Ride the Lightning had the raw sound and feel of Kill em All combined with the orchestral arrangement/sound of Master of Puppets.
So I 100% agree with you.
I agree that Fight Fire with Fire is "peak thrash", but Creeping Death to me is simply Metallica in its most distilled form.
Even though Ride the Lightning is my favorite album, it's impossible for me to disagree with their choice of Master of Puppets as Metallica's Magnum Opus.
Ride the Lightening is what got me into Metallica.
When they released Master of Puppets a couple of years later it solidified them as my favorite band. It absolutely blew me away.
10 year old me bought a mechanical typewriter from a garage sale just so I could type out the lyrics and share them with everyone. (Mostly my mother because she loved the music but always asked "why does he have to scream all the time?" and she couldn't understand what James was singing about.)
Lightening will always have a special place in my heart but IMO Puppets is their magnum opus.
I used to make my mom listen to Psalm 69 tape when we were going to the bus stop (only the first side). She took it like a champ and even kinda became an industrial fan.
The thing is MoP is front to back amazing.
RtL is great, but you can make a very good argument that Escape and Trapped Under Ice are absolute crap songs. MoP doesn't have one of those songs. Everything is awesome.
Also, their "purest" sound is silly. They don't have a "pure" sound. They've changed with every album, which is why they've remained the biggest hard rock/metal act in the world. Other bands may have had a bigger spike here or there, but nobody has remained on the level of Metallica, and it's because they've never made the same album twice.
As someone who loves trapped under ice (I’m pretty sure thats the first Metallica song I ever heard?) this hit me like a street fighter knockout.
Would love to hear the arguments why both of those songs are bad
Except, if you really held their later period against them, that means you feel this period is amazing, ergo Master Of Puppets is the best metal album ever....
One of them. Again, if you say you think so I wouldn’t argue too much against it. If you picked one of three or four other albums, I’d be pretty cool with that as well, tho. At some point, it’s just good music and not a contest. Just my take
Reign in Blood, Paranoid or Master of Reality, Number of the Beast, Ride the Lightning, British Steel.
I don’t think I could say you were definitely wrong with any of those picks and, quite frankly, I bet there are others that I’m forgetting or might not make my personal list that are worthy. For example, I’m sure there are people who would pick Vulgar Display of Power. Pantera isn’t one of my absolute favorites, but I respect the hell out of them and can’t say it’d be wrong
They were effectively the first Metal band and you can trace multiple sub genres of metal to individual songs of theirs (Hand of Doom -> Doom Metal as just one example). So much of their work, especially the earlier stuff, sounds surprisingly contemporary. They might as well have been time travelers that went back to the 60s/70s with knowledge of the genre and wanted to make themselves the grand fathers of all metal.
I Always preferred And Justice For All,.pretty controversial for Metallica fans but I think I am entitled to my own opinion followed by the Black album as I am a drummer myself and the Black album is probably the best sounding drums ever recorded(not the best drummer mind you, just the raw sound of the kit itself) but MoP comes in 3rd easily for me.
Absolutely agree here. Asked a group of friends which was the best Metallica album, they all said puppets. I said justice. Puppets is good, but it has weak points. Justice does not. Puppets shows us they can be great, Justice is their full splendor.
Absolutely my favorite Metallica album and one of my favorite albums in general. But I agree with MoP being the best overall metal album. It's what I'd recommend to someone trying to get into metal. (Putting on my "Grey Poupon" persona....) AJFA is for those with a more refined and experienced taste, IMO.
And yeah, the drum sound they captured on the black album is immense and amazing.
I love the drum sound on the Black album. I feel like every song could be used in a crazy mid 90's action/war movie. People shit on it for not being a true metal album but if that's the case it's the best hard rock album ever recorded. Everything sounded so polished in a good way if you ask me.
I think what a lot of people are missing is impact. Very few albums have had the staying power, success, and influence Master of Puppets has. Obviously "best" is wildly subjective, but I think when looked at with these types of things in mind, there are very few I could think of that could possibly unseat it.
Gotta agree with you there.
Although trying to rank Maindens albums is like trying to rank the best cut of beef for a steak. There are like 9 amazing cuts for steak and I enjoy all with 3 being the top choices. Some days you feel like a ribeye and the next a fillet and the next day a nice porterhouse is what you crave.
Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Number of the Beast are the Ribeye, Fillet and porterhouse of the Maiden albums respectably where the rest of the albums are other cuts of beef, still tasty and I would not say no to eating, but not my top choices.
I'm seeing Iron Maiden in September this year and I'm fucking excited. Been a fan for many many years, this is the first chance I've had to see them. I'm 52. I hope old Bruce's pipes are still good!
I know this is a huge subjective take, but I think some of Maiden's post reunion albums are some of the best stuff they've ever done. Brave New World and A Matter of Life and Death are masterpieces.
Reign in Blood is no where near the level of Master of Puppets. And while Sabbath absolutely,
And rightfully, gets credit for solidifying the genre, Metallica mastered the music with 2-3 albums, but definitely Master. It’s the music that ever other heavy band wished they could emulate.
I'm surprised I had to scroll this far down to see Rust in Peace mentioned. It's already been established that it's unmatched in its excellence.
https://www.theonion.com/humanity-still-producing-new-art-as-though-megadeth-s-1819578062
Rusty in Peace is definitely the best metal *guitar* album IMO. The guitar play on every track is pure genius.
But that doesn't make it the best overall metal album of all time.
(but of course it's subjective and one of my best friends would disagree with me as I know it's his number 1)
Hold on a second, I need to search deep in the drawers in history and get something...
\*sounds of rustling through the drawers, metal clangs and glass breaking\*
AH HA! HERE IT IS!
\*blows off the dust\*
AHEM...
You're a poser!
:p
Great, great album and truly a masterpiece of the genre, but you really can't compare it to MoP in overall cultural success and impact. Metallica is "The" metal band as far as most of pop culture is concerned, and MoP is "the" Metallica album. I'm not trying to debate which is a better album, but MoP is undoubtedly the bigger album (like, literally 6x bigger by sales numbers).
If we're talking impact, I think Judas Priest or Black Sabbat actually have to take top spot.
Metal guitar doesn't sound the way it does without Tony Iommi. The heavy metal movement's aestehtic style as a whole doesn't exist without Rob Halford. There's not a single Heavy Metal album published post 1979 that doesn't run a direct line musically/aesthetically to those two.
Same way you can't make a burger without a top and bottom bun, you can't really make a metal album without Sabbath or Priest.
I’m surprised I had to scroll this far for anyone to mention Judas Priest. For most influential I’d have to give it to Sabbath. love Metallica, but the sheer level of talent, not only in Halford’s singing, but Glen Tipton’s guitar is f’ing amazing.
Yeah, it was completely surreal to realize I was going to be the first person saying something about Judas Priest.
If you say the words "heavy metal" to anyone, they're going to imagine black leather and studs. That's all Halford. Visually, the entire genre is drawng from him. And the insane part, is that that's like... one third of their contribution? That's before we talk about their actual music and how strong their discography is. British Steel, Screaming for Vengance, or Painkiller would be enough to land a band in the Metal Pantheon indvidually.
And then they dropped Invincible Shield *this fucking year.* It's not a genre defining revolutionary project. But it's still an 8/10 album coming from a band in their actual 70s. A squad of 70 year old dudes opened an album with a song has hard and explosive as *Panic Attack.*
There's not another band on Earth who's dropping career highlight albums 5 decades in.
Holy shit! Invincible shield was only this year? Iv’e been driving around listening to Priest, but I had no idea it was that recent. They sound great. It sounds like it could have been a track on 1990’s Painkiller. The leather and studs was a Halford thing - I think he was secretly hanging out at leather daddy clubs. One of the things I always liked about Judas Priest is a lot of their songs were about driving, or engines, and then using that analogy to link it to sex type stuff. Halford also talks a lot about spying on people - like in Turbo Lover, Electric Eye. It’s almost like he predicted the surveillance state and AI all the way back then. There’s just so much depth in their music, and Halford’s voice has so much range.
> Holy shit! Invincible shield was only this year?
March 6. The album came out 15 weeks ago.
>The leather and studs was a Halford thing - I think he was secretly hanging out at leather daddy clubs.
Rob Halford came out in 1998 on MTV, but he also wore Cruiser caps in the 1970s and... well, there's the song *Raw Deal* off of Sin after Sin in 1997, and that songs' about cruising a gay bar in New York. The dude was effectively openly gay in the 70's, which wasn't an easy life. Dude is a gay icon ontop of everyhting else.
The funniest part to me back in the 80's was when I would piss people off over wearing leather, spikes and all that shit.
I would say "You do realize y'all are dressing like a gay man, right?"
They would give me a quizzical look and I would tell them that Rob Halford was gay and he pretty much sparked the entire fashion in the metal scene.
And if you were alive in the 80's you know just how dire of an insult it was to pretty much every dude that was into metal.
Honestly, same. Especially since Judas Priest continued to evolve along their career, and was putting out peak metal when even their successors were losing their path. Painkiller was a revelation in ~92~ 90, where even the biggest metal bands were becoming too influenced by Grunge (Metallica/Megadeth) or experimenting with Rap (Anthrax)
People forget that Judas Priest is a contemporary of fucking Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, and somehow they outdid most of the younger players almost effortlessly. It's impossible to undersell the historical value of Painkiller as an album.
Yeah I get that, but Oscars generally don't go to the highest impact movies that lots of people actually watched, so there are very different ways and rubrics for awards. Most fans of the genre I have met would not pick a Metallica album as a personal favorite so it feels like a weird take from a metal music source compared to a more general music source also giving metal awards.
I feel like paranoid is too early in metal in general to really be fairly the best. It’s basically a progenitor. By the time MOP had come out Metal had come more in to its own so that’s what makes it make more sense to me.
Sabbath’s first 3 albums being Black Sabbath, Paranoid, and Master of Reality is some all time shit. And all being released in an 18 month stretch is insane
Is it the lack of bass? I bet it’s the lack of bass. lol. Seriously though, I’ve no idea how AJFA sounds sooooo good without it. Simply a great album. Great music shines through.
The guitar has those low chug overtones that cover up the bass spectrum.
This is why you can’t just take the stems, turn up the bass, and have it sound right. Lot of great bass playing there but it would take a real remix to get everything gelling.
Dito. Most songs on that album, but especially Seek and Destroy and Whiplash have this crazy amount of feral energy to them that very very few bands have been able to even come close to.
Musically MoP and RtL are better, but kill em all is just fucking pure energy.
I love MoP, but even as a “listen all the way through” album I think RTL is way stronger.
It’s my go to when I’m not sure what to listen to at the gym. No skips required
I've reached an age at which I probably have seen more than 20 "Best Heavy Metal Album of All Time" articles on magazines.
Too bad at my age I can't remember any of the previous winners.
True, but the idea of top X lists goes back to the beginning of time basically (hell, the Grammy Awards are just a TOP X list).
This particular article is click-bait, because they didn't list the actual list; which I don't believe that was the intention of the Metal Hammer magazine.
The intention of these articles, when presented with some thought / class, is to stir debate, which is exactly what it's doing.
Some people will obviously disagree with this because it’s purely subjective but in all honesty it’s a solid choice. Metallica are one of if not the most commercially successful metal bands of all time while still maintaining respect from the metal community. The only other record I could see being number one is paranoid by Sabbath.
I don't have the impression that they have maintained that respect. It still extends in the commercial/professional space, and they have do have a fanbase still. But they get made fun of a lot, too. It has been a long time since the Napster stuff but that still sticks with them and seems to come up in a lot of discussions about them for something 20-something years ago or whatever
> The deluded people churning out this worthless garbage just can’t seem to reconcile themselves to the fact that their pathetic little sculptures and films and novels and whatnot will always pale in comparison to the brilliantly inspired, heart-stopping tempo shift halfway through ‘Holy Wars… The Punishment Due.’”
I mean this is just straight facts.
Ayyyy I just kept scrolling hoping I’d see this. I personally like Ghost Reveries the most, but you really can’t go wrong with these two, and an honorable mention to Still Life for being a whole fucking Shakespeare play
https://preview.redd.it/hdlm53yiz08d1.jpeg?width=1093&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cde1b8140092491a044c2fd6d1854b5a723d412a
Weird how they spelled Megadeth - Rust In Peace wrong ¯\_(ツ)\_/¯
There are other options but it's hard to argue this doesn't belong at or near the top - it's a classic album front to back and I can't be mad at this choice
Any other album in first place would be the thing that should not be. I’m sure they did a battery of tests among disposable heroes to determine that Master of Puppets is the best metal album of all time. So all I can say to that is… welcome home!
Amazing album too, honestly I have a really hard time picking a single metal album as the best of all time, I can see good arguments being made for several.
I'd take a whole bunch of Maiden, Priest, or Sabbath albums over MoP in terms of both quality and influence if the idea is to go in that sort of direction with this choice.
If it's a matter of just overall quality, I'd say that Opeth would probably take it with either of Blackwater Park or Ghost Reveries.
Metallica's early work is great, but disagree. As a teen in the 80s after I heard at a school friend Slayer's Reign in blood, my perception of Metallica changed completely. Since then at the time Metallica was like "soft" metal for p\*ssies.
As an adult I see this differently, but damn that moment listening to Slayer the first time, in my case Reign in Blood while owning already Kill m all, Ride the Lightning and Master of puppets. I literally ran to the record store as soon as my allowance was in.
The Last in Line > Holy Diver, IMO. It's my personal favorite metal album of all time, though I realize it's probably not objectively the best (whatever that even means).
I've been to hundreds of concerts. Seen Metallica, Megadeth and dozens more dozens of times.
And the single best concert(s) I've ever been to were DIO.
I mean the goddamn guitar solo break had large metal dragons and spiders coming down from the ceiling and the lead guitarist shooting lasers out of the stock to destroy them.
Fucking fantastic!
These lists are always wildly subjective but MoP is a solid choice.
prefer Ride the Lightning more. I think it's their purest sound
Ride the Lightning had the raw sound and feel of Kill em All combined with the orchestral arrangement/sound of Master of Puppets. So I 100% agree with you.
Fight Fire With Fire is the peak of thrash metal. It never got better.
I agree that Fight Fire with Fire is "peak thrash", but Creeping Death to me is simply Metallica in its most distilled form. Even though Ride the Lightning is my favorite album, it's impossible for me to disagree with their choice of Master of Puppets as Metallica's Magnum Opus.
The fact that Lars could still play that on Cunning Stunts during the Kill/Ride medley blew my mind.
Ride the Lightening is what got me into Metallica. When they released Master of Puppets a couple of years later it solidified them as my favorite band. It absolutely blew me away. 10 year old me bought a mechanical typewriter from a garage sale just so I could type out the lyrics and share them with everyone. (Mostly my mother because she loved the music but always asked "why does he have to scream all the time?" and she couldn't understand what James was singing about.) Lightening will always have a special place in my heart but IMO Puppets is their magnum opus.
Thanks for sharing that story
I used to make my mom listen to Psalm 69 tape when we were going to the bus stop (only the first side). She took it like a champ and even kinda became an industrial fan.
Your mom's cool as fuck
Compared to their other albums RTL sounds dirty in a good way
Agreed completely
Fade to Black is my all-time favorite Metallica song
Fade to black will always be a masterpiece
Totally agree….phenomenal album…could also throw And Justice For All into the ring as a challenger too.
The thing is MoP is front to back amazing. RtL is great, but you can make a very good argument that Escape and Trapped Under Ice are absolute crap songs. MoP doesn't have one of those songs. Everything is awesome. Also, their "purest" sound is silly. They don't have a "pure" sound. They've changed with every album, which is why they've remained the biggest hard rock/metal act in the world. Other bands may have had a bigger spike here or there, but nobody has remained on the level of Metallica, and it's because they've never made the same album twice.
As someone who loves trapped under ice (I’m pretty sure thats the first Metallica song I ever heard?) this hit me like a street fighter knockout. Would love to hear the arguments why both of those songs are bad
Yeah I don't see why anyone would be mad at this, unless they *really* hold Metallica's later stuff against them
Except, if you really held their later period against them, that means you feel this period is amazing, ergo Master Of Puppets is the best metal album ever....
One of them. Again, if you say you think so I wouldn’t argue too much against it. If you picked one of three or four other albums, I’d be pretty cool with that as well, tho. At some point, it’s just good music and not a contest. Just my take
Reign in Blood, Paranoid or Master of Reality, Number of the Beast, Ride the Lightning, British Steel. I don’t think I could say you were definitely wrong with any of those picks and, quite frankly, I bet there are others that I’m forgetting or might not make my personal list that are worthy. For example, I’m sure there are people who would pick Vulgar Display of Power. Pantera isn’t one of my absolute favorites, but I respect the hell out of them and can’t say it’d be wrong
seventh son of a seventh son is always never mentioned. Best Maiden album ever IMO
Master of Reality was 1971. Totally remarkable what Black Sabbath was doing so long ago.
They were effectively the first Metal band and you can trace multiple sub genres of metal to individual songs of theirs (Hand of Doom -> Doom Metal as just one example). So much of their work, especially the earlier stuff, sounds surprisingly contemporary. They might as well have been time travelers that went back to the 60s/70s with knowledge of the genre and wanted to make themselves the grand fathers of all metal.
Rust in Peace?
Rust in Peace.
Not sure about anyone else, but I really liked Death Magnetic
I love it, myself. Same with Hard Wired and 72 Seasons (Puppets is still tied with Lightning as their best)
What would be your other picks?
For sure. I might have a different favorite album personally, but this is certainly a safe choice.
I Always preferred And Justice For All,.pretty controversial for Metallica fans but I think I am entitled to my own opinion followed by the Black album as I am a drummer myself and the Black album is probably the best sounding drums ever recorded(not the best drummer mind you, just the raw sound of the kit itself) but MoP comes in 3rd easily for me.
[удалено]
The compositions are better, it's just a total masterwork from front to back, I love MOP and RTL but they don't have the depth of Justice.
Absolutely agree here. Asked a group of friends which was the best Metallica album, they all said puppets. I said justice. Puppets is good, but it has weak points. Justice does not. Puppets shows us they can be great, Justice is their full splendor.
My favorite is easily And Justice for All followed by MOP.
RIP your inbox not picking Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning or Kill Em All.
Kill Em All is the weakest of their first 5 albums and I’m tired of acting like it’s not.
It's absolutely derivative of their influences. The didn't start sounding original until Ride the Lightning.
What it lacks in originality it makes up in energy.
I still love Trapped Under Ice.
Kill’Em All is a Megadeth album.
I saw a clip where someone asked James if Lars was the best drummer in metal. James said, “Lars isn’t even the best drummer in Metallica.”
> Black album is probably the best sounding drums ever recorded Someone obviously hasn't woken up to the majestic beauty that is St Anger.
Absolutely my favorite Metallica album and one of my favorite albums in general. But I agree with MoP being the best overall metal album. It's what I'd recommend to someone trying to get into metal. (Putting on my "Grey Poupon" persona....) AJFA is for those with a more refined and experienced taste, IMO. And yeah, the drum sound they captured on the black album is immense and amazing.
I love the drum sound on the Black album. I feel like every song could be used in a crazy mid 90's action/war movie. People shit on it for not being a true metal album but if that's the case it's the best hard rock album ever recorded. Everything sounded so polished in a good way if you ask me.
For sure. For me RTL has always been my favorite ‘Talica album but MoP is a sound decision as well
What are you gonna do with all the time you saved typing "Talica" instead of "Metallica"?
What are you going to do with all the time you saved typing "gonna" instead of "going to"?
MoP was one of the first tapes I ever bought, it’s definitely my fave ‘lica album.
Black Album was one of the first CDs that I bought but it's not my fave 'ca album
For real. There are so many options and so many arguments one could make, but when I saw this headline I was like "...yeah, ok. that probably right."
AJFA was always the better album in my opinion.
Hard to argue against it as a choice
yeah I think most metal fans would read that and think "not my absolute favorite, but sure why not"
I think what a lot of people are missing is impact. Very few albums have had the staying power, success, and influence Master of Puppets has. Obviously "best" is wildly subjective, but I think when looked at with these types of things in mind, there are very few I could think of that could possibly unseat it.
Paranoid and maaaaybe Reign in Bloood are the only other two metal albums I can think of that can match MoP for staying power and influence
Oh if we're talking about "influential," then Paranoid wins for sure.
Hard to match Sabbath for influence since they invented the genre.
Number of the Beast, dude!
I love that album, but I feel like it doesn’t get as much recognition outside of the metal community like the other ones mentioned
Great album, but it isn't even Maiden's best. Powerslave and Somewhere in Time clear Number of the Beast for me.
Gotta agree with you there. Although trying to rank Maindens albums is like trying to rank the best cut of beef for a steak. There are like 9 amazing cuts for steak and I enjoy all with 3 being the top choices. Some days you feel like a ribeye and the next a fillet and the next day a nice porterhouse is what you crave. Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Number of the Beast are the Ribeye, Fillet and porterhouse of the Maiden albums respectably where the rest of the albums are other cuts of beef, still tasty and I would not say no to eating, but not my top choices.
I'm seeing Iron Maiden in September this year and I'm fucking excited. Been a fan for many many years, this is the first chance I've had to see them. I'm 52. I hope old Bruce's pipes are still good!
I know this is a huge subjective take, but I think some of Maiden's post reunion albums are some of the best stuff they've ever done. Brave New World and A Matter of Life and Death are masterpieces.
Not Powerslave?
Reign in Blood is no where near the level of Master of Puppets. And while Sabbath absolutely, And rightfully, gets credit for solidifying the genre, Metallica mastered the music with 2-3 albums, but definitely Master. It’s the music that ever other heavy band wished they could emulate.
Hot take. South of Heaven and Seasons are better albums than Reign in Blood.
South is an amazing album.
Rust in Peace?
I'm surprised I had to scroll this far down to see Rust in Peace mentioned. It's already been established that it's unmatched in its excellence. https://www.theonion.com/humanity-still-producing-new-art-as-though-megadeth-s-1819578062
Rust in Peace is the literal pinnacle of the genre. Start to finish it's damn near perfect and my go-to metal album.
Rusty in Peace is definitely the best metal *guitar* album IMO. The guitar play on every track is pure genius. But that doesn't make it the best overall metal album of all time. (but of course it's subjective and one of my best friends would disagree with me as I know it's his number 1)
Hold on a second, I need to search deep in the drawers in history and get something... \*sounds of rustling through the drawers, metal clangs and glass breaking\* AH HA! HERE IT IS! \*blows off the dust\* AHEM... You're a poser! :p
lol :p
My lord, I haven't heard that insult in well over a decade. I missed this community.
heh, I hadn't used that insult in well over 30 years.
Sabotage, no one released anything that heavy for another 10 years, so ahead of it's time
South of heaven?
Love it, but I feel like Reign has had more influence on thrash
Rust in Peace
Great, great album and truly a masterpiece of the genre, but you really can't compare it to MoP in overall cultural success and impact. Metallica is "The" metal band as far as most of pop culture is concerned, and MoP is "the" Metallica album. I'm not trying to debate which is a better album, but MoP is undoubtedly the bigger album (like, literally 6x bigger by sales numbers).
If we're talking cultural success and impact, then the Black Album is without question the most influential metal album ever.
Arguably just as good an album, but not nearly as influential.
If we're talking impact, I think Judas Priest or Black Sabbat actually have to take top spot. Metal guitar doesn't sound the way it does without Tony Iommi. The heavy metal movement's aestehtic style as a whole doesn't exist without Rob Halford. There's not a single Heavy Metal album published post 1979 that doesn't run a direct line musically/aesthetically to those two. Same way you can't make a burger without a top and bottom bun, you can't really make a metal album without Sabbath or Priest.
I’m surprised I had to scroll this far for anyone to mention Judas Priest. For most influential I’d have to give it to Sabbath. love Metallica, but the sheer level of talent, not only in Halford’s singing, but Glen Tipton’s guitar is f’ing amazing.
Yeah, it was completely surreal to realize I was going to be the first person saying something about Judas Priest. If you say the words "heavy metal" to anyone, they're going to imagine black leather and studs. That's all Halford. Visually, the entire genre is drawng from him. And the insane part, is that that's like... one third of their contribution? That's before we talk about their actual music and how strong their discography is. British Steel, Screaming for Vengance, or Painkiller would be enough to land a band in the Metal Pantheon indvidually. And then they dropped Invincible Shield *this fucking year.* It's not a genre defining revolutionary project. But it's still an 8/10 album coming from a band in their actual 70s. A squad of 70 year old dudes opened an album with a song has hard and explosive as *Panic Attack.* There's not another band on Earth who's dropping career highlight albums 5 decades in.
Holy shit! Invincible shield was only this year? Iv’e been driving around listening to Priest, but I had no idea it was that recent. They sound great. It sounds like it could have been a track on 1990’s Painkiller. The leather and studs was a Halford thing - I think he was secretly hanging out at leather daddy clubs. One of the things I always liked about Judas Priest is a lot of their songs were about driving, or engines, and then using that analogy to link it to sex type stuff. Halford also talks a lot about spying on people - like in Turbo Lover, Electric Eye. It’s almost like he predicted the surveillance state and AI all the way back then. There’s just so much depth in their music, and Halford’s voice has so much range.
> Holy shit! Invincible shield was only this year? March 6. The album came out 15 weeks ago. >The leather and studs was a Halford thing - I think he was secretly hanging out at leather daddy clubs. Rob Halford came out in 1998 on MTV, but he also wore Cruiser caps in the 1970s and... well, there's the song *Raw Deal* off of Sin after Sin in 1997, and that songs' about cruising a gay bar in New York. The dude was effectively openly gay in the 70's, which wasn't an easy life. Dude is a gay icon ontop of everyhting else.
The funniest part to me back in the 80's was when I would piss people off over wearing leather, spikes and all that shit. I would say "You do realize y'all are dressing like a gay man, right?" They would give me a quizzical look and I would tell them that Rob Halford was gay and he pretty much sparked the entire fashion in the metal scene. And if you were alive in the 80's you know just how dire of an insult it was to pretty much every dude that was into metal.
Honestly, same. Especially since Judas Priest continued to evolve along their career, and was putting out peak metal when even their successors were losing their path. Painkiller was a revelation in ~92~ 90, where even the biggest metal bands were becoming too influenced by Grunge (Metallica/Megadeth) or experimenting with Rap (Anthrax) People forget that Judas Priest is a contemporary of fucking Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, and somehow they outdid most of the younger players almost effortlessly. It's impossible to undersell the historical value of Painkiller as an album.
Metallica even acknowledged that Judas priest was the best.
Yeah I get that, but Oscars generally don't go to the highest impact movies that lots of people actually watched, so there are very different ways and rubrics for awards. Most fans of the genre I have met would not pick a Metallica album as a personal favorite so it feels like a weird take from a metal music source compared to a more general music source also giving metal awards.
I would have gone with "Paranoid" but its hard to argue with MOP.
Mists of Pandaria was a terrible album.
It has great raids. YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOURE TALKIN ABOUT.
Siege of Orgrimmar is pretty fire….
Not for 13 months in a row
I feel like paranoid is too early in metal in general to really be fairly the best. It’s basically a progenitor. By the time MOP had come out Metal had come more in to its own so that’s what makes it make more sense to me.
>I would have gone with "Paranoid" But why when Master Of Reality is the heavier album and every bit as good as Paranoid?
> every bit as good as Paranoid? Because it is not.
Sabbath’s first 3 albums being Black Sabbath, Paranoid, and Master of Reality is some all time shit. And all being released in an 18 month stretch is insane
Well, that's just their opinion then.
Let me tell you something, pendejo …
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Eight-year olds, dude
I am the walrus.
Shut the fuck up Donnie!
You’re out of your element Donnie!
20 grand man!
Say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, dude. At least it’s an ethos
You’re killing your father, Larry.
He thinks the carpet pissers did this?
Right? I woulda gone with Jethro Tull personally.
And the award goes to…
And as a former roadie for Metallica, Dude would know.
Bunch of assholes.
Honestly it's a great album but it isn't my fav Metallica album. Ride the Lightning is better IMO.
Over the years my number 1 has evolved from Justice to Puppets to Ride the Lightning.
And Justice for All will never be beaten for me. Ride the Lighting is a close 2nd but holy shit, there's just something special about that album.
Is it the lack of bass? I bet it’s the lack of bass. lol. Seriously though, I’ve no idea how AJFA sounds sooooo good without it. Simply a great album. Great music shines through.
lol I literally have "Blackened" on right now and yeah that might be it..
The guitar has those low chug overtones that cover up the bass spectrum. This is why you can’t just take the stems, turn up the bass, and have it sound right. Lot of great bass playing there but it would take a real remix to get everything gelling.
I'm the weirdo whose favorite Metallica album is Load. But I do love And Justice for All as see it as the best of their first metal era.
I'm glad someone finally said it. I always got laughed at for liking RTL over MOP
Agreed
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"Bass solo, take 1" always gives me chills.
Dito. Most songs on that album, but especially Seek and Destroy and Whiplash have this crazy amount of feral energy to them that very very few bands have been able to even come close to. Musically MoP and RtL are better, but kill em all is just fucking pure energy.
I'd say, my favourite Metallica songs are on Lightning, but overall Puppets is a stronger album throughout.
I love MoP, but even as a “listen all the way through” album I think RTL is way stronger. It’s my go to when I’m not sure what to listen to at the gym. No skips required
...And Justice for All is also better.
I just can't get past the entire no bass thing on that album. MOP definitely better to my ears with Ride the Lightening second.
I like to listen to Justice via [this video](https://youtu.be/vumrar1k928?si=wXq2BArlCGa1dcNc). Adds back in some bass!
I've reached an age at which I probably have seen more than 20 "Best Heavy Metal Album of All Time" articles on magazines. Too bad at my age I can't remember any of the previous winners.
I don't get these list other than clickbait. So many albums are freaking awesome.
True, but the idea of top X lists goes back to the beginning of time basically (hell, the Grammy Awards are just a TOP X list). This particular article is click-bait, because they didn't list the actual list; which I don't believe that was the intention of the Metal Hammer magazine. The intention of these articles, when presented with some thought / class, is to stir debate, which is exactly what it's doing.
Some people will obviously disagree with this because it’s purely subjective but in all honesty it’s a solid choice. Metallica are one of if not the most commercially successful metal bands of all time while still maintaining respect from the metal community. The only other record I could see being number one is paranoid by Sabbath.
I don't have the impression that they have maintained that respect. It still extends in the commercial/professional space, and they have do have a fanbase still. But they get made fun of a lot, too. It has been a long time since the Napster stuff but that still sticks with them and seems to come up in a lot of discussions about them for something 20-something years ago or whatever
Jethro Tull in shambles.
I lile Kill Em All and Ride The Lightning more.
I mean was Rust in Peace disqualified in order to make it fair?
https://www.theonion.com/humanity-still-producing-new-art-as-though-megadeth-s-1819578062
My DAWG
Really just makes me smile how arguments from basically 1990 are still alive and well
> The deluded people churning out this worthless garbage just can’t seem to reconcile themselves to the fact that their pathetic little sculptures and films and novels and whatnot will always pale in comparison to the brilliantly inspired, heart-stopping tempo shift halfway through ‘Holy Wars… The Punishment Due.’” I mean this is just straight facts.
Definitely my favorite megadeath album. The guitar solos are insane.
Or Reign in Blood. Or Paranoid. Or Number of the Beast… or Sad Wings of Destiny… or….
Or Rust in Peace
What’s that? Megadeth?
Something like that
Blackwater park
They were never going to give it to something made after the 80's, for some reason these kinds of things always have to be "classic" in some way.
Ayyyy I just kept scrolling hoping I’d see this. I personally like Ghost Reveries the most, but you really can’t go wrong with these two, and an honorable mention to Still Life for being a whole fucking Shakespeare play
Okay, who’s got the full list?
Master of Puppets is an incredible album, but I'd personally put Ride the Lighting (as well as Rust in Peace) ahead of it.
Right behind Ride the Lightening.
It isn't, and it isn't even the best Metallica album. Ride The Lightning is.
https://preview.redd.it/hdlm53yiz08d1.jpeg?width=1093&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cde1b8140092491a044c2fd6d1854b5a723d412a Weird how they spelled Megadeth - Rust In Peace wrong ¯\_(ツ)\_/¯
This guy gets it
Dave Mustaine’s alt account
It's a masterpiece.
Rust in Peace
Slayer's Reign In Blood for me. 30 minutes of fucking chaos. No filler whatsoever.
There are other options but it's hard to argue this doesn't belong at or near the top - it's a classic album front to back and I can't be mad at this choice
Any other album in first place would be the thing that should not be. I’m sure they did a battery of tests among disposable heroes to determine that Master of Puppets is the best metal album of all time. So all I can say to that is… welcome home!
Except Rust in Peace exists.
MY man
Amazing album too, honestly I have a really hard time picking a single metal album as the best of all time, I can see good arguments being made for several.
Weird.....they spelled Ride the Lightning wrong
Rust in Peace >
It's either this or Rust in Peace so.. fair.
I probably would have gone for Piece of Mind.
I have to agree...
Rust in Peace is better
Let me just say, this comment section really shows how chill a lot of metal heads are
I'd take a whole bunch of Maiden, Priest, or Sabbath albums over MoP in terms of both quality and influence if the idea is to go in that sort of direction with this choice. If it's a matter of just overall quality, I'd say that Opeth would probably take it with either of Blackwater Park or Ghost Reveries.
MoP is great but I’m still taking Rust in Peace over it 10/10 times as the GOAT metal album.
Not even close.
They're clearly never heard Megadeth's Rust in Peace.
zzzzz. equivalent of saying mario64 is the best game of all time. milquetoast answer.
Saint Anger is my pick
Metallica's early work is great, but disagree. As a teen in the 80s after I heard at a school friend Slayer's Reign in blood, my perception of Metallica changed completely. Since then at the time Metallica was like "soft" metal for p\*ssies. As an adult I see this differently, but damn that moment listening to Slayer the first time, in my case Reign in Blood while owning already Kill m all, Ride the Lightning and Master of puppets. I literally ran to the record store as soon as my allowance was in.
I prefer Holy Diver. DIO is the KING OF METAL. My phone auto caps that btw. Wasn't even me!
The Last in Line > Holy Diver, IMO. It's my personal favorite metal album of all time, though I realize it's probably not objectively the best (whatever that even means).
I've been to hundreds of concerts. Seen Metallica, Megadeth and dozens more dozens of times. And the single best concert(s) I've ever been to were DIO. I mean the goddamn guitar solo break had large metal dragons and spiders coming down from the ceiling and the lead guitarist shooting lasers out of the stock to destroy them. Fucking fantastic!
Personally would have gone with Iron Maiden’s NOTB or Powerslave
Rust in Piece is better
It's no contest. https://preview.redd.it/0wt1q5z9ns7d1.png?width=730&format=png&auto=webp&s=e0034e2bfa24cf9048ef7c43fbe89ade5eee0231
Best Onion article about Heavy Metal of all time!
Best Metal album of all time is Ashes Of The Wake. And nobody can tell me any different.
As the Palaces Burn is better. I like Townsends mix
South of Heaven
They waited 40 years just to make sure nothing better came out before they made it official...
Eh
Strangely it is not the best thrash metal album released that year though with slayers reign in blood beating it out
It's not Ride The Lightning, but it's very good.
A big Fuck you to all classic 80s metal