What deacde do you think was the best for metal. For me there is not question, the 80's.

Definitly the 80s but alot of good music was produced in the 90s as well.

Dunno, metal was sorta really invented in the 80s but the number of great albums in the 90s far outnumbers that of 80s. Plus, almost all of my favourite metal bands have got releases in the 90s. So I'd say the 90s.

80's hands down even though there was a lot of shitty hair metal and pop metal and glam and all that fucking crap.

Even if it wasn't called "metal" back in the 70s, I have to vote for that decade....releases like

"Rising"
"Vol 4"
"Virgin Killer"
"Bandolier"
"Look at Yourself"
"Sad Wings of Destiny"
"Desolation Blvd"
"Love it to Death"

Speaking as an "old guy".... I think releases like this sway my vote to the 70s decade. It was just all called "rock" back then!

80's & early 90's.

From like 1982 to 1992 was without a doubt the best time for metal.

Totally agree with that.In 92 with arrival of Korns nu-metal or puppy metal it started to go down.

I think that is debateable. For me 90's metal lost a lot of its variety. Back in the 80's all of the metal that I was into had its own destinct sound

Bathory, Celtic Frost, Slayer, Exodus, Destruction, Kreator, Anthrax, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Venom, Death, Possessed, Helloween, Coroner, Sodom, Death Angel, Dark Angel, Forbidden, Sacred Reich, Megadeth, Flotsam and Jetsam all had their own distinct, original sound. For me a lot of 90's metal borrowed the sound of late 80's florida death metal and many of the bands started to sound very similar. I do think there were some good releases in the 90's Carcass Heartwork and Entommed Clandestine come to mind.

In saying that though it was during the 90's that I really started to discover other styles of music and so my knowledge of 90's metal is not as strong as what it should be.

um for those of you saying it didn't exist in the 70s and such, metal started in 1966 does black sabbath ring a bell? and for does of you saying its going down hill maybe you just aren't looking hard enough, dig in the underground metal world, there are more metal bands now than ever, so i say 90s and present