100 Favorite Albums Part 3: #50-26

50) Sex Pistols- Nevermind The Bollocks

Still one of the most snarling I'll-spit-on-yer-shoes-and-dare-ya-to-do-something-about-it

albums ever. You wanker.

49) W.A.S.P.- Kill, Fuck, Die
When this album was released in 1996, Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails were ruling the hard music roost. WASP was the Marilyn Manson of it's day in the '80's. Blackie Lawless was the subject of many, many religious protests, government inquiries and had the FBI on tour with the band because of death threats long before Manson even discovered mascara. WASP never went away but became more of a Blackie Lawless solo band once the 90's happened. But for this album, Blackie got Chris Holmes back in the band and the true WASP re-emerged to show Marilyn and co. just where they got all their tricks from to begin with. This is WASP's darkest, sickest, most twisted album they've ever done. They adopted the slight industrial overtones that were popular at that time, but did it without sounding trendy. And the album still holds up today without sounding the least bit dated. It just works. In a big way.

48) Halford- Live Insurrection
An incredible live album from Rob Halford's solo band that runs through tunes from most of Rob's career: the Halford band, Fight and Judas Priest (no Two material though). Rob's voice is searing on this one. Plus there are live versions of the rare tunes "Light Comes Out Of Black", "Hell's Last Survivor" and "Sad Wings".






47) Red Hot Chili Peppers- Blood Sugar Sex Magik
The Chili Peppers at their peak. After this guitarist John Frusciante quit the band, went crazy, became hooked on heroin and disappeared for awhile. After John they went through a succession of forgettable guitarists, including Dave Navarro with whom they recorded one horrible album. Thankfully, Frusciante cleaned up and re-emerged to play for the Peppers again. The new stuff is good, but this album was perfect and defining in a way they'll probably never be able to repeat.




46) Booker T & The MG's- Best Of
The Stax house band, they played on every major recording by every major Stax artist in the 60's and 70's. Featuring one of my biggest guitar influences Steve Cropper on guitar, Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass, Al Jackson on drums and Booker T Jones on the Hammond b-3 Organ. A backing band doesn't get much better than this and you do not get any cooler than "Green Onions".

45) Sam and Dave- Very Best Of
Another one of the Stax talents that was backed by the aforementioned Booker T and The MG's. "Hold On, I'm Coming", "Soul Man", "Wrap It Up"....with tunes like that this album needs no explanation.

44) Beethoven- Mad About Beethoven
A nice little introduction to Beethoven's symphonies, this features the last movement of his 9th Symphony ("The Ode To Joy"). Beethoven is my favorite all-time favorite composer.

43) Concrete Blonde- Free
One of those "greatest bands you've never heard" type things. I've introduced quite a few people to Concrete Blonde over the years. I found out about this band through, of all things, the old TV show 21 Jumpstreet. They used a song off the this album "God Is A Bullet" during one of the episodes and I thought it was one of the coolest songs I ever heard. It still is and this album is still one of my favorites.

42) Motorhead- Overkill
When it comes to early Motorhead, it doesn't get better than this. The Ace of Spades album may be more popular because it has, well, "Ace of Spades" on it, but this album is front to back the most consistently hammering of Motorhead's output with the original line-up of "Fast" Eddie Clarke and "Philthy" Phil Taylor.

41) Tom Waits- Small Change

Waits has two eras. He has his early era..the piano plunking, scat-singing barfly, troubadour tramp years in the 70's and in the 80's he began his eccentric experimental era that continues to this day. Both are brilliant. Of his barfly years, this is the pinnacle.

40) Melvins- Stoner Witch
I like pretty much all Melvins albums equally because they all rule. But I picked this one because it has my two favorite Melvins tune ever on it, "Roadbull" and "Revolve".

39) Testament- The Gathering
Vocalist Chuck Billy sounds like the Devil on this, Eric Peterson recorded all the rhythm guitars as Alex Skolinick had left at this point and he CRUSHES it. And to top it all off, thrash drummer du jour Dave Lombardo (Slayer) sat in on drums for this disc. Like a brick to the head..it a good way.

38) Rainbow- Rainbow Rising
Richie Blackmore's band after Deep Purple, which also featured the incredible Ronnie James Dio on vocals before he took over Sabbath duties from Ozzy. It only has 6 songs on it but they are all epic, especially the ethereal "Stargazer". The Dio line-up is the only one that matters to me. If it ain't Ronnie it ain't Rainbow. Dio was only on the first three Rainbow albums and after he left, Rainbow turned into a bland commerical snoozefest.

37) Howlin' Wolf- The Chess Box
Star Wars or Star Trek? Pepsi or Coke? Stones or the Beatles? Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters? You can like both, but you ultimately favor one or the other. And for me, I favor The Wolf (and I favor all the first one's mentioned in the comparisons above in case you wanted to know).

36) Blind Willie Johnson- Dark Was The Night
The instrumental that this album was named for is one of the most haunting pieces of music I've ever heard. This album features some of the best slide guitar playing you'll ever hear.

35) Snow Patrol- Eyes Open
When I realized how much I liked this album, I felt kinda old honestly. This album has "adult contemporary" written all over it...the kind of rock music bands like U2 make..you know, music for folks who say they like rock music but don't really like to rock THAT hard? But that's okay, this album is far from boring. And everyone needs some albums to relax to. It's a great album full of expertly crafted pop rock tunes. It doesn't rock too hard or too soft..it's just right. And sometimes that's just what you need.

34) Killing Joke- Hossanas From The Basement Of Hell

Killing Joke is one of those bands who have been around forever, but whose recent output I prefer over their early stuff. This album in one big slammin' chunk of industrial punk metal.

33) W.A.S.P.- W.A.S.P.
They unfairly get lumped in with "hair metal" bands and that has always pissed me off. Yeah, they came off the Sunset Strip in the early '80's and were there when the whole hair metal craze took off. But WASP was always meaner, scarier and dirtier than any of the Strip bands they came out with. I mean, how many "hair metal" acts got to tour with the likes of Metallica, Venom and Armored Saint? This is their first album and still one of the best metal albums of the era.

32) Heaven And Hell- The Devil You Know
Been a long, long wait for another album from the Dio era line-up of Sabbath. That's exactly what this is, though they have to call themsleves Heaven and Hell due to some legal BS with Ozzy and the name Black Sabbath. But the name change and the wait are more than worth it. This is a metal album done how metal SHOULD be done by the elder statesmen of the genre. The founders of the metal faith ( these guys, Priest, Maiden, Motorhead) are still showing us all how to do it and that makes me sad to think that in a few years, alot of these originators are going to be gone. And I still don't see too many metal bands out there nowadays who are worthy of picking up the mantle.

31) Johnny Cash- American IV: The Man Comes Around
Attention country artists: THIS is the blueprint you all should be following on how to make a modern country music album. Raw, real tunes with soul and emotion about life instead of glitzy overproduced pop fluff with a steel guitar overdubbed on top of it. Cash saved his best stuff for last with the final few albums of his life. This album features his cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt", a song that is now Cash's forever. When was the last time anyone in Nashville put out something that poignant and real? They should all hang their heads in shame.

30) Motorhead- Inferno
This album is worth it just for "In The Name Of Tragedy" alone. But trust me, you'll want to hear the rest of the album as well. A punch in the nose and a kick to the groin Motorhead style.

29) Faith No More- The Real Thing
Jim Martin is one of the unsung guitar heroes of the '90's. And it sucks that FTM have reunited without him. At least we still have this.

28) Judas Priest- Sad Wings Of Destiny
If you don't have or have never heard this album, go get it now or surrender your metalhead credentials forever. This album is a cornerstone of the art form known as Heavy Metal. Halford's voice is immaculate and flawless..and unhuman. The notes he hits on "Dreamer Deciever" and "Victim Of Changes" are the product of an otherworldy being.

27) Tom Waits- Real Gone
Waits just keeps delivering and pushing himself. He's the only old white guy who could use elements of turn-tables and beat-boxing in his music and not fail horribly at it. Relax, Waits hasn't gone hip-hop on this; as usual he takes a musical idea and makes it COMPLETELY his own, molding and warping it beyond all recognition into something sublime. Same ol' dog..lots of new tricks. And longtime collaborator/guitarist Marc Ribot makes a few standout appearances on this as well.

26) KISS- Carnival Of Souls
This is a controversial album among KISS fans. Some say it's a sell-out attempt to go "grunge". I say it was the next logical step after the killer "Revenge" album. "Revenge" is the album where they recaptured the early KISS spirit like never before since 1982's "Creatures Of The Night" album. Revenge was full of grit, swagger and heavier than anything they'd done in years. When they went it to make this album, Carnival Of Souls, they continued down that heavier path they'd rediscovered, also making a turn into slightly darker territory. I love this album and was really excited by the direction KISS seemed to be taking at the time. This line-up (which featured Eric Singer on drums and Bruce Kulick on guitar) was one of the strongest ever and had really begun to steamroll with the recording of Revenge and picked up even more momentum with this one. Unfortunately we never got to hear anymore out of this line-up or even got to see KISS play anything from this album live because just after recording seesions for COS wrapped up, Gene and Paul reunited with Ace and Peter for the multi-million selling Alive/Worldwide Reunion Tour. I loved that tour, but I was also sad that we never got to see how much more the Singer/Kulick line-up could've accomplished.