BEST HEAVY METAL BAND

Woodmann said it all. If you've ever heard any interviews with Hetfield, he basically slags all of their early fans. While early Frost / Hellhammer were the "crunchiest" band of all time and worked tempo changes like no other, they too lost it at the end. Venom is the "original" but lacked consistency throughout their career. That leaves Slayer as the kings of REAL metal. Case in point: name a metal album that "flows" or jams more than Reign in Blood ???? Sean >

Venom, Slayer, Celtic Frost, Bathory, Motorhead, Sabbath, Manowar, Cirith Ungol, Candlemass, etc.. You just can't beat "old school" metal. I never really got into Metallica to any great extent and now i'm glad of it. I have heard them slag their original fans MANY times over. Full tilt WANKERS in my book. I have to throw in an honourable mention for a local boy that "dun good" even though many people in the metal scene hate him: Paul Speckmann. He has been mentioned in dozens of metal mags as being one of the originators of "metal" as we know it today. Some of his bands are Master / Abomination / Death Strike / Speckmann Project / etc... There are cuts on the latest Master disc ( Faith is in Season ) that will absolutely punish your woofers with the most massive kick drums you've ever heard. I brought this disc with me to a few different shops. I was auditioning some speakers and wanted something to check out high volume bass definition and impact. The salesmen in both places absolutely freaked when they heard it at volume. One guy immediately pulled the disc and told me "this is the kind of stuff that breaks equipment" !!!! Nuff said ??? Sean >

Dust ??? Dust was Marky Ramone's band. His real name is Mark (or maybe Marc) Bell. If you look at the pictures of him on the albums, you'll instantly recognize the "traditional" Ramones look of long stringy hair, cheap leather jacket, blown out knees in his jeans, etc... Keep in mind that this was quite a bit before the Ramones ever appeared. As to Dust being a "metal" band, I don't think so. From what i can recall, their first album was their best. Sean >

As a side note, i think that there is quite a bit of confusion about what is "metal" and what is "hard rock". While i know that some bands fall into both genres ( Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, etc..), many of the names that keep popping up here are NOT metal bands. Does the band Red Rider fall into "metal" because they used electric guitars, played pretty loud and did a tune called "heavy metal" ? I think not. You get the point. Go to a REAL metal show and see who's name is talked about with the most respect out of all the REAL metal bands. Slayer wins hands down. Even if you don't like them, you have to respect them. They are the ONLY "metal" band that has stayed true to their roots and NEVER swayed for almost 20 years. They also ranked in the top 50 of VH1's TOP 100 "hard rock" acts of all time. They were the only band to do this with ABSOLUTELY ZERO commercial airplay or support and VH1 made specific mention of this fact. It takes a very loyal and large fan base to do something like that. Besides all of those things, you should hear Tom Arraya sing "Bye, Bye Miss American Pie".... now THAT would be the day that you DIIIIEEEE !!! Sean >