50 Great Metal Bands: Maybe Some Are More Deserving, But I Figure This Is a Good List

The Order Changes by the Season…and Well?

Also, I invite you to compare my list to this one, which I think is also very good: http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_metal-art.html

First of all, I should not that this is not a direction I am heading in.  In fact, probably the opposite is true.  My favorite discs these days tend to be jazz fusion.  The music here is primarily from the time of my high school and college, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it either.  So while my taste has evolved, it is still fairly clear in my mind what I think metal is, and while I have a taste for things other than metal, as I have always have, while retaining my taste in metal, I do realize that it is generally easier for me to make a list of bands, than a list of jazz musicians, who more than not cobble together albums rather than playing with any set group.  Enjoy!

1.       Dream Theater

2.       Megadeth

3.       Iced Earth

4.       GWAR

5.       Ring of Fire

6.       Planet X

7.       Savatage

8.       Queensryche

9.       Ayreon

10.   Opeth

11.   Morbid Angel

12.   Tool

13.   Led Zeppelin

14.   Mull Muzzler

15.   Testament

16.   Manowar

17.   Tony MacAlpine

18.   Meshuggah

19.   O.S.I

20.   Death

21.   Candiria

22.   Platypus

23.   King Diamond

24.   Iron Maiden

25.   Black Sabbath

26.   Mercyful Fate

27.   Metallica

28.   Fear Factory

29.   Derek Sherinian

30.   For the Love of

31.   Slayer

32.   Earth Crisis

33.   Motley Crue

34.   Ozzy Osbourne

35.   Symphony X

36.   Stratovarious

37.   Judas Priest

38.   Fates Warning

39.   Pantera

40.   Skid Row

41.   Rage Against the Machine

42.   Dimmu Borgir

43.   Suffocation

44.   Stryper

45.   God Forbid

46.   Shadows Fall

47.   The Dillinger Escape Plan

48.   Sepultura

49.   Alter Bridge

50.   In Flames