Over 400 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Metal Bands With The Best Fans
Voting Rules
Vote up the metal bands with the most loyal fanbases.
A 2015 data study by Spotify found that fans of metal bands are the most loyal around the world. To any metal fan, this should come as no surprise. Since its creation in the late 1960s, metal has captivated the dark corners of our minds with brutal riffs and wild stories of despair, chaos, and insanity. Metal music forces society to ponder the harsh realities of life, winning the hearts and minds of desperate souls along the way.
And more than any other genre, metal deploys brand awareness. From terrifying album art to cutting-edge fashion and notorious antics, metal artists submerge fans in a world where they can pick their champions and tag along for the ride, even to the most extreme lengths.
For music so brash, grim, and artistically menacing, who knew that Iron Maiden fans could be so accepting, even of opening acts?
After Shinedown went on a world tour with Iron Maiden, guitarist Zach Meyers praised Maiden fans as generous audience members: “Iron Maiden has the best fans in the world. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Heavy metal outlaws Judas Priest have been known to cause a stir in their wake. After they were scheduled to perform at Madison Square Garden in 1984, local DJ Perry Stone gibed the heated crowd of 20,000 during the band’s introduction.
Priest fans didn’t take this lightly and with M80s and cherry bombs made it known that nobody should mess with their community of lawbreakers. $250,000 in damages later, the message was received.
The rowdy, drunken rock and roll antics of British group Motörhead in the mid-1970s, led by the notorious “Lemmy” Kilmister, quickly made them a metal band for the working people.
Four decades later, after the frontman’s passing, tens of thousands of fans petitioned to induct the heavy metal icon into the ranks of the real heavy metals - the periodic table.
The first requirement for becoming a metalhead is to dive into the deep, dark world of Black Sabbath.
Some fans, however, have a hard time leaving the intoxicating Sabbath realm - like one particular fan whose Sabbath collection grew so enormous that it was reconstructed in a museum.
Anyone who’s been to a Slayer concert can recall some dude in the back yelling, “SLAAYYERR” - it’s the (admittedly rather on-the-nose) catchphrase uttered at every show.
The thrash icons have built such an ardent fan base over their 40-year career that some fans have lost their jobs just to catch a glimpse of their heroes playing live.
Megadeth might not have the most fans, but the ones they do have are certainly the most protective bunch around. After Metallica booted Dave Mustaine out of their band in 1983, Mustaine founded Megadeth, and the bands’ rivalry has been deeply rooted ever since.
Megadeth fans will go to just about any length to prove that their band is better than Mustaine’s previous employers - just check one of the numerous pro-Megadeth blogs on the internet.
