10 Greatest Metal Albums Of The '00s

Any stripe of rock music, metal or otherwise, is never going to run short of songs about drugs. Whether it was Alice in Chains writing about their addictions in the '90s or Aerosmith talking about the pleasures of cocaine back in the '70s, it's never a bad idea to write about the wonders of drug abuse in your art. That wonder can turn into terror real quick though, and A Perfect Circle showed just how dark it can get on Thirteenth Step.

So...this album must all be about drugs then, right? Actually, no. When looking at all of Maynard James Keenan's lyrics, they seem to just tackle the idea of addiction in general, and how addicts will do whatever they can to get their next fix, even if it means pushing away the most important people in their lives.

Though Maynard is the frontman of the group, the real genius behind this album is Billy Howerdel, who brings different soundscapes together to make everything sound ethereal. From listening to songs like Weak and Powerless or Gravity, you can practically get a contact high just by letting the music take you to another place. Whereas millions of artists might try to capture drug use in song, this is the closest that metal has come to showing you what it actually feels like. It's seductive, it's dangerous, and you might end up losing your soul to it if you're not careful.