Music

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The following are some of my favourite albums. They are ordered by genre and release date, not by how much I like them. I had to restrict myself to a single album per artist, or Ghost, Opeth, the Ocean Collective, Pink Floyd, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard would have drowned out the rest.

Check out my Last.fm page for more.

Progressive Metal
	Dream Theater - Metropolis pt2: Scenes from a Memory (1999) Progressive Metal Dream Theater live up to their name.
	Opeth - Blackwater Park (2001) Progressive Death Metal Listening to this album in the woods of Sweden changed me.
	Haken - The Mountain (2013) Progressive Metal Somehow stereotypically prog and entirely unique at the same time.
	Ne Obliviscaris - Urn (2017) Progressive Death Metal Who knew violins and blast beats would go so well together.
	Iapetus - The Body Cosmic (2019) Progressive Death Metal A record of galactic proportions, clearly made with passion.
Post-Metal
	The Ocean Collective - Pelagial (2013) Post-Metal The songs are named after oceanic depth zones and get heavier as you go deeper. Peak concept album.
	Cult of Luna - Mariner (2016) Post-Metal Cult of Luna's signature wall of sound is a perfect match for Julie Christmas' eccentric vocals.
	Psychonaut - Unfold the God Man (2020) Post-Metal It meanders and sways, draws you in, and unfolds.
Post-Rock
	Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞ (1998) Post-Rock My soundtrack if the world were to end.
	God is an Astronaut - All is Violent, All is Bright (2005) Post-Rock What is it like inside a star?
	Oh Hiroshima - In Silence We Yearn (2015) Post-Rock Music to be enveloped by and to float away in.
	Spook the Horses - People Used to Live Here (2017) Post-Rock Exploring the emptiness of desolate places.
Progressive Rock
	King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969) Progressive Rock The prog-rock cult hit.
	Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979) Progressive Rock I don't think I need to explain this one.
	King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Polygondwanaland (2017) Progressive Rock KGATLW released five (five!) albums in 2017, all excellent, but this is a true stand-out.
	Hällas - Excerpts from a Future Past (2017) Progressive Rock Adventure rock. Need I say more?
Occult Rock
	Ghost - Meliora (2015) Occult Rock Many bands make concept albums. Ghost is a concept band.
	Year of the Goat - Novis Orbis Terrarum Ordinis (2019) Occult Rock 50% fun and upbeat, 50% calm and moving, 100% intriguing.
	Dool - Summerland (2020) Occult Rock Why has this album made me feel nostalgic from the moment it came out?
Doom Metal
	Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (1986) Doom Metal There's a reason a genre was named after this album.
	Solstice - New Dark Age (1998) Epic Doom Metal Lovecraftian mythos made tangible in sound.
	Warning - Watching from a Distance (2006) Doom Metal The five stages of grief condensed into one soul-crushing album.
	Khemmis - Hunted (2016) Death-Doom Metal A modern take on traditional doom metal that works surprisingly well.
	Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper (2017) Funeral Doom Metal A single 84-minute song of eye-watering beauty.
	Swallow the Sun - When a Shadow is Forced Into the Light (2019) Death-Doom Metal A deeply emotional composition about loss and love.
	Messa - Close (2022) Doom Metal A record that oozes style from a myriad of influences.
Heavy Metal
	Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (1982) Heavy Metal Iron Maiden have fantastic songs across their whole discography, this album is here to represent them all.
	Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth (1998) Heavy / Power Metal Why isn't there more music based on the Silmarillion?
Thrash Metal
	Metallica - Ride the Lightning (1984) Thrash Metal Metallica got me into metal.
	Kreator - Pleasure to Kill (1986) Thrash Metal My only aim is to take many lives, the more the better I feel
	King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation (2023) Thrash Metal Yes, I put KGATLW on the list twice.
Death Metal
	Death - The Sound of Perseverance (1998) Death Metal Some of the best riffs you'll ever hear live on this album.
	Be'lakor - Stone's Reach (2009) Melodic Death Metal An hour's worth of incredibly tight guitar and drum work.
Black Metal
	Bathory - Hammerheart (1990) Black Metal Black metal beats to set sail and praise Oden to.
	Ulver - Bergtatt (1995) Atmospheric Black Metal Norwegian fairy tales told through a combination of black metal and folk.
	Immortal - At the Heart of Winter (1999) Black Metal You know it's good when there's a blue castle on the cover.
	Summoning - Stronghold (1999) Atmospheric Black Metal Grand, enchanting soundscapes.
	Agalloch - The Mantle (2002) Blackened Folk Metal A deep and ethereal mix of styles.
	Primordial - To the Nameless Dead (2007) Blackened Folk Metal Grim, melancholy music with tasteful use of celtic influences.
	Saor - Forgotten Paths (2019) Atmospheric Black Metal What you get if you let a Scotsman with a violin scream across the highlands.
	Këkht Aräkh - Pale Swordsman (2021) Black Metal Gothic black metal, complete with vampires, piano interludes, and built-in vinyl crackle.
	Gudsforladt - Friendship, Love and War (2022) Black Metal The most uplifting black metal I've heard yet.
	Wayfarer - American Gothic (2023) Black Metal Tales of the high plains meet black metal, or as i like to call it, blackened yeehaw.
Alternative Rock
	Katatonia - The Fall of Hearts (2016) Alternative Rock My go-to comfort album.
Shoegaze
	My Bloody Valentine - Loveless (1991) Shoegaze You know I had to put this one on here.
Noise
	Kapitan Korsakov - Stuff & Such (2012) Noise Genuine. Raw. Expressive.
Grunge
	Alice in Chains - Dirt (1992) Grunge Down in a Hole is one of the most touching songs out there.
Pop-Punk
	Green Day - American Idiot (2004) Pop-Punk Call me a poser all you want, this album slaps.
Indie
	Tame Impala - Currents (2015) Indie Did you know that Tame Impala is actually just one guy?
Folk
	Rome - Flowers from Exile (2009) Folk What is an album without any electric guitar doing here?