Greatest heavy metal band of all time?

Greatest heavy metal band of all time

  • Black Sabbath

    Votes: 4 21.1%

  • Judas Priest

    Votes: 1 5.3%

  • Iron Maiden

    Votes: 10 52.6%

  • Motorhead

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Metallica

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Rainbow(Dio Era)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Scorpions

    Votes: 1 5.3%

  • Ozzy

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Dio

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Ayreon

    Votes: 3 15.8%

  • Iced Earth

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Van Halen(DLR era)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Sabaton

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    19
  • Poll closed .
Voted Scorpions, I feel like their career has different eras which would appeal to a very broad variety of people. Maiden and Rainbow were close behind but I had to go with what got me hooked on hard rock and metal and that is the german metal machine.
 
The Dissident said:
Voted Scorpions, I feel like their career has different eras which would appeal to a very broad variety of people. Maiden and Rainbow were close behind but I had to go with what got me hooked on hard rock and metal and that is the german metal machine.
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Scorpions is not even metal, let alone the best.
 
They are indeed solid albums.

Scorpions are one of the bands who have often toed the line between Metal and Hard Rock. Many people consider them, not Black Sabbath, to be the first Metal band. Some of their earlier material is quite Metal (e.g. 'Sails of Charon') are quite Metal, but their more recent albums have been nothing of the sort. Personally, I consider them to be a Hard Rock band. I also don't have a lot of time for what Metal Archives deems to be Metal or not.
 
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If you ask the people who were around in 1980, most of them would tell you that Scorpions were pretty much the hardest and heaviest you got at the time, and that they are aware this wouldn't be understood anymore nowadays. This is at least what I've heard time and again. So maybe from that perspective, it's legitimate to call them metal.
 
Who is Aryeon and why are they here instead of Megadeth?

Also I voted for Maiden. Duh.
 
The Dissident said:
I’d argue that they have 3 weaker albums, 6 or 7 great albums and 8 or 9 ones which are still good albums overall. The run from Fly To The Rainbow through Love At First Sting is amazing.
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They have a few solid albums but I would say the four album run from Lovedrive to Love at First Sting are the only truly great ones (still a solid number).
 
Opeth is my favorite metal band of all-time, but Iron Maiden is probably more deserving of the "greatest" title all things considered. I'd rank them just below Opeth anyway so not much of a stretch.
 
.... eerrr tough one. As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to Heavy Metal there´s this holy trinity: Sabbath, Priest & Maiden. So I'll go like this:
Maiden is the band that developed a more unique sound, the one that had better public acclaim worldwide, best fan base and the one that late in their careers are still at the top of their genre. They're also my favorite band out of this trio.
On the other hand, Priest almost established the genre in different eras with records such as Sad Wings, Stained Class, British Steel, Screaming and Painkiller. They created the visuals and introduced the twin metal attack to the genre and made my favorite Heavy Metal album (Painkiller).
But Sabbath simply created the pillars that support Metal and sown the seeds for a myriad of sub genres (Doom, Stoner, Grunge, Folk, Prog metal... this guys were decades ahead of their time). Although being the band out of these 3 that released a greater number of failled records (Never Say Die, Born Again and Seventh Star are some examples) I don´t know how music itself would be today if it wasn't for this guys... So you can easily guess my pick.
 
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Regarding the other bands:

a) Motorhead and Metallica are no brainers when it comes to this conversation and to a certain extent so do both Ozzy and Dio's solo careers.
b) I'm far from being a Scorpions fan but their early stuff is indeed Metal (with the exception of their debut that happens to be prog rock and the only one I really love) and pretty relevant when the genre was solidifying. Same works for Van Halen and Rainbow.
c) Without lacking respect but when it comes to Innovation, impact and legacy regarding the genre... what are Ayeron, Iced Earth and Sabaton doing here?
d) On the other hand where are bands such as Saxon? Mercyful Fate? Venom? Slayer and Megadeth? (I only mentioned these because Metallica are featured here albeit being most of the time a Thrash metal band). All of these were game changers that are absolutely worshiped by other bands and whose fanbases are utterly fanatical.
 
karljant said:
.... eerrr tough one. As far as I'm concerned, when it comes to Heavy Metal there´s this holy trinity: Sabbath, Priest & Maiden.
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Agree with you about the holy trinity, but for me it's:
1.Sabbath: Invented heavy metal
2.Priest: Perfected heavy metal
3.Maiden: Brought a unique sound to metal.
 
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