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| The metal legends themselves, back when Jason Newstead was their bassist Photo Credit: Metallica.com |
25. "Of Wolf and Man" Metallica - My only question about this one... is this from the point of view of a wolf or a werewolf?
24. "Ain't My Bitch" Load - Load is a hipster's St. Anger (I hated Metallica before it was cool!), but I love that album. The first track is one of the reasons why.
23. "Am I Evil?" Garage Days Revisited - Diamond Head has been good to Metallica over the years, haven't they?
22. "The Four Horsemen" Kill 'Em All - I'll cop to liking the Megadeth "Mechanix" cut of this song better cuz of the lyrics, but still a great tune.
21. "Ride the Lightning" Ride the Lightning - The guitar work in this song makes me be excited to get the electric chair!
20. "Blackened" ...And Justice for All - I love the way the song fades in at the beginning. It's a great first song for an album that typifies the kind of discord that the band was going through at the time.
19. "Cyanide" Death Magnetic - OF all the songs released from the Black Album on, "Cyanide" was probably the one that felt the most like old-school Metallica. It has a classic feel without feeling like a bad tribute band track.
18. "Sad but True" Metallica - I know a lot of people poo-pooed the Black Album as when Metallica "sold out" (man, accusing the band of selling out has been a cottage industry, hasn't it?), but this song could have fit nicely on any prior album with no sign of being out of place.
17. "Disposable Heroes" Master of Puppets - For a band whose riffs have been compared to machine gun and bomb blasts, it's a paradox to consider how anti-war they've been throughout their history.
16. "Creeping Death" Ride the Lightning - I'm a sucker for Biblical imagery in music in the first place, but combining it with crushing riffs in the Metallica style is a sure way to make me love the song it's contained within.
15. "Mercyful Fate" Garage Inc. - It's weird to have a medley this high, but the songs they chose to weave together weirdly tell a cohesive tale. Plus, it rocks. Yeah, I know, but sometimes, that's the only explanation one can give.
14. "Dyer's Eve" ...And Justice for All - This song is elemental thrash with some killer angst thrown in a full three years before Nevermind was released! This is ultimate in-the-car headbanging music.
13. "Bleeding Me" Load - This feels so un-Metallica on the surface, but much like a song or two that I have ahead on the list, it captures a mood other than "angry" or "reckless" through the tone and speed.
12. "Helpless" The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited - Like I said above, Diamond Head has been good to Metallica over the years. "Helpless" has just the punk-thrash speed that Metallica owns in their interpretation of it. A signature tune.
11. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" Ride the Lightning - This song is so high because of the epic intro. I can't imagine Zombieland's awesome intro without "For Whom the Bell Tolls" playing in the background.
10. "Seek and Destroy" Kill 'Em All - I can't mention this song without noting that Sting used it as his theme, and I thought that was way cool. Anyway, it helped me get through a whole bunch of vicarious revenge lust after 9/11.
09. "One" ...And Justice for All - Such a bleak, harrowing, and yet beautiful song. It's also the unlikeliest anti-war song ever, but it works.
08. "Whiskey in the Jar" Garage Inc. - When I first heard this, I was completely mesmerized. Irish folk music fits Metallica like a glove, who knew?
07. "No Leaf Clover" S&M - I can't imagine this song without the orchestral component. It's haunting and heavy all at the same time.
06. "Master of Puppets" Master of Puppets - At times, it feels like the quintessential metal song. It has an epic feel and a solid message.
05. "The Thing That Should Not Be" Master of Puppets - Metallica has always been great at setting moods, even before the lyrics kick in on the song. This song is about the evil that lurks beneath, and from the first riff, that tone is prevalent.
04. "All Nightmare Long" Death Magnetic - I love Death Magnetic more than a lot of fans. It's probably my second or third favorite album by them. "All Nightmare Long" is the standout track for me because it's as rollicking a song as you'll get about revenge and vigilante justice. It's epic without the theatrics, and even though I like their theatrics, well, it's just a sign of how versatile the band can be.
03. "...And Justice for All" ...And Justice for All - Yeah, I'm that kind of music fan. I love long, rambling songs with big solos, grandiose intros, and lyrics bogged down by gravity. Genesis is one of my other favorite bands, and it's mostly for the Peter Gabriel era. The title track to the first post-Cliff Burton album is just the kind of saga that I dig.
02. "Call of the Ktulu" Ride the Lightning - I guess it's the prog rock fan in me, but I've always valued instrumentation and being good at crafting melodies, riffs, and solos. I don't even need words. "Call of the Ktulu" is one of my favorite Metallica songs even without Hetfield's then-prepubescent sounding vocals screeching over the main melody. It's such an intricate song, one that gives off the feeling of impending doom that comes with the source inspiration.
01. "Battery" Master of Puppets - My favorite Metallica song starts off slowly, with almost Spanish-influenced guitars, and softly. It's melodic, until the point when the guitars skip up in heaviness, almost like the drop in a rollercoaster. Then, it speeds up into thrash metal glory, again, like a rollercoaster. It's the perfect metal song to me. It's hard, fast, but it also shows great musicianship, especially with the guitar harmony in the beginning.
