[ferday]

  That's a different kind of cute!

 
or a different kind of abomination...

 

[Redcarmoose]

I just bought my first Immortal album, At the Heart of Winter, and I'm listening to it right now. This band is fantastic! The opening riff on Solarfall is top notch. I also got Battles in the North, but I haven't listened to it yet.

I've been listening to metal since the mid '90s, but for some reason I never really got into any of the older black metal bands. I'm almost glad I saved them until now because albums that are over a decade old sound really fresh.

Old Immortal is classic. Everyone has their favorite from the past. The fun part is investigating each one as they are all different in ways. You can hear the Bathory influence but still they are their own original sound like no one else. At The Hart Of Winter has a great guitar sound too.
 

 
Pure Holocaust shows the band with it's early hyper-speed.
 

 

 
Carpathian Forest is at the top of the cute metal wave too!
Their new album following a 2006 release drops this year, so maybe we will read more about these cute guys in this thread.
 

 

[macrocheesium]

This was actually not unpleasant to listen to.
 
https://soundcloud.com/segritz/supercrush-devin-townsend

 

[markm1]

 
Greek Black Metal to scrape your lungs with black tar
 
2011

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

  I'm setting up demo music on my laptop for the next meet. I am mainly a classical guy and know very little about other genres. I would be interested in knowing what THE essential metal album is. Note that I am saying I want to "demo" my headphones but that doesn't mean I want a "well-recorded" album that's crap music---I want good music above all. It would also help if it were well-known music so I maximize my chances of someone stopping by and being familiar with the album.

Hmmm I guess you are looking for something like this:


Everyone who listens to metal knows this album. Everyone.

 

[vipervick]

  Hmmm I guess you are looking for something like this:


Everyone who listens to metal knows this album. Everyone.

Indeed

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

Oh you know what would be super hype?
A new Darkspace album ♥
I absolutely love these.....guys? Girls? Aliens? Hmmm I guess I'll go with aliens.

 

Best use of a drumcomputer ever btw.

 

[jackskelly]

Everyone who listens to metal knows this album. Everyone.

 
Definitely, and I think that everyone should know "Hell Awaits," their album previous to "Reign in Blood" that sometimes gets overlooked:
 

 

[markm1]

  Hmmm I guess you are looking for something like this:


Everyone who listens to metal knows this album. Everyone.

Mark, it's kind of hard to know where to start because there are a schiit ton of genres within in metal and 40 plus year of music.
 
I've been listening to metal and hard rock since the late 70's!
 
I'm no music critic and this is just my taste, but I believe here are some fantastic metal and hard rock across a few genres albums in in no particular order:
 
CM (classic metal/hard rock), alt (alternative, stoner, etc). DM (death metal) BM (black metal)
 
AC/DC-Highway to Hell and High Voltage CM
Iron Maiden-The Number of the Beast, Piece of Mind or Power slave CM
Judas Priest-any of the following: Stained Glass, Sad Wings of Destiny, British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith CM
Metallica-Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets CM
Slayer as stated CM
Motorhead-start with Ace of Spades CM
Tool-Lateralus or Enima Alt
Kyus-Blues for the Red Sun or Sky  Valley alt
Isis-Oceanic or Panoptican-Alt/post metal
Neurosis-anything! I like Through Silver and Blood alt/post-But I like all their stuff...
Monster Magnet-Power Trip, Dopes to Infinity alt/classic sounding hard rock
Soundgarden-Bad Motor Finger alt
Dark Tranquility-Character or Damage Done DM
Opeth-Blackwater Park or Ghost Reveries DM/Prog
Enslaved-Frost, Ritiir, Vertebrae, Run or isa BM/prog
At the Gates-Slaughter of the Soul DM
Immortal-At the Heart of Winter BM
Emperor-Anthem at the Welken at Dusk BM
Behemoth-Demigod DM
Gorgoroth-Under Sign of Hell, Ad Marjorem Sathanas Glorium BM
Marduk-Wormwood, Plague Angel, Rom: 512
 
This list has about a million holes....what I thought of off the top of my head
 
Cheers!

 

[Kaeru92]

  Indeed

I do, but for some reason I've never liked slayer... 
Of the "big four", I like Metallica and Megadeth the most, and listen to some occasional Anthrax, but Slayer never clicked for me.

 

[Tom Yum Goong]

  I do, but for some reason I've never liked slayer... 
Of the "big four", I like Metallica and Megadeth the most, and listen to some occasional Anthrax, but Slayer never clicked for me.

Me neither. I do listen to Metallica from time to time but that's about it.
We already had the whole "Exodus should be part of the Big Four"-discussion so....Exodus ftw.

 

[Fastnbulbous]

Reign In Blood is definitely the most popular choice among the metalheads. It's my favorite too. However  markheadphonium  mentioned being well-known as a factor, and Metallica's Master Of Puppets has far more crossover mainstream appeal. Heads might prefer Ride The Lightning. Third choice for s quintessential example might be Iron Maiden's The Number Of The Beast.

 

[ferday]

Master of puppets has the bonus of having decent sound (on the DCC gold remaster especially)

 

[markheadphonium]

Thanks everyone. I'll try downloading a track off Reign in Blood and see what I think.

 

[markm1]

  Thanks everyone. I'll try downloading a track off Reign in Blood and see what I think.

Would also throw in a couple of Black Sabbath seminal releases...from the Ozzy Years- Master of Reality pretty much invented what is "doom" and Paranoid is a classic. And from the Dio Years-Heaven and Hell is essential.