# Heavy Metal Fans Must Have Top 10 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 2, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230 "2011-03-02T16:54:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230/61 "2011-03-08T15:18:14Z")
I just realized I left Dream Theater off my list. The shame! > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > 1. Queensryche - _Greatest Hits_ > 2. Faith No More - _We Care A Lot_ > 3. Iron Maiden - _Edward the Great_ > 4. Black Sabbath - _We Sold Our Souls for Rock & Roll_ > 5. Motorhead - _No Remorse_ > 6. Deep Purple - _Machine Head_ > 7. Pantera - _Vulgar Display of Power_ > 8. Metallica - _Metallica/The Black Album_ > 9. Judas Priest - _British Steel_ > 10. Guns and Roses - _Use Your Illusion II_ Out you go, G n’ R. _Images & Words_ at #10. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230/62 "2011-03-11T22:13:12Z")
I’m apparently gonna be a heathen here… Never heard Pantera until I downloaded “Vulgar Display of Power,” based on this thread. Really? It’s fine. Was it revolutionary at the time or something? Joe ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230/63 "2011-03-11T23:28:58Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > Was it revolutionary at the time or something? [Yes](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnFunny). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230/64 "2011-03-12T16:09:06Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > Never heard Pantera until I downloaded “Vulgar Display of Power,” based on this thread. > > Really? It’s fine. Was it revolutionary at the time or something? Yeah. It’s wouldn’t be a stretch to say it saved heavy metal. It came out in 1992- the same year that \*Nevermind \*turned hard rock on its ear. Now, at the time, it wasn’t a huge seller - it never made it into Billboard’s top 40 - but it basically defined the sound of metal for the rest of the 90s, the same way _British Steel_ did the 80s. Actually, the easiest way to point out its importance is to look at the next Pantera record. _Far Beyond Driven_ debuted at #1 in the US and at #3 in the UK (where non-grunge hard rock was officially dead by 1994). In the days before the internet, the only way to get your record to debut at #1 was to have massive word of mouth about it, and the only way for a band like Pantera (ie, way too heavy to get any attention in the mainstream tabloids) was to have people talk about their last album for two years. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230/65 "2011-03-14T14:08:18Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > Was it revolutionary at the time or something? Insanely so. It was two years after Megadeth released Rust in Peace and Anthrax released Persistance of Time and four years after Metallica did …And Justice for All. It would still be two more years before Slayer released Divine Intervention and so it was an oasis of truly heavy metal that came after the Big Four had entered their major 1990’s decline. Despite the huge surge in the popularity of Grunge rock there were still plenty of metalheads out there, but sure enough Pantera held down the fort for most of the 90’s. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230/66 "2011-03-14T17:17:52Z")
FWIW, The one time I saw Pantera play, they had another band on the tour with 'em. It’s too bad nobody from White Zombie ever made it big. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230/67 "2011-03-14T17:40:33Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > Inspired by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=598380), I propose the following list of classic metal must-haves albums for any beginner listener (in no real particular order). > > 1.) Black Sabbath - _Paranoid_ > 2.) Iron Maiden - _Number of the Beast_ > 3.) Judas Priest - _British Steel_ > 4.) Metallica - _Kill’ em All_ > 5.) Queensryche - _The Warning_ > 6.) Slayer - _Hell Awaits_ > 7.) Motley Crue - _Shout at the Devil_ > 8.) Scorpions - _Blackout_ > 9.) Megadeth - _Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?_ > 10.) Anthrax -\* Spreading the Disease\* > > I realize others may have different preferences from each band but are there any other suggestions? Fitting into your list something from Savatage - maybe Hall of the Mountain King My personal list would need at least one Steppenwolf (7 or At Your Birthday Party) and at least one Dio (Lock Up the Wolves maybe) ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230/68 "2011-03-14T21:09:56Z")
Just for a bit of data, here are the [ten most-played artists](http://www.last.fm/tag/heavy%20metal/artists) assigned the “heavy metal” tag on last.fm and their most-played albums: [ol] [li]Iron Maiden, _The Number of the Beast_[/li][li]Judas Priest, _Painkiller_[/li][li]Black Sabbath, _Paranoid_[/li][li]Motörhead, _The Ace of Spades_[/li][li]Metallica, _Death Magnetic_\*[/li][li]Ozzy Osbourne, _Blizzard of Ozz_[/li][li]Manowar, _Warriors of the World_[/li][li]Dio, _Holy Diver_[/li][li]Megadeth, _Rust in Peace_[/li][li]Black Label Society, _Mafia_[/li][/ol] This is just going by the number of tracks played, so there are a couple oddities, but overall it’s a pretty solid list. There’s also a list of the top albums overall, but it’s so completely dominated by Iron Maiden and Metallica that it’s not really representative of anything except how popular those two bands are. \*_Master of Puppets_ has the second highest number of plays. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heavy-metal-fans-must-have-top-10/573230.md?page=3)