Welcome to what I consider the "1970s Metal Bible" 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 and the other parts of this journey through the decades may be a very overwhelming list. 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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Welcome to what I consider the "Metal Bible" 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

      View entire list ››

Obviously This list born after reading the comments in my previous list, Non metal bands that everyone Loves and inspired .

1. Rush - 2112

2. Rush - A Farewell To Kings

3. Rush - Hemispheres

4. The Beatles - The Beatles

5. The Beatles - Sargent Pepper

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Back were it all began, yes the end of the sixties provide really good music and the genesis in what became heavy metal and hard rock

1. The Beatles - The Beatles

2. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

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

4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

5. Frank Zappa - Hot Rats

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I've separated into two lists, list one for heavy metal and list two for Hard rock, and I've included my top 3 songs from each album.

1. Black Sabbath - Paranoid

2. Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

3. Judas Priest - Painkiller

4. Iron Maiden - Powerslave

5. Dio - Holy Diver

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Just some of my favorite records of all time. Not really in a particular order besides maybe some of the first few.

1. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

3. Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4. Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5. Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power

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I've been listening to Metal since 2005 and it has become my biggest passion in life.

Rarely a day goes by where I don't listen to it in one form or another. The bands I listened to in my teens inspired me to pick up the guitar (and later drums) and start making music of my own.

So here are the albums that have stood out and made the largest impact on me.

(Score is an average of each album's song ratings, full list located here)

If you discovered any new music or like the same sort of music, be sure to give this list a thumbs-up and leave a comment so more people can find these amazing bands!

My other lists:
My Favourite EPs (ordered & rated)
Top 200 Overlooked Albums (with genres)
So I Heard You Like Wintersun... (Time II find new bands)
The Most Overrated Albums on MS (trigger warning)

1. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

2. Opeth - Blackwater Park

3. Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4. Edge Of Sanity - Crimson

5. Opeth - Still Life

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1. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

2. Rush - Rush

3. Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

4. AC/DC - The Razor's Edge

5. Alice In Chains - Alice In Chains

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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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1. Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2. Alcest - Écailles De Lune

3. Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4. As I Lay Dying - Shadows Are Security

5. Before The Dawn - Deadlight

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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. 60s:

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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Simple. Led Zep's albums ordered in my personal preference.

1. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

2. Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy

3. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

4. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

5. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

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same as rym except this obviously limits to metal albums which might be interesting. ah well it just meant iron maiden are 2x more of the albums

1. Deep Purple - The Book of Taliesyn

2. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

3. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4. Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

5. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath Vol. 4

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1. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

2. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

3. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

4. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold As Love

5. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

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8.5, 25, 9

1. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

2. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

3. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4. Black Sabbath - Paranoid

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