Most influential metal album of the 80s?

Screaming For Vengenace

That was my anthem when i was a young pissed off teenager. Rockin the jean jacket with cut off sleeves, and a Judas Priest back patch, and yes a mullet

I said SOME of Priest, not all. But Megadeth is a trillion times better than Metallica. They've always been heavier

I don't understand this.

What criteria are you using to define “metal” during the 80s then? You seem to be confusing things with very personal opinions about what you believe is metal and “thrash” during a decade that you didn't live through.

Or I may be totally wrong with what is considered “metal”.

I don't even think “thrash” was a genre in the 80s. Certainly not the early 80s.

Coming out of the 70s, you had hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden that spawned the metal scene going in to the 80s. Metal seemed like just a progression of harder and faster rock. “Metal” became a style surrounding this fast-paced power chord rich music coupled with a following of young, rebelious teenagers who connected with anti-social sentiment and dark lyrics in the music.

I remember “thrash” coming towards the end of the 80s as another progession of hard rock (metal) that seemed favored to the skateboarding community (Butthole Surfers come to mind).

So, my understanding of what is metal and thrash, or hard rock is going to be completely different from someone else's experience or taste who went through that decade.

And what was then considered “metal” is now considered “hard rock” to today's musical standard (Black Sabbath comes to mind).

Zeppelin is far from the Metal genre..IMO, Every album had it own uniqueness about it, but nothing Metal. Judas Priest was delivering 70's Metal in that time period. I would put LZ into the one of the best Hard/Rock bands in history.