Neurosis - Through Silver In Blood.

I love all their releases but I always go to this one first. There's just something about it...

Fair enough, that's my problem with new Goatwhore too. They're like Cannibal Corpse and Ammon Amarth in sheer consistency now.

Even though Painkiller and Sad Wings are my favorite Judas Priest albums, I've noticed that I seem to listen to Rocka Rolla and Point Of Entry the most often. Neither of them is quite as metal as their most famous albums, but the songs on both are quite underrated. I love the early Sabbath feel on RR and POE has the fun 80s feel without the overplayed nature of British Steel or Screaming For Vengeance.

I've been on a black metal kick recently and have been listening to lots from that genre. However, I find myself midway through many BM albums, getting tired of them, and putting on Gorgoroth's Under the Sign of Hell or Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt instead. Not that I necessarily dislike other BM I've been listening to, it's just that I find those two albums the most fulfilling.

Red Harvest's HyBreed is the one that springs to mind. I want to play others but I'm almost always putting that one on because I find that one the best.

Kind of the point I was trying to make. Although bands have made quite a few great records, you still go to that one or two albums every single time.

Fun to see some reply's about other bands/albums that work the same for me, but also to see some other choices which make me get out that record again; Show no Mercy does truly slay!

I'm surprised too cause I'm a more band (not album or song) oriented listener and I try to give myself more variation.
Some strange answers here!

Pist.On - Number One
This album rules and it's one of my favorites from the 90s. A perfect mix of metal, grunge/alternative, and a slight goth influence...not to mention an awesome production job from Josh Silver of Type O Negative. Their follow-up was pretty disappointing though, so I rarely listen to it.

Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve
When I want to listen to Meshuggah, I always think of this one first (and the None EP second). Easily my favorite album from them. The rest of their albums I only play seldomly.

Emperor - Anthems to the Welken at Dusk
This album just destroys their other ones in my opinion. I do like In the Nightshade Eclipse a lot too, but I don't play it as much as this one.

Death - Symbolic
I've never been a big Death fan, but I love this album from start to finish. The riffs are very memorable, Chuck's vocals are awesome, and Gene Hoglan's drum performance on it is one of my favorites of all time.

Dimmu Borgir - Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
I enjoy most of this band's work, but I listen to this album way more than any of their other albums. It just has their best songs I think, and it still feels like real black metal to me (unlike the really polished stuff that followed).

It depends on the band. I spin every Death album pretty regularly, but when it comes to Megadeth I usually just throw on RiP, Peace Sells, or Endgame.

Oh yeah, I do this all the time. For me:

Anthrax - Among or Spreading
Motorhead - Another Perfect Day
Megadeth - Rust or Killing
Mastodon - Leviathan, or lately, The Hunter
Cathedral - The Carnival Bizarre
Overkill - Feel the Fire
Death - Symbolic

For some reason when the mood strikes me to listen to one of these bands, it's always those albums.

I don't think this only happens with bands that only have one good album, it's just personnal listening quirks. For example, Iron Maiden has a bunch of good ones, but I usually put on A Matter Of Life And Death.

I always ending up coming back to "Close To A World Below" by Immolation. I've enjoyed every album I've heard from them, but the enormous, crushing sound of that one always brings me back to it.

For me:

Akrona - Vozrozhdeniya (though all their albums kick ass)
Origin - Antithesis
Ulver - Bergtatt

If I only listen to a single album from a classic band (for example, Lord Belial - Enter the Moonlight Gate or Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun), it means that I didn't have the time and patience to listen to the other albums, probably because I feel it's unnecessary, or am afraid of being disappointed.

Eh, with Necroticism the songs drag on for too long in my opinion. Seriously, they could have cut out a lot of repetition in just about every track, "Inpropagation" is a prime example of that. Additionally, it does have some good riffs but the overall atmosphere is severely lacking when compared to Symphonies. SoS is downright putrid and I love the occasional and balanced grind parts that were woven in-between the meaty death metal sections. The sophomore album is definitely the one I keep going back to for Carcass, I listen to Reek and Necroticism every once in a while but never the other two.

Gorguts - Obscura is another one for me. I enjoy the other three but Obscura is irreplaceable and flawless.

How people can pick Cause Of Death over Slowly We Rot is beyond me.

COD is good sure, but Slowly We Rot is one of the best American death metal albums ever. It's more savage, flows better as a album, and no triggered drums.

The production on that album isn't that bad. It's no The Years of Decay, but it's no Transilvanian Hunger either. And I would agree that Soulside Journey is much better than their black metal stuff.

As for me, these come to mind:

Death - Spiritual Healing. Bill Andrews' crappy drumming aside, this is an almost perfect blend of the gory, grimy sound of their first two album and the progressive material they did later. The proggy Human-like songwriting combined with the dank, nasty-sounding production is a great combination, and the Ed Repka cover art seals the deal.
Hibria - Defying the Rules. Aside from a few glorious moments like "Tiger Punch", Hibria never recaptured the raging blitzkrieg experience of this album. Many have tried to make a whole album that sounds like "Painkiller" the song, and Hibria pulled it off. Once.
Iced Earth - Night of the Stormrider. None of the usual criticisms of Iced Earth apply here. It's a total wall-to-wall riff-fueled killfest, and John Greely's vocals, while limited, are more competent than Gene Adam's and less overbearing that Matt "I should have sung in musicals instead" Barlow's. Oh, man, if this had Ray Alder or Mike Soliz on it instead of John Greely it would have been perhaps too awesome for the universe to contain.
Pantera - Power Metal. I've heard rumors that Rex Brown and Vinnie Paul have occasionally brought up this album in interviews with Pantera only to have Phil Anselmo angrily reprimand them; is this true?

I always tend to listen exclusively to these albums from their respective bands:

- Ride the Lightning (Metallica)
- Seasons in the Abyss (Slayer)
- With Oden in our Side (Amon Amarth)
- V (Vreid)

This only happens with bands I don't listen very often.

Happens with 1916 by Motörhead. I love most of their stuff, but for some unexplainable reason I play that album 90% of the time.

Black Label Society - The Blessed Hellride
Is the only album i listen of them, i have some stuff of them, i can't remember the names of the albums, but ''The Blessed Hellride'' is the most listened of all. Maybe not the best album, but it's very entertaining for me.
Another reason is because i don't know what next album i would listen

Even though Running Wild has an impeccable bevy of awesome albums, I'm always reaching for Black Hand Inn. Seriously, I just get addicted to this thing. The primal production and unforgettable songwriting have me coming back every time.

While I enjoy nearly all of Enslaved's albums, most of their albums get dusted in my shelf as I nearly everytime I'm in an Enslaved mood I put on "Frost". Possibly because it was the first album I had from them.

being also a big Ulver fan and appreciating every change of their music, I either put on "Bergtatt" or "Perdition City", depending on my personal mood at the time. Not that their pure folk, pure BM or later ambiental/glitch/whatever music is bad (hell, no!) but I just keep coming back to those two as they really stand out for me.

Also Maiden is in the same boat. Loving all albums up to "7th son" but nowadays I hardly put on another album than "Somewhere in Time". This album, infact, is timeless More than any other of their releases.

I'm pretty bad about doing that. I only listen to one bloodbath album - 'nightmares made flesh' - but that's mostly because I hate their vocalist for all their other albums. With other bands though, it's the same

carcass - heartwork
death - the sound of perseverance and symbolic
Metallica - ...and justice for all
arch enemy - burning bridges
aborted - global flatline
symphony x - paradise lost
grand magus - wolf's return
fleshgod apocalypse - oracles

all those bands have put out other albums, but I just keep going back to those. Especially now that metallica released this 'lulu' bullshit, ugh. I just keep listening to their 80s repertoire and pretending they all died in a bus accident after ...and justice for all. As for the others, those albums (to me) are just so damn good that I feel they overshadow their other albums.

I always listen to Likferd whenever I decide that I should listen to Windir despite the album being quite inconsistent. Fagning is utterly beautiful though, I love the track.

Dumbass.

Sort Vokter - Folkloric Necro Metal and Demilich - Nespithe .

Seriously:

Rolling Stones - Exile on main st
Marduk - Opus Nocturne
Carcass - Symphonies of sickness
Deicide - Legion
Incantation - Onward To Golgotha
Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
At The Gates - The red in the sky is ours
Amorphis - The Karelian Isthmus
Darkthrone - Transilvanian hunger (sometimes Under a funeral moon)
Immortal - Pure Holocaust (sometimes Diabolical...)
Motörhead - No sleep 'til Hammersmith

Running Wild - Death or Glory. I like all of the Running Wild stuff I've heard but I just can't help but listen to that album when I'm listening to Running Wild, especially Riding the Storm. That song is just so awesome.

Wintersun - Wintersun

on a serious note:

Moonsorrow - Suden Uni
Agalloch - The Mantle
Gojira - From Mars To Sirius
Tool - Lateralus
Woods Of Ypres - The Green
Solstafir - Svartir Sandar

Panopticon is also my go to Isis album. and when i listen to it I usually start with Backlit. I'm also a big type o negative fan and i love all their albums but the first one ill usually go to listen to is October Rust. one of the few albums I will never get tired of

If you know me at all...

limbonic art - ad noctum dynasty of death

What??? He's one of the best things about that album (and of course that is saying alot). Just check out "Living Monstrosity" about 20 seconds in, a very simple drum beat but it just epitomizes the way death metal drums should sound to me.

Albums I always come back to...

Dissection--Storm of the Light's Bane
Nevermore--This Godless Endeavor
Immolation--Harnessing Ruin
Vader--Impressions In Blood
Morbid Angel--Altars of Madness
Katatonia--Night is the New Day

Blasphemy! It's a good album, but they have releases like Dawn Of Possession and Here In After, why not listen to them? They're superior in so many ways.

I definitely find myself in the same camp as those who find themselves coming back to Soulside Journey instead of any other Darkthrone album. I like their black metal stuff, hell, I even like their new punk albums, but I always wind up going back to Soulside Journey for some reason.

Same thing with Immortal's Sons of Northern Darkness and Venom's Black Metal.

It's a good album, and I occasionally enjoy it more than the first two black metal albums. The riffing is by far superior, and the interesting drumming especially is a considerable bonus. The debut sounds like an entirely different band, really. Even the vocals are very different. When I go back to Darkthrone, so to speak, I grab Under A Funeral Moon, Transilvanian Hunger or Panzerfaust usually, sometimes A Blaze or even one of the two latest albums if I feel like it. Going back to Soulside Journey is, to me, an entirely different thing. When someone says they don't like Darkthrone much apart from debut, to me it's essentially the same as not liking Darkthrone. Soulside Journey is like if Metallica had debuted with a standard American heavy metal album in '82. I'm sure the oldtimers who were introduced to Darkthrone when it was their only album, or even before that, feel differently.

I just checked and I wasn't even born when Soulside Journey was released.

Only if the band isn't really one of my favorites, and I like that particular work more than the rest. The bands I consider to be my favorites have a good discography. A couple where I tend to go for one in particular:

Van Halen- Fair Warning
Opeth- Still Life or Blackwater Park, VERY rarely anything else.
Sleep- Holy Mountain (although you can make an argument that there isn't much to choose from)
Emperor- Anthems
The Beatles- Revolver

That's all I can think of for now. Most bands I tend to get really into and dig many albums.

I put on Here In After or Close To a World Below when I'm angry, or I have time to sit down, drink and headbang. But Harnessing Ruin...there's just something about it, it's more creative and interesting. It's the kind of thing I can listen to whenever. (The Providence EP is the same way.)

Dawn of Possession is still in the mail, and after that all I need is Failures For Gods.

Hell yeah, I used to be into some CoF back when I had this CD.

They fucking suck now.

Immolation are of such high quality is doesn't matter. All their material rates from good to masterwork. Just a matter of taste really.

Vreid - V
Origin - Antithesis
Obscura - Cosmogenesis
Behemoth - Thelema.6
BtBaM - The Great Misdirect
Edge of Sanity - Crimson
In Flames - The Jester's Race
Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast
Meshuggah - ObZen
Sodom - Agent Orange

Deicide- Once upon the cross
Immortal- Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism
Dark Tranquillity- Skydancer
In flames- Lunar Strain
Slayer- Reign in blood/Show no mercy
Metallica-... And Justice for all
Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath
Cryptopsy- Previously:None so vile, now:Blasphemy Made Flesh
Mayhem- Deathcrush