Written by Emma Kennedy

My brain tells me metal isn’t for everyone. My heart says otherwise.

Considering the metal genre was designed specifically to unsettle listeners, be it with guttural vocals or frightening imagery, it’s easy to turn down. However, there’s a handful of gems that I consider essential for the average music lover. Let’s dive into some bands, songs, and albums that make great starting points for anyone willing to explore the face-melting mayhem that is heavy metal.

What better place to start than where it all started? England, 1968. A band called Black Sabbath formed with a new take on rock and roll: scary, satanic, and controversial. In 1970, the band released their self-titled debut, Black Sabbath, a totally horrific and heavy album that remains a staple to this day. The song Black Sabbath is comparable to a thriller film, keeping you on the edge of your seat with every verse and drum beat. If you want a little more of a headbanger, give the gems Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Snowblind a listen. Both tracks feature excellent Tony Iommi riffs that define Sabbath’s deeper, groovier approach to guitar.

There’s one band that will be your very best friend during this metal journey, and it’s Metallica. Their 80s discography is impeccable: making up four mind-boggling albums that defined the heavy metal scene of the 80s. Kill ‘em All is their 1982 breakout album, and this bad boy encapsulates Metallica’s thrashing energy that carried over throughout their early years. Songs like Hit the Lights, The Four Horsemen and Whiplash are guaranteed to infuse you with adrenaline. You’ll experience unexpected tempo changes, the lightning-fast guitar work of Kirk Hamett, and James Hetfield’s commanding, raspy screaming. I highly recommend listening to their first few albums in order to get a feel for the intriguing evolution of the band’s musical direction.

Any classic metal band is a great place to start, but it would be a sin for me not to mention Mötörhead, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Three titans of the 70s/80s metal scene, these guys paved the way for a myriad of unique subgenres going forward as metal evolved. Mötörhead, the godfathers of thrash, cranked up the distortion on their instruments and played a hundred times faster than any of the heavier 70s acts that performed alongside them. The classic Ace of Spades is always a great place to begin, if you can get over the deep, gravelly voice of legendary Lemmy Kilmister. Judas Priest took a fist-pumping, radio friendly approach to their 1980 hit album British Steel, with singalong jams such as Living After Midnight and Breaking the Law. Iron Maiden is chock full of massive epics like Wasted Years and Run to the Hills. You can thank frontman Bruce Dickinson for Maiden’s adventurous, fantasy-esque sound. The singer approaches his songs as if he’s telling you an age old tale, complete with electrifying high notes to keep you on your toes.

Perhaps my brain is right when it tells me metal isn’t for everyone, but I would be a bad metalhead if I weren’t to at least preach its greatness from the hilltops…or in this case, give you some recommendations via this article. Nevertheless, metal is a unique and versatile genre, bountiful with different moods, oddly specific subgenres, and one of a kind sounds from the late 60s through now. I say, prepare your neck for inevitable headbanging, get your air guitar handy, and dive right in!