Corey Taylor Reveals His 10 Favorite Metal Albums

Slipknot / Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor is the latest musician to single out his 10 favorite metal albums in a series for Rolling Stone. Taylor put together a mix of classic and modern albums, ranging from 1982 to 2011, making his list one of the wide-ranging thus far.

So far, Rolling Stone have unveiled “favorite metal albums” lists by Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford and the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne. Metal’s most iconic acts have been prominently featured on these list, like Iron Maiden, for example. Halford put Maiden’s self-titled album on his list, while Ulrich gave the nod to The Number of the Beast. Once it came time for Corey Taylor to highlight a Maiden album, he picked a surprising release — Somewhere in Time.

“’Wasted Years’ was my f—ing soundtrack for years, and I think it's probably one of the most perfect heavy-metal songs ever written – just from a song standpoint, not riffage or anything like that,” says Taylor. “It's just so f—ing catchy. And you can still put it on, to this day, for people who don't like heavy metal, and they'll dig it. It's just got a cool vibe to it.”

Slipknot’s sound was obviously shaped by the nu-metal movement of the ‘90s, so it’s no surprise Taylor added the genre’s two definitive albums to his list — Korn’s self-titled debut and Sepultura’s Roots. “To me, I would put Korn on the same level as Appetite [for Destruction] and Nevermind as far as albums that shifted things culturally,” Taylor raves. “It's just one of those ‘Where the f— did this band come from?’ kind of moments.”

As for Roots, Corey says, “That album ... Jesus Christ. I mean, besides [Slipknot's] Iowa, that album is probably one of the thickest-sounding, heaviest-sounding albums that I've ever heard, from a production standpoint. It's so gross and yet so f—ing awesome. You can almost hear the hair on it [laughs].”

Check out Corey Taylor’s 10 Favorite Metal Albums below! Stone Sour will finally unleash Hydrograd this week. The album, which gave Stone Sour their fourth No. 1 active rock single, will hit shelves June 30.

Corey Taylor’s 10 Favorite Metal Albums:

Anthrax, Worship Music (2011)
Iron Maiden, Somewhere in Time (1986)
Judas Priest, Screaming for Vengeance (1982)
Korn, Korn (1994)
Megadeth, Peace Sells ... but Who's Buying? (1986)
Metal Church, The Dark (1986)
Metallica, Master of Puppets (1986)
Pantera, Far Beyond Driven (1994)
Sepultura, Roots (1996)
White Zombie, Astro-Creep: 2000 – Songs of Love, Destruction and Other Synthetic Delusions of the Electric Head (1995)