t’s inescapable. Everyone is talking about Master of Puppets, the 1986 Metallica album that’s often regarded as one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time, if not THE greatest. (I’m more of a Ride the Lightning guy, but look, I’m not going to argue against something that’s earned its place in the canon by being legitimately awesome.) The album’s title track has officially entered the singles chart for the first time, over 35 years after its release, thanks to its climactic use in the fourth season of Stranger Things.

It’s honestly pretty exciting to see. While I’ve already seen a few folks on social media complain about overuse of Eddie Munson gifs and that they’ve grown tired of Stranger Things mania (which is also fairly surprise, considering it’s been on since 2016 and the last season aired in 2019—but hey, fun show, I endorse!). But there’s something heartening about seeing a new generation, or perhaps not-so-new generations that missed out the first time, learning about how fun heavy metal is. And that’s always been my selling point, not that metal is extreme or evil or whatever (but extreme, evil metal can be cool, too), but that it’s fun. Case in point: I caught Devil Master in a steamy-as-hell DIY warehouse in Richmond a little over a week ago, and it was an absolute blast despite the stickiness. Big riffs, punk rock speed and energy, and just the right amount of spooky theatrics. It was everything I loved about metal, and if people are getting to discover this through a TV show that nods pretty transparently to its 1980s horror/sci-fi influences and at times feels like an extra-gross young adult novel, well that’s OK by me.

And let’s just get something clear: Metal in the ’80s ruled. I’m generally of the opinion that music gets better all the time, that everything that existed before is always contributing to something that can improve upon the template. But so many of the best (and first of their kind) records in metal were released in the ’80s, from Napalm Death to Slayer, Bathory to Morbid Angel, Judas Priest to Iron Maiden. And as I was listening to some of the records that stood out to me as the best new metal of August, it struck me that many of them carried a heavy influence from many of those 1980s greats. Some of them are lo-fi and raw, some of them stripped down and streamlined, and some of them merely nod in the direction of the titans that came before them. So what the hell; this month I offer you six great new metal albums for fans of ’80s metal, which does not mean that they’re carbon copies or obvious pastiche, but rather that they capture the spirit of what made those records great in the first place. Plus, if you’re just now becoming metal curious thanks to, say, Metallica, well, you just might find something to love here. Alternately, if you stopped listening to metal in 1991 and want to get back into it, might I suggest these six new platters?

This month’s best metal column also coincides with something big happening on Treble in August: ’80s month. We’ll be publishing articles each week that highlight the music of the ’80s, culminating in a really big feature that will reveal something that we’ve been working on all summer. This is just one part of a greater whole, but one way or another, I just hope you discover some great new metal records out of it.