Top 10 most influential metal bands of the 1980s... tough and I am no scholar. As I am 80% interested in more extreme metal and only like 20% in more classic metal, my list will lean heavily toward death and grind and sludge forebears and influencers from the 80s more than the other classics. This also is due to the fact that I haven't heard or tried listening to much of the more classic metal sounding bands that Iron Maiden or Priest or even Candlemass or Queensryche may have influenced. There have been far less times I have done that DiCaprio meme of recognition related to some Helloween or even Priest influence than I have for Death or Napalm Death or even Black Flag (and all the sludge metal they birthed in 1984.)
So my 10 would be the following (these are the 10 that I have personally heard the influences or spotted the influences the most):
1. Metallica (less cool but yeah they were Thrash and from Thrash death and black and all that... kill em all perhaps the most influential debut album of the 80s)
2. Slayer (proto deathj, but agree with Gowi perhaps this is too close to Metallica and certainly number 2 is a bit much. But, honestly Slayer's fingerprints are all over death metal for decades after.)
3. Death (death metal)
4. Napalm Death (grindcore and deathgrind)
5. Iron Maiden (like everything... metal, prog metal, big influence on swedish/gothenburg death metal)
6. Bathory (black metal, blackened thrash, viking metal at the end of the 1980s)
7. Venom (I've never really enjoyed anything they have made but every time I see the years of release for their first couple albums I am newly blown away by how ahead of their time they were - basically all extreme metal.)
8. Judas Priest (it's judas fuckin priest. Much like maiden they influenced all of metal. But like I mentioned earlier, I have a hard time personally hearing or spotting clear influences in the albums and bands I like in metal. Sometimes when I hear a dual guitar explosion, I will say "whoa, so metal, so priest")
9. Carcass (Grindcore, goregrind, early death metal innovator, later in later decades melodic dm... but sticking only to their 87-89 filthy diguisting run, they were crazy influential and more important for me, they were influential on shit tons of my favorite stuff to come later)
10. Black Flag (sludge metal, one of the greatest hardcore bands and perhaps most influential hardcore punk band embracing black sabbath and creating My War is absurdly influential)
11. (only realized I counted 11 when I went to number 'em. So let's call this either 10B or the honorable mention) Voivod (This one is surely a stretch but the stuff in the 80s they did with innovating on Prog Thrash and Technical thrash and their whole nerdy sci fi thing and all that... I consider them to be the next great innovators to come from Thrash. The great 2nd wave) _________________ -Ryan
10. Black Flag (sludge metal, one of the greatest hardcore bands and perhaps most influential hardcore punk band embracing black sabbath and creating My War is absurdly influential)
If we're including Black Flag, I'd swap them in to my top 15 over Saint Vitus.Discharge is another hardcore band that was massively influential and should probably included!
10. Black Flag (sludge metal, one of the greatest hardcore bands and perhaps most influential hardcore punk band embracing black sabbath and creating My War is absurdly influential)
If we're including Black Flag, I'd swap them in to my top 15 over Saint Vitus.Discharge is another hardcore band that was massively influential and should probably included!
10. Black Flag (sludge metal, one of the greatest hardcore bands and perhaps most influential hardcore punk band embracing black sabbath and creating My War is absurdly influential)
If we're including Black Flag, I'd swap them in to my top 15 over Saint Vitus.Discharge is another hardcore band that was massively influential and should probably included!
That is a great one! Discharge's DNA is all fucking over metal music from 1982 onward.
If you want to hear the transition from Discharge (and The Exploited!) to metal in the UK, you really have to listen to ...
Discharge and Black Flag are great calls, completely forgot about them. But certainly two very important bands.
And Repo, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost may not have been the most popular band back in the 80s, but they were so ahead of their times that they influenced a lot of late 80s and 90s bands! There'd be no Norwegian black metal without them and Bathory. There'd be no Sarcofago, Tormentor, Mayhem, Master's Hammer and Emperor, Darkthrone, Immortal, Satyricon etc. That's why I'd confidently put them in the (almost) same tier as Bathory, and both are a consideration for the top 10 imo. _________________ Overall chart Fake overall chart
And Repo, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost may not have been the most popular band back in the 80s, but they were so ahead of their times that they influenced a lot of late 80s and 90s bands! There'd be no Norwegian black metal without them and Bathory. There'd be no Sarcofago, Tormentor, Mayhem, Master's Hammer and Emperor, Darkthrone, Immortal, Satyricon etc. That's why I'd confidently put them in the (almost) same tier as Bathory, and both are a consideration for the top 10 imo.
Completely agree! Wrote this just a couple of days ago in this thread...
Repo wrote:
Gowi wrote:
Due to a lot of how trends started in the 80s (and a lot of them in metal) its hard to really subtract one from a top ten. I'd probably throw out Slayer out of those ten given you already have thrash/speed representation on the list. Not even sure what my top ten would be since there are a lot of bands to pick from that were pioneers. Quite the foundational and transitional era.
Yeah. I thought about swapping out Slayer for Celtic Frost or Napalm Death for exactly this reason. BUT, behind Venom, Slayer is probably the most important band in the development of Extreme Metal. Everyone (and I mean everyone) wanted to be Slayer in the mid-to-late 80s!
The Teutonic Thrash Tree of Kreator, Destruction, and Sodom stems more from Slayer than Metallica. Your Dark Angel owe more to Slayer than Metallica!
Honestly for me and my friends back in 1983, Show No Mercy was as revered and listened to as Kill 'Em All! Slayer's influence with both Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits was seismic!
I do think Slayer is even more important than them though! But Hellhammer/Celtic Frost (let's just call them the same band) would be in my Top 15 easy!!!
I can never confidently call Melvins a metal band is why I don't often mention them. Were they influential toward sludge metal, drone metal, etc. Yeah, sure. But so was Black Flag but they were definitely never metal by my metrics. The majority of their discography in the 80s were punk/grunge/etc. records and you are asking who are the most influential METAL BANDS of the 80s not the most influential BANDS TO METAL in the 80s.
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
I can never confidently call Melvins a metal band is why I don't often mention them. Were they influential toward sludge metal, drone metal, etc. Yeah, sure. But so was Black Flag but they were definitely never metal by my metrics. The majority of their discography in the 80s were punk/grunge/etc. records and you are asking who are the most influential METAL BANDS of the 80s not the most influential BANDS TO METAL in the 80s.
This is a good point. Specifically that last statement. Been thinking that ever since I mentioned Black Flag. If we are talking most influential bands TO metal going forward… yeah Melvins, Discharge, Black Flag all should be mentioned. But yeah… not truly metal bands even at their “metalyest”.
Hey, you maybe can help me with this (as can Repo and LedZep and others), but for some reason I have a MAJOR mental block or bias towards Power Metal. Never once have a enjoyed one album in the genre. But in all fairness I have not yet tried too much. I want to tackle some good intro drugs so to speak in the sub genre. I like some Iron Maiden and I hear they are a huge influence on Power Metal (and almost everything metal, really). You have Imaginations from the Other Side high on your chart last I checked. Is that the best album to sink my teeth into to get started? _________________ -Ryan
This is a good point. Specifically that last statement. Been thinking that ever since I mentioned Black Flag. If we are talking most influential bands TO metal going forward… yeah Melvins, Discharge, Black Flag all should be mentioned. But yeah… not truly metal bands even at their “metalyest”.
Hey, you maybe can help me with this (as can Repo and LedZep and others), but for some reason I have a MAJOR mental block or bias towards Power Metal. Never once have a enjoyed one album in the genre. But in all fairness I have not yet tried too much. I want to tackle some good intro drugs so to speak in the sub genre. I like some Iron Maiden and I hear they are a huge influence on Power Metal (and almost everything metal, really). You have Imaginations from the Other Side high on your chart last I checked. Is that the best album to sink my teeth into to get started?
It's really about WHERE you want to start. If you already like Maiden, Priest, Manowar; then you already have a good foundation for what you SHOULD like in power metal. I'd probably lend you toward these albums as well:
I think starting with these earlier 1st wave albums are better off than 2nd wave/3rd wave ones. That said, Blind Guardian, Stratovarius, SA, and others were imperative and definitely expanded on these foundations as well if you want to start a little later.
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Mercury
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