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Crank up the volume and prepare to headbang! Join us as we count down our picks for the greatest metal songs released since 2010! From viral TikTok sensations to technical masterpieces, the world of modern metal has never sounded better. Whether you're a die-hard fan or a curious newcomer, this countdown has something for everyone. Which modern metal track do you think deserves the top spot?
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00:00Time is to claim it all!
00:05Head of the key!
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo!
00:10And today, we're counting down our picks for the top 20 best songs from the world of metal
00:15to come out since the year 2010.
00:17Deutschland! Deutschland! Überallen!
00:21Number 20. Vice Grip Parkway Drive
00:32Change is good, no matter what genre and artist is operating within.
00:36For Parkway Drive, Vice Grip might have initially alienated some established fans with its switch-up,
00:42but over time, it's hard to argue with the results.
00:53Metalcore brought the band to a certain point, but this song and the album it came from
00:58saw the band expand their sound.
01:00Fresh elements were brought in, and overall, the track has a far more melodic and anthemic quality
01:05than most of Parkway Drive's previous material.
01:14The album, Iron, was a Top 30 Billboard hit and a strong seller globally,
01:19proving that the band's decision was a successful one, at least commercially.
01:30Number 19. Phantom Bride
01:33Deftones and Jerry Cantrell
01:44It's a testament to the talent and consistency of Deftones that, nearly three decades into their career,
01:49they were still capable of putting out a track like Phantom Bride.
01:53Joined by Alice in Chains legend Jerry Cantrell for a riveting guitar solo,
01:57this track is awesome on so many levels.
02:09It doesn't chase trends, but it also doesn't attempt to reinvent the wheel.
02:13Chino Moreno delivers one of his most vulnerable vocal performances, floating over shimmering guitars
02:20and understated rhythms before the cathartic climax.
02:32This one is all about mood and texture, and these masters of their craft rarely put a foot wrong with
02:39Phantom Bride.
02:39Number 18. Holy Roller
02:42Spirit Box
02:43If you're looking for the best word to describe the impact of Courtney LaPlante's vocals on Spirit Box's Holy Roller,
02:56we'd recommend Ferocious.
02:57Released in 2020, the song steadily picked up momentum, eventually leading to the band getting signed by Rise Records.
03:12As far as breakthrough tracks go, this was one of the heaviest we'd heard in years.
03:17Spirit Box very clearly had technical chops, strong melodic focus, and a singer who could tie it all together.
03:24And when I die, you won't pray for me!
03:29It landed highly on the U.S. Hot Hard Rock charts, leading to a string of singles that managed to
03:35build on that early success.
03:37Falling! Falling!
03:42Number 17. The Coma Machine
03:45Between the Buried and Me
03:55The episodic nature of Between the Buried and Me's concept album, Coma Ecliptic, was always going to be a hit
04:01with fans.
04:02However, their move away from death metal into a more progressive area was a bold choice.
04:16The band had already earned a reputation for overwhelming technical complexity, but standout track The Coma Machine demonstrated a stronger
04:24focus on emotional flow and progressive storytelling.
04:35The reception was positive, while being a little divided.
04:39But as time has gone on, the band's choice to creatively pivot has been regarded as a strong one.
04:52Number 16. Square Hammer
04:55Ghost
05:03Some anthems take time to win the fans over, but in the case of Ghost's Square Hammer, the impact was
05:09a lot quicker.
05:10It rose to the top spot in the Billboard mainstream rock charts, and it made Ghost something of a household
05:15name pretty quickly.
05:24Sure, it brings all the hallmarks of a strong metal anthem to the table.
05:28However, a song like this was built for the live arena experience, taking cues from genres well outside the metal
05:35spectrum.
05:42It takes strong songwriting instincts to come up with an end product as full sounding as this one.
05:48And to say that Ghost knocked it out of the park would be an understatement.
06:00Number 15. In Waves
06:03Trivium
06:11Although there's a lot to be said for a band that moves their sound forward whenever they can, the reverse
06:16can also be true.
06:18Trivium had certainly run into some brick walls with past experiments, and so the song in waves and the album
06:24of the same name represented a return to basics.
06:33Trivium
06:34The song seemed like a conscious effort to really kick off the 2010s in a strong way, and the reception
06:40of the song and album reflected it.
06:42It hit the top spot on the Billboard hard rock charts and number 13 on the Billboard 200, while selling
06:47good numbers globally.
06:56Trivium
06:57Number 14. Blood Eagle
06:59Periphery
07:00A band like Periphery could've been forgiven for sticking to their guns with their sixth studio album.
07:13But the LP Periphery 4, Hail Stan, really doesn't sound like a group resting on their laurels.
07:26Blood Eagle was an easy standout, a raw, brutal, and unrelenting piece of masterful djent and progressive metal.
07:33The playing is flawless, and their ability to maintain groove and momentum while spinning through riffs was truly outstanding.
07:48At a time when some progressive metal acts were softening their sound, Blood Eagle reminded audiences that technical modern metal
07:55could still feel dangerous.
08:04Number 13. Lan Fan Savage
08:07Gojira
08:16After a string of critically acclaimed albums, the question on everyone's mind was exactly where Gojira would land next, as
08:23the 2000s came to a close.
08:25Even more acclaim would thankfully follow with the release of 2012's Lan Fan Savage and its lead single of the
08:33same title.
08:40It doesn't lose any of the intensity of previous work, but the song is very clearly tapping into an even
08:47greater depth of human emotion.
08:55The song and the album were smash hits, solidifying Gojira as legitimate giants of their era.
09:01Though subsequent releases haven't quite reached the heights of this run of albums, they remain a defining band of the
09:08genre.
09:15Number 12. Deutschland
09:17Rammstein
09:26After 25 years as a band, many Rammstein fans would have forgiven the group for entering a legacy act period.
09:33However, they very clearly still had something to say by the time 2019 rolled around.
09:46Deutschland became one of the most ambitious metal singles of the modern era when it was released in 2019.
09:51The song charted strongly across Europe and arrived with a cinematic video that immediately sparked international debate because of its
09:59provocative imagery involving German history.
10:09The song itself stands on its own two feet quite ably.
10:13But to really get the full picture, you got to experience it as the band intended alongside the music video.
10:26Number 11. Spit Out The Bone
10:29Metallica
10:37There might not be a band who has reached higher heights within the world of metal than Metallica.
10:42However, in the years that followed their creative and commercial peak in the 1980s and 1990s, it's pretty fair to
10:48say that they had some bumpy moments.
10:59That said, 2016's album Hardwired To Self-Destruct was seen by many as a return to their roots.
11:13Perhaps even more so than the overall album, the fifth and final single, Spit Out The Bone, was almost universally
11:20declared as one of their strongest efforts in years.
11:23Few bands can do classic thrash metal as well as James Hetfield and Company, and on this track they prove
11:29it once again.
11:48The expectations that came with leaving such a massive gap between releases was always going to impact our experience listening
11:55to Tool's comeback record, Fear Inoculum.
11:5813 years was quite a long wait for the band's fans, but when the album dropped, it was clear that
12:04one song stood out above all others.
12:14Tempest, in nearly 16 minutes in length, managed to combine nearly everything we had come to love about the band.
12:21The song proved that ambitious, cerebral metal could still command mainstream attention in the streaming era.
12:27And it was ambitious with a capital A.
12:31Tempest must be true to its nature.
12:389.
12:39Honeycomb – Deaf Heaven
12:49The melding of black metal and shoegaze is truly the signature of modern greats Deaf Heaven.
12:56After nailing their sound on 2013's Sunbather and again on 2015's New Bermuda, the band had established themselves as genre
13:05leaders.
13:14The first single off their next LP was Honeycomb, a song that struck a delicate balance between beauty and chaos.
13:20There's almost something cinematic about the track and the way it defies the expectations that come with the style of
13:27music it portrays.
13:28In many ways, it's the sound of a band truly reaching their maturity.
13:41Number 8.
13:43The Sound of Silence – Disturbed
13:48Hello darkness my old friend
13:53How does one approach a folk rock classic from the 1960s as a modern metal act?
13:59Well, they say a good song could stand up in several other genres.
14:02Paul Simon was possibly quite surprised though, to hear one of his signature songs, The Sound of Silence, reworked in
14:09such a dramatic fashion.
14:10The Sound of Silence – Disturbed didn't lose an ounce of the track's original essence though, but they instead took
14:22its core message and vibe to a different level.
14:31It has since gone on to become one of Disturbed's most famous tracks in a modern metal classic.
14:37A great example of just how transformative a cover version can really be.
14:41The Sound of Silence
14:50Number 7.
14:51Hail to the King – Avenged Sevenfold
15:02When it comes to modern metal songs that manage to really break through and make a dent in the mainstream,
15:07Hail to the King by Avenged Sevenfold is a real front-runner.
15:13Watch your tongue or have it cut from your head
15:16It doesn't dip too far into overly complex arrangements or rhythms, instead taking influence from classic rock and metal.
15:23This was a far more universally accessible sound than some of the band's earlier work, and boy, did it pay
15:31off.
15:31Hail to the King
15:35Hail to the World
15:38The album of the same title was a chart-topper globally, including in the US and UK.
15:44The title track has since gone on to be the band's biggest seller in terms of international sales.
15:57Number 6.
15:59Circle With Me – Spirit Box
16:08Like many of Spirit Box's standout tracks, the band itself should not be ignored, of course, but it is Courtney
16:14LaPlante who is at the center of it all.
16:16Circle With Me, their first ever gold single, was undoubtedly one of the strongest things they had ever dropped.
16:31Coming off the heels of the breakout hit Holy Roller, this track was acclaimed for taking their formula to the
16:37next level.
16:37This could all be yours.
16:45Musically, the song balances progressive metal precision with massive hooks and atmospheric textures.
16:51It has all the technical brilliance you'd expect, while never feeling in any way sterile.
17:03Number 5.
17:05Animals – Architects
17:15For the prolific British metalcore band Architects, eight albums in 12 years was the type of output that placed them
17:22firmly among the hardest working groups around.
17:25Tragically, their primary songwriter, Tom Searle, passed away in 2016.
17:34They did continue, thankfully, picking up steam with 2018's critically acclaimed Holy Hell.
17:40The follow-up album, for those that wish to exist, marked a pretty divisive change in sound, which was evident
17:46in the lead single, Animals.
17:48In a time when many metalcore groups remained stagnant, Architects evolved.
17:53As the years go by, this song and the album it came from have only grown in stature.
17:59Don't cry to me because the fiction that we're living in.
18:04Sometimes you pull the pin.
18:06Number 4.
18:07Mary on a Cross – Ghost
18:10We were speeding together down the dark avenues.
18:17In this day and age, immediate success is not guaranteed.
18:21It took Ghost's Mary on a Cross several years to reach its peak of commercial success.
18:25And the truth of the matter is, I never let you go, let you go.
18:33Bolstered by a TikTok trend that finally saw its shark in 2022.
18:37It's a song that provides depth, atmosphere and melodic hooks in equal measure.
18:42One of the defining examples of the band's signature sound in full swing.
18:54Perhaps the idea of a metal song becoming a hit through a social media platform might have seemed alien a
19:00few years ago.
19:01However, this track's success brought new listeners to the genre that may never have wandered over on their own.
19:15Number 3.
19:17The Summoning – Sleep Token
19:26Yet another example of the viral machine working its magic came about when Sleep Tokens' The Summoning managed to outstrip
19:34all expectations upon its release in 2023.
19:46Released from the album Take Me Back to Eden, it climbed to the top of the Spotify viral songs chart
19:51and received 1 million views on YouTube in just two weeks.
19:55Sleep Token succeeded in combining djent-style riffs, ambient passages, haunting vocals, funk grooves and massive breakdowns inside one song
20:03without ever really sounding forced.
20:14If it proved anything, it was that metal audiences were as hungry for experimentation as ever.
20:20Number 2.
20:21Just Pretend – Bad Omens
20:23I'm not afraid of the war you've come to wage against my sins
20:30Released in 2022 from the death of Peace of Mind, Just Pretend by Bad Omens was a slice of masterful
20:38alternative metal that just kept building commercial momentum.
20:40Oh, will you wake me out?
20:44Oh, will you drown me out?
20:47Following a healthy boost, thanks to TikTok, the song eventually hit number one on Billboard's mainstream rock airplay chart and
20:54also topped the alternative airplay chart as well.
20:56Right at the core of it all is Noah Sebastian's vocal, which critics agreed elevated the already strong material to
21:03a different level.
21:11While Sebastian does admit that he wrote it as a parody of what he called butt rock radio hits, the
21:16irony of him carving out his own radio hit in the process was not lost on him.
21:20Way down, would you say I'm worthy?
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21:53Number one.
21:54Can you feel my heart?
21:56Bring me the horizon.
22:03Picking a Bring Me the Horizon song that wasn't Shadow Moses or Throne was a tough ask.
22:09Trust us.
22:10However, there's just something undeniably special about 2013's Can You Feel My Heart.
22:22Sure, it marked a real stylistic shift for the band, but the eventual impact spoke for itself.
22:29Just because it marked an evolution in their sound, though, it didn't mean that they lost their intensity.
22:41It even had a late resurgence in popularity thanks to it going viral on social media, which took its already
22:48stellar commercial performance to new heights.
22:50To this day, it remains a signature song for the band and a staple of their live set.
23:01What do you consider to be the greatest metal song of the last 20 years?
23:06Let us know in the comments below.