It happens all the time. A band will release an unbelievably great, well-crafted debut album, and then follow it up with something totally lackluster in comparison. It's called the "sophomore slump," and we asked our readers to pick the one heavy-music LP that most gloriously defied that pressurized curse of disappointment. Below is the resulting list of the five greatest second albums — ranked according to their votes.
5. TOOL - Ænima
TOOL had been pulling themselves toward a masterpiece with 1992's Opiate EP and 1993's Undertow, and on Ænima they got there. The visionary alt-metal titans' first album with bassist Justin Chancellor represented, at the time, the creative peak of the group, who've been pushing the boundaries of heavy music ever since. On this record, they truly locked into the mystical, intangible essence of TOOL — particularly on all-time standouts like "Stinkfist," "Forty Six & 2" and "Ænema."
4. Alice in Chains - Dirt
While Nirvana's Nevermind just barely missed the cut here, our readers did give props to a different, more metal-leaning grunge record. As far as sophomore albums go, Dirt was a massive step up from Alice In Chains' 1990 LP, Facelift — packing in heavier riffs, bigger choruses and more emotionally harrowing lyrics, as well as adorning the songs with a way more aesthetically pleasing album cover.
3. Deftones - Around the Fur
On Around the Fur, Deftones really became Deftones. Polishing up the raw fury that they displayed on Adrenaline, songs like "My Own Summer (Shove It)" and "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" expanded the band's palette into gauzy alt-rock territory, while still keeping their sound anchored in Nineties metal. Their next album, 2000's White Pony, would set them apart even further, but Around the Fur was what made their distinctions from the nu-metal pack clear as day.
2. Slipknot - Iowa
Metal bands rarely get heavier on their second album, but Slipknot did. Iowa is somehow, astonishingly, even gnarlier, angrier, more tortured and more sonically explosive than their 1999 opening salvo. And amazingly, the band became even more popular for it, bucking conventional logic that heavy bands need to tame their wildest tendencies in order to find commercial success. Iowa is a fucking nightmare in nu-metal form, and it still sets the bar high for sophomore albums 20-plus year onward.
1. Metallica - Ride the Lightning
This had to be the one. Considered by many heshers to be the single greatest thrash-metal achievement of all time (rivaled perhaps only by Metallica's follow-up, Master of Puppets), Ride the Lightning is the pinnacle of a great second act, taking the punky sound of the band's debut, Kill 'Em All, on an evolutionary leap with canonical ragers like "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Fade to Black" and "Creeping Death." Blistering, stinkface-inducing and effortlessly sophisticated, Ride the Lightning is one of the best metal albums ever and, yes, quite possibly the best second album ever, as well.
