Favorite Metal Band?

[mad rhetorik]

Vote on your favorite metal band! Your choices are:

Black Sabbath
Iron Maiden
Judas Priest
Motorhead
Metallica
Slayer
Megadeth
Pantera
Opeth
Other (Tool, Sepultura, Death, Kyuss, Melvins, etc. etc. etc.?)

Polls open indefinitely.

[MindGoneHaywire]

When I was in high school there was a guy who took a math test & when it was over every answer on his sheet looked like this:

5 X (42-3) + 4927/72 = MOTORHEAD

Well, he didn't do that well on the test, but at least he knew who the best heavy metal band was.

[-Jar-]

at this point in my life, I like Tool, Kyss and Melvins more than Iron Maiden. But Iron Maiden *was* metal to me. I guess I don't use the term "metal" to talk about heavy music these days. Unless the band is obviously "metal" (like, umm someone like Opeth) - I'm not really all that hung up on labels.. but.. for this topic I guess I am

-jar

[Stone]

Polyphonic Spree.

[newtrix1]

Vote on your favorite metal band! Your choices are:

Other
Polls open indefinitely.

I hope Led Zeppelin counts!

[mad rhetorik]

I hope Led Zeppelin counts!

They're more "hard bluesy rock" than metal per se.

[newtrix1]

They're more "hard bluesy rock" than metal per se.

OK then, I change my vote to Alice in Chains

[Dave_G]

Gotta love their old head banging records.

Sabbath is close, but I chose Judas Priest.

I wish I could have seen Black Sabbath live, never got to see them, but saw Judas Priest many times and they were excellent live.

I wonder if they are really reforming?

Dave

[Gresh]

Helmet.

[-Jar-]

Helmet.

when STRAP IT ON first came out, someone at my radio station wrote in black magic marker across the front of the LP jacket the word "SKRONK!!" .. it kind of stuck, and that's what we called them.. and all that AmRep/Touch & Go noise. The term "Post Hardcore" was also thrown around. I dunno, I guess our particular scene was kind of anti-metal at the time (the big hair bands hadn't been killed off by Nirvana yet..).. so we never really called them "Metal" - but.. in their prime they were way better than most metal bands.. thems was the daze.

-jar

[ForeverAutumn]

I wish I could have seen Black Sabbath live, never got to see them
Dave

I saw Sabbath and Ozzy in the same summer, at the same venue, on the same stage, but not at the same time.

[JSE]

Helmet.

Wow, I have not listened to them in a while. I know what I'm crankin up tonight. They were one of my favorite bands in my college days.

JSE

[mad rhetorik]

when STRAP IT ON first came out, someone at my radio station wrote in black magic marker across the front of the LP jacket the word "SKRONK!!" .. it kind of stuck, and that's what we called them.. and all that AmRep/Touch & Go noise. The term "Post Hardcore" was also thrown around. I dunno, I guess our particular scene was kind of anti-metal at the time (the big hair bands hadn't been killed off by Nirvana yet..).. so we never really called them "Metal" - but.. in their prime they were way better than most metal bands.. thems was the daze.

-jar

Yep, Helmet rule. I've recently heard a copy of Meantime, and now it's definitely on my Future Albums list. Pretty much pioneered the sound of every modern nu-metal band (that drop-C guitar, minimal solos), without the rapping and angst that ruined the genre. Heavy, bashing, relentless, intelligent--I need this album, fo' sho'.

Right now I'm surprised at the even spread in the votes of the poll. So far Metallica, Motorhead, and Black Sabbath are in a three-way tie, but every other band (except Pantera) has received one vote. To me, tight competition = good poll (at least when it comes to bands).

My vote is for Opeth. I think they're doing something that very few bands within the genre are doing, and have maintained a very high level of consistency from Morningrise to Deliverence/Damnation that is extremely hard to achieve in the metal world without having every album sound the same. That is a clear sign of quality, that only a select few metal bands have been able to achieve. Black Sabbath did it with Ozzy on their first four albums; Iron Maiden achieved that with every album from their debut to Somewhere In Time; Metallica had the Lightning/Master/Justice trilogy; Death had Human, Individual Thought Patterns, Symbolic, and The Sound Of Perseverence, each of which was better and more progressive than the last; and by experimenting and taking risks, Sepultura produced a string of fine albums beginning with Beneath The Remains and ending with Roots.

Megadeth wasn't as consistent, but Dave Mustaine was perhaps the key innovator of the thrash guitar style, and was one of the very few metal bands that adopted a more mainstream sound through the '90s without alienating their core fan base (unlike Metallica). And Motorhead deserves to be listed here for being a huge influence on the thrash scene, and also because Lemmy Kilimeister is one of the most hardcore rock 'n' roll badasses to ever set foot upon the earth.

[Rikki]

Megadeth wasn't as consistent, but Dave Mustaine was perhaps the key innovator of the thrash guitar style, and was one of the very few metal bands that adopted a more mainstream sound through the '90s without alienating their core fan base (unlike Metallica).

I agree. Megadeth is still probably my favorite metal band though. I am trying to find a way where I can vote for Megadeth multiple times in this poll so that they win. So if you see Megadeth votes start climbing, please don't think of it as a sabotage of the poll, but more of a wake up call that online voting has flaws