Which heavy metal band has the most number one albums?
Despite a long tradition of mainstream shunning among fans, heavy metal has fared better on the charts than is remembered.
Even before the music world became aware of hard rock’s hefty offshoot, all of Black Sabbath’s, Deep Purple’s, and Led Zeppelin’s classic LPs peaked in the UK top ten. As the new wave of British heavy metal reared its head toward the end of the 1970s, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Motörhead counted top ten records between them during the sleeveless denimed peaks of the headbanging underground.
Yet metal persisted with a critical rejection for years, existing in its own subcultural exclave that shared little to no affinity with the cluster of movements around it in UK musicland, save for Motörhead’s bridge-building with the punk world. Exclusion was the point; solidarity was born from the critical besiegement among the metal community, as well as a rejection of punk’s nihilism, new wave’s artificiality, and a broader trend of questioning masculine archetypes so essential to the beer-swiggin’, scrappy affirmation of testosterone racing through the day’s Kerrang! readers.
Metal would continue to explode, despite its base’s two fingers to pop appeal. Hair metal would add some glossy production and cartoon hedonism to the guitar attack that would see heavy rock’s most commercial, MTV-dominating peak, Van Halen breaking records with their $1.5million headliner fee for US Festival ’83. After grunge and alternative rock ushered in the Alternative Nation 1990s, metal would be catapulted to the pop charts with its nu variant’s meld of guitar crunch and hip hop beats, Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory surpassing all expectations as 2001’s biggest-selling album.
Which heavy metal band has the most number one albums?
While the likes of Poison and Mötley Crüe were leading the 1980s’ metal poster boys, a growing subterranean of uglier, angrier teens from Los Angeles and New York began to look back to the NWOBHM of their youth as a key influence and to wrest metal back toward the darker and meaner end of its heavy pummel.
Thrash was born, and before long, the ‘Big Four’ would emerge: New York’s Anthrax, along with LA’s Slayer, Megadeth, and one Metallica. Soon enough, the ‘Big Four’ became the ‘Big One’. Metallica would define thrash’s sped-up fury and intricate soloing; 1988’s …And Justice for All peaked at number six before a shake-up of the formula would win ungodly sales, if irk the metal purists.
Tightening the songcraft and adding a little groove to the thrash, 1991’s Metallica is still the biggest-selling heavy metal album of all time, unless AC/DC’s Back in Black counts in your definition. Alone, their eponymous LP would shift as many as 31m claimed sales, as well as top the Billboard 200.
Their number one streak would continue across six consecutive albums. Through stylistic breaks and returns to form, the following Load, Reload, St Anger, Death Magnetic, and Hardwired… to Self-Destruct all topped the US albums charts before 2023’s 72 Seasons would scrape second place. Now with a 155m record sale under their belt, Metallica’s explosion from underdog fringes to global heavyweight in several short years must have been a dizzying trajectory none of the band was anticipating.
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