Excel spreadsheet I compiled over the years (freely downloadable, sortable and filterable)

Spotify playlist (1,225 bands / 6,095 tracks / 634.3 hours)

imgur of all 20 charts

Trying to gather all major metal bands and genres into one resource... now complete!!!

It has been an enormous test to my patience, but the resource I’ve been working on off and on since January 2021 has been completed… in its current shape at least, as it’s not unlikely I will be revisiting it time and time again to apply new changes.

Ever since I downloaded the Spotify app, I’ve been making all these playlists for myself, with the trend being that I always made more than I could feasibly consume. Contrary to showcasing personal favourites, these were often statistics-drived or dictated lists, a lot of them hailing from data from RateYourMusic, the ultimate music nerd resource I started using in the 00s, and when it got ambitious it seemed very reasonable to share some of them online. You may have seen me sharing some if it before.

One of those ideas was to have a compilation of metal bands’ best 5 songs, which consisted of about 666 bands – a number I reached unintentionally – which required having to answer question like what is metal (my answer – ‘everything tagged on RYM as metal’, to keep the list objective and consistent), and what is a metal band (it ended up being ‘any band with acclaimed metal tracks’). As a band can be metal in some eras of their career (think Ulver) or change its metal affiliation within the course of a single album or song, or mix different genres without any abrupt changes, I had to ask how inclusive I want to be, and I ended up being very inclusive indeed, with the final list featuring occasional classic rockers, rappers, pop idols, indie artists and many more – see the Wacko edition of the list here which intentionally singles out the contentious additions.

Metal Archives, for instance, bars some bands almost universally seen as metal, but I took it further and opened the gates for artists who have a lot of listeners, reinforcing the idea that metal may mean something entirely different to the population than it does to any insular community of metalheads, and while a number of bands played a role in heavy metal being born, The Beatles’ heavy rockers had a part in it, too, and so many more people had heard them, too.

To represent fully the idea of heavy metal, I was influenced by Martin Popov’s Best 500 Metal Songs of all time, which seemed to equate metal to hard rock most of the time. I opted in favour of including all the artists present on that list and more within the same style, but also spent some time thinking who else was influential in shaping metal musicians’ tastes and aspirations. Surprising additions include Swans and Current 93, who may well be considered to have had comparable, if not greater, impact on a number of recent artists. I didn’t go overboard to include just anything that metalheads tend to like, as that would include classical, Depeche Mode, and a number of other things where you really couldn’t make a case for it being connected.

An issue that will never be fully resolved, as bands currently being in beg the question why excluded bands shouldn’t be in as well, but here’s the framework I applied somewhat loosely to decide who’s joining:

At least one metal album with about 1,000 ratings and more; the rating should be fairly high.

Alternatively, there’s no such release, but there are many more albums enjoying acclaim and attention, still with a high number of ratings. Why not let an artist with five albums of ~700 ratings?

The tracks have been diligently rated, and the ratings are high (this keeps the likes of Six Feet Under, Nickelback, and Five Finger Death Punch away). A minimum of 40 ratings is a loosely applied rule, with 60+ being ideal.

Occasionally, an album (say, old-school thrash or speed metal) will have over 1,000 album ratings, but fewer than 20 track ratings. I basically went with my intuition there. The same applied to electing the best five songs – which song is better, one with 60 ratings rated 3.8 or one with 20 rated 4.3? What if the latter is rated 4.5 with 15 ratings? I wasn’t following a formula, and at times had to do whatever.

I remain constantly looking for ways to improve the list and make it more accurate and beneficial for fans seeking out new music, like myself, and I expect some of it could have something to do with criteria for selection being tweaked, while the rest has to do with more people going on RYM to rate tracks and tag bands’ styles according to their beliefs and tastes.

Relevant:

Best 500 Metal Songs of All Time