Trying in vain to figure it out,
Always thinking this is a waste...
- "Wasting Away" (Cavalera/Newport)

Despite what my IRC Nick and attitude say, I do actually listen to more than just Heavy Metal... alright, so Metal does form my main tastes, but I love everything from Blues and Hard Rock, through Thrash, Punk, Doom, Death, Industrial to Techno, Gabba and more extreme forms of Drum 'n' Bass... just crank it loud and make it heavy!!!! *grin*

Despite my endless struggle for perfection (yeah, right! *smirk*), some of these links are bound to become obsolete. Please report any problems to me so I can keep the links up-to-date. If you've found or created some pages which you think I might find interesting, feel free to send them in!

MetalJoe's Album Choice of 2000 [as of 26-Mar-00]

• "Spit" - Kittie

Kittie's excellent debut album is a potent brew of hardcore riffs, powerful lyrics and a vocal range that shifts from soulful and melodic to death metal roar. Forget a lot of the rubbish that's currently being branded as metal, this is how it should be.

Not from this year by a long way, but I've discovered Kyuss - in particular their storming "Blues For The Red Sun" album. Check it out people.

MetalJoe's Album Choice of 1999

• "IX Equilibrium" - Emperor
• "Zooma" - John Paul Jones
• "Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth" - Meathook Seed
• "S&M" - Metallica / San Francisco Symphony
• "Dark Side of the Spoon" - Ministry
• "Speak and Destroy" - My Ruin
• "Leaders Not Followers" - Napalm Death
• "The Fragile" - Nine Inch Nails
• "American Made Music to Strip By" - Rob Zombie
• "Suicide Pact - You First" - Therapy?

An extremely close run thing this year... Nine Inch Nails take the Choice of '99 with a superbly polished, moody and precise double album. Credit to My Ruin for an excellent debut, Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony for finally doing the whole Classical/Metal crossover thing without losing the power of either genres (it's on my CD player as I type these words), Ministry for clawing themselves back onto top form, John Paul Jones for a storming (but waaaay too short) solo album, and Therapy? - back on track after record label problems with a real crunchy new album.

Coal Chamber: what happened guys? From anyone else, I might've tucked it into the top ten but this really didn't have the power of the debut album. Technically it was fine, polished, but emotionally it just didn't quite get me going like the first album. Ah well, here's looking towards the third album.

MetalJoe's Album Choice of 1998

• "Volume 8 - The Threat is Real" - Anthrax
• "Reunion" - Black Sabbath
• "Obsolete" - Fear Factory
• "Version 2.0" - Garbage
• "e-lux" - Human Waste Project
• "Garage Inc." - Metallica
• "www.pitchshifter.com" - Pitchshifter
• "Against" - Sepultura
• "Soulfly" - Soulfly
• "Semi-Detached" - Therapy?

Special Mention to: "Diabolus in Musica" (Slayer), "Mercenary" (Bolt Thrower), "Hellbilly Deluxe" (Rob Zombie), "The Sound of Perserverence" (Death) and all the great bands out there keeping true hard rock and metal alive.

Album of the Year: "Against", Sepultura's first outing since Max Cavalera left. It was a very tricky decision, because this year has been excellent for extreme music fans. Extra special mention must go to the late, great Human Waste Project for their debut (and now, only) album which was very much my choice for the year until minutes before I made my decision.

'98 was the first year I managed to get to see Fear Factory (I've been a fan since 1992!) - they did an absolutely storming gig at the London Astoria, 17th December. Shame I was too exhausted to get active at the front, it was a long trek from work to London...

MetalJoe's Album Choice of 1997

• "Coal Chamber" - Coal Chamber
• "Remanufacture (Cloning Technology)" - Fear Factory
• "The Colour And The Shape" - Foo Fighters
• "The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum" - L7
• "Pure Chewing Satisfaction" - Lard
• "BBC Sessions" - Led Zeppelin
• "Re-Load" - Metallica
• "Back From The Dead" - Obituary
• "Low Profile Darkness" - Panacea
• "The Fat Of The Land" - Prodigy

Album of the Year (Joint Winners): "The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum", which is L7 at their finest and probably the album I've played the most this year. Also, Led Zeppelin's "BBC Sessions", purely because it's over two hours of the most incredible hard rock and blues imaginable. So there!

Metallica's "Re-Load" is good, just not as amazing as it could have been. It has grown on me, and I can see some of the songs being excellent live. If you haven't already bought "Load", go out and buy it instead - it's worth every penny.

UK Bands

• Ash
• Bolt Thrower (needs a new link)
• The Buzzcocks
• The Company of Snakes (Bernie Marsden is my neighbour!)
• The Exploited
• Led Zeppelin (needs new links)
• Pitchshifter
• Prodigy
• Sex Pistols (needs a new link)
• Therapy? (Official)
• Therapy? (Dutch)

Bands From Around The World

Growing Fear, A Human Grace,
A Drowning Mind in a Dark Embrace...
- "Zero Signal" (Fear Factory)

MetalJoe's Favourite Songs

Since people seem to be interested in my favourite songs recently, I felt it might be useful to put a list on this page. Like the album list below, I've limited myself to a maximum of one per group... since it gives a better representation of my tastes... probably! I couldn't believe how tricky it would be, though...

• "World Eater" - Bolt Thrower
• "War Pigs" - Black Sabbath
• "Epic" - Faith No More
• "H-K (Hunter-Killer)" - Fear Factory
• "Whole Lotta Love" - Led Zeppelin
• "One" - Metallica
• "Sin" - Nine Inch Nails
• "Territorial Pissings" - Nirvana
• "Holidays In The Sun" - The Sex Pistols
• "Screamager" - Therapy?

MetalJoe's Favourite Albums

My Top Ten albums, in no real order... Apologies if people find this stuff boring, but I've been having a nostalgia trip recently... *grin*

• "Persistence of Time" (1990) - Anthrax
  I must've been on something, because originally I had Megadeth's "Rust in Peace", but not this album... I just played it recently and it still grinds and thumps. One of the ultimate thrash albums, with pages of great lyrics and thick, powerful guitars and drums.
• "War Pigs" (1970) - Black Sabbath
  The First Black Sabbath album I ever bought. Actually, I only just recently replaced my rather worn and hissy old tape with a spanking brand new remastered CD. A Thoroughly recommended album, as is every other Ozzy-era Sabbath album, come to think of it...
• "Realm of Chaos" (1989) - Bolt Thrower
  The first Death Metal album I ever bought. Possibly the heaviest album in existence... so there...
• "The Real Thing" (1989) - Faith No More
  Incredibly good album which I originally only bought because it had the current single "Epic" on. I first bought this on tape and played it so much that I managed to destroy it, so I had to buy a second copy. Fortunately, the CD copy is a bit more robust.
• "Demanufacture" (1995) - Fear Factory
  Another one deserving of the title of heaviest album in existence. Gorgeous ferocity far exceeding their incredibly brilliant debut "Soul of A New Machine". I got into FF back in 1992, due to a Roadrunner promo CD. Excellent stuff... and one which even converted a few Techno fans I know...
• "Appetite For Destruction" (1987) - Guns N' Roses
  Alright, alright! Stop grinning! GNR may be worse than a joke nowadays, but in 1987 they released a groundbreaking album which is still good today. It was just unfortunate that they never could bring out anything decent after then, and had to supply extra tour buses for Axl's ego...
• "II" (1969) - Led Zeppelin
  *sigh* This is the one that started me off all those years ago... I was rummaging through my dad's collection when I came across this album - and everything progressed from there. Zeppelin remain THE ultimate band for me.
• "Ride The Lightning" (1984) - Metallica
  The first Metallica album I ever heard. I first heard Metallica when they released "One" (my favourite Metallica song) which was around April 1989 (I think) and then I heard this soon after. Undoubtedly their heaviest work. Hence it's my favourite... even though everyone else seems to prefer Master of Puppets.
• "Pretty Hate Machine" (1989) - Nine Inch Nails
  Broken is probably closer to my ultimate NIN album, but it's an EP and too short for my liking. I'd never heard of NIN until one fateful day back in 1991, when I witnessed them live. I still have the tinnitis to prove it! *grin* "...Hate Machine" was dark, gloomy, unrequited, suicidal and thus a perfect complement to my teenage years...
• "Nevermind" (1991) - Nirvana
  I first heard Nirvana on the John Peel show sometime around the release of Bleach (I think). I admit that although I liked them, I didn't realise they had an album out and kinda forgot about them until Nevermind came out. I bought it after hearing "Territorial Pissings" being blasted at full volume at school, hell... anyone who could destroy their voice in such a masterful way got my vote of confidence. The problem was that it was trendy (tReNdY!?! *spit*) to like Nirvana... so I kinda kept my fandom very quiet at first...

Music on the WWW

• Air Guitar Site
• Gardner Guitars
• Guitar Magazine
• Hard Rock Cafe
• Industrial Music FAQ
• Lupo's Punx Page
• The MAD Mosher's Home Page
• Making Music
• Strobe Magazine

It comes down to this... your kiss... your fist...
And your strain... It gets under my skin
Within... take in... the extent of my sin
- "Sin" (Reznor)

Record Companies

• American Recordings
• Candlelight Records
• Displeased Records
• Earache Records
• Geffen Records
• Peaceville
• Roadrunner Records
• Sub Pop

• Blue Grape Merchandise (big Metal merchandisers)

[metaljoe@geocities.com]