The Qobuz Ideal Discography

Immediately! Now! Right now! The revolution is here! The hippie dream has been crushed! The West Coast pacifism has been exploded! With this first album (a live) from the big sound terrorists from Michigan, rock ‘n’ roll enters body and soul into life-saving and badly furious violence. During this concert recorded at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in October 1968, Wayne Kramer and Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith beat up their guitars like genius butchers. With a handheld mike, Rob Tyner is an ivory James Brown in a trance. Obviously, the rock ‘n’ roll genius from the 5 isn’t limited to this simple electric tsunami. It draws its energy, as well as its madness, from the primitive rock of the Troggs, the libertarian jazz from Sun Ra and the raw blues from John Lee Hooker. With Iggy Pop’s Stooges, the MC5 enforces on the industrial Detroit the law of noise and fury. As they were chanting then, Motor City Is Burning: decades later, the embers are still incandescent… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Na het album After ...And Justice for All (1988) besluit metal-band Metallica dat het tijd is om de sound te vereenvoudigen. Het daarop volgende album Metallica (1991) staat derhalve in het teken van melodieuze en compact gestructureerde songs. Daarmee valt het album te kenmerken als een van de meer toegankelijke platen van de Amerikanen, hoewel er ook mensen zijn die menen dat met het album de artistieke neergang van de band is ingezet. © TiVo

Het debuutalbum Appetite for Destruction van de Amerikaanse hardrockband Guns N' Roses is in 1987 meteen een doorslaand succes. De plaat haalt de eerste plaats in de charts en zal uiteindelijk dertig miljoen keer over de toonbank gaan. Singles als Sweet Child o' Mine" en "Paradise City" worden grote hits. In 2018 wordt het album opnieuw uitgebracht in een geremasterde versie. © TiVo

1986 was a landmark year for thrash metal in more ways than one. Much to everyone’s joy, Metallica released Master of Puppets in the spring, closely followed by Megadeth’s Peace Sells... but Who’s Buying? in September. Surprisingly, extreme metal was making its way into the charts. This explosion took violence and speed to new heights and cleared the way for even more ferocious groups who rushed to fill the breach. Slayer, a key group in the revolution, unleashed everything in one track: Angel of Death. The song opens the album Reign in Blood with bassist/singer Tom Araya’s scream - something that’s gone down in history. The band keep up this same level of intensity and speed throughout the album thanks to razor-sharp rhythms and powerful drumming from the often-imitated but never-equalled Dave Lombardo. Reign in Blood was more aggressive, brutal and fast-paced (it’s all over in barely 28 minutes!) than the albums released by their peers. It was the result of a collaboration between the group from Huntington Park and producer Rick Rubin, who founded the rap label Def Jam at just 23 years old. This was the first time that Rubin had worked with a metal band. He made Slayer’s music more intelligible without ever watering it down. Everything pulsed at over 200 bpm. The guitar solos flirted with an unsettling dissonance, the themes shook up the United States’ apparent prudishness (tackling subjects such as religion, death, war and the holocaust...) and the Dante-esque finale of Raining Blood ensured that it would be remembered as one of the greatest albums ever made. Raining Blood is like Slayer’s Highway to Hell or Ace of Spades. It’s one of their most popular songs and permanent addition at live concerts. Slayer would reach their creative peak with the hellish Seasons in the Abyss, which turns 30 in 2020. Though Reign in Blood will always be the record that allowed it all to happen. © Chief Brody/Qobuz

1986 was a landmark year for thrash metal in more ways than one. Much to everyone’s joy, Metallica released Master of Puppets in the spring, closely followed by Megadeth’s Peace Sells... but Who’s Buying? in September. Surprisingly, extreme metal was making its way into the charts. This explosion took violence and speed to new heights and cleared the way for even more ferocious groups who rushed to fill the breach. Slayer, a key group in the revolution, unleashed everything in one track: Angel of Death. The song opens the album Reign in Blood with bassist/singer Tom Araya’s scream - something that’s gone down in history. The band keep up this same level of intensity and speed throughout the album thanks to razor-sharp rhythms and powerful drumming from the often-imitated but never-equalled Dave Lombardo. Reign in Blood was more aggressive, brutal and fast-paced (it’s all over in barely 28 minutes!) than the albums released by their peers. It was the result of a collaboration between the group from Huntington Park and producer Rick Rubin, who founded the rap label Def Jam at just 23 years old. This was the first time that Rubin had worked with a metal band. He made Slayer’s music more intelligible without ever watering it down. Everything pulsed at over 200 bpm. The guitar solos flirted with an unsettling dissonance, the themes shook up the United States’ apparent prudishness (tackling subjects such as religion, death, war and the holocaust...) and the Dante-esque finale of Raining Blood ensured that it would be remembered as one of the greatest albums ever made. Raining Blood is like Slayer’s Highway to Hell or Ace of Spades. It’s one of their most popular songs and permanent addition at live concerts. Slayer would reach their creative peak with the hellish Seasons in the Abyss, which turns 30 in 2020. Though Reign in Blood will always be the record that allowed it all to happen. © Chief Brody/Qobuz

Metallica, a band stronger than The Beatles? Without a doubt if you consider sound power, but in terms of remastered editions featuring “a few” bonuses, the award might also go to the Four Horsemen if you compare the “Deluxe” edition of their third album to the Fab Four’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Anniversary (Super Deluxe Edition). In it, you’ll find the equivalent of no less than ten fully-packed CDs for this Master Of Puppets that many consider, rightly or wrongly, as Metallica’s own Sgt. Pepper's. Well, it’s true that you’ll struggle finding any defect in the armour of such a monument. And its lengthy gestation period, highlighted through archives at various stages of development, will no doubt reinforce the belief that the band was touched by grace at this very moment in their history.A few rare critics begrudge this album for not having been as surprising as its two predecessors. Indeed the general structure of Master… , as well as the majority of its titles, can be compared with Ride The Lightning from the first frantic title Battery, in the same vein as Fight Fire With Fire, to the epic final of Damage Inc., wildly evoking a sped-up version of Creeping Death. There is also a false ballad halfway through, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), reusing in essence the same ingredients as Fade To Black and the finely chopped instrumental of Orion, with a very vague similarity with The Call Of Ktulu… However while this third attempt can be seen as a synthesis of the previous two, Master… is by far the most accomplished in the sense that, for the first time, Metallica had the time and means to refine and polish their compositions to the point of almost perfection. Even when compared with recent productions, the album is technically inevitable and unrivalled.Master Of Puppets only brings division among fans when discussing its ranking among Metallica’s best albums − although it would always make the podium. The new approach offered here might sway a few more votes for the first position. But beyond a well deserved and convincing highlight of the quality of Master…, this album is also the undeniable accomplishment of the Cliff Burton era. An easily discernable period in the sense that the bass was beautifully put forward. And for good reason! Far from being a simple bass player, Cliff was both a driving force in terms of creativity and inspiration as and a generous and calm character, balancing and “harmonising” the relations within Metallica. As we’ll see later, his mediating role would have more than once been useful between Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield. Some even wonder if Kirk Hammett didn’t just stop getting better after this album, without Cliff’s mental and instrumental boosts.

When an intoxicated Bon Scott died by choking on his own vomit in February, 1980, no one envisaged a future for AC/DC. However, the Anglo-Australian band succeeded in finding a replacement for their legendary lead singer. Brian Johnson from the band Geordie rose to the challenge against all odds and imposed a powerful, primarily high-pitched singing style which differed greatly from that of his predecessor. With its legendary black cover, Back in Black marked the birth of a new AC/DC and contains a series of incredible tracks. On guitar were the Young brothers (Malcolm with his Gretsch and Angus with his unstoppable Gibson SG), constantly trying to outdo each other’s genius both through the effectiveness of their riffs and the precision of their solos (notably on Back in Black and You Shook Me All Night Long). As well as pure AC/DC (What Do You Do for Money Honey), they give us some thick boogie with a ZZ Top twang (Have a Drink on Me), theatrical hard rock à la Led Zep (Shake a Leg), and let us not forget the ode to the God of Blues (Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution). Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd finish the job by providing the record with a concrete bassline and strong rhythm, doing so with great finesse. Upon the release of Back in Black on July 15th, 1980, fans were, without surprise, torn on the question of Brian Johnson. Could the band go on without Bon Scott? The record’s success and the world tour that followed quelled any debate and, forty years later, no one questions the decision for a second. With 50 million units sold, Back in Black is the second best-selling album of all time, just behind a certain Thriller by Michael Jackson… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz