The Community Knows Better: The ACTUAL Most Important 50 Metal Bands of All Time

[Zzzptm]

Bon Jovi is not metal...not by any standard. They are a rock band.

OK, OK, I surrender! Bon Jovi is not on the list.

So what 2 other bands would you add to Jack's list to make the top 60 list?

[Charger]

Well he left out Cathedral...they should most certainly be there.

I don't know...Iced Earth perhaps...they were in the forefront of American style power metal in the early 90s...

[Thelemech]

Bon Jovi is not metal...not by any standard. They are a rock band.

OK, OK, I surrender! Bon Jovi is not on the list.

So what 2 other bands would you add to Jack's list to make the top 60 list?

Actually Bon Jovi is Metal - just the worse kind, that being Pop Metal. They are literally the embodiment and poster boys for said genre. IMHO!!

[Zzzptm]

I could vote for Cathedral and Iced Earth, along with Aria, to make it 60.

And Thel's post gives me another list idea...

[Jack the Stripper]

I had Cathedral in but took them out. Their debut dropped 7 years after Trouble’s and Saint Vitus debut and 5 years after Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. I know it’s a landmark album in the doom genre especially the slower heavier doom but I took them out on the basis it came a little later. If I put them in which one of Trouble, Saint Vitus or Candlemas should I take out? Or just have them as the big four of doom? What about Pentagram though?

I’m actually trying to cull it to 50 Zzzz not add more back in.

Just trying to remember the bands I took out.

Thin Lizzy
UFO
Saxon
Exodus
Overkill
Voivod
S.O.D
Dokken
W.A.S.P.
Cathedral
White Zombie
Slipknot
Lamb of God
System of a Down
Rammstein
Tool
Dream Theater
And maybe a one other

[Jack the Stripper]

Ah yes the other band was Type O Negative. Which with the others listed above made up my original list of 75.

[Charger]

I have never heard of Trouble so I'd take that one out!

Oh yeah White Zombie should be on the list too I think...they were very instrumental in adding more to the horror metal scene.

[Jack the Stripper]

I can’t take Trouble out Charger. First 2 albums are classic.They weren’t doom all the time, they had uptempo songs as well but still tuned down and heavy like say Candlemass.  Eric Wagner had a phenomenal voice, a little similar to Jon Olivia and could sing with so much despair in his voice. I actually think you’d really like them. Such an underrated band that should’ve achieved much bigger things.

As for White Zombie, they are hard to categorise. Their early stuff was more noise rock and punky. Their sound developed into more groove metal and eventually Industrial but Ministry was doing Industrial earlier.  Misfits were probably the first to incorporate horror themes but they were closer to punk than metal.

You need to get some Trouble in your life Charger

[JSTHECONQUEROR]

Yes Trouble is a great band! Love Psalm 9, The Skull and S/T the most!

[Zzzptm]

I have to agree with White Zombie being more industrial than metal. When we work on that list, they'll be up on it with Ministry, NIN, and KMFDM.

I'd love to do a stoner rock list, as well, but I'll hold off on it until we've got this hash settled.

[Jack the Stripper]

White Zombie’s Astro-Creep: 2000 is Industrial Metal, not the type of industrial music Nine Inch Nails was playing, but as I mentioned, Ministry was playing Industrial metal first.

[Zzzptm]

I was never much of a fan of industrial anything at first, so I lumped them all together. Since then, there's some songs that stood out to me, but it's still a genre I find difficult to get into.

[Jack the Stripper]

I’ve made a list of 57(originally it was 75 but I’ve managed to whittle it down) of what I think are/were the most important bands and artist to metal & most sub-genres. This isn’t a list of my greatest or favourites otherwise it would look quite different but a list of importance and influence. If there is a band you think should be there let me know but I most likely did originally have them in but had to cull them to shorten the list.

Now I have to somehow get it down to 50 

Black Sabbath                                                         
Led Zeppelin                                                                                         
Deep Purple                                                           
Judas Priest                                                           
Kiss
Alice Cooper
Scorpions
Rainbow
AC/DC
Motörhead
Van Halen
Iron Maiden
Saxon
Venom
Diamond Head
Mercyful Fate
Accept
Ozzy
Dio
Motley Crüe
Ratt
Queensrÿche
Fates Warning
Metallica
Slayer
Anthrax
Megadeth
Kreator
Sodom
Trouble
Candlemass
Saint Vitus
Manowar
Savatge
Helloween
Nightwish
Yngwie Malmsteen
Celtic Frost
Bathory
Mayhem
Darkthrone
Possessed
Death
Obituary
Morbid Angel
Napalm Death
Carcass
Corrosion of Conformity
D.R.I
Suicidal Tendencies
Pantera
Sepultura
Faith No More
Alice In Chains
Korn
Paradise Lost
Ministry

So I’m gonna go out on a limb here and put my head on the chopping block and narrow this down to 22 bands and the genres that have really mattered most.

The offshoot sub-genres were and are a thing but they still originated from a bigger and more established genre.

Example: Melodic Death, Grindcore, Technical Death, Death Doom, Prog Death, Death Core and on it goes all originate from, and or fall under the bigger banner/genre of Death Metal and the one band that is widely heralded as not only pioneers of death metal but also the greatest, is the band that even had Death as their name. But more about them later. Therefore Morbid Angel, Obituary, Napalm Death, Carcass and Paradise Lost can all go.
I can make a case for others to be culled on similar grounds and explain the reasoning as well but I won’t, instead I’ll just go ahead and cull them and explain the final 22

Black Sabbath(The most influential heavy band of them all, nearly every genre of metal can be traced back to the early works of Black Sabbath)
Deep Purple(The ultimate heavy jam band. Combined heavy rock riffs with organ sounds. Blackmore’s riffs and classically inspired solos have influenced generations of players)
Led Zeppelin(Love em or hate em their influence on heavy rock/metal is undeniable. Along with Sabbath and Purple make up the holy trinity of the first major heavy rock/metal bands)
Judas Priest(Bought a more metallic sound with a twin guitar attack and duelling solos along with high pitch operatic singing. They embraced the heavy metal tag and ran with it. British Steel kicked off a new era of metal in the 80’s)
Kiss(One of the earliest American metal bands. Theatrical, big over the top stage shows. Influenced many American heavy rock/metal bands that followed.
AC/DC(Took the blues boogie style of rock and heavied it up and went on to become one of the biggest selling bands of all time.
Rainbow(Proto power metal, Ronnies singing style and fantasy lyrical themes had a huge influence on metal and later what would be known as power metal. As above for Blackmore)
Motorhead(Bought rawness, speed and aggression into heavy rock n roll. Lemmy’s harsher vocals were quite extreme for their time. An influence of Venom and thrash)
Van Halen( Ushered in a new era of American heavy rock/metal. Eddie’s guitar playing inspired a new generation of guitar playing)
Iron Maiden(The most important band of the new wave of British Heavy metal movement. Inspired a lot of the 80’s metal bands with their twin harmonised style of guitar playing along with epic and historical themes)
Venom(The most extreme band up until that time. Inspiration for black metal and other forms of extreme metal)
Mötley Crüe(Virtually kicked started the LA glam/hair metal scene that became huge in the 80’s)
Metallica(Invented thrash purely and simply which also influenced other extreme metal styles. Ride The Lightning inspired other newer thrash bands to lift their game.
Slayer(Another thrash pioneer but also an inspiration of other forms of extreme metal like death and Black)
Death(Pioneered Traditional Death metal and also later incorporated technical/prog death and Melodic Death. Is regarded as one of the important and influential bands in metal history.
Helloween(Started out as speed metal but quickly morphed into style that has since been known as power metal)
Candlemass(Didnt create the doom sound but created the genre with Epicus Doomicus Metallicus)
Celtic Frost(Another pioneer in extreme and avant-garde metal)
Bathory(Pioneers of Scandinavian Black Metal)
Pantera(Pioneered a heavier groove style of metal which spearheaded metal into the 90’s)
Faith No More(One of the major alternative metal pioneers, combined funk, thrash and rap)
Korn(The forerunners of the Nu Metal generation)

[Zzzptm]

Brave effort, Jack, now I critique it in real time.

First of all, your reasoning is sound - for defining the progenitors of a style. Regardless of the other bands that followed suit within that genre, *someone* got the ball rolling. I agree in principle with your reasoning.

Now to the list...

Agree on Sabbath being critical to all genres of metal/heavy rock. I'd specify that it's Sabbath type I, with Ozzy and Bill that would qualify here. Dio gets his nod with Rainbow.

DP - the Mk2 lineup here.

LZ - yep. Even if it's a case of gangsta recognizing gangsta, they need to be here. Leaving them out of the list would be like trying to explain the water cycle without discussing clouds.

Judas Priest - The translation of NWOBHM is "sounds like Judas Priest".

Kiss - I didn't think of them at first, but Jack is right, here. Emphasis on their first incarnation as the biggest influence on the kids.

AC/DC - Hmmm... were they really a pioneer, or just a regular rock band that made things a little louder and a little heavier? I'll go with pioneer, actually, now that I think of a big number of bands that took the AC/DC formula and ran with it to make some really heavy music. That sound lives on in those other bands' work. AC/DC was also more consistent in their sound than, say, Heavy Metal Kids. (Fun fact - the singer of HMK was approached to replace Bon Scott, due to that singer's incredible vocal likeness to Bon.) I'd underline the Bon Scott years as the biggest influences.

Rainbow - yep. This is where the string section got attached to the metal band. With Dio, they were definitely metal. After that, well... not a lot of influencing, then...

Motorhead - Punk's ugly sister. Or brother. I'm not sure. But they killed my lawn, and I'm the better for it. Also an influence on hardcore punk.

Van Halen - the lineup with Mr. Roth, of course. Eddie made it look easy and Dave made it look fun.

Iron Maiden - I'd say their influence is subtle, since it's layered over Judas Priest. But it's in there, especially when you listen to bands from outside of the USA/Canada/Western Europe.

Venom - Jack's on the money here.

Crue - Ditto.

Metallica - I'd pick at this one... is it Metallica alone or Metallica/Megadeth? Given that Mustaine was in both but never recorded with Metallica, I dunno... one of those chicken/egg things. Given that you've got slots for Slayer and Death and Venom, I'd say you could make one more slot for Megadeth.

Slayer - "I'd like some death thrash metal, please." "Have you tried Slayer before?" "No, can't say that I have." "Well, you simply must..."

Death - Like Venom and Slayer, I have no question this is where a genre starts.

Helloween - they deffo took the power metal thing seriously.

Candlemass, Celtic Frost, Bathory - not all that familiar with these bands, so I'll trust others' judgments here.

Pantera - yes, they made that groove all-important. Points to them.

FNM - I agree. They were the first with a LOT of things.

Korn - kinda like LZ for me. I'm no fan of NuMetal, but it happened, so the story must be told.

***

So I brought up Megadeth. I'd also put in a protest vote for Scorpions and Suicidal Tendencies. Scorps because of their sound and influence all through Europe. They proved you could rock successfully with an accent, giving hope to people singing in non-native languages everywhere. Suicidal Tendencies were actually a thrash band that I heard before I heard either Metallica or Megadeth.

[Charger]

Well time wise Metallica came first (although ofcourse lot of those classic songs were written by Dave Mustaine but still it was Metallica), so I do think if you have to choose one from the big 4 it would have to be Metallica...even if Megadeth held the torch better in later years withe Metallica "selling out" as some like to say.

Slayer also was such a different beast that it needs a mention for sure.

Iron Maiden might not have influenced so much as they like you said zzz drew a lot from Priest, but they did make it more accessible to the masses...and they did (again eventhough they didn't invent it) bring the galloping riffing to the forefront of metal.


I guess (not knowing Bathory or Celtic Frost) my only question mark in Jack's list would be Faith No More...I know very little of the band but from what I've heard I don't know...Was Alternative metal a thing already back then? and were they even that "metal"?