Bands And Albums.

If I've replied here before, please delete this post:

I'm a huge Elvis Presley fan and I enjoy all of his music (except for a few movie soundtrack songs). Here's my favorites so far for 2017:

"Elvis: That's The Way It Is" (Deluxe Edition: 8-CD/2-DVD)
"Elvis: That's The Way It Is - The Complete Works" (6-CDs/3-DVDs)
"Elvis On Tour" LPs that I have
"Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii"

I also have a 100-CD set of the outtakes from all of Elvis's recording sessions which gives me a lot of enjoyment to listen to. It's titled "A Master In The Studio" and the quantity of discs are over 100 CDs. It's really neat - but sad - to listen to Elvis's final recording sessions @ Graceland from February 2 - 7, 1976 and then again from October 29-November 1, 1976. I also enjoy listening to the STAX recording session that are contained in "Elvis @ STAX" the 3-CD set that was released in 2013 by Sony.

To me when it comes to an album that really woke me up was made in japan,wow!what I found strange however is that it never gets mentioned in prog magazines where bands like genesis gets mentioned.to me in the early '70s there was purple and then everyone else.

My two favorite albums of recent months are "Portal of I" by Ne Obliviscaris and "Quiet World" by Native Construct.

Portal of I is rooted in death metal, but includes a violinist into their main line-up, which can create a dichotomy between the extreme heaviness of some parts with the soulful violin thrown on the top layer. It also has a lot of Spanish guitar influences during the clean breaks, and the bass stands out quite a bit in a lot of segments, which to me is a good thing, though I am a bassist, so I might be biased.
Quiet World is very hard to place a genre on, mainly because it goes through so many genres. It's a concept album, telling the story of a mute boy who creates a world inside his head after he is rejected by his love interest. There is a lot of musical theater influence, and it is very theatrical overall, but it has a lot of heavy segments too.

Portal of I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL6TMup64ik
Quiet World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G808sLEx4bQ