12 Most Underrated Metal Albums

When Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut in 1970 - year zero for metal - they opened a portal to a whole other world of artistic expression. Musicians could now explore the visceral, transgressive, and downright evil in whatever manner they chose to express themselves, and did so in droves.

Metal has a truly global appeal, with scenes for the most niche of subgenres cropping up in the most unexpected of places. This means that there’s a huge wealth of under-heard material out there and it’s only expanding. In 2018, TuneCore discovered that metal was the fastest growing genre of music, meaning that there’s only going to be a lot more of this already overstuffed genre that will inevitably fall through the cracks.

But just because something doesn’t get widely recognised doesn’t mean that it inherently has no worth, many reasons exist for why a music release can become underrated. Its creators could have been deemed ahead of their time, or were in a period of creative flux during its creation. The sub-genre itself could be misunderstood, meaning anything released under its framework gets tarnished along with it. Or the band may simply have produced so much content in their career, that whole albums go by unsung and under-listened to.

This list contains albums that fit into all of those reasons and more. Twelve bands, some well-known, some not so much, who’ve released an album that deserves greater mass recognition that it currently receives.

Napalm Death are a British institution, up there with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden as one of the country’s greatest metal exports. They rose to prominence in the late eighties playing a form of short, fast crust-punk known as ‘grindcore’. This made the band a cultural curiosity that were loved by some and disparaged by many.

Fortunately, time has been kind to Napalm Death. The band now produce albums of extreme metal beauty packed with fleshed out songs, relentless heaviness and relevant politics. There was an era, however, where the band seemed to be in a state of creative limbo. When Diatribes was released in 1996, it landed with a whimper, with fans admonishing the band for supposedly moving too far away from the sound that made them (in)famous in the first place.

Diatribes is the sound of a band figuring themselves out, experimenting with new ideas, and charting a course for their future. The album contains some brilliant songs, such as lead single Greed Killing, where the band ambitiously synthesise their harsh vocals and frantic drumming with some very '90s alt metal riffing.

It all holds up extremely well today, and deserves a re-evaluation, not just for its unsung quality, but for its importance as a creative stepping stone for Napalm Death’s future career.