In other news, the next batches will be smaller... but there are some great ones. Next group includes Siege, and Megadeth, and Exciter, Oh my!
And I listened to Violence & Force by Exciter in full today for the first time and for some reason this album hits different! I wasn't really feelin' their '83 debut, but their sophomore album totally rocks!
And of course Siege’s Drop Dead EP is already one of my favorites of the decade. Look forward to talking about it. _________________ -Ryan
I really liked this. I think this was a no-holds-barred beast of a metal album overall. Very little fat. No big missteps. Riffs that rocked my world and ears and skull. Solos that were consistently solid and sometimes fucking nuts and GREAT. Production that really accentuated the heavy, pounding drums. Guitar TONE that crackles. Songs that are never super notable or great, but also are not ever bad or corny, in other words right there in that solid heavy metal pocket.
This is a band that seems to have come up at perhaps an inopportune or at least nonoptimum time. Right when a new wave of bands were forging a whole new level of aggressive metal, and right as the metal fans were picking their new heroes of the next generation, in came Exciter. They were also a cutting edge metal band. They were heavier and faster and more garagy and they had a youthful vigor that was undeniable. The issue is Metallica also did all those things, but much more forcefully and much more eye-catchingly. And thus I guess Exciter never quite had their moment in the sun. It was kind of like Dominique Wilkins in the NBA. After a couple seasons of getting acclimated to the pros, in 1984-85 he had his first super star season. He had insane athleticism, scoring ability, was poised to be the next Big Deal, the best pure scorer, the heir apparent to Dr. J. Except… that same year, 84-85, when Wilkins was 25-years-old, a younger and faster and better and more exciting player had his rookie season and went on to totally overshadow Wilkins’ ascent. Michael Jordan, of course, is who I’m talking about. And the MJ in this analogy is Metallica. I suppose then the Hakeem in this scenario was Slayer. Lol. Okay I’ve gone on long enough with this analogy.
I will say I enjoyed this a lot more than Exciter’s debut. It seems to me to be a more heavy and intense affair than Heavy Metal Maniac. Nut also maybe I just need to revisit their debut newly. It may have simply been a situation where I was not in the mood.
Listen to the riff, the tone, the ATTITUDE and pretty goddamn aggressively pissed off mood of “Scream In The Night”. I mean, jesus christ, that is one hell of a song. There are moments like that throughout this bad boy. Really good.
This is an album and a style that is outside of my usual area of interest and certainly not what I had in mind at any time when thinking of what to cover here on this diary project. And yet, I decided maybe for super famous albums – outliers or majorly innovative albums – within genres and zones I’m not familiar with should be covered as well. The thinking is, “who knows? Maybe I will find a new interest or a new genre to explore.”. With that in mind I checked out this very famous Neoclassical metal virtuosity showcase as I have heard of this album and this guitarist since I was like 11. This album came up alongside of Satriani’s Surfing With The Alien (I think that’s the right title) and the Passion and Warfare album by Vai as the quintessential uber technical virtuoso metal/hard rock albums to blow your fucking mind when I was a lad first getting into metal and music more broadly.
Anyway, I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. I have explored very technical musicians and specifically very fast and technical guitar albums before and usually after the initial eargasm of the first 10 minutes I get a little tired of it and then 20 minutes after that I am utterly done engaging. But with this I think I got a bit MORE into it the longer it went. By the end with those intense and nice and heavy riffs on the closer “Little Savage” I would say I was invested.
Obviously it is the absurd speed and precision and power of Malmsteen’s playing that steals the show. Hell that is probably what 90-95% of the focus of this album. The vocals are fine and the other musicians are also quite incredibly good technically, but they are not the focus. Nor are the quite beautiful piano or keyboard parts that come in and kick ass in brief snippets. It’s really Yngwie’s magical hands and that guitar so prominently showcased on the album cover art. And holy shit! If I could do the things he can do, I would flex those powers as well.
If these were 100% jamming, unmoving, sprawling technical-fests, I think I would have lost interest as I tend to do by minute 10 of this 40 minute album. But it isn’t all that. There were certainly points when I got a little taken out of it due to the sheer number of notes and shredding happening, but generally a few minutes after starting to feel this is just not great, there would be some interesting detail or riff or somewhat moving and very passionate movement that I’d really really enjoy.
Probably my favorite song here is that beast of a proggy/classical number called “Icarus Dream Suite, Op. 4”. This track moves and each time there is a switch-up, it’s done quite elegantly and beautifully. I love the acoustic piece in here. Anyway, yeah I am not a bleedin’ musician so I really can’t describe with any insight why these movements work, but I can say they work for my pleb mind.
There are some other great bits here and some other really solid tracks. There are also extended periods of overwhelmingly fast shred that perhaps I would enjoy if I understood the music theory undergirding them, however I don’t and so they don’t do much for me. The metal here is good, some bits actually have some fierceness and bite, and have a Maiden-esque gallop to them (such as on the track “As Above, So Below”. Love when the keys or acoustic guitars take center stage, they are always without fail a nice change of pace.
While I wouldn’t say this album re-arranged my thinking on this style or genre, I mean I won’t be going out and listening to tons of similar stuff. But it absolutely did raise my affinity and appreciation for Malmsteen and for the simple beauty of music that is beautiful and impressive MOSTLY based on the precise technicality of the music on display. There usually is a middle ground I like, where the artist is conveying deeper messages or more relatable and visceral emotions while also being above average musicians. This certainly is in the direction of the super technical with not much emotional connection. I guess Hellhammer’s first couple demos are the metal inversion of this – terrible musicians that yet have some really hefty nasty emotional power and ideas behind them. Neither extreme is my fave.
Okay, I’m rambling. As you can read, I did enjoy this. I probably won’t be playing it on repeat and I wouldn’t say it’s a new fave. But it’s damned impressive and as far as I understand, MAJORLY influential on a whole generation of axemen.
This record approaches levels of violence and force that I would deem unsafe for the unwary and untrained. This is, at times, Napalm Death levels of vicious years before Scum. This is powerviolence that is right up there in terms of HEAVINESS and utter aggressive power with anything Infest released – again years before Infest. In other words, this thing is on a straight-forward decibels and speed and extremity level, one of the great and momentous releases that set a new standard for extreme punk/metal.
Whilst using potty earlier this week I was thinking about this record. I was trying to find a cool name for this brand of release. What I mean is that album that within a subgenre or within more broadly metal and punk, sets a new level of extremeness, but then HOLDS that vanguard position for 1 or 2 or even 3 years running. I was thinking not only of Siege’s debut, but also I was thinking of Possessed’s debut album. Hell, in some ways I think Welcome To Hell by Venom qualifies. Also, a more popular and maybe more of a stretch example is Wire’s Pink Flag. Within metal I think it’s fair to say Venom was the most disgusting and extreme band (perhaps the first “Extreme Metal” band…?) for 2 years until the thrash kids arrived. 2 years having the Heavyweight title is a long time! For Wire, they released a heavy, experimental “POST” Punk album right in the midst of the Punk Revolution and more and more Post Punk bands started to really show up in 1979, maybe 1.5 years of that strange distinction. For Possessed, I mean Seven Churches was essentially a Death Metal album dropped in the middle of the Thrash boom and wouldn’t really have a companion piece in LP form until Scream Bloody Gore about 2 years later. And of course the album that started me thinking of this, the album pictured above, Drop Dead, presaged both Powerviolence’s and Grindcore’s emergence by a solid 3 years.
Now I can poke holes in all those examples and probably any that I can think of. I mean Slayer was doing stuff like Seven Churches in 1985. Talking Heads and Pere Ubu and Chrome were doing some odd shit with punk in 77 and 78. Motorhead was all THAT much less extreme than Venom, etc etc. But I still feel like these were albums that didn’t nudge the threshold forward, but instead sort of saw all the exciting stuff happening within their musical realms at the time and grabs the football, and said “Let’s just take this to its logical extreme NOW instead of farting about slowly!” and then did that.
I decided to call these moments of extreme boundary pushing, “Leeeroy Jenkinsss” moments. While the whole scene is gathering about, mustering and planning their advance over time, one dude is oblivious to the plan and just rushes the fuck in and everyone else can catch up or be damned. Much like Leroy, these bands usually were a bit TOO insane to be successful financially and perhaps too much for people to quickly catch on and join them.
That out of the way, this EP is just absolutely incredible. Whether you are talking just about the EP release of 1984, or you are talking about the “L”P release of the same name in 1994 which is this EP plus some songs that were previously only found on an obscure 1985 VA compilation, or you are talking about the Drop Dead 30th Anniversary edition which is the “L”P plus 3 or 4 more songs that I can’t for the life of me figure out where or when they were recorded, no matter what version of this you are hearing – it’s undeniable that Siege were an unstoppable force of nature. They sounded like the most extreme hardcore punk band or thrashcore band of the time but with vocals that sounded like they were from the depths of Hades. DRI and Deep Wound were their most obvious stylistic touchpoints in late 83 when they recorded these songs, but that doesn’t do these recordings justice for how powerful, fast, demented, and kickass they are. There were some things of somewhat comparable insanity happening in Japan at this time, but 1. None of what I have heard are quite as well produced for maximum feral force and 2. Those records hadn’t yet caught on or made much of a dent across the oceans yet as far as I am aware. Of course the main ingredients that lead to the beauty of Grindcore in the UK come 1987 were Siege, Anarcho Punk and Japanese Hardcore, so I of course want to give credit to those bands and artists as well in the formulation of perhaps my fave genre of music.
Now as for the songs here, well, the tracks that totally rip in the most intense way are tracks 1, 3, 4 and 5. These are the tracks that basically take what DRI and Deep Wound and Gai over in Japan were doing and ratchet it up to 11 with added menace, better riffs and some of the coolest vocals you will here in the American Punk world. Track 2, “Conform” is a slow, sludgy, classic. Maybe one of the very best punk tracks ever written. The bass work is solemn and filthy and the riff is a monumental beast. Just absolutely classic. And of course the 7 minute closer “Grim Reaper” is perhaps the weirdest and most fascinating and, in its own way, most shocking track here. I mean one of the coolest things about this EP and band is how varied they were. They were never a 1-note speed freak band. They had many modes and a willingness to go to strange places. The best example of that is this 7 minute, hellish, dirgy, Flipper-esque noisy experimental punk track. The horns on here are wicked and wrong in an unsettling way. Very cool.
If we were to include the other tracks that have been tacked onto this EP over the years (which I generally do think of them as part of this release because my version of this is an epic 25 minutes that includes the EP, the VA compilation tracks plus other songs from ’84-‘85) then you are feasted with absolutely essential works of art like “Walls”, the super heavy “Sad But True”, the sludgy building beast “Two Faced” and the classic punk maelstrom “Questions Behind The Wall” amongst other gems.
Basically the EP is like 12 minutes and is as essential as essential gets in extreme punk/metal. The extended “L”P called Drop Dead is likewise 17 minutes of genius essential greatness. And the Drop Dead 30th anniversary edition is an EPIC 25 minutes of just the very best and most insane and inspired and influential and groundbreaking proto-Grind, Thrashcore, sludgy, Proto-Powerviolence, shrieking, maddened, brilliance you will likely ever come across.
Bless this release and this band. They only gave us a small amou nt of music. But they totally changed the game and became legends for it.
Last Rites (Demo EP) by Megadeth/Released 9 March 1984
As a first introduction to Megadeth, this is mouth-watering stuff. Faster and more aggressive than any of the other Big 4’s albums sounded. More technical. Yet there is a sense I get when listening that Mustaine was so pissed and so possessed by rage that he and his musicians were playing almost TOO fast. Like they were getting out over their skis and working more on desperately keeping up with each other and especially Mustaine that the final product (this demo) is almost information overload. Imagine the fastest and most furious riff found on Kill Em All but played with 20% less precision and 30% more speed, that is this entire 11-12 minute demo EP in a nutshell.
But fuckin’ A this is exhilarating stuff. You can hear the anger, the utter disgruntled, hateful, resentful essence of this young Mustaine is palpable on every second. On “Mechanix” it is so evident that he was full-frontally taking back his fucking riffs and song and saying “Fuck. You.” With that Walter White intensity to his old bandmates in the process. It’s stunning stuff and probably the highlight here. I love that the utterly iconic riff breakdown, y’know that Four Horsemen muted riff Gallop, as played here is clearly a bit TOO fast and rushed. Somehow despite it being a bit too fast, it works to convey the anger and profuse swat that must have been rolling off the band’s bodies as they went into that bit of the song lol. (Note: I still love The Four Horsemen” off Kill Em All, but hearing this early version of Mechanix I start wondering … is this even better than that classic? Considering how much of my life has been spent listening to and worshipping at the altar of that song/album, this sudden doubt is both exciting and destabilizing. Basically every metal head whop hears and love Kill Em All should be instantly pointed in the direction of this Demo.)
But really everything else here is a goddamn rush. The classical piece that starts the demo is cool and sooooo Megadeth. This whole thing is shoddily recorded, dirty as it gets, evil, filled with solos (again I point to “Mechanix” and its solo, probably the best solo in thrash up that point… certainly the most taut and tense that I have heard), drumming that miraculously absolutely keeps up with Mustaine, and there is an attitude here that I don’t recall hearing on Megadeth’s debut. (I will be revisiting that album eventually and I will see how much my take holds up). The 3 tracks here are all stunning. “Mechanix” I already gushed about. But “Love You To Death” also features maybe the most pure energy of this batch and that squealing, ripping riffs is an all timer and as played here and presented in this rough as fuck way, it is a classic. The last track (“The Skull Beneath The Skin”) is really good as well but probably is my least fave of these 3, and it loses a bit of the almost-impossible-to-maintain-energy of first couple tracks and is probably the most wordy and least visceral.
This is just a demo EP, 3 songs, and so maybe shouldn’t be overhyped as some great document of greatness. But as far as demos and roughly recorded underground metal goes, this may be the best I have ever heard. I wish Megadeth had released an LP of this stuff – maybe a bit cleaned up production-wise while keeping this unhinged and uncontrolled aggression – back in mid ’84 instead of waiting another year. Because if something like THIS had been dropped in LP form in ’84, I’d probably be saying this is the best of the 4 major debut albums.
But, alas, that is a fantasy and what we DO have is this. And it’s glorious stuff through and through.
8.2 to 8.8/10 (stretched over an album or even a 5-7 track, 20-30 minute EP even with this production, this would be a 9.5/10… up there with Siege and even Ride The Lightning as the very best extreme metal/punk I’ve heard from this year… I think I may simply be a sucker for dirty, shoddily recorded demos based off the fact I am comparing this to bloody RtL in terms of quality lol. I may be taking this too far and overhyping it. Whatever… it’s great, please listen to it multiple times.)
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I won’t be including this every time, but every once in awhile I figure I will update this ongoing chart. My favorite albums of 1984 any genre. As you can see, I have removed every album that I will be revisiting and listening to in context such as Ride The Lightning, Double Nickels On The Dime, Powerslave… basically if there is a missing metal and punk album and it’s one you are pretty sure I have heard or love, that’s the reason. I will slot them in on this list and re-add to my 1984 BEA chart once I am up to that album again in this chronological 1984 listening project.
So here you go…
1984 Rankings Excluding Albums I will be re-listening to or reevaluating here: (The Bolded means I have covered them already on this diary in last few pages)
The * asterisk means I NEED to revisit this and the ranking is based off recollections from 4-10 years ago.
1. Let It Be by The Replacements
2. Minor Threat (comp of first 2 EPs) by Minor Threat
3. Drop Dead (EP) by Siege
4. Treasure by Cocteau Twins
5. Hatful of Hollow (Comp) by The Smiths
6. Purple Rain by Prince & The Revolution
7. Defenders of The Faith by Judas Priest Last Rites (Demo EP) by Megadeth (not numbered as not on chart because DNQ for BEA Chart)
8. Couldn’t Stand The Weather by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble*
9. Songs From Suicide Bridge by Kauffman & Caboor*
10. Ocean Rain by Echo & The Bunnymen*
11. Ragtime Guitar’s Foremost Fingerpicker (Comp) by Blind Blake
12. Youth Anthems for the New Order (EP) by Reagan Youth
13. Live Skull (EP) by Live Skull
14. Reckoning by R.E.M.
15. Fistful of Metal by Anthrax
16. Violence & Force by Exciter
17. It’ll End In Tears by This Mortal Coil*
18. In Darkness, There Is No Choice by Antisect (noted as ’84 here + Discogs, ’83 on RYM.)
19. Surviving You, Always by Saccharine Trust
20. Red Roses For Me by The Pogues
21. Diamond Life by Sade*
22. Disillusion by Loudness
23. The Unforgettable Fire by U2
24. Rising Force by Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force
25. Distress Signals by Controlled Bleeding
26. Disease Is Relative by Spike In Vain
27. The Smiths by The Smiths
28. ’74 Jailbreak by AC/DC
29. The Top by The Cure
30. Beyond The Graves of Passion by Theatre of Ice
31. Intellectuals Are The Shoeshine Boys of the Ruling Elite
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Okay, and that does it. I think I would say both Siege’s Drop Dead and (to a lesser degree) Last Rites Demo by Megadeth are both all-timers and essential classic listens. Pretty damn great batch of records. I really liked Exciter’s sophomore album and Yngwie’s debut as well.
Next set will be 3 or 4 again and looking at it, looks like it’s going to be My War, Hellhammer’s final release and a band called Warlock that Gowi turned me onto recently with his rankings and ratings. Maybe something else as well. So, another good batch of 1984 releases to be sure.
I hope you all listen to Drop Dead and Last Rites if you haven’t already. Namely, I am very interested to hear what you thought of Siege’s Drop Dead, Repo. Listen to the 30th anniversary edition. It’s still only 25 minutes despite being more than double the original EP length.
Okay, peace, everyone. Talk to you later. _________________ -Ryan
Yngvie catches a lot of heat for being a soulless technician, and truth be told, there's some technical validity in that criticism.
That said, while he's become a sort of poster boy for the shred generation, with all the negative baggage that accompanies such a distinction, he's really more than just a guy seeing how fast he can rip through scales. While there may not be a lot of enduring melody that will ring in peoples ears long after listening, he does make some interesting melodic and harmonic choices, and his overall compositional chops aren't bad. So in addition to getting a technical clinic, there's actually some music in there as well. Rising Force is, I think, his best album in that regard, as it is the album least likely to fatigue me during the course of a full listen. I ended up divesting some of my Malmsteen discs at one point when I felt a need to think the herd, but not this one. Solid choice.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
Yngvie catches a lot of heat for being a soulless technician, and truth be told, there's some technical validity in that criticism.
That said, while he's become a sort of poster boy for the shred generation, with all the negative baggage that accompanies such a distinction, he's really more than just a guy seeing how fast he can rip through scales. While there may not be a lot of enduring melody that will ring in peoples ears long after listening, he does make some interesting melodic and harmonic choices, and his overall compositional chops aren't bad. So in addition to getting a technical clinic, there's actually some music in there as well. Rising Force is, I think, his best album in that regard, as it is the album least likely to fatigue me during the course of a full listen. I ended up divesting some of my Malmsteen discs at one point when I felt a need to think the herd, but not this one. Solid choice.
Interesting take that I agree with. None of these melodies really stuck with me but in comparison to, say, a random live G3 album I was bought randomly when not asked for years ago, this is engaging and not super wanky for wank's sake. (That damn G3 album I think may have been what scarred me. Was playing a KK/secret santa game and the final gift I got was from a well-meaning 45 year old lady who thought to herself probably something along the lines of "Oh that young man there that I pulled from this hat, what do I know about him?... well he loves music. I shall buy randomly and wily nilly an album of music. Wait these 3 guitarists are famous and apparently great, surely he will love it!". I smiled and thanked her and in my heart I was like... fuck. I listened and it was 2 CDs/ 2 and a half hours of live guitar jams from Petrucci, Satriani and someone else of that ilk - perhaps Vai - and the songs were all long 8-15 minute affairs and the 3 guys were all just absolutely shredding and doing all kinds of shit and playing off each other. I hated it to my core. And from then on I avoided this stuff like the plague). _________________ -Ryan
I noticed that one of my all time favorite songs and riffs was stolen from Black Flag's My War album. Or, at the very least, very much borrowed from it. Listen to the chuggy riff here...
Not to get to technical, but specifically, the the *chug chug chug... chuchuchuchuchuchug* bit lol. At 2:00 mark of black flag. Reoccurs.
I always KNEW that My War influenced majorly a lot of Sludge and sludgy hardcore so forth, but it was fun in these recent listens more obviously seeing and connecting dots. _________________ -Ryan
I wanted to step back a bit and look newly at what my favorite metal albums ever are. A couple years ago when I got really interested again in metal I posted what I would say my faves were. And it was fun comparing that to what I made below in my new chart.
If you are interested in my rankings. They are ranked I'd say from favorite to "Least" favorite (but still ones I quite love). I tried to be honest and not force anything in there because I started to feel stuff like "Really, ANOTHER Slayer?!" or "Come on, you need to at least show some respect to 70s metal albums even if you maybe don't personally love those albums as much as ____" or "make this chart look stylistically diverse and smart and balanced and impressive!". Instead I just asked simply what are the metal albums I connect with the most.
Genres that dominated were grindcore and thrash. But one Power Metal album made it! (crystal logic) so that was a landmark lol.
the breakdown genre-wise for my 100 favorite metal records is:
Grindcore/Deathgrind: 26! albums (I may be a little obsessed with having my ears bleed)
Thrash Metal: 19 albums
Death Metal of some kind: 15
Heavy Metal/NWOBHM/Pre-Thrash metal all in a group: 15(!) (this has come a long way. a third of these are also Judas Priest lol)
Black metal of some kind: 9
Sludge of various kinds: 9
and a smattering of other genres I don't wanna count like a couple prog metal, alternative metal, groove metal, a viking metal, and so forth.
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And the 2 most dominant artists are Slayer 2ith 6 and Judas Priest with 5. Some have 3 or 2.
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for easy looking, here is the top 100 posted BUT with just the album name and in smalllll print and with no numbers:
Reign In Blood
Prowler In The Yard
Through Silver In Blood
World Downfall
NOLA
Misery Index
Filosofem
Crack The Skye
Master of Puppets
South Of Heaven
Ride The Lightning
Like An Ever Flowing Stream
Imperative Imperceptible Impulse
Voices
At The Heart of Winter
Leviathan
Exercises In Futility
Dead As Dreams
Stained Class
Unsilent Death
Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk
Dimension Hatröss
Sad Wings Of Destiny
Abuse
Jane Doe
Human
Bonded By Blood
Leprosy
Seasons In The Abyss
Paranoid
Souls At Zero
Everything Is Fire
Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
Terrifyer
Welcome To Hell
Screaming For Vengeance
Dirge
Vol. 4
Seven Churches
Killers
Anticapital
Heartwork
Painkiller
Those Once Loyal
From Enslavement To Obliteration
Stare Into Death And Be Still
Metempiric
World Extermination
Hell Awaits
We Are The Romans
Monolith of Inhumanity
Show No Mercy
Kill 'Em All
Remission
Paracletus
Behind The Realms of Madness
Interstice
Far Beyond Driven
Slaughter Of The Soul
Realm Of Chaos
City
Maestarin Kynsi
Bergtatt - Et Eventyr I 5 Capitler
Dirt
Powerslave
None So Vile
Obscura
Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell
Phantom Limb
Sentence of Death
Peel Sessions
Aenema
Denim And Leather
Magrudergrind
Helvete
Left Hand Path
Close To A World Below
Houdini
Nothingface
Split Demo Tape
The Inalienable Dreamless
Ace of Spades
Lysol
Lightning to the Nations
You Will Never Be One Of Us
Decade Of Aggression: Live
Rust In Peace
Vulgar Display of Power
Times of Grace
Defenders of the Faith
Beneath The Remains
Black Metal
All We Love We Leave Behind
Morbid Tales
Horrified
Hammerheart
Crystal Logic
Harsh Realities
Grieving Birth
How Will I Laugh Tomorrow, When I Can't Even Smile Today? _________________ -Ryan
Last couple weeks I've been listening to some old all time favorite albums. Such as Gillian Welch's Time (The Revelator) album and Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker LP and Johnny Thunders' So Alone, etc.
I've done a couple albums for the Game Thread, which were each solid. I also FINALLY clicked with Isis and specifically their 2004 classic Panopticon.
While listening to these and audiobooks I have been chipping away on trying to catalogue and get a grasp on all my favorite albums and EPs ever. I must have searched through like 15,000 releases just so I could select out or REMIND myself of the, say, 4-6 thousand I've ever heard or vaguely recollect having heard at some point. I then from those 5,000 listed on a spreadsheet the ones that stuck out to me as:
-obvious all time favorites
-albums I remember at one point I loved but moved away from and mostly forgot
-albums that have a distinctive spot or designation in my noggin of "this is a reall;y REALLY" good album.
...basically this all started because I wanted to update my overall fave 100 and was overwhelmed by how OFF it had become and I had a feeling that I was forgetting many albums that should be at least CONSIDERED. My chart had become very recent-albums-heavy - lots of hardcore and grind and BM and stuff discovered in the last 1-2 years. I wasn't having that. I wanted to really take the chart seriously and put forth the 100 most significant albums or best or fave albums ever for me with no bullshit rules attached.
In a month or 2 I am sure I will go back to gimmicks and new shiny excitements and make the chart similar to how I found it 2 weeks ago. BUT for now I'd say the top 100 are honest.
...ANYWAY, from those 5,000 or so I have heard, I ended up giving special distinction to 816 albums. These are the creme. Then, of course, me being me, I tiered them. I ended up breaking these 800+ into 8 TIERS - the Tiers were pretty vaguely and unscientifically denoted by a drop off in my excitement or love. The bottom tier is still composed of very good or at one point FAVORITE albums ... just the least so.
Tier one AS OF NOW is 14 albums of such pristine importance to me that I can see myself offhandedly saying "Yeah, this is my fave album ever". Tier 2 instantly begins a tradition of calling into question the tier system, because some of these are fucking awesome and really maybe should be bumped up to Tier 1 but aren't - they are all albums I may be inclined to say are 10/10 masterpieces in my mind.
Tier 3 are still fucking GREAT just less so, etc etc.
I wanted to give you all who are curious an update. I think at some point (not sure when) I will get back to my metal/punk project from where I left off in early 1984. Recent reacquaintance with albums that basically were part and parcel of my earlier and more vibrant life a decade ago...that did something to me. I feel like I was reminded of what I have lost somewhere along the way. A deep mournfulness and somber disposition has overtaken in recent weeks that makes most fun or heavy or fast or wild music fall flat a bit. I have been drawn to old americana sad classics and faves by Adams and Welch and Oldham etc. I hope to get back in the groove soon but for now I am just drinking in the fast-fading memories and the vibes of "Come Pick Me Up" and "Everything Is Free".
Love y'all (okay, probably not "all" and maybe "love" is a bit strong. I appreciate most of you very much, let's say!) and I will catch you on the flip side.
Okay, the ballots are in. The votes are cast. Me and LedZep and Gowi and Repo and RockyRaccoon all made top 100 Fave metal albums charts in recent weeks. They are all cool. And they have all been tabulated.
Note to those who made these charts, thanks agaon! They are awesome and have given me lots of recs and have gotten some cool discussions going I think regarding metal of various kinds. Also if you want to change the charts up big time, go for it. I will maybe check back in every once in awhile and update my silly and detailed spreadsheet no problem.
Okay, and so back to these charts. Well first off they each have their own character to some degree...
This chart by LedZep is varied of course but the general inclination seems to be toward Epic(us), Doom(icus), Progressive(cus?), hugely textured and detailed and ambitious masterpieces... Agalloch, Laterallus, Prog-era Death, that sort of thing. Also, DOOM and Black Metal, atmospheric and singular works of atmospheric integration with metal. That's the basic outline. But again, this goes all over.
Top era or decade? 1990s, specifically that sweet spot in mid 90s between 93 and 96 - The age of the Thousand Lakes, and the Transcendence into the Peripheral where Anthems could be carried out to the Welkin (at Dusk, specifically).
This chart from Gowi is rich with Folk metal and earthy metal as well as the brighter and more fantastical side of metal - has both a strong Power Metal presence and Folk metal and Prog metal. This is tough to categorize or see a broad aesthetic. (Truth be told this trying to broadly categorize Taste is impossible, as for each of these charts there is a wide variety of lovely and uniquely metal things).
Top Era or Decade? '89-90. I nice evenness in number of albums for 1980s, 1990s and 2000s... But with a huge spike in 1989 and less so 1990... The age of Rust and The Abyss, a vision of Alice leaving wonderland and descending into Hell.
Now this bad boi is all about the old school, and blurring the line between hard rock and metal. Non albums post 2006, 55 from the glorious height of heavy metal - the 1980s (on that me and Repo agree), and lots of 70s hard rock albums that arguably aren't metal but that's neither here nor there. This chart speaks to the rebellious, sweaty, sub-cultural roots of the genre(s). It's a beautiful thing!
Top decade or Era? Well like I said the 1980s is by far the focus here and specifically that special moment when the underground started to boil and break loose from the sewers and the depths, when all the NWOBHM and early extreme metal and thrash started it's offensive upon the wider world, 1983 to 1985 in particular... the age of Lightning Riding to Hells that Await, where you'll wage Your War alongside Holy Divers and Vitus Saints... 😈😈😈
And now we step into Rocky's world... I expected Hair Metal and Power Metal galore! But as you read in his intro, he excluded 1970s "proto-metal" (including BLACK SABBATH!) as well as Hair/Glam metal. We are left with an intriguing picture of a metal fan who loves Musical Genius and Innovators, those who aren't afraid of flexing their virtuosic muscles, Symbolic at #1 being a perfect example, Unquestionable Presence, the more proggy thide of sings and the more bright and fantastical power metal side of things are given much love. And, again, much more here that can't be easily summarized.
Top Decade or Era of Metal per this chart? -this suprised me- The 2010s! specifically 2015, that year square in the middle of the decade, the year that Rocky made a classic year chart for. The year of Losing your Ascension, as you fall From Lonely Towers, with The Body by your side... (lol, that was tough because full disclosure of the 14 albums from 2014-2015 that Rocky listed, I have heard I think NONE of them).
and this one. mine. seems self indulgent to make a summary of mine. but yeah a good amount of the gnarlier, more fucked up, criminal, feral side of metal. with some various other kinds as well.
Top era or year? 1988 to 1990, the peaking of Thrash coinciding with the emergence of Death Metal, Grindcore and second wave Black metal... the age Leprosy in a Realm of Chaos, with Painkillers as your only succor in this Abyss, this Dimension Hatross far, far South of Heaven...
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Okay, I recommend anyone interested check out those awesome charts and give your thoughts and comments and steal some recs and musical exploration ideas from them. I know I will be! (so far I have already re-listened to Rust In Peace after discovering it is BY FAR the most popular album amongst the other 4 chart makers and I loved it more than I recall and raised in my chart, as well I checked out Tales of a Thousand Lakes from Zep's chart and it was great! And I checked out FINALLY When The Kite String Pops by Acid Bath because I was reminded of this embarresing blindspot by Gowi's Top 10 inclusion of it and it was also incedible!)
I will be posting the rankings and the breakdowns of what 82 albums got picked more than once in these 5 charts... I will disclose who were the ONLY TWO albums that appeared in all 5 charts. And I will show the rankings combined and all that shit soon..
Thjanks again for the participation _________________ -Ryan
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