Top 10: Metal Albums of 1998

It’s hard to believe we retrospectively covered nearly a decade’s worth of metal greatness this year. From our 1989 list published way back in February to today’s 1998 list, it’s safe to say we’ve come a long way from MTV heroes (Tesla, Blue Murder) and the salad days of death metal (Autopsy, Morbid Angel). No, today’s list represents an era when true metal as a whole had retreated to the underground, and even one time metal giants were now playing intimate concert halls. It was a harsh reality, yes, but the denim and leather clad defenders of the faith remained loyal as ever. Here’s the top 10 albums said lifers were likely listening to that year.

10. Jag Panzer – The Age of Mastery

If the 80s were dead and gone, Jag Panzer sure didn’t get the memo. The US power metal pioneers continued their triumphant reunion campaign, swiftly following 1997’s The Fourth Judgement with The Age of Mastery. The album lives up to its name, showcasing a band armed to the teeth with musical virtuosity, anthemic hooks, and most importantly, unparalleled power. While half of the songs were brand new (i.e. “Iron Eagle”, “False Messiah”, “The Age of Mastery”), half originated via 80s demos that were mostly unknown outside the most ardent of tape trading circles. In the same breath, I’ll go as far to say it’s these recordings of “Lustful and Free”, “Viper”, and other 80s obscurities that are indeed the definitive versions. Fight me kvltists!

9. Iron Maiden – Virtual XI

I’m sure there was no shortage of collective disgust upon my inclusion of Iron Maiden’s The X Factor on the 1995 list. Well elitists, prepare to be disgusted again, as today’s list pays homage to Blaze Bayley’s last hurrah fronting the mighty Maiden, Virtual XI. Contrary to popular belief, I’m willing to argue Bayley’s jaunt was one of the best moves Maiden made and arguably the reason they’re still together today. Having new blood reinvigorated Steve Harris as a songwriter and reinforced a band who was previously falling apart at the seams. Although I’ll be the first to admit Virtual XI isn’t as strong as The X Factor, one can’t deny the old school energy of “Futureal”, the Deep Purple inspired “The Angel and the Gambler”, and of course, the folk metal epic that is “The Clansman”, among other classic cuts. Virtual XI is an objectively stronger effort than half of their post-Dickinson reunion output and most certainly belongs on this list.

8. Morbid Angel – Formulas Fatal to the Flesh

The late 90s weren’t exactly standout period for American death metal. The pioneers of the late 80s and early 90s who hadn’t broken up altogether had long since lost their mojo, and the new crop arising was mostly just rehashing everything Cannibal Corpse and Suffocation had done 5 years earlier. There were however some exceptions. Take for example Morbid Angel. After the departure of longtime bassist/frontman David Vincent, the band soldiered on with the relatively unknown Steve Tucker, ushering in a new, darker, and overtly technical era with their fifth studio album (sixth if you include the shelved Abominations of Desolation), Formulas Fatal to the Flesh. This was not the sound of a band ready to rest on the laurels. If Morbid Angel had already taken death metal to the lowest depths of hell, they were somehow attempting to take it even lower, to a bleak abyss we can’t even fathom, and it shows.

7. Angelcorpse – Exterminate

Hardly any bands in the late 90s captured both the infernal evil of first wave black metal and the demented insanity of early death metal. Angelcorpse was one of those few. Hailing from Kansas City, Missouri, this band of maniacs clearly longed for the days when Slayer and Kreator ruled the underground and the tape trading circuit was alive and well. It most certainly shows on their sophomore masterpiece, Exterminate. Had this come out a decade earlier, it would be hailed as a game changing slab of extreme metal; one which blurs the lines between black, death, and thrash metal so brazenly, yet with surefire confidence. Some would even argue it’s militantly chaotic enough to qualify as a “war metal” release, but we’ll save that argument for another day. One thing is for certain: It IS one of the finest metal albums of 1998!

6. Exhumed – Gore Metal

It wasn’t just American death metal as a whole that was floundering in the late 90s, but also certain subniches like goregrind. A one time major player in the underground that had the potential of “making it” with heshers, most of the genre’s figureheads had since moved on. Impetigo and General Surgery were no longer active, and in an infamous Judas kiss, Carcass, the godfathers of gore, had abandoned their twisted creation for greener, melodic pastures, only to subsequently call it quits altogether. It seemed that gore was no more…until Exhumed came along. Having spent the better part of the 90s releasing a slew of demos and splits, it wasn’t until ’98 that Exhumed singlehandedly dismembered the death metal underground with the greatest Carcass album never made, Gore Metal. A festering feast of skull splitting drums, blood drenched riffage, and vocals that range from skin shredding highs to gut gurgling lows, Gore Metal is by far Exhumed’s finest hour, a mandatory listen for “Necromaniacs” of all ages!

5. King Diamond – Voodoo

To say King Diamond was a busy man in the 90s would be an understatement. Despite the waning popularity of traditional metal, King remained productive as ever, balancing both his solo outfit AND the reunited Mercyful Fate. It was the infamous old school industry model of “album-tour-repeat”, but sometimes twice a year with two different bands! Through it all, the quality of his music never suffered. In fact, he reached a new creative high in ’98 with the release of Voodoo. Following in the tradition of Abigail (1987) and “Them” (1988), Voodoo is yet another tale of a haunted house, this time set in Louisiana circa 1932. The estate resides next door to a voodoo graveyard and, per usual, things do NOT end well for the stories protagonists. Yes, King was still the king of horror metal, flashy trends be damned.

4. Gorguts – Obscura

If this were the “Top 10 Most Influential Metal Albums of 1998” and not “Greatest”, there’s no doubt in my mind Gorguts’ Obscura would come out on top. The comeback album from the reformed Canadian death metal horde singlehandedly drew the blueprint for all technical and dissonant death metal to follow. In fact, one could go as far to say that Obscura isn’t even a death metal album at its core. Sure, the guttural vocals are there, as is the foreboding atmosphere of darkness and chaos. Yet Luc Lemay’s guitar work on this chaotic masterpiece has far more in common with John Wetton era King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and even Allan Holdsworth than Hell Awaits, Scream Bloody Gore, and Altars of Madness. The same way Opeth, Amorphis, and other Scandinavian dared to take death metal in a more melodic and progressive territory, Gorguts pushed the genre off the deep end altogether, decimating the rule book in the process. The innovation of Obscura alone makes this a mandatory addition to the list.

3. Opeth – My Arms, Your Hearse

If Obscura appropriated the schizophrenic unpredictability of Red era King Crimson into a death metal framework, then Opeth’s My Arms, Your Hearse appropriated the pastoral English beauty of Peter Gabriel era Genesis into a death metal framework. Opeth’s third album happened to be their most focused to date, a natural evolution in their ongoing musical journey. Gone were the raw blackened undertones of Orchid and Morningrise. The band had now fully embraced their status as prog death’s chosen sons, expanding upon the musical and songwriting tropes of Gentle Giant and the aforementioned Genesis, with a healthy dose of darkness and brutality to boot. Cuts like “April Ethereal”, “Karma”, and the menacing “Demon of the Fall” are among some of the finest compositions not just in Opeth’s catalog, but in metal of the past 25 years.

2. Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding

With all due respect to the Bayley fronted Maiden, it was former members Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith whose alluring brand of dark, doomy traditional metal took the cake in ’98. Aided again by unsung guitarist/songwriting genius Ray Z, the dynamic duo struck while the iron was hot, right off the heels of 1997’s Accident of Birth with The Chemical Wedding. Instead of simply aping the Maiden formula to a T, Dickinson and company continued to explore unknown heavy territory, combining the epic subject matter of William Blake poetry and the Bible with equally epic riffs and arrangements. The result? A truly fantastic metal album of epic proportions. There’s no question Steve Harris was listening in disbelief at what his former bandmates had accomplished without him, secretly wishing they’d rejoin the fold. More on that in 2000. Until then, the moment of truth…

1. Blind Guardian – Nightfall in Middle-Earth

Considering the era in which it was released, Blind Guardian’s Nightfall in Middle-Earth could’ve gone one of two ways. Their most ambitious release by a landslide, doubling down on their bombastic power metal sound with speed and prog undertones, and even incorporating rock opera tendencies characteristic of Queen and Meat Loaf, it could’ve been a downright failure. Instead, it became the defining album of Blind Guardian’s career and, for better or worse, the template for all euro power metal to follow. But as the old saying goes, “often imitated, never duplicated”. Blind Guardian struck creative and musical gold with Nightfall. I’ll even go as far to call it the be all, end all 90s euro power metal album, expanding upon everything bands like Helloween and Running Wild had worked so hard to build leading up to its release. These legends walked so Blind Guardian could run to #1 of our Top 10 Metal Albums of 1998.

Honorable Mentions

• Borknagar – The Archaic Course
• Dan Swanö – Moontower
• Deep Purple – Abandon
• Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe
• Uriah Heep – Sonic Origami