I keep forgetting albums. Realm of Chaos will make my list for sure.

Ranking Venom's Prime Evil higher than Bathory's The Return is quite a take

My list. Not too much variation. Maiden in particular were just phenomenal in the '80s.

01 Metallica - Ride the Lightning
02 Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast
03 Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
04 Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
05 Slayer - South of Heaven
06 Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman
07 Kreator - Extreme Aggression
08 Iron Maiden - Powerslave
09 Metallica - Master of Puppets
10 Iron Maiden - Killers

I am disappointed in you.

I wonder which Maiden album will make the top. I said in the unpopular opinion thread that I think there is no consensus on 80s Iron Maiden. Every album is someone's favorite, and it seems quite evenly spread. It speaks to the strength of the first seven albums, it's as if they could do no wrong.

Yeah, I somehow forgot Candlemass existed when I made my first draft. I doubt Nightfall will make my top 10, but it's still a great album!

I'm also quite happy to see Realm of Chaos getting so much love so far. Bolt Thrower needs to make the top 10 overall!

1) Iron Maiden - Powerslave
2) Death - Leprosy
3) Slayer - Hell Awaits
4) Coroner - No More Color
5) Sepultura - Beneath the Remains
6) Megadeth - Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?
7) Metallica - Ride the Lightning
8) Metal Church - Metal Church
9) Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath
10) Possessed - Seven Churches

Honorable mentions:
Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time
Blind Illusion - The Sane Asylum
Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
Razor - Evil Invaders
Running Wild - Death or Glory
Manilla Road - Open the Gates
Voivod - Killing Technology
Riot - Thundersteel
Pestilence - Consuming Impulse
King Diamond - Abigail
Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
Diamond Head - Lightning to the Nations

Slayer - Show No Mercy
Mercyful Fate - Don’t Break the Oath
Death - Leprosy
King Diamond - Abigail
Bathory - the return of Darkness and Evil
Sodom - Agent Orange
Razor - Evil Invaders
Riot - Thundersteel
Accept - Metal Heart
Sepultura - Schizophrenia

Hard to narrow down, tried to keep it to one album per band. Nothing too surprising on this list, just too much good stuff to choose from

Goddammit there's too many!

1. Kruiz (RUS) - Kruiz (1988)
2. Deathrow - Deception Ignored (1989)
3. Dark Angel - Darkness Descends (1986)
4. Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time (1986)
5. Pestilence - Consuming Impulse (1989)
6. Voivod - Killing Technology (1987)
7. Overkill - Feel The Fire (1985)
8. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
9. Voivod - Dimension Hatross (1988)
10. Savatage - Hall Of The Mountain King (1987)

All of these are straight perfect albums to my ears, everything after the top 3 is interchangeable depending on my mood, the time of day, weather on Mars and a gajillion other things.

Nice to see Darkness Descends so high. Killer album.

I won't send my list till the very end of a month as I only have 9 guaranteed spots filled in:

1. King Diamond - Conspiracy
2. Slayer - Show No Mercy
3. Iron Maiden - Killers
4. Mercyful Fate - Melissa
5. Manowar - Hail To England
6. Metallica - Ride The Lightning
7. Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith
8. Accept - Restless And Wild
9. Def Leppard - High'N'Dry
10. ??????

Yeah, will be a tough competition for that 10th spot between those few:

Candlemass - Nightfall
Anthrax - Among The Living
Omen - Battle Cry
Kreator - Endless Pain

Not to mention may double down on Iron Maiden ( S/T ), Slayer (Reign In Blood) and K.Diamond ( Fatal Portrait ). As of now, I am leaning to Candlemass if for nothing else, that damn song "Mourners Lament" still gives me the goosebumps after listening to it for 35 years, lol

I decided to have a bit of fun with this poll, and instead of just going for a generic list, decided to rank my top 3 albums for each year and use that to inform my final top 10 for the decade:

"HMs" are honourable mentions; good albums that for whatever reason I couldn't justify putting into the top 3 for that year.



Then ranking each placement (#1, #2, #3):



And finally, taking the top 4 albums of Rank #1, top 4 albums of Rank #2, and top 2 albums of Rank #3 gets my overall list for the decade.

The rationale here was two-fold: First, there are plenty of albums released in years where I ranked them #2 or #3 when in other years they might've ranked higher, if not get #1 for the year. However, it just so happened that they were instead in a year competing against a lot of great albums. That didn't seem right to me. And, second, I guess I wanted to get a good cross-section from the decade. I could just go with the top albums of each year, or the top 5 of Rank #1 or Rank #2, but ALL these albums deserve recognition and a fun poll like this is a good opportunity for it. Besides, an album that ranked higher for a given year doesn't mean it's one of the highlights of the decade for me. So, with that said, here's the list:

OVERALL
1. Bathory - Blood Fire Death (1988)
2. Mercyful Fate - Melissa (1983)
3. Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)
4. Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)
5. Slayer - Reign in Blood (1986)
6. Death - Scream Bloody Gore (1987)
7. Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness) (1989)
8. Blind Illusion - The Sane Asylum (1988)
9. Candlemass - Nightfall (1987)
10. Trouble - Trouble (1984)

As far as the decade goes, the list definitely leans to the latter half of the decade, with 1987 being the year with the most top albums.

i wonder if Discharge will get any votes because they'd make my top 10 if it was all music from the 80s

Started thinking about this one as soon as the last one ended. Managed to come up with a short list of 10 bands, some with a clear album choice, some with a couple of possibilities. Here's said short list:

Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith
Riot - Thundersteel
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Chastain - Ruler of the Wasteland
Liege Lord - Master Control
Manilla Road - Crystal Logic
Satan - Court in the Act
Saxon - Wheels of Steel / Strong Arm of the Law / Denim and Leather / Power & The Glory / Crusader
Scorpions - Blackout / Love At First Sting
Blind Guardian - Battalions of Fear / Follow the Blind

Order is random. Gotta listen to some stuff now!

My favourite metal album of the 1980s is The Exploited's Horror Epics. Classic metal like Iron Maiden, Lita Ford and Accept.

We have a lot of albums in common here! Nice! Here's the list I have right now. I won't send it until I've revisited my top 30, but it's likely that these won't move too much.

1. Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos… Slaves to Darkness (1989)
2. Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)
3. Death - Scream Bloody Gore (1987)
4. Death - Leprosy (1988)
5. Voivod - Nothingface (1989)
6. Bathory - Blood Fire Death (1988)
7. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains (1989)
8. Carcass - Symphonies of Sickness (1989)
9. Kreator - Pleasure to Kill (1986)
10. Pestilence - Consuming Impulse (1989)

And for the sake of comparison:
14. Candlemass - Nightfall (1987)
25. Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)

I didn't include Trouble's s/t but it's an amazing album for sure!

As for your albums being mostly from the end of the decade, this is to be expected from people who are more into death and black metal, as these two subgenres were born out later in the decade. And unless one decided to include To Mega Therion, Seven Churches, or one of the first 3 Venom LP's, the more obvious picks are all from 87 onward, with releases by Death, Sarcofago, Bathory, Bolt Thrower, Morbid Angel, Pestilence, Autopsy, Carcass, Obituary, Sepultura, Hellhammer, Master's Hammer, etc.

Out of the albums I've listed as my current top 10, 6 were released in 1989, hahaha! The earliest release in this list in Pleasure to Kill in 1986. So I have nothing from 1980 to 1985. To find albums from earlier, you have to go further down my list:

15. Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (1983)
16. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (1984)
17. Iron Maiden - Killers (1981)
18. Metallica - Ride the Lightning (1984)

Which are all albums that I love, but maybe not as much as those I ranked in my top 10. Or maybe not as much as I used to? Because Iron Maiden was one of the bands that got me into metal. I love their music so much, but I guess I just listened to their music too much, so I got a bit tired of it. Still, they are amazing albums and I will revisit them before sending my final list.

Putting stuff together a little... here's a shortlist...

Iron Maiden – SIT
Jag Panzer – Ample Destruction
Crimson Glory – Transcendence
Queensryche – Operation Mindcrime
Celtic Frost – To Mega Therion
Mercyful Fate – Don’t Break the Oath
Manilla Road – Mystification
Omen – Battle Cry
Fates Warning – Awaken the Guardian
Motorhead – Another Perfect Day

Cirith Ungol – King of the Dead
Savatage – Hall of the Mountain King

Then some others still considered...



Also, Metallica's RTL and Slayer's SNM/RIB would be up there but I'm sure those are gonna get shitloads of votes anyway, so I'm focusing on other stuff.

I hope nobody does that. Fucking weak. Don't vote for Maiden either then.

Maybe. There seems like way more of a chance that Maiden will be pretty spread out. I don't really know what the list is gonna be at the end. So who knows.

I accidentally found out the cockney rejects are on MA this week

Dropping Nothingface off the list was the final, most painful, thing I had to do. What a wonderful album it is!

Damn, can't pick any funeral doom albums

Then don't drop it! Show me your list, I'll tell you which album to remove to make place for Nothingface

I want to say that there were so many and/or choices on my list. I mean, I chose Ancient Dreams but could have put Nightfall. I chose Ride the Lightning but could have easily put Master of Puppets. The same thing for Sodom, I chose Persecution Mania but could have easily put Agent Orange.

I really wanted to put “Seventh Son …” in there but I already had two Maiden albums.

I also want to give a shout out to Queensrÿche. I have been a bit dismissive of that bands 80s album, but I’ve got to admit that Operation Mindcrime is a fantastic album. I recently gave it a re-listen and it deserves to have a strong showing in the final poll.

I just realized (while blasting it before going to bed) that Finished with the Dogs is my favorite album of german thrash (yeah, I enjoy it more than everything by Sodom or Kreator and I like their 80s albums very much), so fuck it... I'll put it somewhere in the top ten, and if it ends in rando, so be it...

7 out of 10 items on the list could be Maiden and it would be valid tbh

I was very close to doing that exact thing.

Let it not be forgotten that Running Wild's Death or Glory did come out in late 1989!

I don't think we could say this about any other band. It's crazy to think that these guys dropped 7 massive albums in roughly 8 years. Iron Maiden truly is a legendary band.

1 Slayer- Reign in Blood
2. Metallica- Ride the Lightning
3. Celtic Frost- To Mega Therion
4. Kreator- Pleasure to Kill
5. Sepultura- Beneath the Remains
6. Mercyful Fate -Melissa
7. Anthrax- Among The Living
8. Iron Maiden- Powerslave
9. Morbid Angel- Altars of Madness
10. Napalm Death- Scum

There is a lot of good stuff from the 80s I definitely could have a top 20 with repeats from bands. I didn't try not to have repeats I just tried to think of my top ten from the 80s without over thinking it and these were the 10 I got. I know there was no limit but I didn't want a top 100. It feels weird leaving out Death but I definitely prefer their 90s material. It would also feel weird putting Moving Pictures by Rush on here. They have more metal albums that I would be more comfortable with if this was the 70s though.

Revisiting my Iron Maiden albums, and I'm starting to have a hard time justifying not including at least one of them in my final list. Damn! There is just so much good music that was released during the 80's!

Indeed. Next closest I can think of are Running Wild's first five. If you're not hot on Under Jolly Roger, Bathory's first four applies here.

Yeah, I was also thinking of Bathory when I wrote that post. Metallica's first four are also all very solid. But seven in a row and all in the same decade? That's just untouchable!

Manilla Road were pretty spot on flawless until the end of the 80s too - long run of quality.

Sadly, Manilla Road were never one of my favorites. They have some tracks I really enjoy (mostly on The Deluge and Mysterium), but their work mostly just bounced right off of me.

Even so... still one of the best to ever do it.

I've DM'd BastardHead my picks but I'll drop them here regardless, judge me away, the lack of Metallica/Slayer/Megadeth should be an invitation enough

1. Iron Maiden - SSOASS
2. Death - Leprosy
3. Seikimatsu - Big Time Changes
4. Venom - Black Metal
5. King Diamond - Abigail
6. Anthrax - Among the Living
7. Sarcofago - INRI
8. Bathory - Blood Fire Death
9. Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
10. Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

The working list so far:
1. Riot - Thundersteel
2. Iron Maiden - Powerslave
3. Running Wild - Death or Glory
4. Vio-Lence - Eternal Nightmare
5. Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
6. Metallica - Ride the Lightning
7. Sepultura - Beneath the Remains
8. Raven - All for One
9. Overkill - Taking Over
10. Liege Lord - Master Control

Powerslave and Thundersteel are currently duking it out for 1st place, and that choice will be very difficult to make. Thundersteel has the most incredible charisma and memorability; every song is a classic to me. Powerslave, however, has a legendary and singular quality to it that I love. Death or Glory won't fall below 3rd for sure, but depending on how my revisits of it go it very well could steal #2. That run of songs starting with "Marooned" until the end of the album is my favorite moment in metal record history. RtL will probably lose some spots. Doomsday for the Deceiver and Mystification have a chance of booting Master Control out, but we'll see.

Your obssesion with Iron Maiden is so big like Justin Bieber's obssession with Selena Gomez, that I was surprised when I saw that there aren't 6 or 7 Iron Maiden albums in this top.

I mean there's lots of shit I've "obsessed" over at the end of the day.