The Top 21 Bay Area Metal Albums of All Time, #10-1

By SF Weekly Fri., Nov. 2 2012 at 3:30 AM

Metallica in the backyard of its house on San Pablo Ave. in El Cerrito. Photo by Harald Oimoen, from the book Murder in the Front Row: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter.

Our countdown of the best Bay Area metal albums continues today with this installment: the 10 best ever. And guess which band comes up a lot on this one?

10. Blue Cheer, Outsideinside
Blue Cheer's corrosive take on the Eddie Cochran nugget "Summertime Blues" is frequently cited as a pivotal proto-metal moment, but it was the band's 1968 effort Outsideinside that elevated the punishing attack of bassist Dickie Peterson and guitarist Leigh Stevens to a higher, heavier plane. "Come and Get It" delivers the locomotive wallop of a Motörhead tune, even though it was tracked when a pre-Hawkwind Lemmy was still shifting amps for Hendrix. Factor in the flanged drums and fuzz-fueled fury of "Just a Little Bit," the headlong 90-second instrumental assault of "Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger," and the cowbell-banging mayhem of "Babylon," and you have a cornerstone of future heaviness. -- Dave Pehling

9. Death Angel, The Ultra-Violence
Recorded when the members of Death Angel were under the age of 20 (precocious monster drummer Andy Galeon was all of 14), The Ultra-Violence bristles with relentless, youthful energy. Even if the intricate, interlocking guitar parts of "Thrashers," "Evil Priest" and "Kill As One" owe an obvious debt to Metallica's complex riff architecture (Kirk Hammett produced the demo that preceded the 1987 album), the breakneck ferocity heard on Death Angel's punishing debut outweighs any possible criticism over originality. The 10-minute title track can go toe-to-toe with Metallica's "The Four Horsemen" and Exodus's "Deliver Us to Evil" as one of the great thrash epics of the decade. -- Dave Pehling

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Top 21 Bay Area Metal Albums

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jschoppert

This list is ignorant and offensive. Really SF Weekly? Really?! Your writers don't have enough brains to make a list of 21 great bay area metal albums?? That's pretty sad. No mention of Vio-lence's first album at all. No mention of Forbidden's work.. You include the Justice album AND PUT IT IN THE NUMBER THREE SLOT??? ABOVE RIDE?? THAT IS STRAIGHT UP RETARDED. That album SUCKS compared to the first one!!! Exodus's bonded by blood comes in at number five?? really?? REALLY!? Oh my god.. KILL YOURSELF. That's the stupidest move by a music journalist in the history of music journalism. What about Pleasures and Fabulous?? HUH!? What about Death Angel's Frolic? Those albums dont rate at all, huh? Those are fuckin' horrific mistakes. All the writers who contributed to this article and agreed to this order should be fired. This list is an insult to every bay area metalhead. Even the Metallica nutswingers. Even they could and would tell you that the Black album is a better album than Justice. And that album isn't even a thrash album.The only two Metallica albums that should even be ON the list are Ride and Master. Blue Cheer? Are you fucking kidding me with this shit?? Sumertime blues my ass!! Faith No More and Mr. Bungle in the top twenty?? Seriously?? Man, this list is utter SHITE. You just killed any credibility you thought you had. The Black album in the number two slot?? HAHAHAHAHA!! Your'e fuckin' killing me. The only part you actually got right was Master at number one. Thats it. Thats the only part of this list I actually agree with. KILL YOURSELVES!!!

robert_zonkers

yeah dawg just pick every metallica record thats a good idea.

meatsack

After Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets was a let down.

Steven Munoz

and Metallica is not a bay area band, they came up from LA. Just because Kirk and Cliff joined doesn't mean shit.

Christraper Sings

What a waste this article is. No Weakling? No Ludicra? No acknowledgement of the international influence of the Bay Area's metal scene of the last 15 years.