschburg- Tuur mang Welten
Great List. I got to include Logos -L'enigma Dellaa Vitta and IQ- Road Of Bones. Haken's Fauna is my all-time favorite Haken album. I beg to disagree...I think Haken had a slight slump, but is on the way up again. Nothing goes strait up.
I'm optimistic now that Peter Jones has had his first album back with them, we'll see even more of his input on whatever comes next! I'm excited to see them live in September!!
Very much enjoyed this list. Love almost all the albums you mentioned including in your honourable mentions, but my list is pretty different. I really need to check out that Native Construct album... I did a list of my top-50 albums of the 2010s a couple years ago. Here's my top 10: 1. Similitude of a Dream - NMB 2. Modern Vampires of the City - Vampire Weekend 3. Art Angels - Grimes 4. The Passing Light of Day - Pain of Salvation 5. Strange Mercy - St. Vincent 6. The Suburbs - The Arcade Fire 7. Love, Fear & The Time Machine - Riverside 8. Affinity - Haken 9. High Violet - The National 10. Bon Iver - Bon Iver If I just go prog and prog adjacent, then: Similtude, Passing Light of Day, LF&TT, Affinity, Kaleidoscope (Transatlantic), Grimspound (BBT), The Raven (Steven Wilson, toss up w/HCE), The Astonishing (Dream Theater), FEAR (Marillion) and Felicite Thosz (Magma). Honourable Mentions to Pitfalls (Leprous), Sorceress (Opeth), In Contact (Chorse), Lover's End (Moon Safari), Great Adventure (NMB), Third (Flying Colors), From Silence to Somewhere (Wobbler), and The Madness of Many (Animals as Leaders)
Sure! Anathema - Weather Systems Arcane - Known / Learned Big Big Train - English Electric part 1 Caligula's Horse - In Contact Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction Earthside - A Dream in Static Gazpacho - Demon Hadal Sherpa - Self-Titled Ihsahn - Arktis Leprous - Bilateral Moon Safari - Lover's End Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I Mike Oldfield - Return to Ommadawn Ostura - The Room Rishloo - Living as Ghosts with Buildings as Teeth Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It Seventh Wonder - The Great Escape Solstafir - Otta Southern Empire - Civilisation Thank You Scientist - Stranger Heads Prevail Thy Catafalque - Meta VOLA - Inmazes We Lost the Sea - Departure Songs Wilderun - Veil of Imagination
As usual there were a couple that had not filtered down to me yet, specially loved The Ocean and Native Construct. I listened to that Deer Hunter album years ago, thought it was good, on relisting it felt flat to me a bit. I think that is because as time goes on I have listened to harder and harder prog music. Side question, did that happen to anyone else? How does one go from Genesis/Yes to Dream Theater and then ending up with Ulcerate and Dark Tranquility?
