Oh indeed! And yes, I know exactly what you mean.

Shouldn't all good music be emotional? Or, inspire emotion, at least? ...Dunno if there's a difference between those two things.

A lot of excellent choices thus far, though for me I'll say:

Dark tranquillity-Character
Catchy and beautiful synergy of melodic death metal with electronic elements, every song is memorable and well performed.

Moonspell-Irreligious/Wolfheart Both albums are complementary to each other, from the folk influence of Wolfheart to the dramatic Irreligious. The riffing is simple and works powerfully with the keyboards, and Fernando's vocals are some of the best I've heard from any of their albums.

Suffocation-Pierced from within. To me this album epitomizes brutal/technical death even more so than None So vile, the riffing in songs such as the titletrack and Torn into enthrallment is some of the most intense audio moments I've ever heard. While at the same time Depths of Depravity and Thrones of blood are an incredible feat of technical musicianship.

Celtic Frost-Monotheist The album has always been one of my favorites for a few reasons, the guitar tone is the heaviest I've ever heard, but also Tom G Warrior's vocals and the slower songs such as "A dying god coming into human flesh" and "Obscured" are just amazing..everything about the album showcases how much the band had changed

Neurosis-Enemy of the sun. After three years of listening to the album it has just epitomized dryness and the desert, Raze the Stray and the titletrack recall the deserts of my home state.

Kreator-Pleasure to Kill One of the most savage pieces of metal ever recorded, while people can name cult thrash acts only the mightiest approach the power of Kreator on their finest hour. Command of the blade and the titletrack are some of the fastest I've ever heard seconded only to Holy Terror

Mayhem-De mysteriis dom Sathanas Of all black metal albums from Norway I've never been fascinated with a bm album such as DMDS, every song is a black metal masterpiece and the album cemented Mayhem's lasting influence on the genre

Bathory-Blood, fire, death The titletrack alone is the best metal song ever written, while Quorthon had written albums prior to Blood, fire, death that define black metal, it is Blood, fire, death that is a tribute to the human fighting spirit and the glorious death.

Behemoth-Demigod Fast and incredibly powerful death metal from the last few years, it stands as the band's finest album and is an album that will be enormously influential on the next generation of death metal bands

Black Sabbath Paranoid/Master of reality. While a lot of people have listed these two albums, their influence transcends the genres "doom" and "heavy" metal. Songs such as Solitude and Planet Caravan are beyond words, and both albums are dark and steeped in a bleak atmosphere.

Easy one:

1. Symbolic - Death
2. Human - Death
3. Individual Thought Patterns - Death
4. Sound of Perseverance - Death
5. The Fragile Art of Existence - Control Denied
6. Spiritual Healing - Death
7. Scream Bloody Gore - Death
8. Leprosy - Death

And yes...i'm aware this isn't a "Chuck's best work" thread

Leprosy is so underrated!

Indeed. I would even go as far as to say it is my favorite Death album, and is easily their most sinister work.

Some of my favorites would be:

Immortal - At the Heart of Winter: Their early works are great, but this is the best Immortal album and maybe my favorite Black Metal album. The great thrashy riffs with some great clean guitar interludes really set a great atmosphere.

Pestilence - Consuming Impulse: An amazing DM album with amazing vocals and great winding guitar riffs from Patrick M. The Trauma and Out of the Body are amazing songs.

Purtenance - Member of Immortal Damnation: I heard some other users mention Demigod. Well, this I feel that this band does everything Demigod does well and then some. Its extremely heavy and doomy with epic sounding guitar riffs over pounding drums.

Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane: I have recently started listening to this again and it sounds amazing. Great black metal vocals and melodic guitar lines create an icy atmosphere. Where Dead Angels Lie and Thorns of Crimson Death are amazing.

Others:
Autopsy - Severed Survival
Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time
Immortal - Pure Holocaust
Darkthrone - Under a Funeral Moon
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Darkspace - Dark I
Sodom - Agent Orange
Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death

I can't tell if you are serious or not.

Rust In Peace or Dont Break the Oath

I'd still put NSV above it, but this is probably the second best tech death album ever made. The riffs, the morbidity and the sheer complexity is mind blowing. My main problem is that it is scatter brained and unmemorable, which is where NSV really shines. Still brilliant, brilliant album.

Old school Green Day is the shit, I'm glad someone else agrees! The guitar tone is gritty as hell, the bass is completely audible (just listen to that bass riff in 80, classic song), and the drums just kick ass. Billie Joe offsets the chord progressions with brilliant lyrics and melodies.

But anyway, for my favorite.


Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine, without a doubt. This album takes you to another dimension. The melodic shouting and wailing that comes out of Devin's mouth makes him the greatest metal vocalist in my opinion. His progressions and riffs are mindblowing. The only downside is that the peacefulness of certain parts of the album are VERY deceiving, you might even want to go to bed with this album. BAD IDEA. Just as the final track comes to a close, there is some silence, and then Devin lets out the most ear piercing scream ever recorded. It's scared me shitless quite a few times. The wall of sound on this album is hypnotizing above all else. And if you've never heard "Life" you're missing out on one of the best poppy metal tracks ever. One of the most interesting parts of the album is on "Voices in the Fan", at the very end of the track there is a choral hymn and it's amazing.

Other contenders for my favorite album of all time:
Agalloch - The Mantle
ColdWorld - Melancholie²
Death - Symbolic
Dream Theater - Awake
Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time
Judas Priest - Sad Wings of Destiny
Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Nokturnal Mortum - Voice of Steel
Negura Bunget - OM
Slayer - Hell Awaits.

You don't have to tell me how awesome the bass is ,the tone is amazing as well. 80's intro is amazing then Welcome to Paradise,Private Ale,No One Knows, One For the Razorbacks, pretty much every song on that album has awesome bass, the interlude in 2000 Light Years Away.

Not from Kerplunk, but I really like the intro on Stuart and the Ave.

Oh definitely and Stuck With Me is sick as well, Insomniac has some insane bass lines as well, heavier.

Slayer-Divine Intervention: if there's any slayer album i love it's this one. i've always seen this album as the Perfected SitA. the solos, lyrics, riffs, and drums are perfect. for some reason people seem to overlook this album and im not sure if it's the absence of Lombardo, being released in the 90's or both but it's a fucking killer with absolutely no filler.

Exodus-Tempo of the Damned: i've always viewed this album as slightly better than bbb. Zetro's vocals were stronger than ever before, the guitars are heavy the solos are extremely catchy (see Throwing Down) and Tom is a monster behind the drums.

Demolition Hammer-Epidemic of Violence: holy fuck this album is heavy. it's safe to say this is the heaviest thrash metal album that doesn't go full swing into death metal territory. absolutely flawless album.

Obituary-Cause of Death: great album with heavy guitars catchy drum work and of Course Tardy's vocals. i don't care for SB production but a monster death metal album nonetheless.

Behemoth-Demigod: i've only been listening to this album for a week and i fucking love it! if this album doesn't make you feel like Zeus or Odin or at least like destroying something you've got a problem.

Dream Theater-Images and Words
Opeth- Blackwater Park
Death-Symbolic
Bolt Thrower- Those once loyal
Agalloch- Ashes against the grain
My Dying Bride- The angel and the dark river
Lake of Tears- Forever Autumn
Estatic Fear-A sombre dance
Vader- De Profundis
Insomnium- Above the weeping world
Katatonia- Dance of December Souls

Ulcerate's Everything Is Fire

I got it on release and it took a bit to click, but when it did it destroyed my expectations and my conceptions of death metal. Speaking in terms of music theory, it's a jazzy, improvised monster of unparalleled proportions, up there with Gorguts' masterpiece Obscura. It's suffocating, rhythmically sound, and organic yet altogether spacious and foreboding. The linear structure of the songs and lyrical "message" just help convey the idea of the album that much better.

Mitochondrion's Archaeaon

Not many people know about this band, but this release is weird, otherworldly blackened (technical?) death metal that makes bands like Portal sound like radio-rock juveniles. It's one of the most atmospheric albums I've ever listened to. A shame not many people know about this band, and this release (only 2 years old) is already out of print it seems.

Deathspell Omega's Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum

This album is bizarre, perhaps a bit too much for some people. It reminds me of a black metal version of the aforementioned Obscura. It took awhile to get used to since I first started listening to it with no expectation other than that of hearing any generic black metal band (blast beats, high-pitched vocals, simple musicianship, very little low-end, reverb, etc.). I got very little of what I expected and was pleasantly surprised by the churning descent into chaos that this album is. It's by and far their most evil work and one of the most unique in black metal.

Others:

Gorguts - Obscura
Immolation - Close To A World Below
Anata - The Infernal Depths Of Hatred / Under A Stone With No Inscription
Mithras - Forever Advancing...Legion
The Amenta - n0n / Occasus
Incantation - Mortal Throne Of Nazarene

And quite a few others.

Easy for me:
Katatonia "Dance of december souls" and "For funerals to come".

Undying magic...the most beautiful guitars i have ever known.
I bought both at their respective release times and have never had any other favourite album despite all the hundreds of other black/doom/death metal releases i have listened to ever since.

based on your tastes and mine i think that neither of us can live while the other walks

pistols at dawn

Chuck's work was exactly what i was thinking of.
though as for my favorite albums il just list off 5 that aren't in any particular order as that'd take far to much thought.

1. Symbolic - Death
2. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - Mayhem
3. Onset Of Putrefaction - Necrophagist
4. Alters Of Madness - Morbid Angel
5. Hatebreeder - Children Of Bodom

If ''Tomb of Insomnia'' was better structured, I believe that ''Dance of December Souls'' could have been fucking perfect. Still am amazin album, though. Love how to songs evoke emotions.

Pff, it's hard to pick an all time favourite. Some honourable mentions:

Bathory - ''Blood Fire Death''

So god damn epic. I can't praise this album enough. ''A Fine Day to Die'' has to by my favourite black metal song of all time. It's so unique and I love how the album builds up. The rest isn't weak either.

Death - ''Individual Through Patterns''

Has interesting, realistic lyrics and I love how progressive, yet not overdone this album sounds instrumentally.

Katatonia - ''Dance of December Souls''

As I already said, ''Tomb of Insomnia'' brings the album down a bit, but the rest is fucking killer. Quite possible the most emotional metal album I've ever heard. Really changed my view on metal.

Virgin Steele - ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II''

Has killer vocals, a lot of variation while adding epic keyboards here and there. Majestic metal. Great stuff!

Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. The pinnacle of Maiden's music and the greatest way to close the metal's golden era, the 80s.

My Top three:

Atheist - Unquestionable Presence: Best album ever for me, never heard anything as brilliant as this.

Sepultura - Morbid Visions: I listened to this just a few weeks ago and i fuckin' love it. The filthiest and the most evil album ever for me.

Behemoth - Satanica: I'm a behemoth fanboy and this, to me, is their best offering. Awesomeness all around.

I thought long and hard about which album is my favorite metal album of all time, and as someone has said before me, you'll either be a liar or regret your answer. I find this statement to be very true and I have many favorites from different periods of metal, so I didn’t even consider responding at first. Example Iron Maiden's Powerslave, from my all time favorite band and one of the first albums I bought that I consider as true metal. But this album or any other from Maiden are not my favorite albums of all time.

Then there is Sodom's Obsessed by Cruelty, Prosecution Mania and Agent Orange, as this is the band that introduced me into the darker and heavier side of Thrash. Plus they are from my native Germany, so of course they are one of my favorite bands. I remember carrying their Vinyl to my grandparents’ house to listen to on their record player before I had one. But they too don’t have my favorite album of all time.

So here goes my favorite album of all time is....

Entombed Left Hand Path

Even though they are not my favorite band anymore, I still hold this album as my all time favorite. It just oozes evilness and misanthrophic hatred. When I first bought it on cassette back in late 1989 or 1990 it introduced me to that sound I still love to this day, and still use to judge other bands of the same vein, including my favorite Stockholm band, Dismember and their masterpiece "Like an Ever Flowing Stream", which is a close 2nd.

The Dan Seagrave cover was the coolest thing I ever saw, the photos of the young band in the snow under a large sullen cross, the Sunlight Studio Tomas Skogsberg buzz saw guitar sound production, the back sleeve of the album with it's rotting looking bits and pieces. This all left a lasting influence on me. To this day I still search for old school Swedish Death Metal that can top it. I haven’t found any.

There is plenty of other great stuff out there, but this is a classic. Of course Entombed are now only a shadow of their former selves and no longer even one of my favorite bands after sticking by them as a band for a long time, so I hadn’t even thought of LHP as my favorite, until I really started thinking about it. One quick listen reconfirmed it. (btw I do about once a week).

Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain: It was not unlike the waves that got me into metal. To this day listening to this album, in particular that song, is a spiritual experience

This is a tough one.... I have three albums that really do it for me. Metallica's Ride The Lightning, Slayer's Reign In Blood, and Kreator's Pleasure To Kill. But, Death's Symbolic also fits, and so does Maiden's Number Of The Beast. Agh, so many great albums...

If the title of the thread was BEST album of all time, i think i would say Ride The Lightning, not necessarily a personal fave though, but quite close to the top of that list. anyways this thread is nervewracking. i was thinking about it last night and decided there are to many metal albums that are the absolute best...while i'm listening to them, then i switch to another and that one seems better. just a vicious cycle.

Megadeth's Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

To me, this album still is everything that Thrash Metal should be and could be.

Unfortunately, three albums immediately spring to mind instead of just one.

"Don't Break the Oath" - Mercyful Fate
"Pierced From Within" - Suffocation
"Abigail" - King Diamond

Those three albums have been absolute favorites of mine for years. It's extremely hard to pick just one.

I feel like the songwriting on each of those albums is unmatched by any other band in their respective genres.

I also love "Melissa" and "Effigy of the Forgotten."

To be quite honest, everything Anaal Nathrakh has ever put out has been my favorite album of that year without fail. The newest one being my all-time favorite out of the whole discography.

I can't remember a time in my metal days where I haven't loved that band.

They're all great, but Farseeing appeals to me the most. The Chasm and Vader are my two favorite death metal bands altogether.

Arghoslent - Galloping Through the Battle Ruins-A really raw album with repetitive but never boring riffs. Great vocals and outstanding bass lines. Love the lyrics too because they relate to history something that I really like.

The Chasm - From the Lost Years-Hands down one the most emotion filled death metal album. By that I mean that the riffs and vocal are totally mournful without having to go to funeral doom. Production could of been better.

Septicflesh - Mystic Places of Dawn-Just amazing. The songwriting skill are oof the roof. Great drumming and majestic keyboards.

Your username is VanDrunenFan, not SchuldinerFan

Destruction's "Release From Agony"

Everything about this album is gold. Schmier's vocals are raunchy as hell that just snarl viciously. Gotta love his basswork, too! Every riff can and will be stuck in my head all day if I listen to this album. Just so goddamn CATCHY! Can't go wrong with the drumming, either. In my opinion, Destruction's most underrated work. By far my number one album.

Close contenders are:
Metallica - ...And Justice For All
Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing In The Hands
The Doors discography (close contender.. haha)
Portraits of Past - 00101010
Sarcofago - The Laws of Scourge


Those are all about tied for the number two spot, but RFA is most certainly my favourite album.

Two obvious tops for me:

Metallica- Ride the Lightning

Epic riffs, great melodies, fantastic songwriting, really enjoyable and something I can listen to over and over again. It's basically got all the positive qualities a good metal album should have. Not the heaviest thrash album ever, but certainly the best. The best metal album ever, for that matter. Hope they play most of it live when they drop by here in a few months.

Angelic Process- Weighing Souls with Sand

I don't rave about this album/band as constantly as I used to, but I still think it's the best thing ever, although I don't think I could rate it above RTL. They're sort of like a really direct, propulsive Nadja. Huge waves of distortion- no doubt they've got the best guitar tone ever. Generally tendency towards relatively short and really intense songs, good use of dynamics, very heavy, very atmospheric and just generally very head-rushy. Utterly amazing band. Coma Waering is almost as good an album as well, btw.

Honourable Mentions: Disembowelment's Transcendence, Hecker's Harmony in Ultraviolet, Isis's Panopticon, Jesu's s/t, And Justice For All, Nadja's Touched 2007 and Truth Becomes Death, Sleep's Dopesmoker, Summoning's Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame. I could pretty much just listen to those albums and nothing else and never get bored.

My favourite album of all time is Fear Factory´s Demanufacture. It really shocked me when I listened for the first time 7 or 8 years ago. I spent one fucking month listening it everyday, such an obssesive listening has never happened again.

Blut Aus Nord,c'est de chez moi ca

Voivod-Nothingface
Carcariass-Killing Process
Korpiklaani-Karkelo
Happy Face-Le Tigre
Haaargn!-Des Gens Sympas

and a lot of others

Entombed - Left Hand Path. See my post in the 'most evil songs' thread for reasons why.

Sabbath - master of reality

I can't name an album other than Maiden's Powerslave. And I'm 100% sure for this decision. Aces High was the first metal song I've ever heard and introduced me to the metal universe. When I bought it, I was listening to it the whole day, I've learned each song's lyrics and all this stuff made me really happy. It's the best feeling with which music can provide you, isn't it?
Nowadays, I better understand, there are dozens of albums which I really like and I can't decide which one to pick up for a supposed list, but Powerslave is deep in my heart; like the first love of your childhood. For another time, Up the Irons!

Great taste man, I really love all those albums except Deathspell Omega and The Amenta which I haven't listened.

My favorite album of all time would be In The Woods... - Omnio, avantgarde/progressive rock/black/doom/gothic metal masterpiece. That was one of albums which got me into metal 4-5 years ago and still is my favorite album and probably will never be replaced. Everything is perfect on that album, from doomy vocals, melancholic atmosphere, black metalish guitar sound, perfectly fitting drumming, and all those crescendos and decrescendos make me tinge every time, really album which has to be listened in whole.