It completely depends on what kind of music it is. Two of my favourite albums ever, Lateralus by Tool (and their following album 10,000 Days too actually) and The Weirding by Astra (which has just come out but is already one of my favourites ever) clock in at over 78 minutes. That is absolutely wonderful, because you can really get into it, the music is completely amazing throughout, it's almost like going on a journey and it's great. Also, it doesn't feel that long because the album is so good it makes time fly, just like watching a 3-hour epic film that's so amazing it doesn't feel long at all, you're just enjoying being taken to another world for that short period of time.

However, for a pure metal joy album, like thrash or NWOBHM or something all over my whatever, 40-50 mins is probably a nice length. Then again, Brave New World is over 60 mins and it's one of the best albums ever.

The bottom line is, if you can write good music, then why not write loads of it. The length of an album doesn't matter if the album is good, surely? If a long album is rubbish, it's not because it's long, it's because the music is rubbish. The new AC/DC album doesn't feel too long because it's got 15 songs on it, it feels too long because some of those songs aren't as good as the others on the album. If it had twenty amazing songs, that would be better than having 10 amazing song and 5 average ones.

You get what I'm saying bruvs?

A reeeaallly technical death metal band called Masachist have finally got their album out, and its sorta like a death metal supergroup. The album clocks in at 26 minutes. If it was longer maybe id start losing interest because its just pretty wierd and technical. Something you couldnt listen too for 78 minutes.

Yeah, fair point, I guess for some genres it doesn't matter how good it is. Perhaps then it's fair to say, genres where short songs are typical - short album yes, and vice versa.

I got an A* in English GCSE believe it or not.

jonny_boy34 wrote:Yeah, fair point, I guess for some genres it doesn't matter how good it is. Perhaps then it's fair to say, genres where short songs are typical - short album yes, and vice versa.

I got an A* in English GCSE believe it or not.

I only got an A, I feel ashamed.
I got an A* in Media Studies though, and CDs are media so I am a genius, right?

I think 10 tracks lasting about 35-45 minutes long is ideal for an album.

zykloned wrote:As long as there are no filler tracks, then I'm not too bothered.

I'd rather an album be too long than too short.

This

I would say up to 50 mins. It all depends on the type of music and the how intresting the music is. (I dont want a 10 min song with the same riff).

All depends on how good it is dunnit.

Optimum willy length?

Perfect album length for me is Gridlink's 11 track album Amber Grey totaling 12 minutes.

It totally depends on the band and the music. Reign in Blood is the perfect length for what it is at under half an hour. However, a thirty minute Isis album would not do the trick. Generally, for metal though, Martin has it pretty much bang on. Human, Screaming for Vengeance, Ride the Lightning, Slaughter of the Soul, Handle with Care, A History of a Time to Come, Black Sabbath and Paranoid. All these are pretty much bang in the timeframe.

The more intense the music, the less of it there should be. The more subtle, the more of it there should be. It works similar with speed as well (less when fast and vice versa). I think that covers it in my opinion.