Way I see it, Black Sabbath is the band of the 70s, Iron Maiden of the 80s, and Pantera of the 90s. However, what do you think is the metal band of the 2000s? I think that title would go to Mastodon, but what about you guys?

Cannot name just one, more diversity nowadays. What would be the criteria? Popularity, quality, originality or live performance? No single answer to this one I think.

Pantera of the '90s? Wouldn't that be Metallica? Not that I'm a big fan of the black album, but it did rule the world.

Nightwish ....

Written by JOPE OF STEELE on 08.08.2015 at 18:32

Cannot name just one, more diversity nowadays. What would be the criteria? Popularity, quality, originality or live performance? No single answer to this one I think.

That is true, metal really has diversified the past decade. There are much more high profile bands now.

Written by Warman on 08.08.2015 at 19:43

Pantera of the '90s? Wouldn't that be Metallica? Not that I'm a big fan of the black album, but it did rule the world.

That was one album, Pantera made four that took the world by storm.

Maybe opeth?

Written by vgmaster9 on 09.08.2015 at 01:47

That was one album, Pantera made four that took the world by storm.

The world is more than USA. And the black album, "Load" and "Reload" surely sold more than Pantera's '90s albums. And let's not forget the venues each band played and the amount of ticket sales, which Metallica dominated. I'm not saying that record sales defines what makes a band great (not at all), but when it comes to the question which metal band ruled a certain decade, then record sales is a huge factor.

I think Opeth could be an option

I don't know for 2000, but for sure the 90's were owned by Metallica lol, even though their best work is in the 80's -_-.

I guess In Bone Factory and Vg are both right: Opeth and Mastodon could be 2 very good contenders.

This such a hard question to answer due to the number of great bands. I could see Opeth, Slipknot, Mastodon and a few other but thats a great question.

Probably Slipknot, I was also considering Mastodon, but their biggest releases were this decade.

Hate Angel:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IskpkhtZbow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5vuGE2ETU4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2noM6bs2Ys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcc4kL-uSVc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDO0YuZAYqo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUE_r0uWP_Q

Yeah, that's it. Hate Angel surely has to be THE metal band of the 00's!

Written by Bad English on 08.08.2015 at 20:29

Nightwish ....

Are you serious? IMO they only had one truly great album and that was in the 90s...

As for the metal band of the 2000s, I'd probably go with Opeth, but as they are my favorite band, I am probably biased.

Written by Ganondox on 26.08.2015 at 15:02

Probably Slipknot, I was also considering Mastodon, but their biggest releases were this decade.

I hope by biggest you mean in terms of sales right ?
'cos.. their recent releases got nothing on Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Crack The Skye (all in the 00's).

I still think they would be an awesome contender.
Also if they would still put out some albums System Of A Down would've been a good pick, they achieved quite a lot with a tiny discography.

Written by Guib on 14.09.2015 at 03:38

Written by Ganondox on 26.08.2015 at 15:02

Probably Slipknot, I was also considering Mastodon, but their biggest releases were this decade.

I hope by biggest you mean in terms of sales right ?
'cos.. their recent releases got nothing on Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain and Crack The Skye (all in the 00's).

I still think they would be an awesome contender.
Also if they would still put out some albums System Of A Down would've been a good pick, they achieved quite a lot with a tiny discography.

IMO, with the exception of Blood Mountain, every Mastodon album has been better than the last, but yes, I meant by sales/general popularity. As popular as even Crack the Skye is, it's no where near as popular as Slipknot is.

Written by deadone on 14.09.2015 at 09:06

Written by Ganondox on 14.09.2015 at 08:02


IMO, with the exception of Blood Mountain, every Mastodon album has been better than the last, but yes, I meant by sales/general popularity. As popular as even Crack the Skye is, it's no where near as popular as Slipknot is.

Whilst I agree with what you say about popularity, Mastodon's early work is phenomenal and IMO better than most of their latter work except Once More 'Round The Sun which is a great hard rock album!

I agree... old Mastodon is ten times better for me.

Written by Guib on 14.09.2015 at 18:46

Written by deadone on 14.09.2015 at 09:06

Written by Ganondox on 14.09.2015 at 08:02


IMO, with the exception of Blood Mountain, every Mastodon album has been better than the last, but yes, I meant by sales/general popularity. As popular as even Crack the Skye is, it's no where near as popular as Slipknot is.

Whilst I agree with what you say about popularity, Mastodon's early work is phenomenal and IMO better than most of their latter work except Once More 'Round The Sun which is a great hard rock album!

I agree... old Mastodon is ten times better for me.

For me too. For me it is the opposite of Ganon(whatever his nick is) Their first is their best and they got weaker with every single subsequent release.

Crack The Skye is the only one that justifies its length. They found their balance on that one, before gradually losing it again.

Opeth, hands down. Mastodon are really outstanding but were consistent only on three albums: Remission, Leviathan and Crack The Skye. Opeth on the other hand chruned out masterpiece after masterpiece nine times around and opened the floodgates for more melodeath and prog death artists. Also some of the heights achieved by Opeth are truly mesmerizing on records like Ghost Reveries, Deliverance and Blackwater Park. So Opeth are THE band of the 00's imo.

Gojira is probably the only other runner-up I can think of for that title.

Written by 3rdWorld on 14.09.2015 at 22:42

Opeth, hands down. Mastodon are really outstanding but were consistent only on three albums: Remission, Leviathan and Crack The Skye. Opeth on the other hand chruned out masterpiece after masterpiece nine times around and opened the floodgates for more melodeath and prog death artists. Also some of the heights achieved by Opeth are truly mesmerizing on records like Ghost Reveries, Deliverance and Blackwater Park. So Opeth are THE band of the 00's imo.

Gojira is probably the only other runner-up I can think of for that title.

Bro you serious ? What about Blood Mountain! You guys have to stop forgetting Blood Mountain! XD hahah

But yeah Gojira is far from being the band of the 00's seriously.

Written by Guib on 15.09.2015 at 06:33

Bro you serious ? What about Blood Mountain! You guys have to stop forgetting Blood Mountain! XD hahah

But yeah Gojira is far from being the band of the 00's seriously.

Haha, I didn't forget it. BM is good but if I don't consider it flawless and the songwriting in it isn't on par with their other works like Leviathan or Remission. Brann Dailor gave a knockout performance in BM but that's what I remember most about it.

I don't think Gojira is very far away from the Opeth and Mastodon, they didn't push any musical boundaries but their own personal evolution from The Link till The Way Of All Flesh is massive. I can't think of any other metal band of the 00's that exploded into the mainstream like they did.

Written by 3rdWorld on 15.09.2015 at 06:43

Written by Guib on 15.09.2015 at 06:33

Bro you serious ? What about Blood Mountain! You guys have to stop forgetting Blood Mountain! XD hahah

But yeah Gojira is far from being the band of the 00's seriously.

Haha, I didn't forget it. BM is good but if I don't consider it flawless and the songwriting in it isn't on par with their other works like Leviathan or Remission. Brann Dailor gave a knockout performance in BM but that's what I remember most about it.

I don't think Gojira is very far away from the Opeth and Mastodon, they didn't push any musical boundaries but their own personal evolution from The Link till The Way Of All Flesh is massive. I can't think of any other metal band of the 00's that exploded into the mainstream like they did.

The thing is that the ''explosion'' you're talking about hardly compares to both Mastodon and Opeth, especially in term of sales and crowd that they amass at their gigs. I've seen all three live and let me tell you, Gojira's fanbase pales in comparison. I mean we are still talking about popularity and sales here if not.. then what defines the ''BAND OF THE 00's'' other than that...

I think the fact we are approaching this as metal fans makes us very biased in selecting the biggest metal band because we have a very different idea of what is mainstream than the actual mainstream does. Like Gojira...

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 14.09.2015 at 19:38

Written by Guib on 14.09.2015 at 18:46

Written by deadone on 14.09.2015 at 09:06

Written by Ganondox on 14.09.2015 at 08:02


IMO, with the exception of Blood Mountain, every Mastodon album has been better than the last, but yes, I meant by sales/general popularity. As popular as even Crack the Skye is, it's no where near as popular as Slipknot is.

Whilst I agree with what you say about popularity, Mastodon's early work is phenomenal and IMO better than most of their latter work except Once More 'Round The Sun which is a great hard rock album!

I agree... old Mastodon is ten times better for me.

For me too. For me it is the opposite of Ganon(whatever his nick is) Their first is their best and they got weaker with every single subsequent release.

Well if you prefer extreme metal to progressive or alternative metal, than of course you are going to have that opinion, but I think such an attitude ignores their progression as song writers. Remission has some great riffs, but overall it's just a mess with no cohesion whatsoever. With Leviathan, they got their shit together, and make a superb album. They mixed things up Blood Mountain, going away from a riff oriented sound to a more textural one as well as adding clean vocals, but they hadn't quite figured out how to make that work, so it wasn't as good as Leviathan. With Crack the Skye they once again got their shit together, and made a superb album. With the Hunter their sound was more accessible with less proggery but still plenty of progressive elements, so it's really just my personal taste in saying it's better than Crack the Skye. It still managed to be very commercially successful while very far from commercial rock, so that might be worth something beyond my own opinion. Finally with Once More 'round the Sun they seem to have at least figured out how to get their vocals to work well, and once again it seems more cohesive than the last album which marked a style change. Overall I think the average scores for each the album on this site are probably pretty accurate in regards to actual quality, only with a bit of a bias towards a more metallic sound as this is a metal fan site.

PS. I personally wouldn't call Once More 'Round the Sun hard rock, while it's a bit poppier it doesn't sound rockin' enough to be hard rock IMO. I'd put it under alternative metal for the most part, with some prog as well. I do wish the album was just a little bit heavier though.

System Of A Down.

My pal Guib already mentioned about the band. Honestly? People went apeshit over SOAD's discs. Their 00's releases were phenomenal as well.

Main thing I have with System of a Down is I'm iffy at how much they can really be considered a metal band. I do consider them a kind of metal, but they are all over the place.

First 3 albums are totally metal, bar the odd track on Steal This Album. The latter two though are a mixed bag. That being said they're part of metal subculture at any rate, but also extend outward I suspect.

Written by Ganondox on 15.09.2015 at 14:10

Main thing I have with System of a Down is I'm iffy at how much they can really be considered a metal band. I do consider them a kind of metal, but they are all over the place.

-_- really? If SOAD ain't metal.. then I'm probably a goat. Shit, maybe I am a goat O.O *BaaaAaAAAh*

Oh, they're metal alright, but I just find them too heterodox to be the posterchild of metal in the 2000's. At least with Slipknot anyone who isn't a metalhead would call it metal.

Written by Ganondox on 15.09.2015 at 20:44

At least with Slipknot anyone who isn't a metalhead would call it metal.

And everyone who isn't a metalhead would call SOAD metal.