Pantera is getting way too much love in this thread.

I'm not going to even attempt to list the greatest metal cd's ever but I'll just do my personal top five:

At the Gates- The Red in the Sky is Ours
Mercyful Fate- Don't Break the Oath
Phlebotomized- Immense, Intense, Suspense
Nagelfar- Hunengrab im Herbst
Discordance Axis- The Inalienable Dreamless

I can't speak about any of those other four but The Inalienable Dreamless is absolutely sick. I'm not even a big fan of grindcore and it still keeps interest.

Obvious list:

Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality
Iron Maiden - Live After Death
Slayer - Reign In Blood
Saxon - Strong Arm Of The Law
Metallica - Master Of Puppets

Not so obvious:

Sacrilege - Turn Back Trilobite
Gojira- From Mars To Sirius
Voivod - Dimension:Hatross
Mordred - In This Life
Martin Grech - Open Heart Zoo

I don't mind hearing Pantera get so much praise on this board - they are an awesome band, with an imposing, brutal wall of sound to their music, with even some elements of groove and blues...

I remember being awoken by them once when i was staying with some cousins and some friends - most definitely an effective alarm clock sound, waking up to the Great Southern Trendkill...

I am not much of a Metal head myself but I have always wondered why Deep Purple In Rock is not given more praise. For me easily their best album and the only one that has stood the test of time.

1. Metallica- Master of Puppets
2. Iron Maiden- Number of the Beast (only because Hallowed be thy name is the best song ever)
3. Megadeth- Rust in Peace
4. Dio- Last in Line (c'mon my name is Vivian Campbell)
5. Pantera- Cowboys From Hell

i'm not a huge metal head but my personal top 5

1 - black sabbath - paranoid
2 - fear factory - demanufacture
3 - metallica - ride the lightning
4 - mastodon - blood mountain
5 - meshuggah - destroy erase improve

You're like me Mr. Dave - not a huge metal head, yet there are some great albums in that there list of yours!

Here's my normal list -

1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
2. Slayer - Reign In Blood
3. Metallica - Ride the lightning
4. Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion
5. Death - Symbolic

Top 5 most listened to now a days -

1. Isis - Panopticon
2. Godflesh - Streetcleaner
3. Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
4. Death - Symbolic
5. Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
(Many others come very close)

And..top 5 Nostalgia factor (some of you might consider this crap/wankery/whatever but :finger:)

1. At the gates - The Red in the Sky Is Ours
2. In Flames - The Jester Race
3. Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery
4. Atheist - Unquestionable presence
5. Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky

I don't know, they're a highly unoriginal band (considering Phil stole almost everything he knew from Exhorder, a much much better band) and to put Pantera in the five top greatest metal cd's of all time is just ludicrous. I'm probably really biased but whatever. Oh and btw, Pantera's first three albums that no one listens to are better than pretty much everything else they did.