Best metal album intro tracks
There must surely be a hierarchy of quality for these largely arbitrary and often musically irrelevant tracks, right?
Classifying based on:
length,
pace,
sound relative to other tracks,
lack of vocals (less essential), |
| 1 |  | Annihilator
Alice in Hell
Crystal Ann - This one is pretty widely recognized as one of Annihilator's best tracks in spite of a total absence of any metallic elements. A really nicely constructed classical guitar piece, and as people often say, quite an effective tone setter simply by demonstrating the band's ludicrous technical skill. |
| 2 |  | Bolt Thrower
...For Victory
War - Slow, evil, and simple as can be, but feels like a real track on the album and even more menacing than most of the ones present. |
| 3 |  | Virvum
Illuminance
The Cypher Supreme - The ideas on display here are really great, with some wild, triumphant guitar leads really lending this fast and dense tech death piece some levity. Awesome track. |
| 4 |  | Napalm Death
Apex Predator - Easy Meat
Title track - Napalm Death's weird use of Barney Greenway's clean vocals gives this mechanical intro an excellent, primal, droning quality. In many ways this feels like one of their most intense tracks ever, in spite of having drastically reduced metal elements. |
| 5 |  | Entrails (SWE)
The Tomb Awaits
Title track - this is one of the best simple acoustic intros I've heard for metal album. Not particularly dense but thickly atmospheric and sorrowful. Somewhat ironic that it leads into the least subtle swedish death metal out there. |
| 6 |  | Destruction
Release from Agony
Beyond Eternity - Another really quite haunting opening track, in spite of some shredding lead arpeggios in the background. Certainly a great opening to a great album and, again, an important tone setter, signifying the heightened progressive influence present compared to Eternal Devastation. |
| 7 |  | Opeth
Watershed
Coil - Pretty much a track from Damnation but really short. That's fine. |
| 8 |  | Persefone
Spiritual Migration
Flying Sea Dragon - Far from the band's best album, but this track gets things off to a pretty good start, with some nice speedy leads accompanying a very dense synth core. |
| 9 |  | Strapping Young Lad
City
Velvet Kevorkian - A great tension builder. Devin's muffled vocals and their rallying-cry sound really set up the sheer brutality of All Hail The New Flesh pretty perfectly. |
| 10 |  | Helstar
Nosferatu
Rhapsody In Black - Simply a really awesome, brief speed metal track with a lovely little classical guitar intro. Nothing much more to say, but a really sick riff and neo-classical arrangement really get the job done here. |
| 11 |  | Judas Priest
Screaming for Vengeance
The Hellion - Surely this is pretty much the first thing someone thinks of when looking for metal intros? The classic guitar harmony here is pretty legendary. Needs no further explanation. |
| 12 |  | Forbidden
Twisted into Form
Parting of the Ways - The whole mysterious sound here feeds well into the simply demonic first proper track Infinite, and in many ways this sounds like an Opeth track without about 8 minutes of fluff so yknow that's pretty good right? :^) |
| 13 |  | Vicious Rumors
Digital Dictator
Replicant - Always a rather lead guitar centric band, Vicious Rumors open their best album up with this really nice, simple, soaring guitar opening. |
| 14 |  | Spawn of Possession
Incurso
Abodment - An effective juxtapositions between quiet, haunting leads alongside the dense, murky, chunky rhythms helps drive this one. Does sound like something off an old school horror film, but sometimes isn't that what you need? |
| 15 |  | Exodus
The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit A
Call To Arms - Whilst the majority of The Atrocity Exhibition is pretty so-so, this intro has some really nice guitar harmonies and feels a lot more effective and creative than some of the tracks that follow it. |
| 16 |  | Emperor
Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Al Svatr (The Oath) - Unusually laid back for Emperor, this track has some great "violined" guitar work and calculated use of synths. The introduction of sinister guitar leads later on allows it to effectively shift to a more "hellish" sound that really leads into the bulk of the album well. |
| 17 |  | Haken
The Mountain
The Path - The Haken vocalist always has been pretty hit and miss for me, but here it's definitely a hit. His voice sounds much less strained, which allows for this vocals and piano piece to be actually very nice and soft for once. |
| 18 |  | Devin Townsend
Terria
Olives - A slow, sparse intro leads into an unpleasant, fizzly, noisy end. The quiet, clean guitar driven bulk of the track is pretty great, and transitions well into the majestic Mountain. |
| 19 |  | Malevolent Creation
The Ten Commandments
Memorial Arrangements - Whilst Malevolent Creation are massive dickheads, this album starts off really well with this slow, chunky, and sinister metallic intro. |
| 20 |  | Exhumed
Anatomy Is Destiny
Title track - Waxwork is one of my favourite metal songs of all time, and this introductory track manages to really establish it as a fearsome piece of music. Ponderous, and foreboding as hell. |
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