My "Great MP3 Song List Project" 2015 - Results and Surprises

So I tore my ACL and had surgery...yada, yada...it was the perfect time to systematically go through all of my Metal (Metal-only) catalog and listen to every song, at least long enough to determine if the song would pass the "killer" test or be dismissed as filler. I've always wanted to have an MP3 player filled only with only the absolute best songs...all-time favorites. I ended up with 1644 songs that passed muster.

I already have my collection sorted alphabetically, so I got a pad and made a list as I went along. Here are the bands that have 20 or more songs that I consider "must-have killers":

Wuthering Heights - 20

Elvenking - 20

Impelliteri - 20 (and counting, haven't finished "learning" the latest

Allen/Lande - 20

Crescent Shield - 20 (Albeit a small sample size, they're the only band with a 100% success rate. All of their songs made it.)

Sonata Arctica - 21

Dark Moor - 24

Bride - 25

Deliverancee - 26

Vengeance Rising - 27

Falconer - 28

Tourniquet - 30

Blind Guardian - 33

...and surprisingly to me, but undeniable as I listened more and more...

Mortification - 50!

So some things obviously stick out. I like Power Metal and Christian Thrash. The Christian Thrash comes from my youth when one listens to the few albums they own over and over, and before the age of 20 I'd say 90% of my music was Christian Heavy Metal. So, that period had a huge influence on what I was going to love for the rest of my life. Going over every song I own, I kept saying to myself "I forgot how good so and so was."

Some surprises on the other end concerning bands who didn't make the cut or didn't have the presence I expected:

Dio - 7 (I LOVE Dio, but I guess he only has a handful of solo songs that I consider essential)

Rush - 2 ( I guess I just love 70's Rush)

Megadeth - 9 (9 isn't bad, but I thought I'd they'd have a stronger presence)

Gamma Ray - 3 (Everything about Gamma Ray screams "Scottmitchell74!!" but for some reason they just never quite blow me away)

Hibria - 0 (I want to like them, but something's missing)

Iced Earth - "only" 10 (I thought there'd be more. I really like these guys. I guess they're a "solid album" band without having a bunch of truly standout songs)

Whitecross - 4 (I LOVED these guys "back in the day" but their sounds hasn't aged well, in my opinion)

Iron Maiden - 14 ***with many asterisks*** I have most of their collection on record or cassette and use them as "garage" music while I'm lifting or doing train stuff in the garage. I suspect they'd give Mortification a run for their money if I had all their albums on cd. In fact, I can't imagine them not being #1.

Another thing I discovered is that a lot of bands have solid albums, without any one song being truly outstanding.

It was fun going through every album, and I discovered about 15-20 albums that will being going on Ebay soon.

Nice Scott,I could never do this though. I'm more of an album guy as opposed to various songs.

Seriously, I would never have the patience to do this, so more power to you, brother. It's cool that you had some surprises and learned some things about the Metal you own. Peace and heal up.

I've got an all metal mp3 player, too. Mostly '80s but I have a few from later periods. I have 850 tracks so far. I like adding songs from lesser known '80s metal bands. They sound fresh. I find myself skipping some old favorites because I've heard them so much.

This is similar to what I did with my "AC/DC Clone Bands" project a couple of weeks ago. Except that I just loaded all the albums onto the same flash drive; I didn't listen to individual tracks. Now when I go on my daily walks, I just put the thing on shuffle and enjoy what comes up. Like you, I discovered a bunch of songs that for whatever reason I hadn't really paid much attention to before.

I only culled about 450 tracks though; I wouldn't have the patience to do what you did.

There are certain bands that I put together compilations for, but 98% of the time I listen to full albums.

Here's my list. I'm definitely more of an album person than individual songs. (+ denotes I'm still missing a few albums from listed band.)

Megadeth- 27
Killing is My Business
Looking Down the Cross
Good Mourning/Black Friday
My Last Words
Set the World Afire
In My Darkest Hour
Hook in Mouth
Holy Wars... The Punishment Due
Hangar 18
Five Magics
Tornado of Souls
Rust in Peace... Polaris
FFF
Prince of Darkness
Recipe for Hate... War Horse
Kick the Chair
Tears in a Vial
Back in the Day
United Abomination
Gears of War
À Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free)
Amerikhastan
Head Crusher
How the Story Ends
The Right to Go Insane
New World Order
Black Swan

Nevermore- 25
C.B.F.
The Sanity Assassin
Garden of Gray
Utopia
The Seven Tongues of God
This Sacrament
Passenger
42147
Beyond Within
I Am the Dog
Dreaming Neon Black
All Play Dead
Narcosynthesis
The River Dragon Has Come
Believe in Nothing
Dead Heart in a Dead World
Enemies of Reality
I, Voyager
Who Decides
Final Product
Bittersweet Feast
Sentient 6
Medicated Nation
This Godless Endeavor
Moonrise

Metallica- 23
Hit the Lights
The Four Horsemen
Motorbreath
Seek & Destroy
Ride the Lightning
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Fade to Black
Escape
Battery
Master of Puppets
Disposable Heroes
Orion
Blackened
One
Dyers Eve
The Unforgiven
Until It Sleeps
Hero of the Day
Wasting My Hate
The Day That Never Comes
All Nightmare Long
The Unforgiven III
My Apocalypse

Tourniquet- 21
Psychosurgery
A Dog's Breakfast
Vitals Fading
Broken Chromosomes
Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance
Phantom Limb
Spectrophobic Dementia
Pecking Order
White Knucklin' the Rosary
Going, Going... Gone
Besprinkled in Scarlet Horror
Drinking from the Poisoned Well
Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm
Architeuthis
Healing Waters of the Tigris
Chamunda Temple Stampede
86 Bullets
Lost Language of the Andamans
The Slave Ring
Let the Wild Just be Wild
No Soul

Annihilator- 20+
Alison Hell
Ligeia
Human Insecticide
The Fun Palace
Sixes and Sevens
Imperiled Eyes
Phantasmagoria
I Am in Command
Back to the Palace
Sonic Homicide
Denied
Epic of War
Drive
Invite It
Clare
Coward
Deadlock
No Way Out
Snap
Creepin' Again

Exodus- 19+
A Lesson in Violence
Piranha
No Love
Deliver Us to Evil
Fabulous Disaster
Toxic Waltz
Scar Spangled Banner
War is My Shepherd
Shroud of Urine
Forward March
Deathamphetamine
Going Going Gone
Riot Act
Children of a Worthless God
Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)
March of the Sycophants
BTK
Wrapped in the Arms of Rage
Food for the Worms

Voivod- 17+
Killing Technology
Forgotten in Space
Tribal Convictions
Chaosmongers
The Unknown Knows
Nothingface
X-Ray Mirror
Into My Hypercube
Panorama
The Prow
Golem
The Outcasts
Jack Luminous
We Are Not Alone
Target Earth
Kluskap O'Kom
Mechanical Mind

Dakota - I'd have more Metallica, but like Iron Maiden, I don't have all of my Metallica stuff on cd.

Of course I'm about to go on my yearly cd binge, and now there will be many more full albums to digest. I love that the world of Metal never ends.

what a fun way to heal up