They do some pretty good research over there at VH1. I thought their ‘Top 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock’ (hosted by Carmen Electra, to perhaps jog your memory) was more or less pretty accurate, and entertaining if nothing else. Now they’re running off the greatest individual songs of the metal genre; much tougher (i.e. much more subjective), but, once again, they’ve done a pretty good job - I can’t complain much. Here’s a look.
Judas Preist - Breaking the Law
Alice Cooper - I’m Eighteen
Accept - Balls to the Walls
Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
Slipknot - Wait and Bleed (would have went with Surfacing, personally)
Quiet Riot - Metal Health
Black Sabbath - Paranoid (WAY underrated, imo)
Def Leppard - High ‘N’ Dry
White Zombie - Thunderkiss '65
Scorpions - Rock You Like A Hurricane
Faith No More - Epic
Anthrax - Caught in a Mosh
Marilyn Manson - The Beautiful People
Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
Sepultura - Refuse/Resist
Pantera - Coyboys from Hell
AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Korn - Freak On A Leash (would have went with Blind, personally)
Metallica - Enter Sandman
Guns N’ Roses - Paradise City
Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock
Alice In Chains - Man In the Box
Skid Row - Slave to the Grind (awfully high, but Bach is hosting)
Some good songs there which I agree with, but I’ll take a few random acts and add what I feel are their greatest songs off the top of my head (sometimes more for nostalgia than anything else…and yes, some of them are “cliches…”):
Judas Preist - Riding on the Wind, The Sentinel, Devil’s Child
Alice Cooper - No More Mr. Nice Guy
Deep Purple - Hush, Woman From Tokyo,
Quiet Riot - Metal Health, Slick Black Cadillac
Black Sabbath - Spiral Architect, Mob Rules, Neon Knights,
Faith No More - Falling to Pieces, From out of Nowhere, Everything’s Ruined
Anthrax - Room for one More
Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills, Die with your Boots on, Flash of the Blade
AC/DC - Shoot to Thrill, Touch too Much (hell, anything off Highway to Hell), Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be, Problem Child, Let me Put my Love into You
Twisted Sister - You Can’t Stop Rock and Roll
Motley Crue - Kickstart my Heart, Hooligan’s Holiday, Smoke the Sky (that album was so under-rated), Primal Scream
Rage Against the Machine - (virtually anything off their first two albums) and Renegades of Funk
Ozzy Osbourne - Mr. Tinkertrain, No More Tears, Crazy Babies
Kiss - Anything from ALIVE, God of Thunder (live), Calling Dr. Love (live), Fits Like a Glove
And if anyone likes straightforward (hard) Rock and Roll, do yourself a favour and check out Canada’s own “Headstones.” Most of their early stuff is bang on, and even their later work was mostly good.
Warms my heart to see Motorhead so high up there, didn’t expect it. Zombie, though- I would have figured More Human than Human to be aruond, somewhere above Thunderkiss. That surprises me. I really don’t listen to enough metal, especially enough old metal, to make up a list.
As an aside, anyone else remember when VH1 was strictly for pussies? What happened?
Korn is not a metal band. Neither is Marilyn Manson.
System of a Down does not belong on this list.
Kiss doesn’t deserve a single song on the top 40 and they are not metal.
They left out Led Zeppelin… how dare they!!!
The Scorpions’ best metal song is “The Zoo” and it was left out?
Deep Purple deserves a MUCH higher spot but not for “Smoke on the Water.”
Black Sabbath deserves two more songs on the list.
Disturbed’s “Down With the Sickness” (left out) should be top 20.
AC/DC deserves one more song entry: “Hells Bells”
Metallica needs at least two more songs on the list: “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and “Unforgiven”.
You’ll have to explain all of these further. I mean, Korn’s not metal, but you don’t have a problem with the Scorpions?
I’d agree here, they crossed the line between hard rock and metal with this one.
Zeppelin isn’t metal any more than Kiss is.
Couldn’t agree more.
I don’t know about top 20, but I definately was also thinking that song should’ve been included. Coincidentally, my gf has this song as her ringtone when I call her cell.
Agreed.
And speaking of Powerman 5000, Manifested, ‘When World’s Collide’ should have made the list!
Korn and Slipknot do not deserve to be on the list (system is iffy too), but KISS has some HARD/ROCKIN’ tunes. Forget anything after Lick it Up (though Revenge was pretty good–Domino is ku-el…), but many of their songs before–especially live–are far better than anything you’ll hear today from most bands.
As for Zep, they don’t deserve to be on the list b/c they need a category of their own: no other band had the pure talent and ability to make diverse beautiful music that they had. Soundgarden had a few tunes that came close, but Zep is truly a genre amongst itself. They ARE the hammer of the gods…
Korn and System can hold their own on this list. Just because music is pop doesn’t mean it’s bad.
Consider,
Korn’s insanely low tuned riffs combined with that strange singers strange singing was actually pretty cool in terms of ‘metal’. They played pretty damn hard and embraced an eccentric groove of metal that had so far gone untapped.
Similarly, System once again took it to the next level. Their lead singer is actually a classically trained yodeler(sp?) and they capitolized on a type of ‘start and stop’, progressive eclectic mix held together by their even more eccentric image.
When reading this list I found it best to consider the ‘metel’ scene in its theoretical entirety, a pie chart if you will. And then to consider who did the most with their ‘sound’.
It’s not all about popularity, but as VH1 exclaims, ‘Music First’
