Here are the 11 best '90s albums by big metal bands from the '80s.

The narrative has always been that the 1990s was quite unkind to heavy metal, dashing its commercial popularity, resulting in sputtered careers that often resulted in breakups or some really wayward musical offerings that just leave you going, "Huh?"

And while some of those anecdotes may have been true back then and still are through the lens of revisionist history, the reality is that even aside from the burgeoning extreme metal scene that came to dominate the underground throughout the decade, there were still some '80s bands who thrived in various degrees amid the changing musical tide.

Here, our focus is on bands who made quite a name for themselves in the 1980s — the catch is that we're only considering bands who released their first album in that decade, in order to truly embody being an '80s band. Unfortunately, this means Judas Priest, who blew up in the '80s but got their start with a handful of albums in the '70s are not eligible for this list, so that's why you won't find the utterly godly Painkiller anywhere below. Rest assured, we did not merely forget about it!

Among the selection below, they all had ups and downs throughout the '90s, but left some essential contributions we still can't stop talking about today.

11 Best '90s Albums By Big '80s Metal Bands

If the band released an album in the '70s, they're not eligible. Apologies to Judas Priest's Painkiller. And all of death metal — they weren't big bands quite yet at the end of the '80s!

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