Gojira
Tool
Big Black and Ministry immediately come to mind. Can’t think of either of them doing anything that could even be loosely described as a ballad.
Oh, or Sleep. Unless slow ass doom rock somehow qualifies as a ballad.
I am only familiar with early Judas Priest but back in the day they did loads of ballads including Last Rose of Summer, Here Come the Tears and Dreamer Deceiver.
From their better known tracks there is Beyond the Realms of Death which on the live Album Unleashed in the East lead singer Rob Halford introduced as “A beautiful ballad.” For those unfamiliar with it, the track combines slow crooning accompanied by light guitar mixed with louder full metal guitars and Halford’s trademark screams but I suspect he was sincere in calling it a ballad.
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It is (quite) a bit of a stretch but the Sid Vicious / Sex Pistols version of My Way is fairly iconic and the beginning of a track has Sid attempting to croon over an orchestral backing. Balladeering if you are generous.
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I vaguely remembered a slower **AC/DC **track from the Who Made Who? soundtrack. A check reveals it’s Ride On (originally from the Bon Scott era Dirty Deeds Done Cheap album) which you mention and which you dismiss as not a ballad. I’m not confident enough to define what is or isn’t a ballad but I note on Wiki the track is described as having a 'Sad, slow blues, almost ballad-like feel to it.’
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I thought of CCR, but the song that made me rule them out was I Wrote A Song for Everyone.
Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem? Oh, wait, I guess they do do tender love ballads.
Not a big fan, but I have never heard anything ballady from ZZ Top
Rough Boy. Hit #22 in May of 1986. Not one of their better songs.
Motorhead has a least a couple, 1916 and Don’t Let Daddy Kiss Me are both slow.
Judas Priest has a number of slower songs, I would say close to one on every album except maybe one or two.
Off the top of my head I can’t think of any metal bands that don’t have some sort of ballad or slower song. Even Anthrax and Armored Saint had a few.
Scrolling through my music I see ones that I do not know off the top of my head that might not have any:
Dethklok and Overkill are the only two that I see that might not have any, but even there I don’t know enough about their output.
How about Iron Maiden? I can’t think of anything slow or ballady off the top of my head, though I’m not thoroughly familiar with their stuff post-1990.
Lots of metal bands don’t do ballads.
Dying Fetus, Annotations of an Autopsy, Cumbeast, Abhorrent Decimation, Necrophagist, Absu, Bolt Thrower, Ringworm, Slayer… not a ballad in any of their catalogs, for instance.
Joan Jett covered The Replacements’ “Androgynous,” which I consider a particularly beautiful ballad from a band you might think never did ballads either, except for, y’know, “Androgynous.” Nice vid, too.
When I bought me a tenor saxophone at age 34, my wife treated me to jazz lessons at the Brooklyn Conservatory. My teacher started me off on Charlie Parker tunes. A couple weeks in I said “Jesus, these are fuckin’ HARD. Shouldn’t we have begun with some ballads?”He gave me a look and replied “You think BALLADS are EASY?”
I know almost everything the Clash recorded, and I also cannot think of a downright ballad they made. They had slower songs like “Straight To Hell”, “Corner Soul” or “Broadway” (maybe my favorite Clash track), but they’re all no ballads for me.
“Journeyman” off of the 2003 album Dance of Death is an acoustic ballad.
If you think that sounds awful you would actually be wrong, I love it.
“Coming Home” from the 2010(?) album The Final Frontier is kind of a power ballad too.
Edit: “Wasting Love” from Fear of the Dark is another one that would probably qualify.
Anthrax has one no doubt ballad:
It may be tongue-in-cheek but it’s definitely a ballad.
I think I found a technicality for Rancid. They did a cover of the Theme from Gilligan’s Island, which, if I recall correctly was titled, The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island.
So…
Van Halen (Roth era) had Jamie’s Cryin, I’ll Wait, Feel Your Love Tonight, Could This Be Magic, Big Bad Bill Is Sweet William Now, all of which may qualify as ballad-y just as much as other songs in this thread.
Sunday Afternoon In the Park is one of my faves tracks, but it’s no ballad!
I just listen to that. If it’s not a ballad - in the late 50s, early 60s style - I don’t know what is.
Disagree with Feel Your Love Tonight. It’s pure pop hard rock. May as well call In A Simple Rhyme a ballad. And the lyrics of Feel Your Love Tonight have a rapey feel to them that I didn’t acknowledge as a kid. Big Bad Bill is more of a jazz standard done for the benefit of having Jan Van Halen play on the record. I’ll give you Could This Be Magic and I’ll Wait are close.
All of those you listed just show the versatility of Van Halen on the first six records. I’ve got nothing against ballads, but there’s got to be a line somewhere. I will acknowledge that you noted that they “may qualify as ballad-y” when compared with other songs in this thread, and I think you’re probably right about that. But when considering traditional ballads, I don’t think they do.