Heavy Metal has been around for a long time. So long, that it's impossible to make a comprehensive list of the best albums. This list attempts to nail down the classics, with a few personal preferences thrown in, since anyone who listens to music objectively is kidding themselves, or missing the point.

I've ignored nu-metal and even most thrash metal, sticking to a few good ones and paying special attention to a few bands who some metalheads don't consider metal. Technically speaking, I could've loaded this list up with Sir Lord Baltimore albums and not been wrong. But I don't own any Sir Lord Baltimore albums, so it didn't seem fair to pose, since I learned back in high school that all posers must die!

With R.E.M. calling it quits, it should be the end of an era. Except most of us either considered them pretty much finished when drummer Bill Berry left the group or thought they were already broken up. R.E.M. were a band in the best sense of the word, with each moving part coming together to create something greater than the sum of their individual contributions. Besides, all the earliest fans are well out of college and onto careers that often don't leave much time to keep track or to attend live shows without finding a babysitter.You think these guys want to keep playing to a bunch of kids?

At this point, it is time to give them their final grade.

As opposed to the list of albums from 2001 that actually charted, this list focuses on albums that may or may not have sold many records, but that we're still one way or another talking about ten years later.