[stereth]

My vote goes for Iron Maiden, in the early 80s with Bruce Dickinson. Haven't heard their newer stuff, but Powerslave is one of the best albums in my collection.

And a personal favorite...Iced Earth. I just love the refined sound. Dark, heavy thrash metal.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

With all due respect, Opeth is the flavor of the month. I don't deny their talent or songwriting ability, but let's see how they sound about a decade from now, and also see what effect they have on heavy metal to come before we call them the best.

Using those criteria, I would have to give a nod to Black Sabbath.

 

[KR...]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Guidry With all due respect, Opeth is the flavor of the month. I don't deny their talent or songwriting ability, but let's see how they sound about a decade from now, and also see what effect they have on heavy metal to come before we call them the best. Using those criteria, I would have to give a nod to Black Sabbath.

I don't know if 13 years = favor of the month

Just becuase you just heard about them doesn't mean they are new.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Opeth are too new to me for me to be able to rate them so highly...otherwise I might.

Black Sabbath.

They are the Beatles of metal, and I think that pretty much captures it all, so I'll leave it at that.

 

[KR...]

Let's look at every Black Sabbath album ever :


1970 Black Sabbath [Warner]
1971 Paranoid
1971 Master of Reality
1972 Black Sabbath, Vol. 4
1973 Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath
1975 Sabotage
1976 We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll [2 Disc]
1976 Technical Ecstasy
1978 Never Say Die!
1980 Heaven & Hell
1980 Live at Last
1981 The Mob Rules
1982 Live Evil [2 Disc]
1983 Born Again
1986 Seventh Star
1987 The Eternal Idol
1989 Headless Cross
1990 T Y R
1992 Dehumanizer
1994 Cross Purposes
2002 Past Lives


You really think they were are good?

 

[Matthew-Spaltro]

Yes. They pretty much invented metal.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by KR... Let's look at every Black Sabbath album ever : 1970 Black Sabbath [Warner] 1971 Paranoid 1971 Master of Reality 1972 Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 1973 Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath 1975 Sabotage 1976 We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll [2 Disc] 1976 Technical Ecstasy 1978 Never Say Die! 1980 Heaven & Hell 1980 Live at Last 1981 The Mob Rules 1982 Live Evil [2 Disc] 1983 Born Again 1986 Seventh Star 1987 The Eternal Idol 1989 Headless Cross 1990 T Y R 1992 Dehumanizer 1994 Cross Purposes 2002 Past Lives You really think they were are good?

Hmmm...let me think about it a minute...yup. Pretty much their worst album is better than most other bands' best albums. They've done it all. Prog-metal, dirgey doomy metal, just plain full bludgeoning onslaught. And I have heard most of those albums, even those ones after Dio left in 1982. Even stuff like TYR doesn't suck. A little mediocre, at worst, maybe a little Spinal Tappy, but that's a good thing, in my book.

But even so, maybe it's too hard a comparison. What is "best"? Is it that they had the most consistently good albums? What if a band had 75 albums, but not a single "10"? Sorry, that's not good enough, they need to have the most and highest scoring albums, and Black Sabbath just "do it" for me: first album, Paranoid, Master of Reality, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Vol. 4, Technical Ecstasy, Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules -- these are all 10's, in my book. Sabotage is a 9. And for that, I can forgive them a little mediocrity in their later years.

 

[Jeff Guidry]

Quote:

Originally posted by KR... I don't know if 13 years = favor of the month Just becuase you just heard about them doesn't mean they are new.

My statement stands because of the recent upsurge in their popularity, regardless of how long they have been recording.

Of course, much of the latter half of Black Sabbath's output has been less than great, but my earlier statement also stands: Black Sabbath is the reason Opeth and all other metal bands before them picked up guitars. In ten years, if you hear every heavy metal band that comes out doing their obligitory cover of an Opeth song, then I will concede to DarkAngel that Opeth is the king of metal.

 

[DarkAngel]

I guess the question is does "best metal in history" really mean most popular with public or greatest influence on other groups, most album sales etc?

I take "best" to mean taking the genre as far as it will go, with greatest skill, artistry and creativity, absolute best of the best.........screw CD sales, MTV, popularity, music charts etc.

The 1st 5 OPETH albums are too extreme, too "good" if you will to ever appeal to mass public taste or the MTV crowd. Real metal is supposed to be extreme, to push the envelope, it is not safe or predictable or dance music or top 40.......it is not for easy listening.

My only concern is that OPETH is in the process of compromising their sound to appeal to mass public and thus the modest recent public interest.........but their previous body of work is a testament to metal greatness.

BTW, I really like all other groups mentioned here and have all those albums.

 

[DarkAngel]

next

 

[Magic77]

As far as the "dark" "brooding" "evil" sound and style of Heavy Metal; my vote also goes to Black Sabbath for starting that style.

I would also have to say Judas Priest and Iron Maiden who both brought a different style of Heavy Metal into the 80's.

 

[third_eye]

My vote goes to IRON MAIDEN. While it's true that they released many sub-par albumns during the 90's, they were able to come back with a killer album "Brave New World" in 2000 and a fantastic tour. This is continuing now with a new release and tour this summer, so for all that think Maiden is dead, please think again!
As far as Opeth goes, IMHO, they are my favorite group right now and are certainly the best metal band at the moment although it might honestly be a little early to say yet. Deliverance and Damnation are very good but not great as their previous body of work which I agree were "godlike".
Metallica were great pioneers but have not done anything "metal" since 1988 so they cannot at all be considered.

 

[stymie miasma]

I probably shouldn't but in here, as I don't really listen to much metal, but should I be surprised that no-one has listed Slayer? Have their more recent albums been too lack-lustre?

 

[Masonjar]

Quote:

Originally posted by stymie miasma I probably shouldn't but in here, as I don't really listen to much metal, but should I be surprised that no-one has listed Slayer? Have their more recent albums been too lack-lustre?

1. Iron Maiden
2. Black Sabbath
3. Slayer
4. Judas Preist
5. Metallica

I'm not counting Led Zep or AC/DC as metal, mind you.

-jar

 

[blr]

I don't know if AC/DC qualify as HM but they were really big during the 80s, so were Iron Maiden Judas Priest Black Sabbath and Ozzy Saxon and even Accept. About Sabbath I really like the stuff with Ozzy the rest is ... Kiss were also reffred to as HM somethimes although they are more like rock'nroll to me but tracks like Detroit Rock City can (and should) be included in every best HM ever compilation.