I've just recently observed that I am an album lover rather than a song lover. Meaning, I much prefer, unconsciously, to like a band or an artist by his/her album (overall output) rather than individual songs of the album. Which relatively kicked off this post into letting me make a list of the top ten metal albums of all time.
When a typical band comes to mind, I always associate them on what album that I liked that they did. An example of which is posted on this blogs sticky sidebar entitled "Musick: There's No Accounting for Taste", a ripped-off title from a the quintessential Metal Maniacs Magazine which I frequently read and borrowed from a metalista friend to update myself with when the Internet was still scarce or steep. So, as an update of this sidebar and a little bit of background on why I picked such and such, the top five (not ten like the usual list because I'm too lazy to do a ten item list, hehehe) list thus far:
1. Slayer-Reign In Blood (1986)This album started it all for me as a jaded metalist. Tom, Kerry, Jeff and Dave nailed it on this one and this was their 3rd official release. From the first track down to the last, all the tracks are flowing and are filled with all the essentials of brutal punishing metal music, fast and steady and full of kick ass imagery. All this lasted only for a mere 30+ minutes, purely perennial dude. Funny that I only bought the tape because a High School classmate of mine said that the Goat Lord cover looked evil and cool so I checked it out and wham! It hit me.
2. Metallica-And Justice for All (1988)Although at present they suck big time (still hoping the new release this year would be a killer now that Rick Rubin is producing it) there was a time when I liked them and ..And Justice for All was I think is their best offering so far and I still am fond of listening to it up until now (thats why its part of this list, stupid me). James' vocals here were heavy and angst ridden, not the lousy bluesy wimpy type nowadays and the guitars on this album were so heavy on the mix that the bass parts were veering to non-existence. A very heavy album and their heaviest even.
3. Death-Symbolic (1995)Main man Chuck Schuldiner's second to the last offering before forming the band Control Denied. It is by far the pinnacle of the bands tight heavy musicianship. Death is a band not only focused on brutallity, hard and fast playing but are more into the technical precision and dynamics and the possibilities of the genre. They are even dubbed as progenitors of the Progressive Death Metal genre. This album is by far their most melodic yet still brutal, albeit even catchy at times, so musically refined that Chuck's lyrics are at its most profound and thought provoking. When I listen to this album, it takes me to another place, its not trippy but like when your reading a good book, you get entranced. Chuck Schuldiner is a true metal hero in my book, it is unfortunate that he died too soon.
Hail the Ancient Ones!!! Blasphemes David, Trey and Pete as they always do on there releases which makes this the 3rd official release and can be vindicated by cleverly imposing the letters of the alphabet on each subsequent release they make starting with the letter A for
Altars of Madness and so on and so forth. If Death was technical and melodic, these guys are technical amd melodic but more sinister and evil and brutal. This one and their Blessed Are the Sick release I considered to be there bestest bet but I had to pick only one and this one I decided, I much prefered this over the other based on feel and vibe of the album its much darker, but both can be considered still. I'm a bassist as some of you know and Morbid Angel's bassist and frontman David Vincent was what I aspired to become until laziness caught up with me. He is like Sting of the Police is to Death Metal when he plays his instrument and sings at the same time without breaking a sweat.
5. Napalm Death-Fear, Emptiness, Despair (1994)They're dubbed as the Godfathers of Grindcore and they are still grinding today and making their fans wriggle into the moshpit and making ears bleed but this release up until Words from the Exit Wound were more deathmetal laden but still with some grind tossed here and there. This release is even more deathmetal and even hints of Industrial Metal among the bunch. When you get to listen to this one the title cover of the album really resonates in every song into a very effective theme. Fear, emptiness and despair oozes out in every track in this one that you can almost taste it (yeah right, poetic me). Barney's hate call coupled with drooning guitars and bass courtesy of Shane adds to the mix with misery, alienation and discordance. Over all a very heavy album and I'm still happy (so ironic, isn't it) listening to it through all these years.
Well, that's a wrap. It's just my list, whats yours?...
