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Massacre — From Beyond

Possessed - Seven Churches

Asphyx - The Rack Eternal Champion - Armor of Ire Gorefest - False Impending Doom - Nailed. Dead. Risen. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand Morbid Angel - Covenant Nails - Obscene Humanity Nosce Teipsum - Nothing Remains Shedding Skin - We Of Scorn Terror - Trapped In A World Trap Them - Seizures In Barren Praise Twisted Sister - Under The Blade

Or who care....like does anyone really care in this day and age that isn't dragging their knuckles if some dude in a band is gay? Like seriously, who gives a shit? Especially if Rob freaking Halford, a 70 year old guy in literally (one of) the most well known metal bands of all time who came out of the closet nearly 25 years ago. WTF? Speaking as a big fan myself.

The Abyss - The Other Side ...objectively I can hear how this is nothing special, but it's the first black metal album I can remember hearing as a young fella, so it has sentimental appeal. A middle of the road 90s BM offering from the Hypocrisy guys. I got the track "Marutukku" on a CD sampler from a shortlived magazine called Huh, along with some other stuff that I also wound up buying and listening to for years. It's been ages since I put this on but I remember every note.

Intestine Baalism - An Anatomy of the Beast

Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal Hellshock - They Wait For You Still Hellshock - Only the Dead Know the End of War

This sort of thing is all the rage at the moment on the forums and is sorely lacking here. Here is my top 10, following the one album per band rule. If a band straddles the doom or black genres I've gone with an album that (sort of) fits the gothic metal genre. @Vampyrique I've updated and filled out my list. 10a. Sirenia - 'Perils of the Deep Blue' (2013) Morten Veland's project has now really become his main event, with many more Sirenia albums now in existence compared with his Tristania work. This album is arguably my favourite of the Sirenia material. It has an epic scale but it's catchy and engaging all the way through, with a phat yet luscious production. This is the second last yet best album he would record with Ailyn on vocals. She has such a special voice. 10b. To/Die/For - 'Jaded' (2003) This is from the rock side of the genre. To/Die/For were untouchable for catchy melodic music around this era, and this album is just brilliant. Jape's deep voice was in its prime and the songs here are all gothic rock anthems. 9. Saturnus - 'Martyre' (1999) The final release from the Kim Larsen lineup of Saturnus, this album begins with the beautiful choir of '7' before launching into one of gothic metal's most exquisite moments with that riff from 'Inflame Thy Heart'. This album is just full of near perfect riffs and near perfect vocals with the spoken word, mid range bark and full deep growl. Spinetingling. 8. Moonspell - 'Irreligious' (1996) We are now officially in masterpiece territory. This is one of many classics from the 90s as you can see from the list. Tracks like 'Opium' and 'Full Moon Madness' are timeless. 7. Tristania - 'Widow's Weeds' (1998) A true gothic album, this contains choirs, creaking church doors, organs and some incredible metal. Morten Veland's second appearance on the list. That guy is a genius. I went with this, their debut, over the more upbeat 'Beyond the Veil' because this has the real ivy-on-manor-house-walls feel that perfectly sums up the genre. 6. Theatre of Tragedy - 'Aegis' (1998) I was so tempted to put 'Velvet Darkness They Fear' in this spot rather than 'Aegis', but I think 'Aegis' just wins out due to some nice memories of a girl from university who used to like listening to this when we were being intimate. The band dropped the growls and replaced them with Raymond's dulcet speaking voice, and they amped up the repetitive catchiness and sweetness. What they ended up with was a beautiful album and me getting laid. 5. My Dying Bride - 'Like Gods of the Sun' (1996) This album really changed my life. Technically I would class 'The Angel and the Dark River' as gothic metal as well, and on a good day I prefer that album, but this album just fits the vibe of gothic metal so perfectly. When I first heard the title track on Australian radio back in 96 I knew I'd found the next level. This is dark with fabulous twin guitar harmonies and a great violin sound back when it was still original. Oh man I love this album. 4. Paradise Lost - 'Draconian Times' (1995) Paradise Lost are responsible for so much in this genre. This album is nearly perfect in its production, artwork, texture and sophistication. When I discovered this album back in about early 1996 I thought this band was the classiest metal band I'd ever come across. 3. Cradle of Filth - 'Dusk and Her Embrace' (1996) Writing out these little reviews is bringing home how important this genre is to me. Cradle's 'Dusk' album is a theatrical masterpiece. Romantic keyboards, epic soundscapes, beautiful gothic riffs and some of Dani's best lyrics. Amazing artwork too. 2. Anathema - 'Alternative 4' (1998) Is this gothic metal? It's close enough and I'm running with it. The violin, piano and mournful guitar riffs all work on crushing the heart with some of Vincent's best vocal lines and Duncan Patterson's best lyrics. Yes, 'Fragile Dreams' and 'Inner Silence' are well recognised classics, but check out 'Lost Control' and 'Feel' for crying out loud. Just amazing. I used to have 'Feel' on a tape that I had recorded from the radio back in 1998. God, what an era. 1. Type O Negative - 'October Rust' (1996) And here's number 1. This isn't just my favourite gothic metal album of all time (which is bloody saying something, let me tell you), but it's also probably my favourite album of all time of any genre (if that's even possible to call). Peter Steele and Josh Silver are just so far beyond the rest of the planet on this album that it's hard to believe it was created by humans. Songs like 'Love you to Death', 'Red Water (Christmas Mourning', 'Wolf Moon' and 'Haunted' are untouchable. 'Be My Druidess' has one of the greatest ending riff/vocal lines of all time. Everything about this album is romantic, emotional and gothic.

Raspberry Bulbs - Privacy 2014. Picked up their 2020 album Before the Age of Mirrors from a Marko reco 2 years ago but for some reason I never bothered to look into any of their older stuff before now. I really like this kind of punk/garage rock. Raspberry Bulbs - Deformed Worship 2013

i am not a judas priest fan and i agree

First of all, let me go ahead and second KillaKukumba comment above. Metal isn't some hive-mind, and I'm sure as hell not responsible for anyone's actions but my own. Secondly, because I hear some variation of this comment way too often, who exactly are these people who think we look bad, and why do I give a shit what they think about heavy metal or the people who listen to it?

Gojira - Magma Devin Townsend Project - Addicted

Welcome to the forum.

Type O Negative - Green Man

COBALT - Slow Forever

Devin Townsend Project - Addicted!

No one makes me look bad except for myself. And anyone who has listened to heavy music in the last 30 years and doesn't know Rob is gay is not worth knowing in the first place.

For a while I've tried to pretend that I did not like Dimmu Borgir. Don't get me wrong, I used to love them as an older teenager because they were my first introduction to truly symphonic black metal. I had the albums Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, Spiritual Black Dimensions, Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, Death Cult Armageddon, and an older album called Stormblast. Stormblast quickly became my favorite because I existed in a phase where being kvlt and tr00 was all that mattered in my circle of black metal dork friends. While Dimmu Borgir was routinely mocked in this group after Bam Margera began using their music in his videos, I defended the kvlt nature of Stormblast. I liked how the keys were pushed to the front, swallowing the guitars completely, how the album was in Norwegian compared to their later English offerings with silly, flowery lyrics that often didn't make sense, and the overall production and tone of the original album. Which is why I was completely devastated when they rerecorded it in 2005, and figured that it was a shallow and cynical cash grab that was forced on behalf of Nuclear Blast, and I quickly became angry at Nuclear Blast for "making black metal accessible to normies" so to speak. Granted this was in the time where I was collecting CDs instead of vinyl, so I guarded my copy of Stormblast heavily and it was one of the only albums (along with Nokturnal Mortum's discography) to survive the collapse of the roof of the garage I was living in during Hurricane Charley, a hurricane that absolutely demolished my area and turned it into what appeared to be a war zone. When I started collecting vinyl, I began looking for a copy of Stormblast to no avail. The cheapest copies I could find were purple vinyl rereleases from 2011 for $155 and I am willing to pay ridiculous amounts for single discs, but not almost $200 when shipping is factored in. So I went without. Until today, when I went down to the record store and noticed that a copy of Stormblast was available... but with one small problem: it was that cursed, goddamned cash grab rerecording from 2005. I was hesitant about using my store credit from trading in some records to pick it up but reasoned that I could not spend actual money on it, listen to it once, make fun of it and Dimmu Borgir for "selling out" and then slap it up for sale in my pop-up record store and make a quick $20 off some dumb kid who thought he was cool. Keep in mind I had been hating on this album for fifteen years and had never listened to a single track off of it, because the general consensus was that Dimmu Borgir rerecorded the album to make it more accessible to Hot Topic teens who couldn't handle the kvlt and tr00 nature of the original's production. So I used some of my store credit and grabbed it up. Quietly and sheepishly from the shop owner who is just happy that someone under the age of 60 is in his shop, infusing it with current records and grabbing up the pithy offering og metal that his distributor has made accessible to him (we had a long conversation about this today: He wants to stock the shop with way more black and death metal, but his distributor says that nothing is ever available, so he gets what he can and hopes for the best. So far I have bought 3 Burzum albums from him, 2 Emperor albums, and now 2 Dimmu Borgir discs, and this keeps him attempting to bring in more metal because he knows "it's what sells") And now I realize just what a prejudiced, moronic, stuck-in-the-past asshole I truly am. This is a great album. It's everything I liked about the original Stormblast but with much better production value. The guitars are full and no longer tinny or pushed to the back, so it sounds like a proper metal album. The synth and keyboard work is more lush and filled out, giving the album a higher symphonic quality than even my previous "favorite" post-Stormblast DB album "Spiritual Black Dimensions" (which I bought the other day). It's now possible to hear this album the way that the band wanted it to be heard, but lacked the budget to do the first time around. It's heavy af, much heavier than Spiritual Black Dimensions or Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia. It has a very Death Cult Armageddon feel to it in terms of production without compromising the fact that it's easily their best work remastered and rerecorded in the way they can be proud of. While I previously thought that the original recording of Stormblast was fine, I don't think that I could now justify spending money on a pressing of the original album because I have this one. Oh and it came with a bonus 7" with two additional, until now unreleased songs on it. The cover no longer says "Stormblast 2005", just "Stormblast" so it's obvious that they want this to be the official version of their amazing second full length album & I agree. I know all the songs on here like the back of my own hand and to say that they sound better and more like what I would expect from Dimmu Borgir post Enthrone Darkness Triumphant is an understatement. I'm actually finding myself liking this version of the album much better than the original and that's because I'm 35 and no longer care about being "kvlt" or "tr00" because I have absolutely nothing to prove to any other human being anymore. So in short, I feel bad that I shit on this album as a "sell out project" for as long as I did, because at 35, I really like it a lot and it's probably the best album that Dimmu Borgir has done. All of the melodies are the same, it still gives me that dark feeling of October 2003 (when I got the original CD) and just generally feels less like a really good demo and more of what the band is capable of producing. Granted I stopped fucking with Dimmu Borgir for a long time because of their association with Bam Margera (who I personally despise) but I am mature enough now to say that this was juvenile, prejudiced, and that I was wrong. There's absolutely nothing wrong with listening to Dimmu Borgir. They've done a lot to give black metal a wider recognition beyond that of darkened bedrooms of teenage satanic dabblers and garage practice spaces in the suburbs. I should not have judged them so harshly just for appearing with a specific celebrity. I have returned to appreciating the artistic merits of this band because of this rerecording and will never say another unkind word about them. Maybe I just grew up and realized that it's ok to like what you like, that's also a possibility.

*Sigh* I miss Pete... Type O Negative were such a unique & interesting band to listen to... October Rust still gets a regular spin in this house to this day.

One of greatest frontman in Gothic metal is Peter Steele. Man I miss type o negative rip Pete