2024 Metal & Hard Rock Albums

Blind Guardian's complete re-recording of their 1992 album Somewhere Far Beyond, released in August 2024 on the day they played Wacken Open Air.

DragonForce's ninth album, from March 2024: the first with Alicia Vigil as a full member on bass, and the last Marc Hudson sang on.

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

Alcest's seventh studio album, from June 2024, deliberately returning to the lighter sound of their early records.

Blood Incantation's fourth studio album, from October 2024, made of two suites in three parts each.

Bring Me the Horizon's seventh studio album, surprise-released in May 2024 as part two of the Post Human series.

Gatecreeper's third studio album, from May 2024 and the first with bassist Alex Brown.

High on Fire's ninth studio album, from April 2024, folding Turkish and Middle Eastern music into their sludge.

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

Opeth's fourteenth studio album, from November 2024, and the return of death growls for the first time since Watershed.

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

The fourth Metalite album, released by AFM Records on 19 January 2024. It is a concept record set on Earth in 2055, following five commanders and a renegade crew trying to carry humanity off a ruined planet, and it runs to sixteen songs including "Utopia", the band's first instrumental. Marquee Inc. put the Japanese edition on sale two days earlier, on 17 January.

The thirteenth Praying Mantis studio album, released on 19 April 2024 by Frontiers and, the same day in Japan, by Marquee Incorporated. It marks the band's fiftieth year; the Japanese edition adds an alternate version of the title track for twelve songs.

Their seventh studio album and the first in seven years, after Six. The Japanese pressing adds a bonus track for eleven in all.

Their fourteenth studio album, released in the fortieth year since the band formed. The Japanese pressing adds an acoustic version for twelve tracks.

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

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

A Japan-only, limited-pressing CD: the title track plus three songs from their Tokyo shows of May 2024. Four tracks, about seventeen minutes.

A Japan-only compilation closing the band’s fortieth year. The standard edition holds the sixteen songs a Japanese fan vote chose, about an hour and twenty-one minutes.

The advance song from Forever, issued as a CD single in Japan alone. The disc carries the radio edit.

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

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 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.

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

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 fifth album, and their second consecutive number one on the official Finnish album chart. Japan got it on the same day as the rest of the world, with two live recordings from Helsinki added.

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

A 2024 record the band describes as its acoustic project.

Recorded in Gothenburg with producer Fredrik Nordström; its opener "Still Burning" placed 42nd in Metal Hammer's readers' poll for the best song of 2024.

The last EP recorded with founding vocalist Kotono — five songs led by the title track, whose video came out three months ahead of the release and carried the band to its first European shows.

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.

TMG's second album, twenty years after the first: Tak Matsumoto, Eric Martin and Jack Blades with Matt Sorum on drums, and guest turns from BABYMETAL and LiSA.

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

TRiDENT’s second full album, reorganizing key songs from 2022 onward with new material to present twelve tracks of attack, melody and live-driven momentum.

A five-track EP that expands TRiDENT’s range through spicy riffs, nocturnal atmosphere and more intimate melodic writing.

The band’s first major-label EP, packing Tokyo identity, otaku culture, transformation-heroine imagery and modern romance into fierce breakdowns and vivid pop hooks.

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

A 2024 full-length that channels BAND-MAID’s global experience into technical hard rock, strong songs and cinematic scale.

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

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

Humanoid looks at contemporary anxieties, but its core is unmistakably ACCEPT: steel-hard riffs, straight-ahead beats, and heavy metal built for immediate impact.

The Catalyst sharpens AMARANTHE’s defining contrast of three distinct vocal colors.

This follow-up revisits the spirit of Apocalyptica’s debut, Plays Metallica by Four Cellos, through the sound and experience of the band today.

Coming Home presents AXXIS’s long-developed melodic hard-rock brightness with the relaxed confidence of a seasoned band.

Arriving in BON JOVI’s fortieth-anniversary year, Forever brings the band’s open-hearted spirit and life-affirming outlook to the front.

Two Shots at Glory is an anniversary-minded release that looks back over CRAZY LIXX’s path while showing that the band still has forward momentum.

Endtime Signals deepens the melodic-death-metal aesthetic DARK TRANQUILLITY has shaped for decades.

=1 finds DEEP PURPLE welcoming a fresh guitar color while reaffirming the essentials that have long defined the band: spontaneity, sharp riffing, and unshakable groove.

PowerNerd keeps DEVIN TOWNSEND’s layered imagination intact while shifting the center of gravity toward shorter, more direct song power.

Megalomanium II pushes ECLIPSE’s talent for immediately memorable choruses and hard-edged guitar riffs to the front with very little hesitation.

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

Silver Romance is a bright, affirmative power-metal record worthy of FREEDOM CALL’s twenty-fifth anniversary.

War Hearts channels FROZEN CROWN’s new-lineup momentum into direct, aggressive power metal.

The Stars Will Light the Way ties GALNERYUS’s virtuosity and melodic instinct together with unusual density.

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

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.

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

Teenage Rebel lets NESTOR’s love of ’80s melodic rock shine through a modern, full-bodied sound.

Yesterwynde is NIGHTWISH’s tenth album, a vast symphonic-metal work shaped around time, memory, and the question of how human beings receive the world.

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.

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

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

Challenge the Wind brings RHAPSODY OF FIRE’s grand orchestration, racing rhythm, and heroic-story melody to the front without hesitation.

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.

Clear Cold Beyond sees SONATA ARCTICA steering firmly back toward the rush of Nordic melodic power metal.

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

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.