Baroness guitarist Gina Gleason knows her heavy metal history.
Gleason helped us construct our list of the 75 Best Metal Albums of All Time by participating in a survey alongside more than 40 fellow musicians. Not only did she provide us with a list of her own personal top five metal albums, but she wrote some incredibly detailed and thoughtful descriptions to accompany her picks. She was also one of the only survey participants to have all five of her picks make it into the final Top 75 — a testament to her excellent taste.
Gleason’s influences shine through in her expressive guitar playing, which can be heard on all of Baroness’ albums since 2017. Her lead work is particularly fantastic, steeped in the classic heavy metal tradition, and Baroness fans have recently been treated to full album performances of the band’s Red Album and Blue Record as part of a tour celebrating those seminal releases. These songs really let Gleason dance around the fretboard, and thankfully the trek has another leg on the books, with dates kicking off in September (get tickets here).
In the meantime, check out Gina’s top five metal albums below, and stay tuned for a couple more upcoming personal top-five lists as we comb through our survey results in the aftermath of Metal Week here at Consequence.
5. Death – Symbolic (1995)
A list of greatest metal albums would not be complete without mention of Chuck Schuldiner’s incredible body of work and influence. Symbolic takes the spot for me for the band’s ability to continuously grow and push the boundaries of more traditional death metal. It is possibly the most melodic of the band’s discography while maintaining a high level of technicality and harshness. I am always blown away by records that contain some of the highest levels of musicianship imaginable, meaningful and thought provoking lyrics while still presenting some level of accessibility to pull in new listeners. Symbolic does all of that with precision while creating an aura for the listener to enter. It’s a front to back record, no skips.
Stream Symbolic on Apple Music | Buy on CD/Vinyl
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