Heavy Metal 2020s Albums - Page 2

The second chapter of Forbidden Fruit, preserving the debut’s vivid impact while deepening the groove, darkness and dramatic interaction of the five-piece.

Stand United presents FIREWIND’s guitar-led power metal with an emphasis on melodic strength.

An EP that reignites HAGANE’s melody, speed and optimistic force around the theme of survival and forward motion.

Invincible Shield makes the heavy-metal language JUDAS PRIEST has forged over decades sound like a force that is still moving forward.

The eighth album, and the first to reach number one in Germany, with 12 in Austria and 11 in Switzerland. It is also the second-to-last record with Hannes Braun singing.

A groove-driven single that releases the playful, live-ready side of Lonesome_Blue’s three-member lineup through bold rhythmic hooks.

The first record the current five-piece wrote from nothing — five songs that swallow the raw drive of the debut EP.

Drama again shows how MARTY FRIEDMAN treats the guitar not simply as a vehicle for technique, but as a voice that tells stories.

Eleven songs from Schenker’s years in UFO, re-recorded with guest singers. Eleven tracks, about sixty minutes.

NEMOPHILA’s third album, concentrating scale, technique, melody and modern heaviness ahead of the band’s Budokan milestone.

A self-produced first mini album sold only at the venue and by mail order on the day of the band's first-anniversary headline show; all 500 copies went at once.

The band's VAA debut and first full album, conceived as a single score on which eleven genre-crossing songs are written out.

The tenth studio album and Powerwolf's fourth German No. 1 — choir and organ intact, every song routed to its chorus by the shortest path.

Afterlifelines is an ambitious double album that places RAGE’s raw trio attack beside a more expansive orchestral dimension.

Mean Streets finds the band carrying RIOT’s lineage with the heat and melody of American metal fully intact.

Saxon's twenty-fourth album, released on 19 January 2024, with Brian Tatler of Diamond Head on second guitar.

Ultrapower is a high-voltage record that amplifies the pleasures of heavy metal in a straight line.

A 2024 record the band describes as its acoustic project.

Released in 2024; it reached No. 2 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart.

A live album recorded at The Patriot Club in Wales in 2023 and released on 26 April 2024. The band describes the set as drawing on tracks from across the decades, and it places the 1980s material beside recent songs. "Gangland" and "Keeping Me Alive" previewed it.

Crimson & Jet Black is Anthem's seventeenth studio album, released on 21 April 2023. It is their first album of new material in about six years, sung entirely in English and released worldwide on the same day, and it reached No. 14 on the Japanese weekly chart.

Life Is But a Dream... pushes AVENGED SEVENFOLD far beyond a simple metal framework and into an intensely experimental, existential space.

The first of two 10th-anniversary compilations: fourteen songs, mostly single A-sides, running from "Thrill" through to "Different".

The second 10th-anniversary compilation: eleven songs drawn from album tracks and B-sides rather than the singles.

OUTBURST condenses new songs and re-recordings into a five-track mini album that captures BLINDMAN’s place during its twenty-fifth-anniversary era.

A live album from the band's London show — and the record whose release moved their Japanese home to IYT RECORDS.

Eleven years after its previous studio record, Heaven Comes Down returns to the shades of melody and guitar lyricism that define DOKKEN.

East Of Eden’s debut EP, placing violin and heavy rock on equal footing while introducing the five musicians’ technique, melody and international ambition.

Firestar reignites IRON SAVIOR’s blend of cosmic narrative and straight-ahead German power metal.

A tense digital single that turns the decision to end a damaging cycle into heavy rock momentum and emotionally direct vocals.

A melodic digital single that holds onto a shared sense of “blue” and future possibility while the band moves through change.

Judgement Day introduces LOVEBITES with Fami in the lineup and drives forward with speed, precise ensemble playing and big melodic payoff.

Congregation of Annihilation by METAL CHURCH: track list, Spotify player and English liner notes on METAL BOOST.

72 Seasons looks back at the formative first eighteen years of life while using Metallica’s familiar language of heavy riffs and long-form construction to probe inward.

Hellriot connects MYSTIC PROPHECY’s heavy rhythmic chug directly to fist-raising choruses.

A cover EP that rebuilds songs by Metallica, System of a Down, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit through NEMOPHILA’s own attack.

The third digital single, closing the band's first year; its video passed 110,000 plays within a fortnight of going up.

A three-song first digital single put out barely two months after the band began playing; the free headline show that month drew over a hundred people.

A three-song second digital single arriving six months after the band started; all three songs went on to later records.

A ninth album that gathers new songs and unreleased material as a bridge to the next chapter, with a covers disc by befriended bands on the deluxe editions.

Code Red lines up PRIMAL FEAR’s tank-like riffs with Ralf Scheepers’ soaring high voice and refuses to compromise either element.

The fifteenth studio album, recorded at drummer Mike Heller's own studio in Los Angeles and released by Silver Lining Music on 30 June 2023.

Saxon's second covers album, released on 24 March 2023, with songs by ten acts including the Animals, Alice Cooper, the Who and Cream.

The thirteenth studio album, released by Mighty Music on 5 May 2023 as PMZ390CD. Ten songs run from "Edge of the World" to "Making All The Rules", among them "A New Heartbeat", which had already given the previous year's EP its title.

Touchdown polishes the classic heavy-metal feel U.D.O. has defended for decades.

A 2022 EP that lives up to its title, unleashing the band’s technical rock energy through compact, immediate songs.

The third and last of the avex albums, carried into a SUMMER SONIC 2022 appearance; guitarist MOE joined after it.

Dir En Grey's eleventh album, released on 15 June 2022: eleven tracks running 53:45.

Ghost's fifth studio album, from March 2022, built on the rise and fall of empires.

HAGANE’s first full-length album, expanding the band’s twin-guitar sparkle, speed, heavy riffs and dramatic storytelling.

A seventh album four years on, rebuilt around new singer Victor Emeka — with three former members guesting on "Tribal Mark".

The seventh album and the first for Napalm Records, number 2 in Germany. The band gave the 6,000 euros the single "Good Life" earned to a children's cancer charity in Tübingen. Avalon issued the Japanese edition as MICP-11671.

Lonesome_Blue’s first pre-debut single, joining ominous tension, heavy rhythm and a large melody to announce the band’s arrival.

A pre-album single that turns the decision to confront fear into sharp riffs, forceful rhythm and a large melodic chorus.