Everything You Need to Know About the 21st Century’s 50 Most Important Metal Bands

Last week, we released our picks for the 50 Most Important Metal Bands in the 21st Century. Each of those 50 bands represented a group of artists moving the needle forward for heavy metal. We covered as much ground as possible in the list, whether it be veterans of the craft solidifying their genre as an art form, to young upstarts introducing new ideas and concepts. Each band on the list strikes to the core of why heavy metal is an evolving and constantly progressive art form that doesn't lose site of its roots.

We took a deeper look at all the bands on the list, and broke them down into all the important elements: genres, country of origins, skulls on album covers -- the whole deal. Dig into our deep dive breakdown of the 50 Most Important Metal Bands in the 21st Century.

By Country

USA - 27
Sweden - 6
England - 5
Finland - 3
Norway - 2
Germany - 2
France - 1
Canada - 1
Japan - 1
Mordhaus - 1
Poland - 1

By Genre

Heavy Metal - 6
Black Metal - 4
Melodic Death Metal - 4
Nu-Metal - 4
Progressive Metal - 4
Metalcore - 3
Deathcore - 2
Djent - 2
Power Metal - 2
Sludge Metal - 2
Symphonic Metal - 2
Technical Death Metal - 2
Thrash - 2
Blackened Death Metal - 1
Crossover Thrash - 1
Doom Metal - 1
Groove Metal - 1
Grindcore - 1
Industrial Metal - 1
Kawaii Metal - 1
Love Metal - 1
Mathcore - 1
Post-Metal - 1
Progressive Death Metal - 1

Number of Total Band Members: 242

Number of Albums Total: 382

Newest Band: Babymetal 2010-Present

Longest Active Band: Judas Priest 1969 - Present

Top 3 Hometowns: Los Angeles, London, Richmond, Va.

Grammy Award Winners: Metallica 6, Slayer 2, Tool 2, Ghost 1, Iron Maiden 1, Judas Priest 1, Korn 1,

Loudwire Award Winners: Avenged Sevenfold 2, Iron Maiden 2, Gojira 1,

Bands That Wear Facepaint: 6

Masked Bands: 3

Band With Most Albums Sold: 110 Million, Metallica.

Most Studio Albums in a Discography: Judas Priest, 18

Band With Fewest Albums in Discography: Tie between Babymetal and Necrophagist, 2

Average Number of Members in Band: 4.84

Bands With Their Own Plane: 1

Average Number of Albums: 7.64

Bands That Are Cartoons: 1

Bands That Only Put the Grim Reaper on Their Album Cover: 1

Bands With Skeletons and Skulls on Nearly Every Album Cover: 4

Bands Names Not in English Dictionary: 15

Number of Bands with Rappers on Our List: 0

So, without further adieu, let's revisit which acts made our 50 Most Important Metal Bands in the 21st Century below.

50 Most Important Metal Bands in the 21st Century