Hey, everyone.

Recently I was hit with a huge wave of nostalgia, trying to recall and listening once again to some bands I used to enjoy in high school, back when I was just getting into metal - and that was about 15 years ago, so I started to wonder and wanted to ask for your personal experiences:

What was the best and/or worst year in metal for you? What was the year that spawned the most of your absolute greatest favorite songs that you can never get tired of, or perhaps the year with most disappointing releases from bands you (used to) adore?

Please don't turn this into a list topic, I'd love to hear your explanations as I am very strongly passionate about music and want people to share the same

So why not get the ball rolling?

ITs personal for me. 1986 was a long time ago, but that was when I first got heavily into underground metal, and it was the year that so many of the now-classic thrash albums came out- "Master of Puppets," "Peace Sells...but Whose Buying?" "Reign in Blood," "Pleasure to Kill," "Darkness Descends" and, well I could go on, and you could equally make a case for 1987 when a lot of the northern California bands started releasing albums (like Death Angel, Testament, etc) or even a couple years after this when death metal really started taking off. I'm gonna go with 1986 though. That was what started it all for me.

Worst year... I dunno. By around 1996 or so, the old thrash metal bands had either started to suck, or just broken up long ago. Death metal had gotten stagnant and boring, and the whole black metal thing, while it was still pretty big, was already a couple years past its initial "Goden age." I guess if you were heavily into black metal, the mid/late 1990s weren't so bad but those years were kind of a metal wasteland for me, and I kind of drifted away from the metal scene during that era.

1992, 1994, or 1997. highest density of amazing mandatory albums in DM & BM.

On a personal (very non-objective) level, it was 2007. I was probably going to the most live shows then--discovered Primordial when they were doing a tour supporting their To the Nameless Dead album. They put on one of the best live shows I've ever seen and that album has remained one of my absolute favorites. Reverend Bizarre released their final full-length with the "Anywhere Out of this World" track--a song that has made a profound mark on me. Moonsorrow peaked with V: Hävitetty. Lamp of Thoth were perfecting their sound for the mind-blowing Portents Omens and Doom the following year.

I'll always revere 1988 as transcendental year for metal as a whole. Just so many freakin good albums came out that year, with thrash being are its arguable peak, as well as USPM making a big splash, and even some primordial forms of death metal began budding. I used to feel this way about 1986, but I think 1988 beats it out, if only by a small amount. 1986-1990 are all in really close competition for me.

There was a time where I could consider years like 1998 or 2002 as the worst for metal, but as I've continued to listen over time, I've found even the late 90s and early 2000s have some good gems to share, but definitely with nowhere near the abundance it had, and most forms of traditional metal were suffering. I can't really pick a straight up "worst" year for metal, but the range from about 1997-2003 I feel is where there's a dip, for me.

I'm gonna have to go with 1990 as the best. You had bands hitting their zenith of aggression (Priest's "Painkiller"), technicality/melodicism (Kreator's "Coma of Souls", Artillery's "By Inheritance", Megadeth's "Rust in Peace") and newer groups molding and shaping the future of more popular (Pantera's "Cowboys from Hell") and more extreme, underground (Exhorder's "Slaughter in the Vatican", Demolition Hammer's "Tortured Existance") metal music.

The best for me was 1991. Death metal was everywhere and my friends and I were buying up new cassette and CD releases left and right. Lots of great shit, including a ton of killer full-length debuts were popping up almost weekly. The live club scene was pretty good as well and I went to plenty of shows. Even I was in a band (only released a crappy demo, no worries about anything I was a part of winding up in the Archives) doing death growls and down-tuning my old BC Rich. Good times. Albums like Blessed are the Sick, Like an Ever Flowing Stream, The Astral Sleep, Unquestionable Presence, Effigy of the Forgotten, Mental Funeral, Clandestine, The Ten Commandments, Into the Grave, Testimony of the Ancients, Butchered at Birth, Necrotism: DtI, Dawn of Possession, Where no Life Dwells, Warmaster, Cursed, The Rack and a bunch of others I'm probably going to kick myself for forgetting. Just damn, man, good times.

The worst for me was probably 1997. Yes, some real goodies came out that year like Hail Horror Hail and stuff, but overall things were looking pretty boring for my tastes. Also, I had moved to Toronto the prior year and was realizing that I couldn't afford these goddamn import prices plus sizable tax for the cool indie releases anymore. Hell, regular CD prices were too high, and I would have to shell out major cash on a CD based on the album cover, song titles and corpse-painted band photos alone. None of my buds in Toronto were into metal anyways, so I had to fly solo concerning recommendations. I actually stopped listening to metal altogether until 2000 when the whole Napster, Audiogalaxy and Kazaa shit made checking out whether it was worth spending a fortune on a CD or not possible. Man my AdAware and Spybot were working overtime for a couple of years.

1992 I think is when second wave black metal really started to burst out of it's hole with Mayhem, Enslaved, Dark Throne, Burzum, and everyone else popping out demos, albums, or splits. Not to mention Bathory continuing the shift into folky "viking" metal. At the same time, I'm divided because 1993 I think it was when some black metal bands like Enslaved and Empyrium were adding a more hefty folk/neofolk/folk-synth sound to their music which was far different from cold and aggressive black metal. (I believe Melodic Death was also coming around in 1993 with At the Gates) The reason why I consider these black metal years so important is because it opened up a lot for the metal community that was becoming more commercial, making the DIY punk mentality more prominent among musicians who may have been discouraged by highly-produced death metal and glam metal at the time.

Best: 1983:
Even though many of these albums arguably aren't the best from the bands, most of them are pretty legendary and stand the test of time in each bands discography. And a lot of this stuff hadn't been done before (not all of it, I know...)

Black Sabbath - Born Again
Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil
Motorhead - Another Perfect Day
Ozzy - Bark At The Moon
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Dio - HOLY DIVER
Exciter - Heavy Metal Maniac
Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Raven - All For One
Savatage - Sirens
Saxon - Power & Glory
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Suicidal Tendencies - Suicide Tendencies
Thin Lizzy - Thunder And Lightning
Mercyful Fate - Melissa
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Manila Road - Crystal Logic
Witchfinder General - Friends Of Hell
Grim Reaper - See You In Hell

There are probably countless ones I forgot. But these are the ones I'm into from that year, personally.

Best: 1984 when metal was at its purest form and hair and thrash hadn't yet divided the genre.
Worst: 1992 when heavy metal was dead, death metal was boring everyone to death and black metal hadn't quite peaked yet.

I suppose it depends on what kind of black metal you're fond of. I'm not really a fan of the Norwegian stuff and in 96 Sabbat's The Dwelling, Mystifer's The World Is So Good That Who Made It Doesn't Live Here and Argentum's Ad Interitum Funebrarum came out which are some of the coolest albums within the black metal genre I can think of.

1996 wasn't all that bad in my opinion. I remember enjoying Burzum - Filosofem and Bathory - Blood on Ice when they came out that year, even though both were recorded years before.

1996 was awesome, and to say that death metal had gotten stale is just wrong. None So Vile, Here in After, Serenadium and Psychostasia are all inventive, crazy and intense death metal records from 1996.

I'll go ahead with the ultimate cliché and declare 1986 as the best year. As far as worst, 2001 is always the first that comes to mind for me. It's telling when the classic album that comes to mind from a given year is by System of a Down.

Absu - Tara saved 2001 for me a little bit.

2001 had great albums from Falconer, Sonata Arctica, Heavenly, Threshold, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, Manilla Road, Kamelot, Lullacry, Iced Earth, Grave Digger, Freedom Call, Edguy, Destruction, Dark Moor, Chalice, and Avantasia. It would not get my vote for worst year.

1997, though...1997 was a dumpster fire all-around. Music, movies, you name it.

For those who remember Count_Venereal here, he's been gone from MA for eons but he's still quite active on Facebook. During a chat one time he mentioned that 1984 was hands down the best year in metal history. I remember chuckling at first because come on, everybody knows the peak year of the 80s was 86, duh. But once I started really thinking about it, he may well be right. Maiden and Priest were on top of the world with Powerslave and Defenders of the Faith, Dio put the capstone on his dominant streak of metal supremacy with Last in Line, potentially the most popular Manowar album was released, Jag Panzer's Ample Destruction became one of the most radical gems of pure molten metal in history, trad metal in general was just at it's peak worldwide at the time. And even with that being the case, the general creativity within the genre was absolutely exploding at the time. Bathory's debut was a total game changer for extreme metal, Metallica put out their crowning achievement and started deconstructing what thrash was when it was only barely a thing with Ride the Lightning, Exciter may have beaten them to the punch by a year but Running Wild helped codify what speed metal would truly be with Gates to Purgatory (also one of their best albums as well, which is no small feat considering how untouchable their discography was for a solid decade), Trouble's Psalm 9 is one of the greater rocking doom albums ever written, and, most importantly, Mercyful Fate released the second of their unbelievable one-two punch of co-Best Metal Albums Ever with Don't Break the Oath. Anybody who doesn't think the main riff on The Oath isn't the best god damned riff ever written better just get the fuck out of my face. One day I spent a few hours ranking all my favorite albums from the 80s. Four of the top ten were from 1984 (also the number 11 spot).

I'd also like to give a special shoutout to 1988. It's not a year I generally think of when I'm thinking of the best years for metal, but when I sat down and made that list of favorite albums from that decade, I was surprised at just how many fell on that year. While 84 was that perfect blend of trad metal peaking while the other branches of the metal tree were putting out their first tastes of excellence, the late 80s was where a lot of them truly shined. People love to talk about the "unholy trinity" of thrash from 1986, but I'd argue that 1988 had a comparably incredible group that was actually a quadrilogy. None of them may be as singularly great as Reign in Blood, but it terms of sheer fucking intensity and heaviness, Sadus, Znowhite, Sabbat, and Rigor Mortis all put out their own attempts at reaching those zeniths. Bonus points, all four of them are debuts as well! The rest of the metal world kicked ass this year as well, with Manilla Road's most underrated album, Blind Guardian's stunning debut, Bathory demolishing conventions yet again with Blood Fire Death, probably the least great of the streak but Candlemass was in the middle of an unfathomable streak of excellence at the time so Ancient Dreams absolutely stands out, motherfucking Hypertrace, the best Death album, the best Riot album, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Port Royal, No Place for Disgrace, hell I even love Kings of Metal! I think the reason I tend to forget how great this year was is simply because even though on the whole it has more timeless classics than 1987, the best albums from the previous year are some of the best of all time. Death or Glory, Nightfall, and Abigail alone destroy everything 88 produced. So I tend to not think of it, but when I do remember, 88 was a monster year.

This one is probably a bit more personal and may not resonate with the MA crowd quite as much, but if you're into more modern stuff, 2007 was a banner fucking year. Not only did it contain the best albums from Sigh, Slough Feg, Skeletonwitch, The Black Dahlia Murder, Symphony X, Ensiferum, High on Fire, and Primordial (personally I tend to prefer The Gathering Wilderness but I can't deny how massive To the Nameless Dead is), it also had stunners from Nocturnal Breed, Anaal Nathrakh, Helloween, Insect Warfare, and Gargoyle. That's not even taking into account that it was the year that saw Powerwolf solidify the formula they're still milking to this day with Lupus Dei, easily the most underrated and potentially even my favorite Type O Negative album, and hell, even As I Lay Dying somehow fluked out their only truly great album that year. In the 2000s, the early and later years of the decade were kind of underwhelming, but 2005-2007 were monoliths and churned out dozens of modern and future classics, and 2007 was, for my money, the best of the bunch.

As for the worst years? That's tough because I recognize that it really just sort of comes down to my own personal thing. The mid 90s were weak as hell for me but black and power metal were blossoming at the time, and it's sort of just a "me" problem that there are only a handful of those classic bands that ever truly sat well with me. Like, yeah, Blind Guardian and Gamma Ray were killing it but most of my favorite europower albums didn't hit until after the millennium turned. Black metal's beginnings were great but most of the best albums came from around 1994 (Mayhem, Burzum, and Enslaved all stand out mightily that year) but it dried up quickly, and by around 1997 there was really only Obtained Enslavement that I really gave a shit about. So uhh, I dunno, let's say the worst year was 98 or 99.

Like 1996, there were still some gems for me:

Dimmu Borgir - EDT
Veles - Black Hateful Metal
Misfits - American Psycho (punk, but still)
Immortal - Blizzard Beasts

Also, Donnie Brasco, Starship Troopers and Face/Off were good movies.

1997 also had Morgion's Among Majestic Ruin, October Tide's Rain Without End, On Thorns I Lay's Orama and Septic Flesh's Ophidian Wheel - plenty of killer albums to me.

Strangely enough, '95 was my golden year in metal. Looking retrospectively, most albums I hold precious to me now are from '93-'96 period. Some of the those albums are: Draconian times, Wildhoney, Wolfheart, Mandylion, Crimson Cosmos, Tales from the Thousand Lakes, The Gallery, Demanufacture, Abducted, The Time of the Oath, Burnt Offerings, Ceremony of Opposites, Amok, Accident of Birth, Like Gods of the Sun...

That one came out in 1996 I believe. 1995 had The Angel and the Dark River along with Sorcery, In Your Multitude, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Pt II, Esoptron, From the Lost Years..., Imaginations of the Other Side - lots of good stuff.

He was listing albums from 1993 to 1996, hence Wildhoney is there too.

Glad to see some 2007 references in this thread. That was the year I started paying attention to new releases and between it and 2005, there was some pretty fantastic stuff.

Thanks to everyone who posted so far, I love all your comments.

Seeing a ton of references towards 80s and 90s is exactly why I posted this topic: I had no idea about any of these bands and styles of music back then. And listening for ~15 years so far is definitely not enough time to discover and listen to everything there is to hear, worthwhile or not.

Though I can say that the period around 2004-2006 was the worst for me. Once I found about certain bands, and listened to their music, they followed up with super shitty releases that didn't really sound as good as their previous works, and I found myself kinda disappointed for diving into metal in the first place.
But then I discovered a lot of folk metal, lesser known prog, black and melodeath bands and kept the fire burning to this day. So far no best year for me, but hopefully I'll live to see the day when I can declare one.

Most veteran metal fans seem to like the 80's and 90's which is understandable, so I guess I'm alone on this one, but I'm loving the 2015 to present period

love what the new bands are doing and the fact that some of the veterans managed to pick up on some modern stuff and make things interesting again

after being unhappy with metal for some 15 years (roughly 2000 - 2015) and only tracking backwards during that period, nowadays I find myself with a renewed joy of tracking new releases and go after new bands.

Maybe the fact that the late 80's, early 90's, were my teen years and I matured my listening abilities since then plays a part as well, as does not being drunk or high all the time while listening to music.

This kind of strikes a chord with me, as I remember that with many of the really great 80's thrash bands that I loved, they did the same thing. One or two great albums, then downhill. Sometimes they tried to broaden their musical scope but in the process, lost the qualities that made them interesting in the first place. Sometimes they just plain wimped out, burned out, or stagnated. The whole speed/thrash scene in general started to die off in the early 90's. But that brings me to your second point- metal in general broadened and grew, and new sounds emerged that were new and interesting, and it was fun to discover them.

Best- 1988 for reasons Bastardhead already said


Worst- 1996, just cos it was such a drought albums. Part of that reason is most the bands that put out great albums in 95 were touring for them. There's still enough to make a reasonable top 10, but if you hated black and death metal, you were fucked that year. (though you could say that about 93 and 94 if that's your disposition).

I'm too in the 1988 camp: the amount of quality relases and boundary pushing album is just out of control.

I'll give a shout out to 2009 also: i may be partial because it was the first year paying attention to newer albums, but it has alltime favoutites like Kold, Voice of steel, Merkur, La Balade, Night is the new Day.. it was really a blast

It's a close call, but 1988 is probably the best for me as well. Partly because AJFA is that much of a favourite and spawned a significant chunk of my favourite metal songs. 1988 also produced my favourite Candlemass song (Darkness in Paradise) and album, and the debut of another favourite band (Danzig). I particularly like the albums from Suicidal Tendencies, Tankard and The Accüsed, and I also rate Under the Influence highly in Overkill's discography. No Rest for the Wicked is one of Ozzy's more listenable albums for me since the singles aren't overplayed.

2004 is the worst for me. Only a few decent albums from metal bands I like (Danzig, Pentagram, Vader...), and not the best in their discographies by any means. For me it's a bit of a lull year before drone/doom and stoner metal started to experience a resurgence. Every year since has provided a lot more for me (particularly 2008 and 2011).

Gotta say I love most years from 1980 to 1993. 1980 kicked it off with the NWOBHM and good to great albums from Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Saxon, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Samson, Quartz, Def Leppard, Girl, Fist, Witchfynde, Vardis and Girlschool. Judas Priest, Motorhead and Black Sabbath also released metal classics that year. So yeah, 1980's a highlight for me.
1986 for thrash and 1991 for death also stand out for me.
So many great albums from those years.
But 2000 was a stand out year for me as I had become pretty disillusioned with the metal coming out from the mid to late '90's, with the the odd exception here and there. I wanted real songs like what got me into metal in the first place (Maiden/Sabbath/Priest etc.)
In 2000 I got Slough Feg's "Down Among The Deadmen", Goatsnake "Flower Of Disease", Nevermore "Dead Heart In A Dead World", Electric Wizard "Dopethrone", Virgin Steele "House Of Atreus Pt 2", Deceased "Supernatural Addiction" and The Chasm "Procession To The Infraworld". All fantastic albums. The metal god Halford was resurrected that year and Napalm Death released "Enemy of the Music Biz", a great album after a series of disappointments. I was also getting into High On Fire, Pentagram and Spirit Caravan who had each released very cool albums the previous year.
2001 was another great year as I got introduced to Manilla Road by Terrorizer magazine reviewing their reissues and "Atlantis Rising", their wicked comeback album. Eternally grateful! From there I got into Doomsword, Wolf, Twisted Tower Dire, Domine, Hammers Of Misfortune and Reverend Bizarre who all put out awesome albums around then. At this time Terrorizer mag also got me into Cirith Ungol, Omen, Slauter Xstroyes, Medieval Steel, Warlord, Heavy Load, Brocas Helm, Solstice etc.
Cathedral "Endtyme", Entombed "Morning Star" and Godflesh "Hymns", Seasons Of The Wolf "Nocturnal Revelation" and Gamma Ray "No World Order" were also highlights from 2001 for me. Bathory released "Destroyer Of Worlds", a mixed effort, but I like it, next years "Nordland I" was what I really wanted though.
2000 got me back into metal in a big way after a few dull years previous and 2001/02 hammered it home! Definitely great years in metal for me.

2000 also had Gateways to Annihilation which was a solid following up to Formulas Fatal to the Flesh, Obsecration's Oceanus Oblivione which is some weird tech thrash/death-meets-Greek black metal-or-something record and Ceremonium did No Longer Silent which was some solid riff-driven doom/death record, especially for the time.

The best year in metal is whatever year I got into metal. /

I'll just do a best year, having a hard time pinpointing the worst.

Growing up as a rabid teenage metalhead from late 1987-early 1988 and onwards, one of the very best 12 months for truly exciting, high quality metal releases was September 1990 - September 1991.

These are ten of my very favorite albums from those 12 months:

September 1990: Judas Priest "Painkiller," Megadeth "Rust In Peace," & Testament "Souls Of Black"
Nevember 1990: Kreator "Coma Of Souls"
April 1991: Sepultura "Arise"
August 1991: Anthrax "Persistence Of Time" & Metallica "Metallica"
October 1991: Ozzy Osbourne "No More Tears" & Slayer "Seasons In The Abyss"
September 1991: Overkill "Horrorscope"

At the time, each new album I just listed above seemed more exciting than the last upon release. I listened to them all countless times. Huge riffs, huge drums, killer hooks. They were also arguably the best albums, or at the very least the best sounding albums of each band's career at that point. And all ten albums more than stand the test of time and remain both genre classics and personal favorites of mine to this day. In addition to those albums, there were a lot of other really good alternative/hard rock albums from Nirvana and Alice In Chains, killer thrash from Artillery and Forbidden, and classic death metal albums from Death and Deicide around that same time period, and countless others. Definitely a time I remember being excited about buying all the new tapes/cds I could get my hands on.

not to mention the best albums in the discographies of immolation, vader, and decapitated, as well as lykathea aflame's masterpiece. really a glorious year for death metal

1970
Sabbath
Deep Purple
Uriah Heep

1976
Priest
Rainbow
Scorpions

1980
Maiden

1984
Metallica
Slayer

1991
Morbid Angel
Death

Worst year:
1994
When many great death metal bands tried “experimenting” to appease their labels
Thrash bands going groove to try and catch up with Pantera’s success

@brain hammer: 'Seasons in the Abyss' came out in 1990, not 1991.

Personally Speaking...
Worst? 1982! Was out of commission for half the year and lost out on a chance to see Judas Priest on their World Vengeance tour in October. Also failed to see Black Sabbath on their Mob Rules tour and THE Scorpions for their Blackout tour. 1982 was a great year for Metal, just not for me personally.

Best? 1986! Saw over a dozen concerts, including my most favorite show. Saw Judas Priest twice in 12 days and had a chance to meet the band backstage. Got my vinyl copy of Unleashed In the East signed.1978! It had the masterful:

Impeckable by Budgie
Tokyo Tapes by Scorpions
Van Halen by Van Halen
Long Live Rock & Roll by Rainbow
Live And Dangerous by Thin Lizzy
Obsession by UFO
If You Want Blood You've Got It by AC/DC
Double Live Gonzo! by Ted Nugent
Stained Class and Killing Machine by Judas Priest
Rock And Roll Machine International Edition by Triumph.1995 - 1999!

Damn straight, I don't think I could even list all the amazing albums I own released from 93 to 96.

The year "for me".. not the absolute, objective year after consideration and research of what happened when..

1993 was the year I got most excited about metal. I discovered a bunch of 1991/1992 really great albums by Carcass, Napalm Death, Death, Atrocity, Suffocation, Gorguts, Malhavoc, Obliveon.. I can't remember exactly how many albums I really got into but it felt new and fresh to listen to all these genres of somewhat melodic death metal (but not yet over melodic).

I had been into metal for a long time, mostly traditional metal, speed and thrash.. I was still putting up with other genres in 1993.. like for instance, I would listen to Helloween's Chameleon, Savatage's Edge of Thorns, Deep Purple's The Battle Rages On, Anthrax's Sound of White Noise, Sacred Reich's Independent, Soundgarden, Canadian bands (Our Lady Peace, I Mother Earth, The Tea Party) and some classics I would just dicover then.. But with all this morphing death metal on the horizon, and my first real shows of the genre, I was really carried away.

Worst year in metal ? I guess 2000.. I just completely stopped listening to new metal. The traditional ways for me to discover music (music videos, magazine / label samplers, friends..) seemed to get me to discover bland bands with nu-metal-like music. I got into other music types, I used Napster heavily to download everything I had ever wanted to listen to but couldn't find before, and had limited time to sample new metal bands or new releases... I haven't quite gotten back to metal since.