This installment of the list is eight more albums of the thirty I picked as my all-time favorite Heavy Metal albums.  There may be another part where I talk about the next ten or twenty on my list.  I’m not sure where I’m going to go with list-making.  It hasn’t been as much of a conversation starter as I’d hoped.  But it’ll be a permanent page on the site, so people can go roast or review my taste.  So, please share your favorite albums in the comments, and let me know if you like any of the same ones on my list!  I want to know people’s tastes in Metal records. As it’s probably all different ones from all over the world, I’d like to add more high-quality Metal albums to my “Must listen” list.

So let me know in the comments what Heavy Metal albums I must hear or just what your favorites are!

As with all my posts, this one is subjective.  This list doesn’t aim to categorize “the best albums of Metal” because such a feat is just not feasible to me.  This is based on just my taste.  They’re not even in order by my favorites because what is considered my favorite is highly based on my mood.  I just made a master list and narrowed it down to the 30 that are important to highlight my taste.  It should give readers a better sense of what I listen to regularly and just personal taste.  Let me know about your favorite Metal albums below in the comments, I would love to see if any of these albums resonated with anyone else the same way they did with me.

Part 3

13. Obsolete- Fear Factory (1998)

I remember listening to Fear Factory when I was probably much too young to understand it.  It ranged between fun and scary at times, but I knew I loved it because my brother loved it so unabashedly.  When someone you love experiences a band so tangibly, it’s impossible not to share the joy of it for me.  Fear Factory became a pinnacle band for my brother and me. We’ve been listening to them together for over twenty years.  It’s a band we love unconditionally, no matter how many times they change members. I think they’re one of the most consistently good bands in my repertoire besides Epica.  Every album has tracks that have remained with me for years.  It’s not just industrial speed metal from the depths of “Skynet” created hell.  Fear Factory creates very psychologically deep music.  It challenges every topic of human existence and even places it from the view of an automaton.  This idea, akin to the visionary  Isaac Asimov’s I., Robot, captivates me on a fundamental level.  I grew up reading and watching Sci-Fi that was themed around the transferring of a human consciousness into a machine or even a transference of the soul entirely.  This trope endlessly fascinates me and terrifies others in the new dawn of AI. Fear Factory’s music explored these ideas long before we had half of the technological advances we have now.  It is incredible to realize that a lot of these advances were only fiction then, and that a Metal band was expanding upon them in such a realistic level.

Choosing an album of Fear Factory’s for the list came down to three albums: Obsolete, Digimortal, and Archetype.  I went with Obsolete because of its stunning dynamics between machine-like riffs and gorgeous soaring melodies like on Resurrection and epic ender Timelessness.  When I want to listen to Fear Factory, this is my first choice.  The songwriting on this album is solid and is truly a prime example of what Fear Factory has to offer.  They polished their sound from the previous release.  This makes for clearer and concise tracks.  The clarity is refreshing for an Industrial album of that era.  There was nothing quite like this album, and there still isn’t anything comparable.  Dino Cazares and Burton C Bell are one of my favorite writing duos of all time.  It seems like they came together on this album and made something truly beautiful while not compromising the heaviness.  But Burton wrote the lyrics solely for this record, and I think he proved he is a revolutionary lyricist on his own.  It’s easy to connect with Burton because of the soul he puts into such a cold sci-fi concept and the emotional depth he shows in his vocals.  He may not be the most technically sound singer, but he gives you chills like no other.  He was the first growler/screamer I’d ever heard.  That led me to a lifelong love of dual-sided vocals that accounts for probably half of what I listen to.

The message of each song is more fluent on this record, like Mechanize..They made Fear Factory with a more Metal Radio sense to it, and it turned out brilliantly, I think.  While the personal experiences and memories may contribute heavily to why I love this album, I’d still put it atop the greatest.  The mix Dino contributed to on this record is an audiophile’s dream.  This record sounds good on any format or listening device, but on FLAC quality with Beyerdynamic headphones, it is a true experience.  Obsolete is one of the best-sounding records I have heard, regardless of genre.  The attack on every note and the mid and bass are so punchy, causing for a more engaging sounding record.  The distortion is crisp, not muddy or too low.  The vocals sound like they’re taken right off the board with a perfect amount of reverb.  You know how much I love reverb on a mix.  The engineering is as flawless as it can get for a Metal record.  

Fear Factory is one of the key bands that got me into Metal and is my reason for having such a high standard for emotional and sonic depth.  They’re a part of some of my earliest music memories and my bond with my older brother.  Hopefully, we can see them together in concert one day, even though it’ll never be quite the same without Burton.   That contribution to my brother and I’s bond is invaluable.  I still think my brother should’ve tried out when they were looking for a new vocalist, but I really enjoy Milo’s tribute to Burton and his precise guttural techniques.  

My favorite songs are Shock, Edgecrusher, and Resurrection.

14. Holy Diver- Dio (1981)

Two artists are rarely left off “Best” or “Favorite Metal albums of all time” lists: Iron Maiden and Dio.  They are two quintessential Metal artists who forged the genre.  Often referred to as the “Heavy Metal God”, Ronnie James Dio created an unmatched legacy in the genre.   He is a household name to all that observe Rock and Heavy Metal, and rightfully so.  His contributions to the genre foreshadowed many that came before him.  His stints with Black Sabbath and Rainbow changed Heavy Metal forever and helped create his everlasting legacy.  I don’t need to explain how impactful Ronnie James Dio was on music, it’s a well-known fact that he is the one who made Heavy Metal a movement, a lifestyle, a way of being, and a brotherhood.  Without Dio, my most favorite bands would not sound like they do today.  His solo work is responsible for influencing my collective favorite genre, Power Metal, which combines Heavy Metal and Classical Music and Fantasy themes.  It is impossible to imagine Heavy Metal without Dio.  I didn’t always know of his impact on Metal.  I just thought he was a singer my dad loved when he was in the Air Force.  

Upon delving into the world of Heavy Metal on a more scholarly level, nobody’s name came up more as an influence than Ronnie James Dio.  his presence wasn’t just soaring technically perfect vocals, but storytelling, a light in the dark, and a character of acceptance of the children judged by the “Satanic Panic” in the 1980s.  RJD was a haven for those who didn’t fit in and were ultimately rejected by the over-glorification of Pop music.  That kind of legacy that affects youth first-hand is irreplaceable.  Because of him, Heavy Metal became a comfort to those who didn’t fit in: The Fantasy nerds. The dreamers and the Metalheads rebelled against the radio, Christianity, and anything that wished to make them conform.  That sentiment still stands today with bands that refuse to give into big corporations’ pressuring them to become something they’re not and go against the formulaic standards of radio.  This is a topic I am extremely passionate about and hope to elaborate more in the future.  I didn’t know this sentiment was one Ronnie James Dio stood for, and now I love him even more.

Holy Diver is an iconic album that has stood the test of time.  Still as crisp and innovative today as it was in 1981, the album is a catchy journey against evil forces.  Listening to this album again, I had forgotten how exquisite the writing and guitar work truly are.  The songs are driving forces, flowing fluidly together, and captivate with every word and every riff.  I don’t think I realized how massive the riffs are on Holy Diver.  I forgot how incredible Vivian Campbell’s playing was on this record, a record he didn’t even write.  He was just the session guitarist in the studio and played the subsequent tours and albums after.  He came in and truly brought this album to life with the screaming solos, speedy riffs, and catchy hooks. With a voice larger than life, Ronnie James Dio overshadows his counterparts, but I think Vivian Campbell is the only guitarist whose voice stands up to Dio’s.  Rainbow was an incredible band, too, with the great Ritchie Blackmore and his Proggy Gothic style, but man, there’s something magical about Campbell and Dio on Holy Diver.  The guitars he crafted fit the epic fantasy theme emphatically.  The lineup on this album truly feels like destiny.  I love that Campbell’s guitar solos span a minute or two.  I love that it completely breaks up the music to create a flashy solo into another verse.  I love how assertively 80s this album sounds, whilst keeping Dio’s 70s Rock roots.  It’s soulful, extravagant, hook-oriented, a little Progressive, and rooted in pure Rock.  Every time I hear Caught In The Middle and Don’t Talk To Strangers, I am reminded of how much I cherish this album.  Caught In The Middle is so heartfelt and punchy, a similar inspiring feel to Holy Diver, but more down to Earth.  

This is my favorite album of Ronnie’s vocals, too.  I love pretty much anything he sings.  He could sing a C++ book and still make me want to listen to every word.  He isn’t just a singer, he’s a storyteller.  The words he sings are exquisitely picked, and the notes are deliberate and exact.  He is the height of technical execution, but he blended the storytelling of the 1970s.  His voice could fit any genre, but thank god Ronnie chose Rock and Heavy Metal as his home.  Holy Diver is unarguably one of the greatest vocal performances ever recorded, regardless of genre.  Every song on this album is an epic or a saga, making it timeless and flawless every time I listen to it, which is impressive after four decades.  

I hear this down-to-earth quality echoed in Power Metal albums today, and it makes me emotional to hear the impact this album has on my favorite music. Ronnie’s voice is timeless, and Holy Diver sounds just as revolutionary today as it did in 1981. It’s one thing to experience Dio’s impact grandly, but personally hearing it impact my favorite musicians today just feels like Heavy Metal has come full circle.  And I wish Ronnie was around to hear bands like Unleash The Archers, Lords of The Trident, Seven Kingdoms, and more that echo his down-to-earth, heartfelt music.

My favorite songs are Holy Diver, Rainbow in the Dark, Don’t Talk To Strangers, and Straight Through the Heart.

15. Legacy of Kings-  Hammerfall (1998)

Yet another classic Power Metal album on my list. I’ve been listening to this album since I was just 12 years old.  They are yet another band my older brother introduced me to.  It was long before I knew anything about European Metal or genres.  This was one album I instantly loved, along with Hammerfall’s debut and another classic, Glory To The Brave.  Choosing between these albums for this list was a mighty task, but I had to go with the more anthemic Legacy of Kings.  Hammerfall’s impact on my music taste is right up there with Dio and Iron Maiden.  They have been consistently in my listening rotation longer than any band on this list.  I didn’t realize that fact until delving into my memories associated with this band.  I started listening to them when my family first moved back to Colorado and have never stopped listening to them.  My brother had their first two records in the car for years to come, and many road trips were soundtracked by Hammerfall and other bands on this list.  It’s Joacim Cans’ illustrious voice that keeps me coming back to Hammerfall.  He is unlike anyone I have ever heard and will always be one of my favorite male vocalists.  When I want solid Power Metal with a nostalgic feel, I turn to Dream Evil or Hammerfall.  Hammerfall has been an ever-driving force in the scene and a pinnacle of Power Metal for me.

Legacy of Kings is an experience of historical tales of Templars setting out on their designed quests, 80s Arena sounds, and unbelievably soulful vocals. The album sounds exactly like its name and the cover art.  It is a no filler, no bullshit, battle Metal album with lyrics that will stick in your head forever.  It captures elements of Dio, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Def Leppard, and Manowar but with the Brotherhood of the Templars at the helm.  I am forever fascinated by the Templars and Crusade history, and Hammerfall brought this to a sonic basis.  It’s a cool thematic concept that instantly transports you to a different time and place.  Legacy of Kings is an album I put on while gaming, walking, or on road trips, as mentioned earlier.  The music is so fast-paced and interesting; it speeds any task up exponentially and makes it a more enjoyable experience.  This would be a perfect soundtrack to a miniseries about the Templars, I can just envision the story line and characters with momentous battles every time I listen to it.  I may even write an inspired book series one day, in hopes I can capture some of the magic in this album.  I love the theme, the guitar tone, the drums, the level of reverb, and the clarity of the vocals.  There’s just not an album like Legacy of Kings, and I don’t think there ever will be.  While I dislike the use of the word “masterpiece” and find it way overused. I would use it to describe this album in a heartbeat.  

What sold me on Hammerfall is their ability to write epic, long, high BPM songs and then drop an absolutely heart-wrenching ballad.  Songs like Glory to The Brave, The Fallen One, Second to None, and Remember Yesterday are unbelievably amazing.  The songwriting throughout their albums is masterful, but to me, the ability to write great ballads is a prime example of a great band.  The Fallen One, being one of my favorite ballads, ends Legacy of Kings in a forlorn way that makes me want to restart the album immediately.  Joacim Cans over a Classical Piano part is simply gorgeous and is a must hear concept.  This singer is incomparable.  Seeing Hammerfall live and experiencing Joacim’s voice in person was indescribable.  He doesn’t miss.  He doesn’t waver.  He is one of the strongest vocalists I’ve ever heard, and Legacy of Kings is a peak example of his unbridled talent. 

I can’t imagine my life without ever hearing Hammerfall, and I will continue to listen to them as long as I can hear (Seeing Sonata Arctica or Unleash the Archers again might just do my ears in).

My favorite songs are The Fallen One, Legacy of Kings, Remember Yesterday.

16. The Congregation- Leprous (2015)

This is one of the most unique albums on the list, I think.  When I first discovered Leprous in 2018, it was difficult to dissect what I was hearing.  Leprous is a listening experience that simply cannot be described.  They’re an eclectic, avant-garde sound that can’t be categorized.  It’s Metal, it’s Prog, it’s Trip Hop, it’s Symphonic, tastes of Meshuggah, it’s a little Broadway Musical; It’s Leprous, the only Leprous.  There’s nothing like this band in my 31 years of music listening.  Everything they do challenges genre, the usual notation and chord progression, and the typical range of music.  The talent in this band is incomparable.  Their music is weird but in a good way.  They create some of the strangest mind-bending soundscapes that are so visceral.  No matter what they create, you can always expect an album that takes many listens to digest and sink your teeth into the meaning of.  I think Leprous creates a piece of deeper music.  This isn’t just music for the sake of making sound or a shock factor, it’s exclusively meaningful.  This band gives 110% on every single song, performance, and album.  You can hear the immense effort they put into every detail and every note.  A band that works intricately and organically in the dawn of AI, copy and paste, and overproduced music cannot go unnoticed by me.   They uniquely blend Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Devin Townsend, Tool, and Meshuggah chugs to create music more than worthy of a lifetime-achievement award.  Leprous has created an innovative sound that has been immensely influential in everything that I create and made a new standard for Progressive Metal that isn’t just “Djenty” guitars.

The Congregation is an album that sums up their dark, moody, intense, and progressive-oriented sounds whilst combining singer Einar Solberg’s love of Massive Attack.   This creates a sound that captures me instantly.  I also love Massive Attack and Trip Hop since I was introduced to the genre on The Matrix Reloaded Soundtrack in 2003.  This album could be taken right out of that Soundtrack.  So, there’s a nostalgic element to it as well as a fresh take for me.  The Congregation is full of mind-bending sounds, beautiful and haunting melodies, and exquisite drum-work.  This was the first album they’d done with drummer Baard Kolstad.  You can hear the enormous impact he had on the band.  His drum beats melded with Tor’s funky off-time guitar riffs.  This album is a time signature nightmare, and I love it.  It’s completely unpredictable.  The Price, Third Law,  and Moon highlight the beast that is Baard on drums.  He is one of the hardest-hitting drummers.  The attack he puts into every beat grabs your attention immediately.  You have no idea where the song structure is going to go next.  It’s like improvisational Jazz put into Heavy Metal, and I think it’s utterly brilliant.  I love the drum work on this album, but the vocals are what put Leprous on the map for me.  

Einar Solberg’s vocal performance on The Congregation defies all boundaries of male vocals and genre constraints.  He has the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard in male vocals.  He can move mountains with his voice, even in a whisper falsetto.  His unbridled vocal power carries every song in an emotional gut-wrenching journey that is irreplicable.  Songs like Rewind, The Flood, and the absolute soul-bursting Slave illustrate his immense range and explosive vocals.  The dynamics he shows are unlike anything I have ever heard.  It’s as though he is the love child of Devin Townsend, Ihsahn, Colm Wilkinson, and Daniel Tompkins.  He is one of my favorite vocalists of all time, and The Congregation is the opus for me.  His performance on The Flood is a top favorite of all time for me.  The emotional impact this song has is everlasting.  It is a cry for help when no one is listening, a release of unimaginable pain into the void, and the clouds inevitably parting on the constant storm life torments us with.  I’ve created art pieces to try to capture how deeply The Flood and other songs off the album impacted me, but it’ll never be enough to truly iterate the supreme catharsis this album bestows.

Leprous is an all-time favorite artist of mine and will remain forever on this list with The Congregation.

My favorite songs: The Flood, Third Law, and Moon

17. Eternal Blue- Spiritbox (2021)

I know I’ve talked about this band before, and everyone’s probably getting tired of hearing about them.  However, leaving them off this list is not an option.  Spiritbox is one of my all-time favorite bands.  They reignited my love for Metalcore whilst introducing me to a new genre that would become one of most listened to: Progressive Metalcore.  This genre has been vitally important to my mental health and musical journey.  Not only did it provide Spiritbox, a band that got me inspired to pick up drums again, but it also gave me Periphery, Whitechapel, ERRA, Novelists, Jinjer, and most especially Ankor.  This band not only gave me some of my most personal connections with music, but they also gave me other bands I would connect with even deeper.  They opened a window to a whole new world of music for me, and I found new parts of myself scattered within the same genre bubble.  I discovered the band with their massive breakout single Holy Roller, and I admit it took a long time to grow on me.  The other singles from Eternal Blue emphatically won me over to the immense talent of vocalist/lyricist Courtney LaPlante and guitarist/writer/producer Mike Stringer.  Like Burton and Dino, they’re one of my favorite writing duos of all time.  Spiritbox’s writing is superb.  It is easy to hear why they’re one of the biggest Metal bands on the planet because Eternal Blue is perfectly crafted.  I think this band deserves every amount of the hype they receive.

Eternal Blue is a beautiful and tragic journey through COVID isolation, depression, nightmares and night terrors, self-hatred, and fighting societal pressures of conformity. This album’s lyrical content sounds exactly like 2020-2021 was for me.  It was fast, a blur of emotion constantly changing, and a calm amongst the storm.  It’s a devastatingly heavy album in both instrumentation and emotional continuity.  Each track flows together, but no two tracks sound the same.  Somehow, it’s all in an idea bubble and sounds like the same theme, but it is completely different.  It’s a crazy feat in songwriting to achieve that continuity without repeating or following the same formula.  I think it’s because of the shifting in dynamics and wall-of-sound production.  It immerses you in a vibe, for lack of a better word, and keeps you there for days, much like Courtney’s described nightmares that inspired this album.  I love immersive, deep, huge sounding records, and this is a best effort in a decade.  It exists in the same space in my mind and heart as Strapping Young Lad records.  There’s brutality, airiness, relief, gigantic guitars, and soulfulness in complete desperation.  This album emotionally wrecked me for months, but in a good way.  It took me out of my comfort zone while giving me a haven amongst the chaos.

Songs like The Summit, Secret Garden, and Halcyon are lighter and a breath of fresh air amongst a stale, isolated lifestyle during COVID-19 times.  These are tracks I would often go to sleep to or practice musical meditation to.  There’s something profoundly spiritual about this record for me.  It’s a cleansing of the spirit, which isn’t surprising considering the name of the band.  Eternal Blue surprised me with how deeply it impacted me.  I didn’t expect such a heavy guitar record with djent tropes to be so cathartic and emotional.  I think Courtney’s vocals give their music that relatable quality.  You can hear every word she says and clearly understand how it makes her feel.  That emotional resonance is what makes this band special.  A lot of singers are fantastic at singing and conveying a story or emotion because that is the job of a vocalist to audily convey the meanings of the song.  What Courtney does is another level of crushingly soul-bearing vocals that dig into you and stay there for a long time.

 A powerful quote about pain inspiring art is, “Great art comes from great pain,” which comes from Tortured Artists by Christopher Zara.  I think Spiritbox resembles this message in a good way. Spiritbox’s impact on music is unarguably profound, but the emotional connection they’ve made with their fans, including me, is rarely talked about or honored.  Spiritbox allows a haven for the anger, pain, and self-doubt we all may deal with throughout our lives.  That is such a beautiful kind of catharsis. 

My favorite songs are: We Live In A Strange World, The Summit, and Constance.

18. Victims of A Modern Age- Star One (2010)

I was already in love with European Metal early on because of Hammerfall and Within Temptation.  Epica is the band that hooked me on Euro Metal and the pursuit of finding more Symphonic Metal and Death Metal.  But, Arjen Lucassen and his many Prog projects were also a huge influence to my quest of the Euro Metal discovery.  It became a passion to pick out each contributing artist from Arjen’s projects and deep dive into their subsequent bands and albums.  It was like the “Six Degrees of Separation” but with incredible Metal.  Once my brother and I went down this rabbit hole (Star One pun), we discovered many of our favorite artists of all time.  I feel like we should write an extensive thank-you letter to the streaming service, Pandora.  This service exposed us to most of the European artists we know and love today.  They had the best collection of this kind of underground Metal we could access in America in the 2000s and 2010s.  I fear to think what my life would be like without this music, especially without Arjen Lucassen.  I remember my brother and I freaking out and “fangirling” to Victims of A Modern Age and all of Arjen’s discography together in his living room.  It was a liberating experience that I think strengthened our bond even more and made me the metalhead that I am today.

Victims of a Modern Age is a nerdfest of Progressive Metal and geeky themes like The Matrix, Planet of the Apes, A Clockwork Orange, and Blade Runner.  Arjen is heavily inspired by Sci-Fi to create Space Metal through project Star One.  I have loved Sci-Fi series, books, and TV Series since I was young enough to sit and read or watch them.  This love of sci-fi combined with Metal is such a personal niche.  Especially since opening bombastic hook track Digital Rain is based on my favorite movie series of all time, The Matrix.  This is, in my opinion, one of his best works because of its more band-like feel with Dan Swano, Damian Wilson, Russel Allen, Floor Jansen, Ed Warby, Peter Vink, and Joost Van De Broek.  It was a lot easier to perform live shows and put together solid Metal records.  This album is evidence that progressive metal doesn’t need 50 musicians and 5000 notes in a measure to be good.  This album is hook-laden, anthemic, and bombastic.  It is unapologetically nerdy and cheesy, and I love it immensely.  Arjen Lucassen’s music writing is some of the best of our modern times, and his ability to compile the absolute best singers and musicians is a stroke of brilliance.  Victims of A Modern Age is an album I wish I wrote and created.  It is a Metal ode to Sci-Fi in the biggest way ever achieved, with some of the greatest vocalists of all time to tell the story.  

The performances on this record are unbelievable.  The first time I’d ever heard Russel Allen was on this album, and it blew me away more than 99% of singers I’d ever heard.  It also introduced me to the mighty Floor Jansen, and that forever changed my life.  I didn’t know women sang Power Metal, so when I heard her powerful vocals stand up to Russel and Damian Wilson, it had me hooked for life.  Hearing Floor for the first time forever changed my view of female vocals and sent me to loving After Foreer, then Revamp, and then Nightwish.  Arjen getting Floor Jansen heard on a larger scale in 2010 is probably one of the most significant moments in music for me.  I think his loaded projects lead to a lot of discoveries for a lot of metalheads.  Because of Ayreon and Star One, many of these artists have gone on to bigger projects and collaborations.  I have no idea how Arjen does it, but he keeps crafting the best progressive music this generation has to offer, with the absolute best lineups.  If I could ever achieve one percent of what he has, I’d be happy with my music career.  The man is an absolute genius and wizard, and just knows how to bring the best out of the best musicians.

Victims of A Modern Age is yet another transformative release in my  Metal History.  It inspired me to plunge into the world of Metal head first and soak up Euro Metal like my life depended on it.  Through this discovery, I found bands like Threshold, Adrenaline Mob, Porcupine Tree, After Forever, Stream of Passion, Symphony X, Between the Buried and Me, and so many other artists that impacted my taste in music writing.  I think Arjen is a great writer, musician, collaborator, producer, and all-around nice guy.  I don’t believe he gets the worldwide recognition, sales, or credit he deserves for being such a consistent contributor to music.

My favorite songs; Digital Rain, Cassandra Complex, 24 Hours

19. Audio Secrecy- Stone Sour (2010)

Of all the albums on this list, this might be the most influential to me personally.  Devin Townsend, Brittney Slayes, Amy Lee, Joacim Cans, Simone Simons, and more top my favorite singers of all time list.  But, before I dived into the Progressive and Power world, it was Corey Taylor who topped my list.  The range, diversity, emotional diction, and character in Corey’s vocals made him stand out for me.   Corey Taylor’s unique style is still unlike anything I have ever heard.  Many have been inspired and replicate the style of rap, Metal gutturals, and soaring anthemic cleans that could organize a thousand people.  His power is unbelievable to me.  Even to this day, his live performances are staggeringly good.  His vocals with Stone Sour are somehow different altogether.  They’re softer, more nuanced, and more thought out to give a tonal quality.  This makes Stone Sour stand out, blending the 60s and 70s with the Alternative Rock and Metal of the 2000s.  I’ve been listening to Stone Sour since 2007 or so.  I’ve always loved Jim Root’s guitar playing.  Roy Mayorga is also a very underrated drummer.  But, when Audio Secrecy came out, it changed my entire world as a music listener.  This album was going to be on my list of “Favorite Rock Albums of all time”, but the drums and chugging guitars made this album fit Metal a little bit more to me.  It’s just one of my favorites, regardless of genre.

I was listening to Turbo and Sirius XM recently, and Brent /Smith from Shinedown told the story of singing Guns N’ Roses’s Appetite For Destruction every Friday night in his garage as a kid.  That’s how he got his start as a Rock vocalist.  I related to that story because when Audio Secrecy came out, I practiced singing through it at least twenty times a week.  It came out in September, and I think I was still practicing it the next October 2011.  This strengthened my voice immensely and gave me so much confidence overall.  While I’ve never sung in public or front of a band, at least I know I could sing some of those songs in a bad imitation.  Those are the memories you hold onto forever with albums.  When music makes you feel like you’re at your best, it leaves a permanent imprint on the deepest parts of you.  That’s a powerful connection that makes music a unique experience.  Regardless of whether I ever become a singer or not, I’ll always remember what album made me feel like I could be a rock star.

Audio Secrecy is sonically perfect; Stone Sour at their absolute apex of writing and song construction.  This record is so well mastered, so well composed and engineered, it sounds like a late 1970s release.  It sounds uncompressed, unfiltered, and so open and airy.  It’s a massive-sounding album that combines Arena Rock with Deftones-inspired riffs and melodic vocals.  It is hard-hitting.  Every song is an attack.  Every one of Roy’s hits punches you in the chest.  The driving explosive choruses hook you in.  Mayorga’s cataclysmic drumming on this record captivates me every time I listen to it.  The bass line on Say You’ll Haunt Me would make Paul McCartney cry, it’s so damn good and smooth. The ballads cool off the tension, especially the power ballad Hesitate which is among my favorite songs of all time.  The vocals are utterly perfect on every song, but I think Heisitate and Imperfect are two of Corey’s best clean performances of his entire career.  This is undeniably the most relatable album in Stone Sour’s catalog, and I think that’s what makes it so beautiful.  Corey put his whole heart into this album, as Slipknot had just lost bassist Paul Gray.  Corey’s life has been full of loss, pain, and making it out by the skin of his teeth, and those parts of him are bare on Audio Secrecy.  This accentuates the deep connection fans like me have made with him.  It is Stone Sour’s best album, and I don’t think it will ever be replicated in the slightest.

Audio Secrecy is a once-in-a-generation album, and I will always remember it as my favorite album to sing along to.  Seeing this album played almost entirely live was a highlight of my life that I’ll never forget.

My Favorite songs are: Digital (Did YouTell), Hesitate, Threadbare

20. All Hope Is Gone- Slipknot (2008)

Slipknot is one of my favorite bands of all time.  Slipknot is what originally got me into Heavy Metal when I was 12 to 14 years old.  Maybe it’s cliche at this point because Slipknot is one of the biggest metal bands of all time, but their impact is undeniable.  They’ve inspired countless artists and young metalheads, exposing them to a whole new world of American Death Metal and Metalcore.  I heard Slipknot as a kid because my brother and one of his friends were into Metal and shared albums, but it was probably too much for me at eight years old.  I can imagine that, as sensitive as I was, the masks and the aggression would’ve freaked me out.  But, as I got older, this aggressive music became essential to me.  As a typical American teenager, Slipknot was heavy in my rotation long before the era of streaming.  Though, I did have Youtube, and I would religiously watch Slipknot’s videos and attempt to decipher the visual subtleties Shawn Crahan hid in every video.  Every aspect of Slipknot was endlessly fascinating to me.  The fact that they hid their identities for so long, the horror-themed music videos, and all the strange sounds they used in their music were captivating and confusing at the same time.  

All Hope Is Gone is an indescribable album of aggressive sound, piercing screams and DJ effects, and incredibly heavy drums.  This is undoubtedly one of the best drum albums in Metal.  Joey Jordison blended Progressive and Death Metal influences with solid Rock beats to complete the almost tribal backbone of Slipknot.  He is a household name all over the world for his incomparable contributions to the world of Metal drumming.  This album is my favorite of all his works, despite it being slightly lighter and more radio-friendly than others in the Slipknot arsenal.  I also think this has some of the best guitar work of any Slipknot record.  It sounds like Jim Root and Mick Thomson at their best to me.  The mix of melodic hooks and depth with the pummeling speed riffs is something we don’t hear often in American Metal.  The riffs remind me of early In Flames and At the Gates on this album, which, to me, is an upgrade in pedigree.  There’s a musical depth to this album that intrigues me more than most Metal albums ever released.  In some respects, it is so European and Death Metal oriented, and then there are anthemic sing-song parts in between.  It’s a unique and eclectic mix that was very surprising for 2008.  It sounds like this album could’ve been released in 2024, but on the other hand, it could’ve been an early 90s Thrash record.  It’s hard for me to pin it down, and that’s what Slipknot always goes for.  That’s what I love about them; they literally don’t sound like anyone or anything else, and they don’t try to be anything but themselves.

Slipknot creates some of the most unique Metal ever released with a staggering amount of influences and different musicians.  I love bands who dare to be different, don’t aim to create radio rock, and are eclectic.  Slipknot manages to be strange as hell and yet sell millions of records.  This proves the idea of “mainstream” is an elitist construct of misinformation and old-fashioned thinking.  Nothing Slipknot does is conforming to the radio or record company conglomerates, yet Sulfur, Before I Forget, Dead Memories, and Duality are some of the most played Metal tracks on the air.  I love that they’ve flipped off all the doubters and all the elitists and stayed true to their chaotic and angry roots after all this time.  While they’ve stayed true to this vacuum pretty much the whole time, besides recent release The End So Far (seriously, what the fuck was that album?), I think All Hope is Gone is going to remain my favorite Slipknot album of all time.

While I’ve moved on from Slipknot to completely different music, I will always love the nostalgia of hearing them on the radio.  They are still a band my mom and I share every once in a while, and I will never forget the surprise of my mom loving Slipknot and everything Corey Taylor.  I hope to see them together one day.

My Favorite songs are; Dead Memories, Snuff, Butcher’s Hook, Sulfur

There it is, my top 20 favorite Heavy Metal albums of all time! What are your favorites? Did you like or dislike any of the albums I listed? Start a conversation in the comments below!