Top Metal Albums of All Time

Here are the top metal albums of all time, in my humble opinion. I would honestly probably put Danzig How the Gods Kill at #1 , but that might be considered rock.

1. Sepultura- Arise

This album had amazing vocals and catchy driving, fast thrash guitars. Has basically no flaws at all. Songs like Dead Embryonic Cells, Arise, and Desperate Cry are untouchable. When I saw them live, people at the front got completely crushed against the front barrier during Dead Embryonic Cells.

2. Disincarnate- Dreams of the Carrion Kind

This 90’s classic had some of the best metal riffs and leads ever. Total sick melodic death metal written by James Murphy, and a bunch of college students. Talked to James once after a Napalm Death , Obituary show he was attending and he said he just could not get the college kid band members to write another album but wished he could have. They were too busy with school. Told him amazing we thought the album was. Here check it out. On the way to show performances in the 90s, friends of mine like Bud and I would get amped off of this album:

3. Obituary – Cause of Death

Another James Murphy classic. John and Donald Tardy also kicked ass on vocals and supporting guitar. Catchy songs like Bodybags and Chopped in Half are completely immortal. Just a super heavy album overall, with killer riffs and leads. Great artwork too. Got to see them play this live by the way, at a show with Morbid Angel.

4. Slayer – Seasons in the Abyss

While its not their most old school album, Seasons was their catchiest and best written effort. Songs such as Dead Skin Mask helped me take the transition to death metal at the time from thrash. There was also something spooky and truly evil sounding about this album.

5. Morbid Angel – Altars, Blessed are the Sick, Covenants (all tied)

Along with Slayer, Morbid Angel is the other really Satanic band I like. Their earlier stuff like Altars of Madness was more thrash influenced. Blessed are the Sick is their best album, since its a hybrid of death metal, with the thrash hidden more. Fall From Grace, as well as the instrumentals on the album, are very atmospheric considering they are death metal. The solos sound super evil on it by Trey.

5. Krabathor – Orthodox

Krabathor is a Czech death metal band from a real small town near Busloviche’, just above Moravia. I had the pleasure of seeing them in the Czech Republic, along with Vader, and Malignant Tumor at a 24 hour 2 day long huge beer truck 2 stage event , with grindcore on one stage and death metal on the other. There was also an all female black metal band playing that night. Krabathor have been around since the old days, and had Fade to Black styled Metalica kinda stuff early on. What makes Orthodox so great are the American styled blast beats , catchy 3 piece band mixing, and the fact that the bassist’s vocals and bass parts rival those of David Vincent from Morbid Angel. The whole album is super catchy death metal, with lots of grinding. Be sure to check out their old albums too.

6. Dismember – Dreaming in Red

There is just something about this album. It is so catchy. The bass is so clean and nice sounding. There is some punk mixed in, and the beats have a lot of energy.

7. Mayhem – their only good album

Mayhem had one good album. It was so good, it is legend. For obvious reasons. Needs to be listened to on a really loud truck stereo with enough bass to bring out all the drum tom work. Fucking amazing drums, killer production (all their other albums had bad production or sounded tinny).

8. Winter – into Darkness is about SLOW, chunking doom, and flanger. It sounds best on tape. It was highly original , like a slowed Celtic Frost but different theme (environmental catastrophe). Very much saying , no showing off, only heaviness , to the point of becoming exquisite art

9. Forbidden – Forbidden Evil

Chalice of Blood has the awesome-est song lyrics ever. That other song where he goes ‘ I’m on the edge. Jump!’ is classic. Its a super catchy album with great leads and great vocals that can beat out almost any Metallica album. One of the most under-rated albums of all time, along with some Overkill albums such as Years of Decay. These guys are still at it last I heard, and they practice in Fremont , California. Just a great , under-rated band.

Bands like the Sword, Electric Wizard, and such are not original enough to make this list.

10. Suffocation – This was the best Suffocation album. It had the best mix and the catchiest riffs and sound. Ironically, it is the Florida engineering sound which produced the best sound album of this brutal all black New York band, which emphasized the power of the American blast beat, over the European blast beat.

11. Dark Throne – Transylvanian Hunger

This was the album that said: Fuck you. I will do a slowed down version of a European blast beat all day long , with a simple grinded chord progression over it for a whole hour! And if you don’t like it: You can go fuck yourself… This was original at the time. That is why it was on the list . That there are 1000’s of other albums now that sound exactly like Transylvanian Hunger is a testament to how awesome this album was at full blast in your headphones, on cassette at the time. It is their best , as well as most controversial album.

Will continue this list very soon.

Dawnbreaker Ushers in the Next Crusade

The Knights Templar were a group of knights who accompanied early Christian Pilgrims on there route to the Holy Land. Muslims at the time were slaughtering the Pilgrims. This was the actual cause of the Crusades, which was sparked over access to the Holy Land. The Knights were connected to the Masons. The Masons held the secrets of stonework, and they built the very churches the knights prayed in. Most of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were Masons. Much of US history runs parallel to the history of Jerusalem. Our forefathers were mindful of this and sought God’s protection, as America was the only nation with rights from God in it’s Constitution. This is partly why America has been so successful. If you want to read a book which will explain how America is connected to God through divine prophecy, this is a must read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harbinger_(novel)

But let’s talk music instead.

Now a black metal band has emerged which promises to safely guide metal away from its pathetic current shoe-gazing state, and lead it back into righteousness and excellence. Dawnbreaker has just recently come out with their new album. It is one of the best black metal releases in the past ten years, and I would highly recommend it to any metal enthusiast. The songs have a very nice chamber like quality to them, as if recorded in a big dark cathedral. There are lots of synchopated umpchet beats, with a lot of energy. I prefer that to blast beats greatly. Low diabolical male choir sounds accompany gritty, well thought out riffs. There is good play interaction between the harmonies and the melodies, which keep the rather simple chord patterns. They overlap and weave around each other, intersecting at dimensions which add nuance. Compositionally speaking, the songs are very solid and memorable. I recommend that you give this album a listen, and consider buying it. If I had to pin down a band or two to reference this to I would suggest early Enslaved, crossed with Jerry Goldsmith’s The Omen film score:

https://dawnbreaker.bandcamp.com/

Doom-Metal.com on Roads to Serfdom

The review from http://www.Doom-Metal.com for No God Only Pain release ‘Roads to Serfdom’ s in! Am very pleased with this review (which in a nutshell) says the album is tough, substantive, and diverse sounding, despite very cheap production. That’s pretty much what I was going for with those songs when I wrote ’em. Please check out the review and support NGOP, as well as reading www.Doom-Metal.com to keep posted on what’s going on in this Doomed world.

http://www.doom-metal.com/reviews.php?album=3035

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