There are some pretty fantastic singers in modern Powermetal. Atilla Dorn (Powerwolf) and Joakim Brodem (Sabaton) are damn good.

I'd be tempted to put Chris Cornell at #1. IMO he and Mercury are 1A and 1B. I saw CC at the Stiefel in Salina about 6 months before he died. Based on his recent music at the time, I thought his voice was starting to go downhill, but no. He sounded exactly like the 1990s Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog version of himself. Absolutely amazing.

One of my favorite Motorhead songs, and that right there is quintessential heavy metal, if anyone asks 'What is heavy metal?' put this on.

Going back a bit to some controversial takes that were brought up earlier,

- It's interesting that on here so far Megadeth getting more love than Metallica, and I completely agree. In my circles anyway that was an odd take to have back then, and I think generally the consensus was always Metallica was better but I'll just say they were likely more 'popular'. Let's put it this way, I was given the Metallica tapes I had but I bought the Megadeth tapes, I accidentally saw Metallica live before I even knew who they were, I paid to see Megadeth live 3 times.

- Maybe I never heard enough of them but never got into or liked any bit of; AC/DC, Def Leppard or Sabbath.

- Tying a bit into the above; solo Ozzy for me is way, way, way ahead of Sabbath Ozzy.

- I mentioned some of it in the OP but I never got the hate for Turbo by Priest, and it was absolutely hated at the time (I'm not saying all the songs are great on it). I figured it was just because it followed-up Defenders that caused that and maybe because the 'synth' sound to it but it's not like they didn't do POE prior to this so that overall sound they had existed before Screaming & Defenders. Maybe I'm overly-sentimental to it because I had just got my license, I had a really hot GF at the time and seeing them live for this tour - with very few exceptions I'll always take a metal band live over studio sound.

- Ok probably, maybe the most controversial take? The one that almost got me kicked-out of my metal friends circle any time this band was brought up; the first two Motley Crue albums (Too Fast & Shout) are legit headbangin' metal albums! Get past the LA looks, the LA 'sound', the lyrics\song titles & most importantly what they did afterwards (most people default to everything after these two albums) - but there are some genuine heavy hitting and good songs in there.

While Metallica and Megadeth went limp like rich old men, Slayer kept plowing.

Along with old Sabbath, they're the all-time kings of metal.

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i listened to this song maybe a dozen times in the 90s. then 20 years later i watched it on youtube. i remembered all the lyrics. it must be the writing, beause my memory isnt that good

Tyr combines clean vocals with a heavier sound inspired by Maiden and the like.

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It really depends on what you "value" in your metal. Metallica is pretty straightforward anymore, it's commercial heavy rock pretty much since the Black album on. AFAIC, Master of Puppets is their pinnacle but even then, there's no comparison to Rust in Peace.

Rust in Peace is a cross-genre masterpiece - the addition of Friedman to the band took them to a whole different level musically. It's not just one of the best thrash albums or even heavy metal albums, it's one of the best rock albums ever.

Louder than Motorhead? ROFL

If they were that loud, how did you even hear the music?

Judas Priest continues to put out good music although the absence of both Downing and Tipton is probably going to cut their time short.

I gotta limit it to just metal.

My big 4 would be:

Rob Halford
Dio
Ozzy
Glenn Hughes

In my group of friends, Metallica was far more popular. However, I was the only person in the group that also listened to Malmsteen, Vai, Satriani, and others. I was a Friedman fan when he was in Cacophony with Jason Becker so when he joined Megadeth, I knew it was going to be for me.

Don't really like Def Leppard AT ALL. AC/DC, I much prefer the early Bon Scott stuff. Black Sabbath is my favorite ****ing band, you asshole. ROFL

In order - Dio Sabbath, Dio, Ozzy, Ozzy Sabbath. I rank Ozzy Sabbath 4th because even though the early stuff is groundbreakingly heavy, the later stuff especially post SBS just isn't. The drugs moved them is weird directions and the riffs just aren't there and they really didn't appear again until Ozzy was gone.

I don't get the hate for Turbo either. Probably just that they departed from their sound on so many of the tracks. Bands experiment. Remember Ram It Down wasn't very popular at the time either. People just didn't like the sound. But you could totally hear the evolution that ultimately led them to Painkiller, which is one of the best metal albums of all time.

Finally, Motley Crue. I absolutely LOVE the first two albums. They busted out the hair spray for TOP and it was all downhill from there. How's this for controversial?

Kickstart My Heart might be the worst metal song of all time. I said it.

It's bad, but is it "Seventeen" by Winger bad?

Speaking of hair metal, I used to hate it, but my appreciation for some of it has grown over the decades. I'm a little ashamed to admit it.

I don't know that it's as bad as Winger but it's played A LOT more, even still today. And people act like Dr. Feelgood is Crue at their best when I just feel like it's Crue at their WORST.

And yeah, there's some hair metal I still listen to. I love Twisted Sister but again, they were from New York and started in the mid-70's. They also spent a good amount of time in England. They were not at all part of that Sunset Strip thing but just got lumped in, kind of like Ozzy did.

I still like Stryper but honestly, it's because their new stuff over the last 8 years or so is so much better than anything they put out in the 80's. Most of the other bands from that era I can take or leave, unless there is some guitar link - I still listen to Dokken even though it's schlock rock because George Lynch is a ****ing beast.

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