Top 10 Best Artists of All Time

[The Ozzman]

I have to agree with Jenn here

 

[Omni]

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.

Oops, sorry that I forgot the lesser version of Master of Puppets and the album where their sound became a lot less unique and much more simplistic. My bad. Even Painkiller, which was extremely different from earlier Judas Priest although it's also overrated, was a bigger evolution than either of those albums.

 

[Lateralus14]

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.

Ya man, I'll admit I had one of my brief moments of dyslexia there. But nevertheless, I would narrow that to "thrash metal" or take out "Hell Awaits." Honestly to people apathetic to the thrash genre as a whole but that still listen to classics, Slayer is only known for Reign in Blood. Hell Awaits is still huge within thrash circles but yea..if you broaden it to all extreme metal and consider death metal and black metal, it gets overshadowed quickly.

 

[Omni]

Popularity of an album outside of metal circles has little to do with how innovative or influential the album is within metal, whether we're referring to particular subgenres or its entirety.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Oops, sorry that I forgot the lesser version of Master of Puppets and the album where their sound became a lot less unique and much more simplistic. My bad. Even Painkiller, which was extremely different from earlier Judas Priest although it's also overrated, was a bigger evolution than either of those albums.

Please explain this "extreme" difference between Painkiller and their peak albums. I mean, for the love of god, Load and Reload were "extremely different" from the actual thrash metal Metallica did.

I'm not sure what we hope to gain by this nickel-and-diming, but I'll give you that for the albums that represent Metallica's peak style, there's not a tremendous variation. That does not mean they didn't have a landmark effect upon the direction of heavy metal and hard rock.

 

[Base Delta Zero]

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.

Metallica had 7 demos and an LP floating around California before Slayer had released Show No Mercy. Metallica was on the first Metal Massacre while Slayer didn't catch Slagels ear till the third one. They were also performing originals that would later appear on Kill Em All while the dudes in Slayer were still doing Maiden and Priest covers. I agree with you, in that Slayer deserves more credit than Metallica for death metal influence/innovation - but certainly not thrash.

 

[Omni]

Slayer pushed more boundaries and defined more aspects of thrash metal than Metallica, even if Metallica released an album and appeared on a compilation just a few months prior to Slayer releasing their debut and appearing on a compilation in the same series. It's not like either band was the first thrash metal band, so I don't see what your point is here, though both were arguably some of the earliest to really define it.

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

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.

Influential as in the overall number of bands they influenced; not the number of influential bands they influenced. Judas Priest have been around longer so they may get more street cred than Metallica in many circles, but if you were to look at it from a different perspective I'm sure Metallica have them beat. Iron Maiden is the band that has directly influenced a shit ton more band than JP. & I like JP MUCH better, I'm just calling it how I see it.

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

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

This I do agree with.

 

[Lateralus14]

I guess..I mean from Kill 'Em All to ...And Justice For All the riffs were all pretty alike - the differences are in the solos and the production. Still innovative, w/e

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Metallica had 7 demos and an LP floating around California before Slayer had released Show No Mercy. Metallica was on the first Metal Massacre while Slayer didn't catch Slagels ear till the third one. They were also performing originals that would later appear on Kill Em All while the dudes in Slayer were still doing Maiden and Priest covers. I agree with you, in that Slayer deserves more credit than Metallica for death metal influence/innovation - but certainly not thrash.

say wot? By the time of Kill 'Em All, Slayer had already ditched the Priest covers and had most of Show No Mercy written, an album easily thrashier than Kill 'Em All. Just one year later Chemical Warfare & Co. set a standard for speed and aggression that made all of Germany explode into Slayer-worshiping death/thrash.

Not saying that they were more influential than Metallica (aside from Sabbath, Priest, and maybe Venom, who is?) but to say that they certainly didn't influence thrash is ridiculous. They along with Exodus are what cut away the last remnants of NWOBHM/speed.

 

[no country for old wainds]

'tallica have no doubt influenced more bands because more people have heard them than any other metal band, but they don't echo on to the same extent as judas priest or slayer in the music of subsequent major bands. '70s priest is second only to sabbath in that regard. come on, i thought this was conventional wisdom.

i don't think metallica can be said to have first brought metal back 'down to earth' because metal has never really been down to earth in the way you mean - they represent an anomaly rather than an influence in that regard, a lot of metallica's themes have never been especially compatible with the direction metal has driven towards. in these kind of respects they're unique for a metal band, but in a way that some might deem populist - they've never been all that unique for music in general. besides, 'tallicas best stuff always tended to be their more fantastical and metaphorical.

also, the thing with saying 'metallica had a greater influence on thrash' is that it sounds kind of pathetic compared to 'slayer took metal beyond thrash'.

btw variation doesn't = innovation.

 

[Vacant_Planets]

Priest > Sabbath.

 

[Omni]

That's a tolerable opinion if you're talking about their first 4 albums.

 

[mutantllama]

I'd have to disagree, but that's just me.

 

[Personified Hatred]

No order

old Mayhem
old Darkthrone
Death
old Metallica
Slayer
Dark Tranquillity
Bathory
Iron Maiden
Black Sabbath
Megadeth

 

[livingparody]

seriously add cacophany. with jason becker you cant go wrong... amaziing band, though they didnt last long

 

[Vacant_Planets]

That's a tolerable opinion if you're talking about their first 4 albums.

I am talking about all of Priest vs all of Sabbath, including thebad albums by both. One solo alone on Painkiller > Sabbath.

 

[no country for old wainds]

lol @ the idea of painkiller being even a trillionth as good as '70s sabbath. '70s priest, on the other hand, i actually probably do just very slightly prefer, mostly 'cause they were a bit more consistent.

 

[Omni]

I am talking about all of Priest vs all of Sabbath, including thebad albums by both. One solo alone on Painkiller > Sabbath.

Judas Priest's worst albums are way worse than Black Sabbath's worst, and the idea of anything on Painkiller being better than Black Sabbath overall is extremely silly. The best albums of both bands are on a similar level though, and I probably like Stained Class more than any individual Sabbath album.