5. The Crusade Is A Hugely Underrated Album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhHLU60g_No Go on, admit it; you know every single word to Anthem (We Are The Fire). We all do. That song got completely crucified by the music press at the time for Heafy 'daring' to write vocal lines that were a more anthemic versions of what Metallica's James Hetfield was doing 10 years prior, but regardless of that, the album itself was still loaded with incredible guitar work, some of their best written choruses - and one of the greatest instrumentals in metal history. Simply put, The Crusade didn't deserve any of the hate it received at the time. Entrance to the Conflagration's solo will take your head off if you're not careful, Tread The Floods is an incredible track, Anthem is exactly what it was written to be, To The Rats could've easily been on Ascendancy - and The Rising is just a wall-to-wall fist-pumper with one of the most ridiculously fun solos they've ever recorded. The only comparison to Metallica that needed to made was that - like when Hetfield and co. switched direction to create the Black Album, Load and Reload - both bands were very unfairly treated simply for branching out and trying something that ultimately garnered them far more fans in the long run.