10 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time

[SinisterMinisterX]

Well, I've looked through the lists a bit more. And the interesting trend I saw: many people agree on who the best bands are, but not the best songs. For instance, a lot of people listed at least one Black Sabbath song, but there is little agreement on which Sabbath song is the best.

Other bands in the same boat (often mentioned, but no agreement on song): Priest, Metallica, Megadeth, Iced Earth and obviously Maiden. No real surprises.

Looks like Shade and Foro had the most "unique" lists.

 

[Shadow]

8. Gorefest (NL) – “The Glorious Dead” (1992)
Pure luck got me into this band, and consequently into death metal. Back in the summer of 1994 some friends asked me to go with them to some university party (I wasn’t even studying at that university!) where many bands played. This band happened to be one of them … and they totally blew me away! The drumming patterns were so awesome that I suddenly could admire music with grunts! This song is an absolute classic, to be found on one of the finest albums (False) in the history of death metal.

I just listened to this for the first time. Reminds me of the later Carcass albums. I like it.

6. Bruce Dickinson (UK) – “The Breeding House” (1994)
Shadow chose a Dickinson B-side, I choose a Dickinson B-side. I still remember the day that I heard the CD-single of “Tears of the Dragon” for the first time. No way I expected that b-sides could be as strong as these two! I like Shadow’s pick almost as much as this one, but “The Breeding House” has some nice melodic guitar lines that rock! I also like the “nasty” interval with the “Come to see the carnival, come to witness fear…” lyric. I never understood why these tracks didn’t land on Balls to Picasso.

If the Balls to Picasso b'sides had been released as an album, it would have been one the greatest and most varied metal albums ever. The "No Way Out..." tracks, "The Breeding House", "Over and Out", "The Post-Alternative Seattle Fall-Out", "Firechild"...

 

[Forostar]

I just listened to this for the first time. Reminds me of the later Carcass albums. I like it.

Perhaps no coincidence.
One of the guitar players was (and is) a huge fan (and wearing a Carcass shirt in the links from my previous post).

You really might like the albums False (1992) and Erase (1994).

About your At The Gates pick: Great stuff, I was lucky that I caught this band (and Carcass) on Wacken last year. I still remember Nush and (esp.) Per getting nuts by the At The Gates performance. Every 10 seconds they change tempo's & rhythms, hahaha! Impossible to headbang.

My favourite ATG-record is Terminal Spirit Disease. A lesser production than their final album, but I think the average song was better.

 

[Shadow]

You really might like the albums False (1992) and Erase (1994).

Yeah, I plan on listening to them one of these days.

My favourite ATG-record is Terminal Spirit Disease. A lesser production than their final album, but I think the average song was better.

You know me, I like the crazy stuff. So The Red in the Sky is Ours is my favourite.

 

[Forostar]

The songs on Erase are slower than the ones on False, but still damn heavy. It has a special atmosphere. I guess I still prefer False, because of some awesome drum patterns. You may know this drummer. He is Ed Warby, one of the most allround metal drummers of Holland. He also played on most Ayreon albums, plus on Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator which includes this track with Bruce.

He also played in other projects. His latest is the most surprising one. Doom(!) band The Eleventh Hour, for which he wrote all the music and lyrics, played all instruments and even did all the clean vocals! I checked it and it really sounds pretty good.

You know me, I like the crazy stuff. So The Red in the Sky is Ours is my favourite.

That's indeed the most extreme one. Alf Svensson is clearly the main songwriter on that one (and the next).

 

[Genghis Khan]

Well, I've looked through the lists a bit more. And the interesting trend I saw: many people agree on who the best bands are, but not the best songs. For instance, a lot of people listed at least one Black Sabbath song, but there is little agreement on which Sabbath song is the best.

I chose 'Fairies...' but could easily have went with 'Iron Man'.

 

[Forostar]

Ladies and gentlemen, the outcome of the 2 best songs in Black Sabbath Survivor has just been revealed.

 

[____no5]

SMX provided us an excellent list. It's obvious that he answered better than anybody the initial question :
'Which are the 10 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time ?'

The rest of us -more or less- we did a combination of personal tastes and objective facts.
Personally, I answered to the question 'My 10 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time'

@Foro : Thanks for the links!

 

[SinisterMinisterX]

SMX provided us an excellent list. It's obvious that he answered better than anybody the initial question :
'Which are the 10 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time ?'

Really? Thanks for the compliment, I suppose, but it's all personal taste. To say that my list is "better" than anyone else's is silly.

 

[____no5]

No I said that you answered better, not that your list is better, how could I ?
This means that your list could is more close to 'professionalism' than anyone's.

Take for example my list: Of course I love it, but : No Metallica, no Slayer, no Pantera there. It's clearly thus, a personal list,
not likely to see it in a magazine or professional site. Journalists when they make lists, consider how a group has influenced the genre,
the importance of a song in the time of release, not only its beauty.
What I'm saying so, is that your list meets the most these standards (including the very nice comments you did)

-----
I made my list taking into account how each one of these songs has influenced my metal universe, not metal generally 
That's why there is Diamond Head instead of Metallica to say an example

I hope it's more clear now!

 

[Forostar]

Many metal magazines and e-zines have lists, one for each journalist. That's what happened in this topic.
There are no standards. You have yours, others have theirs. The title of the top-10 isn't "which had the most influence". This forum is not a professional site.

 

[____no5]

But Greatest do mean he who has the biggest influence /importance. It's not personal that much, but rather objective...Or at least I believe.

If the title was '10 Best Metal Songs of All Time', then it would have been the case for more personal suggestion

 

[Forostar]

But Greatest do mean he who has the biggest influence /importance.

It doesn't.

It's not personal that much

It is.

, but rather objective.

It isn't.

...Or at least I believe.

If the title was '10 Best Metal Songs of All Time', then it would have been the case for more personal suggestion

Greatest, best, most favourite, it all comes down to the one who chooses. So it's a subjective pick.

 

[____no5]

Use your common sense Forostar. Common sense. Best and greatest do not mean the same thing.
That's why most (if not all) such lists have the 'greatest' and not 'best' in their title.

 

[Forostar]

When someone makes a personal list it doesn't matter really. It's a subjective view. One person cannot decide what is great, or what is the best. Therefore, when everyone makes his own list, these words have the same meaning.

There's no personal touch in a list only consisting of songs which had airplay on the radio. Such lists are statistics. And who are you to judge someone's list saying that these bands had (no) significance or (no) influence? E.g. you state that Pantera, Slayer and Metallica have to be in a "greatest" list. Who told you that? What rule says that? Your rule.

So, if every word you say is very subjective, it's strange to say there are objective criteria, since they are your criteria.

If we have to make objective lists, then we all would have the same top 10. And that is exactly not the point.

 

[____no5]

If we have to make objective lists, then we all would have the same top 10. And that is exactly not the point.

I must agree here.... All these lists are quite similar. And yes, this is absolutely not the point here.

Ok, to go back to here it started, let's simply say that SMX's list had 'that something' for me;
the way it was written, the collection of songs, made me enjoy it enormously.
I complicated things too much by using words like 'better', 'objective' etc

 

[Shadow]

But Greatest do mean he who has the biggest influence /importance.

Why do you consider influence to be the biggest aspect of greatness?

 

[____no5]

Because 'influence' sums a lot of different things :

1. Success -if it works, other people will copy it
2. Inspiration -when something is original & powerful people will be inspired from it, either if it's successful or not
3. Wave /Movement -usually an influential group is either very important inside a wave,
or even better its precursor which leads directly to
4. Opening of new Grounds 

Usually greatness includes these elements

 

[Shadow]

The problem is that both greatness and influence are very vague concepts. There are many possible standards for greatness: influence, innovation (which is not the same), commercial success and critical acclaim all come to mind. You can create any combination of standards you like.

Furthermore, influence is a slippery standard. It is cumulative, for example, so where do you start? Let's say Band A influences a lot of bands, but were themselves strongly influenced by Band B. In that case, are the bands influenced by Band A also influenced by Band B? Does that indirect influence give Band B a point in the greatness race? What if Band B were the innovators, and Band A merely brought their style to a larger audience? You also have to decide which influence matters the most. Are the innovators of death metal more important than the innovators of black metal? Or do you ignore such latecomers completely and include only the earliest bands, who could be said to have influenced everybody one way or the other? No matter what you do, it comes down to subjective choices.

Obviously, certain bands have been more prominent than others in the history of metal, but any attempt to list the greatest songs or albums or bands will be heavily influenced by the writer's personal opinions and standards.

 

[____no5]

In the way you pose it, band B is 'objectively' more important. Band A is Diamond Head, Band B is Metallica.
And as you see, there are still some people that place Am I Evil higher than any Metallica song in their lists 

Now, regarding death or black metal, is a tough one, to can answer you'll need to know -which I don't-
other genres that have been influenced either from black or death.

You have to see it as a tree with many branches. In that way, objectively black is more important.
To how I see the things though, death is more important as it's more open as a 'source of influence' to other genres.