There have been some memorable ones like Metallica's "Kill 'em All" to Sabbath's self titled album but the best debut album of any heavy metal band has to be Iron Maiden's "Iron Maiden". This is arguably the best album to come out of the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) with classics like "Phantom Of The Opera" "Remember Tomorrow" "Running Free" "Charlot The Harlotte" and "Iron Maiden". Penned by the bass master that is Steve Harris. This amazing album (that got to number 4 in the album charts in Britian) was done on a low budget that gave it a rough edge that Maiden lost as they became more mainstream, the rough production was very unique and many fans say this and the second album ("Killers") were the best Maiden had done. This irregular sound was given even more of an edge by singer Paul Di'anno's harsh voice when mixed with the guitars of Dennis Stratton and Dave Murray gave the album a very dark and underground feel to it. A must buy for any metal head.

 

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System of a Down's debut was quite an astounding record. Fear Factory's "Soul of a New Machine" is a very under-rated album as well - people go on about "Demanufacture", but "Soul..." unfairly gets sidelined. Korn's first album is a stunning work, Nu Metal has become a joke because of bands like Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park and all the other generic c**p that came after, but if you listen to Korn's self-titled debut, that is what Nu Metal was originally all about - the sheer rawness of it is something a typical Linkin Park fan just isn't gonna know how to deal with; it's only really Slipknot, Deftones and a few others that have taken Nu Metal in the direction it was meant to go...

 

Tool's "Undertow", a really great record that paved the way for bands like Korn, etc; the Rage Against The Machine debut....