Announcing: The 25 Best Metal Albums of 2010 – 2019 Countdown!

Holy Hanneman, is it really the end of the 21st century’s second decade already? Wow. Time flies when you’re snarking on the music you love!

So: Ten years ago, MetalSucks rang in the new decade with our first-ever fun/stupid countdown/list, The 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far. To compile that list, we polled 57 industry professionals, including musicians, managers, promoters, label staff, publicists, and journalists.

Now, with 2019 fast coming to close (not to humble brag, but if you work in this business, you’ve likely already heard all of this year’s big releases already!), we decided it was time to do it again! Behold: The 25 Best Metal Albums of 2010 – 2019!

Thing is, MetalSucks has, despite some folks’ best efforts, grown quite a bit since 2009. So this time, the voting panel consisted of almost 180 metal musicians and industry insiders! Voters included members of bands such as Megadeth, Trivium, Between the Buried and Me, Periphery, Cattle Decapitation, The Acacia Strain, Revocation, The Haunted, Rivers of Nihil, Pelican, Sigh, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and Krallice; staffers at labels like Metal Blade, Roadrunner, Prosthetic, Relapse, and Napalm; writers for press outlets including Metal Injection, Loudwire, Kerrang!, Decibel, Metal Hammer and Revolver; and some of the industry’s most prominent managers, booking agents, promoters, visual artists, luthiers, DJs, publicists, filmmaker, photographers, merch makers, and even road crew members. (You can check out the full list of voters below. No, we won’t tell you who they voted for… that information follows us to our graves.)

Once we collected all the votes, we assigned them scores using an exponential system, meaning everyone’s top votes were given significantly more weight than their bottom votes. We then tallied up each album’s score, and the resulting list is the one you will see on this site in the coming days and weeks. For the math/data nerds amongst you, we used the formula 1.2^(25-[rank]). MetalSucks co-head-honchos Axl Rosenberg and Vince Neilstein each submitted their own lists that count the same as those of all other voters, and they have not altered the results in any way, with one exception: it was decided that each band could only place once on the final list, with the top vote-receiving album by any band with multiple entries being the one to make the final cut. We believe this will make for a more interesting and engaging final list by allowing more bands that had an impact over the past decade to be involved.

We’ll start the countdown tomorrow — Tuesday, September 10 — with the #25 entry, then continue with one album per day every weekday after that ’til we’re done. We hope it inspires lively debate and reflection on where metal has been and where metal is going. Or at least gives you something more fun to do when you should be working.

THE VOTERS (in alphabetical order)

Musicians

Kevin Antreassian, The Dillinger Escape Plan; Back Room Studios
Rob Arnold, Chimaira/ The Elite
Brett Bamberger, Revocation/ Garbage People/ Publicist UK/ River Black
Nick “Kin Etik” Barker, Twelve Foot Ninja
Mick Barr, Krallice/ Ocrilim
Vincent Bennett, The Acacia Strain
Greg Burgess, Allegaeon
Nick Cageao, Mutoid Man
Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan, Darkest Hour
Tim Charles, Ne Obliviscaris
Doc Coyle, Bad Wolves
Dave Davidson, Revocation/ Gargoyl
Trevor Shelley de Brauw, Pelican
Jared Dines
Sacha Dunable, Intronaut; Dunable Guitars
Ola Englund, The Haunted/ Feared
Brian Fair, Shadows Fall/ Overcast
Justin Foley, The Austerity Program
Gus G., Firewind/ ex-Ozzy Osbourne
Wes Hauch, Alluvial
Matthew K. Heafy, Trivium
Kevin Hufnagel, Gorguts/ Dysrhythmia/ Vaura/ Sabbath Assembly
Thomas Jäger, Monolord
Kat Katz, ex-Agoraphobic Nosbleed/ ex-Salome
Mirai Kawashima, Sigh
Jared Klein, Rivers of Nihil
Mitchell Luna, Maruta
Misha Mansoor, Periphery
Andrew Marsh, Thy Art is Murder
James Monteith, TesseracT; Hold Tight PR
Chris “OJ” Ojeda, Byzantine
Nicholas Palmirotto, Pyrolatrous/ Hull
Aaron Rieseberg, Yob
Curran Reynolds, Body Stuff; The Chain
Travis Ryan, Cattle Decapitation
Mike Schleibaum, Darkest Hour
DJ Scully, The Number Twelve Looks Like You/ Dead Empires; Vigier Guitars
Todd Stern, Psycroptic
Aaron Turner, Isis/ Old Man Gloom/ Sumac, etc.
Dirk Verbeuren, Megadeth/Bent Sea/ Cadaver/ ex-Soilwork
Paul Waggoner, Between The Buried and Me
Esben Willems, Monolord

Managers

Derek Brewer, Manifest Grp
Shawn Carrano, Roc Nation
Steve Davis, Davis Entertainment Group
Ryan J. Downey, Superhero Artist Management; journalist
Alexander Ford, World Entertainment Inc/ Knife Fight Media
David Lay, Outerloop Management / Jabberjaw Media
Frank Mastalerz, FM Entertainment
Mike Milford, Modern Empire MGMT/Stay Sick Recordings
Matt Pike, 33 and West Talent Agency
Wayne Pighini, Fly South Music Group
Daniel Regan, Feat First Management
E.J. Shannon, E.J. Shannon Management
Mark Vieira, Walk Among Us Entertainment
Cliff Wiener, Davis Entertainment Group

Bookers/Promoters

Daniel DeFonce, Continental Concerts USA
Kelly Kapp, Live Nation
Ryan Maher, Live Nation
Stephan Mellul, Continental Concerts USA
Zakk Mild, Saint Vitus Bar
Scott Sokol, Pinnacle Entertainment
Marco Walzel, Avocado Booking
Jonathan Wilson, TKO
Boone Vires, AC Entertainment

Label Staff

Matt Bacon, Dropout Media/ Ripple Music/ Prophecy Productions/ Artoffact Records
Christopher Cefaratti, Ingrooves/ Neurot Recordings
Darren Dalessio, Spinefarm Records
Al Dawson, Earache Records
Vince Edwards, Metal Blade Records
Michael Faley, Metal Blade Records
Mike Gitter, RED Music/ Century Media
Sonia Goldberg, Napalm Records
Markus Bart Grasseck, Metal Blade Records
Rob Gross, BMG
Katy Irizarry, Season of Mist
J, Blood Music
Rennie Jaffe, Relapse Records
Steve Joh, Prosthetic Records
Zeena Koda, Atlantic Records
Scott Lee, 1126 Records
Bob Lugowe, Legacy Recordings/ Brutal Panda Records
Bill Meis, eOne
Shawn Quinn, Napalm Records
David Rath, Roadrunner Records
Arielle Rosselli, RED Music
Eli Shaika, Relapse Records
Brian Slagel, Metal Blade Records
Austin Stephens, WEA
Nick Tieder, Frontiers Records
Steven Varsanyi, Relapse Records

Publicists/Marketing

Jonathan Asher, Asher Media Relations
Matt Benton, Hold Tight PR
Mike Colantuoni, Atom Splitter PR
Lisa Coverdale, Hold Tight PR
Curtis Dewar, Dewar PR
Jon Freeman, Freeman Promotions
Tom George, TAG Publicity
Austin Griswold, Secret Service Publicity
Ebony Jeanette, Ebony Jeanette PR
Jason Lekberg, Lekberg Enterprises
Stephanie Marlow, Indie Publicity
Kodi McKinney, Marauder
Munsey Ricci, Skateboard Marketing
Jamie Roberts, For the Win Media
Marc Schapiro, Branch Marketing Collective
Carl Schultz, Action! PR
Amy Sciarretto, Atom Splitter PR

Media/Press/Journalists/Bloggers/Radio/Blights on the Industry

Enrique Abeyta, Revolver
Merlin Alderslade, Metal Hammer
Ben Apatoff, MetalSucks/ Metal Injection/ Backbeat Books
Josh Bernstein, Loudwire
Phil Boozeman, MetalSucks
Shawn the Butcher, SiriusXM
Gabby Canella, Music Choice
Chris Enriquez, Revolver
Karen Espronslayer, MetalSucks
D.X. Ferris, 6623 Press
Ethan Fixell, Kerrang!
Rowdy Geirsson, MetalSucks
Frank Godla, Metal Injection
Alex Haber, Heavy New York
Brandon Hahn, The MetalSucks Podcast
Cat Jones, Kerrang!
Full Metal Jackie, Full Metal Jackie Radio
Christopher Krovatin, Kerrang!
Meghan MacRae, Cvlt Nation
Jose Mangin, SiriusXM
Vince Neilstein, MetalSucks
Rob Pasbani, Metal Injection
Tristan Pratt, The Metal Tris
Meghan MacRae and Sean Reveron, Cvlt Nation
Axl Rosenberg, MetalSucks
Jimmy Rowe, Heavy Blog is Heavy
Joseph Schafer, independent critic
Jozalyn Sharp, The MetalSucks Podcast
Skaylatonwitch, MetalSucks
Snaximus, MetalSucks; Party Smasher Inc.
Petar Spajic, The MetalSucks Podcast
Kevin Stewart-Panko, Decibel/ Metal Hammer/ Zero Tolerance/ Iron Fist, Outburn/ Metal Injection/ Pure Grain Audio/ This is Metal/ etc.
Isaac Stolzer-Gary, Gear Gods
Joe Thrashnkill, Toilet ov Hell
Jeff Treppel, Decibel/ MetalSucks/ Bandcamp
Zena Tsarfin, independent writer
Wookubus, The PRP
Jon Weigell, MetalSucks
Jon Wiederhorn, author/journalist
Trey Xavier, Gear Gods

The Best of the Rest

Jonathan Arevalo, videographer
Alex Auxier, Orange Amps
Chuck BB (artist, Decibel, Black Metal, etc.)
Frankie Blydenburgh, Rockabilia
Vincent Castiglia, artist
Rikk Currence, Toontrack
Travis Ducsay, IndieMerch
Charles Haile, Touring Staff
Frank Huang, video producer
Eliran Kantor, artist
Denise Korycki, Wild Wind Productions
Alex Markides, FOH (Periphery, Killswitch Engage, etc.)
Bobby Nall, ex-SXSW
Frederick Pessaro, Jackpot Plus/Saint Vitus
Karim Peter, Night Shift Merch
Tony Rauser, ESP Guitars
Mark Riddick, Riddickart
David Rodriguez, MetalSucks Comments Moderator
Carson Slovak, Atrium Audio/Think Loud Studios
Bill Terrill, Toontrack
Thorns Capricorn, Touring Staff
Hannah Verbeuren, HannahVPhotography
Vertebrae33, artist
Justina Villanueva, photographer
Allison Woest, My Good Eye Music Visual