It’s been some time since Rolling Stone was considered an authority on heavy metal music (and some would argue that they maybe never were). The But the veteran rock magazine has recently updated their list of ‘The 500 Best Albums of All Time,’ and surprisingly, they’ve made a point of including several metal albums on it.
Overall, most metal fans will find the list a mixed bag, with mainstream rock magazine-appropriate amounts of Sade and Herbie Hancock listed thereon. There’s also a tendency to only include metal albums that were big successes or tried-and-true cultural landmarks, which means that several obvious classics — Slayer’s Reign in Bloody, Iron Maiden’s Powerslave, and White Zombie’s La Sexorcisto — are glaringly absent. That said, the fact that some of these releases are included at all means there must be at least one metal fan on Rolling Stone‘s staff.
Below are the metal albums included on the list. And before anyone begins complaining, we’ve included both albums that are obviously metal and albums that heavily informed and are loved by metal-loving audiences, so please do not blow your top because you don’t consider Rush and Van Halen ‘metal.’
453. NIN, Pretty Hate Machine
408. Motörhead, Ace of Spades
355. Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
305. Kiss, Alive!
292. Van Halen, Van Halen
235. Metallica, The Black Album
234. Black Sabbath, Master of Reality
221. Rage Against The Machine, Rage Against The Machine
139. Black Sabbath, Paranoid
122. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
101. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin
97. Metallica, Master of Puppets
84. AC/DC, Back In Black
62. Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction
You can read the entire list at Rolling Stone‘s website.
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Words by Chris Krovatin