Moby Dick was one of the first metal bands in Hungary, and certainly one of the oldest to play thrash metal. Since the thrash metal genre was still in its infancy when guitarists Norbert Mentes and Tamás Schmiedl – the latter of whom also provides lead vocals – established the band in 1980, Moby Dick experimented with somewhat more melodic metal styles throughout the first few years of their career. They were unequivocally a thrash metal band by the time their 1990 album ‘Ugass Kutya!’ came out, however, and a rather aggressive one at that.

Early Moby Dick albums show a focus on high tempos and hyper-aggression, bringing to mind Sodom’s late-eighties work and early Kreator, with maybe a hint of Sadus’ demo material. Like so many thrash metal bands who persisted in the nineties, Moby Dick ended up slowing down their sound, though to their credit, they didn’t go through an extensive awkward groove metal phase, opting for something a bit darker instead. The band split up in 1998, but reunited a few years later, and they have been creating an effective blend of aggressive thrash metal and contemporary heavy metal ever since.

Schmiedl is the only remaining founding member in Moby Dick, though Mentes and bassist Gábor Gőbl, who joined the band in 1988, appear on all of the albums the band released so far. Mentes left the band in 2021, to be replaced by Schmiedl’s son Balász, and Gőbl stepped out earlier this year on seemingly good terms because the band conflicted with his career as a football manager. The future will have to prove what those changes mean for their recordings, but Moby Dick still tours their native country extensively.

12. Tisztítótűz (1998)

Going through the nineties releasing only one album that can unequivocally be classified as groove metal as a thrash metal band is quite the impressive feat. Moby Dick leans relatively hard into the hardcore side of the style, but they have done hardcore-infused metal much better than they do here. Where many of Moby Dick’s lesser nineties albums at least had a handful of interesting ideas, those are fairly hard to come by on ‘Tistítótűz’. It genuinely sometimes feels like the same two riffs are repeated over and over again. They could have at least switched up the tempos a bit. ‘Tistítótűz’ does sound like Moby Dick wanted to make this style of music rather than playing it in an attempt to stay relevant and marketable. That does not make the album less of a slog to get through, though.

Recommended tracks: ‘Rezervátum’, ‘Vágd Le!’, ‘A Király’

11. Körhinta (1992)

While it’s fairly common for thrash metal albums to have an opening track that is so good that the rest of the album simply cannot live up to it, there aren’t many examples as egregious as Moby Dick’s third album. ‘Múló Álom’ genuinely is a fantastic opener with a handful of awesome riffs, and the other songs don’t even come close. It doesn’t help that the average tempo on ‘Körhinta’ is fairly slow. Moby Dick hasn’t quite gone the groove metal route, but most of the material here is just endlessly plodding mid-tempo guff with riffs that are repeated far too often. The album does pick up a little towards the end, but that would have been much more pleasant if it didn’t take thirty-plus minutes that feel much, much longer to finally get there.

Recommended tracks: ‘Múló Álom’, ‘A Mesének Vége’, ‘…Legyél Hepi!’

10. Fejfa Helyett (1993)

Although ‘Fejfa Helyett’ has a lot of the same problems that its direct predecessor ‘Körhinta’ has, that being that most of the album is in a similar mid-tempo range and a bit too repetitive even within those songs, it just feels like Moby Dick believes in what they are doing a lot more here. There is more conviction to the way the riffs are played here, even though they aren’t quite as traditionally thrashy here. It also helps that the songs are significantly shorter on average. In addition, the production makes the album feel less like a blurry slog. So while the peaks on ‘Fejfa Helyett’ aren’t quite as high as ‘Múló Álom’ was, and the album inches ever closer to the groove metal side of the equation, the album as a whole is just better than ‘Körhinta’.

Recommended tracks: ‘Illúziók Nélkül´, ‘Rossz Helyen’, ‘Önkéntes Áldozat’

9. Memento (1994)

After two excessively dull albums, a collection of re-recorded songs from their demo days is exactly what Moby Dick may have needed to shake things up a bit. Since the band had not yet fully devoted itself to thrash metal for much of their demos, the stylistic range on ‘Memento’ is quite extensive. That means the album is wildly inconsistent, but there is one thing it definitely is not, and that is boring. There are fist-pumping hardrockers, surprisingly melodic heavy metal songs, a couple of Motörhead-esque punky rock ‘n’ rollers, and an unusually earnest ballad in the shape of ‘Zokog a Lelkem’. As so often with these types of releases, the songs never really come together as an album, but there is far more enjoyable music here than on the previous two Moby Dick albums combined.

Recommended tracks: ‘Keresztes Vitéz’, ‘Járványveszély’, ‘Nem Vagyok Idegen’

8. Terápia (2019)

On the surface, ‘Terápia’ does everything a twenty-first-century Moby Dick album should. Their most recent album at the time of writing is full of thrash riffs that despite their aggression are clearly rooted in good old heavy metal, and the songwriting is dynamic and varied enough for the album to justify its relatively long running time of forty-seven minutes. And yet, the album as a whole lacks the unbridled energy that a good Moby Dick album needs. Only one song is over four minutes long, but many of them feel significantly longer. It’s not like the band has completely lost it; there are a few tracks here that still show an inspired band with a couple of really cool songwriting ideas. ‘Terapia’ is just in need of some trimming and a little more urgency.

Recommended tracks: ‘Okos Világ’, ‘Meghalni Se Érsz Rá’, ‘Biorobot’

7. Se Nap Se Hold (2005)

Stylistically, ‘Se Nap Se Hold’ is far from my favorite Moby Dick album, but I will give it credit for one thing: there is significantly more melodic variation here than on the average early 2000’s groove/thrash album. Instead of endlessly chugging on the lowest strings, the band explores different keys and atmospheres without the album ever sounding disjointed. I just wish there was slightly more of that variation in the tempo department as well. That does get a lot better throughout its second half, but after the incredible opener ‘Jusson Eszébe’ thrashes with the intensity of a much younger Moby Dick, the album does need a relatively long time to get back in shape. While not perfect, ‘Se Nap Se Hold’ certainly shows Moby Dick aging more gracefully than many of their peers.

Recommended tracks: ‘Jusson Eszébe’, ‘Se Nap Se Hold’, ‘Apránként Adagolva’

6. Földi Pokol (2014)

‘Földi Pokol’ immediately impressed me with its directness. The album distills the Moby Dick sound down to its pure essence. A handful of aggressive riffs, which manage to pack a massive punch due to the abrasive, yet very clear guitar sound of Schmiedl and Mentes, Schmiedl’s barked vocals, but always with a catchy hook somewhere, more often than not in the riffs. Stylistically, the album finds a nice middle ground between the aggressive thrash metal of Moby Dick’s early work and the more contemporary leanings of their more recent work. The immediacy of the material does mean that that ‘Földi Pokol’ doesn’t quite have the replay value that some of their other work has, but there are much worse ways to spend just over half an hour than listening to this album.

Recommended tracks: ‘Mátrix’, ‘Földi Pokol’, ‘Sikátor’

5. A Holnapok Ravatalán (2011)

While ‘A Holnapok Ravatalán’ is a fairly logical follow-up to ‘Se Nap Se Hold’ compositionally, it is also one of the most creative Moby Dick albums, to the point where it doesn’t really feel like any of the genre labels applied to them through the years is a perfect fit. There are barely any traces of groove metal on the album, and while the riffs are still clearly rooted in thrash metal, ‘A Holnapok Ravatalán’ is really just an excellent modern heavy metal album full of great riffs and dense rhythms. Despite the relative short song lengths – only two songs pass the four-minute mark – it also has a more epic quality than most Moby Dick albums. It’s a few standout tracks short of being truly essential, but ‘A Holnapok Ravatalán’ is a surprisingly good late-career release for the band.

Recommended tracks: ‘Bebetonozva’, ‘Durván Akár a Vulkán’, ‘A Semmi Talapzatán’

4. Ugass Kutya! (1990)

The worst thing I could say about Moby Dick’s debut album ‘Ugass Kutya!’ is that it’s a bit monotonous. Especially during its first fifteen-ish minutes, the album is mostly fast riff after fast riff, and despite the songs being good, it’s not necessarily something special. However, ‘Ugass Kutya!’ becomes a bit more dynamic later on. For me, the album is at its best when the residual elements of Moby Dick’s more traditional heavy metal roots shine through, by means of guitar harmonies or somewhat more melodic songwriting. They do the more aggressive thrash stuff well, but the back half of ‘Ugass Kutya!’ is where Moby Dick really comes into its own for the first time. A fun debut album that probably would have been considered a minor European thrash classic had the songs been sung in English.

Recommended tracks: ‘Keresztes Vitéz’, ‘A III. Világháború Előtt’, ‘Bűz Van’

3. Indul a Boksz (1996)

After unsuccessfully attempting to slow down their thrash metal sound, ‘Indul a Boksz’ features a rejuvenated Moby Dick leaning into the hardcore side of nineties metal rather than the groovy half-thrash that was all the rage those days. The album feels much closer to ‘Chaos A.D.’ than it does to ‘Burn My Eyes’ or ‘Vulgar Display of Power’, though the tempos are more varied, and the songwriting is surprisingly catchy and memorable for something so low on recognizable melodies. Although the hardcore influences are very pronounced, ‘Indul a Boksz’ is still very much a metal album on account of its riff work, and it sounds a lot more aggressive and inspired than its predecessors. It might have been even better if two songs were cut, and I could have done without the Aurora cover ‘Egy Kis Anarchia’, but ‘Indul a Boksz’ is an exceptional mid-nineties metal album.

Recommended tracks: ‘Indul a Boksz’, ‘Tiltakozz!’, ‘Ne Provokálj!’

2. Kegyetlen Évek (1991)

For their sophomore album, Moby Dick did away with all traces of more melodic heavy metal, with a notably darker thrash metal sound as a result. On ‘Kegyetlen Évek’, Moby Dick can still thrash at breakneck speed when they want to, but what’s interesting is that when they choose to slow down, the music can sound outright twisted at times. The band is also a bit more creative with tempo changes within the songs, which goes a long way in keeping ‘Kegyetlen Évek’ interesting even after you have heard it a bunch of times already. The band released a completely re-recorded version of the album in 2016, which is my preferred version because the darkness of the riffing comes across better with the guitar sound Schmiedl and Mentes had at the time, but either version is an impressive work of dark thrash metal.

Recommended tracks: ‘S.O.S.’, ‘Ilyen Ez a Század’, ‘Kegyetlen Évek’

1. Golgota (2003)

Probably not the most obvious choice for the best Moby Dick album, but I truly think it is the greatest album they ever recorded. ‘Golgota’ was the first album they released after a five-year break, and although the blunt riffs and Schmiedl’s bark make it instantly recognizable as Moby Dick, it doesn’t really sound like anything the band released before or since. It’s a fairly slow album, though more in a mid-tempo hardcore-infused metal than a groove metal sort of way, and it sounds ominous as hell. What Moby Dick does better than on any other album here is songwriting. Every song has an instantly recognizable hook, which is a riff or a twisted lead guitar part more often than a chorus, and the subtle, but copious use of dissonance creates a consistently dark and ominous vibe that is unique for ‘Golgota’. Aggression and atmosphere are in perfect balance here.

Recommended tracks: ‘Hamis Törveny Jele’, ‘Tornyok Omlanak’, ‘Romlás Virága’