Heavy Metal 2020s Albums - Page 3

Lonesome_Blue’s debut EP joins voice-actor expression and professional rock musicianship through metal, progressive detail and pop melody.

A pre-debut single featuring Ayasa, expanding Lonesome_Blue’s sound through psychedelic color, violin and progressive movement.

Lonesome_Blue’s first full-length album joins loud rock, metal and progressive detail to strong, immediate melodies.

Building on the renewed strength of Dystopia, this album is charged with the urgency that defines Megadeth at their best.

True to its title, Universal presents Michael Schenker’s guitar vocabulary as a language of melody shared by an international cast of singers.

A second album capturing NEMOPHILA’s international momentum through heavy riffs, wide melodies and an unrestricted mixture.

With guest turns from Jeff Beck, Tony Iommi, Zakk Wylde and more, this album surrounds Ozzy Osbourne’s unmistakable voice with a wide range of guitar colors.

Digital Noise Alliance brings together sharp guitars, accessible progressive turns and a sense of social tension in the current Queensrÿche lineup.

Saxon's twenty-third album, released on 4 February 2022. At seventeen it is their highest UK placing since Power & the Glory in 1983.

As its title suggests, Rock Believer returns Scorpions directly to the sharp riffs, cutting guitar leads and crowd-ready choruses at the heart of their sound.

The band's first album for Atomic Fire Records, made by the four-piece of Mat Sinner, Tom Naumann, Alex Scholpp and Markus Kullmann, and mixed by Jacob Hansen.

A studio album released in 2022.

A four-track EP issued on 22 April 2022: the title song and "Red Mist" alongside 2022 re-recordings of "Fireclown" and "Killers", both of which come from the 1980 debut Wild Cat.

Too Mean to Die reaffirms the muscular, traditional heavy-metal language ACCEPT have defended for decades, now delivered with contemporary weight.

A three-song single — the title track with "火花" and "Corallium" — all three of which carried over to the following year’s EP Unleash.

An album that sharpens both aggression and melody, presenting BAND-MAID’s musicianship on a world-class hard-rock scale.

Black Label Society’s eleventh album is packed with Zakk Wylde’s thick, sustaining riffs, blues-rooted phrasing and low-slung groove.

The second avex album — twelve songs, followed three weeks later by a European edition on Setsuzoku Records.

The seventh Bullet for My Valentine album, released worldwide by Spinefarm on 5 November 2021 and presented by the band as their heaviest. The Japanese edition adds "Stitches" for eleven tracks, and its limited pressing carries a second disc of five songs recorded at Summer Sonic 2018.

Returning to the studio after a long gap, Exodus deliver an extended blast of uncompromising thrash metal.

Gus G.'s fourth solo album and the first made entirely of guitar instrumentals. King Records released the Japanese edition on 6 October 2021, two days before the rest of the world. Both editions are two CDs, the second holding seven songs recorded live in Budapest in 2018.

Senjutsu pushes Iron Maiden’s large-scale instincts further, layering riffs, melody, key changes and quiet space across extended songs.

Sunburst, released on 29 December 2021, marks the band's fortieth anniversary. It is their first double album and the first record issued on their own label, Katana Music; earMUSIC released it worldwide in 2022.

A four-song mini-album finished under the pandemic, and the most openly positive record the band has made.

A fan-voted best-of spanning 2017 to 2021, closing on "Nameless Warrior" — the last song the original line-up recorded.

Made with a varied group of guest vocalists, Immortal feels like a celebration of Michael Schenker’s long career.

An international early compilation collecting NEMOPHILA’s three independent singles plus an English version of “DISSENSION.”

NEMOPHILA’s debut album, rebuilding its early independent songs into a worldwide statement of the band’s “hellishly heavy, otherwise fluffy” sound.

An eighth album that digs into werewolf legend country by country, with Jens Bogren and Joost van den Broek widening the band's sound another step.

Resurrection Day puts Rage’s twin-guitar lineup at the front, intensifying the mix of heavy riffs, speed and melodic guitar interplay.

Saxon's first covers album, released on 19 March 2021. It went to number one on the UK Rock & Metal chart.

Across a large sixteen-song running order, U.D.O. deliver traditional German heavy metal straight on.

Parabellum expands Yngwie Malmsteen’s neoclassical-metal language into an even denser guitar orchestra.

Evoke 2010-2020 is the ALDIOUS decade-anniversary project, recasting the band's earlier songs with its current lineup, twin guitars and clear vocals.

Evoke II 2010-2020, the companion to Evoke 2010-2020, marks ten years of ALDIOUS by recasting its songs and familiar material in today's sound.

Explosive!! -studio jam- is credited to Anthem featuring Graham Bonnet and was released in 2020. It grew out of a friendship of more than twenty years: eight songs recorded in Tokyo, drawn in roughly equal measure from Anthem's own catalogue and from Bonnet's.

Three tracks — the title song, "Don't be long" and an 89-second version — and the band's last single for Nippon Crown.

Released for the band’s twenty-fifth anniversary, Expansion reinforces BLINDMAN’s identity as a melodic and emotional hard-rock band with a stronger sense of ensemble.

Fates Warning’s thirteenth album uses progressive-metal complexity not as a display case, but as a way to trace time and shifting emotion.

On its self-titled ninth album, Firewind organize the elements that make the band immediately recognizable.

HAGANE’s debut EP, condensing clear melody, speed and technical guitar work into a concise first statement.

Skycrest drives Iron Savior’s long-running space-age imagery and straightforward power metal with renewed heat.

Electric Pentagram shows Lovebites’ unity as a five-piece through both speed and drama.

The first single cut from Electric Pentagram, with two previously unreleased songs and an orchestral version alongside the title track.

Tokyo Jukebox 3, the third installment of MARTY FRIEDMAN's cover series, adds newer songs to his guitar takes on Japanese pop and anime.

Metal Division does exactly what its title promises: it puts fundamental heavy-metal elements directly in front of the listener.

Outrage's thirteenth album, out on 15 April 2020. Jay Ruston mixed it, and it closes with two tributes to the NWOBHM.

Ordinary Man, Ozzy Osbourne’s first studio album in nearly a decade, places his enduring defiance beside direct thoughts about age and mortality.

Metal Commando lives up to its title by committing fully to traditional heavy metal’s forward drive.

Wings of Rage connects the forward drive of German metal with Rage’s particular sense of melancholy.

The fourteenth album, and the first studio record with Mike Heller. Gallagher pitched it as the album Raven would have made straight after 1982's Wiped Out.

A studio album released in 2020.

Testament’s thirteenth album retains thrash metal’s cutting edge while adding the weight and ease of a long career.

We Are One is an unusual collaboration between U.D.O. and the German Armed Forces Concert Band, directly combining heavy-metal riffs with full wind-band arrangements.