What's your favourite four consecutive albums by artist?

[elvor0]

Lesser known band are The Lord Wierd Slough Feg(or just Slough Feg these days), their first 4 albums are really really good(with their 5th, Atavism a strong entry), especially Traveller, a concept album about a space pirate, mutant dog/human hybrids, a mad professor and galactic warfare. It's damn good.

Well I just learned Slough Feg had more than one album. Thoroughly investigating this now.

A lot of votes for metallica. I'm gonna be really controversial and say I did not like "And Justice for All"

Traveller does seem to be the only one people have heard of if people have even heard of them, I've only met one other person who's heard of em, which is a shame, because they're a great band. Their first album is really badly produced but musically it's a great debut album. I only stumbled across them because they're mentioned on the wiki page of Slaine the Barbarian, where they get their name from.

I can see why people are a bit iffy about justice for all, my love of the album comes from seeing/hearing most of the album live, which really puts it on a higher level,(especially the '89 version of Justice and the S&M version of One) the album version is way too overproduced and subdued, which when the songs are as long as they are, can really put a damper on them, they really should've just gone in a whacked em out live in the studio.

my chemical romance; amazingly creative band. my favorite band

i brought you my bullets, you brought me your love
3 cheers for sweet revenge
the black parade
danger days: the true lives of the fabulous killjoys

Wasn't a massive fan of Danger Days unfortunately, just didn't click with me, I will have to say that The Black Parade is Dead(the live album) blows the original album out of the water, /that/ is what they should've released and it would've been beloved as one of the best albums of the 00s, better, more raucous instrumentation, rawer vocals, more solos, the piano added an extra texture to it all too. In comparison the studio version just sounds a bit dull.

 

[LAGG]

Very underrated band: Skindred.

As many others, I found this band through a video game: NFSU2
I'm going with five instead of four, because the first one is not really a released album.

(Grooveshark links because songs in Youtube are always with wrong balance and the music sounds bad)

Unreleased Album
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Vampire+Killa/kQmjt?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Ruffneck/B74T1?src=5

Babylon
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Firing+The+Love/59NhaK?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Start+First/2tHcYP?src=5

Roots Rock Riot
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/RatRace/23Uaf1?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Trouble/3PVs2c?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Destroy+The+Dancefloor/3L53eI?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Roots+Rock+Riot/ty8ec?src=5

Shark Bites and Dog Fights
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Invincible/3ehxNA?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/You+Can+t+Stop+It/3ehvet?src=5

Union Black
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Warning/3Ii4GH?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Doom+Riff/3XhCUs?src=5
http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Get+It+Now/3XhIVo?src=5

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I had to think quite hard about this one - I kept thinking of artists with loads of great albums and then getting hung up because they didn't have four consecutive good ones. For example, like the OP, I wanted to say Metallica, but while Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets are absolute thrash classics, unfortunately I am of the opinion that ...And Justice for All is badly-mixed, boring and generally pants. Anyway, I did come up with some:

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind, Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.
I was tempted to say that all of the first 7 of Iron Maiden's albums were great, and while I do enjoy them, I think The Number of the Beast is the weak link in the chain, so it's these four, starting from album 4 through to 7. Piece of Mind and Powerslave are awesome heavy metal albums, easily some of the best out of there, while Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son are the best showcases of Maiden's experiments with prog.

In Flames - The Jester Race, Whoracle, Clayman, Colony (plus Lunar Strain right at the start for a string of 5 albums)
Aside from the fact that all of the first 5 albums were totally instrumental in the creation of melodic death metal (as well as folk metal with Lunar Strain), it wasn't until The Jester Race that In Flames really got the power and energy of death metal into their songs, before the next three albums added in some unbeatable melody work.

Amon Amarth - not even going to lie, every one of their albums is pure gold. But, the four I'd pick are: Fate of Norns, With Oden On Our Side, Twilight of the Thunder God, Surtur Rising (bear in mind I've not listened to Deceiver of the Gods yet, but I'm sure it'll be as brilliant as the rest)
Amon Amarth have never made a bad album. Every single one is a masterclass in how to write death metal, and they only get crisper, clearer and tighter with each release.

Rise Against - Siren Song of the Counter Culture, The Sufferer and the Witness, Appeal to Reason, Endgame
Again, another band I love everything they've produced, and again, it's the latest four albums because they get better and better each time.

I'd probably agree that ...And Justice For All isn't all that. Metallica just suck at editing sometimes, they did the same thing with Death Magnetic. With Maiden... Well I really love the self-titled, although it's less characteristically Maiden-ey. In my opinion it's still the most consistently good album in their catalog, they usually have a fair bit of filler.
I'd have gone Reroute to Remain, Soundtrack To Your Escape (although it's my least favourite), Come Clarity and A Sense of Purpose with In Flames. They're not really as new and exciting as the earlier albums, but I think that's made up for by how good the songs on them are.

I agree entirely on Rise Against. Lots of people seem to dislike the less hardcore/more mainstream sound they moved into, but again, I think the songs are just better written than on the earlier albums.


EDIT: I also forgot about The Dillinger Escape Plan. Their entire discography is the most astonishingly mad collection of music, it's a toss up between including Calculating Infinity or One Of Us Is The Killer though, and I haven't listened to OoUItK enough to decide yet.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Opeth: Morningrise, My Arms Your Hearse, Still Life, Blackwater Park.
Pretty much Opeth's golden age. I'm a big fan of all their work. This has to include Still Life and Blackwater Park, but I think Morningrise and MYAH show the band's growth and progress better than including Deliverance and Damnation.

Pretty much, although I also like Ghost reveries a bunch, it isn't consecutive

Mastodon: Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain, Crack The Skye.

Dammit, ninja'd again.

OT: Being a big Immortal technique fan, Revolutionary V. 1, 2, & 3, and the martyr.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Damn. I made a list including the albums and then lost it. I'll just list the bands I had:

Magnetic Fields
Kraftwerk
Judas Priest (from Sad Wings)
Autechre (from Chiastic Slide)
Frank Zappa (from Uncle Meat)
Captain Beefheart
David Thomas
Soundgarden (first 4)
Loreena McKennitt
Pearl Jam (first 4)
Nick Cave
Summoning
Klaus Schulze
Talking Heads
Virgin Steele (Marriage of Heaven & Hell pt 2 to House of Atreus)
Tim Buckley (first 4)
Bob Dylan

Wish I could include Neil Young, but he wasn't very consistent and I don't think I could string 4 great albums together, although he had many more than that. There are quite a few bands like that.

I'd have gone Reroute to Remain, Soundtrack To Your Escape (although it's my least favourite), Come Clarity and A Sense of Purpose with In Flames. They're not really as new and exciting as the earlier albums, but I think that's made up for by how good the songs on them are.

Why would you go with their worst four?
Actually I only really like Jester Race, Whoracle and Colony but my favorite of theirs is Subterranean. If that wasn't an EP they'd have a decent set of 4 albums.

My favorite music is the work Tom Waits did in the 80s: Swordfishtrombone, Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, and Big Time. Rain Dogs itself is probably my favorite album of all time. I find it all to be very original, unpretentious, and also very soothing at the end of the day. It's like audible whiskey.

Could never get into Tom Waits. I appreciate his work but to listen to it's as unpleasant to me as drinking whiskey.

Judas Priest: British Steel- Point of Entry- Screaming for Vengeance (first metal album I ever heard)- Defenders of the Faith

Except Point of Entry is kind of rubbish. Easily their worst until Turbo.

By the way, since when did everyone start linking metal?

 

[New Troll]

Type O Negative
Slow, Deep and Hard
The Origin of the Feces
Bloody Kisses
October Rust

Nine Inch Nails
Pretty Hate Machine
Broken
Fixed
The Downward Spiral

Alice In Chains
Facelift
Dirt
Jar of Flies/ Sap
Alice in Chains

 

[WaysideMaze]

Fear Factory - Obsolete to Mechanize - which is technically seven albums, but I don't really care.

You're leaving out Soul of a New Machine and Demanufacture, 2 incredible albums, in favour of transgression? To each his own I guess.

O/T I'm a die hard Amon Amarth fan, but if I have to pick 4 then Fate of Norns - Deciever of the Gods. Yes, thats actually 5, I'm fine with that.

 

[NBSRDan]

I can hardly think of any entire albums of consistent quality, as opposed to a few songs here and there, let alone four in a row by the same artist. The only band I know of that comes close is Avenged Sevenfold, having released five albums so far, the last three of which have all been top-notch.

 

[God's Clown]

Fear Factory - Obsolete to Mechanize - which is technically seven albums, but I don't really care.

You're leaving out Soul of a New Machine and Demanufacture, 2 incredible albums, in favour of transgression? To each his own I guess.

O/T I'm a die hard Amon Amarth fan, but if I have to pick 4 then Fate of Norns - Deciever of the Gods. Yes, thats actually 5, I'm fine with that.

Not so much leaving out as forgetting :x I basically love everything Fear Factory.

 

[nohorsetown]

Unwound:
The Future of What, Repetition, Challenge for a Civilized Society, Leaves Turn Inside You
Probably still my favorite band. I love all these albums, but I actually like their first album, Fake Train, better than the first two on this list. Their last two albums (Challenge and Leaves Turn) are my favorites, though, so if it's gotta be consecutive, this is it.

Blonde Redhead:
La Mia Vita Violenta, Fake Can Be Just as Good, In an Expression of the Inexpressible, Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Their sound changed a lot after this. They mellowed out quite a bit. I still like some of their newer stuff, but not as much.

Pixies:
Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, Bossanova, Trompe le Monde
It's the freakin' Pixies. They were gold.

Devo:
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, Duty Now for the Future, Freedom of Choice, New Traditionalists
New Traditionalists just isn't as good as the other three, but it is much better than what came after it. Their second album is their best, in my opinion. It's often overlooked, cuz all their hits are on the first and third albums.

Pearl Jam:
Vs., Vitalogy, No Code, Yield
Please, teenage me! Forgive me! I know - I didn't include their first album, Ten! It just doesn't do it for me anymore. I know how important it was to you, but it hasn't stood the test of time. Yes ... even Oceans.

Queens of the Stone Age:
Rated R, Songs for the Deaf, Lullabies to Paralyze, Era Vulgaris
And their first (self-titled) album is good, too! But I guess I like Era Vulgaris better. This band is just the swankiest fuckin' fun. Good times.

 

[Jmumbler]

System of a down: Toxcity, steal this album!, mezmerize and hypontize

Perfect circle: Mer De Noms, Thirteenth step, eMOTIVe, aMOTION

 

[thelittleman66]

Metallica: Master of Puppets - Load
Mastodon: Remission - Crack The Skye
Tool: Undertow - 10,000 Days
Alice in Chains: Dirt - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (+ Jar of Flies because it's technically not an album)
The Sword: Age of Winters - Apocryphon
Pantera: Cowboys from Hell - The Great Southern Treadkill
Corrosion of Conformity: Deliverance - In the Arms of God
Megadeth: So Far.. So Good.. So what? - Youthanasia

 

[A.A.K]

Underground Hip Hop?

1. Virtuoso: Evolution of the Torturer (World War II)
2. Vinnie Paz: Before the Assassin
3. Immortal Technique: pick an album. Any album.
4. Diabolic: Liar and the Thief.
or..
4. Brother Ali: The Undisputed Truth.

Metal?
1. Lamb of God: Entire Discography
2. Heaven Shall Burn: Entire Discography
3. Manowar: Blood of my Enemies; Sign of the Hammer... I dunno, the first 4-5 albums?
4. Haste the Day, Disturbed? Trivium? Winds of Plague...Sea of Treachery?...I don't know. There's already something like 10 albums between the first two options. Don't judge me.