Top 25 Traditional Heavy Metal
Welcome!
As some of you know, we have been holding top 25 votes over on our Discord server. So far we’ve done black metal, death metal and thrash. While all the previous votes have been moderately successful, this is easily our most attended so far, with a total of 114 responses - the most of any of our votes so far. Thank you to all who voted! I would like to say a huge thank you to Mr Cryptopunk for generating all this wonderful data you are about to read. He has outdone himself, providing us with a wealth of fascinating bits of information we will no doubt argue over for months.
Without further ado, here are the results for our top 25 traditional heavy metal vote!
TOP 25 TRADITIONAL HEAVY METAL ALBUMS
| Band | Album | Country | Genre | Year | Vote Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manilla Road | Crystal Logic | United States | Epic Heavy/Power Metal | 1983 | 50 |
| Iron Maiden | Powerslave | United Kingdom | Heavy Metal, NWOBHM | 1984 | 46 |
| Jag Panzer | Ample Destruction | United States | Heavy/Power Metal | 1984 | 42 |
| Mercyful Fate | Don't Break the Oath | Denmark | Heavy Metal | 1984 | 41 |
| Angel Witch | Angel Witch | United Kingdom | NWOBHM, Heavy Metal | 1980 | 40 |
| Satan | Court in the Act | United Kingdom | NWOBHM, Heavy Metal | 1983 | 39 |
| Rainbow | Rising | United Kingdom | Hard Rock/Heavy Metal | 1976 | 37 |
| Mercyful Fate | Melissa | Denmark | Heavy Metal | 1983 | 36 |
| Dio | Holy Diver | United States | Heavy Metal | 1983 | 31 |
| Omen | Battle Cry | United States | Power Metal | 1984 | 29 |
| Cirith Ungol | King of the Dead | United States | Heavy/Doom Metal | 1984 | 29 |
| King Diamond | Abigail | Denmark | Heavy Metal | 1987 | 26 |
| The Lord Weird Slough Feg | Traveller | United States | Heavy Metal | 2003 | 26 |
| Black Sabbath | Paranoid | United Kingdom | Heavy / Doom Metal | 1970 | 25 |
| Motörhead | Overkill | United Kingdom | Speed Metal, Heavy Metal/Hard Rock | 1979 | 25 |
| Judas Priest | Stained Class | United Kingdom | Heavy Metal | 1978 | 24 |
| Judas Priest | Painkiller | United Kingdom | Heavy Metal | 1990 | 24 |
| Iron Maiden | The Number Of The Beast | United Kingdom | Heavy Metal, NWOBHM | 1982 | 23 |
| Diamond Head | Lightning to the Nations | United Kingdom | NWOBHM (early), Hard Rock (later) | 1980 | 22 |
| Savatage | Hall Of The Mountain King | United States | Heavy/Power Metal, Progressive Metal/Rock | 1987 | 21 |
| Black Sabbath | Heaven and Hell | United Kingdom | Heavy / Doom Metal | 1980 | 21 |
| Riot V | Thundersteel | United States | Heavy/Power/Speed Metal | 1988 | 21 |
| Running Wild | Death or Glory | Germany | Heavy/Power/Speed Metal | 1989 | 20 |
| Metal Church | Metal Church | United States | Heavy/Power/Thrash Metal | 1984 | 20 |
| Eternal Champion | The Armor Of Ire | United States | Epic Heavy Metal | 2016 | 19 |
TOP 25 TRADITIONAL HEAVY METAL ARTISTS
| Band | Sum of Vote Count |
|---|---|
| Iron Maiden | 135 |
| Black Sabbath | 109 |
| Judas Priest | 103 |
| Mercyful Fate | 83 |
| Manilla Road | 73 |
| Motörhead | 52 |
| Rainbow | 50 |
| Running Wild | 49 |
| King Diamond | 46 |
| Satan | 44 |
| Jag Panzer | 43 |
| Riot V | 42 |
| Angel Witch | 41 |
| Dio | 39 |
| The Lord Weird Slough Feg | 38 |
| Cirith Ungol | 35 |
| Omen | 33 |
| Saxon | 29 |
| Savatage | 27 |
| Manowar | 26 |
| Crimson Glory | 24 |
| Metal Church | 23 |
| Diamond Head | 23 |
| Brocas Helm | 23 |
| Sortilège | 22 |
GENRE DISTRIBUTION
| Genre | Sum of Vote Count |
|---|---|
| Heavy Metal | 534 |
| Heavy Metal, NWOBHM | 136 |
| NWOBHM, Heavy Metal | 132 |
| Heavy/Power Metal | 112 |
| Heavy / Doom Metal | 109 |
| Heavy/Power/Speed Metal | 91 |
| Power Metal | 86 |
| Epic Heavy/Power Metal | 74 |
| Power/Speed Metal | 69 |
| Hard Rock/Heavy Metal | 64 |
| Epic Heavy Metal | 59 |
| Speed Metal, Heavy Metal/Hard Rock | 52 |
| Heavy/Doom Metal | 47 |
| Hard Rock / Heavy Metal | 33 |
| Heavy/Power Metal, Progressive Metal/Rock | 27 |
| Progressive Heavy/Power Metal | 24 |
| NWOBHM, Doom Metal | 23 |
| NWOBHM (early), Hard Rock (later) | 23 |
| Heavy/Power/Thrash Metal | 23 |
| Heavy Metal/Hard Rock | 23 |
| Speed Metal (early), Power Metal (later) | 20 |
| Thrash Metal (early), Hard Rock/Heavy/Thrash Metal (later) | 19 |
| Power/Progressive Metal (early), Progressive Metal (later) | 18 |
| NWOBHM/Black/Speed Metal | 16 |
We more data available to those who want it, this is essentially the cliff notes.
Well if there is ever a top 25 albums that embodies Shreddit’s trad taste, I think this is it. Manilla Road seem to me a band whom outside of lifer metal circles are relatively unknown, which makes it a mild shock to see them top the table. Not to say they are undeserving - far from it - it’s just interesting to note.
Another interesting titbit: The trad metal revival of the last decade shows in the votes. Predictably, the 80s and 70s are the top two in terms of votes. But third place is 2010s and not 90's or 00's.
As always, a massive thank you to the shredditcord team and data nerds for making this process relatively painless and for just generally being great.
ENJOY!