Metallica, Black Sabbath, Van Halen Among Rolling Stone‘s ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’ Selections
Rolling Stone has updated their 2003 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time for 2020, and with that many slots available, a handful of metal and hard rock albums were bound to make the cut… which they did!
To make the list, the mag “tabulated Top 50 Albums lists from more than 300 artists, producers, critics, and music-industry figures (from radio programmers to label heads, like Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman).” Notable metal musicians were invited to vote include Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, Alice Cooper, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda, and Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale.
Metal Injection has helpfully gone through the list and picked out the all the metal or metal-friendly albums that were included, so you don’t have to bother scrolling through the whole thing (unless you want to scroll through the whole thing, in which case, knock yourself out). Those albums are as follows:
488 – The Stooges, The Stooges
487 – Black Flag, Damaged
453 – Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine
445 – Yes, Close to the Edge
408 – Motörhead, Ace of Spades
355 – Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath
320 – X, Los Angeles
305 – Kiss, Alive!
292 – Van Halen, Van Halen
278 – Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy
235 – Metallica, Metallica
234 – Black Sabbath, Master of Reality
221 – Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
144 – Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
139 – Black Sabbath, Paranoid
123 – Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
122 – Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
101 – Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin
97 – Metallica, Master of Puppets
94 – The Stooges, Fun House
92 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Axis: Bold as Love
84 – AC/DC, Back in Black
62 – Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction
58 – Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV
53 – Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland
30 – Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced?
The highest-ranking hard rock album to make the cut is Nirvana’s Nevermind, which came it at #6. Otherwise, the top twenty albums are sadly low on heaviness (although — fun fact! — Slash’s father, Anthony Hudson, designed the cover for the #3 entry, Joni Mitchell’s Blue):
20. Radiohead, Kid A
19. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
18. Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
17. Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
16. The Clash, London Calling
15. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
14. The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
13. Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
12. Michael Jackson, Thriller
11. The Beatles, Revolver
10. Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
9. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
8. Prince and the Revolution, Purple Rain
7. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
6. Nirvana, Nevermind
5. The Beatles, Abbey Road
4. Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life
3. Joni Mitchell, Blue
2. The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
1. Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On
I’m much too old and tired to still get angry over this kind of meaningless click bait, but if you want, feel free to bitch and moan in the comments section.
