The Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All Time

This is not the author's favorite albums, otherwise Max Webster would be in the Top 50. This book is the best way so far of knowing which albums are the best at least in the collective consciousness of the metal community, by virtue of being a poll (many votes were cast, sadly I wasn't around back then). Otherwise, you would have to listen to the biased opinions of a single person, whose preferences/age/amount of music heard will yield different results every time. But if certain albums appeared frequently when asking many people for such a list of "Best of All Time", then they may be on to something. Compile these frequent mentions and you get this book. And while you may not want to read anymore about the legendary output of Black Sabbath, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, etc. (although no one could ever deny their influence) this book still has plenty of variety, with bands I didn't know like Kick Axe or Coroner. Some people could argue about the merit of including Grunge, Hair Metal, Nu Metal, or Hard Rock (from Hendrix to Guns N Roses) or the positions of certain albums, but this kind of book is all about starting new arguments. You also get Popoff's reviews to know if the album is worth the hype (he doesn't always think so, and he is a pretty good reviewer) plus bits of artists' interviews on their own albums, their own lists and a few appendixes. At the very least, I give it 5 Stars because it made me discover Strapping Young Lad

godamnit if i was to clarify the divide of what albums or bands should've made it into the book, or wheter punk,grunge, zeppelin,tull or hendrix belong in a book about heavy metal(they do by the way). anyhoo the strange uneven results are what make this book imteresting. the eighties are dominant as are maiden metallica and the sabs, but the process was determined democratically(we can't prove it, but then again it's just a stupid book) and it is what it is. Popoff muses on how the votes reflect what the definition of heavy metal is to the average head banger and to me that alone makes up for the shoddiness of the results(what did you expect-for the rankings to accurate hah!). good book, lots of quotes from the likes of lemmy,ozzy,lars,bruce dickinson,john paul jones, dave grohl, halford etc. ignorant metalheads unfairly make metal(whatever the hell you think it is) look stupid. buy the book.

This book is based on the results of a massive poll. It contains reviews of each album by the author and most of the albums have commentary from one of the band members. There are also many top ten album lists from various metal musicians. Ignore the comments from the bozo who gave this book one star. He obviously did not read the beginning of the book which clearly states that these are not the author's choices but the choices of the people who voted. As for the reults, I have about half of them in my own collection. There are quite a few albums from band's with vocalists who sound like they gargled glass and could not carry a nursery rhyme, but in fairness I expected that. There are also some bands like Pearl Jam that I think should not be in there but again these are the results of people who love different kinds of rock music. I even had bands like The Cars, Styx, and Boston in the top 25 list I submitted. Anyways, this book is quite an entertaining read and I highly recommend it to all open-minded hard rock fans!

As with his Top Songs book, Popoff clearly put a lot of time and effort into this mammoth undertaking. Thankfully, he has given metal fans an overview of what the metal community regards as the best albums of all time. As for whether or not Popoff is biased.....he clearly is! He says so in his introduction. I mean he took the time to review every single one of the 500 albums. It's not like he will agree with every one of the picks made by those polled. Neither do I, neither should anybody... Bottom line, this book points out the albums that have shaped Heavy Metal. Get it.

Fans of heavy metal music who seek a definitive guide to albums and songs will find Martin Popoff's Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs Of All Time to be an important key to the genre, compiling the results of a massive worldwide poll and including entries which feature a quote from one of the band's artists, shots of rare singles covers, and listings by song, band, album, year and country. Descriptions of the music are both personal and critical and provide important keys to understanding the genre.