1001 Metal Albums you should hear before you die
 

Yeah, the same as the prog thread. Thought we could do with a specific thread for certain genres. Well, two. Sure, we're probably never going to come close to 1001 albums, but let's see how many we know of, can recommend or think should be in the list. Try not to post discographies: if you like a particular artiste try to think of their best one, two or three albums, and again, don't post them simultaeneously.

Also, please only post if you want to contribute. If you don't like metal head somewhere else. And get that head checked. How can you not like metal? ;)

Usual mini-rules apply: no order but please number each album as it goes in, post a picture if you can and a year, and if possible write a few short lines about why this album should be included.

For those of you who don't know, I've started a journal to link with this, you can find it here http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...e-you-die.html. As albums are reviewed there I'll link back to them here. If an album has already been reviewed by me in my main journal, it will still get a different review in the new one, so I'll link both.

An obvious one to start:
People slag me over my love for The Number of the Beast but I have my reasons. However this really marked the pinnacle of Maiden's golden era, with amazing songs like the title track and "Aces high", not forgetting of course the incredible "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"! And what a cover!

Read more here: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1375018

and here 1001 Metal Albums: Powerslave - Iron Maiden

Good idea and surprisingly nobody has done this before for a metal thread.

I think he wants a picture and a brief description for the sake of the thread. Also that album is 1983 :)

Yeah, thanks Necro, if you can throw in a picture and just a few lines. 'preciate it.
Oh and would you also bold the title, artiste number and year, just so we keep everything standard?
Muchos gracias!

Until Maiden released Powerslave this was the best NWOBHM album ever recorded, and they can still go head to head pretty fairly. Heavy, catchy, complex, and just perfectly written, this album bridged proto and trad metal to what metal would become in the eighties and beyond as much as anything Priest or Maiden ever released. Front to back there isn't a filler song on here.

You should renumber it.

It's the third album posted and we're counting down from 1.

It was, now its the second album posted. Necro removed his.

Yeah, where's Necromancer's post gone? And the first one who says "under the shadow"...

I guess he was just too lazy to find an album cover pic and say words about the album. Not that I don't sympathize.

Are these threads really happening?

I'm not sure why this is necessary.

Many death metal albums have tried to go beyond the genre, many have failed, while many have only partially exceeded. Many have tried to incorporate progressive influences, many have been utterly boring, while many have simply been up their own ass. Few have done both with as much class and sheer awesomeness as Death on this album. If you think death metal's diversity of sound goes from Obituary to Suffocation, then you should check this out. And the riff on the title track... god-like.





Cause they're fun. Go away.

Like I said, if you're not interested don't post. No need to be asking why anything is "necessary". The 1001 albums thread is too filled with indie stuff and stuff I don't know, so I wanted to narrow it down for metal heads and prog heads. Don't see nothin' wrong with that. Nobody's saying you have to participate. Plenty of other threads around.

Wait till you see my "1001 Country Albums you must hear before you die" thread... :rofl:

This is another great NWOBHM album, and one while popular, hasn't seemed to receive nearly as much attention as their NWOBHM counterparts, even though I think they deserve just as much praise for this album as Iron Maiden got for their 80's releases. Though, they didn't release much else, and changed their name a few times after, so it's understandable how there isn't as large a following of their work. Regardless of that, this album still stands just as strong in my eyes as any of the other NWOBHM's 80's classics.

That comment was more a reaction to all of the threads I saw when I logged in this morning. Would have been better placed in one of the appreciation ones to be fair so I apologise.

Regardless, I don't think this is completely necessary. There's 800+ spaces in the original version, which can be filled with metal albums if you want

That said, I will certainly be taking recs.

Yeah, this is ONLY for metal albums though. No hip-hop, r'n'b or punk here! :laughing:

I totally get that. And I don't have a problem with this or the prog one, I just don't think it's necessary.

As I said, I was mainly just making a comment on the fact that so many threads seemed to have been made last night.

Last night was… weird.

Yeah, what douchebags.

I say no more threads starting now

This to me is technical/progressive thrash metal at its best. There may have been a number of landmark bands/albums for the progressive thrash metal genre before these guys or this album which was their second, but this one to me nearly perfects what I ever could see this take on thrash metal being. Plus there's some good influence to their sound from black metal, and maybe some other genres, which has stood to make them just that much better and more interesting.

Exactly right.

The album where Bathory finally broke from their extreme metal roots to create something far more epic and soaring. If the band hadn't started as a black metal band this would have been called epic doom: heavy as a frost giant, repetitive yet hypnotic riffs, and lyrics of times long forgotten. This is a tribute to Quorthon's Viking ancestors that treats them with respect and reverence rather than as a vehicle for power metal tales told by bands who don't want to admit it. If you haven't heard this masterpiece, then do so now. Best listened to on a longship as it crashes over the waves of a churning sea on the way to raid an English village.

Anyone who needs a reason can get the **** out of here and turn in their denims and leathers at the door.

But if you really need to read more ... http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1502444 (You'll also learn about Paranoid...)

One of the albums that always captures the true sense of the NWOBHM for me, and the last with the classic lineup. Songs like "Princess of the night", "Never surrender", the title track and "And the bands played on" make this album a must-hear.

Read more here: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1212201

Perhaps not as consistent as Strong Arm of the Law or Denim and Leather, this album is Saxon at their most ruff 'n' ready, and contains arguably their strongest separate songs of all time. "Motorcycle Man", "Stand Up and Be Counted", and "Wheels of Steel" (OMG that ****ing riff!) are melodic metal with the backbone of a dive bar rock band. Infectious yet never to be taken for AOR, this is a metal album any '80s biker worth his salt would have blasted while pounding back a six-pack or five. Not to be taken as dunderheads though, "747 (Strangers In the Night)" is a shock of unexpected class, and "Suzie Hold On" is a ballad that shows that Saxon had heart as well as balls.

10 Cough - Sigillum Luciferi (2008)

http://www.metal-archives.com/images...91320.jpg?4846

If you are looking for all things sludge, doom and even elements of motherfucking drone, check this bad boy out. Absolutely immense record. Gets you head banging from start to finish. The manliness is literally sweating out of me just thinking about it.

Album opener:

Lamb of God's first album after changing their name from Burn the Priest is a monster. Groove metal heaviness meets metalcore savagery and, with Randy Blythe's tortured, misanthropic screams, create high-quality brutality that leaves one's ears completely ruined. Not just a collection of two-dimensional riff fest though, this album knows when to pull back, change tempos, switch riffs, and then build up to a monumental climax of headbanging art, before moving on to the next mini-masterpiece of creative metal awesomeness. Sometimes in the same song.

If you ever were curious what Psychedelic Black Metal sounded like, well here's your chance. It may have been 11 years before this album that Sigh released an Avant-garde Black Metal album with a heavy Psychedelic influence, but this one is definitely a more exclusive/pure mix of the two genres with no offshoots into other territory. Definitely a great, innovative work, and very consistent throughout that you'd be surprised it's a debut album.

Hear the Tygers they way they were meant to be, with original vocalist Jeff Cox before they wimped out and went all AOR. A real NWOBHM album with fangs and claws and a roar to scare the **** out of you. In a good way. Standouts "Suzie smiled", "Slave to freedom", "Killers".

Read more here: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1089242

We interrupt this list for an important (ish) message
 

Just a word about why these threads are being made, as some people seem to think them unnecessary.

Consider someone coming new to MB and not knowing anything about metal/prog/punk (there's now one for punk apparently) and wanting to try it out. Wouldn't it be a fine reference source to have, that they could check this list and see what we all think the definitive metal/prog/punk albums are? In addition to providing recs for people I feel this could be a good resource (perhaps stickied hint hint) that people could refer to.

That's why I started these threads.

Yes, the generic 1001 albums thread is good, but do you really want to, as a prospective fan of either subgenre, trawl through a load of albums that may not interest you until you get to the ones that do? So having separate genre/subgenre lists I think is a good thing to do.

And so that's my thinking behind the creation of these threads. If nobody or only a few people participate I don't mind: I'll keep adding albums because I want to build this up into a list people can turn to when they are looking for the sort of albums they should try out when checking out these subgenres.

And now, back to the list...

There are better Manowar albums, sure, but if you want to hear where it all began you need to check this out. Exploding onto the scene in 1982 Manowar upped and changed the game, with an ethos that spat "death to False Metal!" and an iron-studded fist challenge to the real metal bands to stand up and be counted. Look at that album cover! A big, tough, don't-****-with-me eagle that screams to be flying on a standard above the massed hordes of the metal armies, blood and gore spraying everywhere, the metal warriors laughing as they kill, laughing as they die, while fire streaks the air and the sound of insane riffage pounds across the battlefield.

Death to False Metal! Into Glory Ride!

Read more here: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1496499

You'll get those people telling you Rainbow were more hard rock than heavy metal, but listen to "A light in the black" and tell me that's not metal! Ronnie James Dio and Richie Blackmore at their finest: sure what more could you want? A true classic in every sense of the word.

Read more here: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1053427

16. Sunn O))) ---- Black One ---- (2005)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...005-Black1.jpg

As Trollheart bobs his head to the more traditional metal albums, I sit my room with the windows boarded up in complete darkness save for two glimmering candles. By candlelight I bring a goat to the altar and raise the ax for sacrifice as the moon grows closer and closer to eclipse. But first, I need a soundtrack.

Black One is a finger-licking evil album that assaults the listener with heavy drones, experimental percussion, and the cries of the tortured. Other albums from the group experimented with tossing in black metal into the mix, but their best attempt at this is in Black One. At points the gloomy and disturbing music produces a somewhat serene and blissful passage before falling into brooding drones once again. This is a must for every metal fan imo. I would almost go as far to say that it's a must for every music fan.

Yeah, I started thinking about it and made one about punk. I take my statement about how it's necessary back, it's pretty nice to have these.

Cool! :beer:
FWIW I think the idea of a punk one is great: I'm just waiting for the hip-hop one now...

Hey, I can do doom too you know! Okay, it's not Sun O))) but it's still pretty bitchin'!
The album that made me start to think seriously about doom metal. Seriously, one of the very best al bums I've heard in the previous year. Not a single bad track on it.

Read more here: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1502335

^I was just poking some fun mate. If you like the new Pallbearer record, you ought to check out Dirge's Hyperion. Their vocals are a bit different but musically they're very similar.