Unitron Sepultura's love-it-or-hate-it album. Thrash purists didn't want anything deviating much from Beneath the Remains, while others loved that the band went all out in their tribal influences and obviously what better way for that to thrive than in a nu metal album. Personally I love this album, the grooves of Arise and Chaos A.D. are here but there's so many unique percussive embellishments, vocal experiments, and Brazilian instruments to enhance the hooks. Attitude is especially exemplary of it with throat singing and a variety of instruments blending with screeching nu metal guitars.

The likes of Roots Bloody Roots, Ratamahatta, Straighthate, and Born Stubborn are massive and catchy. Max would take this sound further with Soulfly, but this is still where it was done first and overall best.

Unitron "My only gun control is a steady hand"

Have more badass words ever been spoken on an album? I don't think so. While Snappin' Necks showed how good rap-thrash could truly be, Stuck Mojo went all out with aggression and a new atmosphere with Pigwalk.

Pigwalk is like Strapping Young Lad meets The Prodigy with Bonz's no holds barred vocal attack that is like Busta Rhymes on crack. This is an album of industrial machinery, ominous breakbeats, and some of the most aggressive rapping put to record. What reminds me of Strapping Young Lad could come from Devin Townsend being at the producing helm (with a couple vocal screams too), which definitely gives Stuck Mojo's crushing sound an extra electronic bite.

Mental Meltdown, (Here Comes) The Monster, Only the Strong Survive (which the opening lyric comes from), Violated, and the chugging mosher of Down Breeding are my personal favorites, though the whole album is great. Inside My Head is an interesting break in the metal, being an ominous ambient breakbeat track.

The following album Rising is my favorite Stuck Mojo album, but this is a close second.

Unitron Take a Look in the Mirror is a bit of a weird album in terms of how it places in Korn's discography. Instead of acting as a branch between the moody and trip hop inspired Issues and Untouchables to See You on the Other Side's industrial crunch, there's nothing electronic at all. It does have some of the melody of Untouchables, but a rawness more in line with the first couple albums. There's even a rap metal song in the middle of the album like Life is Peachy, this time with Nas instead of Chino.

This is one of their albums that I've listened to the least, but it's really only because of how amazing what it sits between. While it's not as consistent as its two predecessors or two following albums, there's some favorites of mine on here. Did My Time opens with a sludgy riff right out of a Floor album, and a beautifully haunting bridge. Everything I've Known and When Will This End follow suit. The sarcastic middle-finger Y'all Want a Single is a classic jumpdafuckup banger. Fieldy's bass rattles like crazy on this album, yet the tone is so deep.

An underrated album that I should listen to more often.

Unitron After taking doom to its droning breaking point, Earth joined in with the likes of Fu Manchu and Kyuss in perfecting the art of desert rock. The whole album just bathes in warm, raw, and gravely riffs, and it's no better on display than on the classic Tallahasse.

This album couldn't have had a more fitting cover. It sounds like a roaring motor, one that's old and worn, yet never gives up and with care lasts you through any blazing heat. All I see when I listen to this album is driving this sweet green ride across the desert, but it breaks down every so often. I have to keep getting out to get the engine purring again, but it's all worth it for the experience and the sound.

Unitron While Faith No More gets the respect they deserve for being one of the most groundbreaking bands in metal, unfortunately the albums before Mike Patton joined are often forgotten in that. Introduce Yourself does just what the title says, and Faith No More introduces themselves as a band like no other and one that couldn't care less about fictional genre boundaries and just wanted to combine everything they liked into an incredible unique sound.

This is basically nu metal for the 80's. Funky bass, synthscapes right out of Kraftwerk, thrash metal riffs, post-punk/new wave melodies, rapping, and whatever else they could throw in there. Original vocalist Chuck Mosley is both underrated and underestimated, unfairly compared to Mike Patton. Both are great vocalists but in very different ways, Mosley is like the sound of the album if it was a person. He's too much of a beatnik for the punks, he's too thrash for the beatniks, he's too new wave for the thrashers, he's just who he is. No song better exemplifies this than Death March, with his beatnik meets skater rambling. Also, anyone wanting proof that Faith No More would've continued experimenting and expanding their influences even if Patton never joined, just check out Mosley's post-FNM band Cement.

Everything on the album sounds so gigantic, and combined it's just ethereal. Jim Martin's meaty riffs hit so damn hard, every slap and pop of Billy Gould's bass is felt, Mike Bordin's drums are hammers on an anvil, and it's all wrapped up in Roddy Bottum's grandiose synths which might be the most underrated part of Faith No More's sound. It creates an atmosphere like no other metal album at the time.

We Care a Lot!

Unitron With how experimental the 90's were for music, to define the sound of a genre in the decade may seem hard. However, somehow one of the first albums I think of when I think of metal in the 90's is Helmet's classic Meantime. Blending post-hardcore, grunge, and groove metal, it acts as both a mix of some of the best stuff the early 90's had to offer and a fantastic prototype for future alt metal and nu metal to come later in the decade.

There's something about Page Hamilton's monotone version of melody mixed with punishing hardcore riffing that just works so well. Though when he's screaming, you basically have sludge without the doom in crushing songs like Ironhead and Turned Out.

The album is just 36 minutes of hard pounding metal for a workout or release of anger. There's no room for anything less, and each song is a guaranteed angry good time.

Unitron With The Outer Limits, Voivod made an amazing meeting of space rock and alt metal that everything starting with Nothingface was leading up to. With Snake temporarily away from the band, and new guy Eric Forrest, the band does a near 180 in sound. Negatron is a blistering industrial thrashing beast of an album, and takes no prisoners.

While the mechanical ant on the cover is somehow even cheesier than the ones in the classic Sci-Fi film Them!, this album rains down as much sludgy groove as it can. Eric Forrest's red-faced screaming is so caustic and unapologetic, Insect says it all. He can do melody too though, in songs like Nanoman where he takes a Snake-esque approach to it. Musically it's along the lines of industrial bands like Fear Factory, Red Harvest, and Treponem Pal but with Voivod's unique touch.

Negatron often gets a bad rep, maybe because of how much whiplash it is after the previous three albums or maybe it's the new vocalist. Whatever the reason, Negatron is a great rage-filled monster mosher.

Unitron Sabbotage

Wish they kept that working title. To many people, Sabotage is the last of the great Sabbath albums. For me, Sabotage is the band getting back on track after what I see as the mediocre Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and producing one of their best albums ever. Sabotage acts as a perfect continuation of Vol. 4's experimentation and soulful songwriting, and is brimming with anger at managers and labels screwing the band over.

There's the fistful of power that's Hole in the Sky, which swaggers so hard that it could've left them in a power strut forever. Symptom of the Universe switches between proto-thrash shredding and super chill folk rock vibes but with a real swing. Supertzar is ominous and majestic, the combination of doom riffs and choral chants just makes sense. The finale The Writ kind of reprises Supertzar's great riff but extended and without the choral arrangement to give full stage to it.

Sabotage wasn't the last great album, the creativity continued on the following two albums, and despite increasing inner struggles between the band members they'd knock it out of the park a few years later.

Unitron "The time is right for sonic infusion"

Since We've Become Translucent is one of those albums that makes you wonder why this wasn't a transition into a new sound. The first and last songs both show Mudhoney displaying some classic Hawkwind influence, but with their own grungy attitude to it. It's intense and fiery space rock with a great horn section on Baby Can You Dig the Light?, and fits in with the sound the band already had.

The rest of the album is pretty standard Mudhoney, so basically The Stooges meets Blue Cheer, with Crooked and Wide being the best of that bunch. However it ends up being slightly disappointing with the strengths of the bookends. They could've evolved into a great space grunge band, but I guess they decided to stick with their old formula.

Unitron "There's only a very very fine line between biding one's time and wasting one's time"

"I FUCKED! A DEAD DUCK, SHIT OUTTA LUCK"

Holy fuck, now this is what I call punk. Fucking dead ducks, spazing about time wasting, come quick for big dicks, this is the no fucks given attitude that thrives in punk when put to right use. Musically Nomeansno simultaneously gives a fuck and doesn't, they have one of the most insane rhythm sections in heavy music, but they have the attitude as if they don't. That's what separates bands like Nomeansno, Atheist, and Mudvayne from technical pretense. They use what they got, and they just happen to have a lot.

Spastic slap bass, sludgy post-hardcore riffing, tortured screaming, dissonant guitars, fun foot-stomping hooks, anxious melodies, lyrical schizophrenia, and even crazy borderline funk metal. When I first heard this album as my introduction to the band, it completely changed my view of what punk can be. It's the attitude I always wanted in punk, without any pretense or obnoxious preaching. Just a group of punks playing crazy ass music, as it should be.

Unitron SCIMITAR

Never before has a band created the perfect match of simultaneously laying down some of the heaviest, noisiest, feedback-ridden sludge and most melodic harmonies in music this aggressive. As soon as that first note hits in Scimitar, that's all you need to know. Pound, pound, pound, this is the closest anyone's gotten to reaching a modern day equivalent to Blue Cheer going so heavy with distortion that the recording technology at the time couldn't handle it. Of course, this is 2002 so it's loud (and I mean fucking loud) and clear, but the amps are just holding on.

This whole album is just dripping with sludge, all the while Steve Brooks is serenading deadpan noise pop melodies as if this is a Pavement album. Should be essential for any sludge and grunge fans.

Unitron I'm of the opposite opinion of most people when it comes to Zeppelin. You could make one great solid single-disc best of compilation with all the songs I like from Zep's self-titled albums and Houses of the Holy. Though, the latter is when the band was just starting to get good. More variation in songwriting, more experimental, and even more memorable hooks. Physical Graffiti though, that's where they take what that started and just went all out.

One of the few albums that absolutely warrants being two discs, two discs of some of the best hard rock ever put to record. Riff after riff, hook after hook, melody after melody, it never lets up with a weak moment. In My Time of Dying is how you make an 11-minute rock song, it has the energy and intensity of an extended live cut. The heavy raw blues riffing is just relentless, with several great hooks. Trampled Under Foot though, if I had to pick, this might be my favorite Zeppelin song. There's something about funky songs from heavy bands in the 70's that I can't resist, but this was the first of its kind I heard. The ballsiest foot-stomper out there, it's just such an irresistible groove.

The iconic Kashmir just may have had an influence on Rainbow for songs like Stargazer and Gates of Babylon, with its plodding Phrygian climb. The Rover, In the Light, and Ten Years Gone prelude some of the sounds of the following Presence with the balance of hard rock grooves and melancholic melody. Down by the Seaside is basically a chill country song, but not without an intense bridge. The album's finale of Sick Again is another heavy stomper, but there's parts where it sounds like this hard riff and colossal drums are being layered over themselves several times. Have no idea how it was produced, but whatever it is it sounds fantastic.

Even the songs that might at first seem like filler are great, Houses of the Holy I used to think was a weak moment, but now I love it for just being a great hard rock song. While the following Presence is my favorite Zeppelin album, Physical Graffiti isn't far behind at all. The greatest double album in rock as far as I'm concerned.

Unitron One of the reasons why I love nu metal is because you never know what different musical elements to expect in any different artist. Puya takes the groovy nu metal base sound, and blends it seamlessly with funky latin jazz and various kinds of hispanic music. It's probably the only metal album in existence where a conga line could fit right alongside a moshpit.

Throughout the whole album the band is complimenting funky bass licks, thrashing and groovy riffs, fat horns, energetic vocals that switch between hardcore rapping, gang vocals, and some great melodies here and there. It's just so damn fun, and whenever I hear this I wish more metal bands would experiment with the funkier and smoother sides of jazz instead of dissonant improv stuff. Siguelo Pa Llá is by far the most infectious, sounding like a funk metal band collided with an old bossa nova band and came out all the better for it. Bembelé starts out sounding like something from the amazing soundtrack to Lupin the 3rd, and Chisme has such smooth swaggering horns right out of a 70's jazz funk classic.

Jazz funk and metal is a match made in heaven, just not enough have realized it.

Unitron Why people think In Flames just abandoned death metal for money is beyond me, considering their style of melodic death metal has always been closer to heavy metal and alternative metal anyways. They just kept expanding and improving their sound, with Reroute to Remain being their peak. The two before this and several of the following albums are great too, but the songwriting on here is just through the roof. If it's not a amazing melody putting you into a state of bliss, it's a crushing hook of a riff getting you jumping. There's little electronic touches here and there, great acoustic moments, and right when you think you might get bored with a song they'll throw in some killer groove to wake you up.

If you're just looking for death metal, put on a Obituary or Atheist classic. However if you're looking for something that's both heavy as hell and beautifully melodic, In Flames has had that mastered since Colony and like no other band within the melodic death metal scene.

Unitron "I know somethin'"

Best thing Alice in Chains ever did, partly because of the band transitioning from hair metal to grunge. I love the unique sound that some bands had during the time hair bands were leaving the metal mainstream and grunge was entering it, there's this balancing act between dark heavy shit and dumb party hooks that isn't heard anywhere else. I love AiC's following two albums too, but it's almost all doom and gloom. This is dark, Layne's drug addicted lyrics are all over this thing, but the music's got a party vibe backed by massive grooves and swaggering sleaze. A song like Put You Down sounds right at home with the likes of Dr. Feelgood and Welcome to the Jungle.

We Die Young is one of the best openers to any metal album, and just perfectly sets the stage for the perfect blend of depressive lyrics with pumped up heavy metal hooks. Put You Down and funky banger I Know Somethin' (Bout You) are probably my favorites, but Sunshine is the best showing of the contrast. It keeps switching between the brooding sludge of songs like It Ain't Like That with the hooks of Put You Down.

There's nothing like some good glam grunge.

Unitron "If I say fuck two more times, that's forty-six fucks in this fucked up rhyme"

That line is one of the greatest lyrics in all of metal, and if the album title of Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water wasn't enough of a giveaway, this isn't a band or album that takes itself seriously outside of musically. It's only now that people are finally starting to realize Limp Bizkit is on a similar wavelength to Primus of making fun of themselves all the while creating fantastic unique music that really can't be copied.

Chocolate Starfish combines all that made Three Dollar Bill and Significant Other such amazing albums, and goes further. The post-metal is taken to a new height with a song like Boiler, with massive riffs creating an earth-shattering wall of sound. The softer side of the band that first showed up on Significant Other is significantly improved with songs like Hold On, It'll Be Ok, and The One. If only there was more electronic alt rock, as the post-rock and trip hop elements makes these that much better. The pure hip hop tracks are increased as well, with the bonus single It's Like That Y'all that comes with some versions of the album being among the band's best. Not only does it feature hip hop legends Run DMC, but it has what's maybe DJ Lethal's best production.

The album is most known of course for its jumpdafuckup bangers like Hot Dog, My Generation, Full Nelson, and of course ROLLIN' ROLLIN' ROLLIN', which is easily one of the most iconic songs of the 00's, and for good reason. These are just instant hooks. For an album that's so long, there's little filler, the variety and quality of said variation makes this an album that works as both an album listen and every song working perfectly in any fitting playlist.

Unitron Many rap metal bands were a lot more metal than hip hop, that's not to diss all those bands, Stuck Mojo is probably my favorite rap metal band but you could just as easily call them a thrash/groove band. From a standpoint of reaching the peak of what a genre can be, I'd say the unfortunately forgotten Shootyz Groove perfected it like no other band prior to the nu metal explosion where better and deeper genre infusion became more common.

When the band name drops both Slayer and A Tribe Called Quest in the liner notes as inspiration, you know you're getting the real deal. These guys have the riffs of a thrash band, the funky hooks of both hip hop and funk metal, and the lyrical flow and performance of a classic hip hop group. The first thing I thought of when I first heard them is if The Pharcyde went metal. The way the two rappers trade off one another and their exuberant delivery reminds me a lot of the aforementioned band, especially in my two favorite tracks In the Ocean and Soulfreak. In the Ocean especially stands out, with the vocals flowing perfectly with the song's thrash riffs.

This is the kind of album that perfectly appeals to both hip hop and metal fans.

Unitron For the most part, the albums made by the original Black Sabbath lineup are considered untouchable legends in the world of rock and metal, that is until Technical Ecstasy. There's this idea that they just went straight from hot shit to just shit, no gradual decrease of quality, just a complete 180. To each their own if one believes that, but I think a combination of the reputation Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die get and coming from the wrong place to listen really neglects how good these albums sound.

Sabbath was already getting a bit more experimental on Sabotage, and this just continues that on a grander scale. Opener Back Street Kids is maybe 70's Sabbath's most hyper and pumped up song, sounding closer to the faster and more melodic direction metal was going in. It's Alright is the first song Bill Ward sings on, and it's a nice unique song in the band's catalogue. It has a laidback rock vibe in the vein of The Guess Who, in contrast to the incredible energetic drums that open up the following Gypsy. Honestly Bill Ward was on fire on these last two 70's Sabbath albums.

The funky All Moving Parts (Stand Still) has such a great groove, and there's something about funky songs from heavy bands in the 70's that's just instantly addicting. Rock 'n' Roll Doctor is another ridiculously catchy groove, and is the best boogie rock out there. Usually the highlight of the album is considered to be the closing Dirty Women. Personally I'm not a fan of some of the changes in sound it goes through, but the middle section is maybe Ozzy's best vocal performance ever. He has this rough and gravely tone that I've never heard him do on any other song, and hearing him almost roar "Oh dirty women, they don't mess around" over this heavy ass riff that sounds right out of the breakdown in Jethro Tull's Minstrel in the Gallery is one of the coolest sections of any song.

So yeah, it's pretty damn good. The next album would be even better though and my favorite Ozzy-era Sabbath album. Also that cover rocks, more albums should use Rene Magritte-esque surrealism.

Unitron I could ramble on about how much I love this album and how much it's helped me though my life, but I'll keep things concise. This is Godflesh's peak, screaming with the most emotion while also having the catchiest hooks. It's depressive in such an honest way, Broadrick's vocal performance screams all the feelings emoted by the music, and the atmosphere is drenched in lugubriousness. Brooding hip hop beats in Circle of Shit and Kingdom Come are both groovin' yet enhance the haunting atmosphere. It's probably the closest there's ever been to Illbient metal.

If you're just looking for noisy industrial, Streetcleaner is your album. However, if you love electronic and hip hop and want something that's really emotionally heavy, this and Us and Them are Godflesh's best. This can be either catharsis or simply a fantastic and infectiously catchy album.

Unitron "I'M, shedding skin, changing within, falling in"

No other band sings to the anger, frustrations, and deep inner emotions like Pantera for me. They hit hard both physically and emotionally on such a primal level, It's always a release of all the built up emotions ready to come out.

Far Beyond Driven is the band at their most thunderous production, on a good stereo this has the resonance of a cannon blast or an explosion. There's really cool atmospheric touches, mainly on Shedding Skin, probably my favorite song on here if I had to pick. The echo effect on Phil's vocals when he says "I'm" is a small detail yet enhances it a lot and compliments the crawling main riff.

Dimebag's guitar riffs are at their sludgiest, dripping with heavy weight and combined with dissonant screeching and breakdowns. Rex Brown's bass shows its true groove and great hooks, always complimenting Dime's discordant solos. The drums as always pack a punch, going from double kick to a syncopated swing. Phil's vocals though are what completes the extreme fury of this album, with some of the most intense vocals ever put to record, especially with the likes of Slaughtered.

There's so much variety throughout the album, yet always the same energy. Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills is noisy, chaotic, and incredibly dissonant. It reminds me of Slab!, with the combination of spoken word, huge drums, and screeching feedback. Some of the riffs sound a bit southern like something from Down, most notably on I'm Broken, but with the added extra aggression. The contrast is great, especially with 25 Years which always gets me pumped at the end, it's like the musical equivalent of a street brawl. Sometimes the variety is within one song, short songs like Strength Beyond Strength are as if they're split into different sections. It's something I haven't heard elsewhere other than some Megadeth songs like Wake Up Dead.

Ending with a mellow cover might seem odd at first, but with this album, Planet Caravan is a perfect finale. This album is so intense that it's near impossible to sit still, and the Black Sabbath cover acts as a perfect cool down after never letting up for 50 minutes. Far Beyond Driven was the band becoming even more than a fantastic thrash/groove metal band, and really can't be compared to anyone else.

Unitron You can't go wrong with any of the Chili Peppers' first five albums, but I've always been of the opinion that Mother's Milk is the best of them. It just sounds like a band at their peak, in several ways. It's relentlessly energetic, there's a consistent focus on funky jams, and it's the ultimate party metal album.

Everyone talks about the fantastic cover of Stevie Wonder's classic Higher Ground, but that causes it to overshadow the rest of the album. Opener Good Time Boys is probably my favorite, a funky hair metal classic. Subway to Venus takes the old school P-funk vibe of their Freaky Styley album and combines it with the big sound of this album. Nobody Weird Like Me and Punk Rock Classic straight up thrash, and the former perfectly contrasts the explosive and galloping riffs and drums with some touching vocal melodies. The swaggering Sexy Mexican Maid is a particular fantastic song as well.

Just like it opens with a bang, it closes with the massive funk stomp of Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky. After a bassline that sounds right out of Among the Living, it's all slapping hooks and catchy Funkadelic-esque chant choruses.

Mother's Milk is one of funk metal's finest, especially on the glam metal influenced side of it, nothing beats this, Extreme, and Mindfunk's debut for total funky party metal.

Unitron ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES!

Along with Run DMC, the Beastie Boys helped pioneer the fusion of rock and hip hop that would influence many bands to come. Starting out as part of the growing New York Hardcore scene, the band pretty quickly made the transition into the even faster growing East Coast Hip Hop scene. After a self-released single and getting signed to the new Def Jam label, which would serve as a hub for several major hip hop and metal artists, Beastie Boys flew and crashed onto the album market with Licensed to Ill. It went on to become one of the best selling hip hop albums of the 80's.

As soon as the opening Rhymin' & Stealin' starts, it's no wonder. Sampling the iconic drums from Led Zeppelin's classic When the Levee Breaks as well as the equally iconic riff from Black Sabbath's Sweet Leaf, the way they're mixed together makes it a precursor to the now incredibly popular art of mashups. Add onto that the exuberant bravado of Mike D, MCA, and Ad-Rock, and you've got an incredibly fun album that's bursting with energy. Big loud drums dominate the album, as does excellent sampling and vocal flow. She's Crafty, Hold It Now Hit It, Brass Monkey, and the underrated deep cut Slow and Low are songs that'll remain in your head with great hooks of different varieties. My favorite though will always be the aforementioned Rhymin' & Stealin', it's really an explosion of sound that's impossible to not scream along to the chanting of ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES, ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIEVES! with elements of two hard rock/metal classics backing it.

The group's goofy sense of humor is on full display, with a satirical edge. Hit singles Fight for Your Right and No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn are able to both nail the mood of 80's party rock while making fun of it at the same time as the videos show. They make fun of themselves too, as the lyrics of Rhymin' & Stealin' show, serious musicians who love to have fun.

Licensed to Ill is a classic hip hop album in every way with easy crossover appeal. Despite its massive success, Beastie Boys were not ones to let money take over creativity, and their next album would show them keep experimenting and create what is maybe one of the most layered hip hop albums of all time.

Unitron "Could'a been a ladybug on a windchime, but she was born a Dragonfly"

It has always been difficult for me to talk in writing about albums I love dearly, and communicating how much something connects with me on an emotional and personal level. Especially an album that isn't just a favorite album, but the all time favorite. For years my all time favorite album was Helstar's Burning Star, an album that I still love a whole lot and is still among my favorites, but not the top. I never thought it'd ever be topped, I was sure it would always remain. The passion and songwriting on that album is fantastic, but The Elephant Riders kept climbing and climbing as time went on and speaks to me in so many different ways.

I've always really liked The Elephant Riders since I first heard it, but I didn't know how much I would come to love it and how much it would inspire me directly as a songwriter and completely change my idea of what lyricism and songwriting mean.

The Elephant Riders has this very homey production, warm and inviting like a nice fireplace on a brisk day. It brings out Dan Maines's fittingly warm and fuzzy basslines to their fullest, and Tim Sult's guitar tones are simultaneously massive like the elephants they're riding and clean like freshly fallen leaves. Jean-Paul Gaster's drums ignite the total groove that all instruments thrive in. Clutch perfects a blend of southern blues and metal that was almost lost when the stupid idea that blues can't make metal came about. These riffs curbstomp that idea. I used to be more closed-minded and didn't like brass instruments, but the horns in Muchas Veces, hidden track 05, and especially instrumental Crackerjack completely changed that with the trombone adding a lot to these already fantastic songs and helped me start to appreciate these great instruments.

This whole album and band brings me nothing but pure joy, but vocalist Neil Fallon inspires me like no other musician has. He can sing beautifully melodic like the 70's blues and metal vocalists that probably influenced him, and also forceful and rough like his grungy and sludgy contemporaries. His lyrics and songwriting though, that's where he has no equal. Abstract, but not in the philosophical sense, this is passionate poetry. These are words and phrases that work and flow perfectly together, even if they don't make any sense. The vocals become another instrument, and as a songwriter myself, taking that approach to lyrics is incredibly fun and rewarding. The lyrics that open this review, from the closing The Dragonfly, are among my favorites on display, but the whole album is a treasure trove of fantastic rhymes and storytelling.

I've rambled enough, art doesn't get any better than this.

Unitron At first listen, Three Dollar Bill, Yall$ is an awesome banger of a metal album with tons of great riffs and songs that get you pumped much like almost every Limp Bizkit album. More and more though, the band's unique influences and the album's songwriting style sinks into your ears.

Heavy massive metal grooves are blended with hip hop rhythms and turntables, noisy post-hardcore riffs, and atmospheric post-rock textures and melodies. Yeah, post rock influences in a metal album that wasn't Neurosis before everyone was trying to copy them. All these sounds brought together by fantastic songwriting and performances hasn't really been matched, not even by the band. Even the outros of each song have some cool little switch in sound that makes it a perfect album listening experience. (Though I'd be lying if Counterfeit isn't a particular favorite and lands on most metal playlists I make).

Fred Durst is at his most anxious and schizophrenic, rapping and screaming like a madman with a gritty rawness. Wes Borland is either delivering monolithic grooves, atmospheric melodies, or both in the case of a song like Sour. For once one of those really long songs on the end of a 90's album isn't just a bunch of silence and a hidden track, as Everything is a straight up wandering spacey post-rock epic and acts as a perfect chill down after the heaviness yet keeps the intensity. Sam Rivers and John Otto bring a fantastic rhythm section, with the former being a really underrated bassist. Bringing both funk and complimenting the quiet guitar sections, I especially love the short funky swing bassline during the bridge of Stuck.

Significant Other is the most definitive Bizkit album and more instant hit, but Three Dollar Bill is a fantastic album and keeps growing on me as my favorite with its pure rawness.

Unitron Before Isis really popularized Neurosis' blend of sludge metal and post-rock, with a bunch of mediocre copycats following in their wake and making classic sludge that much harder to find, Celestial showed how earth-shatteringly heavy they could be. Perfectly blending Neurosis' atmospheric take on sludge with the screeching aggression of Floor, this hits a perfect balance that their later albums lost. The title track's massive riff just stomps and stomps and remains one of the most thunderous songs in the entire metal genre.

To not sacrifice the heaviness of sludge or the subtleties of post-rock, they typically don't overlap the two sounds and use post-rock sections for contrast making them that much more atmospheric and the sludge that much sludgier. C.F.T. cools things down throughout a whole song though, and reminds me a lot of Golden Earring's song Silver Ships. It's a mellow ride until its galloping end, but the production and guitar/bass tones still make it a wall of sound.

This is hardcore sludge that can be played alongside both Neurosis and the likes of Crowbar and Floor.

Unitron While the early 90's is most notable to me for a slew of grunge, thrash, techno, and hip hop classics, it is also the time of one of my all time favorite classic metal albums, Symbol of Salvation which shows a band at their peak and making the best of the best.

The whole album just goes off, firing all barrels with riffs, and delivering some of the best songwriting and melodic passion. There's a perfect contrast between all out heaviness and beautiful melody, and I find myself humming and singing several of these songs without them being played in a while. Reign of Fire, Dropping Like Flies, Tribal Dance, The Truth Always Hurts, Warzone, Tainted Past, and Spineless are these particular songs (though every song is heavy metal at its peak). Sometimes they go into a melodic thrash edge, like with Spineless or the swaggering groove of Tribal Dance.

John Bush has long been one of my favorite vocalists, and Symbol of Salvation hold what is among his absolute best performances. He's perfect at combining beautiful melodies and forceful badassery, and it's hard not to sing a long to Reign of Fire or scream a long to Tribal Dance. Whether Armored Saint or Anthrax, he's always giving his all and screaming with passion.

In short, this is a fantastic heavy metal album that deserves the same classic status as the likes of Judas Priest and Accept.

Unitron In a genre that can be so easy to do like punk, there's a few key things to really make a band stand out. Being really good songwriters is the first step, but combining a rebellious attitude with a unique personality and play-style is how you get a band like NoMeansNo where there's not really anyone else like them. Schizophrenic yet playful, this is absolutely fantastic bass-driven punk where the rhythm section is unmatched.

The title track is just an instant punk anthem dominated by insane bass and drums in full force that is basically NoMeansNo's signature sound, complimented by sex-crazed spitfire and occasional stabbing keyboards. Sometimes they'll go straight into early math rock like with instrumental Obsessed, or apocalyptic with Self Pity. Other than the title track, the moody and wandering Long Days, syncopated heaven of Metronome, and proto-grunge of Revenge are my personal favorites and really display the band's personality perfectly. Hunt the She Beast (Only on the original Canadian release and the later reissue with the You Kill Me EP), has some particularly great drums and dissonant guitar that wouldn't sound out of place on a Primus album.

While Wrong is probably the band at their height, Sex Mad is pretty closely tied with it as my favorite and both albums define the band and show them at their creative and songwriting peak.

Unitron The first of several fantastic Corrosion of Conformity albums that are all time favorites, Deliverance is the first album of theirs with Pepper Keenan on lead vocals, and what a start for one of my favorite vocalists. A beautiful mixture of grunge, southern rock, heavy metal, and even a moody country song. I've always really liked COC, but it hasn't been until recently when they've become one of my favorite bands. Such a passionate performance, with soulful introspection and they emote so much.

From the lumbering Albatross, the wonderfully melodic Clean My Wounds, the swagger of Senor Limpio, the stomping title track, the country Shelter, the climatic finale Pearls Before Swine, I love it all.

Unitron Danzig's self-titled album perfectly combines the groovy energetic and gloomy mood sides of early metal, with Danzig's Elvis meets Jim Morrison vocals backed by the sounds of Black Sabbath and Buffalo. His first three albums are all fantastic and perfect that sound, and while Danzig II is pretty close, Danzig's debut has always been my favorite (though tied with November Coming Fire as favorite Danzig relate album in general). Punchy opener Twist of Cain, Am I Demon, classic Mother, and swaggering Evil Thing are some particular favorites, but She Rides takes the stage as the best. The slow lumbering drums and beautifully melancholy mood makes this blues metal perfection.

Danzig's songwriting style and atmosphere is like no other band, and this is its best display.

Unitron The sound of Animal Magnetism is often what I first think of when I think of the Scorpions. Even though Taken By Force beats this by a little bit as my favorite from them, Animal Magnetism just has a unique sound and atmosphere that is just pure pre-power balled Scorps. It blends the big and loud sound of 80's metal with this real dark and seedy atmosphere. It makes me feel like I'm walking in some shifty alleyway where there's no telling what goes bump in the night. Meanwhile I'm being serenaded by Klaus Meine's absolutely sublime melodies and the beautiful guitar harmonies and pumped up riffs.

The fast jams like Don't Make No Promises (Your Body Can't Keep) are an absolute blast to listen to, especially with the fistful-of-power sound of Herman Rarebell's drums, but a lot of the album relies on this thumping plod that's brought to life by Francis Buchholz's real deep bass sound. It's no more apparent than on the final two songs The Zoo and the title track. Ever since first listening to these guys years and years ago, The Zoo's always been an absolute favorite. The whole song balances melody with this dark swaggering march of a hook, and Only a Man does as well and takes the cake as my top favorite on the album.

Though when it comes to foreboding and absolutely massive sounding, the finale title track takes the cake. I remember when I first heard this song when I first spun the vinyl for the entire album, and what an ending. I never knew anyone could make a song about sex sound so fucking threatening, but it is darkly beautiful and almost has a meditative quality.

Few other albums blend beautiful melody with a lumbering darkness as good as this.

Unitron After years of scorn, nu metal has since began to make a comeback. With that said, nu metal still goes misunderstood most of the time. It's the black sheep of the metal family, taking direct influence of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle's discarding of genre norms. After Korn's debut displayed a combination of groove metal with many other musical elements, other bands followed suit with combining metal with whatever they felt like. Purists didn't like this, and it didn't help that in the early 2000's many regular alternative metal bands were being mistaken as nu metal and some nu metal bands went soft or in a more standard metal direction, and the genre lost steam.

Much of the nu metal revival was ignited by metalcore bands starting to bring in turntables and other different instrumentation. Poppy however, comes from a completely different background outside of metal. Originally playing electro-pop and ambient music, into metal comes I Disagree (though with some metal before). I had no interest in what she was doing previously, but a pop artist going nu metal in 2020 is a pretty odd thing and sparked my interest.

Whether influenced by them or not, I Disagree reminds me of the Finnish nu metal band Velcra in her attempt at blending metal, hip hop, pop, and various electronic styles. While Velcra shows how fantastic that combination can be in the hands of great songwriters, I Disagree suffers from genre clashing. At its worst, you have opener Concrete. You get this hardass fantastic screeching nu metal hook, then it just goes into a sugary J-pop sound right out of Babymetal. It completely conflicts with the mood and sounds like a completely different song and not in a good way. Pop is maybe among the most difficult to combine with metal successfully, as most pop music lacks the edge and angst that metal typically requires. Though as seen in parts of this album, the its melodic nature can blend well. It takes a very skilled songwriter to blend what are often opposite styles of music in a way that works and sounds good. It makes sense that on Poppy's first album length attempt at metal that she wouldn't master all the elements she wishes to combine though.

At it's absolute best however, like with Bite Your Teeth, Poppy delivers a nu metal banger. The searing riffs and discordant breakdown conjure up a similar noisy factory atmosphere as Arch Enemy's Doomsday Machine, but with a pop-esque vocal performance. There's even a short melody that sounds right out of a Pain of Salvation album. The great thing is that everything fits into place and feels like it belongs. Fill the Crown is another good song but with a Marilyn Manson-esque vibe to it. The industrial and glitchy electronic and hip hop elements fit well mostly, making sense as electronic and especially hip hop are closer in attitude to metal.

Poppy's metal debut is inconsistent and even at times hard to listen to. However, it shows promise and holds some great songs. As of now, it makes me want to listen to Velcra. With some honing of sound though, I think Poppy could deliver a great addition to the nu metal revival.

Unitron In the world of guitar virtuoso's, several can obviously play with great technical skill, but few were able to master songwriting. This took away from their ability to appeal to more than just guitar nerds. I went through a brief phase of delving into that scene, but apart from the first couple Satriani and Malmsteen albums, it just doesn't hold up to a guy like me who just wants to enjoy some great music. The way to truly become one of the greatest guitarists of all time to the ears of many music lovers, is to not only master your craft in a technical sense, but also master songwriting and be a true team player in a band where each member has equal importance and never outshines another.

This is what made the original lineup of Van Halen such legends and Eddie Van Halen one of rock and metal's most celebrated guitarists. The band had pure chemistry, with each member being a master in their field. David Lee Roth sings with so much exuberance and charisma that few other frontmen have been able to match. Eddie Van Halen plays fantastic melodies, hooks, and solos that always fit into the song. Michael Anthony's bass thumps, pops, and stands out in a way that is usually only reserved for funk bassists, and Alex Van Halen's drumming is rambunctious, driving, and along with the bass makes for an incredibly energetic rhythm section.

Van Halen's debut set the blueprint for future Van Halen albums, with the band taking their songwriting even into the organization of tracks making it all fit together perfectly. The guitar solo track Eruption could easily just come across as showing off with any other band, but it sounds great between the two classics that bookend it. Ice Cream Man, while good, wouldn't make a good ending. That's why On Fire follows as a fittingly fiery encore with some fantastic frantic and anxious sounding melodies.

Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love's opening melody is one of the most iconic in rock and metal, and never gets old no matter how many times you hear it. I'm the One's Doo-Wop bridge screams with personality and what other band could make it blend perfectly with roaring heavy metal? The moody Little Dreamer with its heavy bass kind of reminds me of Budgie. Even with all these highlights, Atomic Punk's always been my personal favorite. There's just so much attitude with one of the band's most commanding performances.

Van Halen's debut is simply a legend, and while I think Women and Children First and Fair Warning are my personal favorite albums from them, this isn't far behind at all. It's an iconic album that, along with the following few albums, shows how important band chemistry is to creating an awesome winning sound. The band may be called Van Halen, but each member is an absolute star here.

Unitron Noise Rock will always be noisy, hence the name, but the levels of noise vary from band to band. Mount Shasta has much of the noise in the vocals, to the point of them being indecipherable yelling with no melody or anything whatsoever. It's best described as what Tad Doyle overdosing on crack would probably sound like. Once you get used to it, they just become part of the sound.

Those riffs though, that's where this album shines like no other. The album is an instant hook, with opener Gimp's riff catching my ear on such a primal level that I knew this was gonna be good. The riffs are of a classic grunge fashion, switching between bluesy metal riffs that Blue Cheer would be proud of and raw garage rock pounding that would make The Stooges take notice. Sometimes it'll go in a more atmospheric drawl in parts of a song to contrast with the bluesy aggression of the rest of the song, which works wonders in Near Famous Jackass and Raw Meat Lincoln Style.

Originally intrigued by the cover art that looks like some obscure 60's cartoon, I found a great riff album. Good stuff.

Unitron Clutch's self-titled album is a fantastic album and great transition from the aggressive sludge metal of their debut to the southern blues metal of The Elephant Riders, mixing both sounds and perfecting both. There's also psychedelic vibes and some great funky rhythms, it basically uses all elements of what Clutch's music has done and would do. Neil Fallon's vocals are still raw and gravelly, yet will sing melodic lines with those vocals as well sometimes a hip hop lyrical flow (Not quite rapping, but it's easy to hear the influence on a song like Texan Book of the Dead). The abstract lyrics are more easily heard, and are just as fantastic as the debut.

Songs like Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw, the bursting with energy Texan Book of the Dead, Escape from the Prison Planet, psychedelic Spacegrass, awesomely titled I Have the Body of John Wilkes Booth, the funky and bluesy swagger of Tight Like That, and sludgy Animal Farm are all absolute favorite Clutch tracks of mine and show off how varied the album is.

Unitron Along with Atheist, Mudvayne is the gold standard when it comes to metal that just happens to be technical with crazy musicianship but is some of the catchiest and most memorable stuff I've ever heard. I love L.D. 50 a whole lot too, but this was the first I heard of Mudvayne and fell in love instantly. The whole album is instantly memorable, but songs like Silenced, Trapped in the Wake of a Dream, (Per)Version of a Truth, Skrying, The Shadow of a Man, and the title track are particular favorites that show a perfect combination of the melodies, hooks, screams, riffs, and rhythmic mastery that define the band.

Chad Gray's vocals are at their best, hitting that perfect balance of screaming, nasally yet melodic vocals, and great subtle touches like the Damage Inc-esque whispers of Silenced. However, Mudvayne's rhythm section is the star of the show, especially bassist Ryan Martinie's unique sound. One of the best metal albums of the 2000's.

Unitron Probably my favorite 70's Priest album, maybe because in parts it reminds me of Rush's Caress of Steel. The energetic fun heavy metal is at its most energetic and fun with the likes of Starbreaker and Dissident Aggressor, and the summer introspection anthem Last Rose of Summer is the Priest equivalent of Rush's Lakeside Park with its laidback rock perfection. Raw Deal is pure swagger in the vein of their later Killing Machine album. Their heavy metal version of Diamonds and Rust is beautiful and one of the best cover songs out there so much that more people know it as a Priest song than a Joan Baez one, and Here Comes the Tears is intensely and emotionally powerful with one of Halford's absolute finest and touching vocal performances.

Unitron Korn always change it up a bit on every album they put out, but Untitled especially sticks out as a particularly unique album within their discography and metal as a whole. I've always loved this album yet had a hard time describing it. It's noisy, it's melodic, it's heavy, it's eclectic, and more.

Songs like Starting Over, Evolution, Hold On, and Ever Be are instant classics with soaring bittersweet melodies, moody keyboards, atmospheric riffs and especially Ever Be's grandiose finale. Killing is a perfect example though of all the places the album will go. The pounding yet off-beat industrial percussion that opens it up reminds me of the Thought Industry song Cornerstone, the melodies and electronic undertones are of 80's goth nature, and the song closes with a blistering pure death metal finish.

and speaking of finish, I Will Protect You is up there with My Gift to You and Dirty as one of the band's best closing tracks. There's a brief bagpipe intro, constant ominous atmosphere, great melodies, crazy percussion, thunderous doom riffing bridge, sci-fi sounding ending, and like Killing another song that shows off the album's mix.

Untitled is like no other album I've heard, and one that defies a lone genre.

Unitron 1990 was basically a year for the heavy. More and more bands were finding the importance and extreme effectiveness of a damn good groove to maximize both heaviness and catchiness. Anthrax, Pantera, Slayer, and Testament delivered serious hooks to the thrash world and funk metal was starting to take off. Obituary staked their claim in turning the fast world of death metal into groove world.

Take that monster of Dying, it just immediately demands for headbanging and brings so many good riff hooks in one song before ending in a catchy doom crawl. The cymbal work in the end is a real nice subtle touch. The title track has some fantastic complimenting between the riffs, drums, and great vocal flow. The slow grind of Turned Inside Out is just an instant pump, and still switches up with even more great hooks. Might be my favorite song on here, but they're such fantastic songwriters that it's hard to pick.

It's hard to describe Obituary albums, as they deliver such a pure primal physical reaction to move your body to the cool sounds.

Unitron The peak of late 70's heavy metal, Taken By Force is an oft neglected album compared to the Scorps' 80's classics. I think they had a great run from the debut to Love at First Sting, but this has always been my favorite.

It's a blend of all that makes the band great, and turned up to eleven. I've Got to Be Free and Your Light have a great funky vibe that Uli Jon Roth had a real knack for and would explore further with his later band Electric Sun. We'll Burn the Sky and Born to Touch Your Feelings are two of the band's best ballads, with the end of the latter sounding like they took some influence from fellow German band Eloy.

My absolute favorite is the proto-thrash of He's a Woman, She's a Man, which is a beast with a drilling riff, some of Klaus Meine's most exuberant vocals, and such a hook that keeps it in the mind for days. If that's proto-thrash, The Sails of Charon is straight up neo-classical metal and one of the band's most legendary songs.

Paired with the classic Tokyo Tapes live album, this is German metal heaven.

Unitron Limp Bizkit is one of those bands that everyone loves to hate, and it was real easy to hop on the bandwagon in my early days of browsing internet music sites before my love of music became what it is now. They went from one of the biggest metal bands of the late 90's/early 00's to one of the most hated, but along with the nu metal revival has come a slow but noticeable reversal of general opinion. I've since given them an actual chance without bias, and Significant Other is a great late 90's metal album.

It's a lot of fun and even funny sometimes, but it's metal, not classical music. It's not supposed to be pretentious or refined, at least not with my tastes. I just want well-written songs with great playing, hooks, and grooves, and Bizkit certainly delivers. Fred Durst's hilariously blunt lyrics just add to the whole badass party vibe of the whole thing. As much as I love lyrical poets like Neil Fallon, Spider One, and Karl Hyde, often a simple commanding performance can be just as good.

The two most memorable songs are definitely the classic singles Nookie and Break Stuff, and they weren't so popular for no reason. Nookie is a perfect combination of the funk metal and hip hop sides of nu metal, and Break Stuff is just a song that has to really be heard. Few songs get me as pumped, there's just so much charisma and personality in Durst's vocals and Wes Borland's riffs have such force. 9 Teen 90 Nine, the pure hip hop of N 2 Gether Now, and Trust? are a few more favorites.

Classic stuff, Jumpdafuckup and have some fun.

Unitron "One two one two, this is just a test"

Hello Nasty is like no other hip hop album I've heard, it's like an exploration in various sounds and samples but always with the Beastie Boys' fun loving attitude. Its got such a busy sound with everything going on, but it's never overwhelming even with the 22 songs on the album.

The Move, Remote Control, Just a Test, Intergalactic, and Putting Shame in Your Game are probably my favorites, Just a Test especially being one of the B-boy's most underrated songs. They've got such great flow, and their rap bravado is contrasted by fantastic moody and ominous samples, and it gives it such a cool sound. The electro-rap of Intergalactic rightfully was the album's biggest hit, and it's impossible to not love the delivery of "let the beat...mmmDRRROP".

One of the strangest parts of the album are the neo-psychedelic songs that are completely devoid of hip hop, though there's a psychedelic element throughout the album. These songs include Song for the Man, Song for Junior, and I Don't Know, and they all fit in and sound great.

Hello Nasty is a bit of a grower, but once it hit, it hit. One of the best of both the B-boy's and hip hop as a whole.

Unitron Moving away from the post-punk styling of the debut with funk legend George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic fame at the producer's helm, Freaky Styley shows the Chili Peppers record the closest to a pure funk album they've ever done.

When I think of an ultimate party album, this is one of the first I think of. This funk goes hard, and with the album cover showing the band jumping and flipping around in front of Michelangelo's The Last Judgement, there's still some punk attitude too. Songs like Jungle Man, American Ghost Dance, the title track, Blackeyed Blonde, The Brothers Cup, punky Catholic School Girls Rule, and Yertle the Turtle are all particular favorites of mine. The Brothers Cup and the title track especially, the former with its swaggering bassline and swinging horns and the latter with a unique aggression for funk.

Freaky Styley isn't the party funk metal album that Mother's Milk is, but it is a party funk album. This is funky bass heaven.

Unitron Kiss have always been more known for their image and live shows than their actual music, and it's not too hard to see why. While they always make sure to put on a spectacular stage show, when it comes to albums, there's usually a few great songs among a bunch of filler. They're also followers of trends, as seen by their excursion into disco in the late 70's, their attempt at a concept album after the success of Pink Floyd's The Wall, and then Creatures of the Night is the band making a heavy metal album with the genre increasing in popularity.

Surprise surprise, they actually nail it! This has always been my favorite Kiss album, not because it's a metal album, but because it's their strongest collection of songs in a studio album format. Don't know how they did it, but each song on here is a booming arena metal behemoth with hooks and riffs that all stand up with their best songs in the 70's but in a whole album context.

It's hard for me to pick highlights, rare for a Kiss album, but it's book-ended by two classics The crashing opening title track contrasts with the massive swaggering groove of War Machine. Keep Me Comin', Rock and Roll Hell, and Danger are some other really great songs. Even the power ballad of I Still Love You is pretty good.

Kiss is a band that has several great songs, but I often find their albums too inconsistent. Creatures of the Night however, is a fantastic collection of classic heavy metal with the band's songwriting at its strongest.

Unitron The word atmosphere in relation to music is often connected to ambient and an implied quiet and/or lack of hooks. While ambient music is definitely atmospheric, I see all music as atmospheric in a way, as different albums and songs capture different moods and places. The Crystal Method's Vegas, Kool Keith's Black Elvis/Lost in Space, Godflesh's Songs of Love and Hate, Korn's Issues, Slayer's Seasons in the Abyss, this is just a handful of albums that are far from ambient or lacking in hooks yet are some of my favorite albums when it comes to atmosphere.

Seasons in the Abyss continues where South of Heaven left off, but with even more focus on the atmosphere the album sets up. It's bleak and apocalyptic, but far from a miserable dungeon synth album that's no fun to listen to. War Ensemble is one of metal's greatest openers, and fittingly evokes a war march in a stomping thrash format. The album's got such a great flow from track to track, making it one of those albums that's hard to listen to just one song. Blood Red, Spirit in Black, Born of Fire, Skeletons of Society, and the moody title track are all my favorites. Skeletons of Society especially, might be my favorite Slayer song, it's got such an instant headbanging hook. Dead Skin Mask and the title track are definitely the album's atmosphere at its most disturbing but also melodic. Tom Araya is often underrated as both a bassist and his unique way of delivering melody that fits perfectly in Slayer's dark and aggressive world.

I often have a hard time choosing between South of Heaven or Seasons in the Abyss as my favorite Slayer album, but I think Abyss wins just by a bit. It takes South of Heaven's already more atmospheric approach and expands upon it with just as strong songwriting.

Unitron For the longest time I wasn't even familiar with much of The Red Hot Chili Peppers' pre-alt rock stardom days apart from a few songs. The ballad of Under the Bridge from the band's classic Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik album catapulted the band into the mainstream and perhaps that drove them further and further away from their super funky origins with each passing album.

I love Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik, but lately I'd say I prefer most of the band's first four albums. In the 80's, it seems as if each of their albums were pretty different from each other, and their self-titled debut is the strangest of them all. I'd describe it as a funk rock/post-punk hybrid, with the occasional metal riff or unexpected atmospheric rock excursion. They probably were coming from a post-punk background, similar to Faith No More's beginnings. Many post-punk and new wave bands were no strangers to funk, these bands just took it to new levels.

The songwriting isn't quite at its peak like with the next four albums, but there's definitely some of the band's strongest songs within. True Men Don't Kill Coyotes, Buckle Down, Get Up and Jump, the heavy proto-funk metal Green Heaven, and the brisk punky Police Helicopter are my favorites. True Men Don't Kill Coyotes is the closest to post-punk/new wave and would not sound out of place on an early Talking Heads album. Grand Pappy Du Plenty is an atmospheric post-rock finale, and I think it surprisingly fits in as a closer to the raw yet surreal atmosphere that the album creates.

While the pure funk rock of Freaky Styley and glam funk metal Mother's Milk are my favorites from the Chili Peppers, the band's debut is an excellent and interesting start.

Unitron Even though considered part of their "glam era", Power Metal provides some of the blueprint for the masterpiece that is Cowboys From Hell. Judas Priest meets Kill 'em All-era Metallica for an album that sounds like an early thrash album, and if it was released in 1983 or 1984 instead of 1988 I bet it would've been looked at in a better light.

I really like the band's first three albums as well, but everything is definitely turned up to eleven on this album. Phil Anselmo has more edge and bite than Terry Glaze, and was needed for the increasingly faster and aggressive direction they were heading in. His vocals are mostly in Rob Halford-esque screaming rather than the gruffness found on future albums, and it fits perfectly for the early thrash sound. There's so much energy on this album that it's impossible for me to not get instantly hooked.

Over and Out is a favorite, and includes a similar breakdown to the one found in Domination off of Cowboys. Straight from the start, Dimebag's always had a signature sound with both the riffs he wrote and especially the soloing. The whole album's great, but the breakneck speed of Power Metal, and pure thrashers Down Below and Death Trap are also among my favorites. Another is P*S*T*88, the only song in Pantera's discography with Dimebag on vocals, and he sounds a lot like James Hetfield.

The next two albums are my favorites from the band and two of my all time favorites, but Power Metal is not far behind.

Unitron As fantastic as Saxon's great trilogy of albums before are, Power & the Glory is what I consider to be the band's best album. They take their classic metal sound that has proven to be such a winner, and expand their songwriting skills further with more subtle changes to create a rich sound while never deviating from what they do best.

Everything sounds so powerful, extra energetic, and if Power & the Glory isn't a fitting title I don't know what is. The title track is one of the finest openers I've heard, six minutes of pure metal that makes me feel ready for anything. One example of a subtle expansion of songwriting is Redline. It's a swaggering rocker that the band's always been great at, but with added guitar harmonization that really enhances the impact it has. Midas Touch has an instant hook of a riff, and great contrast between catchy riffs and moody sections. Nightmare is a great metal ballad, and is the first time I ever heard double bass drumming in a song of its kind. It closes out the song and makes an already memorable song that much more.

The album closes out with one of Saxon's most unique songs, the gargantuan The Eagle Has Landed. It's almost psychedelic, starting out like something from Pink Floyd's Animals album. It has a wandering and grandiose atmosphere, even once it gets heavy with riffs as slamming as they could get in '83. It's a wonder they never did anything else like this song, but that just makes it that much more special.

Saxon has no shortage of excellent albums, but Power & the Glory has just an extra edge above other favorites like Strong Arm of the Law and Rock the Nations. One of classic 80's metal's finest.

Unitron As soon as that riff that opens Princess of the Night and the album starts, it just screams classic. Again, Saxon continues the same route of melodic and infectious classic metal of the previous two albums, and it works just as well.

Strong Arm of the Law is the best of what's often considered their best trilogy of albums, and I'd place Denim and Leather in between Strong Arm and Wheels of Steel. The songs aren't quite as strong as the likes of Taking Your Chances, few are, but a bit stronger than most of Wheels of Steel. The aforementioned Princess of the Night is rightfully so the band's biggest hit, it is the definitive example of a Saxon song. The title track and Rough and Ready are a couple other favorites of mine.

Denim and Leather is maybe Saxon's most consistent album, most of the songs are equally great and catchy, so it's harder to describe the album than its predecessor's. An excellent album, but the next album would show how just a few little additions in sound would refresh the band before they could go on auto-pilot.

Unitron There's nothing like some good groovy death metal with plenty of hooks and no band's delivered the goods to me more than Obituary. Album after album, the band's done little to change their sound and they have zero reason to. They're the perfect example of not messing with perfection.

It's another thing though to not only keep delivering the excellent music the band does best, but to release a particularly fantastic one decades later that stands up as one of my favorite albums from the band. Just like the band's classics of the 90's, Obituary's self-titled is a riff machine with monstrous grooves.

It's those extra hooks in the songwriting that make this such a particularly great album, with it being full of some of the band's catchiest songs. The likes of End It Now, Kneel Before Me, Turned to Stone, Straight to Hell, and especially Ten Thousand Ways to Die instantly catch my ear.

I can always expect a great album from Obituary, but this is my favorite since Frozen in Time, if not World Demise.

Unitron The Years of Decay's album cover is a great representation of the album, sounding like entering the foreboding temple in places, though not without the fun that's synonymous with Overkill. Lumbering grooves meet rapid moshing perfectly with Time to Kill, Elimination, Nothing to Die For, and especially Birth of Tension. The instant headbanging short groove at around the minute mark on that song is one of my favorite moments in thrash. They also perfect grungy doom thrash with the colossal Playing With Spiders/Skullkrusher and Who Tends the Fire, and is a sound that I wish more thrash bands would play.

D.D. Verni is one of my favorite bassists, and his perfect thumping tone has never sounded better, and even throwing in a bit of funk in Nothing to Die For. Bobby Blitz's is one of my favorite vocalists, with few coming close to his charisma. So much attitude and so much fun, even when the music's at a doom crawl he's bursting with personality. The production helps everything as well, having what I'd call the best for a thrash album. Fantastic low end bringing the best in the bass and the guitars and drums have some real oomph.

There's a Metallica album and a couple Anthrax albums that are higher on my personal favorites list, but Overkill's The Years of Decay is my idea of the perfect thrash album. It just includes everything I love thrash for, and done in the best ways to really get me hooked.