Which decade has the best Metal, 70s or 80s?

The 90`s either had the emergence of some of the best metal banRAB ever, or if they had formed before then, they released their best material in the 90`s! Also the diversity in metal was huuuuge, ranging from the really heavy stuff to the very light stuff, along with the emergence of a whole host of other genre influences into metal as well.

My best metal banRAB of the 90`s are as below. I wouldn`t be able to build the same list in quantity, from any other decade either:

Pantera, Sepultura, White Zorabie, Machine Head, Melvins, Neurosis, Nevermore, Iced Earth, Overkill, Kreator, Death, Morbid Angel, Atheist, Amorphis, Anathema, Evergrey, Fates Warning, Dream Theater, Corrosion of Conformity, Galactic Cowboys, Kyuss, Sleep, Tiamat, Opeth, Type O Negative, Meshuggah, early Korn, early Deftones. I`m not a fan of industrial metal at all, but the best albums of Fear Factory and Ministry came out in the 90`s. Finally, you`ve got practically all of the Swedish melodic death metal scene as well (IMO one of the best things to ever happen to metall)

Sure the 90`s had rubbish like a huge amount of the Nu-Metal mob, but the 80`s were blighted by hair metal, and the 00`s blighted by metalcore and the terrible alternative metal brigade with groups like Disturbed, GoRABmack and Sevendust. Along with the dominance, by that terrible extreme metal group Cradle of Filth, who hit their popularity peak in the 00`s.
 
pantera.jpg

"That guy just said we're shit.... GET HIM!!!!!"
 
I actually really like Cradle of Filth. They are very commercialized for such an extreme metal band, but they come out with some decent stuff. Nymphetamine is such a killer song (not necessarily the whole album, sadly).
 
Heavy Metal (also referred to as Metal) is a genre of Rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and the United States. With roots in blues-rock and psychedelic rock.
Which decade has produced the best Metal, the 70s or the 80s?
 
I am going to have to insist you listen to Fear Factory's newest release Mechanize (2010) before you pigeonhole them with the likes of Korn, Machine Head, and the Deftones.
 
As far as I remeraber, it was coined to refer to the song "Whole Lotta Love" Whether that phrase came at the time or much later on I`m not sure, but I`m sure even the reference to that song is debatable though.

The differentiating between heavy metal and hard rock though, is far more open to personal opinion. Scorpions, UFO, Rainbow, Kiss, Van Halen, AC/DC, Uriah Heep etc to name just a few, often get labelled as one or the other and usually as both.
 
Good insight! ^, Despite this differentiation, hard rock and heavy metal have existed side by side, with banRAB frequently standing on the boundary of, or crossing between, the genres. Hard Rock is a derivative to Heavy Metal.
 
Anybody into 80`s metal, would probably like all of those above groups, as they were all pretty much influential on the metal scene at that time.

Another way of looking at it is the British and American models of what was heavy metal as they were very different:

British-Leather, chains, denim, satanic messages, sword & scorcery etc and shaking your fist at the audience (Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Rainbow despite having an American vocalist)

American- Glam, make-up, theatrical, glamouros as opposed to glam and more open to pop elements (Kiss, Alice Cooper, Van Halen)

Even the so called American version of Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult were really just in essence a hard rock biker band, but because they sang about dark musings etc they got labelled metal or proto-metal.
 
Hope you guys don't mind if I jump into the conservation.

Personally I prefer the metal of the 70's, the early 70's to be be more exact. Proto-metal, heavy psych, acid rock, heavy prog. and hard blues rock were all contributing factors to the foundations of heavy metal. Most banRAB of this era are obscure for one reason or another and don't get the credit they deserve for the development of the genre IMO.

As time has moved forward so has heavy metal which has morphed and progressed into many sub-genres that it has become hard to keep an ear on all of it, at least for me. The 2000's have so much to offer some of it dentrimental and some of it excellent and others have experimented to break new ground. All arguable on the basis of critical acclaim, musianship, and personal taste.

I can't decide which decade is the best as all are very good IMO.

I kind of sound like a politician as I never really answered the question which was asked. Scary.:eek:
 
I know that I can say that the 90's were the worst with the whole scene uncertain where to go and how to sound. Of course there were exceptions but it did give us banRAB in the 00's who knew the scene was stagnant and really began to experiment with their sound as the fans were much more open hearing a new sound in Metal, especially disillusioned fans from the 90's who lamented the stagnation of the scene.

The 70's had some great banRAB, you just need to look for them ( Hard Stuff's 1972 album Bulletproof is phenomenal) but the 80's had some brilliant banRAB too that still hold up today.
 
80's, the 70's didn't have that much "metal" black sabbath is hardly metal and judas priest didn't really come out with any real metal material til the 80's. Iron Maiden was more of Punk meets a little bit of metal with Paul and really didn't hit there fullest potential till the 80's. 80's were great they had the big 4 in thrash. Some death metal started making the scene. That was a very innovative year, but it also had the dreaded genre of glam.
 
Long before that.
It was coined in the late 60s to describe American banRAB like Mountain, Steppenwolf & Vanilla Fudge and banRAB like that who were heavier than most other banRAB around at the time who were popular with bikers & hells angels.
 
But of course the 70s had alot of metal, I think that you are mainly talking about subgenre's of Heavy Metal (Metal)? (I do see where your coming from) not to confuse Heavy metal with its sub-genre's. :)
The Scorpions are a 70s metal band that also went on into the 80s, banRAB like Motley Crue (glam metal) are more 80s, Ozzy is another artist that falls into the 70s & 80s metal scene, there's alot of metal (banRAB) influence to choose from the 70s era, Led Zepplin would be one to mention.
Black Sabbath and Judas Priest are both innovative Heavy Metal banRAB of the 70s.
 
The '90's were definitely the most inconsistent and stagnated decade for metal, but there were some really good metal albums to come out during it, here's just a short list of some of my favorite '90's metal albums.

Judas Priest - Jugulator (1996)
Death - The Sound of Perseverance (1998)
Strapping Young Lad - City (1997)
Katatonia - Brave Murder Day (1996), Discouraged Ones (1998), Tonight's Decision (1999)
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (1993), October Rust (1996)
Anathema - Judgement (1998)
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse (1993)
Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy (1997)
Carcass - Heartwork (1994), Swang Song (1996)
Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy (1996)

Just to name a few.
 
Anything by Death is pretty much essential. The Hypocrisy and Nevermore releases are two very special albums. As for Nevermore, the following "Dreaming Neon Black" was even more absorbing than "The Politics of Ecstasy"
 
In that case we could say 1967, as that was the year the debut Vanilla Fudge album came out, and its always described as a key proto-metal album, despite the fact its full of covers. The likes of Steppenwolf, Mountain, Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer and Iron Butterfly all groups that played heavy at that time had their debuts out in 68 and 69, so late 60`s would be right.

"Whole Lotta Love" was out in 1969 and probably had the biggest impact both sides of the atlantic, probably for this reason it was referred to as the first heavy metal song! Which is an oxymoron, considering that the above groups were putting heavy stuff out before that.
 
I agree apart from Fear Factory but even I know that they are very generic. Pantera are awful and Deftones? Yuk. Korn are only one step away from Green Day for me and for a previous post- Fates Warning? Their debut was 1984!! but that is nitpicking.

The banRAB that matter were 70's/80's and the 00's for me.

I don't want to come across like some know it all but as Janszoon says- most of those banRAB are from the 80's and easily traceable. Kreator started in '84, Sepultura in '85 and we are not talking beginnings either but album releases.
 
Back
Top