As I'd previously promised to, I bought Cynic's "Focus" off Itunes. Very good, but trippy stuff. I also bought Iced Earth's "Alive in Athens", and Sadus' "Elements of Anger." I'll chip in my two cents in on the last two later.

Another gaping hole in my metal collection is filled; I now have Exodus' "Bonded by Blood." And man, was it worth the 2+ years of waiting. I'm only on the second track, and I would be banging my head a lot harder if it wasn't already sore.

Not too big on Ministry or Testament, but....

King wrote:

Obituary!!! Obituary - Slowly We Rot Cause of Death The End Complete World Demise Back from the Dead

Hell yeah! My favorite death metal band (Morbid Angel being a close second). I just saw them last month. Got a picture with Trevor, a handshake from Ralph, and autographs from John and Frank. It was amazing.

JRA wrote:

enshinkarateman wrote: Another gaping hole in my metal collection is filled; I now have Exodus' "Bonded by Blood." And man, was it worth the 2+ years of waiting. I'm only on the second track, and I would be banging my head a lot harder if it wasn't already sore. A damn good thrash album for sure. It's guitar tone is second only to Ride the Lightning. My favorites are Bonded By Blood, Pirahna, No Love & Strike Of The Beast.

Haha, I had your avatar for a while. I ditched it when I saw there was already a poster a while back called "Metal Man."
And BBB is damned good, I must say. Baloff's vocals aren't as good as Zetro's, but, when you watch live footage of Exodus from that era, you see why he was chosen: His stage presence was amazing. R.I.P. I'd rate it around 8.5/10., a little better than "Master of Puppets" Highlights: Bonded By Blood, Exodus, Piranha, Metal Command. Not too big on No Love, I gotta say. I figure I'll list every thrash release I own, and rate it, just for kicks. This is gonna be a long list.
Sepultura:
Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation-8.5/10
Beneath the Remains: 10/10
Arise-7.7/10
Chaos A.D.-6.5/10 (Too much filler on the album)
Slayer:
Reign in Blood-9.7/10
South of Heaven-9.2/10
Seasons in the Abyss-9.4/10
Metallica:
Kill 'Em All-9.5/10
Ride the Lightning-8.7/10 (The main problem is the tracks sound so much better and faster live that going back to the studio versions seems disappointing. If we're going off live versions, them 9.5/10)
Master of Puppets-8/10
And Justice For All-4/10 (Production kills it. Songs are so much better live)
Metallica-3/10 (BOOOORING!)
Death Magnetic-7.5/10
Megadeth:
Killing is my Business-9.2/10
So Far...So Good...So What?-9/10
Rust in Peace-9.4/10
The System Has Failed-6.5/10
United Abominations-7.5/10
Exodus:
Bonded By Blood-8.5/10
Fabulous Disaster-8.5/10
Shovel Headed Kill Machine-8.3/10 (Exodus is very consistent in their ass-kickery)
Anthrax:
Among The Living-8/10
State of Euphoria-6/10
Demolition Hammer:
Skull Fracturing Nightmare-9/10
Voor:
Evil Metal-9/10
Slaughter:
Strappado-8.5/10
Kreator:
Extreme Aggression-7.5/10
Coma of Souls-8.7/10
Razor:
Armed and Dangerous-7.5/10
Overkill:
Overkill EP-8/10
Immortalis-7/10
Ripping Corpse:
Splattered Remains-5/10 (Production and vocals kill it)
Exhorder:
Get Rude-7.5/10
Incubus:
Serpent Temptation-8/10
Therion:
Created in Hate-5.5/10 (Kind of boring)
Warbringer:
One By One The Wicked Fall-8/10
Anailator:
Anailator-7.5/10
Death Angel:
Act III-7/10
Voivod:
Negatron-7/10
Katorz-7/10

There's still A LOT of holes to be filled in my collection, as you can see.

JRA wrote:

2) The biggest hole in your collection is definitely Megadeth's Peace Sells...But Who's Buying.

I'd agree with that. It's another case of "I've liked the songs I've heard, but I just keep putting off buying it." I definitely need to get on that. In the meantime, I'll just listen to the songs from the album on YouTube.
I recently downloaded Dark Angel's "Time Does Not Heal." (Ordinarily I don't download, only if I've looked and looked and can't find it anywhere.) It's pretty good (246 riffs!), but a bunch of the riffs are mediocre, and "Sensory Deprivation" is seven and a half minutes of boring. Nonetheless, half the album is very, very good. I just wish the songs were shorter. Overall, I'm glad I downloaded it first, because I don't think it's worth more than 9 bucks. I've been meaning to pick up "Darkness Descends", maybe that will be better. Also, I'm in the minority here, but I think their cover of Immigrant Song kicks ass.

MOGHARR wrote:

Enshin, If you're looking to pick up some sweet Dark Angel you should've gone with Leave Scars. I wouldn't say it's my favorite (that would go to Darkness Descends), but its probably the easiest to listen to all the way through. The problem with Dark Angel is that, looking at their discography, there's really no album that I would want to own. They have alot of kickass songs and I think Darkness Descends has the most, but there's also alot of filler, at least in my opinion. Time Does Not Heal...yeesh, I wouldn't have gone with that over their other stuff. The only good song I can think of on that album is Pain's Invention, Madness. Basically, if you're thinking about picking up another album, then go with Leave Scars. The first three songs are great, and then you have Immigrant Song which is just awesome. Of course, you could just download all their good songs, but I get the feeling your not down with that.

Actually, I was gonna download Darkness Descends, but TDNH was just the first one that came up in SoulSeek. My usual motto is, if it's good enough, I'll buy it. I'll see if DD or LS comes up on SoulSeek again. I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with downloading all their good songs, I prefer to have an album so I can look at it as a whole and review it for either Encyclopedia Metallum or the albums application on Facebook.
Any other recommendations, be they any genre of metal? I was thinking of downloading some early Voivod, as all any stores have in my area are Katorz and the albums with Eric Forrest. I own Negatron and Katorz, and they're all right.

MOGHARR wrote:

You're a Soulseek man too? That's what my Dad uses. Sheesh, I can't even imagine what to recommend. Get some early Voivod for sure. Everything is good, but Eric Forrest just doesn't measure up to Snake. War and Pain and RRROOOAAARRR are more pure thrash, Killing Technology and Dimension Hatross are still pretty heavy but you can see them change a little bit, then you have The Outer Limits and Angel Rat, which I both love. I'd download Angel Rat before you buy it though becasue it seems to be a love it/hate it thing among their fans.

I'm currently DLing "Killing Technology", but SoulSeek's taking FOREEEEEEVER! It's cruising now, but it was slow earlier. I'm also downloading Metallica's "Load" just to see if it's worse than the Black Album. TBA had some good songs, but overall it was extremely boring. Apparently Load is bluesy rock, and I actually dig bluesy rock, so I want to see how it is. I'm somewhat sure it'll suck, though. I don't even feel slightly guilty about it because Lars is a dick.
EDIT: I'm also going to download some Budgie, because I can't even find any of their stuff on Itunes. They actually relocated to San Antonio, so I'm hoping when they get back from their current tour I can find out where they practice and meet them
SECOND EDIT: Didn't get to finish downloading Killing Technology because the guy banned me for some reason. Load was just slow, so I'll just watch the songs on YouTube.

MOGHARR wrote:

What's TBA and Budgie? I'm staying away from Metallica, Master of Puppets is as far as I go. If you want some thrash/punk crossover you should check out Excel's Split Image. It has some good songs.

TBA is just short for "the Black Album" (yes, I know it's actually titled "Metallica). Fun fact, Excel had a song that, in '87 (I think), had the same riff as Enter Sandman, and I think they actually sued. I'll check 'em out.
I listened to a few "Load" songs, they're about the same level as TBA.
Budgie was an early heavy metal band from Wales that kicked ass. Think Sabbath plus Zeppelin plus Rush. Metallica covered "Crash Course in Brain Surgery" and "Breadfan", improving them greatly. Here's Budgie's "Panzer Division Destroyed".

MOGHARR wrote:

Damn, Budgie pretty sweet. It reminds me of when I only listened to Sabbath, Rainbow and Dio. You really hear the Zeppelin influence on that song. Good shit, I'll have to download some. And I guess I have a reason to get Excel's second album, I want to see if that song sounds like Metallica.

Like I'd mentioned, the song it sounds like is "Enter Sandman" aka "Take two riffs and make them five and a half minutes." From what I've heard, Excel's song is better.
But, indeed, Budgie is awesome.

ross_rifle113 wrote:

you guys like Budgie? You should check out 'Better', 'Sweet Suzie' and 'Off To The Races' by...*cough*RossRifle*cough* ..../plug. Sorry.

Haha, I wish I could plug my stuff, but we still haven't found a drummer.
Anyone else dig Atheist? In my opinion, it's them, Cynic, and Death that make up the holy trilogy of early technical death metal. (Even though Cynic wasn't that much of a death metal band, but work with me here.) I was THIS close to buying Unquestionable Presence, but I was out of cash and when I went back the next week it had been sold. What a buzz kill. Still, that's some good bass. Pity they lost Roger Patterson after their first album in a car accident. Tony Choy's a fantastic bassist, and a fine replacement. Him, Sean Malone and Steve DiGiorgio are just mind-blowingly awesome.

Holy Hell, I'm listening to Dark Angel's "Darkness Descends", and it's MUCH better than Time Does Not Heal. I might have to rebuy this if I see it in a store. Gene Hoglan is an absolute beast on the drum kit (and he's a Texan, too!), and Don Doty brings to mind Kyle Thomas from Exhorder, while Ron Rineheart on TDNH honestly sounded like a stronger, more metal version of the guy from Avenged Sevenfold, believe it or not.