Heavy Metal
The heaviest branch of the tree: Black Sabbath's birth of metal, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and thrash's Metallica-led charge.
Part of Rock
36 moments in this segment.
- — Black Sabbath — Iron Man. The doom-laden 1970 riff that helped define the whole genre.
- — Black Sabbath — Paranoid. Black Sabbath's 1970 riffs are widely regarded as the birth of heavy metal.
- — Black Sabbath — War Pigs. Sabbath's anti-war epic is one of metal's foundational statements.
- — Deep Purple — Highway Star. Deep Purple's speed and virtuosity helped lay the groundwork for metal.
- — Diamond Head — Am I Evil?. Diamond Head's NWOBHM classic became a Metallica staple.
- — Judas Priest — Breaking the Law. Judas Priest gave metal its leather-and-studs look and twin-guitar attack.
- — Black Sabbath (with Dio) — Heaven and Hell. Ronnie James Dio reinvented Sabbath and gave metal one of its great voices.
- — Motörhead — Ace of Spades. Motörhead's 1980 anthem bridged metal and punk at full speed.
- — Venom — Black Metal. Venom's raw 1981 album named and pointed the way to black metal.
- — Iron Maiden — Run to the Hills. Iron Maiden led the New Wave of British Heavy Metal into the '80s.
- — Iron Maiden — The Number of the Beast. Iron Maiden's 1982 album made them metal's flagship band.
- — Metallica — Master of Puppets. Metallica's 1986 thrash landmark is one of metal's most revered albums.
- — Slayer — Angel of Death. Slayer's 1986 Reign in Blood defined thrash's extreme edge.
- — Anthrax — Indians. Anthrax brought New York energy and crossover thrash to the Big Four.
- — Guns N' Roses — Welcome to the Jungle. Guns N' Roses' 1987 debut brought danger back to hard rock.
- — Metallica — One. Metallica's 1988 anti-war epic and its first video broadened thrash's reach.
- — Judas Priest — Painkiller. Judas Priest's 1990 speed-metal onslaught raised the genre's bar.
- — Megadeth — Holy Wars. Dave Mustaine's Megadeth pushed thrash's technical edge on Rust in Peace.
- — Slayer — Seasons in the Abyss. Slayer's dark precision made them thrash's most extreme of the Big Four.
- — Death and the birth of death metal. Chuck Schuldiner's Death pioneered the death-metal genre in Florida.
- — Metallica — Enter Sandman. The 1991 single that took thrash's leaders to global stadiums.
- — Pantera — Walk. Pantera's 1992 groove metal reset the genre for the '90s.
- — Iron Maiden — Fear of the Dark. Iron Maiden's title track became a live anthem for a generation.
- — Sepultura — Refuse/Resist. Brazil's Sepultura carried metal's fury to the whole world.
- — Kyuss and the birth of stoner rock. Josh Homme's Kyuss forged the heavy, fuzzy desert sound of stoner rock.
- — Rammstein — Du Hast. Germany's Rammstein made industrial metal a global spectacle.
- — Sleep — Dopesmoker. Sleep's monolithic doom took stoner metal to its slow, heavy extreme.
- — Tool — Schism. Tool brought art-prog complexity to modern metal.
- — Slipknot — Wait and Bleed. Slipknot brought masked, brutal nu-metal to the mainstream.
- — System of a Down — Chop Suey!. System of a Down fused metal, politics and Armenian melody in 2001.
- — Opeth — The Drapery Falls. Sweden's Opeth fused death metal and prog into something wholly new.
- — Lamb of God — Laid to Rest. Lamb of God led the American 'new wave' of heavy metal in the 2000s.
- — Avenged Sevenfold — Bat Country. Avenged Sevenfold carried metal to a huge new-millennium audience.
- — Mastodon — Oblivion. Mastodon carried progressive metal into the 2000s.
- — Ghost — Cirice. Sweden's theatrical Ghost won a Grammy and made metal a pop spectacle again.
- — Gojira — Silvera. France's Gojira made technical, ecological metal a global force.
