A Top 100 Metal Albums List by Rexorcist

100 / USA

THRASH METAL, HEAVY METAL / Prog Metal, Speed Metal

Not only is the perfect balance between thrashers, jammers and melodies, but displays the best of multiple early forms of metal with the most metallic production and sound I've ever heard out of roughly 2,000 metal albums. The album might be classified more as a straight-up thrash album, but every song, like Paranoid, has its own identity. The first side gets softer as it goes along from pure and outrageous thrash to a somewhat progressive power ballad, and the second half is a bit more mixed in terms of applied power. Creeping Death might've been a perfectly fitting ending, but we were lucky and still got The Call of Ktulu anyway. Mixing thrash, speed and prog with heavy metal ballads Metallica are here to sing eight beautiful songs, ABOUT DEATH! Death is comiiiing.

100 / USA

GOTH METAL / Doom Metal, Hardcore Punk, Art Rock

This is a Beatles-style genre hopper that never lets any of its many influences get in the way of the tones of the album. Scary and romantic are two sides of the same coin, a rare balance that's often attempted but rarely perfected. And of course, it helps that Steele's voice was gorgeous and perfect.

100 / USA

PROG METAL, NEOCLASSICAL METAL / Power Metal, Symphonic Metal, Metal Opera

Symphony X needed some time to perfect their technique, and Divine Wings of Tragedy showed that they had found their calling and the balance lacking in their self-titled debut. On top of that, they had mastered the balance between prog, power, neoclassical and symphonic like it was nothing. This is the perfect blend of matching genres brings the themes out at full force with an incredible sense of melody. It's a perfect mix of Divine Wings of Tragedy and Twilight in Olympus, mastering the riffage of the former and the diversity of the latter.

100 / Greece

SYMPHONIC DEATH METAL / Dissonant Death Metal, Gothic Metal, Black Death Metal

Septicflesh continue their obsessive journey into the incurably diverse world of metal by strengthening their brutality, scariness and heaviness while incorporating a stronger sense of genre-balance. There's much of what we found on previous albums like Mystic Places of Dawn and Communion in surprising places, and once again this keeps the band's presence strong as it did with their debut. The growth can be seen, and as a result I consider this the greatest death metal album I've ever heard.

100 / Norway

SYMPHONIC BLACK METAL, TRADITIONAL BLACK METAL / Prog Black Metal

Taking a fairly more progressive route was the best thing for Emperor. The album combines the raw traditional sound of Nightside, the haunting emotion of Anthems and the technical riffage of Equilibrium to create the ultimate Emperor album. Underappreciated for its steering away from the original vibes, Promethues is a crowning achievement and a perfect swansong for the pioneering black metal band.

100 / ENG

HEAVY METAL, HARD ROCK / Traditional Doom Metal, Psych Rock

Each brilliant song has its own identity ranging from early doom influence to proto-punk influence, handling both heavy metal and hard rock with a touch of psychedelia and blues, and a lot of heaviness. There was nothing this rough before except the debut, and this had stronger musicianship. It ranged from heavy metal energy to slow, doomy psychedelia, and incorporated other forms of rock to create something truly unpredictable. It's this high up because other metal albums show the bands sticking with a couple or a few sounds and keep relying on those sounds. That gets tedious. Paranoid doesn't do that. It shifts into new territory consistently, and never lowers in quality.

100 / USA

DEATH METAL / Avant-Garde Metal, Psych Metal

This is the trippiest album of Morbid Angel's golden age. Everything they had attempted in previous albums, including the experimentation of Domination, was absolutely perfected and with their best production ever. This gave me everything I wanted from a death metal album and more.

100 / Germany

POWER METAL, MELODIC POWER METAL / Speed Metal, Symphonic Metal

Imaginations is probably the heaviest, most melodic, and most serious power metal album in the world. Nightfall might be the easiest to listen to, but Imaginations built on all of the strengths of Somewhere Far Beyond and acts as a perfect transition from the speed metal days to the symphonic era. Fantasy metal wouldn't exist the way it does without Blind Guardian and Symphony X. Blind Guardian bridge their speed and symphonic eras carefully but perfectly.

100 / ENG

DEATH DOOM METAL, DOOM METAL, GOTH METAL

This is THE saddest album I've ever heard, darkness and depression in pure musical captivity, desperate to break free from itself. My Dying Bride seems to know that feeling better than anyone, and that feeling is the driving force of what could have been a monotonous album but instead was a raw emotional experience.

100 / Italy

DOOM METAL, SLUDGE METAL / Stoner Metal, Psych Metal

A tame, hypnotic and trippy ride through multiple kinds of songs with powerful effect, this is the kind of album that appeals to various kinds of druggies and will deeply satisfy. There are rarely any albums deeper or more hypnotic than this.

100 / USA

THRASH METAL, HEAVY METAL / Prog Metal

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

100 / USA

ATMO-SLUDGE METAL, POST-METAL, SLUDGE METAL / Doom Metal, Experimental

There's not another album out there that can reproduce the anger of society and the slow burn into eventual outrage like Through Silver in Blood. TSiB is weird, surreal, dark and mystifying all at the same time, featuring engaging melodies, a fairly progressive nature and their best pre-Albini production. There are several instances where the music is almost tribal and experimental, and so the music is less about the sludge factor and more about the music.

100 / USA

POWER METAL, US POWER METAL, THRASH METAL, HEAVY METAL / Doom Metal, Prog Metal

I know, I know, Iced Earth is cool to hate these days. But I'm not gonna deny that this is the only Iced Earth album that flat-out amazed me. Even though a couple songs need to be a little heavier, the album seamlessly blows through a plethora of metal genres including symphonic, thrash, death, prog and doom while still remaining a US power metal album at heart.

100 / France

BLACK METAL, ATMO-BLACK METAL / Dark Ambient, Industrial, Avant-Garde Metal, Industrial Metal

Blut Aus Nord already made their mark on the world as one of the better atmo-black acts of the modern age, but they weren't really all that unique. The Work Which Transforms God changes that, as it marks the start of an era of experimentation with more maniacal behavior, diversified emotions and industrial sounds. This album feels truly black in every way imaginable, and the weirdness makes it somewhat thought-provoking. Easily an atmo-black album I'd return to, and there aren't many of those in the overdone atmo-black genre.

100 / USA

GOTH METAL / Doom Metal, Goth Rock

I'm counting demos compilations since they're largely made up of unreleased material. Still, the only one I've ever loved so much is The Least Worst of Type O Negative. This album captures the full Type O Negative and honors the many changes they've been through while crafting their first five studio albums.

100 / Greece

SYMPHONIC DEATH METAL, DEATH METAL / Gothic Metal, Melodic Death Metal

Septicflesh's most famous album boasts both a return to the form of the ever diverse debut, Mystic Places at Dawn, while forging what would become their signature style. The pioneers of symphonic death metal take their sound into new worlds with a stronger sense of balance and a recalling of their incredibly diverse presence. This would only later be dethroned in this vein by their next album, The Great Mass.

100 / ENG

HEAVY METAL, HARD ROCK / Doom Metal, Psych Rock

Picking up where Paranoid stopped (and with a stronger emphasis on the metal), this drugged-up rock album is completely otherworldly and pulls stunts unheard and unheard of at the time of release. Its level of diversity and track-by-track identity is exactly the same as Paranoid, even if it doesn't have that special factor of every song being a five-star one. However, one can forgive a couple 4.5 stars, right?

100 / USA

HEAVY METAL, METAL OPERA / Prog Metal, US Power Metal, Speed Metal

Even though I don't consider this a prog metal album, I consider it one of the finest. The storytelling and songwriting balance are working together at peak performance. I can't deny that this is one of the coolest albums I've ever heard, and a surprise piece of art from a band who could've otherwise only had a couple hits on the radio. And up to the grand finale, we have some of their best lyrics, an amazing level of variety going from hard rock to speed metal, and something most metal albums can't capture: real human drama, and somehow that includes romance.

100 / USA

TECH DEATH METAL, BRUTAL DEATH METAL / Death Doom Metal, Death Metal

Nile's third album focuses the most on thematic delivery through atmosphere and depth, and that makes this brual death album stand not only out from the brutal crowd but high above it. Its metallic presence of absolute darkness and despair can not only be likened to death itself, but the spirits of the dead howling in agony over thousands of years.

100 / USA

DRONE METAL, DOOM METAL, SLUDGE METAL / Black Metal, Death Metal, Post-Metal

Like Burnt Offerings, this is another showcase of a large variety of metal genres, but this time it centers around slow and deathly atmospheres of being in places like Hell. The skill shown towards this kind of atmosphere is probably impossible to recreate or beat. III might be the heavier album, and shorter for more creativity, but as it keeps steering into post-metal territory, it loses a little of the horrifying tension of the previous album, which touched up on post-metal and death, as well as practically every extreme genre both slow and fast. This is the most menacing album on Earth, and a milestone for drone music.

100 / USA

SLUDGE METAL / Stoner Metal, Death Metal, Southern Metal

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

100 / USA

METAL, GRINDCORE / Noise Rock, Metalcore, Deathgrind

This is an extremely wild album that breaks the boundaries of metal by going into a dozen different directions in a completely consistent manner, acting as a tribute to the might Full of Hell's metallic prowess.

100 / USA

THRASH METAL

The first on my list to essentially showcase one kind of metal, this album shows Slayer trying some new tricks, and mastering them. The album is a perfect balance between melody and brutality. Reign in Blood was a pure exercise in raw heaviness and punk energy, and South of Heaven took a different approach: tone that down a little in place of a little melody and more metal diversity. As a result, it's just as notable of a metal album and continues Slayer's golden age with a whole new outlook later shown on Seasons in the Abyss as well. As a result, it's got a few more tricks up its sleeve than blasting out a bunch of short songs with incredible heaviness, not to talk bad about Reign in Blood.

100 / USA

NEOCLASSICAL METAL, PROG METAL / Symphonic Metal, Power Metal

This is the point where Symphony X finally mastered the neoclassical sound they had been trying so hard to get right. Divine Wings of Tragedy was a brilliant riffs album, but more diversity and different kinds of songs make Twilight a masterful continuation of their golden era. The neoclassical behavior is made much more unpredictable, and the balance between Symphony X's major influences is stronger, making for yet another beautiful neoclassical metal album that doesn't risk monotony.

100 / France

BLACKGAZE, SHOEGAZE, POST-METAL / Post-Rock, Dream Pop

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

100 / USA

US POWER METAL, HEAVY METAL, SPEED METAL / Thrash Metal, Power Metal

A difficult album to classify, Metal Church's debut boasts most of their best ideas with a US power and speed force that's too metal to resist. The first half covers more traditional metal while the second is more routed in speed. But the nine tracks are all phenomenal, even their cover of Highway Star.

100 / USA

FUNERAL DOOM METAL, DEATH DOOM METAL / Goth Doom Metal, Death Metal

Evoken were always good at atmosphere, but it took them a couple albums to really come up with some excellent compositions. Once they had, they had even improved on their atmospheric delivery, giving the doom world something untamable and perfectly deathly in the world of doom.

100 / USA

HARD ROCK, HEAVY METAL / Glam Metal

Too mature for hair metal, this album is a constant 80's rock and metal jammer that showcases Axl's lost skills as a singer. The jams are peak jams that are hard to resist, and the band gives it their all even unto the end. Rocket Queen is a real jam and a great ending for this album. Even after 2,000 albums, it's hard to find an album with this serious level of headbanging attitude.

100 / USA

PROG METAL, ALT-METAL / Prog Rock

A rare kind of alternative album and an even rarer metal album, Lateralus is all about cerebral vibes, rhythms and detail. It amazes me every time I play it, even if I'm just turning on one song. Is there really a level of pure prog rock “progression” that's beaten Lateralus yet? Can you really listen to this and NOT be surprised by not only how the songs are written, but how consistent they are? I don't know if you can without just hating prog in general.

100 / Sweden

SYMPHONIC METAL / Gothic Metal, Prog Metal, Death Metal

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

100 / Switzerland

TECH THRASH METAL / Prog Metal, Thrash Metal

No More Color has all of the same strengths as Mental Vortex. However, because it's much shorter, No More Color has to deliver the thrash good in a shorter time, making the energy much more worthwhile, and never risking drawing o0ut its songs or sounds like Mental Vortex did. Also, no subpar Beatles covers.

100 / ENG

DEATHGRIND / Grindcore, Industrial Metal, Metalcore

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

100 / Norway

SYMPHONIC BLACK METAL, TRADITIONAL BLACK METAL

This is the only one of the three live Emperor albums in which all of the songs recreate the vibes from their previous studio albums, and don't sound like another live performance with limited instruments. This live album perfectly replicated Emperor's love of reinvention, variety and metamorphosis.

100 / ENG

HEAVY METAL / US Power Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal

Before this, I was only familiar with a bunch of attitudinal 70's and 80's singles that I didn't really care for on the radio. Then a thrash metal / speed metal riff starts up and Halford's voice is screaming like he's a literal banshee about to kill me. Painkiller is probably the most “metal” album in existence since it does a flawless job combining heavy, speed, thrash and power metal like the four genres were the bandmates themselves. Judas Priest betrayed the hard rock for a whole new bombastic side which panned out for them in every possible way. There are few albums as metallic as this album, and the title track might be the most metal song ever.

100 / Norway

PROG METAL, AVANT-GARDE METAL, SYMPHONIC METAL / Symphonic Black Metal

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

100 / ENG

INDUSTRIAL METAL, INDUSTRIAL ROCK / Post-Punk, Sludge Metal, Alt-Metal

Ferocious. That is the word that describes this album. Everything one can love about industrial music is present on this album with no songs dipping too hard in quality, as all these songs have their own identity and mood that work well with the rest. Whenever it's robotic, melodic, noisy or whatever it does, it never stops being ferocious, largely thanks to Coleman's personal and Grohl's percussion.

100 / USA

POWER ELECTRONICS, SLUDGE METAL, POWERVIOLENCE / Dark Ambient

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

100 / Japan

PROG POWER METAL, NEOCLASSIAL METAL, MELODIC POWER METAL / Symphonic Power Metal

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

100 / USA

TECH DEATH METAL / Prog Death Metal, Tech Thrash Metal

Aside from having one of the coolest fucking album covers ever, Symbolic boasts an incredible level of brutality and ferocity, but the ironic thing is the cystral-clear production and the accessibility. With clearer lyrics, the messages are much more thought-provoking, making the incredible tech-riffage much more engrossing and intriguing. This is a perfect gateway into the world of the metal genre this band created and is named after.

100 / Norway

PROG BLACK METAL, BLACK METAL / Viking Metal, Traditional Black Metal

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

100 / Sweden

MELODIC DEATH METAL, PROG DEATH METAL, METAL OPERA

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

100 / Italy

SYMPHONIC POWER METAL, MELODIC POWER METAL, METAL OPERA / Folk Metal, Neoclassical Metal

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

100 / Norway

FOLK METAL, PAGAN BLACK METAL / Progressive Metal, Nordic Folk Music, Nature Recordings, Dark Folk, Viking Metal

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

100 / ENG

HARD ROCK, HEAVY METAL / Prog Rock

This might be seen as a hard rock album, but it's heavy enough to qualify and that attitude is there. Even when the album is being slow and epic like a medieval story, it's displaying some early metal attitude, even building up to some amazing metal riffs.

100 / USA

THRASH METAL, TECH THRASH METAL / Prog Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal

And Justic for All is basically Master of Puppets 2.0. It fixes the problem of MoP's bloatedness when adding ten minutes to the length of Ride the Lightning, incorporating more experimentation and diversity while once again adding ten minutes. This album was intended to be Metallica's "show off" album and it completely succeeded in everything it did.

100 / Finland

POWER METAL / Neoclassical Metal, Prog Power Metal

This could be the understated creative peak for Finnish power metal. Everything is there: the symphonies, the ballads, the riffs, the classical influence and the progginess. On top of that, while carrying over the incredible atmosphere and riffage of Ecliptica, the balance of genres and inclusion of more ballads makes this album feel not only extremely empowering, but magical.

100 / Germany

HEAVY METAL, HARD ROCK

Even though this is before they became huge, Taken By Force showcases Scorpion's best lyrics and many of their best melodies and riffs. This was the album where the band really BECAME scorpions.

100 / USA

METALCORE, MATHCORE / Post-Hardcore

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

100 / Germany

MELODIC POWER METAL, POWER METAL, Prog Power Metal, Speed Metal, Symphonic Metal

Everything you need to know about Blind Guardian is right here. They're back on track with elements of the classic era mingled well with the newer symphonic stuff, including some of their best jams as well. So these 50-somethings are still putting out proper and masterful art.

100 / ENG

HEAVY METAL, Prog Metal

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

100 / Norway

FOLK METAL, VIKING METAL / Black Metal, Progressive Metal, Nordic Folk Music

Kivenkantaja is more melodic than Verisakeet and just as beautiful in its dynamics, even without the black metal. And although it lacks in the same surprising quality, it builds its Nordic mythical aesthetic perfectly without ever straying too far from metal territory unless absolutely necessary. This is probably their album most oriented for that vibe, and we still get plenty of the mythology, mystery, darkness and angst present in their other albums, even the black metal ones. And despite having such long songs, it never once gets boring or drawn out.

100 / Norway

GOTH METAL, SYMPHONIC GOTH METAL / Goth Rock, Industrial Rock, Ethereal Wave

Everything that Tristiana did well in Beyond the Veil was not only more organized and fleshed out on this album, but displays a stronger sense of variety and consistency.

100 / USA

TRADITIONAL DOOM METAL, DOOM METAL, CHRISTIAN METAL

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

100 / Germany

POWER METAL, SPEED METAL

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

100 / USA

GRUNGE, ALT-METAL / Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal

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

100 / Denmark

PROG POWER METAL, MELODIC POWER METAL, FOLK METAL, Celtic Folk

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

100 / Canada

TECH DEATH METAL, DISSONANT DEATH METAL / Avant-Garde Metal, Prog Metal

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

100 / ENG

STONER DOOM METAL, PSYCH METAL / Heavy Psych

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

100

DEATHCORE, MELODIC DEATH METAL / Prog Death Metal, Symphonic Metal, Neoclassical Metal

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

100 / Germany

POWER METAL / Heavy Metal, Prog Power Metal

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

100 / USA

STONER DOOM METAL / Heavy Psych

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

100 / Norway

MELODIC BLACK METAL / Viking Metal, Folk Metal

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

100 / ENG

INDUSTRIAL ROCK, INDUSTRIAL METAL, POST-PUNK / Noise Rock, Gothic Rock

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

100 / Canada

DEPRESSIVE BLACK METAL, ATMO-BLACK METAL / Dark Folk

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

100 / USA

BESTIAL BLACK METAL, BLACK DEATH METAL / Noise, Dark Ambient

Bestial black metal has a bad habit of being underproduced, underwritten and samey. Such is not the case for this sonic monstrosity where the lack of melody is what drives you into a whirlpool of fear. And those little noises that bring you back to the homeland spell nothing short of misery and a cruel reminder of the rotting wood in our life.

100 / USA

METALCORE / Mathcore, Post-Hardcore, Hardcore Punk, Screamo

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

100 / USA

GLAM METAL, HEAVY METAL / Hard Rock, Blues Rock

Yes, there's a glam metal album here. True, I don't think of glam as real metal, but Crue were always a heavy metal act as well, and here on Dr. Feelgood they recapture the spirit of Shout at the Devil but steer into some of heavy metal and hard rocks roots as well. There's more necessity for variety and ever song, even the filler packed an indomitable spirit perfect for any fan of hard rock.

100 / USA

MELODIC POWER METAL, METAL OPERA / Symphonic Power Metal, Prog Metal

Ending the story set up by Epica on the highest note possible, all of the symphonic, storytelling and instrumentation aspects of that album are beat out with more skill, more gusto and no cheese. Metal opera fans need to find this and Epica before they die.

100 / Sweden

MELODIC POWER METAL / Folk Metal

Falconer usually draws out their albums longer than necessary, but Among Beggars and Thieves boasts a level of creativity that they hadn't even come close to reaching before, so the fifty minutes are packed with a collection of vibes that matches the power metal spirit from several angles: the adventure, the mythology, the folk and the evil to be fought against.

100 / USA

GROOVE METAL, THRASH METAL / Speed Metal, Death Metal

What an appropriate name for this album. Even though its predominantly a combination of thrash and groove, the ferocity of black and death metal is all too apparent, even to the point of scariness. Starting off with a ten-minute epic that switches influence from the surreal opening to the heavy thrashing to a speed metal solo and back and forth, the rest of the album follows in this incredible vein as the album never runs out of fresh and ferocious ideas.

100 / USA

PROG METAL / Prog Rock

Accessible prog is NOT something that can be easily done, but Dream Theater managed to make it work. Not only is everything twisty and surreal, but unique in the sense that the general lack of heaviness is made up for by a keen sense of rhythm and a surprising level of variety. You'll even sense influence from 80's pop in here, and it only makes the respective tracks that influence appears on better.

100 / ENG

HARD ROCK, HEAVY METAL / Prog Rock

It might not be a Sabbath album, but its lyrical fantasy imagery and beautiful solos and melodies put it on the same level as Sabbath. Rainbow's magnum opus evolves their hard rock sound into new territory, perfectly capturing the early metal spirit and adding a very strong mythical flair. And I don't need to tell anyone that Ronnie James Dio does a flawless job on the vocals.

100 / Japan

ALT-METAL, MELODIC METALCORE / Djent, Electronic

OK, I understand that weebish high-ptiched vocals aren't exactly metal, but if someone can make it work, it works. For Utsu-P, it's worked for years, despite his albums being drawn out and repetitive. But he occasionally tried different things, and Renaissance is ALL ABOUT new ideas. In a short 36 minutes, Utsu-P released a plethora of diverse tracks combining the weeb singing with black metal vocals and effects, never once breaking concentration, consistency or feeling.

100 / USA

SLAM DEATH METAL / Deathcore, Electronic, Djent, Brutal Death Metal

Don't be fooled. The cosmic-ass album cover describes the album COMPLETELY: the best riffs I've ever heard in a slam album are present here, largely because this short album is more focused on weird surprises and a powerful fear factor, telling a psychotic story of its own through the instruments and effects alone. This is some of the most creative death I've heard, as creative as Unquestionable Presence. It's an incredibly shame that DTG is so obscure.

100 / USA

PROG METAL / Neoclassical Metal, Prog Power Metal, Symphonic Metal
Symphony X may have strayed from the path of the neoclassical genre they pioneered, but they never forsook it, nor did they lose that same incredibly melodic and masculine spirit that drove them. This is easily their most progressive, and yet their most accessible album. By touching up on what people love about metal as a whole, they're able to give the fans what they want and attract new ones without losing their spirit. The musicianship is still at peak level, delivering incredible riff after beautiful melody with powerful vocals, indomitable spirit and a more metal presence than before.

100 / USA

METALCORE, MATHCORE / Avant-Garde Metal

Metalcore and mathcore are such overdone genres. Dillinger Escape Plan can't possibly do enough, though (especially now that they've broken up). This is mathcore perfection, and this crazy piece of work was only their debut! The erratic behavior of the band is only met by one other band: Converge, and their level of technicality is absurd, and they always make it work. The whole album, I was going, "They did NOT just do that!" And I bet I'm not the first.

100 / Germany

POWER METAL / Heavy Metal

Helloween is skilled enough not to need the legendary Kiske at their helm, and Better Than Raw proves it as its creativity and heavy metal approach surpasses the Keeper series. By taking a more metallic approach and focusing on diversity and riffage, the Deris-era puts out something truly perfect. Every song is a total jam, so there's no filler, and this metallic behavior keeps the album strong for its entirety.

100 / Sweden

DJENT, PROG METAL, AVANT-GARDE METAL / Jazz Fusion, Brutal Prog, Spoken Word, Free Improvisation

If only Thordendal's band Meshuggah would apply this form of experimentation intro their music instead of beating the same song to death. This is one of those rare albums that displays everything a genre is capable of without ever steering away from the point or the overall mood of the album. There's an incredible level of technical skill and imagination involved, and because of it this album's better than anything Meshuggah ever put out.

100 / ENG

TECH DEATH METAL, PROG DEATH METAL / Jazz Fusion, Tech Thrash Metal

This was the second death metal album I've ever heard, right behind Symbolic. But this is better to me, because it's short enough to keep every magnificent riff and technical achievement work, and not bloated in any way despite how many great ideas it has. The heaviness and energy is just flat out menacing, but the album is all the more intriguing because of it. If you've got 30 minutes to spare and you want some of the wildest and heaviest music imaginable, you gotta find this piece of work.

100 / USA

NU METAL, ALT-METAL / Industrial Metal, Electronic, Art Rock

This is the only nu metal album that ever gave me everything I ask for in a great album. There's good consistency between tracks, as every one is a catchy headbanger. There's a lot of variety in the music as well. And of course, Davis tries a lot of different vocal techniques.

99.5 / USA

DOOM METAL, SLUDGE METAL, DRONE METAL / Black Metal, Post-Metal, Post-Rock

The album carries over the themes and sounds of the previous Hell almost perfectly, and adding some calmer stuff to the mix to further detail the sadness of being in Hell itself. Even though the dronish elements are toned down a little, its sense of drama, sadness and experimentation is so high that you'd think it reached Heaven and not the namesake. This is a half-hour of experimentation with various kinds of metal, and the imagery of the despair of going to Hell itself is all too accurate.

99 / USA

POWER METAL, US POWER METAL, SPEED METAL / Prog Metal, Thrash Metal

The album already starts out great, but it's also the kind of album that gets better as it goes along. On top of that, not only does it improve on all of the strengths of the previous albums, but it's also one of the more diversified and unique power metal albums out there, and yes, this includes the Scorpions cover. How the flying fuck do you cover Scorpions? It's predominantly a speed / power album, but it also includes carefully places elements of thrash and prog. The only problem I have is that the midtro to "Whore of Babylon" felt a little pointless, and that is the full extent.

99 / USA

THRASH METAL, SPEED METAL / Tech Thrash Metal, Heavy Metal

My ONE tiny problem with this album is that Hangar 18 kind of switches from one inferior song with no rhythm to an incredible instrumental, and it just feels awkward. Otherwise, this forward-thinking mish-mash of riff after riff and rhythm after rhythm is one of the most metal things on Earth. The rest of the songs all amaze in their own special way, whether they're super-technical thrash songs or short speed metal jams. Lots of effort went into this and it paid off.

99 / USA

MELODIC POWER METAL, METAL OPERA / Symphonic Power Metal, Prog Power Metal

The start of something truly brilliant, Epica might falter a little in comparison to The Black Halo due to a shred of overlength, but the creativity and storytelling of the album display a rare force in power metal concepts.

99 / France

BLACK DEATH METAL / Avant-Garde Metal, Prog Black Metal, Prog Death Metal, Melodic Black Metal

This is the black death album I've been looking for. An incredibly level of unpredictability and diversity overcomes each song as it belts you with surprise after surprise without getting in the way of its powerful emotional force. Even though the album's a little overlong, the effect of the anger and depression remains consistent.

99 / Germany

POWER METAL / Heavy Metal, Melodic Power Metal

This was the first power metal album I ever heard, and it was always a favorite of mine for its raw anthemic energy. It acts as a perfect sequel to the melodic beauty that preceded it, improving on all of the original album's strengths the same way Terminator 2 did. Most of the songs are absolutely kickass, and even any filler is a lot of fun to jam to. Songs like "I Want Out" are so spirited that they're almost impossible to emulate.

99 / USA

TECH THRASH METAL / Prog Thrash Metal, Black Metal

When most bands make a 70-minute album without any shifts in genre or style, they run a terrible risk of monotony and unoriginalty. Not Vektor. Vektor was always a pretty insanely fast-moving and technical band, but Terminal Redux cranked it up to the max, making for some of the most batshit evil you're ever going to hear. Even if it gets slightly tiring near the end, this level of tech/prog originality is rare, and it makes up almost completely for the length.

99 / Finland

FOLK METAL, VIKING METAL / Melodic Power Metal

For those who can't have enough medieval badassery, Ensiferum's debut probably has too much of it. Despite its viking metal status, it boasts a power metal attitude and death metal heaviness, making for a perfect combination of metal genres around the spectrum to attract many metalheads, and having the rhythmic, melodic and technical skill to back it all up.

100 / Germany

MELODIC POWER METAL, METAL OPERA / Symphonic Power Metal, Prog Power Metal, Spoken Word

Blind Guardian left their speed metal days behind and pioneered the symphonic sound that would influence bands around the world, along with America's Symphony X. They manage to bring out the best of the Tolkien spirit with some of the catchiest melodies and most powerful instrumentation power metal had seen up to that point. Kursch, as usual, sings his beloved heart out, and his vocals probably work best on this album than any other. And if you're not annoyed by all the segues, then I seriously recommend this.

99 / USA

ALT-METAL / Nu Metal, Shoegaze, Alt-Rock, Post-Hardcore

White Pony is one of the finest examples of how to incorporate emotions and variety into one of the world's most overdone metal genres. Coming a long way from their nu metal days, White Pony shows Deftones making a drastic change via expanding their horizons into a world of discovery.

99 / ENG

FUNERAL DOOM METAL, PSYCH METAL / Avant-Garde Metal

The problem with most Esoteric albums is that the band feels the need to drag things on for way too long. Thankfully, they got it right on Metamorphogenesis, where they take their best ideas during their more surreal era, and combine them in a never-wavering 40-minute epic of three tracks that is so otherworldly you'd feel like you explored the whole universe by the time it finishes.

98.5 / USA

PROG METAL, SLUDGE METAL

There was barely any fluctuation in quality between Mastodon's second and fourth albums. Blood Mountain provides a completely surprising and powerful in-between where the strengths of the album are the same as Leviathan with only the slightest drop in quality, so light it's barely noticeable. Mastadon's classic era amazes me more than most prog bands ever did, even Opeth and Dream Theater.

98.5 / Finland

BLACK METAL, PSYCH METAL, AVANT-GARDE METAL / Atmo-Black Metal, Post-Metal, Space Rock

This is the most surreal ride metal has ever given me. Not only is there plenty of time to explore the strangest new worlds imaginable, but the heaviness never suffers under the multi-layered weirdness. Honestly, I have trouble deciding whether or not to recommend it to metal noobs because it has a lot to offer, but it might even be too much. But Oranssi Pazuzu ultimately outdid themselves, and it's gonna be brutal seeing them try to do it again because I'm not sure they can.

98.5

SYMPHONIC GOTH METAL, GOTH METAL

98 / Greece

DEATH METAL / Melo-Death Metal, Black Death Metal, Symphonic Death Metal, Gothic Metal

Septicflesh's debut is a challenge to consistency and conventionality. It's constantly testing the flow of the album with genre after genre while delivering a magical exploration of everything that makes metal great. Exceptional delivery and a perfectly guttural vocalist make this a death essential.

98.5 / ENG

DEATH DOOM METAL, DOOM METAL / Goth Doom Metal, Goth Metal

This was back when My Dying Bride was all about ambition, and it greatly showed. Constantly poetic lyrics are bellowed and growled through a beautiful collection of music than behaves the same way.

98.5 / Norway

SYMPHONIC BLACK METAL, TRADITIONAL BLACK METAL / Prog Black Metal, Gothic Metal

Another sonic piece of magnificence from the world's first and foremost symphonic black metal band, this one improves on all of the strengths of Nightside with more gothic synths, diversity and experimentation.

98 / USA

PROG DEATH METAL, TECH DEATH METAL / Prog Thrash Metal

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

98 / Germany

MELODIC POWER METAL, POWER METAL / Symphonic Power Metal, Speed Metal

You get the best of Blind Guardian from every angle: the speed metal early days, the modern symphony and the melodic riffage of the era between Twilight World and Nightfall. The band plays with total ferocity, and they capture the spirit they displayed on their albums perfectly. The only real flaw is that Hansi Kursch starts getting soft and melodic during the choruses too often so the audience can sing with him, so the heaviness is a little damaged.

98 / USA

ALT-METAL, PROG METAL / Prog Rock

Tool's stylistic history can be seen as gradually going less alternative metal and more prog rock. This is the album where they started to experiment, and as a result we have something truly surreal to add to the overdone alternative metal genre, as a thematic and thought-provoking contrast to the Korn wannabes and Primus fanboys of the late-90's and the 2000's. This piece of work is mostly loaded with new ideas and never gets old.