Top 5 metal bands of the 70's compared to the top 5 of today?

Name 5 of the top 5 metal bands of the 70's who are still kicking out great cds today and compare them to what you consider the top 5 metal bands today. Would you consider the 70's bands better than those today?

Wargod51

Almost apples and oranges, but everybody here will say 70's, and also, it's reallllllllllllly hard for me to think of a band I like from then who is still making good stuff. Not that they're obligated to. It's hard to write a few great songs, much less a dozen albums full of them over 20-30 years. Hard to find a basis of comparison here.

To compare any band to 70's era Black Sabbath with metal of today is just asinine.

Sorry man, there is nothing to compare!

Lurideath wrote:

To compare any band to 70's era Black Sabbath with metal of today is just asinine.

Sorry man, there is nothing to compare!

yeppers

I would take today's hands down. I love some of the 70's metal bands but that was before my time. Im a modern guy and Im not afraid to admit that.

I don't know, I like it all.

Scorpions, UFO, Judas Priest, Ted Nugent, Kiss are all still kickin' and putting out music that I quite enjoy. The new Scorpions is outstanding IMO. I've loved the last two Nugent studio albums. The latest Kiss is very good. The last few UFO albums have been great too. Judas Priest sort of bombed with Nostradamus IMO, but Angel of Retribution was fantastic.

ultmetal wrote:

I don't know, I like it all.

ditto. it all sounds good to me.

mc666 wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

I don't know, I like it all.

ditto. it all sounds good to me.

copy that. over and out.

mc666 wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

I don't know, I like it all.

ditto. it all sounds good to me.

100% agree with ULT and MC666

manny wrote:

mc666 wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

I don't know, I like it all.

ditto. it all sounds good to me.

100% agree with ULT and MC666

yep!!!

Hard to compare when todays bands are incorporating so much of the 70's into todays music. Take a band like Cage, one of my favorites but I hear so much Priest in the music. It's way more aggressive then JP in the 70's but so is JP themselves.

“Name 5 of the top 5 metal bands of the 70's who are still
kicking out great cds today and compare them to what you consider the top 5
metal bands today. Would you consider the 70's bands better than those today?”





How is this supposed to work anyway? For the 70s, I’m sure
most of us would start to mention Black Sabbath, but then we will remember that
Sabbath is no more and Heaven & Hell as well as Ozzy Osbourne don’t count.
Iron Maiden started in the 70s, but their first LP didn’t come out until 1980.
Judas Priest certainly comes to mind. They are still around and have
had an indelible impact on the world of metal.




As for the modern bands… I wouldn’t even know were to begin.
What criteria do we use to define the top 5 metal bands of today? How new
should they be? Heavy Metal was a genera all its own in the 70’s, mostly hard
rock, with a few that were a little doomy for a song or two. Today, people
don’t even think of hard rock as a part of Metal (whether or not is a genera or
sub genera). Most of the newer bands all seem to be some variant of Death
Metal, Black Metal, Metalcore, or Progressive Metal (or any combination
thereof). The only way to compare this to hard rock is to be subjective and go
for what one prefers. I cannot see any objective way to do it.





And what about the bands that came from the explosion of
metal back in the 80’s? You had the Gay Los Angeles Metal[1]
scene on the one hand and then Thrash metal in the other with Power metal
somewhere in between. Do we ignore them? How do they fit into all this?





So how am I suppose to say that Cradle of Filth is better or
worse than Judas Priest? (Assuming Cradle of Filth isn’t too old.) I honestly
don’t think it is a fair comparison.





Granted there are bands I don’t care for, or am unfamiliar
with. However, generally speaking, I dig ‘em all.





I could compare/contrast Rhapsody with Manowar, but I don’t
think Manowar had any records till the 80’s. I certainly enjoy both. I think
Manowar comes across as manlier. Well, let me put it this way. If I were in a
dark alley and some big scary guy were threatening me, I would NOT want to
shout “Rhapsody of Fire” to nullify anything that might be happening, if you
know what I mean.









[1] GLAM…no
offense is intended, I’m just saying it like it is. Just look at White Lion and
Poison. And don’t be a hater; I actually own all of Stryper’s LPs as well as
Shout, Motley Crue, and Twisted Sister.

I understand your question WG48, and it's a good one, but still very difficult for me to answer. I'm trying to imagine what I would think of Heaven & Hell's album, or Uriah Heep's "Wake The Sleeper" if I wasn't hearing them in the context of 40 years experience with those bands. I suspect I'd be blown away by them, but it's hard to say. It's like trying to compare Chocolate to Flavor of the Month ice cream. I'm probably more likely to be impressed with the Peach Mango's of the world (say The Sword, or Mastodon) than I am with Chocolate or Vanilla, but Peach Mango isn't going to replace Chocolate. Peach Mango might have some staying power in it's own right, but it's unfair to compare it to Chocolate. And what would I think of Chocolate if I'd never had it before? I bet I'd be pretty exitied about it and not take it for granted like I do after having had it 1000 times.
Luckily with music we can keep both old and new- it's not like your wife and girlfriend where you got to pick one or the other

It is a good question to ponder as SAHB stated, but most of us, including yourself WG48, have been listening to heavy metal/hard rock for most of our lives, considering how much music we have all taken in and so many bands we are all aware of.

Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and Led Zeppelin, IMO are bands that today's bands cannot touch but cannot be compared to, besides the fact that this bands created the template for all that followed, the distance time and influences of newer rock bands is so different from the 70's bands.