Your Top 5
Your Top 5 was born out of my love of music and reading and the book and film High Fidelity. Each week, I ask a new guest to give me their top 5 tracks, albums or artists relative to a topic.
I am not always a fan of broad strokes, however, this week’s top 5 I just spat out “heavy metal artists” to my esteemed guest, Chris Zappa of the “mother of all music newsletters”, Zappagram. Like he notes, it is hard to winnow this one down because of so many genres and sub-genres of metal. As I always say with these things, the only rule is that there are no rules. So, if there is a band that critics consider “metal” like Ghost, then sure why not—even though they fall more into the glam rock or arena rock sound with a metal disposition. Anyway, I will stop blabbing and bid you to read on!
Chris Zappa’s Top 5
I was honored when Christopher asked me to participate in his ongoing Top 5 series by writing a guest post on the topic of my five favorite metal bands.
Admittedly, I knew it would be a challenge—not because I don’t have favorite metal bands, but because I knew I would have trouble narrowing the list down to five. Through much anxious struggle, I’ve barely managed to accomplish this task, though I am going to include a short list of honorable mentions that I’d be remiss for not briefly touching on.
I wish to preface this list by saying that I struggled with something I personally find more annoying than helpful, and that is how a band is labeled by genre. Categorizing music by genre is one thing, and doing so based on sub-genre is another. However, in the end, it was the wide umbrella of the sub-genres that saved me, as my picks bounce all over the place, from classic metal to gothic metal to industrial metal and so on.
Without further adieu, I present my top five metal bands for your consideration.
There was no way I could compile such a list without starting at the beginning, where most would agree that metal itself started—with the fathers of heavy metal: Black Sabbath.
It was necessary to include Ozzy along with the band itself for a couple of reasons. First, my musically formative years were during the heyday of Ozzy’s solo career—Diary Of A Madman, Blizzard Of Oz, Bark At The Moon, The Ultimate Sin—these albums were my introduction to the Prince of Darkness, and without falling in love with him through these albums, I don’t know that I’d have been led directly to Black Sabbath.
Furthermore, I’m one of those pesky opinionated fans who believes that Black Sabbath ended when Ozzy left the band. It’s undeniable that Ronnie James Dio and company made some brilliant music, but I view Black Sabbath as being all about the specific vibe created by those four original members, and both their sound and aesthetic was especially defined by Ozzy’s presence in the band.
As I see it, the entirety of the genre that would later become known as heavy metal was defined by the first song on the first Black Sabbath album, the triple-eponymous, self-titled trifecta song name that is “Black Sabbath.” After all, it’s a pretty ballsy move to name the song after the name of the album which is also the name of the band. Whether anyone else has ever done this would make a great topic for another piece. And the fact that the central riff of the song famously makes use of what is known in music as a diminished fifth interval, a dissonant sound known for creating musical tension, also known as “diabolus in musica” (the devil in music,) tells you all you need to know about the ominous tone the band would become known for with classic songs like “Ironman” and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” and, perhaps my favorite, “War Pigs.”
Most metalheads would agree that Black Sabbath gave the emerging genre of metal its sense of menace and raw power, paving the way as dark architects for future generations of bands hellbent on the same musically ominous mission.
AC/DC was, undoubtedly, amongst the earliest pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal with their driving riffs and pulsing rhythms, and with not one, but two of the greatest vocalists in the history of metal—Bon Scott and Brain Johnson.
AC/DC channeled the primal essence of rebellion, not with the dark mysticism of a band like Sabbath, but with a uniquely electrifying display of raw power, unapologetic sexuality, and brazen defiance.
I became enamored by the band’s grittiness early on when Bon Scott was still howling and growling out some of their earliest and best-known songs like “Let There Be Rock” or “Highway To Hell” or, my favorite from that era, the cheeky “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.”
Soon after Scott’s death in 1980 of acute alcohol poisoning, the band replaced him with Brian Johnson who, like Scott, had the same sort of I-just-gargled-with-whisky-and-broken-glass voice that had come to define the band’s previous work.
A more perfectly fitting replacement than Johnson could not have been found, nor could they have crafted a more suitable comeback album than the career-defining, hit-laced Back In Black which offered up some of the band’s finest work to date with songs like the title track, “Hells Bells,” and “You Shook Me All Night Long.”
Throughout their legendary career, AC/DC unleashed an astonishing eighteen studio albums, numerous live recordings, and forged the blueprint that countless metal bands would follow in their wake for decades to come. Like all of the music on this list, it commands listening at the loudest volume possible.
I was discovering punk for the first time when I found Danzig, and I came to him through his first band, the Misfits. Their horror-themed brand of punk spoke loudly to angsty early-teenage-me and I was hooked when I heard “I Turned Into A Martian” and “30 Eyes” off their debut album Walk Among Us. I always remembered Bedtime For Democracy by Dead Kennedys as being the first album I ever bought with my own money, and I’m pretty sure the second was Walk Among Us.
However, unbeknownst to me at the time when I found them, the Misfits had broken up, and their lead singer Glenn Danzig had already started his own band, simply and aptly named, Danzig.
Danzig’s music would prove to be decidedly more metal than punk, and much darker too, leaning into an almost bluesy-metal vibe replete with a heavily gothic-metal edge which, to the best of my knowledge, hadn’t been done before. Like many, I was roped in by “Mother” which remains their most well-known song, though some of their other songs like “Twist Of Cain,” “Her Black Wings,” “Long Way Back From Hell,” and “She Rides” remain popular favorites among the Danzig-devoted.
Danzig wasn’t about flashy rebellion or superficial angst. Rather than screaming for attention, Danzig moreso demanded a reckoning with the darker, heavier side of existence.
Like the rest of the world, I was introduced to NIN by “Head Like A Hole” off their debut album Pretty Hate Machine and even then I knew that Trent Reznor was a force of nature to behold. Music like this was wholly unlike anything else that had ever come before. It would eventually come to be known “industrial metal” and, at the time, I couldn’t have imagined anything better.
I would have to wait four years until the next Nine Inch Nails album, but the wait was worth it as it ended with the release of the earth-shattering masterpiece The Downward Spiral which blew my then twenty-year-old mind. It was so loud and intense, so…industrial. Rather than sounding like something crafted with instruments, it sounded as if it had been made with saw blades, and welded together with sparks flying and smoke everywhere.
In retrospect, NIN sounded like the next logical step in metal’s evolution, almost like something that was haphazardly riveted together in a factory rather than carefully crafted in a recording studio. Unlike, say Danzig, which admittedly I don’t listen to very often anymore, NIN have continued to put out albums over the last thirty years which still draw me in as a listener though they are far more mellow than they once were. Something that stood out to me years ago, and still does, is the fact that you can listen to a NIN song a hundred times, and you’ll hear something new each time. Trent Reznor is a master of mixing and re-mixing and re-re-mixing, and that likely contributes to the fact that his music has consistently evolved and remains relevant to this day.
Listening to Nine Inch Nails has always felt less like hearing a collection of songs and more like an exploration of one’s own demons and inner chaos. This was music that presented a bitterly honest confrontation with the pain, self-doubt, and ugliness we all feel yet struggle to hide or simply ignore. There's something almost therapeutic about listening to NIN, like peeling back layers of your own psyche and staring at the mess underneath, but it’s not just about the darkness—it’s about finding some kind of release in it, a sense of purpose and clarity admidst the chaos.
I saved the best for last.
However, that being the case, it’s just now occurred to me that while TOOL has been my favorite band for more than thirty years, I’ve never written a single word about them. Perhaps that’s because their music is so powerful, and so commanding of attention and emotion, that I’ve subconsciously felt intimidated by the idea of writing about them.
It’s up for debate who, but someone once famously said that, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”—the idea being that neither of those things makes any sense.
TOOL is not just a band. TOOL is a transcendental experience. The band’s sound is a marriage between raw, primal force and technical precision. Each of the four band members are unrivaled when it comes to their musicianship, but those distinct parts form a vastly greater whole, and the sum of said parts is almost superhuman. With regard to TOOL’s music, there is at once a sense of spirituality and a complete lack thereof.
I’ve been a fan for long enough to know that only those who are TOOL fans can understand what I’m trying to say here. When it comes to TOOL, it’s very much a case of “if you know, you know” and those who don’t will likely be turned off by the fanatical proselytizing fans like me are guilty of. After all, the only thing a TOOL fan likes more than listening to TOOL is talking about TOOL.
Try listening to “46 & 2” or “The Grudge” or “Schism” or “Parabola” or “Ænema” or “Jambi” or “Pneuma.” If the music connects with you, you’ll never be the same after it touches you. Look for recurring themes of growth, struggle, and the chaos of existence in TOOL’s music, but it’s not all doom and gloom. More so, it’s like being guided through the dark to find something deeper—maybe not answers, but at least new perspectives.
TOOL’s music doesn’t just ask you to listen—it challenges you to think, to confront that which makes you uncomfortable and, ultimately, to evolve.
Honorable Mentions
At the outset, I disclosed the difficulty I experienced in narrowing my list of metal favorites down to a mere five bands. Other favorite bands of mine which perhaps should have placed on the list include: Mötörhead, Slayer, Metallica, Melvins, Ministry, and Alice In Chains—all of which are essential listening for music lovers of all kinds, not just the metalheads.
I could write volumes about these honorable mention bands and my deep love for their music, but at some point even the most verbose writers and voracious readers need to turn the page and close the book.
In Conclusion
From my birth into the world of metal with Black Sabbath to my eventual maturation with TOOL, I think that metal has represented different things for me at different times in my life, but underlying it all, is a sense of rebellion—against authority, against tradition, against the constraints of conformity. I’ve always had a deeply rebellious streak and metal called for me to embrace that side of myself.
Metal represents a rebellion not just in sound, but in spirit. Metal is all about the defiance and rejection of societal expectations.
With Black Sabbath, it was an awakening—a recognition that music could be dark, almost dangerous and sinister, yet philosophical at the same time. As my understanding of music evolved, bands like TOOL came along and helped me take the angst and rebellion of metal and transform it into something more introspective.
After all, at its molten core, metal has always been an expression for the internal struggle we feel—a mirror of sorts to hold up and examine not just the darkness, but also the light within us.
It’s in that balance between darkness and light, chaos and clarity, dark riffs and heavy rhythms, where metal finds its power, and where we as listeners find a sense of connection—both to the music and to ourselves.
My Top 5
This was HARD. As I am typing this I kept wondering why I didn’t narrow the scope a bit. I guess for starters I can get the Honorable Mentions out of the way: Black Sabbath1, Dio, Black Label Society, Lamb of God, CKY, Rage Against the Machine2, TOOL, Metallica, and Gojira.3 I mean this list can go on and on.
I could write an entire series of my love for Iron Maiden, but since there is only so much space to write here, I will be brief. Like a lot of fans of my generation, I first heard “Number of the Beast” and was instantly hooked. From there is was just consuming as much as possible.
My collection of Maiden albums on vinyl is an embarrassing number, both official releases and bootlegs. I even have some fancy Japanese pressings with the OBI strip. A good metal band, or any kind of rock band, has to have a signature theme or personality. Maiden, of course, has their mascot, Eddie, and has one of the most talented, and a little bombastic, front men in all of metal and rock in Bruce Dickinson. No disrespect to Paul Di’Anno, but Dickinson’s work with the band is the most memorable.4
My friends and I used to cruise the town in my Buick with the system (ok the stock speakers) cranked with “Raining Blood” blaring for all of my small northeastern Pennsylvania town to hear. I could never and still cannot play guitar like Kerry King, but his virtuosity is part of the reason I started to play in the first place. So when I was a teenager, I listened to a lot of Slayer. That’s right, me, a product of Catholic school!
In 11th grade my English teacher assigned a group project wherein we were to act out or record portions of Beowulf. Well, when Grendel makes his entrance during the initial battle, my friend can be seen in the shot playing the opening riff to “Raining Blood.” Probably the coolest way I ever got an A in my life.
System of a Down is one of those bands that is just too good to keep making records. I don’t mean “too good” as in they are stuffy dipshits, I mean, they put out such great work and sometimes the well just runs dry. Despite much of their music being colored with a political brush, like Rage Against the Machine, probably did not want to be pigeonholed too much and could probably still crank out some bangers about our current garbage fire of world affairs, but I can live without more albums. All of their albums, particularly the self-titled debut and Toxicity still slap and always will. As a side note—Mesmerize is infinitely better than Hypnotize and I will not be taking questions on that.
The fathers of so-called groove metal! If it weren’t for Dimebag Darrell’s guitar prowess and once in a lifetime tone, I don’t think they would have ever been that successful. I have tried and tried, but I cannot replicate the guitar on “Walk”. You can buy as much fancy equipment and dial in whatever on your amp or pedal board—there is no way to recreate it. My friend and I used to try our best to imitate Darrell’s playing on “Cowboys from Hell” too, but to no avail. Incidentally that was another track that was blasted from my Buick whilst blasting through town on a Friday night.
I know Dave Mustaine is a mercurial and boneheaded dipshit, but in the Metallica vs. Megadeth camp, I am firmly in the latter. Thank god Metallica kicked Mustaine out—because if that never happened we’d probably never get the vast breadth of work that Megadeth has put out the last 30+ years. Like Iron Maiden, great tunes, unique mascot, and brash outspoken front man. It’s a foolproof formula. I came to Megadeth much later than the previous bands discussed here, and I can’t believe it took me that long! Much to the chagrin of my wife, I am often bumping my Megadeth/Iron Maiden playlist—my daughters, 8 and 4, enjoy rocking out to it though.
Another Top 5 in the books, folks! I hope this topic garners the same amount of discussion as prior weeks. Let us know your top 5 in the comments!
I respect the innovators and they aren’t on my list because Chris did an excellent job in his portion.
Rap metal is a real genre that I chose to exclude here despite my love of RATM.
Who I never really listened to until I saw that Olympic performance—I fully admit my bandwagoneering.
Some disrespect to Blaze Bayley whose tenure as front man is pretty forgettable.
 | A guest post by
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What... Wait a second here, only five?
I guess the real question here is, do I stay mainstream, go to Fringe genres or just throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks?
1. Iron Maiden
2. Queensryche
3. Dream Theater
4. Saxon
5. Diamond Head or Motorhead
I have personally measured the unattributed claims that the first album by Astra lines up with events as they occur in the geriatric sci-fi movie Cocoon. I can report that the most pleasingly confluence between the music and the events taking place on-screen happens during the fifteen minute title track, The Weirding, during the first slowly unfolding chorus, that comes around with a similar frequency to Halley's Comet. The line: “take my place in the human race” segues up almost perfectly with a woman named Kitty taking off her human disguise to reveal her true nature as a creature of pure energy and light. On the second, and currently final, album by the band – The Black Chord – there is a song titled Cocoon. It is entirely possible that the purpose of Astra's existence was as a tribute to the film. Musically they take their cue from the slower and introspective moments in the Black Sabbath canon. Imagine Planet Caravan drawn out into a series of instrumental passages in which electric guitar seasoned with flute and moog synthesiser progressively explore the unfathomable mysteries of the cosmos.
Metal at its most progressive doesn't necessarily have to aspire to the length of an ice age. Take for example Diabolical Masquerade – the one-man side project of Anders Nyström, whose day job is guitarist in the Swedish heavy metal band, Katatonia. Of note is the project's fourth and final album, Death's Design, a playful and inventive record, billed as a soundtrack to a movie (there is no movie). Over the course of 43 minutes, a sequence of 61 intriguingly-titled tracks, divided into 20 movements, explore a variation of styles while providing insight into what Guided By Voices would have sounded like, if they had chosen to head in a metal direction. Despite the absence of an accompanying film, there are strong soundtrack elements – the deep rumbles of bass piano spliced with jagged shards of synthesised violins on 'Don't Listen To What It Says', or 'A Hurricane Of Rotten Air' – 19 seconds of guitar squall and electronic squelch, interrupted briefly by a back of the throat gurgle. Some of the relatively longer tracks rise to the level of short songs. The broken mechanism in reverse of Spinning Back the Clock graduates to a few lines of anthemic folk metal before it dies away and returns reformed in the guise of guttural black metal.
When I am feeling down, I will sometimes listen to a clip from the Opie and Anthony show where the former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, calls in and the comedian, Louis CK, spends ten minutes repeatedly asking him whether he is a lizard person; a question that Rumsfeld declines to answer. Snakes For The Divine by High On Fire explores very similar territory through the energetic medium of heavy, uptempo powerchords, Des Kensel's avalanche drum fills, and a chorus let out on a long leash. Matt Pike, who doubles as the driving force behind the band Sleep (authors of the hour-long stoner rock classic Dopesmoker) has a vocal style that is strongly reminiscent of Lemmy from Motorhead – an influence to whom the band pay posthumous tribute on their album Electric Messiah. Whatever tempo they play at, there is always a sense of relentless onslaught at the heart of High On Fire, perhaps most notably on King Of Days which throws down the gauntlet with the none more metal opening couplet “a psychopath has found a sight and a way to be the king of days” and concludes with the sound of war drums.
The creative spirit of the late AxCx frontman, Seth Putnam, could not be quietened by a coma, induced, in part, by his consumption of a two-month supply of Ambien, nor could it be contained within the body of work of a single band. To wit, 'Howard is Bald' – an album/EP released under the AxCx moniker, but very much a solo effort, in which the De Vinci of grindcore performs a suite of songs focusing entirely on the baldness of Earache Records employee, Howard Wulkan, over a tape of disco classics that he certainly had no right to use. It is on the side project, Impaled Northern Moonforest, billed as a critique of acoustic black metal, that we see Putnam at his most incarnate within the genre. A release schedule governed by the whims of an all-powerful necro-wizard has left us with barely ten minutes worth of songs – an unholy baker's dozen – but what songs they are. Among them, Grim And Frostbitten Moongoats Of The North; Lustfully Worshiping The Inverted Moongoat While Skiing Down The Inverted Necromountain Of Necrodeathmortem; and Grim and Frostbitten Gay Bar. What does it sound like? Putnam flawlessly mimicking the icy wind of the necrotrundra while a hillybilly (possibly also Putnam) who has taken all the trucker speed he could lay his hands on manically strums an out of tune banjo over a Scandinavian goblin who rants blasphemies in Biblical tongues. Elsewhere, there is some reflective church organ, the notes warping slightly around the edges, then the infernal banjo again, this time accompanied by somebody violently beating their head against a tambourine. When they made Putnam they used the mold as a chamberpot, then they broke it.
The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton, as documented in the lo-fi Mountain Goats song of the same name, were sadly put to an end before their time: A duo formed of kindred spirits, Jeff and Cyrus, who were yet to decide on a name, but who were convinced that fortune and fame loomed large in their futures. In the song, their ambitions are brought to a premature end when Cyrus is sent to a school where he is told he will be never be famous, while his friend Jeff develops a plot that will allow the pair to get even with their tormentors.
“When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don't expect him to thank or forgive you,” counsels John Darnielle, before a consolatory closing chorus of “Hail Satan!”