AND NOW FOR THE HOME STRETCH:
I've said before that this album is actually kinda uneven with three absolutely gargantuan standouts that threaten to eclipse the entire album, but like with all of Gamma Ray's classic era, it really doesn't matter all that much because the less good songs are still great, and the great songs are unbelievably good. Land of the Free is undeniably their peak in my eyes, and it heralded Kai Hansen's return to vocals in one of the most stunning ways imaginable. The dude founded two of the most important power metal bands of all time, he's the real fucking deal and he's on top of his game here without a doubt. Those "lesser" tracks would still be the best songs on most power metal albums, and I can't see a timeline where I don't think the speed metal supremacy of "Salvation's Calling" or the pounding mid-paced epic of "Abyss of the Void" doesn't completely blow me away. "Time to Break Free" is kind of a misplaced Helloween track but it's super catchy and shows how excellent of a songwriter Kai was in his prime. But... I mean of course, there are three monsters here that became the most enduring classics for a reason. The title track is quintessential power metal, with a rousing chorus that sets my soul on fire every time, "Man on a Mission" is quintessential speed metal, with a rousing chorus that sets my soul on fire every time, and "Rebellion in Dreamland" is quintessential everything. "Rebellion in Dreamland" was honestly a pretty bold choice to open the album considering it's the longest track by a considerable margin, and apart from the wild soloing section near the end it never picks up above mid-paced, and I'd even argue it's pretty slow most of the time. For a high energy power metal band? That takes cojones, but Kai and the guys were clearly confident in how fucking strong of a song it is, because it takes command from the opening minute and enraptures you in a tale of revolution that sets the stage for the entire experience to come. Land of the Free on the whole is actually Gamma Ray's most diverse album, and a lot of these ideas are much more focused on tight melody than high speed theatrics like they're so good at doing, but every idea they have hits bullseye so it just becomes a consistent collection of stunners from many different approaches. "What we need right now is a miracle on earth..."
Fuck yes early Bodom was incredible. It can be easy to forget sometimes since they quickly became a Hot Topic mallrat mainstay and were publicized to obscene degrees, but man their first few albums were all incredible. At this point in time the whole subsect of melodeath that focused on keyboards and insane shredding wasn't really a thing yet, and once it exploded it was so inescapably tied to these guys that to this day many of those bands (Norther is the most obvious) are known as "Bodom clones". Hatebreeder is melodeath in a sense, sure, but this was really the apex of their "neoclassical power metal with blast beats and harsh vocals" phase, and as a result this is one of the most unhinged and reckless metal albums ever written. Laiho definitely has a great ear for melody that he keeps sharp at all times, but man every single track on this one is just balls to the wall fucking insanity. This is very anarchic, with guitar solos taking the place of where a lesser band would put a simple melody, guitar solos under the verses, guitar solos in the intros, and guitar solos during the guitar solos that are so fucking insane that they put solos on top of solos and then make them duel with keyboard solos. I imagine that at some point during recording, the producer popped in to say "Hey Alexi, instead of so many guitar solos, why don't you try riffing for a few minutes" and he just broke his guitar over his knee and shouted "I'M LITERALLY MAKING UP THE LYRICS AS I RECORD DO YOU THINK I'VE THOUGHT ABOUT ANYTHING OTHER THAN GUITAR SOLOS?? THE ONLY THINGS IN THE WORLD I CARE ABOUT ARE BOOZE AND SOLOS AND I'M ALL OUT OF BOOZE" before pulling another guitar out of his pant leg and then recording "Towards Dead End" on the spot. For those around when Metalocalypse was on TV, Skwisgaar Skwigelf was based on Laiho and it's barely a parody. The name of the game here is "unrestrained", because at no point does the band dial it back for a more atmospheric section or a tempo below 2000bpm, it's all full speed speed speed all the time with two solos going at all times. Ever once in a while I realize I haven't listened to Bodom in a while and wonder if I've grown out of them, but one listen to Hatebreeder and suddenly I'm 15 years old again and this is the best fucking thing I've ever heard in my life. Obviously I think every song here is great, with special mentions going to the title track, "Warheart", and "Towards Dead End", but I'd be lying if I said the best song was anything other than "Downfall". To this day, despite hitting mainstream success with tracks like "Sixpounder", "Hate Me", and "Are You Dead Yet?", they still close out every show with "Downfall". The closest I've ever felt to being a superhero was when my buddy and I drove up to see Bodom at The Rave in Milwaukee back in 2006, and during the final climactic guitar solo of "Downfall", I slowly strode out into the middle of the circle pit, planted my feet in a power stance, threw my head back and air guitared the fuck out of it while a hundred people ran circles around me. In the 13 years since then I've gotten fuckin' married and it still wasn't as cool as that moment.
Come on, obviously this is the best Suffocation album, who is going to argue that? Pierced from Wherenow? Obviously Suffocation's golden era was untouchable and during the 90s there wasn't one single death metal band that even came close to surpassing them, since both other albums have been on this list and I alluded in the intro that both EPs would've ranked as well if I had allowed them. Their level of quality was no fuckin' joke, and Effigy of the Forgotten remains as their crowning achievement. I said before that Breeding and Pierced were pure, thrashless death metal with a really unusual songwriting approach, but oddly enough that's not really true with Effigy. This is a much more straightforward album in comparison, and the leftover thrash influence is undeniable on tracks like "Seeds of the Suffering", "Jesus Wept", and especially "Reincrimation". I didn't mention it before, but this album also features the original drummer, Mike Smith, who is allegedly one of the most toxic and disagreeable people in the entire scene, but his frantic, twisted style was a huge part of the band's sound early on and every future drummer, no matter how talented they were on their own, was always struggling to emulate and fill Mike's shoes. I don't think I've ever heard hammer blasts as powerful as they are here, and his unfollowable patterns and arcane fills are instantly recognizable, and it's a huge fucking rarity for a drummer to have that much personality if you ask me. Frank Mullen is also at his best here, spewing out the most monstrous and devastating vocals of his career. Rumor has it that he "cheated" to achieve this sound by cupping the mic, but fuck man I don't give a shit if he doesn't actually sound like a fire-spitting hellbeast when he's ordering coffee in the morning, I care that he sounds like one on record, and he does here more than anywhere else. It's worth mentioning that this is one of the most influential albums in metal history, being pretty much directly responsible for the eventual proliferation of technical and brutal death metal and slam. Yeah I'm giving slam to Suffocation. I don't care what you have to say about Disgorge or Devourment, I'll maintain until the day I die that the entire genre is based around how fucking awesome the breakdown is at 2:52 in "Liege of Inveracity". The entire genre of slam spawned from that one riff, don't fucking @ me. People sometimes like to talk about how Suffocation introduced brutal breakdowns due to the influence of NYHC, but I think it's more likely that they boys were just experimenting with how they could turn riffs into murder weapons and wound up writing "Infecting the Crypts" on accident as a result. Every single song is a classic, with the aforementioned "Infecting the Crypts" kicking so much ass that it's actually illegal to play it within a half mile of any government building. I'd go so far as to say that it's my favorite death metal song of all time. That opening is just fucking iconic and the bass break with the sample of a grave being dug is just the coolest god damned break in any song ever. I don't even want to move on to the next album, I just want to listen to Effigy forever and ever.
As much as I enjoy Blind Guardian's later, more involved and symphonic work, I don't even need to think on it for more than a nanosecond to tell you that their speed metal era was better in every way. Literally the only thing that wasn't as good back then was Hansi's voice, and even then he was one of the best singers in the scene even before he started the Choir of a Thousand Identical Hansis. He was always a bard first and foremost, but the venom he had in his voice added so much character to these epic tales of high fantasy. I see Tales here often shuffled near the bottom because it supposedly ends on a whimper compared to the monstrously strong opening streak of songs, but anybody who believes that is a numpty. "The Last Candle" is one of their all time greats, opening with that iconic mantra of "GAH-DYIN GAH-DYIN GAH-DYIN OF THE BLIND" from two albums prior sets the stage for a definitive statement of speed metal insanity, and the rest of the song lives up to it with aplomb, ending with a classic out-chant. Even the two short interlude style songs ("Weird Dreams" and "Altair 4") are among the band's best, never slowing down or kicking down the intensity for a second. But really, the true strength of the album really is that opening string of classics. From "Traveler in Time" to "Lost in the Twilight Hall", the album just delivers anthem after anthem, never stopping fuck around with mid tempo nonsense outside of one of their all time great classic ballads, "Lord of the Rings". The fact that this album seems to have been mostly phased out of live sets is a huge shame, though I do understand why. It's by far the most intense album they've ever penned, with more vigor and fury than they've ever mustered before or since. "Traveler in Time" and "Goodbye My Friend" are woefully forgotten monsterpieces of fiery speed, and "Welcome to Dying" seemed to hold out the longest in terms of setlist mainstays and that's a great thing because it's an amazing song. "Lost in the Twilight Hall" marks the second appearance of Kai Hansen (after "Valhalla" on Follow the Blind), and his comparatively shrill screech is a perfect foil for the full voiced masculinity of Hansi Kursch. The song also features one of their best choruses, which even at this early stage in their career has always been their strength. The balance between hooks and aggression is tilted a little further towards the latter end still, but it's all coming together nicely, hinting at the direction they'd eventually take ever so subtly. "Lord of the Rings" would have easily stood as their defining singalong ballad if not for the obvious one on the followup album, but it acts here as a nice breather before barreling headfirst into the frantic insanity of "Goodbye My Friend". There's really nothing bad I can say about this album, even the forgotten final three songs are amazing and would have stood as easy highlights on any other speed metal album from 1990. Yes, I copied the bulk of this entry from my Ladder Match series. I don't care, I can only write about the same album so many times. Eat me.
As much as I obviously love Suffocation, and though I clearly see them as the most dominant death metal band in history, I don't actually think they released the best death metal album of all time, or even of the 90s. That title actually goes to one of their successors, the French Canadian gore freaks, Cryptopsy. Both of their first two albums are very good, but None So Vile is on an entirely different level. There is almost nothing in metal history as sick and deranged as this. Every moment is pure chaos, with Flo Mournier proving why he was frequently cited as the most impressive drummer in the genre for years with his manic odd-time fills and relentless speed and precision. Not one second goes by that doesn't sound like violent convulsions, swarms of screaming locusts, an avalanche, crumbling ruins, atomic bombs, and everything in between. It's so much all at once, it's total sensory overload and results in utter and complete destruction. And at the same time, this is the exact opposite of everything I just said, because these hooks are unreal. I genuinely don't think I've ever heard a catchier death metal album than this. Tracks like "Graves of the Fathers", "Orgiastic Disembowelment", and especially "Phobophile" have some of the catchiest god damned riffs I've ever heard. It's almost criminal how wild and frenetic every song is while also maintaining such a filthily thick groove. It's the kind of thing that shouldn't really work together as well as it does, but this is a masterclass in crafting memorable, hummable guitar riffs while simultaneously bludgeoning you from every direction with more off-beat cymbal fills than any jazz drummer could dream of throwing at you. Subverted expectations are the order of the day. "Slit Your Guts" opens with a tremolo line that indicated the song is going to be a blast fest, and when the rest of the band kicks in it manages to deliver exactly that while also continuing that gnarly groove, only to throw you off with more drum fills than humanly necessary before leading into a discordant and ugly bass break populated with twangy plunks and pops. It should sound like a directionless mess but it's constructed in such a way that it winds up being super uber infectious and refuses to leave your head for days at a time. And oh fuck I haven't even talked about Lord Worm yet. Worm follows the path of Chris Barnes in that his lyrics plumb the dankest depths of depravity, but he carves his own path by performing his vocals in such a way that it sounds like he has no tongue at all. These lyrics are almost completely unfollowable and consist entirely of manic grunts and terrifying shrieks. Jon Levasseur's riffs are the glue that holds the chaos together, but Flo's unpredictable drumming, Langolis's plonky bass, and Worm's psychotic howling do everything in their power to pull it apart at the seams. Complete chaos in harmony and as a result it's the greatest death metal album of all time. I'll go to bat for that.
I know, I know. At this point I'm starting to feel bad about how the more traditional and less extreme genres were so completely dominated by three bands. Between them all, Running Wild, Gamma Ray, and Blind Guardian actually have a whopping ten albums here, a full 20% of the list. I looked over the final list over and over again hoping to see if I could cut something to make it less stacked but I really couldn't in good faith. The truth is simply that the 90s were something of a deadball era for this style. It's a general rule of thumb that almost every metal band that was good in the 80s got shitty in the 90s, and trad metal probably got hit the hardest, with even the mighty Iron Maiden falling flat and ending their legendary seven album streak right when the decade turned. Power metal was also kind of in shambles since all the great USPM albums happened in the previous decade and Europower didn't truly recover until the 2000s. Helloween immediately shat the bed, Hammerfall always sucked, I never really cared for Stratovarius, Iron Savior probably could've landed there if I'd've been familiar with anything before Condition Red prior to like two years ago, I've honestly never even listened to Angra, and Edguy, Rhapsody, Sonata Arctica, and a few others all released their best work after the turn of the millennium. So with all of that said, here we go again, with Blind Guardian again, and this time with the best album of their career. Somewhere Far Beyond is well documented to be one of the rare "best of both worlds" type of transition albums, though it really worked out in Blind Guardian's favor by having two transitional works so their evolution was incredibly smooth. As a result, this one is more in line with the raucous speed metal of their first three albums, but the melody has been amped up to ludicrous degrees. You could've heard individual riffs from "Quest for Tanelorn" or "Somewhere Far Beyond" on Battalions of Fear or something, but they'd never tackle songs with a scope as grand and ambitious as those on those first albums. The title track is one of the most underrated songs of their career, and a tiny accent like the bells chiming during the chorus still send shivers down my spine. The title for Most Underrated BG Song could also well go to "Ashes to Ashes", an absolute behemoth of riffery that Hansi has stated he never plans to perform live since he wrote it when his father died. And of course, I'd be failing at my job if I didn't remind you that Blind Guardian is the only power metal band on the planet that doesn't suck at ballads and "The Bard's Song" is the greatest singalong ballad in metal history. Hansi doesn't even really bother singing it live since the whole crowd does it for him every time without fail. I don't even know how else to describe it at this point, I've done it so many times over the years and if you still haven't listened to it then fuck you.
Remember how like twelve sentences ago I said that trad metal almost uniformly sucked once the 90s happened? Well there was one titanic caveat there, and that's that it's only true if you ignore W.A.S.P., because Blackie rolled into the 90s with one of the best metal albums ever. The Crimson Idol is an excellent example of an album that doesn't jump out at you as much as it pulls you in, because this album is loaded with ballads (one of them even gets dangerously close to breaking the nine minute mark!), and the repeating motifs that appear throughout the album add a lot of depth to the storytelling. On the surface, you could just say this is a regular old trad metal album with a darker tint, but I think that'd be missing the point. This is a very emotionally draining album, dealing with issues of parental neglect and drowning your problems with drugs and alcohol, and the fact that the album starts off so explosive and exciting and slowly winds down throughout the course of the runtime, eventually ending on two ballads and a half ballad climax really hammers home just how despondent and hopeless the main character is by the end of it. W.A.S.P. was really underrated in the grand scheme of things, being sorta shuffled off into the heap of glam bands in the mid 80s when really they were always ten times heavier than Poison and mostly standing out to the layman for their notoriously sleazy imagery. But those in the know knew better, they were one of the most consistently solid metal bands of the 80s and knew how to craft a banging hook, and the guitar team of Blackie Lawless and Chris Holmes had such an ear for melody and talent when it came to memorable soloing that their separation would surely signal doom for the band. Luckily, that's not what happened here, since Holmes was gone by this time and Blackie became the dictator we always knew he could be, but he wielded his iron fist with such efficiency that he managed to write a self indulgent rock opera after a decade of writing about nothing but masturbating and still made it one of the greatest albums ever. This is dark and depressing but simultaneously raunchy and fun. It's a delicate balancing act that Blackie had mastered at this point and I'm eternally thankful for it.
This might be a controversial one, but really there are few albums even remotely as important to me as City, the album so brutally self destructive that it briefly killed the band entirely. Devin Townsend is a lot of things, and I can understand why people find him to be unbearable, but one thing I think nobody can deny is that he is an incredibly honest person, and it comes through in his songwriting. I tend to prefer his heavier stuff (hence why you're seeing Strapping Young Lad here instead of any of his more proggy solo work), and in this heavier side of his music he explores all of the dread and ugliness inside himself. Most obviously, the emotion that shines the brightest is anger, because he spits out vulgarity and profanity on the level of one of Rob Zombie's shittier movies, and really that just makes this feel all the more genuine to me. Sometimes the only way to truly vent what your feeling is to just scream FUUUUCK! as loud as possible and try not to pass out. Musically this is very much a continuation of Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing, which is sometimes overlooked since that album has been so thoroughly forgotten over the years, but there are a lot of running themes from there that resurface on City. The "Devy in the corner" bits from "AAA" originally appeared on "S.Y.L." and the breathless diatribe of vitriol that are the verses in "Oh My Fucking God" are basically identical to the verses of "Happy Camper", but everything feels much tighter and more focused on the sophomore here. So while it's not quite as unhinged, it feels so much more effective since the debut was more Devin lashing out at his frustrations with the music industry and life in general, whereas I've always felt that City was much more introspective and self loathing. There's a lot of anger here, a lot of fury, but it's all directed inwards. Even tracks where he lashes out at people making his life hell like are followed up with a track like "Detox", which includes a self aware verse where he realizes that his life sucks so much because he hates and blames himself for it and what really pisses him off more than anything is the fact that everybody can see it and he's unable to hide it. As somebody who does suffer from (more than one!) depressive disorder, it's an extremely uncomfortable yet cathartic listen to hear somebody infinitely more talented and successful than you go through the exact same problems right down to the details. I've always said that I'd know I was finally past my problems with my temper and my depression when I could no longer relate to this album, when I could hear the rage and self loathing of "Home Nucleonics" and not feel the memories of high school, but it's been well over a decade since high school and I still identify with this album just as much as I always have. It's a part of me, and I don't think that'll ever go away. This glitchy and spastic approach to... well, not quite death metal, not quite the mega heavy and chaotic nu metal that Slipknot would eventually make popular, not quite grind despite the frequent blasts and noisy punky non-riffs, not quite thrash despite how destructive that opening riff of "Underneath the Waves" is... this approach to just sheer audial rage and frustration will never not make sense to me. And I think the strongest and moist poignant moment on the album is how after all of the high speed fury, it ends on a total whimper. After everything, the last two tracks are a Cop Shoot Cop cover and "Spirituality", which is just six and a half downtrodden minutes of despair, swinging at shadows, completely drained of energy. The album basically has no ending, just like how every day of dealing with this mental whirlwind ends with a non-ending. Just pure exhaustion as you lay down to sleep, cursed to replay this nightmare every fucking day.
This album was a complete revelation for me. At the time I first heard it (like 2004ish I wanna say), I hadn't really explored much beyond the most obvious and famous of the metal world. So obviously, I was familiar with Judas Priest, but I had no idea they could've ever sounded like this. To me, they were the 80s arena metal band with "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" and "Breaking the Law". Both of those are great songs, but they're not fucking "Painkiller". Yeah yeah I know there were hints of this on Ram it Down and Defenders of the Faith (which is their best 80s album, fight me), but man you were never going to hear "Freewheel Burning" on the local classic rock station. This was introduced to me the most cliche way ever, the cool older kid in high school casually namedropping it while defending "Revolution" as a good song, which had only just started playing on the radio at the time. The name stuck out to me. I dunno, Painkiller is just a damn cool word to name your metal album after. So I sought it out, and the opening drum solo floored me in a way that maybe two other albums ever have before or since. I still think that this contains Halford's most unbelievable vocal performance, and considering how incredible he was in the 15 year runup to this album, that's saying something. The entire band pushed themselves to their limits here, with every song blasting along at ludicrous speeds for a group of dudes in their 40s, but Halford stands out amongst them all. Those insane wailing high notes he could always hit with such ease became almost the focal point here, belting out scorching shrieks with alarming regularity. The rest of the band doesn't slouch either, with Tipton and Downing ripping out some of the most impressive soloing sections of all time, and new drummer Scott Travis being sixteen echelons over Dave Holland in terms of skill. But it really just comes down to every song here being a fucking barnburner. Everything here cooks, it's all fast and huge and it all feels like some gargantuan apocalyptic celebration. I've said it before, but this isn't Priest's best album necessarily. The trilogy of S albums in the 70s carried a wealth of musical depth and complexity that Painkiller could never dream to reach. Priest nailed some of their most impressive songwriting almost right away and then just got dumber and dumber as time went on. But with the chips on the table, I'm choosing Painkiller every single time without a moment's hesitation. I don't care if this isn't as smart or sophisticated, I don't give a shit that this is all double bass and big stupid speed metal riffs, I love big stupid speed metal riffs. I'd so much rather party with a bunch of cavemen who just discovered beer than stuffy theoretical physicists and philosophers. Get that shit away from me. "Victim of Changes" is a great song? Yeah sure, but does it kick as much fucking ass as "Leather Rebel"?? Oh yeah I could concede that "Beyond the Realms of Death" or "Dreamer Deceiver" are incredibly well written and sophisticated songs but as soon as I'm done talking I'm gonna blast "Nightcrawler" or "Hell Patrol". Painkiller is where I want to be at all times, I want to exist in a universe where hoity toity oldnoobs don't poo-pooh great stuff just because it doesn't wear a monocle. You don't get to love Conan the Barbarian and then look down your nose at Painkiller, and you should promptly fuck yourself and reevaluate yourself if you do.
AND THE WINNER IS...
1: Megadeth - Rust in Peace (1990)
Like... god damn where do I even start with Rust in Peace? This album is a notorious frenemy of mine because I obviously love it completely to pieces and I want nothing more than to just shout about how great it is all the time, but whenever I try to review it I either look at a blank page for an hour and give up or I remember that it has like twelve perfect scores on MA already and there's nothing more I could add. Really I just want to link the Onion article titled Humanity Still Producing New Art As Though Megadeth’s ‘Rust In Peace’ Doesn’t Already Exist and just leave it at that. But here I am, basically forced to, and I'm both stoked and terrified to do so. This is an intimidating album, without a single wasted second, and yes that includes "Dawn Patrol", often seen as a dumb filler interlude but it rides on such a thick bass groove that I never even cared. Every single song is a knockout from start to finish, a feat that Megadeth hadn't accomplished before or since. Their first three albums all had some great highlights but were startlingly uneven, and they were clearly trying to break out of the shadow of Metallica at the time, who outpaced them in almost every capacity in the 80s. But Rust in Peace is where that all finally changed. The one thing Dave Mustaine was always better at when it came to the Metallica v Megadeth feud was simply being angrier and more violent. This is where he finally assembled the perfect lineup around him, with he and longtime bassist David Ellefson being joined by Marty Friedman and Nick Menza, who both had the perfect marriage of skill and emotion on their respective instruments. Menza is great and all, but Friedman is the real final piece of the puzzle that unlocked their full potential. He and Mustaine play off of each other amazingly well, and every single dueling solo is out of this world. This really is a guitar player's metal album. It's not enough that these are some of the best riffs they ever put to tape, they just had to go and write like sixteen of the all time best soloing sections as well. What more can even be said about the leads in "Holy Wars", "Hangar 18" or especially "Tornado of Souls"? And then there's the massively underrated "Five Magics" and the sheer nut-thrashing intensity of "Take No Prisoners" and the speed metal fire of "Poison was the Cure", et cetera. I could namedrop every song as an all time thrash classic and I wouldn't even be wrong. It's just sublime. Every riff is either top tier thrashing madness or impossibly groovy, every lead is face melting, even Ellefson gets a brief moment in the spotlight with his one second of tapping bass lunacy in "Take No Prisoners". Nothing sucks, everything is great, this album is one of the few metal albums I can safely call a masterpiece with no outside qualifiers. The context doesn't matter because this is truly timeless. This is not only the best album of the 90s, but also seriously in the conversation for the best thrash album of all time and the best metal album of all time, overall, regardless of genre. It's perfect, and The Onion nailed it. There was no need to keep producing art after September 24th, 1990.
And there we have it! BH's Top Albums of 1990-1999. WHEW! This was another mammoth undertaking of mine, and I made the extremely poor decision to start it at the same time as the BM poll over on the Metal Archives and at the end of the month when work always starts to pick up with my real job. So unfortunately, I couldn't maintain a rigid schedule and didn't get it all out before June ended, but I got it done and I'm proud of it! I hope you all enjoyed it as well.
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AND NOW FOR SOME HONORABLE MENTIONS!
Just like last time, I ranked far more than 50 albums when formulating this list, and just like last time we had a lot of repeats. Darkthrone and Type O Negative both had two entries, Gargoyle, Blind Guardian, Suffocation, and Gamma Ray all had three, and Running Wild had a whopping four. That means that if I had limited myself to one album per band, there would have been thirteen different albums here! And so with that in mind, the honorable mentions, the 13 albums that would've made it had I implemented that rule in the first place. In no particular order:
Obtained Enslavement - Witchcraft (1998): This is probably the best maximalist symphonic black metal album ever released (at least until somehow Cradle of Filth got their shit together and released Hammer of the Witches a few years ago). It's big and large and huge and just sounds magnificent. It's aesthetically kinda tricky since it looks like any random raw BM release on the surface, but I promise it's so much more than that. It's the Emperor album that everybody thinks Emperor wrote.
Grave Digger - The Reaper (1993): This was kind of a notable exception since Grave Digger was also incredibly consistent in the 90s, but at the end of the day I just didn't think any of their albums were better than Running Wild and such. It's a shame though, because this is a speed metal monster that definitely deserves to be remembered as one of their best. I always thought this was what they truly excelled at, as good as their darker and more epic albums down the road were.
Blasphemy - Fallen Angel of Doom (1990): This is pretty much the album that started war metal and that's all you need to know. It's a vicious black/death assault that was way ahead of its time and absolutely kicks ass to this day.
Exhorder - Slaughter in the Vatican (1990): One of the most brutal thrash albums of all time. I know there's a longstanding rumor that Pantera stole their sound from Exhorder, but considering that their transition to groove metal sounds absolutely fuck-nothing like this total assault on the senses tells me that it's one of the dumbest conspiracy theories in metal history.
Pantera - Far Beyond Driven (1994): Speaking of which, I also fucking love Pantera. Part of it is simply nostalgia since I grew up with them, but most of it is simply that they absolutely fucking rule and there is no groove metal song as punishing as "Strength Beyond Strength".
Immortal - At the Heart of Winter (1999): Immortal was always very good, and I like Pure Holocaust and Blizzard Beasts plenty, but they really hit their zenith when they branched out of the 2nd wave cliches and just started repurposing Iron Maiden songs in a black metal context. It's true! Listen to "Solarfall" here and then listen to "Where Eagles Dare" and you'd be amazed how blatant it is. Turns out Kai Hansen isn't the only guy who can flat out steal riffs and songs and still make them sound amazing.
Thergothon - Stream from the Heavens (1994): I don't really care for gloomy doom/death like the Peaceville Three all that much, but I do have a huge soft spot for funeral doom, so any band that crosses over that line is one I'm almost always willing to give a shot and one I'm almost always going to love. Thergothon was arguably the first to make that jump, and they were one of the best at it. This is minimalist death/doom played at a glacial pace and it's just incredibly well done.
Krisiun - Black Force Domain (1995): Yeah Krisiun has a habit of writing the same album over and over again and never being as good as the one before it, but their debut was something truly unique amongst their catalogue. This is just primitive, sloppy, Furious Blasting Death with no frills or technicality. It's just raw and brutal and I love it more than anything else in their discography.
Sepultura - Arise (1991): Sepultura was a top tier thrash band in the 80s, and everybody knows how terrible they got in the 90s when they eventually switched over to nu metal and then lost their iconic frontman in Max Cavalera. But the Brazilian thrash legends had one more left in the tank when the decade switched, and Arise is a stellar and brutal thrash album loaded with classics.
Runemagick - Enter the Realm of Death (1999): I'm afraid to admit this, but this actually didn't make the cut purely because I forgot about it. Runemagick were extremely prolific masters of doom/death in the sense that they played full on raucous and nasty death metal with heaps of doom riffs instead of being gloomy synth laden non-riffs with growls, and their debut may generally be seen as the best of their early era, but for my money they really came into their own on the sophomore here.
Demilich - Nespithe (1993): I know I said that I tend to not favor the Finndeath scene all that much, but I'm not stupid, I know how great this album is. Demilich is probably most notable for having an incalculable influence on a time delay, because this awkward weirdo-death sound didn't really catch on until almost 20 years later, but now every hotshot young death metal band nowadays can easily cite Nespithe as a huge influence.
Ulver - Nattens Madrigal (1997): This is an unlistenable masterpiece and I don't care how raw and trebly it is. During their black metal phase, Ulver were untouchable.
Necrophagist - Onset of Putrefaction (1999): Just like Runemagick, this would've been an easy rank if I had even remembered it during the planning phase, so really I just fuckin' sucked here. The only reason I didn't was simply because this album was so fucking ahead of its time that I tend to forget it even came out in the 90s. Necrophagist essentially made tech death as we know it today a thing along with Deeds of Flesh and Origin, but none of them really nailed the hooks as well as Necrophagist did.
SAMPLE PACKET
This section is for those of you why may have been interested in an album you haven't heard before, as I'll provide a link to two songs per album so you can get an idea of what it is I like so much about them!
Iniquity - Five Across the Eyes: "Inhale the Ghost", "Pyres of Atonement"
Nocturnus - The Key: "Lake of Fire", "BC/AD"
Skyclad - Prince of the Poverty Line: "Civil War Dance", "A Dog in the Manger"
Motorhead - Overnight Sensation: "Them Not Me", "Crazy Like a Fox"
Demolition Hammer - Epidemic of Violence: "Pyroclastic Annihilation", "Envenomed"
Type O Negative - World Coming Down: "Everyone I Love is Dead", "Pyretta Blaze"
Running Wild - Pile of Skulls: "Jennings' Revenge", "Treasure Island"
Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption: "Suffer the Children", "Unfit Earth"
Sodom - Better Off Dead: "An Eye for an Eye", "Stalinorgel"
Gamma Ray - Power Plant: "Gardens of the Sinner", "Armageddon"
Macabre - Sinister Slaughter: "Vampire of Dusseldorf", "Albert was Worse than any Fish in the Sea"
Burzum - Hvis lyset tar oss: "Det som engang var", "Tomhet"
Artillery - By Inheritance: "Bombfood", "Back in the Trash"
Gargoyle - Tenron: "Ame Ni Mo Makezu", "Gekka Ranshou"
Overkill - Horrorscope: "Coma", "Horrorscope"
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky: "Kathaarian Life Code", "In the Shadow of the Horns"
Autopsy - Mental Funeral: "In the Grip of Winter", "Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay"
Deicide - Deicide: "Lunatic of God's Creation", "Dead By Dawn"
Suffocation - Pierced from Within: "Pierced from Within", "Brood of Hatred"
Bathory - Hammerheart: "Shores in Flames", "One Rode to Asa Bay"
Darkthrone - Under a Funeral Moon: "Under a Funeral Moon", "To Walk the Infernal Fields"
Entombed - Left Hand Path: "Left Hand Path", "Bitter Loss"
Suffocation - Breeding the Spawn: "Epitaph of the Credulous", "Anomalistic Offerings"
Blind Guardian - Imaginations from the Other Side: "Born in a Mourning Hall", "Script for My Requiem"
Running Wild - Black Hand Inn: "Powder and Iron", "Black Hand Inn"
Gamma Ray - Somewhere Out in Space: "Valley of the Kings", "Beyond the Black Hole" (I'm so sorry for the image used, Gamma Ray is surprisingly hard to find on Youtube...)
Candlemass - Chapter VI: "Where the Runes Still Speak", "The Ebony Throne"
Gargoyle - Furebumi: "Halleluyah", "Ruten no Yo Nite"
Bolt Thrower - ...for Victory: "Graven Image", "Remembrance"
Solitude Aeturnus - Beyond the Crimson Horizon: "Seeds of the Desolate", "It Came Upon One Night"
Infester - To the Depths, in Degredation: "Chamber of Reunion", "Epicurean Entrails"
Dismember - Like an Everflowing Stream: "Override of the Overture", "Skin Her Alive"
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses: "Black no. 1", "Blood and Fire"
Death - Symbolic: "Symbolic", "Crystal Mountain"
Gargoyle - Tsuki no Toge: "Senzaiteki Genkyoukaku Musabetsu Kakusei Kin Kansensha", "Shouryakukeitachi Yo"
Cannibal Corpse - Tomb of the Mutilated: "Hammer Smashed Face", "Necropedophile"
Running Wild - Masquerade: "Soleil Royal", "Black Soul"
Vader - De Profundis: "Silent Empire", "Reborn in Flames"
Motorhead - Bastards: "Born to Raise Hell", "Burner"
Running Wild - Blazon Stone: "White Masque", "Little Big Horn"
Gamma Ray - Land of the Free: "Man on a Mission", "Rebellion in Dreamland"
Children of Bodom - Hatebreeder: "Warheart", "Downfall"
Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten: "Infecting the Crypts", "Liege of Inveracity"
Blind Guardian - Tales from the Twilight World: "Traveler in Time", "Lost in the Twilight Hall"
Cryptopsy - None So Vile: "Phobophile", "Graves of the Fathers"
Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond: "The Bard's Song", "Somewhere Far Beyond"
W.A.S.P. - The Crimson Idol: "The Invisible Boy", "Chainsaw Charlie (Murders in the New Morgue)"
Strapping Young Lad - City: "Detox", "Oh My Fucking God"
Judas Priest - Painkiller: "Painkiller", "Metal Meltdown"
Megadeth - Rust in Peace: "Take No Prisoners", "Tornado of Souls"
That's everything! I hope you all enjoyed this little project of mine.
I certainly had fun with it. Now's the time to let the debate rage
and, hell, if you're so inclined, make your own top 50 and see how much
fun it is. Thank you all for joining me!
Honestly, as awesome as The Crimson Idol is, I think this should have taken it's spot instead.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Q_KfPALu0