The 10 greatest metal albums of all time...

[spawn]

Its been a bit quiet here lately so this is sure to inspire some debate, if not lots of namecalling

Rules:
* Only one album per band can make it
* Only studio albums, no greatest hits or live albums
* Glam and hard rock do not count in this poll. No they DONT Troops, if you even try to list VVI ill make a huge donation of money to Mark and have you banned

Slave To The Grind - Skid Row: Best vocal performance on a metal album ever! Great songs all the way through, absolute classic, plus 3 of the best ballads ever written.

Master Of Puppets - Metallica: This gets in over Ride The Lightning because RTL has Escape (which sucks) and MOP has great songs all the way through.

Painkiller - Judas Priest: Its Painkiller. By Judas Priest. Thats all you need to know.

Night Of The Stormrider - Iced Earth: Brilliant songwriting, great riffs, as good a sequel to Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets that you are going to get. Matts versions are better of course, but Gene is quite good with his at time Halfordesque screams so the album barely suffers from not having Matt on vocals.

Number Of The Beast - Iron Maiden: I could have put one of about 5 albums here but this one gets it as it has Hallowed Be Thy Name, Number Of The Beast and Children Of The Damned amongst other classics

Blessed Are The Sick - Morbid Angel: Utter brilliance. Much more variety than their debut, great vocals, very inventive soloing and songwriting. Must own!

Seasons In The Abyss - Slayer: Just gets it over RIB as Seasons has much more variety. And it has War Ensemble... WAR ENSEMBLE!

The Gathering - Testament: How a band 17 or so years into their career can write something so stunningly brutal I will never know. Utter genius. The Reign In Blood of the 2000s. Best drumming ever? Close to it, if not yes.

The Chemical Wedding - Bruce Dickinson: Easily up to the standard of the albums he did with Iron Maiden, thats all you need to know

Rust In Piece - Megadeth: Still cant decide on this or Symphony Of Destruction. But this one gets it for now because I was listening to Hangar 18 before and I really liked it. Succeeds in spite of Daves vocals and some dumb lyrics (Tornado Of Souls im looking at YOU...)

Now some of the bands who missed out and why:

Black Sabbath: Who cares if they did it first, no Black Sabbath album is as good as any in my top 10 thats why they didnt make it. If you want the best Sabbath album buy a Greatest Hits!

Dio: Holy Diver only just missed out...

Ozzy: The new Greatest Hits they released would make it if it wasnt a compilation

Kamelot: Karma and Epica came extremely close to making it, but I couldnt think of one to drop to put them in there. But both albums rule.

Fear Factory: Obselete, Demanufacture or Digimortal could have made it and I wouldnt have complained. But they didnt.

Let the debate begin

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

How do glam and hard rock not count? That's ridiculous. Just because you don't think its worthy of being best ever or something? You chose Skid Row anyway, they're a hard rock band.

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

Anyway, my list:

Painkiller
WASP
The Number Of The Beast
Holy Diver
Vinnie Vincent Invasion (F*&^ you, it is worthy of top 10)
Skid Row
Shout At The Devil
Back In Black
Back For The Attack
Operation: Mindcrime

That's my list. I don't care about the no hard rock rule.... so I put a few of hard rock albums there (VVI, Skid Row, Back In Black, Back For The Attack), who cares. They are still metal so I don't see why you can't put them on a top 10 list if they are worthy of being top 10 material.

 

[spawn]

How do glam and hard rock not count? That's ridiculous. Just because you don't think its worthy of being best ever or something? You chose Skid Row anyway, they're a hard rock band.

They dont count because I made the rules thats why, not because they arent good! Slave To The Grind is a heavy metal album, theres no two ways about it!

 

[spawn]

Vinnie Vincent Invasion (F*&^ you, it is worthy of top 10)

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

This is what I mean though. There is such a fine line between defining "hard rock" and "heavy metal" in most instances, especially with bands like Skid Row, Dokken, Scorpions, early Motley Crue and Ratt, etc.... So why draw a line there?

It's a stupid rule you made because everybody has a different idea of where that line is. I consider Slave To The Grind to be a hard rock album, not to say that it isn't metal because I consider hard rock to be a style of metal, but to me its hard rock rather than "heavy metal".

I'm shocked and disappointed at you Spawny. You always say yourself how genres are stupid and stuff... yet here you are drawing the lines between different styles. *Shakes head* I never thought I'd see the day.... I'm not angry, just disappointed Spawny. So very disappointed.

The bottom line is, it's all metal, loud and proud. Why draw a line there and say "These albums can't be counted coz they are hard rock"? It's all the same thing.

 

[spawn]

Slave To The Grind = Heavy Metal IMHO It has much more to do with the albums on my list than yours for instance

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

Yep "Slave To The Grind" has so much more to do with "Master Of Puppets" and "The Gathering" than it does with "Skid Row".

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

Slave To The Grind = Heavy Metal ! IMHO It has much more to do with the albums on my list than yours for instance

My point is, WHO CARES.

It's all metal, so why draw a line between which styles can classify as beingi n the top 10 or not?

 

[spawn]

My point is, WHO CARES.

It's all metal, so why draw a line between which styles can classify as beingi n the top 10 or not?

Because then id have to worry about fitting heaps of great hard rock albums in the top 10 as well! Its hard enough as it is, so I left them out and only considered heavy metal stuff.

 

[TRrEiTxIxRiE DTrash]

Ok

But for me it was easy to fit in hard rock albums coz I pretty much know my top 10 anyway, so since I'm not as confused as yourself I didn't have to set a little rule to make things less difficult

 

[Cooperman]

No particular order...

Megadeth - Rust In Peace
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Sepultura - Arise
Dream Theater - Scenes From a Memory
Kreator - Violent Revolution
In Flames - Whoracle
Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt 2
Iron Maiden - Powerslave

 

[Spiff]

Spawny, go back in time to the 80s. Pretty much every band with somewhat heavy guitars and long hair was considered metal by the mainstream press.

 

[Bucko]

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath :Black Sabbath
Machine Head : Deep Purple
IV: Led Zeppelin
Diary of a Madman : Ozzy Osbourne
Appetite for Destruction: Guns 'N' Roses
AC/DC: Highway to Hell
Number of the Beast : Iron Maiden
British Steel : Judas Preist
Justice for all : Metallica
Dr Feelgood : Motely Crue

PS spawn ,fuk your rules , why draw a line in the sand its all rock& roll .

 

[Wrathchild]

In no particular order:

Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell
Iron Maiden: NOTB
Van Halen: Self-titled
Metallica: Master of Puppets
Judas Priest: Painkiller
KISS: Creatures of the Night
Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime
Def Leppard: Hysteria
Deep Purple: Machine Head
AC/DC: Back In Black

W

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Now now kiddies, play nice.

My list, in no significant order:

Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding (Brilliant songwritting and performances from some damn talented musicians. Bruce is in fine form, and his partners in crime Roy Z and Adrian Smith's contributions are second to none.)

Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast (just beats other Maiden favourites such as 'Somewhere In Time', and scrapes in over 'The X Factor' as it has more of a classic album vibe.)

Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings (possibly the most evil sounding and anger/hate filled album I have ever heard. So much harder hitting than any death/black metal band, and awesome songs as well. KILLER guitar sound, great vocals, brilliant lyrics, killer album.)

Grave Digger - The Grave Digger (a very consistant heavy metal album, with no real weak songs, and lots of classics. Their older more conceptual power metal stuff is great, but this album is just a pure heavy metal album with great songs. 'The House', 'The Grave Digger', 'Silence', 'Spirits Of The Dead', 'Sacred Fire', ...all awesome.)

Megadeth - So Far, So Good...So What! (I understand why everyone else picked 'Rust In Peace', as it is a 'Deth classic, but for me liking, you can't go past SFSGSW. AWESOME thrash metal with a brilliant raw sound, great thrash classics such as 'Into The Lungs Of Hell', 'Mary Jane', 'In My Darkest Hour', and 'Hook In Mouth', and great songs in between. Definately my fav 'Deth album, thrash heaven.)

Metallica - Master Of Puppets (scrapes in over '...And Justice For All' as it is more consistant and has a better sound/production. Possibly THE greatest metal album of all time).

Dream Theater - Scenes From A Memory (prog metal and concept albums can be awesome when done properly, and this is the perfect example of that. Heavy metal wizardry, set out in a clever story line with amazing and complex song structures make this album the best heavy metal concept album to date.)

Judas Priest - Painkiller (oh god how I wanted to pick Halford's 'Live Insurrection', but it is a live album afterall, so this is the next best thing. The first time I ever heard the song 'Painkiller' I was struck by a hefty dose of heavy metal in a way I had never had it served before. Slicing guitars, wailing vocals, thunderous drums, and a huge head banging rythym. I wouldn't care if the rest of the album was full of Enya, it would still make my top ten heavy metal albums of all time.)

Dio - Holy Diver (one album, full of classic material. 'Holy Diver', 'Stand up And Shout', 'Straight Through The Heart', 'Don't Talk To Strangers', 'Rainbow In The Dark'....how many albums can boast that many heavy metal classics!? Vivian Campbell's guitar work and Ronnie's vocals are in top form, and make one kick arse 80s metal album.)

They are all clear favourites for my top ten, but I would struggle to pick a last one. It would probably be a toss up between Slayer and Sepultura, and then another toss up between albums, so I will not bother putting in a half arsed guess.

METAL!!

 

[Blitzkrieg]

SHIT!! Wrathy just reminded me....HEAVEN AND HELL!!. How could I forget??

Make that my number ten.

 

[Spiff]

Damn it, this is just too difficult a poll and therefore extremely silly. I shall give this one a miss.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Spoil sport.

 

[Cyclonus]

Spiral Architect - A Sceptics Universe
Dream Theater - Images and Words
Opeth - Damnation
Cynic - Focus
Death - Individual Thought Patterns
Blind Guardian - A Night At The Opera
Megadeth - Rust In Peace
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Borknagar - Quintessence
Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos