If somebody wanted to discover metal, which 5 albums would you recommend?

[JayKeeley]

Example lists please.

 

[Nico]

Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding
Judas Priest - Stained Class
Goat Horn - Storming the Gates

And something else.

 

[Conspicuously Absent]

Slayer - South of Heaven
Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines
Immortal - At the Heart of Winter
Skepticism - Stormcrowfleet
Agalloch - Pale Folklore

Variety of genre's and tastes. Determine what if anything the like in order to make future reccomendations. Though it would depend on the person.

 

[JayKeeley]

I think I would feel obliged to represent the major genres.

Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Bruce Dickinson - Chemical Wedding
Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi

something with completely clean & unique vocals...this is tough...ok...

Judas Priest - Painkiller

 

[Jim LotFP]

If we have to just do straight albums and not best-ofs or live albums...

Hellhammer- Apocalyptic Raids
Manowar- Triumph of Steel
Opeth- Morningrise
Spiral Architect- A Sceptics Universe
Candlemass- Nightfall

... and tell them to mix and match as needed for desired taste.

That's a five pointed star that can hold one hell of a lot of metal inside.

Or:

Iron Maiden- Live After Death
Motörhead- No Sleep Til Hammersmith
Slayer- Decade of Aggression
Napalm Death- Live Corruption
Mayhem- Live in Leipzig

Actually, the rest of metal seems pretty fucking unnecessary after those five.

 

[JayKeeley]

Geez...I totally forgot to include some doom. Ugh.

 

[JayKeeley]

Manowar- Triumph of Steel

I almost included Manowar (although I would have picked Hail to England and cover my Bathory bases).

 

[Jim LotFP]

I almost included Manowar (although I would have picked Hail to England and cover my Bathory bases).

Hail to England is an excellent album, yes, but I picked Triumph of Steel because it has it all... the ballad, the driving fast song, the "true metal" anthem, and the crazy long totally serious mythological supersong. And the production and especially Eric Adams' performance are much tighter than Hail to England... so this album can cover "traditional" and "true" as a whole all by itself. It doesn't have the pure raw force of Hail, but that's why Hellhammer is on my list,

 

[Necro Joe]

Carcass - Heartwork
Bathory - Hammerheart
Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Kreator - Coma of Souls

 

[Doom]

Some of these choices seem pretty dumb to me. Stormcrowfleet to someone who has yet to discover metal? That album is one of my very, very favourite albums of all time, but if I listened that straight out of my phase of listening to pop music when I was 13, I would have just been WTF.

It would have to be something catchy and fairly accessible, stuff like Maiden. Some early Metallica too, for sure.

 

[Claws of Perdition]

Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans
Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines

 

[Dick Sirloin]

SOLITUDE AETERNUS - Into the Depths of Sorrow
IRON MAIDEN - The Number of the Beast
MEGADETH - Rust in Peace
ULVER - Bergtatt
EDGE OF SANITY - Crimson

 

[Thanatopsis123]

EDGE OF SANITY - Crimson

I don't know about the other 4 but this is the first to come to mind.

 

[spikes77]

Metallica - Master of puppets
Death - Symbolic
In flames - The jester race
Opeth - Still life
Amorphis - Elegy

 

[spaffe]

I agree with Doom, someone who's never been exposed to metal would for example hate De Mysteriis -- I sure did
Thusly, my list would be something like this:

Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
Blind Guardian - Imaginations From the Other Side
Iron Maiden - Seventh Son
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
and some Candlemass, but I couldn't say which since I haven't heard them

There's no black metal in that list since that is a genre which requires both perseverance and time; shoving eg Transylvanian Hunger down some metal newbies' throat would result only in choking, not appreciation

 

[AsModEe]

Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked
Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth
Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Mysanthropic E...
Amon Amarth - Versus the World

 

[Lies and Perfidy]

Metallica - Master of Puppets
Bathory - Hammerheart
Judas Priest - Stained Class
Destroyer 666 - Cold Steel...For An Iron Age
Blind Guardian - Imaginations From the Other Side

 

[spaffe]

Nah, live concerts feel kind of pointless to me I you haven't heard the studio versions first, and I also forgot about it

 

[JayKeeley]

I agree with Doom, someone who's never been exposed to metal would for example hate De Mysteriis -- I sure did
Thusly, my list would be something like this:

You say that, but then...

Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant

...Dimmu is still pretty extreme for a n00b, IMO.

 

[JayKeeley]

SOLITUDE AETERNUS - Into the Depths of Sorrow
IRON MAIDEN - The Number of the Beast
MEGADETH - Rust in Peace
ULVER - Bergtatt
EDGE OF SANITY - Crimson

That's a damn fine list there Mr Day.