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.
Mastodon – “Blood and Thunder”
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 the Georgia quartet’s oftentimes cerebral prog-sludge, though “Blood and Thunder” is a deceptively complex piece disguising its trickiest syncopation within a relentlessly fist-pumping drive.
Though the anthem has generally become a go-to set closer in recent years, Mastodon put this one back in the front position for the full-album playthrough on their current “Ashes of Leviathan” tour with Lamb of God.
Metallica – “Blackened”
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.
That said, the epic moodiness of …And Justice for All’s “Blackened” might be ‘Tallica’s most sublime opening statement. Take the way that brief bit of backmasked, multi-layered beauty quickly gives way to a savagely choppy percussiveness, which then ventures into beast-mode stomping and a right-ripping thrash section solo from Kirk Hammett.
Per Papa Het, “Blackened is the end,” but it was also a hell of a way to kick off Justice.
Black Sabbath – “Black Sabbath”
There are few songs as unequivocally important to hard-hitting rock music as “Black Sabbath.” It’s not only the literal start of the band’s first album, but the figurative big bang of heavy metal as a whole.
In just over six minutes, Sabbath set an eerie tone perfectly. The sound of looming storms. An ominous requiem bell. The maleficent power of the Devil’s tritone, as harnessed through the detuned riffage of Tony Iommi and rhythm-stringer Geezer Butler. Ozzy Osbourne’s psych-damaged pleading to an unseen, unholy force. Bill Ward’s slow-dread drum pace, ahead of the near operatic psych-fuzz finale.
Over 50 years later, “Black Sabbath” still sounds as depraved and dangerous as ever.
Alice in Chains – “Them Bones”
“Them Bones” is an instant shock to the system. And though Dirt’s boot-stomping opener isn’t exactly prog-rock, a lot of its weird immediacy is tied to the song’s irregularly jarring 7/4 swing — that and the in-your-face series of “Ahhs” vocalist Layne Staley throttles our way through the livewire intro.
Jerry Cantrell’s tapestry of classically shredded solo layering and his and Staley’s uniquely entwined vocal creeping likewise make this one of AIC’s greatest hits, while the mortality-pondering lyrics set the tone for the rest of Dirt’s dark, death-obsessed themes. A vital cut that’s been rattling our skulls for more than 30 years.
TOOL – “The Grudge”
You can’t begrudge Revolver readers for choosing Lateralus’ standout “The Grudge” as the greatest album opener of all time. The truth of the matter is, if you’ve got to start somewhere with TOOL, you really can’t go wrong with this hard-rolling epic.
“The Grudge” hits a ton of classic hallmarks for TOOL — the propulsively hypnotic drum build, dark incandescent bass work from Justin Chancellor, a fierce yet vulnerable vibrato vocal performance from Maynard James Keenan. In many ways, it’s a rock-solid cornerstone to TOOL’s overall sound. Defining, not confining.
And as fans cue up Lateralus for yet another spin, it’s “The Grudge” that sinks them deeper and deeper into TOOL’s unmistakable greatness.