Secret tracks, sometimes also called ghost tracks, unlisted tracks or hidden tracks, are songs or audio pieces that were left off the track list of an album.

The easiest way to hide a secret track is providing the space for a distinct track that is just not listed on the back cover. However, there are also other possibilities:

Multisided records are vinyl records that have more than one groove per side. Therefore, double-grooved LPs can contain the secret track in the second groove.
Moreover, some vinyl records contain audio in the locked groove, which is usually silent and used for keeping the needle from drifting into the label area.

Compact discs may contain secret songs in the pregap of a track. Therefore (depending on the CD player), the secret track is not played automatically, but has to be manually back-scanned to be started.

In general, secret songs are often placed at the end of the final track, which contains the listed song and the unlisted audio separated by some minutes of silence.

Enhanced CDs may contain tracks that are not recognized by regular CD players but can only be detected as multimedia files by a computer.

In rare cases, two tracks have to be played simultaneously in order to either complement each other or to suppress distorted parts, resulting in a reconstructed song.

In general, there seems to be a trend that fewer secret tracks are produced for new releases. Moreover, re-issues of older albums often contain formerly secret tracks as listed bonus tracks or omit them entirely, especially for digital versions of the album.

Please feel free to suggest more examples of secret tracks on metal/hard rock albums.

1.Acid Bath - Paegan Terrorism Tactics

2.Anthrax - Volume 8: The Threat Is Real

3.Anthrax - We've Come For You All

4.Anthrax - Worship Music

5.Bruce Dickinson - The Chemical Wedding

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This list shows only my preferences in metal. These albums are not necessarily the best of the bands written by, but I return to them again and again. In my opinion, all this masterpieces confirm the variety and greatness of metal music.
Rules:
1. One album per band.
2. Ordered from highest position (top) to lowest (bottom).
3. No heavy, power, doom, gothic, sludge/stoner albums.

1.Children Of Bodom - Follow The Reaper

2.Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia

3.In Flames - Clayman

4.Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos

5.Gojira - From Mars To Sirius

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1.Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

2.Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

3.Korn - Korn

4.Soulfly - Prophecy

5.Linkin Park - Meteora

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Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Cannibal Corpse - The Bleeding (Death)
Satyricon - The Shadowthrone (Black)
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes (Groove)
Melvins - Stoner Witch (Alternative/Doom)
Soundgarden - Superunknown (Alternative)
Megadeth - Youthanasia (Heavy)

1.Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger

2.Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

3.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

4.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

5.Korn - Korn

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It's been like 20 years now, is it safe to post this yet?

1.Korn - Korn

2.System Of A Down - Toxicity

3.Sepultura - Roots

4.System Of A Down - System Of A Down

5.Disturbed - Ten Thousand Fists

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These are MY Top 250 Albums that are featured on Metal Storm in chronological order to celebrate 50 Years of Metal.

Some bands are featured on this list with more than one album, which means that they are perticulary amazing to me.

I listen to a wide spectrum of metal genres, which is why I tried to keep it diverse and not focus on one genre.

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

4.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

5.Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies

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1.Korn - Korn

2.Deftones - White Pony

3.System Of A Down - Toxicity

4.Korn - Untouchables

5.Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist

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A list of bands ordered by the biggest difference between their highest rated album on MS and their lowest rated album on MS. Finally my Excel skills paid off. Some ratings may be a bit outdated. Open to suggestions because I barely scratched the surface.

1.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

2.Metallica - Lulu [Collaboration]

3.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

4.Celtic Frost - Cold Lake

5.Machine Head - The Blackening

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1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Alcest - Les Voyages De L'âme

3.Amon Amarth - Twilight Of The Thunder God

4.Amorphis - Skyforger

5.At The Gates - Slaughter Of The Soul

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1.Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

2.Alcest - Écailles De Lune

3.Amorphis - Under The Red Cloud

4.As I Lay Dying - Shadows Are Security

5.Before The Dawn - Deadlight

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My favorite albums from various genres

1.Slipknot - Iowa

2.Nirvana - Nevermind

3.Summoning - Stronghold

4.Septicflesh - Communion

5.Anathema - Judgement

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1.Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

2.Slipknot - Iowa

3.Summoning - Stronghold

4.Septicflesh - Communion

5.Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn

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While the order in each decade is purely personal preference, there are several rules for a song qualifying for the list. First off, the band has to be notable. I'm not going to define what that means, but I'm sure you'd agree all the bands in the list are notable. There are plenty of riffs from obscure bands I'd rather put, but I know my love for Tarby doesn't make him the greatest riff maker of the 21st century. Second, each artist can only appear once in a decade, this is to prevent the best riff makers from hogging the list and adding some variety, showing how metal has changed over time. Decades are measured by when the song was recorded, not released, and when it's unclear the beginning of recording is used. This is mainly because a lot of definitive early metal songs were released in 1970, but recorded in 1969. Third, the song itself has to be notable. Here are things that can qualify as being notable: the song was release as a single, has music video made for it, was released as a single, was the title track for an album (note that Crawl through Knives meets this criteria because it was the original title for Come Clarity, and there is no way in hell Come Clarity is getting best riff of the decade ), is included on a greatest hits compilation album, was nominated for a Grammy or musical award of similar caliber, was included as a track in a notable film or video game, was covered by a notable band, or has a Wikipedia page for some miscellaneous reason. Finally, the song needs to be metal. Misirlou gets the pass despite predating metal as it was probably the single most influential song on the development of metal, and while many of the other songs in the other songs are better classified as hard rock, I can find a source listing them as heavy metal.

1.

2.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

3.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4.Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

5.Deep Purple - In Rock

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I will be filling the gap years with more albums soon... :3

1.IDLES - Brutalism

2.Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

3.Ghost - Meliora

4.Septicflesh - Titan

5.Twenty One Pilots - Vessel

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Music is not taken into account here.
Enjoy!

1.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

2.Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

3.Korn - Korn

4.Tool - Lateralus

5.Mägo De Oz - Gaia II - La Voz Dormida

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