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AboveAverage484

Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All-Time

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Because I don't feel like writing the whole list, I'll put up one hundred every couple of days. To make a long story short, this list comes from a book by Marvin Popoff, who compiled it after compiling fans and musicians top ten lists.

 

So here it is, Nos. 500 through 401.

 

500. "Astronomy" by Blue Öyster Cult

499. "Powertrip" by Monster Magnet

498. "Bomber" by Motörhead

497. "Wait and Bleed" by Slipknot

496. "Over My Head by King's X

495. "Thus Spoke the Nightspirit" by Emperor

494. "Green Machine" by Kyuss

493. "Gangland" by Tygers of Pan Tang

492. "Metal on Metal" by Anvil

491. "Thunder and Lightning" by Thin Lizzy

490. "Stormbringer" by Deep Purple

489. "Bad Company" by Bad Company

488. "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas

487. "Black Winter Day" by Amorphis

486. "Breadfan" by Budgie

485. "The Mirror" by Dream Theater

484. "All Right Now" by Free

483. "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica

482. "Lack of Communication" by Ratt

481. "At the Gates" by Suicide Nation

480. "Spiral Architect" by Black Sabbath

479. "Tarot Woman" by Rainbow

478. "Shoot to Thrill" by AC/DC

477. "Still Life" by Iron Maiden

476. "Ride the Sky" by Lucifer's Friend

475. "Revolution is My Name" by Pantera

474. "Mean Man" by W.A.S.P.

473. "Madhouse" by Anthrax

472. "She" by Kiss

471. "The Thing That Should Not Be" by Metallica

470. "And the Cradle Will Rock..." by Van Halen

469. "The Idol" by W.A.S.P.

468. "Walk All Over You" by AC/DC

467. "Rats in the Cellar" by Aerosmith

466. "Creatures of the Night" by Kiss

465. "Countdown to Extinction" by Megadeth

464. "Rock the Nation" by Montrose

463. "La Villa Strangiato" by Rush

462. "Genocide" by Judas Priest

461. "Slave to the Grind" by Skid Row

460. "At Dawn They Sleep" by Slayer

459. "Kiss of Death" by Dokken

458. "Beneath the Remains" by Sepultura

457. "Rosin Dubh (Black Rose) A Rock Legend" by Thin Lizzy

456. "Rapid Fire" by Judas Priest

455. "I Was Made for Loving You" by Kiss

454. "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Mötley Crüe

453. "Back in the Saddle" by Aerosmith

452. "A Sorceror's Pledge" by Candlemass

451. "The Final Countdown" by Europe

450. "Silent Screams" by Halford

449. "War Machine" by Kiss

448. "Suffer the Children" by Napalm Death

447. "No Love Lost" by Carcass

446. "Low" by Testament

445. "Gypsy Road" by Cinderella

444. "Black Night" by Deep Purple

443. "Power of the Night" by Savatage

442. "Say What You Will" by Fastway

441. "Demanufacture" by Fear Factory

440. "To Live is to Die" by Metallica

439. "Pull the Plug" by Death

438. "S.A.T.O." by Ozzy Osbourne

437. "You Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll" by Twisted Sister

436. "Too Hot to Handle" by UFO

435. "Mr. Brownstone" by Guns N' Roses

434. "Children of the Damned" by Iron Maiden

433. "In My World" by Anthrax

432. "Bring the Noise" by Anthrax

431. "Dethroned Emperor" by Celtic Frost

430. "Can I Play with Madness" by Iron Maiden

429. "Anthem to the Estranged" by Metal Church

428. "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains

427. "Surprise! You're Dead!" by Faith No More

426. "The Oath" by Mercyful Fate

425. "Attitude" by Sepultura

424. "Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots

423. "Can You Deliver" by Armored Saint

422. "God of Wrath" by Metal Church

421. "Monkey Business" by Skid Row

420. "In League with Satan" by Venom

419. "Poison" by Alice Cooper

418. "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison

417. "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden

416. "Witchfinder General" by Witchfinder General

415. "Sacrificial Suicide" by Deicide

414. "Ogre Battle" by Queen

413. "Under the Blade" by Twisted Sister

412. "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix Experience

411. "Kickstart My Heart" by Mötley Crüe

410. "Assault Attack" by Michael Schenker Group

409. "The Wizard" by Uriah Heep

408. "I Don't Need No Doctor" by Humble Pie

407. "Zero the Hero" by Black Sabbath

406. "I Am the Black Wizards" by Emperor

405. "Love Bites" by Judas Priest

404. "Blood of My Enemies" by Manowar

403. "Hit the Lights" by Metallica

402. "Nightfall" by Blind Guardian

401. "Badlands" by Metal Church

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500. "Astronomy" by Blue Öyster Cult

499. "Powertrip" by Monster Magnet

497. "Wait and Bleed" by Slipknot

494. "Green Machine" by Kyuss

491. "Thunder and Lightning" by Thin Lizzy

490. "Stormbringer" by Deep Purple

489. "Bad Company" by Bad Company

488. "Carry on Wayward Son" by Kansas

483. "Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica

482. "Lack of Communication" by Ratt

478. "Shoot to Thrill" by AC/DC

474. "Mean Man" by W.A.S.P.

472. "She" by Kiss

470. "And the Cradle Will Rock..." by Van Halen

469. "The Idol" by W.A.S.P.

468. "Walk All Over You" by AC/DC

467. "Rats in the Cellar" by Aerosmith

466. "Creatures of the Night" by Kiss

464. "Rock the Nation" by Montrose

463. "La Villa Strangiato" by Rush

461. "Slave to the Grind" by Skid Row

459. "Kiss of Death" by Dokken

457. "Rosin Dubh (Black Rose) A Rock Legend" by Thin Lizzy

455. "I Was Made for Loving You" by Kiss

454. "Girls, Girls, Girls" by Mötley Crüe

453. "Back in the Saddle" by Aerosmith

451. "The Final Countdown" by Europe

449. "War Machine" by Kiss

445. "Gypsy Road" by Cinderella

444. "Black Night" by Deep Purple

437. "You Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll" by Twisted Sister

435. "Mr. Brownstone" by Guns N' Roses

428. "Man in the Box" by Alice in Chains

424. "Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots

421. "Monkey Business" by Skid Row

419. "Poison" by Alice Cooper

418. "Talk Dirty to Me" by Poison

417. "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden

414. "Ogre Battle" by Queen

413. "Under the Blade" by Twisted Sister

412. "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix Experience

411. "Kickstart My Heart" by Mötley Crüe

 

Those are not metal songs, and many are not metal songs by bands that aren't metal. Also...

 

455. "I Was Made for Loving You" by Kiss IS A FUCKING DISCO SONG!!! KISS EVEN FUCKING SAYS IT'S A DISCO SONG!!!!

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Anytime a list gets past 100, it's pretty well arbitrary after that.

 

Damn, I'm getting a headache looking at these things... call me when you post the 100-1 portion of it

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Honest question: Why isn't WASP metal?

 

I mean, yeah, they're 80's cheese, but I dunno...they don't strike me as being so far off-base (like, say, Posion) as to totally throw them out of the genre.

 

But then again, I really think you need to mellow out Laz. While you do have a point with some of those bands, you need to realize that most people don't care to draw a distinction between hard rock and heavy metal, so it all gets mushed together. Just...settle down, man.

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Being bad doesn't mean they're not metal, though.

 

(I'll point this out before this goes further - I like some WASP.)

 

And Benoitrulz makes a good point; This list is probably about an accurate of a list as you can get, on account of it's voted for by fans. And not a small number - doesn't the top song get like, 4,000-something votes?

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Honest question: Why isn't WASP metal?

 

I mean, yeah, they're 80's cheese, but I dunno...they don't strike me as being so far off-base (like, say, Posion) as to totally throw them out of the genre.

I think because most metal fans who grew up from that time would remember them for their first two albums and the hits that came off of those, which, while somewhat cheesy, were quite good to me.

 

Blackie did make some more serious metal in the next couple followups before going back to fun metal. I suggest Headless Children and Crimson Idol, the latter being a concept album about a rocker's rise to and fall from fame, and I believe deeper down it's about the rise and fall of hair metal (was made in '92, just after the death of HM)

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And me and Laz have argued about this before and came to the conclusion that we would argue forever on heavy/not heavy metal. Everyone has their own opinion, hell, there are some guys on the metal-rules board that don't consider muther fuckin Slayer heavy metal!

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I'd like to see their argument, considering Slayer is the band practically responsible for the US Thrash movement (at least the sloppier, more aggressive thrash bands). If they say "Angel Of Death" isn't practically THE metal song, then they're wankers.

 

As for why I consider WASP to not be metal, the music. It's waaay too glam rock. Like, glam rock riffs are usually based on moderate distortion, AC/DC-style drumming (except for solo's), overly simplistic riffs based on rockabilly and blues riffs, and lyrics more about sex and drugs than anything else. I just don't see how one could listen to WASP and then, say, Diamond Head (same era) and call WASP metal.

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And if people can't tell the difference between hard rock and heavy metal, then they shouldn't even attempt at making a METAL list.

That is definitely a problem thanks to marketing executives liking to give everything cool names. I stick by the rule that if its underground it's metal. Once it gets processed up and melted down into commercialized form its hard rock. Another big problem is that a lot of bands that we are arguing over being heavy metal or not today were considered metal at one point in time. When people were calling Kiss and Motley Crue metal, I bet they never imagined anything that would sound like Messhugguh.

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I was made for lovin you is not metal.

 

Creatures Of The Night & War Machine ARE metal, hell the entire Creatures album rocks.

 

"She" ..well, good song but i don't know, kinda classic rock

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That's fair Laz. Not that I fully agree with you, but I do see where you're coming from, and I know now that it wasn't the same baseless "they're not metal cuz I don't like 'em" viewpoint some people have.

 

Though to be fair, I don't think you can say that since they don't sound like other metal bands, they're not metal. I mean, metal itself is such a wide genre that two metal bands could easily come out in the same year and be nothing alike, simply because they play two different styles of metal.

 

And I don't think that being "underground" has anything to do with being metal. Iron Maiden's last CD went to #1 in a number of European countires. Does that mean they're not metal?

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But every metal band sounds like another in an aspect. Each stage of the Metal Evolution has a direct link to the prior, which I will demonstrate.

 

Heavy Metal

Black Sabbath took blues licks and riffs, distorted them, and produced gloomy, heavy music.

 

New Wave Of British Heavy Metal

Bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, and Venom took the basics that Black Sabbath laid out, and modified them slightly. The music was, on average, more melodic, but was also faster and heavier.

 

Thrash/Speed Metal

US bands took lesser-known European metal acts (Diamond Head, Angel Witch {I believe, although I could be confusing this band with another similar band}, etc.) and combined their style of metal with US punk bands (mostly the speed, aggression, and simplicity) to create a faster, dirtier, heavier form of music. Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth are considered "The Big 5" of US thrash.

 

Black Metal

European metal bands took the NWOBHM sound, took the gloss off of it, and sped it up to create a poorly produced, atmospheric assault on the sense. Lyrics range from ancient wars to mythology to Satanism.

 

Death Metal

US thrash bands began making the music more aggressive, writing more "brutal" lyrics, the drumming picked up in its intensity, the level of distortion was increased, and the vocals were growled and snarled more often than they were sang. Over a relatively small amount of time, death metal became the most widespread form of metal, and still remains the most popular for newer bands to play and experiment with.

 

Heavy begat NWOBHM. NWOBHM begat Thrash/Speed and Black. Thrash/Speed begat Death. And today, there are many classifications and sub-genre's of metal that have direct links to previous styles.

 

Glam rock has more to do with the New York Dolls and Led Zeppelin than it does Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. Nu-metal has more to do with Nirvana and Korn than it does with Slayer and Death.

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That's not really what I meant though.

 

What I was getting at, in my somewhat poorly-worded post, was that saying "WASP doesn't sound like Diamond Head, so they're not metal" is akin to saying "Iron Maiden doesn't sound like Death, so they're not metal".

 

I just don't think "This band doesn't sound like this band" is a valid argument. If you take it out a step further (like you just did) then I'll buy it, but to simply state it the way you originally did doesn't seem to work.

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I like Laz' family tree. It just makes me wonder why people called bands like Kiss, Wasp, Motley Crue metal in the past.

 

And I don't think that being "underground" has anything to do with being metal. Iron Maiden's last CD went to #1 in a number of European countires. Does that mean they're not metal?

Let me try to clarify my earlier point. I was talking more about the American scene, thanks to marketing from the major labels. They pretty much push any band that is louder than Weezer as being metal, as opposed to the guidelines that anyone in this thread use to consider something being metal. I guess it was more of an observation that most metal comes from underground (hehe...that sounds funny) or indie labels.

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The way I originally stated it was a summarized version of the way I stated it in the Family Tree-style. WASP has no link to metal bands, thus I do not consider them metal.

 

I will say, however, that glam rock/nu-metal do a damn good job, sometimes, of blurring the lines between what IS and ISN'T metal. Motley Crue are VERY borderline, and I would consider a few of their tunes to be metal songs. The band, overall, was not a metal band, however. Much like, say, Black Sabbath can do a folk-ish song ("Planet Caravan"), a non-metal band can do a metal song.

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