Key

Yeah, yeah. I know. ANOTHER member is doing a 100 albums list. But hey, this one is different, I promise. This is going to be a challenge and it's going to be fun. I will be posting about 100 albums, but the catch is, I have to have enjoyed that album in it's full. That doesn't mean the deluxe version etc, it means the album by itself that it was released as. I may include some deluxe versions, but i'm not focusing on those. It needs to have had a 100% positive rating in terms of songs on the album, and my overall opinion of it. It can't be albums where I say "I really liked this album except for a few tracks". It needs to be 100%. You also may be thinking "do you even have enough albums like that?". Well...yes and no. Yes in terms of, I know that I have listened to more than enough to include on this list, but that doesn't mean I can't revisit albums that were close to 100% to include on the list. Don't worry, I have plenty of albums before I have to revisit others. So...sit back and enjoy! It's going to be a fun ride.

Key

Let's start things off on the right foot, shall we? And what better way to do that with an album that I instantly 100% fell in love with the first time I heard it. As the image says above, we are definitely talking about The Sword's Gods of the Earth. You may be wondering why I chose this one out of all the other possible albums I could have chosen to start this off. Simple, because I wanted to. I was craving this album all day, and I am finally giving it a spin for what feels like the 1000th time since I first heard it, but rightfully so. It's perfect in every way. When I first heard it, it was when I was just starting to get into The Sword, so I instantly found some enjoyment out of it, not to mention the fact that I have seen them perform plenty of the songs off this album live, and what an experience that was! The vocals are what really keep me wanting to listen, though it's always good to mention the fantastic guitar work throughout the entire thing. This is one doom/stoner album that is well worth a listen or two, especially if you're really feeling like you want to give the genre a chance.

As I said when I introduced this concept, the album will be 100% positive rating, and this one definitely fits that bill, in which case I will not be posting youtube videos to songs to showcase favorite songs, because i'd have to post the whole album. If I were to choose one though, it'd probably be Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians.

I know they've only released 4 albums to date (i think), so maybe saying this is my favorite album of theirs isn't entirely fair, but it is. It's my favorite album of theirs, and it's also one of my favorites in it's entire genre.

Powerstars

Good on you, bringing up Pokémon! One of my personal favorite tracks is Twinleaf Town from DPPt. I gave a midi of it an acoustic soundfont once and it was awesome...I'll show you sometime.

__________________

Key

And continuing on the journal of 100 100% albums, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band comes next up, why? Because it's the only Beatles album that I actually like 100%. There is not a single track on this album that I don't like. The first three tracks are some of my favorite "introduction" tracks because they all fit together making it seem like it's one big long introduction, but it isn't, of course.

The thing I find to be one of the cooler aspects of this album is the fact that about 95% of the songs on the album don't even meet three minutes. I think that's rather impressive when I think about the fact that each song has it's own way of making me feel like this is one of the best albums I've ever heard, and it just makes it even better knowing they just did what they do best, and in a short amount of time no less.

As mentioned before, this is easily the only Beatles album that I 100% like, and i'm not saying I don't like their other albums, trust me, I own their entire discography, however I just don't find that they put as much thought into a lot of their other albums as they did this one, maybe i'm just being overly positive about this album that it shows the negatives for their others, but nonetheless, it's my favorite.

When I first heard the album, I don't think it was the first Beatles album I ever heard, I think it was one of the last few that I had heard before I could say i've heard all their album, but this one in particular had a lot of songs that I was already familiar with, and it just made the experience ten times better. Songs like When I'm Sixty Four, and Getting Better, were songs that I knew about, but had no idea the whereabouts of them album wise. Finding them on this one really made it more of a worthwhile and exciting experience to listen to this album. Thus leading into listening to it again and again. I could listen to this whole album right now, and again in ten years, and probably still give it a 100% satisfaction rating.

Key

And wouldn't you know it, i've got some more video game music to talk about. There's seriously enough music out there in video game world for me to talk about that my whole journal could become a video game music journal, but I wouldn't do that. Anyway, here's some I really like:

More recently, i've been playing Paranautical Activity and the OST in that game is ****ing fantastic. There's nothing than a FPS rogue like game with drum n bass as the full soundtrack.



Another one i'd like to mention is Vanquish. I remember playing through that game and really diggin the music along with the gameplay. It was very fun and enjoyable and the fast paced storyline and gameplay just made it that much better. Really killer soundtrack that is worth mentioning.



The last one i'll mention is one that I find to be a cool way to enter a game. I got Duke Nukem 3D on Steam, and hearing this upon getting to the menu just made me feel like kicking someone's ass. Really cool menu song.



More to come probably. I have a lot that I like.

Key

Yes, yes, I as well will be partaking in the spreading of holiday cheer, and what better way to do that than through music. I want to make this a thing that will literally take place from now until Christmas, but that doesn't mean my non Christmas related posts will seize to exist, they'll just be whenever I feel I want to post them, but fret not, this won't just be the classic Christmas music posted over and over again, i'm making it interesting and will be posting songs from bands in the Christian Prog genre, all the way to death metal that has some relation to Christmas. Some may enjoy it, some may not, but hey, it's the holidays.

Key

Now that the introduction has been done, I want to post some music from one of my all time favorite Christian Progressive Rock bands "Theocracy". I remember when I first heard about them it was an accidental stumble upon a video on Youtube. I wasn't familiar with the band name and all that led me to click on it was the album cover. This exact song was the one I found:



Still by far one of my all time favorite Theocracy songs to date, I mean...that intro! The whole song is groovy and honestly, I would not have known they were a Christian prog band had I not looked them up, mostly because they don't overwhelm you with Christianity. Obviously they are all about Christianity, but listening to it with an open mind, you wouldn't know.

And then we come to their most recent album "As The World Bleeds"...



...which honestly has to be one of the best progressive metal albums I have ever heard, and trust me, there's a long list of prog metal that I enjoy and love and would probably put close to number one if I brought them up. All the tracks are good, and it's all made so much better with the powerful guitar chords along with Matt Smith's fantastic vocal range. Definitely one album always worth checking out.

Key

It is the holidays, why not enjoy more prog, right?

If there's anything I grew to love most about prog, is the Christian Prog side of it. It's got such amazing music coming from all sorts of bands. I've already mentioned Theocracy, but another i'd like to mention is Harmony. A bit of a cliche'd name, but hell, you can't blame them. They've had three albums so far, one of which being Chapter II: Aftermath,



which was one of the first christian prog albums I heard and loved simultaneously. It's about an hour long, but it really does feel longer with the amount of creativity and proggy aspects thrown into the mix. One of my favorite tracks off the album would have to be...



I don't really have a whole lot to say about this band other than the fact that I really dig their sound and they've really got to put out some new material, because it's been since 08 that they released something, and i'm eager for more.

Key

Updated as of 11/25/2013

Hit:
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Coheed & Cambria - The Afterman: Descension
Killswitch Engage - Disarm The Descent
Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
Black Sabbath - 13
Tesseract - Altered State
Children of Bodom - Halo of Blood
Megadeth - Super Collider
City & Colour - The Hurry And The Harm
Avenged Sevenfold - Hail To The King
Dream Theater - Dream Theater
God Is An Astronaut - Origins
David Bowie - The Next Day
Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves
Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Trivium - Vengeance Falls
Joe Satriani - Unstoppable Momentum
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2
Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
A Day To Remember - Common Courtesy
Paul McCartney - New
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Blackfield - Blackfield IV
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)

Miss:
Bullet For My Valentine - Temper Temper
Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal
Streetlight Manifesto - The Hands That Thieve
Sigur Ros - Kveikur
Depeche Mode - Delta Machine
Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny
Deep Purple - Now What?!

Still need to listen to:
Omnium Gatherum - Beyond
Linkin Park - Living Things
Panic! at the Disco - Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!
AFI - Burials
Ayreon - The Theory of Everything

Key

Video Game Music Special

I wanted to talk about a game that is both near and dear to my teenage memories as well as a game who's music I will cherish for as long as I live. That game is Runescape. Yes, I was a Runescape player, but hell...at least I was inside playing a game that I loved instead of going out and doing drugs and alcohol. I spent most if not all my teenage years playing this game. I believe I started playing it around 2006, and finally stopped playing in late 2011 due to not liking the changes the creators were making to the game. It was no longer about the fun, it was more about the in game economy, but that's not why I am bringing this up, the main reason for this post is the music that would play during many events of the game. I can honestly say that every song I heard from the soundtrack of this game fills my mind and heart with so much nostalgia that it's almost unbearable (in a good way). I'll post a few that really hit me in the heart and fill me with nostalgic sadness:



I remember playing Castle Wars for hours and this music really put me into the right mood for the setting.

But of course, the most nostalgic music comes from the music you hear from the cities you would stand in for countless hours talking to other players about trading items, doing quests, and god knows what else, here's a few that I remember clearly:



However, with posting the music from the towns, and Castle Wars, there will always be that one song that really hits it home, and that one is titled "Autumn Voyage", not only does this song fill me with the most nostalgia out of them all, it is the first Runescape song that I actually really liked. I remember going to the song list and always choosing that one. I just liked it. I liked how catchy it is, etc etc. It got to the point that I was at school and I would hum it all day.



Anyway, if I keep going, i'm going to be filled with so much nostalgia that I may explode so i'll keep this one short. Runescape played a huge role in my life in being literally the first MMORPG that I really worked on, really loved, and really miss. I would love to go back in time and just watch myself enjoy the game as much as I did. The unfortunate part about it is...if I started playing again, it just wouldn't feel the same. The game has changed so much that I really would not find any sort of enjoyment out of it. I still have my character and everything, but it just grew stale, and it's unfortunate that it got that point because it made me not want to play the game that I grew to love so much. But...that's what makes a good game, I guess.