MacabreEternal

Ufomammut - Idolum

Cathedral - Forest Of Equilibrium

Metallica - Master Of Puppets

Aeon - Aeons Black

Metal is very much like a first love. Growing up metal was the first music I listened to and actually enjoyed and identified with, I had all these anti this and anti that ideas floating in my head and metal spoke my language. Largely it's appeal has nothing to do with whether other people listen to it or not - I feel no camaraderie or collective conscience with other fans that's not what I look for. I do flirt around with other genres (mostly classical and jazz) but I always come back to metal.

I think this is true and from reading it I thought of one obvious benefit to once popular genres fading - the real fans stay around. The genuine music lover who utilises music as an expression of their feelings and takes it with them wherever they can as an accompaniment will stick with their chosen genre regardless of its popularity. Also I agree with your point about the quality of an artists music governs their longevity or popularity.

Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

Hit the record shop whilst away yesterday and picked up a collectors edition of Holy Diver (didn't really want a collectors addition just a physical CD copy to replace my scratched one) and Children of Bodom's "Follow The Reaper" which to my mind is their only decent effort. Ironically the purchase of CoB brought conversation from the store staff at how great they were - erm hello guys I have a copy of Holy Diver in my hand too which is far superior and important to the genre of metal as a whole but we are not even mentioning it?

The problem with music as a whole (and this is not specific to any one genre) is peoples cause for interest. The mentality bred by TV talent shows has killed the magic of music for fans and artists alike. Nobody appears interested in the music anymore, more about the story of the person behind that music. Millions of people watch X-Factor to see grown ups cry on TV in front of them - they care fuck all about the music and only have interest in artist for the duration of the tv programmes current series. Gone are the days when a band's reputation was enough to draw new fans and encourage people to go out looking for new music. Music has become too accessible in the wrong format. To a point all music needs to be underground to be appreciated as originally intended. Shows about fake promises and dreams backed up by sob stories and human interest sympathy tales are going to kill all music.

Dio - Holy Diver

I did a search and was surprised to find only a limited number of mentions for Nuclear Assault in the Thrash section? Anyway I will put that right with a thread just for them. Only the first three albums are of any merit for me "Game Over", "Survive" and "Handle With Care" with the latter being the weakest of the bunch. "Game Over" is probably my favourite with its traditional thrash approach with bursts of near grind like instensity, with their tongue in cheek approach they break up the album nicely (check out "Buttf**k" for a random slice of brilliance). "Survive" is fucking awesome too but I rarely see it get the credit it deserves with "Game Over" seemingly mandatory listing as a classic on most forums. "Handle With Care" gets bad rep, some deserved, some not. "Critical Mass" is a monster of a track though - but the brilliance of the first two records is lacking overall by album number 3. We can also thank Dan Lilker for the mighty Brutal Truth of course which is another thread altogether. Seems Anthrax's loss after "Fistful Of Metal" was Nuclear Assaults gain. Any other Nuclear fans on here?

Nuclear Assault - Game Over

Wait till I start spamming about my Swingers Cruises around the Med. I'll put you all to shame. p.s jus kiddin!

Ufo - ufo1

Enslaved - Axioma Ethica Odini

Megadeth - Endgame

Endgame is already present in my collection. I think it contains some of Megadeths best work in some years. It's no "Peace Sells..." but for the time in their career it's a perfectly solid release which I imagine would have brought a few new fans to their sound. Mustaine and Broderick's lead work is great on this album (see "44 mins") and having Sneap handle production duties pays off well (better than United.. anyway)

Dekapitator's "Storm Before The Calm" is great purely unoriginal thrash metal - their previous release isn't as memorable but "Storm.." is just great fun. Two members of Exhumed were/are involved I think?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]521[/ATTACH] It's cold up North.

Devourment - Conceived In Sewage

Immortal - Pure Holocaust

Hey Nimbo - welcome.

Can't get to grips with anything that doesn't have Halford on it. Owens isn't my favourite vocalist anyway he grates a bit on me lugholes. I just find Jugulator to be a half cooked attempt at groove metal which didn't come off. Each to their own though.

Toss up between Screaming.., Sad Wings.. and Stained Class. Went for Screaming... in the end. Jugulator is terrible btw. The thing about Painkiller is not only is it a great JP album it's also a fantastic metal album, one that kicked the arses of several other releases in 1990 (1990 was a good year release wise - Rust In Peace, Seasons In The Abyss, Cowboys From Hell, Left Hand Path...)

Morbid Angel - Blessed Are The Sick