CAMEL

Why is this album rated significantly lower than the three albums that come after it? Sure, all three of those are true classics, and this album doesn't really have a bad score, since it is over 4.00 right now. But, in my opinion, Camel's debut is on the same level as the three undisputedly great albums that followed it. On this album you see a lot of foreshadowing of various melodies that would creep into Camel's later works. In a way, they were only ripping themselves off later! Just kidding, but as someone who listened to the "Big Three" Camel albums before listening to this, it's interesting to hear those similarities. Speaking of rip-offs, "Benighted" by Opeth really steals from the beautiful guitar line from "Never Let Go" on this album. That's ok, Mikael has at least acknowledged many times that Latimer is by far one of his biggest inspirations.