Hellhammer "apocalyptic raids"

The first time I heard #hellhammer was around 1987.  A friend had given me a cassette with this album on one side and Onslaught "power from hell" on the flip (a great album in its own right).  I LOVED this Hellhammer album right from the first listen.  I've read accounts of how despised this band was upon it's release.  I'm always a little surprised.  Yeah, it's primitive and borders on cheesy in it's desire to be evil as hell.  I think the thing that sells it though is the sincerity of artistic focus.  The album exists solely as an honest statement, it is not derivitive and I believe that resonates with those of us who love this shit.  I was talking about "true metal" with one of my co-workers yesterday and I believe that there is no truer metal than this.  It is heavy metal distilled down to it's concentrated essence.  Leather, spikes, long hair, double bass drums and smear distorted riffs.  There's no pandering to non-metal.  The music is singular in it's appeal.  That purity is what I freaking love about this album.  As an album I actually prefer the follow up Celtic Frost's "morbid tales" but as a statement of extreme heavy metalness I believe this album is unprecedented.

Iron Maiden "powerslave"

It cannot be overstated the impact that both #ironmaiden and #derekriggs had on my life. Derek Riggs was my first artistic love, he was the first artist to make me consider a person's body of work.  I loving recreated every single Iron Maiden album and single covers. I drew them on folders, lined paper and eventually skin.  Today I'm putting the finishing touches on a "killers" tattoo and I've been looking forward to it all week.
    Iron Maiden were the first band that I hunted down their discography. I bought any singles and imports I could find.  I discovered the "b-side" through them. Which as an avid music collector is really a monumental moment.  "Powerslave" was the first new release album during my fandom and it will always be special to me because I remember thinking: "I'm hearing this before some other fan somewhere is!"  It is arguably their best album as well (though that argument is rarely won with such a large and influential canon).  It was 1984, I was twelve and had already been wearing a "piece of mind" back patch on my treasured denim jacket for months, I was hoping to grow my hair long (I hadn't yet started that battle with my parents). That jacket was my freak flag in junior high and I flew it proudly.  I got in fist fights with former co-football players. I was angry and headbanger culture made me feel threatening, the inverse of my home life.  It was powerful stuff.  I caught the band live again this past winter in Canada, thirty years almost to the day since the first time I saw them perform at the Aud in Buffalo for this album.  It brought tears to my eyes, how good they still were and all the shit in my life they had been a soundtrack too and here they were: still around and still important to me.  I often long for stability in life, things that remain constant. Maiden had done that for me.  #uptheirons

Celtic Frost "emporer's return"

#celticfrost are my most beloved metal band. Slayer had dropped "reign in blood" in 1986 along with Metallica's "master of puppets", I was in 9th grade and we all knew the metal landscape was changing. I was raving about Possessed "seven churches" album and Destruction's "infernal overkill" to a hesher at school and he slipped me a cassette that had morbid angel's first demo, a Thanatos demo  and Celtic Frost's "morbid tales".  Celtic Frost's smeary riffs, throaty vocals and mid tempo approach stuck to me like gum to a shoe. On our next trip to Cavages Records I found a cassette version of the "emperor's return" ep. One look at that cover and I snatched it up (the giger cover for "to mega therion" usurped it as gates cover of all time).  Has been a cherished release since.

Venom "at war with satan"

In 1985 I was in eighth grade, over the previous summer I had discovered Iron Maiden's "run to the hills" video on MTV.  At this point I was bicycling up to Hills department store weekly to spend my allowance on cassette tapes. Over that summer I was able to purchase a couple Maiden tapes and a smattering of various rock albums based on album covers. I fell in love with maiden that summer and was able to trade an old bicycle for a denim jacket with Iron Maiden's "piece of mind" on a back patch.  I wore that jacket like it was seared to my flesh. While sulking to my locker one day a fellow metal head who had older metal head brothers handed me a cassette on one side labeled "slayer- hell awaits" and the flip side "venom-at war with satan". My ears turned flush, at that point Maiden's "number of the beast" was the most satanic thing that could ever be recorded. But this label promised forbidden delights.
Listening to this #venom album now I will admit it sounds pretty dumb, but lying in my room with my boom box near my head listening to that tape in a barely audible volume for fear my mom would hear it... I felt a rebellious rush. I had been raised Roman catholic, but had by this time become a tepid agnostic. And here was an open war cry against god (I wasn't sophisticated enough to realize how tongue in cheek it was). I would eventually flip flop but at the time I vastly preferred the venom side over the slayer side. This cassette became the measuring stick for my small inner circle of hesher friends. We stopped buying Krokus albums. From here on evil looking albums were all we wanted.