Acid Bath’s explosive debut album, When The Kite String Pops, celebrates its’ 30th anniversary today. So I’m currently reminiscing on how this album hit me back when I was a teenager and where it currently stands.

And I gotta tell you, my friends, this album continues to have a permanent imprint on my life. The adrenaline rush from those stomping, morbid riffs. The careless attitude of those catchy southern rock leads. The unparalleled range of Dax Riggs’ vocals, who delivers some of the most twisted yet oddly beautiful lyrics I’ve ever read. This is not only my favorite sludge metal album. It is my favorite music album from the 90’s, period.
Play it wicked loud!

The kite string pops
I’m swallowed whole by the sky

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: nikarg, RaduP, ScreamingSteelUS

So pure. So cold. So old…
How old? 30 years old!

As an indisputable masterpiece of the genre, Darkthrone’s Transilvanian Hunger still plays a central role in the making of black metal. New acts seeking raw evil and hypnotic despair for their musical endeavours know the groundbreaking opening riff by heart. There is little left to be said about this album. So I’ll end this with the final lines of a short-but-sweet guest review, which described the album perfectly:

”Satan himself has certainly shed a tear facing so much genius - the art of regression and of musical purification, which is the climax of the beauty of evil...”

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: nikarg, RaduP

It would be too easy to pick a terrifying extreme metal album for Halloween. But there's much more to this day than just scaring people. This is a celebration for the macabre. Let us fully embrace what lies beyond the dark veil of the underworld! And what better way to do it than with Devil Doll's elegantly dark debut album, The Girl Who Was... Death. This Slovenian project led by the enigmatic Mr. Doctor lasted less than a decade, yet grand works were made in that time. On his debut album, based on the cult tv-series "The Prisoner", we can find some of the best classical instruments and choirs ever used alongside progressive rock. To top it all off, Mr. Doctor's unique vocal performance will send shivers down your spine as his thousand voices pierce your mind.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: RaduP, Redel, nikarg, ylside

Khanate returned with a new album after 14 years. A return to the stage has been promised and the label announced re-issues for the first two albums. The stars aligned themselves perfectly so that you, Metalstormer, can ruin your whole weekend with what I think it’s the band’s masterpiece. I’m talking about their sophomore record, Things Viral, which turns 20 years today. This is when the drone super-group deconstructed the foundations of sludge metal from their debut, in order to transport the listener to a far more surreal landscape of horror. Some of these viral things include minimalistic song structures, waves of feedback, ultra-low bass, unpredictable drumming, unnerving electronic effects, and a terrifying vocal performance. Khanate mastered the concept of torture music from the start. No one came close enough to touch them. No one dared to.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: RaduP, Netzach, Auntie Sahar

4 decades of crushing pain. 4 decades of blood-curdling violence. 4 decades of unrelenting anger. 4 decades of FILTH.

Swans' explosive debut album remains as vicious and uncompromising as it was back in 1983. A milestone within the annals of heavy music. It went on to influence plenty of bands within the industrial, noise rock, and metal scenes. But few acts can hope to ever reach this level of mad intensity. From the bludgeoning and creative percussion to the colossal bass. From the piercing guitars to the misanthropic and unstable vocals. Filth was specifically designed to harm the listener. After all this time, it keeps on delivering.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: RaduP, Auntie Sahar

Didn't you say Jesus was coming?

A few years ago, I started the tradition to listen to Immolation's masterpiece, Close To A World Below, every Easter. I pass down the tradition down to you, the uninitiated. For Close To A World Below stands out as one of the most infernal and meticulously put together death metal albums of all time. It has an impeccable production that blurs the riffs which sound as if they are coming behind a curtain of hellfire. The growls are so monstrous yet so well performed that every blasphemous line roars loud and clear. The frightening drumwork is maddening in all its complexity and brutality, giving you the sensation of falling down a hole for all eternity. From the terrifying intensity of "Higher Coward" to the apocalyptic grand finale that is the title track, Close To A World Below is a sublime album every self-respecting heretic must listen to.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: RaduP, Dream Taster, nikarg, Yaniv

I'm two weeks late for the 20th anniversary of this masterpiece. But trust me: This is not an album you celebrate in the normal sense. 2013, I was 20 years old and blasted this album in one sitting. Alone, at midnight, with all the lights out. It remains the most devastating and terrifying musical experience I've ever endured. Today Is The Day's Sadness Will Prevail is a massive, 144 minutes long soundtrack of all that is wrong with the world. The sludgy guitars, the high-pitched screams and wails, the bizarre samples, the schizophrenic songwriting. Everything is designed to harm you. Not even the acoustic guitars, violins or piano can help you as they only make the music even more surreal. I'll leave my late friend Marcel's warning as my final message to all of you who want to endure one of the most challenging albums ever created in the name of extreme music:

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 06.02.2007 at 12:00
I don't believe that listening to music can make you go out and kill random people but Sadness Will Prevail is the exception to the rule.
SWP is the most terrifying haunting piece of music ever set to disc.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: RaduP, Starvynth, ScreamingSteelUS

The 30th anniversary of this masterpiece was in March. I chose this day in particular as a way to remember the two years that have passed since our dear friend and metalstormer Marcel left us.

As Marcel would’ve point out to all of you: Fear Of God’s debut is one of the most overlooked jewels in thrash metal. It is dark. It is brooding. It is soaked in gothic misery. No thrash album has sounded this harrowing before or since. This is mostly due to Dawn Crosby’s unique persona. Her cries are filled with unshakeable anguish yet at times are most beautiful and delicate. Her tragic fate looms over Within The Veil but the music remains so infectious that you will revisit it again and again.

Yesterday is dead and gone
Tomorrow is out of sight

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: RaduP, Starvynth, Deadsoulman, Daniell, Dream Taster, nikarg, ScreamingSteelUS, Yaniv, Redel

I passed out for two days after celebrating the 20th anniverssary of this modern classic of the genre. Prowler In The Yard is, simply put, what most modern grindcore bands aspire to be. By the time of its release, Pig Destroyer where only trio with only two instruments at their disposal. But they still outclassed most bands in every aspect of the game. Genuinely unsettling vocals and lyrics, a near infinite amount of innovative riffs, and intense drumming that truly cemented their frightening sound. Prowler In The Yard's atmosphere is so caustic that no amount of hot showers will make it go away.

This is beautiful. This is art.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: RaduP, ScreamingSteelUS

On the 9th of October I was grooving and passing out continously with this album on the background, hence the two days delay in celebrating the 20 years anniversary of this beast of an album.
This is considered by many to be the band's magnum opus and it's not difficult to see why given how songs like "Funeralopolis" have reached the status of modern classics. From catchy sludge tunes to drawn-out dirges of the drone variety, Dopethrone pummels through with dirty and distorted riffs, redefining the heavyness of stoner metal. Approach with caution, though:

When you get into one of these groups, there's only a couple of ways you can get out: one is death, the other is mental institutions...

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: RaduP, musclassia

So yesterday yours truly celebrated two big events: My not-so-young ass turned 25 and one of the modern classics in black metal turned a full decade!
With its' massive riffs, tasteful drumming, and let's not even start with the unique and thundering vocals of Mr. Nemtheanga... To The Nameless Dead is an album you cannot miss.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: Daniell, Darkside Momo, ScreamingSteelUS, Starvynth, nikarg, Redel

Too much of a fanboy? Probably...
Yet I still feel the obligation to remind our users that one of the modern classics of black metal has just turned a decade old.

It remains as unique and soul-draining as the very day it was released.
No happiness, no sadness, no fear, no hope... Pure emptiness.

Celebrate the void!

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: Auntie Sahar, Marcel Hubregtse, BitterCOld, wormdrink414

Did you have a rough monday?
Feel free to ruin your whole week with this.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: !J.O.O.E.!, Marcel Hubregtse, Nefarious

- Hey man! What's up?
- Oh nothing... Mories released yet another piece of extreme art that challenges the foundations of black metal and extreme music in general. Throwing industrial, ambient, noise, dissonance, electronic touches and who knows what into the equation to get a result that can only be achieved by a mad man. Surprisingly mellow and melodic at some points though. But still, this is... You know, the usual magnificence.
- As always, meh.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: !J.O.O.E.!, Ag Fox, BloodTears, Introspekrieg, wormdrink414

I'll be honest with all of you: After albums like VI, their cover EP and worst of all: VII, I really felt that Shining didn't have it in them anymore and should just die.
I don't mind eating my words with a pound or two of shit as long as I can do it while listening to this album.

Shining is back.

Staff pick by:
Endorsed by: KwonVerge