Embrace your inner metal.

Parents guard against it. Preachers damn it. Rolling Stone avoids it. Corporate radio tries to kill it. MTV never understood it. Your friends laugh at it. But it's out there, skirting the edge of acceptance by the sheep-like masses.

It's out there walking to the beat of its own thundering double-bass drum set.

It's the stage covered in torches and smoke machines. The tattoo thumbing its nose at mainstream convention. The rebel with a cause; the antithesis to bands the Machine tells you to like. It hates halftime shows, prepackaged vocals or pop music that does no such thing. And it's not the beast under your bed, but it doesn't mind being thought of that way.

It's the bass that verberates through your chest, grabbing your soul and shaking it a few times for good measure. The Flying V that makes you squint and bounce your head in acceptance as it screams the pledge of your allegiance. It's the drum that echos in your head, raising your fist to the sky and extending two fingers in the unmistakable salute.

It's metal. And any fan worthy of car speakers needs to have the following collection on hand when you're 10 minutes late for work and need the appropriate musical encouragement to get there fast.

Iron Maiden: Powerslave
Without question, Iron Maiden is considered the fathers of metal music. Sure, Sabbath can (and some argue should) be considered the grandfathers, the genre-breakers if you will, but Maiden took the form to another level. Case in point? Powerslave. This milestone in music with a crunch demonstrates the incredible vocal range of Bruce Dickinson and the song writing skills of the band. And "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is a song that still sets the bar for all other extended metal tunes to jump.

Type O Negative: Life Is Killing Me
Officially classified as Goth Metal, this album is filled with dark-yet-melodic tunes that add the subtle soundtrack needed to fly through school zones and run red lights. Unlike other bands, this one has mastered the mix of heavy guitars, stereo-thumbing bass, eerie pianos and emotional vocals. Moreso than any other band, TON stuff is instantly recognizable as such due to Pete Steele's deep, baritone voice that should be considered a separate musical instrument. The title track "Life Is Killing Me" and "I Don't Wanna Be Me" are worth the price of admission alone to this killer sound.

Metallica: Ride The Lightning
Metallica used to be cool. Example? The glorious Ride The Lighting. This is the album that got the proverbial metal ball rolling for the band that brough speed metal out of the smoker's area back in high school and into the school lunchrooms of America. From the famous "For Whom The Bell Tols" and dark yet deep "Fade To Black" to the lesser known yet equally killer "Creeping Death" and "Escape", this album reminds you why these guys were once loved.

Dio: Holy Diver
When people think of metal, they typically think of Ronnie James Dio without consciously knowing it. The one-time singer of Rainbow, Elf, even Sabbath, the Man With The Golden Throat helped define the genre in the mid-'80s with this album. Often written in a minor key, Holy Diver is a haunting effort that creeps into your head and refuses to leave. Lyrics that touch on the darker side of human nature are only augmented by guitar riffs and bass lines that eventually shaped the future of headbanging. "Rainbow in the Dark" still has few equals. If for no other reason, you have to own at least one album by the man who invented the two-horned metal salute. And don't be an idiot. It's not a salute to the devil. Quite the opposite, actually. RJD once explained that it was an old Italian gesture used to ward off evil.

AC/DC: Back In Black
Back off, stoner. This band was hijacked in the late '90s by uneducated radio station managers looking to pull in ratings for their new classic rock format. If they're considered "classic", it's only because Angus Young's furious guitar and Brian Johnson's screaming lyrics are the prototypical metal combination. The band's first effort after the passing of legendary frontman Bon Scott, AC/DC shook the world all night long with an album that has sold well in excess of 20 million copies. The BDS is personally responsible for at least a dozen of them ourselves, even if the album has been kidnapped by second-rate wedding DJs looking to get the dancefloor hopping 'cause he apparently can't by himself. If metal isn't a style but an attitude, every metal band since the late '70s stole their attitude from these legends.

Iron Maiden: Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
Yeah, Maiden made the list twice. That should say something about their influence on the metal scene over the past several decades. But unlike most metal albums, this one holds your attention from the first to last track. It captures everything you expect from Eddie's boys: Bruce's killer vocals, twin guitar harmonies, dueling solos, driving bass lines, even guitar synthesizers that create an atmosphere second to none. No, it's not typical speed stuff that drives a nail through your gas pedal, but sometimes you drive faster with a guitar slowly screaming in your ear. And unlike other concept albums, each song here can stand on its own to give you eight individual pieces of perfection made even better when enjoyed as a whole.

Megadeth: Rust In Peace
Driven by a mad musical genius at an equally furious pace, Megadeth is the band that immediately makes your car drive faster. Need a label? It's "Speed Metal With Meaning". This album is the band's best-selling of all time for a reason, particularly due to the first two tracks that invade your speakers. "Holy Wars" has one of the finest guitar riffs heard in ages and has taken on new meaning over the past several years. And "Hangar 18" was written specifically to illustrate why God invented guitars. Say what you will about Dave Mustaine, but this piece of metal magic left an undeniable mark on the metal scene that's still seen to this day. Metallica's loss was the world's gain with this family feud.

Oh, and look here. Your President appears to be a fan, too.

From Yahoo! News:President Bush gestures the ''Hook 'em, 'horns' salute of the University of Texas Longhorns as he and his family watch the Inaugural Parade Thursday Jan. 20, 2005, in Washington. President Bush's 'Hook 'em, 'horns' salute got lost in translation in Norway, where shocked people interpreted his hand gesture during his inauguration as a salute to Satan.

Your list different? Tell us about it. Just don't tell us it's "Korn" or "Limp Bizkit". We're talking real music here, folks.