Your top ten heavy metal albums?

[bwv 1080]

Black Sabbath vol 4
Judas Priest - Unleashed in the East
Motorhead - Iron Fist
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Megadeth - Rust in Peace
Ministry - Psalm 69
Sepultura - Roots
Fantomas - Directors Cut
Meshuggah - Catch 33

[Lethevich]

Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Sabbat - History of a Time to Come
Sodom - Agent Orange (edit: screw punk, screw hard rock, Sodom ist Krieg)
Pagan Altar - Volume One
Vinterland - Last Chapter
Freedom Call - Crystal Empire (thank god nobody knows what this sounds like)
Kreator - Coma of Souls
Ulver - Bergtatt
Esoteric - Metamorphogenesis
Anasarca - Moribund

A few towards the bottom could probably be replaced if my memory were better.

[Sergeant Rock]

Motörhead - Ace of Spades
Motörhead - Bomber
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Rainbow - Down to Earth
Rainbow - Difficult to Cure
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Scorpions - Virgin Killer
Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum
Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida ("a prime candidate for first-ever heavy metal album")


Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

Motorhead - Iron Fist

I love this quote from Rolling Stone about Motörhead: "That this band has never caught on in America's wheat-belt heavy-metal heartland represents a mysterious lapse of bad judgment." 

Sarge

[Drasko]

Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss
Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
Suicidal Tendencies - How will I laugh tomorrow when I can't even smile today
Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

I'm surely forgetting a lot

[Sergeant Rock]

Suicidal Tendencies - How will I laugh tomorrow when I can't even smile today

Join the Army - Suicidal Tendencies   ....I can relate 

Sarge

[rubio]

My top ten picks (random order - except for the first two):

1. Metallica "Master of Puppets"
2. Slayer "Reign in Blood"
3. AC/DC "Highway to Hell"
4. Black Sabbath "Master of Reality"
5. Led Zeppelin "III"
6. Motorhead "Ace of Spades"
7. Sepultura "Chaos A.D."
8. Exodus "Bonded by Blood"
9. Immortal "Sons of Northern Darkness"
10. Rammstein "Senhsucht"

and I needed to add:

11. Rose Tattoo "Rose Tattoo"

[ChamberNut]

My personal favorites (no particular order):

1 - Ozzy Osborne - Diary of a Madman
2 - Black Sabbath - Paranoid
3 - Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
4 - Ozzy Osborne - Blizzard of Ozz
5 - Van Halen - Fair Warning
6 - Van Halen - I
7 - Van Halen - II
8 - Metallica - Self-titled Black Album
9 - Black Sabbath - Self-titled debut
10 - Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

[gomro]

Black Sabbath - Volume 4
Alice Cooper - Killer
Ursa Major - s/t
Voivod - Nothingface
Redemption - The Origins of Ruin
In Extremo - Sunder ohne Zugel
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale
Symphony-X - V The New Mythology Suite
Hawkwind - Space Ritual
Canvas Solaris - Cortical Tectonics

[bwv 1080]

Can you all recommend some metal from the past ten years that has a good singer (like Bruce Dickenson or Geoff Tate), as opposed to cookie monster vocals?

[orbital]

1 - Metallica - Master of Puppets
2 - Slayer - Reign in Blood
3 - Anthrax - Among The Living
4 - Metal Church - Metal Church
5 - Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
6 - Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
7 - Alice in Chains - Dirt
8 - Judas Priest - Defenfer of the Faith
9 - Accept - Balls to the Wall
10 - Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies

The only album I've kept from that list is Slayer's.

[sidoze]

bleh, gay, long live punk

[Josquin des Prez]

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=metal&word2=punk

I knew it, metal is supreme!

[Haffner]

Rainbow Rising
Rainbow Live in Europe
Black Sabbath Master of Reality
Black Sabbath Mob Rules
Deep Purple In Rock
Judas Priest Stained Class
Manowar Triumph of Steel
Scorpions Virgin Killer
Kreator Terrible Certainty
Death Sound of Perseverance

runners up (I can't help it!)
Bathory Under the Sign of the Black Mark
Death Spiritual Healing
Burzum/Aske
Scorpions Tokyo Tapes
Metallica Ride the Lightning
Alcatrazz No Parole for Rock and Roll
Deep Purple Made in Japan and Burn
Slayer Seasons in the Abyss
Dio Holy Diver
Michael Schenker Group Assault Attack
UFO Strangers in the Night

[Haffner]

My personal favorites (no particular order):

1 - Ozzy Osborne - Diary of a Madman
2 - Black Sabbath - Paranoid
3 - Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
4 - Ozzy Osborne - Blizzard of Ozz
5 - Van Halen - Fair Warning
6 - Van Halen - I
7 - Van Halen - II
8 - Metallica - Self-titled Black Album
9 - Black Sabbath - Self-titled debut
10 - Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

All of those except the Black album could have fit into my extended list.

[BachQ]

Metallica - Master of Puppets
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Dio - Holy Diver
Guns 'n Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Metallica - And Justice For All
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss

[Haffner]

Can you all recommend some metal from the past ten years that has a good singer (like Bruce Dickenson or Geoff Tate), as opposed to cookie monster vocals?

Oh yeah!

[Lethevich]

Can you all recommend some metal from the past ten years that has a good singer (like Bruce Dickenson or Geoff Tate), as opposed to cookie monster vocals?

Kinda a problem with that... In the 90s when metal stopped being a type of pop, and became more underground, trad metal lost the really "big" voices used by old-style vocalists. Tons and tons sung cleanly, but generally they are liked for having a "charm" rather than being technically good singers. A lot of trad-styled bands are also retro to the point of being derivative, so also a little pointless. Basically there are tons of bands with solid vocals, but not many I can think of that are spectacularly good (it's not a priority for me, but is for many others). The most pressing issue is that most metal utilising normal singers that is not derivative tends to be... to put it colloquially "gay" (not a word I really throw around, but the negative kind of contexts that its users direct it to tend to really almost all do apply to melodic power metal). It may be heavy, and it may have riffs, but it has enough keyboards and additional elements to have me diving for the nearest bomb shelter. A few eg.s I could find on YouTube (all with caveats):

Pagan's Mind - Through Osiris Eyes (power/prog)
http://www.youtube.com/v/nKQpcVYcCcY
These are the most "normal" "good" vocals I can think of. This video itself is beyond atrocious, I couldn't bring myself to watch it - but then, I rarely can with studio music videos. Another good song here.

Iron Saviour - Deadly Sleep
http://www.youtube.com/v/QAbyxsr7Wvw
This song is reminiscent of Iron Maiden, especially in the bassline, but generally this band has more similarities with Judas Priest. Their usual vocalist is much gruffer (but still melodic and "singy"), this song has guest vocals by Kai Hansen (ex-Helloween, Gamma Ray). This pretty much sums up the problem in recommending "good" metal vocalists, as they are rarely better than this. I find him very good, but on a technical level it's far from perfect. In Gamma Ray he is further more individual sounding:

Gamma Ray - Beyond the Black Hole
http://www.youtube.com/v/n_7t_vO3vlU
He has a distinctive voice, and it's pretty powerful, but it doesn't in any way "soar" like Bruce can do due to having a well-trained voice.

Kamelot - Serenade
http://www.youtube.com/v/pMTbBllPjJs
One of the cheesier and lighter bands, but has appealing tunes. This is another obviously melodic voice which just isn't very strong at all.

Pretty much none of the bands I like with clean singing actually have objectively good vocals

[orbital]

I haven't heard him in a decade, but I remember King Diamond (formerly of Mercyful Fate) had some interesting vocal techniques to show. "Abigail" and "Them" were two albums that I used to listen to a lot, and mostly because of their conceptual lyrics and KD's voice.

[Lethevich]

I haven't heard him in a decade, but I remember King Diamond (formerly of Mercyful Fate) had some interesting vocal techniques to show. "Abigail" and "Them" were two albums that I used to listen to a lot, and mostly because of their conceptual lyrics and KD's voice.

KD is great indeed. Not as powerful as Halford but higher most of the time