Some of these can be reduced to “first three good albums” before they turned to crap. They might not be great, but I’d take any of these over, say, R.E.M.

AC/DC: Powerage/Highway to Hell/Back in Black/For Those About to Rock (take your pick. A lot of reviewer types trash About to Rock but it’s iconic, got a lot of bangers, and peak Brian Johnson)

Bathory: Under the Sign of the Black Mark/Blood Fire Death/Hammerheart (the s/t is so good and iconic it deserves to be on here but the album after it wasn’t great)

Darkthrone: A Blaze in the Northern Sky/Under a Funeral Moon/Transilvanian Hunger

Bee Gees: Main Course/Children of the World/Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (only five songs on the double-album soundtrack are by the Bee Gees so maybe consider it an EP? George savaged the follow-up, Spirits Having Flown. It’s not that bad, but it’s not great, either, so maybe these guys don’t belong here)

Black Grape: a three-album band, although their third is enjoyable only in an Uncle Dysfunktional way.

Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath/Paranoid/Master of Reality

Blue Öyster Cult: Blue Öyster Cult/Tyranny & Mutation/Secret Treaties

The Eall: Live at the Witch Trials (if you prefer it/Dragnet/Grotesque/Slates (if you prefer it)

Cream: I guess Fresh Cream isn’t the best, so this is a nominee for a notable three-album band

Bowie: Station to Station/Low/”Heroes”

Donovan: A Gift from a Flower to a Garden/The Hurdy-Gurdy Man/Barabajagal

Flaming Lips: Hit to Death in the Future Head/Transmissions from the Satellite Heart/Clouds Taste Metallic

Metallica: Ride the Lightning/Master of Puppets/…And Justice for All

The Jesus & Mary Chain; Psychocandy/Darklands/Automatic (these all rule, fuck you Billdude)

Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express/The Man-Machine/Computer World

Leonard Cohen: The Songs of Leonard Cohen/Songs from a Room/Songs of Love and Hate

Limp Bizkit: Three Dolla Bill Y’all/Significant Other/Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water (they’re too stupid to use hyphens)/Results May Vary (take your pick)

Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells/Hergest Ridge/Ommadawn (an obvious one I didn’t see mentioned)

Motörhead: Overkill/Ace of Spades/Iron Fist

Nazz, Neu!, Nick Drake (other three-album bands, but Nazz is a bit naff)

Of Montreal: Satanic Panic in the Attic/The Sunlandic Twins/Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

The Orb: The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld/U.F.Orb/Orbus [sic] Terrarum

Pulp: His ‘n’ Hers/Different Class/This Is Hardcore (I will die on this hill)

Slayer: Reign in Blood/South of Heaven/Seasons in the Abyss)

Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything? - A Wizard/A True Star - Todd

Ulver: a great three-album band nobody here cares about or would like

Village People: Macho Man/Cruisin’/Go West (unlike Limp Bizkit, I’m dead serious – great campy disco albums that don’t take themselves at all seriously. They were in on the joke)

I’m not going to mention Yes or VU. What’s the point?