It might be more that other albums drifted lower than these drifted upward, if that makes sense. I rank them by making a "best of" playlist from each album and then seeing how many songs from each album made it to that list, and when those numbers are close, how the individual songs compare. It could also be that I like the newer albums a lot, and so don't necessarily listen to them all through the lens of the first 4-5 albums. I don't know if I have a better answer than that!

@@metalprof Makes sense. Glory for salvation grew on me more and more as I listened to it and now I’d say it’s up there comparable to their classics as far as how much I head band to it lol. Not a bad album in the whole discography imo. I love anything Luca Turilli is involved with basically, with his first two solo albums (king of the Nordic twilight and prophet of the last eclipse) being my absolute favorites for power metal.