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1.
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Metallica - Ride The Lightning
Masterpiece. Top to bottom. 'Nuff Said. |
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2.
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Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Another great album. What else can be said? Top Notch musicianship? Songwriting? Lyrically interesting? Check. Check. Check. |
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3.
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Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Incredibly heavy and down-to-earth. In the same vein as Venom, but with better riffs and vocals. |
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4.
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Dio - The Last In Line
Not quite as powerful as their debut, this thing still kicks ass. Diverse songs and of course Dio's voice really make this a great album. |
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5.
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Trouble - Psalm 9
A really cool more modern version of what Sabbath was doing at the start of their career. I really like the dude's vocals, it goes incredibly well with the doomy music their playing. |
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6.
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Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath
Although King's voice can get to be a bit much after an entire album, no doubt about it he is a very entertaining singer. The songs also flow so well, and everything fits into it's place beautifully. |
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7.
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Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus
These guys fully embraced the heavier, lower end of metal on their debut. While most bands were experimenting with how fast and face-melting they could write songs, SV cranked their bass louder than their guitars and possibly made one of the most important albums of the 80's. |
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8.
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Cloven Hoof - Cloven Hoof
One of the late-comers in the NWOBHM (album-wise), this thing is awesome. |
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9.
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Voivod - War And Pain
A very punky thrash album, War And Pain shows that Voivod were pushing the envelope of regular metal from the beginning. A wierd thrash album, but very enjoyable. |
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10.
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Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith
The definition of solid. Lacks some of the awesome guitar leads that made earlier Priest legendary, but still sounds great. Halford rarely disappoints, and he doesn't here. |
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11.
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Tank - Honour & Blood
Tank continues to push out longer songs. Really cool album, especially the opening track. |
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12.
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Armored Saint - March Of The Saint
One of the catchiest, fun-yet-aggressive metal albums I have heard. Surprised this doesn't get more praise from huge fans of 70's/80's metal. |
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13.
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Anthrax - Fistful Of Metal
Pretty intense and cheesy speed metal right here. Sorta inconsistant, but some awesome tracks on here. |
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14.
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W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.
Sometimes lumped into glam rock, I disagree. The vocals are heavy, the drums are pounding, and the guitar-tone is nice and thick. The only thing this has in common with the stereotypical glam is the song names (Fuck Like A Beast, LOVE Machine, On Your Knees). |
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15.
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Helstar - Burning Star
A cool combination of the thrashier stuff that had began to become popular, and the more melodic speed metal acts like Accept and Anvil. |
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16.
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Savatage - The Dungeons Are Calling
Mature songwriting and really distinguishable songwriting. |
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17.
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Jag Panzer - Ample Destruction
Awesome speed metal. Cool riffs, strong vocals, catchy choruses, and fantastic drum work. |
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18.
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Bathory - Bathory
Incredibly bad production, yet so ahead of its time in every other aspect. The only "1st wave of BM" band that I consider to actually be black metal, these guys had to have been hugely influential. Oh, and the songs kick ass too, but are just overshadowed by the what-the-fuck feeling I get when I hear this and think about when it was released. |
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19.
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Praying Mantis - Throwing Shapes
Very melodic, well-made heavy metal. Solid in every aspect. I start to take stuff like this for granted, until I turn it on and notice how flawlessly constructed it is. I can see this being a great album for someone who is more into hard rock. |
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20.
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Yngwie Malmsteen - Rising Force
Really cool guitar work. Really, really, really cool guitar work. If I liked listening to really, really, really cool guitar work and nothing else, I'd love this album. It's here mainly out of respect. |
