34. A Life Once Lost - Hunter(2005)
One of the heaviest bands to ever exist, (The recently split up
) A Life Once Lost make their first appearance with their fantastic and probably heaviest album "Hunter". Hunter is not an album that simply hits hard. It completely demolishes and for good measure drives a spike through to finish the job. You may think I'm exaggerating a bit, but take a listen to the song 'Needleman' and I think you'll agree. Part of what I love so much about this album is Robert Meadows vocals. While I think he got better over the next few albums, his vocals are absolutely terrifying on the album, thanks mostly to the visceral nature of his howls and growls. Guitars act like wrecking balls, and a dominant force on the record, and last but not least, drums take a thorough beating, just to keep up with the intensity. If you're a fan of Converge, I think you'll like this band, they take it at a much slower pace than Converge's break neck intense speed, but they're just as visceral if not more.
Favorite Tracks: Needleman, Vulture, Salai, Ghosting, With Pitiless Blows
33. Dawnbringer - Nucleus
A band that wears it's oldschool influences on it's sleeves and manages to sound completely original, Dawnbringer's album Nucleus comes in at number 33 on this list. A Traditional Heavy Metal band that splashes in subtle other hints of other genres, they're from Chicago. Many songs on this album rely more on guitar than vocals, entire minutes devoted to soloing and guitar driven story telling, and vocals are utilized when they're needed. Never does the solo go into noodling and they keep things changing so as to retain interest, you'll go from a warm guitar riff to an icy cold tremolo picking reminiscent of Black Metal, galore with blast beating. A funny thing about this album is that originally, it was intended for at the halfway part to just be played in reverse(instruments anyways) but they found it too ridiculously hard to make something that sounded good both normally and backwards(can't blame 'em). If you're a fan of bands such as Cauldron, Iron Maiden, and bands in similar vein, I feel that you will enjoy this album very much.
Favorite Tracks: You Know Me, The Devil, Cataract, Pendulum