Now that the 00's are over, we have four complete decades of metal to look back on. Of these four, which is your favorite and why?

My choice is the 80's. I believe that this was the golden age for metal music. All of my favorite metal bands (Manowar, W.A.S.P., Venom, Testament, etc.) debuted their first albums in the 80's, and over half of them peaked during this decade. More new genres were born than during any other span, the aesthetics were the most consistently awesome, and there was no boring nu metal or metalcore to try to weed through. Yeah, there was stuff like Warrant that could get pretty boring, but it can't compare to what we have now. Didn't ever see this decade myself, but the music speaks loud enough (literally.)

Please don't just post 00's or 70's and then leave. Let's try to elaborate and compare. I actually think that any of the first three decades of metal could have very strong arguments for why they are the best, considering Black Sabbath and the black metal movement, respectively.

I don't really have a favorite decade. I like a lot of stuff from all of them, and I can't really pick one. Certainly, each had some weak points, but they all had something really strong to offer.

I don't think that there was one particular decade that was the best because each one had something different to offer.
the 70s were essentially the birth of metal, the 80s spawned lots of new genres, the 90s refined those genres while adding some new ones, and in the 00s the total amount of metal bands exploded.
Take your pick.

Well, I already did. Interested in you or some other people taking theirs.

I'd say it's a toss-up between the 80s and 90s. the 70s just didn't have enough bands yet and the 00s were filled with nu-metal and metalcore.

May I remind you that it was the late nineties that got Nu Metal moving, and really had it's most popular days?

True enough, but the 90s also had the black metal and gothenburg metal movements, as well as some great death metal releases. So that pretty much cancels the nu-metal stuff out.

i know people will disagree with me for this but i'll say the 00's there has been some amazing releases and there is more variety of metal then say the 70's or so

The 90's for me. I'm not the biggest thrash guy, and Death and power both only really took off in the 90's for me. Death/doom and funeral doom were invented during the decade (Well, apart from Sempernal Deathreign) and black metal took on it's modern form. Being a big Death and doom metal fan there isn't any decade that compares.

This decade wasn't too bad, but as I was making my best albums of the decade list, I realised that from about 2003-2008 there was one hell of a lull in quality bands. Metalcore is an improvement over nu metal as far as pop-metal goes though. Not to mention there are so many more bands around these days so chances are there are just as many if not more great albums being made now than was in the 80's/90's, just you have to wade through a lot more shit to find it.

90s for me, most of my favorite albums were released during that period. The last 10 years have been great as well.

I'm sure there was just as many bands in the 80s and 90s, but back then it wasn't as accessible as it is today. As a fresh band today you can just record anything and put it up on myspace and everyone with an internet connection can check it out.

I'd say 80s. All the great Maiden releases, the big 4 being in their prime along with other great thrash bands, Mercyful Fate, Rush, Saxon and a bunch more bands all had some great releases. No nu-metal or -core stuff, some people say glam was the 80s version of those but I don't mind glam, I quite like some of it.

While it is easier to make the music and get it heard, the sheer increase in the number of releases seems to indicate that there are more metal bands around now. I just went through the number of releases made during the 1990's and came up with a total of 42065 releases. Also, every single year had more releases than the last, starting with 2689 in 1990 and ending with 5995 in 1999. Hell there was a difference of 2000 releases prior to the internet showing up, with 1996 having 4574.

00's had 115416. 2007 on its own had 14668 releases, which seems to indicate an enourmous increase in the number of bands, more than can be accounted for by just the internet. Admittedly, there was a jump when high speed internet became readily avaliable in 2002-2003. But even then the rate was jumping by 1000 releases per year from 1999 until then.

I'll have to go with the 90s. The second wave of BM won this one for me.

90s or 00s for me, I love lots of metal from the 80s too but there's just much more releases every year compared to the previous one, and there's more and more variety in metal as time goes on.

Gotta vote for the '00s here. All of my favorite CDs are from this period.

Eh. Dont have one. The 70s had great bands, but there werent a lot. The 80s had thrash and death, as well as some great doom and heavy metal. The 90s had more great death, black metal, more doom, and the formation of Destroyer 666. '00 has been excellent for doom.


On the other hand, all those decades had a lot of shit too.

70s just didnt have a lot of bands
80s had glam
90s had nu metal and that weak gothenburg shit.
00s had metalcore and deathcore

'00s for me. The diversity of metal in this past decade is enormous, and the existence of "mallcore" genres doesn't make the true stuff any less awesome.

I'd have to say the 00's. Doom metal (sludge, post-metal, stoner, drone-doom, etc.) flourished here enormously. The 90's is a close second mainly because it's when sludge started taking form and bands like Godflesh and Neurosis came about.

Who gives a shit about the bad genres that you don't even listen to? seriously?

Tough one between the 80s and the 70s but I ll got with the 80s. Early 80s saw the expansion of the NWOBHM explosion with Iron Maiden as the flag bearers and the likes of Grim Reaper, Raven, Witchfinder General, Cloven Hoof creating great music. Not to mention vast number of great bands from the era that were unfortunately swept along with the winds of time and are mostly forgotten now. Power metal came to fore with the USPM movement and the activities of those crazy germans.

And who can forgot the creation of thrash.

If it wasnt enough, my favourite album as of now, Heaven and Hell belongs to this decade.

80's
NWOBHM
the peak of the thrash metal movment
the start of the death genre
some good doom stuff and glam aswell

Of course the 80s.

Same here and for the same reasons.

I'm gonna agree with you here, I love all the other decades and all, but I just love how diverse metal has gotten last decade.

00's for me. Sure there were lots of great releases in the other decades, but the 00's have seen a massive explosion in creativity. The seeds planted in the 90s finally bore their fruit in the likes of bands such as Virus (continuing off Ved Buens Ende), Sigh, a hell of a lot of great drone, industrial metal managed to untangle itself from nu-metal, there's the revival of thrash (including some great comebacks from the old guard), and perhaps most importantly, the internet age has helped spread appreciation for the older, more obscure bands. Just think of how many bands this website has helped each of us discover that we would never had heard of otherwise! Without the internet, there probably wouldn't be so many reissues of "forgotten classics." As I recall, it was the praise for Spectrum of Death on this site that prompted Eric Greif to look into a reissue for the album.

Sure there's a lot of shit floating around out there due to the internet, but let's put it this way: without this past decade, we wouldn't be able to all sit here and discuss whether the "old days" were better than they are now.

The 70s was a massive stepping stone for Metal, but I surely couldn’t put it as its best decade. With a major influence on what was yet to come, the 70s provided many bands that would carry the torch to the Metal Mother Land (the 80s) with Kiss, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult, Judas Priest, Scorpions and Iron Maiden leading the way to the new frontier it was only a matter of time before Metal would reign.

The 80s was the prime of Metal and gave it the commercial success it deserved. Stepping away from the slower tempo of the 70s rock/metal and creating the Heavy Metal speed that was just crying out for attention, the 80s proved to be the greatest commercial success Metal had ever seen. The importance of the guitar solo became mandatory and created a higher level of standards for all Metal music. Many genres spawned of the Traditional style of Metal creating a larger variety for everyone, with Death/Black Metal, Thrash/Speed Metal, Hair/Glam Metal, etc… Even if the 80s was not your favorite decade for Metal, I’d have to say it would be a tough argument to say it was not the most influential decade for Metal.

The 90s had to be the worst decade for Metal for sure. Even though the early 90s were still good years it brought the fall of Metal as well. The late 90s brought promise with releases from Labyrinth, Children of Bodom, Hammerfall, etc… But I’d have to say that 1994 – 1996 was a dark time, and a few promising years could not make up for the fall of the early 90s and the horrid time of the mid 90s.

The 00s really stepped it up from the 90s and put Metal back on the map. With so many genres spawning from the destruction of the 90s to regroup and only come back stronger than ever. Power Metal really started to see its success in the 00s along with Symphonic Death Metal, Folk/Pagan Metal, Metalcore and even the commercial side of Black Metal. With such a strong variety of Metal genres the 00s brought more to the table of Metal than any other decade, so I’d have to say that the 00s really was my favorite decade for metal, followed extremely close by the Godly 80s.

The roaring 20's sure had some class.

80's all the way

For me it's the 90s, the first half to be specific. This is because my two favorite metal scenes in history, early second wave Black Metal and Scandanavian Death Metal, both fall into the same time period.

Some bad releases of the awful year 1994:

Black Metal
ABIGOR - Verwüstung / Invoke The Dark Age
BETHLEHEM - Dark Metal
BURZUM - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
ENSLAVED - Vikingligr Veldi, Frost
GORGOROTH - Pentagram
HADES - …Again Shall Be
ISENGARD - Vinterskugge
MAYHEM - De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas
MOONSPELL - Under The Moonspell
MORTUARY DRAPE - All The Witches Dance
NECROMANTIA / VARATHRON - split
ROTTING CHRIST - Non Serviam
SABBAT - Fetishism
SACRAMENTUM - Finis Malorum
SAMAEL - Ceremony Of Opposites
SATYRICON - Dark Medieval Times, The Shadowthrone
THE BLACK - The Priest Of Satan

Death Metal
AMORPHIS - Tales From The Thousand Lakes
BOLT THROWER - …For Victory
CEREMONY - Tyranny From Above
DEMILICH - Nespithe
DEPRAVITY - Silence Of The Centuries
EDGE OF SANITY - Purgatory Afterglow
HYPOCRISY - The Fourth Dimension
INFESTER - To The Depths, In Degradation
LOUDBLAST - Cross The Threshold
ORPHANED LAND - Sahara
VISCERAL EVISCERATION - Incessant Desire For Palatable Flesh

Doom, Sludge
ACID BATH - When the Kite String Pops
CELESTIAL SEASON - Solar Lovers
DECORYAH - Wisdom Floats
THERGOTHON - Stream From The Heavens
TIAMAT - Wildhoney

Thrash
MERCILESS - Unbound
NAILBOMB - Point Blank

I won't even try to do a list for '95 & '96.

Yeah, and those are only full-length albums for the most part. That list would be 10x as long if you included '92 and '93, full-lengths, EPs, and all the glorious death metal demos from '90-'93.

EDIT: plus you have to add one of the most influential albums to Black Metal, Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger". I don't think it's that amazing, but many consider it a cornerstone of the genre.

I'm gonna go with what Rottenrectum said, the 90's had great album releases and 00's have been great as well.

It would have to be the 90's for me. That's when death metal and it's sub-genres became defined. Awesome releases from Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Devourment, Demilich, etc. There were also plenty of great releases from other genres as well. Also, Finnish death metal rules!

The 80s definately! Thrash!!!! Do I need to say more??!

Seriously though, the 70s had some good bands for sure, which were obviously extremely important for metal as a genre, but I hardly listen to anything from the 70s. The 90s had lots of good stuff, mainly black and death metal. The 00s were complete shit though. Honestly, I have a hard time thinking of ANY metal from that decade that I like. The 80s however, had so much quality metal that I can't possibly answer anything else.

The 80's without question.

I think the 90's was the best. The large rise in both black and death metal easily takes that cake. Granted the latter half of the 90's wasn't quite as good but still I think alot of quality was released. Tons of influential albums in the early 90's.

There isn't much that I like from the 00s either, other than a few obscure death and black metal bands. From what I've seen, most are praising this past decade's "diversity", whatever they mean by that. OK, so metal now has 100 subgenres instead of 10... so what?

So you don't like Sigh's later material? You don't care for Gorguts' later era either? Destruction's The Antichrist does nothing for you? High On Fire is shit now? Nocturnal Breed's Fields Of Rot wasn't released that decade? The Chasm falls under the radar?

I suggest you think a little harder.

People like variety.