I cannot for the life of me limit a list of best albums to just 15. There is just so much amazing music out there.
But i can tell you what the 15 most important metal albums are to me right now:
Skid Row - Skid RowThe one that started it all. Got this by pure coincidence when i was 13 and got immedeatly hooked. Still love it
and i still stay true to the metal to this day.
Atlantean Kodex - The Golden Bough,The Golden Bough‘ cares not for genre boundaries. Instead it strides across the metal world like a loincloth-clad behemoth, liberally pooping life-affirming, fist-pumping metal anthems out across the landscape for its awestruck inhabitants to gaze at like apes before an obelisk. This is everything metal should be – as overblown and grandiose as possible, taking itself and its subject matter 100% seriously and never pussying out and hiding behind a veil of irony like the Dragonforces of this world.“
(blatantly stolen from some website called Leave the Hall)
Audrey Horne - Audrey HorneIt's an excellent album on its own right. What makes it very special to me are two experiences. First the amazing live concert that i witnessed in 2011 and second when it gave me strength during a terrible bus trip to Sparta during the worst 'holiday' i have ever had
My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark RiverA masterpiece of bleakness, misery and doooooom.
Anaal Nathrakh - Hell is empty and all the devils are hereYour friend boasts about how his new favourite band is so extreme and brutal? Put on Anaal Nathrakh and see his jaw drop. I am a total sucker for this
mix between Napalm Death and Emperor. The most nihilistic band around. Go see them live.
While Heaven Wept - Vast Oceans LacrymoseWow, this is heavy. Heavy in the sense of huge rolling waves on the ocean. Very emotional but never pathetic.
Iron Maiden - KillersI am a huge Maiden fan and while i also like Seventh Son... and Brave New World very much this is the one that i listen to most often.
Bruce Dickinson - Scream for me BrazilGreat songs all around and Tears of the Dragon is probably my favourite song ever.
Judas Priest - PainkillerHow metal can you get? The titlesong gets played way too often in clubs when every(!) other song on this album is just as good. No fillers, just killers. I was
too young back then but it must have blown people away after Turbo.
Dimmu Borgir - Enthroned Darkness TriumphantPeople will deny it today but _everyone_ into black metal listened to it. It blew me completely away when i got it and to this day i do not care if they
are sellouts, this album is so fucking great.
Cradle of Filth - Dusk and her embraceAnother album that you will get a lot of slack for from the trve people. Yes, they sold more shirts than cds and yadayada... but the music here is great,
lots of traditional metal elements and the lyrics are fantastic. If you are smart and educated enough to understand everything that is.
Marduk - Panzerdivision MardukEssentially black metal is all about hatred and no album embraces this more than this one for me. Half an hour of putting your fist into the face of humanity, brutally.
Rightfully described as the Reign of Blood of black metal.
Tiamat - CloudsIn the early to mid nineties i was heavily into gothic metal and Tiamat was my favourite band. Love this album best because it's heavy, dark and evil in places.
Moonspell - WolfheartAnother favourite from that era. Love the black metal vibes on it and its relative rawness as well. Good for sexy times!
Samael - Ceremony of OppositesThis brought me seriously into black metal and i am glad it did. Because Samael were never too concernced about their image and always more
intellectual unlike most scandinavian bands. Which still appeals more to me to this day. This is just dark and evil music with quite some groove, too.
Bonus:
Agalloch - Ashes against the grainFor more than half a decade i did not care about contemporary black metal anymore. This album changed that.
Primordial - To the nameless dead limited edition cd2Live recording from the Rock Hard Festival. All their hits (until then) in one set and an amazing performance which for me outshines the actual album. I love
everything about the band but their albums always have a couple of immortal hymns as well as some songs that just cannot keep up. That's why i chose this bonus cd.
During the concert the singer says: "Please remember, that in 2006 some bands still sing about things that mean something in this world... some bands still stand for something."
Seven years later, it's still true.
Hm, no death and thrash albums on my list. Obviously, i am a triangelist of traditional heavy metal, doom n' gloom and black metal.
If you're not into metal you're not my friend.
