Thank you Sputnik
Before I joined this site, I was a naive teenager and thought I had great taste in music. Seriously, I was quite content with my limited collection of CD's that included artists like Metallica, Korn, System of a Down, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden. I was musically stagnant for a few years, clinging to albums by these bands and refusing to branch out. Sputnik quickly taught me the joy of finding new artists. Below is a list of my favorite bands that this site has helped me discover. When it comes to this website, I have a lot to be thankful for. |
| 1 |  | Anacrusis
Manic Impressions
Probably the very first band I stumbled upon when I joined up. I really enjoy Reason, Manic and Screams thoroughly. A big thanks to Willie for this one. |
| 2 |  | Annihilator
Alice in Hell
This band helped me get into more technical metal. Alice in Hell and Never, Neverland are their very best albums, but I also secretly enjoy King of the Kill immensely. |
| 3 |  | Coroner
Mental Vortex
This expanded on my fascination with technical metal. I have come to realize that they may be one of the best thrash bands of all time. I also like the direction they took on Grin a lot. |
| 4 |  | Overkill
The Years of Decay
Overkill may not be as technical as Coroner or early Annihilator, but they are one of the most consistent and honest thrash bands out there. |
| 5 |  | Sacred Reich
Ignorance
I thought this was one of the heaviest thrash albums I had heard until I listened to the one below. |
| 6 |  | Demolition Hammer
Epidemic of Violence
Seriously, it will kick your ass. |
| 7 |  | Testament
The New Order
I would say that these guys are actually more consistent than Overkill and are still going strong to this day. Their debut is a close second behind this one. |
| 8 |  | Razor
Evil Invaders
Somewhere along the way I became cool with old/rough production. This album helped me with that. So raw and heavy. |
| 9 |  | Artillery
By Inheritance
By Inheritance helped me get into more melodic sounding music, which eventually led to my discovery of power metal. |
| 10 |  | Blind Guardian
Imaginations from the Other Side
My love for Blind Guardian was almost instantaneous. I quickly devoured their discography, My top three from these guys are Imaginations, Nightfall and Somewhere Far Beyond in that order. |
| 11 |  | Gamma Ray
Land of the Free
After Blind Guardian I was hungry for more power metal. I decided to check these guys out and wasn't impressed with nearly every album leading up to Land of the Free. This one was on a constant loop in my house for days though. |
| 12 |  | Iced Earth
Burnt Offerings
Due to my obsession with thrash, this band was a no-brainer. They play a thrash/power metal hyrbid style and this album shreds hard. |
| 13 |  | Savatage
The Hall of the Mountain King
Kind of along the same lines as power metal, these guys were 80's as fuck, with a more classical approach to metal. |
| 14 |  | Exodus
Fabulous Disaster
I almost forgot! Although I wasn't impressed with their debut immediately, Fabulous Disaster made me an instant fan. |
| 15 |  | Forbidden
Twisted into Form
This should have gone with the technical thrash albums. This one was 5'd for a little while. |
| 16 |  | Opeth
Blackwater Park
After listening to nothing but thrash and power metal for about a year or so, I decided to try some heavier music. I was never really into death metal vocals, but the instrumentals drew me in and eventually I grew fond of Akerfeldt's vocals. This album blew me away and Opeth quickly took over my life for a while. |
| 17 |  | Ne Obliviscaris
Portal of I
Fresh off of Opeth, this album dropped at just the right time for me latch on to it. The similarities between Opeth and Ne Obliviscaris can be debated, but the transition made sense to me. |
| 18 |  | Enslaved
RIITIIR
2012 was my favorite year in music. The above album and RIITIIR really made me want to check out more death and black metal. So far I have yet to find a band that matches up to Enslaved within the black metal genre, but I think that it's because they are more into the viking scene than sataning. Enslaved quickly become one of my favorite bands of all time and I'm still going through their long and consistent discography. |
| 19 |  | Death
Symbolic
This seemed like the best place to really start within the death metal genre, and oh boy was I right. |
| 20 |  | Windir
Likferd
I just recently checked out these guys, hoping to find a band similar to Enslaved. Instead I found a promising band with their own Identity and I'm digging this album. |
| 21 |  | Agalloch
Pale Folklore
This site was at one point obsessed with Agalloch, so I decided to give them a try the other day. Still jamming this now and I'm thinking that this album might just be 5 worthy, but it's too early to tell. |
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