Essential Metal Albums

Lots of stuff on Foro's list could hardly be called "essential".  I won't dispute they are good, or even great (though many of them I've never even heard of), just not what I would call "essential" to a record collection.  But, maybe they are essential to Forostar.  Also, since when was Pink Floyd "metal"? 

How's this for a complete list?  (Stolen from Digital Dream Door).  Spoiler-tagged to shorten the message for scrolling purposes. 

  1. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
  2. Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
  3. Master of Puppets - Metallica
  4. Powerslave - Iron Maiden
  5. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
  6. Ride the Lightning - Metallica
  7. Piece of Mind - Iron Maiden
  8. Sad Wings of Destiny - Judas Priest
  9. Operation: Mindcrime - Queensryche
10. Rust in Peace - Megadeth
11. Screaming for Vengeance - Judas Priest
12. Blizzard of Ozz - Ozzy Osbourne
13. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - Iron Maiden
14. Master of Reality - Black Sabbath
15. Reign in Blood - Slayer
16. Holy Diver - Dio
17. Rainbow Rising - Rainbow
18. Painkiller - Judas Priest
19. Appetite for Destruction - Guns 'N Roses
20. British Steel - Judas Priest
21. Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? - Megadeth
22. Van Halen - Van Halen
23. ...And Justice For All - Metallica
24. Somewhere in Time - Iron Maiden
25. Diary of a Madman - Ozzy Osbourne
26. Kill 'Em All - Metallica
27. Ace of Spades - Motorhead
28. Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow - Rainbow
29. Don't Break The Oath - Mercyful Fate
30. Sabotage - Black Sabbath
31. Overkill - Motorhead
32. Volume 4 - Black Sabbath
33. Stained Class - Judas Priest
34. Destroyer - KISS
35. Lateralus - Tool
36. Welcome to Hell - Venom
37. Long Live Rock and Roll - Rainbow
38. Seasons in the Abyss - Slayer
39. Cowboys From Hell - Pantera
40. 1984 - Van Halen
41. Heaven & Hell - Black Sabbath
42. Pyromania - Def Leppard
43. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - Black Sabbath
44. Metallica (Black Album) - Metallica
45. Abigail - King Diamond
46. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
47. Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. I - Helloween
48. Lightning to the Nations - Diamond Head
49. Hell Bent For Leather - Judas Priest
50. Aenima - Tool
51. Vulgar Display of Power - Pantera
52. Badmotorfinger - Soundgarden
53. Black Water Park - Opeth
54. Killers - Iron Maiden
55. Defenders of the Faith - Judas Priest
56. South of Heaven - Slayer
57. Among the Living - Anthrax
58. Black Metal - Venom
59. Hall of the Mountain King - Savatage
60. Symbolic - Death
61. Bonded By Blood - Exodus
62. Balls to the Wall - Accept
63. Images & Words - Dream Theater
64. Love Gun - KISS
65. Far Beyond Driven - Pantera
66. Hysteria - Def Leppard
67. Shout At The Devil - Motley Crue
68. Awake - Dream Theater
69. Dirt - Alice in Chains
70. Countdown to Extinction - Megadeth
71. Melissa - Mercyful Fate
72. Toxicity - System of a Down
73. Scum - Napalm Death
74. Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
75. Dark Saga - Iced Earth
76. Virgin Killer - Scorpions
77. Divine Wings of Tragedy - Symphony X
78. Hail to England - Manowar
79. The Mob Rules - Black Sabbath
80. Sin After Sin - Judas Priest
81. Hell Awaits - Slayer
82. Dr. Feelgood - Motley Crue
83. Skid Row - Skid Row
84. Scenes From A Memory - Dream Theater
85. Blackout - Scorpions
86. Slave to the Grind - Skid Row
87. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - Mayhem
88. Hatebreeder - Children of Bodom
89. Blind - Corrison of Conformity
90. Tales from the Twilight World - Blind Guardian
91. Killing is My Business...and Business is Good - Megadeth
92. The Last Command - W.A.S.P.
93. Edge of Thorns - Savatage
94. Beneath The Remains - Sepultura
95. The Legacy - Testament
96. The Jester Race - In Flames
97. The Chemical Wedding - Bruce Dickinson
98. Practice What You Preach - Testament
99. Chaos A.D. - Sepultura
100. Human - Death

Other than the fact that I hate nearly everything by Kiss, I think this is a pretty damn good "Top 100" starter list -- except it is missing UFO's Strangers in the Night and every other great live album that really is an essential part of any record collection.
 
I think we need to narrow it down if this is going to be interesting. Somewhere around  20 or 25 albums seems reasonable - it should be enough to cover most of the important steps in metal's evolution. Below, I've tried to outline the major developments and suggest an album to represent each one. My knowledge of a sub-genre isn't always that extensive, however, so sometimes I can't decide.

Metal as a genre began with Black Sabbath, so that's where the list should begin. Their debut deserves consideration as it was the first real metal album, but Paranoid is a more substantial effort in my opinion. I'd go for the latter.

Deep Purple are essential. They were present at the beginning and in some ways I think they were the best 70s metal band. In any case, their ripping rockers were very different from the brooding Sabs and the bluesy Zeps. In Rock would be a good choice, although you might as well go with Made in Japan and get more of their classic songs.

Judas Priest were tremendously important, but I've never cared for them so somebody else will have to choose an album. Maybe Unleashed in the East? I don't know.

Now we get to the NWOBHM, and that means... well, not Maiden. I'm trying to stick with one album per artist and I don't want to use my Maiden pick on one of their earliest albums. Instead, I nominate Angel Witch's self-titled debut. It's really good and varied and it influenced lots of people.

Thrash was the next big thing. I'd say Metallica and Slayer were the most important bands here, and probably the biggest 80s metal bands along with Maiden. Ride the Lightning and Reign in Blood, perhaps?

Maybe something by Mercyful Fate would be in place. Their satanic brew of prog, power and early black certainly inspired lots of later bands, and Don't Break the Oath is one hell of an album.

Now we get to Maiden. Live After Death is clearly their most essential record. The thing is, while Maiden have released many great studio albums, none of them really stands out as perfect the way, say, Moving Pictures does in Rush's catalogue. Live After Death provides a good retrospective on the band's first five albums (probably their most important work from a historical perspective), and the setlist and performance are both top-notch. Hell, I want to go and listen to it now.

The power metal came along. I guess that means a Helloween album. Has this genre developed at all since then anyway?

I know most people would like to forget about hair metal, but I think it was too big to ignore. Still, I don't have the slightest idea what a representative album might be.

Death metal? It's a tricky one because so many different bands were instrumental in its creation. Something by Death might be a good choice. Or Carcass if you want to emphasize the gore (and the humour). Then there's At the Gates, Entombed and the other Swedish bands. I'll have to come back to this one.

When it comes to black metal, I'm going to skip Venom and go straight for the Scandinavian bands. Bathory were the first, but Mayhem, Emperor, Darkthrone and a few others were just as important. Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse is my personal favourite, so I'll go with that one.

Doom metal rounds off the "extreme" genres. Candlemass? My Dying Bride? Cathedral? I don't know enough about it to choose.

Prog metal! How could I forget? Well, there's Rush, but they were only ever borderline metal. Dream Theater makes more sense, as most newer bands copy their sound. How progressive of them.

I've probably forgotten some styles, but this post is getting out of hand. I just need something from the last ten years. I like Mastodon a lot - their fusion of hardcore punk, progressive metal and Lizzy-like guitars is definitely one of the most unique sounds in modern metal. So Blood Mountain it is.

That's a rough outline. Add a few more albums from the various sub-genres depending on how you feel about their relative importance, and you've got your list.

Or am I putting way too much thought into what was just supposed to be a celebration of good albums?
 
What I posted is what can be considered essential as each of the albums I listed represents really evolutionary and revolutionary moments within a band's career and/or in the genre. I hate these categorizations and these crap media lists of any kind, and althought it's important for most people to have 'tags' (ever saw any list with such an essential band as Voivod or Captain Beyond?! Probably not!), Metal as whole just passed through time experimenting and changing into various types of bands; Death and Carcass are barely similar (except for the brutal and technical output) and both are in the Death Metal basket, which name comes exactly from the own band Death. So, to me, it's contraditory enough as both bands are quite different. Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost and Mayhem are the first batch of Black Metal bands, but none of them has anything in common but the satanic, occult and hystory/fantasy mythology in the lyrics; Celtic Frost comes from Hellhammer and owes more to the first 2 Maiden albums (as Tom Warrior said himself), Motörhead and punk bands like Discharge; Mayhem is influenced by punk/hardcore like The Exploited, Discharge and sped up music; Mercyful Fate is clearly influenced by the traditional metal like Priest, Maiden, Scorpions, and the former Heavy Rock like Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Jethro Tull, Rush and Thin Lizzy; Venom takes the same influences as Mercyful Fate and then mix with Punk and Hardcore.

So, for these and a lot of other examples I think that categories are more misleading than omnibus.
 
Looking at Shade's ideas...

I agree with War Pigs, and I'd add Heaven And Hell. Your list has no Dio, who is essential.

I'd skip Purple, much as I love them. Like Zep, they're not quite metal. And if either of those two do belong, it's Zep. They influenced more musicians than Purple. But no Zep album is full of their metallic stuff. For every Communication Breakdown, there's a Black Mountain Side. So no Purple or Zep, despite their influence.

Priest, I go for the earlier stuff myself, so I'd suggest Sinner. But there's a half-dozen Priest albums which are at least as good as Sinner. It's hard to pick a single best album from them.

Angel Witch and Reign In Blood are great ideas, but I'd prefer Puppets as the Metallica album. And of course I agree with LAD (just look at the avatar).

There's a lot to power metal. Helloween's Keeper II is the best to represent the early stuff. Blind Guardian shouldn't be ignored either. I'd pick Tales From The Twilight World. Most modern power metal either imitates those bands or goes into prog.

Only one hair metal album can hang with this group: Motley Crue, Shout At The Devil.

Dream Theater isn't pure metal, though they lean that way heavily in the last decade. I prefer Symphony X for real prog metal - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy.

Megadeth ought to be on the list somewhere. Rust In Peace.
And Iced Earth, Alive In Athens.
 
Jeffmetal said:
(...)

So, for these and a lot of other examples, I think that categories are more misleading than omnibus.
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The categories are just a convenient way of keeping track of things. It's not deadly serious. Well, maybe for some people.

Anyway, the fun in this lies in making the hard decisions. Carcass and Death were different, sure, but they were both part of roughly the same development. So who mattered the most - Carcass or Death? A pretty meaningless question for sure, but more interesting than just posting endless lists.

SinisterMinisterX said:
I agree with War Pigs, and I'd add Heaven And Hell. Your list has no Dio, who is essential.
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Yeah, I guess you need Dio somewhere. Maybe one of the first two Rainbow albums - they were pretty groundbreaking. Or Heaven and Hell, if we ignore my arbitrary one album per band rule.

Priest, I go for the earlier stuff myself, so I'd suggest Sinner. But there's a half-dozen Priest albums which are at least as good as Sinner. It's hard to pick a single best album from them.
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I do think a seventies album would be best. It's their most innovative work, and it puts them in the right place on a chronological list (just before the NWOBHM).

There's a lot to power metal. Helloween's Keeper II is the best to represent the early stuff. Blind Guardian shouldn't be ignored either. I'd pick Tales From The Twilight World. Most modern power metal either imitates those bands or goes into prog.
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Well, Tales from the Twilight World is my favourite power metal album (which doesn't mean much, but still). I guess the genre is so big and popular that it deserves more than one album.
 
Shadow said:
The categories are just a convenient way of keeping track of things. It's not deadly serious. Well, maybe for some people.

Anyway, the fun in this lies in making the hard decisions. Carcass and Death were different, sure, but they were both part of roughly the same development. So who mattered the most - Carcass or Death? A pretty meaningless question for sure, but more interesting than just posting endless lists.
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Or maybe you just don't know enough to make such a list. But I agree it's pointless debating which of those 2 bands is more important.
 
SinisterMinisterX said:
But no Zep album is full of their metallic stuff. For every Communication Breakdown, there's a Black Mountain Side. So no ... Zep.
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One word: Presence

SinisterMinisterX said:
Blind Guardian shouldn't be ignored either.
...
And Iced Earth, Alive In Athens.
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Damn skippy. 
 
cornfedhick said:
Lots of stuff on Foro's list could hardly be called "essential".  I won't dispute they are good, or even great (though many of them I've never even heard of), just not what I would call "essential" to a record collection.
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You and others indeed (might) have not heard a lot of stuff. I find my list a balanced list covering about all the metal genres.

cornfedhick said:
Also, since when was Pink Floyd "metal"?
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First I did not want to mention Floyd, but I did it as a reaction to Jeffmetal's list. It indeed might not fit in this list.

I mentioned a lot of albums (I guess because I have heard a lot of albums) but the ones I mentioned are the ones I find the best. I haven't just listed all albums these bands have made, or all albums I own.
I listed several Helloween en Gamma Ray albums because I see them as the flagcarriers of the European power metal scene, a genre I really like, and these bands simply made (imo) the most strong albums.

But indeed if we have to list 25 albums or so, I would have a hard time, eliminating so many jewels. Maybe I should give it a try. I understand that some bands are important in the development of the hardrock/metal genre but if I don't like them, I don't list them. For instance, I never cared much for Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Mercyful Fate, Dream Theater or Megadeth a.o. bands. Mostly because I don't like the singers.

So my list concentrates on albums with strong singers, or simply albums with fantastic metal melodies, atmospheres, solos or riffs. The cool thing of this topic is that we can read all these choices.
 
Every Maiden album with Bruce except No Prayer and FOTD
The last 3 Bruce solo albums
Queensryche-Operation:Mindcrime
Slayer-Seasons In The Abyss
Megadeth-Rest In Piece
Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral
Metallica-Master Of Puppets
Blind Guardian-Imaginations From The Other Side
Ozzy-Blizzard Of Ozz

There are more of course, but that would take too long.
 
Jeffmetal said:
Or maybe you just don't know enough to make such a list. But I agree it's pointless debating which of those 2 bands is more important.
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I think Shadow likes big names in classic and progressive rock and a few other bands but for the rest I think he doesn't like power metal or the more "simple" (catchy!) hard rock from the eighties. There might be more subgenres (doom?) he didn't try/like yet.

So some people are metalheads in the sense of trying/liking a lot of stuff, and others aren't.
 
Which makes my statement all the more coherent. And it's no problem not knowing 'everything' (as if someone really knew. If someone thinks he/she knows everything, only thinks, indeed). It's just that I didn't copy paste any of the stuff I listed. All these things are on the tip of my fingers and tongue. Also, the more lists posted, the more bands and unknown gems we'll know; I, for instance, got pretty interested on Virgin Steele you listed and some others I'll certainly check out.

Pink Floyd is one of the most important bands on the former doomy sounds. Ever heard Embryo, The Narrow Way, Obscured By Clouds, When You're In...? Ask Anahtema if Floyd's has nothing to do with Metal. :)
 
Jeffmetal said:
I, for instance, got pretty interested on Virgin Steele you listed and some others I'll certainly check out.
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Good choice. Some albums are not that great but the Marriage albums, and Invictus are fine albums to start with.

Virgin Steele has the bombast of Manowar but has more qualities, in the sense of details in the music. And the lyrics are way better.
 
A little bit of thrash is needed...

Onslaught - Killing Peace: This album is a superb comeback album from arguably UK's biggest and best thrash band.

Xentrix - Shattered Existence: This is one of the greatest debuts of all time - in my opinion. Shame it never got them the break they possibly deserved.

Sepultura - Roots: Sorry to all those that don't like this one, but I do. And I think it is worthy of inclusion.

Exodus - Fabulous Disaster: OK, some may say that Bonded In Blood is better (as noted by Jeffmetal) - but I'm not overly familiar with that one, rather surprisingly, so I'll stick with what I know.

Venom - Black Metal: I'm not sure I need to give reasons here. These Geordies started it. :D

Celtic Frost: Into the Pandemonium: Very dark, very moody. Makes The X Factor seem rather upbeat.

Kreator - Extreme Aggression/Enemy of God: Either will do.

And the not so heavy, but can still get the t-shirt vibrating....

Monster Magnet - Powertrip: This is all I know of these guys, but what an album.

Alabama Thunderpussy - Staring At The Divine: Cut from a similar cloth to Monster Magnet, this is pure stoner metal at it's best.

Then the not so heavy, heavy....

Def Leppard - On Through the Night: A very UFO inspired debut from a band that took the wrong route to fame and multi-platinum record sales.
 
Jeffmetal said:
Or maybe you just don't know enough to make such a list. But I agree it's pointless debating which of those 2 bands is more important.
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I think we're simply approaching this from two different perspectives. Your list is intended for somebody who is deeply interested in metal, whereas I'm aiming for people who want to get a good picture of metal's evolution and how it fits into the bigger picture of rock music, without devoting a year to it. So which metal albums are the most groundbreaking, the most influential? The differences between Carcass and Death may seem huge to the initiated, but they're not paramount. It's not like we're letting Cream speak for King Crimson or something like that.

Maybe Carcass and Death should both be included. Symphonies of Sickness for "brutality" (and it has quite enough of it, thank you very much) and Human for melody. Of course, that leaves out the Swedish bands...

Anyway, let's not argue about this too much. Your list is good - people who appreciate Obscured by Clouds are all too rare!

Forostar said:
But indeed if we have to list 25 albums or so, I would have a hard time, eliminating so many jewels. Maybe I should give it a try.
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Do it!

I understand that some bands are important in the development of the hardrock/metal genre but if I don't like them, I don't list them.
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Some degree of objectivity is necessary, I think. I've never been a big fan of Sabbath or Priest or Metallica but you can't really leave them out of a list like this.

Forostar said:
I think he doesn't like power metal or the more "simple" (catchy!) hard rock from the eighties. There might be more subgenres (doom?) he didn't try/like yet.
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You're right, I don't like power metal. As for doom, I sort of like it but not enough to devote lots of time to it (at the moment).
 
Shadow said:
Some degree of objectivity is necessary, I think. I've never been a big fan of Sabbath or Priest or Metallica but you can't really leave them out of a list like this.
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Hmm, I think you can. If we have to mention certain bands then we'd all have lists which look like eachother.
I think this discussion was done before but if we would follow your pattern, the list would consist out of classic/influential bands regardless of the poster's taste. I rather see different lists instead of similar lists.

And who can decide which albums from the 21st century are essential? There's no "law" for this yet, so I rather pick my own choices.

To aim at the evolution of metal, we could simply read an encyclopedia or something. And this topic isn't a quiz either to see who knows the answer best.

Just my 2 cents.  :)
 
I can't see why Zeppelin is not regarded as one of the former Metal bands (starting by it's name, alone). The mid section instrumental in Dazed And Confused was ('unconsciously') ripped off by Sabbath for Paranoid and its intro is pure doom. Achilles Last Stand gave Maiden the gallop. What else is needed?
 
Jeffmetal said:
I can't see why Zeppelin is not regarded as one of the former Metal bands (starting by it's name, alone). The mid section instrumental in Dazed And Confused was ('unconsciously') ripped off by Sabbath for Paranoid and its intro is pure doom. Achilles Last Stand gave Maiden the gallop. What else is needed?
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This isn't really related but I still think Achilles is their best song
 
Forostar said:
Hmm, I think you can. If we have to mention certain bands then we'd all have lists which look like eachother.
I think this discussion was done before but if we would follow your pattern, the list would consist out of classic/influential bands regardless of the poster's taste. I rather see different lists instead of similar lists.

And who can decide which albums from the 21st century are essential? There's no "law" for this yet, so I rather pick my own choices.
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The advantage of trying to keep a somewhat objective view is that you get some arguments. Otherwise it's just lists.

As for 21st century bands, one can already evaluate their originality. Overly derivative works are rarely essential.
 
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