10 Greatest Metal Albums Of The 1980’s

Bang your head.

Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden performing on the Main Stage at the Reading Festival, Sunday 28 August 2005. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA
Yui Mok

Metal has enjoyed it’s fair share of monumental albums over the years, with the 1980’s arguably being the best decade of all.

It was a time that birthed many of the genre legends we know and love today, and spawned the bounty of sub-genres we’ve become accustomed to.

Heavy music was amongst the most popular in the world at this time, and many artists were producing the best work of their careers in an attempt to reap the spoils, with fans winning every time.

Indeed, great offerings came from all sides of the genre; head-bangers could find solace in anything from German power metal to good old fashioned American thrash. In fact, a number of acts would often take these newly established sub-genres and put their own spin on them with each release, resulting in one of the most experimental periods in music history.

There are so many great metal albums from this decade, but some stand head-and-shoulders above the rest, delivering hours of extraordinary entertainment with their shredding solos, machine gun drumming, and speaker blowing vocals

This is truly a walk among the metal elite...

10. Ozzy Osbourne – Blizzard Of Oz

Home to tracks like Mr Crowley, and the immortal Crazy Train, Blizzard Of Ozz was a riff-heavy masterpiece that shot Ozzy Osbourne into super-stardom, with fans and critics praising the raw and aggressive nature of the album, which was complimented excellently by Osbourne’s amazing vocal range.

The album is also home to some great guitar solos, courtesy of Randy Rhodes, who did the best work of his tragically short career on the album.

In addition, the album was also a great seller, charting at #7 in the U.K. album chart and going platinum four times over in the United States. A prosperous start to a long and manic solo career.

In this post: 
Iron Maiden
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

WhatCulture contributor with a love of heavy metal and horror.