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Not everyone is a fan of heavy metal music. For some people its stomach churning, and I can completely understand that because I feel the same way whenever I hear country music. But that’s beside the point. Today I’ll be telling you about the greatest  metal bands of all time. There are so many choices to  pick from, and it was hard but I finally decided on five.

At the number one spot I chose my favorite metal band of all time, Metallica. Metallica formed on October 28, 1981, and back then the band was way different of, course, than the four people that are in the band currently. Then it was Lars Ulrich on the drums, Lloyd Grant on rhythm guitar, Dave Mustaine  on the lead guitar, and James Hetfield on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. In 1983, the band was actually on its  way New York to record its debut album, Kill ‘Em All, and when they finished recording this album they actually fired Mustaine because of his alcoholism, drug abuse, personality clashes, and overly aggressive behavior. I understand that those are valid reasons to kick him out of the band, but it was completely unnecessary to leave him out in New York with no ride home, but the band replaced Mustaine with an even better guitarist we know of today as Kirk Hammett. As the years went by lineup stayed just about the same, though the band brought in bassist Cliff Burton in 1982. The only reason Cliff Burton was removed from the band was because he was killed in a tragic bus accident that lead to his death. Metallica has been continuing on to be a very successful metal band and they still are today.

At the number two spot I chose AC/DC. AC/DC started in November of 1973 with band members, Ron Carpenter on drums, Larry Van Kriedt on the bass, Angus Young on the slide guitar, Malcom Young on the rhythm guitar, and Dave Evans on the lead vocals. The band released its very first album in 1976 called High Voltage, which contained tracks like “T.N.T,” “High Voltage,” and “Live Wire.” The album topped the French charts at number seven and was certified gold in France as well along with Germany and the United Kingdom. Now we’ll skip ahead to the album that most people know is The Razors Edge, which had “Thunderstruck” listed as track one. Everybody has at least heard this hit once, whether it was at an NFL football game during the kickoff, you were playing Madden NFL 12 and doing the kickoff on there because I know that’s where I first heard this song, or it was always playing on the rock stations that people were listening to. This album also had songs like “Rock Your Heart Out,” “Fire Your Guns,” and “Goodbye & Good Riddance to Bad Luck.” As the band kept releasing more albums they just seemed to become more and more popular. AC/DC has not released anything new recently. Their newest album called Black Ice came  out in 2014, with ongs like “War Machine,” “Big Jack,” and “Smash ‘n’ Grab.” AC/DC is known for being successful, and I believe that they’ll continue to be successful as they continue to go on.

At number three I put “Metallica’s Rival,” MegaDeth. MegaDeth started in June of 1983 and was formed by former guitarist of Metallica, Dave Mustaine. After Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica, he didn’t want to just drop music, so he decided to create his own band with Lee Rash on the bass guitar, Dijon Carruthers on the drums, Greg Hadevidt on the guitar, and  himself   on the lead guitar and vocals. MegaDeth’s first album was released in 1985, which was called Killing is My Business…and Business is good! Now this album wasn’t very successful, but the year after, the band released their next album called Peace sells…But Who’s Buying?  This album was really successful, and the song that was played the most on rock radio was of course “Peace Sells. ” The band was becoming a hit. Dave Mustaine is actually known now for kicking people out of his band, and it was almost as if after every album he released, he’d kick his fellow band members out and replace them with new ones.  In 1988, So Far, So Good…So What! came out and Mustaine kicked out everybody except for Chuck Behler and Jeff Young and once again, MegaDeth didn’t have a guitar player. The band remained of the same band members up until 1990 whenever Mustaine only had Marty Friedman on guitar, no drums, and no bass, and this was whenever the album Rust in Peace was released. And this actually stayed this way up until 1998, so whenever the band came out “Countdown to Extinction” in 1992, “Youthanasia” in 1994, and “Cryptic Writings” in 1997, it was just the two guys that were in the band, but in 1998 was whenever Mustaine brought in Jimmy DeGrasso to play drums, and MegaDeth was a three man band once again. Then in 2000, Friedman was replaced by Al Pitrelli on the guitar, but this only lasted up until 2003 whenever Dave was by himself yet again, but this only lasted one year because Mustaine then added in Glen Drover on the guitar, Jimmie Lee Sloas on the guitar as well, Shawn Drover on the drums, James MacDonough on the bass, and Mustaine of course of the vocals and guitar. As another year went by Sloas was gone, and there were four band members remaining, but in 2006 James LoMenzo was added in on the bass and MacDonough was history. The band stayed the same until 2008 except for the small add in of Chris Broderick and Broderick replaced Glen Dover. Finally in 2010, David Ellefson came into the band and the reason I say finally is because Ellefson is still a member to this day. In 2015, Kiko Loureiro came in for guitar and Chris Adler was on the drums, and finally in 2016, the band released their latest album called “Dystopia” and the drummer in that album is Chris Adler, but the drummer that went on tour with MegaDeth is Dirk Verbeuren, who is still the current drummer for the band.

At the number four spot, I put none other than the legendary rock band known as Guns N’ Roses. Now not a lot of people consider them a heavy metal band, and neither would I but they’re definitely more of a heavy rock with some of their songs. Guns N’ Roses started in March of 1985, with members like Steven Adler and Rob Gardner on the drums, Ole Beich played the bass guitar, Tracii Guns and Izzy Stradlin played the guitar, and Axl Rose was the legendary singer. I’m not sure why they needed two drummers at the time. The band  also released an EP in 1986 called Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide. The band still had the same three people up until 1990, and in 1987 the band released an EP and an album. The full album was titled Appetite for Destruction, and it became the band’s signature album. In 1988 they released GN’R Lies, and in 1989 they came out with “Patience.”  After a long hiatus, in 1991, Guns N’ Roses released its  first album without drummer Steven Adler called Use Your Illusion I and II, which featured their hit “November Rain,” as well as “Live and Let Die.” In 1993, the band came out with its next album called The Spaghetti Incident? and that album became a huge success for the band.

The final band I chose is none other than Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath started way back in 1968 behind the power vocals of rock and roll icon Ozzie Ozbourne. The band debuted with the self-titled Black Sabbath in 1970, but the one that everyone love was Paranoid which came out the same year. The song “Paranoid” was loved by all their fans, and more, and it was actually the reason I started to listen to Black Sabbath.