or
Just including the classics here. Feel free to consider Metal Up Your Ass, Show No Mercy or Hell Awaits if that makes a difference to you.
This is as hard a call as there is for me musically.
Slayer is a much bigger part of my day-to-day life these days than Metallica is and I don't know many bigger Slayer fans than me. They are, in my opinion, metal perfected- refined to it's barest, most evil essentials. When I think of the sound of metal- I think 80s Slayer. They are the greatest metal band of all time. And they've managed not to tarnish their legacy too badly.
All that said, before Metallica was killed and replaced by body-snatching gay aliens, they managed to realease possibly the greatest four-album stretch in the history of rock (three for you Justice haters). To my ear, no one has ever matched 80s Metallica for writing huge, virtusoso songs that can only be described as epic. If you were ever a fan of these records, the riffs stay with you always. The shit they were doing back then was so good that no one, including them, has ever been able to take that style of playing any further- a problem for their fans and metal heads in general.
Not sure I'm doing a great job of explaining why, but for me, when it comes down to just comparing the classic records and leaving all the bullshit-to-come out of it, I have to go with Metallica. Few things have made as lasting and permanent impression on me as those four albums.
But it's really fucking close!
