United States Metal & Hard Rock Albums of the 2020s - Page 2

Knocked Loose's third studio album, from May 2024, with Poppy and Chris Motionless as guests.

From Zero is LINKIN PARK’s first full album in its new lineup, and it restates the band’s core urgency with a contemporary outline.

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

Ministry's sixteenth album, out on 1 March 2024. It closes on a reading of Fad Gadget's Ricky's Hand.

Their first release after moving to Big Machine: two new songs and a Beastie Boys cover, three tracks running about twelve minutes.

Ten reconnects MR. BIG’s high-level musicianship with the strength of melodies anyone can carry away.

Kingdoms of Magical Rock is a twenty-two-track covers set on which PEYTON PARRISH turns songs from film and animation into weighty rock.

Soul centers PEYTON PARRISH’s husky, forceful voice and connects rock’s direct emotional charge with hooks that stay in the ear.

Against the Winds delivers REVOLUTION SAINTS’ classic melodic-hard-rock approach with direct heat.

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

Orgy of the Damned is a covers record in which SLASH goes deeply into the classic blues that forms part of his musical foundation.

A 2024 record the band describes as its acoustic project.

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

Restless Fight brings SUNSTORM’s polished AOR sensibility together with the strength of melodic hard rock.

Servitude is THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER’s tenth album and the beginning of a new chapter after profound loss.

The Beautiful Dark of Life collects ATREYU’s three 2023 EPs and adds new songs to complete a larger statement.

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

Vol. 10 delivers BUCKCHERRY’s straight-ahead rock-and-roll instincts with no unnecessary detours.

Cattle Decapitation's eighth studio album, from May 2023, recorded in the weeks after a founding member's death.

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

After a fifteen-year studio gap, Six makes it clear that EXTREME has always been far more than a one-hit story.

Lighting Up the Sky gathers GODSMACK’s muscular riffs, dry groove and large melodies into a well-balanced record.

Greta Van Fleet's third album, released on 21 July 2023: ten songs made with producer Dave Cobb at RCA Studios in Nashville, where the band used the big recording room to catch the energy of their concerts. It reached No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 66th Grammy Awards. The Japanese edition is UICU-1357.

A Japan-only CD single for "Perhaps", the song Guns N' Roses released without warning in August 2023, pressed as an SHM-CD. The other new song, "The General", is the coupling. It comes in a paper sleeve with a written commentary and translated lyrics.

The Awakening is KAMELOT’s first studio record in five years and brings its symphonic shadows, progressive construction and dramatic melodies into especially clear focus.

The fourteenth L.A. Guns studio album, released by Frontiers Music on 14 April 2023. Marquee Incorporated issued the Japanese edition the same day as MICP-11777 with one bonus track. Eleven songs.

Mammoth II is the second MAMMOTH WVH record built around Wolfgang Van Halen’s all-instrument performance and songwriting.

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.

Overkill's twentieth album, released in April 2023 after the longest gap of their career, and recorded by each member on his own during the pandemic.

The Dio Album is Paul Gilbert’s instrumental tribute to Ronnie James Dio’s catalog across Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio.

Skalds of Metal connects Norse-mythic and warrior imagery to Peyton Parrish’s modern rock and metal drive.

The Most Magical Album on Earth rebuilds songs from Disney films through Peyton Parrish’s rock and metal sensibility.

Pride of Lions' seventh studio album, released on 16 June 2023. Its ten songs make it the band's shortest record, and the Japanese edition appeared the same day as MICP-11795 through Marquee Avalon.

Queens of the Stone Age's eighth album, out on 16 June 2023: self-produced, and the record that closes the trilogy they made for Matador.

Eagle Flight shows the new REVOLUTION SAINTS lineup carrying forward the project’s essential melodic-hard-rock lift.

On the Prowl treats every glamour-metal cliché as both a punchline and a declaration of love.

An album recorded in 1991 and shelved for over thirty years after its singer died. Out 27 January 2023.

Seven reunites WINGER’s precision as players with its instinct for enormous melodies.

Cave In's seventh studio album, from May 2022 and the first with bassist Nate Newton.

Chat Pile's debut album, from July 2022: nine songs built on real events in Oklahoma City.

As its title suggests, Divisive addresses distrust and division while returning to Disturbed’s direct heaviness and large-scale melody.

AfterLife draws on Five Finger Death Punch’s direct strengths: hard riffs, marching rhythms and Ivan Moody’s raw vocal presence.

After a long gap, Giant return around David Huff and Mike Brignardello, with Kent Hilli’s voice helping restate the appeal of their melodic hard rock.

Second Skin centers on Nathan James’s commanding voice and polishes classic hard-rock craft in a contemporary way.

Complicated centers on Jeff Scott Soto’s wide expressive range, linking hard-rock power with AOR smoothness.

The eighteenth album, out on earMUSIC on 8 April 2022 - his first away from Epic and Sony since 1995.

Freedom by JOURNEY: track list, album artwork and English liner notes on METAL BOOST.

Requiem concentrates Korn’s uneasy grooves, down-tuned weight and Jonathan Davis’s wounded-sounding voice into a brief, dense runtime.

Omens puts Lamb of God’s interlocking riffs, groove and Randy Blythe’s raw roar directly in the listener’s path.

Neptune Blue, Lana Lane’s long-awaited return, connects progressive structure with melodic accessibility around her expressive, soaring voice.

From Womb to Tomb uses the passage from birth to death as a frame for Lillian Axe’s naturally dramatic songwriting.

Lorna Shore's fourth studio album, from October 2022, closing on a title track in three parts.