FatherAlabaster

1995 is the clear winner.

Hornwood Fell - Damno Lumina Nocte

Agree, I love hearing variety and expressiveness. Monotone vocals drag albums down.

Enslaved - Mardraum

Standouts for me are Red, the first two 80s albums with Belew on vocals (Discipline and Beat), and Thrak. I like a few of their other albums a lot too, but those are the ones I play the most. The early 80s live shows are also phenomenal - Frejus 1982: Japan 1984: Red is probably my favorite studio recording of theirs, but the live shows with this lineup capture the most of what I love about them. The studio albums don't tell the whole story. I don't want to say the albums are just byproducts but they aren't the ultimate statements and complete focus of the group the way they are for a lot of bands, especially metal bands. If a methodical deep dive is the kind of thing that works for you, go for it. I tend to get burned out trying to enjoy music that way, I do better finding one or two recordings to hang my hat on and letting my appreciation of the rest of the catalog grow naturally.

Gentle Giant - The Power And The Glory King Crimson - Red Yup.

Huh, it's my third favorite after Here In After and Closer To A World Below, it never stood out as bad to me.

Worm - Foreverglade

Rush - Moving Pictures Rush - Signals Rush - Power Windows

Return To Forever - Where Have I Known You Before

Enslaved - Heimdal Construct Of Lethe - semi-announced unreleased new album Al Di Meola - Casino

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab Blut Aus Nord - 777: Cosmosophy

Yup, that checks out

Stuck on a cruise ship with Lamb Of God? Yikes. I don't blame him at all.

Circle Of Ouroborus - Kiromantia Nur Run - Among Those Waves

Grave Miasma - Endless Pilgrimage

Kausis - I ... cool black metal EP, a transnational collaboration with the In Human Form/Ancestral Shadows vocalist and some guy from Russia

Blut Aus Nord - 777: Cosmosophy

Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still

Well, I don't know about people in general, I can only speak to what I like about them. I like some oddball dissonant black metal, I like complicated melodic black metal, I like creepy industrial atmospheric stuff... Blut Aus Nord does all of it. I like their intuitive songwriting and the way they develop parts. I feel as though I'm being led through a maze sometimes. They're never boring to me; they never beat anything into the ground. I think their melodies are great; they have a particular melodic sensibility that goes through everything they do, which feels familiar to me now because I've been listening to them for a long time. I wake up or go through the day with some parts of their songs stuck in my head. Also, there's a meditative quality to their albums that always leaves me room to think, so I can enjoy their stuff and pay as much attention to it as I want, but frequently find myself using it as a soundtrack when I'm working, walking, doing dishes, etc etc. I can't think of another band that plays stuff this engrossing that also leaves me space for thought. But, they didn't click immediately for me; it took me a few years. They play stuff you don't usually care for, and they're a bit dense and hard to appreciate right off the bat anyway, so it's no surprise that they wouldn't appeal to you with a few casual listens on the forum. I would not expect them to be your cup of tea.

Blut Aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab ...think this might be my favorite of their recent ones. I think this is the harshest criticism I've seen you dish out!

Whaaat

Slidhr - White Hart!

That is a brutal lineup.

Totally worth it. Who knows, she might even like it once she sees a live show or two. That's how I felt about it too for years, then one day it clicked (or maybe I just became numb to the stuff I didn't like through repetition), and now I really like it a lot.