Your top 5 metal albums of all time

[astfgyl]

Be interesting to see from some of the early posts on this thread if the authors still have the same top 5 now that it has been resurrected. It's impossible tbf even to narrow it down to ten.

How many of us have a top 5 entry that we haven't stuck with four at least a decade actually, like how difficult is it for anything new to break in there among our old favourites?

[Ducky]

I only got into Necrophobic in the last two years, and their debut is right up there. And Portrait only this year - "Crossroads" is an all-timer now.

So without further ado, here's my decades list (in no order of preference) that features neither of those records (in fairness after I typed it out I thought "wait, no Trouble, Candlemass, Autopsy, Suffocation, Absu, Carcass, Napalm Death, Cathedral, FFS!").

1970s
1. Van Der Graaf Generator - "The Least We Can Do is Wave to Each Other".
2. Black Sabbath - "Master of Reality".
3. King Crimson - "Red".
4. Camel - "Moonmadness".
5. Rush - "A Farewell to Kings".

1980s
1. Manila Road - "Crystal Logic".
2. Realm - "Endless War".
3. Voivod - "Dimension Hatröss".
4. Bathory - "Under the Sign of the Black Mark".
5. Watchtower - "Control and Resistance".

1990s
1. Death - "Human".
2. Atheist - "Unquestionable Presence ".
3. Cynic - "Focus".
4. Gorguts - "Obscura".
5. Solitude Aeturnus - "Into the Depths of Sorrow".

2000s
1. Mastodon - "Leviathan".
2. Necrophagist - "Epitaph".
3. Nevermore - "This Godless Endeavour ".
4. Nile - "Black Seeds of Vengeance".
5. Decapitated - "Organic Hallucinosis".

2010s
1. Deathspell Omega - "Paracletus".
2. Gorguts - "Coloured Sands".
3. Defeated Sanity - "Passages into Deformity".
4. KEN Mode - "Entrench".
5. Blood Incantation - "Starspawn".

2020s
1. Blood Incantation - "Absolute Elsewhere".
2. Revocation - "Netherheaven".
3. Artificial Brain - "Artificial Brain".
4. Azusa - "Loop of Yesterdays".
5. Ænigmatum - "Deconsecrate".

[Bürggermeister]

Be interesting to see from some of the early posts on this thread if the authors still have the same top 5 now that it has been resurrected. It's impossible tbf even to narrow it down to ten.

How many of us have a top 5 entry that we haven't stuck with four at least a decade actually, like how difficult is it for anything new to break in there among our old favourites?

Ahh jaysus, how do you whittle it down to five?

Today, let's go with...

Coroner - Mental Vortex
Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
Trouble - s/t
Watchtower - Control And Resistance
Cynic - Focus

Still happy with this, to be honest 

[Maggot Colony]

In no particular order:

Iron Maiden - Live After Death
Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse
Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Scald - Will of the Gods is Great Power

[Pat Twisted Wrath]

No real deep cuts for me, but in no particular order:

Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Tool - Lateralus
Judad Priest - Defenders of the Faith
Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing

Looking forward to having a gawk at previous posts and finding some new stuff 

[KingHostile]

1. Iron Maiden - Powerslave
2. Slayer - Reign In Blood
3. Megadeth - Count Down to Extinction
4. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power
5. Nails - You Will Never Be One of Us

Big names, no Metallica I always feel Megadeth cancel Metallica out with better musician ship. Master of puppets could make the grade but I prefer Reign In blood. Count Down and Vulgar are harder Rock / Metal at its most accessible in the 90s. Everything that is great about what I love.

I think the Nails choice shows the return to the underground. Lots of bands not here, Nevermore, Xentrix etc

Leaving Maidens 'Live After Death' out for 'Powerslave', I think Powerslave is the perfect Album, its recording is epic on every level.

[Bürggermeister]

This decades shit is harder than a clean and ruthless all-time top 5 

1970s
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Scorpions - Taken By Force
Van Halen - II
Motorhead - Overkill
Judas Priest - Sin After Sin

1980s
Watchtower - Control and Resistance
Masters Of Reality - Blue Garden
Slayer - Reign In Blood
Flotsam & Jetsam - Doomsday For The Deciever
Voivod - Nothingface

1990s
Coroner Mental Vortex
Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
Cynic - Focus
Trouble - s/t
Death - Spiritual Healing

2000s
Mastodon - Leviathan
Sepultura - Dante XXI
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Grand Magus - Iron Will
Living Colour - The Chair In The Doorway

2010s
The Contortionist - Language
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Vallenfyre - Splinters
Goatwhore - Blood For The Master
Fates Warning - Theories Of Flight

2020s
Alluvial - Sarcoma
Skid Row - The Gang's All Here
Crown Compass - The Drought
Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell
Strigoi - Viscera

[astfgyl]

Fuck it, it'll make for a bit more of a thread, I'll be in shortly with my decade picks although the 80s and 90s will be fucking painful

Edit, why did we start at the 70s actually, was there nothing before that?

Wait until we get the 15th century modal shit out at least

[Thorn]

Heavy Metal was born in the 70's in Birmingham. Can't go back any further than that my man

[astfgyl]

Have Pentagram not got a claim in for the 60s or have I just fabricated that entirely in my own head? I would never be able to pick anything before the 70s either being honest but are we taking the first Black Sabbath as the absolute beginning? Anyway, if it is to be the 70s I'll end up having the first few Sabbath albums and like one from someone else so it's a fair point. Could have the decade done by 73 lol

[Thorn]

Think Pentagram were early seventies too ,even so surely it all stems from Priest and Sabbath predominantly .

[Carnage]

Vanilla Fudge, Blue Cheer, Steppenwolf - all started in the sixties and definitely had the sound. Proto-metal at worst but I'd have them down as pioneers of the genre. Didn't Priest form in the sixties too or am I imagining that?

[Anvil]

I think you are right about Priest, formed late 60s but Rocka Rolla didn't come out until 74 due to a label they signed for going tits up.

[Naraka]

Paradise Lost - Draconian Times
Griftegard - Solemn Sacred Severe
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Alice In Chains - Dirt

[Maggot Colony]

Christ above, this is tough. Every time I think I have it, another few albums pop into my head.

1970s
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
Judas Priest - Stained Class
Motorhead - Overkill

1980s
Motorhead - Ace of Spades
Iron Maiden - Live After Death
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath
Slayer - South of Heaven
Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

1990s
Bathory - Twilight of the Gods
Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
Morbid Angel - Formulas Fatal to the Flesh
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Scald - Will of the Gods is Great Power

2000s
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Primordial - To the Nameless Dead
Motorhead - Inferno
Graveland - Memory and Destiny
Deeds of Flesh - Mark of the Legion

2010s
Sammath - Godless Arrogance
Tarnkappe - Winterwaker
Primordial - Exile Amongst the Ruins
Burzum - Belus
Imprecation - Satanae Tenebris Infinita

2020s
Inanna - Void of Unending Depths
Blood Oath - Lost in an Eternal Silence
Mortify - Fragments at the Edge of Sorrow
Mefitis - Offscourings
Sammath - Grebbeberg