25 Most Important METAL bands

[Thoth-Amon]

Great...some profound lyrics....as if any of you sing along to them, or can understand the words.

Scott

Well most people can't sing along or understand the words to great Classical pieces like "Don Giovanni" "Wozzek" but that doesn't make them bad pieces of music. It just means you have to pick up the libretto (or lyrics if it's metal) and take the time to read them and follow along.

 

[Thoth-Amon]

When's the last time Morbid Angel, Suffocation, etc bothered to write creative songs that don't sound the same?

"Hey, let's throw 1000 blastbeats a second at the listener for our opening song! Then, we'll follow it up with some more of the same! I know! For our 3rd song...we'll surprise the listner with more unrelenting walls of sound with crazy guitar shredding that is so all over the place people think it's genius, but really it's just fast. We'll drop in 6 more songs with that pace, and to close the album, we'll end it with another brutal mix of guitars and blastbeats!"

-I assume you haven't hear Blessed are the Sick then.

Yeah - real interesting.

Morbid Angel and Suffocation? Same freaking band with a different name.

I get they are good for the genre, but when making a list of important bands, pick different ones that brought something new to the table for people on the whole.

-Yes and Morbid Angel wouldn't definetly fit the bill in bringing somethine new to the bill as they helped revolutionize the death metal genre into what it is today.

More mature?

Go to www.darklyrics.com and look up the lyrics of half of those bands. Mature they are not. They are something a 13 year old kid would write. Garbage. I'm all for death or extreme metal, but don't think for one second they are "mature" in the truest sense of the word. Moshing in a pit to lyrics about gutting a virgin whore isn't exactly a good representation of mature and intelligent.

-First off who the hell listens to metal for mature and intelligent lyrics? Are you serious? Yeah most metal lyrics are pretty stupid, but so what? When I've got some Cannibal Corpse playing I don't think "wow these lyrics are just so thought provoking". No you listen to the band because the BAND is good, and if the lyrics are good even better. But if not the WHO CARES?!

Those bands didn't do anything groundbreaking - they just took the next logical step in making things heavier or faster.

-Which was groundbreaking as no one had done that before...

 

[Hammer of Might]

Penetrate the minds of those misfortuned at birth.
Murder is etched in the deepest chasms of the soul.
Salvation stripped from the origin of existence.
Obstinacy abandons, as you yield your world to me.

Decree of my darkest dreams.
Memories of my future.
Welcome to my church.

Sodomize my cross for it now marks your existence.
Dismissal of lucivity, consume my body and blood.
Supplicate for death, obscurity condemns the structure.
Spectral abominations, the gathering of souls.

Befall the rise of inhumanity.

Returned to a land you've never been.
You kill again for the first time.
Recollections of what never was.

Decree of my darkest dreams.
Memories of my future.
Welcome to my church.

I am your savior.
Shapeless to your perception.
For I am you, pierced from within.

Pierced from within.

Good enough for me!

 

[Scourge of Malice]

Mmm, yeah, that's a persuasive arguement, right there. Not sure how I can counter such eloquence.

Don't worry, I wouldn't dare argue with such an obvious genius as yourself. And I don't think Opeth should be up there, btw.

 

[MasterOLightning]

I was originally referring to musical maturity and not lyrical maturity, so I don't even know how this talk of lyrics got started.

 

[Hammer of Might]

It got started cos SheisMySin equated maturity with lyrical content.

 

[MasterOLightning]

I support Opeth. I think people romanticize the past too much. Opeth is the most recent band on there, and they didn't release their first until 1995. No one else does what Opeth does, really. They're very important to metal as a gateway band, and as a band that could potentially breakthrough to the semi-mainstream. They also have several great albums and an extremely solid discography, which not all of the bands on the list can say.

 

[skeptik]

I support Opeth as well, but I also think that there are some glaring holes that should be filled with regards to the more traditional Metal genres, as I mentioned in my previous post.

 

[Scourge of Malice]

I think its quite possible that in 20 years, Opeth might be at the top of one of these lists, but as of right now I think theres more important bands if were just doing 25 of them. I dunno, its ify, part of me wants to have them there.

 

[Scourge of Malice]

BTW, I think Neurosis should be up there. They've been around for over 20 years and they've been a HUGE influence on tons of new bands like ISIS, the Ocean, etc...

 

[cookiecutter]

Death metal is very mature musically. It has complex rythms and time changes and does not rely on cliches. Lyrically it has it's highs and lows. Sometimes tough I WANT to listen to lyrics about gutting someone. That's part of the allure of death metal to me.

 

[Mort Divine]

Oh shit. I just realized that Skyclad honestly need to be up there for pioneering the folk metal genre.

 

[skeptik]

Bathory is already there, silly.

 

[Dee Snarl]

As a power metal fan, I think the list, as stands (remember the list?), is pretty damn strong. Power metal tends to be not so innovative. I say Queensryche instead of Dream Theater, unless you consider Queensryche "not metal."

And I worship Opeth, but am not sure they belong on this list... yet.

I also don't see what SheIsMySin was so saying that was so inflammatory. Bunches of ensuing posts contradict each other as to why he's so wrong.

 

[Mort Divine]

Hammerheart started the Viking metal genre, The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth started folk metal.

 

[skeptik]

Helloween should be on the list, as well as Fates Warning.

 

[skeptik]

Hammerheart started the Viking metal genre, The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth started folk metal.

Viking doesn't exist. It's called Folk.

 

[Mort Divine]

Viking is wholey separate from folk.

I agree with Helloween, but not Fates Warning. Queensryche however, with them being the first prog. metal band should be there however.

 

[skeptik]

Fates Warning went from mimmicking Iron Maiden to the utterly classic Spectre Within and Awaken The Guardian, two damn original albums from the time that went on to influence countless bands (INCLUDING DREAM THEATRE. MIKE PORTNOY FUCKING WORSHIPS AWAKEN THE GUARDIAN. HE WRITES THE GODDAMN LINER NOTES FOR THE REISSUE), and then continued on to be a respectable Prog band.

Also, Voivod should be there. We should probably make the 30 Most Important Metal bands...25 is an arbitrary number anyway, it's merely psychologically pleasing.

 

[MasterOLightning]

We could do separate lists for extreme and non-extreme metal, if that would satisfy everyone.

And I already had Helloween. I'll put Fates Warning at the 25 spot. Dream Theater stays though. They were the first to really bring that level of virtuosity to metal, and it has since become the standard.