Somehow, we're officially over halfway through the 2020s - meaning we've had five whole years of this relentlessly maddening decade already. A pandemic, numerous wars, four UK Prime Ministers, a chaotic, unimaginable second Trump Presidency...it's been a lot, hasn't it?
Luckily, we've had a near-endless supply of top tier metal albums to soundtrack us all through it; from returning heavyweights to exciting new bands, from underground cult icons to genre-mashing weirdos, metal has had it all in recent years. With that in mind, Team Metal Hammer got together to pick the 30 best metal albums of the decade so far. Agree with our choices? Think we've missed some huge ones? Let us know in the comments below.
30. Green Lung - This Heathen Land (Nuclear Blast, 2023)
Throwing the primordial riffs of Sabbath, the arena-sized hooks of Ghost and the spirits of ye olde English folklore into a bubbling cauldron of cursed mischief, Green Lung produced one of 2023’s best albums and marked themselves as British metal’s next breakout band.
Article continues belowIf the riffs of The Forest Church didn’t bury themselves straight into your cranium, the super-earwormy choruses of Maxine and One For Sorrow would burrow in there instead.
29. Bloodywood - Rakshak (Self-Released, 2022)
Considering nu metal ripped up the metal rulebook first time around, it’s ironic that the ongoing revival has largely been confined to retreading old ground. Not so with Bloodywood.
Vibrant, colourful and proudly Indian, their approach is inherently tied to their cultural identity, drawing as much on bhangra as they do metal or rap. Funky, headbanging rhythms met epic folk compositions, their fired-up invective on topics ranging from religion to politics offering something genuinely fresh.
28. Nightwish - Yesterwynde (Nuclear Blast, 2024)
There’s big, there’s bigger, and then there’s Nightwish. But while the customary grandeur of the sound was as overwhelmingly epic as ever on their 10th album, Yesterwynde beat with a very human heart, informed in part by the loss of keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen’s father.
Nearly 30 years into their career, Nightwish continue to lead where their many imitators follow.
27. Loathe - I Let It In And It Took Everything (Sharptone, 2023)
While their 2017 debut hinted at Loathe’s mesmerising potential, I Let It In And It Took Everything proved to be a total post-metal magnum opus.
The record awakened in a mist, and it lingered there, harsh sections of corrosive chugging and tormented distortion soothed by clouds of wistful, shoegaze-y ambience. From the larger-than-life, mystical yearning of Is It Really You? to the bludgeoning, smeary nightmare Gored, Loathe crafted something brutally beautiful.
26. Halestorm - Everest (Atlantic, 2025)
We already knew that Lzzy Hale was the commanding queen of rock’n’roll and that Halestorm could trade riff-slinging anthems with the best of ’em.
With Everest they also showed that they could bring in a lot more subtlety and launch the odd musical curveball. It was still the same hard rock beast at heart, but with a much wider sonic palette. This was Halestorm at their boldest, if not their heaviest.
25. Code Orange - The Underneath (Roadrunner, 2020)
Somewhere, there’s an alternate reality where the pandemic never happened, Underneath got the attention it deserved and Code Orange are currently strutting around as one of the biggest bands in metal.
A fearless, abrasive mash-up of industrial metal clatter, pummelling hardcore, hooky alt rock and glitching EDM, it sounded (and still sounds) unlike anything else in the modern metal scene. Underneath was the 2020s’ first truly classic heavy record.
![Code Orange - Swallowing The Rabbit Whole [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Ctn14oYz0qA/maxresdefault.jpg)
24. Trivium - What The Dead Men Say (Roadrunner, 2020)
Having bounced back from a ‘meh’ couple of records with The Sin And The Sentence, Trivium were in no mood to let their momentum dip.
What The Dead Men Say mixed the very best of their discography so far, the savage metal riffage of Amongst The Shadows & The Stones and Bending The Arc To Fear happily rubbing shoulders with the colossal choruses of Catastrophist and Scattering The Ashes.
23. Slipknot - The End, So Far (Roadrunner, 2022)
In a chaotic existence touching four different decades, Slipknot have constantly had to reboot, if not entirely reinvent themselves. Through tumult and tragedy, they’ve remained an ugly constant in a changing music scene.
The End, So Far contained Maggot-mashing rampages aplenty but also showed they could mix things up, with more nuance and invention than ever before. It confirmed not only Slipknot’s ongoing relevance but their status on top of the metal pile.
22. Evanescence - The Bitter Truth (Sony GMBH, 2021)
The sheer rarity of Evanescence albums makes each new release an event. After a decade characterised by absence and retreading old ground on the orchestral Synthesis, The Bitter Truth was a very welcome return.
As much a product of the era it was made in – soulcrushing 24-hour news cycles, #MeToo and the march-back of women’s rights – as it was Amy Lee’s inner emotions, the result was Evanescence’s heaviest, most fired-up record since their debut.
21. Poppy - Negative Spaces (Sumerian, 2024)
Poppy always felt most at home in the rock scene, and she proved it in style with this absolute peach of a record, bringing in ex-BMTH man Jordan Fish to produce one of the 2020s’ best metalcore albums.
It wouldn’t be Poppy if there wasn’t just a bit of genre-hopping though, which is why we also got bursts of grunge, pop-punk and pop for good measure.
20. Judas Priest - Invincible Shield (Sony, 2024)
In a decade that’s seen Priest contend with their own mortal fragility – facing Parkinson’s, heart attacks and prostate cancer – every note of Invincible Shield felt like a defiant triumph.
The likes of Panic Attack and Giants In The Sky sounded just as hale and thundering as anything on Painkiller or Screaming For Vengeance, Invincible Shield proving to be a rallying cry for heavy metal’s old guard.
19. Bring Me The Horizon - Post Human: Nex Gen (RCA, 2024)
Marmite metalcore visionaries Bring Me The Horizon are always ahead of the curve – lest we forget the shitstorm surrounding 2019’s controversially poppy Amo. Reminiscent of a scratchy MySpace mixtape, Post Human: Nex Gen served as the band’s next howl of hyperpop-meets-emomeets-nu-metal innovation.
Clashing Amen!’s blend of post-hardcore and emo rap, Limousine’s ultra-slick shoegaze-y sheen, and Lost’s toothrotting pop-punk, this record should have royally pissed off metal purists – but it didn’t, somehow.
18. Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To (Pure Noise, 2024)
Where other hardcore bands reached a fork in the road and headed off in a different direction in 2025 (hi, Turnstile!), Knocked Loose fixed their eyes straight ahead and raged harder than ever.
The Kentucky cranium-crushers doubled down on the skin-flaying noise while still twisting this enduring genre into wild new shapes, with assistance from Poppy and Chris Motionless along the way. The future is as furious as the past.
17. Creeper - Sanguivore (Spinefarm, 2023)
Sanguivore dared ask the question we never knew we needed the answer to: namely, what would it sound like if Meat Loaf had discovered a punk-metal edge and written a rock opera packed with all the dark romantic lustre of Anne Rice’s seminal Vampire Chronicles?
Grandiose and bombastic but retaining the gritty sense of aggression that went for the jugular, this was rock’n’roll at its most entertainingly ambitious.
16. Lorna Shore - Pain Remains (Century Media, 2022)
We may still be waiting for deathcore’s genuine commercial breakthrough, but it’s certainly not for want of trying. Lorna Shore led the charge with their dazzling fourth album, and first with new boy Will Ramos – he of the mouth-of-Hell roar and seemingly indestructible larynx.
Pain Remains was epic in its intent, sweetening its brutality with symphonic ambition and setting the bar high for peers and followers alike.
15. Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere (Century Media, 2024)
The worlds of progressive rock and extreme metal have frequently crossed, but few have opened a portal betwixt the two as expansive as the one Blood Incantation conjured on Absolute Elsewhere.
Their fourth album was a magnificent mix of pure cosmic prog wizardry threaded with bursts of extreme metal aggression. Vast in scope and fearlessly inventive, it deployed bongos and mellotrons alongside gnashing guitars for the decade’s greatest prog metal crossover so far.
![The Message [Tablet III] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tz_YBkl3QUw/maxresdefault.jpg)
14. Babymetal - Metal Forth (Universal/Amuse, 2025)
Babymetal were already stars, but this was the moment they truly went global. Metal Forth was the first album by a Japanese act to break the US Top 10 and it was packed with multinational collaborations, with guests from Russia (Slaughter To Prevail), India (Bloodywood), Canada (Spiritbox), Germany (Electric Callboy) and the USA (Tom Morello, Poppy).
The result maintained all Babymetal’s kawaii-metal charm, with an even more eclectic streak from the pair-ups.
13. Avenged Sevenfold - Life Is But A Dream... (Warner, 2023)
Proving once again that they remain metal’s most unpredictable band, Avenged pretty much tore up the rulebook, sprinkled it over some hallucinogenics and scoffed the lot, producing one of our beloved genre’s most divisive albums in recent memory.
The haters missed out – …LIBAD was a bold, bizarre and thrilling journey through metal, industrial, prog rock, funk and just about anything else the OC icons fancied trying their hand at.
12. Electric Callboy - Tekkno (Century Media, 2022)
Give a metal wedding band access to the open bar, and you’ve got Tekkno. Decked out in crappy wigs and 80s aerobics wear, these rambunctious Germans know how to get people moving – and nobody can resist their technicolour dopamine hits of synth-spiked metalcore.
From the anthemic Eurodance pulse of We Got The Moves to Tekkno Train’s hilarious, spaghetti-dick ode to pleasure, Tekkno’s party anthems are still guaranteed crowd-pleasers.
11. Metallica - 72 Seasons (Blackened, 2023)
Metallica are now in their fifth decade – just let that sink in for a moment. But these heavy metal grandees refused to let age dim their fire on what was only their fourth studio album this century.
72 Seasons was aggressive where it needed to be, thorny where it wanted to be, introspective when it felt like being, and not averse to serving up a dollop of old-school nostalgia in the luminous Lux Æterna. Sure, a few of the songs could have done with a judicious nip-and-tuck, but at this stage too much Metallica is way better than no Metallica at all.
10. Heilung - Drif (Season Of Mist, 2022)
Heilung’s ‘amplified history’ had always looked for links between then and now, but they’d previously focused on their own northern European heritage. Their third album reached further afield, taking inspiration from the Middle East, ancient Rome, the Celts and other cultures.
Drif means ‘gathering’ and the collective’s hypnotic, primal ritual was more inclusive than ever before. It provided a reminder that we all share common connections – a message that’s never been more vital.
![Heilung | Anoana [Official Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/SVbc_Fwbt50/maxresdefault.jpg)
9. Architects - The Sky, The Earth & All Between (Epitaph, 2025)
For album number 11, Brighton’s greatest metal export produced a stunning crystallisation of their journey so far, everything from crushingly heavy metalcore and juddering tech metal to frenetic hyper-pop and scuzzy punk rock thrown into the mix.
It certainly didn’t hurt that frontman Sam Carter gave what might just be the best performance of his career, veering from bowel-scorching bellows to warm croons at the flick of a vocal cord.
8. Bad Omens - The Death of Peace Of Mind (Sumerian Records, 2022)
Up until 2022, Bad Omens were your run-of-the-mill metalcore act. The Death Of Peace Of Mind changed that; much like Bob Dylan discovering the electric guitar, the Virginian quartet embraced their own electric era, planting listeners in the thick of their Concrete Jungle tech-noir dystopia.
The record combines pulsing R’n’B, metal and darkwave in a way that feels almost sensual, from the effortlessly slick Like A Villain to the cut-throat gristle of Artificial Suicide.
7. Rammstein - Zeit (Universal, 2022)
If the title wasn’t enough of a giveaway – that’s ‘Time’ for those who sprichst no Deutsch – Rammstein’s eighth album was a brooding meditation on aging.
Surprisingly sombre for a band who usually pack cock cannons, cauldrons and enormous flamethrowers into their sets, it felt genuinely momentous, an emotionally charged doff of their caps to everything they’d achieved over 30 years. But of course there was still a song about big tits (Dicke Titten).
6. Spiritbox - Eternal Blue (Pale Chord/Rise, 2021)
Before their debut even arrived, Spiritbox had inspired imitators. Holy Roller’s Midsommar-inspired music video, skittering electro and killer hooks made them an instant viral success, but the full album confirmed they had a visual and musical language entirely their own.
Loaded with genuine anthems – Hurt You, Circle With Me, Holy Roller – Eternal Blue was the breath of fresh air metalcore so desperately needed after a decade chasing Bring Me The Horizon’s shadow.
5. Iron Maiden - Senjutsu (Parlophone, 2021)
Maiden fans had to have a fair bit of patience while waiting to wrap their ears around the metal legends’ 17th studio album. Coming six years after The Book Of Souls, Senjutsu marked the longest gap between records in the band’s history. It was worth the wait.
Featuring some of their grandest and most expansive tracks - the closing triumvirate Death Of The Celts, The Parchment and Hell On Earth all cruising past the 10-minute mark - it also boasted one of their most unique singles in The Writing On The Wall, a mischievous, marching, folky anthem quite unlike anything else they’d written.
4. Sleep Token - Take Me Back To Eden (Spinefarm, 2023)
Take Me Back To Eden was the album that took Sleep Token from cult sensation to the biggest metal phenomenon of the decade. The momentum was already there, but when The Summoning hit TikTok and became viral – not least because of a funky bass drop in the song’s last minute and some especially thirst-trap lyrics – the band breached a whole new audience.
There was more to the album besides: R’n’B-inspired melodies, djent chugs, esoteric imagery that bordered on the religious, but it all came together to underscore the fact Sleep Token were paving the way for a new school of metal.
3. Gojira - Fortitude (Roadrunner, 2021)
If 2016’s Magma was all about looking inwards and meditating on grief, this follow-up was about Gojira looking at the wider world… and deciding they wanted the lot. More immediate and anthemic, Fortitude was perfectly suited to the arenas Gojira would end up headlining after its release.
Keeping their toes just barely in the death metal pool they’d originally paddled in, it was an album of enormous heft and ambition, songs like Amazonia and Another World feeling genuinely vital for their timely environmental themes, befitting the kind of band who could represent their country at the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony before the album cycle was through.
![Gojira - Amazonia [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/B4CcX720DW4/maxresdefault.jpg)
2. Deftones - Private Music (Reprise, 2025)
It’s handy that Deftones released their incredible 10th album 30 years after their debut, Adrenaline, if only because it highlights just how far they’ve come from their beginnings in nu metal’s primal soup. While some of their 90s peers have either regressed or barely moved on, the Sacramento crew have evolved into one of modern metal’s greatest bands.
Although some of their 21st-century output has put texture and vibe over actual songs, here the stellar likes of My Mind Is A Mountain, Infinite Source and the slow-burning I Think About You All The Time delivered on all fronts, adding a rare sensuality that underlines their status as the Daddies Of Baddiecore. Proof that heavy music is still capable of pushing itself forwards, even after all this time.
![deftones - my mind is a mountain [official music video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/eVqZrI9JE6Q/maxresdefault.jpg)
1. Ghost - Impera (Loma Vista, 2022)
After mischievously flirting with 80s cheese on 2018’s thoroughly entertaining Prequelle, Tobias Forge dug out his sparkliest dinner jacket and went all the way in with Impera. The writing was on the wall from the off: first track Kaisarion felt less like an album opener and more like a curtain-raiser for an all-singing, all-dancing Broadway spectacular - and the razzle only got more dazzling from there.
There were certainly still threads to Ghost’s heavier, more metal-friendly past intact. Hunter’s Moon delivered eerie thrills under lashings of theatrical, gothic metal, while Call Me Little Sunshine was as nefarious and deliciously subversive a cut as Ghost have ever produced, even if it sounded more like Load-era Metallica than King Diamond.
Ultimately, though, this was Tobias swinging for the stars and nailing it, his stadium-sized ambitions laid bare. From the sparkling, synth-driven arena rock of Spillways - a song so Def Leppard coded that Joe Elliot himself turned up for a cameo on an alternate version - to the bizarre, brassy tango of Twenties, Impera was an all-killer, no-filler instant classic. Its crowning moment? Surely Darkness At The Heart Of My Love, a deceptively dark but heartstring-twanging power ballad that might remain Tobias’s peak offering as a songwriter.
Such was the album’s scope and ambition that it warranted Ghost’s most spectacular live show yet, culminating in a retina-singeing, two-night blow-out at the Forum in Los Angeles, featuring multiple stages, skeletal backing dances, piano ballads, buckets of pyro and confetti and plenty more.
Filmed for the band’s riotously fun Rite Here, Rite Now concert movie, it confirmed once and for all that Ghost had taken residence in rock’s big leagues and were there to stay. Soundtracking it all was Impera, officially bringing the fun back to heavy metal.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
