Best album by...(metal edition)
Here's another shot at the best album exercise. Same deal as always. Highlight the text to see my choices.
- Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (Maybe it's because this was the first Maiden album I had, but I've always felt like this one was the standard to which all their other albums should be compared.)
- Def Leppard - Pyromania (Yeah, it's commercial and Mutt Lange helped write a lot of it, but the end product is pretty stellar and it doesn't quite lose it's edge like the overly slick Hysteria.)
- Megadeth - Rust in Peace (Megadeth is really kind of a second-rate band, but this album is very fast and precise. Unfortunately for Megadeth, they waited until the end of the speedmetal road to release their best work.)
- Kiss - Destroyer (I waver a little between this one and the less slick Dressed to Kill or the first album, but Destroyer always wins in the end, especially with some of the album tracks.)
- Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather (As a kid, I found this album inspiring. Give me a break, I was 13. I still enjoy it though. I could probably make a better argument for my #2 though, Screaming for Vengeance.)
- Deep Purple - Fireball (Deep Purple seems to be forgotten by many, but Fireball is a heavy record. They did a lot of good work in that period and this one just edges Machine Head and In Rock.)
- Scorpions - Love at First Sting (Through the 80s and even into the 90s, the Scorps were consistenly good, but Love at First Sting is their moment of glory. Blackout was close, but just not as complete.
- Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun (A little less polish often equals a lot more energy and that's what Kyuss is about even if that energy isn't the sort that smacks you in the face.)
- Slayer - Reign in Blood (The earlier albums may have been ground-breaking, but this is where they put it all together. It is perhaps the greatest speedmetal album of all time. After this, it was all downhill for Slayer. They may have had a few decent ones way down the road, but nothing that even approached this one.)
- Motorhead - Iron Fist (This was a tough one to pick, because they're almost all good and they almost all do the same thing. Sure something like Orgasmatron is a little different when looking at the Motorhead catalog in isolation, but in the broader picture, they're kinda like a heavy metal Ramones.)
posted by bob_vinyl at 7:23 AM
6 Comments:
Iron Maiden - Powerslave - I can't normally convince anyone of it, but I personally feel it's exemplary of Iron Maiden's songwriting structuring and overall might as a unit; it's the perfect heavy metal album, flawless, and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is the greatest metal epic by which others should be measured, not Metallica's "Orion," which I love, don't get me wrong, but an epic is an epic, and "Rime" is EPIC...it's what I thought of instantly with Mastodon's "Hearts Alive"
Def Leppard - Pyromania - Yeah, I agree it's commercial, but it's what great arena rock was capable of before it (like Def Leppard itself) became overtly mainstream
Megadeth - Rust in Peace - As much as Peace Sells is my favorite album for its speed and honesty, Rust is by far Megadeth's shining hour as a band, if for nothing else, the inclusion of Marty Friedman, who made everyone forget the lineup of the preceding album...
Kiss - As a kid, it was undeniably Destroyer, but Dressed to Kill, I think, is their best work with Rock 'n Roll Over very close
Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith - this is mainly because I had a felt poster of the album cover and listened to it over and over and over again...Screaming, Point of Entry and even Stained Class are better than Defenders, but nothing said Judas Priest to the overall masses like this album
Deep Purple - I'll be trendy and take Machine Head, if for no other reason, "Space Truckin'" which got me through many a lawn mow
Scorpions - Love at First Sting - Your analogy is accurate, Bob. I want to take Lovedrive, if for nothing else, it has Michael Schenker on it, who gave them a tad more dimension, but Love is a metal classic, period
Kyuss - I would take Blues for the reasons you mentioned, but I love And the Circus Comes to Town..."Catamaran" is my favorite Kyuss song
Slayer - Reign in Blood - It is metal gospel that this album is the finest speed metal album ever conceived and executed
Motorhead - Iron Fist deserves it, but I'm torn between it and Ace of Spades; it's almost a tear since Motorhead has effectively gotten away with releasing the same album for over two decades
Iron Maiden- Number of the beast
Def Leppard- High and dry
Megadeth-Rust in peace
Kiss- Destroyer
Judas Priest- Screaming for vengeance
Deep Purple- Fireball
Scorpions- Blackout
Kyuss- Heard one album by them and didn't like it.
Slayer- Oh,Seasons in the abyss for sure. Yeah, right. It takes Reign in blood about 30 seconds to destroy all speed metal that was done before or after it.
Motorhead- Orgasmatron
Iron Maiden - At your suggestion, I revisited several of their albums recently, but nothing compares to Number of the Beast. Its strongest songs are as good as anything Maiden ever did and its weakest songs still score pretty high in the kickassiness factor. In fact, it's one of the very few metal albums that I can listen to from front-to-back and still enjoy immensely, and not in a sarcastic and nostalgiac way, either.
Def Leppard - It's hard for me to pick because they did not stand the test of time like Maiden did. Pyromania was my favorite as a kid and would probably still be my choice today, but in retrospect, the slick-as-snot production of Mutt Lange was already turning this run-of-the-mill NWOBHM band into a bubblegum hard-rock major label machine. High and Dry has a bit more heart than Pyromania, but the songs aren't as good. As for anything after 1983, I'd rather you pour some sugar -- along with a truckload of fire ants -- on me than make me listen to that crap.
Megadeth - I liked Peace Sells... for about five minutes. Otherwise this band always kind of bored me.
Kiss - Paranoid. I only put that because I'm quite certain you meant to type "Black Sabbath" but you got distracted thinking about about your next list, "Best Album By... (bands who would sell their mother for the right price edition)".
Judas Priest - I have to pull a lame move here and go for Metal Works '73 - '93. When I went back and listened to Screaming for Vengeance again, I was amazed at how good that "Hellion/Electric Eye" intro is. But then came the filler and it was absolutely awful. I mean, this is the kind of stuff I don't even want near my CD collection because it might start having a negative influence on the other music. I can see it now: the Screaming for Vengeance CD sidles up to Let's Get It On and starts planting some ideas: "Hey, you know what? The girls would be more way into you if you had a vocal melody like 'Bloodstone'. Try it, all the cool songs are doing it. C'mon, are ya chicken?" I've worked very hard to keep the bad element out of my CD collection and I will not have Mr. Halford and company go and ruin it for everyone. So I'll stick with Metal Works because I still get the first two songs from Screaming plus a whole bunch of other good stuff. And no "Bloodstone" anywhere to be found.
Deep Purple - I never was a big fan. Sorry.
Scorpions - Oh, how to choose, how to choose. Despite the fact that Blackout might have been my first true love affair with a German heavy metal album sung by a diminutive frontman (eat your heart out, Balls to the Wall), Love at First Sting is still probably my favorite. That snare rhythm and guitar melody in "Crossfire" still gets me. Do I dare mention that in the 7th grade, I awoke terrified from a nightmare where Klaus Meine had met his untimely demise and The Scorps were no more? Brrrr... It still makes me shiver.
Kyuss - I don't like what all of that stoner rock signifies. It's the music of the devil, I tell you!
Slayer - Slayer was always kind of a novelty to me. I mean, I understand their importance, but I just never got into it. Call me crazy, but I like things in my music like melody, harmony, self-pity, whining... all of which are notably absent from most Slayer albums. (However, that limited edition CD of Seasons in the Abyss was pretty cool, with all of the little plastic skulls floating in the fake blood.)
Motorhead - I should have liked Motorhead. They had everything I look for in music: Melody, emotion, British people, a freaky guy named Lemmy. But despite repeated listens to Ace of Spades and Iron Fist and Another Perfect Day, Motorhead and I never meshed. To this day, I still weep about the love connection that never was.
Hey, since we're thinking about metal, for your next list you should do "Best album by... (prog-metal band who is about to release the much-anticipated sequel to their monumental conspiracy-theory concept album edition)" Yeah, that's right... you know who will get my vote!
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind, definitely
Def Leppard - I really liked High and Dry back in the day, but I think I have to go with Pyromania since that's the album I can probably sing along to, start to finish
Megadeth - Umm...not into megadeth. never was a megadeth fan. even saw them in concert and never really got on board.
KISS - I'm not even sure how to pick a favorite KISS album. KISS is one of those bands that if you listened to them at all, you knew all their songs. I have a hard time separating which songs are on which albums. I think KISS has Strutter and Deuce on it, so that's in the running. But I think Destroyer and Love Gun are high on my list too.
Judas Priest - This is tough. I really like Judas Priest. I think I have to stick to British Steel, even though I'd probably equally enjoy hearing Screaming for Vengeance, Point of Entry, or Hell Bent.
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Scorpions - I really got into them during Blackout, but I think Love at First sting was my favorite
Kyuss - I'm not even sure I've heard of this band.
Slayer - pass
Motorhead - I'm not very familiar with many of their albums, so i'll go with what I know - Overkill
I can only comment on 1 and 6.
Maiden - I was close to going with Ray. Power Slave was a near perfect album. Number of the Beast, was where the band really came to it's own. The title track still gets repeat plays as a frequent song stuck in my head. However, 7th Son is I think their best album. Studio wise, it was their best recording to date. The songs were heavey but the "Maiden melodies" were fully developed. I still can here the "Can I Play with Madness" calling out to me in my bed room. 7th Son was the 1st CD I ever bought. If they had stuck "Sea of Madness" from Somewhere in Time on 7th Son, I think it would be in my top ten albums of all time.
As for Deep Purple... I don't think it's being trendy to pick Machine Head. LAzy...Ohh my... I thought I was on drugs when I first heard that organ... simply overpowering. Highway Star...Space Trucking... Not to mention Smoke on the Water. Simply put, It's the best the band produced in the studio.
When are we going to have a "worst albums" list?
By the way --- I responded to your comment. You are going to have to check it out . . .
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