Guaporense top 100 albums (2019 edition)

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83. Black Sabbath - The Headless Cross (1989)



Now introducing Black Sabbath into the list (yeah!). While most people remember Black Sabbath from their early albums with Ozzy I think that the band reached its peak in the late 80s and early 90s with Martin. He is simply a perfect match for Sabbath's mature instrumental sound as the band's albums became more melodic and epic, incorporating both the developments of metal in the 80s as well as Sabbath's classic signature sound.



82. Elvellon - Until Dawn (2018)



One of the most recent additions to my favorite albums list is Elvellon's debut. While symphonic metal is a big genre there are relatively few albums that can be regarded as classics. However, Elvellon's debut is a mighty example of what symphonic metal is when we'll executed. Very memorable, elegant and pleasant, I can almost forget this is technically metal.



81. Ex Deo - Immortal Wars (2017)



Fell the power of a thousand spears descending!!!!!!!!!!!! For ROME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, super-aggressive melodeath fits perfectly the history of the Second Punic War, perhaps the most brutal war in history. It always gets me all energic when I am listening to this.



80. Exodus - Bonded by Blood (1985)



Exodus is one of those numerous thrash bands whose debut is by far their best album. There is a very good reason why thrash metal debuts tend to be the best album of a band's career: thrash metal is at its best an uncompromising slab of aggression without more sophisticated musical qualities underneath. When a thrash metal band releases its debut that means the band was recording its artistic statement in aggression, further albums following the same genre will be self-parody or the band should evolve into a different genre (which is what 'tallica did).



79. King Diamond - The Eye (1990)



One of King Diamond's best albums from one of the most consistent bands in metal. Everything about this album is very well balanced. Classic heavy metal done perfectly.



78. Iced Earth*-*Alive in Athens*(1999)



IMO Iced Earth although an important band, has not released any truly great studio album, however, they have a great live album that basically incorporates all their best material and has excellent performaces all around.



77. Judas Priest - Firepower (2018)



Yeah, Judas Priest! And still delivering the goods after nearly 50 years on the road (although they have replaced the drums and one guitarist)! Their last album from 2018 (!!) is just excellent pure heavy metal, which sounds as if it was made in 1984 (but with modern digital production technology ) and in fact is superior to theis 80s albums!



76. Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)



Total chaos and brutality. This is super fast death metal but still retaining a sense of harmony (in a way it is superior to Elvenefris which tends to slip into cacophony too much, while this album sounds closer to extreme thrash metal such as early-Kreator). The production is also very impressive for a debut.



75. Joe Hisaishi - Nausicaa's Symphonic Suite (1984)



Now for something relatively different from the stuff posted right above.

The 80s were not only strong in metal, but they also had some great New Age minimalistic orchestral music. Film scores, in particular, tend to be simplistic and not good music when not combined with a movie. Some scores, however, are different. One of the best film scores of all time and among the most epic is Hisaishi's Nausicaa score. He was just discovered by Miyazaki in Nausicaa and went on to compose scores for over a hundred films. Still, his first major film score still stands as among the best scores ever made for a movie, unmatched in "epicness" (take note Dragonforce ).



74. Artillery*-*By Inheritance (1990)



Artillery is one of my favorite thrash bands. Although like other thrash bands they tend to have one album that is by far their best. In this case, it is this piece of progressive thrash metal/ Loved to hear this while driving.



73. W.A.S.P.*-*The Headless Children*(1989)



One of the best traditional heavy metal albums of the 90s is W.A.S.P.'s The Headless Children. I remember I showed this to a friend and he told me "oh, this sounds just like Blind Guardian". That just reflects that the label "power metal" as something very distinct from traditional metal is kinda problematic (it is surely much closer to traditional than death or black metal).



A system of cells interlinked
W.A.S.P. is a band I tend to get a lot flak for listening to. Most people only tend to remember a song or two, and the controversy surrounding the band during the PMRC trials. I think Blackie Lawless is a talented fellow, and perhaps doesn't get quite as much credit as he deserves for his creativity.
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



W.A.S.P. is a band I tend to get a lot flak for listening to. Most people only tend to remember a song or two, and the controversy surrounding the band during the PMRC trials. I think Blackie Lawless is a talented fellow, and perhaps doesn't get quite as much credit as he deserves for his creativity.
Well, W.A.S.P. had 2 albums in the metal-archives top 100 classic heavy metal albums poll:

https://forum.metal-archives.com/viewtopic.php?t=45511

Sadly Headless Children didn't make the cut.



72. 戸越まごめ*[Magome Togoshi],*折戸伸治*[Shinji Orito]*&*麻枝准*[Jun Maeda]*-*Clannad Original Soundtrack*(2004)



Videogame music makes the list yeah! In particular, Neoclassical-New-Age videogame music for a Japanese visual novel. While some tracks out of the 50 tracks in the soundtack are pretty bland because it has several hours of music since its the soundtrack of a videogame, other tracks have all the feels! Incredibly potent dramatic instrumental music in fact.



71. Overkill*-*The Years of Decay*(1989)



Overkill is perhaps the ultimate "classic" thrash band: they rock HARD and are a great band live. It's true that their sound is relatively "unsophisticated" compared to say Slayer or Kreator, but they rule and this album shows that with flying colors one of the best thrash metal albums of all time.



70. Heavenly*-*Dust to Dust*(2004)



The only piece of french music on this list. A very, very, very good sample of power metal. In fact, one of the best albums of the genre ever made (well, it is on my favorites list, right?). Think of it as basically how Helloween would sound in 2004 if Kai Hansen never left the band.



69. Death - Human (1991)



Death was one of metal's greatest acts. Although I am not a specialist in traditional death metal I can easily appreciate the greatness of this band as they have defined the genre and then progressed beyond it by the time they released this album, which is my favorite of theirs (I know Symbolic is supposed to be their best, which I rate it as my second favorite).

The incredible quality of riffing and composition combined creates a combination of brutality but also eerie beauty. The music is mostly "chromatic" instead of melodic but it also has a high level of appeal and is more accessible than Entombed or Lykathea Aflame's music.



68. Sacramentum-Far Away From the Sun(1996)



A awe-inspiring display of the highest quality of melodic black metal. Essential for fans of black metal or even metal in general as it is just top quality and as it is highly melodic Swedish black metal it is also more entertaining and accessible than the "pure" Norwegian black metal.



67. W.A.S.P.*-*The Crimson Idol*(1992)



Ze classic. The Crimson Idol is regarded by many as the best traditional heavy metal album of the New World, I agree. The atmosphere of this album is rather unique and unforgettable.



66. Joe Hisaishi - Mononoke Hime Symphonic Suite (1997)



Some of the best, if not the best, movie OST ever made. This is simply super good stuff, in fact I find it slightly superior to Nausicaa's soundtrack perhaps thanks to the incorporation of more classical influences and is the removal of minimalistic/electronic influences.