Warthur
The debut album by Body Count is like a litmus test for ignorant music snobs: if you hear someone dismissing it as rap-metal, chances are they haven't even heard the thing. True, the group is fronted by gangsta rap innovator Ice-T, but his vocal approach this time owes little to his usual hip-hop derived flow and more to hardcore punk vocalists like Henry Rollins and Jello Biafra (the latter of whom contributed a spoken word track to the censored version of the album by way of a broadside against those who objected to Cop Killer).
The musical backing is genuinely interesting, being as it is a mixture of traditional metal, hardcore punk, and thrash, but what makes the album stand out is the aura of menace it conjures from beginning to end. By taking the raw aggression of metal and hardcore and applying it to the subject matter of gangsta rap - as opposed to the wizards and demons and abstract philosophising metal bands have a habit of doing - Ice-T crafts the album into a devastating punch to the gut, creating a listening experience far more powerful and disturbing than many groups were able to achieve.
But then a whole swathe of the metal scene shunned them because they were black and their frontman also had a rap career. (Seriously, I am aware of sites - not naming any names here - who point-blank refuse to consider Body Count metal because they assume without listening to the album that it's like Limp Bizkit or some other rap-metal hybrid. I am very glad Metal Music Archives has proved to be more open-minded than that.)