Top Ten Metal Albums

1. Sepulura - Arise

2. Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengence

3. Faith No More - Angel Dust

4. GWAR - America Must Be Destroyed

5. Fear Factory - Demanufacture

6. Anthrax - Presistence of Time

7. Biohazard - State of World Address

8. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power

9. Type O Negative - October Rust

10. White Zombie - La Sexorcisto Devil Music Vol. 1

I'm gonna mix it up and put actual, groundbreaking, true top 10 albums with a few personal, true top 10's . . .

1 - Dream Theater: "Awake"
2 - Slayer: "Reign In Blood"
3 - Megadeth: "Rust In Peace"
4 - Angra: "Holy Land"
5 - Savatage: "Dead Winter Dead"
6 - Fates Warning: "Parallels"
7 - Anthrax: "Among The Living"
8 - Faith No More: "Angel Dust"
9 - Shihad: "Churn"

. . . and because you have to put the bastards in there somewhere, I guess . . .

10 - Metallica: "Master Of Puppets"

10 just isn't enough. This just isn't fair.

I'm not going to go into a top ten, but in terms of heavy metal importance, The Misfits "Earth A.D." should be at the top of the list.

I'm just going to do personal favourites.

1. Tool - Ænima
2. Faith No More - Angel Dust
3. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
4. Sepultura - Chaos AD
5. Metallica - ...And Justice For All
6. Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss
7. System of a Down - Self-Titled
8. Machine Head - The More Things Change...
9. Tool - Opiate
10. Will Haven - El Diablo

Any list without "Number of the Beast" on it needs to be revised. wink

Umm...

Number of the Beast was released in 1982.

Piece of Mind, 1983.

01 Slayer - Reign in Blood
02 Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
03 Sepultura - Chaos A D
04 Metallica - And Justice for All...
05 Deftones - Around the Fur
06 Marilyn Manson- Antichrist Superstar
07 Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
08 Nine Inch Nails - Broken
09 Ministry - Psalm 69
10 Metallica - Master of Puppets

edited to change number 6

In defense ahead of time, I'm in a hurry, these are HIGHLY subjective choices (but worthy contendahs on any objective list), and I'm more of a late 80s underground metalhead; thus, I sally forth with:

1)Black Sabbath, Volume IV - yeah, Paranoid gets all the love, but with "Supernaut", "Wheels of Confusion", and "Under the Sun Every Day Comes and Goes" you get stuff just as strong that hasn't been killed by overplaying.

2)Motorhead, 1916 - How to choose one Motorhead album? Pick the one with the cello! Seriously, Lemmy and the boys spat a masterpiece in our general direction with this one.

3)Megadeth, Killing is my Business... -Rust in Peace is a band at the height of its powers, but the primal snarl and fretboard gymnastics here never fail to impress me.

4)Metallica, Ride the Lightning - their best is probably Master, but this is the one with the punchiest riffs.

5)Slayer, Reign in Blood - Slayer's perfect album; clocks in at a pithy 40ish minutes, every one essential.

6)Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger - Sabbath with singable choruses? WOW!

7)Kyuss, Blues for the Red Sun - Stoner rock starts HERE.

8)Monster Magnet, Dopes to Infinity - Good stuff.

9)Anthrax, Volume 8: The Threat is Real! - Maybe a bit too much personal bias, as 'thrax has always been my fave of the "Big 4" speed metal bands, but their latest was abandoned by the record company and EASILY ranks with their best (Spreading the Disease, Persistence of Time, Sound of White Noise), and had a great video for "Inside Out"

10)Celtic Frost, Into the Pandemonium - IMO the most ambitious metal album ever recorded; whether it was successful or not is certainly up for debate, but it definitely reaches for the stars and comes down with at least the moon. Plus it has a cover of "Mexican Radio."

Honorables: VoiVod, Dimension Hatross; Iron Maiden, Powerslave; Tool, Aenima; Pantera, Far Beyond Driven

Reign in Blood is actually around 26-28 minutes.

1. Slayer - Reign in Blood
2. Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
3. Metallica - Master of Puppets
4. Anthrax - Among the Living
5. Judas Priest - British Steel
6. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
7. Exodus - Bonded By Blood
8. Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
9. S.O.D. - Speak English Or Die
10. Pantera - Cowboys From Hell

Thanks for the clarification. All I know is RiB is GREAT for rush hour traffic, for some bizarre reason.

And let me give you an "attaboy" on the Exodus love. Did you ever hear Force of Habit (came out in '92 or so)?

I notice a lot of people have Among the Living listed; great album, no doubt, with some gems on there (when I saw 'thrax in concert this year, the crowd got truly fired up for "NFL (Efilnikefesin)"), but it's a bit too "samey" for me - all the songs are more or less on the same speed. I prefer their other albums, which have some variations and stylistic left turns on them (the cover of "Got the Time" on Persistence, "One for the Extras" off Volume 8, "Black Lodge" off SoWN, etc).

I do have to add that the first time I was fortunate enough to see Anthrax live was the Clash of the Titans tour in '91 (Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, with Alice in Chains opening), and that had to be one of the better shows I've seen.

I notice a lot of people choosing Anthrax albums of the John Bush circa, Personally I'm more of a Joe Belladonna fan. Give me SPREADING THE DISEASE over SOUND OF WHITE NOISE any day!

Call it personal taste; while just about any Anthrax album is a good one (Fistful of Metal and State of Euphoria being the exceptions - not awful, just mediocre), I think there's much more maturity and depth on the Bush albums.

My quick overview of their discography:
Fistful of Metal - eh; mediocre and undistinguished first effort; blame it on Neil Turbin!
Spreading the Disease - awesome, a classic
Among the Living - good effort, if not quite up to StD standards
State of Euphoria - got a little too poppy for my tastes; fortunately, they recovered with...
Persistence of Time - StD is a classic, but to me this is the BEST album of the Belladonna era

Sound of White Noise - started off the Bush years with a bang (John Bush, that is); GREAT album
Stomp 442 - much-hated on release, but I think it's a solid, if unspectacular, debut
Volume 8 - as mentioned above, stands with their best; my fave so far of the Bush era
We've Come For You All - More Stomp than SoWN or Volume 8; not bad, just doesn't excite me

While I agree that the have matured a tonne with Bush, there is still something about the naive thrash of the early eighties that makes their first albums much more organic. I love SOUND OF WHITE NOISE, but it's not the same without Belladonna. The Bush years put out some great albums, but there was more of a hint of alternative to the music. Much like KILL EM' ALL, I dig the early thrash better.

Transformers: The Movie soundtrack

Stan Bush was one of metal's original hard men.

INSTRUMENTS OF DESTRUCTION...

...TOOLS OF FOUL PLAY!!!

Ooh....what have we here? How did I miss this thread? *rubs hands*

My Top Ten Metal Albums- not neccesarily in order

1. Slayer - Reign In Blood - Don't really have anything else to add to this. Definition of a classic metal album.

2. Meshuggah - Contradictions Collapse/None - Meshuggah at its purest- this is the EP with their old demo attached to the end. The 4 songs from the demo are better than most full length albums.

3. Demolition Hammer - Tortured Existence - Thrash legends, at least around these parts. They should've been a lot more popular than they ever got- this album is simply incredible. There's a reason you have to spend some serious money to pick up one of their out of print cds.

3. Biohazard - Self Titled - Raw and pissed off metal/hardcore. They've sort of tried to come back to their roots with their last few albums, but they'll never top their first. Add in sound clips from The Godfather Part 2 and The Warriors and you can't go wrong.

4. Metallica - Master of Puppets - Their most brual album. Beautiful from start to finish.

5. Carnage - Dark Recollections - Before they became Dismember- this swedish death metal band put out an incredible album. Hard as all fuck.

6. Nuclear Assault - Game Over/The Plague - another disc with 2 albums, the worst part about some of these songs is the production. Legendary New York thrash band.

7. Celtic Frost - Into The Pandemonium - Chavez nailed this one. Metal will never be this experimental again.

8. Vio-Lence - Oppressing the Masses - Insane Bay Area thrash. Some of the best stuff from the 80s thrash bands.

9. Cryptopsy - Whisper Supremacy - One of the best Death Metal cds EVER.

10. Unearth - The Stings of Conscience - I can see this as the direction Metal should be heading. This and Shadows Fall are the best as far as new metal/hardcore. Unearth keeps it much more technical than any other hardcore band out there.

"Diary of A Madman" - Ozzy Osbourne
"Blizzard of Ozz" - Ozzy Osbourne
"Screaming for Vengeance" - Judas Priest
"British Steel" - Judas Priest
"Corridors of Power" - Gary Moore
"Street Lethal" - Racer X
"Disillusion" - Loudness
"Law of Devil's Land" - Loudness
"Number of the Beast" - Iron Maiden
"Back in Black" - AC/DC
"MSG" - Michael Schenker Group

I have dated myself with these pick, haven't I?

Maybe on re-issue; originally, Game Over was the first album, The Plague was an EP that came out maybe a year later. The production IS pretty thin on Game Over, much better on The Plague, but I think Game Over is REALLY fuckin' good stuff. "After the Holocaust", "Sin", etc....glad I was reminded of it.

The re-issued the CF catalog a few years back, and I was fortunate enough to pick up Vanity/Nemesis - took the experimenation of ItP and fit into into the metal framework a bit more neatly. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE ItP, but I realize that it's probably not the bulk of metaldom's cup of tea. V/N is more straightforward and metal-ish, I guess. And aside from the putrid Cold Lake, you really can't go wrong with CF.

Also, Tom G. Warrior wrote a book called Are You Morbid? about his whole CF experience. Good read for anyone who loves underground 80s metal.

Very cool, i'll have to pick that up. I was introduced to Celtic Frost through that SOD song a few years ago, and have always loved them. To Mega Therion is an incredible song.

Have you listened to Demolition Hammer? They're fairly well known around here, but I always wondered just how popular they got. Pretty much the greatest metal band to come out of the bronx... (anthrax wasn't all from here...heh) You can find some of their songs online, or I can send them to you if you want to check them out.

On a side note, I saw a guy wearing a Nuclear Assault T Shirt today in the subway! I freaked out on the dude- i've never seen someone wearing one of those. Good stuff.