In some ways, metal's imprint on the world is as big as ever. From influencing mainstream fashion to providing needle-drops for the world's biggest TV shows, its pop culture footprint is everywhere. This year, we saw everything from metal bands conquering the charts to the loss of the biggest metal legend of them all. With that in mind, here are the 11 metal songs that have undoubtedly defined the last twelve months.
Ozzy Osbourne - Mama, I'm Coming Home
Where else could we start but with the Prince Of Darkness? Losing Ozzy in July, but a smidge over two weeks after his final ever show, wasn't just an immensely emotional moment for heavy metal; it produced scenes of public mourning and tribute arguably not seen since the death of Princess Diana. Both via the run up to that triumphant Back To The Beginning concert in Birmingham and the aftermath of his passing, it was undoubtedly the summer of Ozzy, and picking just one track to sum it all up feels nigh-on impossible, but we've plumped for Mama, I'm Coming Home. Those of us lucky to see his final ever performance of this ultra-emosh power ballad knew we were witnessing something significant. We just didn't realise how significant.
Sleep Token - Caramel
From a metal legend to the band making serious moves for the genre today. Sleep Token's all-conquering 2025 saw them release a chart-topping new album, Even In Arcadia, smash new records for vinyl sales in rock music and headline Download Festival for the first time. At the heart of it all was Caramel, a smooth, shimmering, sickly-sweet burst of modern metal that managed to crowbar in a neat little burst of extreme gnarliness, just to remind everyone that there really is no other band like Vessel and co.
Amy Lee, Courtney LaPlante and Poppy - End Of You
The term 'breaking the internet' feels almost as old as the internet itself at this point, but if any metal track from 2025 was deserving of the phrase, it was this anthem from three of the most respected artists in the game. The hysteria that greeted the news that Amy, Courtney and Poppy would be teaming up was real, and the song itself carried enough hooks to make sure it stayed buried in your cranium for the last few months of 2025.
Tool - Stinkfist
The early reviews of Alien: Earth suggested that we might finally have an entry into the franchise with something new and exciting to say following Ridley Scott's interesting but muddled prequels and Fede Álvarez's Alien: Romulus simply playing the hits. What we didn't expect in amongst all the grizzly action and freaky eyeball monsters was an absolute peach of a soundtrack, throwing out metal and alt rock needle-drops that should have felt jarring, but only ever felt totally badass. Our pick of the bunch? A casual drop of Stinkfist as things go south at the end of episode two. Lovely stuff.
Drowning Pool - Bodies
Nu metal's dumbest but most irresistible anthem bounced back big time this year, from outrageously silly dance remixes by Electric Callboy and Sofi Tukker to soundtracking hit horror show Yellowjackets and AEW wrestling. Nothing, however, could outdo the unexpectedly brilliant collab between rapper Offset and Drowning Pool themselves, which saw them team up alongside J.I.D for a special performance of Bodies on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Nu metal's return to the zeitgeist has officially reached maximum level.
Babymetal ft. Bloodywood - Kon! Kon!
Following on from Babymetal and Bloodywood's historic first collab Bekhauf, released at the end of 2024, Kon! Kon! represented another huge moment for Asian music, with the continent's two biggest metal bands uniting live on stage at one of the world's most historic venues in Madison Square Garden, New York to perform this absolute banger. If ever a year showed that metal is truly taking over worldwide, this was it.
Castle Rat - Wizard
I said you can never have enough masked bands in metal, and you know what? You can never have enough sword-wielding Rat Queens either! Castle Rat were already making a mighty racket in the metal underground before the release of brilliant latest album The Bestiary, but it was their viral stage battles that saw them explode into the rock world's wider consciousness. Metal is at its best when it's loud, fun and colourful, and few bands in the modern scene reflect that better than these mighty rat warriors.
Deftones - My Mind Is A Mountain
Where plenty of the bands from the nu metal era suddenly started looking lame or imploded entirely, Deftones never stopped being cool. Still, even they couldn't have predicted being adopted by Gen Z'ers as the official godfathers of baddiecore, making this year's Private Music the Sacramento legends' most anticipated release in decades. They didn't disappoint; lead single My Mind Is A Mountain was a gorgeous, propulsive slice of classic Deftones anthemia, foreshadowing a year in which they released one of their most critically acclaimed records and played some of their biggest ever shows.
![deftones - my mind is a mountain [official music video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/eVqZrI9JE6Q/maxresdefault.jpg)
Deep Purple - Child In Time
Season 4 of Stranger Things established that needle drops were becoming as integral to the show as nosebleeds and dodgy haircuts, and while season 5 hasn't thrown up anything as instantly iconic as those Kate Bush and Metallica moments so far, the season's teaser trailer utilised a beautifully melodramatic version of Deep Purple classic Child In Time to send anticipation levels through the roof. Hopefully we get an extended version somewhere in the imminent final few episodes, because this hits hard.
Decessus - The Eve Of Severed Tongues
Model Ignacia Fernández found herself going viral in October for showing off a surprising talent during her entry into the Miss World Chile beauty pageant: she's also a death metal singer! Screaming her way through her band Decessus' new track The Eve Of Severed Tongues clearly made as impressive an impact on the judges as it did the world at large; she ended up winning the whole competition two weeks later.
Ghost - Satanized
Amongst all the box office names revealed for Black Sabbath's huge Back To The Beginning show upon its announcement in February, one raised the most anticipation from a certain, grucifix-donning corner of the internet. That was the surprise confirmation that Ghost's new leading man would be named Papa V Perpetua, and a few weeks later, we got to meet him courtesy of one of the band's most instantaneous singles yet. Satanized officially kicked off another big chapter in the Ghost story, in which Tobias and the crew headlined arenas around the world, played ...Jimmy Fallon and notched up their first ever Billboard number one with the majestic Skeletá.
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