Must have metal albums for your collection

[Chris]

So I was exploring the furthest reaches of the inter-web, and stumbled upon a review of " the red album" by Baroness, It said nothing but good things so I ordered it, and very quickly fell in love with it. I got to thinking If I could only have 5 albums/bands to listen to forever, or must have albums what would they be.

in no particular order

1) Agalloch (the mantle)
2) Baroness (the red album)
3) Old In Flames ( although "a sense of purpose" is great)
4) Machinehead ( The Blackening) ( I know, I know)
5) Devin Townsend ( Metal genius, and canadian to boot)

This is a great way to discover new bands and share the belief in metal

[Casey High]

1)The Acacia Strain-Dead Walk
2)Dead To fall-Are you serious?
3)Between the buried and me-silent circus
4)Fantomas-The directors cut
5)Caliban-The awakening

[ellyllon]

no particular order...

1. my dying bride- the dreadful hours
2. dimmu borgir- enthrone darkness triumphant
3. opeth- blackwater park
4. at the gates- slaughter of the soul
5. in flames- clayman

[Mike Stanzione]

Give me the classics...

1) Slayer - Reign in Blood
2) Megadeth - Rust in Peace
3) Metallica - Master of Puppets or ...and Justice For All
4) Anthrax - Among the Living
5) Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast

If you wanna go more recent, gimmie

1) Opeth - My Arms Your Hearse
2) Children of Bodom - Hatebreeder
3) Biomechanical - Cannibalised
4) Something by Porcupine Tree...right now I like Fear of a Blank Planet
5) In Flames - The Jester Race

[Metalkittie]

The Jesters Race - YES YES YES!!!!

[GITTER]

THE CLASSICS
1-Black Sabbath-Heaven & Hell - argueably, the first modern metal album
2-Iron Maiden-Number of the Beast-Duh.
3-Venom-Black Metal-Where it all began
4-Megadeth-Rust In Peace-Brilliant. The sound of Mustaine leaving his former bandmates in the dust.
5-St. Vitus-V-A very bad life in slow motion.
THE RECENT CLASSICS
1-Opeth-Blackwater Park-The masters spread their wings
2-Killswitch Engage-The End of Heartache-Say hello to metal's greatest contemporary vocalist
3-Darkthrone-A Blaze In the Northern Sky-The ultimate rejection of all good. The rise of evil.
4-In Flames-Colony-Shall we jsut define Swedish Death Metal and leave it at that?
5-Down-Nola-Better than any Pantera album. Riff upon riff, this record never stops.

[Philip Stephen Whitehouse]

Okay, here's my efforts at nominating some absolute, must-have, if-you-don't-own-them-you-should-be-ashamed-of-yourself extreme metal albums.

Thrash metal:

Anthrax: Among The Living
Metallica: Master of Puppets
Megadeth: Rust In Peace
Testament: The Ritual
Slayer: Reign In Blood
Exodus: Bonded By Blood

Death Metal:

Cannibal Corpse: Tomb Of The Mutilated
Suffocation: Effigy Of The Forgotten
Death: Symbolic
Deicide: Legion
Morbid Angel: Blessed Are The Sick
Obituary: Cause Of Death

Doom Metal:

My Dying Bride: Turn Loose The Swans
Anathema: The Silent Enigma
Paradise Lost: Gothic
Electric Wizard: Dopethrone
Sleep: Dopesmoker
Black Sabbath: Volume 4

Black Metal:

Immortal: Blizzard Beasts
Mayhem: De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Darkthrone: Transilvanian Hunger
Emperor: In The NIghtside Eclipse
Dissection: Storm Of The Light's Bane
Burzum: Det Som Engang Var

Grindcore:

Napalm Death: Scum
Nasum: Human 2.0
Brutal Truth: Need To Control
Pig Destroyer: Phantom Limb

[Leo]

great list.. funny enough under your Death Metal section I agree with all the bands, but I have to say I prefer separate records.

Cannibal: Butchered At Birth
Suffocation: Pierced From Within
Morbid Angel: Covenant

Solid list... \m/

[Philip Stephen Whitehouse]

Different strokes... to be honest, I vacillate between preferring Pierced From Within or Effigy Of The Forgotten myself from time to time - and every now and again, I just have a total brain-fart and decide that the new self-titled is the best thing they've done. Whichever album you get, you can't go far wrong with Suffocation! Disavowed are an awesome band too if you're into Suffocation - check out Stagnated Existence.

[Leo]

I will for sure... also, honorable mention on that Death metal list from that era.. have you gone through the James Murphy band 'Disincarnate'?

[Philip Stephen Whitehouse]

Surprisingly enough even to myself, no - I keep meaning to, but for some reason always find something else distracting me. Weird, considering my discovery of the First Law of James Murphy (to whit: "Every album by an already-established and acclaimed band that Murphy plays on will be one of that bands' finest works. For examples, see Obituary, Testament, Death...")

[Leo]

Ha! I started a discussion on the forum here a few days ago, asking which work people preferred by James outside of Testament... I didnt even get one reply! I also live by the First Law. Im not even sure what he's working on now, but I cant imagine anything to be bad.

[Philip Stephen Whitehouse]

Mainly doing production work these days, I believe - he's a regular poster over on the official Andy Sneap forum we maintain over at UltimateMetal.com, and the last major thing I think he did was producing and mixing Daath's debut album (and contributing a guest solo, natch).