If you had to pick a favorite decade of metal?

[whiskey funeral]

My vote went to 1990-2000. If there was an option to vote for two at a time, I would have gone with the 80s as a second choice.

Also, this thread is fucking gay. And so are all of you.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Yep, we're all gay in here. Anyway...

I also think it's a little tricky to say what MAKES the decade best. Honestly if you dropped all the albums from the past 40 years on the floor in front of someone who'd never heard any of them and had them listen to them without knowing what order they were released in, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the most recent music would be their picks for best.

It's understandable, as the years go by bands build upon what earlier bands did. They aren't pioneering shit or taking things into new territory (some are like Portal) but they're often perfecting it. Plus production is getting better as the years go by not in terms of budgets but just learning how to use the tools to achieve the sounds we want.

So when I say the 90s were the best decade, I don't just mean it's where the best albums are, I'm largely referring to how metal was forming and changing, plus how it was brought into the spotlight briefly. That's when metal went from this small grouping of half-formed subgenres and vague ideas into the gigantic, multi-faceted behemoth we know today.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Honestly if you dropped all the albums from the past 40 years on the floor in front of someone who'd never heard any of them and had them listen to them without knowing what order they were released in, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the most recent music would be their picks for best.

I'm going to bet that the classics of the 80's with radio play and immediate hooks are going to win out.

 

[whiskey funeral]

Y

So when I say the 90s were the best decade, I don't just mean it's where the best albums are, I'm largely referring to how metal was forming and changing, plus how it was brought into the spotlight briefly. That's when metal went from this small grouping of half-formed subgenres and vague ideas into the gigantic, multi-faceted behemoth we know today.

Indeed. It was an important time for me personally, being 15-16 years old in the mid 90s and hearing "extreme" metal music for the first time. A lot of my gateway albums came from this period, many of which are timeless.

 

[SentinelSlain]

It would be strange if someone picked 2010-now. I don't hear much from the past few years that eclipses all that came before it. I wasn't really listening to metal when most of the stuff I love came out, hell I wasn't even born when most of it came out (in the 80s). Production is usually a bit better these days. The smaller bands in the 80s mostly had bullshit production.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Well it's hard to know. I mean, I don't know if you guys were really into metal back in like 1997 but magazines used to HATE all the "Suffo-clones" and that whole sound. It was looked at as belligerent and unmusical. It was a while before it got elevated to legendary status. Cannibal Corpse was seen as gimmicky nonsense, black metal was bee-buzzing noise, etc. Oh sure, there were pockets where it was super popular, but their legacy is more in retrospect, like how Melville's "Moby Dick" was a total failure in its time.

I'm not saying Whitechapel is gonna get looked at as some kind of paradigm-shifting monolith, but I have no doubts that come 2020 there will be albums from the current crop that we look back on and go "damn that was one of the all-time greats". And they'll probably be albums we didn't even realize would be.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Indeed. It was an important time for me personally, being 15-16 years old in the mid 90s and hearing "extreme" metal music for the first time. A lot of my gateway albums came from this period, many of which are timeless.

LOL I remember the days of being in high school with my JNCO jeans and a 24-disc wallet in one gigantic fucking pocket, my CD Walkman in the other, blasting Slipknot's self titled until it was covered in so many scratches even the ESP couldn't stop it from skipping.

Slipknot's probably the reason I'm into metal like I am now. Circus Magazine used to rave about them with shit like "where most of the nu-metal bands owe to Metallica and hip-hop, Slipknot's lineage traces to Slayer and Cannibal Corpse" so I was like "well I gotta check those bands out now!"

 

[crimsonfloyd]

I'm going to bet that the classics of the 80's with radio play and immediate hooks are going to win out.

This is definitely true.

 

[JontRevolting]

Why would you even bother...I mean obviously you know how to log onto the net.You know aswell as the next person that pre-pubescent teen opinions matter not in the slightest..For fuck's sake grow up...Seriously this is still THE most embarassing site on the net.If you have not gathered so far...YOUR OPINIONS MEAN ABSOLUTE SHIT,GROW THE FUCK UP!

 

[Bitencourt29]

80's

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Why would you even bother...I mean obviously you know how to log onto the net.You know aswell as the next person that pre-pubescent teen opinions matter not in the slightest..For fuck's sake grow up...Seriously this is still THE most embarassing site on the net.If you have not gathered so far...YOUR OPINIONS MEAN ABSOLUTE SHIT,GROW THE FUCK UP!

 

[JontRevolting]

pretty much.

 

[whiskey funeral]

LOL I remember the days of being in high school with my JNCO jeans and a 24-disc wallet in one gigantic fucking pocket, my CD Walkman in the other, blasting Slipknot's self titled until it was covered in so many scratches even the ESP couldn't stop it from skipping.

Haha! You sound like some of my long lost friends from '95-'00. For me however,Cradle of Filth's The Principal of Evil Made Flesh and Deicide's Once Upon The Cross were on heavy rotation in my Discman.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Haha damn man. Where I lived there wasn't really anywhere to get albums like that. I mean I could hit up an Ames or a K-Mart, plus the ONE record store in town, but the most extreme you might find out there were like Manson, ICP, or Zombie. I remember SEEING a couple Corpse CDs at one place when I was like 16 but I didn't really know what it was, and it was wrapped in black plastic so all I could see was the name not the cover itself. At that age I thought it sounded silly so I didn't bother. How times have changed...

 

[Exodus Prime]

Before I had heard any death metal, I'd read a good review for Brutal Truth's 'Extreme Conditions...' that made me want to hear it. I asked the local record shop if they had it, and they put it on over the speaker system! It was instantly bought!

 

[EffigyForgotten]

Yep, we're all gay in here. Anyway...

I also think it's a little tricky to say what MAKES the decade best. Honestly if you dropped all the albums from the past 40 years on the floor in front of someone who'd never heard any of them and had them listen to them without knowing what order they were released in, I'd bet dollars to donuts that the most recent music would be their picks for best.

It's understandable, as the years go by bands build upon what earlier bands did. They aren't pioneering shit or taking things into new territory (some are like Portal) but they're often perfecting it. Plus production is getting better as the years go by not in terms of budgets but just learning how to use the tools to achieve the sounds we want.

So when I say the 90s were the best decade, I don't just mean it's where the best albums are, I'm largely referring to how metal was forming and changing, plus how it was brought into the spotlight briefly. That's when metal went from this small grouping of half-formed subgenres and vague ideas into the gigantic, multi-faceted behemoth we know today.

Well to be into the older metal, you would of have to grow into metal you know, if I showed some deathcore kid a Demolition Hammer song he would say its shit, because he didn't have to get into metal from scratch.

 

[EffigyForgotten]

It would be strange if someone picked 2010-now. I don't hear much from the past few years that eclipses all that came before it. I wasn't really listening to metal when most of the stuff I love came out, hell I wasn't even born when most of it came out (in the 80s). Production is usually a bit better these days. The smaller bands in the 80s mostly had bullshit production.

Well most people are saying the last Suffocation album is the best they have ever done, RIITIR is now my favorite Enslaved album, Cattle Decapitation and Dying Fetus came out with awesome albums, there is really a lot of stuff coming out.

 

[Lateralus14]

*facepalm*

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Well to be into the older metal, you would of have to grow into metal you know, if I showed some deathcore kid a Demolition Hammer song he would say its shit, because he didn't have to get into metal from scratch.

Great point. It's kinda funny how that works. The newer stuff is refined and polished so you almost have to start in the current day and work your way back. That's how black metal worked for me.

But that's just it. Today's albums might be "better" than the albums before, but I'm calling the 90s the heyday just for how things were changing and being pioneered.

 

[Lateralus14]

How are today's albums remotely "better