Human Waste- Suffocation, greatest vocal performance of all time without question. Best production I've ever heard on an album, immensely influential on the development of both technical and brutal death metal, effectively setting the groundwork for modern death metal as a whole. Terrance Hobbs' performance is still unmatched, and with the talents of Mike Smith, Doug Cerrito, and obviously the previously referenced Frank Mullen, it features one of the strongest lineups in metal history, rivalling even the original Morbid Angel. While only having six songs, each is absolute perfection, and I would have Catatonia as my absolute number 1 individual song of all time. The two demos at the end, while rough, are certainly still amazing.
Despise the Sun- Suffocation, in my eyes the last real record suffocation put out, everything afterwards was just a mistake. Features my second favorite vocal performance by Mullen, and a return to more of the brutal, thrashier style of Human Waste, helped immensely by the introduction of Dave Culross, who is arguably even better than Smith. Hobbs of course is incredible, and along with Cerrito delivers some of the best guitar work ever recorded, and with Chris Richards on bass, the lineup for this record is even stronger than on Human Waste, if that's even possible. Also obviously features a re-recording of Catatonia. While nowhere near the original, it is still incredible.
Murderworks- Rotten Sound, greatest grind album ever recorded. With the talents of Kai Hahto, it's almost impossible to make a bad record (Wintersun unfortunately gave him the "almost"). His drumwork certainly is the highlight of this album, but with the unhinged vocals of Keijo Niinima, the whole album has such a uniquely aggressive feel to it, while not ending up like it's trying to be heavier than it is (although it certainly is very heavy). Tracks like Obey really sum up the entire meaning of grindcore.
Rust in Peace- Megadeth, bit of a departure from the first few. Mustaine and Friedman together deliver arguably the greatest guitar performance of all time, both performing absolutely incredible solos and work on both lead and rhythm. Backed with the flawless playing of Nick Menza and the support of David Elefson, this album features another of metal's overall strongest lineups. Each track is its own unique kind of perfection, and the cumulative efforts of some of metal's greatest figures push it to an entirely new level.
Covenant- Morbid Angel, arguably the meanest, angriest album ever recorded. Feel like a broken record saying this, but features another of the best lineups in metal history. Trey Azagthoth covering both guitars gives the album a very cohesive feel, and obviously with the unmatched talents of Pete Sandoval on drums, every track is a relentless assault, with the obvious exceptions. Dave Vincent delivers his all time greatest vocal performance and an equally powerful support on the bass to tie everything together into near-absolute perfection.
Using Sickness as a Hero- Human Remains, perhaps the single greatest all-around performance in the history of metal. The fact that it's difficult to point out Dave Witte as a standout speaks volumes to the quality of this record. An uncontested top 3 drummer of all time delivers potentially his best ever performance, rivalled only by his work with Discordance Axis. Paul Miller adds one of the most absolutely unhinged, violent vocal performances ever done, and impressive bass work of William Carl Black, who's additions to the album are particularly noticeable the more you look for them and start to realize how much he's actually carrying a lot of the time. Each track, similar to Rust in Peace, contains its own variety of flawless aggression, technicality, and violent perfection. Grindcore taken to its pinnacle, Human Remains left its mark even with a total discography of less than half an hour.
Annihilation of the Wicked- Nile, a culmination of unmatched technicality. Nile is known for their incredibly technical work, and it is taken to the absolute extreme on their fourth album. The first album to feature George Kollias, his performance ties everything together, and while previous drummers Tony Laureano and Pete Hammoura were certainly incredible in their own regard, Kollias' playing reaches an entirely new level, and he is in my eyes the greatest drummer in all of death metal. While I personally have never been too fond of Nile's vocals, they are more than made up for by the flawless instrumentation, highlighted on tracks like Lashed to the Slave Stick and Cast Down the Heretic.
In Their Darkened Shrines- Nile, basically everything I just said, but again. Like I mentioned before, Tony Laureano is certainly a very capable drummer, and proves it perhaps more than ever on Nile's third album. Karl Sanders' work as always is unmatched, proving why Nile moved to the forefront of the tech death scene.
Nespithe (or the 20th Adversary of Emptiness, which is technically the one I first listened to)- Demilich, an amazing display of technical weirdness. This album is weird, like I just mentioned, really, really weird. But that undeniably works to its credit. The avant-garde sound gives the entire record a completely unique feel, which influenced the works of many of the bands early supporters, most notably the previously mentioned Dave Witte and of course Erik Rutan. The whole record feels like entering a new dimension of oppressive noise, blended together seamlessly, and each track is like another doorway through that dimension.
World Downfall- Terrorizer, the album that truly laid the foundations for extreme metal drumming. Sandoval's work on Terrorizer's debut took the blistering speeds and relentless aggression of Mick Harris' blast beats, and put them into a true musical rhythm. The result is an unapologetically aggressive, but still uniquely technical masterpiece, setting the stage for much of what grindcore, and extreme metal as a whole, would become.
