When making these retrospective best metal albums of a year lists, I’ve noticed two trends. There’s the years where the top 2 or 3 spots are set in stone and the remaining order is relatively easy to figure out from there. And then there’s the years where every single album is equally excellent and practically interchangeable order wise. 1991 falls into the latter category. In other words, every one of these albums, honorable mentions included, could’ve been #1. As far as categorization goes, extreme metal dominated this year. That said, traditional metal makes a few appearances throughout. There’s also a bit of an outlier that’s sure to get elitists up in arms. Read all about it and more in our Top 10 Metal Albums of 1991!
10. Sarcófago – The Laws of Scourge
The Sarcófago that released The Laws of Scourge in 1991 was a far cry from the Sarcófago who unleashed INRI upon an unsuspecting metal underground 4 years earlier. Whereas their debut was a raw, blasphemous platter of blackened filth which made Venom sound like Barry Manilow by comparison, The Laws of Scourge saw the band playing a more straightforward death metal sound with emphasis on songwriting and musicianship. It was as if in the course of those 4 years, these Brazilian barbarians went from violating their respective instruments to using them to their fullest extent, crafting such extreme metal masterpieces as the proggy “Secrets of a Window” and epic “Midnight Queen”. Who would’ve thought?! While INRI paved the way for a legion of extreme metal bands to follow, The Laws of Scourge let those same extreme metal bands know that there’s more to brutality than simply brutality.
9. Carcass – Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious
After two albums of audio splatter, Carcass shifted gears dramatically with their third album, Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious. Their lyrics still read like the pages of an obscure medical textbook. It’s just that instead of being set to the soundtrack of brief, grinding spurts of musical gore, they were now centerstage alongside more developed and deadlier compositions. Necroticism was much more refined and focused in comparison to past Carcass releases, and even the American death metal crop for that matter. This lead to many branding them “sellouts”, which is stupid because that insult wouldn’t hold meaning until later in the decade (looking at you Swansong, you half assed slab of hard rock gone death metal). I’ve always viewed Necroticism as the be all, end all Carcass album. It seamlessly bridges the bloodthirsty violence of their past and their melodically spotty future.
8. Overkill – Horrorscope
As the late 80s gave way to the early 90s, the titans of thrash started shifting their gears from speed to atmosphere, melody, and other characteristics associated with traditional metal and mainstream hard rock. Not Overkill! They kept on thrashing harder than ever on their fifth album, Horrorscope. Sure there’s a nod to the old school (“Frankenstein”), an epic ballad (“Solitude”), and a groovy foreshadowing of what was to come later in the decade (“Horrorscope”), but by and large, this is pure, unadulterated thrash. How could you not mosh it up to “Blood Money”, “Bare Bones”, and “Live Young, Die Free”? Even at this point in their career, Overkill were classic and consistent. You knew what you were gonna get and it was gonna rule. Horrorscope is no exception to this rule.
7. Savatage – Streets: A Rock Opera
When I interviewed Jon Oliva in late 2020, he said that Savatage always saw themselves as more than just a metal band. This became extremely apparent on their sixth album, Streets: A Rock Opera. Based on a story penned by producer/lyricist/honorary fifth member Paul O’Neill, Streets chronicles the rise and fall of DT Jesus: a world famous rockstar turned homeless drug dealer. During the course of a little over an hour, we’re told his rags to riches to rags again tale, while set to a musical backdrop that has more in common with a symphony or Broadway musical than anything traditionally metallic. Oddly enough, I’ve always felt that this album would’ve been massive if it was marketed towards a non-metal crowd. By 1991, teenage metalheads were either A. Head first in the death metal craze or B. Infatuated by more mainstream fare (i.e. Ozzy Osbourne, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, etc.). Streets didn’t fit into either of these camps, but there was certainly a demand for this bombastic brand of music, otherwise Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell wouldn’t have been a multiplatinum smash just a couple years later.
6. Immolation – Dawn of Possession
Ranking Immolation’s catalog would have to be one of the hardest tasks imaginable. While practically all of their peers have gone through creative slumps, releasing the occasional dud or two, Immolation has consistently maintained the most flawless catalog in death metal, starting with their debut, Dawn of Possession. If you asked me to pick a favorite Immolation album, this one would take the cake. The songs rule, the riffs are evil as all hell, but most importantly, there’s something about the production and atmosphere that just grips me. It’s so dark and abysmal, yet compelling. The only other death metal album of the era that sounded this sinister was Morbid Angel’s Blessed Are the Sick. Spoiler alert: That album makes our honorable mentions.
5. Autopsy – Mental Funeral
Here’s a hypothetical question: What do you do after releasing the be all, end all album of your respective genre? If you’re Autopsy, you smoke a lot of weed, binge listen your old Black Sabbath and Trouble albums, and get busy to work on your much anticipated follow up. At least that’s how I assume their second album, Mental Funeral, came to be. In terms of songwriting and subject matter, Mental Funeral is as sick and twisted as its predecessor, Severed Survival. However, it stands out thanks to the slow, doomy, Sabbathian riffage that dominates from beginning to end. If Severed Survival embodied death metal, Mental Funeral embodied death/doom. Any band who followed was merely walking in Autopsy’s shadow.
4. Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger
Alright folks. Time for a little heavy metal history lesson, courtesy of the resident self proclaimed metal historian. Back in 1991, when the music known as grunge first appeared into the public consciousness, it was originally co-opted and marketed as a new subgenre of metal. Alice in Chains spent the summer opening for Slayer and Megadeth on the Clash of the Titans Tour, while the latest videos from Pearl Jam and Soundgarden got played on Headbanger’s Ball alongside the likes of Metallica and GN’R. Of course, as the decade went on, these grunge acts would become more associated with the burgeoning alternative rock scene, but that isn’t to take away from the heaviness of those early grunge release, especially Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger, which can best be described as Black Sabbath meets Led Zeppelin at a DIY hardcore show.
After spending the 80s slumming it in the underground Seattle punk scene, Badmotorfinger was the album that took Soundgarden to the big leagues. The banshee wails of Chris Cornell, monolithic riffs of Kim Thayil, and tightly knit rhythm section of Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd made songs like “Rusty Cage” and “Outshined” rock radio staples, which in turn propelled the album to double platinum status. The rest of the album rules too, especially deep cuts like “Slaves & Bulldozers” and “Searching with My Good Eye Closed”.
3. Skid Row – Slave to the Grind
No late 80s glam metal band 180ed harder in the early 90s than Skid Row. Granted, calling them “glam metal” to begin with is a bit of a stretch, especially in comparison to Bon Jovi and Poison, but I digress. Let’s just say their self titled debut was much more hard rock centric than their 1991 follow up, Slave to the Grind. The riffs, the attitude, the aggression: Everything on this album was turned up to 11. Whether it be the metallic sleaze of “Monkey Business” and “Livin’ on a Chain Gang”, adrenaline pumping bite of “Riot Act” and the title track, or the epic balladry of “Quicksand Jesus” and “Wasted Time”, Slave to the Grind remains one of the most dynamic traditional metal albums of the 90s. It was this dynamism that catapulted it to the top of the charts and briefly made Skid Row an arena headliner in the proccess.
2. Armored Saint – Symbol of Salvation
1990 should’ve marked the end of Armored Saint. After failing to make any commercial leeway and the untimely passing of guitarist Dave Prichard, it looked like these one time US metal warriors were all but finished. Yet never ones to relent, Armored Saint soldiered on for one last hurrah: Symbol of Salvation. I’ve always said that this album, alongside Trouble’s 1990 self titled, should’ve reached the insane heights that Metallica’s Black Album did. As far as I’m concerned, Armored Saint was able to incorporate hard rock hooks and elements into their sound far better than Metallica ever did. Symbol of Salvation is one of those rare albums where every song stands out equally, with no one track necessarily surpassing another. From the power metal throwback “Reign of Fire”, to the headbanger friendly “Spineless”, Symbol of Salvation kills from start to finish.
- Sepultura – Arise
Similar to Carcass’s Necroticism, Sepultura’s Arise is a polarizing album for many metalheads. Why? Because it’s not Beneath the Remains. I’d argue it’s far more darker, ominous, and unpredictable. It’s as if after reaching the pinnacle of death/thrash, Sepultura huffed paint, binge listened the Killing Joke catalog, and said, “Time to make another record!” Beneath the Remains was death/thrash for the apocalypse. Arise was death/thrash for the post-apocalyptic fallout, schizophrenic riffs, eerie noises, and all. If mankind ever reached a dystopian Mad Max scenario where we were killing each other over basic resources, Arise would be the soundtrack to such insanity. It’s also the greatest metal album of 1991 as far as this online metal journalist is concerned!
Honorable Mentions
- Corrosion of Conformity – Blind
- Morbid Angel – Blessed Are the Sick
- Motörhead – 1916
- Samael – Worship Him
- Suffocation – Effigy of the Forgotten