I could quite easily spend this post rhapsodizing about Vomitor as well, but instead I'll get to the nitty-gritty: this is Vomitor's sophomore album, and presents an approach to songwriting with more hooks than their debut, even though standout closer 'Neutron Hammer' has been a staple of theirs for years.
Vomitor are one of the best underground metal bands of the recent years; this is their debut, and it is truly a cracking piece of necro black/death/thrash metal. They do produce some brilliant stuff down under.
This is some of the weirdest metal around at the moment. Truly in the avant-garde school, this relies heavily on dissonance and noise, certainly more so than melody and typical structure. It's a truly fascinating album, although maybe not one you'll want to listen to too often.
Taking their name from a Von song, yet somewhat more melodic than that particular pioneer of 'necro' black metal, this is, in my humble opinion, Watain's best, having enjoyed, but not been overly enthralled by, 'Sworn To The Dark'. 'Reaping Death' was even a single.
Judas Priest's other truly great album, although this came 14 years after 'Sad Wings...', the Priest was truly on top form. The title track is one of the most famous metal songs of all time, and certainly better than their other famous one, the tedious 'Breaking The Law'.
Judas Priest are naturally legends of the metal genre, and this is their best album. This arguably started the NWOBHM. There isn't much to say about this one that hasn't already been said, so just go for it.
Arguably the album that started the black metal genre, if not by nature, then certainly by name, and it's a cracker. Aged well like champagne, yet infused with piss and vinegar, each song on this is memorable. Hark back to the days when metal bands wrote songs.
This is one of the best things Earache has released in a long time - a compilation of BBC sessions featuring Napalm Death, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Intense Degree, Heresy, Godflesh, Extreme Noise Terror and Unseen Terror. For it's entirety, it's simply great - well, all of the contributors are/were greats of their respective genres.
Earache Records called this 'the best grindcore release since From Enslavement To Obliteration'; whilst I wouldn't go that far, it is still damn good, and already a grind classic. It doesn't fuck around, just goes for the throat like all good grind should.
Having previously posted 'Tara', I felt I should post the album that Absu made their fans wait 8 years for after that, its predecessor. Still a fun mix of black and thrash metal, although it's not as good as 'Tara', it's very close. 'Amy' is brilliant.
Although not quite as good as 'Bergtatt', Ulver on this still created a late masterpiece of the second wave of Norwegian black metal. Those of you who know the odd word of Norwegian should notice that this is as close to an eponymous album as Ulver have ever come.
This is my favourite Black Flag album; along with the Melvins, it was one of the early pioneers of the sludge sound on its second side, along with some brilliant punky songs on the first side. Unbelievably good.
Black Flag are (were) one of the pioneers of hardcore punk, and this is, for me, their best *hardcore* release (personally I prefer 'My War'). If I had any reason at all to suspect that rumours of a reunion at Leeds fest were true, I would quite happily fork out the money for a ticket.
This album comes on a request - personally, I don't think it's all that good, and it delayed me from checking out their masterpiece 'De Profundis' for quite a while. That said, it still features at least a couple of nice songs, in particular 'As Heavens Collide' and 'Helleluyah (sic) (God Is Dead)'.
Autopsy's best album. Whilst many fans started with 'Severed Survival' and moved onwards in the discography, this is their best, full stop, and it shows the start of the filthy, sludgy death metal they would become renowned for. Features their 'anthem', 'In The Grip Of Winter'.
This is the 2003 reissue of this classic album, but I used the original artwork because I prefer it. Formed by Chris Reifert after he left Death, this debut release shows far more of a thrashy approach than later doomy releases would. Almost on par with 'Mental Funeral'.
Aura Noir, on this 2008 release, created one of the modern classics of black/thrash. This is just great fun throughout its 38 minutes. Worth the price of admission (here, none) just for standout track 'Schitzoid Paranoid'.
This is Code's most recent album from 2009, and it is also their best. With pretty much all of the DSBM tendencies dropped, this is no-holds barred experimentation, which equates to an album of songs. And I mean songs. Nearly every track on here takes the popular structure, with giant hooks in each one, but this is somehow seamlessly blended into the black metal template.
This is Code's debut album, and bloody hell, it's good. It features different versions of a few tracks from the demo, and a few new songs ('Cotton Optic' is a standout'). I love this album, and nearly every metal fan I've played it to has too. Get it.
Code are one of my favourite bands, and this, their debut demo, is a sign of things to come. Coming for from the DSBM end of the spectrum than the experimental edge of their later releases, this is a great demo and a release which I treasure highly.
Windir were the pioneers of 'viking' metal (God I hate that tag), and to me, this is their best album. Expansive soundscapes mix beautifully with black metal and folk elements. This is a true masterpiece.
This, along with the previously posted 'Domine Non Es Dignus', is my favourite Anaal Nathrakh album. It has the batshit insane ferocity with plenty of songwriting hooks, which to a certain extent is where their debut 'The Codex Necro' falls flat (still a damn good album, and 'Pandemonic Hyperblast' is a classic). Writing about this makes me really look forward to 'Passion', which comes out on the 23rd of May (although I hear it's leaked, which I may have to investigate...).
Okay, so this isn't Anaal Nathrakh's best album, but it is still damn good. Probably the album of theirs to feature the most industrial elements (particularly apparent on 'Regression To The Mean'), this is still Anaal Nathrakh, and thus will still majorly fuck you up.
In my last post, I mentioned that I felt that Violator were one of the best bands of the thrash revival. This should show why - derivative, but in a hugely enjoyable way, Violator follow all the cliches of thrash, but do it damn well. Those riffs.
Vektor are the thrash revival band who best invoke the spirit of Voivod. Their technical thrash is hugely reminiscent of the 'vod's best moments, and this whole album is proof that Vektor are one of the best bands of said thrash revival, in my eyes, along with SSS and Violator.
Absu, despite being deeply obssessed with Irish mythology, are actually from the USA. They're quite different from the usual USBM sound in that they're quite thrashy, as opposed to the Leviathan/Xasthur/Weakling axis of depression and indeed oppression. This is their defining moment, no matter what purists will tell you about 'Barathrum V.I.T.R.I.O.L.' (which is nonetheless an excellent album).
And this is where it all started - Turisas's debut EP from 2001 is just 15 minutes long, but, like everything else they released, is a whole lot of fun. It includes an early version of the song 'Battle Metal', and even a Mary Hopkin cover!
This is probably on par with that Hammerfall one for the most ridiculous, overblown album I have posted here. Nearly all of the folk influence has gone from Turisas' sound, and the cheese has been cranked up to max. Still, it's great fun. and highly recommended.
Trap Them have long been producing quality slabs of death metal-influenced hardcore/grind (well, for 4 years anyway). This is no exception - continuing from where 'Seizures In Barren Praise' left off in spectacular style, this is a must for anyone who likes aggressive music.
Threshold really don't receive the attention they deserve - for instance, they're MILES better than the vast majority of Dream Theater's catalogue, not to mention being far more consistent. This is my favourite album of theirs that I've heard so far - give it a go if you like well-executed prog metal.
This demo, Thergothon's only release aside from the genre-defining, pioneering 'Stream From The Heavens', is a rawer take on two songs that would later appear on 'Stream...', and two additional songs that cannot be found anywhere else. This is a bit of a lost gem. Get it.
No, not the crazy, suicidal, Swedish Shining fronted by Kvarforth, but rather the crazy, jazzy, Norwegian Shining who play an interesting jazzy take on metal, although not in the same way that Atheist have done for years. This can get slightly grating at times, but it's still an enjoyable listen.
I've posted the album that this album's name is a take on, and even named the blog after it... you might be able to guess by now that I'm quite a Satan fan - which I am, I can't get enough of their off-kilter version of the NWOBHM sound. This has somewhat weaker vocals than the studio version, but to be fair, it is a live version and twenty years on.
Another departure from the metal - did I mention I love a lot of 80s/early 90s hip hop? This rarely stays up on any blog long, so get it quickly - it's a classic piece, and few people haven't heard the classic 'It's Like That'.
Negură Bunget from Romania have long been one of the forerunners of the folk/black metal scene, although their implementation of Romanian folk into the BM sound is somewhat different from the normal implementation of Scandinavian or Teutonic folk offered by most of the scene. This is a good example of that, coming before their breakthrough album, 2006's 'Om'.
The demise of Mieszko Talarczyk in the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 was a shock to the grind world, although I wouldn't have known - I was still listening to Green Day! Throughout their career, Nasum had produced fine albums of pure grindcore rage, and this is no exception. Rest in peace.
N.B. I haven't a clue why I accidentally labelled the archive as 2004, but the contents are correctly labelled.
Criminally underrated, Metal Church's debut is, like Exciter, well along the lines of those two classic thrash debuts 'Kill 'Em All' and 'Show No Mercy'. That's not to say it's at all derivative - with indisputable songwriting chops and classic vocals, this is a thrash classic that stands up on its own.
Although I was personally a little disappointed by Mastodon's last album, 'Crack The Skye', this has caused me to a certain extent to reevaluate my opinion on the music, marred as it were by a wafer-thin production. Translated to the live arena, those songs are clearly great. Nice to see songs off 'Remission' being played as well.
John Zorn is the place to go for the avant-garde, which usually, as it does on this, translates to a delicious platter of his 'hardcore jazz'. This is his most famous album, with his backing group Naked City (forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe they were so named for the purposes of this album).
When it comes to death metal, don't fuck with the Dutch. I'm not sure whether I mentioned in my earlier Aspyhx posts the sheer quality of Van Drunen's vocals, but they fit here with the themes of war perfectly, combining with the instrumentation to create a full-blooded death metal onslaught.
Whether or not you think that their Satanic approach and lyrics are a gimmick, there's no denying that this, Ghost's debut album, is at the head of the current retro-rock trend, along with Jex Thoth and Devil. Any fan of Blue Öyster Cult should enjoy this immensely.
This, Anaal Nathrakh's second album shows an approach with more emphasis perhaps on songwriting than 'The Codex Necro's 'Pandemonic Hyperblast' (which is actually an apt description). If Nathrakh's fine misanthropic art can be called 'songs'.
On Fen's full-length debut, 2009's 'The Malediction Fields', they proved that the mixture of shoegaze, post-rock and black metal that has been so popular of late isn't exclusively limited to France and the USA. This improves on that debut.
This piece of thrash from Canada is a little-known part of the thrash resurgence. I've got to admit, it's nothing special, but it kept me entertained for its 35 minutes running time, and although I can't remember much of it now, it's an album that I would quite like to listen to more.
N.B. The artwork shown is for the vinyl version of this album: this is not off the vinyl version, I just prefer the artwork.
Pantera have no claim to the creation of the groove metal sound, for this predated Pantera's first groove album, 'Vulgar Display Of Power' (I don't care to debate that) by some 2 years. Typically shocking ideas that were staple in metal at the time are shown just by the title and the artwork.
This is a masterpiece of progressive metal - there's a reason why it's commonly viewed as a classic. Here, Dream Theater flexed their collective composition muscles like they never would again, and indeed never had in the past. Mike Portnoy's drumming will be missed by them.
