Any specific eras or genres you're looking to explore? There's just too much content and too many ways to take the answer for me without a little direction
this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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Mostly '70s to mid '90s. Thrash, black, death, or pretty much anything that would have scared your parents lol.
Alright, cool, that helps. Admittedly I'm more of a post-90s metalhead than a true classics era guy, but I still have some big recommendations for you anyway. In rough order of release:
Pentagram - Pentagram, 1985. Sleazy doom metal with sexy swagger and all clean vocals.
Death - Leprosy, 1988. Death is literally the death metal band and this is a killer example of why they're the legend they are.
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness, 1989. For my money, this might be the best metal album of the classic era. Just insanely awesome classic death metal, start to finish. A classic even amongst classics.
At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul, 1995. A monster album and a great example of the "gothenburg sound" of melodic death metal. This album has aged incredibly well and doesn't really feel like listening to "old music" to me.
Embodyment - Embrace the Eternal, 1998. A fucking triumph of death metal and absolutely my favorite early proto-deathcore album by far. This shit is amazing. Just be aware that Embodyment radically changed their sound every album, so their is their only extreme metal album.
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone, 2000. A masterpiece of stoner doom metal that in my opinion does an excellent job blending classic metal with the more modern era.
and for some extra fun, a few recommendations that are on the softer/poppier side of metal:
Slipknot - Slipknot, 1999. Slipknot are probably the single most respected nu metal band, at least in my opinion. If you're unsure how you feel about nu metal, this is a great place to start.
Killswitch Engage - Killswitch Engage, 2000. For a lot of metalcore kids, especially those my age (I'm 40), Killswitch Engage is the metalcore band, and it all starts here (although their next two albums are better).
(hed) P.E. - Broke, 2000. For my money, this is the best nu metal album of all time. Very radio-friendly, but still chaotic and aggressive and full of skate-punk heaviness. Often overlooked and wildly underrated. If you're open to nu metal, definitely check this one out. Just be aware for that for some awful reason (hed) P.E. albums on Spotify if you're in the US are the clean versions, not the explicit version. I have no fucking idea why this is the case, but it's awful; seek out the real explicit versions, definitely. Youtube is shit for music listening, but if you can't find the explicit version elsewhere, here's a youtube link for the full album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLWNoHVOmDc
If you check any of them out (or already have), feel free to let me know what you think, I love discussing this stuff! And if you ever want to move on to the more modern era, I've definitely got plenty of recommendations there.
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Carcass - Necroticism
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Exodus - Bonded by Blood
Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
Atheist - Unquestionable Presence
Beherit - Drawing Down the Moon
Gorguts - The Erosion of Sanity
Iron Reagan - Crossover Ministry
Ripping Corpse - Dreaming with the Dead
Necrophagia - Season of the Dead
Vektor - Black Future
Aura Noir - The Merciless
At the Gates - The Red in the Sky is Ours
Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
Sadus - A Vision of Misery
Testament - The Legacy
Destruction - Infernal Overkill
Depends on how you define classics, but Sabbath is a must listen, in every incarnation they've had.
I'd suggest Deep Purple as well, maybe some Steppenwolf and Iron Butterfly
You've got bands like Maiden that you have to listen to at least once. Judas Priest is in that category as well, imo.
If you like thrash, then try some exodus, anthrax, megadeth, overkill, kreator and testament
Sepultura is kinda like pantera in that they blend genres a lot, and both are kinda central the the post-80s metal wave.
Fucking motorhead. That's all that needs to be said
Saxon is a cornerstone band. Nwobhm wouldn't have been the same without them
If you want darker/heavier stuff, Death is often cited as the forefront of death metal (though I don't agree). Cannibal Corpse goes back a ways far enough to be a classic band. Dimmu Borgir for the blacker side of things, and I think if you like Bathory, you'll love Dimmu Borgir.
Fuck, I can't not recommend Amon Amarth. Fucking gods of metal.
I'm trying to stick to stuff that's been around long enough to be considered classic, and is also fairly accessible in terms of how far down the rabbit hole you'd be climbing. There's a lot of bands that are essentially formative to one subgenre or another, but don't really hit for most people, or are hard to find to listen to.
Hell, you've got stuff like burzum that essentially founded a subgenre, but kinda suck enough that even some fans of that subgenre don't really listen to more than once.
But, yeah, it really depends on what kind of "classic" you're looking for, and whether you want the stuff that tends to be widely loved, or a more niche experience.
Iron Maiden
Bad Religion
Slayer
Misfits
Black Sabbath
Faith No More
Fugazi
I could go on but from you list, those come to mind
I would only call 3 of those “metal”.
Suicidal Tendencies is punk so I included punk
Punk is good too. I've never heard of Fugazi so I'll check that out. Thanks!
early Fugazi is hardcore punk and the later albums and more metal punk
Anthrax
Dio
Slayer
Rainbow
Megadeth
Misfits
I love the Misfits, but Glen is a Nazi so fuck them
First things first; not everyone is suggesting Death, which means that not enough people are suggesting Death.
If I'm going off of your list with the angle that I am wanting to suggest more stuff that you might like that are classics I'd go with stuff like mid-80's through mid-90's period Pestilence, Gorguts, Exhorder, Coroner, Kreator, Nihilist, etc. Someone mentioned Napalm Death earlier, and that's probably not a bad rec for you.
If I'm just wanting to throw out some stuff that I consider to be classic without regard to your list I'm going with stuff like Suffocation - Pierced From Within, Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane, Cryptopsy - None So Vile, My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans, Ulver - Bergtatt, Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy, Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Edge of Sanity - Crimson, Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve, Samael - Ceremony of Opposites, ...there's a lot, and it's not hard to keep going.
Something that's cool about metal is it's history of being an underground art form. Tape trading scenes, indie zines, and basement headshops being the places to find out about different stuff. A lot of people have different ideas about what constitutes classics based on where they're from, and at what point they entered into the fray. Even with the internet granting access to virtually everything, there still really isn't consensus on a question like this, and the fandom remains seemingly immune to homogeneity. That's fucking awesome. Discovering what you like is a big part of the fun. Enjoy.
both bands named Death are innovative and killer
Thank you! This is perfect. I know "You Suffer" by Napalm Death. I probably should give their other songs a shot lol. I saw someone else post about Coroner a while back and I went and checked them out. They're pretty solid. I look forward to hearing their new album.
Get over to BangerTV and support the community and channel. Everything Metal from History to Emerging. There is a Doco on Extreme Metal that is real good and if you can find it Sam Dunn has a Doco "A headbangers journey" about the history of metal and how we have so many sub genres. It's wicked.
P.S. all these recommendations are awesome. I'll put my hat in the ring for Decapitated & Phobophilic. Maybe Behemoth (The Satanist album).
If you like Possessed / death metal, give early Swedish death metal a try! Entombed’s debut album “Left Hand Path” (1990) and Dismember’s debut “Like An Ever Flowing Stream (1991).
Thank you, I saved both albums. I'm liking "Left Hand Path" so far.
Nightwish
Candlemass
Crypta (They'll be considered classics when enough time has passed IMO).
Pantera
Exodus
Megadeth
Fear Factory
Napalm Death
Killswitch Engage
Avenged Sevenfold
SOAD
Five Finger Death Punch
Bullet For My Valentine
Children of Bodom
Slipknot
Lamb of God
Some unmentioned: Darkthrone, Emperor, Blood Incantation, Sleep Edit:Blood Incantation is relatively new
I'll add a few.
Death
Pentagram
Atomic Rooster
Cirith Ungol.
Iron Maiden, Saxon, Motorhead, and Black Sabbath.
And Judas Priest!
Sepultura and Sarcófago
Rainbow (and Dio), Danzig, and Korn. Disturbed and Godsmack also go hard as fuck.
Firmly in the nu-metal side at that point.
Meshuggah, early Mastodon, Death, Slayer.
Just to add some I don’t see already mentioned:
Opeth, Anthrax, Kreator, Rammstein, System of a Down, Static X, In Flames
Less known band, but I head banged hard to Accept in my teen years for a short spell. Balls to the Wall was their big single but I remember liking most their stuff short a short time.
Solid band for sure.
white zombie?
Love them. Love Rob.
Bad Brains