And that’s a wrap! All year we’ve been bringing you regular round-ups of the best metal songs around, asking you to vote for your favourite, with the top three being added to our massive Best Metal Songs playlist and put in the running for our big end of year vote.
And now, the results are in! We’ve had over 36,000 votes to decide on a final running, with over 150 songs in the running, but below you’ll find the songs that have floated our readers’ boats most in 2025. So stick em on, find some new favourites – and we’ll be back for more in 2026!
The best metal songs of 2025 – #50 – 41
50. Rob Zombie – Punks And Demons
The Hellbilly is back, baby! With the first single from his upcoming release The Great Satan, Rob Zombie brought back OG band members Mike Riggs (guitars) and Rob “Blasko” Nicholson (bass) and resurrected the industrial metal of his early solo days. It all set a promising precedent for the horror freak’s first album in five years, which will drop in February.
49. Alien Weaponry – Mau Moko
A single from the Aotearoa trio’s latest album Te Rā, Mau Moko took a stand against cultural appropriation, lambasting how Polynesian tattoos had become ‘trendy’. ‘You don’t understand the story of our markings!’ singer/guitarist Lewis De Jong howled over hellfire riffs and shots of groove from his drummer brother, Henry. Another mighty statement from a band who’ve earned their keep by standing up for Indigenous rights.
48. Kreator – Seven Serpents
Look… it’s Kreator. Do we really need to go over this? Seven Serpents, the lead single from the upcoming Krushers Of The World, was another shot of potent thrash from a band setting the standard for how veterans of the genre should sound in their golden years. While the music charged forward in 80s-esque fury, frontman Mille Petrozza snarled with a strength that belied the fact he’s 58 years old.
47. Sable Hills – Namu
When Tokyo folk-metalcore collective Sable Hills unchained Namu in October, it sounded like an army of samurai were out to kill you, specifically. From a twanging string intro, the band quickly descended into an all-out metallic rage, endowed with roars in Japanese. It was the second seemingly standalone single to come from the band recently, following Godforsaken in August, so there’s a good chance that they’re sitting on more to come in 2026.
46. Voyager – Seen Better Days
A poignant single from Australia’s prog metal darlings, who were returning to the musical arena after singer Danny Estrin had been diagnosed with cancer. Still battling the disease, the frontman unloaded ‘Hold me now, see me through the haze’ over glossy keyboards and slow drums. If you emerged from this without getting misty-eyed, go and get your heartstrings looked at, you absolute monster.
45. Grima – Beyond The Dark Horizon
Grima hail from the frosty expanses of south-central Russia, and boy do they sound like it! Beyond The Dark Horizon, which preceded the release of their latest album Nightside by two days, was an unrelenting black metal chiller, featuring haunting vocals from frontman Vilhelm and atmospheric, looping guitars. This lot may wear masks, but if you go in expecting a bit of Sleep Token or Ghost gimmickry, you may be traumatised.
44. Hanabie. – Tasty Survivor
‘Frenetic’ is an understatement when it comes to Hanabie, who dart between nu metal, electronic rock and metalcore with the speed of someone being hunted by a serial killer. Despite just how anarchic they are, they’ve become unlikely mainstream prospects, having signed to Sony Music Japan and, this year, scored the opening of anime series Momentary Lily with Tasty Survivor. It’s a show about a post-apocalyptic survivor who becomes a robot-killing chef, yet the song is still wilder.
43. Rise Of The North Star – Neo Paris
Hip-hop/nu metal bunch Rise Of The Northstar brought the dystopian landscape of Akira’s Neo Tokyo to their native country with this song. Musically, it was another high-octane punch, with frontman Vithia rapping and shouting atop down-tuned riffs and scratching turntables. More fury followed on November album Chapter 04: Red Falcon Super Battle! Neo Paris War!!, which fittingly had a title just like an anime episode.
42. Deviloof – Inshu
Bands from Babymetal to Hanabie have brought the fun side of Japanese culture to heavy metal, but Deviloof sound like a nightmarish J-horror film brought to life. Inshu was a truly haunting experience, separating blasts with deathcore with ominous, breathy vocals and unsettling folk instruments. Enter if you dare, because this five-piece are somehow even freaker than they look.
41. Helloween – This Is Tokyo
Power metal kings Helloween reclaimed their crown this year, releasing the second album of their ‘Pumpkins United’ era, Giants & Monsters. This Is Tokyo accompanied the announcement that the Germans were back, and they sounded as bombastic as ever with these four minutes of vintage metal and gang vocals. With singers Andi Deris, Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske in perfect sync, the band felt back in the spotless form they first touched 40 years ago.
The best metal songs of 2025 – #40 – 31
40. Trivium – Bury Me With My Screams
Serving as the first music to be tracked at The Hangar, their Orlando-based rehearsal/recording megaplex, it made sense why Trivium sounded so at home on Bury Me With My Screams. A track that harks back to the most thrillingly sharp aspects of classic album Ascendancy without losing any of the fresh and fierce expansion that this decade’s output has been defined by, the band shared a crushing and razor-sharp fork in the road, one that signalled that the best is very much still to come.
39. Tailgunner – Midnight Blitz
Tailgunner have already set themselves up for a huge 2026. All it took was releasing the title track from their forthcoming album and demonstrating they are firing on all cylinders in some style. Triumphant guitar battles, driving drums and the sort of chorus that sticks to you like tar, Midnight Blitz was a wondrous blend of the past and the present, with the intent of keeping the heavy metal flag waving well into the future locked in place.
38. Cradle Of Filth – To Live Deliciously
Debauched atmospheres? Check. Devilish intent? Check. Reference to Robert Eggers’ folklore horror classic? Check. It could only be Cradle Of Filth, who, with To Live Deliciously, sounded more frantic and fantastical than they have in quite some time. With plenty of lashings of black metal mayhem and Dani Filth’s banshee howl sounding especially guttural, the opening gambit of their 14th full-length, The Screaming Of The Valkyries, reiterated that they aren’t letting the crown out of their cold, dead hands just yet.
37. Wednesday 13 – When The Devil Commands
A little Beelzebub worship never hurt anyone, did it? Well, Wednesday 13 used three minutes of his 10th full-length, Mid Death Crisis, to confirm his stance on the subject with a grin firmly plastered across his chops. With plenty of industrial stomp to get the hips moving and a hook that’s going to leave a mark, it served as a sign that there is still room at the party for this legend to ply their trade. So go on, shake your crucifix till you’re fucking sick.
36. Arch Enemy – Paper Tiger
The fact that the history books will now see Blood Dynasty as the last Arch Enemy record with Alissa White-Gluz on growls and croons, makes the likes of Paper Tiger all the more compelling. A rallying tune that encompassed as many thrash-driven thrills as old-school heavy-metal valiance, it served as a fitting sign of what her time in the band has allowed to develop and of the distance they had travelled. As the two parties now go their separate ways, the result is a sound that pushed and pulled at expectations, whilst remaining great fun.
35. Whitechapel – Hymns of Dissonance
A viral sensation, a return to the roots and a reminder that Phil Bozeman’s vocal cords should be displayed in a museum, Hymns Of Dissonance delivered a lot of lovely things for Whitechapel this year. A scathing takedown of organised religion on one side, a masterclass in harrowing and hedonistic deathcore on the other, the band produced five of the most intense, intoxicating and impressive minutes of heaviness in their esteemed career. By the time the final guttural breakdown hits the temple, you’re completely under its spell.
34. Megadeth – I Don’t Care
Even in saying goodbye, Dave Mustaine chose to do it with his middle finger. In preparing to unleash their final album and set sail on their farewell tour, Megadeth pivoted toward their punkier side with I Don’t Care. Embodying the snottiness of The Anti-Nowhere League’s So What and storytelling prowess of Suicidal Tendencies’ Institutionalized whilst still keeping with their thrashing origins, it reiterated that there are still plenty of surprises to discover before this legendary journey comes to an end.
33. Halestorm – Everest
To have reached this point in their adventure, the biggest they have ever been, Halestorm took their chance to regale us with how much of a challenge the climb up until now has been. That came across beautifully in the emotionally resonant Everest, Lzzy Hale pushing her voice to its most beautiful and brutal points over towering riffs, every single ounce of feeling felt in abundance. It’s the sort of introspective balladry that will inspire thousands to keep on going for years to come, and that’s a hell of a legacy to hold.
32. Slaughter To Prevail – Viking
All history lessons should be delivered via the medium of heavy music, especially if it’s as crushing, cathartic and iron-clad as what Slaughter To Prevail produced with Viking. Taking us into the heart of the warrior in the most primal of ways, Alex Terrible’s vocal talents perfectly embody the feeling of blood staining the blade; it’s a track rooted in carnage. Though digging a little deeper and questioning why we fight when we are the same flesh and blood, as the lyrics unfurl, made it just as pertinent to the world today as it was to the one where longboats and longer beards ruled the roost.
31. Warkings – Armageddon
With Armageddon, Warkings set out to tell the tale of some of the most vital pursuits of vanquishment across the centuries, letting the bloodiness of the past drive the direction their power metal prowess took. When it came to the title track, they followed the happenings of the Viking invasion of Lindisfarne, and the result embodies as much triumph as it does tyranny. Bringing such history to life in such infectious colours, it’s all in a day’s work, really.
The best metal songs of 2025 – #30 – 21
30. Limp Bizkit – Making Love To Morgan Wallen
As anyone who’s seen Limp Bizkit in recent years can attest: they’re back, baby. Making Love To Morgan Wallen marks the first single since the band wrapped up their 2021 comeback Still Sucks, upholding the nostalgia tones with an acknowledgement of the bittersweetness of time passed with a shout-out to Chester Bennington up top in the track. From there it’s classic Bizkit – Fred’s fast flows, chunky riffs, and a big ol’ “Hey Ladies! Hey Fellas! Oh-ohh-oh-oh” that’ll have you thinking it’s 2000 all over again. Here’s hoping it’ll make their Download Festival headline set next year.
29. Within Temptation – Sing Like A Siren (ft. Jerry Heil)
No strangers to collaborations, Within Temptation teamed up with Ukrainian singer Jerry Heil for the gorgeously stirring ballad Sing Like A Siren. While the Dutch band have moved away from symphonic metal on more recent albums, the pianos and soaring, operatic vocals definitely call back to their past in a stunning and affirming way that underscores just how important this band remain to the shape of metal – both symphonic and not – in 2025.
28. Bloodywood – Tadka
Blodywood’s alchemic concoction of nu metal, bhangra and folk has always waved the flag for Indian culture, but they seriously stepped things up on Tadka. Taken from this year’s brilliant Nu Delhi, Tadka is a celebration of Indian cuisine, the New Delhi band offered up a track suitably loaded with colour and spice, all thumping grooves and bark-along choruses.
27. Frayle – Walking Wounded
“The night is dark and full of pain.” Well, how else did you expect a goth-tinged doom metal opus to start? Cleveland doomsters Frayle tapped into an otherworldly sense of beauty and destruction with Walking Wounded, a fitting atmosphere for a track which also tapped into feminine rage as the band railed against oppression of women best summed in the line “You have wandered in a land/Meant for stagnant men.”
26. Battle Beast – Last Goodbye
Considering vocalist Noora Louhimo has since departed the group, you could see Last Goodbye as putting the writing on the wall. This isn’t some bittersweet farewell, however: rather it’s a defiant, “I’ll be back” that pulls hard on the energy of classic heavy metal tunes, a Priest-style thumper that sees Battle Beast rally for a unifying, glorious metal anthem.
25. Ward XVI – Blood Is The New Black
Taking horrocore and amping up the theatricality, Ward XVI’s Blood Is The New Black heralded the arrival of the band’s new album Id3ntity. Chucking up old school Priest style guitars (them again!), chugging riffs and even ska guitars, it’s a wild track befitting a wild and colourful band. The lunatics have well and truly taken over the asylum.
24. Deftones – My Mind Is A Mountain
With an entire school of modern alt metal dedicated to them and more than a hand in the birth of baddiecore, there were hefty expectations on what Deftones might do this time round. Lead single My Mind Is A Mountain offered a simple answer: what they do best, but possibly better than its been in decades. With riffs crashing like tidal waves and floating, ethereal vocals, Mountain… felt like a distillation of Deftones most accessible, straight-to-the-point sensibilities, getting people plenty excited for new album Private Music.
![deftones - my mind is a mountain [official music video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/eVqZrI9JE6Q/maxresdefault.jpg)
23. Messa – The Dress
Like a giallo set to music, Messa’s The Dress captures both the gorgeous elegance and brutal heft of the Italian murder-mysteries that proved a cult sensation in the 70s. Apt, then, that The Dress would go some way to turning Messa into a cult sensation themselves; undulating rhythms give way to noir-ish jazz around the five minute mark, opening up a whole new sonic realm for doom in the process. God, it was wonderful.
22. Esprit D’Air – Chronos
Esprit D’Air don’t really care for constraints. The Japanese group released an impressively diverse selection of singles in 2025 – Zetsubou No Hikari, Silver Leaves, Lost Horizon – but its the bombastic Chronos that took our pick for the single which best summed them up this year. Grandiose, it folded elements of symphonic and power metal into a propulsive, epic track that felt like it could be lifted straight from a movie – or anime – soundtrack.
21. Avatar – Tonight We Must Be Warriors
Forget the billion dollar blockbuster about blue elf-cats, the only true Avatar are these colourful, harlequin-faced Swedes. Tonight We Must Be Warriors is typical fare for the band, which is to say: it doesn’t much sound like anything else they’ve done, kicking off with a flute and military-march style beat that turns into a glorious, chest-beating heavy metal anthem. This one has “sing-along” written all over it, and the fantastical music video certainly upholds its sense of bizarre ambition.
The best metal songs of 2025 – #20 – 11
20. Orbit Culture – Hydra
A pulsing, imposing industrial metal rager, Hydra sounded like Strapping Young Lad brawling with Gojira in the dark belly of a future dystopian city. A high point of an album absolutely full of them, it was another clear sign that Orbit Culture aren’t just the most exciting Swedish metal export in some time, but one of the most exciting rising metal bands in the game.
19. Volbeat – By A Monster’s Hand
Expecting Volbeat to throw out a jaw-dropping left-turn at this stage of their career is a fool’s game, but that’s alright. Much like Wolverine, they’re the best at what they do. Unlike Wolverine, what they do is actually very nice indeed: By A Monster’s Hand was a vintage Volbeat slice of driving, 90s Metallica-influenced riffage and enough groove to get a blue whale twerking.
18. Sabaton – Hordes Of Khan
Sabaton’s extraordinary success might be the most legitimately surprising thing about the state of metal in 2025, but they’ve earned every bit of it – not least thanks to irresistible, propulsive power metal bangers like this bad boy. Covering the grizzly conquests of Genghis Khan via galloping drums and histrionic melodies, this was yet more evidence that no one does this shit quite as well as our favourite Swedish battle bros.
17. Judas Priest – War Pigs
When Priest decided to pay their own personal tribute to Black Sabbath after realising they wouldn’t be able to make their fellow Brummie legends’ final show, they did so in style with a faithful but still quintessentially Priest-y cover of one of the Sabbs’ most iconic hits. Some things are just meant to be, and this was one of them.
16. Paradise Lost – Serpents On The Cross
West Yorkshire’s favourite mardy-bums returned with another fine showing this year, Ascension offering a delectably moody trip through death, doom and gothic metal. Rumbling, up-tempo(ish) opener Serpents On The Cross introduced us to Paradise Lost’s next chapter in particularly sumptuous style.
15. Beyond The Black – The Art Of Being Alone
It was the German cheese-metal team-up of the year as Mannheim symphonic metallers Beyond The Black teamed up with Hamburg dark rockers Lord Of The Lord for this delightfully melodramatic anthem. Every bit as epic as you’d expect for a pairing of this magnitude, it was a song truly more than the sum of its impressive parts.
14. Spiritbox – No Loss, No Love
One of the best songs from one of the best metal albums of 2025. No Loss, No Love veered from savagely heavy, pick-scraped groove metal to flashes of throbbing edm, Courtney LaPlante dropping eerie bars over the top like some kind of haunted robot. A band operating at the absolute peak of their powers.
13. Hokka – In The Darkness
AKA ‘What The Lad From Blind Channel Did Next’, In The Darkness was a bouncy burst of synth-driven euro-rock that showed Joel Hokka still had plenty left in the tank when it came to crafting instantaneous, ear-wormy hits. As a first taste of what was to come, this was a pretty swell start.
12. Lacuna Coil – I Wish You Were Dead
Picking a best track from an album where almost every song sounded like it could have been a lead single is no small task, but according to you lot, this was the best cut from Lacuna Coil’s brilliant Sleepless Empire. One of those where the chorus is stuck in your head from the very first play.
11. Ice Nine Kills – The Laugh Track
By Ice Nine Kills’ standards, a song about Tim Burton’s classic Batman movie isn’t too gruesome, but backed by one of the best music videos of 2025, Metalcore’s resident horror fanatics channeled the film’s uniquely dark brand of crazy to a tee. Plus, you sense Spencer really enjoyed getting his Joker on.
![Ice Nine Kills - The Laugh Track (Official Music Video) [Part 1] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2fbVUmH6mY0/maxresdefault.jpg)
The 50 best metal songs of 2025 – #10 – 1
10. Lorna Shore – Oblivion
It’s been seriously stacked for deathcore in 2025. Lorna Shore were eyeing up the crown already though when they dropped Oblivion in May, delivering the kind of atmospheric, blood-spewing endtimes track that’s made them one of deathcore’s biggest bands. Sounding like an oncoming apocalypse, but with the heart and emotional nous of peak-era Killswitch, it’s no wonder they just hit different.
9. Evanescence – Afterlife
Considering their career took off like a rocket with Bring Me To Life, its surprising it’s taken so long for Evanescence to come back to soundtrack work in a big way. Released as part of the soundtrack for the Devil May Cry series, Afterlife winds the clock back about 22 years to the Fallen era with chugging guitars and Amy Lee’s ever-potent vocal stylings serving up a proper anthem. Download Festival headliner when?
8. Poppy – End Of You (ft. Amy Lee, Courtney LaPlante)
Talk about an all-star team-up. Poppy has made no secret of her allegiance to nu metal and metalcore, so getting two leading ladies from those scenes to come together on a thumping collab was a stroke of genius. End Of You starts like an Evanescence song before branching out – those guitars are peak Spiritbox, and Poppy’s own anthemic sensibilities (plus stunning vocal performances from all three, including some gnarly screams) made this a perfect chimerical creation.
7. RinRin – Built Diff
Filipino-born, New Zealand based hyperpop artist nailed it when she said she’s “built diff”. Built Diff was hyperpop via metalcore, industrial and a dozen other genres besides, the bastard daughter of Bring Me The Horizon and Poppy with a disregard for genres – breakdowns give way to club RnB style verses, unpredictable and thrilling in equal measure.
6. The Yagas – She’s Walking Down
We’ve known for a little while that Conjuring star Vera Farmiga loves a bit of rock and metal thanks to some karaoke antics, but the debut of her own band The Yagas showed she’d got some serious talents in the field too. She’s Walking Down is a brilliant showcase of the alt metal via goth chops of The Yagas’ debut Midnight Minuet, a skittering drum beat and some howling, mechanical vocals evoking a sense of claustrophobic dread that gives way to a proper belt-it-out chorus from Farmiga.
After taking the crown with last year’s Electric Callboy collab Ratata, this year Babymetal placed top 5 with another dazzling team-up. There’s been no shortage of those, thanks in no small part to new album Metal Forth, but where tracks like Kon Kon and Song 3 saw Babymetal drift from their core style, From Me To U feels closest to a “classic” Babymetal track, Poppy delivering some excellent beatdowns and snarls that melded incredibly well with bubblegum melodies and high-speed riffs.
4. Electric Callboy – Elevator Operator
Another year, another absolutely brilliant viral hit for German electro-infused metalcore mob Electric Callboy. Even if you hadn’t seen the absolutely bonkers music video, Elevator Operator feels like a perfect showcase of EC’s madcap, hyperactive stylings, just a little unhinged but with impossibly catchy hooks that you just know you’ll be humming for weeks when you’ve heard them. The drop for “Elevator Operator” might be our favourite thing of 2025, come to think of it…
3. Sleep Token – Caramel
Named song of the year by no less than the New York Times, Caramel is that rarest of things for a Sleep Token song – a peek behind the mask. There’s no grandiose lore or religious allusions here really; Caramel reckons with the trappings of fame and parasocial relationships, with a proper radio chorus and some big, breakout moments that show the band still had at least one foot in metal territory, the breakdown around the three and a half minute mark even going full extreme metal bluster.
2. Lord Of The Lost – Light Can Only Shine In The Darkness (feat. Within Temptation)
When it came to the weekly polls, Lord Of The Lost were seldom beaten. The German band have served up some massive anthems in 2025 – thanks in no small part to the release of two Opvs Noir records – alongside some all-star team-ups. The biggest though was the inclusion of Within Temptation’s Sharon Den Adel for a thrumming, symphonic-speckled ballad that drew on elements of goth metal and industrial to create something dark and utterly captivating. Duets seldom come better.
1. Ghost – Satanized
It was going to take something really special to beat the likes of Electric Callboy, Babymetal, Sleep Token and Lord Of The Lost to the crown. But then, Ghost haven’t lacked for massive tunes in recent years, have they? Sure, Skeléta might’ve been less immediate than its predecessors, but lead single Satanized was every bit the arena anthem, so insidiously catchy we reckon we were singing along before we’d even finished our first listen through. Work of the devil? Absolutely, but also well deserving of the infernal crown for the best metal song of 2025.
