Heavy metal music may have originated in England and now spans every corner of the globe, but American bands have played a major role in dictating the evolution of the genre.

In the ’70s, those contributions tended to pale in comparison to the aforementioned Brits, but the ’80s turned the tide with the rise of American thrash metal and death metal. On different ends of the country, two of metal's most innovative genres were being concocted.

In California, thrash was birthed and popularized by bands like Metallica and Slayer. Down in Florida, the primordial ooze of death metal began with Death and many others.

The ensuing decades have added further candidates to a long list of outstanding U.S. metal acts. You'll even find some acts that gained the majority of their momentum in the 2000s like Slipknot and System of a Down. We hereby celebrate their achievements with our look at the 10 Best American Metal Bands in the video above.

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