Albums with a Better Second Half

We know the conventional wisdom is for bands to put a lot of their stronger songs early in the album. But what about those exceptions? Are there albums where you find the second half to be stronger than the first? Albums where the first half is not necessarily bad, but things really get going in the 2nd half? Let’s discuss!

Here are a few that come to my mind:

Leviticus: Knights of Heaven
Guardian: Fire and Love
Bride: Kinetic Faith
Tourniquet: Antiseptic Bloodbath
WhiteHeart: Don’t Wait for the Movie

What are some of yours?

Stryper - No More Hell To Pay
Barren Cross - Atomic Arena

Bride / Here Is Your God
Sacred Warrior - Rebellion

There are actually many of these but it's hard to think of others at the moment.

Red Sea and Dogs of Peace

X-Sinner: Get It (whole album is great but Walking Evil and Living on the Edge push the second half over for me).

Saint - The Mark

The first three tracks are really good, but the rest of the album is superb, and makes it my joint favourite Saint album (along with TLFL)

1	The Spirit
2	The Vision
3	Ride To Kill
4	He Reigns
5	On And On
6	The 7th Trumpet
7	The Mark
8	Bowls Of Wrath
9	Babylon The Great
10	Reap The Flesh
11	Gog & Magog

Just thought of 2 more:

Saint - The Calf
True Strength - The Mighty Hand of Yahweh

Sacrecy - s/t

^Oh man I totally disagree!    I like the first half waaaay more haha.

Fundy wrote:Saint - The Mark

The first three tracks are really good, but the rest of the album is superb, and makes it my joint favourite Saint album (along with TLFL)

1	The Spirit
2	The Vision
3	Ride To Kill
4	He Reigns
5	On And On
6	The 7th Trumpet
7	The Mark
8	Bowls Of Wrath
9	Babylon The Great
10	Reap The Flesh
11	Gog & Magog

Agreed on this one. And it makes sense, as it is a concept album, it's in chronological order, not in order of quality as tmost of the albums out there.

I think The Mark is excellent throughout, but I’d probably actually pick the first half. The Vision, Ride to Kill, and He Reigns are my favorite songs on the album.

Kerrick wrote:^Oh man I totally disagree!    I like the first half waaaay more haha.

I thought I remembered you being wrong about this, guess I was right

It ain't Moving Pictures.

Spoiler:

Andreas89 wrote:

Kerrick wrote:^Oh man I totally disagree!    I like the first half waaaay more haha.

I thought I remembered you being wrong about this, guess I was right

I know this is in the Christian area but 72 Seasons, Death Magnetic, and Ride The Lightning from Metallica. All of these albums it's only one or two songs that push the second half up a bit, I love each of these albums all the way through. For 72 Seasons it's because the second half has Too Far Gone?, Chasing Light, and Inamorata. For Death Magnetic it's The Judas' Kiss and My Apocalypse. For Ride The Lightning it's Trapped Under Ice and Creeping Death. Christian albums, not sure.

Christian Thrash Rules wrote:I know this is in the Christian area but 72 Seasons, Death Magnetic, and Ride The Lightning from Metallica. All of these albums it's only one or two songs that push the second half up a bit, I love each of these albums all the way through. For 72 Seasons it's because the second half has Too Far Gone?, Chasing Light, and Inamorata. For Death Magnetic it's The Judas' Kiss and My Apocalypse. For Ride The Lightning it's Trapped Under Ice and Creeping Death. Christian albums, not sure.

I actually just searched for this thread to mention 72 Seasons lol

Stryper-Against the Law (though I dont really like Shining Star or Ordinary Man, but the last 4 songs are classics).

Deliverance - s/t

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime