THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums #19: Gorgoroth – Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam (Regain Records, 2006)

I’ll probably catch a ton of flack for this, but I have to admit, Gaahl / King ov Hell era Gorgoroth is my favorite Gorgoroth.  Don’t get me wrong, early albums such as Pentagram and Under the Sign of Hell are classics in their own right, but the band became meaner and more brutal when Gaahl and King entered the picture on Incipit Satan and subsequently began their hostile takeover attempt, beginning with Twilight of the Idols (In Conspiracy with Satan) and culminating in Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam.

THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums #16: Danzig – Thrall-Demonsweatlive (Def American Recordings, 1993)

First thing’s first; yes, realize that Thrall-Demonsweatlive is an EP not an album.  But it deserves a place in the top one hundred because it marks the beginning of my life-long obsession with all things Danzig.  Like many Danzig fans in my age bracket, I was mesmerized by the video for “Mother ’93,” a clip mainly comprised of footage from the band’s legendary 1992 Halloween performance at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater; the image of Chuck Biscuits’ 15 foot high skull drum riser is permanently burned into my brain.  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that “Mother” is a fantastic song, but combining it with the imagery of a rowdy-as-fuck live show took it to a whole other level.

THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums #15: Cannibal Corpse – Tomb of the Mutilated (Metal Blade, 1992)

When you’re young and just starting to get into a specific style of music, you tend to start with the biggest, most well-known band in that style and work your way deeper and deeper underground from there.  When I was first getting into death metal, one of the gateway bands of the genre was Cannibal Corpse. I mean, they were in Ace Ventura for fuck’s sake; but even before that they were one of the most easily accessible death metal bands there was for a kid growing up in the bowels of the Midwest, their gruesome album covers leering at me from the stacks at Musicland and Disc Jockey, beckoning me to sample their disgusting delights.

THKD’s Top 100 Metal Albums #13 – Black Witchery – Desecration of the Holy Kingdom (Full Moon Productions, 2001)

I can trace my love of all things brutal, blackened and bestial to one album, and that album is Black Witchery’s Desecration of the Holy Kingdom.  Sure, I’d already heard Blasphemy when I got my grubby little mitts on it back in 2001, but as nasty as Fallen Angel of Doom was, it didn’t quite grab me by the balls and rip my fuckin’ ears off the same way that Black Witchery’s debut did.

Luck of the Corpse: THKD’s top 5 albums featuring actual cadavers on their covers

If there’s one thing Metal Twitter™®© is good for, it’s manufacturing non-controversies within the scene.  The latest of these flare-ups occurred when Philly-based death metallers Pissgrave unveiled the cover art for their new album Posthumous Humiliation, set to be released March 1st via Profound Lore.

THKD’s top 10 Random-ass things I enjoyed in 2013

When I first started thinking about how to approach THKD’s year end shenanigans for 2013, I tried to come up with ideas for different types of lists that would get away from the traditional top albums countdown.  Turns out I’m more scatterbrained than creative, because what I ended up with was a bunch of stuff that really didn’t fit together or adhere to any sort of unifying theme.  Instead of giving up on the idea, I decided to gather a few of these things together under one banner even though it didn’t make any sense whatsoever, just for the sheer joy of it, in addition to a more traditional year end list.  So here it is, the second year end “bonus list” prior to the top metal albums countdown, which will be published on 12/13/13; THKD’s top 10 random-ass things I enjoyed in 2013.