Metal

Metal is more than just a musical genre: it's a true culture. Born in the late 60s with Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, it quickly asserted its identity with distorted guitars, powerful rhythms, and raw energy.

Over the decades, metal has diversified: from the heavy metal of Iron Maiden or Judas Priest to the incendiary thrash of Metallica and Slayer, all the way to the more extreme sounds of death, black, or doom metal. Each subgenre has forged its own sonic and visual universe, offering fans an immersive and intense experience.

But metal isn't just about power. It's also a music of passion, technique, and community. Festivals like Wacken or Hellfest bring together tens of thousands of loyal fans every year, coming to share the same fervor.

Metal vinyls capture this unique intensity: a blend of sonic power and strong imagery. These black discs are testaments to a genre that, for over fifty years, continues to evolve without ever denying its roots.

Explorer les sous-genres de Metal : Black Metal , Death / Doom / Thrash / Speed Metal , Hard Rock / Heavy Metal , Metal / Fusion , French Metal / Fusion , Nu Metal , Power Metal

Metal Vinyl Records: From Heavy Metal to Black Metal, Pressings Compared

What's in this metal vinyl section?

This collection of metal vinyl records covers the full spectrum: hard rock / heavy metal, death / doom / thrash / speed metal, black metal, power metal, nu metal and metal / fusion, plus a subcollection for French metal. You'll find Gojira, Cult of Luna, Hatebreed, Prong and Terrorizer alongside the French comedy-metal band Ultra Vomit. Metal never really let go of vinyl: large-format artwork, color variants and limited editions have long been part of the culture.

Each record page compares offers from several partner stores, whether it's a standard black pressing, a color variant, a limited edition or a box set. In metal, one album often comes out in several variants, some exclusive to a single store. Comparing keeps you from overpaying for a color without realizing it, or missing an edition still in stock elsewhere.

Pressings, colors and reissues: how to buy metal on vinyl

Specialist labels such as Nuclear Blast, Century Media, Metal Blade, Relapse, Season of Mist and Earache release their albums on vinyl, often in multiple colors. For the classics, original 1970s and 1980s pressings sell for serious money, while recent reissues are plentiful: Metallica remastered its catalog on its own label, Blackened Recordings, and Music On Vinyl has reissued many hard rock and metal titles. When buying used, pin down the exact edition, since represses can look nearly identical.

  • the variant: black, color, splatter or picture disc (usually weaker sonically)
  • the remaster source on a reissue
  • single or double LP for long albums
  • sleeve and insert condition on used copies

Essential metal albums on vinyl

Black Sabbath laid the foundations with "Paranoid" (1970). Around 1980, the British scene delivered Judas Priest's "British Steel" (1980), Motörhead's "Ace of Spades" (1980) and Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" (1982), with its Derek Riggs artwork. American thrash peaked in 1986 with Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and Slayer's "Reign in Blood", alongside Megadeth and Anthrax.

Death metal took shape with Morbid Angel's "Altars of Madness" (1989) and the albums of the band Death, Norwegian black metal with Mayhem, Darkthrone and Emperor, and doom with Candlemass. More recently, Opeth's "Blackwater Park" (2001), Mastodon's "Leviathan" (2004) and Gojira's "From Mars to Sirius" (2005) pushed the genre further, as did the post-metal of Cult of Luna.

Metal subgenres to explore

Each subcollection targets a scene: hard rock / heavy metal for the classics, death / doom / thrash / speed metal for the extreme end, black metal, power metal in the Helloween tradition, nu metal for the Korn and Slipknot generation, metal / fusion and French metal / fusion. The genre's new release and pre-order pages matter more here than almost anywhere: in metal, the most limited color variants often sell out during pre-orders.

Explore Metal styles