I just listened to Rain Dogs a few hours ago--probably the most "atmospheric" album I've ever heard, in that you can actually smell, taste, and FEEL the places that Waits is describing. Music that can do that is really, really rare.
I've heard it called their best album by people whose opinions on music I respect far more than those of anyone on this board.
Wow, that was a run-on sentence of almost Meltzerian proportions!
It's gotta be Hetfield, simply because when people who don't know anything hear heavy music, they automatically assume it's Metallica.
"Ew, is this, like, Metallica or something? Put on OAR."