The 20 Greatest Metal Albums in History: The Complete List
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8. Sleep
Holy Mountain (1993)
If you are going to name your record after one of the trippiest films of all time, you have to be prepared to deliver a seriously mind-altering experience. San Jose stoner metal pioneers Sleep rose to the challenge on their 1993 genre masterpiece, Sleep's Holy Mountain. The colossal riffage begins with the deceptively groovy "Dragonaut" and from there on out one's ears are offered only the briefest of respites. When Sleep chooses to turn the volume down, as on the 48 second bluegrass interval titled "Some Grass," it is only to prepare the listener for the next pummeling assault.
-Emmett Shoemaker
7. Black Sabbath
Master of Reality (1971)
Black Sabbath deliberately down-tuned for their third effort, Master of Reality, which would become the very ore from which all gloomy, doomy and drudgy metal is mined. Crafted for altered mindstates, this is the band at their stoniest. Prickly critics of the time (notably Bangs and Christgau) failed to see this as the one of ghosts of metal future, despite the act's forward-thinking techniques and fiercely honest outsider attitude. And, yes, there is even cowbell. -Paul Bradley
6. Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath (1970)
Fittingly released on Friday the 13th, Black Sabbath's eponymous 1970 debut spawned heavy metal as we know it. Brooding, satanic, and deeply bluesy, Black Sabbath contains some of the group's best and darkest material. The title track in particular, which incorporates a dirging tri-tone interval, church bells, and Ozzy Ozbournes's impassioned, damnable wailing, is frightening even by today's standards. While the Ozzman's harmonica work on "The Wizard" may have aged less gracefully, the album remains unstoppably heavy, an unparalleled classic. -Emmett Shoemaker
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