Requiem

Rotting Christ - 'Kata Ton Aaimona Eaytoy' (Do What Thou Wilt) Hail dark rituals eternally.

Hard to know, and even harder to answer as I feel I'd just be putting my favourite albums down. It usually turns out that the albums that I love the most are very seldom hailed by the broader metal community to the same degree. The albums that stand out for me, however, and are already classics include: Marduk - 'Frontschwein' (album of the decade) Rotting Christ - 'Rituals' Septicflesh - 'Titan' Moonspell - '1755' Put them in the hall of fame immediately.

And that’s perfectly fine because it’s personal taste. For me though, albums like ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’, ‘In the Nightside Eclipse’ and ‘Storm of the Lights Bane’, to name but three, are the near pinnacle of metal evolution and the beginning of its devolution. Throw ‘Turn Loose the Swans’, ‘Bloody Kisses’ and hell, even ‘Demanufacture’ in there and we are starting to look at a special time in musical output. Hail 1993-1995.

Hey man, yeah True Belief brought that to my attention. I don’t have a turntable either but I still feel I need to buy it. I’m in two minds about a turntable. Don’t know if I want to open that can of worms and start buying two copies of my favourite albums. I need this for the collection, however!

Second England - I wish! If it wasn't for my wife (of all inequity and lustful persecution) I'd be living in first England right now. How I wither here in the cursed colonies, full of criminals and miscreants.

Glad to hear it!

It's just the studio tracks 'Freezing Moon' and 'Carnage' that features Dead on vocals. This one is a basic Blackmoon Productions bootleg with Euro, Dead and Hellhammer on the cover with facial disfiguration artwork. I thought it looked cool so I bought it for the collection. I also forgot to say that I purchased Sarcofogo - INRI. I needed that first wave classic.

Mutiilation - 'Destroy Your Life For Satan'

Marduk - 'Viktoria'

Mutiilation - 'Destroy Your Life For Satan' Mutiilation - 'Hail Satanas We Are the Black Legions' Mayhem - 'Freezing Moon' bootleg Mayhem - 'Dawn of the Black Hearts' bootleg The Dead Daisies - 'Burn it Down' Immortal - 'Northern Chaos Gods' Alice Cooper - 'Trash' Necromantia - 'Scarlet Evil, Witching Black' and probably some other stuff that I've forgotten.

I've just amended my ranking. Over the past couple of weeks I've been listening to 'Deep Calleth Upon Deep' quite a bit at work, and it's actually a really excellent album. On first listen or two I had it pegged as being another 'Satyricon', which genuinely sucks, but on closer inspection 'DCUD' is a very exciting release. It has much more in the way of layering and melodies, with double tracked guitars giving this quite a heavy and full sound (relative to modern Satyricon). The arrangements are also quite adventurous, and there's a sense of genuineness here that the previous album really lacked. Even the guitar playing has a bit of meat behind it this time around. So I'm here to publicly eat humble pie and actually call this a really good album. Purchase is imminent.

Oooh, nearly missed this one. The weather here in Australia's greatest state is admittedly pretty cold, but we're having some nice clear sunny days lately. It's getting lighter for longer in the afternoon now too. Oi Relentless, hope your power stays on this summer as you South Australians thrash your air-conditioners to escape the hellish heat. Go Cats.

Wow, two Black Sabbath albums! Wouldn't you want some more variety? 'Sabotage' is such a great album - these days I think it's my second favourite after 'Paranoid'. Actually, your choices here are pretty clever, because there's quite a variety of sounds and styles between the self-titled and 'Sabotage'. The Rage Against the Machine seems the odd one out here, but it could be a nice alternative to the classic metal (and Type O's masterpiece) that makes up the rest of this list.

If only you were there to make that zinger! It would have blown their minds! It seems like a lot of people have fond memories of the 'Grand Declaration of War' tour. That's still my greatest Mayhem memory. Special times.

Nice post. Despite my moments of vitriol, there are elements on every album that I like, and yes, tracks like 'Nettie' and 'Creepy Green Light' are really good tracks. Like you, there aren't too many Type O Negative tracks that would make me leave the room if they came up on a playlist or at a pub. Your complaints regarding 'October Rust' are, inversely, exactly why I love the album. One man's meat is another's poison. To my ears, though, 'World Coming Down' is a simplification of the sound, with a lot of the additional bells and whistles stripped back. To me, this was a step backwards. But ultimately it comes down to me not enjoying Peter Steele's humour very much. I deeply respect the man, and there is no shortage of latter album fans, but I really can't listen to the 'I Like Goils' style material in his oeuvre. I'm focusing on the negative here, but I really want to celebrate Type O Negative, especially the top 4 albums in my list. What a phenomenon that band was - there really isn't another like them.