Stairway to Hell: The 500 Best Heavy Metal Albums in the Universe (pt. 10)

That would be Reign In Blood for me.

yeah, i was tempted to go with three of the above--Hendrix, SY or Sab, fwiw--but it's got to be Reign In Blood; the most consistently thrilling record up there, i think.

Agreed. RIB for me too.

I've only heard about 2/3 of these, maybe fewer.

feedtime's Shovel is the equal of a lot of these.

Curious about the Prolitariat. I only know the Boston Not L.A. tracks.

yeah, that's another really good one.

xp

who will rep for Montrose?

Voting for Shovel cuz I FINALLY heard it for the first time last month after searching bins and blogs for years. Plus it's meaty and beaty (not so big and bouncy, though).

I do love the shit out of this book even though I wish it was published at the dawn of album blogs. The "Afterthoughts (The Future)" section was probably most beneficial for me, esp. Freedberg's disco-metal list because that's where I first heard of the ultimate disco obscurity "The Ultimate Warlord" (although I fail to hear the metal in it...same with "Shack Up").

ok, KJB - so what's all this about Death Angel then?

I dunno. Did I have a Death Angel story?

Slayer's probably better, but the adjacent King's X has to get SOMETHING...

hmm, i assumed you did. oh well, probably just my misunderstanding, as per usual.

xp

I'm actually torn between Reign in Blood and the Free album, and leaning toward Free.

that's a weird vertical slit choice. i mean it's cool that it's there, but that's a really weird record. i think maybe i'll vote for it. but then.. voting against sabbath or slayer is tough. then again, neither of those records are the artists' best.

so voting for teena marie when it gets to the top 50

um...too late...this is the last installment

oh wait i'll vote the byrds then

Wait, did I miss a lot of earlier polls on this? And "heavy metal"? The Byrds? Cooper's Pretties For You? Radio Birdman? And if this is 451-500, how did Slayer end up all the way down there?

signed

Confused in Peoria

I voted for the Swans, but then again I just had a heaping helping of veal challopini.

Confused, Chuck's definition of metal is inclusive and draws in (among other things) elements of both sound and feel/vibe/effect. I take issue with the breadth of his definition, but I can also dig where it's coming from a lot of the time.

That said, as a metal album, Reign In Blood eats every other album on this list for breakfast.

I think I need to add a solitary vote for Head Of David because Slayer is going to walk this.

Angel City, edging out 1994, Vertical Slit, Def Leppard, and Atomic Rooster.

Ones I wish I could hear again: Feedtime, Proletariat, Diamondhead, Head Over Heels, Head Of David, Flesheaters, Angus, Raszebrae, Miss Daisy.

Worth zillions of dollars if you can find it on vinyl or CD: Motorhome.

Oops...Actually, Montrose might be second best one up there, come to think of it. Or even the best.

Never cared about Slayer much.

tbh aldo, that's exactly the reason I voted Swans. If Reign doesn't win this one by a wide margin, I'm going to be shocked.

Voted Death Angel. Not their best record, but still pretty awesome, and nobody else is going to give them any love. Kill! As! One!

Voted Hendrix. Band of Gypsys is really important to me.

I was considering voting Montrose, but the problem with that album is, even though it's really good, it's always going to be second best to something else on the list.

Is the Free album all like "All Right Now"?

I was considering voting Montrose, but the problem with that album is, even though it's really good, it's always going to be second best to something else on the list i can't stand Hammy Sammy no way mo how.

fixed

mo how?

Sammy Hagar is awesome and you are wrong.

^^^does. not. compute.

Sammy Hagar is the Jimmy Buffett of hard rock.

this is a good thing?

It's a thing, anyway.

sammy was all right for a while, second-stringer but not without his charms. as a vh frontman he's a terrible failure imo but I am so personally disappointed in how a band that once seemed SO cool to me went on (under Hagar) to become, you know, awful, that I can't really put hagar's role to the side and evaluate it objectively because once that dude hopped on board things went stinkaroo real quick whereas dlr still had a little life left in him albeit not much but I'll take roth + vai over any non-roth vh, and now you know my feelings about the whole sammy hagar situation, I hope this was edifying.

sammy hagar believes that he is an alien abductee

I'm not really sure you can blame Hagar for Van Halen's downward spiral. It seems like Eddie was heading in the AOR direction anyway. As awesome as 1984 is, you can see the roots of "Why Can't This Be Love." What I mean by the Buffett comparison is that they have their hard-core fans and their hard-core detractors, but you can't deny that what they do, they do well, and they seem pretty easy-going and upbeat about everything. Also they like Hawaiian shirts.

Is the Free album all like "All Right Now"?

No. But it is the best album in the catalog.

This is a good list-I go with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath #1, with RIB and Montrose 2 and 2A

Good stuff: Cactus, Crimson, Hendrix, Rush, Grand Funk, the Byrds (??????????????????????)

Heh. Oh, good ol' ILX. Whenever I write a long reply with any consideration or thought put into it, it eats the comment. Whenever I snark stupidly, it gets through, sometimes doubled.

Anyway, the gist of what I said was that in looking through the other polls, it seemed odd that Chuck would include so much that's on the fringes of metal while ignoring so much within metal that's really touchstones for the genre.

I also mentioned, or meant to, how this could be because my learning to love metal came years, sometimes decades, after metal had been largely codified, whereas Eddy grew up with metal.

Still, it seems weird to have such an idiosyncratic view proclaimed as universal, especially when so much of what I've seen listed here (I'll check my library for the book) seems to be only the first few steps on that staircase, with quite a lot of milling about on the landing (if I might descend a metaphor).

Still, it seems weird to have such an idiosyncratic view proclaimed as universal

And where does it say that?

Other than in the entertainingly inflammatory title?

Yes, in my eaten comment, I said something like, "Eddy is probably being more tongue-in-cheek than I give him credit for."

the first few steps on that staircase, with quite a lot of milling about on the landing

I honestly have no idea what this means, but I'm intrigued by the theory. You should expand on it!

Oh wait, you mean early steps on the metal staircase, right? Duh. Well, the book came out a long time ago, for one thing.

so much that's on the fringes of metal while ignoring so much within metal that's really touchstones for the genre

Well, not all touchstones are good enough. But anyway, if I had waited til now to do the book, I have a feeling the definition of metal in it would probably be somewhat more conventional. Though that would probably make the book more boring, too.

personally, i think a whole heck of a lot of hand-wringing over what was/wasn't included therein could have been avoided had Chuck been willing to include a 25/50 most "overrated" HM Albums in the Universe chapter. but, hey, that's just me. (also, such a chapter would have presumably been funnier than shit.)

But even there, he could've listed something like Aerosmith: Pump and you'd still get people bitching about how it's not metal anyway.

well, yeah, but there's really no helping that, is there? bitches should just clam up and write their OWN DAMN METAL GUIDES!!!

voting vertical slit because i'm pretty sure the other ones i'd vote will have other votes. also their cover of "i remember nothing" is, literally, epic.

Well, really, I should just shut up and read the damn book. The library says they have it, so I'm going to go down there hopefully today.

Seeing the Amazon reviews that hated the book was the trigger, like, Oh, OK, a cheeky provocation to genre purists and an explication of the heavy metal attitude as it applies to all music, plus a fair number of hard rock bands that I've never heard of but would probably enjoy? Sure, why not.

mmmm Scratch Acid

reign in blood, but sugarshit sharp might be my favourite pussy galore - the einsturzende cover just slays.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Is there going to be a poll of all the (joint) winners?

not by me there isn't. besides, Maggot Brain would annihilate any competition in such a poll (i imagine).

You really think so?? I'm a big fan of Maggot Brain, but come on.

well, it did beat Paranoid in the first poll. so...

Not with my vote!!

I get a chuckle out of this expansive definition of "Heavy Metal" like most others do. But Maggot Brain has one bona fide metal song (Super Stupid) and one arguable one (the title track), that's it

somehow the byrds strikes me as the weirdest stretch.

a band's intent sound-wise should play a part in how the music is defined surely. it's a bit rich to redefine a movement and legacy based on how something sounds in the eye of the beholder.

but the Byrds did influence BOC. that's something at least.

surely theres a difference between a band liking another band and covering a song by them that sounds nothing like their own material and actually being musically influenced by them?

they were pretty obviously influenced by McGuinn's guitar sound/style.

Well, again, I'm not going to claim I'd include it if I redid the book, but that Byrds album is a double live job by a later (1970) lineup, with lots of psychedelic stretching out, including a 16-minute "Eight Miles High" that I connect in the review blurb with Husker Du. Also connect the band's cold unsmiling obsession with technology as such with prototypical metal...But yeah, they're still a stretch, no shit.

Also, who ever said I was defining a "movement"? Whether I did it right or wrong, I was defining a kind of music. Which isn't the same.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Hey Bill, the originators of heavy metal finally won! You must be pleased!!

ok sorry xhuxk, the term "movement" is a bit of a stretch on my part :)

I shoulda voted Molly Hatchett.

Finally, some justice.

There are times, usually only when I'm listening to it like earlier in the week, when I think SBS is the best thing Sabbath ever did. Granted, it's by far their least heavy offering, of any era, but the songwriting and performances are stellar. I love how it ends, the last three songs are perfect together.

... And Justice For Bill

if i had six sockpuppets you'd be seeing 1 vote for radio birdman, diamond head, alice cooper, atomic rooster, the scientists and "hell awaits."