OK, inspired by a post in another thread, I'm going to try to start a challenge. A discography run-through! Essentially, pick a band and listen to their entire discography (preferrably a band that has many releases you haven't yet listened to). Afterwards, you can write your thoughts on the band/their discography as a whole. The reason I'm doing this is because there are so many bands where I just listen to a few albums here and there, and don't really check out their full line-up, and I want to try to change that. Some bands I was thinking of starting with are Black Sabbath, Darkthrone, Dream Theater or Iron Maiden, but I figured I'd go with Death first since they only have seven releases.

Great idea!
I'll start with Saxon, Gamma Ray and King Diamond.

Like way back when I started really getting into metal I would systematically listen through discographies by bands while playing World of Warcraft. I did that with most of the greats.
Oddly enough, very recently I've taken up doing it again with some bands that have kinda rekindled my interest in recent years.

So far I've been through Blind Guardian, Armored Saint, Blue Öyster Cult, Cannibal Corpse, Entombed and Darkthrone. I guess I'll give my notes here.

Blind Guardian
Been a long time fan, but used to frequent the same few songs and albums all the time. Listening through their discography, from the speed metal days to the modern stuff, has really made me appreciate their development as a band. I still don't really like anything newer than Nightfall in Middle-Earth (my all time favourite) though.

Armored Saint
I know they're very well known, but somehow it still feels like they're a little underrated. Symbol of Salvation is one of the best albums ever released, and I hadn't previously noted just how good Raising Fear and Delirious Nomad actually are too. Even the stinkers like La Raza and Revelation are pretty decent.

Blue Öyster Cult
Man, how BOC never got bigger than they did is a mystery and a crime. The earlier albums are weird, but so enthralling and unique. The middle albums are basically just bangers from start to finish. Even the newer stuff is pretty decent compared to many of their contemporaries still going at it.

Cannibal Corpse
I used to think the Barnes albums were my favourites, but honestly after listening through everything I feel pretty strongly that their Corpsegrinder-fronted albums are stronger, both in songwriting and performance. I was actually surprised to find that I quite like all the newer albums too.

Entombed
When LG died last year that really rekindled my love for Entombed. Wolverine Blues and Left Hand Path had been in steady rotation since... always, I think. But reacquainting myself with their other albums really made me realise how great most of their stuff is. Inferno, Uprising, and To Shoot Straight are awesome albums. It's only really Same Difference that I can't get into at all.

Darkthrone
Every album from Total Death up to and including Sardonic Wrath had always been a total blur for me. I still don't think they are that outstanding, maybe except for Ravishing Grimness which is fairly good, but they are pretty decent all the same. I also pretty much only listened to the newer albums (i.e. FOAD and forward) once or twice since release, and I've gained a new appreciation for them. Listening to the newer albums (especially Eternal Hails, Old Star and Arctic Thunder) with the added context of Darkthrone's musical development (or lack thereof?) makes me appreciate them a bit more.

In which album of theirs does their speed metal era end and their power metal era begins? Is it a clean transition from one era to another or is there an album where both eras overlap? I wasn't sure so I needed to ask.

I rarely ever do this, as there are usually reasons why I avoid some albums or favor albums over others, haha! But I did do this relatively recently with Bolt Thrower's discography, as there really aren't any bad albums in their discography, although there are weaker ones I had not revisited in a long time. I also did this with Death kind of recently, and it also works pretty well as it's a pretty consistent discography.

Outside of metal, I actually decided to do this with Pink Floyd's discography more then two years ago, but it was quite an experience. I listened to nothing else for a few days and totally focused on Pink Floyd's work, even sitting through their clearly weaker releases (although I'll admit that I didn't listen to the entire live part of Ummagumma, because it's already such a dull record, I was not going to suffer on purpose for this).

I might do it again with a band like Sigh or Mastodon.

One thing I've noticed about Darkthrone- I own at least half a dozen of their 20 some (I forget how many) full lengths. Their albums tend to have two to three great songs, maybe two more which are decent but listenable, and at least half of which are forgettable, filler-type songs. And on their not-so-great songs, the issue seems to be the song structures are too meandering, with riffs that are kind of scabbed together and not in a real memorable way. "Transylvanian Hunger" is the only album of theirs that is really consistent all the way through, and even it- when you listen to it all the way through start to finish- can get monotonous as there is too LITTLE variation in it.

Still really like the band, though.

Ah, I used to love doing this through a work shift, finding bands that could carry me through.

I will start with Misery Index, riding the high of the new album.

Then I will follow with Septicflesh because their new album is nearly here

It is gradual in some sense, but I feel like there's a pretty clear cut-off between Follow the Blind (1989) and Tales from the Twilight World (1990).
Battalions of Fear is essentially "just" speed metal, where Follow the Blind had more power-centric songs like Banish from Sanctuary and Valhalla, but overall it has pretty much the same aesthetic as BoF. Tales from the Twilight World still had some speed metal sensibilities, but the songwriting and production is much more like classic power metal at that point.

I just remembered that I actually also did this with Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Death and Ozzy Osbourne not too long ago.

Suffocation
I have been pestered by friends to get into Suffocation (they should be right up my alley) for years, so I thought I'd give them another shot. I'm still not all that much into the classic Suffo albums to be honest. I really liked Souls to Deny, but that album basically just sounds like Cannibal Corpse to me. Pinnacle of Bedlam was another one that I kinda liked. Still wouldn't call myself a Suffocation fan though. The production on the old albums is attrocious.

Death
Always been a huge Scream Bloody Gore fan, but the vocals and sound on the newer albums kinda turned me off. Having gone through the discography I found, to my surprise, that I really liked Symbolic (as well as Leprosy and Spiritual Healing, but I knew that already). Still don't like Human, ITP or SoP at all though.

Morbid Angel
It's one of those death metal bands where I always really liked the debut and a few other things here and there. Revisiting them I found that I really overlooked Covenant and Gateways to Annihilation earlier, those albums are great. Heretic, Formulas, and I/K I don't care much about though. Domination is rock solid. Blessed I can take or leave.

Ozzy Osbourne
Always been a huge Bark at the Moon fan, but I never really bothered listening to other Ozzy albums for some reason. I was kinda surprised how boring and run of the mill most of it is, even the "classics". Each album has some real bangers, but most of the tracks are crap.

So no one is calling Motorhead eh?
"Fine. I'll do it myself."

Someone should do every Napalm Death album and EP. I don't have the balls.

I might do this with Blut aus Nord

OK, so I have listened to each Death album probably like 3-4 times now to get a feel for them. I still feel like that hasn't really been enough to fully sink them in but I only think that'd truly happen if I were to get them on CD and have them on repeat for a while. I do prefer their latter albums to their earlier albums. My favourites are rather cliche admittedly, with Symbolic being at #1 and Human being at #2. After that it gets more difficult, I'd have to listen to the albums a few more times to compare but it's either Individual Thought Patterns or Sound of Perseverance next. My favourite of the original three is actually Spiritual Healing, but again I'll have to listen to some more Leprosy and Scream Bloody Gore to get a better feel. I guess my Death run-through isn't over yet but I really worry about bands with larger discographies if one with only 7 is having this many listens.

I'm currently on a discography run of The Black Dahlia Murder (although that is on and off, not really a straight through thing)

I've done discography runs for a lot of bands. One of the most recent was Cannibal Corpse, which was sparked by seeing Cannibal Corpse and it being one of the first post-Covid concerts I went to. The Barnes era is okay, my favorite would have to be Tomb of the Mutilated (barely edging out The Bleeding) but with the recent criticism of his vocals you can hear that they deteriorated way back then even. Bloodthirst is probably my favorite Cannibal Corpse album overall but even going through their recent albums the discography remains quite solid.

One of the most difficult discography runs I did in the past was Mistress of the Dead. It's a depressive funeral doom one man project and a lot of the old demos sound very samey - and he released like 10 equivalent full lengths in the span of a year or so. It's not a band I would regard as the best of funeral doom, or is it really anything complicated (much of it sounds improvised) but it at least retains the same graveyard wandering atmosphere for the entire run.

Therion is a fun one. The way each album is different from the last in just a little bit shows the evolution of this band being a gradual thing. It's like each album is something like a fusion of the one right before and the one right after. This gets a bit sluggish if you get to Beloved Antichrist though. But I sometimes do modified discography runs where I leave that album out entirely (so I jump from Sitra Ahra straight to Leviathan). I also often skip the weird soundtrack portion of A'arab Zaraq and sometimes even only do the first two songs.

In Flames is another fun one. Some here might disagree, but as I pointed out in my thread I find Soundtrack to Your Escape to hit a bit of a nostalgia factor. It gets annoying right around Siren Charms though and sometimes I just quit before I even start Battles - but a modified discog run where I just go from Lunar Strain through Clayman is sometimes fun every now and then.

Moonspell is another one where the albums are different between each one. I haven't done a Moonspell run in a while though, so I might try and do so one of these days to include 1755 and Hermitage.

Shape of Despair, Mournful Congregation, Esoteric, Ahab, Evoken, Tyranny, Longing for Dawn and Funeral (to name a few) are all easy discography runs. Some of them are a bit longer, but I can never get tired of Esoteric's sound and Mournful Congregation has a near flawless discography.

Wolves in the Throne Room is probably my favorite black metal discog run. Sometimes I just do those without intending on it since I wind up queuing Diadem of Two Stars and Two Hunters together and then just continue the run from there (having 184 miles of commuting time each day I work gives plenty of time to do so). Come to think of it, I haven't done an Agalloch one yet that I can remember.

Dare anyone take on the Buckethead gauntlet? Or maybe give the Rogga Johansson catalogue a go?

Annihilator is a band that I've always wanted to give more attention to, so I might give their discography a shot.

I have also listened through the Death discography. I like all their albums. Scream Bloody Gore is solid, but leprosy is a huge step up, while Spiritual Healing is even better. I like Human and Symbolic most, closely followed by Individual Thought Patterns and Spiritual Healing. Honestly, The Sound of Perseverance felt like a step down.

I recently went thru the Cro-Mags discography and here’s what I found:

The Age of Quarrel: It’s a good record but honestly I think I prefer the demo version (Before the Quarrel) of it. I think the rawness of the demo tracks fit the vibe of these songs much better than what was presented on the actual album. Best tracks are We Gotta Know and Signs of the Times.

Best Wishes: Did not care for this record at all, thought it was really boring. I was not digging the heavy metal vibe they were going for on this one. People seem to say that this is one of their better records but I would say it’s the opposite. Best tracks, I don’t know because I couldn’t remember anything from this after the record ended.

Alpha Omega: This is their best record. Felt like to me everything finally came together for these guys and they got a great and original record out of it. Very underrated album. Best songs are Eyes of Tomorrow (which really nails the rap rock thing surprisingly enough) and The Other Side of Madness.

Near Death Experience: Another slept on record, people seem to trash it but it’s still better than Best Wishes. I don’t think people really cared for some of the outside grunge and glam metal influences that somehow found their way onto this record. Bizarrely enough there are songs on here that sound like Pearl Jam, Guns N Roses and Alice In Chains. Best songs are Near Death Experience and War on the Streets (which sounds a little bit like the song Paradise City)

Revenge: Probably the weirdest of all the Cro-Mags records, as they start to add in some Oi!/almost pop punk stylings to their sound here. I would say they actually pull it off pretty good though. Best songs are Premeditated and My Life. Worst song is Without Her, which just doesn’t sound like a Cro-Mags song at all

In the Beginning: I have no interest in checking this album out, sounds like it’s supposed to be pretty derivative of their past works and I really don’t see the point in listening to it.

Well that was fun. I dare someone to go through the entire Anvil discography.

Death got less and less death with each album. SBG and ITP are my faves. Hoglan and DiGiorgio!

As a big Anvil fan (at least, at one time), this isn't all that difficult until you get to the last decade or so. There are a few weaker albums earlier in their discography (Strength of Steel and Back To Basics in particular), but everything from Anvil Is Anvil onwards feels really contrived. There's not even anything wrong with some of these later albums, but they feel far more redundant than Motorhead or Tankard, who were similarly consistent in style.

For anyone that hasn't run through their discography, there's a lot of really great stuff in the '96-'02 era.

I will do Wolves in the Throne Room now, I think I have only listened to the first two before.

One I've been meaning to do is Blaze Bayley. Silicon Messiah's pretty sick and I dug War Within Me. Just need to get the rest in me.

Those are some hot takes on Cro-Mags.

I’m really not trying to be contrarian, that’s honestly just how I feel about those records…

Didn't do a "true" discog run, since I most just hit one album every day or two in an effort to avoid burn out, and not in order because I'm a madlad, but over the last month or so I've gotten through Immolations hulking discography.

I'd already heard over half of their stuff, but even then it was a bit of an eye opener in regards to how highly I rate the band now that I stop and think about it. I'd always rated their first couple of all timers, but generally had been pretty lukewarm on most of their other stuff while finding CTAWB really annoying, but now I can see that I really really dig the albums either side of that one, and they've been reliable as hell from that point on, with a couple of still really good peaks since them, particularly on the newey.

Albums in order of preference:
Here In After - In my top 10 albums ever, still very grounded as an old school death metal record but twisted and churning and discordant.

Unholy Cult - This one was an absolute shock to me. I guess I hadn't listened in like 12 years so I had no specific memories of it, but this fucking rules. It's super fast and aggressive while not sacrificing dissonance and then it's topped off with easily band's best melodic work. It's just an album of everything, and it rules. This was actually one of the last ones I listened to, so it got this reaction after spending weeks hearing all their tricks.

Dawn of Possession - Immo were so good at being no frills DM that it's almost a shame they became the groundbreaking legends of rhythmic fuckery they are.

Acts of God - I really, really like this one. It's basically Failures for Gods again but with a not-shit production. Violent over all, finds time to be fast, melodic, groovy and angular in nice measured chunks, it's great.

Failures For Gods - Kinda the template for all the band's music going forward and for good reason. Bit like the Unholy Cult experience where the speed, dissonance and melodic aspects all get a fairly even look in making it a really nice springboard for them to just tweak and lean into different aspects from album to album. Sadly the production job is ass. Not Breeding the Spawn bad, but bad.

Majesty and Decay - This is one I hit up early in my listen streak, so I don't THINK I've given it too many points for being nestled between weak spots and looking better by comparison. Very much is just a bigger, meaner, modernized take on what they were going for in the mid/late 2000's, but doesn't go too far and ruin the sound.

Providence - Very straight forward Immo songs, but the best straightforward ones they've done.

Hope and Horror - All three of these songs are much better than the albums it's around. Not sure why they put them on an EP.

Shadows in the Light - Kinda just a worse, weaker M&D.

Harnessing Ruin - Kinda gutted of a lot of the X factor that makes the band interesting, but it's alright.

Kingdom of Conspiracy - Reaaaaally straight forward shit, probably would have got by on energy and riffs if the production wasn't bad.

Atonement - Really dunno why people dig this so much, just because they fixed the drums? I guess it's got more identity than anything between HR and M&D, but that identity is slow and weak and not very weird and mostly dull. Pretty lame.

Close to a Word Below - I'm sorry guys but this is still mostly annoying. I do like a couple of tracks (Father You're not a Father, a decent amount of the title track), but I find the slow tempo but super fucking loud pulsing drum pulses this thing is built around to be really, really obnoxious. Always have and apparently I still do. I respect it more than anything below the Providence EP, but there's none of them I find less tolerable to listen to.

I've done this but with bands whose output took a massive nosedive later in their careers. I only managed to get through a couple before moving on with my life.

Metallica was the first and this was back in 2011 or so. I realized there's enough really good material spread across the Loads to make one great album that could be seen as a bold experiment. St Anger was just one long blur of shitty vocals and trash can drums. There's no redeeming it. Death Magnetic is basically the ugly offspring of RTL and Load.

Queensryche was the second and where I gave up. By the time I got to listening to their discography, all the drama had gone down and the band was still figuring out what they were doing. Starting with HITNF things look dire. Q2K and Tribe aren't so bad but Mindcrime 2 is bad. American Soldier continues the slide but Dedicated to Chaos is dire. DTC is abysmal. Just total shit that makes St Anger look like Master of Puppets. Fuck that album.

All right so I listened a few more times and this would be my current ranking for Death's discography:
1. Symbolic
2. Human
3. The Sound of Perseverance
4. Individual Thought Patterns
5. Spiritual Healing
6. Leprosy
7. Scream Bloody Gore

I'm not sure at the moment which band I'll do next, I'm thinking it'll either be Edge of Sanity or Morbid Angel.

I was inspired to check out (Japan's) Sabbat by this thread. I'm currently digging through their 90s material, and I'll post my thoughts once I get through with their catalogue. Related: have any of you seen those "X Band in a Month/Week" charts? Random fans will compile a running order of a bands work (EPs, lives and full lengths included) into a feasible listening schedule. Super cool idea and a great way to get familiarized with new (to you) bands.

I do something similar since I am riding trains for about 3 hours each day. I pick a band and listen to them for the duration of my traveling time. I can get 3-4 albums done a day depending on the band. I'll finish my Paradise Lost albums tomorrow sometime, then I'll play a new artist.

Also totally do Sabbat they rule.

His discography is surprisingly awesome....and has remained so throughout numerous line-up changes.

So I just finished listening through Townes Van Zandt's discography. Definitely not metal, but whatever. I was honestly surprised how many of his main albums feature numerous re-recordings of his classic songs (Tecumseh Valley, Waiting Around to Die, Panco & Lefty etc.). Generally his songs have a really high bottom-level, quality wise. I would say, however, that his first 3-4 albums is definitely where the best material debuts. All the posthumously released albums are a waste of time.

I listened through all nineteen Anvil albums on Monday and Tuesday and it was straight up the most tedious discography I've ever done. They do have some good albums but seven decent to good records out of nineteen isn't the best batting average.

Nighwish. Listened to the first 2, 3 tracks, stopped at Dark Passion Play and Imaginaerum, new singer, and I won't bother going further, failing the challenge but saving time. Everything up to Once seems to be good, Century Child seems to be the one I like the least.

Other than my favourite artists, I would get burned out on some of the larger discographies pretty quickly, especially if there stuff is all or mostly the same style. I like Manilla Road but other than a few tracks here and there mostly just Crystal Logic. Listening to three albums in a row last week was enough, let alone all of them.

This thread had me thinking about this. I really don't have many full discographies I like. I even don't have that many full discographies where I can honestly say I know each album well enough to give a good opinion on it. There are exceptions of course but this is a strong general tendency. Not even with Megadeth, which is top-2 of the most important bands to me, can I honestly say I have a good opinion on each album (falling off and not remembering a few albums that well - Thirteen and Super Collider).

I also like to listen with a more qualitative ear. Thus I have less time to go through massive discographies. I have a friend who is the opposite. He can listen quantitively. He recently did a run through of both Black Sabbaths and Iron maidens discographies. I couldn't do that in the same way he does.

How in the actual HELL is Sabbat this good?

I'm on 1999's Karisma and have yet to be let down by this band's work. Seriously amazing stuff in a Venom/early Bathory vein!! Honestly surprised I never discovered them sooner.

LOL, I'm the complete opposite. I bought Scream Bloody Gore when it came out and loved Death until after Human when I started to have too much music to truly take in every new release.

1) Leprosy
2) Scream Bloody Gore
3) Spiritual Healing
4) Human
5) Symbolic
6) The Sound Of Perseverance
7) Individual Thought Patterns

I like them all but I just dig the early days of Thrash and Death. Show No Mercy is still my favorite Slayer album.

OK, I did this with Stratovarius. They don't have a small discography either.

So the pre-Kotipelto are pretty weak IMO. Fright Night is pretty Good, Twilight Time is decent for a sophomore, but by the time they released Dreamspace, they needed something. The quality gets a good bump for 4th Dimension despite some horrible tunes, and another one at Episode. Episode, Destiny, Visions and Infinite are probably their best run.

Then we have the Elements. I feel these albums really showcase Stratovarius' weakness: killer songs with lots of fillers. If you combine these two in one and remove the fillers, you get a kick ass album, but they decided to make two concept albums and had to pad it with some of their worst songs.

Then came the drama and the horrible, terrible, nigh-unlistenable Stratovarius S.T. This is one of the worst albums I ever listened to. Not because it features their worst song (030366 takes the cake) but because only one song is decent, Fight!, and the rest are fucking garbage fillers.

Then they kicked Tolkki. Polaris, Elysium, Nemesis and Eternal are close in quality to the aforementioned Episode-to-Infinite run.

Overall, I'd rate:

Episode
Infinite
Eternal
Vision
Destiny
Nemesis
Polaris/Elysium (tie)
4th Dimension
Fright Night
Elements pt 1
Elements pt 2
Twilight Time
Dreamspace

Far, far below... Stratovarius S.T.

Best songs would be Hunting High and Low, Unbreakable, Speed of Light, Black Diamond.

I think I'm pretty much with you there Ragemanistan, except I'd switch Human for Symbolic and SoP with ITP.

And "Legions", right?

And "Legions", right?