The Best Metal Song of Each Year Since 1970 - Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Slipknot, Pantera and more - Loudwire

 

The Best Metal Song of Each Year Since 1970

What's the best metal song of each year since 1970? We've got the answer and the runner-up from those years as well!

Looking back at what are essentially the greatest hits of over half a century of heavy metal tells quite the story. It truly is one of the most evolutionary forms of music when absorbing the breadth in styles across dozens and dozens of subgenres. Look no further than the leap from Black Sabbath to the symphonic, pig-slaughtering deathcore of Lorna Shore.

Of course, going back to metal's first decade — the 1970s – there were very, very few bands playing what we recognize today as heavy metal. The likes of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple certainly pushed things in a harder and heavier direction as the prime movers of proto-metal, but not quite like Sabbath and Judas Priest in particular.

The 1980s was the big breakout for metal, largely thanks to MTV exposure and metal's natural level of showmanship and advanced guitar playing. The underground was teeming with young bands pushing the boundaries of speed and intensity with subject matter ranging from horror and the occult to socio-political affairs and real-world tragedies.

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By the end of the 1990s, metal was fractured into more underground pockets (black metal, death metal, grindcore, power metal) while maintaining a presence in the mainstream thanks to Pantera and the rise of nu-metal.

With the 2000s came a resurgence for our '80s heroes who had found their way after most stumbling through the previous decade. And the rise and reign of metalcore and the breakdown, which gave way to deathcore and djent in the late '00s and early 2010s.

READ MORE: The Best Album by 35 Legendary Metal Bands

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As for the 2020s? We're seeing bands ascend to superstardom in a way we haven't seen since the 2000s. Spiritbox, Sleep Token, the aforementioned Lorna Shore... metal is alive and well and in the best place it's been in a long time!

What did we pick for Best Metal Song of 2025? Find out below!

The Best Metal Song of Each Year Since 1970

See Loudwire's picks for the Best Metal Songs of Each Year Since 1970.

Gallery Credit: Loudwire Staff

1970: Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath)

Vertigo / Warner Bros.

1970: Black Sabbath, "Black Sabbath" ('Black Sabbath')

Runner-up: Black Sabbath, "Paranoid"
It all starts here. Tony Iommi’s three-note guitar riff (known as “Diabolus in musica,” or “the devil’s interval”) starts the song, and the album, off with a feeling of dread, and “Black Sabbath” only gets even creepier from there, with Ozzy Osbourne’s haunted vocals and Bill Ward’s wild, free-jazz inspired drumming. Geezer Butler’s doomy bass plunking added to the vibe, but it was his lyrics that set the tone for the album, the band, and heavy metal in general: “Is it the end, my friend/Satan's coming 'round the bend/People running 'cause they're scared/The people better go and beware!” In the decades since, metal has gotten louder, faster and gorier. But it’s never gotten heavier -- or better -- than this. (BI)

1971: Black Sabbath, Sweet Leaf (Master of Reality)

Vertigo / Warner Bros.

1971: Black Sabbath, "Sweet Leaf" ('Master of Reality')

Runner-up: Black Sabbath, "Children of the Grave"
There’s a lot to love with “Sweet Leaf”: it’s an ode to marijuana that features heavy, sludgy riffs, shredding lead breaks and wild drum fills. So, yeah, “Sweet Leaf” is the blueprint for what we now refer to as stoner rock. And as the good fight for national legalization here in America rages on, the lyrics are still as relevant as ever. “Straight people don't know what you're about / They put you down and shut you out / You gave to me a new belief / And soon the world will love you, sweet leaf.” (KI)

1972: Black Sabbath, Supernaut (Vol. 4)

Vertigo / Warner Bros.

1972: Black Sabbath, "Supernaut" ('Vol. 4')

Runner-up: Deep Purple, "Smoke on the Water"
Erudite critics may point to Blue Cheer, MC5, and The Stooges as pioneers of proto-metal, and they may be right, but “metal” didn’t earn its blackened stripes until Black Sabbath erupted on the scene and forged the path for the yet-to-be-named genre. “Supernaut,” From Sabbath’s fourth straight classic, ‘Vol. 4,’ is a monolith of euphoria and drug-dazed abandon. Guitarist Tony Iommi leads the barrage with a psychedelic, bluesy lick that becomes the main jam-out motif of the song. Equally powerful is the granite-solid riff that drives the verses, which are rife with trippy imagery: “I want to reach out and touch the sky/ I want to touch the sun but I don't need to fly.” And bassist Geezer Butler’s loose, mid-song fills coupled with Bill Ward’s wild tribal percussion takes the number further into the stratosphere. (JW)

1973: Black Sabbath, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath)

Vertigo

1973: Black Sabbath, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" ('Sabbath Bloody Sabbath')

Runner-up: Black Sabbath, "Killing Yourself to Live"
Maybe the ultimate proof that great art requires as much perspiration as inspiration, the best metal song of 1973 emerged from a crippling case of writer’s block on the part of Black Sabbath guitarist and chief songwriter, Tony Iommi. By all four band members’ own admission, Black Sabbath had succumbed to a lot of bad habits of the chemical persuasion after four grueling tours in support of four classic albums, so when they set to work on their fifth, their creative well was pretty much dry. But a change of scenery -- from the Hollywood hills to a haunted English castle -- eventually (and not surprisingly) stoked the fires of Iommi’s riff factory, producing one of their most iconic songs in “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” the highlight of arguably the final classic LP of the Ozzy era. (ER)

1974: Deep Purple, Burn (Burn)

Warner Bros.

1974: Deep Purple, "Burn" ('Burn')

Runner-up: Queen, "Stone Cold Crazy"

Sorry, Glenn Hughes — you wrote a metal song! While the high-singing, hard-plucking Deep Purple newbie preferred R&B, funk and soul (as did Purple's singer, the equally fresh-faced David Coverdale), the title track to Purple MK III’s first effort is, well, a burner. Ritchie Blackmore’s roaring guitar intro to “Burn” is reintroduced again and again, and each time, the band charges harder and with more vigor, making it the most unrelenting song in the Purple catalog and a billowing signal that even in their third incarnation, Purple still had something to say. (JD)

1975: Rainbow, Man on the Silver Mountain (Ritchie Blackmores Rainbow)

Polydor

1975: Rainbow, "Man on the Silver Mountain" ('Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow')

Runner-up: Black Sabbath, "Symptom of the Universe"
By 1975, heavy metal had been around for half a decade, and many of its original instigators were faltering -- even the holy trinity of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple were starting to show cracks in their armor. An injection of fresh blood was sorely needed, and Purple founder and guitar god Ritchie Blackmore knew it, so he cut loose from his old group to make a new start with Rainbow, which was initially comprised of four fifths of American boogie rockers Elf. Ah, but one of those members was a singer named Ronnie James Dio, and, together with Blackmore, he would orchestrate a brand new strain of metal, characterized by epic compositions and fantasy-based lyrics. “Man On the Silver Mountain,” the lead track from the band's debut album, not only signaled a new start for Blackmore, but it also introduced one of metal's most iconic vocalists. (ER)

1976: Judas Priest, Victim of Changes (Sad Wings of Destiny)

Gull

1976: Judas Priest, "Victim of Changes" ('Sad Wings of Destiny')

Runner-up: Rainbow, "Stargazer"
After releasing their poorly-mixed and largely uninspiring debut ‘Rocka Rolla’ in 1974, Judas Priest more than made up for any lost ground with their sophomore album ‘Sad Wings of Destiny.’ In addition to featuring the classics “The Ripper,” “Genocide” and “Tyrant,” the record sported one of the first and best prog metal epics, “Victim of Changes.” Opening the album and clocking in at a then-lengthy 7:54, the track exhibited Priest’s new, heavier direction -- a combination of propulsive classic rock rhythms and Sabbathy riffs. The song is composed of about seven distinct parts, yet it never seems overblown. It might be Priest’s finest moment. All the elements are there: the opening twin guitar attack, the infectious riff and Halford's wailing vocals. There’s also some blues jamming, and also Halford's underrated lower register. Timeless. (JW)

1977: Scorpions, Sails of Charon (Taken by Force)

RCA

1977: Scorpions, "Sails of Charon" ('Taken by Force')

Runner-up: Judas Priest, "Sinner"
For the most part, The Scorpions’ 1977 album ‘Taken By Force’ leans more towards the poppier side of metal. Sails of Charon” is an exception: it is easily the heaviest cut from that album. Uli Jon Roth’s solo from this song is credited as one of Kirk Hammett’s biggest influences; Metallica’s lead guitarist has cited his obsession with learning the solo as a formative moment in his life. Testament and Yngwie Malmsteen have covered the song; it’s an underrated moment in the Scorpions’ career, but one of their most important. (KI)

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