Louis Thierry's Top 5 Albums of the Decade
For my top 5 albums of the decade I decided to base it on my listening habits from a website that tracks your Spotify statistics. Choosing 5 albums from an entire decade isn't an easy thing to do, and I figured basing my list on my top listening habits of the decade would be the best way to measure what was really important to me over these last 10 years. However, my list won't be the raw top 10 of the last several years; instead, it will be handpicked from a list of 50 based on several years of Spotify listening. This list won't be in any sort of order and the albums picked will be more indicative of the artist rather than the actual album itself.
Louis is the vocalist for Philadelphia-based heavy metal outfit, Parius.
Opeth - In Cauda Venenum (2019)
Might as well start with the very top of my all-time-listened-to-artist. Opeth has been hugely influential to me. They were one of the first real "metal" bands I got into. I've never really gotten into pre-Black Water Park Opeth, (I'm not very good at getting through a band's whole discography) but needless to say everything from Black Water Park and beyond has been listened to an unhealthy amount. I'm a big fan of Newpeth as well as Oldpeth. In Cauda Venenum is absolutely fantastic. It's great step forward and an excellent evolution from Sorceress. I've always loved Mikael's vocals, but he really stepped his game up this time around. The harmonies he creates and the overall emotion he adds to the songs is incredible.
Dream Theater - The Astonishing (2016)
Dream Theater isn't my official second place, but it certainly would be given enough time. They're just another hugely influential band for me. I don't love Dream Theater's catalog back-to-front, but they easily hold some of my most listened to albums. I first started listening to Dream Theater with Octivarium, but I never really ventured beyond that for a long time. Then Kenny Rentz, the bassist for Parius, convinced me to branch out more. While The Astonishing gets some hate for its length I absolutely love what they did with this album. It has a level of drama and theatrics you don't usually see in metal. It feels like a metal musical. In general I prefer albums with a conceptual tie in even if I think the concept is hokey. It ties the music and lyrics together nicely and makes the album feel more like a musical adventure.
Protest The Hero - Pacific Myth (2015)
Just another pillar in my music taste. Every Protest The Hero album holds a special place in my heart. Protest The Hero have managed to evolve with each album and it's been a great to watch them grow. The release of Pacific Myth was interesting with the slow drip of one song a month. I subscribed to the release immediately, but after the third song released I found myself losing interest and never really getting around to listening to the others. I finally got back into it when they released it as a whole and fell in love with it. It was interesting for me to process what vocalist Rody Walker was trying to convey with his lyrics on this one. At first I was upset with him for essentially rejecting what I love most about metal, (awesome concept albums about badass stuff) but over time I came to understand that he feels torn about what PtH fans want and what he wants to write about. I can see that being a tough thing to wrestle with when it comes to how you approach writing your music.
Xanthochroid - Of Erthe and Axen (Act 1) (2017)
There's a part of me that wonders if this spot should really go to Xan or if it should go to bands like Gojira, Mastodon, Obscura, etc. When I think about this album I realize why it would be here over the previously mentioned bands. While I absolutely love those bands there's just something different about Xan. This album really spoke to me and contains elements that made me realize what I truly love in music. Xanthochroid describe themselves as cinematic power/black metal. The sounds like a needlessly precise and pretentious label, but it does describe them well. There really is an element of drama throughout the album along with excellent pacing and a big climactic ending.
Woe Of Tyrants - Threnody (2010)
Last, but not least, we have Threnody by Woe Of Tyrants. I would say that WoT would be up there with Opeth if they had kept at it. I'm my heart I know that may not be true because their music lacks the complexity and balance that Opeth's has. WoT is balls to the wall tech/thrash intensity in basically every one of their songs. It was another of one of my early real "metal" albums. I've listened to their three albums a truly disgusting amount of times. I feel like the intensity and constant flow of music gives vocalist Chris Catanzaro opportunity to use some really interesting phrasing. He is also far and away my favorite metal lyricist. His prose is metaphorical and evocative without sounding hammy and juvenile.