ultra, for Sevendust get their self-titled debut. My favorite track is called Black, and there’s a clip here. Denial is also a good album.
Also, does Industrial-Metal interest you? (or maybe it’s Metal-Industrial) If so, KMFDM kicks major ass. Some looped samples, super-heavy-bass electronic drum tracks, and lots of hard-edge guitar. I Recommend either Angst or Nihil if you check them out.
Definately check out Three Inches of Blood a HardCore band from Vancouver http://www.threeinchesofblood.com/site/index.htm
They are great.
I’ve also been liking Avenged Sevenfold Lately.
Go to Mp3.com and check out their metal section, their top ten lists are great for finding some new metal, such as Dragonlorce!
I’m not gonna write off any subgenres at this point. I’ve heard a little KMFDM, but I haven’t decided whether I like 'em or not.
If you haven’t heard Godflesh’s Streetcleaner, you’re missing a gem. It was made for about $8 in 1989, but for all the poor quality of the recording it still manages to be one of the best albums I’ve ever heard. They branched out into other genres through the 90s (and are now defunct as of this past Spring), so their other releases may not fit the criteria of what you’re looking for, but Streetcleaner… Mmmmm.
Hehe, here we go. I will describe the Band, then suggest the best album to get. Keep in mind Heavy is generally considered slower, and Brutal is considered fast and chaotic. All the bands here are the cream of the crop in their respective styles btw.
Heaviest/Brutal bands/albums of all time
Hands down the heaviest shit ever recorded. And anyone that knows their shit will pretty much concur with you. BT is one of the most unique sounding bands, with the sound focused around the 2 guitars & bass. Their riffs are unmatched, with a groovy downtuned style, and interplaying guitars, one hanging with the bass, while the other plays small catchy leads over it. They have an extremely unique sound, that cannot be described. The drummer kicks very fast double bass, and the singer has a raspy voice instead of some Demon sounding guy. This band has been around for over 10 years, and are highly respected in the music community. The riffs they play are simply apocolyptic.
Although chosing an album is like chosing which child is your favorite, start off with the following 3.
For Victory
The Forth Crusade
Warmaster
I hope you like war, because its all they sing about.
Simply described as ‘Sonic Armageddon’. These boys from England, are famous for their intensly thick crushing sound. On top of that is is one of the sickest drummers you’ll ever hear, who’s super fill-ins will make yor jaw drop. I used to actually control my roommate with ND, noticing that when I was blasting it, he would get all pissed and start pacing around the house looking to break something. When I turned it off, a few minutes later the effect would wear off, and he would return to the couch and watch TV. The names of their last few albums escape me, but their latest album, The enemy of the Music Business is some HARD ASS shit. They are still doing the blast beat in 2002, nuff said.
Deicide is arguably one of the most brutal bands ever. Unlike the Grindcore style of the bands above, they rely less on intelligible riffs, and more on smacking you upside your head with a million beats a minute, a very very pissed off singer, and frantic muted riffing. The drummer Steve Asheim is probably the best drummer I’ve ever heard, and they rely on him as an integral part of their sound. This is not grooving, pissed off Grindcore, but head banging death metal at its best. I forget the name, but the second album is their best IMO. The first song on that record is probably one of the most brutal songs ever made.
If you haven’t heard of these guys you aren’t from this planet. Although not really finding their sound until a few albums in, they get it right eventually and it’s worth the wait. With chants, jungle drums, guitars from hell, and Max Cavalera screaming his balls off, they can hold their own against anyone. Their album Roots as a whole is one of the best albums made.
Get Roots & Chaos AD
The last of the top 5 goes to…
Encompassing members from Fear Factory, Napalm Death, and a few other bands I cant recall, this band started out as a joke. The members decided to act like they were some gangsters and sing all the songs in Spanish, just to screw with people. What isn’t a joke however is their music, being some downtuned shit with a bass so thick it rings the fillings out of your teeth! I haven’t heard the 2nd album, but their 3rd and newest one is some serious shit, you must buy it. Their first one is a masterpiece as well, but not as well produced as the new one.
Honorable mentions
Suffocation - Hard Hard Hard DM, comparable to Deicide. The Best drummer you will ever hear, (yes Better then Deicide’s), however never making it big, their albums still sound like demos. Best album is 2nd one, best song is ‘Jesus Wept’
Macabre - No longer together, they boast having the fastest double bass in the world, and they would be correct. Their novelty is every song is about a serial killer, and every song is like 500 bpm or something. Look for the album with the sergeant peppers rip off cover.
Cathedral - Their first album is the slowest most depressing music you will ever hear. The singer is Lee Dorian of ND fame. Every other album they made sucks, but the first one is must buy.
Entombed - The kings of the Swedish buzzsaw sound. Go out and buy Left Hand Path & Wolverine Blues right this minute.
Carcass - Classic, Classic, Classic. Symphonies of Sickness is a phenomenal album. Their 2nd album rocks as well, but is less well known.
Lastly here are some other bands to investigate.
Gorguts, Mortification, Brutality, Cannibal corpse, Terrorizer, Morbid Angel, Benediction, Dismember, Carnage & Nailbomb.
One last thing, go buy Soulfly’s new album titled ‘3’. The old drummer is back, and its some seriously good shit.
I’m surprised nobody mentioned Emperor, Venom, or the Melvins.
Up the Irons!
KillerFig, did I ever see that show ! You won’t believe this but I actually got to hang out backstage with Rob Halford during the Queensryche set. I have a friend who knows Rob personally (its a long story). Anyway, we met Rob after his set and he brought us back to the dressing room. It was the most amazing experience of my life… we talked about for about 45 minutes - we talked about that movie Rockstar (which had not been released yet), the lawsuit in Reno back in 1991 (?), music today (he was listening to Emperor at the time). He signed my Halford cd and gave me a Metal-Lives! t-shirt. Man he is the coolest metal god I’ve ever known 
Some more random records that the heavy folks should enjoy …
Bathory - there’s three types of Bathory record. The early mad proto-death metal: Bathory; The Return; Under the Sign Of The Black Mark, the excellent epic metal: Hammerheart; Twilight Of The Gods; Blood Fire Death, and the crap: Requiem, …. If you’re into the super heavy, I’d go for the epic records, as they’ve got a far better production.
Morbid Angel - their best record is their first, Altars of Madness, although if you can get hold of the rough mix (think, “not quite official”) of their demo/unreleased-until-years-later album Abominations of Desolation, that’s even better.
Kreator - sure it sounds cheesy now, but their first couple of records are still heavy as anything: Endless Pain and Pleasure To Kill. Make sure you get the reissue of the first title, as it has their quite cool first demo, too.
As for the more melodic (but still heavy) side:
Savatage - if you can handle pianos and slower songs at times, their three mid-era albums Gutter Ballet; Hall Of The Mountain King; Streets are all excellent (thanks for the reminder Coldfire :)).
Annihilator - to be honest, I haven’t heard one of their records from the last ten years, but they once released a record called Never, Neverland which is one of the heaviest power metal records ever. Great stuff.
Mercyful Fate - Two essential albums - Melissa and Don’t Break The Oath from the mid-eighties. Be wary of their later albums (after reforming).
While on the subject, there’s also King Diamond, who released hit after hit in the mid-late eighties. I can’t go past any of Fatal Portrait, Abigail, Them or Conspiracy.
If you like Iron Maiden, and enjoy the more epic/mysterious/high pitched singing side of things, two early Fates Warning records: The Spectre Within and Awaken The Guardian are indispensable. I think they’ve been reissued, but without the lyrics for some reason. Fates have released lots of records with their new singer (I know he joined about 15 years ago, but I still consider him the ‘new guy’ ;)), in fact, for all I know, they’ve got another singer, but those early records have a special magic about them.
Hope this helps.
(I don’t usually put this, but I just realised I was typing this and listening to V.A.- O Sister: The women’s Bluegrass Collection … Now that’s a hardcore album)
I’m not much into metal, but if you want to branch out a little, early SOM (Sisters of Mercy) albums are must-haves. I liked their later album Vision Thing, but it’s not nearly metal–more like bitter adrenaline madness (“It’s a small world and it smells bad/I’d buy another if I had/back, what I paid/for another motherfucker in a motorcade”). So is anything by Ministry, but especially Filth Pig.
Suicidal Tendencies’ Send Me Your Money (don’t know what album it’s on) is nastily hilarious, but punk, not metal.
Firstly, Filth Pig was the begining of the end for Ministry.
Secondly, ignore all these “Death Metal” posts on here. Growling does not make it heavy.
If you want to hear some truly insane music that will make your head pop after about 5 minutes of listening to, get ** Dillenger Escape Plan** Calculating Infinity.
Its the most insane metal you will ever hear. Borderline unlistenable, but it grows on you.
Other good metal,
**
Living Sacrifice-Hammering Process
Hatebreed-Perseverance (More harcore, but still good)
Nailbomb
Otep (female singer, brutal)
NORA
Weezer (hey…they rule. metal or not )
**
Oh, BTW.
What the hell is it with In Flames? Everyone was raving about them so I finally checked them out and they sound like pantera with Ratt vocals?!?
They wreek. P.U.
I’m not sure most people are actually reading the OP. The guy wants stuff heavier and faster than Metallica, Megadeth and Pantera. He thinks Cradle Of Filth’s “Cruelty and the Beast” is the best album he’s ever heard. I don’t think In Flames, Nailbomb, Blind Gaurdian, Iced Earth, Iron Maiden or Sevendust are quite going to fill the need here.
There have been some good suggestions too (you’d probably like Suffocation and Emperor, for example), but I’m left scratching my head at many of them. Just my two cents.
As for Cannibal Corpse, to me they have always been generic store-brand death metal. Their CDs should come in white labels with black print reading “DEATH METAL.” A lot of people like them when first getting into death metal, but discover later on that there are bands who do the brutal thing in much more interesting ways.
I’d also second the compilation idea. That way you can get a variety of bands and pick out what you like. The “Death Is Just The Beginning” video series should be right up your alley.
Nailbomb is at least as heavy as Sepultura. They are far from the other bands you lumped them in with.
Anyway, I am glad you said that about CC. I feel the same way. I have similar feelings about Deicide and Napalm Death.
Genero-metal.
Actually, though they get a bad rap from the metal community, I think Slipknots first CD is pretty damn heavy. Love’m or Hate’m you gotta admit that they have the tone down right.
Maybe, but Sepultura hasn’t really been heavy since 1989 if you ask me. (Although I’ve heard almost none of the material since Max left so I can’t comment on those particular albums.)
As for Deicide and Napalm Death, I do love the first Deicide album. After that, it’s all the same. Napalm Death’s best work IMO was right before and right after Lee Dorian left. Not too long after that, they started churning out filler on a regular basis. Both bands have done some good work in the past, but now I see no reason to keep up with them.
I’ll toss in a couple more suggestions while I’m here:
Human Remains: “Using Sickness as a Hero”
Satyricon: “Nemesis Divina”
Just for the record, I do like the music that those bands are doing, but it’s easy for me to find more of it. I’ve been checking out what people have recommended–right now I’ve listened to a few samples from every band before World Eater’s post. I haven’t heard anything that I didn’t like. I’ll post what I really liked a little bit later this weekend. Thanks for all the recommendations so far, and keep 'em coming.
Sevendust?? I’m not overly into heavy metal, but they’re too low-key even for me. I’m surprised anyone would consider them heavy metal at all…
The two bands I hear compared to Cradle Of Filth most often are Dimmu Borgir and Hecate Enthroned. You might dig them.
Right there with you. I have their first album because I bought into the recommendation of some 13 year old on the old Mouth 4 War digest. I pretty much count Sevendust as ‘Nu-Metal’. I have read in several different reviews that they do put on a pretty great live show though.
Some more bands not yet mentioned:
Krisiun
Vader
Amon Amarth
At the Gates
Deceased (And I’d mention them even if they weren’t my b/f’s band, heh 
)
More Death Metal, yes - but well-executed Death, not just loads of flailing about and nonstop blasting (not that there’s no place for that at times).
And for well-produced Black Metal try
Naglfar or
Dissection.
Although I listen to SevenDust, they sound about as hard as Simon an Garfunkel compared to Bolt Thrower or Napalm Death.
I’ll say it again
You want the heaviest of the heavy get these albums
Bolt Thrower - For Victory
Napalm Death - Enemy of the Music Business
Brujeria - Brujerizmo