Note: these are only for the traditional style of metal borne out of the period of late 60s - late 80s. Modern bands are permitted but they need to be playing in that style.

Recommendations are welcome. I'll listen and if I like it, I'll add it.

1.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

2.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

3.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

4.Deep Purple - In Rock

5.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III

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1.Deep Purple - Machine Head

2.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV

3.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

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While the order in each decade is purely personal preference, there are several rules for a song qualifying for the list. First off, the band has to be notable. I'm not going to define what that means, but I'm sure you'd agree all the bands in the list are notable. There are plenty of riffs from obscure bands I'd rather put, but I know my love for Tarby doesn't make him the greatest riff maker of the 21st century. Second, each artist can only appear once in a decade, this is to prevent the best riff makers from hogging the list and adding some variety, showing how metal has changed over time. Decades are measured by when the song was recorded, not released, and when it's unclear the beginning of recording is used. This is mainly because a lot of definitive early metal songs were released in 1970, but recorded in 1969. Third, the song itself has to be notable. Here are things that can qualify as being notable: the song was release as a single, has music video made for it, was released as a single, was the title track for an album (note that Crawl through Knives meets this criteria because it was the original title for Come Clarity, and there is no way in hell Come Clarity is getting best riff of the decade ), is included on a greatest hits compilation album, was nominated for a Grammy or musical award of similar caliber, was included as a track in a notable film or video game, was covered by a notable band, or has a Wikipedia page for some miscellaneous reason. Finally, the song needs to be metal. Misirlou gets the pass despite predating metal as it was probably the single most influential song on the development of metal, and while many of the other songs in the other songs are better classified as hard rock, I can find a source listing them as heavy metal.

1.

2.King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King

3.Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

4.Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

5.Deep Purple - In Rock

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1.The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

2.Deep Purple - The Book Of Taliesyn

3.Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin

4.Deep Purple - In Rock

5.Deep Purple - Fireball

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My personal ordering of Deep Purple's discography from my most favourite to least favourite. This might be a little different to the usual because my opinions on the DP discography are a bit weird.

1.Deep Purple - Machine Head

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Deep Purple - Purpendicular

4.Deep Purple - Fireball

5.Deep Purple - Deep Purple

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1.AC/DC - Back In Black

2.Metallica - Ride The Lightning

3.Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

4.Dio - Holy Diver

5.Judas Priest - Defenders Of The Faith

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1.

2.

3.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

4.Deep Purple - Machine Head

5.

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1.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

2.Theatre Of Tragedy - Theatre Of Tragedy

3.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

4.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

5.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

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An entirely subjective list of my all-time favourite metal albums, well lets better say albums/genres featured on MS, since not all here is precisely metal.
Objective quality is not a criteria here, just how much I like the album. Ordered by preference, top down.

1.Anathema - The Silent Enigma

2.Opeth - Morningrise

3.Estatic Fear - Somnium Obmutum

4.My Dying Bride - Turn Loose The Swans

5.Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

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The best to worst studio albums by Deep Purple (in my opinion).

1.Deep Purple - Machine Head

2.Deep Purple - In Rock

3.Deep Purple - Perfect Strangers

4.Deep Purple - Burn

5.Deep Purple - Fireball

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1.Morbid Angel - Altars Of Madness

2.Megadeth - Rust In Peace

3.Iron Maiden - Powerslave

4.Black Sabbath - Paranoid

5.Iron Maiden - The Number Of The Beast

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1.Deep Purple - Machine Head

2.Black Sabbath - Volume 4

3.Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards

4.Wishbone Ash - Argus

5.Uriah Heep - The Magician's Birthday

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This is a mix of my personal favourite 60's and 70's hard rock/metal songs and the more influential ones, songs that I think every metal fan need to hear. A mix of the most well-known songs to totally obscure stuff. If you think I have missed some important song you can always suggest me.

1.

2.The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

3.Cream - Disraeli Gears

4.Clear Light - Clear Light

5.Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum

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This is a list about what I think could be the first examples of songs in different genres. If you disagree with something or have any opinion of first example of any other genre, just write a comment.

1.

2.The Kinks - Kinks

3.Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum

4.

5.The 31 Flavors - Hair

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Only studio albums ordered by release year.

1.The Doors - The Doors

2.The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced

3.Blue Cheer - Vincebus Eruptum

4.Deep Purple - Shades Of Deep Purple

5.The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

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