Top 10 Best Artists of All Time

Honestly I have to say I'd be surprised if anyone made any legitimate list WITHOUT Metallica - I mean how the fuck can you defend any metal band topping Metallica's sick combination of good music and innovation...I guess maybe Black Sabbath? If we're talking "favorite artists" then obviously Metallica doesn't have to appear at all...but on a legitimate ranking? lol

Seriously, I listen to most of the bands you'd probably mention, but I would absolutely LOVE to hear some absurd defense of ideas that Iron Maiden or Morbid Angel or Slayer did more for metal.
 
I don't have a list but I would say the top three would be Metallica > Black Sabbath > Iron Maiden, and Morbid Angel, Death, and Bathory would have to be on there somewhere
 
Metallica isn't very innovative compared to Slayer, Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate and countless others, and their music also isn't nearly as good. I wouldn't put them anywhere near the top 10 metal artists.
 
Bah, like it or not Metallica are directly more influential than just about any other metal band except for maybe Iron Maiden & Black Sabbath. They're definitely more influential on the more um, "modern" side of things.
 
Metallica isn't very innovative compared to Slayer, Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate and countless others, and their music also isn't nearly as good. I wouldn't put them anywhere near the top 10 metal artists.

Um, Metallica were highly innovative. For one, they were one of the first metal bands to have a sincere and "down to earth" musical tone. They more or less broke the mold of metal being an entirely "party all night" or "dragons and demons" genre. So much of what they did was just unheard of in the early '80s, especially songs like "Fade to Black", which basically had all the feel of grunge music before the grunge scene even existed.

They also had incredibly intricate guitar work. They took all the flashy technical elements of bands like Iron Maiden and turned it into a sound that had raw power in addition to artistry.

To say Metallica aren't innovative, especially compared to bands like Slayer or Priest, is just silly.
 
Metallica took the mindless nonsense of thrash and actually made it into music that people besides metalheads enjoyed - say popularity is pointless all you want, but when things as aggressive as Ride the Lightning reach out to people BESIDES narrow-minded metalheads and angsty teens, it means something. Judas Priest...well yea they'd be in the top 10. Slayer basicly is just another thrash band except they are slightly better. Sorta like the Morbid Angel of thrash to me - both heavily influenced their own genres a lot and both are top notch within said genre, but that's pretty much it. And on the "their music isn't nearly as good" argument...honestly there is no way to measure something's musical quality; therefore, sadly, popularity is just about the closest we get...and Metallica win there, even if you look only at fans that listen to both Metallica and the bands you mentioned (that way you can weed out the kids that have never heard other metal at least..)
 
Bah, like it or not Metallica are directly more influential than just about any other metal band except for maybe Iron Maiden & Black Sabbath. They're definitely more influential on the more um, "modern" side of things.

Judas Priest is the most directly influential metal band aside from Black Sabbath. It's blatantly obvious that they not only influenced Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, and every other heavy/thrash/power metal band, but they're also clearly the catalyst for metal to strip away the blues influence of Black Sabbath and become much faster and distinctive as a genre separate from rock music.

Slayer was much more influential both on thrash metal and also on extreme metal than Metallica, with Hell Awaits and Reign in Blood being by far two of the most important albums in extreme metal and a clear cornerstone for the evolution of death metal.

In the grand scheme of things, Metallica probably played more of a role in influencing the mainstream popularity metal than they did in influencing entire genres.
 
lol @ the statement about two slayer albums being "by far" the most important albums in extreme metal. Please avoid presenting incredibly opinionated statements as absolute facts. I mean I could say some pornogrind album is clearly the best album of all time but I'd be an idiot, wouldn't I?
 
HIM gets the worst publicity cause fucking Bam Margera advertises them so much that 90% of their fans are emo 13-year-olds. I agree with the Bathory comments. I think they should have stuck to black metal; didn't like Hammerheart....

..I know the stuff I like is seen as totally commercialized sellouts. But there are a lot of people (nobody on here luckily) that hate those bands solely because they have major labels and they want to be tr00 metalheadz by rebelling against them. But I guess many people also hate them for their music:heh:

EDIT: New smilies are awesome.
 
Judas Priest is the most directly influential metal band aside from Black Sabbath. It's blatantly obvious that they not only influenced Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, and every other heavy/thrash/power metal band, but they're also clearly the catalyst for metal to strip away the blues influence of Black Sabbath and become much faster and distinctive as a genre separate from rock music.

Slayer was much more influential both on thrash metal and also on extreme metal than Metallica, with Hell Awaits and Reign in Blood being by far two of the most important albums in extreme metal and a clear cornerstone for the evolution of death metal.

In the grand scheme of things, Metallica probably played more of a role in influencing the mainstream popularity metal than they did in influencing entire genres.

You have a good point about Priest. They did more or less put the balls in metal. I don't see what else they could be called "innovative" for, though. Once they found their sound, they pretty much stuck to it. Metallica did a lot more evolving within their sound.

At any rate, like I said, Metallica's transformation of metal into something sincere that people could personally relate to was absolutely huge, and obviously did more than just help popularise metal.
 
lol @ the statement about two slayer albums being "by far" the most important albums in extreme metal. Please avoid presenting incredibly opinionated statements as absolute facts. I mean I could say some pornogrind album is clearly the best album of all time but I'd be an idiot, wouldn't I?

I said they're some of the most important extreme metal albums, not the most important ones. From a perspective of being innovative and influential, they are some of the most important. Read my post next time, dude.
 
You have a good point about Priest. They did more or less put the balls in metal. I don't see what else they could be called "innovative" for, though. Once they found their sound, they pretty much stuck to it. Metallica did a lot more evolving within their sound.

The difference in musical style between Sad Wings of Destiny and Stained Class is much greater than the difference between Kill 'em All and Master of Puppets, not to mention that it's also much more original.
 
I find that claim dubious, but at any rate you're forgetting ...And Justice for All and the Black Album. Both of those were very distinctive from the previous material.