Top 10 Best Metal Bands of the 2000s

They have the best minds in music. Every album is different, the songs are amazing, the solos are wicked, and M. Shadows is an awesome singer. It is incredible how they write music instrumentally and lyrically.

So far, I never stop listening to their 2005 album City of Evil. It has awesome riffs and mind-blowing solos. Keep hanging on top, Avenged Sevenfold!

I'd say Avenged Sevenfold is Pantera's successor, as Avenged Sevenfold is an amazing band, just like Pantera. They are the ones keeping heavy metal alive, just like Pantera did.

It's so sad that Jimmy 'The Rev' Sullivan, such a talented drummer, singer, and songwriter, passed away. R.I.P. forever, Jimmy. It will be really hard to move on without him, just like Matt said. Anyway, they are ready to carry the light left behind by The Rev. Best band ever.

Best live performers on this list (of the last decade, of course. Otherwise, Metallica would be way up there too). Great singer who can go from absolutely brutal vocals to very melodic singing with ease. The first two albums were AWESOME. Since then, they have dropped their form a little bit (much like other bands on this list).

System of a Down takes the number 2 spot easily for me. Then I'd have to say Linkin Park - much to the disgust of some metalheads who get a bit too picky about the definition of metal. I believe Linkin Park's first two albums are metal. After that, maybe not. But those first two albums and the explosion in popularity that followed are enough for me to grant them 3rd place.

Disturbed is just amazing, as they have explored multiple different types of rock, such as nu-metal, heavy metal, hard rock, rap metal, and ballads. They definitely have one of the best vocalists of any rock band, along with awesome guitarists and drummers.

They have had few wrongs in a career full of rights. If you don't agree, look up Down With The Sickness, Stricken, Stupify, The Animal, Asylum, The Sound of Silence, Voices, and The Light. All of these songs showcase Disturbed's musical diversity and greatness in vivid detail.

Should be number one, hands down! Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed don't hold a candle to Lamb of God. No other metal band of this generation grasps the spirit and feel of metal like LOG, and not only are they enjoyable to listen to, but they're also extremely talented.

Randy's vocals are unique among all others, Chris Adler's drums don't miss a beat, and Mark and Willie's guitar work is a force to be reckoned with. I don't even like Avenged Sevenfold, but I've learned to play songs by them and LOG as well, and points for difficulty and just being straight-up badass and fun to play go to them. But that's just my non-expert opinion.

Dude, I am a dumb teenager, and I can tell you that you can like both System of a Down and Avenged Sevenfold. You can also like metal and things like Elton John and Radiohead. You can like Elton John and Radiohead and alt rockers like Nirvana, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, and the Smashing Pumpkins.

I like classic rock legends like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Rush. I also like The Beastie Boys, Run-D.M.C., Rage Against the Machine, and Eminem. I have a wide taste in music, and I hate when people draw such harsh lines even within sub-genres. Give everything a chance. Maybe you'll surprise yourself and like it.

Tool's music is much more intricate than most other metal bands, yet it has enough anger to match the aggression of others. The combination of these two aspects, plus the talent in each member, makes Tool the greatest of metal bands.

Tool is completely unique. No one else, including top-notch bands, has a sound quite like theirs.

Brilliant composition, both lyrically and musically, is developed through the numbers by musicians who are at the top of their game.

Actual metal. Actual deep messaging. They respect metal.

I'm sorry, but most of the bands ranked higher than Mastodon are completely two-dimensional and have little to no variety or originality.

Lamb of God has essentially written the same few songs repeatedly throughout their career, and Avenged Sevenfold has pretty much turned into a Metallica tribute band by now. System of a Down is pretty good and very experimental, despite the nu-metal elements.

Slipknot, Disturbed, and Bullet for My Valentine are just angsty butt-metal for teenagers. Killswitch Engage is fine, but also kind of rips off Swedish melodeath a lot. Children of Bodom are pretty good, if cheesy, but are fairly similar to other melodeath bands. Metallica hasn't released anything groundbreaking in the 21st century. So, essentially, only System of a Down really has any place here.

Mastodon is arguably one of the most influential, progressive (and HEAVY) metal bands on this list, with at least 5 classic albums. So why is A7X leading again?

It upsets me to see the GODS being counted among the mere mortals. I don't think it's fair. Bands like Metallica belong to a very different league of musicians after having produced cult classics for years, and it would be disrespectful to place them among the bands which have hardly been around for 2-5 years!

Death Magnetic is a classic album. However, it isn't as good as their original albums, like The Black Album and Master of Puppets. That doesn't make it a bad album. Some good songs are: That Was Just Your Life, The Unforgiven III, and Broken, Beat & Scarred.

That album is enough to classify them as the best metal band today.

As long as Jesse is in the band, then they're alright. But Howard... oh boy, don't get me started on him and the way he and the band RUINED Holy Diver.

This Fire. Meaning the "Fire" of Killswitch Engage will live forever. This is the absolution of all fans of this band.

Killswitch Engage writes songs with meaning and generally with a positive message. That puts them a step above.

I think Dream Theater has a lot more quality than the majority of bands here. Their technique is incredibly complex, and it is way better than Avenged... I think the only other band that is as good as them in quality is Tool.

The other bands are just good. But to be the best, you need something else, and DT and Tool have it.

I think Dream Theater would be more of a contender for a 1990s list since they really hit it big in 1992 with Images and Words. Great band though, better than most of the hard rock crap posing as metal in the top ten.

Not only is FFDP, in my opinion, the band of this century, but they also simply can do no wrong. The Bleeding, Dying Breed, The Way of the Fist, The Pride, Got Your Six, The Wrong Side of Heaven, and Jekyll and Hyde are but a few of the head-banging, riff-raving, vocal-blaring anthems of many metalheads.

Five Finger Death Punch is only getting better.

Five Finger Death Punch's singer, Ivan Moody, has way more aggressive vocals than M. Shadows, and their guitar riffs are also more epic than any other metal band. Zoltan Bathory and Jason Hook can also beat Synyster Gates's guitar solos.

They should be number one on the list, as well as the best New Wave of American Heavy Metal band.

If it wasn't for Korn, I wouldn't be the songwriter I am today. Nor would I be a die-hard metalhead. I don't even know if I'd be alive. Korn has just helped and inspired me so much over the years, and will always be one of my favorite bands.

There will always be a special place in my heart for Jonathan Davis.

Korn, in my opinion, is the best band ever. They're incredibly innovative and incredibly heavy.

Untouchables and Take a Look in the Mirror are some of the greatest heavy metal/nu-metal albums in history.

Take a Look in the Mirror is outstanding! Issues and the three before it are just as good! Been a huge fan for as long as I can remember. Much love.

In my opinion, the 13th spot isn't right for them. Children of Bodom (COB) deserved a higher place. The list seems to be made based on popularity, not greatness. That's why COB is not even in the top 10. This band is far greater than most of the bands from the 2000s on this list.

I'm a Metallica fan, but I think Metallica shouldn't be on this list as they are more of an earlier band. And come on... they've been voted onto all the other lists too!

I love Avenged Sevenfold (A7X) too, but in terms of metal music, they fall far behind what Children of Bodom achieved in most aspects. Thank goodness I can't see Linkin Park on this list because they suck! Linkin Park's effort was a big-time fail.

Opeth invented a genre. The only bands that sound anything like them were all inspired by them.

I find that their music can be a bit hard to get into, but once you do, it's a magical experience. Just don't expect to hear them playing on the radio.

If you like death metal, prog metal, or any kind of complex, multidimensional music, you seriously need to look these guys up. Their album Still Life single-handedly got me into death metal.

Blackwater Park, Deliverance, Damnation, Ghost Reveries, and Watershed equal an amazing decade for these guys.

By the way, this is one of the worst lists I have ever seen.

Definitely worthy of this list, Nightwish infuses orchestral sounds with hard-pounding riffs and awesome solos. Both eras of vocalists have their own great qualities too.

Nightwish produces some really beautiful music. The guitar riffs are gorgeous, and the overall sound is really inventive and spunky. I love everything they do. Definitely number one of EVERYTHING here.

So many really good bands were left off this list, like Nightwish, probably because they were not U.S. bands with labels spending cash to spin their tunes on U.S. radios.

It took a few years for Arch Enemy to grow on me. Being a fan of Carcass and Michael Amott's guitar work, I followed him to Arch Enemy. The music was almost as aggressive but melodic at the same time, showcasing Michael Amott's handiwork.

I even went to see them live at a local brick-and-mortar venue in 2007 or 2008, got heavily drunk, and walked out unimpressed with the band. I'm not sure what it was or when, or if it was just me getting older, but they grew on me, and now I don't go a day without listening to some Arch Enemy. Next to Megadeth, they've become one of my favorite bands, oddly enough.

Machine Head was boss in the 90s, especially with "Burn My Eyes" and "The More Things Change." But after venturing into nu metal in the late 90s-early 00s, they kind of redeemed themselves and actually became not only great again but also very relevant.

No one can deny the impact "The Blackening" had in 2007, and the albums after that haven't been too shabby either, although not as great as some of their past albums.

Come on... It's about the 2000s, not about bands that existed since the 80s. And in the 2000s, the best metal band is Machine Head. Please listen to the albums Unto the Locust and The Blackening. They are awesome.

However, nothing's better than the heavy metal of the 80s.

Below Metallica, HA! That's a joke, right? They've released two albums, haven't they? I don't even know.

Iron Maiden, on the other hand, has released Brave New World, Dance of Death, A Matter of Life and Death, and The Final Frontier (if you'll consider it). Also, they had a monster tour, recreating the atmosphere of the famous World Slavery Tour.

Ah, Iron Maiden, always thinking of the fans. That's why they are not only the best band of the decade but of all time.

What are they doing in 14th position? They should be at the top. After the release of Brave New World, they have never had a bad album. Iron Maiden is the best metal band ever.

For being a fictional yet semi-real band, their music is kick-ass.

Though every album they released was different from the others, making their discography somewhat of a roller coaster when it comes to quality, I cannot deny the fact that they did put out great albums like "Shogun," "The Crusade," "Ascendancy," and even the hugely underrated "Vengeance Falls."

Ascendancy was the best metal album of the decade, and one of the best since Painkiller. They did have some weaker albums, but their sound was still unbelievable.

Nothing has topped Ascendancy, except maybe A7X's Nightmare.

No one in the top ten, other than Metallica, is better than Gojira. So logically, they should be in the top ten.

They have the best technicality, are one of the heaviest out there, and offer the best mix of intensity and emotion. I love these guys. And they're killer live!

67? Come on, guys, wow. Gojira and Mastodon outside the top 10? It seems like interesting music isn't on most people's agenda. It would kill you guys to listen to something that isn't mainstream, wouldn't it?

I seriously recommend checking these guys out. You'll thank me later.

Epic sound! Overall, if you don't know who Gojira is, you need to put down your Britney Spears records and give these guys a chance.

The future of thrash. As the bands that started in the '80s quit one by one, bands like Havok will get more recognition. And no, they're not a whole lot like Slayer. Very unique music.

Havok is bringing thrash metal back, hard and fast, with politically charged lyrics that echo what we see in today's current political climate.

Havok is definitely the best band of the 2000s. Man, they are kicking asses like Slayer did in the 1980s.