The Good Albums List by Pelle Johnson

Brutal death metal classic. Funny enough this type of blasting "ultra brutal death metal" I've seen it get called is what got me interested in metal in general

Another release that just blasts all the way through. This is a goregrind album but you can def group these with ubdm bands like those brodequin schmucks

Fun album, exactly what you'd expect for this type of music plus toilet vocals and a cool 50s sci fi horror aesthetic. A good 'un if you're craving the tupa tupa's lately

Some late 90s nydm and you can actually say it's deathcore and nobody would mind. There's some tracks at the end that kind of experiments with hip hip a bit. Yeah, this is some pretty wanksta stuff for a late 90s bdm band.

Another deathcore album. The vocals are sort of this angry shouty hardcore thing that I personally dig but might turn some folks off.

A dumbass slam classic. Either you love it or you think it's everything wrong with this type of music. This pretty much slams all the way through and has no time for anything else. It's pretty funny how I eat this stuff up but at the same time, loathe a lot of modern metalcore and adj music because one problem I have with it is that each song is nothing but chugga chugga breakdowns and jumpdafuckup riffs. I guess it's because the difference is that something like this is not appealing to any sort of mainstream audience if that makes sense. People lose their shit over that stuff but I can hardly imagine anyone other than braindead slam fans like myself groovin' to this kind of brutal stupidity. In a way, this feels more sincere...? I don't know, maybe i'm just a cringy gatekeeper grasping at straws and should eat my own shit or something like that idk

Yeah, this is a good album. Just some really nice boppin music, what else is there to say. This is one of those bands that were never really obscure but you'll see a lot of people say they're underrated and you know what? I think they deserve to be a household name.

This is the pinnacle of wanksta shit. It doesn't have actual rapping in it (those vocals are pretty rap inspired, though...) but it does have some groovin' jumpdafuckup riffs and turntables. Basically, this is a nu metal attempt by way of brutal death metal and it's as stupid as it sounds and who cares? TILT YOUR HAT REE EE EE

So this band isn't on the metal archives but this is for sure a metal album even though, it has significant rock elements to it if that makes sense. I mean, it doesn't even matter because this is a great album. Really cool, authentic medieval folk metal. Recommended if you want folk metal that isn't bullshit.

Korpiklaani is one of the very few bands that I actually dislike. There's a lot of bands that I dismiss because I don't dig their style or even the genre that they play but I really like folk metal and Korpiklaani is to that genre what Sabaton is to power metal. Anyways, before Korpiklaani, there was Shaman and they were actually pretty great. The folk in question here is Joik and it's really cool to hear that Sámi singing style and true to the name of this band, it sounds very shamanic and just one with nature, you know? It's like they're actually trying to capture the spirit of the culture in their songs. This is some very authentic music which I think is what a lot of folk metal detractors want from this genre which sadly, isn't what the more well-known folk metal bands can provide. It's a damn shame but I guess it makes this band and all the other good folk metal bands all the more special.

The anal cunt record ffo music, "Radio Hit" is a catchy tune. Like him or not, Seth Putnam has some killer vocals in this

This is a really great album. The vibe here is pretty chill and light somewhat but the real kicker is it's funeral doom but there are songs! what I mean by that is it isn't the kind of atmospheric album where the whole album is basically one whole song. You know what I mean. I guess a better way of saying it is that each song is a separate experience rather than all of them being parts to one big experience.

Okay, I was pretty stupid when I initially added this one to the list, saying that it wasn't really that good because this is really, really awesome. This is probably one of the most subdued metal albums I've ever heard. A lot of it is actually pretty ambient sounding, in a very serene and tranquil manner. I'd say that it's otherworldly but I suppose it's more dreamlike which I guess is what this band was going for with that title (oneiric literally means related to dreams and stuff) and it makes sense. I mean, you can interpret the atmosphere presented here to be akin to a really peaceful, albeit somewhat sombre dream where you're just floating across an infinite body of water or something but that's just one way of going about it. Then again, maybe otherworldly isn't a bad description since the realm of dreams seems like a different world in itself or maybe i'm just rambling. Just check this one out, I guarantee you will have a hard time trying to find another album quite like this one out there.

the first of their albums. It's not as wacky as their noisy as hell third album but this is their conventional goregrind album. It just wants to give you a good time, that's all

bagpipes automatically make everything better for me

Really good, classic doom album from some real God-fearing folks. What can I say except listen to it if you haven't already

this album sounds like a larp event. There be a lot of flute ahead lads

another classic album by Katatonia. Really glad they had the blue album art for this one instead of that really stinky new one

here it is, the best alt metal album

good band featuring the dude from Jag Panzer and also Satan's Host. "Toll of Pain" is one of the best songs ever made, those vocals and the jazzy section is peak

Wendy O. Williams was one of the punkest frotwomans ever. RIP

Darkthrone is legitimately one of the more interesting bands that happen to be the most iconic ones in metal ever. There's a lot of variety in their stuff beyond their classic material and i'd argue this osdm debut is something of a classic in itself.

Another genre that got me wanting to dive deeper into metal is dsbm. This ep isn't really metal to me, it's more like a depressive sort of post-rock thing. I'm probably looking at this through rose tinted glasses but I honestly recommend this if not for just a change of pace from what most metal fans probably listen to. Listening to this again is like meeting an old friend whose company you've missed dearly.

The sole album of this genuinely really jazzy osdm band. Imagine the band Atheist if the jazz elements were more uncontrolled and if they were playing from some kind of surreal dreamscape.

There's really nothing else I could describe this album with other than "dirty". Noisy doomy instrumentals and a vocal performance that's both unsettling and funny to me. Sounds like a drugged-up loon.

When I first heard this one, it ended up being my least favourite of the first three Saint Vitus albums. Listening to it again a few more times, it's really grown on me. It's energetic in a sort of punky way but ofc still had those doom moments.

Reagers is the better SV vocalist even though I respect the hell out of Wino and his run of albums. It's just that when I think of the band, I think of the madman vocals of Reagers. Ironic since my fav song by them is a Wino track, "Dying Inside"

Pretty hard to "get", it was for me when I first heard it and I still do kinda find this album quite difficult, especially since i'm not the biggest prog metal fan out there. They have a pretty distinctive dark, introspective vibe going on here which is pretty cool. Really an album I have to revisit every once in a while.

Cool new-school blackened thrash. Not so extreme thrash with some extreme vocals.

Quite a downer, this one is. Genuinely depressive and even a bit riffy dsbm which you can't really say the same for a lot of bands in that style with some of the most anguished sounding vocals to boot, not your standard dsbm howls.

If you've ever wondered what the precedent for cybergrind is, then here you go

An interesting kind of proggy take on alt metal. Sort of like a commercial but artsy album which you can probably tell based on that long title and fantastical album cover.

A bit of a classic old-school tech death band. This record holds a special place in my heart because of it's heavy use of "cheesy" keyboards. It's all over this album and it's amazing.

Been a hot minute since I had some good ol' goregrind. This album has no guitars which makes for quite the rudimentary album, not that complexity is something you'd be looking for in something like this. Also a bit sludgy at parts which produce some atmosphere.

Quite good grunge. This band was way heavier in their debut (which sadly isn't on this site) but this is still some fun music to just rock out to.

It's only fair that I get to the greatness of Wino-era Saint Vitus after how much I praised Reagers earlier in this list. To me, Wino sounds slightly more "cool" than Reagers like he would be a better hard rock singer (like in the Obsessed). In the slower Saint Vitus style, he sounds like some bum or, like someone else put it, an old coal miner coming out of the caves. Utterly miserable. I know I said that "Dying Inside" is my all-time favourite Saint Vitus track but "Dragon Time" is quite fantastic too. That solo...

Now this brings back memories, I used to listen to this all the time a few years back. This album's kinda like a southern-fried thrash album with a fair bit of extreme elements to it. Definitely has a sense of humor to it too.

Very gothic album, one of the more unique doom metal records out there. The vocals are emotive with lots of variety to it with whispers, yelling and growls almost as if it's conveying sadness, as you could imagine. Also a lot of post punk to it, I love hearing that kind of bass playing in metal.

Oh, look, it's only the biggest Christian metal band of all time. Everyone makes fun of this band. They even faced a bit of backlash from the Christian media for some reason. This album, though, is a heavy metal classic even if it isn't listed as metal on this site. Sure, there are a few ballads on here but, hey, you win some you lose some and what you win here is pretty solid. I think Micheal Sweet and Oz Fox are a pretty underrated guitar duo and the former's vocals here are pretty great. He's always been one of those metal singers that take every chance to be a show-off with their vocals and yeah, he's pretty blazing in here too. Here's a pretty sweet video of him with his vocals: https://youtu.be/3aSIUpPLXeI?si=hko9fM8SBhTjaXDH

(in rewriting this entry, I ended up putting in a lot more stuff than I expected that i'm actually thinking about publishing this as a review...)

Something of an infamous album to some. Glam metal is pretty controversial already and here we have an album that gets mentioned when talking about the worst stuff from that era. Well, this is one of those albums that you appreciate purely out of its charm or I should say, its novelty. The mission statement of this record is to be the most over the top, outrageous music ever put to tape. I mean, check out the music video for the opening track. Look at MAB rockin' that quadruple guitar. When people say this album is crazy, they mostly mean his playing. This guy does every trick in the book of "crazy fast solos". Sure, none of it may sound good per se but just look at him go! A total circus act, this band is. That said, having novelty be the driving force of your music is pretty dangerous. For one, none of the riffs here are good or even memorable. A good example of this is when there isn't a solo or some kind of showy guitar antic, the main focus is the vocals of Jim Gillete and the guitars just turn into background music. Time to talk about the elephant in the room. The vocals suck. He has six octaves and can shatter glass with his voice but i'd be lying if I said listening to him on this record is a pleasurable experience. His highs alternate from sounding like King Diamond to Vince Neil after inhaling copious amounts of helium and sometimes it opens up to some ridiculous moments which is what this album is all about but it gets annoying real fast. Despite all that, I really do think this is an album that every metal fan should listen to at least once, especially if you're into searching for weird records like me. I'd even recommend this to anyone who's a big fan of the 80s just to see all those hair metal tropes you know blown up to sheer overdrive.

The craziest album of this list so far. First half of this is an improvised drum solo with a truly insane vocal performance of a woman laughing, crying, screaming and generally just acting wacko. Second half is some pretty good noisy grind. You wouldn't really add this to a playlist but I highly recommend this one.

One of the most influential visual kei bands. I'm not really well-versed in that genre yet but I can't deny how good this album in particular is. Pretty varied songwriting from a truly energetic speed metal album. There's catchy, slow and aggressive parts all in one here.

Ever wished Acid Bath was more of a death metal band? well, the universe loves you very much. Also a lot more hardcore than I was expecting.

Sometimes my number one favorite album but definitely will never leave my top five. What can I say about this crackhead-led doom metal pioneers? just an essential band if you're a fan of good riffs and a good time. Anything from their first four album run is nothing short of pure awesomeness. The albums after that were pretty cool too and maybe even just as good, amigo.

Interesting album. When I think of death/doom or just slow-paced extreme metal in general, I think of two ways you can go about it: melancholic or groovy. This band in this album kind of has both of those covered. It has that gothic sappy stuff, you know, pianos and violins and stuff like that but it also has some of that stoner groove making for a well-rounded approach that hasn't really been done as much anywhere else as far as I know.

Real noisy avant-garde album. I wish I could appreciate this more but sadly it's just not my kind of noise. Still gets a 3.5 for me, though, some truly horrific vocals in here.

You might know him from his outrageous music videos or maybe his glorious acting career. This body-builder turned rock'n'roll icon is one of my personal favorite artists. This contains "Anger" and "Lightning Strikes", two of his most famous tracks but the rest of the EP is well worth listening to if you wanna have a mighty good time.

Old-school thrash metal from Finland isn't really as popular as its legendary death metal bands but it sure was a scene that existed with bands like Airdash, A.R.G, Prestige and in this case, Stone. This band is probably the most well-known of that lot, maybe because Children of Bodom covered a track from this album. What we have here is some fun thrash if you like your Metallicas and your Anthraxes and your Megadeths and such and such and such.

I'm not really one for really technical, artsy stuff but this one's pretty cool. A really calm and clean prog album that doesn't really feel or sound much like metal at all. The third song in particular is kind of like this acoustic classical track that's definitely not metal or even rock, just a really soothing song that makes me imagine clear blue skies and green hills. A nice change of pace to what I've been listening to lately.

Nice shoegazing alt metal comeback record. Not really a fan of a lot of shoegaze related music but this is pretty nice.

There's quite a bit to go over here but i'll start with the music itself first. This is some really good Polish black metal, a scene that's very much worth looking into if you like black metal in general. This has a lot of atmosphere to it with well-placed keyboards all throughout the album but more importantly, LOTS of clean guitar sections which is what actually made this record stick out to me way back when I was just exploring classic bm.

This album has quite the lore to it. Infernum was a three-piece composed of Rob Darken, Capricornus and Karcharoth who were all members of Graveland. Unfortunately, that does mean that this band is hella sketch if that kind of thing turns you down. They began recording this record in the 90s but stopped because the other two members decided to kick out and sever ties with Karcharoth completely for becoming a police informant due to the Polish bm scene being investigated at the time. He also suffered from schizophrenia and generally was a troubled individual who supposedly planned on killing Fenriz of Darkthrone after he allegedly had stolen a cd from him. Tragically, Karcharoth would take his own life which would be followed by the band finishing up the record and releasing it. With a title like "Farewell", you'd think that it would be some kind of tribute to a member who tragically passed away but on the liner notes of the album, this is what the band had to say about his death: "Finally, we would like to thank Karcharoth for killing himself... If we were sorry it would be just because he died from his own hands, not ours...". The band finished making the album, feeling that with the death of Karcharoth, some kind of stain or burden or whatever was lifted and they would finally be able to conclude the band with this final release... and then the two reformed through a second incarnation of this band and released an album in 2006 so now we have two Infernums.

Another Christian record to add to our arsenal. Pretty progressive album. While not being full-on tech thrash, it has some very ambitious moments such as flamenco + drum solo on the third track and also some rapping and record scratches on other tracks which, i'm not even gonna lie, isn't very good but hey, what's a line of shit among the clear-white fabric of a perfectly good underwear? The last track is also totally a doom metal song which is pretty cool.

Great heavy metal featuring guitars from none other than Yngwie Malmsteen. On the mic is Graham Bonnet who's pretty cool but looks anything but a metal singer from the 80s. He's somewhat overlooked nowadays but at one point, he sang for Impellitteri and more famously, Rainbow so he's a pretty big deal if you ask me. This is on the lighter side of 80s metal, being just as much of a hard rock album as it is a heavy metal one.

Another band with the voice of Bonnet. Compared to that Alcatrazz record, this one is definitely more metal but still being pretty AOR-ish and generally, just radio-friendly. This one may not have Malmsteen but it does have another neoclassical shredder, Chris Impellitteri and of course, the musicianship is great.

First thing that drew me in was that cool cover with all those sharks. Listening to it, I find some real thrashy and technical funk metal from this cult band. Haven't really heard anything quite like this one.

The first of the post-prison Burzum albums. This is pretty close to his classic sound but with a more I guess riffy approach which is definitely pretty modern, like that more standard vocal style. You might like the more emotive style of the classic era but this is pretty fine and reminds me of modern black metal bands which makes me wonder if this had been released under a different name and no one knew it was him, how would it be received?

Honestly, i'd recommend this to a newer fan of black metal. I remember when I was a silly goober that only really cared for bdm and goregrind, a couple tracks from this album kind of interested be a bit. It's atmospheric, melodic and not very harsh with some pretty catchy moments to it.

Another one of my all time favourites. Yes, i'm way too biased for this band but I don't really care. I don't really know what I can say about Pentagram really, they're just a band that everyone should be listening to.

pretty obscure band, not much of interest here

Classic slab of pornogrind from the pioneers of the genre themselves. This is still 90s grindcore so don't come into this expecting Gutalax or something but this is some rockin' bouncy music filled with sex samples. Hilarious high vocals at times, I think it's definitely intentional. As an old-school grindcore album, this is probably the most perverted of the bunch at the time.

Dungeon synth Burzum always gets a bad rap but if there ever was one album from that collection that is pretty alright in the eyes of many, it's this one right here and yeah, it's pretty nice to listen to. It gets pretty melancholic which I guess is what he must have felt being locked up while making this album.

A bit of a one-hit wonder band with their track "Lady of Mars" and sure, it's a great tune and the best song off this whole album but the rest of it is pretty good nwobhm that veers heavily to the more radio-friendly sound of 80s metal. Recommended if you don't mind some classic rockisms (that third track is some skipable sort of acoustic rock thing and you'll know what i'm talking about when you hear it)

About time we get to a Dan Swanö band and weirdly enough, it's a 90s doom metal record from Norway. The sound is all over the place. You got anthemic stonery tracks with fun solos and then you also get slow, poddling funeral doom-like tracks. The whole album switches vibes like this a number of times and it's inconsistent as hell but honestly, I don't really care. Recommended if you like your doom albums with a touch of bipolar disorder.

Talk about a good time! Some real happy and festive folk metal from Czechia. The progressiveness of their previous albums can still be found here but the thrash has only survived in remnants. This is the kind of instantly endearing music that makes me really happy that I listen to this genre. Needless to say, this album captivated me and please, please, please give it a listen if you can.

Dutch death metal classic right here. Has some thrashiness to it and is also some really early death/doom. I'd say this is essential listening.

One of the first truly weird metal bands I ever listened to along with pan.thy.monium. This is some surreal, schizophrenic stuff that has a lot of things going for it. Post-punk, death metal, jazz... just a really weird album.

More fun folk metal from Russia this time around. This is the kind of folk metal that doesn't feature much extreme vocals except for near the end of the album. It's just some straight up pagan metal that's very much connected to the culture it portrays.

Scott Wino's band after he went Saint Vitus and I'd say this is definitely his actual main band, especially nowadays. They had a pretty hard rocking sound here which would only become more and more apparent with later albums. I guess fans of stoner stuff would find a lot to love in this record and this band's discography in general. Essential band, about as essential as Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Trouble and all that good stuff.

Some punk-fueled viking metal that really has way more in common with rock bands like Ultima Thule and Hel than actual metal bands. If you're into that kind of stuff, this is well worth checking out to see the sound getting mixed with some pretty major metal influence.

Some of the most unhinged metalcore ever if not for just those truly crazy vocals. That alone made the album worth checking out tbh. The music itself is also pretty unique with quite a varied set of influences here from sludge to groove metal to alternative.

Interesting alt metal album produced by Josh Silver of Type O Negative. As you would expect, this album has quite a lot of goth elements to it. It's also angsty as hell since it's a 90s alt metal record with it's fair share of butt rockish moments but you honestly shouldn't care about that, this is a good album.

Keyboards galore in this symphonic prog metal album. Insanely hooky, some of the vocals remind me of pop music which isn't a bad thing, don't be kidding yourself now. "Bodyguard" in particular sounds like it would be an 80s hit song to me.

Ah, we finally get to Buckethead. This guy has such a large library of albums that listening to them at random may or may not be a good idea but that's what i'm currently doing.

This one kinda drew me in because it's just called "pumpkin" and has a fuckin' pumpkin on the cover. Well, this is an ambient album and a spooky one at that with some banjo and Japanese string instrument (idk what it's called) which is pretty interesting.

This is a straight up followup to the last one and it's just called "pikes". This continues the pumpkin pikes of 33 which I should've mentioned that all tracks are called pumpkin pikes 1-18 and this one is 19-27. This one is more spOoOoOoky dark ambiance but no more of those string instruments and yeah, it's pretty cool. The two are basically one album, both recommended if you want something playing in the background.

The latest Obsessed. This is a pretty great album. You can't really go wrong with trad doom, it's a genre that just works imo. Apparently, this is Bobby Liebling's favourite album by them, according to that review in metal archives.

Now this is an epic album, similar to uspm bands but this some classic nwobhm. I have some fond memories of the track "Pandora's Box" since I used to listen to that song a lot some time ago along with "Kaptain Amerika" from that Dark Star album from earlier. Glad to be rediscovering these old favourites.

Return of the bagpipes... this album is slightly less extreme than their last one and also a bit more anthemic and generally, just catchier in it's metal moments but a good chunk of this album consists of slower, ballady (for lack of a better word) moments which is not really what I'm looking for. There's also a lot of flute in this album which is pretty nice if I do say so myself.

Interesting band. This is a really groovy death metal record with vocals that are unmistakably quite an early rap metal attempt. Those cleans also remind me of alternative. I think that first track really captures what i'm talking about here. Apparently, Rob Halford really enjoyed this band at one point which is pretty cool. Incidentally, there came to be a nu metal scene in Arizona where this band was from.

More of a curiosity than anything. Something of a "deathened nu metal" album, as I've seen it get called. A lot heavier than most nu metal out there with a pretty distinctively cute vocalist. Just listen to him, how adorable. I was thinking of getting rid of this entry along with that Nitro album but I seriously don't wanna mess up the numbering on this list so it stays. Maybe I'm just not deep enough in the nu metal pipeline to be able to really enjoy this but I have discovered some similarly "brutal" nu metal which may or may not appear on this list. Only time will tell... on a side note, this band did actually start playing death metal on their following demos which is pretty interesting.

To say that this comeback was anticipated is an understatement, everyone in bdm falters against a band like Brodequin and here they are releasing a studio album after twenty whole years of nothing except that EP and wouldn't you know it, this is some pretty kickass stuff. The first thing you notice is the clean production which is still pretty brutal. I was honestly used to the rawness of everything this band put out so hearing this was pretty nice and interesting. Honestly a good way of getting into this band if you ask me.

Really technical, really all over the place brutality from this band that more people should know about. This is as chaotic as it is technical but I wouldn't call it sloppy, though. The thing about it is that the technicality doesn't feel like fretboard masturbation and is actually quite fun and catchy. Really good, a very early interest for me upon discovering this genre way back. Lyrics are worth a read too, pretty detailed gross stuff, a bit sicker than usual compared to other bands with a little bit of humor mixed in.

Great example of a Colombian brutal death metal record so i'm using this as an intro for the scene in general since I figure we'd be encountering a lot more of these bands further into this list.

The Colombian scene is pretty much a heaven for over the top blasturbation since it's pretty high up in the olympics of making the most brutal death metal ever made but what makes it special is that it does genuinely sound pretty unhinged. Like this album in particular, a lot of Colombian bands make use of rawness and quirky song structures by just being too technical or fast for their own good and sometimes, weird placements of melody. This leads to some pretty sloppy stuff, very true to the DIY spirit that is captured in many a metal scene but never quite like how it is in Colombia. I'd recommend digging into this stuff if you love some of the New Standard Elite stuff or generally just brutal death metal with a furiously blasting sound.

Honestly my favorite Trouble. It's way more rockin' than the previous albums but it's still trad doom whereas the second self-titled started to have less of that sound even though I still hold that one in high regard.

It's the other album of this band I talked about earlier in this list and look, Anextiomarus is still alive here and he's doing the vocals. He sounds fine, not really much to talk about regarding that aspect. This is really a keyboard album like their other record so if you thought the guys in Emperor are a bunch of dafties, I wouldn't really recommend this album to you.

Solid followup to their last album. I think I should talk about this band a bit more than I did with said album on this list since they're a bit more than just "Acid Bath but death metal". Sure, that's what will immediately come to mind but just mixing sludge and death metal is pretty unique, you know. As a result, this album is pretty varied. Speaking of varied, the vocals are pretty interesting. Like the last album, it's a mixture of death growls hardcore sounding vocals and of course, cleans that will remind you of Dax Riggs.

Don't really have a lot of thrash in this list so far. Well, here's one that's just a stone cold classic. Just really memorable stuff that's pretty hard not to check out if you're into metal in general. At least, it should be! One of these members would go on to play in GWAR and another in later Ministry.

More thrash but this time, with some added prog. The only thing I listened to by this band is the second album which I remember to be very death metal. This is a thrash album but it's a bit heavier, particularly in those vocals. What is the same is the technicality which is sure to please fans of Voivod, Coroner and Deathrow to name a few.

More heavy thrash metal with death growls. This is quite a good album. After this band split up along with another band called Hellbastard, they kind of did a dragon ball fusion dance and became Hellkrusher.

One of the grooviest osdm records you'll probably ever hear. This band did go on to play groove metal mixed with their melodic death and this album in particular kind of hints to that development. This is some seriously catchy, rockin' stuff.

Another visual kei band and a really interesting one at that. They have a bit of lore to them. Imagery-wise, they're a bunch of demons and they've come to take over the world using heavy metal and they'd split up at the end of the century and they actually did at the last minute of 1999. They had a bunch of reunions though and have released more stuff since then. They're also pretty fucking huge in Japan. They have a video game based on them, an anime and probably more stuff I don't know about. The singer who's the grand leader demon guy according to their whole imagery does sumo commentary and voice acting (I don't play it but he was in sf6 apparently). They're basically celebrities, I guess. As for the album, some really great classic heavy metal!

Second album from this Norwegian folk metal band. In comparison to the first album that made an appearance in this list, this is barely metal. It has some heavy moments here and there but this is mostly folk which is still pretty nice. The next album seems to be 100% not metal. I haven't really listened to it but it seems this band only further departed from the metal sound after this album.

Australia's proudest export, at least to me they are. It's pretty strange that it's only now that we get to something that's just straight up old-school grindcore. This EP's pretty nice, has their classic track "Kill Kill Kill" and also a cool last song which I assume to be based on the movie Bad Taste. In fact, this whole EP has quite a few Peter Jackson samples which is pretty cool. Every once in a while, you hear a real rockin' riff or two which is more in line with the sound this band would later have after this EP, real rock'n'roll-ish grind and death.

Speaking of which, their second EP is blusier and all around, just a way more bouncy record. Not full on grind'n'roll but it's pretty easy to think so. The album is where it really gets rockin'

More 90s Polish black metal awesomeness. But it doesn't really sound like Graveland, Infernum, Veles, Gontyna Kry or other Polish bands that come to mind. Very melodic black metal by way of classic heavy metalisms. Coupled with the symphonic elements, this really makes for a triumphant sound. Highly recommended.

Another black metal band that doesn't really sound like the country they're from. In this context, you typically associate Greece with riffy, heavy metal influences but what we have here is some icy, atmospheric black metal.

Lo-fi French punky black metal. This is an album that I just simply adore. Has some hilariously frenetic vocals and generally, this album has way less "serious factor" than a lot of black metal. Also has some genuinely fantastic melodies. I recommend reading some of the lyrics off this album, very endearing in a sort of innocent way. I mean, he sings about fairies. How could that not bring a smile to your face?

From that title, you can probably tell that this is a special album. Deeply emotional, calm guitar album. Again, another one of his ambient records and this one is pretty nifty, I'd say. Rest in peace...

I don't really listen to Ulver that much but when I do, it's mostly this album. It's pretty interesting how this band became just as influential to neofolk with this album as they were to black metal with their other albums. I find it interesting because this album was released during their classic era in between the two black metal albums and before they went on to become the electronic band that they still are today so they kinda always wanted to try out new shit.

Here we have some more great nwobhm. This is one of the more well-remembered "lesser known" classic heavy metal bands out there, I'd say. It helps that they went into progressive hijinks for their later career but that's a tale for a different time. That and quite a few bands have covered their tracks over the years including a pretty underrated band called Metallica from LA. For this debut album, they were just a few guys who just wanna have a rockin' good time and a rockin' good time they had.

For the 100th entry, let's have something special. Before I ever wanted to dive into this guy's discography, this was the very first record of his that I heard. Probably one of the best guitar albums ever and it's all dedicated to a passed loved one. As you can tell, this album has more impact to it than just the music itself. Just a very satisfying album all throughout. That 13 minute solo is just... I have no words.

Trad doom from Maryland, a place that was a notable scene for the genre at one point. This one's also a Hellhound Records band who themselves sported a bunch of trad doom bands such as Count Raven, Saint Vitus and also a lot of names from Maryland like The Obsessed, Unorthodox, and Iron Man to name some. Nothing really life-changing here but we obviously don't mind now, do we? Fans of the hard rocking or should I say, stoner style of doom metal ought to eat this all up (not really stoner doom tho).

Come over to rock city and rock will you sure find. Thundersteel is their iconic record but even though I think that one is the best album they ever did, Rock City is the one I return to the most, if not for just "Overdrive" and "Tokyo Rose" which are some of my favorite Riot songs ever and "This is What I Get", a particularly catchy and poppy song.

You might think that it's just a band name but they actually did come out of Honolulu of all places and wouldn't you know it, it also happens to be the very first band Marty Friedman was in. His style is pretty recognizable here even if it is early on and it's pretty much worth a listen just for that alone. The songs themselves are good so that helps and also features some truly high vocals courtesy of Gary St. Pierre who was also in that first Vicious Rumors album.

A stone cold stadium metal/rock classic. You got your hooky choruses, your sappy ballads, your radio-friendly love song (Love Games) and your movie soundtrack keyboards. That title track is pretty speedy and is also my favorite song of the whole album. In fact, this album can sometimes get pretty speedy. Not like Exciter or something, if that's what you're thinking. All i'm saying is that this is still pretty heavy metal at the end of the day.

More bluesy trad doom and this one has a female vocalist with a very distinctive low register to her voice. This whole album is pretty mellow, just a pretty nice listen overall. Apparently, the singer would eventually become a pop singer which kinda tracks since the vocal approach here makes me think more of mainstream-sounding rock bands. I wouldn't call this stoner doom but you can definitely listen to this as if it were.

Some really awesome Ukrainian black metal. If you're looking for fantastic melodies, this ain't a bad place to go. Very passionate and pretty melancholic with some terrific riffs too. This guy has a lot of good albums to choose from so you wouldn't be making a mistake to just check out one that you find interesting. I recommend this one, though, for no reason in particular.

A genuine case of outsider music in a metal context. What I mean is metal that just has this air of weirdness to it without being intentionally avant garde or whatever. Pretty antisocial, generally just really zany trad metal. Imagine Black Sabbath with very amateurish prog ambitions. The definition of a cult record.

This is a one man band led by Duane Dwarr and I wouldn't even know where to begin trying to learn more about the guy except for these interviews I've found online:

http://agitreader.com/features/dwarr-11.14.html

https://jointcustodydc.wordpress.com/interviews/

This is an album that sticks with you. First of all, this is one of the most hellish, destructive dsbm albums I've ever heard. Very brutal for this kind of music. Another thing that makes this album are those truly horrific vocals. If you like crazy vocals à la Bethlehem in their second album, then you'll find a lot to appreciate in this one. Especially keeping in mind that after this album was released, the singer would tragically take his own life. It really makes you think for a moment about the anguish he must've been experiencing to produce such a harrowing sound on tape and then to pass away by his own hands. I hope that now he's found some peace while he rests.

Xentrix has always been one of those bands to me that people discover when first digging into metal beyond the classics. I remember that was the case when I became particularly interested in thrash metal once when beforehand, I had only listened to stuff like the big four. It was their song "No Compromise" off this album. The whole record is some pretty good bay area style thrash which really sounds a lot earlier than when it was released but honestly, who cares?

One of the best examples of rock-'n'-roll infused extreme metal which isn't really a high compliment but this album doesn't care about what anyone thinks. A fine slab of bluesy, raunchy grindcore.

Goes hard

First stoner doom band that I put on this list. I don't really consider that Wretched band from earlier to be one since they're only as stoner as, say, The Obsessed and sure the latter is very influential to stoner doom but I wouldn't put them in the same category as Acid King or Electric Wizard and the like. It's pretty ironic then since Church of Misery hated the word "stoner" but this is stoner doom through and through.

Some real bestial brutality right here. Opens up with a pretty crushing track and then after that, it just gets relentless. Yeah, quite a brutal album if you ask me.

What I like about highly atmospheric records is that the mood it comes across to the listener is sometimes very subjective. I find that that's the case for Skepticism and this album in particular as I don't really find the stuff I've listened to by them to be haunting or oppressive or anything like that. It's not a positive atmosphere but it's definitely majestic, ethereal, powerful, just not negative or sad.

I guess this is doom metal. They're kind of like Confessor in the way that they are pretty tough to pigeon hole into a specific style except for doom, the closest thing. You can say that this band is quite... unorthodox. Honestly reminds me of Trouble when they had some "fast" doom metal moments. Take "Bastards Will Pay" from the first album for example. That song kinda had an energetic vibe to it. What i'm saying is that It's doom but it doesn't try to groove as much as you'd expect from a trad doom record and i'd say it's pretty progressive as well, lots of change ups and stuff. Technical is a better term, I suppose. Really unique among the other Maryland doom bands of the 90s.

More on the gothic side of death/doom. This album is quite hooky, not just on the vocals but also the riffs. Just generally some pretty catchy stuff, not to be missed if you're into anything gothic in metal.

This band has ties to powerviolence, having been on slap a ham and you can kind of hear it in this record. Another thing you'll notice are the samples used here as quite a few of them are hip hop. One of the members actually was in a rap group and a side project of this band called No Le$$ is some weird powerviolence with even more hip hop samples. What really makes this album cool, though, is the sort of sludgy take on grindcore. Among the fast parts, there's moments where it slows down and it's honestly really good.

Occupies the same space as bands like Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar, meaning that it's nwobhm that's very proto-trad doom sounding. This feels closer to the 70s with its classic rock-like compositions and wow, what an occult atmosphere. That production certainly helps, making it sound like it was unearthed after centuries of being lost or something. Maybe I'm being hyperbolic but this is some very atmospheric heavy metal.

More bestial desecration from this black/death metal band. Nothing more that could be said, really. This is a mean, mean album.

Did you like the idea of doomy grindcore? well, here's one more for you. This quite literally is doomy grindcore, though, since there are riffs here that will pretty much remind you of stuff like Saint Vitus, Trouble and ofc Black Sabbath.

A bit on the lighter side of US power metal, leaning towards nwobhm. This is some pretty melodic, rocking stuff. The singer has a Dio thing going on, with a very impressive sort of dramatic style. I think you know what I'm talking about. He really outdid himself on this album, in my opinion.

The first Blazebirth Hall band to appear on the list. Ulv Irminsson was one of the main dudes in the scene along with Kaldrad Branislav and they were the ones that would appear in almost everywhere when it came to the Blazebirth Hall and Raven Dark is his main project. This is the second album and sees both of them collaborating, with Kaldrad doing vocals and someone named Wizard on drums (not the one from the far east division black wolves). This is some hella minimalist, atmospheric stuff. If you happen to be into Branikald, you should check this out and the other bands as well.

From one black metal scene to another, here we have the Les Légions Noires with probably its most well-known band who might also be the only one I can put on this list because 99% of the lln are demo bands so they wouldn't really be added to this site (not even the vlad tepes/belketre split!). This is some sorrowful, sickly stuff. Dilapidated melodies and some tortured vocals, just listen to that intro track. My favorite is the fifth track with that almost thrashy riff and at five minutes in, there's this sort of vocal part that is just pure catharsis. You can definitely see why this band gets credit for influencing dsbm, no matter what you think of that style of black metal.

Do you like fantasy synths? this band does and they have 'em in spades for this album. This is incredibly light, actually. I'd say some parts are pretty happy, specifically that first track which I really love. Lyrics are about vampires and shit but the music sounds like the most jovial thing you'll ever hear. Some might say it's cheesy, I say it's charming. Those vocals, though, are very deep in comparison to the aforementioned lightness of the instrumentals but I think it makes it a bit more interesting.

interesting record. As far as I know, Xysma was the very first grindcore band from Finland with their awesome demo "Swarming of the Maggots" in '89. Their debut album ended up being quite special because they would settle with a pretty unusual sound. This is some kind of deathrgind with legit bluesy, Black Sabbath-y riffs here. That's right, death'n'roll started in Finland and not in Sweden. This album isn't very brutal sounding too, it's actually pretty easy-going if that's the correct way to describe it.

One of the definitive 80s albums for me. This is some seriously kickass classic melodic metal. Who could forget the "Just Got Lucky" music video where George Lynch shreds it up on an active volcano while his boots are melting and shit. Of course, "Into the Fire" is a great tune. Not really familiar with wrestling all that much to remember its appearance in NWA Powerrr but I can imagine that a lot of people have fond memories of that song because of that program.

Ah, what can I say about Virgin Steele? they're just a classic, classic band. I don't think you need me to convince you how much of a fantastic singer David DeFeis is even if he is one of the most pretentious metal singers I've ever seen. Well, this album of theirs in particular might seem a bit so-so if you're coming from their more well-known albums. Personally, I dig it. The epicness is here (see the title track and also Angel of Light) but you better be ready for glam rockers and a cheesy ballad. At the very least, listen to Angel of Light if you don't wanna gamble on this one.

A solid followup to their first album that appeared on this list. This kinda sees them going for a more unique style of songwriting. You'll notice that this is a bit heavier, reminiscent of death metal but not really death thrash. Still very southern but the most notable thing is that this album is groovier and slower. This record actually gets really sludgy.

Triple axe attack! It's a shame they're not as well remembered nowadays, especially with their cool gimmick of having three guitarists. I suppose it is quite confusing that they decided to make this a self-titled album... after having already released their first self-titled album? in any case, this is a shredtastic album as you can probably imagine. They're kind of like that Shok Paris band from earlier in that they're technically US power metal but are also very, very commercial-sounding.

Finnish death metal in the 2000s wasn't really as powerful as it was during the golden age of the 90s. As far as I know, it was dominated by melodic Wackenshit bands like Children of Bodom. Bands like Purtenance, Demigod, Abhorrence and Funebre disappeared into the night and bands like Amorphis and Sentenced abandoned death metal entirely. Slugathor's one of those bands that focused entirely on worshiping at the altar of the old-school and yeah, this is some pretty heavy, mid-paced stuff.

Great album from these mincing legends. Out of all their full-length albums, this would have easily been their punkiest had it not been for their 1999 one. Still, this has very little death metal influence which you might be more familiar with through their other stuff. There's some straight up hardcore tracks in here like "Try!" and "Cheers Mankind Cheeres" to name a few. Recommended if you want some pure, unadulterated grindcore and also if you're a fan of d-beat and stuff.

Very interesting. Looking this band up on the metal archives and you'll notice that they're listed as "epic death metal". I don't suppose you see that often, eh? The lyrics have this narrative to them like an epic saga of sorts. Very reminiscent of Bal-Sagoth in that regard, highly recommended reading them. The music itself is some badass, highly riffy osdm that should please anyone even if you don't give a shit about all this epic fantasy stuff. It's well-written and interesting all throughout.

You might have already familiarized yourself with some Spanish folk metal/rock in the form of Mägo de oz and I've actually seen that band get compared to Ñu in that they're kind of like a more teen-oriented version of the latter. I've never listened to the former enough to give any real verdict on that but what I can tell you is that Ñu were some real pioneers from all the way back in their debut album in '78. This album, though, has less folk elements to it but when it comes, it's pretty great. First and foremost, though, they're more of a prog rock band instead of actual metal people and this actually is listed as non-metal so you know what not to expect here. This is some real nice rock music if you wanna spice things up a bit.

This is a comfort album. This is heavy metal but this is gonna sound more of a hard rock album. Every song here is catchy and will for sure give you a good time if you're just looking for music to rock out to. There's even a ballad here that I don't really mind that much. Just really easy music to listen to.

Techno nu metal. Way too fucking cool that it has any right to be with that description. I have an mp3 of this downloaded and putting it on while doing anything that involves typing makes me feel like those people from that movie called Hackers (1995) if you've ever seen it.

Spain's premier goregrind unit. These guys have one hell of a discography. Beyond their truckload o' demos, splits and EPs, all they're albums are pretty much awesome. Always a go-to for brutality and bounciness, they really make sure to deliver when it comes to the things you'd want in your goregrind soup. Essential band, I could have probably put any one of their albums for this entry but they'll for sure each make an appearance somewhere down the line anyways.

Czech black thrashing madness... a pretty legendary band in the scene along with bands like Master's Hammer and Root. Highly influenced by first wave black metal bands. Expect some hellhammering evil riffs for days with this one. Watch out for that tenth track if you're ever gonna play this album with other people around, though. If you happen to be into that pretty recently big band Malokarpatan, I see no reason for you not to enjoy this one.

More Colombian sickness. This one goes for a more familiar slamming approach rather than the Brodequin kind of blasturbation sound but is by no means any less uncompromising than what you'd expect.

Here's some wacko Floridian death metal for you. Gotta give these guys some props for releasing their first demo all the way back in '84, the same year as "Death by Metal" by this little band called Death, I don't know if you've heard of them. This album is some pure death thrashing madness with some fairly technical ambitions going on. This kinda gives it an unhinged sort of vibe. This album's short and sweet which is perfect since I honestly can't imagine this being forty minutes or something.

Surprised that this isn't as popular as their debut album. I guess that single review on the metal archives saying it's subpar doesn't really help. This little EP gets both thumbs up for me, though. Way more 90s death metal sounding than the album and follows up on the technicality presented there. Well worth checking out.

Representing Italy in the world of grindcore is this angry, angry band. Lots of hardcore in this one and there are actually certain parts here that sounded like punk melody to me which I found very cool.

More brutal death from Colombia. This one's more in line with what I'm talking about when I say the scene is unhinged. Although not special to this band in particular, just listen to that the beer can snare. Gotta love that blasting ping pong sound. Just brutal, brutal, brutal.

What a strange concept. Everything about this at first glance screams gothic metal but what does it sound like? some knuckle-dragging brutal death, that's what. Wouldn't really call it slam but all throughout, you have these massive fucking hardcore chugs that ought to level the entire building that you're currently staying at. It's not even avant-garde or anything, they just have a pretty interesting choice of imagery considering the style of music. Don't mistake this for some meatheaded thuggery, though, these songs are actually pretty interesting. Apart from the catchy brutality, there'd be occasional bouts of melody but nothing major. If there is something that's weird about this album, it would be that final track. It's some highly sped up cover of Eye of the Tiger, of all things that doesn't even sound like the rest of the album. It's probably a spoof but otherwise, I have no idea what the point of that track is. Well, other than that, this is pretty much a perfect record from start to near the end, I suppose.

This is the kind of album that is so profound that you will never see any kind of criticism against it. I find that this is the case with atmospheric music in general and most of the time you go "well, it can't be THAT good" but, let me tell you, it just is. What you have here is an absolute masterpiece when it comes to atmosphere. Right off the gate, this album gets you drawn in with that long ass ambient intro and it sets the mood for the trance-inducing blizzard that'll follow.

The Swedish black metal experience. You know, it's the kind of sound that isn't particularly my favorite but at the same time, never fails to make me happy when it's good. These melodic riffs always seem passionate to me, always so romantic. Quite good placement of keys and acoustic guitar too. A classic for a reason.

Kvlt band turns to goth rock/metal, i'm sure you've heard quite a few of those. This is some real sappy music and it's pretty alright, I say. I'd say this is barely metal, like goth rock but a bit heavier. I don't really mind the vocals, I think it's just a matter of taste.

I like listening to certain albums to help me sleep and I find this one to be the one that I use the most. Out of all of Buckethead's ambient efforts that I've heard so far, this is definitely the best or at least my favorite. This is a pretty special album. From that cover, you can see the man himself unmasked and embracing his late father. Immediately, the stage presence, the character is taken away and we're left with Brian, a real human being. This is stripped down, melancholic music. Stripped down in the way that there is no title for the album or the songs and also because the music itself is very minimal and just very sorrowful.

An early release, still pretty great. A major part of the blazebirth hall is the unbelievable atmosphere presented. This debut album is no different, you got the repetitive, minimalist approach going on but this is kind of a bridging point between the harsher style of the two previous demos and the more ambient style of this project that they'd be more celebrated for. If you love Transilvanian Hunger, then seek this album out. A lot of these early Branikald stuff is basically Darkthrone worship. He would release probably the most acclaimed Branikald album right after this one.

Look at that cover... I just want you to look at it for a moment

This is some cool, 90s Norwegian black metal that's kind of forgotten about when talking about classic albums from that era. Pretty energetic stuff, with some awesome riffs so it's pretty much very far away from the sound of that last album. I was pretty stoked to hear those operatic female vocals on the fifth track, kind of didn't expect it with how this album sounded but it was really nice. Pretty much every song on this album is great and memorable. It's also just half an hour long so it's pretty easy to just check out and see if you like it.

You know, this might actually get me to start loving metalcore. I love how melodic and emotional this is. I say this deserves to be called a high point in the genre and yeah, they're right, Assück does rule.

Some cool black/doom metal or I suppose dark metal, to make it a bit more alluring. Well, this is a bit a mixed bag for me. First of all, the music itself is sufficiently dark and atmospheric but the main aspect that both makes and breaks this album are those blatantly programmed drums. Kind of makes it sound like an industrial album with how obviously programmed they sound. I think it works incredibly well for the slower sections, giving it a sort of detached and cold atmosphere but when it comes to the mid-paced and faster parts, not so much. It's the same as any other extreme metal record that has an obvious drum machine; it sounds too perfect and inorganic in a bad way. Still, I think this is enjoyable if you're into Bethlehem and stuff.

The album before Soundtrack for the Revolution. It's kind of like that album but less good. Still pretty cool, though. Not really much to say, really. I wouldn't blame you for sticking to just that album but it wouldn't really hurt to listen to this.

An honestly pretty intriguing record. You have some shreddy dual leads with some pretty undeniable black metal melodicisms going on. Of course, there's black metal vocals to add to that and speaking of which, the vocals are pretty varied. You also have some gothic sounding cleans as well as some strong, Halfordesque highs. Is it a retro heavy metal album with a blackened edge or is it a very clean black metal album with some pretty big traditional metal influences? i'm honestly having a hard time deciding on which. This one's very short, though, being just about twenty-five minutes long with fourteen tracks. At least it doesn't overstay it's welcome and I suppose it makes it a bit easier to come back to.

These guys had the cock rock, glam imagery down to a t while playing their funk metal. It was a cool gimmick that unfortunately put them six feet under the grunge bands of the 90s. Well, this is still a pretty good album that's filled to the brim with incredibly hooky hard rockers that you shouldn't pass up on.

I don't really have a number one favorite album. It kind of just alternates between a bunch of albums that I really love. This is one of them. Sure, it may not be "the best", objectively speaking but it's my favorite, not what I think is the best metal album of all time. This is one of the few albums where I love every song. Some albums I think have no bad songs but just because you think it's good, doesn't mean you love it. It's probably because I've played this album so much but every song here I just rock out to, no matter the quality of them. It helps that it's also a pretty early discovery for me when I was just getting into metal outside of slam/brutal death which is what initially made me interested. Is my judgement being clouded by nostalgia? absolutely and I don't care.

I guess I should actually talk about what this album sounds like. Well, this kind of a punky heavy metal record or a really metallic punk record, whatever you prefer but the songs here accurately capture the spirit of those two genres. I guess what's interesting about this album is that it's really simple energetic music to just rock out to but it just can't help but be something a bit more. A lot of you might know this band for having Michael Denner and Hank Shermann prior to Mercyful Fate and if you really listen to this album, you can hear the skillful guitar mastery that they'd soon show in spades for their later career.

Good 'ol Hellenic black metal... or is it? well, this band is very adjacent to black metal but we can all agree that this album is death/doom. They were kind of like bands like Horrified and Septicflesh in that they were mainly death metal. This probably won't remind you of those Greek bands at first like Varathron and Necromantia since this is pretty early and came out before any of their debut albums. A bit gothic too, take a look at that first track with the clean guitar sort of break halfway in, not to mention the symphonic elements.

More punked up metal, this time of the crossover variety. Now, this is a hardcore band but for this album, they went full on crossover. This one has quite a few mid-paced, kind of doomy sections in it. A good example would be "City Wheels", a nearly ten minute long track that goes for a dark, crushing approach. Of course, there's also a cover of Black Sabbath's "Into the Void" which actually is pretty nice even if it sounds quite different from the rest of the album. It's near the end anyways which is a lot better than having it in the middle or something.

Did somebody say crossover? well, here's... Crossover! This is an album that everyone who calls themselves crossover owes half of their asscheeks to. D.R.I is one of those bands that pioneered being fast as fuck in a metal context but this album sees them transitioning away from the majorly hardcore sound as they gather more folks from the metal crowd. Make no mistake, this is still really hardcore, it wouldn't be crossover otherwise but I think that goes without saying.

Pretty surprised to be the first one rating this album considering its classic status. These guys did some pretty ahead of the curve crossover by incorporating some NY hardcore chugginess to it. My favorite track is the last one, "Unexpected" which starts off with a pretty light, kind of melodic riff which sure was unexpected and then plows you with some of those moshable breakdowns that I'm talking about.

Carrying the torch of trad doom to the 2000s, The Gates of Slumber is a pretty hefty band. Do you like Saint Vitus? well, this band does too and they aren't shy about it. I always thought the beginning of the album sounded quite a bit like Dragon Time. Even the singer reminds me of Wino at certain points. This isn't some ripoff or an uninspired worship band, make no mistake, at least not on their other albums where they've come into their own and started incorporating that epic metal sound as the Conan, sword and sorcery imagery would tell you. Well, this debut album is still a doomy good time which you shouldn't ignore.

Old-school deathrashing madness from Mexico. I guess they're like Brazil's finest, Sepultura in that they're commonly referred to as the representative of their respective countries in the world of extreme metal and rightfully so as they were a pretty OG band and definitely influenced a lot of bands from that place. Worth checking out beyond the novelty of this not being from a country that you'd commonly associate with extreme thrash. There's some really good stuff here. I decided not to put their most well-known release "El Infierno de Dante" just yet to show this band is more than just one album.

Some good ol' yo yo yo wanksta groove. Very heavy hip hop vibes with this one, from the lyrics to the song titles. There were quite a few of bands that had this sort of imagery to them and actually a lot more nowadays. I call it wanksta slam/bdm but there's a more popular term for it but it's based on the n-word and I don't really think that's fun. Anyways, check this out if you're into very thuggish, boneheaded sounding brutal death metal.

Damn do I love this album. It's an incredibly atmospheric and raw black metal record but not the kind of ambient sounding riffless haze of static if that's what you're thinking. Very compelling melodies. I guess a nice comparison would be Mütiilation. I actually think about their first album sometimes when I listen to this since they're pretty similar on the surface level in terms of both being raw albums with a great sense of melody. This one has a triumphant, pagan sound to it which makes me imagine being on top of a mountain and just feeling the wind on my face.

Interesting sludge. Kind of has this droning sound to it that, coupled with how noisy it is, gives it this sort of psychedelic sound. Falls more in line with the scuzzy, drugged-up and, for lack of a better word, skanky side of doom.

Steve Vai has always been one of those artists that's really popular but I never really got familiar with. I decided to listen to this because I happen to like "Tender Surrender" quite a bit and I went in expecting more sensual shredding but color me surprised when I found that all of it except that one song was pretty energetic. I think Steve Vai has a pretty fun style and he creates quite a few sound effects using his guitar which is find pretty interesting. A good example would be that quirky sixth track that has the guitar doing all kinds of screeching sounds. I'm not really a guitar guy so that's the description i'm going with. Or "Ya-yo Gakk" where he imitates his kid's baby talk with the guitar which I found pretty adorable.

Doesn't get mentioned much in early alt metal discussions which is a shame because this really is a band more people should know. Them and Mind Over Four if we're talking about old-school stuff. Anyways, this band has an interesting sound. The musicianship here is pretty ambitious, progressive even and also rooted a bit in classic heavy metal. The singer (who's the guy on the cover... yeah) is pretty good too. As you can tell, he has a pretty tweaked out vibe.

I don't even know where to begin describing this one except for the fact that it's very, very weird. Maybe it's just me but the vibe here is pretty mysterious, almost foreboding even. Just really otherworldly sounding instead of the "throw everything except the kitchen sink" genre-hopping, all over the place approach that's present in some avant-garde metal.

More fun crossover. A bit more on the punk/hardcore side to the point where this band isn't even on the metal archives. This album's on the comedic/doesn't take itself seriously side of thrash so you can definitely have an easy good time with it. There's even a bunch of catchy hard rockers here, my favorite being "Born to Rock".

Essentially one big song. Nice atmospheric black metal. This is what i'd consider an album that's very connected to nature or at least trying to convey some kind of forest landscape. Wind sounds, folky, lots of synths, recommended.

Some nice death doom. Has a bit of a folky sound going on with some genuinely pretty cool violin playing all throughout the album.

That psx fmv cutscene looking album cover is about as goofy as the comical amount of synths in this album. Definitely won't win over any haters of symphonic black metal but come on, you need this in your life.

Well, if it isn't the one that started it all. That title track is one of the most definitive Halloween metal songs ever. You play that shit when you wanna have a spooky good time. The lesson is that you shouldn't mess around with a haunted occult book unless you're Geezer Butler and your band can write a wicked song about it afterwards.

One of his most well known albums and for a good reason, this definitely is a highlight in his vast discography. Such a peaceful and relaxing album. It's acoustic guitar and some kind of downtempo electronic stuff (if that sounds ignorant, it is because I'm not really familiar with electronic music all that much). I have this album downloaded on my cellphone and it's pretty good for a variety of moods from lazying around, to reading to staying inside on a rainy day. It's perfect. I kind of have a somewhat special connection with it since I first heard it years ago when I was so sick that I had to be in bed. I dunno, it was a pretty cool vibe in my dimly lit room in the middle of the night as it was raining. That atmosphere kind of returns to me for a bit every time I put this album on.

Who thought of that band name and said "yeah, that sounds badass!"? Well, this is some worthy death thrash. Has some adventurous songwriting going on at times but nothing too fancy.

An interestingly accessible take on black metal. It's melodic but the real reason why I say that is the thrash metal-like songwriting if that makes sense. I wouldn't call it black/thrash but it definitely seems like it was written with the goal of being fun, energetic music rather than being evil as fuck. There's even a bunch of gang shouts in here which is cool. Lots of samples too all throughout the album.

So these guys finally put out an album and I finally got around to listening to it. They first came to my attention through their 2019 demo a few years ago and I thought it was some of the most bludgeoning fukk metal ever conceived. In comparison, this album has quite a clean production and you know what? I appreciate it. It's no less brutal, anyways.

You look at those dudes on the cover, you hear that AAAAAHHHH at the beginning and you already know what's up. Some real nice speed metal turning into thrash kinda stuff.

Here we have some weirdo Japanese grind. They play some kind of psychedelic rock influenced grindcore with some pretty bluesy riffs here and there if that's the right way to describe it. They're kind of like a grindcore jam band, I suppose. Their next album is where they get really crazy in their psych-grind shtick.

More really good, incredibly sorrowful black metal that isn't dsbm, if that's what you had in mind. Once again, the melodies are rich and powerful and the vocals are pained and just really anguished. This is sadder than the 2008 album that previously appeared on this list, both are fantastic and so are quite a few of the other albums.

The rawest Goatmoon album. As the camo cargo pants on the cover would tell you, this is some hatefully prideful sketchy shit. It's melodic but in a way that's catchy and simple, kind of RAC-ish I guess. Sometimes, the melody is used in a way to give a solid melancholic feel. A good example is near the end of the tenth track called uhh... "Aryan Evil", it turns into this downpour of melody and it's pretty nice. My favorite track here, though, is the second one. Who says cowbell doesn't belong in metal?

That last band was pretty unsafe, huh? let's balance it out with some rabm this time around and what better band to go with than one of the earliest ones I can find, from Argentina of all places. So this record has a bunch of spoken word parts and I unfortunately can't speak Spanish but through the magic of Google translate, we can see what they're all about. It opens up with a five minute long manifesto for satanic socialism, a declaration of war to fascism. Yeah, pretty different from that last band. The music itself is some pretty nice black metal. Good use of synths, lo-fi, nice melodies. Pretty riffy in a sort of upbeat, kind of punked up way.

Awesome "cinical" brutality from Colombia. This is a pretty wacky album. Weirdly melodic at various points with some pretty strange songwriting decisions. Imagine your usual ultra brutal death metal band if they had some melodic ambitions but they were all lobotomized at some point.

Gut side-project. One of the most notable cybergrind bands out there. Just some crazy grind to bust a move to. Maybe in an alternate reality, this is what they're playing in clubs and shit.

So I talked about one of these guys albums all the way near the beginning of this list and I said they were the precedent of cybergrind or something along those lines. This little EP is pretty clean which is good. As someone who doesn't listen to much electronic music, this is the closest i'll get to edm and stuff. I'm pretty content with that.

You know, for someone who says they like death metal, I sure do have very little classic, old-school stuff in this list of mine. A lot of my death metal ratings here are brutal death metal/slam whatever piece of crap that I eat up like a raccoon. Well, here's Desultory and i'm really surprised to see no ratings for them here apart from Biterness which happens to be my favorite from them. This album is melodic with fantastic guitar playing and riffs, with a bit of a gloomy approach to it. This is some classic, unfuckwithable Swedish death metal.

Decided to look for more melodic metalcore to listen to since I quite liked that Shai Hulud album that appeared on this list previously. Well, this didn't really sound like that band at all. It sure is melodic but what I noticed the most was how busy/chaotic this record is. Sometimes it even reminds me of At the Gates circa 1990-92 i.e the good era. Those vocals are pretty good too with some sick black metal-ish highs.

The final part of the Gut trilogy of albums. This is sort of like their comeback album after their other comeback album which um... has no business being talked about on a list like this. Anyways, this is pretty cool. Might even come off as more "serious" record songwriting-wise. They have a pretty dark approach here, kind of like a black metal vibe going on with some sludgy moments as well.

What I like about this album is that it's sort of like a depot for a bunch of styles classic Darkthrone has. You hear atmospheric, simplistic stuff along with doomy, thrashy Celtic Frost sounding stuff. It actually kind of feels like you can select a couple songs and they'll sound like they came from different records when you compare them to each other if that makes sense. You can call it an inconsistent listening experience but personally, I dig it. It still manages to be pretty cool album that's worth anybody's time anyways and I don't even think I have to tell you that.

First of all, that band name is ridiculously terrible. It sounds like a made up name to parody this kind of music but this is some real awesome 80s pop metal. You might know Andi Deris better as a singer of Helloween and he definitely is the better singer this band had between him and their current one. Some songs here I actually really love like "Talk to the Moon", "Do You Like it Like That" and "Stray Kid" to name some, the first one I play quite frequently.

Some top tier old-school death thrash. Has a technical flair to it which makes it really unique. Occasionally it shows some tri-state (would say it's New York-ish but they're from New Jersey lol) swagger with it's kind of knuckle-dragging moments, some you might argue to be proto-slam. A nice example would be a minute into the track "Rift of Hate", there's this death/doom-y section that kind of comes off as a slam riff but I don't really think so.

More cool cyber porno sleaze. Ran out of things to say for this band... check them out!

Apart from also featuring the Eisenwinter dude, this release is our latest taste of Antimessiah's work. You may or may not know him from projects such as Totale Vernichtung and Vicarivs Filii Dei. Basically, his specialty is incredibly triumphant melodicism. This album is no different. Really fantastic riffs here. When I say triumphant, I mean it. Major key black metal that raises your spirits. Definitely a highlight of 2024.

Sort of a followup to Upsidedown Cross who you might remember made an appearance on this list. More skanky sludge but with a noticeably more energetic, hardocreish tempo to it. That's Larry Lifeless on the cover and he still sounds dementedly stupid here but at times, he sounds more like he's being tortured to death or something.

Another fantastic record by this atmospheric black metal titan. This one is particularly raw and noisy (though if you're listening to this on youtube, not to that extent since there's a fault in the upload) but really, this is very melodic stuff.

Pretty good Japanese grind. A bit hardcore sounding and at a meager length of just below twenty minutes. Gives you nothing but a good time during that short runtime so you definitely won't be swindle with this one.

Pretty alright Swedish death thrashing extremity. Something about this struck me as pretty Gothenburg-y even though it isn't really melodeath at all, maybe it's because I can hear some At the Gates in there, post-Alf. To be fair, though, you can also hear some Teutonic thrash in there too a la Destruction (they even cover their track "Curse the Gods" at the end.).

Two dudes from a whole load of bands and some other guy come together to bring you some swashbuckling black death mid-paced action... what do you do?

Premier black/thrash record. One of Japan's most prized possessions when it comes to extreme metal. Essential black metal through and through.

This is some pretty cool early brutal death metal. Where this album really shines is the funky bass all throughout the album. It's not quite funk metal but that bass sure has that funky groove to it. Sometimes it has some possibly spoofy rap vocals too like in the very beginning. They're more like taking the piss out of that kind of thing rather than an actual rap metal attempt. Quite an interesting little nugget, this one is.

Been vibing a lot to this band lately. Pretty simple drums and audible bass kinda gives me a rock-ish vibe. I suppose it's post-punk sounding which is an alright description. Coupled with the long runtimes, this really makes for an atmospheric record. Great vocals with really echoey reverb too which is awesome. I imagine a lot of dsbm folks probably listen to this band, particularly their next album.

Pretty good example of goregrind, actually. Exactly what you'd expect but doesn't really get boring. This band started out as noisecore and there's some callbacks to that here, namely the Fear of God & Meat Shits covers. Pretty sludgy last track with an integrated sample throughout the song which is cool.

About time we listen to some "good addiction butchery". I can't even imagine what they were trying to say in that title in the first place for it to end up becoming "good addiction butchery". In any case, this is some raw Colombian brutality.

Some more of that Colombian shit. My personal headcanon is that these guys named themselves after the Slipknot song. I mean, you never know. This is another one that tries to be techy, ends up being wacko. A bit unhinged but a jolly good time nonetheless.

Woah, watch out for these evil duders. Pretty much what I'd imagine a perfect record to be if we're talking about no nonsense death metal. If you want someone to get into death metal, make them listen to this album. Comically evil vocals by Glen Benton like one of those demon possessed folks in them horror movies. "Dead by Dawn" one of the best songs I ever heard.

I said Tooth and Nail's one of the most defining 80s albums ever or something like that. It's a fantastic album but this one has to be my favorite Dokken. The former is pretty metal, this one is way more commercial sounding and I love it. Yeah, i'm a pretty basic bitch but I sure do love my 80s pop songs.

A big improvement over their last album while still not quite being the Virgin Steele most people would recognize. There's hints of it, though, like on The Burning of Rome. That's some good stuff right there. If it was any other band playing this album, it probably wouldn't be as good. Probably because they wouldn't have a singer as kickass as David DeFeis. Nice keyboards too.

Great US power metal... on the same boat as bands like Shok Paris and Lizzy Borden where they're leaning towards a pretty commercial sound. Can't really say much else except the singer had a brief stint with Anthrax which is cool, I guess.

Stryper's threading into secular waters with this one, shedding away their Christian lyrics to gather more crowds from the mainstream. They even dropped the yellow & black thing for a look that's more with the times. It's still pretty good and the sound is pretty different as well. A bit heavier overall. I can imagine this one to be most people's favorite Stryper album.

One of the most iconic metal bands from Japan. This one isn't really much of a metal album, at least not entirely. Apart from that first track, the rest of the album is pretty AOR/pop rock sounding but that shouldn't be a problem, right?

Album cover is way too stylish than it has any right to be. I dunno, looks really awesome to me. A sweet collection of heavy metal tracks. Apart from the space themed stuff (no shocker from a band called "Alien"), there's the usual we love to rock type lyrics and cheesy love songs on here as well. Might not be a favorite track for the few who've listened to this but I quite like "Don't Say Goodbye", a total teen rock song with those male & female alternating vocals. That last track has a pretty catchy chorus too, just figured it was worth mentioning.

You know I love the blasting, chaotic brutal death metal sound. You can bet your ass that Indonesia has absolutely no shortage of bands that follow such sound. Bloody Gore is a pretty important band. Incredibly short but so unrelentingly brutal from start to finish.

More stuff from this band... I think it's more brutal than the last one, I like it a bit more. After this, they'd become Funeral Inception and they're pretty awesome in their own right too. Definitely more competent which makes sense.

Interesting death doom. VERY prominent synths and keys but nothing grating if you don't like the sound of that. I really like the guitars in this one, pretty well-written. Melancholic, melodic, light, atmospheric stuff.

Some real killer NOLA sludge with this one. Kind of has a hardcoreish groovy edge to it with a mean sounding singer. 33 minutes, flies by pretty quickly if you ask me but I don't mind, it's not really a record that leaves you wanting more than what it can give.

It's near an hour long and it's everything you'd want when it comes to doom metal so it pretty much filters a lot of metal fans from really loving it. A lot will like this, sure, but most won't dig the derivative style of it for 57 minutes which goes for a lot of this kind of music. Count Raven was always a band that had something to say, if you know what I mean. For a while, this was what made this band distinct for me. That and their sick-ass guitar solos. Very political but going back to the music, this is some rockin' stuff that you wouldn't generally associate with Swedish doom, at least I wouldn't. Whenever people talk about this band these days, they're mostly "that band that I thought was Black Sabbath when I first heard 'em" and that's mostly because of the very Ozzy-like vocals but on this album, that isn't really the case. This was the only album they had with Christian Linderson on vocals who would go on to be more famously associated with Lord Vicar and he sounds great here. Overall, an essential band for any doom metal fan out there.

Quite the interesting album that we have here. Very progressive, atmospheric gothic stuff. Symphonic with all its keyboards and synths, lots of acoustic guitar which starts to sound like flamenco at some point. Male & female vocals are nice too. Far from your usual death/doom band, if they're even considered one at all. Might be rating this higher than I would have but for the ambition alone this is well worth anyone's time.

Some killer thrash with a distinctly pagan edge to it. Gives me a sort of black metal feel, maybe with just how it sounds with the production and all. MA does classify them as blackened thrash, though, so maybe i'm more on the money than I might think.

Great classic Swedish heavy metal. Think of Heavy Load and Overdrive and stuff like that... Quite a few good songs on here, one favorite of mine is "See How it Flyes" with the melodic sort of vocals and you know what i'm talking about if you've ever listened to heavy metal before, the kind that's reminiscent of europower, especially with the galloping drums.

Over two hundred entries in and I finally get to the first solo Sphere release. Well, better late than never. This is a pretty interesting album. Very sludgy and just downright dirty and malicious sounding. They're going for a tripped out vibe and yeah, this is some nightmarish drug trip sounding stuff. Pretty ambient-y too.

Some nice osdm. Nothing really out of the ordinary, just some good music if you're a fan of riffs and stuff haha. One of those records that are understandably pretty obscure because i'd be scratching my head if this band had a big following or something. It's a good album, though.

One Rotting Christ and two Necromancia-s get together and make some good Hellenic black metal. Can't really go wrong with that.

Some more pretty obscure osdm right here. A bit thrashy, i'd say. Kind of hodge podge of styles here. Recommended!

Wouldn't you know it, some more kickass osdm. Flies by at 30 minutes, can't really complain.

The most well-known (in the world of black metal) Antimessiah project. For something named Total Annihilation, it sure sounds very light. Of course, it's more of a triumphant feeling. A lot of black metal is like this, especially the err... silly kind. This is a special example, though. You might already be well acquainted with what i'm talking about if you ended up checking out the new Rostorchester which I previously put on this list before this one.

I have some fond memories with this one. When I was just getting into metal and all I cared about was finding the sickest stuff out there, I came across this funny little thing and I immediately thought it was pretty gross. It definitely was the album cover, will never not be grossed out by that. Anyways, this is a pretty extreme album, shocker. Very noisy and has some of the most autistic screeching you'll ever hear in metal. It's like the grind album for those who listen to dsbm and only care about the Silencer vocals. This band has some of the edgiest shit you'll ever hear but they actually are pretty ambitious when it comes to crafting their own dirty atmosphere in their releases. This album's probably their most famous record and yeah, I can't really recommend it enough.

Some Japanese weirdness. One of those avant garde albums that has some strange genre crossing in it. In this case, you have a seemingly normal power metal album albeit pretty symphonic in a very off-kilter way then it suddenly turns into straight up jazz/pop music at some points. There's these crazy spoken word parts too. In fact, the fourth track is this very long sort of noisy transmission with those spoken word parts i'm talking about all throughout the song. Can't really let this one pass by if you're into weird music at all.

Some good ol' forgotten heavy metal from Denmark. Kind of has a 70s sound to it like they haven't really gotten into the loop yet and seeing as this is their only release, they never did. Nothing really great per se but it's one of those records that I don't really mind listening to. Not really one of my best attempts at selling an album to ya, eh?

Some real groovy goregrind. I'll recommend this if you like, say, Cock and Ball Torture. Band name kind of gives me metalcore vibes, like that other goregrind band Bodies Lay Broken which is actually why I put off on listening to both of them for a while some time ago. Don't know why I had to point that out but there you go.

From one Aussie band to another, this is some fine brutal NSE stuff... quite a newer release, this one is. This still kind of feels like it just released yesterday to me. Really makes you think of how quickly time flies by if you don't pay attention haha

More, more, more Dokken. Back when it was just a solo project of Don Dokken. Once again, really nothing fantastic here or even great. This is just a collection of fine songs. Worth checking out, though, if not for just the title track which I do really like.

Talk about a throwback... Nevermore is one of the earliest bands that I discovered when I started to spread my horizons in metal music. I always kind of remembered this album as one that I didn't particularly care for back then but I was pleasantly surprised when I listened to it again and found that I pretty much know all the songs pretty well even after not listening to them for quite some time. Nothing I ended up loving but it's alright overall. A common point of criticism regarding this band's music are the vocals. For some reason, Warrel Dane's vocals in this band have something of a hatebase. They never really bothered me at all and let's be honest, Warrel Dane is pretty much one of the main facets of Nevermore and fewer people would be interested in this band without him. His performance isn't really comparable to what would come later but they're fine, it's a debut album after all. This doesn't really sound like classic Nevermore, musically speaking. I guess it's easy to consider this a bridging point between Nevermore and Sanctuary because the riffs here do sound like power & thrash metal. Speaking of riffs, I don't think I have to convince you that Jeff Loomis is awesome. My first exposure to virtuoso guitar dudes in metal.

I hope you haven't forgotten about this band. This is their second album which is a bit better than their first that is also on this list. In fact, all three of their albums are pretty much 3.5 star records. Classic Maryland band and the only reason why I mentioned that is because I wanted to compare them to the Obsessed. They sound a lot like them, only they had a slower, stonery approach to their music.

Well, since we were talking about them, here they are. This THE Obsessed album to me. I mean, they have good stuff but as far as i'm concerned, this is Wino and gang's best effort. Hard rockin' stuff, dude.