One of the least discussed but most fruitful arenas of modern art is metal music. As it stands now, it is one of the most exciting places and communities I’ve ever found myself in as a lover of most forms of art. Ever since hearing System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, and Slipknot as a kid, I was hooked for life. It was my entry point into my passion for playing music as much as listening to it, and it has helped me through some of the toughest times in my life.
It’s not something I can recommend to everyone, given its often harsh and brutalizing nature. With the recent surprise of not only the return of Linkin Park, but also a new vocalist, three new songs, and a whole upcoming album that’s now just around the corner…it’s impossible to shut up about it any longer!
We are in a true golden age of the genre right now. There are so many styles, so many places it can come from, and the most diverse artists of any genre in modern music. It feels like a new and exciting piece of music is coming out all the time. This list will be some kind of attempt to give you a taste of the many, many records that have truly meant something to me over the recent years.
This will be a loose collection of album recommendations that are intended to be a diverse selection of sounds and scenes in the grand umbrella of modern metal. I’ll limit myself to the current decade so it will be the best possible reflection of the current landscape. And, finally, I plan to give each record a level on the (relative) brutality scale between 1/5 (least brutal) and 5/5 (most brutal). I’ll give you as much as possible so, by the end, you will hopefully have at least a few albums you’re excited to check out!
As a little disclaimer to all you metalheads out there who know way more than me: this list is by no means meant to be comprehensive. It’s made up of albums that have given me a lot of joy or have meant something to me personally. There’s no way I could cover all the bases of this insanely diverse genre without this being the length of a full novel. So just have fun and chill out!
Absolute Elsewhere
Blood Incantation, 2024
Death Metal, Progressive Metal
Blood Incantation have only released three full studio albums, but they are critical darlings for a reason. They do the old death metal stylings so well that it feels genuinely fresh and often retains the kind of punch one would think would be reserved for that classic era. But they also have a very special creative lore and atmosphere around them, bringing in loads of off-the-wall inspirations that make all of their music feel like a real journey to listen to, and their new record Absolute Elsewhere is my personal favorite of their work. Don’t get me wrong – you can’t go wrong with their previous album The Hidden History of the Human Race either, but Absolute Elsewhere just hits different.
It’s mainly separated into two parts totaling six tracks. The first half of the record is subtitled “The Stargate [Tablet I-III]” and the final half is “The Message [Tablet I-III].” “The Stargate” is a cosmic adventure filled with other worlds, fantastical adventure, and the deeply existential dread of how lonely our consciousness is in a world only defined by how we interpret it. “The Message” feels like a revelation. It’s the musical equivalent of stepping outside of what you feel and experience to transcend yourself and your definition of self. It’s both wondrous and completely sobering. I love this album on a deeply personal level, and that’s not to even mention the spacey spoken word cosmic interludes, the funky prog-rock spaces, and the amazing use of drones in the more dense and sparse parts. A beast of an album.
o Favorite Track: “The Message [Tablet III]”
o Brutality Ranking: 3/5
Artificial Bouquet
Frail Body, 2024
Screamo, Post-Metal
‘Heartbreaking’ and ‘otherworldly’ are the two first words that come to mind when thinking about Artificial Bouquet. That is, besides ‘wildly fast’ and ‘utterly blistering.’ From the first few seconds of the first song all the way to the final moments of the closer, it never let me go for a single second. It sweeps you off your feet with its whirlwind of distortion and blast beats, but it will often also surprise you with a sudden tempo change, a touching break of ambiance, or even a whole new song taking over before you even realize the last one was over. The guitar tone really stands out to me as something unique for this style. That combined with the wailingly agonized vocals really wrench their way into your chest. It pierces your soul with its sound, then wrenches your heart with its lyrics. Anyone who has lost family and has the incompletion of that eat away at you over time would strongly relate to this album. Grief and the complex lingering of that loss in your everyday life is what permeates every second of this project. I will admit that it nearly put me in tears the first time I ever heard it, and has continued to do so every time I’ve gone back for a full re-listen. Even without that connection, it’s an essential concept record that is bound to impress any music fan that is not faint of heart.
o Favorite Track: “Devotion”
o Brutality Ranking: 4/5
At the Heart of Wintervale
Twilight Force, 2023
Power Metal, Symphonic Metal
This album is the biggest blast to listen to. Power Metal is an excellent entry point into metal and its tropes as a genre, but especially in the case of fantasy and movie fans I think At the Heart of Wintervale is a great pick. Twilight Force’s entire discography is truly fantastic, but they have hit a second peak with this latest effort. The symphonic elements sound so impressive and are so catchy – I think it’s fair to call them John Williams-esque. The drumming and guitar work is as bombastic, speedy, technical, and epic as ever with some truly killer solos and wildly expansive suites playing out pretty frequently. And my god, I cannot get enough of the over-the-top and gloriously invigorating vocals from lead vocalist Allyon. For just his second album with the band, he sure sounds like he’s been here the whole time.
This album tastes of copious amounts of fantasy cheese, but it is done so playfully and earnestly it’s so hard for me to fault it. Even the Bilbo Baggins-esque narration that opens “Highlands of the Elder Dragon” never fails to bring a smile to my face every time I hear it. The number of times I’ve just thrown this record on are far too high to count. This is easily one of the most-listened-to albums on this entire list.
o Favorite Track: “At the Heart of Wintervale”
o Brutality Ranking: 1/5
Bleed the Future
Archspire, 2021
Technical Death Metal
Not even 10 seconds into the opening track, “Drone Corpse Aviator,” you know you’re in for a whole new kind of ferocity. Archspire have always stood out to me in terms of the virtuosity in their playing, but this record is by far their most impressive. Their previous record, Relentless Mutation, was excellent, but it was also an exercise in a very singular pure beatdown mindset. There was very little to that album experience musically other than its sheer brutality, so I think it was smart of them to start experimenting with the little things they could do to vary that sound.
It’s still some of the most technical and head-spinning metal out there right now, but it also flirts with some experimental song structures and new types of playing to complement the composition. Being more open about guitar soloing on tracks like “Golden Mouth of Ruin,” or even classical music influence bleeding into “Reverie on the Onyx” for a short time does so much to make this album feel more diverse than anything they’ve done before. It truly is like being swept up into a storm chock full of the most violent tornadoes you’ve ever seen. It’s an utter beatdown of drums, a whirlwind of guitars, and a blisteringly angry attack on the vocal front. In the technical death metal world, Archspire are essential.
o Favorite Track: “Golden Mouth of Ruin”
o Brutality Ranking: 5/5
Chaos Horrific
Cannibal Corpse, 2023
Death Metal
This album feels exactly like the cover looks. For the uninitiated, Cannibal Corpse are one of the most consistent, controversial, and violent bands to ever get true mainstream attention in all of metal history. They are very traditional to death metal’s classic sound, and even though they’ve never changed up their sound or vibe during their entire 30+ year career, they still kick insurmountable amounts of ass. They just do their thing, and not a single metal fan ever seems to have a problem with that because that thing they do works, and they never seem to miss a step along the way. Corpsegrinder as a vocalist is still blowing brains out with his gutturally excellent growls, the guitars still sound like they’re ripping bodies to shred memorable riff after memorable riff, and those drums still sound like they’re beating your body into the ground with every new blast beat they unleash. The band has many classics, but of their more modern projects, this one is my absolute favorite (tied with 2017’s Red Before Black). The topics on this album include being a violent warlord of a hell-like dimension, eating corpses (of course), the specific violence of murder by pitchfork, and so much more. Just an all-you-can-eat buffet of blood, guts, and gore.
o Favorite Track: “Blood Blind”
o Brutality Ranking: 4/5
Hushed and Grim
Mastodon, 2021
Progressive Metal
Mastodon feels like an impossible band. They continuously make invigorating and innovative music that always manages to surprise me with genuine impact and occasionally a profound sense of poetry. That trend is present and in full force with their newest record. They lay bare the pain and suffering they’ve been singing and screaming about for their entire careers in a way that feels genuinely vulnerable. Their lyrics are stripped and raw, often painting dark and morose pictures of isolation and pain. It’s rare and noteworthy for a band to portray themselves and the topics they’re covering like this. It feels profoundly personal in a way only Mastodon could’ve done. Along with their trademark virtuosic playing and a surprisingly effective atmosphere, it’s hard for me not to fall in love with this record. It can be oddly peaceful and settling if you can get into its groove. Mastodon’s entire discography is essential metal listening, and this album is one of my absolute favorites of theirs.
o Favorite Track: “More Than I Could Chew”
o Brutality Ranking: 2/5
Kin
Whitechapel, 2021
Alternative Metal, Progressive Metal, Deathcore
Whitechapel have always been deathcore royalty, not only being my personal gateway into the subgenre, but also one of the biggest and most important bands in the entire extreme metal community. In 2019, they released The Valley, which was nothing short of a masterpiece; it not only brought the band back to the forefront in a major way, but also introduced shades of alternative and even more melodic and experimental forms of metal into their sound. It was a concept album of both intimate scale and massive force. Kin is a direct sequel to its narrative, and also a continuation of the innovation they brought. Phil Bozeman’s iconic scream is here and as powerful as ever, but his clean singing is also excellent here as well.
Whitechapel’s instrumental pallet has never been so diverse and never quite this riveting. Their lyrical content is the best they’ve ever achieved. Through it, we are forced to bear witness to Bozeman’s heartbreaking and harrowing tale of loss and desperation. It serves as an abstract and fictionalized version of a very real time in his life as he learned to deal with the horribly tragic loss of both of his parents. As he learns to deal with the part of himself that can’t let them go, we must suffer that pain with him, and by the time the climax is reached in the final few tracks we must go through the same revelation as him. It’s cinematic in its emotional immersion, and one of the most truly special records I’ve heard so far this decade in any genre.
o Favorite Track: All
o Brutality Ranking: 3/5
Pain Remains
Lorna Shore, 2022
Deathcore
For the past year, I’ve been able to get away with listening to music at work. I put on a variety of things, often to suit a vibe where I can have fun getting through my day. But if I really need something to kick me into 12th gear and set me off like a rocket ship of energy to get through a particularly hellish day, Lorna Shore’s utterly devastating Pain Remains is what I put on. Will Ramos introduces himself as a vocalist to this band (to borrow a term I hear in Hip-Hop frequently) like the rent is due. Every moment he is giving every ounce of his throat, diaphragm, and soul into these screams. A lot of metal friends I know even think this record can be too much; ear fatigue is not an unfamiliar phrase with this record, and I totally get that. If you can persevere, I’d say it is incredibly worth it. It truly is one of the most full and unrelenting avalanches of drums, guitars, screams, and a full-on orchestra. It takes you down a rabbit hole of creation, destruction, self-consciousness, and ego. It’s an epic that has gotten me through some of the wildest days of my professional career in the service industry. I can’t recommend it enough, even if it is the musical equivalent of having your head beaten into the cosmic abyss via divine sledgehammer.
o Favorite Track: “Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer”
o Brutality Ranking: 5/5
Petro Dragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, 2023
Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal
Over their 14 years of their existence (and out of the 26 studio albums they’ve released) only two have been metal albums, with this being the second. That is truly baffling, because with the confidence and energy they come approach this album with, you’d think that they only do this, and had only been refining it over time with their vast output. For a progressive thrash album about witches summoning a kaiju from the earth’s core, this is an excellent entry point into metal. The guitars are fast and are bound to give anyone an unstoppable urge to bounce around and go crazy no matter how experienced you are. The drums also go from excellent groove work to flurries of furious fills, even to eastern-inspired percussion interludes in some of the album’s weirder moments.
Stu Mackenzie’s extremely unique and instantly memorable vocal delivery is what makes the whole record erupt from the ground. He delivers some of the most catchy vocal passages and choruses of the decade (so far). I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a melodic growl quite like his before in my life. It’s such a blast to listen from front to back and flows from track to track perfectly. It never fails to envelop you in a climate-conscious apocalyptic hellscape that simultaneously feels angry at its thematic core yet so joyful in its execution. Any time we are lucky enough to get another metal record from KG&LW, we’re bound to be treated to one of the best records of the year.
o Favorite Track: “Supercell”
o Brutality Ranking: 2/5
The Silver Scream & Welcome to Horrorwood: The Silver Scream 2
ICE NINE KILLS, 2018-2021
Melodic Metalcore
I admit to cheating a little bit with this entry – not only is it two separate albums, but also the first came out in 2018. I feel the exception is worth it, given just how impactful and genuinely appropriate these albums are. The general gimmick with these albums is that each of the songs is based on a horror film or franchise, theming the lyrics and sound on the film itself. The albums are wildly theatrical and a treat to anyone who knows the films, but also are always kickass songs on their own to anyone. They are also a great introduction to the broader world of metal, given the variety of musical influences throughout both entries. From ska punk to deathcore, neue deutsche harte, and even 80’s pop, it really feels like there isn’t anywhere they couldn’t go. Some of these songs are so catchy, I think Spencer Charnas could rival any pop band or artist right now with his choruses. I find these stuck in my head enough that they might as well have been topping the charts this whole time. Through their dedication to both the metal world and the world of horror, they’ve become a beloved band in the modern landscape of both. They are effortlessly fun and consistently varied in a way that will leave you breathless.
o Favorite Tracks: “Merry Axe-Mas” and ”Welcome To Horrorwood”
o Brutality Ranking: 3/5
You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To
Knocked Loose, 2024
Metalcore
For an album this heavy and hard-hitting, you’d never expect it to have made the splash it did. It’s 27 minutes and 28 seconds of unrelenting beatdown hardcore in a way that feels rare in its lightning-in-a-bottle ferocity. Bryan Garris’ destructive and high-pitched screams pierce your soul immediately, only to be supported by some explosive cavalcades of guitars and drums. It’s not all bluster without nuance or finesse, though; it’s quite artfully composed with a seamless flow, lyrical powerhouses throughout, and great integrations of both Poppy and Chris Motionless features.
Religious trauma and existential anguish are big themes here. It’s not quite a concept album, but it’s hard not to feel like you understand a lot of the place Garris is coming from by the end of the record. The picture of his psyche becomes so vivid and delivered so uncompromisingly through the course of the record, it feels like you watched an epic film in just under a half hour. This is another album like Pain Remains that has gotten me through some seriously chaotic and hard days at work. It’s pure electricity, and while I get why some will bounce off of this, I still think anyone who thinks they may be able to enjoy it should give it a shot. If an apocalyptic explosion is a beautiful piece of art, this is exactly what it would sound like.
o Favorite Track: “Blinding Faith”
o Brutality Ranking: 5/5
Honorable Mentions:
- Eternal Blue – Spiritbox (2021)
- I Disagree – Poppy (2020)
- IMPERA – Ghost (2022)
- Invincible Shield – Judas Priest (2024)
- The Poetic Edda – Synestia & Disembodied Tyrant (2024)
- Post Human: Survival Horror – Bring Me the Horizon (2020)
- Tekkno – Electric Callboy (2022)
- Terrasite – Cattle Decapitation (2023)
- Underneath – Code Orange (2020)
- The Underworld Awaits Us All – Nile (2024)
Knock on Wood 
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