Top 20 Loudest Albums of All Time (with videos)
 

http://news.q4music.com/2007/06/the_..._of_all_t.html

20 - Velvet Underground, White Light/White Heat (Verve, 1967)
19 – AC/DC, Back In Black (Columbia, 1980)
18 – Sunn0))), White (Southern Lord, 2006)
17- Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced? (Track, 1967)
16 – Aphex Twin, I Care Because You Do (Warp, 1995)
15- Black Flag, Damaged (SST, 1981)
14 – The Birthday Party, Prayers On Fire (4AD, 1981)
13 – Motorhead, No Sleep Til Hammersmith (Bronze, 1981)
12- Led Zeppelin, Led Zepplin (Atlantic, 1969)
11 – Neil Young – Arc Weld (Reprise, 1991)
10 – Sex Pistols, Never Mind The Bollocks (Virgin, 1977)
9 – Atari Teenage Riot – The Future Of War (DHR, 1997)
8 – My Bloody Valentine, Isn’t Anything (Creation, 1988)
7 – Napalm Death, Scum (Earache, 1987)
6 - The Who, Live At Leeds (Track, 1970)
5 – Big Black, Songs About Fucking (Touch And Go, 1987)
4 – The Jesus And Mary Chain, Psychocandy (Blanco Y Negro, 1986)
3 – Public Enemy, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (Def Jam, 1988)
2 – Slayer, Reign In Blood (Def Jam, 1986)
1 – The Stooges, Funhouse (Elektra, 1970)


I'm surprised Loveless wasn't picked over Isn't Anything thats a way louder record.I also feel Bardo Pond should have been on here too, What about sonic youth too? They eat noise for breakfast.


So What do you all think ? what's missing? whats done right?

Funhouse is so right.

Doesn't it depend when your knob is?

Metal Machine Music, perhaps?

No Ramones? No Refused? Fuck that shit.

No Swans!!!!??

Weren't they dubbed THE loudest band in the world at one point?

its probably "loudest for the time they were released". i still dont agree with any of it. i mean, aphex twin? hes best stuff of the idm and ambient electronic vein, and i own every one of his records, and not one, not even "i care because you do", has ever stricken me as particularly loud.

granted my bitching, those are still great records. "loudness" is just a stupid thing to measure, cuz im pretty sure manowar technically has the loudest record ever made, i saw something on tv about they setting a guiness record for it, and theyre horrible.

i've got a guitar wolf record that's supposed to have been recorded or mastered at a volume that you can't actually record things at, or some such malarkey. either way, lists like this are silly.

any peter paul and mary album should've been on the top of the list.

No Dinosaur Jr ? The loudest band (see the loudest gig thread)?

I personally find Raw Power much louder than Fun House.

by Q.........
...........Q..............

White Light/White Heat should be much higher. but I guess I shouldn't suspect much from Q

No Einstuerzende Neubauten?

This list makes no sense. Psychocandy isn't that loud on record, it must have been recorded at extreme volume, but the actual record isn't master that loud.

No Dinosaur either, as already pointed out.

Psychocandy is not my fave from JAMC

no lightning bolt and countless other much louder bands

Also, Astrobrite. A few one their albums are tons louder than 3/4 of that list.

Do they mean loud in a socio-conscious way?

yeah Q sucks

actually, unless you are talking about mastering being especially high on a certain album, then it's not a loud album.

most of those albums were originally mixed and mastered for vinyl pressing which is much more quiet than cds.

so, "heavy" or "distorted" or "noisy" albums perhaps but not loud. with the right gear and the right processing, you can make erik satie or jandek sound 20 times louder than boris or dinosaur jr.

in fact, loveless which is regarded as the pinnacle of loud and crazy recordings, is, techniquewise, a very quiet record.

loud album:

coachwhips - bangers vs fuckers

Christ, the way records are remastered these days, I'd not be surprised if something like Paul simon's Gracelands hadn't featured on the list.

If you listen to your average Whitehouse/ Merzbow record at a moderate volume and then put on, say, the second Avril Lavigne album, you'd probably be surprised at which came out louder. Except Mr Rail, who is correct. 'Radio-standard' mastering is absolutely preposterous.

It's funny. My CD of Black Flag's Damaged (listed as one of the loudest albums ever) is really bloody quiet - making it a bit of a pain when doing CD mixes for people. The reason I mentioned Graceleands wasn't just some perverse slice of randomness, it was because it really does demonstrate the stupidity of current trends in music mastering. On the original, there's a fairly quiet intro section which, on current CD versions, is boosted to be as loud as the rest of the album. It's as though any idea of sonic dynamics being used as an artistic device is now disregarded in the industry's apparant quest for 'in your faceness'. They've even started doing it on some more mass-oriented Classical and Jazz oriented CDs - two types of music which often use variations in volume level as a creative tool.

Q sucks, the only decent music magazine I've ever read has been The Wire.

Exactly what I thought.

"Loud as a mentality" is such bullocks.

Yep, compression sucks.