The Greeks Know their Metal Part II

Ok so where were we? Oh yes the next 25 on this list of all time greatest metal albums of all time according to Metal Hammer and Mount Vesuvius. Alright let's get started.

75. DEF LEPPARD - "Hysteria" Ha! Funny how me and my wife were just talking about this yesterday. This album is her's while I'm a Pyromania kind of guy. Generation gaps I tell ya. So anyways we start today with a brain fart. There is nothing on this album I would dub metal. This was Def Leppard going cock rock and massively being successful at it. Let's move on.

74. ALICE COOPER - "Trash" Man, the Greeks are slipping here. While I concede there are things about Alice Cooper's persona that are metal this album is hard rock.The nearest to metal I've heard Alice Cooper was Brutal Planet.Let's try again.

73. SLAYER - "South of Heaven" Now this is more like it. I rank this in my top 3 Slayer albums. Alot of people were disappointed in it because it was a followup to Reign in blood. I actually like this better then RIB.

72. W.A.S.P. - "W.A.S.P." I love this album. W.A.S.P. always rode a fine line depending on the album between sleaze and metal. Next to Slayer this was probably the heaviest and most evil album to come out of L.A. in 1984 imo.

71. GUNS N' ROSES - "Use Your Illusion II" And we regress back a bit. Some of this album was blues, some rock, some hard rock but no hint of metal in my book. Come on Greece. Loud guitars and long hair does not make it metal people.

70. AT THE GATES - "Slaughter of the Soul" Don't know much about these guys.The names sound metal.

69. SAVATAGE - "Hall of the Mountain King" First Savatage album I bought. It's just heavy and epic.Power metal as it should be done. Here was the first hints of things to come with concept albums and Broadway influenced metal.

68. DEATH - "Symbolic Damn...another Death album on here. Are they Greek?

67. SEPULTURA - "Beneath the Remains" Early stuff from these guys. I don't get why Chaos A.D. and Arise are not higher then this though.

66. MÖTLEY CRÜE - "Shout at the Devil" My favorite album by them and the nearest to metal they ever got. Well maybe Too Fast too but this album was far heavier.

65. ACCEPT - "Balls to the Wall" Man alot of my old favorites on here. I actually like Metal Heart the best but this is a close second and it was their big breakthrough.

64. KREATOR - "Extreme Aggression" German Slayer makes it on here. I can appreciate their work but it's always been such a ripoff of Slayer in terms of sound I can't get past it.

63. BRUCE DICKINSON - "Accident of Birth" Such a good solo effort. I really wish sometimes that recent Iron Maiden sounded like the tunes on here.

62. MANOWAR - "Into Glory Ride" I'm expectinhg their whole catalog in here.

61. BLACK SABBATH - "Master of Reality" Probably my favorite old school Sabbath album with Ozzy.

60. LED ZEPPELIN - "Led Zeppelin II" This is about as bad as Pink Floyd on here. Hellooooooo....if you're going to put Led Zep on here then put IV or Physical Graffiti, not these albums. Their early work was very blues based with no real hard rockers on them. Again they were influential but not metal.

59. CRIMSON GLORY - "Transcendence" Never listened to these guys. It was power metal with these crappy metallic masks like in that movie Excalibur. Alot of stuff already covered should be ahead of this but I'm a Yank. What do I know?

58. NEVERMORE - "Dreaming Neon Black" Fuck yeah! Nevermore gets some love. And this is my favorite album by them as well. So brutal and technical.

57. IRON MAIDEN - "Fear of the Dark" Is this Maiden's first entry in this thing? Why yes I believe it is. I wonder how many other albums will show up.Anyways it's a solid album with some of my favorite tracks on it. Much better then Never Say Die.

56. PANTERA - "Vulgar Display of Power" I have to remember this is Greece. Here in the states this is a top 10. And their most successful album.Tracks like Walk are getting overplayed on the radio now which is funny because when it was new not a whiff would you get on the stations.

55. DREAM THEATER - "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory" DT makes it here for the first time. They bounce back and forth between rock, prog, and metal alot.Just like some of the L.A.s bands this is one of those gray areas. Cool concept album though.

54. CANDLEMASS - "Nightfall" Pure doom. I find pure doom boring. I like a few of Candlemass' old tracks but yeah. I can appreciate them being on here just not my cup of tea.

53. MACHINE HEAD - "The Blackening" These guys will always be the bridesmaid and never the bride. People seem to love their stuff yet I never meet anyone that owns any of their albums nor do I ever hear of them headlining anything.I think I got turned off by them when they jumped on the nu-metal bandwagon.

52. GAMMA RAY - "Land of the Free" When the Greeks like their cheese they really like their cheese.

51. TOOL - "Lateralus" I'm starting to think the more complex bands are not going to score much higher on this list.

Alright that's good for now. Alot of head scratching in this round. I'm starting to see some glaring omissions and stuff that has no business in my mind on here. I'll hold my tongue lest I be struck down by Zeus. Tune in later.