Best Metal Bands Of All Time

"Slayer - hate to put them on here ‘cuz i think they suck balls but they were one of the first"
-dave

dude, no, you suck balls
what a fag

dude
slayer is THE best thrash metal band
best thrash metal guitar skills ive ever heard
they can actually sing somewhat too
plus they have pretty much the coolest name also

You;tre know nothing about Metal, if you Don't put MEGADETH on the top one.
Thereis no band over the world brilliantly as Megadeth
Go fucking ............. Dave Mustaine !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yea Slayer ftw man
i dont c them on many lists but there my FAVORITE lol personal opinion and not whats just "in" at the time
is 3 days grace a metal band btw? if so i think its up there. there among my fav

Im not guna bother mentioning all the bands everyones heard of. instead il give you some of the best bands u r likely to not have heard of, or heard but never listened too.

The Haunted: Swedish monster, peter dolving, will take you on adventures with his amazing lyrical abilities. prob the only person to beat Phil A in a similar singing style. Mixed with the amazing guitar work and drumming, this band is def my fav, apatr from tallica... lol sorry

Despised Icon: This band, defines, filthy. ahaah, get your face mlted off from pig squeals, and most liekly the most brutal breakdowns you could hear. fast and tech, like u could never imagine.

Psycroptic: Aussie machines. absolutely amazing. most tech music and most talented musicians you will most likely ever vcome across. very good vocal work thrugh all the albums aswell. more from the older singer though. i recomend these guys thoroughly!!!

Parkway Drive: Another aussie band, making it big. More toward the hardcore side, but they do it better than everyone else!!!

Necrophagist: Similar style to psycroptic, or vice versa. but when guitar playing and drums becomes a profession...

Seemless: More rock, but because jesse leach makes me cream myself i had to add it in... hhahah

Soilwork: some of the coolest timing and word phrasing you will find.

The Acacia Strain: Brutal

Daysend: aussie melody at its finest... enjoy

At The Gates, Arsis, Between the buried and me, behemoth, black dahlia murder.

But just to add to the discussion, my fav "big" bands would have to be, Tallica, slayer, megadeth, pantera, anthrax, etc etc etc u get the point

Some of you are fooled into thinking you actually know what metal is, and some of you have listed some awesome bands, and also some ive never heard of.

Metal today has evolved much over the metal of 20 or so years ago. I tend to keep them seperate, some of the new melodic black/death metal ive been checking out lately is so kick ass you almost need a new category to store it under, it just doesnt belong in a category with led zeppelin, or van halen, or rush etc...that stuff is all hard rock to me. Metallica qualifies as heavy to me(most), and doesnt belong in the hard rock category, but belongs in the heavy category, Metallica pretty much barely makes it into the heavy section. There are really countless death/black metal bands that just put them right the fuck to same, and children of bodom would be one. They are about as complex, and melodic, and fast, and precise as melodic death metal can be. They are pure fucking genius and i consider them gods! Now its time to kiss some other ass. My other favorite bands who i would consider more modern(or at least newer to me), would be: Dark tranquility(beautiful melodies, and strong vocals), Agathodaimon, Dark Lunacy(just discovered them, great stuff), Cradle of filth, Dimmu Borgir, Rotting Christ, God Forbid.

Now im gonna throw together a list of past and present metal favorites:

1) The children of bodom
2) Agathodaimon
3) Rotting Christ
4) Dark tranquillity
5) God Forbid
6) Dimmu Borgir
7) Dark Lunacy
8) Cradle of filth
9) The haunted
10) Samael
11) Carpathian forest
12) Iron Maiden
13) Slayer

The perfect ordering would require too much thought, but you get the idea.

all metal is good my favorite band is dark tranquillity there fuckin awesome but korn still suck!

Lists like these are too subjective for everyone to agree, there's no real criteria is narrow the choices. Genres, time, something to get a little more specific would be helpful. I would label "the best" not only by their ability, but also their longevity, popularity and industry influence ...so here's my top ten:

All bands mentioned so far have had their time in the limelight at one point for whatever reason, considering the now generation of music and listeners. Every list MUST and ALWAYS start with the bands that started it all for the aforemention bands.
1. Black Sabbath
2. Led Zeppelin
then the rest mention branch off from here, thrash, prog, industrial whatever the genre...it started with these two bands.
Metallica
Megadeth
Slayer
then the rest of the thrash genre follows below
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
DIO
then the rest of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal genre follows
Do all of you see the pattern now!!??
You have the Industrial metal, Prog metal, Death, Grind, Black and on and on.
Bands like Lamb of God,
Children of Bodom, Unearth, In Flames, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Dying Fucking Fetus, Arkangel, A Dozen Furies, Dream Theatre, Skinless are all great bands but is one really better then the other??? You want to talk about all time then start at the beginning my friends, what is relevant, the rest are all sick bands.

lets all face it, der a lot of fuking metal bands in the world, and everybody has different opinions and musical tastes. so ders no point in saying hus the best and hus not, thought der r sum bands dat just have to be called amazing. i wud recommend checking out bands 4rm places dat u wudnt normally check. like Gojira from france, r fucking amazing. also there are bands in india like Inviktus, Demonic Ressurection, Kryptos, Inner Sanctum etc n many more wich r fucking amazing wich r definetely worth checking out. especially Inviktus!!

dragonforce= technically the most skilled band
bullet for valentine= just cause there awsome
Enter shikari= brilliant dance/metal
static-x= i love them
and
metallica= just cause there pioneers
and i think the people who dont like trivium r obviously wankers
and i think disturbed are brilliant, not overly heavy metal but they just keep comin up with brilliant riffs that sound sweet as
and also PARKWAY DRIVE puting AUSTRALIA on the map
check them out

Oh and btw, Korn are posers. A lot of you like them, but wtf. It's a nu-metal poser band. Way too commercial.

Death is the best Death metal band ever.
Manowar is the best Heavy metal band ever.
Emperor is the best Black metal band ever.
Opeth is the best progressive Death metal band ever.
At The Gates is the best Melodic Death metal band ever.
Fleurety is the best progressive Black metal band ever.
Dissection is the best Melodic Black metal band ever.
UnExpect is also a fucking nice band, Arcturus too.

Mudvayne, Lamb of God, Tool, Korn, Killswitch Engage. Fuck Trivium

I think its pretty sickening how many times trivium have been mentioned, I liked what I heard at first but they have very little orginality. They are just a product of the bands that inspired them. I think they are very talented at playing and writing music.. it's just not really their own, I don't know maybe they are taking a while to hit their stride and find their own style as they are a young band, but at the moment I feel quite nauseous at the thought of putting them in a 'best ever metal bands' list.. seriously.. Best Ever?!
On the other hand I think people are far too quick to bash new age metal like nu-metal. Yeah the nu-metal scene is packed full of wank bands I admit, but idk what you say slipknot are one of the best metal bands around today, their image doesn't do them any justice but it's not their fault a bunch of musically retarded 12 year olds went out n bought slipknot hoodies and called themselves 'fans', they jus did it cos it was cool to be a mosher and slipknot where a popular band at the time.
Common arguements against slipknot are:
'All they do is jus like chug bottom E n shout its jus noise'
This is entirely untrue, yes their music involves a lot of low end chugging but that is how it is meant to be and fully how they intended it, They could shred their tits off if they liked but they choose to write dark, gritty songs with punch you in the face and scream their point at you.
Look at the intro's to surfacing and eyeless or observe the musical complexity of the 3rd album and you can't say slipknot are shite or unoriginal..
Ask yourself honestly, can you think of anyone else that sounds a lot like slipknot? Slipknot are unique and no one can imitate them. People should listen to the quality of music and ignore the image or reputation of the band before judging them.

rant over

I think bands like chimaira, machinehead and mudvayne are all excellent and Im a fan of them myself, but thats all they are, just excellent, but not the the best ever..

I think its hard to say because you would have realistically have had to have listened to every metal band but as far as my musical knowledge goes I would have to say..

Metallica, although not incredibly complex they wrote unforgettable songs and can't be ignored, Hetfield just has a knack for making brilliant songs, sorry megadeth..

Lamb of God, they're a new band but I think you can tell straight off the hook they are something special, in a time when metal is failing to be original they've developed their own style which is completely unique without being too progressive. They lay down some of the heaviest most intense riffs I've ever heard, in drop D! Proves you don't have to down tune to be heavy.

Arch Enemy, I think a lot of people will disagree with me on this but as far as melodic death metal goes I don't think anyone does it better, they're songs are superbly crafted and you can tell they know exactly what they're doing. Mixing brutality and melody is not easy and they pull it off with ease. Modern metal at it's finest.
If you disagree go but you've only their last 2 albums go and listen to their older stuff, although still good their latest two albums are shocking in comparison.

As for older metal bands I wouldn't really like to comment without having heard more, I'm pretty sure slayer and sabbath should be up there..

The best metal is whatever the listener finds to be a quality sound to their own ears and not what any arrogant cunt finds to be personally satisfying. I have to go with Opeth, then Lamb of God, Chimaira, Machine Head and Iced Earth.

My fave. bands are as follows: Children of Bodom, Unearth, In Flames, Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Dying Fucking Fetus, Lamb of God, Arkangel, A Dozen Furies, Dream Theatre, Skinless, and a non-metal band called Jaya The Cat.. i love them.

like im a death metal dude and all metal type so mine are 1. Devil driver, Deicide, Arch enemy, Slipknot, Machine Head, Ill nino, Pantera and fuck load more

Korn? Limp Bizkit? Slipknot? are you guys fucking serious? And as far as lamb of god "not being all that great"? your'e obviously still listening to the ridiculous media friendly bullshit categorised under either Nu metal or that god awful emo shite.
The best bands (in my opinion) are as follows:

Slayer (due to their creativity of that beautiful art that is known as "the riff")

Black Sabbath (the true pioneers of metal. while people had been going on about 'flower power' and 'loving one another'Sabbath had stuck to a little thing known as reality in writing songs based on the evils and truths of this world)

Venom (taking where Sabbath left off only adding a little bit of speed and alot more doom and mischief to their lyrics. Venom combined the doom layered lyrics of Sabbath with the heaviness of the Sex Pistols and the speed of Motorhead.)

Motorhead (although not officially classified as metal. Motorhead cannot be ignored with their use of the double kick bass drum, the roaring guitar and that signature bass sound (thanks Lemmy) one cant ignore Motorheads contributions to that glorious music known as metal)

Megaedeth (Given that I'm not a mustaine fan, I gotta admit the guy can write an asskickingly good riff. Holy Wars anyone? With epic albums such as Peace Sells and Rust in Peace it would be a crime not to have megadeth on the list)

6.Metallica (Many people love to claim metallica as the best band of metal. I beg to differ. Yes Metallica did help set off the scene and sound of thrash with notable albums from Kill Em All to Ride The Lightning, to master of puppets. However their inconsistency of portraying the badasses of metal and then releasing songs about their feelings (BLACK ALBUM!??) to releasing films about their feelings (Some kind of monster?) the supposed bad boys can go fuck themselves.

Lamb Of God (When I first listened to lamb of god I had thought my ear drum was about to blow. I was amazed at the heaviness of the visious lyrics with the aggressively complicated riffs. These guys have got a great formula going on, and deserve nothing but high appraise. This band just gave me hope for the current generation of metal bands)

Death (One of the first death metal bands to appear in the metal scene, and unfortunetely one of the most ignored)

Morbid Angel (A truely heavy band with a fantastic vocalist and an unusual approach to timing and playing heavy loud and simply sick riffs)

Gojira (A somewhat recent death metal band from France. These guys combine the sick, similar vocals from morbid angel to meet the heavy riffs of...I have no idea BUT IT WORKS!

pantera is the best hands down!!!

Think outside the fucking trash, what about numetal, power metal, speed metal, death metal, black metal, progressive metal, gothic metal...fuck you retards, start listening more bands and then talk about it, and lamb of god is not that great...

1)Pantera
2)Trivium (they will be legends)
3)Metallica

and no one has mentioned Dead To Fall, they are bloody awsome
and Gwar is out of this world altough i wouldnt classify it as death metal

i dont care what any of you think. Lamb of God is the best metal there is.

you are all forgetting possibly one of the best metal bands of all time, cacophony. they are a neo classical shred band check out go off, concerto or speed metal symphony, also check out jason becker's solo songs like temple of the absurd

1) Metallica - Pre-Blacck album mind you. They were the best and still rank supreme.
2) Pantera - Yes, Pantera is better than you.
3) Death - Chuck Schuldiner shits on every band mentioned so far. It's a travesty to see shitty bands like Korn and Slipknot mentioned before them. I fear the world has no sense.
4) If we're going prog then Dream Theater is in here
5) Exodus
6) Slayer - glad to see they're mentioned
7) Symphony X
8) Opeth
9) Megadeth
10) Trivium

just to name a few...

1.Pantera
2.If u hav'nt seen George Thorogood ur missn out
3.Slayer
4.The Tragically Hip
5.ACDC

The guy above who said Limp Shitzkit invented rap metal, ever heard Rage?
1. Led Zeppelin - The first metal band.
2. Dream Theater - best of the prog metal genre. (3 all stars + 1 mediocre singer, their instermentals are nuts)
3. Rage Against The Machine- another group that is the best of their genre
4. Alice In Chains- Grunge but can be considered metal. Man in the Box.
5. Pantera- just kicked some serious ***
6. Metallica- I enjoy the 86-91 period
7.Symphony X- another great out of the prog-metal genre
8.Slayer- kicked ass as well.
9. ICP- just seeing if you are paying attention! I'd put Sabbath here probably.
10. Dragonforce- herman li is talented.

honorable mention that I haven't seen yet- Judas Priest, Fates Warning, Iron Maiden, Adagio, Trivium. John

Well, my taste is all over the place, from death metal, to hardcore, and some old school metal.

(these are just my opinions, i know people will disagree with them)

KoRn - My favorite band of all time. They are VERY different, and alot of people dont like them. WIth KoRn its pretty much a hit or miss thing, you love em or you hate em. Either way you cant deny the facts, over 30 million albums sold, 2 grammys etc. Love there sound, old stuff was better tho :(. Great live too, always play their hardest for their fans.

In Flames - These guys just make music, and its always good. They have changed alot throughout their career, much like KoRn, but every band changes, its a matter of how well they do it. Regardless, In Flames makes fantastic music.

Slayer - Wow, these guys rock hard! Raining blood still makes my ears bleed, and all of their songs are just as intense. They are thrash metal to the extreme, and thats why they have so much respect in the world of metal.

Mudvayne - Another one of my favorite bands. Would have been number two had it not been for the influence of In Flames and Slayer. Mudvayne is intense both on their albums, and live. However vocalist chad gray's voice has been on the downfall ever since 2006. Plus, Lost and Found wasnt all that good. However, what they used to be makes up for what they are now.

TIE! Metallica & Iron Maiden - Another person would have had either of these bands higher on the list, but i have my reasons.

Iron Maiden - Fantastic band, I love their music, but sometimes, its not my cup of tea. The other four bands above I can listen to anytime any place. I kind of have to be in the mood for 'Maiden, but when I am, their music is always great to listen to.

Metallica - It almost hurts to think of what these guys have become. At one time James Hetfield could have run for president and won, now, him and the rest of metallica are the definition of "selling out". However, no one can deny their former prowess. Their first four albums are untouchable, if they had quit then, they would have been remembered as one of the greatest. Now Metallica is one of the greatest with a kind of "bleh" to it.

Honorable mention:
Cannibal Corpse
Dimmu Borgir (almost made it)
LIMP BIZKIT! (jk these guys blow)
Lamb of God
Slipknot (dont like em, but gotta admit alot of people do)

Alright i see you guys are all pretty into metal and all the differnt types their is to find may i add my 2 cents on what the top 10 are? good here i go
1:Disturbed(lyricist david draiman is an amasing singer and roarer this band rules all rock heavy rock and metal all time favorite band of mine)
2:Korn(the original band and the 4some were the good days thier new stuff is week the 4some is not as good as the original they change thier sound every time a band member leaves i think they should go back to the original it was best)
3:Mudvayne(these guys just plain rock enough said)
4:Pantera(one i havent seen mentiond much on here and should have your respects)
5:Machine Head(another amazing metal band that i can no belive has not been brought up and look at their lyrics its all deep from the drowned tourtured soul it all has actual deep meaning just like disturbeds lyrics)
6:In Flames(Yet another band no one seems to know for thier best song i would have to recoment take this life go and listen now you will like it)
7:Hatebreed(this band... i dont like much but thier one song i will be heard struck me deeply and launched them onto my tops list)
8:Rob White Zombie(this guy just cant stop doing new things and making new sounds ... not only is his music gread look at his movies most of them are awsome horror flicks this guy is the real deal)
9:Atreyu(favorite song for a wile was becoming the bull its a good song)
10:Slipknot(those guys are just great)

Here, don't forget the actually popular bands, not your opinion.
Not in any order...
Grave Digger, Venom, Mayhem, Morbid Angel, Celtic Frost, Vital Remains, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, Immortal, King Diamond, Cradle of Filth, Slayer, Testament, Overkill, Dream Theater, and Death. R.I.P. Chuck Shuldner, the father of Death Metal.
My faves, Death, Mayhem, Sunn 0))), and Emperor.

My favorite Black Metal band is the Foo Fighters.

Just making a bad joke.

Being metal is a lifetime commitment. Metallica forfeited metal privledges when they created the Black album and went mainstream. Also touring with Neil Diamond, Doing Bob Seger covers, and making a movie based on their therapy sessions are all against the true nature of metal. Black Sabbath might have pioneered some things but they also forfeited metal privledges when Ozzy did a reality show on Mtv, plus Ozzy's solo stuff is all shit "Mama I'm coming home"? That's not metal that's faggish. AC/DC, Zepplin, Diusturbed, and most of the other bands listed in here are more rock than metal. Here's the list that any fans of "true" metal can get behind.

1.Morbid Angel- (the greatest hands down)
2.Slayer- (Thrash metal at it's finest, plus they've been doing it for 25+ years and have never sold out)
3.Pantera- (Two Words, Dimebag Darrell)
4.Suffocation- (The most often imitated never duplicated death metal band in history still buries me in brutality)
5. Vader- (Europe's finest)

All these bands have at least 15+ years of experience and they've all stayed commited to the brutality of metal as well as adding unique twists on the genre.
Newbies that have a shot to make this list after they get a few more albums under their belts. Hate Eternal, Chimaira, Lamb of God, and Godless Rising. Anyone want to debate this, swing by my myspace page.

These have to be the most generic and boring responses I have ever heard regarding this topic. The majority of these bands are simply overated, and Lamb of god has no place even being mentioned in the same sentence as the rest of your list.

Emporer
Opeth
Symphony X.
DEATH for god sakes.
Origin.
Necrophagist
Suffocation

are 1000x better than the bands on your list. look outside the "Elite 4 of thrash" you will find a whole world of underated metal bands that shit over these guys....

killswitch engage-the best album(as daylight dies)
sepultura-da bomb
as i lay dying-the voices are just..
metallica-produced music after music without rusting
bullets for my valentine-illest post metal band
atreyu-post metal kings
rammstein-they are f*cking awsome
rise against

but there are some sing metal band that should basically go f*ck themselves like morbid angel,cradle of filth that have no respect for the most high(the maker)

most thrash metal and post metal are off the hook.
for all those rock lovers that are down with me.....KEEP THE ROCK FIRE BURNING