Top 10: Metal Albums of 2000

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve made it through the 20th century! Our retrospective Top 10 album series is now face to face with a new year, decade, century, and millennium. Sounds rather ambitious, doesn’t it? While there’s no shortage of “newness” to confront, similar to our Top 10s of 1990 and 1980, the bulk of our list will consist of 90s giants who you’re all more than familiar with. There were also some unexpected comebacks in 2000, one from a band of Teutonic thrash titans, and a couple others from acts who once ruled the roost some decades earlier, returning to stake their claim. Who were these comeback kids? Find out that and more in our Top 10 Metal Albums of 2000.

10. Enslaved – Mardraum: Beyond the Within

Every now and then, an album will make one of these lists that, collectively speaking, nobody seems to talk about. Or they will after the fact, praising it as a “lost masterpiece” (I can’t tell you how many said this when I included Merciless’ Unbound on the 1994 list.) Enslaved’s Mardraum: Beyond the Within is one of these albums. Lost in the shuffle between Enslaved’s viking metal heyday and prog metal renaissance, Mardraum combines the best facets of each era into an hour long musical journey. Interestingly enough, the album’s first half emphasizes the prog elements, with lengthy suites that boast winding passages, spellbinding musicianship, and an aura of epic (i.e. “Større enn tid – Tyngre enn natt”, “Entrance – Escape”). Then, from roughly “Det endelege riket”, the band goes full black metal mode, frostbitten riffage, blasting drums, and all. I’m not sure if the album was purposely sequenced like this, but if so, job well done you victorious vikings.

9. The Lord Weird Slough Feg – Down Among the Deadmen

Enslaved weren’t the only band specializing in energetic and adventurous metal in Y2K. So was The Lord Weird Slough Feg. With their penchant for the arcane obscurity of Brocas Helm, twin-axe attack of Thin Lizzy, and pastoral folksiness of Wishbone Ash, Slough Feg had already crafted two stone cold classics in their self titled debut (1996) and Twilight of the Idols (1998). On Down Among the Deadmen, the band went for a hat trick, proving that traditional metal wasn’t just alive and well, but thriving. As a songwriter, lyricist, and arranger, mastermind Mike Scalzi pushed himself and the band to new heights. The end result is an album that is, in my opinion, as perfect as any traditional metal milestone released 1980 and 1983. While I can’t recommend the entire album enough, the closing “Death Machine” is the figurative cherry on top of this colossal affair.

8. Macabre – Dahmer

If any band was going to recount the heinous story of Jeffrey Dahmer, it was Macabre. The self proclaimed murder metal outfit shocked even the most hardcore of death metallers in the late 80s and 90s with their true crime-themed lyrics. From Albert Fish and Ed Gein to every monster in between, nothing was off limits on a Macabre album. It only made sense that their long awaited follow up 1993’s Sinister Slaughter would be a death metal opera of sorts, chronicling the perverse life and not soon enough death of Dahmer. Starting from his disturbing beginnings (“Dog Guts”) and culminating in his post-mortal state (“The Brain”), Dahmer is a deathgrind rollercoaster that plays out like a sick, twisted horror movie come to life. Netflix has nothing on Macabre!

7. Abscess – Tormented

Despite forming as a side project of Autopsy’s Chris Reifert and Danny Coralles, Abscess was a full time vehicle come the release of their sophomore album, Tormented. While most death metal bands in Y2K were preoccupied with cleaning up their sound, placing importance on melody and structure over heaviness, Abscess took the exact opposite approach. The filthier it was, the better! The ethos hinted at on Autopsy’s Acts of the Unspeakable (1992) and Shitfun (1995) were fully realized on this release, from both a musical and lyrical perspective: This was gross-out death metal with pulverizing riffs and a pissed off, punkish attitude to boot. Those who opposed the Century Media-ification of death metal ate this bad boy up, raging like it was the late 80s/early 90s all over again. Those today who oppose the Maggot Stomp-ification of death metal still do.

6. Jag Panzer – Thane to the Throne

Now while I remain skeptical of Century Media’s neutering of death metal come the late 90s and early 2000s, it should be noted that there are other areas of metal where they were absolutely killing it, such as power metal, if only for the resurrection of Jag Panzer alone. After two reunion triumphs in The Fourth Judgement (1997) and The Age of Mastery (1998), Jag Panzer released their most ambitious album yet, Thane to the Throne. Setting Shakespeare’s Macbeth to a US power metal backdrop, Jag Panzer upped the ante on this one, with many cuts bordering on progressive metal, if only for the musicianship alone. The guitar duo of Chris Broderick and founder Mark Briody are practically intertwined in an Adrian Smith/Dave Murray fashion, while our friend Harry “The Tyrant” Conklin delivers the words of Shakespeare with the bombast and gusto the writer himself could’ve only dreamt of. If Shakespeare was alive today, chances are he’d be a power metal fanatic!

5. Destruction – All Hell Breaks Loose

The 90s were a rough time to be a Destruction fan, starting from the beginning. While Kreator released their masterpiece Coma of Souls and Sodom explored traditional metal on Better Off Dead, Destruction spent 1990 navigating their way with a new singer (André Grieder) and an uneven new album in Cracked Brain. The less that’s said about the rest of the decade and 1998’s groove metal disaster The Last Human Cannonball, the better. And then, out of nowhere, the classic duo of bassist/singer Schmier and guitarist Mike Sifringer reunited, joining forces with drummer Sven Vormann for the ultra-violent All Hell Breaks Loose. True to its title, All Hell Breaks Loose is one of the finest examples of an 80s thrash band modernizing their classic approach and excelling in every aspect. As far as I’m concerned, this one sits right next to Infernal Overkill (1985) and Eternal Devastation (1986) in terms of quality.

4. Morbid Angel – Gateways to Annihilation

By the time Morbid Angel dropped Gateways to Annihilation, I’m convinced they were determined to out-Immolation Immolation. And while Immolation takes the cake in an album for album battle, it’s Morbid Angel who wins Y2K (Sorry Close to a World Below. More on you in the honorable mentions.) Remember how dark and unsettling Formulas Fatal to the Flesh was, taking the band to new heights (or depths) that were unimaginable with David Vincent? Against all odds, Gateways manages to be even darker and more unsettling. The riffs, rhythms, and gutturals that comprise this release are lower than hell itself. When Trey Azagthoth solos, it’s less like a palette cleanser and more like a desperate gasp of air while drowning in a sea of sulfur. One can’t deny the miserable crawls of “He Who Sleeps” and “At One with Nothing”, or the cranial crushing insanity of “Opening of the Gates” and “God of the Forsaken”.

3. Halford – Resurrection

The 90s saw many of metal’s finest wander through the musical wilderness. Rob Halford was no exception. After unintentionally leaving Judas Priest in 1992 (That’s a long story for another day), the Metal God jumped on the groove metal bandwagon with Fight. Three years and two albums later, they were history, which is a real shame because their debut War of Worlds (1993) goes HARD. Then there was the ill-fated industrial project, 2wo, with Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5. Come 2000, Halford was nearing 50 with no band and no future insight. After a decade of experimentation, it was time to go back to what he did best: pure metal. His namesake band, Halford, did exactly this on their debut album, Resurrection. While Judas Priest still muddled in the cargo short-clad world of modern metal, Resurrection picked up largely where Painkiller left off, combining Halford’s high octane pipes with molten metal riffs and scorching solos.

2. Deceased – Supernatural Addiction

3 years taking headbangers by force with their unique death/thrash/heavy metal amalgamation on Fearless Undead Machines, Deceased returned vicious as ever with album #4, Supernatural Addiction. Whereas Fearless exclusively chronicled Night of the Living Dead, Supernatural Addiction is a musical horror anthology, each song touching upon a different horror tale, movie, or TV show. Among the topics explored include Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart (“Dark Chilling Heartbeat”), The Blair Witch Project (“Elly’s Dementia”), and the infamous made for TV Trilogy of Terror (“The Doll with the Hideous Spirit”). Musically, it’s more or less a continuation of Fearless, but with an emphasis on ripping thrash metal. No Ozzfest metal posturing to be found here, thank goodness!

1. Iron Maiden – Brave New World

If you’ve been vigilantly following this series, you’re well aware of my love for both Blaze Bayley era Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson’s solo output. It was the best of both worlds for fans, but as strong as those albums were (All arguably stronger than Maiden’s last two with Dickinson, No Prayer for the Dying (1990) and Fear of the Dark (1992)), none came close to Maiden’s 80s heyday. In other words Maiden was stronger with Dickinson and Adrian Smith than they were apart. Against all odds, the classic Maiden quintet (plus Janick Gers) reunited for one of metal’s finest reunion outings, Brave New World.

Despite not playing all together for a decade, it was as if no time passed at all. To this day, Brave New World is the only Maiden effort of the 21st century to encapsulate both the NWOBHM fire of the early 80s and the progressive explorations of the late 80s in a balanced manner. Not only this, but every cut on here goes toe to toe with prime Maiden. Whether it be the complex “Ghost of the Navigator”, aggressive “The Nomad”, or bombastic title cut, there’s no denying this was the sound of a band firing on all cylinders. Mind you, not just any band, but one of the top 5 most important metal bands of all time. For this reason, it should come as no surprise that Brave New World is the greatest metal album of 2000.

Honorable Mentions

• Dio – Magica
• Gamma Ray – Blast From the Past
• Immolation – Close to a World Below
• Pantera – Reinventing the Steel
• The Ravenous – Assembled in Blasphemy