Okay, let's begin. These will go in vaguely ascending order.
Since the Day it All Came Down - Insomnium
This is certainly one of the best metal albums I've ever heard. It's heavy as hell, but also very melodic. It has a lot of sad but catchy melodies - and it's not too often that music that's so loosely structured manages to be catchy. For some reason, it's always seemed to be the perfect music for the zombie apocalypse. For a while after I bought this album I frequently listened to it while watching muted Dawn of the Dead clips on Youtube.
Copia - Eluvium
This album, probably more than many of the other albums on this list, functions excellently as a cohesive album. This is an album that feels kind of weird to listen to any other way than all the way through, beginning to end. It's different than most of the ambient I've heard, and in fact I'd be more inclined to describe it as minimalist neoclassical with ambient influences. The songs are all based on a few melodic phrases repeated through the whole song. Still, they build throughout the song, which makes this album more suited to foreground listening than most ambient. It's very relaxing and definitely some of the best ambient I've heard.
Egodram - Das Ich
Egodram bridges the gap between Das Ich's pure darkwave phase and their near-pure EBM stage. (Their newest albums return to the darkwave roots somewhat.) There's a lot of crap in this album, like Krieger and He Mensch, as well as a lot of catchy-but-nothing-special songs like Chroma and Reflex, and several masterpieces like Destillat and Schwanenschrei. If you take it as a whole, it's actually probably one of Das Ich's worse albums, but some of the songs on it are so excellent that it had to be on the list.
Now we're getting to the good ones.
The Sham Mirrors - Arcturus
I have heard very few albums as well put together, complex, and test-of-time-standing(I know there's a word for that, but I can't remember it) as this one. I mean it, this album is truly excellent. I can't even think of what to say about it. Seriously, it's so good in so many ways that I can't even think of an adjective.
Once Beautiful and -Whispers In Rage - The Last Dance
I'm blending the reviews for these albums since I can't pick a favourite, and they're quite similar in a lot of ways. They're both quite varied. They go from club-dance numbers like Special Little Gift and Whisper, to dark, rock-hard(okay, it's late and that's the only way I can think of to describe it) songs like Frozen and Desperately Still, to ridiculously sad tearjerkers like Become Forever and Silently She. While I'm not big on goth rock in general, these guys have such sheer songwriting talent that they're one of my favourite bands ever. These two albums are some of the best I've ever heard, in any genre.
Unleashed Memories - Lacuna Coil
Before they went all nu-metal, Lacuna Coil were putting out some really great music. Unleashed Memories in particular. Despite being labeled gothic metal, it's really not very heavy at all. Instead, it's very hypnotic, and while I wouldn't call it relaxing, it's not the kind of thing you put on to disturb the neighbours. Actually, after I bought it a year or two ago, it was my late-night music of choice for months. I'm trying to think of a way to describe it other than "hypnotic", but I can't. I was about to call it powerful, but none of these songs really made me come close to tearing up like some songs by The Last Dance do. It all makes you feel like you're under a veil or something. It's got a dreamlike quality. I would kill for another album like this. Actually, they might have done one. Why didn't I ever buy any other pre-Comalies albums? Even Comalies was pretty good.
Anti ' Christ - Das Ich
What to say about it? It's one of the most evil and sacreligious-sounding albums outside of the black metal genre, and certainly better than anything in the black metal genre. This one is less glare-you-in-the-face unique than most of Das Ich's work, so I don't really know what else to say about it.
Cabaret - Das Ich
This album shows Das Ich both returning and moving away from their darkwave origins. It has both unce-unce-unce aggrotech songs and slow, dark darkwave songs. Still, it's a great concept album - I'm not even sure what the concept is, but it has a definite feeling to it - and Das Ich's most cohesive and consistently great album all-around. Back on my old iTunes id, every single song on here had upwards of 40 plays. That never happens to me. Just shows you how excellent it is.
Lava: Asche - Das Ich
Das Ich's only straight-up EBM album. It's dark, danceable, intense, and thoroughly unique. If I had to recommend one album to an EBM newcomer, it would be this one, because it completely represents everything that most EBM fails to be: catchy, inspired, powerful, not-a-rip-off-of-everyone-else.
