| #71 |
"Iron Man" Black Sabbath Paranoid (1970) |
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| This is an absolute no-brainer -- how can this riff be omitted from a favorite metal song list? People might debate on which Sabbath album is their best, and I think I'd nominate Paranoid, it certainly features several of their most well-known songs. | ||
| #72 |
"Psalm 9" Trouble Psalm 9 (1984) |
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| Trouble already had a pretty healthy underground buzz going by the time they recorded their debut album (thanks to the tape-trading crowd), and they did not disappoint. Psalm 9, the album, is a classic, and so is "Psalm 9" the song, from one of my all-time favorite doom bands. | ||
| #73 |
"Am I Evil?" Diamond Head Lightning To The Nations (1979) |
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| Ah, Diamond Head, the Career That Would Not Be. These guys had everything going for them and everyone predicted superstardom based on this independent album, predictions that grew louder when the band signed to a major label. But even though their career didn't pan out as expected, there's still a slew of great songs on Lightning, none better than this, unquestionably the band's iconic moment. Further immortalized by Metallica years later (and one of a handful of songs that clearly shows from whom Metallica derived their early sound), it's just tremendous, with that biting pre-thrash riff and Sean Harris' soaring vocals leading the way. They re-recorded the song for their second album (Borrowed Time), but the original version is far better. | ||
| #74 |
"The Web" Neurosis Souls At Zero (1992) |
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| My first exposure to Neurosis is one of those events that every music fan experiences sometime -- walking into a record store (in this case, in San Diego), hearing an unknown band, and saying to oneself "What is this? This is cool -- I've got to buy it!". Neurosis has always lived on the outside of the metal mainstream, though I'd argue that Souls At Zero is, by comparison, probably a bit closer to traditional metal than their later works. | ||
| #75 |
"Pudding Time" Primus Frizzle Fry (1990) |
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| I know Primus is hardly the most metallic band on the planet, and often they're just too goofy for their own good, but I love them. Frizzle Fry is my favorite album of theirs, and several other songs from that album missed the cut. | ||
| #76 |
"Morning Glory" Grotus Brown (1991) |
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| Grotus was an odd band, hard to pigeon-hole, combining industrial influences with plenty of bass-heavy groove and a variety of interesting lyrical subjects. Several songs off their outstanding Slow Motion Apocalypse were list-worthy, but I chose this song off their debut album. Like a few other songs on this list, this is less traditional metal and more haunting mood. The spoken narration that opens the song (J. Robert Oppenheimer talking about how his research contributed to the construction of the atomic bomb (a similar quote also used effectively by Legend) sets the harrowing tone for the rest of the song (a quote I found on the Internet says it better than I could: "The image of mushroom clouds as flowering blooms is a rare poetic touch for Grotus ..."). I really wish this band had been able to stick around longer. | ||
| #77 |
"Capricorn" Motorhead Overkill (1979) |
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| Though not their first album, Overkill was where it really all started for Motorhead. And while they made their mark with the speedier tunes over the years, this slower, moodier song remains a favorite of mine. Several other songs from this album could have made this list, notably the title track and "Metropolis". | ||
| #78 |
"Die By The Sword" Slayer Show No Mercy (1983) |
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| The first Slayer track on this list is also the earliest. Show No Mercy isn't Slayer's best album, but like Metallica on their debut album (also released in 1983), these guys came out of the gate forging new ground on what would become the most prevalent metal genre of the decade and beyond. "The Antichrist", also from this album, barely missed making the list as well. | ||
| #79 |
"Mercenary" Torch Torch (1982) |
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| This band came out of nowhere in the early 80's, with a mean edge and a pretty heavy sound for the time. Not a very complex song, and perhaps a bit dated now, but I loved it at the time and I still think it stands up well. | ||
| #80 |
"Flyineye" Dismal Euphony Python Zero (2001) |
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| This song is just plain strange from a metal standpoint, especially the western-y acoustic guitar intro that sounds straight out of a Quentin Tarantino flick. Not at all a typical Dismal Euphony song, but that was one of the selling points the point of this odd band -- though their base sound was sort of a melodic black/gothic metal hybrid, they never repeated themselves over the course of four albums and frequently went off the tracks with songs like this one. The aforemention Western flavor pervades throughout the song, almost like a metal version of a Clint Eastwood movie soundtrack. I can't imagine that many would put this on a top songs list, but I personally think it's great. | ||