For the 250th anniversary of America, Last Rites is featuring 250 of the greatest American metal albums ever made, and here we are at the end of the road. Please note that these albums are not ranked or ordered in any way — just prime examples of kick-ass heavy metal made by American bands. Got any favorites that now you’re totally sure we missed? Let us know in the comments!
Catch up on Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 here, here, here & here.
Armored Saint – Symbol Of Salvation
Insect Warfare – World Extermination
Blood Incantation – Starspawn
Incantation – Diabolical Conquest
After releasing two death metal classics in the early nineties, Incantation’s lineup collapsed, and the band went fallow for a few years. However, the Incantation that emerged in 1998 was leaner, meaner, and more potent than ever. Whittled down to a trio, with only guitarist John McEntee remaining from the band’s original line-up and rounded out by future mainstay drummer Kyle Severn, and The Chasm’s Daniel Corchado on bass and vocals. The lone fruit this line-up bore, Diabolical Conquest, stands as one of the group’s finest works. The band’s attack is both sharper and more expansive than it was on previous albums. From the mournful melody of “Desecration (of the Heavenly Graceful)” and the instrumental “Unheavenly Skies” to the harrowing near-seventeen-minute epic, “Unto Infinite Twilight / Majesty of Infernal Damnation,” Diabolical Conquest abounds with massively malevolent death metal. [JEREMY MORSE]
Arch / Matheos – Sympathetic Resonance
Sanctuary – Refuge Denied
Dark Angel – Darkness Descends
Shadow Gallery – Tyranny
Lyrically, musically, and in every other way possible, Shadow Gallery’s Tyranny is gold. That it isn’t celebrated in a Smithsonian is almost criminal. It is that good.
I write this because a good portion of readers probably won’t be familiar with Shadow Gallery or their third, and best, album. Shadow Gallery is peak American progressive metal; at times ethereal, but also quite heavy, with a confidence matched by … well.. none. The lyrics in “War for Sale” alone — I don’t know that there’s another band, and another singer aside from Mike Baker that could pull this off.
Legacy and Room V would follow, and both are, respectively, great albums, but with Carved in Stone and Tyranny, especially, Shadow Gallery secured their spot in the Mount Rushmore of American progressive metal. I’ll leave you to fill in the rest. [CHRIS C]
Revenant – Prophecies Of A Dying World
Uphill Battle – Wreck Of Nerves
Twisted Tower Dire – Crest Of The Martyrs
Soilent Green – Sewn Mouth Secrets
What feels like a trillion years ago, I saw Soilent Green play on this tour in some dingy-as-hell Nashville club that has long since been rebranded into a hip tourist barbecue restaurant, alongside their fellow Relapse Records signees Morgion, Exhumed, and Today Is The Day, which, you may note, is a heck of a good lineup. Each band brought its own thing, but Soilent won that particular day, at least for me. Their potent blend of sludgy scummy NOLA vibe and twisted, blistering grindcore is a brilliant one, distinctive and destructive, and though later efforts (particularly Deleted Symphony Of The Beaten Down) were certainly worthy of praise, they never really topped Sewn Mouth Secrets. Patton and Punch’s guitars weave around and around, never quite going in the direction my ears expect and yet always ending up exactly where they need to be, while the late Scott Williams and Tommy Buckley hold it all together with a skittering kinetic energy and future Goatwhore leader Ben Falgoust screams, shouts, barks, and growls atop it all. Sludge and I aren’t often on great terms, but wrap that filth around some gnarly grindcore, and I’m in, baby, I’m in. [ANDREW EDMUNDS]
Cave In – Until Your Heart Stops
Fear Factory – Demanufacture
Ludicra – The Tenant
Rwake – If You Walk Before You Crawl, You’ll Crawl Before You Die
Origin: Little Rock, Arkansas
Why it belongs: The melodic, technical sludge of Rwake’s breakout album is a walking contradiction with an untroubled stride. Many hands are at work here; they are reaching out from the dark the closets of your mind to drag you toward some unknown nowhere, they are anxiously fidgeting with lighters, spoons and powdery substances, but they are most importantly fingering guitar necks to work magick spells.
What’s the most American thing about Rwake: They sound like a band who half-drunkenly watches The Hills Have Eyes after rehearsals, off-handedly commenting about how they “have some cousins who used to do this kinda thing.” [DAVID FONSECA]
Funebrarum – Beneath The Columns Of Abandoned Gods
Whiplash – Power And Pain
Cryptic Slaughter – Money Talks
Disgorge – Consume The Forsaken
King’s X – Gretchen Goes To Nebraska
What does it mean to be labeled ‘one of the biggest underrated bands in America’? Pretty much just as it reads: King’s X is big enough to be considered mainstream and have a notably dedicated following, but based on the quality of their output, particularly across their first five records, they should probably be more celebrated than they currently are. What’s the hold-up? Well, even reaching back to the band’s pinnacle years, including 1989’s brilliant sophomore effort Gretchen Goes to Nebraska, I think perhaps the melding of so many styles and the ‘Christian rock’ misnomer simply proved too much to conquer for the greater public. I mean, I get it, to an extent, but I’m also very happy that I happen to populate the group that really loves to experience the band’s blend of hard rock, progressive metal, funk and soul put to introspective narratives that explore daily tussles with religion, love and self-acceptance. How can someone not enjoy the brooding hook behind “Summerland?” The get-up-and-go of the opening “Out of the Silent Planet?” The spiritual jam that is “I’ll Never Be the Same?” Friend, I am in, and I’ve been in for the better part of the last (gulp) 40 years. [CAPTAIN]
Deceased – Supernatural Addiction
Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger
Danzig – II: Lucifuge
Solitude Aeturnus – Beyond The Crimson Horizon
Timeghoul – 1992-1994 Discography
Two demos is enough to land on this last, right?
Tumultuous Travelings and Panaramic Twilight are equal parts progressive and technical death metal. In some ways, they were ahead of their time. The soloing is absolutely beautiful and dare I say almost spiritual. The riffs are straight from the school of Chuck Schuldiner.
So, it’s hard not to like ‘em if you consider yourself an OSDM fan.
And, obviously, they’d have quite the impact on the cosmic death metal sub-genre.
While the production is quite murky, combined with the musicianship, it sounds like what I imagine navigating the darkness of the cosmos is like.
And for what it’s worth, I feel like they’re the quintessential band to light some incense and vibe out to.
Nonetheless, without Timeghoul, we may not have bands like Blood Incantation or Tomb Mold. Point blank, those two demos are still making an impact today, and that’s enough for me to toss this one on the list.
I’m sure you’ve heard them, but if not, drop what you’re doing and dive in, you freaks. [BLIZZARD OF JOZZSH]
Dr. Know – Wreckage In Flesh
Velvet Cacoon – Genevieve: December Star Embassy Vol. II
Ripping Corpse – Dreaming With The Dead
Krallice – Years Past Matter
Is it black metal? Prog? Music school skronk? Explore any beefheaded metal forum during Krallice’s early years and you were likely to see arguments about their black metal bonafides, but Krallice’s genre is less important than the dizzying, mind-warping experience. And the masterful and ambitious Years Past Matter is handily the peak of the Krallice experience. It’s an incredibly technical and almost dizzying album, and so orchestrated and meticulously arranged that it feels like modern classical. It’s also, both due to and almost in spite of its technical prowess, a hauntingly beautiful album with melodies that cut through the maelstrom to craft a unified narrative. It all builds to a finish so unforgettable you’ll want to immediately hit play on this dense slab all over again. [ZACH DUVALL]
Killswitch Engage – Alive Or Just Breathing
Liege Lord – Master Control
Slayer – Hell Awaits
Zero Hour – The Towers Of Avarice
Like so many of the very best albums, The Towers Of Avarice bridges eras. Prog and technical metal devotees will trace lines back to Queensrÿche, through Cynic and Atheist, and up to Spiral Architect and Meshuggah. And, like so many of the very best albums, those lines come together with new ones to make a unique piece; in this case, the story of an oppressed people driven underground and risen up behind their would-be hero. As with all great concept albums, every member of the band has the talent to earn the spotlight, but Zero Hour’s strength is in making the music that tells the story, from riffs and leads to tom hits and chimes, and from whispers to screams. As a complex album with a deep story, The Towers Of Avarice takes time to set its hooks and, once it does, they are absolutely set. As a work of modern progressive/technical heavy metal, it remains unmatched even after 25 years, except perhaps by the band’s own works (see 2008’s Dark Deceiver). [LONE WATIE]
Brutality – Screams Of Anguish
Kamelot – The Black Halo
Eternal Champion – The Armor Of Ire
Nile – Annihilation Of The Wicked
So, confession time? I originally voted for Black Seeds of Vengeance to represent Nile on this list. It was my first and it remains my favorite, but if you really twist my arm or ankh-le, it’s just gotta be Annihilation, right? On album number four, absolutely everything crystallized for our favorite South Carolinian sarcophagus-botherers: the songs are heater after heater, the album arc is magical, the production is b e a u t i f u l l y massive, and every player’s performance is so intensely dialed in they should have all automatically qualified for hand soap sponsorships. Annihilation of the Wicked is simply Nile at their everything-iest. Who still out there ain’t cast down they heretic? Get right and get wrecked. [DAN OBSTKRIEG]
Eyehategod – Take As Needed For Pain
Dying Fetus – Destroy The Opposition
Horrendous – Ecdysis
Mötley Crüe – Shout At The Devil
Motley Crue’s rise to popularity is the worst accident involving this band. I associate Shout at the Devil with three things: (1) the doofus with a lifted truck in the cinematic masterpiece Idle Hands; (2) the only rock radio station in my backwater town that played music from the ’80s exclusively, meaning not only did I have the same cultural touchstones in high school as someone two decades my senior, but I’ve heard this idiot shit more times than the wind; and (3) my friend who was in an adult-ed course learning how to grow bonsai trees, and this shockingly youthful-looking roguish burnout with the posture of a 6’2″ three-legged bar stool walked over, said “Bitchin’ bonsai, man,” and then, upon his leaving, everyone encircled my buddy, asking what Tommy Lee told him. Somehow, all of that aptly defines an album that wears the track “Ten Seconds to Love” proudly, which, in the interest of dismantling the patriarchy, is a full 50 seconds less than what Missy Elliott later requested. “HERE I COME, TACOMA!” [SETH BUTTNAM]
Dawnbringer – In Sickness And In Dreams
Ratt – Out Of The Cellar
Savage Grace – Master Of Disguise
Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry
The Black Dahlia Murder – Nocturnal
The Black Dahlia Murder has never tried to pretend they’re something they’re not. The Detroit-based quintet loved melodic death metal and were happy to put direct references to their heroes like At The Gates, Entombed or Carcass right in the music and lyrics themselves. For the oldheads among us, that often led to them being written off as a clone. For the younger folks seeing these tour dogs take on every summer festival that would welcome them from Ozzfest to Warped Tour, it was an awakening to find the extremeness of death metal married to melodic hooks and earworm choruses as potent as anything you’d find on the radio.
The fact that guitarist Brian Eschbach and vocalist Trevor Strnad were equally capable of creating a hook that could latch onto your brain made them a dynamic duo. Couple that with Strnad’s unmatched lyrics, particularly on Nocturnal, and it’s no wonder they became fan favorites. Album number three saw the band take a big step up in every way. The production is fuller, Strnad’s vocals matured, and the lead work became more emotive and numerous. “What A Horrible Night To Have a Curse,” with lyrics inspired by Castlevania, was the lead single that would stay in the live rotation, but the title track, “Warborn,” and “Deathmask Divine” all took the spotlight throughout the band’s career.
Personally, I also find this record to be one of Strnad’s strongest lyrical contributions. Take any of the above-mentioned songs, the absolutely disgusting “Virally Yours,” or the hostility of “Climactic Degradation,” and you’ll see a writer absolutely on fire. I don’t know that he ever penned a song more powerful than “To A Breathless Oblivion,” which became all the more heart-wrenching after his passing. RIP to one of the best. [SPENCER HOTZ]
Suffocation – Pierced From Within
Inter Arma – Sky Burial
Repulsion – Horrified
THE FINAL 50
Armored Saint – Symbol Of Salvation
Insect Warfare – World Extermination
Blood Incantation – Starspawn
Incantation – Diabolical Conquest
Arch / Matheos – Sympathetic Resonance
Sanctuary – Refuge Denied
Dark Angel – Darkness Descends
Shadow Gallery – Tyranny
Revenant – Prophecies Of A Dying World
Uphill Battle – Wreck Of Nerves
Twisted Tower Dire – Crest Of The Martyrs
Soilent Green – Sewn Mouth Secrets
Cave In – Until Your Heart Stops
Fear Factory – Demanufacture
Ludicra – The Tenant
Rwake – If You Walk Before You Crawl, You’ll Crawl Before You Die
Funebrarum – Beneath The Columns Of Abandoned Gods
Whiplash – Power And Pain
Cryptic Slaughter – Money Talks
Disgorge – Consume The Forsaken
King’s X – Gretchen Goes To Nebraska
Deceased – Supernatural Addiction
Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger
Danzig – II: Lucifuge
Solitude Aeturnus – Beyond The Crimson Horizon
Timeghoul – 1992-1994 Discography
Dr. Know – Wreckage In Flesh
Velvet Cacoon – Genevieve: December Star Embassy Vol. II
Ripping Corpse – Dreaming With The Dead
Krallice – Years Past Matter
Killswitch Engage – Alive Or Just Breathing
Liege Lord – Master Control
Slayer – Hell Awaits
Zero Hour – Towers Of Avarice
Brutality – Screams Of Anguish
Kamelot – Black Halo
Eternal Champion – The Armor Of Ire
Nile – Annihilation Of The Wicked
Eyehategod – Take As Needed For Pain
Dying Fetus – Destroy The Opposition
Horrendous – Ecdysis
Mötley Crüe – Shout At The Devil
Dawnbringer – In Sickness And In Dreams
Ratt – Out Of The Cellar
Savage Grace – Master Of Disguise
Twisted Sister – Stay Hungry
The Black Dahlia Murder – Nocturnal
Suffocation – Pierced From Within
Inter Arma – Sky Burial
Repulsion – Horrified
