10 Best Self-Titled Music Albums In Metal History

‘You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can’t Tuna Fish’, ‘Cultösaurus Erectus’, ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars’; all incredibly famous albums, but are elaborate album titles still necessary? Although an eye-catching, obscure, and sometimes obscene album title such as these can work in the artist’s favour, others have proven that the ‘less is more’ approach can also pay off too. As a result, many of rock and metal's all-time great albums have simply been named after the groups behind them.

A commonplace occurrence throughout metal since its conception, self-titled albums have formed themselves into a cornerstone of the genre not through their name, but through their quality, and later, cultural significance. Clearly, the time saved thinking of an album name benefits other areas such as writing and production, for some of the truly great albums simply bear the names of their architects.

Some of the most integral names in music history have taken the easy option when christening their records, with several of those acts appearing in this article. Here, simplicity is not reprimanded. Instead, it is celebrated, as the ten greatest self-titled metal albums ever made are in the spotlight.

Few bands can truly claim to be ‘generational’ talents in metal music, but Germany’s Rammstein are most certainly an example of one. The industrial metal powerhouse's journey to the top has been far from smooth sailing, though.

As one of the few records in this article that isn’t a debut album, ‘Rammstein’ was released in 2019 and was the band’s seventh studio album. Although it is technically an untitled album, it is generally viewed as being self-titled by fans and critics alike. This behemoth of a metal record was the group’s first full-length release in ten years and showed no hesitations in making up for lost time.

Capitalised by astounding single releases such as ‘Deutschland’ and ‘Auslander’, Rammstein doubled down on their reputation of attacking delicate subjects with these songs, which were only bolstered by their traditionally jaw-dropping music videos. The album was a huge commercial success, topping 12 album charts in nations such as Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, and of course Germany. On Spotify, the album currently has a total of 1.3 billion streams, with ‘Deutschland’ alone boasting over 400 million.

Rammstein are no strangers to controversy, having been criticised in the past for their imagery, sexually graphic music videos, aggression, and depictions of violence. They have also been outspoken supporters of the LGBTQ community, with the most obvious declaration of this coming when guitarists Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers kissed each other on stage while performing in St Petersburg, Russia in 2019.