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Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden's heavy metal assault has soldiered on since the band's inception in 1980. As frontiersmen of the massively significant New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Maiden has influenced metal's many branches, from power and prog to speed and thrash. Rhythmic velocity, epic lyrics, operatic vocals and tremendous, wailing TRIPLE guitars with ripping solos to match are what made them kings early on, from 1981's Killers to 1988's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. After weathering several lineup changes and directional departures during the '90s, Maiden's legendary status was restored when famed singer Bruce Dickinson returned in 1999. They charged into the new millennium by touring and releasing new albums. 2008 found Maiden flying around the world on the Somewhere Back in Time Tour, performing an all-vintage set -- complete with the original 1985 Powerslave stage design. Maiden continue to conquer and inspire. Up the irons!
- Jen Guyre
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Judas Priest
Blessed with as many lives as a cat, not only have the protean "Priest" undergone nearly seasonal lineup changes, but on numerous occasions they have completely reinvented their sound to keep up with shifts in public taste. Originally deeply immersed in Progressive Metal elements (composing epic fantasy narratives in song), they soon switched roles from Conan-rockers to leather-clad, would-be Hell's Angels. Focusing their power into smoking, twin guitar testosterone fests, Judas Priest's Stained Class and Hell Bent for Leather catalyzed the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Once the arrival of Metallica and other Speed Metal acts made the Priest's mid-tempo, work-the-body assault sound outmoded and irrelevant, the band again huddled together and came up with a new game plan. They came out swinging, hoping for a swift KO. Painkiller (1990) was a blue ribbon entry in the Thrash category, much faster and heavier than anything else in the band's career; but when the album's tepid reception helped precipitate lead singer Rob Halford's defection from Judas Priest, the band's final transformation was already afoot. The remaining members hired themselves a new vocalist and, with a magician's finesse, turned a nine-lived cat into a chicken with its head hacked off.
- Chad Driscoll
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Motorhead
Continuing to this day with unimpeachable respect as forefathers of Metal, Motorhead's harder/louder/faster biker rock anthems remain some of the hardest, loudest and fastest music ever recorded. Since 1975, Lemmy Kilmister and his shifting line-up have played raw, stripped-down rock at painful volumes. Leading their uber-rock anthems is Lemmy's unmistakable voice. Hoarse and world-weary, he screams with as much aggression and anger as his bass. Punk and Metal are indebted to Motorhead's aggressive, anti-social grind, which pre-dates them by years and creates desperate immediacy and simplicity in every one of their brief seek-and-destroy songs.
- Marc Kate
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Dragonforce
Britain's power metal powerhouse DragonForce formed in 1999 from the remnants of various extreme metal bands in and around London. Named after their favorite video game, Dragon Quest, these fantasy-obsessed gamer enthusiasts also incorporate video game sounds into their music. Known for long, fast-paced anthems full of guitar hero antics like dual solos, quick licks and catchy riffs, DragonForce's appeal lies in their technical ability as well as their positive messages. On their first stateside release, 2006's Inhuman Rampage, DragonForce -- ZP Theart (vocals), Herman Li (guitar), Sam Totman (guitar), Frederic Leclercq (bass), Vadim Pruzhanov (keyboards, and yes, keytar) and Dave Mackintosh (drums) -- shocked and awed the metal masses as well as pop-culture fanatics with the hit single "Through the Fire and the Flames."
- Jen Guyre
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Def Leppard
Def Leppard juiced up the lumbering blooze riffs of Led Zeppelin, put a spit-shine sheen on 'em, and slapped five thousand vocal tracks on the chorus. The result: humongous metal anthems with tongue-flickering axemanship and arenas full of topless teenage girls. Steadfastly working through a number of personal tragedies, the band has managed to keep releasing records right up till 1999 and, maintaining a huge cult fan-base, shows no sign of quitting.
- Mike McGuirk
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Hammerfall
Perhaps the point band of the European power metal movement, Sweden's Hammerfall are alternately loved and loathed for their back-to-the-1980s approach. Their galloping anthems touch on familiar themes -- swords, dragons, heavy metal itself -- and feature the type of speedily melodic guitars and soaring, high-pitched vocals one would expect from a band who pride themselves on carrying the torch of bands like Judas Priest, Helloween and Manowar.
- Will York
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Iced Earth
Classic metal riffing as tight as a cinched c-clamp. British metal from Florida with flowing guitar melodies and vocal harmonies.
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Accept
Homoerotic power-shout metal from Germany. Fun fact: singer Udo Dirkschneider is very short, but all muscle, and is a fan of London Leatherboys. Highly recommended: Balls to the Wall
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Spinal Tap
The English behemoth Metal band who gave us the timeless, infinitely quoted phrases "This one goes to eleven!" and "Hello Cleveland!" Spinal Tap's long, multifaceted career began during the herky-jerky days of Merseybeat as the Thamesmen with their release of the Kinks-esque beauty "Gimme Some Money." After a host of name and personnel changes, a stint as dippy psyche-poppers, and finally an inner acceptance of their truly sexy image, the members of Spinal Tap ultimately found their voice as the hairy gods of thunder they've been since the release of Silent But Deadly in 1969. They charged into the 1970s and broke stateside in the '80s, leaving behind a trail of dead drummers and a laundry list of ball-rockin' classics. Favorites "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight," "Sex Farm" and the progressive Metal masterpiece "Stonehenge" are collected on the "none more black" This is Spinal Tap -- sadly, the sole record still in print that chronicles their somewhat convoluted career. A 1992 comeback record featured the requisite guest appearances of heavy metal slob and Guns N' Roses guitar-killer Slash, as well as has-beens Joe Satriani and Cher, but thankfully included the new anthems "Break Like the Wind" and "Bitch School."
- Mike McGuirk
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Venom
All hail Venom! The godfathers of Black Metal, this NWOBHM band formed in 1979, releasing three classic albums before they'd given a single live performance. By the time the veiled-in-mystery band toured, the buzz about them was enormous. Cronos' dread-inspiring vocals seemed delivered not from the voice box, but from an inner Pandora's box. Drummer Abaddon and guitarist Mantas kicked up maelstroms of their own. No power trio before them had created such a fray of propulsive beats and godly riffage. Venom distilled all of Metal's clichés -- the obsessions with war, sex, fantasy, the occult -- and took them to extremes bordering on parody. Chanting along to the wicked camp of "In League with Satan" and "Live Like an Angel (Die Like a Devil)" are guilty pleasures. Amoral? Perhaps, but no less so than indulging in the rank sexism of "Red Light Fever" and "Teacher's Pet." Some followers (e.g., the Scandinavian Black Metal scene) took their satanic posturing literally, but for Venom the "metal" in heavy metal was always pure irony.
- Chad Driscoll
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Girlschool
Though birthed at the height of 1977's Punk rock explosion, these girls went the way of metal, following closely the sound and style of the Runaways. Loud, boisterous, Heavy Metal guitar sounds with wailing bad girl attitude. After twenty years, they still have the rock boiling in their blood!
- Mark Murrmann
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Saxon
Formed in the South Yorkshire industrial town of Barnsley , just as punk was conquering England in 1977, Saxon wore their lack of fashion as a biker badge from the beginning. By 1981, they were rivaling Iron Maiden and Def Leppard for head of the grassroots New Wave of British Heavy Metal class, and they even named an album Denim and Leather. They'd started out steeped in '70s pomp and blooze, but soon were streamlining their approach to the level of sometime-tourmates Motorhead. On 1980's Wheels of Steel (which beat Grandmaster Flash to that phrase by a year), anthems like "Machine Gun" and "Motorcycle Man" anticipated thrash tempos to come. Still, though stars at home, Saxon didn't even dent the U.S. until their sixth album, in 1983; the highest they ever climbed on the charts was an unstaggering No. 130 with 1985's widely maligned Innocence Is No Excuse. By then, they were slicking up in an apparent attempt to keep up with the poodle-haired hordes crossing over to MTV, not that MTV cared. But Saxon kept plugging away with shifting lineups regardless; their 2009 album, Into the Labyrinth, is as respectable an effort as you could ask for from such geezers.
- Chuck Eddy
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Status Quo
Quick, name the band: It's placed 30 albums in the British Top 20 (including four No. 1's) since 1972, but only hit the U.S. album chart once, with a record that peaked at No. 148 in 1976. It's also scored over 60 hit singles in England -- reportedly more than any other rock band -- yet it hasn't reached the U.S. singles chart for over four decades, despite continuing to make records. The only possible answer is Status Quo, known in the U.S. almost exclusively for the single "Pictures of Matchstick Men," which went to No. 12 in 1968. That classic's been covered by everyone from Camper Van Beethoven to Ozzy Osbourne, and its riff has been swiped by thousands. But by the early '70s, Status Quo had given up twee psych-pop for a pile-driving biker-boogie trudge that would serve them well for the next several generations and for scores of largely interchangeable but reliably songful albums beloved by Brits and ignored by Americans. If you need a U.S. parallel, think ZZ Top. But even ZZ didn't have a chart-topping single in their homeland -- and certainly not one where they collaborated with a soccer team, as the Quo did with Manchester United in 1994's "Come on You Reds."
- Chuck Eddy
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Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell was formed to record three new songs for the 2007 Black Sabbath collection, The Dio Years. Tony Iommi, Ronnie James Dio and Geezer Butler then enlisted drummer Vinny Appice to stand in for Bill Ward and set out on a tour to promote the (then) upcoming album. A recording from the tour, Live From Radio City Music Hall, was released in August 2007. The set chronicles the band's Dio years, including songs from each album recorded with the singer and highlighted by "Die Young," "Neon Knights," "Sign of the Southern Cross" and the band's paced, menacing play throughout. Further collaborations and reunions were not announced, but not ruled out by Iommi and Dio, either.
- Mike McGuirk
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Diamond Head
Diamond Head never achieved the éclat of noteworthies Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, but in their own way they were equally influential on Metal's development in the 1980s. No other band so impacted Metallica, for instance, whose Garage, Inc. contains not one but four Diamond Head covers. That admiration is well deserved -- Diamond Head's 1981 debut is an indispensable document in Metal history. From the approach-to-the-Death-Star opening beat of "Am I Evil" to epic-spinning in "The Prince," this album is the ne plus ultra of compact riffs and masterful soloing. Few Metal guitarists don't owe a debt to Brian Tatler -- it's just unfortunate that more singers don't owe the same debt to vocalist Sean Harris. He is a singer with incredible range who never sounded strained or forced, even when pushing his voice to its limit. Due to record label interference, the band only sporadically recaptured the glory of their debut. Indeed, it was a tough act to follow.
- Chad Driscoll
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