Top Ten Questions About Metal to Ask Users of TheTopTens

The Top Ten
1 Metallica or Megadeth?

If I have to pick the entire band carrer ill go with Megadeth, because they managed to keep their sound pretty well, and overral their newer albums are not so bad...
But the first 5 metallica albums are very far away from any of Megadeth, in terms of quality, I ll rather listen the best metallica albums

Both are equally good, but I've listened to more Metallica than Megadeth, so I'm going with Metallica

I enjoy both and both have good and bad songs, but I'll go with Megadeth. I like Mustaine's riffs more.

2 Slayer or Kreator?

Sometimes I think Kreator is underrated. They could be on the big four instead of Anthrax

Kreator is very heavy, but slayer, I mean... Tom could out-sing the whole band.

Slayer. I don't really like Kreator aside from one or two songs.

Kreator. Just compare Slayer's best to Kreator's best.

3 Bruce Dickinson or Rob Halford?

I love them both - can't choose. Technically speaking, Rob's vocal technique and skills are a little bit better - Rob does certain things better than Bruce. But again, I love them both.

I absolutely love their duet here (Halford invited Dickinson):
Halford - The one you love to hate, ft Bruce Dickinson (2000, Resurrection - solo album)

That's a difficult one. They both have a vocal range of 4 octaves, and they are both awesome. But my vote goes to Bruce Dickinson, because he got me into metal.

Don't think I can choose here, both have awesome vocal techniques.

Bruce Dickinson, he has an amazing voice.

4 Phil Anselmo or Randy Blythe?

Both are great bands. I do like Pantera better, but Anselmo can't compre to Blythe's voice, it's just the perfect rock voice for the band

I love pantera a lot more than LOG, but I think randy has a heavier and more powerful voice.

Phil Anselmo. Best metal screamer ever.

Anselmo - he's the better singer.
His vocal potential is even bigger than most of the metalheads think - check out the song Burnnn! (from their power /speed /glam metal era, 80s).
You can hear his amazing non-harsh vocals and his Halford-esque high notes.
By the way, Burnnn! is one of the best speed metal songs I've ever heard.

5 Dave Mustaine or James Hetfield?

The best vocals? Definitely James. Dave's voice sounds dirty and unsuitable for metal, and sometimes he barely sings, while James' voice is perfectly suitable for Thrash Metal.

Dave Mustaine's voice sounds immature and overall repulsive, but he is a better guitarist. I don't know.

For vocals and songwriting, James. For guitar and overall musical skill, Dave.

Vocals: James Hetfield
Guitars: Dave Mustaine
Songwriting - music: tie
Songwriting - lyrics: tie

Total: tie

6 Dio or Ozzy?

Dio. I don't listen a lot to Black Sabbath and Dio, but I did listen to a few songs from Black Sabbath's Dio era. And I prefer Dio. He's much better than Ozzy, and his voice is also much more influential than Ozzy.

In Black Sabbath, Ozzy was the perfect singer. Overall, though, Dio is the better musician

I prefer Dio on overall musical scale, but Ozzy's cool too.

Dio- better vocals. Ozzy- better songs.

7 Tool or Dream Theater?

Dream Theater. I would explain why they're better, but I already did that. It's the first paragraph of my bio on my profile page. If you want to know why I choose DT, check that out.

Tool! They are the most original band of the last 30 years!

Dream Theater by a hundred thousand miles.

Dream Theater. I find Tool a tad overrated.

8 Possessed or Testament?

Although possessed are my favourite death metal band, they can't compare to the most powerful thrash metal band ever.

9 Venom or Motorhead?

Depends what mood I am in. If I'm in a relaxed mood, Motörhead. If I'm in an excited mood, venom.

10 Paul Di'anno or Blaze Bailey?

This is a tricky question. I think both singers are good. Paul Di'Anno's voice is good and raw, but the sound quality of the first two albums cover the 'goodness' of his voice. The albums with Blaze Bailey have a good sound quality, and that way, you can hear Blaze's voice better. However, my vote goes to Paul Di'Anno. Blaze Bailey's voice just doesn't fit with the tuning of the guitars and the overall instrumentals of Traditional maiden, especially on Virtual XI. The band managed to adjust the instrumentals to Blaze's voice on The X Factor, but it made the band sound pretty different. Paul Di'Anno's voice fits very well with Traditional maiden, so my vote goes to Paul.

Paul is a great vocalist whose voice fits the genre while Blaze's doesn't (he has a great voice but it's not a metal voice). The Paul Di'anno era is more consistent than Blaze Bayley's. I think the Blaze era was the low point of Iron Maiden, even though they have never written a bad song and a bunch of great songs come from Blaze's era, if that makes any sense.

Di'anno's voice is more raw

Baileys voice is more dark.

Di'anno wins this one

This one is easy. Paul had an inability to make a bad maiden song.

The Contenders
11 Iron Maiden or Iced Earth?

Iron Maiden, Iced Earth are a good band as well, but Iron Maiden has great songs.

Iron Maiden, but Iced Earth are a great band also.

I'm going with Iron Maiden for this one.

Iron Maiden, but Iced Earth is good too

12 Who Created Metal?

There is no sole creator of Metal. It is just a feat to strong for man! But the two biggest influences, both equally in my opinion are Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. I like Black Sabbath more because of the heavier sound though. If they invented subgenres, Deep Purple invented Speed Metal, Black Sabbath invented Doom Metal.

The idea of Metal was panned, hard when it was introduced. With Lester Bangs quoting Black Sabbath "Just like Cream!, but worse" If you're looking for the answer, Black Sabbath obviously created Metal, with Deep Purple coming in second.

Black Sabbath was the first metal band.

Hard rock of the late 60s helped influence metal as a whole, like deep purple, Led Zeppelin, blue cheer, iron butterfly, mc5, the stooges, mountain, and a bunch more

Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Also influenced by Led Zeppelin

13 Power Metal or Progressive Metal?

None of them is my first subgenre choice but maybe power metal - it's faster, it has the best choruses in metal, and most of the greatest singers are there (Dio, Michael Kiske, Hansi Kursch, Tobias Sammet, Eric Adams, Ralf Scheepers, etc).

Prog metal - it's complex and technical, which is good, but prog metal can be quite boring (haha, thrash is never boring).

How about Progressive Power Metal? It's awesome - combines the best of the two subgenres.
PS. I answered power metal but to be honest, I love wholeheartedly only Blind Guardian (out of the power metal bands). It's because Blind Guardian's power metal is different and it's actually prog power metal for the most part.

Prog definitely. Bands like tool, dream Theater, Mastodon, neurosis, Meshuggah, opeth, and symphony X are amazing

Progressive metal. I hate power metal.

Prog metal. But I love power metal too,

14 Death Metal or Black Metal?

Not into either, but I'll go with black metal because there are at least some great bands whereas there are only about 3 death metal bands I can tolerate.

Death metal. I'm kinda picky about black metal, a lot of the Norwegian stuff sounds the same to me

Death Metal but I like some Black Metal like Carach Angren and Mayhem

Death metal. And let's add in some goregrind while we're at it.

15 Mike Portnoy or Mike Mangini?

Although I don't care for Portnoy because he was a part of a garbage band before he called quits, but still prefer him over that robotic and uninteresting drummer.

haha - Mike Mangini was a full-time Associate Professor at the same percussion department, where Mike Portnoy was a student (Berklee College of Music, Boston).
Mike Mangini resigned in 2010 to join Dream Theater.

But Mike Portnoy is absolutely excellent, too.

Always Mike Portnoy is better drummer.

Portnoy, but Mangini is great too.

16 Cliff Burton or Steve Harris?

Cliff Burton was a better bassist, but Steve Harris is better in every other way including song writing, mixing, and editing, personality, and the fact that he made Iron Maiden. He is the magnet of Iron Maiden, he brought them all together and was the consistent centerpiece of the band as long as they have been around.

Both are/were great and some of my biggest influences. But I'm going to give this one to Steve, for multiple reasons including song writing, forming Iron Maiden in the first place, etc.

I love both but I go with Steve.

17 Blind Guardian or Iced Earth?

I like both. But Blind Guardian wins for me. They've never put out a bad album, whilst Iced Earth had that episode with something wicked parts 1 & 2.

Blind Guardian without a doubt. I love both of them though

Blind Guardian, but iced earth is great too.

Both - I can't choose. Both bands provide epic stuff and 2 of the top 10 metal singers. Also, both bands are underrated but Blind Guardian is more underrated - Blind Guardians are a bit better but they are less known. That's the reason I usually defend/promote Blind Guardian.

18 Iron Maiden or Judas Priest?

Iron Maiden. Without a doubt. I have to agree, Judas Priest is a bit more influential than Iron Maiden, and they were earlier. Iron Maiden released their first metal songs in 1979 on 'The Soundhouse Tapes', while Judas Priest already released metal songs before 1979. Still, my vote goes to Iron maiden, because they have better guitar melodies and vocals in my opinion.

Both bands are good but I go with Judas Priest

They're both good.

19 Vinnie Paul or Dave Lombardo?

Dave Lombardo is the king of double bass. Every metal drummer wants to sound like dave

Lombardo is better, but he's also more overrated.

Vinnie. Overall, I prefer Pantera to Slayer.

Lombardo is more impressive.

20 Ozzy Osbourne or Marilyn Manson?

Marilyn Manson. I have to admit, Marilyn Manson's voice is very weird, but good in it's own way, and it's also gripping. Ozzy's voice doesn't fit for heavy metal at all, and there's nothing really special about Ozzy's voice.

Manson by far. For those who claim Ozzy is the Prince of Darkness, I counter that Manson is the King of Darkness. He is superior to Ozzy in every way

Ozzy Osbourne. I don't think anyone would actually vote for manson

Ozzy, Manson's base of his music is 75% wow-factor - 9/26/17

21 Nu Metal or Rap Metal?

Nu Metal is comes very close to Rap Metal. Nu Metal is basically Rap Metal with downtuned guitars, screamed vocals and electronics (although there are Nu Metal bands that don't have any rapping).
But my vote goes to Nu Metal, because Nu Metal has good bands like Linkin Park and Hollywood Undead. I have to admit, those bands also have Rap Metal songs, but my vote goes to Nu Metal anyway.

Korn and Deftones are the only nu-metal bands I actually enjoy, and I hate rap metal. I never was a big Faith No More fan and I hated the Anthrax/Public Enemy song

I don't know but both are much better than stupid real metal

They both largely suck.

22 20th or 21st Century?

While most of the classics are from the 20th century, there is a ton of great metal still being made.

21st century. Modern metal just doesn’t have the magic of older metal bands, the only really amazing newer metal I find is the metal from older bands being released in the 21st century.

23 Satan or Gore?

Gore all the way

24 Children of Bodom or Amon Amarth?

Children of Bodom. They are one of the single coolest bands I've ever heard in my life

Children Of Bodom. Haven't listened to much Amon Amarth.

Amon Amarth with no doubt.

Children of Bodom

25 Tenors or Baritones?

Before you answer - some examples:

Great Tenors - Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, Michael Kiske, Tobias Sammet, Timo Kotipelto, King Diamond, Andre Matos, Jarkko Ahola

Great Baritones - Dio, Hansi Kürsch, Geoff Tate, Matt Barlow, Russel Allen, Phil Anselmo, Eric Adams;
James Hetfield - different singing style but great in his own right.

PS: Geoff Tate - very high baritone, close to low tenor.

Before you answer - examples:
Great Tenors - Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson, Michael Kiske, Geoff Tate, Tobias Sammet, Jarkko Ahola

Great Baritones - Dio, Hansi Kürsch, Matt Barlow, Russel Allen, Phil Anselmo, Eric Adams, Jon Oliva; James Hetfield

8Load More
PSearch List