Metal Stars Essential Metal Albums
Rob Halford, Matt Pike and More Pick Their Best Metal Records
Matt Pike's Essential Metal Album
Matt Pike from High On Fire: Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath
“They’re probably my favourite heavy metal band ever so I would have to say Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath. It’s the most essential album that anyone could f***ing have in their catalogue because it was like the birth of all that was heavy. We borrowed a lot from Sabbath in Sleep but, y’know, they put this monster out there and it was probably inevitable that others were going to try to take a piece of it for themselves.”
Gary Holt's Heavy Metal Desert Island Disc
Gary Holt from Exodus: Rainbow Rising by Rainbow
“I could even narrow it down – if we’re talking like a heavy metal Desert Island Disc, I could go to my desert island with just the song 'Stargazer', I don’t need anything else. It’s the greatest song ever written in my opinion. I love Ritchie Blackmore, I love Rainbow and Ronnie James Dio obviously and that album to me is the greatest album ever.”
Pure Metal Drumming
Steve Asheim from Deicide: Killers by Iron Maiden
“I don't know if it's the best metal album ever made but the metal record I look upon most fondly would be Iron Maiden's Killers. It's just a great, great record and it brings me back to those early days. That was the first of that new wave of metal that I was exposed to – before that it was all Kiss and Sabbath. For me as a drummer listening to Clive Burr's playing, it was very in your face and precise and well executed straight-ahead metal. Judas Priest had the riffs and the twin guitar stuff but they still used a rock style of drumming, whereas Clive Burr was just laying in there heavy-duty and that's what caught my attention.”
Rob Halford's Essential Metal Album
Rob Halford from Judas Priest: Reign In Blood by Slayer
“I love that record. It's a style of metal that I really like and I just love the attitude. It's really, really intense and potent - it's like listening to music on fire.”
Ex-Skyclad Frontman Martin Walkyier
Martin Walkyier of Sabbat and The Clan Destined: The Chemical Wedding by Bruce Dickinson
“I think it’s got absolutely everything. It’s Iron Maiden but it sounds to me more mature in the songwriting and I think the lyrics are really, really good. Bruce’s voice is amazing on it and the way the whole thing comes together with the William Blake influence in the artwork and the lyrics, it’s a little musical journey. It’s heavy, it’s melodic, it’s got everything for me.”
Click here for more from Martin Walkyier on The Clan Destined.
Or here for more from Steve Asheim on Deicide's new album Till Death Do Us Part.
