Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: What are the Top 100 Old-School Metal Albums of All Time?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Our newest annual special issue is finally available for public consumption, and you’ve surely noticed somewhere or another online that the theme is the Top 100 Old-School Metal Albums of All Time. Following a litany of relatively easy to explain special issues about black metal, death metal, doom and thrash, “old-school” is simultaneously somehow the toughest and simplest qualifier to define. Our editor-in-chief clarifies it as “any metal album released prior to 1989 that doesn’t adhere to extreme metal subgenres (thrash, death, black, doom, etc.).”

But as you flip through the list, you’ll find many artists who veer closer to hard rock than metal. If you’re, say, 35 or older, you’ll probably be pumped that some of these artists are finally getting ink in this magazine. If you’re not a sad old fuck, this is a good opportunity to open your mind to a smorgasbord of rockers both globally influential and criminally unsung. Motörhead is repped big time… and so is Hanoi Rocks. The first six Maiden albums get props… and so does Van Halen, Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe.

So, yeah, it’s one of our weirder, possibly more shit-stirring specials yet, and it features the cherry on top of J. Bennett extolling the Hall of Fame virtues of Canadian proto-speed trio Exciter’s Heavy Metal Maniac. Not to mention all-new interviews with Maiden, Priest, Motörhead and even more metal royalty. Pick it up now, either on its own or packaged in a bundle with two previous special issues that haven’t sold out.