It grew out of blues rock and psychedelic rock in Britain and the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple as early models. Later bands dropped most of the blues and played faster and tighter. Today the name can mean this classic style or the whole family of metal subgenres that followed it.
Artists it is known for: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden.
About 8,600 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have heavy metal among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Heavy Metal artists
Metallica
Slipknot
Pantera
Black Sabbath
Megadeth
Iron Maiden
Ozzy Osbourne
Slayer
Sepultura
SabatonThe heavy metal artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.