10 Hard Rock Bands Who Made 3 Great Albums In A Row

Let’s get one thing clear, the first five Metallica albums are absolute excellence from start to finish however nothing comes close to their first three albums. 1983’s Kill ‘Em All, 1984’s Ride the Lightning and 1986s Master of Puppets came out like clockwork, each of them transforming heavy metal music forever, igniting a new sub-genre of music and setting the benchmark so high it will rarely be seen again.

With Kill ‘Em All, Metallica took from their roots in punk and the way that bands like Venom and Motorhead were starting to play metal with pure speed, and created thrash, a genre that provided the next generation with their own music. A year later, the band transformed Kill ‘Em All’s abrasive, fast, snottiness into Ride The Lightning, a record equally focused on force as intricacy. Here the band proved that they were just as inspired by Bach as the Misfits, and once Master of Puppets came out in 1986, the world of music could never be the same again.

Metallica’s first three albums blended power and fury with melody, expert songwriting sensibilities and incredible musicianship. The band didn’t just make three great albums in a row, they wrote three masterpieces.