Rexorcist

#15. Metal Church - Metal Church

Genres: US Power / Speed / Heavy

This is one of the most unpredictable albums I've ever heard.  It plays around with stereotypical metal imagery and behavior, but the riffs are so unbelievable and the style is so outgoing and forward thinking that it makes this album one of the most essential albums of the metal sound that I've heard so far.  Apparently this is a hard album to classify because it covers ground with various metal genres that were popular at the time. The first half covers more traditional metal while the second is more routed in speed. But the nine tracks are all phenomenal, even their cover of Highway Star.

Metal Church Count: 1

#14. Alcest - Souvenirs d'un autre monde

Genres: Blackgaze / Shoegaze / Post

The single most beautiful metal album in the world. There's an aura in this album that's not only more powerful than any atmospheric album I'm familiar with, but it feels so effortless to Alcest that I almost feel like I could pull it off, but I know that's not true. I get image after image with this album, usually of nature and of shadows lurking all over the place. But instead of monsters running around in the woods, it's more like getting images of little spirits like nymphs and such lamenting over the way the rest of the world is going, both relishing in the beauty of nature and lamenting at being trapped by the outside world.

Alcest Count: 1

#13. Symphony X - Twilight in Olympus

Genres: Prog / Neoclassical

Divine Wings of Tragedy may have cemented the Symphony X sound, demonstrating a drastic improvement in quality from their first two albums, but Twilight in Olympus perfected it.  That neoclassical behavior is made much more unpredictable, and the balance between Symphony X's major influences is stronger, making for yet another beautiful neoclassical metal album that doesn't risk monotony.

Symphony X Count: 2

#12. Hell - Hell II

Genres: Doom / Sludge / Drone

My opinion of Hell II vs. Hell III changed since reviewing the two.  III might be the heavier album, and shorter for more creativity, but as it keeps steering into post-metal territory, it loses a little of the horrifying tension of the previous album, which touched up on post-metal and death, as well as practically every extreme genre both slow and fast.  This is the most menacing album on Earth, and a milestone for drone music.

Hell Count: 2

11. Metallica - Master of Puppets

Genres: Thrash / Heavy

What could have been a bloated hour of repetitve thrash is instead a hypnotic journey into the theme of slavery.  The dark and Gothic sound of the production makes this clean and sparse fifty-five minutes a testament to the deepest fears of mankind, and the lyrics are so utterly beautiful and poetic that they may in fact be the greatest metal lyrics ever written.  The rhythms and melodies are out of this world, and the instrumentation is nothing short of perfection.

Metallica Count: 2

THE TOP TEN STARTS TOMORROW!  From this point on, there will be no more hints as to what they will be.

41 minutes ago, helvete said:

I like all genre. But i think i like thrash and black metal more.

Thanks 

Helvete means hell in Norwegian. I just liked the word and wanted to use it as a name.

I know.  I was being sarcastic.  I was actually thinking about greeting you by saying "Dra til helvete" which means "go to hell," but I wasn't sure how you'd interpret that.

So my solution was a dad joke...

Hell vet?  So, you're a veterinarian from hell?

Oh, a Donnie Darko album?

Sonny's Story by Sonny Terry.  Terry's not that great of a blues musician, but this is a nice album.

Hope you're not a POLITICAL radical.  Nothing but heavy metal anarchists here. ;)

#20. No More Color

Genres: Tech Thrash

No More Color is that benchmark between the accessibility of Punishment for Decadence and the extremely experimental Mental Vortex, and as a result it has everything a real thrash album needs by combining the best aspects of both albums.  As a result, this album takes technicality to a new level of catchiness.  And it really helps that these guys make heaviness look like an easy feat, and this is coming off of having finished Anthrax's Among the Living just before turning this album on.  Ron Royce's monstrous voice feels so authentic that you'd wonder if the guy really killed anyone.  This is the rare kind of album where every song can get away with the same goal and presence in mind because the band still manages to show a level of creativity that's hard to even train yourself to get.

Coroner Count: 1

#19. Therion - Celebrators of Becoming

Genres: Symphonic

Each Therion studio album tends to focus on one or two strengths of Therion, but never shows everything at once unless it risks being imbalanced like Lemuria. Celebrators of Becoming gives you the FULL Therion, even going as far back as the death metal days, but is also much heavier than the studio counterparts. Live Gothic was largely recorded to showcase Gothic Kabbalah, but Celebrators of Becoming is the essential best of Therion.

Therion Count: 2

#18. Death - The Sound of Perseverance

Genres: Tech Death / Prog Death

Having gone over countless death metal albums, I find that even the best of them have a one track mind, even some albums by Death themselves, but never once does The Sound of Perserverance show a one track mind. The only thing on the band's mind was giving it their all and performing some of the most complex death metal out there without overdoing it, allowing for riffage catchiness to fill the gap that restraint leaves.

Death Count: 3

#17. Tool - Lateralus

Genres: Prog / Alternative

I really don't feel like I have to lecture anyone on Lateralus. I mean, it's TOOL'S most famous album. But I'm not leaving this section empty, either. Lateralus amazes me every time I play it, even if I'm just turning on one song. Is there really a level of pure prog rock “progression” that's beaten Lateralus yet? Can you really listen to this and NOT be surprised by not only how the songs are written, but how consistent they are? I don't know if you can without just hating prog in general.

#16. Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction

Genres: Hard Rock / Heavy

I am not apologizing.  I am NOT apologizing.  If Sad Wings of Destiny is somehow metal, so is this. This album met the bare minimum standard for seven of the tracks, and I'm keeping it, so be happy I didn't put AC/DC up here. Having said that, I've heard so many worse voices than Axl, including Brian Johnson, and Axl was able to at least hold his own on this album before the drugs affected his singing in between this album and the Use Your Illusion albums. The jams are peak jams that are hard to resist because not only are they catchy, but badassery is effortless for this LA band, and the band gives it their all even unto the end. Rocket Queen is a real jam and a great ending for this album. Even after 2,000 albums, it's hard to find an album with this serious level of headbanging attitude without having to give in to the polished and teen-friendly arena tropes of hair metal.

GNR Count: 1

OK, that GNR album should be the last controversial choice, and the last that meets my bare minimum metal standard.  The next five is gonna be more traditional, and focus on some of the most imaginative albums I've ever heard.

Going over several John Lee Hooker albums today to see if I still think these albums are prime blues.  I dmit, back when I was first checking out pure blues, it was a new experience for me so I probably gave off too many five-star ratings.  Now that I've heard more blues, I think that's going to change.  My opinions about my favorite, Muddy Waters, might even change a little.

Hard to go wrong with a collab album between Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.  It's been ages since I've played some real blues, and it's about time I got back to that.  So I'm gonna utilize this blues buzz as much as possible and see how much my standards for blues have changed.

Does Taxi Driver Soundtrack mean anything to you?

#25. Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors

Genres: Prog / Avant-Garde / Symphonic

I appreciated the experimental nature of the preceding album: La masquerade infernale, but it was experimental to the point where the consistency suffered a little.  The Sham Mirrors is one of the most consistent albums I've ever heard, and it still takes that experimental nature in various unpredictable ways, all while keeping the balance of its various elements perfect.  The symphonies are beautiful and the unpredictable nature is completely surprising and satisfying.

Arcturus Count: 1

#24. Judas Priest - Painkiller

Genres: Heavy

Before this, I was only familiar with a bunch of attitudinal 70's and 80's singles that I didn't really care for on the radio. Then a thrash metal / speed metal riff starts up and Halford's voice is screaming like he's a literal banshee about to kill me. Painkiller is probably the most “metal” album in existence since it does a flawless job combining heavy, speed, thrash and power metal like the four genres were the bandmates themselves.

Judas Priest Count: 1

#23. Death - Human

Genres: Death / Tech Death

Death had evolved from their days as the pioneers of the simple but ultra-heavy genre named after them.  Once their simpler songs were failing, they needed to change things around.  Instead of gory shit and religious commentary, they took their lyrical and music skills forward into the experimental and the introspective, keeping their sense of madness strong at the same time.

Death Count: 2

#22. Napalm Death - Throes in the Jaws of Defeatism

Genres: Deathgrind

You were probably expecting something like Scum or The Code Is Red, right?  Well, all the rest of Napalm Death's works are really good and heavy, but they're too samey and monotonous. Throes is the first album that goes over the entirety of Napalm's career by switching from deathgrind to death metal to grind to deathcore with hints of crossover thrash and industrial metal as well. And the band loses so little of their power that it's hardly noticeable.

Napalm Death Count: 1

#21. Hell - Hell III

Genres: Sludge / Doom / Drone

Hell III is the heaviest album I've ever heard.  Even though the dronish elements are toned down a little, its sense of drama, sadness and experimentation is so high that you'd think it reached Heaven and not the namesake.  This is a half-hour of experimentation with various kinds of metal, and the imagery of the despair of going to Hell itself is all too accurate.

Hell Count: 1

The next five albums will feature a few very heavy albums that are at the top of their subgenres, but the final revelation of this upcoming five is another album that meets my BARE MINIMUM requirement for a heavy metal album, so be ready for a highly controversial choice.  It's still heavier than the last, Dr. Feelgood.

9 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I think it's because most people you'll meet on forums did not discover Judas Priest until at least the 80's or even the 90's or 2000's. And since the band is arguably THE quintessential early/mid 80's heavy metal band they want to apply the term retroactively to their earliest hard rock albums as well. 

I'm kinda half that way.  There are a few early hard rock albums I would apply the term to, but Sad Wings just feels too light for that.

5 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

JP - SWoD

Which song(s) on Sad Wings is/are supposedly heavy metal? I'm on my second time through it here and can't find one. Every track on here seems to be a hard rock song of similar structure to any other hard rock song from the early to mid 70's period by bands like Zeppelin or Purple or Rush...except of course for Prelude, Epitaph and Dreamer Deceiver which were softer. This is proto metal at best. Priest didn't start making heavy metal albums with at least half the songs qualifying as metal imo until 1978.

 

THANK YOU.  I don't fully get it either.  I guess it was just heavy enough at the time of release???

That depends on h

On 8/31/2022 at 7:16 PM, KillaKukumba said:

How else do you think you'll give people warm, fuzzy feelings in their nether regions? You can't seriously expect your music choices to do it!

 

That depends on the tone of voice he tells them with.

Start at 35 seconds.

https://www.facebook.com/HouseBrokenFOX/videos/honey-doesnt-go-season-1-ep-8-housebroken/810627602960061/

Listening to Crue's Dr. Feelgood again to see if it still fits my minimum standard for a heavy metal album.  Of course, I have a specific album to keep in mind for comparing heaviness: Sad Wings of Destiny.  If half an album displays a specific genre strongly enough, I'll count it as ONE of the primary genres.  In other words, if half of the album is heavy enough to be heavy metal, then I put the tag on as a primary.  So far, I'm on Without You, and excluding T.N.T., 3 of 5 of the songs are heavy metal as opposed to hard rock (although "Slice of Your Pie" just barely made it).  Even though about half the songs aren't really metal, the whole behavior of the album is very metal thanks to the attitude, production and instruments chosen.

#30. Edge of Sanity - Crimson II

Genres: Melodic Death / Prog Death

I've heard the whole Edge of Sanity discography, and every album, even the incredible ones, had just one tiny thing wrong with it... with the exception of Crimson II.  The first Crimson displayed incredible aggression, progression and story to it, but the second one made it weirder, wilder and far more interesting.  This wacko monster of an album features the band's best riffs and an incredibly dark mood thanks to the crazy story.

Edge of Sanity Count: 1

29. Enslaved - Mardraum: Beyond the Within

Genres: Prog Black

This is a very unconvetional, and maybe controversial choice.  But there are three different Enslaved's: the p[ure black, the viking and the prog.  This is the one album that captures all three without giving into any form of monotony.  This makes this album the most original, and because all three are working together to bring out the best of all three moods, we get one of the best black metal albums ever.

Enslaved Count: 1

#28. Mastodon - Crack the Sky

Genres: Prog

By toning down the sludge a little, Mastodon are able to work with many other genres and amplify their status as a prog band to new worlds, and they have much more emotional depth and meaning to them than the older, but still incredible, sludge and punk inflused works of the past, like the metalcore Remission.  This change in pace makes this the most unique album of the classic era.

Mastodon Count: 3

#27. Galneryus - Under the Force of Courage

Genres: Melodic Power / Neoclassical / Prog Power

Galneryus, a band so high-energy that they make Dragonforce look like pansies, improve on their strongest points and focus not just on the energy and anthems, but on the real force of neoclassical instrumentation.  Through this album, they rival certain Symphony X albums and deliver an intriguing, never-waning and extremely energetic mold of power metal's greatest strengths.

Galneryus Count: 1

#26. Man Is the Bastard / Bastard Noise - The Lost M.I.T.B. Sessions

Genres: Sludge / Powerviolence / Power Electronics

I'll bet you NEVER expected such a niche punk band like Man Is the Bastard, let alone a noise album, let alone an even mix of sludge metal, hardcore punk and noise!  The mood of this album is just fucking nuts.  These guys actually took noise music to a whole new world by taking three unrelated genres and bringing out the darkest and most menacing and twisty moods and sounds man can imaginably make.

Man Is the Bastard Count: 1

The next five is all about albums with plenty of diversity, and the final entry of the next five is going to be a big surprise, and a weird choice for fans of that band.

There's likely gonna be two sets today.

#35. Scorpions - Taken By Force

Genres: Heavy / Hard Rock

Scorpions were a talented band since their exception, but they still had to make improvements to their sound and style.  Taken By Force proves that these guys had the potential to be among the greatest for its diverse range, high level of catchiness, and the best lyrics of their time, whether it be a total rock jam like "We'll Burn the Sky" or an exercise in mythical mystery like "The Sails of Charon."  It might not be the most Scorps-style album out there like Love at First Sting, but it's an understated icon and a piece of early metal perfection.

Scorpions Count: 1

#34. Sonata Arctica - Silence

Genres: Melodic Power

Finland's power metal scene may favor Nightwish and Stratovarius, but Sonata Arctica are the ones who knew how to make an incredible album as opposed to a bunch of songs.  Loaded with some of the catchiest and most anthemic power metal jams, and also featuring several beautiful ballads, Sonata Arctica bring a real sense of serenity and meaning to an overdone genre, taking directions their acclaimed debut didn't take and keeping the progressive, symphonic and neoclassical influences strong.

Sonata Arctica Count: 1

#33. Deep Purple - Deep Purple in Rock

Genres: Hard Rock / Heavy

While it's pretty cool that Deep Purple started out as a "proto-prog" band, they were shifting more into heavy metal once the likes of Zeppelin and Sabbath came around.  And they proved that their talent is just as noteworthy with this incredible album with hard rock jams, metal jams, bluesy works, progressive structures and an amazing magical epic like "Child of Time," which carries some of the best heavy metal wailing on Earth, and this was before heavy metal wailing was a thing.  Of course, this is the only early Deep Purple album I'd consider metal, and it switches between metal and hard rock.

Deep Purple Count: 1

#32. Moonsorrow - Verisakeet

Genres: Pagan Black / Folk

This was my first Moonsorrow album, and I've always felt that it was a masterpiece.  There's a perfect marriage between the nastiness of black metal and the medieval and sometimes serene sound of folk metal, but the rest of Moonsorrow's major influences are present whenever absolutely necessary, creating a masterful album where the spirit of mythology takes full force and works perfectly with Moonsorrow's black metal riffage.

Moonsorrow Count: 2

#31. Rhapsody - Dawn of Victory

Genres: Symphonic Power / Melodic Power / Metal Opera

Maybe this is yet another Rhapsody album, but the beauty of it is that every major influence that makes Rhapsody the band they are is going at full blast, and as a result we have some of the catchiest Rhapsody songs and many of their best riffs.  That DND-style adventure mood is stronger than it was on the previous two albums, and not every song is trying to copy "Emerald Sword" like "Emerald Sword's" own album, Symphony of the Enchanted Lands, was.

Rhapsody Count: 1

The next five's gonna have a couple very unpredictable choices, ending in one which NO ONE would ever expect.

#40. Acid Bath - When the Kite Strings Pop

Genres: Sludge

This is some of THE most creative traditional sludge I've ever heard.  Most of these tracks have their own unique identities, and they're incredibly catchy and badass.  Acid Bath took so many different routes with sludge on this album that if any of these kinds of songs came from bands before Acid Bath, then Acid Bath beat them all at their own games, including Melvins.

Acid Bath Count: 1

#39. Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

Genres: Folk / Viking

Kivenkantaja is one of Moonsorrow's best examples of how they can capture such authentic viking spirit without even trying.  This is probably their album most oriented for that vibe, and we still get plenty of the mythology, mystery, darkness and angst present in their other albums, even the black metal ones.  And despite having such long songs, it never once gets boring or drawn out.

Moonsorrow Count: 1

#38. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Genres: Heavy

Seventh Son combines the raw attitude of Number of the Beast with the moon of Powerslave and the technicality of Somewhere in Time, and we get many of Iron Maiden's best and catchiest riffs as well as some of the best vocal performances by Dickenson.  It just takes you away on a trip through various epic musical phenomena wihtout once steering into pretentious guitar wankery.

Iron Maiden Count: 1

#36. Converge - Jane Doe

Genres: Metalcore / Mathcore

All We Love We Leave Behind was an example of pure metal+punk mania with some of the most batshit songs ever recorded, but Jane Doe does the same and brings a serious sense of meaning to it, making it more accessible despiute having the same sense of diversity and insanity that All We Love had, making this a go-to metalcore album that's extremely hard to beat in the heaviness factor.

Converge Count: 2

#35. Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss

Genres: Thrash

Maybe it's not as HEAVY as Reign in Blood, but it's still a really hard album to beat like Jane Doe.  And like Jane Doe, Seasons in the Abyss boasts a high level of creativity, as this is the most experimental out of the five Slayer albums of the classic age.  That same level of modern-age anger and the incredible riffs are still there in full force, however, so for any fan of Slayer this is not only more than satisfactory, but nowhere near a blatant repeat of Reign in Blood.

Slayer Count: 2

The next five will be mostly EARLY metal and power metal, but there's another surprise waiting from one of the bands announced today.  And there's a chance I'll post two sets tomorrow.

Good points.  Besides, I don't plan on actually buying most albums unless they're dirt cheap or I get rich in this economy.

After a 24-hour break from several different things (and the fact that I got to work at 5AM yesterday), I'm back on board with the top 100.  We're in the second half of the list now, and almost every kind of metal on earth is represented.

#45. Gorguts - Colored Sands

Genres: Tech Death, Dissonant Death

Not only is this one of the danrkest and heaviest albums I've ever heard, but it's also one of the most intriguing and mysterious.  Every piece of instrumentation is absolutely mind-blowing, and it never steers into pretentious instrumental wankery the way Obscura does.  In this album, Gorguts isn't trying to be like anyone else.  They've finally defined who they are despite the fact that they had been a great band for several albums before this one.  Now Death.  No Zappa.  All Gorguts.

Gorguts Count: 1

#44. Wuthering Heights - Far From the Maddening Crowd

Genres: Melodic Power / Prog Power / Folk

Not many bands can capture the raw essence and feel of real folk music through metal.  Usually it's just a combination with similar elements.  But through the proper melodies and the right twists and turns, Wuthering Heights manage to create a powerful and energetic metal masterpiece that sucks you into ancient medieval culture with no straining.  The album feels so realistic towards this approach that it's a wonder how the human mind was able to accomplish such a twist.

Wuthering Heights Count: 1

#43. Alice in Chains - Dirt

Genres: Alternative / Grunge

This was one of the first metal albums I ever heard, but I discovered it through my first grunge binge.  Alice in Chains were able to display the raw emotion of early manhood and all the struggles they went through with the most convincing kind of atmosphere imaginable.  Every emotion from pure rage to depression is present, and AiC's sense of instrumentation, Staley's incredible voice and the combination of grunge and metal deliver it all flawlessly.  And the fact that every song is an absolute jam that makes it hard to pick favorites is just as impressive.

Alice in Chains Count: 1

#42. Stormwarrior - At Foreign Shores: Live in Japan

Stormwarrior are the kings of pure speed metal.  Their riffs are some of the most mindblowing on Earth, and the spirit with which they perform and sing their songs of war, bloodshed and adventure is overpowering.  And the best part is that all of these songs are either as good as their studio versions or even better.  This is exactly what a live album needs to be, and hyper-energetic albums like this, especially with outstanding metallic force, prove that it's a serious shame that Stormwarrior is not more well known, especially since this live album is super rare.

Stormwarrior Count: 1

#41. Trouble - Psalm 9

Genres: Traditional Doom / Christian

Sorry to that one guy if you're a pure stonerhead who's a little peeved that a Christian doom album is right above the druggy satan ones like Electric Wizard's Come My Fanatics (Believe it or not, it's not common but those people exist).  But there's a REAL reason for this choice.  Out of all the doom albums I've heard, this is probably the least monotonous.  Furthermore, the album is an excellent exercise in Black Sabbath influence and brings out the doom metal spirit perfectly, even though they're singing Christian messages.  The fact that they could even combine those two is impressive on its own, but the riffs are the real treasure of the album.  Phenomenal stuff.

Trouble Count: 1

The next five is gonna have a couple of under-appreciated classics, as well as a few key choices for any metal collection.  And every album has different styles, and are considered some of the better albums in those vein.  All of them are classics in one way or another.

If Kelly really wants to change, then I have no problem if supporting the rest of the band means giving him the money to pay for the help he willingly seeks.

Apparently, Scott Kelly, ex-singer of Neurosis, came out and confessed that he had shown verbal and physical abuse towards his family for several years, and is now leaving the public eye to recover from his behavior.  Apparently, Neurosis fired him in 2019 for his abuse, but at the request of his wife they said nothing to keep the family from being the subject of metal gossip.

2 hours ago, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

Pleased we see eye to eye  on this and thanks for the thumbs up. Re stoner doom who are your favourite bands? 

As far as this vein goes, so fat just Sleep and Electric Wizard.  Sorry to disappoint.

#50. Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain

Genres: Stoner Doom / Psych

Sleep's collection of total jams captures several spirits at once and shifts focus slightly between them all throughout each track, be it the slow and monstrous doom, the jamming blues, the twisty psychedelia and more.  It might be more of a standard album than Dopesmoker, but it works very well because it's not taking a major risk with Dopesmoker's monotony.

Sleep Count: 1

#49. Helloween - Helloween

Genres: Power

I know I'm gonna look like a major fanboy with this choice being above Keeper, Pt. II, but this album is a real grower, and once it fully grew on me, I realized that this album may not be doing anything new, but it's recalling an entire history with some truly incredible songs.  Aside from having the band's best album cover, the self-titled doesn't let up on any of the band's strengths, and all three singers flow perfectly well together, making up for any mistakes such as Kiske's aged voice.

Helloween Count: 3

#48. Shadow of Intent - Primordial

Genres: Deathcore / Melodic Death

Believe it or not, this album's considered to be the worst of the four Shadow of Intent albums released so far.  I'm of a very different opinion.  This is the album where they cover a lot of ground in the death metal spectrum without risking the monotony that's blatantly obvious on the other three albums, and the lack of the Halo influence that's present here makes the band lose their signature and their identity overtime.  Basically, this is the least like so many other deathcore albums and the songs are largely intriguing, super-heavy and purely astral at times.

Shadow of Intent Count: 1

#47. Metallica - Live Shit: Binge & Purge

Genres: Thrash / Heavy

This album IS Metallica.  Every metallica album up to that point is a little different, and this live album captures the best of those differences with MAYBE a slight drop in quality in the arena.  The thrashing is still phenomenal and the melodies are just as fine.  This may be a three-hour long album, but all three hours are worth it for Metallica fans.

Metallica Count: 1

#46. Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics

Genres: Stoner Doom / Psych

On effort number two, Electric Wizard not only cemented their style, but perfected it.  It's a perfect balance of pure heaviness, evil presence, psychedelia and diversity.  It's a more balanced album than Dopesmoker and it's able to overcome its own monotony with incredible compositions.

Electric Wizard Count: 1

The next five is going to carry on the doom present in this five, but still have a lot of unique albums.

#55. Suffocation - Human Waste EP

Genres: Death / Brutal Death

Damn... I thought Pierced from Within was brutal.  It's kinda hard to believe that they toned down once they started recording studio albums, and yet, here we are.  This is easily top 5 death metal albums for me because the level of brutality is simply inhuman, and they still manage to make the songs catchy and technical somehow?  And since the album is so short, there's no worry of getting drawn out.

Suffocation Count: 2

#54. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind

Genres: Metalcore / Mathcore

Everything an extreme hardcore fan could ever want is present in this album.  COnverge put out yet another absolutely batshit insane release after building their career on that sound.  Whoever said punk can't be an artistic genre needs to be flogged, because this level of creativity in one of the world's most overdone and repetitive genres is rare, almost as rare as the brutality and force.

Converge Count: 1

#53. Gris - Il était une forêt...

Genres: Depressive Black, Atmo-Black

I've heard a fair bit of the depressive stuff on my black metal binges, and most of them struggle to capture depression as opposed to sadness, even Shining.  But Gris made it effortless.  It's like every single negative emotion you've ever felt is the way the two members have lived their lives.  Every song does its own thing, making the 59 minute runtime a series of surprises as well.

Gris Count: 1

#52. Killing Joke - Killing Joke - Extremities, Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions

Genres: Industrial Rock / Industral Metal / Post-Punk

Kind of a mix between rock, metal and post-punk, the album's attitude, heaviness and general tension make it metal enough for consideration (besides, this has been included on metal sites before, like Metalstorm).  The album perfectly describes everything the band was doing before, and has a lot of new tricks up its sleeves to set up future albums, much like the behavior of Led Zeppelin IV.  And it's the least samey of their catalogue.

Killing Joke Count: 1

#51. Windir - Artnor

Genres: Melodic Black

Artnor isn't just another beautiful melodic black metal album.  Its intrumentation flat-out sucks you into the world it creates.  Without sacrificing very much heaviness, the melodies are absolutely stunning.  Every time I hear this album I'm taken aback by how clever it is.

Windir Count: 1

The next five is going to be super heavy and diverse, whether it be the slower genres or the faster ones, and one of them is a lengthy live album!

AND THAT'S THE FIRST HALF OF MY TOP 100!  Any thoughts?

1 hour ago, KillaKukumba said:

Motley Crue is Heavy/Glam?

Hair metal maybe. Chicks with Dicks, sure. But not heavy.

Motley falls under my minimum requirement of heavy metal necessary for the tag.  And only one other album in this top 100 will meet that minimum standard.  Plus, I know a few really stuffy people who get real purist about glam metal being hard rock who admit that Dr. Feelgood, Shout and Too Fast are heavy metal.