OK, let's get this straight right now: THIS IS NOT A LIST OF MY FAVOURITE ALBUMS. Neither is it a 'Best Of' list in any shape, manner or form. And it is also not a list of albums I consider to be important in Metal history in general (though many of them assuredly would be considered so).

What this list is:
I started thinking about why I listen to Metal, and why I listen to certain bands and not others. And how my tastes have changed enormously in the approx 15 years I've been, as one might say, a Metalhead. I thought it would be interesting to look over my collection and pick out those albums I consider to be landmarks in my listening career and write a little bit about why each is significant to me. Significant either in the sense that I thought they were amazing first time around (and in some cases still do), or that they opened the Left Hand Path to a new wavelength of the metal spectrum. This will start out small, but I'll add more albums once I've thought about it properly. There is no order at present.

Also keep an eye out for Part 2, which will be much more about my current listening habits.

Discussion is always appreciated, so feel free to comment.

EDIT: I will try and update one album a day, sort of like one o' them blog thingies, if anyone gives a fuck!
EDIT MK II: Clearly I'm too lazy to do one a day, so we'll aim for a couple or three a week!
EDIT MKIII (2021 Back From The Dead Edition): Ask and ye shall receive, Starvynth! Bit of a memory tax trying to update this now, not going to lie...

Created by:

LordFezzington | 22.04.2012

	1.	Anathema - Judgement If Judgement and Alternative 4 were boxers, they would slug it out right to the bell in the 12th round, both bleeding profusely and having knocked each other down twice. Judgement would then win in a split decision. Anyway, hate boxing, love Anathema. Judgement only really comes out above Alternative 4 in my affections because I got it first. "Fragile Dreams" (on Alternative 4) was the first song of theirs I heard and is an amazing cut, but "Make It Right (F.F.S.)" was what persuaded me into buying Judgement as soon as it was released (alongside Slipknot's debut, bizarrely!). No album affects me emotionally like this one. No album. None. It's probably a 10 now, a decade and change later. Amazing. Tracks that got me hooked: Deep, Make It Right (F.F.S.), One Last Goodbye, Judgement.
	2.	Black Sabbath - Paranoid I'd just started to get properly into Rock, via obvious starting points like Nirvana, RHCP, Foo Fighters, Green Day and, of all things, Meat Loaf. Like any good music fan does, I started reading up on my history. Sabbath are the pioneers of Metal in many ways, so I rented (yes, rented - no YouTube or Spotify in the mid-90's!) Paranoid from my local library. I was hooked from the instant "War Pigs" came on. The album was immediately copied onto cassette (sort of like a mp3 player, but with wheels and an uncanny ability to get tangled up!) and still remains one of my favourite albums to this day. Tracks that got me hooked: War Pigs, Paranoid, Iron Man, Fairies Wear Boots
	3.	Cradle Of Filth - Midian I first heard Cradle in 1998, just as they put out Cruelty And The Beast. The closer from that album, "Lustmord & Wargasm" appeared on a Metal Hammer compilation. I listened to it and thought, "I like the music here, it's dark, melancholic, fast, blah, blah, blah...but wait...what the FUCK is that god-awful screeching?! Sorry, that's the singer, you say? Jeez..." So Cradle were cast aside for a time. Then 2-3 years later, I saw the video (a recurring theme, you may notice) for "Her Ghost In The Fog" on Scuzz and was sufficiently blown away to buy Midian and give 'em a second chance. I found it really hard to get into at first; in fact, I was still so green in terms of extreme music at the time that I found some of the lyrical content a little disturbing - "Lord Abortion" in particular. I now think it's CoF's strongest album hands down, and it opened the gates (of Midian!) for me into the sinister world of Black Metal. Dani still sounds like a stuck pig though... Tracks that got me hooked: Cthulhu Dawn, Death Magick For Adepts, Her Ghost In The Fog
	4.	Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger Other Metal Storm veterans may well remember with some fondness the old "Follow The Storm" compilations the site used to offer for free, as well as a host of short song clips to whet the aural appetite. One of those song clips from back in the day was of the title track from everyone's favourite album-recorded-in-a-washing-machine, Transilvanian Hunger. "What's the point of a 60-second sample of that?" you may ask. Well precisely. A download from my Uni's servers swiftly followed, resulting in a slightly unhealthy desire to avoid sunlight and screech incomprehensibly at unsuspecting passers-by. My love of the record has faded a bit with time (I tend to find it a bit TOO samey), but it's still a genre-defining classic. Now, where's my corpsepaint? Tracks that got me hooked: Transilvanian Hunger.
	5.	Def Leppard - Hysteria Bearing absolutely no relation to metal in any shape, manner or form and boasting production so glossy you could play Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on its surface, you could be forgiven for wondering what this album is doing on this list. The answer is simple: This is hands-down, no doubt, the best stadium rock record ever committed to tape. No, seriously. One of the first rock albums I ever really heard, this album has so many hooks it could keep Abu Hamza supplied with prosthetics for the rest of his life. Essentially an album of singles (6 were Top 20 hits on both sides of the Atlantic), it nevertheless is a record where some of the album tracks, such as "Gods Of War" and "Run Riot" more than measure up, though "Excitable" and "Love And Affection" are best described as the runts of a very strong litter. And to be honest, the production is glorious to listen to if you like accessible music of any sort. Hysterically good. Tracks that got me hooked: Women, Animal, Armageddon It, Gods Of War, Run Riot, Hysteria.
	6.	Dream Theater - Awake Hands up if you've ever bought an album simply because of the cover art. Keep your hand up if this resulted in you buying one of your favourite albums of all time. My hand is still up. I was trawling a rack of sale CDs and came across this and A Change Of Seasons. I don't think I'd heard of DT at all at the time, but I DO remember thinking the cover of Awake was seriously impressive and the track names were pretty cool. When I put Awake on at home, I admit to being a little bemused by the inane Irish rambling at the start of "6:00", but persevered and was absolutely gobsmacked by the rest of the record. I don't own many records that exhibit the range of moods, styles and musicianship as this, if any. Kevin Moore's presence on this one is a big plus point, but more so is DT's ability to write amazing songs without wanking all over the place as they have tended to do in later years. No sticky white mess here! Still a classic now, and I still find "Space Dye Vest" completely heartbreaking. Tracks that got me hooked: Innocence Faded, Voices, Lifting Shadows Off A Dream, Space Dye Vest
	7.	Fear Factory - Demanufacture "HUH!, DA DA DA DA DA DA DA, DA DA DA DA, DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA, DA DA DA DA, DA DA DA DA DA DA DA, DA DA DA DA, THERE IS NO LOVE!" Someone played me the intro to "Replica" and that was it, I wanted this album bad. To a 14 year old me, everything about this album was huge, from the riffs, to Ray Herrera's machine-like drumming, to Burton C. Bell's by turns growled then soaring (no-doubt with a liberal dose of studio 'magic'!) vocals. This is still one of my favourite all-time albums, and it still sounds monolithically heavy (a bit like Dino...) to me now. This remains an object lesson in combining aggression, melody and industrial rhythms without sounding pathetic at any point. Tracks that got me hooked: Demanufacture, Zero Signal, Replica, Pisschrist
	8.	Iron Maiden - Powerslave It took me a long time to 'get' Maiden, and yet eventually they became far and away my favourite band for many years. I'd tried Best Of The Beast, and only enjoyed the live cut of 'Fear Of The Dark' on it. Then I tried Virtual XI (admittedly an awful starting point), which was new out at the time. Still nothing; they just weren't heavy enough for my Slayer & Fear Factory attuned ears! But then I watched a VH1 recording of a Slayer show I'd been at, which also happened to feature the video for 'Aces High'. I went out and bought Powerslave later that week, and a love affair was born! I remember listening to this album and Piece Of Mind, bought at the same time, for weeks on end. Tracks that got me hooked: Aces High, Two Minutes To Midnight, Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
	9.	Helloween - Better Than Raw You know when bands have hyper-hyper critically acclaimed über-classic albums that everyone holds up as not only the paradigm of their output but of entire genre? You immediately start your listening with those albums right? Wrong! Another discovery through cover-mounted CDs (Metal Hammer this time), Better Than Raw is an album I picked up relatively early on in my metal oddysey. "Midnight Sun" was the guilty party this time - a track which had me hooked instantly and I still love to this day (probably Helloween's best song, actually). The rest of Better Than Raw is perhaps Helloween's most versatile, yet consistent record, since - whilst there is a huge amount of 'fun' to be found on the album - there is a decided absence of the downright silly material that mars some of their other work. I personally find it hard to find a genuinely weak moment from the opening of the ludicrously named yet delightfully composed "Deliberately Limited Prelude Period In Z" to the closing of "Midnight Sun". Quite frankly, you can Keep your Seven Keys... Tracks that got me hooked: Push, Falling Higher, Hey Lord!, I Can, Lavdate Dominum, Midnight Sun
	10.	Katatonia - Tonight's Decision I think I'd heard both "Murder" and "Teargas", neither of which appear on here incidentally, while at Uni. I was sufficiently intrigued by both tracks to pick up Tonight's Decision and Last Fair Deal Gone Down for about a fiver each in HMV. I was going through a "depressive" period - which for me means listening to stuff like My Dying Bride & Anathema, I don't actually get depressed I don't think! [2021 Edit: Future me can confirm that depression is real and is a bitch]. Hence, Katatonia fit nicely at the time. Both are pretty good albums, but this was the one I came back to most and therefore the one I consider more influential upon developing my taste. Still love "Right Into The Bliss" and "A Darkness Coming". Tracks that got me hooked: Right Into The Bliss, This Punishment, A Darkness Coming, Fractured.
	11.	Machine Head - Burn My Eyes The drum intro to "Davidian" That is all.... No seriously, that's the sole inspiration for me picking this up. Well actually, I saw the video for "Davidian" on a VHS (yes, like a cassette, but with pictures!) compilation from Roadrunner (Drilling The Vein I believe) but arrived somewhat circuitously at this album via The Burning Red (again, an album that has faded with the harsh passage of time) which I bought on release and loved. I'm still staggered at just how jaw-dropping this album is for a debut AND how thrashy it is for a popular mid-90s release. Still sounds modern now and infinitely less contrived than, for example, Unto The Locust (a good example of getting carried away with a surprise success and trying too hard to replicate it) and significantly more energetic to boot. And back then I didn't realise Robb Flynn was a total jackass. I guess he talked less.... Tracks that got me hooked: Davidian.
	12.	Metallica - Metallica So we come to perhaps the most controversial album ever released in the world of metal. Ok, so that might be something of an exaggeration, but this does seem to be an incredibly divisive record. Now, I've been listening to Metallica for long enough to be physically sickened with disappointment at just how bad St. Anger was when it came out - I've still yet to make it through that abomination in a single sitting in nearly ten years - but not long enough to have experienced the Black Album's release (I bought it circa 2000. At the airport). I can relate to being disappointed that it wasn't another Puppets or Ride, but I really cannot understand how anyone can dismiss these 12 tracks as being rubbish. Honestly, I think it's one of the best hard rock albums ever to come out of the States, and, as far as I'm concerned anyone who 'hates' this album is either incredibly narrow-minded, elitist or possibly entirely deaf. St. Anger on the other hand....yeesh. Tracks that got me hooked: Enter Sandman, Sad But True, Nothing Else Matters, Of Wolf And Man, The God That Failed
	13.	Soulfly - Soulfly By total coincidence, "Tribe" was on the very same Metal Hammer CD as the Cradle cut mentioned above. The difference being that I loved "Tribe" immediately. This would have been back when my album collection was in its infancy and I had to save up to buy the occasional disc from my paper round money ('bout £10 a week - not much!). When Soulfly came out, I was still paying my parents back weekly for fronting me the cash for a Nintendo 64 (An amazing console, I should add, but that's another story...). The album was £13 (Yes I do still remember the price, I'm afraid. Sad.) in my local record store - which, of course, no longer exists. If I'd paid my instalment for that week, I'd have had to wait at least one more week to purchase. Pleading ensued, and I successfully negotiated an extension so I could buy it. This was my favourite album for quite some while as a teenager, not so much anymore. Has a lot to answer for in terms of introducing me to heavy music though. Tracks that got me hooked: No Hope = No Fear, Tribe, First Commandment, Umbabarauma, Quilombo
	14.	Blind Guardian - Live OK, so 9 years after last updating this list, I'm back. Not so much by popular demand, but at least by Starvynth's demand! I think it's fair to say that my tastes have developed even further than they had by the time I started this list, but some of the stuff on here is still great. Stuff like Rhapsody and Stratovarius (see below) were my first forays into the fromage-filled world of Power Metal, but Blind Guardian are renowned as one of the top bands in the genre. This double live album had just come out when I wanted to start seriously exploring (18 years ago, fuck!). It's got a great, varied setlist and sounds really immersive for a live record - especially one where the tracks all come from different shows. Love Hansi's overdramatic interactions with the audience in whatever language he chooses. Plus, he'd learned to pronounce 'realms' properly by this point, though we're still working on 'iron'... Pretty sure (although it was a long time ago) that this kicked off a pretty much immediate acquisition of BG's entire back catalogue. Tracks that got me hooked: Into The Storm, Welcome To Dying, Harvest of Sorrow, Bright Eyes, Time Stands Still (At The Iron Hill)
	15.	Iced Earth - Alive In Athens Look, back when I was at college two decades ago, Jon Schaffer wasn't as obviously as dyed-in-the-wool an alt-right dick (sorry, 'libertarian') as on 6th January 2021, so cut me some slack, OK? But I'll still keep this short. As a live album, this rivals Live After Death, No Sleep 'til Hammersmith and Live and Dangerous for set list, sound quality and performance. It just has an amazing and massive 'live' feel and Matt Barlow absolutely crushes every song on here. And it always amuses me how Schaffer's guitar is mixed higher than Larry Tarnowski's. Because of course it is. Tracks that got me hooked: Pure Evil, Dante's Inferno, The Hunter, Stormrider, Prophecy, Desert Rain
	16.	Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction The left hand channel of this album got listened to a lot when I was at secondary school/college. To clarify, it was cool then to have your Walkman (cassettes are back now, right?) in the inside pocket of your blazer/jacket and have one earphone in. Pretty sure a lot of my conversations consisted of 'listening' to people with one ear while Dave Mustaine going "Hello me, meet the real me" in the other. My first encounter with 'Deth and MegaDave and therefore with his 'can't really sing but fuck it, they fit the music' vocals. Some absolute classics on here, though you can hear the first hints of the slide towards Risk here and there if you go looking. Tracks that got me hooked: Skin O' My Teeth, Symphony of Destruction, Sweating Bullets, Countdown To Extinction
	17.	My Dying Bride - As The Flower Withers If memory serves correctly, I think I'd gotten into late 90's Anathema and Paradise Lost and then set about investigating the other pillar of the Peaceville Three. This is of course before streaming/Youtube to get a taste of what to expect. Figured I'd start at the beginning. I'm pretty sure I found this very hard to get on with at the time, but do remember thinking that "The Forever People" was the heaviest thing I'd ever heard at that point (not so sure that's the case by 2021) - the main riff is an absolute banger. Time and distance has made me appreciate this record a lot more as some of MDB's finest work. Tracks that got me hooked: The Forever People
	18.	Opeth - Damnation My first flirting with Mr Åkerfeldt and company was "Face of Melinda" on some random Peacevill Records sampler, which up to Damnation, was probably the best showcase of Opeth's softer side. Funny that the first song of theirs (and the only one by them I'd heard before getting this) and this as the first album of theirs I picked up were probably the least representative of their sound at the time. But this album still stands as evidence that Opeth can write non-metal music that isn't incredibly boring (things have improved since the low point of Heritage, but still). Still love the atmosphere and songwriting on this record and Martin Lopez's jazz infused drumming is magnificent. The opening of a very large Opeth shaped rabbit hole for me - Still Life is always in with a shout for my favourite album of all time. Tracks that got me hooked: Windowpane
	19.	Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power I mean, this is one of the most iconic heavy albums of all time. Another one where the first trigger was seeing the video for "Walk" and its unapologetically simple, primitive riffing. Having a school friend who was possibly Dimebag's biggest fanboy certainly helped me get into this album hard. While I might prefer Cowboys From Hell slightly these days, this was a massive gateway drug into heavier music for me and I defy anyone to deny how powerful a record it is. Some of the songs on here were among the first I ever jammed in a band. Honestly, Pantera never made a truly great album again in my view, but Dimebag (and Vinnie Paul) is still one of the biggest premature losses the world of metal has ever suffered. And who, as a fourteen year old, wouldn't want an album with a track called "Fucking Hostile" on it? Tracks that got me hooked: Mouth For War, Walk, Fucking Hostile, By Demons Be Drive, Hollow
	20.	Porcupine Tree - Deadwing For someone who doesn't really like music videos per se, it is fascinating seeing the number of these albums that were acquired off the back of seeing one for a song off them. In this case, I can't remember the source - a DVD of some kind I think, but it was the video for "Lazarus". I just remember being struck by the beauty of that song and downloading this off some dodgy Russian server while in my room at university. I wasn't big into progressive stuff outside of Operation: Mindcrime (next on the list) and Dream Theater at the time, but I absolutely loved Deadwing, from the opening of the title track right through to the closing of "Glass Arm Shattering". A sublime blend of pop and prog that Steven Wilson has never successfully replicated since. "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here" is a masterpiece. Tracks that got me hooked: Deadwing, Lazarus, Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, Mellotron Scratch.
	21.	Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime One of a few albums on this list that I picked up (in Tower Records in Boston, while on holiday with my family, I believe) on reputation, as any good metal fan does once the scene has its hooks in. If it wasn't for Opeth's Still Life, I think I'd have this as the single greatest concept album ever committed to record. Almost every second of this record contributes to the story, unlike many concept albums, and the individual songs are pretty much all masterful. The band's performance is incredible - wonderful guitar work from Messrs. Wilton and DeGarmo and Geoff Tate turns in one of the all time great vocal performances. Sheer brilliance, plus any band that casually and unironically pulls off 'raison d'être' as a lyric are geniuses in my book. Tracks that got me hooked: Revolution Calling, Spreading The Disease, I Don't Believe In Love, Eyes of a Stranger
	22.	Rhapsody - Legendary Tales Through a 2021 lens, this album is so far removed from anything I generally listen to now. At the time though, I was big into fantasy novels and had started dipping my toe in more and more power metal. I actually can't remember why I got into this album - it wasn't new out or anything. But get into it I did. Yes it's very overblown and the straight up chamber music interludes are pretentious, but it's got some great moments and some of the songs on here are actually pretty epic. Lost interest in them as my tastes got a bit more extreme, but this turned me on to the more symphonic side of meta. Legendary indeed. Tracks that got me hooked: Rage of the Winter, Flames of Revenge
	23.	Sepultura - Arise One of the albums on here that is an absolutely stone cold classic and one of the few that is still a cast iron favourite of mine to this day. Once again, me getting this was a result of a combination of a VHS - the band's Third World Chaos had the videos for the title track and Dead Embryonic Cells - and natural progression from having already picked up Chaos AD and Roots. I could have picked either of those albums for this list - "Roots Bloody Roots" blew my mind the first time I heard it, and "Refuse/Resist" was one of the first songs my earliest band performed live (after taking over the stage in my secondary school hall from a band in the year below and causing the school to pull the power after a moshpit started up... - but it was my borderline obsession with "Desperate Cry" and the cover of Motörhead's "Orgasmatron" that cemented Arise as my favourite Sepultura record. One of the greatest death/thrash hybrids, alongside its predecessor, which I adore equally. Tracks that got me hooked: Arise, Dead Embryonic Cells, Desperate Cry, Orgasmatron
	24.	Slayer - Diabolus In Musica "OK," I can hear you say, dear reader, "Slayer are as essential a metal band as there is, but Diabolus In Musica in anything other than a "Biggest Metal Travesties" list? He must be crazy!" But no, this 100% deserves its place here, for all its flaws. Slayer were the first headline metal band I ever saw when I was like 14, co-headlining with newly Derrick Greene fronted Sepultura, and everyone's favourite Armenian-Americans (see below) opening. So naturally I was big into them pretty early on. This was the record they were touring and was also the first Slayer record I ever heard. Now, obviously, this pales in comparison with their first five albums, but I still think this holds up next to some of their later material. Was the decision to try and embrace nu metal questionable? Of course. Are some of the songs - "Perversions Of Pain" and "Love To Hate You" especially - shit? Absolutely. But are "Bitter Peace" and "Screaming From The Sky" some of their better post-Seasons tracks? Also yes. Tracks that got me hooked: Bitter Peace, Stain Of Mind, Screaming From The Sky, Wicked, Point
	25.	Stratovarius - Visions More power metal goodness. I was definitely into quite a bit of this sort of thing in my later senior school/college/early university days. What can I say, I was a sucker for melody and still favoured (relatively) clean singing at that point, with a few exceptions. I distinctly remember seeing them play a headline show at the Underworld, in Camden, which was like a mini power metal paradise - Edguy, Heavenly and Nostradameus rounded out the bill. I think I had Vain Glory Opera already, but that gig got me into the Strato guys big time and I picked this up on, of all things, a random overnight visit to Stockholm (that's a rather fun story that won't really fit here. Span this over and over for a long time, absolutely in love the opening trio of songs. One of the few non Blind Guardian/Helloween/pre 2005 Gamma Ray power metal records I ever go back to. Tracks that got me hooked: Kiss of Judas, Black Diamond, Forever Free
	26.	System Of A Down - System Of A Down I consider myself something of a SOAD hipster, in the sense that I've been there pretty much from the beginning. Discovering them when they opened for Slayer and Sepultura was absolutely mindblowing. The energy, the unpredictability, Serj Tankian's totally bananas vocals and Daron Malakian's equally batshit guitars were quite something to my 14 year old ears. Pretty sure I picked up the full length debut on holiday in Florida, but I could be wrong - after all we are talking over 20 years ago! I definitely do remember that I had never heard anything like it and I'm not sure I have even to this day - even System weren't ever quite the same again. I absolutely loved it, from the opening harmonic weirdness of "Suite-Pee", through to the band nailing their political colours to the mast in "P.L.U.C.K.". Often imitated, but never outdone, even by the band themselves. Tracks that got me hooked: Suite-Pee, Know, Spiders, War?, P.L.U.C.K.