{"id":966754,"date":"2026-07-29T12:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/966754\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T12:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:19:14","slug":"the-best-metal-album-song-of-each-year-of-the-1980s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/966754\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Metal Album + Song of Each Year of the 1980s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going year by year through metal’s\u00a0most iconic decade \u2014 the 1980s<\/a> \u2014 we’ve not only named the best album from each, but the best song as well!<\/p>\n

In some instances, the best metal song of the year also happened to be featured on the best metal album of that same year, even amid\u00a0competition with other timeless classics.<\/p>\n

Of course, the “best” of anything is purely subjective. We understand that, which is why we take several factors into consideration, including sales and charts figures, popularity of the album in live setlists, critical and fan acclaim, how it stacks up against what their peers were doing at a similar time, etc.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0The Best Thrash Metal Album of Each Year Since 1983<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

While there is no universal benchmark for true greatness, some of these album and song selections are purely undeniable. They also tell the story of heavy metal’s evolution throughout the ’80s (for the sake of this list, hair metal has been resigned to the “hard rock” category, as goofy as that may sound on paper), from setting the standard of traditional metal to offshoots in prog metal<\/a>, thrash<\/a> and death metal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Below, you’ll first see The Best Metal Album of Each Year of the 1980s immediately followed by The Best Metal Song of Each Year of the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The Best Metal Album of Each Year of the 1980s<\/p>\n

Heavy metal dominated the 1980s. With so many classics to choose from, we pick the best metal album of each year from that glorious decade.<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Loudwire Staff<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, take a look at the very best thrash album of each year since Metallica debuted with ‘Kill ‘Em All’ back in 1983:<\/p>\n

The Best Metal Song of Each Year of the 1980s<\/p>\n

Going year-by-year through the ’80s, naming the best metal song of each year (and the runner-up)!<\/p>\n

Contributions by Joe DiVita (JD), Katy Irizarry (KI), Ed Rivadavia (ER) and Jon Wiederhorn (JW).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Subscribe to Loudwire on YouTube.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Going year by year through metal’s\u00a0most iconic decade \u2014 the 1980s \u2014 we’ve not only named the best…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":966755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,204352,980,981,975,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-966754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-link-in-bio","tag-lists","tag-metal","tag-music","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117003233819817083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}