Welcome to the Top Five special! I discovered my favorite band when they were mentioned by another artist in an interview. It's natural to be want to check out the influences of your favorite artists and see what inspires them to make the music that you love. That's what this special is all about.  We send out requests to tons of bands and labels to have their artists share with us their Top Five Albums of All Time and we have quite a collection of artists from across the musical spectrum that have turned in their picks! In the coming weeks we will be unveiling a new Top Five list three times a week. Lists from big names as well as indie artists will be included, so we hope you enjoy this special and you discover some music in the process.  - Keavin (editor antiMusic.com)

Halloween Special.  We took some time off from this special but we're back for the final special installment! 

For this final special edition we have lists from members of Cradle of Filth, Scum of the Earth/Rob Zombie, As I Lay Dying, Unearth, Every Time I Die, Andrew WK, Embrace, Full Blown Chaos, Biomechanical, Sinch, Avion/Tories, Fata, Ewigkeit, Five Bold Main, Lila, Agents of the Sun, They Walk in Line and antiMusic's Jake Brown. 
 

Dave Pybus's (Cradle of Filth) Top Five Albums of All Time!

5.  Hellraiser Soundtrack : Great scary classical music. I wanna be buried to this!!! 

4.  Misfits - Walk Among Us: had a big effect on me... opened up my eyes to a new scene and a new musical outlook. Very influential.

3.  Metallica - Kill 'em All : changed my life, along with a lot of other people. The next 2 records (No 4 & 5) also blew me away.

2.  AC/DC - Back in Black: one of the best rock albums EVER!!! From the best rock band EVER!!! 

1.  Acid Bath - (Both albums): totally love them. Lyrics are awesome haha. Way before their time. 

For more on Cradle of Filth
Official Website for Cradle of Filth
Preview and purchase Cradle of Filth music

Ride the Lightening -  Metallica - first record I had ever like that and I was blown away

Welcome to Hell -  Venom - it was different, really evil 

Haunting the Chapel -  Slayer -  where I grew up, there were no music stores - we only had a record catalogue we could order from. Just band names and titles, not even a picture of the album cover. I would pick the ones that had the darkest sounding names - this one was a killer.

1919 eternal -  Black Label Society - was the first of theirs that I heard and it made me fall in love with that band - I now have all their albums 

Korn – Korn's debut was stunning
 

For more on Scum of the Earth
Official Website for Scum of the Earth
Preview and purchase Scum of the Earth

Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhoads - Tribute

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium

Botch - We Are the Romans

Radiohead - OK Computer 
 

For more on As I Lay Dying
Official Website for As I Lay Dying
Preview and purchase As I Lay Dying music

5. Portraits Of Past - 01010101

4. Backstabbers Incorporated - Kamikaze Missions

3. Tears For Fears - Tears Roll Down....Best Of

2. Soundgarden - Down On The Upside

1. Sigur Ros - Agaef's Byrjun
 

For more on Unearth
Preview and purchase Unearth music

Foo Fighters -"The Color And The Shape"

Pantera - "Far Beyond Driven"

AC/DC - "Back In Black"

Stone Temple Pilots - "No. 4"

Cave In  - "Until Your Heart Stops"
 

For more on Every Time I Die
Preview and purchase Every Time I Die music

5. Metallica - Master Of Puppets

4. Sepultura - Chaos A.D

3. Pantera - Far Beyond Driven

2. Hatebreed - Satisfaction is the Death of Desire

1. Slayer - Reign In Blood
 

For more on Full Blown Chaos
Official Website for Full Blown Chaos
Preview and purchase Full Blown Chaos music

Note: This list does not include my top record of all time, for it's in a category all of it's own. That record would be Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous. This record is everything I want to be in a human being, there is not enough space in this email for all I have to say about it. But I will say one thing to those up and coming rockers out there who don't know this record.....go out and get it.....now.

1.  Ride The Lightning – Metallica: I've never described a sound with a color before but this records sounds blue....granted the cover is blue,  but the recording itself fills me with a big  chill, and I see  a deep rich thick blue when I shut my eyes. And it was made in Copenhagen Denmark,  in the winter....more blue images to my 14 yr old head. You see, I was born in 1970, RTL came out in 84, I was 14 and could not have had any more testosterone pumping in my veins at the time.  And Metallica, was MY BAND! The coolest thing on the planet, period. The deceptive intro to Fight Fire with Fire is everything I've ever wanted in a intro.....its hard to believe what a good guitar player James Hetfield was at such a young age. And the melodies on this record are brilliant. Very, Very melodic stuff here. Listen to "Escape", "Trapped Under Ice" or Cliffs solo in "Call of Ktulu."....everything a young,  melody hungry metal head would want in a record.

2. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – Black Sabbath: So melodic...... such powerful dark yet melodic music....and Ozzy's  voice is so in tune....no computers to help...just sang it.."Killing yourself to live"....is perfect.....and "Fluf" is a work of art. And the art work is Killer. In the days of records the cover art had a lot to do with  how the record sounded in my head.

3. Aerosmith Bootleg: Messy, but real, mistakes and all. It sounded like a REAL band playing together. And it was cause it's a live record, when they were high. There is a couple of James Brown things they did that blew my mind when I was a kid. Of course I didn't realize they were James Brown songs for years and years, but to me they are still Aerosmith songs (same thing with "Train kept a rollin") Steven sang "popcorn and cheese cake" in this one tune, now one might think that would be corny,  but Steven was so cool and the way he said it MADE it cool. That dude is cool. 

4. Moving Pictures – Rush: Fucking SONGS! Wow, these dudes know how to make music!. "Witch Hunt" is a stand out track.....social commentary in the coolest hardest way,  just slipped in there in these subtle smart lyrics with killer HARD riffs. Amazing leads, so much music to hear, and sounds fucking stellar to this day! This record is great from beginning to end, in any decade.

5. Spilt Milk - JellyFish: I listened to this record over and over and over. However, at this time it was CD's, and not records. Bands began pacing  the track order differently if the record  was going to be played straight through, no more flipping sides and setting a different mood. And JellyFish did it wonderfully. Andy Sturmer's voice is so hard and razor sharp. This guy would be the best slamming rock singer you ever heard....Freddy/Macartny/Lu Gram/...but he's not into it too much, pity. Again,  this record is about melodies and the lyrics are a treasure. Without a doubt the most fun I ever had learning and then singing every lyric to a record, ever! Made my world a brighter place. Listen to "New Mistake" or "All is forgiven" (you would not believe how HARD this song is!)
 

For more on Jimmy Coup and Andrew WK
Official Website for Jimmy Coup
Preview and purchase Andrew WK music

5.  Vulgar Display of Power – Pantera: I discovered this album a bit late but I have to say it flows very well and it's pure power metal from hell! Best Pantera album for me

4.  Powerslave - Iron Maiden: I love this album!! Up to this day I look at the cover and discover new things! Best Egyptian cover ever!!

3.  Master of Puppets – Metallica: I don't think any explanation needed, absolutely jaw dropping album. Thrash Metal at it's best

2.  Defenders of the Faith - Judas Priest: Again most of the songs are amazing. I would have gone for Painkiller but the song quality on DotF is very high nearly throughout the whole album

1.  Operation Mindcrime – Queensryche: There is simply not even one weak song on this album. Awesome production and fantastic orchestration by Michael Kamen

For more on Biomechanical
Official Website for Biomechanical
Preview and purchase Biomechanical music

5. Hatful of Hollow ... The Smiths : This is a compilation album of radio sessions they did, and some of the versions are just staggeringly good, and in many cases better than the album versions. The Smiths were a band who never let you down, and when it looked like they might ...... they split up. Absolute genius.

4. St Anger ....Metallica : I've been a fan of Metallica since "Ride The Lightning" but haven't really been "into" them in a big way since "and justice for all" This record really turned all that around for me I get an adrenaline rush every time I hear it, and of course with the "some kind of monster" DVD, the extra insight just heightens the buzz. 

3. Elephant .... The White Stripes: Absolutely genius record and the record that got me back into the guitar. This guy is the new Jimi Hendrix , not in some virtuoso way, but because he can bring a smile to my face with the audaciousness and carefree approach. Definitely the guitarist I identify with the most. 

2. The Stone Roses ... :  This was the first record I can remember that spawned a whole culture of group playbacks, we would go round to my mates house, who was the only guy that owned it, and we'd teach each other different guitar lines on the album that we'd worked out. It was almost devotional except for the fact that only one of us owned the record. I've bought about 10 copies since then though. 

1.  The Joshua Tree ...U2 : I've been a fan of this album since the first time I heard it, it's full of positivity both in the lyric and the music, but somewhere in there is a melancholy "ache" that takes me right back to the first time I heard it , and everyone wants to be 15 right??

For more on Embrace
Preview and purchase Embrace music

5. Radiohead- The Bends (This album changed everything for everyone making relevant pop music in the 90's)

4. U2- Under A Blood Red Sky (I learned how to write songs listening to this cassette every day going to/from school)

3. Cheap Trick- Dream Police ( I learned to play the entire record on just one string of my first guitar)

2. Grease- The Soundtrack (A great song is a great song. It's was ALL about the LP art work!)

1. Beach Boys- Endless Summer (They were my first live concert. I marveled at them as I sat on my fathers shoulders on the beach in Daytona Beach, FL.)
 

For more on Steve
Official Website for Steve Bertrand
Preview and purchase Avion music

Jason Fubler (Guitar) 
Deftones - White Pony 
Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E 
Thornley-Come Again 
Big Wreck - In Loving Memory 
Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 

Ralph Rodriguez ­(Guitar/Vocals) 
Joe Jackson - I'm the Man 
The Juliana Theory - Emotion is Dead 
Slayer - Reign in Blood 
Journey - Escape 
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz 

Dave Dobson (Drums) 
311 - Transistor 
The Police - Greatest Hits 
Thornley - Come Again 
Jamiroquai - A Funk Odyssey 
Steel Pulse - Smash Hits 

For more on Agents of the Sun

Official Website for Agents of the Sun
Preview and purchase Agents of the Sun music

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 1973 - This was an album that oozed
the stoner-vibe from start to finish.  Rick wakeman's keyboards make this a more epic affair than their other great albums.  Crazy and amazingly descriptive lyrics make this an album to get lost in (as I did).

Pink Floyd - Animals 1977 - 3 songs of 15 minutes each with an animal as the theme (dogs/pigs/sheep).  Amazing and melancholic lyrics/music with a real 'English' humour and typical Waters' darkness to them.  I will never view Battersea Power Station in the same light ever again.

Hawkwind - Quark Strangeness & Charm 1977 - Bob Calvert's lyrics and the keyboards/Violins (Simon House) make this an epic space adventure through the mind.  With the classic psychedelic anthems of Spirit Of The Age and Hassan I Sabh, this is an essential (and very hard to find) album for the stoner freaks out there (somewhere)...

Anathema - Alternative 4 1998 - Melancholy to the max. This band do what ever the fuck they want and make it still sound cool.  Emotive melodies and lyrics make this a truly great album.  This album has not aged at all (although it has been stolen - so any donations would be appreciated!)

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son... 1987 - This was standard 'bread and butter' m.o.r maiden but with an esoteric edge and some new ideas (not ground-breaking - but 'different' enough from all their other stuff).  For me, in retrospect - this is their most impressive album.  Incredibly cheezy, yet epicly classic at the same time.

For more on Ewigkeit
Official Website for Ewigkeit
Preview and purchase Ewigkeit music

5.  Sonic Youth - Dirty: it never gets old

4.  Black Flag - The First Four Years: todays "punk" bands should quit, sell their equipment and buy this album with the money. 

3.  Miles Davis - Bitches Brew: another level that may never be reached again

2.  The Clash - London Calling: a masterpiece

1.  Nirvana - Nevermind: the album that changed music forever

For more on Sinch
Preview and purchase Sinch music

1. "Hi- Scores" - Boards Of Canada

2. "Nothingface"- Voivod

3. "Mezzanine"- Massive Attack

4. "Ok Computer"- Radiohead

5. "Fantastic Planet"- Failure
 

For more on Fata
Preview and purchase Fata music

Mike
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Fugazi - 13 Songs 
 

Kev:
Ride - Nowhere
PJ Harvey - Rid Of Me
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
The Smiths - Strangeways, Here We Come 
 

Niaz
1. The Velvet Underground – The Best of the Velvet Underground. Who needs sterile perfection when watery reflections are far more interesting? All praises to be to the Velvets.

2. The Pixies – Doolittle. Jagged, angular gyrations hovering like the ghetto bird above my apartment on a Saturday night. Black Francis is still bellows the world’s most harrowing scream.

3. My Bloody Valentine – Loveless. Holy crap. Each listen brings an experience different from the last. Sweet and woozy = swoozy? Need help here; there are NO words!

4. Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs – Doomster Stephen Merritt is on of the cleverest lyricists of my time. Blissfully simple songs, cute arrangements, unconventional instrumentation all with a dash of cyanide.

5. Blonde Redhead – Fake Can Be Just as Good. – Ever wonder how a kiwi fruit flesh feels after it has been separated from its skin with a spoon? Yes? God help you. The live show is where it’s at. When Blonde Redhead plays it feels like it’s raining but don’t bother to bring umbrellas  because it’s raining anvils.

For more on They Walk In Line
Preview and purchase They Walk In Line music

5- Twisted Sister  "You Can't Stop Rock 'n Roll": Yeah, I know it's cheesy, but when I was ten years old it rocked. The record that started my journey to the Dark Side.

4- Tool  "Aenima": Danny Carey is God.

3- Faith No More  "Angel Dust": Faith No More still doesn't get the credit they deserve.

2- Metallica  "Master of Puppets":  First Metallica album I owned. In my opinion the best Thrash/Metal album ever.

1- CHUM  "Dead To The World":  The best album by a band you've probably never heard of. Also my favorite record of all time.
 

For more on Five Bolt Main
Official Website for Five Bolt Main
Preview and purchase Five Bolt Main music

5. Jeff Buckley "Grace" He was an amazing singer, one of the most inspiring vocalist I've heard. All the emotion he puts into his singing is so intimate it just hit me like no other singers have.

4. Pearl Jam "Ten" They are the one band out of the grunge era that is still around and this album started it for them and is most likely their best. They played an intrical part to the Seattle sound because they have just great rock songs. I believe that's a large part of why they're still around.

3. Radiohead "OK Computer" It was so different sounding and moved me in a different way. It wasn't only great songs but the new different sounds that Jonny Greenwood presented to the listeners.

2. Nirvana "Nevermind" It was a ground breaking album that changed music in a major way. It inspired a whole generation of musicians.

1. The Beatles "The White Album" Amazing song writing and that fact that it's two cds worth makes it over the top.
 

For more on Lila
Preview and purchase Lila music

5.) Prince- Sign o' the Times: Prince, without argument, shaped pop music's imagination in the 1980s, lyrically and musically.  No one could compete with his genius, and with an average of an album a year since his 1978 debut, Sign o' the Times gave us 9 and 10 respectively over the course of two discs in 1987.  A brilliant social commentary on pop culture and society at a volatile time socially and politically, this record also was Prince's first without the Revolution since his super-stardom had launched with Purple Rain 3 years earlier.  As such, the ocean of new Prince fans that had emerged since were given their first album-wide glimpse into the depth of Prince's genius with the fact that he played all the records' instruments, and provided fans with some of his most accessible, sophisticated and provocative hits to date with 'If I Was Your Girlfriend' 'I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man' and 'Sign o the Times' among others.  This album is a musical art museum that any music fan will walk through timelessly with wonder.

4.) Jane's Addiction- Nothing's Shocking & Ritual De La Habitual: A tie is all that can be drawn from these two albums in competition with one another, but in terms of their impact on shaping Alternative rock overall, Jane's Addiction is the pinnacle to which all other bands in the genre aspired and were inspired in one form or another.  Perry Farrell is considered holy, and prophetic he was for a new generation of music fans desperate to be rescued from Hair Metal.  Kurt Cobain can be considered Perry's son, or the second generation of Alternative Rock in the context of Jane's Addiction's influence and legacy to the genre overall.

3.) Smashing Pumpkins- Gish:  This album represented the true dawn of the aforementioned second generation of Alternative Rock, flirting between Grunge and Melodic/Alternative Hard Rock over a series of 10 beautiful, soaring, soulful,  psychedelic, brilliantly experimental masterpieces.  His guitar tones are perhaps the most innovative of any player in this genre.  Gish definitely popped the cherry of Alternative Rock's second generation, even if Nevermind brought the genre into rock's mainstream.  Billy Corgan, next to Perry Farrell and the Pixies, also gets a top 5 spot for coolest album titles with this album.

2.) Tom Waits- Heart of Saturday Night: This album is one of the most human pieces of music I have ever heard, each song is a different emotion we've all felt- whether it be in love, loss, life, etc.  Its stripped bare of all bullshit with Bones Howe's production, leaving listeners with an opportunity at introspection in a single album that most singer-songwriters only reach over the course of a career.

1.) Bruce Springsteen- Live 75-85:  This may be cheating a little since it's a box set, but anyone who grew up in the late 1970s or 1980s owned this box set.  It captures the magic of the Boss in the most fitting setting, LIVE.  More than anything, this collection communicates to listeners why Bruce Springsteen has such a generational bond with and loyalty from his fans.  A fantastic celebration of Springsteen's catalog for any listener, old or new, of the Boss, and without argument, the greatest live album of all time!

About Jake Brown- Aside from being a columnist for antiMusic.com, Brown is also Founder and President of hard rock label Versailles Records, and a music biographer with published titles on R. Kelly, Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, Biggie Smalls, Jay Z, Nikki Sixx, Tupac, 50 Cent, Izzy Stradlin, and soon-to-be released titles on Motley Crue's John Corabi (Authorized), Jasmin St. Claire (Authorized), and Motley Crue (In the Studio), as well as a rock producers anthology 'Behind the Boards.'

Read Jake's column "The Smackdown With Jake Brown"
Check out Jake's label website

Check out Week Seven with lists from Throwdown, Sarah Blasko and antiGUY!

Check out Week Six's lists from 10 Years and Greenmuse

Check out Week Five's lists from Tracy Bonham plus members of Crisis, All That Remains and antiMusic editor Keavin Wiggins

Check out Week three's lists from members of KISS/Union/Grand Funk,QOTSA, Lowfive, Flys, Quiet Riot plus Deadsun

Check out week two's Lists from members of Lamb of God,  In Flames, Devildriver, Domeshots and Clit 45, plus Travis Becker's list

Check out week one's lists from members of Guns N' Roses, As I Lay Dying, Styx and Chino XL ... plus Hobo's list
...e