Welcome to what I consider the "1001 Metal Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" or in other words, a list of records of various genres in the arrays of Metal and Hard Rock that I deem essential or at least very recommended to listeners of hard and heavy music. This may be a very overwhelming list but I essentially try to collect all albums in the History of Metal that strike me as worthwhile. May this be a guideline for people that seek for an entrance to a particular genre or certain bands. In no means I am saying, that this list is indisputable by any means. I consider these my personal picks for albums that should be listened to by die-hard metal fans at least once. Hopefully you can discover some new music or relate with my picks. If I missed something that you would include in such a list, please tell me in the form of a comment. Enjoy! \,,/

1.High Tide - Sea Shanties

2.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

4.Sir Lord Baltimore - Kingdom Come

5.Josefus - Dead Man

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Most significant records at the end of the first era of metal music.
The last year of the decade shows how some bands face the eighties with the menace of punk and disco music some bands take advantage of that like Kiss sounds more pop other like Motörhead goes harder, Judas Priest finish those years as a leaders of the Euro HM. Rush made their last epic record, Ronnie James Dio leave Rainbow, Black Sabbath made their last record with Ozzy and AC/DC lost Bon Scott. Saxon maybe starts in what became in the NWOBHM and lots of new bands emerged like Riot with their frenetic heavy metal, Van Halen made the first couple of self titled records with a new sound based on the virtuosity of Eddie Van Halen.

1.Rush - Hemispheres

2.AC/DC - Highway To Hell

3.KISS - Dynasty

4.Van Halen - Van Halen

5.Van Halen - Van Halen II

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Fifty years of metal, 50 best albums of the year. Note that in order to diversify the list I limited it to one album per band, otherwise there would have been too much Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.

1.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

3.Deep Purple - Machine Head

4.Budgie - Never Turn Your Back On A Friend

5.Queen - Queen II

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I present my Top Ten favorite metal albums. These are albums I still listen too regularly. Some for as long as 35 years. All of them at one point or another dominated my life and I hope come to dominate some of yours:)

1.Van Halen - Van Halen

2.Opeth - Blackwater Park

3.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

4.KISS - Alive

5.Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind

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1.Van Halen - Van Halen

2.Rainbow - Long Live Rock & Roll

3.Judas Priest - Stained Class

4.AC/DC - Powerage

5.Rose Tattoo - Rose Tattoo

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Unfinished as I still have to catch up on more recent years. Also all of the places on the list are of course subject to change as I discover more music from each year.

My taste is very much centred around the power of the riff. That means most of the albums on this list are thrash, death, heavy, black, or some offshoot of those genres.

1.After The Burial - Dig Deep

2.Behemoth - The Satanist

3.Carcass - Surgical Steel

4.Cattle Decapitation - Monolith Of Inhumanity

5.Fleshgod Apocalypse - Agony

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Note: these are only for the traditional style of metal borne out of the period of late 60s - late 80s. Modern bands are permitted but they need to be playing in that style.

Recommendations are welcome. I'll listen and if I like it, I'll add it.

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

2.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

3.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

4.Deep Purple - In Rock

5.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

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1.Novembre - Wish I Could Dream It Again

2.Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness

3.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

4.Novembre - Arte Novecento

5.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

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top 10 70s albums (1 album per band)

1.Alice Cooper - Killer

2.Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

3.Van Halen - Van Halen

4.Deep Purple - Machine Head

5.AC/DC - Highway To Hell

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In no real particular order. These albums are all great.

1.Judas Priest - Stained Class

2.Judas Priest - Killing Machine (Hell Bent For Leather)

3.Rainbow - Long Live Rock 'N' Roll

4.Van Halen - Van Halen

5.Black Sabbath - Never Say Die!

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While the order in each decade is purely personal preference, there are several rules for a song qualifying for the list. First off, the band has to be notable. I'm not going to define what that means, but I'm sure you'd agree all the bands in the list are notable. There are plenty of riffs from obscure bands I'd rather put, but I know my love for Tarby doesn't make him the greatest riff maker of the 21st century. Second, each artist can only appear once in a decade, this is to prevent the best riff makers from hogging the list and adding some variety, showing how metal has changed over time. Decades are measured by when the song was recorded, not released, and when it's unclear the beginning of recording is used. This is mainly because a lot of definitive early metal songs were released in 1970, but recorded in 1969. Third, the song itself has to be notable. Here are things that can qualify as being notable: the song was release as a single, has music video made for it, was released as a single, was the title track for an album (note that Crawl through Knives meets this criteria because it was the original title for Come Clarity, and there is no way in hell Come Clarity is getting best riff of the decade ), is included on a greatest hits compilation album, was nominated for a Grammy or musical award of similar caliber, was included as a track in a notable film or video game, was covered by a notable band, or has a Wikipedia page for some miscellaneous reason. Finally, the song needs to be metal. Misirlou gets the pass despite predating metal as it was probably the single most influential song on the development of metal, and while many of the other songs in the other songs are better classified as hard rock, I can find a source listing them as heavy metal.

1.

2.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

3.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4.Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

5.Deep Purple - In Rock

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1.AC/DC - Back In Black

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

4.Dio - Holy Diver

5.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

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1.AC/DC - Powerage

2.Van Halen - Van Halen

3.

4.Rainbow - Long Live Rock 'N' Roll

5.Judas Priest - Killing Machine (Hell Bent For Leather)

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1.AC/DC - Powerage

2.Rainbow - Long Live Rock 'N' Roll

3.Van Halen - Van Halen

4.Judas Priest - Stained Class

5.Judas Priest - Killing Machine [Hell Bent For Leather]

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Albums I have downloaded and are in the process of obtaining

1.AC/DC - Back In Black

2.AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

3.AC/DC - High Voltage

4.AC/DC - Highway To Hell

5.AC/DC - Let There Be Rock

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