The best album openers are the songs that full-on kick you in teeth the second that first note hits. Or maybe they’re the ones that build up tension through an extended and mega-creepy metal intro, before ramping a record into overdrive.
Either way you roll, one thing’s for sure: You’ve only got one shot at starting your record right. Metal bands need a memorable track one, otherwise the album could be dead on arrival.
With all that in mind, we asked Revolver readers to tee up their picks for the best album-opening song of all time. The top-five vote-getters are ranked accordingly below.
Brann Dailor not only dreamed up the literary bent to Mastodon’s Moby Dick-themed Leviathan, but the drummer-vocalist also wrote the maelstrom of herky-jerked riffs that kicks off the record’s opening “Blood and Thunder.” And it’s a hell of a way to get things started.
Mastodon’s sophomore full-length leveled up the intensity and intrigue of thet Georgia quarte’s oftentimes cerebral prog-sludge, though “Blood and Thunder” is a deceptively complex piece disguising its trickiest syncopation within a relentlessly fist-pumping drive.
A strong case could be made that Metallica should pretty well fill this whole list with the jaw-dropping run of intro tracks that filled their classic period. “Fight Fire with Fire”? The shape of thrash to come, circa ’84. “Battery”? Effortlessly raging as its name suggested. And don’t even get us started on how the arena-ready chug of “Enter Sandman” changed the game forevermore.
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