The final installment in a ten-part series; previous installments can be found here.

​This is a fine example of why I stated up front that this list would not be hierarchical. Picking "the ultimate metal album" is an exercise in futility. Like most people with ears and a pulse, I love me some Sabbath, but an all-Iommi diet would leave anyone vitamin deficient. The musical world is replete with bad metal (I'm looking at you, Paul Stanley--yep, I said it, let the fur fly now), but there's also a ton of phenomenal stuff out there that I will listen to till the day I die. Obviously, those are records one never forgets, but I occasionally have to be reminded about others.

In fitting metal fashion, it was a trip to a strip bar where a nice young lady was dancing to "Symphony of Destruction" that caused me to revisit Megadeth's back catalog. That song was from 1992's Countdown to Extinction, which is passable hard rock record, but it was Rust in Peace that held up the best in terms of classic thrash for me. Frontman Dave Mustaine may be a whiney little bitch with a Mega-chip on his shoulder, but the guitar work on this 1990 release is simply unfuckwithable. Opening track "Holy Wars...the Punishment Due" is a masterful bit of composition that even Kirk Hammett could appreciate. Live video of that song is after the jump.

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The Redwood Plan at a Reverb-sponsored in-store performance, Friday night, at Easy Street Records in Queen Anne.

​Plus, look what else turned up when I was snooping around ...

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Hannah Levin, with Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister.

​Am I the only one who has a hard time getting a date with Rocket Queen columnist Hannah Levin on a Saturday night? First it was, "Um, sorry, dude, I've got, um, to host Audioasis over at KEXP." How about when you get off, at 9 p.m.? "Well, yeah, I'd love to, Chris, but, um, I've gotta tend to things at Gainsbourg. Next time, though, right?" Now that Levin is producing/hosting Seek and Destroy, the new metal show from Midnight to 2 a.m. on Saturday nights (aka Sunday Mornings), it's gonna be that much harder to pin her down.

When we found out about the new gig a couple weeks ago, we asked Hannah to school us a bit, and give us a peek at what we should expect from Seek and Destroy. What followed was a list of her "Heavy 10," metal's essential records. The 10th installment will drop tomorrow, before her show. But, here's a look at what you can expect from Levin during her second shift at KEXP on Saturday nights, starting tomorrow.

-- Akimbo, Jersey Shores
-- Girlschool, Screaming Blue Murder
-- Metallica, Kill 'em All
-- Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind
-- Queens of the Stone Age, Songs for the Deaf
-- Judas Priest, Screaming for Vengence
-- Mastadon, Leviathan
-- Def Leppard, High 'n' Dry
-- Slayer, Reign in Blood

Joel & John, in healthier days.

​Ashley Graham just sent out a release that will dampen the autumns of post-menopausal women and queens of a certain age: "Promoter Live Nation and the KeyArena were informed by management today that Elton John has been advised by his doctor to postpone these performances due to a serious case of e-coli bacterial infection and influenza. Organizers of the event are working to establish a new date. All patrons who have purchased tickets for the Face 2 Face concerts on Wednesday, November 4 and Saturday, November 7 at the Key Arena are being asked to hold on to their tickets until more information is available regarding the proposed rescheduled engagement."

To which we replied: "Goodbye Elton John, though we won't be hearing you at all in the fall, we hope you ditch the ecoli. Loneliness is tough, but not as tough as it'll be on the bartender's tip jar at the Fairmount Olympic, when Billy Joel cancels his room. It seems to me you've toured together since Poppy Bush was Prez, never knowing who will headline til after a game of Simon Says. And we would have liked to have heard you, but we'll survive, playing your greatest hits CDs, and wishing Lou Rawls were alive."

Blood was shed, and contracts were signed last night between Zach Tillman -- formerly of Siberian fame, and brother of singer/songwriter/Fleet Foxes drummer J. Tillman -- and Queen Anne's Barsuk Records. We'll post more as the details ooze out.

Part 9 of a 10-part series; previous installments can be found here.

​Just to reiterate, this list isn't hierarchical. These are simply 10 metal and hard rock records I dig at the moment and have returned to again and again over the years, in no particular order. There are a gazillion other artists and metal sub-genres myself and co-host Tanner Ellison plan on cuing up on Seek and Destroy; there's plenty of time, folks.

I knew I wanted to toss up something local this today, and while Helms Alee, Mico de Noche, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, Madraso and the Melvins were collectively slam-dancing in my head (as the often are), I decided this was the logical point to give props to the boys of Akimbo. 2008's Jersey Shores is a beautiful behemoth of a record, loosely themed around a series of shark attacks off of the Garden State shore in 1916. Founding member Nat Damm is quite likely the best drummer (and one of the nicest fellows) in Seattle, and musically, Akimbo is nothing but a force for good. Live video of the album's centerpiece song, "Great White Bull", is after the jump.

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Krist Novoselic is a regular contributor to Reverb. His column on music and politics runs every Tuesday on the Daily Weekly.

​Leonard Cohen - "Passing Through," Live Songs: Cohen strolls through time and encounters historical figures. He's got a question for Jesus, Adam, George Washington, and Franklin Roosevelt.

Monsters of Folk, "Baby Boomer": This band is Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, and M. Ward. It's a folk-like knee slapper like the Cohen song above. This tune is also about history - or more like who wrote history.

The Rolling Stones, A rare mix of "Gimmie Shelter" The folks at Wax FM posted this beauty. Somebody got a hold of the master reels and posted this version of the tune online. It's fun to hear the song broken down but the message is still heavy - war, murder, it's just a shot away.

Rafael Anton Irisarri performs Nov. 1 at SAM. Doors at 2 p.m., and tickets begin at $10.

​When I think about the Day of the Dead, I think about the Consul's final 24 hours stumbling around drunk Under the Volcano and of his final resting place: a ditch occupied by a dead dog. Probably not the image the good folks behind the Dia de los Muertos celebration Nov. 1 at the Seattle Asian Art Museum had in mind, but it's a creepy holiday and thus deserving of Malcolm Lowry's fucked up end to his fucked up novel.

Also: The quintet of ivory tinklers (Dawn Clement, Oksana Ezhokina, Julie Ives, Peter V. Stevens, and Kelly Wyse) who make up the event's headlining musicians, the Seattle Pianist Collective, will have at least one guest on-hand worthy of Lowry's dipsomaniacal vision: Seattle-based electronic DJ/producer and "multi-instrumentalist" Rafael Anton Irisarri. The strategic development director of the Decibel Fest and a member of avant electronic act the Sight Below, Irisarri smears sounds across time and space the way a painter spreads colors on a canvas. Strings and keys mingle with the mundane to form patterns of such exquisite delicacy that it barely registers the songs are moving at a sloth-like pace. Call it ambience--or music the Consul could die happy, if slowly, to.

The Redwood Plan

​The Redwood Plan at Easy Street Records, 7 p.m., all ages, free

Lesli Wood's bouncy new pop punk band takes over Easy Street for a free, SW-sponsored performance.

Andre Nickatina at Studio Seven, 9 p.m., $30, all ages

The Bay Area rapper formerly known as Dre Dog comes for a Devil's Night visit.

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​Our resident vinyl expert Jason Ferguson's take on this week's fresh wax:

Metalheads rejoice! Two great new albums get belated vinyl releases this week. The latest monsterpiece from SUNN 0))), Monoliths and Dimensions, is getting the typically deluxe vinyl treatment from Southern Lord. It's coming on 180g vinyl, stuffed into a "heavyweight cardboard 'tip-on' style' jacket" with double inner sleeves and a fold-out with lyrics and credits. The whole thing slides into a hardback-book-style velum dust jacket. It does not, unbelievably, cost $3,000; in fact, you can pick it up at the Southern Lord store for just $45.

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