In a recent conversation with Sobre La Dosis, drummer Mike Portnoy shared three metal bands that he thinks were able to emerge at the time of the grunge era.
Here’s what Portnoy said:
“Well, for metal, I would have to say the ’80s, ’cause the ’90s started to go downhill once grunge came around. The ’90s… really, the only thing going for metal, for me at least, in the ’90s was Pantera, Sepultura, and Machine Head. Those were the only new bands, really, doing metal. All of the other great metal bands from the ’90s all came around in the ’80s.
”So for me, in the ’80s, we got Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Overkill, Exodus, Megadeth, that was all the thrash scene. And then all the early ’80s stuff, you had Rainbow, AC/DC, Accept, Motörhead, Sabbath, Priest, and Maiden. So, I think the ’80s were definitely the stronger decade of the two.“