15. Siren – No Place Like Home
an album which puts the “US” in USPM like no other, although it's hard to tell exactly how sarcastic the title and cover art are, or those lyrics to my favourite track 'so far to go' which read extra harrowing during the trump administration. can't deny the inconsistency, jank and weak production, but this was formative for me.
14. Paul Chain – In the Darkness
13. Satan – Dirt Demo
the best demo of the year. the throwaway third track is the only reason it's this low. best thing the band recorded without brian ross.
12. Crimson Glory – Crimson Glory
one of the best produced and performed metal albums ever, but some plodding songwriting holds around 50% of it back from all-time favourite territory for me.
11. Griffin – Protectors of the Lair
all killer no filler power-thrash, and it really kicks into overdrive toward the end.
10. Destruction – Eternal Devastation
a transitional record between the unstable, rabid riff-flinging of their earlier style and the more ambitious, clinical band they'd become later, but it's as good an example as any of why they were probably the greatest riffmasters of the eighties.
9. Contropotere - È Arrivato Ah Pook
metal status is dubious, but i needed to list this evil helter-skelter ride through the crypts of napoli. my favourite discovery for this year, one of those instant love type deals.
8. Heir Apparent – Graceful Inheritance
consider this: the greatest early queensryche album wasn't written by queensryche.
7. Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time
there's something just a tiny bit weathered and windswept and post-apocalyptic about this album that i don't really get from other maiden, there's a yearning there that propels it toward the top of their discog even if it does have some bloat issues and one track ('heaven can wait') i still haven't seen the light on.
6. Metallica – Master of Puppets
while it's not the first metal album i loved, it's the first i (thusfar) never stopped loving, which makes it a bitch to rank. i slightly prefer 'justice', but this is their definitive album for capturing all their different facets and with the greatest consistency. 'the thing that should not be' erasure is high on my list of things that should not be.
5. Manilla Road – The Deluge
an album to disappear into at high volume and ride the winds of its dime storm pulp fantasy world. what it lacks in songwriting compared to some of their other '80s albums it makes up in intensity and vibes, instrumentally going so hard and wild i might still list a version without vocals, which is saying something given how great the shark is here.
4. Candlemass – Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
one of a handful of bands in history to perfect a sound at the same time as inventing it. yes, it's just an extension of black sabbath's eponymous track at the end of the day, but they distilled the most metal and gothic elements of that sound and took them straight to their logical conclusion. no '80s album has a higher percentage of iconic tracks.
3. Slayer – Reign in Blood
my go-to example of great metal songwriting; their understanding of arcs of tension and release puts basically every other thrash band to shame. and it isn't even their best album!
2. Satan's Host – Metal From Hell
some kind of benchmark record for what i want out of metal. my mercyful fate.
1. Fates Warning – Awaken the Guardian
far beyond the realm of dream. and it isn't even their best album!
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Songs
1) Slayer – Raining Blood
2) Emerald – Winds of Doom
3) Fates Warning – Fata Morgana/Guardian/Exodus (refuse to separate them)
4) Satan's Host – Hell Fire
5) Candlemass – A Sorcerer's Pledge
6) Metallica – Master of Puppets
7) Heir Apparent – Hands of Destiny
8) Iron Maiden – The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner
9) Griffin – Poseidon Society
10) Satan – Key to Oblivion
Top 5 New Discoveries
Contropotere - È Arrivato Ah Pook
Griffin – Protectors of the Lair
Have Mercy – Armageddon Descends
Vodu – The Final Conflict
Turbo – Kawaleria Szatana
