Jag Panzer: Ample Destruction - 1984
In some ways Jag Panzer is an odd choice. They don't show a lack of songwriting abilities, they're not ugly or ****ty sounding, and they don't show a combined IQ level that may or may not reach into the triple digits. But don't let that fool you. This band is from one of my favorite time periods in metal: the early-mid eighties, when the metal underground was just starting and hadn't yet been subsumed by thrash metal. There weren't quite as many bands strapping on their Flying V's, but the ones that did generally had more originality than the ones that would follow a few years later. Subsequently a band like Jag Panzer isn't all that easy to categorize. They lie somewhere in the hinterlands between heavy metal, thrash metal, and power metal, all the while sounding only like themselves. Combine Iron Maiden with Metallica's first album and you're in the ballpark.
But the real reason I love this time period is that all the stereotypes of cheesy metal hadn't yet been set, or at least they hadn't been raised to the level that bands were self conscious about it. Whether it was Grim Reaper, Anvil, or Venom, bands were pushing the boundaries of good taste and intelligence like it was their job. Which it was. Jag Panzer weren't anywhere near as cringe-inducing as some of these numbskulls, but their lyrics generally consisted of wearing leather, kicking asses with the subsequent taking of names, and generally raising hell. And even though his voice isn't all that different than your average power metal singer, Harry "The Tyrant" Conklin's singing pretty much dates this band to within a year or two of when this album was released. He's just so...eighties. Love him.