End Of The Line - Top 10 Final albums

[Zzzptm]

Working through Locomotiv GT's A Fiúk A Kocsmába Mentek from 2002. If you like Hungarian "gramps with amps" rock and roll, it's a decent swan song from the lads in LGT, who broke up after one of their members passed away a few years later. Some tracks are skippable, but there are some nice tunes for people who make noise when they sit down. "Megjött Moszkvából A Csomag" (The Package Arrived from Moscow) was the best one so far, and this has been a fun exploration thus far, but I'm only going to have this be an honorable mention.

For those interested in listening, a YT link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7DomjKCkr9fL_vxebJiIeu3bLZzJgzAC

[Charger]

Onwards to pick number 5.

Here's a band that is no more, but the lead singer carried out a very succesful (even more so than the band) solo career.

They started to gain some serious attraction with their 3rd album but the fourth broke the bank and became something of an instant classic and is nowadays considered a bench mark album for Industrial/horror metal.

I'm ofcourse talking about WHITE ZOMBIE and their album ASTRO CREEP 2000



This is filled with gems this album. Electric Head pt 1 and 2, Super CHARGER Heaven, Creature Of The Wheel, Blur The Technicolor, I Zombie and ofcourse the Blade Runner inspired classic More Human Than Human.

They embarked on a hugely successful tour after the release but tensions between Rob and his then girlfriend and bass player Sean Yseult rose high and eventually the band disbanded with Rob and drummer John Tempesta carrying on to form Rob's solo band.

This album still remains as one of those best albums of the mid 90s...time when traditional Heavy Metal was at it's all time low.

The song to choose from the album is ofcourse gonna be a track called Super CHARGER Heaven! Why not!?

And lets go with an energetic live version from 1995!

[Zzzptm]

Just finished listening to Jimi Hendrix' Electric Ladyland. It meets the criteria for this list, but I'm not adding it in because it's a sprawling mess. Half of it should have been cut. I'd make it a single album, with the following tracklist:

Side A:
1. Crosstown Traffic - 2:25
2. Long Hot Summer Night - 3:21
3. Voodoo Chile - 14:50

Side B:
1. Come On (Part 1) - 4:04
2. House Burning Down - 4:26
3. All Along the Watchtower - 3:54
4. Voodoo Child (Slight Return) - 5:06

That's under 20 mins/side, the engineer will be happy with those. The rest of the stuff is for the 30th anniversary boxed set remastered signed guitar pick release.

My search for pick 6 continues...

[Zzzptm]

Found a good one, and again it's a British band breaking up in the early 70s. This one is 1973, and the band is Free, and the album is Heartbreaker:



Listening to the album, it's clear just how influential it was for its day and even into today. The title track is a blueprint for Deep Purple's "Mistreated" and other tracks on the album like "Common Mortal Man" and "Easy on My Soul" resonate with the Morse-era Purple product. It's also got Paul Rodgers on vocals, and *everybody* wanted to have him in their band at some point in time in the 70s.

It's a shame that their brilliant guitarist, Paul Kossuth, wasn't able to play on every track due to his Quaalude addiction, which was a major factor contributing to the band's breaking up. Kossuth would get cleaned up for his Back Street Crawler band, but the drugs had already taken their toll and he passed away soon after due to the damage done.

Heartbreaker is a solid early 70s hard rock album with a sharp edge on it, I am enjoying it a lot.

[Charger]

For my 6th pick we'll go back to 1987.

1986 was a turbulent year for Warlock, the band gained more and more attraction and that meant moving to the US...that caused a split as some members did not want to leave Germany...so they quit and americans Tommy Bolan and Tommy Henkriksen joined the band. They started working on a new album and it would become their most succesfull yet, but at the same time their former manager Peter Zimmerman sued the band for the name and actually ended up winning over Doro Pesch and thus effectively ending the band.

The final album was called TRIUMPH AND AGONY and it is probably their best one.



No real weak songs on this one...and it spawned timeless classics like the anthem All We Are and rockers like Three Minute Warning, I Rule The Ruins and East Meets West.

After this one Doro moved on and started a very successful solo career and has solidified her place in metal history as the Metal Queen.

The song I'll choose from the album is my favourite track and it is I RULE THE RUINS!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I have a top 3, plus the 4 I've already posted... I'm struggling to fill the last 3 positions, well at least with solid albums if not good.

I shall continue to search for the elusive good final album!!!

[Zzzptm]

Still looking for my 7-10. I have found that there are some sad ends to once great bands... and then some pretty OK ends to once great bands, but nothing to put on a top 10 list like I'm going to listen to it again. Mountain's and Free's albums are the best discoveries I've made, they are solid work, so I'm looking for more on their level. Mott the Hoople, Janis Joplin, Faces, Tommy Bolin, all of those I do like.

Found Commander Cody's last album and it's a fun mix of party rock, the kind of stuff I wanna hear when I'm in a club having a good time. It's titled "Dopers, Drunks, and Everyday Losers". Good times with that one.

Also found out that, along with the Stones having a new album this year, the Black Crowes' latest comes out on Friday, March 13th. The three pre-release tracks from it are strong, I am very much looking ahead to that one - but it also means they're not done makin' records, so my search goes on.

[Vyn]

Number 7: Thin Lizzy's Thunder and Lightning. A hard hitting collection of songs made even harder by the inclusion of fretboard wiz John Sykes. I had high hopes for the next one, I liked the harder edge sound they put down on this record. Of course, that was not to be.

[Charger]

Number 7.

No one knew at the time in 2015 that this would become the Band's final album. It was their first one since the death of lead guitarist and song writer Jeff Hanneman.

Yes ofcourse we're talking about SLAYER here.

REPENTLESS



People had some doubts about the album, but the doubts were mainly lifted as soon as the album came out. It WAS Slayer through and through.

Maybe not their strongest album but certainly not their weakest either. Songs like the title track, Vices, Cast The First Stone, Atrocity Vendor and Piano Wire (the only track written by Hanneman) are all brilliant tunes.
During the Repentless tour the band even talked about doing another album in various interviews, but then in January of 2018 a shell shocker of news came out. The band was embarking on a FAREWELL tour. It seemed that Tom Araya was done. He had severe pains in his neck and back and wanted to retire. So the band called it quits in 2019. I was lucky enough to catch them on that tour and they were rather excellent.

Ofcourse since then they have played a show here and a show there, but both King and Araya have stated that no new music will ever come out of Slayer again. So Repentless remains their last hurrah..

The song I'll choose is the title track because...well it's bloody rocks! And this music video is pretty damn good too! Hell it has DANNY TREJO in it!! Not to mention Tom looks like an evil Santa after spending a decade or two in HELL!

[Zzzptm]

Number 7: Thin Lizzy's Thunder and Lightning. A hard hitting collection of songs made even harder by the inclusion of fretboard wiz John Sykes. I had high hopes for the next one, I liked the harder edge sound they put down on this record. Of course, that was not to be.

I was gonna look up Thin Lizzy's last album today and this convinces me to pursue that path.

[Charger]

Alright we are at the top 3 now.

So

at number 8 we have PANTERA and REINVENTING THE STEEL




Another album that most certainly was not supposed to be a final album, but things in the band started to get very strained...and in the end it was the Abbott brothers versus Phil and Rex and things just started to fall apart quickly...
Phil and Rex went on to relaunch DOWN with a suberb album Down II and the Abbott brothers went onto to form Damageplan.

And ofcourse in 2004 on December 8th something totally unimagineable happened and Dimebag was shot and killed on stage...

Ofcourse Phil and Rex along with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante have resurrected Pantera but there is very little chance they'll release new music, it's just a celebration live project.

Reinventing The Steel is my second favourite Pantera album just after Cowboys From Hell. It's a great swan song for one of the most influential bands of the 90s. Frankly I am not a massive Pantera fan but Cowboys, this one and Vulgar Display Of Power are all pretty darn good albums and no one can deny that Dimebag Darrell was one hell of a guitarist!

The track I'm gonna go with here is the one that mentions both Black Sabbath and Slayer! Now how could that be a bad song!?!?

GODDAMN ELECTRIC this one!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I'm going to skip ahead to my 3rd pick, and should I discover suitable albums for positions 4-6 I'll post them later!

Pick number 3

The Stranglers - Dark Matters



While The Stranglers are still active - touring and festivals - on the release of this album in Sept 2021 it was suggested that it would be the bands last album. Only JJ from the original lineup was still in the band with Jet and Dave both now deceased. But if this is their final release it's a pretty decent effort to go out on!

It's possible they'll record again with the current line up but it seems unlikely.

[Vyn]

Number 8: Monotheist from Celtic Frost. I think this disk stands tall among not only their earlier material but in the metal genre in general. It's a really dark set of songs that all sound like they were written at different times by different people rather than as a contiguous whole. To me, that works as a strength in this case; rather than sounding disjointed, it sounds eclectic while being tied together with the darkness of it all.

[Zzzptm]

I'm going to skip ahead to my 3rd pick, and should I discover suitable albums for positions 4-6 I'll post them later!

Pick number 3

The Stranglers - Dark Matters



While The Stranglers are still active - touring and festivals - on the release of this album in Sept 2021 it was suggested that it would be the bands last album. Only JJ from the original lineup was still in the band with Jet and Dave both now deceased. But if this is their final release it's a pretty decent effort to go out on!

It's possible they'll record again with the current line up but it seems unlikely.

Excellent call on that album, KDC. If The Stranglers don't do another album, that one is a wonderful final statement.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Pick number 2

Iced Earth - Incorruptible



Released June 2017 - it really doesn't seem that long ago! - I guess the guys could in theory reform at some point, but Jon Schafer is I believe concentrating on other projects.

This was a real return to form after a couple of middling albums, a shame it appears to be their last.