Remember earlier this month when UK mag Metal Hammer came up with a list of the top 100 metal songs of the ’90s? It was controversial, inspired debate over what was metal and what wasn’t, and was a bit all over the map, as was metal in the ’90s, actually. We made our own list with nu-metal taken out, which given that the genre came of age in the ’90s, was also a somewhat controversial move. Regardless, Metal Hammer gave their readers a chance to weigh in, and their choices are, well, interesting.
Pantera and Marilyn Manson are the only bands with multiple entries, which sums the list up nicely. For some reason, Pearl Jam makes an appearance on the list, which, no. It’d be hard to deny System of a Down, Machine Head, Tool, Metallica or Sepultura on the list, but the fact that a Pantera song or Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” aren’t #1 is a travesty. Check the list out below.
20. System of a Down – “Sugar”
19. Pantera – “Floods”
18. Machine Head – “Davidian”
17. Marilyn Manson – “Lunchbox”
16. Guns N’ Roses – “You Could Be Mine”
15. Korn – “Freak on a Leash”
14. Judas Priest – “Painkiller”
13. Sepultura – “Roots Bloody Roots”
12. Pearl Jam – “Alive”
11. Pantera – “Walk”
10. Megadeth – “Hangar 18”
09. Pantera – “Cowboys from Hell”
08. Marilyn Manson – “The Dope Show”
07. Tool – “Stinkfist”
06. Metallica – “Sad but True”
05. Iron Maiden – “Fear Of The Dark”
04. Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
03. Alice in Chains – “Rooster”
02. Marilyn Manson – “The Beautiful People”
01. Slipknot – “Surfacing“
