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The Norwegian black-metal scene has been so fundamental to the development of metal in the past 20 years that it can’t be overstated. 40? That should be in the top 10-it’s one of the most influential metal albums of all time. There are a few solid black-metal albums on here, but Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas sits at at No. Other variants of metal are mostly gestured to here with one or two slots. It’s also got a healthy representation of nu-metal (Korn, Slipknot, Deftones, System of a Down), which is the predominant contemporary subgenre on this list, for better or worse. This list is very obviously geared heavily towards heavy metal and thrash, which is fine. That said, here are a few (abridged) points of my own. I’m already looking forward to meeting my friends at the bar, where I will undoubtedly hear about which obscure, contemporary French black-metal bands or little-known English prog-metal groups from the ‘70s weren’t on this list. There’s already been an explosion of critical reflection among the metal community- Metal Injection approves of the list, while MetalSucks does not-but the fact is that with any list like this, people are going to be mad, because everyone stands partial to their own favorite genres and albums.
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But, as any metalhead will notice, those weren’t the only bands left out of this list. It all seems well thought-out, its introduction containing a rather convincing argument about why bands like Led Zeppelin, Cream, AC/DC, Kiss, and Alice Cooper were left off. It covers many of the bases, and an overwhelming amount of legacy-level metal is included. Most of the list’s more recent albums are tacked onto the lower 50, and especially in the bottom 20. In fact, only four records in the top 50 were made after the year 2000: Ænima, System of a Down’s Toxicity (2001), Mastodon’s Leviathan (2004), and Slipknot’s Iowa (2001). Case in point: The most recent album in the top 25 of their 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time list* is Tool’s Ænima- from 1996. As paradoxical as it sounds, one could argue that that the greatness of metal, for Rolling Stone, is very much in the rear-view mirror. They didn’t quite seem to get it when it started (see above) now, they recognize it as a meaningful historical phenomenon, in spite of the fact that they don’t cover it as often as rock, hip-hop, or indie. Rolling Stone has a complicated history with metal. They even have discordant jams with bass and guitar reeling like velocitized speedfreaks all over each other’s musical perimeters yet never quite finding synch - just like Cream! But worse.” - from Lester Bangs’ zero-star review of Black Sabbath’s 1970 self-titled debut, published in Rolling Stone, September 17, 1970 “ Over across the tracks in the industrial side of Cream country lie unskilled laborers like Black Sabbath, which was hyped as a rockin’ ritual celebration of the Satanic mass or some such claptrap, something like England’s answer to Coven….