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| 21 Most Influential Metal Albums Of The 21st Century
This list is inspired by the popular metal blog, Metalsucks, list of the rsame name. In my ropinion that list was way fucking off and me being rthe nerd that I am I can't let this slide rwithout putting forth my own opinion as if it were fact. Rules to get on the list: Album must rhave been released after 1999 and must be metal. Also limit 1 album per band. So quick reveryone look at me and pretend that my opinion matters!! So what albums do you guys are rthe most influential/best of the 21st century? And what albums did I forget?? Also Here is the roriginal list: http://www.metalsucks.net/2009/07/07/the-real-1-mastodon-leviathan/ | | 26 |  | In Flames
Clayman
Honorary Mentions | | 25 |  | Neurosis
The Eye of Every Storm | | 24 |  | Dimmu Borgir
Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia | | 23 |  | Dark Tranquility
Character | | 22 |  | Rwake
Voices of Omens | | 21 |  | Pig Destroyer
Terrifyer
The Start of the list \m/! One of the more iconic grind albums of the last 10 years also a really fucked up album in general. To
me this album really shows a blurring between the line of hardcore and grind. Also some of the nastiest riffs I've ever heard are
on this album, just jam to Towering Flesh. The concept and lyrics also add another dimension to this album making it more
influential. | | 20 |  | The Black Dahlia Murder
Nocturnal
Not really the most original album on this list, but what this album has done for the modern death metal scene is enough to
make it iconic and help it earn an early spot on this list. I imagine without this album a lot of kids would have never gotten into
death metal, I know without it there's a chance I would have necer found bands such as Immolation, Entombed, and Brutality.
Also the album is really good and Deathmask Divine is one of my favorite ballads ever. | | 19 |  | Wintersun
Wintersun
Truly one of the bigger albums Metalsucks left off their list, to me this album is what help to popularize melodic death metal
with power metal and folk/viking influences and is the very definition of mutha fuckin epic \m/! Just jam to Death and Healing
and tell me that doesn't take you away to a snowy landscape where you are preparing to enter a bloody battle field where your
only goal is to see your enemies driven before you and to see the lamentations of the women. | | 18 |  | Gojira
From Mars to Sirius
To me From Mars to Sirius is one of the more influential albums of the past couple years and on it Gojira show that you don't
have to have dream theater esque songs to be progressive. The also demonstrate how to create and craft some of the
heaviest riffs I've ever heard. The opening riff to Ocean Planet is definitely one way to open a fucking master piece of an
album
and a jarring experience to say the least. But then they also show great dynamic with Unicorn and Flying Whales. I seriously
hope more bands seek to emulate these guys in the future. | | 17 |  | Machine Head
The Blackening
This album is truly an amazing return to form for the bay area band but it also serves as an album that helped to push
boundaries in their sound as well as modern thrash. This album to me serves as counter programming to all of the crossover
thrash bands that are popping up all over the metal scene and favors more epic song structures and dynamics, which as far
as I
am concerned is the high road in modern thrash. Also Halo is one of the best songs in the past decade. | | 16 |  | Shadows Fall
The War Within
One of the first successful albums of the new wave of american heavy metal or 2nd generation metalcore or whatever it is,
and
for good reason. This album truly is more unique than the rest of the scene in that it has a lot of thrash influences which
makes
this album pretty fucking metal. Also if not for this album I don't know if I'd have been introduced to some of the more
extreme
genres of metal and I know many people who share that sentiment. If metalcore scene had gone more in this direction it
would
be more well off than it's current incarnation. | | 15 |  | Drudkh
Autumn Aurora
An album of atmosphere, Autumn Aurora truly helped push the boundaries of black metal in the early 2000's. They helped to
forge an image that instead of being based around "Hail Satan!" is based around the beauty of nature which on first take
doesn't seem all that metal, but give this a listen and tell me it isn't fucking awesome. How the album builds through the
season
of autumn, from the Summoning of rain to The First Snow is really well done. | | 14 |  | Necrophagist
Epitaph
Alright so I've heard multiple reports that this album is really not all that influential, but I am pretty sure if not for the flurry of
technical riffs, jazz solos, and dissonant dynamic melodies portrayed on this album a lot of modern tech death bands would be
very different. You can literally hear the influence of this album all over the music of bands like rings of saturn, arkiak, the
faceless, Brain Drill, and later Decrepit Birth. Plus this album actually emphasized song writing more than the previously
mentioned bands. Tell me that songs like Seven, Stabwound, Only Ash Remains, and The Stillborn One aren't iconic. | | 13 |  | The Dillinger Escape Plan
Miss Machine
This was one of the main albums I thought Metalsucks omitted I mean sure its not as influential as Calculating Infinity that
album is another beast in entirety. But Miss Machine is no slouch. With a arsenal of of intense hardcore infused math metal
juggernauts to the much more experimental aspects of the album such as Phone Home, Unretrofied, and We are the Storm
this album truly finds Dillinger at their perfect equilibrium. This is what makes this album so influential the experimentation
shown here is nothing less than interesting and if you listen to a multitude of bands from many different genres you can hear
Dillinger creeping in their somewhere. | | 12 |  | Killswitch Engage
Alive or Just Breathing
Killswitch was probably the biggest metal band between 2004 and 2007 so sadly I guess just for that they kind of have to be
included. I wasn't one of them since I popped my extreme metal cherry with Shadows Fall but think about how many kids who
are currently who got into metal thanks to this album or end of heartache. Anyway this is still a great album with really well
written and catchy as fuck songs. I mean just jam to Life to the Lifeless. Also I'm pretty sure this one of the first album that
popularized good cop bad cop vocals. | | 11 |  | Tool
Lateralus
I honestly shouldn't really have to explain this hopefully, but I'll give it a shot anyway. On Lateralus Tool redefined
progressive music making dark atmospheres, polyrythms, unifying concepts of the spirit, and a creative use of dynamics the
centerpiece of their master piece of an album. Just listen to the opening track The Grudge and tell me that's not one of the
more most adrenaline pumping, intriguing, catchy, groovy, and heavy songs all seemingly at once. Just to further my point
you can see Tools influence all the way from mainstream rock with the likes of Chevelle and Hurt all the way to more extreme
and progressive bands such as Isis, Intronaut, and even Meshuggah. | | 10 |  | Agalloch
The Mantle
The Mantle is Agallochs brightest moment..and by brightest moment I mean beautifully depressing moment. Truly the Mantle
like Agallochs previous album Pale Folklore fully encompasses winter in album form. You haven't listened to Agalloch properly
if you haven't taken a nature walk in the middle of a snowy January while jamming to this album (or Pale Folklore which I
prefer just a bit to this master piece). Like Drudkh Agalloch were one of the first bands to incorporate beautiful post rock
atmosphere and accoustic guitars into a harsh wintery black metal sound. Thanks to this band American Black Metal also has
expanded greatly and has it's own titans such as this band or Wolves In the Throne Room or Nachtmystium. Truly a redifining
of black metal in the most beautiful of ways. | | 9 |  | Immolation
Close to a World Below
While you could say Agalloch and Drudkh help add nature esque atmospheres into black metal you could say Immolation did
something similar to Death Metal with this album. Except in this case the atmosphere behind the music is that of hell itself,
pure molten fire that will easily melt you into a puddle of liquid blood n' guts. Just look at Put My Hand in the Fire for just a
suffocating atmosphere and some of the most blasphemous lyrics in death metal. Unlike other supposedly blasphemous death
metal or black metal albums that has lyrics that are just meant to shock, Close to a World Below's concept is more just driven
by boiling hate. That's right this is truly a gimmick free Death Metal album. The music contained inside is no slouch either
and the riffs and flurry of blast beats and hot atmosphere makes this my 2nd favorite death metal album. | | 8 |  | Isis
Panopticon
On Panopticon Isis truly define and even perfect the genre of Post Metal as a heavy and majestic behemoth which slowly
rises and builds all the while containing a beautiful atmosphere behind the music itself. Really Isis are most effective when
they sit back and let the atmosphere do all the talking. Look no farther than the instrumental Altered Courses or the opening
build of In Fiction where the atmosphere and a light drum pattern is what helps to push the music forward. This priority of
atmosphere building into mammoth sized riffs has influenced most of the modern post metal or even some sludge and doom
metal bands that have been popping up seemingly every where since the late 2000s. Still not of these albums can even hope
to topple Panopticon's minamalistic beauty. | | 7 |  | Children of Bodom
Follow the Reaper
On Follow the Reaper Children of Bodom truly honed and perfected their sound of neoclassical melodic death metal. In my
opinion if not for Bodom or this album key boards would not be as heavily used as they are now in metal music. Plus Children
of Bodom even added some thrash and Black Metal into their mixing pot of genres and I hope I don't even have to go into
Alexi's iconic guitar shredding. To back my claim even more in high school these guys were the second most popular band in
both the metal, emo, and scene cliques besides avenged sevenfold (who were despised in the metal clique obviously). I
know at least a couple of those dudes went on to form mediocre metalcore/melodeth bands where Bodom was the primary
influence. In the end were some what responsible for this current boring metalcore scene? Yes, but are they still iconic and
influential for metal in general? That's another Yes. | | 6 |  | Between the Buried and Me
Colors
Honestly this is one of the biggest and most influential albums released in the last five years and really could be seen as the
revitalization of progressive metal and partially responsible for the dynamics seen in djent. Also BTBAM's policy of
incorporating any genre they wish into their music doesn't hurt their chances on this list at all. Think of this album as the full
realization of Mr Bungle combined with a metalcore/death metal backbone. Now a days whenever I hear any of these
progressive tinged metalcore or just plain metal albums that goes into like a polka section or has a jazzy interlude my mind
immediately goes to this album. And it's kind of impossible not to, before this album there really wasn't anything even
remotely like this. | | 5 |  | Lamb of God
As the Palaces Burn
Lamb of God could easily be said to be the biggest metal band of the last decade and have truly influenced countless
numbers of bands all across the genre's of metal. Admittedly Lamb of God aren't the most original band but what they are is
just pure fucking metal. They are to the 2000's what Pantera was to the 90s. A heavy metal reality check to remind
everyone that metal isn't polished and doesn't follow the rules but is more of a controlled chaos. Lamb of God specifically
could be credited for helping to finally get rid of Nu Metal and revitalizing the metal scene in the early 2000s. Of course
within a couple years this new wave of american heavy metal they created stagnated but contrary to that Lamb of God still
remain influential and relevant to this day. | | 4 |  | Mastodon
Leviathan
This was the number 1 album on Metalsucks list, and I think one could make a very sound argument that it's a well deserved
spot for this album. Mastodon and specifically this album has really helped to popularize and revitalize stoner, sludge, and
progressive metal in the last ten years. Do you think High on Fire's De Vermiis would have sold as much as it did with out
leviathan being such a commercial and critical success, doubtful. Admittedly without bands like High on Fire, Sleep, and
Neurosis Mastodon probably wouldn't exist in the first place, but still you could make an argument that without Mastodon
their would be a big gap in modern progressive and sludge music all together. Also this is one of the first successful and
coolest concept albums of the 21st century. And any one who doubts their prowess needs to check either Iron Tusk or the
epic Hearts Alive. | | 3 |  | Meshuggah
Nothing
This was obviously to me the most over looked album on Metalsucks list, a list Meshuggah didn't even appear on. Without
Nothing and it's respective Reissue the metal world would be entirely different. Maybe for the better maybe for the worst but
it's easy to say that without these iconic swedes bass oriented sound, ever swirling polyrythms, and chunky riffs the whole
modern djent movement would not exist. How many bands can say that they helped pioneer two genres? Meshuggah can.
Originally they pushed the boundries of progressive metal and then not even knowing or meaning to the create djent based
entirely around their guitar tone and polyrythmic underbelly. Even though the guys in Meshuggah might not want credit for
that second feet, they are still one of the most if not the most influential and important bands of the last ten years. | | 2 |  | Opeth
Blackwater Park
I mean even before Blackwater Park was released Opeth was already an iconic band creating masterpieces like Still Life, and
My Arms your Hearse but on Blackwater everything came together perfectly and one of the best metal albums of all time let
alone of the 21st century was born. On Blackwater Park, Opeth perfected the sound they had on Still Life striking the
perfect balance between brutal death metal and emotionally charged acoustic passages. This contrast between absolute
brutality and soft accoustic cleanly sung sections all within the same song is one of the many ways Opeth influenced the
metal world with this album. You can here Opeths influence in Death Metal, in Black metal, in Progressive Metal, and
Progressive music in general. Blackwater Park is the perfect representation of the most iconic progressive band of the 21st
century in just what seems like a short lived one hour masterpiece. | | 1 |  | Converge
Jane Doe
In the last 10 years the most prominent feature in metal is the blurring between hardcore and metal itself, and I'm not talking
about metalcore with 10 breakdowns every song and an At the Gates riff for good measure. No I am talking about a hardcore
with fully fleshed out metal riffs or a metal band that perfectly incorporates a breakdown, gang vocals, or hardcore shouts
into their mix of double bass and heavy riffing. And I think this whole blurring of genre lines can really be traced all the way
back to Converge's Jane Doe the most iconic, influential, and best album of the 21st century in my opinion. Not just that but
every aspect of this album could be called influential, Jacob Bannons lyrics and their iconicly chaotic delivery, Kurt Ballous
metallic riffs which at the time can be just as off the wall crazy as well as skull crushingly heavy, or the ever churning bass
end of the band with Nate Newton's equally iconic vocals backing up Bannons. This album is the definition of influentiallity
influencing it's respective scene as well as metal as whole. The metal scene was forever changed when this album was
released over ten years ago and the fact that Converge are still around releasing just as iconic and as ferocious albums today
is a testament to just how talented this group of musicians actually is. | |
ManintheBox
04.16.13 | I'll be adding descriptions for each one of these over time so you can understand my reasoning..Picks were about 50% my own bias and 50% influential-ness of each album. Tell me your opinions about my nerdy list bros!1 | TheSpaceMan
04.16.13 | great list, agree with more than half of these. i dont know if you put these in a specific order on purpose but i'd agree with 1 making a big dent | Evreaia
04.16.13 | no. | slipnslide
04.16.13 | people are gonna be mad inb4 | slipnslide
04.16.13 | damn too late | TheSpaceMan
04.16.13 | but fuck tbdm | CK
04.16.13 | Metalsucks' list was voted on by metal musicians themselves, I believe. I looked at that same list.
And I don't think it was most influential, I think it was just greatest. | CK
04.16.13 | Alright, so you have some good mentions here. I do think that you missed the bands that contributed greatly to alt metal, such as SOAD with Toxicity and Deftones with White Pony and Mudvayne with LD 50. Also, I don't think Epitaph was all that influential of an album. I do believe that Necrophagist was an influential band, but it's mostly because of their / his first album | geasoftime
04.16.13 | 2, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 19 and 25. I would have included a bunch of other releases but it's a very decent list. And Pale Folklore is my favorite Agalloch release, so the avatar is great.
I would have added:
Cult of Luna - Somewhere Along the Highway
Warning - Watching from a Distance
Swallow the Sun - The Morning Never Came
Death - Symbolic
Ulcerate - Everything is Fire
Emperor - In The Nighside Eclipse
Immortal - At the Heart of Winter
Bathory - Blood Fire Death
Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness
Wolves in the Throne Room - Diadem of 12 Stars
Wyrd - Huldrafolk
Altar of Plagues - White Tomb
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Insomnium - Since the Day It All Came Down
Carcass - Heartwork
Intronaut - Valley of Smoke
Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites
Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle Earth
Falconer - The Sceptre of Deception
Rhapsody - Symphony of Enchanted Lands II
Enslaved - Isa
Cynic - Traced in Air
Edge of Sanity - Crimson
Ensiferum - Iron
Falkenbach - Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty
Mithotyn - In the Sign of Ravens
..my list would have been longer than yours, but I feel like all of those are crucial. | ManintheBox
04.16.13 | Thanks for the constructive comments bros, somewhat surprising for sputnik.
@ckretic: yeah it was officially the best metal albums but they definitely mentioned that they factored influentialness in making their picks, and even if not I like the list concept.
@geasoftime: I was modeling it after the metalsucks list which only had 21 entries, believe me I wanted to expand it. Also dude its albums that were released in the 21st century, but I agree most of those you listed are pretty crucial. | DominionMM1
04.16.13 | i would have put neurosis a lot higher. i mean how do you put mastodon above them? | NeroCorleone80
04.16.13 | ^ | geasoftime
04.16.13 | oh, damn. I'd have to take Death, Emperor, Bathory, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Carcass, Blind Guardian, and Mithotyn off the list. I'd change Edge of Sanity ro Crimson II. I didn't realize it was 20th century. | ManintheBox
04.16.13 | @dominion: way I see it, Neurosis already made their mark on metal with Through Silver in Blood, which I admit is way better and more iconic than Mastodon but was released in 96.
@geas:haha yeah sorry dude, making it a little more interesting, but all of those are honestly great picks: Intronaut, Cynic, Enslaved, warning, ulcerate, and Crimson 2 could have all gone on here. | ManintheBox
04.16.13 | @ckretic: I see your point, just with all of these young tech death bands that are crawling out of the wood work all seem to be ripping off this album like Rings of Saturn, Arkiak, Planetary Duality. But your right Deftones could definitely go there and would probably be the better pick. | DominionMM1
04.16.13 | and 22 needs to be higher just because it fucking rules | ManintheBox
04.16.13 | I honestly agree about 22 dude, such an underrated album. I think in the future you'll see a lot more bands taking influence from it, dem riffs m/! | apert
04.16.13 | alot of these really aren't that influential, and onset is by far the more influential necrophagist album. hate to say it but i agree with potsy | demigod!
04.16.13 | list is a joke agreed | pissbore
04.16.13 | influential towards the rise of banality in music, agreed | DrHouseSchuldiner
04.16.13 | Most of these albums i dig but i dont think any of these albums is influential imo | geasoftime
04.17.13 | 2,8, and 9 are. | CK
04.17.13 | Here come the bastards | phrantik
04.17.13 | very influential list | ManintheBox
04.17.13 | Yeah dudes where'd all this negativity come from? And they might not be influential in the terms of originality but I think as far as actually being sited as an influence by most modern day bands these are influential. I mean most of these albums were the biggest of their perspective subgenre and for a lot of these albums preceded the subgenre. | ManintheBox
04.17.13 | @geas: Pale Folklore is my favorite to, and believe me I wanted to add that album but it came out in
99. | ManintheBox
04.18.13 | Alright I have officially finished all of the bios for these amazing albums all 21, took longer to write than I thought, but I feel like I demonstrated why each album belongs where. | Trebor.
04.18.13 | Jane Doe isn't metal | ManintheBox
04.19.13 | It has metal influence in it though, and has definitely influenced the world of metal greatly. Read the paragraph I wrote on it, it should justify its placement. | ManintheBox
04.19.13 | Also tell me those riffs in thaw and Jane Doe don't owe something to the world of metal. | TheSpirit
04.19.13 | do any of you even know what influential means | ManintheBox
04.19.13 | Guess not bro, 1 sec I'll go google it. and dude tell me what albums released after 2000 you think
are influential. | oltnabrick
04.19.13 | the new goropsy album is very influential
check it hard | WolvesInTheWalls
04.19.13 | UGH | ManintheBox
04.19.13 | woah I just jammed to Goropsy and you weren't kidding..my brain melted and I jizzed blood at the same time. It's like the best of black, death, Avaunt Garde, Free Jazz, and Polka all in one album. | candlemass01
05.23.16 | I hate that nowadays you, together with specialized metal magazines, try to sell that the only possible metal is death metal, metalcore and its spinoffs - overlooking whole subgenres like power metal, progressive (non-death) metal, doom, symphonic, folk etc. anyway, with the exception of Opeth, Mastodon and In Flames, none of these bands are touring the world AFAIK. So i guess they`re not influential AT ALL. | NickHoligan
03.04.20 | I think you've missed Electric Wizard's Dopethrone, the quintessential band/album every Stoner/Doom band attempts to imitate and (generally) fails, or even Sleep's Dopesmoker if consider that it was released in 2003 and not 1999 (Jerusalem version). Not sure if there is anything like those two in that particular scene. |
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