Starting as a thrash band but far too ambitious to remain that way, by 1998 the German power metal mainstays were ready to take the next big step: an epic concept album. And what’s more epic than the work of J.R.R. Tolkien? A few years before Peter Jackson did the same on film, the layered production and Renaissance-inspired melodies grants this Silmarillion adaptation a suitably cinematic canvas. It could do without the narrative interludes (see also: rap albums), but the songs themselves demonstrate the band’s mastery of widescreen storytelling – if Frodo and company had been armed with weapons as powerful as “Into the Storm” and “Mirror Mirror,” the Balrog wouldn’t have stood a chance.

– Jeff Treppel