I would rank them like this and I will explain: 1) Slayer 2) Metallica 3) Anthrax 4) Megadeth I rank Slayer #1 because to me they were the most consistent of the big 4 thrash bands. Yes, their music can get a little monotonous but their trilogy of albums with Reign of Blood, South of Heaven, and Seasons in the Abyss is right up there with Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets. Outside of those 3 albums by those 2 groups, I feel that Slayer's remaining albums are stronger than what Metallica has released. Anthrax is very underrated, imo and should be in every top 10 greatest heavy metal band list. Megadeth? Never have been able to get into them but I do respect Dave Mustaine and their body of work.
My top 10 heavy metal bands: 1) Judas Priest 2) Black Sabbath 3) Slayer 4) Metallica 5) Iron Maiden 6) Pantera 7) Motorhead 8) Death 9) Anthrax 10) Sepultura I took into consideration the whole body of work as well as consistency. I know that Metallica hasn't been consistent throughout their career but their very best rank as some of the greatest metal albums ever which makes them an easy pick to be in the top 5 metal bands.
Oh and I will say this about Van Halen - their debut album has grown on me and has become one of my all-time favorite albums. Every time I hear "Jamie's Crying", I want to search out Tone Loc and either congratulate him for such good taste in using that song as the main sample for "Wild Thing" or punch his lights out that he tried to rip VH off without properly compensating them.
Great little website that I discovered years ago in DigitalDreamDoor - they have all kinds of music (and movies) lists. Here is a link to their 100 greatest heavy metal bands: https://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_metal-art.html
By the way, if you've never seen music-map.com, you can find bands similar to the bands you like: https://www.music-map.com/van+halen https://www.music-map.com/metallica
I'm not a metalhead by any means, and realize it's all subjective, but Holy Wars, Hangar 18, Peace Sells, Angry Again, A Tout Le Monde, Trust, Symphony of Destruction (the Megadeth songs everyone probably knows already) are all really ****ing good. Some of the heavyweights not named Metallica, that others have mentioned, might have a bigger or better song to their name, but do they have as many truly good ones??? I dunno. In my opinion, Megadeth is very, very underrated... Spoiler They're only second to AC/DC on my list of great workout bands.
The genre of thrash metal? Which produced 3 other successful bands within a few years that are the same and only bands that are still talked about today when this topic comes up? Is that what you mean by “continues”? Metallica is actually more known for the music they made that supposedly nobody likes and doesn’t resemble thrash at all. VH, while clearly a hard rock band, wrote iconic songs that will continue to be played/loved by generations to come that transcend any label or genre.
Yep, there wouldn’t be a Metallica without Sabbath, Priest, Maiden, Motörhead. And I think VH was maybe more innovative than they’re being given credit for.
I'm going with Van Halen simply because Metallica has 2 guitarist and Van Halen has Eddie. Metallica was the more influential band but Eddie was one of the most influential guitarists ever. I think even Kirk would choose Van Halen.