Godsmack

On this album, released on Halloween in 2000, Godsmack's dark, macabre metal conjures up visions of Black Sabbath in their prime and Alice in Chains before their decline, with a lot of James Hetfield vocal grit thrown in over the thick rhythmic grooves and bass aggression. The best part: this Boston-based band comes by its grisly images honestly, since frontman Sully Erna is a card-carrying Warlock. Even a breakup song ("Trippin'") is cast in an eerie spectral light, but they open up the Book of Shadows on a song like "Vampires," a mini horror movie-cum-documentary that thrills and chills.