While 1987 woke me up to metal and I hoovered up the likes of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Helloween’s keepers, 1988 was my metal heyday and a year that produced albums that would still dominiate my top 20 list today. Lots of power metal and plenty of Noise Records!

1.Manowar - Kings Of Metal

2.Scanner - Hypertrace

3.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

4.Candlemass - Ancient Dreams

5.Riot - ThunderSteel

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Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Crimson Glory - Transcendence (Power/Prog)
Megadeth - So Far, So Good... So What? (Thrash)
Pestilence - Malleus Maleficarum (Death/Thrash)
Manowar - Kings Of Metal (Power)
Exodus - Fabulous Disaster (Thrash)
Saint Vitus - Mournful Cries (Doom)

1.Death - Leprosy

2.Slayer - South Of Heaven

3.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

4.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

5.Iron Maiden - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son

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Thrash may not be my favorite metal subgenre but it's one of them. There have always been thrash albums I always get back to with great pleasure and I am usually happy when thrash veterans get back with great music.
I say not a thrasher because I am stuck in the past, as it's easily to be seen in the list, new bands have not impressed me much, especially when they predictably wear their influences on their sleeves.

1.Kreator - Terrible Certainty

2.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

3.Slayer - South Of Heaven

4.Annihilator - Never, Neverland

5.Death Angel - Act III

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Erm... sorry Dave... >.>

1.Slayer - Reign In Blood

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Kreator - Pleasure To Kill

4.Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

5.Sodom - M-16

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Updated 14.4.2024

My rather personal and improvised take on the subject matter. The list is pretty wage, I'll be updating it a lot and the order might vary a little depending on some things, but they're all great and awesome records no matter what. If there are some great records missing, that doesn't necessarily mean I consider them bad, maybe I just forgot about them or just haven't listened to them enough to consider them personal favourites.

Limited to metal and rock albums found on Metal Storm. Most of them (at least 90%) are anyway, so doesn't matter. The absent ones are mostly more pop and synth oriented stuff and some really obscure jazz and fusion albums.

1.Marillion - Marbles

2.Anathema - Weather Systems

3.Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time

4.Moonsorrow - Voimasta Ja Kunniasta

5.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

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1.Death - Leprosy

2.Coroner - Punishment For Decadence

3.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

4.Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime

5.Ministry - The Land Of Rape And Honey

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1.Agent Steel - Unstoppable Force

2.Annihilator - Alice In Hell

3.Anthrax - Among The Living

4.Artillery - By Inheritance

5.Baphomet - The Dead Shall Inherit

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1.Demolition Hammer - Epidemic Of Violence

2.Nuclear Assault - Survive

3.Sodom - Better Off Dead

4.Voivod - Killing Technology

5.Coroner - Mental Vortex

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1.Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare

2.Metallica - ...And Justice For All

3.Slayer - South Of Heaven

4.Razor - Violent Restitution

5.Morbid Saint - Spectrum Of Death

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1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare

3.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

4.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

5.Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

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Full Lengths Only

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

3.Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare

4.Slayer - Reign In Blood

5.Exodus - Bonded By Blood

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RANKING CRITERIA :

1. Originality

2. Songwriting

3. Vigorous performance

1.Anacrusis - Screams And Whispers

2.Overkill - Feel The Fire

3.Nuclear Assault - Game Over

4.Wrathchild America - 3-D

5.Toxik - World Circus

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1.Slayer - Reign In Blood

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?

4.Exodus - Bonded By Blood

5.Overkill - The Years Of Decay

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I consider myself very lucky to have grown up, not just on the West Coast of the United States, but right in the heart of one of history's great metal scenes--the San Francisco Bay Area. So many awesome memories from so many incredible local bands, with other acts from all over the world regularly passing through as well. Time to memorialize in no particular order.

1.Anthrax - State Of Euphoria

2.Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II

3.Exodus - Fabulous Disaster

4.Testament - The New Order

5.Voivod - Nothingface

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These are just what I consider to be the 25 BEST thrash metal albums ever produced. These are all studio albums. In no particular order

1.Megadeth - Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!

2.Metal Church - The Dark

3.Anthrax - Among The Living

4.Evildead - Annihilation Of Civilization

5.Sacred Reich - Ignorance

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