Top 50 Classic Heavy Metal Albums

[dr wu]

I guess this is the official metal thread.....so thought this was an interesting article on origins of metal.....which some of us have mentioned here.
(btw I am not a big metal fan but I do like some early 'heavy' bands )

Metal Origins: Black Sabbath Yesâââ But Who Else Was Involved?

getting past the Sabbath-first-and-only narrative

medium.com

A few pieces on why some dislike metal....and a defense...sort of....

Why don’t most people like heavy metal music?

I can think of some reasons such as follows: The rather aggressive and loud (and at times even brutal) sound that defines the genre is not something that the common folk would necessarily find plea…

rico968.wordpress.com

Five Criticisms of Heavy Metal That Don’t Add Up

Pointy guitars may have critics, but they can still sound great. Photo by Sam Howzit Musical appreciation is an entirely subjective experience. People either tend to like or dislike various bands o…

rico968.wordpress.com

 

[mobiusclimber]

So, to the original topic and article, I can see what they were going for. Despite the title of the article itself, it seems to be more about hard rock that influenced metal, and how metal evolved, than it does just a straight list of the 50 best metal albums. In fact, the word "classic" is doing a lot of heavy (*cough*) lifting here. I think it's an incredibly superficial and shallow list, but I don't necessarily disagree with any of the albums included. If I were making the list, the rule would be only one album per band. They list nearly every Sabbath album from Ozzy's era, plus one of Dio's. There are numerous highly influential hard rock and proto-metal albums that aren't listed, though, which is where it really falters. How can you not include a single Budgie album, for instance? And no Zeppelin even though there are other blues-based hard rock albums listed. Definitely a weird, haphazard list.

 

[dr wu]

I've listened to many Andy Edwards videos because he has drummed for some prog bands I like,,,,he is very knowledgable about music but also very opinionated.
His video on 10 essential metal albums.....not being an expert on metal I only have heard 4 or 5 of these. So dont yell at me if you disagree....yell at him.

 

[Magic]

10 proto-metal albums you should definitely own

A handy guide to 10 of the ugliest, gnarliest, most influential proto-metal albums of all time

www.loudersound.com

Sabbath were the heaviest of ‘em all, but they sure as fuck weren’t the only hard rockers running amuck in the age of Aquarius.

 

[Magic]

Like @mobiusclimber stated, I see what UCR magazine was going after….but a “classic” rock dedicated publication is kinda biased by design.

If you Google this subject, a lot of different lists come up. I trust the list from Metal Storm to be more accurate in ranking the most essential Metal albums.

Top 200 albums

International heavy metal webzine featuring forums, publications, news, and archives.

metalstorm.net

 

[dr wu]

Saw this video..there are 2 parts.....interesting look at early bands and ideas....as always these things are subjective as to who did what and when.
It has a good intro to many great psych and heavy bands from the 60's and early 70's.....a couple of them did favorite lps for me. It's worth watching if you arent that familiar with obscure heavy bands from back then.

Proto Metal part1

Proto Metal part2

 

[Dizbuster X]

The term 'heavy metal' is widely credited as originating from the second-verse lyric "heavy metal thunder" in Steppenwolf's 1968 song Born To Be Wild.

Written by Mars Bonfire, the lyric line goes: "I like smoke and lightning . . . Heavy metal thunder . . . Racing with the wind . . .".

Original Meaning: Bonfire was actually describing the engine roar and power of a motorcycle (or his car, depending on the account) rather than a musical genre. He later recalled that the phrase popped into his head after thinking about the chemical "heavy metals" from his school days during a thunderstorm.

Musical Connection: Music critics later picked up the phrase in the early 1970s to describe the loud, distorted, and guitar-heavy sound of bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, forever tying the genre to Steppenwolf's iconic line.

While the song popularized the term in rock culture, the literal words "heavy metal" had been used earlier in literature, such as in William Burroughs' 1961 novel The Soft Machine.

Based on this logic, nearly every Hard Rock band from 1968 forward could, technically, be classified as Heavy Metal. Though I'm sure Purists will disagree, and it really doesn't matter to me how a particular band is labelled. I roll my eyes at the term 'Industrial Metal', especially when it's applied to bands like Rob Zombie and Ministry, because there isn't a dime's bit of difference in their basic approach to playing and recording their music than Motörhead and Iron Maiden. Yeah, I know that IM has traditionally had at least two guitarists in their lineup and (since the early 2000's) three, but that don't make their music any more Heavy Metal than similar bands.

I'm pretty sure most everyone here has heard or read the Heavy Metal history story before, but I posted it anyway.

 

[Dizbuster X]

All Hail Heavy Metal!

 

[Dizbuster X]

 

[Dizbuster X]