10 Rock Artists With Multiple Classics Under Their Belt

When Metallica were first coming up as one of the kings of the underground scene, they had no real agenda about becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. They were just a couple of snot nosed kids looking to play some of the fastest music that anyone had ever heard and were going to leave the rest of their competition in the dust. Somewhere along the way though, they went from just regular headbanging tunes to some of the most well constructed metal songs of all time.

Coming off of the scattershot sounds of Kill Em All, Ride the Lightning is the band operating at their absolute peak, using their songs as riff tapes unto themselves and breaking new ground for the thrash genre, going from the height of intensity on Fight Fire With Fire to slipping in a ballad on Fade to Black to closing things out with the rising tension of the Call of Ktulu. That may have been the first great Metallica record, but the band were just getting started when they went in for Master of Puppets.

While Puppets may seem by the numbers to some, that's just because of how commonplace some of its classic tracks have become, with the title track blending the light and the dark sides of the band perfectly, along with songs that pushed them that one notch forward like the almost groove metal sounds of The Thing That Should Not Be or Cliff Burton's showcase of musicianship on Orion, which almost feels like a heavy metal take on classical music. Thrash may have been going through its golden age, but both Lightning and Puppets are fair game for pretty much any fan looking to get into the heavier side of rock music.