It's great to catch up with old friends… unless they've turned into total douchebags. Thankfully when these bands came back into our lives, they were just as awesome as they'd ever been, gifting us with incredible works of music.

To avoid repeating ourselves too much, we didn't include albums like Iron Maiden's Brave New World or Carcass' Surgical Steel (you can see those here and here). With that being said, here are some of the greatest reunion albums of all time.

Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue

Heart-wrenching, soul-crushing and phenomenally beautiful. Alice in Chains' 2009 reunion album, Black Gives Way to Blue, is a monument to the brilliance of Jerry Cantrell and the memory of Layne Staley. Beyond the killer riffs on tracks like "Check My Brain" and "A Looking In View," Black Gives Way to Blue is packed with self-reflective, mid-tempo tearjerkers that hit hard with each play. It's an A-tier Alice in Chains album for sure. 

Accept – Blood of the Nations

Thanks to all those VH1 I Love the ‘80s type shows, the only thing younger generations knew about Accept was "Balls to the Wall." So how could that corny old band come back with a ferocious, thrashing heavy metal masterwork all the way in 20-dickity-10? Blood of the Nations just rips. It's one of those records that proves the value of a classic formula, as long as you bring passion and energy to the recording studio. Fourteen years before Invincible Shield, there was Blood of the Nations.

Gorguts – Colored Sands

"Hey, I'm Luc Lemay. I know it's been a while, but here's the best fucking thing you've ever heard. Cheers!" With Gorguts, it's always worth the wait. After a tragic breakup and 12-year dry spell following 2001's From Wisdom to Hate, Gorguts dropped the phenomenal avant-garde work Colored Sands. It's just an hour of meditative death metal super-genius, somehow rivaling the unfuckwithable Obscura. Gorguts fans sure ate well in the 2010s. 

Heaven & Hell – The Devil You Know

Technically a debut album while also a reunion album, Heaven & Hell's The Devil You Know was the final chapter of Black Sabbath's Dio era. With the Mob Rules lineup back together, Iommi, Butler, Dio and Appice created a magnificent full-length worthy of the Sabbath lineage. "Bible Black" reigns as one of Ronnie James Dio's finest pieces of vocal storytelling, while "Fear" is an all-time great Iommi riff. 

Killing Joke – Killing Joke (2003)

There are so many styles of rock and metal throughout this album — and they're all great. Returning from hiatus in the new millennium, Killing Joke released one of their strongest albums in 2003. With Dave Grohl on drums, Killing Joke had all the right grooves in their favor, locking down a solid foundation so vocalist Jaz Coleman could blast this thing into the stratosphere. "You'll Never Get to Me" alone is worth giving this album an A.  

Death Angel – The Art of Dying

The thrash renaissance of the early 2000s needed a Death Angel contribution, and they delivered a modern classic in 2004 with The Art of Dying. There was no lame ‘90s era for Death Angel — just silence after the killer 1990 release, Act III. The Bay Area legends somehow lost zero momentum going into The Art of Dying, simply crafting another awesome piece of work with every member of the band firing on all cylinders. 

Cynic – Traced in Air

Death metal fans in the ‘90s weren't ready for Cynic. The band was outwardly hated for their debut, Focus, and subsequently retreated to their progressive metal hideout for 15 years before asking, "You ready yet?" and dropping a god damn masterpiece called Traced in Air. Cynic have a tendency to write absolute epics that last just 30 minutes, and Traced in Air could possibly be their finest half-hour. 

Atheist – Jupiter

This record doesn't get enough love. Sure, it's not what longtime Atheist fans expected after a near 20-year dry spell, and compared to the early Atheist stuff, Jupiter has less of a death metal foundation. To some it sounded unfocused, wank-tastic and just annoying, but a big chunk of the Atheist faithful refuse to hate on this album. Why? Because it's fucking wild and endlessly interesting. Metal Injection gave Jupiter a 8/10 when it was released — we think that score holds up.

Candlemass – Candlemass

The ‘90s wasn't a great time for Candlemass — they floated on like a lot of other metal bands did, but when vocalist Messiah Marcolin returned for his second act, the doom metal legends roared back with their epic self-titled album. There's nothing like those Messiah vocals to bring all of Candlemass' dynamics together, and the riffs are just so strong on this album. "Seven Silver Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeys!"

Forbidden – Omega Wave

Omega Wave is one of those essential "return to form" albums. The Bay Era thrashers sorta fell off in the years their excellent 1990 release, Twisted Into Form, but when 2010 hit, Forbidden proved they had one more classic left in them. Everything is on point throughout Omega Wave — the playing is ferocious and tight-as-can-be, while Russ Anderson's vocals hit the nuke switch at every turn. It's a thrasher's delight. 

Celtic Frost – Monotheist

Of course we can't forget about Monotheist. A contender for the greatest metal comeback album ever, Monotheist is simply an extreme classic. It's miraculous how so many styles (black metal, death metal, gothic metal, industrial metal, doom metal, symphonic metal, avant-garde metal) Celtic Frost blended together so seamlessly. To this day, no band has ever done it quite like this. Fuck it… here's the whole album.