Master of Puppets is the album that turned me into a metalhead in the first place, so it takes top spot for me. It's pretty much the perfect metal album in every way. Heavy, fast, incredible lyrics, James at his vocal peak (imo), some of the best riffs ever, and there's not a single wasted song on it; they're all classics. It's a high fucking standard to even equal.

That being said, Kataklysm dropped a new album this year that has crept right into second place for me. Jfc, Goliath is just wall-to-wall brutal, primal metal. When you consider that I am a metallica devotee that used to rank most of their albums in my top list from 1 down to five before any other band showed up, that's pretty significant to me.

I've been fucking obsessed with bringer of vengeance in specific from that album. Jumping around corners and growling it at people, literally rattling windows with it, and annoying the hell out of my kid by sneaking it into their playlists like a rickroll. Did that to my wife too, but she gets mean and refuses to let me play with her boobs when I do that kind of thing.