Metal Grammys Year by Year - Who Won + Who Should've Won

Let's take a look at the winners of the metal Grammys year by year... and let's make some corrections along the way and pick who really should have won instead!

There are indeed some years where the Grammys doled out the metal award to the most deserving artist. Other years were a total miss where we can't even possibly wrap our heads around. You know which one specifically... that's right, the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance award that went to Jethro Tull instead of Metallica back in 1989.

READ MORE: Best Rock Album Grammy by Year - Who Won + Who Should've Won

Metallica were riding high off the success of the hard-hitting power ballad "One," for which they released their first-ever music video. This came off the heels of Master of Puppets, positioning the band as an absolute force dominating their particular sonic space. Jethro Tull, whose most ambitious and pioneering years were long in the rear view, scooped up the win instead with their album Crest of a Knave.

For the most part, metal and hard rock were not combined into the same category again after this. And while that decision righted a wrong, too many wrongs have followed in the wake of this disaster.

Obviously, we know that Grammy should've gone to Metallica. That's just the starting point!

Below, we go year by year to see which years they got it right and what years we think someone else should have won.

Now, if we issue a correction, it doesn't mean some of these artists who did win are undeserving — it's just that there's a case for, at that point and time, for a different artist to have won.

It's all a fun debate, so let's get to it!