Watched the 40 greatest metal songs ever last noght on
VH-1. No shocker that “Iron Man” was no.1…rather predictable. Was surprised that “Sandman” wasn’t the top Metallica song, that went to “Puppets” at #3. Also glad to see “Peace Sells” at #11 and “Reign in Blood” at #8 (or 9).
Just for S&Gs I want to see what everyone’s favorite Metal albums are from a guitar standpoint. Not just solos, but the whole show.
Here’s mine..you’ll see it’s a bit Thrash heavy, that’s because the thrash bands weren’t looking for a hit, but to make great songs/albums for themselves.
Black Sabbath- Sabbath Bloody Sabbath- Black Sabbath invented “Heavy”, but this album showed you can go past three chords, and change speeds and still be “heavy”
Motorhead- Overkill- Take Sabbath and merge with punk speed. Beginnings of thrash.
Iron Maiden- Number of the Beast- Long songs with sophisticated arrangments, and great dual leads.
Metallica- Kill ‘em All- Took Black Sabbath and merged with Motorhead. Set the blueprint that everyone else copied from.
Megadeth- Peace Sells..But Who’s Buyin? This is where Dave Mustaine made his mark. Great twin leads with jazzy Chris Poland, and tons of intricate timing and key changes. Plus it’s kicks like crazy.
Slayer- Reign in Blood- Slayer injected melody into rhythms going 1000mph. The leads are pretty straight forward. The real substance is in their rythms and riffs.
Makes the vibe of “Black Sabbath” sound downright cheery.
Metallica- Master of Puppets: Metallica’s tour-de force. Kirk Hemmets finest moments. I’d describe it as Mozart on Mescelane.
Megadeth- Rust in Peace. Without a doubt the greatest guitar album of all time. With Marty Friedman, Dave Mustain had a running partner who could keep up with him. Album mixed the speed of Motorhead, prog metal (Five Magics), Hardcore (Poison was the Cure), and eastern elements (Holy Wars & Hangar 18), plus excellent twin leads. Extremely technical but also thrashes as hard as anything else ever recorded.
honorable mention
..And Justice for All would have made the list but if you really listen to it, it’s sort of Puppets pt.2. Only had three breakthroughs Blackened”, “One”, and “Dyers Eve”, other than that it sounded like reworked material from Puppets. The last album where Hemmett could strut his stuff.
Posted on Sat, 6 May 2006 at 00:14