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#30 - HORSE The Band - R. Borlax (2003)
When this cd came out, I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I LOVE NES music... I can literally sit down and listen to NES soundtracks like albums and here comes this band making their album sound like a NES soundtrack with screaming. I wasn't huge on the screaming at first, but I absolutely LOVED the NES sounding synth in the background. I'll admit, the screaming has grown on me over the years and to this day, I still love this album. With so many great moments on it, you seriously should listen to the whole thing.
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#29 - Faith No More - Album Of The Year (1997)
It should come as no surprise to see another album involving Mike Patton on my list. He is literally one of my top 5 favorite musicians of all time. His influence can be felt everywhere in modern rock music. This was Faith No More's last album until this years "Sol Invictous". I'll be honest, I really just started listening to Faith No More hardcore this year, but they quickly grew on me and now I am a superfan. I like them so much, that this album quickly landed at number 30 on my list. I LOVE the song "Ashes To Ashes" and definitely see the comparisons that Incubus has drawn from them.
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#28 - Fuel - Sunburn (1998)
1998 was a weird year for me. My father passed away and much of it left me in a blur. I was 14/15 and didn't pay too much attention to rock music. I was going through a rap/r&b phase and was slowly coming out of it. I got a job the following year at Media Play and they had a wonderful new thing called "cd singles". They were cheap and usually had a music video that was playable on your pc. I picked up one of there's with the song "Shimmer". I had never even heard of them at that point but something told me to get it. I was not sorry. It ended up leading me to one of my favorite 90's bands and one that led me out of my rap phase.
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#27 - Dredg - El Cielo (2002)
This album always makes me think. It has a great power to it. I love to just take a drive through the country in the middle of the night by myself and listen to this album. It is a beautifully written and well thought out album. It sucks that these guys never got as big as they should've, but i'm happy that I caught wind of them. I first heard the song "Of The Room" and then saw something about them on the Incubus Online boards back in the day. After I listened to a couple of their albums, they became one of my favorite bands pretty quick and to this day, still are. "El Cielo" is the kind of album that will take you away from everything and that's definitely a good thing.
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#26 - Asleep - All These Things We'll Never Need (2006)
Around 2006 my friends band, "Soma" did a reunion show at a place in Columbus. This band was the opening act. I was outside smoking cigarettes and drinking a beer when all of the sudden, I heard them. I dashed inside to catch them playing their song "Rearrange The Red". HOW IN THE FUCK ARE THESE GUYS A LOCAL BAND? I thought to myself... I was floored, everyone was. They had this swagger to their live show that made everyone else disappear and you became mesmerized by their music. This was their debut album and if you can find it, it's one you should NOT miss. Asleep to this day, have still never received the recognition they deserved, but perhaps, someday people will realize the error of their ways. I couldn't find a link to the whole album, but here's one of their videos for one of the best songs on the album!
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#25 - Rise Against - End Game (2011)
When "End Game" came out, it struck a chord in me. It connected on so many levels with what I was going though at the time and just made complete sense about the state the world was in. I believe this to be their most ambitious work to date and there was not a dull moment out of the 13 songs on the album. The music video for "Make It Stop (September’s Children)" may be one of the most heart-wrenching i've ever seen. This album makes me want to scream along everytime. I thank you for this album, Rise Against.
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#24 - At The Drive-In - Relationship Of Command (2000)
At The Drive-In was one of the best unheard of bands to come out in the late 90's. After recording this album they broke up and the members went on to form Sparta & The Mars Volta. This was where those bands came from though. There was something special about this album and you could hear in the music, what was about to become of both bands that came from their demise. This album was a very important keynote in the formation of what would become known as the Post-Hardcore/Punk music movement.
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#23 - The Offspring - Americana (1998)
The Offspring are one of those bands that strike GOLD every other album or so. Coming off the disappointment that was "Ixnay On The Hombre", they came back with this offering. "Pretty Fly For A White Guy" was like, the anthem to my freshman year of high school and "The Kids Aren't Alright" is still one of my favorite songs of theirs to date. The Offspring will always be one of those bands that take me back and this album does it every single time!
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#22 - Vent/Audiovent - Papa's Dojo (1999) & Dirty, Sexy Knights In Paris (2002)
These albums are kind of one in the same. One, "Papa's Dojo" was released while they still went by "Vent" and the other, "Dirty Sexy Knights In Paris" was released under their new name, "Audiovent". This was another band that I was introduced through my friend Nate, the HoobUstank guy. I heard about "Vent" in 2000 around the same time I was getting into Incubus. I had NO clue these guys were related, let alone brothers of Mike & Brandon! It's a shame they didn't last. If they had, I think they may have surpassed Incubus in terms of musical quality. I am SUPER HAPPY we got these albums though! Papa's Dojo is extremely hard to find, so do some research if you like the album below! YOU WILL NOT BE SORRY!!!!!
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#21 - Weezer - The Blue Album (1994)
Let's just go ahead and say it. 1994 was the best year of all time for music! SO MANY GREAT ALBUMS CAME OUT!!! It really was ridiculous. I wish another year like that would come along but I fear it may not happen for a long, long time. A year like that comes along once in a lifetime and 1994 was that year for me. Everything just seemed perfect in 1994. It was a great year to be alive and I feel bad for all of you who were either to young or not alive yet, to experience it first hand and to those of you who were alive, wasn't it GREAT???
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We're getting super close to the end! Any ideas on my top 20? I'd love to know who all has been reading along and what some of your favorite albums were too! Well, it's late and Fridays are long so I must be off! Happy reading and have a wonderful FRIDAY!!!
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