Secret tracks, sometimes also called ghost tracks, unlisted tracks or hidden tracks, are songs or audio pieces that were left off the track list of an album.

The easiest way to hide a secret track is providing the space for a distinct track that is just not listed on the back cover. However, there are also other possibilities:

Multisided records are vinyl records that have more than one groove per side. Therefore, double-grooved LPs can contain the secret track in the second groove.
Moreover, some vinyl records contain audio in the locked groove, which is usually silent and used for keeping the needle from drifting into the label area.

Compact discs may contain secret songs in the pregap of a track. Therefore (depending on the CD player), the secret track is not played automatically, but has to be manually back-scanned to be started.

In general, secret songs are often placed at the end of the final track, which contains the listed song and the unlisted audio separated by some minutes of silence.

Enhanced CDs may contain tracks that are not recognized by regular CD players but can only be detected as multimedia files by a computer.

In rare cases, two tracks have to be played simultaneously in order to either complement each other or to suppress distorted parts, resulting in a reconstructed song.

In general, there seems to be a trend that fewer secret tracks are produced for new releases. Moreover, re-issues of older albums often contain formerly secret tracks as listed bonus tracks or omit them entirely, especially for digital versions of the album.

Please feel free to suggest more examples of secret tracks on metal/hard rock albums.

1.Acid Bath - Paegan Terrorism Tactics

2.Anthrax - Volume 8: The Threat Is Real

3.Anthrax - We've Come For You All

4.Anthrax - Worship Music

5.Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

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Limiting my picks to one album per band (otherwise it would have been a much larger list), here are my top 50 favorite metal albums of all time including my favorite track for each album:

1.Stratovarius - Episode

2.Angra - Angels Cry

3.Helloween - Better Than Raw

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

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my ranking of the Big 4s Full-Length albums
Near the bottom , the rankings get a bit more 'interchangeable' because I can't be bothered to specifically discern the difference between turd flavors

1.Slayer - Reign In Blood

2.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

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

4.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

5.Metallica - Master Of Puppets

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One of my favorite bands ranked

1.Anthrax - Fistful Of Metal

2.Anthrax - Among The Living

3.Anthrax - Spreading The Disease

4.Anthrax - Persistence Of Time

5.Anthrax - For All Kings

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1.Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja

2.Kalmah - Swampsong

3.Static-X - Shadow Zone

4.Children Of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll

5.DragonForce - Valley Of The Damned

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1.Anthrax - Attack Of The Killer B's

2.Anthrax - Stomp 442

3.Anthrax - We've Come For You All

4.Anthrax - For All Kings

5.Anthrax - Sound Of White Noise

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1.Anthrax - Among The Living

2.Anthrax - Spreading The Disease

3.Anthrax - Persistence Of Time

4.Anthrax - Worship Music

5.Anthrax - Fistful Of Metal

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My persona rankings of Anthrax's studio albums.

1.Anthrax - Among The Living

2.Anthrax - Spreading The Disease

3.Anthrax - Persistence Of Time

4.Anthrax - For All Kings

5.Anthrax - Sound Of White Noise

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1.Anthrax - Among The Living

2.Anthrax - Spreading The Disease

3.Anthrax - Worship Music

4.Anthrax - Persistence Of Time

5.Anthrax - State Of Euphoria

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1.Metallica - Lulu

2.Burzum - Filosofem

3.Metallica - St. Anger

4.Slayer - Undisputed Attitude

5.Sepultura - Nation

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