Collaborators' Top Albums of 2012

timothy leary wrote: Well of course there is no top 50 albums it is the top 100 albums and i think if you look you will find Discipline somewhere around 46th or so.  I was not referring to Opeths album being on the top 100 of all time. I still stand by my opinion that the top 100 albums of the year is a more accurate reference tool than is the collaborators poll. Since it is only an opinion you should treat it as such.

I disagree. If by accurate you mean "catters to the average fan who likes mostly Neo, Symphonic and vanilla Prog Metal" then yes, your probably right. However, have you taken a good look at the tastes of the people we have as collabs on this site? The strength of this list is that it comes from a very diverse selection of people, those whose tastes focus on metal, those on Avant/RIO/Zeul, thos eon Neo and Symphonic etc, etc. If an album scores highly, it's because it appeals to a wide range of people and best yet, as a member of this site, I  know these people, or at least have been here long enough to get an understanding of the kind of music most of them like where as with the top 100 lists most of those ratings  come from random people I know nothing about and may in fact have little to no knowledge of prog or focus on a very small section of it. Given that, I'll trust the collab end of year lists far  more (except when it comes to Steven Wilson, I have an allergic reaction to his music), especially with the last couple of years seeing a lot of neo and symphonic albums receiving a lot of 5 star ratings.

sleeper wrote: vanilla Prog Metal

Vanilla is a pretty good flavor, though I like chocolate more.

But help me understand; Dream Theater, Opeth, Riverside, Haken, and Devin Townsend are probably the 5 biggest prog-metal acts on this site, yet they all have their own unique sound, and play a lot more than just prog-metal. Where does the "vanilla" part come in?

Horizons wrote: I would consider DT to be vanilla prog metal :3

Maybe the 90s albums.

But "vanilla" is used in a derogatory sense. Can't a different term be used? I suppose Symphony X, Queensryche, and Fates Warning fall into that "category"? What about Watchtower?


Edited by darkshade - February 09 2013 at 11:22

"Traditional" is better, but then that makes it seem like they're not "progressive". Then again, they WERE progressive at the time. So I guess if you mean that for a band releasing albums right now, it might mean they're not very progressive. Dream Theater have definitely mixed it up, for better or worse, since Scenes From A Memory, trying new things and staying mostly current; moving away from their 90s sound that defines many prog-metal bands.

People have labeled Genesis has traditional prog. Whatever word appeals to fans most,  their style has become more linear when compared to other acts with more interesting styles for me. 

I like vanilla. No flavour at all is bland.

I've used 'Traditional' in the past and had people complaining about it. Can't please every body so bugger it, I'm sticking with vanilla.

sleeper wrote: timothy leary wrote: Well of course there is no top 50 albums it is the top 100 albums and i think if you look you will find Discipline somewhere around 46th or so.  I was not referring to Opeths album being on the top 100 of all time. I still stand by my opinion that the top 100 albums of the year is a more accurate reference tool than is the collaborators poll. Since it is only an opinion you should treat it as such. I disagree. If by accurate you mean "catters to the average fan who likes mostly Neo, Symphonic and vanilla Prog Metal" then yes, your probably right. However, have you taken a good look at the tastes of the people we have as collabs on this site? The strength of this list is that it comes from a very diverse selection of people, those whose tastes focus on metal, those on Avant/RIO/Zeul, thos eon Neo and Symphonic etc, etc. If an album scores highly, it's because it appeals to a wide range of people and best yet, as a member of this site, I  know these people, or at least have been here long enough to get an understanding of the kind of music most of them like where as with the top 100 lists most of those ratings  come from random people I know nothing about and may in fact have little to no knowledge of prog or focus on a very small section of it. Given that, I'll trust the collab end of year lists far  more (except when it comes to Steven Wilson, I have an allergic reaction to his music), especially with the last couple of years seeing a lot of neo and symphonic albums receiving a lot of 5 star ratings.

You are certainly welcome to trust whichever poll you want. I am sure collaborators have not heard the 100 albums of the year in its entirety. Random people have no agenda. A lot of collaborators belong to teams having to do with one sub genre of prog. Maybe you are right, time will tell if collaborators are on the money with their choices.

timothy leary wrote: sleeper wrote: timothy leary wrote: Well of course there is no top 50 albums it is the top 100 albums and i think if you look you will find Discipline somewhere around 46th or so.  I was not referring to Opeths album being on the top 100 of all time. I still stand by my opinion that the top 100 albums of the year is a more accurate reference tool than is the collaborators poll. Since it is only an opinion you should treat it as such. I disagree. If by accurate you mean "catters to the average fan who likes mostly Neo, Symphonic and vanilla Prog Metal" then yes, your probably right. However, have you taken a good look at the tastes of the people we have as collabs on this site? The strength of this list is that it comes from a very diverse selection of people, those whose tastes focus on metal, those on Avant/RIO/Zeul, thos eon Neo and Symphonic etc, etc. If an album scores highly, it's because it appeals to a wide range of people and best yet, as a member of this site, I  know these people, or at least have been here long enough to get an understanding of the kind of music most of them like where as with the top 100 lists most of those ratings  come from random people I know nothing about and may in fact have little to no knowledge of prog or focus on a very small section of it. Given that, I'll trust the collab end of year lists far  more (except when it comes to Steven Wilson, I have an allergic reaction to his music), especially with the last couple of years seeing a lot of neo and symphonic albums receiving a lot of 5 star ratings. You are certainly welcome to trust whichever poll you want. I am sure collaborators have not heard the 100 albums of the year in its entirety. Random people have no agenda. A lot of collaborators belong to teams having to do with one sub genre of prog. Maybe you are right, time will tell if collaborators are on the money with their choices.

So what does being part of a team have to do with anything? Even as part of the Prog Metal Team I voted for other, none metal albums as well, the collabs are unpaid volanteers who have demonstrated a decent knowledge of prog either in general or in a certain genre. There's no conspiracie(s) going on here, I can assure you.

As for your first two sentancies. A couple of the collabs might have (I'm thinking Windhawk and Coner particularly) but most wont have mostly because there will always be albums that won't appeal to certain people, but I'd bet the "average" collab has heard as much of that list as the "average" prog fan. As for random people having no agenda, did you not see the blatent and offensive level of rating manipulation Perhaps supporters where getting involved in last Autumn?

sleeper wrote: timothy leary wrote: sleeper wrote: timothy leary wrote: Well of course there is no top 50 albums it is the top 100 albums and i think if you look you will find Discipline somewhere around 46th or so.  I was not referring to Opeths album being on the top 100 of all time. I still stand by my opinion that the top 100 albums of the year is a more accurate reference tool than is the collaborators poll. Since it is only an opinion you should treat it as such. I disagree. If by accurate you mean "catters to the average fan who likes mostly Neo, Symphonic and vanilla Prog Metal" then yes, your probably right. However, have you taken a good look at the tastes of the people we have as collabs on this site? The strength of this list is that it comes from a very diverse selection of people, those whose tastes focus on metal, those on Avant/RIO/Zeul, thos eon Neo and Symphonic etc, etc. If an album scores highly, it's because it appeals to a wide range of people and best yet, as a member of this site, I  know these people, or at least have been here long enough to get an understanding of the kind of music most of them like where as with the top 100 lists most of those ratings  come from random people I know nothing about and may in fact have little to no knowledge of prog or focus on a very small section of it. Given that, I'll trust the collab end of year lists far  more (except when it comes to Steven Wilson, I have an allergic reaction to his music), especially with the last couple of years seeing a lot of neo and symphonic albums receiving a lot of 5 star ratings. You are certainly welcome to trust whichever poll you want. I am sure collaborators have not heard the 100 albums of the year in its entirety. Random people have no agenda. A lot of collaborators belong to teams having to do with one sub genre of prog. Maybe you are right, time will tell if collaborators are on the money with their choices. So what does being part of a team have to do with anything? Even as part of the Prog Metal Team I voted for other, none metal albums as well, the collabs are unpaid volanteers who have demonstrated a decent knowledge of prog either in general or in a certain genre. There's no conspiracie(s) going on here, I can assure you. As for your first two sentancies. A couple of the collabs might have (I'm thinking Windhawk and Coner particularly) but most wont have mostly because there will always be albums that won't appeal to certain people, but I'd bet the "average" collab has heard as much of that list as the "average" prog fan. As for random people having no agenda, did you not see the blatent and offensive level of rating manipulation Perhaps supporters where getting involved in last Autumn?

I never said collaborators are not competent, nor did I say the collaborators poll is without importance. What I did say is for myself the top 100 albums of the year has more weight than the collaborators poll. As for the abuse of random raters, of course i was aware of it and if you search through past threads i quite often reported such abuse to no avail.