Treble’s Top 100 Metal Albums

90. Carcass – Necroticism — Descanting the Insalubrious
(1991; Earache)

Bill Steer & Co. are now the wise elders of death metal, demanding continued recognition with last year’s excellent Surgical Steel, but more than two decades ago they triumphantly led the genre into the ’90s. On their third album, the aptly-titled Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious, they refined their heavy, violent sound and finally completed the musical maturation that they showed on predecessor Symphonies of Sickness, turning in one of the tightest and most brilliant guitar records in metal’s corpus. With the incendiary duo of Steer and Michael Amott – who would carry them on to even better work later — leading the way, this violent album isn’t for the faint of heart. But it is an indispensible death metal classic. – Connor Brown

89. Type O Negative – Bloody Kisses
(1993; Roadrunner)

The self-professed ‘four dicks from Brooklyn’ had already made their mark on the east coast hardcore scene with their debut offering Slow, Deep and Hard and its follow-up The Origin of the Feces, but it was the band’s third record that helped spread their self-depreciating sorrow nationwide. Equal parts hardcore, goth rock and doom metal with a sprinkling of Beatlesque psychedelia, Bloody Kisses comprised a sound with no comparison. In spite of the exquisite cacophony of sounds that the Drab Four managed to conjure up, Bloody Kisses wasn’t necessarily a walk in the park, with loss, grief and unrequited love being central themes of many of its songs. That being said, a certain sense of tongue-in-cheek humor runs throughout Bloody Kisses, like the scene lambasting opus “Black No.1” and the furious dirge of “We Hate Everyone.” Those shades of humor, combined with lead singer Peter Steele’s (R.I.P.) signature baritone croon make Bloody Kisses one of the most memorable metal albums of the ‘90s, if not all-time. – Ryan Brun

88. Decapitated – Winds of Creation
(2000; Wicked World)

At 15, I can safely say that I did almost nothing productive with my life. Decapitated’s former drummer, Vitek, put one of the finest death metal drumming performances to record at that same age. Winds of Creation is a phenomenal record, regardless of context. Knowing just how young its members were at the time? Well, that makes it awe-inspiring in a “what am I doing with my life?” kind of way. The riffs aren’t simply heavy and fast, they are punishing. Every member here handles their weapon with athletic ease, making the fury come from every angle possible. Winds is an exhausting listen that’s rewarding in the same way that spicy foods are – it hurts, but damn does it hurt good. – Dakota Foss

87. Harvey Milk – Life… the Best Game In Town
(2008; Hydra Head)

With their fifth studio album, Harvey Milk achieved the perfect balance of being accessible and brutal all at once. The melodic heaviness of “Motown” and the slow sludge of songs like “Good Bye Blues” create ideal conditions for a musically cinematic storm straight out of The Wizard of Oz. Great metal albums cannot exist without a majestic opener, and for the sake of my aforementioned reference, “Death Goes to the Winner” is the perfect song to be both the ominous calm and the unforgiving mayhem that ensues. Life… The Best Game in Town toys with the listener from the start by rewording a line from the Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” and closes with the group’s own whimsical take on the Looney Tunes theme before a random gong rattle closes the ceremony, but in between the goofiness is a band making immense strides in metal while being on the cusp of their true masterpiece. – Dan Pritchett

86. Eyehategod – Take as Needed for Pain
(1993; Century Media)

NOLA sludge heroes Eyehategod do a lot of things right. They write solid songs and know how to switch up their approach often enough to maintain a fresh feel without sounding too pretentious or overthought. But, most importantly, they have a knack for paying homage to the best qualities of Black Sabbath’s dark, down-tuned bluesy doom without losing their own distinct flair. Perhaps ‘flair’ isn’t the best term because, in this band’s case, that means a cathartic wall of noise that supports each riff as Mike Williams lets out gut-wrenching, almost moan-like growls. On sophomore release Take as Needed for Pain, they’re as gritty as ever, throwing out quick, dirty riffs on “Sister Fucker (Part 1)”, slower doom devastation on “Take as Needed for Pain” and just about everything in between. The journey is gritty as hell, but the destination is more than worth the turbulence. – A.T. Bossenger

85. Voivod – Dimension Hatross
(1988; Noise)

While Nothingface remains the pioneers of prog-metal’s most well-received and accessible collection of songs, 1988’s Dimension Hatross stands as a fully-realized concept album. It tells the story of Voivod’s monstrous mascot Korgull the Exterminator who, frustrated with the destruction of his own planet, manufactures a new universe. In it, his creations both revere him and rebel against him. The Canadian metal heroes took a huge risk, leaving behind the screaming thrash of their first three releases and hedging their bets on the hopes that Denis “Snake” Belanger could actually sing (he can). The first track, “Experiment,” is just that: an experiment, daring the listener to follow the 7/4 overture before delving into top-notch speed metal. Along with the late Denis “Piggy” D’Amour’s inventive chords and compositions, Dimension Hatross etched Voivod’s permanent entry in the metal lexicon. – Chad Gorn

84. Bathory – Under the Sign of the Black Mark
(1987; Black Mark/Under One Flag)

Newcastle, UK’s Venom invented the term “black metal” with the release of their 1982 album of the same name, but when it comes to shaping the sound of black metal, no band is more important or more instrumental than Sweden’s Bathory. Named for a murderous Hungarian countess, and fronted by Thomas Börje Forsberg, better known as Quorthon, Bathory — like Switzerland’s Hellhammer before them — took thrash metal to its farthest limits, essentially perfecting the blueprint for black metal on 1987’s Under the Sign of the Black Mark. Guided by Quorthon’s menacing croak, Black Mark is an old school dose of blast-beat heathenism in its rawest form. Its at various points catchy (“Woman of Dark Desires”), terrifying (“Call From the Grave”) and unrelentingly intense (“Equimanthorn”). With bilious and dark entries by Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer and Venom, an evil seed was planted; this is where it bloomed. – Jeff Terich

83. Diamond Head – Lightning to the Nations
(1980; Happy Face)

Every genre and every generation has “lost classics” – albums that didn’t quite get a fair shake from society in the assessment of their quality. That is why we all know all the members of Metallica and probably not one from Britain’s Diamond Head, despite the fact that the latter’s Lightning to the Nations (1980) deserves every bit as much recognition as Kill ‘em All. With some contemporaries drifting toward arena rock, the fact that Diamond Head performs with such a unique and heavy sound (courtesy especially of guitarist Brian Tatler) on Lightning to the Nations is all the more remarkable. Though they would never quite reach this level of momentum ever again, the undeniable strength of every track here – including metal staples “Am I Evil?,” “Lightning to the Nations,” and “Sucking My Love” – is enough to place this album among the best the genre has to offer. – Connor Brown

82. Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
(1994; Century Black)

A good majority of modern black metal acts tend to come off as, well, kind of goofy. With corpse paint, blastbeats and satanic imagery so pervasive in the genre, it can be difficult for such an over-the-top presentation to be taken seriously. But occasionally, an album is released that not only defines a genre, but transcends its limits. The debut full-length from Norway’s Mayhem, 1994’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is one such album. Sure, the record has got all of the hallmarks of the black metal sound, but there are a few differentiating instances that set De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas apart. First and foremost is the vocal performance from Atilla Csihar. His growls, moans and unique sense of melodic inflection are a drastic departure from the high-pitched shrieks that typically permeate black metal. Furthermore, the band’s history (murders, suicides, church arsons etc.) lent a sort of dark credibility to the band, making the bleak sound and subject matter found on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas horrifyingly believable. Granted, maybe that’s not the reputation that most of us would prefer, but in the black metal underground, Mayhem ware (and arguably are to this day) the kings of the scene, and it all started here. – Ryan Brun

81. Isis – Panopticon
(2004; Ipecac)

“Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: To induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power,” says a quote in the liner notes of Panopticon from philosopher/historian Michel Foucault. Given the concept of Isis’ third full-length — a Panopticon was a circular structured institutional building designed by Jeremy Bentham in the 18^th century to better allow for the visibility of prisoners — there are four parts of the above Foucault quote that can be used to describe the album. The listener will be induced by the cascading crescendos; the sensual rollercoaster of the seven songs will alter the state of conscious; the separation and fusion of the instrumentation is permanently visible; and the intensity is powerful. Panopticon is almost too progressive to be metal, but it’s certainly heavy enough. It’s angular and cosmically expansive, and close to the vigor of hardcore, but also relaxing at times. Aaron Turner’s and Michael Gallagher’s guitar riffs are monolithic, drummer Aaron Harris excellently holds and carries beats as the anchor, and Jeff Caxide’s bass strings sound like smooth gel. So, knowing the concept of Panopticon, were Isis the watchmen or the imprisoned? – Jordan J. Michael