User Profile

Marking the end of Slayer's unholy trinity, Seasons in the Abyss is quite possibly Slayer's best album. While the other two albums in the trinity, Reign in Blood and South of Heaven, are no slouches either, Seasons in the Abyss is much more mature than either of them. While Reign in Blood is the popular choice for favorite Slayer album, for me, that album's shorter length (under thirty minutes)is what keeps it from being my favorite. At forty-two minutes, Slayer gets more time to stretch out and make things interesting. But at the same time, Slayer addressed one of the biggest complaints that some people had with South of Heaven; not as many fast songs as on Reign in Blood. So, Slayer starts this album off with an absolute riff-er of a track, War Ensemble. Dave Lombardo's insane drum fill in the middle of this track is almost worth the price of admission alone. But this album is filled from top to bottom with great tracks, and has it's own great creepy trilogy in Spirit in Black (which starts slowly before exploding into speed metal ecstasy), Expendable Youth (and it's creepy lyrics), and Dead Skin Mask (just creepy, period). Having wrapped up side A in a supremely satisfying manner, side B also contains plenty of winners. We get another slice of fiery thrash with Hallowed Point and then the stomping opening to Skeletons of Society. Temptation (NOT A COVER) and Born in Fire are both fast, but Slayer saves the best for last with their title track, which encapsulates everything that the band has learned up until this point. If introducing someone new to Slayer, I'm not sure I would recommend this album first. I would still recommend Reign in Blood first, simply because of the fact that that album's concise nature will help them get acclimated to the insanity that is Slayer. But if they do end up liking Slayer, then they HAVE to give this album a listen. In my opinion, it is Slayer's finest hour.

Favorite Tracks: 1. War Ensemble 4. Expendable Youth 5. Dead Skin Mask 7. Skeletons of Society 10. Seasons in the Abyss

If Possessed was the biological father figure of death metal with the album Seven Churches, Death was the band that nursed the genre into maturity. And while Scream Bloody Gore is a landmark release for many reasons, Schuldiner did not really get into stretching his creative legs until this album... 1991's Human. Arguably the starting point for numerous branches of the death metal genre, such as progressive death metal, technical death metal, and arguably melodic death metal, Human is a true tour de force. Chuck's lyrics have become a lot more grounded here than on previous records. No longer obsessed by childish gore tactics, Schuldiner focuses on much more realistic human evils (hence the album's title). Not only have his lyrics gotten more intellectual at this point, but the music around it is also mind-bogglingly technical and maturely arranged. The first two tracks on the album alone are enough to floor anybody with their technicality, but this album is a top to bottom classic. Death may have been (close to) first, but there's a reason why they're still one of the best.

Favorite Tracks: 1. Flattening of Emotions 2. Suicide Machine 5. Lack of Comprehension 7. Cosmic Sea

Routinely ranked amongst the best heavy metal albums of all time, there is a lot to say about Black Sabbath's Paranoid, but not much that hasn't been said already. In fact, much can be said about Black Sabbath themselves, also, much of which has already been said. As I said in my review for Pantera's Vulgar Display of Power, there are six bands I consider essential to the development of the heavy metal genre, those bands being Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera. But, truth be told, if forced to chose only one of those bands, Black Sabbath is undoubtedly THE most important band in heavy metal history. Point blank, the genre as we know it today would not exist without Sabbath. Sabbath is the band that sowed the seeds for just about every single heavy metal sub-genre. Heck, the genre probably would exist without this album, even. So, why Sabbath and why this album in general? One word: heaviness. Sure, their self-titled debut album was pretty heavy, but that album also showed the band still in the process of shaking off their blues rock roots and becoming something new entirely. There are some softer parts on the album (Planet Caravan, Rat Salad) but mostly this album is a heavy metal juggernaut. The riffs on Iron Man, Electric Funeral, Hand of Doom and War Pigs defined heaviness at the time. Paranoid was a happy accident... The record label wanted Sabbath to record a single for the album, despite the fact that the band had always been a jam band. After a short improv session, the band came out of the studio with one of their most popular songs. It's impossible to overstate this album's legacy. The album's A-side is perfect, and the second half of the album is not far behind it. The players on this album are all on point as well. Bill Ward and "Geezer" Butler keep the rhythm section on track with the former's impeccable drum work and the later's commanding bass-line's. This may not be Ozzy's best performance, but, hey, what can I say? I still love Ozzy. The thing is, though, that the real hero here is Tony Iommi, as he created guitar riffs that will last forever... Plus, the guy can deliver a rousing solo as well. If there was any doubt of this album's legacy, consider this: I went to one of Black Sabbath's shows a few months prior to initially publishing this review. And guess what? They played just about every single song from this album. Paranoid by Black Sabbath is essential listening.

On the subject of covers, Aces High has been oft covered by other metal bands, but none of them have been able to capture the magic of the Iron Maiden original. Seriously. I have nothing against covers, in fact, I can think of a couple right off the top of my head that I really like, but I honestly think there's some bad juju around covering this particular song. Skip any covers you see of this song and just listen to the original. It is a classic. As for the rest of the album, 2 Minutes to Midnight is probably one of Iron Maiden's creepiest songs on a lyrical level, Dickinson's soaring vocals on Powerslave carry it into classic territory, and Rime of the Ancient Mariner is an early progressive metal masterpiece.

Favorite Tracks: 1. Aces High 2. 2 Minutes to Midnight 7. Powerslave 8. Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Narrowing down the most influential metal bands of all time is, to me, really pretty easy. You've got Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera... Those six. Pantera is the most recent of these bands to break ground. And while I prefer their previous album, Cowboys From Hell, a tad more, this is really the album that cemented the band's impact on the genre. The main change that this release affected on heavy metal was pretty easy to see; it made screamed vocals okay for mainstream metal. Vocalist Phil Anselmo is (mostly) an unhinged madman on this album, and his vocal performance is half of the draw here. The other half is Dimebag Darrell, who's guitar work is simply sublime here. His riffs and solos are charged with raw energy, aggression, and the man's own brand of soul. If nothing else, this album represents how irreplaceable Dimebag was, but ultimately, this album does represents so much more. The songs on this album are what have stuck with people, almost all of which have become heavy metal classics. Pantera's aggression being a main selling point, it makes sense that most of the songs on here (A New Level, Fucking Hostile, Rise, By Demons Be Driven, and of course, Walk) are machismo personified. All this seething anger and hostility is the aspect that is most copy/pasted by the bands influenced by Pantera. Few bands have managed to pull it off with anywhere near as much authenticity as Pantera did here. And while it's pretty easy to criticize all the crappy knock-offs (cough cough FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) Pantera's songs here are too good to write off. And on one final note, one other thing the posers didn't take note of was the fact that two of this albums best songs, This Love and Hollow, were actually ballads in heavy metal casing. I feel like these two songs are high water marks of the heavy metal ballad. It's hard to think of many ballads that come close to the quality of those two songs, which feature the most profound lyrics on the album. In closing, not only did Pantera fully realize the groove metal genre with this release, but also released an undisputed metal classic. Not anything a true metalhead should go without.

Favorite Tracks: 1. Hole in the Sky 3. Symptom of the Universe 4. Megalomania 8. The Writ

Can't say much about this album that hasn't already been said. Pretty much just wanted to say that I love this album... Ace of Spades (both the album and the title track off of it)is a classic. Hard rock/heavy metal would not be the same without this album. "Animal" Taylor's drums are fast and frantic. "Fast" Eddie Clark makes the most of his solos when he gets them... But the almighty Lemmy Kilmister rules this record. His bass guitar is thunderous, and his vocals/lyrics are endearingly gruff. Go listen to this album and pour one out for Lemmy.

Favorite Tracks: 1. Ace of Spades 5. Fast and Loose 6. (We Are) The Road Crew 8. Jailbait

R.I.P. Lemmy Kilmister and Phil Taylor

Extreme metal is really a strange, interesting, confusing and complicated form of music not only from a musical standpoint, but also from a social standpoint. How people react is interesting and varies depending on who you're talking to. New initiates to heavy metal think that black metal, grindcore, and death metal all sound the same and will probably just lump everything under the tag of death metal. To someone who has listened to extreme metal extensively, however, these genres often couldn't be much different. One of the best ways to illustrate differences in the genres of death metal and black metal is to have them listen to Soulside Journey by Darkthrone as well as their follow-up album, Blaze in the Northern Sky. It's night and day. See, Darkthrone started out as a death metal band, and their debut, the aforementioned Soulside Journey, was a technical and cleanly produced death metal album reminiscent of Sweden's Entombed. However, the band quickly tired of this approach, and countered with something much more raw and primal(Blaze in the Northern Sky). It was no longer about how many riffs they could fit into a song, but rather the raw emotion behind it. These are directly contrasting approaches. Black metallers and death metallers often hated each as well. Another thing of importance to note here is that the second wave of black metal that started with Darkthrone was often fatally violent. In fact, Dissection's frontman, Jon Nodtveidt, murdered a gay man for making passes at him, and after getting out of jail for this crime, Nodtveidt committed suicide with motives having something to do with Satanism, which he practiced. So, with stuff like this going in the European black metal scene, how is it that something like blackened death metal exists? Social circumstances notwithstanding, the musical beginnings arguably start here, with Nodtveidt and co. crafting the perfect start of a new sub-genre. Dissection took the Satanic lyrics, grim, frostbitten aesthetic and raspy vocals of black metal and threw them in the pot before going back stealing ideas from death metal and throwing them into the mix as well. These things include the cleaner, more polished production aesthetics more prevalent in death metal, more speedy, technical instrumentation, and occasionally growled vocals. They even borrowed the twin guitar harmonies from the Gothenburg melodic death metal scene(something that scene itself co-opted from Iron Maiden, but it was something they made their own). Extreme purists may hate the blend, but any metalhead with an open mind is likely to love it. The album is structured with an intro and an outro bookending six miniature blackened death metal epics. These six songs range in length from 4:51 and 8:06 and all damn near perfect blends of brutality and melody(and black and death). Songs like Night's Blood, Unhallowed, Where Dead Angels Lie, and Soulreaper are iconic in the extreme metal lexicon. Essential listening.

Trouble's fourth album, and follow-up to the slightly disappointing Run to the Light, sees Trouble mixing things up a bit and adding a ton of previously unseen riff variety. This riff variety leads to what is possibly Trouble's strongest album, no small feat considering that their discography is overall pretty memorable. Most of the songs here, like opener End of my Daze, follow the typical Trouble blueprint of Black Sabbath worship, but almost every song adds a decent twist to it. In fact, some of the guitar work on Psychotic Reaction may have been influential to Dimebag Darrell and Pantera, while the cowbell in the background invokes Blue Oyster Cult (or Christopher Walken and Will Ferrell, but, really, that's a generational thing). The best song on the whole album though is The Misery Shows (Act II), which takes a seven and a half minute detour into Pink Floyd-esque ballad city. The track also has some of the best lyrics Trouble has ever written. If you like Trouble, this album is essential.

Favorite Tracks: 1. End of my Daze 3. Psychotic Reaction 5. The Misery Shows (Act II) 6. R.I.P. 8. Heaven on My Mind 9. E.N.D.

It's impossible to overstate Celtic Frost's importance on the development of the heavy metal genre, especially when it comes to experimental and extreme metal. This is wicked sounding stuff. Despite heavy metal getting even crazier and more demonic sounding, it's easy to hear, even nowadays, why this scared people so much. But Morbid Tales is so much more than scary music... It is a work of art. Celtic Frost continued their progression on their follow-up classic, To Mega Therion.

Favorite Tracks: 2. Into the Crypts of Rays 6. Procreation (of the Wicked) 7. Return to the Eve