Nate's Record Archive
A
Angel Rat
By: Voivod
1991
Angel Rat is Voivod's sixth album realsead in November of 1991. Voivod's previous
five albums featured a much more heavy-metal sound,
and in an effort to reach new audiences,
a shift to a more rock sound was made. This confused many of their fans and the record received mixed reviews on release. Since then, the albums has
gained a strong cult following and is regarded as one of their best releases.
Featured Song: Clouds In My House
B
Black Sabbath
By: Black Sabbath
1970
Black Sabbath's First Record is widely seen as one of the first metal albums ever.
It is an interesting look into how the genre was developing, as you can clearly still hear influences from Blues and Grassroots music.
Featured Song: The Wizard
Blizzard of Ozz
By: Ozzy Osbourne
1980
Blizzard of Ozz was one of the first "metal" albums I ever heard.
I was very young at the time and the song "Mr Crowley" seemed to never leave my head since.
Featured Song: Mr Crowley
The Blue Album
By: Weezer
1994
Weezer's debut album "The Blue Album" was an instant success when it released in 1994, pushing it's oddball members into the spotlight
and marking a great start to a band that seems to just stick around and keep making music to this day.
While I loved music my whole life, discovering this album changed how I view it all. Not because it's the most technical songwriting, or even the best music.
There was just something about the album that allowed me to listen to it over and over and over agian.
Featured Song: Only in Dreams
C
Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack
2022
Cowboy Bebop is an animated show created in Japan in 1998.
The show follows a gang of space cowboys searching for work. It's an incredible show and its Jazzy soundtrack certainly doesnt fall flat.
Featured Song: Tank
D
Death By Metal + Reign Of Terror
By: Death
2019
This a compilation of demos made by the band Death.
It features some more simple songwriting, which is uncommon in the bands later work. I think it is a very interesting insight into the guitarist Chuck Shuldiner's early work.
Featured Song: Legion of Doom
Dimension Hatröss
By: Voivod
1988
Voivod's 1988 Release Dimension Hatross is a concept album telling the story of a sceintist creating a universe,
stepping inside it, and then trying to escape. It is a great album and story that was way ahead of its time.
Featured Song: Tribal Convictions
E
Energy
By: Operation Ivy
1989
It's safe to say that the majority of punk and pop-punk bands that are huge today would not be a thing without Operation Ivy.
This band pioneered the sound of modern punk with ska elements, raspy vocals, and messy guitar playing.
Featured Song: Vulnerability
G
Grin
By: Coroner
1993
Coroner's Grin sees them experiment from their normal thrash metal sound into what would become "nu-metal" and "hardcore".
They were one of the first bands to integrate a sort of groove rythm into their music which can be found in almost every popular nu-metal band.
Featured Song: Internal Conflicts
H
Hectic
By: Operation Ivy
1988
This is Operation Ivy's EP released a year before their album Energy.
All the songs on this EP can be found on the future Record, just in a much less produced and clean sound.
Featured Song: Here We Go Again
I
Indivual Thought Patterns
By: Death
1993
Death's Individual Thought Patterns somehow found a way to sound more angry and dark than their last album.
The songwriting is much more technical than before and can be seen as a turning point in the bands sound, moving from basic death metal to creating some progressive elements.
Featured Song: The Philospher
Insomniac
By: Green Day
1993
After Green Day released their 1994 Bombshell "Dookie", they were seen as sellouts by their old friends because they signed to a big record label.
They were kicked out of their clubs and their original fanbase hated them. The band members drug use dramatically increased and they began writing more angry and heavier music.
This album shows exactly what happens when a bunch of teenagers are suddenly the worlds biggest music group.
Geek Stink Breath
K
Kerplunk
By: Green Day
1991
Green Day's Kerplunk is their first studio album after making a substantial amount of demos and EPs. This is one of my favorite Green Day records and probaly one of my favorite albums ever.
You can hear the songwriting of Dookie combine with the genuineness of their previous EPs.
One of My Lies
Kill Em' All
By: Metallica
1991
I normally don't like Metallica, however, I do like this record. Much of the guitar work on this record is written by Dave Mustaine, who would later form Metallica's "rival" band Megadeth.
Jump In the Fire
Killing Technology
By: Voivod
1987
This is a very important album in Voivod's History. It marked a shift from their normal punk sound to a progressive metal.
I actually have the original pressing made in 1987 in Canada, and I bought it in Rochester New York at the House of Guitars.
Killing Technology
M
Midnight Maruauders
By: A Tribe Called Quest
1993
This is by far my favorite rap album. There is something about the combination of the production, laid back jazzy beats, and lyrical work that gives this album a feel that seemingly cannot be replicated.
Featured Song: Electric Relaxation
Misleading Evil
By: Hazzerd
2017
Thrash metal certainly isn't dead, but it wouldnt be fair to call it alive either. There are many small, underappreciated bands that somehow find new ways to innovate within the genre,
Hazzerd is one of them. This album is refreshing, and offers a glimpse of hope in a sea of thrash bands doing the same thing as everyone else.
Featured Song: Apocalypse Dawn
N
Nightmare Logic
By: Power Trip
2017
Another innovator in modern thrash metal, Power Trip Delivers exactly what the name would suggest. A powerful sounding album, this was the second album I bought, along with Green Day's Kerplunk.
Featured Song: Swing of The Axe
No Gods No Managers
By: Choking Victim
1999
No Gods No Managers is one of the most rediculous, over the top albums I've heard. Somehow through all the chaos of the spastic, drug fueled songwriting, there are many messages to be found and even better music. This album suprises me every time.
Featured Song: Crack Rock Steady
Nothingface
By: Voivod
1989
Nothingface is widely seen as Voivod's masterpeice. While I think they have better music, I can't come up with a reason why this album isnt one. Voivod hit it out of the park with this one, demonstrating a prowess of technical metal while keeping a lighthearted sound.
Featured Song: Into My Hypercube
O
Outer Isolation
By: Vektor
2013
Vektor, in my opinion, is the biggest innovation that metal has seen since Black Sabbath. The entire album is nonstop technical songwriting being thrown
in your face and just when you get used to that, it switches into an emotional clean interlude. In my opinion, this is a bout as good as music can get.
Featured Song: Outer Isolation
P
Prom King
By: Skylar Spence
2015
Skylar Spence, previously known as Saint Pepsi, is an innovator in the Vaporwave music scene. Vaporwave is usually made by taking samples of older music, slowing it down,
and adding some extra effects. This can produce these nostalgic feelings for music you may have never even heard before. In this album Skylar Spence made his own older sounding music
to sample and made an entire record off of them. Its hard to put into words how much work that is, but he practically made an album to produce an album.
Featured Song: Cash Wednesday
R
Rrröööaaarrr
By: Voivod
1986
Rrröööaaarrr is the second album voivod released, and it is the earliest voivod record I own. It is full of their early iconic messy punk sound and can only be listened to at full volume.
Featured Song: Ripping Headaches
Rust In Peace
By: Megadeth
1990
Rust In Peace is Megadeth's fourth album and is widely considered to the be the best album ever.
This album revolutionized the way people write metal music, and its influences can still be heard today.
Featured Song: Hanger 18
T
The Sound of Perserverance
By: Death
1998
The Sound of Persercerance is Death's seventh and final album before the band's Guitarist, Vocalist and creator Chuck Schuldiner passed away.
This is one of my favorite albums ever, and is considered to be one of Death's best work.
Featured Song: Flesh and The Power It Holds
Terminal Redux
By: Vektor
2016
Terminal Redux is the third and most recent Vektor album. It's a gripping concept album telling the story of a man gaining power of time and mortality.
Like all of Vektor's releases, the band finds a way to push the bar even higher and create some of the best music you will ever hear.
Featured Song: Cygnus Terminal
U
Untitled Unmastered
By: Kendrick Lamar
2016
Kendrick Lamar's Untitled Unmastered is a collection of songs that were, you guessed it, untitled and unmastered. It features the intrumental work of To Pimp A Butterfly, while the songwriting is a bit more abstract.