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 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.
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
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".
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
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
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 🎉
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!
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
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)
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!!
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?
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.
Hell yeah Black Crown Initiate!! Hoping for new music from them soon, I'd check out Anciients if you've not heard em before, reckon you'd dig!
@@RhymeSignatures Oh yeah, I like Anciients. They have a new album coming out at the end of the month.
@@bobsala7780 yeah I can't wait!!
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.
Really nice list, I think haken really put sole amazin works in the 10, also the one frost album they put out in this decade is really cool
Big fan of Frost*! Hyped for the new one coming out soon :)
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
I think you'd really dig the Trophy Scars album! It's very proggy for a non-proggy band :)
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".
The best Tesseract album, I had the pleasure of seeing them live shortly after this came out!
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
Some absolutely brilliant picks there!! Weather Systems NEARLY made my ten!
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
The War on Drugs!! What a great band!
@RhymeSignatures indeed! I would've added A Deeper Understanding, too, if the rules permitted it :D
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
Janelle Monae's Cindy Mayweather albums are slept on by the prog community, they're incredible!
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 🎉
Agreed! Those are all amazing!
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!
Terminal Redux!! What an amazing album! I love Vektor ❤️❤️ we are LONG overdue a follow-up!
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.
It's definitely one of Townsend's most ambitious works! I should do a ranking sometime...
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
OOOH Dillinger!! What an incredible band
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)
You will LOVE Native Construct!
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!!
Great video, always informative. Can you list the albums you rattled off at the end in the description as I didn't get a few of them?
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?
I wish I knew the answer to that question!! I started with ABBA and Elton John, but I ended up on Death, Car Bomb and Cult of Luna xD