The 90`s either had the emergence of some of the best metal bands ever, or if they had formed before then, they released their best material in the 90`s! Also the diversity in metal was huuuuge, ranging from the really heavy stuff to the very light stuff, along with the emergence of a whole host of other genre influences into metal as well.

My best metal bands of the 90`s are as below. I wouldn`t be able to build the same list in quantity, from any other decade either:

Pantera, Sepultura, White Zombie, Machine Head, Melvins, Neurosis, Nevermore, Iced Earth, Overkill, Kreator, Death, Morbid Angel, Atheist, Amorphis, Anathema, Evergrey, Fates Warning, Dream Theater, Corrosion of Conformity, Galactic Cowboys, Kyuss, Sleep, Tiamat, Opeth, Type O Negative, Meshuggah, early Korn, early Deftones. I`m not a fan of industrial metal at all, but the best albums of Fear Factory and Ministry came out in the 90`s. Finally, you`ve got practically all of the Swedish melodic death metal scene as well (IMO one of the best things to ever happen to metall)

Sure the 90`s had rubbish like a huge amount of the Nu-Metal mob, but the 80`s were blighted by hair metal, and the 00`s blighted by metalcore and the terrible alternative metal brigade with groups like Disturbed, Godsmack and Sevendust. Along with the dominance, by that terrible extreme metal group Cradle of Filth, who hit their popularity peak in the 00`s.

I actually really like Cradle of Filth. They are very commercialized for such an extreme metal band, but they come out with some decent stuff. Nymphetamine is such a killer song (not necessarily the whole album, sadly).

I have to agree with Janzoon, I think the '00's was the best decade for metal. So many of the really good metal bands that formed in the late '80's/early to mid '90's put out their best material in the last decade. Don't get me wrong though, the '90's had a stellar amount of amazing metal albums, my metal album of all time being a '90's metal album, but a lot of the really good '90's metal albums were bands who formed in the '80's. Sure the mainstream metal might suck for the '00's but the technology was so advanced that it didn't matter, to many people the radio became obsolete, you didn't need to special order CD's online or from record stores, you could just go out and see what else was out there besides the wall paste dribble being spooned into our mouths by the mainstream media.

Hope you guys don't mind if I jump into the conservation.

Personally I prefer the metal of the 70's, the early 70's to be be more exact. Proto-metal, heavy psych, acid rock, heavy prog. and hard blues rock were all contributing factors to the foundations of heavy metal. Most bands of this era are obscure for one reason or another and don't get the credit they deserve for the development of the genre IMO.

As time has moved forward so has heavy metal which has morphed and progressed into many sub-genres that it has become hard to keep an ear on all of it, at least for me. The 2000's have so much to offer some of it dentrimental and some of it excellent and others have experimented to break new ground. All arguable on the basis of critical acclaim, musianship, and personal taste.

I can't decide which decade is the best as all are very good IMO.

I kind of sound like a politician as I never really answered the question which was asked. Scary.:eek:

I know that I can say that the 90's were the worst with the whole scene uncertain where to go and how to sound. Of course there were exceptions but it did give us bands in the 00's who knew the scene was stagnant and really began to experiment with their sound as the fans were much more open hearing a new sound in Metal, especially disillusioned fans from the 90's who lamented the stagnation of the scene.

The 70's had some great bands, you just need to look for them ( Hard Stuff's 1972 album Bulletproof is phenomenal) but the 80's had some brilliant bands too that still hold up today.

The '90's were definitely the most inconsistent and stagnated decade for metal, but there were some really good metal albums to come out during it, here's just a short list of some of my favorite '90's metal albums.

Judas Priest - Jugulator (1996)
Death - The Sound of Perseverance (1998)
Strapping Young Lad - City (1997)
Katatonia - Brave Murder Day (1996), Discouraged Ones (1998), Tonight's Decision (1999)
Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (1993), October Rust (1996)
Anathema - Judgement (1998)
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse (1993)
Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy (1997)
Carcass - Heartwork (1994), Swang Song (1996)
Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy (1996)

Just to name a few.

Anything by Death is pretty much essential. The Hypocrisy and Nevermore releases are two very special albums. As for Nevermore, the following "Dreaming Neon Black" was even more absorbing than "The Politics of Ecstasy"

I have quite a few faves from the 90's but it was also the decade that I fell out of love with Metal for long periods of a time. Good call on Anathema though. I only want to hear Carcass as a Grindcore band though. Too many memories associated with them at that time.

It`s funny how these things go, Because its 90's metal that I first fell in love with. I`ve only really gotten into metal properly in the last 15 years or so. Before that, I only liked certain bands (the usual Sabbath, Slayer and Megadeth choices etc) and I would listen to them/it now and again. Its Sepultura that actually got me hooked, I saw them live in Holland and was exposed to their sheer anger and power........my life was never quite the same again after that. Since then, I`ve kind of studied and listened to all types of metal kind of non-stop.

So along with my lifetime love of soft rock (American west coast) and hard rock. Metal is now right up there with them.

Most of the good bands you listed for the 90s are actually from the 80s (Sepultura, Melvins, Neurosis, Kreator, Death, Morbid Angel, Corrosion of Conformity, Ministry) and all the bad bands you listed for the 00s are from the 90s. And stuff like Pantera, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Korn and Deftones are perfect examples of why I give the 90s some low marks (and, yes, I realize some of even those bands started in the 80s).