Albums are the bread and butter of music appreciation, the mighty Long Player endlessly celebrated in myriad permutations; much less attention is paid to the LP’s petite stepsister, the Extended Play single. It’s an enduring format, frequently perfect for introducing an exciting new band and sound to the world, or as an experimental testing ground for musicians to try out new ideas and directions. Far too often, however, EPs end up falling through the cracks in otherwise acclaimed discographies, a lower priority for fans, labels and media alike. Here we rectify that injustice, by presenting the 50 greatest metal EPs of all.
Def Leppard - The Def Leppard EP (1979)
The 80s took them in different directions, but at the 70s’ end these Sheffield teens were as forcefully rambunctious as any young contenders spearheading the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. This self-financed three-tracker proved their versatility and ambition, explosive headbanger Getcha Rocks Off counterpointed by mystical epic The Overture.
Iron Maiden - The Soundhouse Tapes (1979)
Maiden’s legendary demo was only recorded to get gigs, but London DJ Neal Kay quickly found the manic surge of Iron Maiden and Prowler filling his rock club dancefloor with delirious headbangers. A word-of-mouth legend was born; demand was so high the demo was pressed to vinyl to satiate die-hards.
Discharge - Why (1981)
Greatest Punk EPs is a whole other list, but these Stoke oiks had an incalculable impact on metal’s future with this head-caving 14-minute ten-tracker. The bleak brutality and aggro intensity of much-loved major ragers like Ain’t No Feeble Bastard and Maimed And Slaughtered lit the fuse that exploded as thrash.
Mercyful Fate – Mercyful Fate (1982)
Introducing their occult power to the world with lurid flair, these deadly Danes courted controversy with boobs on the sleeve and a chorus proclaiming “C-U-N-T, that’s what you are...”. Yet the precociously adept musicianship and arrangements, plus the forcefully unique vocal presence of King Diamond, made this one paradoxically classy EP.
Queensrÿche – Queensrÿche (1983)
The Seattle craftsmen ended the 80s a global phenomenon, but their gleaming potential was instantly clear from this assured opening shot. US metal took many great leaps forward in ’83, but this revelatory four-tracker set new levels of proficiency and refinement. Queensrÿche are currently touring this EP in its entirety.
Hellhammer - Apocalyptic Raids (1984)
Few bands ever polarised opinion as sharply as Tom G Warrior’s pre-Celtic Frost cacophonists. Coughing up this ugly, primitive, outré racket, revelling in oppressive darkness, festooned in spikes and bulletbelts, this OTT Swiss trio were reviled by metal’s mainstream, but worshipped by a mushrooming underground movement of morbid noise freaks.
Slayer - Haunting The Chapel (1984)
Epochal face-ripper Chemical Warfare, sadistic singalong Captor Of Sin and the merciless title track were surely the most intense metal songs ever written at this point. Beating a path to Hell Awaits but with a masterfully evil intent of its own, HTC was where Slayer truly seized the thrash crown.
Destruction - Sentence Of Death (1984)
Destruction ratcheted the whirlwind speed and crazed intensity on this immaculate six-track debut, while also conspicuously upping the ante bulletbelt-wise. The first true German thrash record, but manic blurs like Total Desaster, Mad Butcher and Devil’s Soldiers further splattered all-new concepts like black and death metal up the wall.
Helloween - Helloween (1985)
Goofy intro notwithstanding, this spunky five-tracker heralded the noble birth of a German institution. Hamburg’s power metal pioneers burst onto the scene with vigorous exuberance, twin guitars fused in jubilant harmony, galloping neck-wreckers like Victim Of Fate and Murderer raising the bar on speed metal’s ‘Iron Maiden at 500mph’ ethos.
Saint Vitus - The Walking Dead (1985)
Amid contemporary manias for speed, thrash and glam, LA downer hippies Saint Vitus were freakishly unfashionable. Yet both side one tracks are wild, primitive rockers reminding us that we’re on Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn’s label, SST. The title track, however, is creepy psychedelic stoner zombie apocalypse doom par excellence.
Melvins – Melvins (May 1986)
First appearance on record of the name Kurdt Kobain, cited as one of the ‘people we can’t ever forget’ on Melvins’ pre-Nirvana debut. With this Washington trio’s dirty, heaving guitars and alienated outsider attitude, both the grunge movement and the sludge scene audibly owe this humble seven-inch a colossal debt.
Possessed – The Eyes Of Horror (1987)
Jeff Becerra’s hoarse growl found new shades of anguished expression here, Possessed capping their 80s legacy on a commanding high. Expanding and sharpening the Bay Area thrashers’ ragged bludgeon was producer Joe Satriani, inspiring future Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde to giddy new heights of orgiastic leadwork and high-speed riff shredding.
Metallica - The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited (1987)
We’ve prioritised original material on this rundown, but of course there’s one glorious EP that doesn’t need a single new tune to rule. Still reeling from Cliff Burton’s death, the Metallicats retreated to the garage to break in a new bassist, heal, bond, recharge and reinvent six impeccably chosen covers.
Godflesh - Godflesh (1988)
Justin Broadrick’s disaffected barks, howls and dissonant chords, GC Green’s body-buckling, uranium-weight low-end grooves, shattered by harsh mechanical beats; Godflesh conjured a new doomed vision of industrial Birmingham on this seminal half-hour debut. All the duo’s signature sounds, strengths and innovations were instantly manifest here, industrial metal’s harrowing year zero.
Napalm Death - Mentally Murdered (1989)
Napalm’s much-loved Dorrian/Steer/Embury/Harris line-up fell apart even before this coruscating valediction was pressed to vinyl, capturing the Brum grindcore pioneers in radical flux. Here the volatile chemistry that supercharged 1988’s From Enslavement To Obliteration LP was honed, focused and pointed into crunchier, more metallic dynamics and tighter, sharper arrangements.
Suffocation - Human Waste (May 1991)
90s Floridian death metal didn’t bother much with EPs. Suffocation’s vinyl debut is an honourable exception, the multiracial New Yorkers launching their distinguished career with perhaps the genre’s finest exemplar. Although overshadowed by the ensuing Effigy Of The Forgotten LP, first impact was made here, imperiously brutal but viscerally raw.
My Dying Bride - Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium (1992)
Warlike death metal ravaged by Gothic doom melancholia; these five Yorkshiremen made an instant impression on the underground with this florid one-song twelve inch. Aaron’s antiquarian poetic pretensions brought literary profundity to extreme metal, sending first responders like Dani Filth and Ville Valo scurrying back to their Eng Lit schoolbooks.
Cathedral - Soul Sacrifice (1992)
The true game-changer for these much-missed UK doomlords, artfully bridging the gap from the debut’s monolithic morosity to their subsequent spacey lollop. These four songs hit their own little goldmine, edging towards classic Black Sabbath but sounding entirely Cathedral, ex-Napalm Death vocaliser Lee Dorrian intensifying the trippy weirdness with idiosyncratic panache.
Tool - Opiate (1992)
The sainted LA quartet’s cerebral, grungy alternative prog-metal is here stripped raw in its earliest incarnation, back when Tool were still good at channelling real human emotions into their music. Still arguably the band’s heaviest release, there is some precociously quirky, enigmatic essence rising up among the very 1992 grooves.
Nine Inch Nails - Broken (1992)
When NIN’s label demanded Trent Reznor make another bedsitter synth-pop record just like 1989’s fashionable debut Pretty Hate Machine, all the bandleader’s feelings of frustration and rebellion got vomited into this much darker, heavier, noisier half-hour follow-up. Partly recorded at a Manson Family crime scene, Broken was a transgressive threshold.
Entombed - Hollowman (1993)
You’re spoiled for choice with killer Entombed EPs. Crawl, Stranger Aeons and Wreckage all rule, but Hollowman caught the Stockholm 4 audibly having fun carving out transitional new pathways. After establishing themselves at the pinnacle of Sweden’s death metal mountain, Entombed realised they’d rather be Motörhead; cue the death’n’roll boom.
Earth Crisis - Firestorm (1993)
Crystallising the coming together of thick, metallic riffs and brutalising breakdowns that hardcore had been flirting with for years, Firestorm laid the foundations for the metalcore boom that'd eventually dominate the scene come the turn of the millennium. It all started (and some would argue peaked) right here.
Emperor - Emperor (1993)
Appropriately, Gustav Doré’s 1865 engraving of Death on his pale horse became an ominous harbinger of an alarmingly radical new sound and subculture. Straightaway Emperor loomed with imperious dominance over the burgeoning black metal pack on this haunting, hypnotic debut, torn open by ice-cold evergreen I Am The Black Wizards.
The Third And The Mortal Sorrow (1994)
Proving that evil violent noise wasn’t the only sound emerging from Norwegian woodland circa 1994, Sorrow was a quietly ground-breaking debut. Arty, mystical gothic doom with 70s prog/folk influences, fronted by Kari’s beautifully clear, entrancing voice; this beguiling Trondheim sextet’s set-up became ubiquitous years later, but none bested the OGs.
Cradle Of Filth - V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein (1996)
A contractual obligation to a label they’d taken to court, Cradle summoned all their resentment and scorn to bang out this vituperative high watermark of British black metal, “a ritual comprised of six parts and having a duration of forty minutes.” For many, Cradle never equalled V Empire’s decadent, ravaging allure.
Sigh - Ghastly Funeral Theatre (1997)
Avant-garde Japanese tricksters Sigh had already injected their colourful eccentricity into the elitist strictures of black metal; with this EP, they fled strictures altogether, fomenting a collision of sounds and styles that was entirely, madly their own. The occult mystique remained at full pelt, but gone deliriously wonky and woozy.
Mayhem - Wolf's Lair Abyss (1997)
The Norwegian BM instigators’ return to the studio, four years after guitarist Euronymous’ murder, was among the most anticipated releases of 1997, a difficult time for the genre. The revitalised quartet threw down a massive gauntlet to doubters, unleashing 20-odd minutes of delightful merciless ravening blitzkrieg, executed with newfound proficiency.
Lacuna Coil – Lacuna Coil (1998)
A potent mixture of Paradise Lost and All About Eve, the Italian sextet’s debut revealed an outfit with a precocious degree of class and taste, ready to take melodic gothic metal to the masses. Cristina’s voice was immediately the trump card, but the backing tracks have a captivating atmospheric chill.
Electric Wizard - Supercoven (1998)
Documenting frontman Jus Oborn’s experiences of reading HP Lovecraft on acid, Supercoven contained just about the meanest, scuzziest psych doom ever written, crackling with possessed stoner caveman energy. Bad News drummer Spider Webb once imagined a “record so heavy you couldn’t get it off the turntable.” This is that record.
Within Temptation - The Dance (1998)
Coming 18 months after Within Temptation’s debut album Enter, The Dance’s doomy riffs, guttural growls and gothic ambience sound a world away from the super-polished symphonic metal they now plough, but it remains a gorgeous little release in its own right and a fascinating look into their early days, glimpses of their arena-sized ambitions occasionally bursting through the gloom.
Primordial - The Burning Season (1999)
A distillation of Primordial’s most epic impulses, this overlooked four-tracker raised a curtain on a period of febrile creativity for Eire’s finest sons. Reasserting their black metal spine with imperious cruelty, while integrating the folky goth nuances of 1998’s Journey’s End LP, Primordial gained a new lease of life here.
Dillinger Escape Plan and Mike Patton - Irony Is A Dead Scene (2002)
1998 EP Under The Running Board was more revolutionary, but only seven minutes long. Getting on for 22, this collaboration was better value for money, an artfully bonkers vision in dissonant mathcore grind-funk, DEP’s hyper-methodical madness rendered faintly more accessible with a big-name singer and a punishing Aphex Twin cover.
Baroness - First (2004)
On their vinyl debut Baroness’ big bag of riffs audibly burst at the seams, the Georgia prog-sludge crew pelting the listener with quirky licks, punchy chords, mad runs, heroic harmonies and memorable phrases. The Second EP was no slouch either, but these peachy-keen bruisers hit the ground running first time.
Bring Me The Horizon - This Is What The Edge Of Your Seat Was Made For (2004)
On the evidence of this debut EP’s caustic, corkscrewing ADHD deathcore skronk, few would have predicted that the still-teenaged BMTH were future Download headliners in the making. Nevertheless, the Sheffield quintet brought a volatile chemistry and sense of fun to a subgenre that they did more than most to popularise.
Job For A Cowboy - Doom (2005)
The Arizona deathcore saviours’ debut CD crystallised all the genre’s best original features: spitting squeals, belching growls, old-school DM blasts, lurching breakdowns, high-tensile riffs and beats chopping and changing with hyperactive fervour. Some bandmates were in their teens, but they’re all vigorously nailed-in, these six tracks fizzing with youthful vitality.
The Devil’s Blood - Come Reap (2008)
Don’t tell Tobias, but this century’s most transgressive, inspired occult rock sorcery was conjured by Dutch brother/sister team Selim and Farida Lemouchi. TDB’s blazing potential was instantly clear in these diamond-hard hip-swinging grooves, radiating spell-cast time-warp magick. TDB split in 2013; tragically, Selim took his own life a year later.
Power Trip - Armageddon Blues (2009)
Making the rest of the late-00s thrash revival look like cosplay, Power Trip’s furious punk metal on this debut was distinguished by a guitar sound that rips at you through the speakers. Elevating the Texas ragers to another level were the forceful, despairing human pipes of much-missed frontman Riley Gale.
While She Sleeps - The North Stands For Nothing (2010)
In the aftermath of Bring Me The Horizon and Architects putting British metalcore on the map, While She Sleeps brought a sense of gritty earthiness to the scene with this modern classic, powered by thoughtful and socially conscious lyrics. And backed by big, fuck-off riffs and breakdowns, of course.
Crossfaith - Zion (2012)
After making a few splashes in their homeland with debut album The Dream, The Space, Japanese metallers Crossfaith officially announced themselves to the world with this breathless, relentlessly entertaining EP. Mashing together glitchy, propulsive EDM and explosive metalcore, Zion’s sheer energy was only bettered by the band themselves, who quickly established themselves as one of modern metal’s most vital live bands.
Beartooth - Sick (2013)
As metalcore continued to dominate mainstream metal through the early 2010s, this absurdly catchy collection of emotionally fraught anthems positioned Beartooth as the scene’s next big breakout band. That the whole thing was entirely written, recorded and produced by Caleb Shomo showed that the ex-Attack Attack! man had far more in his arsenal than we’d ever realised.
Myrkur - Myrkur (2014)
Amalie Bruun’s jump into black metal was a shock for anyone who’d been following her career to that point, but with Myrkur she proved the dark side suited her immensely. With doom, folk and shoegaze influences peeking through, Braun’s first release under her new moniker showed that the underground had a new creative to keep an eye on.
Venom Prison - Defy The Tyrants (2015)
Bringing a guttural, hardcore edge and cliché-flipping lyrical bent to their brand of brutalising death metal, Wales’ Venom Prison took all of 16 and a half minutes to confirm that they were one of the most visceral and exciting British metal bands of their generation. Incredibly, they got even better from here.
Ghost - Popestar (2016)
The four brilliantly realised covers that form the backbone of Popestar were reason enough for celebration, but the inclusion of original composition Square Hammer was a colossal flex in showing just how far Tobias Forge’s songwriting chops had come. It remains an all-time great heavy metal banger and will surely stay in Ghost’s sets forevermore.
Sleep Token - Two (2017)
Moving further towards the slinky, groove-heavy brand of smooth modern metal that’d make them one of the most hyped heavy bands of the 21st century, with Two Sleep Token merged irresistible hooks with towering riffs to confirm that they were quite unlike anything else around them at the time. They still are.
The Fever 333 - Made An America (2018)
Many thought Jason Aalon Butler had made a colossal mistake by bringing the brilliant Letlive to an end. Then we heard The Fever 333 and their scintillating mixture of metallic riffs, thrusting hip hop and slick hooks. Butler, clearly, still had plenty to say - and he’d found the perfect vessel.
Green Lung - Free The Witch (2018)
Countless bands have channelled the greatness of Black Sabbath across the last five decades of heavy metal, but few in recent years made such an emphatic statement of intent as Green Lung did here. The Londoners proved that as well being able to pen massive riffs for fun, they also knew the art of writing a truly great song.
Idle Hands - Don't Waste My Time (2018)
This twenty minute five-tracker was our first glimpse of the Portland goth/metal sensation now known as Unto Others. An astonishingly assured debut, precociously attaining the optimal melodic and emotional sweet spot between ‘80s gothic rock and ‘80s heavy metal, each joyous guitar solo, riff and harmony suffused in cobwebbed gloom.
Zulu - Our Day Will Come (2019)
Part of a new generation of hardcore bands righteously remoulding the genre’s DNA into new shapes, LA ragers Zulu’s first release was the brainchild of frontman Anaiah Lei, who served up a scintillating platter of scything, metallic hardcore riffs. The brief sprinklings of jazz and dub music hinted at the greatness that was to come.
Heriot - Profound Morality (2022)
After years in the underground, Profound Morality was the moment that Heriot smashed their way into metal’s wider consciousness, courtesy of an enthralling mixture of doom, grindcore, sludge, industrial and atmospheric post-metal, all condensed into one amazing melting pot of noise.
Spiritbox - The Fear Of Fear (2023)
Proving that instant-classic debut album Eternal Blue was no fluke, Spiritbox produced a wonderful collection of songs that built on their shimmering brand of djent-indebted metalcore while never sacrificing their ability to write huge riffs, ear wormy choruses and colossal hooks.
