Metal Injection's Top 10 Influential Heavy Metal Albums

"Most influential album" lists are always futile, seeing how there's generally only a few supremely influential artists that would fill up the most accurate lists. All "influential albums" lists aim for diversity, but if we're being realistic, the ten most influential metal albums of all time are the first five Black Sabbath releases and the first five Metallica albums.

Even with that in mind, Metal Injection's list of the most influential metal albums is bewildering. Venom's fun but dated Black Metal over Slayer's nonpareil Reign in Blood? Dream Theater in the top ten metal anything? Nothing from Motörhead, Judas Priest or Megadeth? Scream Bloody Gore may have been Death's debut, but did it really grab more ears and shape the direction of metal more than Human or Individual Thought Patterns?

All that being said, I love this list. For the past two weeks, I've been checking the latest updates at 5pm and rushing home from work to see what the Metal Injection and Metal Sucks staff (and other headbanging experts) have to say about albums by At the Gates, Iron Maiden and Pantera. This is metal in the strictest sense, which means no Led Zeppelin, AC/DC or Van Halen, but also metal in that the MI list sticks it to conventions. This isn't your average Rolling Stone list with Paranoid and Master of Puppets, neither of which appear here, but a fresh look at classic metal records from some fans with the kind of Wayne and Garth enthusiasm that your average Pitchforkers are missing. After this, maybe even Slaughter of the Soul will turn up in Rolling Stone someday.

Enjoy the full list here.