The Perfect Metal Album Storm
You know how I like songs in an album to be ordered? The opening track (including intro track) should be the second-best song to capture attention, the track in the exact middle should be the third-best song to keep listeners focused, and the last track (including outro track) should be the absolute best song to close the album on a high note. I call it "The Perfect Metal Album Storm". It's kinda like Jaiden Animations' "Perfect Bite™", start at around the 1:15 mark of this video:
So basically, the best metal albums for me start with the almost-best song, with the almost-almost best song in the middle, and end with the best one, a perfect journey through a great metal album! You might find the way I like metal albums a bit strange and underrated, but that's how I feel comfortable with. Anyway, here are some of my current favorite albums (including Its first tracks, middle tracks, and last tracks) that follow the "The Perfect Metal Album Storm":
Trivium - What the Dead Men Say - "IX/What the Dead Men Say", "The Defiant", "The Ones We Leave Behind"
Born of Osiris - The Discovery - "Follow The Signs", "Shaping the Masterpiece", "Behold"
Lamb of God - Lamb of God - "Memento Mori", "New Colossal Hate", "On the Hook"
All That Remains - A War You Cannot Win - "Down Through the Ages", "Intro/Just Moments in Time", "A War You Cannot Win"
Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy - "The Termination Proclamation," "Emptiness Unobstructed," "The Obsidian Conspiracy"
Between the Buried and Me - The Parallax II: Future Sequence - "Goodbye to Everything/Astral Body", "Telos", "Silent Flight Parliament/Goodbye to Everything Reprise"
Gojira - From Mars to Sirius - "Ocean Planet", "Flying Whales", "Global Warming"
Bullet for My Valentine - The Poison - "Intro/Her Voice Resides", "All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)", "The End"
Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep of Reason - "Clockworks", "Violent Sleep of Reason", "Into Decay"
At the Gates - To Drink from the Night Itself - "Der Widerstand/To Drink from the Night Itself", "In Nameless Sleep", "The Mirror Black"
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity - "Sugar Coated Sour", "The Running Board", "Variations on a Cocktail Dress"
Tiamat - Wildhoney - "Wildhoney/Whatever That Hurts", "Visionaire", "A Pocket Size Sun"
Moonspell - Irreligious - "Perverse... Almost Religious/Opium", "A Poisoned Gift", "Full Moon Madness"
August Burns Red - Constellations - "Thirty and Seven", "Indonesia", "Crusades"
Edge of Sanity - Crimson - "Another Sky is Young", "The Times Are Changing", "Cover Her Eyes" (those section titles I made up for the apparently 10-part song, see my Crimson review for a full list of titles I made up for the song's 10 parts (https://metal.academy/reviews/5901/617))
Mastodon - Leviathan - "Blood and Thunder", "Iron Tusk", "Hearts Alive/Joseph Merrick"
In Flames - The Jester Race - "Moonshield", "Dead Eternity", "Dead God in Me"
Unearth - The March - "My Will Be Done", "We Are Not Anonymous", "Truth or Consequences"
My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River - "The Cry of Mankind", "Black Voyage", "Your Shameful Heaven"
Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol - "Solitary One", "Theories from Another World", "The Glorious End"
Septicflesh - Codex Omega - "Dante's Inferno", "Dark Art", "Trinity"
Make Them Suffer - Neverbloom - "Prologue/Neverbloom", "Maelstrom", "Chronicles"
Parkway Drive - Horizons - "Begin/The Siren's Song", "Idols and Anchors", "Horizons"
Vektor - Terminal Redux - "Charging the Void", "Pteropticon", "Recharging the Void"
Converge - Petitioning the Empty Sky - "The Saddest Day", "Dead", "Color Me Blood Red"
Protest the Hero - Fortress - "Bloodmeat", "Limb From Limb", "Goddess Gagged"
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses - "Machine Screw/Christian Woman", "Set Me On Fire", "Can't Lose You"
Katatonia - Dance of December Souls - "Seven Dreaming Souls/Gateways of Bereavement", "Without God", "Tomb of Insomnia/Dancing December"
The Crimson Armada - Guardians - "Guardians", "The Serpent's Tongue", "The Architect/Outro"
Charon - Songs for the Sinners - "Colder", "Air", "House to the Silent"
Draconian - Where Lovers Mourn - "The Cry of Silence", "The Solitude", "It Grieves My Heart"
DragonForce - Extreme Power Metal (NOT in my current playlist, but I loved it so much that it just had to be in the list) - "Highway to Oblivion", "Troopers of the Stars", "My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion cover)"
Bands I plan on getting their full discographies soon and might add one of their albums to the list:
Opeth
Officium Triste
Sentenced
Anyway, how about you guys? Do you have a specific order of tracks you like that you think levels up the quality of an album, similar to my Perfect Metal Album Storm? Discuss!
An interesting thing to read about!
For me personally, track order doesn't have much of an impact. While I do listen to whole albums, I often have it set to shuffle anyway. Though if I'm paying close attention, it can be interesting to notice patterns, like the best songs being at the start or end, etc. But I can't say it influences my opinion of the album that I'm aware of.
I was thinking about what Tymell said about shuffling songs in albums, and I decided to shuffle songs in one of my recent favorite albums, Trivium's What the Dead Men Say! But it wasn't randomly shuffled, I just manually arranged the songs into a different order that would be more suitable for any first-time Trivium listeners who want to build up slowly from mild fun to wild chaos. My new order for this album is: 1, 2, 5, 3, 8, 6, 4, 9, 7, 10. Or to be more specific:
1. IX
2. What the Dead Men Say
3. Bleed Into Me
4. Catastrophist
5. Scattering the Ashes
6. The Defiant
7. Amongst the Shadows & the Stones
8. Bending the Arc to Fear
9. Sickness Unto You
10. The Ones We Leave Behind
See, while I made sure the order still follows The Perfect Metal Album Storm (intro/beginning track, middle track, ending track), all the other songs are rearranged in a way to more appropriately test the intensity of the album. The "IX" intro and the title track both tell you what to expect in this album. "Bleed Into Me", "Catastrophist", and "Scattering the Ashes" are the cleaner melodic trio; two slower clean songs (NOT ballads, I wouldn't put ballads in the beginning of a metal album) with a nicely heavier song in between, to test the mild side. Then "The Defiant" is a bridge between the two sides to both recap the journey so far and hint at the next part. Up next, "Amongst the Shadows & the Stones", "Bending the Arc to Fear", and "Sickness Unto You" are the heavier aggressive trio; two heavy chaotic songs with the darkest of them all in between to test the wild side. That kitchen is open for those who can stand the heat! On top of that, those three songs sound quite similar to one another; same tempo, same tuning (6-string drop D-flat), and tons of progressive aggression. They can be connected together to make a 3-part 16-and-a-half-minute suite! Anyway, "The Ones We Leave Behind" is the epic final song that recaps the whole journey and congratulates you for passing that test.
I would try the same thing with other albums in a different thread called "The Perfect Metal Album Storm II: The Shuffling", but it would take too long and it might bore some members, so this is what I got. If you have any specific order for an album that is differently arranged from its original order, please discuss!