The Top 50 Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Acts

Heavy Metal/Hard Rock: Top 50 Acts

This list was created by aggregating 25 lists focused on the best heavy metal and/or hard rock acts of all time. See other lists of Acts/Music Makers by Genre. Metallica 1. Metallica 2. Iron Maiden 3. Black Sabbath 4. Judas Priest 5. Megadeth 6. Slayer 7. Pantera 8. Tool 9. Motörhead 10. Led Zeppelin 11. Mötley Crüe 12. Guns N’ Roses 13. Van Halen 14. AC/DC 15. Ozzy Osbourne 16. Anthrax 17. Aerosmith 18. Kiss 19. Korn 20. Slipknot 21. Deep Purple 22. System of a Down 23. Jimi Hendrix 24. Bon Jovi 25. Def Leppard 26. Alice Cooper 27. Ronnie James Dio 28. Scorpions 29. Avenged Sevenfold 30. Queensrÿche 31. Alice in Chains 32. Marilyn Manson 33. Deftones 34. Rammstein 35. Queen 36. Nirvana 37. Rush 38. Linkin Park 39. Rage Against the Machine 40. Faith No More 41. Whitesnake 42. Ratt 43. Foo Fighters 44. Disturbed 45. Evanescence 46. Rainbow 47. Thin Lizzy 48. Five Finger Death Punch 49. Cinderella 50. Twisted Sister Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: Top 50 Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Albums Dave’s Music Database: Top 50 Heavy Metal Songs Dave’s Music Database: Top 50 Hair Band/Glam Metal Songs Dave’s Music Database: Lists of Acts/Music Makers by Genre First posted 7/1/2026.

The Top 100 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Hopefuls

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Top 100 Snubs

Bashing the Rock Hall has become the quite vogue thing to do. Of course, they have inducted hundreds of deserving artists alongside those who raise many music fans eyebrows. However, fans get outraged this time every year when their favorites get snubbed…yet again. In the true spirit of Dave’s Music Database, the occasion for a list presented itself. Just who are the biggest Rock and Roll Hall of Fame snubs, those acts which fans most think have been overlooked? More than 90 lists were consolidated to create this list of the top 100 overlooked acts which will hopefully someday be enshrined in the Hall. Here we go: See other Hall of Fames. 1. Motörhead 2. The Smiths 3. Jethro Tull 4. Pixies 5. Boston 6. Devo 7. Sonic Youth 8. Thin Lizzy 9. The Monkees 10. King Crimson 11. New York Dolls 12. Chic 13. Mötley Crüe 14. Emerson, Lake & Palmer 15. The Replacements 16. Styx 17. Jane’s Addiction 18. The Guess Who 19. The B-52’s 20. Dick Dale 21. Three Dog Night 22. Alice in Chains 23. The Scorpions 24. John Coltrane 25. War 26. Slayer 27. Steppenwolf 28. Big Star 29. Brian Eno 30. Björk 31. Harry Nilsson 32. Smashing Pumpkins 33. Diana Ross 34. J. Geils Band 35. Weird Al Yankovic 36. Nick Drake 37. Blue Öyster Cult 38. Grand Funk Railroad 39. Mariah Carey 40. Tommy James & the Shondells 41. INXS 42. Chuck Willis 43. Procol Harum 44. Pantera 45. Barry White 46. Captain Beefheart 47. Jim Croce 48. Megadeth 49. Ted Nugent 50. Mary Wells 51. Ronnie James Dio 52. Ben E. King 53. Connie Francis 54. Love 55. REO Speedwagon 56. The Meters 57. Los Lobos 58. Black Flag 59. Bryan Adams 60. The Dominoes 61. Carpenters 62. Eric B. & Rakim 63. Jan & Dean 64. The Marvelettes 65. Little Feat 66. Meat Loaf 67. Steve Winwood 68. Sting 69. Television 70. The Runaways 71. The Pointer Sisters 72. Tool 73. The Shangri-La’s 74. Beck 75. Bad Brains 76. Faith No More 77. Commodores 78. Joe Tex 79. Patti LaBelle 80. X 81. Afrika Bambaataa 82. De La Soul 83. Toto 84. Mott the Hoople 85. Tears for Fears 86. Johnny Burnette & the Rock ‘n’ Roll Trio 87. Supertramp 88. Kansas 89. Stone Temple Pilots 90. Daft Punk 91. Toots & the Maytals 92. The Sonics 93. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins 94. Nas 95. Dead Kennedys 96. Huey Lewis & the News 97. Rick James 98. Alanis Morissette 99. John Prine 100. Snoop Dogg Resources/Related Links: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame official website Dave’s Music Database: “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees” Dave’s Music Database: “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees ranked” Dave’s Music Database: “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame/NARM’s Definitive Albums” Dave’s Music Database: “Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll” Dave’s Music Database (9/2/1995). “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opened its doors” Dave’s Music Database (1/23/1986). “The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first class” FutureRockLegends.com First posted 10/11/2011; last updated 4/15/2026.

The Top 50 Heavy Metal Songs

Heavy Metal: Top 50 Songs

Heavy metal is rooted in the hard rock of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, most often attributed to Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin, who all got their start in England in 1968. Distortion, extended guitar solos, and overall loudness characterized the genre and the lyrics are often stereotyped as having Satanic themes. However one defines the genre, here are the top 50 heavy metal songs as determined by aggregating 32 best-of lists. Those songs appearing on 7 or more lists were then re-ranked based on overall points in Dave’s Music Database. Click here to see other genre-specific song lists. 1. Black Sabbath “Paranoid” (1970) 2. AC/DC “Back in Black” (1980) 3. Guns N’ Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” (1987) 4. Metallica “Enter Sandman” (1991) 5. Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water” (1973) 6. Metallica “One” (1988) 7. AC/DC “Highway to Hell” (1979) 8. Kiss “Rock and Roll All Nite” (1975) 9. Ozzy Osbourne “Crazy Train” (1980) 10. Guns N’ Roses “Paradise City” (1987) 11. Black Sabbath “Iron Man” (1970) 12. Scorpions “Rock You Like a Hurricane” (1984) 13. Van Halen “Runnin’ with the Devil” (1978) 14. Motörhead “Ace of Spades” (1980) 15. Metallica “Master of Puppets” (1988) 16. Black Sabbath “War Pigs” (1970) 17. Judas Priest “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” (1982) 18. Judas Priest “Breaking the Law” (1980) 19. Iron Maiden “Run to the Hills” (1982) 20. Kiss “Detroit Rock City” (1976) 21. AC/DC “Hells Bells” (1980) 22. Iron Maiden “Hallowed Be Thy Name” (1982) 23. Quiet Riot “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” (1983) 24. Whitesnake “Still of the Night” (1987) 25. Iron Maiden “The Number of the Beast” (1982) 26. Dio “Holy Diver” (1983) 27. Black Sabbath “Black Sabbath” (1970) 28. Iron Maiden “The Trooper” (1983) 29. Deep Purple “Highway Star” (1972) 30. Megadeth “Symphony of Destruction” (1992) 31. Dio “Rainbow in the Dark” (1983) 32. Ozzy Osbourne “Mr. Crowley” (1980) 33. Megadeth “Peace Sells” (1986) 34. Metallica “Fade to Black” (1984) 35. Judas Priest “Painkiller” (1990) 36. Pantera “Walk” (1992) 37. Megadeth “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due” (1990) 38. Slayer “Raining Blood” (1986) 39. Megadeth “Hangar 18” (1990) 40. Metallica “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (1984) 41. Pantera “Cowboys from Hell” (1990) 42. Judas Priest “The Hellion/Electric Eye” (1982) 43. Black Sabbath “Heaven and Hell” (1980) 44. Black Sabbath “Children of the Grave” (1971) 45. Rainbow “Stargazer” (1976) 46. Slayer “Angel of Death” (1986) 47. Accept “Balls to the Wall” (1983) 48. Iron Maiden “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1984) 49. Iron Maiden “Fear of the Dark” (1992) 50. Diamond Head “Am I Evil?” (1980) Resources and Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “Other Genre/Category Song Lists” First posted 1/24/2018; last updated 5/11/2021.