Pretty much, It just those people real into black metal who hate darkthrone's new stuff since theyve changed to a more heavy metal/punk type sound.

Agalloch - Pale Folklore

Exodus - Bonded By Blood

Mercyful Fate - Melissa

Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness

Vintersorg - Till Fjälls

Lists are frowned upon here. You might want to put some more thought in your post.

Angel Witch's S/T, as much as they try to out do that, they'll never even scrape the surface.
It's a NWOBHM classic and they are more or less a touring band now.

I would have to say Sanctifica for sure. Now they only had two releases but the difference between them is huge to say the least, on the first CD, Spirit of Purity they play a really good Black/Death metal that is just relentless. Then on Negative B they switch to I don't even really know, it's listed as Avant-garde Death Metal but its just nothing compared to the first Cd. Albeit there is a few good tracks but it just fails in comparison to Spirit of Purity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWuuKfIOmYA Spirit of Purity from Spirit of Purity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es8-rBn_wJw Lavender from Negative B

Oddly enough, I constantly found myself saying that some bands are their best on their debuts. Whitechapel's first album is easily their best and is forever a part of my teenage years. I've heard that record more than 80 times.

Also not to mention the first time I listened to Nile around the time at when I was 15, their first album Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka, I've said numerous times is their best one and they still have never surpassed it. Something about its ambiance or something just easily makes it their best record, not to mention it's about 40 times more brutal to my ears than anything they've done since.

Heck I could go on; Ingested, Pathology, Sepultura, Meshuggah, Suffokate, Mololov Solution, Mercyful Fate Periphery and Impending Doom are all easily the best on their first full-lengths.

And I would also say the same for Opeth considering Orchid is such an amazing and almost perfect record.... but due to the fact that they later released an album titled My Arms, Your Hearse years afterward, I can't.

king of asgard- fi'mbulwintr

Also agree.

Yes I am deluded but that doesn't change the fact that Clandestine is better than Left Hand Path and is my pick for greatest DM album of all time.

Cirith Ungol - Frost and Fire
Tokyo Blade - s/t ( many nwobhm bands fall in this category)
Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Forest - s/t
Gorguts - Considered Dead
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Reverend Bizarre - In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend
Annihilator - Alice in Hell

WHAT? Really? How come?

Cirith Ungol- "Frost and Fire" had that great progressive rock/Rush feel to it which I really dug. Early heavy rock with that sense of adventure and exiting feel to it. So I like it the best, but that may be because I was a big Rush fan at the time.
Their other stuff was more "HEAVY METAL" and still good in it's own way, so I can't say if it was truely better or worse.

Tokyo Blade- Good point; I agree that MANY but not all NWOBHM bands fall into the category of their first being their best. A lot of them seemed to succomb to the pressure to "DefLeppardize" their sound, i.e. become more commercial and have more songs about love and women and partying n' shit.

I thoght "To Mega Therion" was the definitive Celtic Frost release but that is in no way a disrespect to "Morbid Tales."

Forest I'm not familiar with, and Gorguts were good but fairly standard death metal that blended in with all the other similar releases of that time period. So even if their first album may have been their best, it wasnt really good enough to stand out among the rest of the bands from that era such as...
....Morbid Angel, whose debut album was, I agree, their best. Faster, thrashier, angrier and more vicious than their later albums, which tended to focus more on heaviness and atmosphere.

I like pretty much every record Reverend Bizarre has done, but find that all their albums have songs that tend to drag, while others soar to levels of epic greatness. That's true of the debut and honestly, it's a common pitfall of bands that play that style of down-tempo, epic heavy metal.

Annihilator- probably yeah, I'd agree there, too. A lot of their stuff just sounds bland and processed to me but that's just me being jaded.

Borknagar. Lost interest pretty much straight after.

Actually, I was thinking of Soulside Journey. It's far too often overlooked in favor of their blackmetal phase.

Sacramentum's first album Far Away from the Sun.

I'm not sure if anyone else has said this, but I'm gonna go with Peste Noire. The riffs on that album speak for themselves.

Deicide debut it's the first who came in mind.

Ensiferum came to mind. Not in a landslide but it's the album that I enjoy the most.

Lets see, Death Angel, Helloween, Stratovarius, Slayer, Emperor, Testament, Exodus, Angel Witch, Opeth, Angra, and Diamond head are all bands who I think there first albums is their best, they all had amazing debuts, though some of them I only like their debut but thats only some of them.

Iron Maiden

Their debut is by far their rawest, hardest and no-bullshit record that gives me a particular "put on my boots and stomp some holes in the wall" feeling that I just can't achieve with anything else they did

And for sure Death 'Scream Bloody Gore'

For sure not, as Leprosy would like to have a word with that...

I'll also second Exodus - Bonded by Blood... easily their best...

I guess they're a rather unpopular band around these circles, but All That Remains debut "Behind Silence and Solitude" was some serious excellent, slightly hardcore incluenced melodic death metal. But they went downhill after that... fast...

Metallica's debut is an unassuming proclamation of a new genre. But besides that, the cover art is their best. The individual songs are their best, they bring a destructive attitude which has been toned down in later albums. Their most genuine album, this is Metallica putting out the songs they gambled their youth on to play, nothing else, and for the last time nothing more.

Success is the enemy of pure expression, which is not saying anything new but Metallica is exhibit A to make the point.

Bullshit point...

That's my favorite of theirs, as well.

Effigy of the Forgotten by Suffocation.

Franks is at his best on that album. Plus, the raw, grim production made the album much heavier.

Yep. Its just got a Doom vibe I've never heard matched.

I feel pretty alone when I think most bands' first album isn't their best...

Omen is one of the exceptions. The raw production combined with songs crammed full with really reallly fine riffs made every subsequent release to be slightly dissapointing, even if they still had good stuff.

I also like Falconer's s/t debut better than anything they did after. It's the heaviest album by them I have listened with Blad on vocals, whom I vastly prefer, plus the riffs were never as infectious and catchy in subsequent releases, even though I think the follow-up is very close in quality.

Hmm...I can't think of any other band whose debut I prefer over the rest of their discography and has more than 3 albums right now. It's kind of late...must be that.

Oh, yes, that one skipped my mind. Seconded (though I like Falconer's other stuff, too, but the debut was the best).

Are you saying that success has no influence on the band's music? Especially on Metallica's well known evolution as a band?

It's certainly not THE enemy...

It's not very metal but....I'm tempted to say Guns N' Roses. Appetite for Destruction is arguably their best album, although personally I prefer Use your Illusion...after that though it was all fucking downhill.

Chinese Democracy really made me think that GNR should have gotten out good with a tragic plane crash or OD incident...

Most bands' first album is their best because it's the one they spend most time on creating, not thinking about how they're going to sell it, or explain it in interviews. They just make it. If they make it to the fourth album, they usually revisit the older material with new technical skills and come up with something more interesting but not as passionate.

Agree with you completely. Chinese Democracy is an album not worthy of the .99 cent bin. It's a sad testament for a band that had a lot of potential. They fizzled out as fast as they got huge. Although Chinese Democracy is really just W. Axl Rose and a bunch of hired guns. Its right up there with Belladonna's - Spells of Fear on the "makes a cooler beer coaster" list.

Exodus, Candlemass, Dimmu Borgir, Entombed, Burzum, Mayhem (Deathcrush), And I am tempted to say Megadeth but Rust in Peace is just so brilliant.

EDIT: Bathory and Slayer, also.

Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
The Faceless - Akeldama
Deicide - Deicide
Gorguts - Considered Dead
Grave - Into the Grave
Animosity - Shut It Down
Decapitated - Winds of Creation
The Red Chord - Fused Together in Revolving Doors
Sinister - Cross the Styx
Entombed - Left Hand Path
Dio - Holy Diver

really? All those bands' sophomore albums (excluding Suffocation, Pierced From Within was better) imo were a bit better than their debut

Don't do lists like that, it sucks. A lot.

Those are some excellent points.

I'd add that bands also have often compiled a lot of material by the time they get that first album deal and can choose among what I'd typically say would be a larger number of songs - only some of which make the cut.

Really? If anything their second album was much better. It's basically melodeath with hardcore vocals.
The vocals on the first albums are multilayered to make up for the weak & forced performance. Even the music is less intense.