26. Candlemass - Solitude (Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, 1985)
The cod-Latin title of Candlemass’s debut album said it all: Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Where American doom as purveyed by contemporaries Saint Vitus and The Obsessed reeked of biker bars and nasty speed, the Swedes offered a more grandiose Northern European update of the original Black Sabbath template. As founder/bassist Leif Edling told Metal Hammer, “We wanted to make doom metal of epic proportions.”
Solitude very much lived up to that billing, its mix of slo-mo musical grandeur and lyrical, I’d-be-happier-dead desolation (actually inspired by nothing darker than a world-class hangover) sparking a strain of metal that was as ambitious as it was agonised. Woe never sounded so uplifting. DE
27. Megadeth - Peace Sells (Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? 1986)
Not content with helping invent thrash when he was still a member of Metallica, Dave Mustaine then went on to reinvent it with Megadeth. The monumental almost-title track of their second album rose above the perpetual chaos of the band’s drug-addled existence at the time, slowing the genre’s 100mph fury down to a hypnotic groove, then lacing it with a furious, combative lyric that took aim squarely at an establishment that looked down on people like Dave Mustaine. ‘Whaddya mean I don’t pay my bills? Why do you think I’m broke?’ spat MegaDave.
At a time when hard rock’s attempt at protest music extended no further than a brickie in make-up yelling ‘We’re not gonna take it!’, this was stark social commentary. MTV certainly thought so – they used a snippet of the song to soundtrack their news bulletins, legitimising Megadeth, and by extension thrash, as the sound of metal’s thrilling future. DE
28. Slayer - Angel Of Death (Reign In Blood, 1986)
Ensuring no taboo went unviolated, Slayer forced us to learn about the vilest excesses of real-world horror, describing the evil human experiments conducted by Nazi scientist Josef Mengele. Before Angel Of Death, metal’s monsters were ancient myths or backstreet prowlers, but guitarist Jeff Hanneman’s unflinching lyrics spawned Cannibal Corpse’s exhaustingly baroque catalogue of death and torture, and Carcass’s medical gore, plus a regrettable raft of edgelords getting it wrong.
Additionally, with that bridge riff - sampled to a wider audience by Public Enemy’s She Watch Channel Zero - Jeff invented the groove breakdown. It’s Jeff’s song, but drummer Dave Lombardo’s contribution also urged metal to new levels of manic intensity with his lightning-speed double bass break, inspiring a trend for relentless metronomic kick blasts well into the 90s. CC
29. Napalm Death - Scum (Scum, 1987)
With their debt album Scum, Napalm Death pushed the frontiers of noise back further than anyone could have ever imagined. The line-up that recorded this two-and-a-half minute grindcore landmark – singer/bassist Nicholas Bullen, guitarist Justin Broadrick and drummer Mick Harris – took in a disparate set of influences (Swans, Killing Joke, Siege, Metallica) and spat them out as something that was filthier, faster and bleaker than anything that had come before.
The mainstream world was baffled and/or repulsed by its seemingly impenetrable din, but over time its revolutionary racket became fused into metal’s DNA, in the process helping establish Earache Records as one of the most influential underground labels in history. Today, any band who profess to be remotely extreme owe a massive debt to Scum. DE
30. Voivoid - Killing Technology (Killing Technology, 1987)
Voivod’s journey from rudimentary punk-thrashers to intergalactic prog metal travellers took just three years. The opening track to the band’s third album, Killing Technology was another piece in a musical and conceptual puzzle that was slowly beginning to take shape.
Piggy’s upper register chord-slashing and morose progression dragged thrash metal kicking and screaming into the 23rd century. Away’s restless drumming style made safety-pin-through-cheek punks out of King Crimson and Hawkwind. Snake delivered what was arguably his finest vocal performance, accenting his cautionary cybernetic tale with all the fervour of a maniac acting out a one-man play. With vocoders. Suddenly, metal stopped gazing at its white hi-tops and started looking starwards. KSP
31. Anthrax - I'm The Man (I Am The Law B-Side, 1987)
When Anthrax joined forces with Public Enemy on 1991’s Bring The Noise, it was seen as a serious collision between worlds. But while the track brought hip hop and metal together, it wasn’t the first song to do it. It wasn’t even the first Anthrax song to do it, for that matter. That honour goes to 1987’s I’m The Man, a jokey single B-side that walked just the right side of spoofing the genre (Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian was an authentic admirer of hip hop).
But as drummer Charlie Benante told Songfacts in 2013, the track wasn’t so much a piss-take as a planned collaboration with the Beastie Boys that fell through. “It’s a scheduling thing,” he explained. “We just never got it together because they were fuckin’ boom! Blowing up. So we ended up doing it.” Bring The Noise may grab the headlines, but this is where rap metal started. RH
32. Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine (Appetite For Destruction, 1987)
Welcom e To The Jungle was nastier and Paradise City more anthemic, but Sweet Child O’ Mine was the song that turned these feral Sunset Strip street rats into the biggest rock’n’roll phenomenon of the 80s and beyond. Where the rest of Appetite For Destruction stalked LA’s grimy underbelly, this glorious not-quite ballad presented Guns N’ Roses as bad boys with broken hearts.
Axl Rose’s yearning vocal was given a leg up by that immortal Slash riff – one part wail of despair, one part cry of euphoria – before it pulled a 180˚ turn halfway through: ‘Where do we go now?’ howled Axl, no longer the wide-eyed Romeo, as the music shifted urgently under him. Where previous singles had played to the hard rock gallery, this busted things wide open, giving Guns their first (and only) US No.1 and propelling Appetite to 30 million-plus sales. Rock’s new era of dominance had begun. DE
33. Living Colour - Cult Of Personality (Vivid, 1988)
Cult Of Personality is the stanchion for ridiculously catchy riffing, deep-pocket groove, thought-provoking lyrics (and a prescient sign of how humanity learns fuck-all from the past), the power of immediacy (it was written in one rehearsal), commercial success and racial acceptance in the ordinarily lily-white world of heavy metal.
It’s also the home of one of the craziest solos this side of NY’s downtown jazz scene. In fact, that’s where guitarist Vernon Reid honed his chops, and to hear him violate the song’s brilliant ear candy with chromatic discord, unanticipated bends, Echoplex shred and cock rock whammy bar dives is still a mind-bending trip. KSP
34. Helloween - Eagle Fly Free (Keeper Of The Seven Keys Pt. II, 1988)
It’s astonishing how ahead of its time Eagle Fly Free still sounds. Hamburg hotshots Helloween had already cornered the market in jubilantly supercharged Teutonic Maidenisms, but for the curtain-raiser on their breakthrough release they cast an industry-standard power metal template in iron.
Symphonic backing tracks, relentlessly exuberant double bass drumming, emotional top notes, stirring sugary hooks, the obsession with eagles… the whole rulebook was chiselled from these five glorious minutes. An enigmatic, philosophical anthem flirting with social angst, singer Michael Kiske has noted this as a favourite to sing live, where the audience is often in tears at the song’s surging motivational force. CC
![Helloween - Eagle Fly Free (United Alive 2017) [Full HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cwBpgobasqI/maxresdefault.jpg)
35. Bathory - A Fine Day To Die (Blood, Fire, Death, 1988)
Fresh from helping to define the first wave of black metal, Bathory mastermind Quorthon once again tore up the rules and almost single-handedly established Viking metal as a genre. He would plunge even further on subsequent albums, but it all started on A Fine To Day To Die, the eight-minute-plus centrepiece of Blood Fire Death.
It featured a more epic and atmospheric approach, while retaining a blackened sense of aggression that would influence bands like Enslaved, Watain and everyone who has ever fantasised about pillaging an English monastery. Quorthon was also delving into his Scandinavian roots – the start of a journey that would eventually continue through metal-adjacent Nordic folk bands like Wardruna and Heilung. PT
36. Ministry - Stigmata (The Land Of Rape & Honey, 1988)
No one who heard the bouncy funkpop of Ministry’s debut album, With Sympathy, in 1983 could have foreseen Al Jourgensen’s subsequent transformation into the Dark Lord Of Industrial Metal. But Stigmata – the opening track on their button-pushing third album – was where the Ministry we know and love today were born, and with it a distorted new strain of noise where metal met electronic music.
Its tight riffs and claustrophobic, mechanised sound provided a seed of inspiration for everyone from Trent Reznor (who fashioned his own, sleeker version with Nine Inch Nails) to Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell (who was inspired to embark on his music career after hearing the song). But no one did it quite so filthily as this. RH
37. Sepultura - Inner Self (Beneath The Remains, 1989)
'Walking these dirty streets with hate in my mind / Feeling the scorn of the world, I won’t follow rules.’ We’ve all been there, Max. Sepultura’s first video clip, which featured heavily on MTV’s Headbangers Ball, Inner Self saw this sainted line-up emerge as standard bearers for the South American scene, representing Brazilian passion and ingenuity like the heavy metal Pelé.
Inner Self’s themes of urban alienation and nonconformist selfempowerment struck a resounding chord with a generation of young, disaffected working class headbangers, who quickly came to see these blossoming Brazilian thrashers as their relatable champions. The discreetly ambitious and sophisticated structure took in a variety of tempos and atmospheric quirks, although it was received most gratefully as a compulsive procession of pugnaciously direct ‘keelar reefs’. CC
![Sepultura - Inner Self [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8wL8GjSeo3M/maxresdefault.jpg)
38. Morbid Angel - Chapel Of Ghouls (Altars Of Madness, 1989)
Bursting open with that stabbing lead riff and metal’s catchiest torrent of blasphemies, Chapel Of Ghouls was an early landmark song for death metal. Committed to tape on multiple demos in 1986, the precocious proficiency of its irresistible hooks and structural nous provided early evidence of true musical ingenuity in this scattershot subgenre.
Opening the Floridians’ aborted 1986 debut album Abominations Of Desolation, its eventual placing on Altars Of Madness as track one side two always felt like a printing error, such was the compulsive immediacy of its attack. Pete Sandoval’s performance here raised the bar for superhuman athleticism in metal drumming, just as Trey Azagthoth’s did for extreme guitar wizardry. The haunting choral synth melody, and priest-crushing lyrics, anticipated some crucial black metal tropes, too. CC
39. Faith No More - Epic (The Real Thing, 1989)
Faith No More bounced onto the scene with 1987’s single We Care A Lot (itself a re-recorded and buffed-up version of a song from two years earlier). But it was Epic that turned these San Francisco mavericks into alt metal trailblazers. New vocalist Mike Patton offered percussive, rap-style vocals against anthemic choruses that helped the band nail a radio sensibility their original, Chuck Mosley-led incarnation lacked. “Things were changing,” drummer Mike Bordin told Metal Hammer in 2019. “We were insinuating ourselves into the mainstream, taking up the charge from bands like Metallica.”
This new guard also featured the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction, but Epic beat them all to the punch, bagging heavy MTV rotation when it was released as a single in early 1989, inadvertently acting as a precursor to the rise of nu metal half a decade later. SH
40. Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole (Pretty Hate Machine, 1989)
For much of the 80s, industrial music was a wilfully confrontational collision of abrasive electronics, mutant dance music, white noise and the occasional squalling guitar. It took Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails to imbue the genre with a hook-laden pop sheen and push it into the mainstream.
Head Like A Hole was an instant industrial anthem and a precursor to the nihilistic 90s that were on the way. It turned the awkward, introverted Trent into a reluctant crossover superstar, an icon for the dark and depressed, while also inspiring the industrial metal boom of the early 90s. But, even beyond that scene, the fact it’s been covered by everyone from AFI to Miley Cyrus is proof of the breadth of influence and the seemingly neverending longevity of the song. SH
41. Godflesh - Like Rats (Streetcleaner, 1989)
There was a long way to go before Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick and G.C. Green perfected the sound they themselves created, but their debut album, Streetcleaner, found the pair zeroing in on their unique presentation and style, and getting a handle on what was possible and where they wanted to go. And, by the sounds of opening track Like Rats, that was through a portal to a molten, industrialised Hades that apparently opened up on a destitute and abandoned Midlands factory floor.
Despite it being one of the more pessimistically funereal and downcast entries of the Godflesh oeuvre (the hip hop-influenced beats are absent), and brimming with pained vocals, mechanised flourishes and abusive guitar discord, it set the stage for the introduction of a specifically British strain of industrial music to metal’s lexicon.
42. Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing (Ritual De Lo Habitual, 1990)
The voice that introduces the song that invented the 1990s wasn’t a human one. It belonged to Annie, a dog picked up from a rescue centre by Jane’s Addiction singer Perry Farrell. It was Annie’s rhythmic barking that ushered in their 1990 single, Been Caught Stealing, the song that sparked the alt rock revolution.
Been Caught Stealing and its parent album, Ritual De Lo Habitual, brought the left-field into the mainstream, positioning these LA boho drug-monkeys as pied pipers for a wave of bands that followed. Been Caught Stealing put a sideways spin on the funk-rock sound that the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s themselves had helped pioneer. DE
43. Alice In Chains - Man In The Box (Facelift, 1990)
If the likes of Nirvana, Mudhoney and Soundgarden had punk rock flowing through their veins, then Alice In Chains represented the metal wing of the Seattle scene. Man In The Box was as thick as molasses, taking a riff that would have done Black Sabbath proud and slathering it in fuzz and talkbox guitars, the latter reportedly inspired by producer Dave Jerden hearing Bon Jovi’s talkbox-intro’d 1986 megahit Livin’ On A Prayer on the radio when heading into the studio. That was as close as Man In The Box came to anything remotely uplifting.
Propelled by the success of Man In The Box, the band's debut was certified Gold (for half a million sales) on September 11, 1991 – the first grunge album to reach that status. Two weeks later, Nirvana released Nevermind. While Cobain and co. would undoubtedly have done well anyway, the path was certainly cleared by Man In The Box. RH
44. Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (Cowboys From Hell, 1990)
The early 1990s was a tricky time for metal, but Cowboys From Hell introduced the one band that would keep the scene roaring through this turbulent period dominated by grunge and alt rock.
“A lot of thrash bands are sort of limited in what they can do, and we always felt our musicianship allowed us to do more… the groove thing was something we didn’t want to lose,” Vinnie Paul said of the band’s transformation from glam metal to something altogether gnarlier. Pantera would have a huge influence on metal in general, but the pummelling grooves first introduced in this song would be particularly evident in the slab-heavy riffage of such later pugilists as Lamb Of God, Devildriver, and Five Finger Death Punch. PT
![Pantera - Cowboys From Hell (Official Music Video) [4K Remaster] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/i97OkCXwotE/maxresdefault.jpg)
45. Paradise Lost - Gothic (Gothic, 1991)
Throughout the 80s, metal and goth were two distinct and separate tribes, each one suspiciously eyeing the other. It wasn’t until Paradise Lost released Gothic in 1991 that it became clear what a perfect fit they were for each other. Paradise Lost’s first album had been grimy yet conventional death-doom, but with follow-up Gothic they embarked on a mission to crosspollinate – or maybe cross-pollute – these two worlds. Its opening title track placed gothic rock and church organ-inspired lead melodies in doom metal, and contrasted Nick Holmes’ death growl with an angelic female vocal. Its impact was almost instant.
Spearheading the trio of bands that became known as the Peaceville Three alongside Anathema and My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost became key architects in shaping the direction of European metal as a whole in the 1990s. But their very specific fusion of goth and metal could be heard in everything from Nightwish’s gothic grandiosity to Him’s sultry doom-pop. It’s strange today to think of a metal landscape that never embraced The Sisters Of Mercy or Depeche Mode, while the sound Paradise Lost pioneered with Gothic remains a source of inspiration for bands from Unto Others to Zetra. PH
46. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nevermind, 1991)
With four power chords and a hurricane of drums, Nirvana changed everything. The Seattle band’s 1991 breakthrough single-handedly defined the direction of popular music, capturing the teenage angst of a generation and putting grunge on the map. The entire hair metal scene, which had owned mainstream rock for a decade, was rendered irrelevant pretty much overnight, and when Nirvana’s second album, Nevermind, landed mere weeks later, it kicked Michael Jackson’s Dangerous off the top of the Billboard chart.
“Nirvana didn’t go to the mainstream,” bassist Krist Novoselic would later declare. “The mainstream came to Nirvana.” Alternative music has collided with the zeitgeist many times since, but nothing has turned the world on its axis like Smells Like Teen Spirit did. DL
47. Skyclad - The Widdershins Jig (The Wayward Sons Of Mother Earth, 1991)
Few knew what to make of Skyclad initially. Formed by Martin Walkyier, formerly singer with UK pagan-thrashers Sabbat, their blend of metal with fiddle was a novel USP, but The Widdershins Jig was a boldly eccentric leap in the early 90s, when dystopian modernity was hot. As the perky piccolo unfurled its rustic trill over a rolling 6/8 rhythm, and the atmosphere took on a medieval village green vibe, it was clear Skyclad were frolicking in a world of their own.
Ten-15 years later, a European folk metal scene would come alive in force, a carnival of hobbits, trolls and troubadours jigging around a dedicated circuit of pagan festivals. Every one of them owe this jaunty ditty a colossal debt, for blazing the trail in a hostile landscape. CC
48. Body Count - Cop Killer (Body Count, 1992)
Metal and hip hop had made great strides towards each other when Body Count arrived on the scene in the early 90s, but the idea of legitimate gangsta rap pioneer Ice-T launching a full-blown metal band was still unexpected. Released in March 1992, Body Count’s self-titled debut album was a chugging, brutal slab of aggro that drew from metal, hardcore and thrash.
What separated it from other similar albums was Ice-T – this master hip hop storyteller spat out vivid, often OTT lyrics filled with brutal tales of gang warfare, sexual promiscuity, drug abuse and death. Yet there was one song that stood out above them all: Cop Killer. The chorus – ‘Cop killer, fuck police brutality’ – left no doubt as to the source of its rage.
It showed that metal still had the ability to become public enemy number one and be seen as a genuine threat to those in power. Even more importantly than that, it proved that there was a place for Black voices and experiences within our scene. Were it not for Cop Killer’s influence, it’s hard to imagine we would have the revolutionary work from the likes of Fever 333, Zulu, Backxwash and many more. SH
49. Sleep - Dragonaut (Sleep's Holy Mountain, 1992)
In the 1980s, plenty of underground bands built their sound on a mix of Iommi-worshipping riffs and heavy drug consumption, but it wasn’t until the early 90s that it fully crystalised into a legitimate scene. In 1992, Californian trio Sleep released their second album, Sleep’s Holy Mountain, and opening song Dragonaut was crucial in perfecting and distilling stoner rock.
Guitarist Matt Pike’s blissed-out opening riff is joined by a hypnotic groove, and bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros’s woozy call to leave the human race behind by riding dragons toward the crimson eye. At the height of alternative rock’s domination, it felt genuinely unique to embrace the classic traditions of early heavy metal and psychedelic rock in this way. Dragonaut would forever become the Rosetta Stone for a strain of mystical stoner doom for legions of weed-worshippers to follow.
50. Neurosis - To Crawl Under One's Skin (Souls At Zero, 1992)
The opening track of Neurosis’s third album was an incendiary rite of transformation – both for the Oakland, California quintet themselves and anyone caught in its blast radius. Their sound was a progressive yet strain-atthe-leash take on hardcore punk, but here, an ominously tolling bell, a slew of sampled endtimes proclamations, chainsaw riffs and tribal drums became the tension-ramping prelude for a cataclysmic and revelatory new vision of enraged-Earth protest.
With Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly’s vocals sounding like they had erupted from a subterranean fissure, and all hell breaking loose around them, it was the seething birth throes for the entire post-metal movement, brewing DNA that Cult Of Luna, Amenra and countless other bands are still drawing from three decades on. JS
