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Although often tagged as the poster boy for '90s alt-rock, Billy Corgan's trailblazing work with The Smashing Pumpkins is informed by many musical sources: psychedelia, progressive rock, punk and, most importantly, heavy metal.

His chainsaw guitar sound on I Am One, from 1991's Gish, bears this out. It's a slamming, Sabbath-like slab of unadulterated metal, with a bracing solo that undoubtedly left more than a fair share of GIT shredders agape.

Need more proof? Check out the lacerating Tales Of A Scorched Earth from 1995's Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Shoe-gazer rock? Uh...don't think so. Hide small children and animals before blasting this volcanic opus.

On the following pages, Billy Corgan runs down his favourite heavy metal albums of all time, those records that rocked his world and helped shape his playing into a fascinating (and very heavy!) amalgam. He kicks things off, oddly enough, with The Stooges:

"It put the punk into metal or the other way around. Essential listening."