28. Avatar - 'Hunter Gatherer'

It feels like ages since we have had a proper bog-standard Metal album. We have had bands messing around with structures and splicing genres left, right and centre, but very little straight down the line Heavy Metal. Well here come Avatar to right that wrong. You see, this is every classic Metal album ever made (or frankly yet to be made) boiled down into one single record. It has everything: frantic opener, check (Silence in the Age of Apes), big stompy number, check (Colossus), massive sing-along anthem, check (God of Sick Dream), pained ballad, check (Gun), and psychedelic weird one to end the album, check (Wormhole). Yes, it is by numbers and yes, it has all been heard before but none of that matters as it is done so well. This has oodles of the majesty, pomp and irreverence that has made Heavy Metal a force to be reckoned down the years. Gloriously unrepentant and really rather wonderful.