Monday, March 24, 2008

Metal, Metal Everywhere (just as it should be)!


My friend M.D. recently had a post on his blog (here) about one of his favorite metal albums of all time, Metallica's Ride the Lightning. I've also been listening to a lot of metal lately. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it provides me with some sort of necessary mental escape from the stress of the dissertation. Perhaps I wish to relive my younger days. Or perhaps much of what else is out there passing for music just sucks and I want to listen to something good.


Well, whatever the reason, M.D.'s post encouraged me to make a list of my favorite metal albums of all time. This proved much more difficult than originally anticipated, but below is what I came up with. I avoided "best of" and live albums, because those are sort of cop-outs to me. Although, I did include two entries for AC/DC and Ozzy, which I guess is also a cop-out.

But, without further ado:

Thmarn's 15ish Essential Metal Albums of All-Time (in no particular order)!

Metallica-Master of Puppets (Sorry M.D., chalk it up to the fact that I'm a few years younger and thus, this is the first one I heard.)
Slayer-Seasons in the Abyss
Guns and Roses-Appetite for Destruction
Def Leppard-Hysteria
Motley Crue-Shout at the Devil
AC/DC-High Voltage (Bon Scott)/Back in Black (Brian Johnson)
Judas Priest-Sad Wings of Destiny (This is even one of Halford's faves)
Iron Maiden-Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (This may have been the toughest decision on the list.)
Anthrax-State of Euphoria
Black Sabbath-Paranoid/Ozzy Osbourne (solo)-Blizzard of Ozz
Dio-Holy Diver
Megadeth-Rust in Peace
Pantera-Vulgar Display of Power
Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime (The best concept album ever!)
Motorhead-Ace of Spades

As I said, this was tougher than I thought. So, I also compiled a short list of runners-up. (These also give nods to several sub-genres of metal.) They are as follows: Whitesnake-Whitesnake, Bon Jovi-New Jersey, Skid Row-Slave to the Grind, Lamb of God-Sacrament, Korn-Korn, Prong-Beg to Differ, Nine Inch Nails-Broken, Testament-Practice What You Preach, Suicidal Tendencies-Lights, Camera, Revolution, and Sepultura-Chaos A.D.

Now I'm sure some of you take issue with my list or have some additions. So, bring 'em on! I'm sure I've made at least one major omission. Rock On!

4 comments:

Carolynn said...

i love you for including bon jovi, even as a runner-up. :) i'm not a metal afficionado, but i do love about 1/2 of the albums on your list (the ones i know, i mean.) too much rock for 1 hand! (killer graphic!) :)

themikedubose said...

Yes, I'll try to do a list when I finish this damn article, but I do have some quibbles.

Hysteria? It's pretty far away from metal. Try High and Dry.

Too Fast for Love is a better Crue album AND more metal/less pop

While High Voltage is worthy, Powerage would've been better.

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son? That album made me quit listening to them. I will accept anything up to and including Powerslave.

Paranoid is worthy, but Sabbath Bloody Sabbath or Vol. 4 would rule.

For Pantera, I'm convinced that Cowboys From Hell is their only real album.

However, there's a lot of marvelous good here. Severe kudos to Ace of Spades and Sad Wings of Destiny...that you included these are signs that when the revolution comes, you definitely will be on the right side.

Marn said...

themikedubose-
I knew I could count on you to respond and I pretty much anticipated every one of your comments. Man, I miss talking metal with ya'. Looking forward to your list.
-thmarn

Marn said...

swoonie-
I actually originally had Bon Jovi in my list of 15, but realized that I had too much "hair metal." Of course, this makes sense, since that was what I was really into when I was younger, but I felt I had to even things out here. So, it was sooo close. New Jersey and Slippery When Wet will always remain classics in my book!
-thmarn