Five Golden Tales

[JayKeeley]

Take your favorite genre, whether it be black, prog, death, traditional or whatever, and give us, the world, the quintessential (five) albums that you think NOBODY should be without. And explain why in ten words or less.

It's educational in the least.

 

[JayKeeley]

OK I'll take thrash/speed metal:

Sepultura "Beneath the Remains" - for the precision in the musicianship, the time changes galore, the 'roughness' to the production, and the stalking towards the death metal boundaries. Side Note: Dead Embryonic Cells from Arise is the second greatest thrash song of all time, but BtR is the opus fantastik.

Megadeth "So Far So Good So What" - for the inadvertent empty production sound that just enhances the knife-edge guitar riffing, the smell of heroine and weed erupting from Mustaines snarl, and the almighty "Hook in Mouth" that finished off the 80's for good. Thank fuck.

Metallica "Ride the Lightning" - self evident. And the fact that I sometimes skip Leper Messiah and Disposable Heroes on MoP make this the better of the two greatest Metallica records IMO. Oh, and for that one song....what's it called? Oh yeah, Creeping Death. Eet Fuk.

Suicidal Tendencies "Lights Camera Revolution" - it's the latino hardcore punk fuckyouthrashfest with a melody to boot. Rocky George with his afro tucked under the baseball cap and the multifinger guitar tapping exercises come out of nowhere. You Can't Bring Me Down!

Testament "Practice What You Preach" - Two words: Alex Skolnick. Thank god Ozzy never picked him up on the audition. 'Confusion Fusion' is fucking jazz for chrissakes. And it still rips you to shreds. And I think 'The Ballad' is better than 'Fade to Black' when it comes to emotional thrash.

Slayer "Reign in Blood" - Hanneman and King and their tortured children guitar solos. 'Angel of Death' is the ultimate thrash song of all time with THAT interlude that makes you turn the volume up each and everytime. And the thunder and rain that breaks the silence before Lombardo introduces the title track...DOM DOM DOM....DOM DOM DOM....go!

I cannot count either.

 

[NAD]

Dammit, I was about to do thrash/speed/whatever. I will anyhow.

Megadeth - Rust In Peace
Took the best of the 80s and combined it with the best of what would later come out in the 90s.

Slayer - Divine Intervention
Sheer perfection, combined their speed and creepiness better than not only everyone else, but themselves.

Sepultura - Arise
Chaos A.D. may be their moment of greatness, but didn't quite have the edge that this one did. Tribal shred.

Metallica - Ride the Lightning
The intro/outro to the title track are one of metal's finest moments. Fade to Black is the best metal "ballad" ever done. Creeping Death is just plain cool. Everything else is typical mid-80s thrash, but with Metallica playing it in their prime.

Carcass - Heartwork
Still leaves me speechless almost 10 years after I first heard it. Nuff said.

 

[bloodfiredeath]

Well, it's a toss up between thrash and death metal. Maybe I'll do death too, but I'll go with thrash here because two people already have, and both are far different than mine.

Six thrash albums I deem essential (sorry, tried but couldn't eliminate one of these, so there are six). In no particular order:

Kreator - Extreme Agression
My favorite album from my favorite band of all time (and that's a bold statement for me).

Sabbat - Dreamweaver
I will put it very simply. If you do not have this album, you have problems way beyond my help.

Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal
Unbelievable riff-fest that amazes me every time I listen to it. The best thing Hoglan will ever touch by a mile.

Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare
Sometimes there is no way to explain why you love an album so much, you just do. Count this as one of them.

Hypnosia - Extreme Hatred
Best thrash album to come out in the last ten years. A little Kreator worship never hurt anyone...

Testament - First Strike Still Deadly
At first I couldn't decide between Legacy and New Order, but the more I think about it, this is the right choice. These songs are billiant in their original versions, and somehow, leave it to Testament, these ones are better.

 

[bloodfiredeath]

Ok, now Death Metal:

Grave - You'll Never See...
A perfect death metal album.

Obituary - Cause Of Death
Murphy's leads are incredible, Peres pulls off some of the best simple riffs out there. Another perfect death metal album for me.

Pestilence - Consuming Impulse
It still amazes me how ahead of it's time this album was. Perhaps belongs on the thrash list. Oh well...

Edge of Sanity - Crimson
Depending on my mood, I usually can't decide between Crimson and Purgatory Afterglow. I flipped a coin, and Crimson wins. So be it.

Suffocation - Breeding The Spawn
Barely beats out Pierced From Within. For some reason, the fact that this album sounds like mud really works for me.

Unleashed - Across the Open Sea
Johnnny Hedlund hates the way this album sounds, I love it. Again, another band I have a very hard time picking one record from.

I have a hard time not including Death or Morbid Angel. I think their body of work compares to, if not exceeds, all of the bands I listed. But if I'm picking single albums, I stick with what I got.

 

[JayKeeley]

I don't have Sabbat - Dreamweaver...but I've always wanted it. Does that count for anything?

And I want that Pestilence - Consuming Impulse too. They're one of my fave bands these days...

 

[JayKeeley]

Oh mighty thread, I command thee to rise from the grave...

 

[NAD]

Oh mighty 5, spread thy word!

Progressive metal (term used loosely):

King Crimson - The Power To Believe
The kings of progressive pillage their way to the crown of metal and don't even have to steal it, as those who previously reigned gave it up whilst cowering in fear. Still some non-metal proggy moments too, thankfully.

Ulver - Themes From William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
As if Blake's work needed any addition to his twisted and brilliant mind, good thing Ulver was up to the task and presented a marvelous (and masturbatory) complement to the text and art. Oh yeah, this was their last release with elements of metal present.

Opeth - Deliverance
Screw it, it's my favorite Opeth now. Still Life and Blackwater Park are my other two, but this one has risen above as of late.

Edge of Sanity - Crimson
1 track at 40 minutes long? That's progressive enough for me.

Attention Deficit - s/t
Well not really a metal release but definitely progressive, but Alex Skolnick counts as metal enough... right?

 

[SonOfNun]

This was a good idea for a thread that never really went anywhere.

 

[Bloopy]

And explain why in ten words or less.

I cannot count either.

Lol. Maybe if the dude had actually managed to stick to his own rule then people wouldn't have noped outta here all confused!