The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time

721 Pages·2004·23.23 MB·English

by  Martin Popoff

Copyright © Martin Popoff, 2004
Published by ECW Press
2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise —
without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Popoff, Martin, 1963– The top 500 heavy metal
albums of all time / Martin Popoff.
ISBN: 978-1-55490-245-3
978-1-55490-600-0 (PDF); 978-1-55022-600-3 (print) 1. Heavy metal (Music) — Discography. 2. Rock
musicians— Interviews.
I. Title. II. Title: Top five hundred heavy metal album of all time.
ml3534.p829 2004 781.66 c2003-907312-2
Editing: Michael Holmes
Cover and Text Design: Darren Holmes Print Production and Typesetting: Mary Bowness The publication
of The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time has been generously supported by the Government of
Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program.

Thanks
Mikael Akerfeldt, Eric Alper, Terry “The Stalker” Auciello, Angie Aue, Anna,
John and Karen at The Aylmer Express, Ed Balog, Marco Barbieri, Tracy Barnes
and www.hardradio.com, Carl Begai, Mike Bell, Greg Below, Dennis Bergeron,
Paul and Sandy Bergeron, Keith Bergman, Cathy Bernardy, Mike Blackburn, Al
Block, Matt Bower, Ron Bozich, Brave Scotty Cairns, Adrian Bromley,
www.bwbk.com, Terry Brown, Chris Bruni, Peter Burnside, Mitch Capka, the
ever capable gang at Century Media, Aaron Brophy and the good folk at Chart,
Chip, Jen, Mark and Brett at Chipster pr, Ian Christe, Classic Rock, Jeb Wright
from Classic Rock Revisited (www.classicrockrevisited.com), Brian Coles, Rob,
Ric, Pat and Steve at Collector’s Guide Publishing, Monte Conner, J.D.
Considine, Eric Coubard, Neil Cournoyer, Patrick and Dave Harman at Crook’d
Records, Bob Daisley, Neil Deas, Phil Dellio, Paul Di’Anno, Ronnie James Dio,
Mike Drew, Earache, Jack, Mary, Jen, Nadine, Joy, Tracey and Michael at ecw
Press, Chuck Eddy, ej, Anastasia Saradoc and the the staff at emi, Andreas at
The End, es3, Scott Floman, Charles Florio, Tommy Floyd, Simon at Fusion,
Alan Gilkeson, Jim and Derek at www.gemm.com, Roger Glover, Ilia Gnatiuk,
Kerry Goulding, Gritz, Jeremy Hainsworth, the Harasins, Ken Harker, Lea Hart,
Paula Hogan, Tom at Hypnotic, Greg Loescher at Goldmine, Mark Gromen,
Allan Grusie, Guitar World, Michael Hannon and the best power trio in the
world American Dog, Devin and Tracy at HevyDevy, Paula Hogan, Hoz,
Maurizio Iacono, Jim, Bob and Eric at InsideOut, Billy James, Peter Jelic (and
Anna), Montreal dynamo Mitch Joel, Kevin Julie, Carol Kaye, Paul Kennedy
and Krause Communications, Jeff Kitts, Alan Klit: best guitarist I ever played
with, Chuck Klosterman, Borivoj Krgin, Liisa Ladouceur, Blaise Laflamme,
Hugues Laflamme, Felix Laflamme, Mitch Lafon, Dale Lammers, John and
Steve Larocque, Anne Leighton, Dave Ling, Lion Music, Scott Hefflon and Tim
Den at Lollipop, Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski, Dave MacMillan, Matthias
Mader at Iron Pages, Dan and Pete at Magna Carta Records, Kai Mahi, Jasun
Mark, Maxine & Fred (keep those emails coming!), Michael and Deb at Mazur
pr, Joel McIver, Richard Meltzer, Brian Slagel, Mike Faley, Tracy Vera and the
staff of Metal Blade, Liz and Metal Maniacs, Metal Sludge (www.metal-
sludge.com) — I’m good for three times a day: sad, Metal Update, Bob
Nalbandian, Jess and Victoria at Neat/Edgy, Noel E. Noel, Shelley Nott, Nuclear
Blast, Meredith Ochs, Brian O’Neill, David Orsini, Outsider, Karen Pace, Jon
Paris, Stephen Pearcy, Jizzy Pearl, David Perri, Bill Peters, Steve at phd, Greg
Pratt, Record Collector, Bryan Reesman, Pellet, Carl and the Relapse crew, Alex
Ristic, Claudio and the staff of Roadie Crew, Henry Rollins, Mark Roper, Corey
Rotman, Ryan and Savrena, Jon Satterley, Geoff Savage, J.J. at Scrape, Adam
Sewell, Garry Sharpe-Young, Dale Sherman, Andy Shernoff, Jackie Short, Stas
and Igor at Silver Discus, Rose Slanic, Aaron and Wendy Small, Sony, Dan ‘n’
Matt Kieswetter at Space In Your Face, Rosie at Spitfire, spv, Marcus Tamm,
Adem Tepedelen, Nick Tosches, Forrest Toop, my bandmates in Torque: Sammy,
Mark & Rader, Kurt Torster, Sue Tropio, Underdogma, Universal, Unrestrained!
(www.unrestrainedmag.com), Jamie and Sharon Vernon, Matt Walker,
Mick Wall, Bill Ward, Steven Ward, Joanna Dine at Warner, Adam
Wasylyk, David Weinsier, Marc Weisblott, Ken Witt, Josh Wood,
Scott Woods.
And hey, thanks to the hundreds upon hundreds of you crazy metalheads who
sweated bullets, pounded the table, pounded back beers and after all was said
and drunk, sent in lists. I could tell most of you put a lot of thought into this,
given the intro and outro pontifications, as well as the vast number of usually
quite profound mini-reviews many of you stuck in to support your entries, as
well as the many overflowing honourable mentions. They made for great reading
and more than a few hearty laughs. Thanks again for hailing the heavies...
Acknowledgements
Once again, thanks go to my father, Harry Popoff, for cranking up the machinery
yet again, and happily diving into the task at hand after compiling, sifting and
sorting 4500 songs for the songs book from last year. This time he had to
perform the same database functions for full albums — fortunately, about half as
many different albums, but unfortunately, about 30% more poll results! Once
more, thanks Dad for doing all this. I hope that at least some of your’s and
mom’s work ethic and wisdom gained has rubbed off on me.
Special Thanks
Most of the artist quotes throughout this book are from interviews I have
personally conducted with the rock dude concerned. I wanted these quotes as
fresh as possible and I wanted them to come from my archives. It’s a point of
pride.
However, my deepest appreciation goes out to two buds, for kind permission to
snag a few from their chats with rock stars:
Drew Masters, through his legendary M.E.A.T. magazine was an essential
Torontonian and Canadian source of international metal info from the late ’80s
into the mid-’90s. One of the things that was fascinating to me in flipping
through the legacy was how deeply he felt about trumpeting the plight of
homegrown independent acts, dozens upon dozens of hopefuls getting their most
treasured encouragement in the pages of M.E.A.T. Drew was, in fact, one of my
biggest influences in terms of getting me into this rock journalism business in
the first place. Heavy hails are in order. Drew can be reached at
[email protected].
When Drew moved on, one of his staffers, Tim Henderson, started up Brave
Words & Bloody Knuckles, a decade later recognized as one of the top metal
mags in the world, with a website (www.bravewords.com) that is also award-
winning. Through his many efforts, Tim is probably the single most influential
promoter of metal in the world today. Hails to Tim and his staffers who, like
Drew, have also been so kind as to let me snag a few quotes from their
interviews with some of these longhairs and bald guys.
And finally, thanks to my families for the understanding and patience in letting
me do this crap for a living: Beth and Trevor; Mom, Dad, Brad; my large,
extended family to the east! Thank you all.