Heartwork 2LP

Heartwork set the blueprint for melodic death metal, cut at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool with producer Colin Richardson, shortly before guitarist Michael Amott, who'd already signaled plans to leave, was asked to step away ahead of the tour. Jeff Walker, Bill Steer, and drummer Ken Owen carried it from there, under a cover built around an H.R. Giger sculpture. Earache released it in the UK while Columbia took the US, the band's only major-label outing, one Rolling Stone later ranked among the 100 greatest metal albums ever made.