Last week we revealed Metal Hammer’s 100 Best Albums Of 2017. It was a monumental task, voted on my a panel of in-house staff and freelancers from around the world, giving us the definitive list of the greatest heavy music to be released over the past 12 months. And as a wonderful, digitally gift-wrapped present to you at this festive time of year, we have made this big-ass playlist for you to lose yourself in when Christmas dinner with the family becomes too much.
There would be 100 songs in here (one for each of the 100 albums on our list) but some aren’t on Spotify for whatever reason, and it didn’t feel right to include Bell Witch’s Mirror Reaper as the album is one 80+ minute song – not really party playlist material. So we have created a killer 94-song overview of 2017, ranging from hardcore to thrash to death metal to post-punk.
Here’s what certain members of the Hammer team had to say about a handful of the songs included:
Myrkur – The Serpent
“Equal parts seductive and satanic, this prime cut from Myrkur’s near-flawless Mareridt album slithers under your skin like its very namesake would suggest. Walls of tremoring riffs give way to Amalie Bruun’s haunting vocals, drawing you in and demanding your attention from the very opening second. By the time the track fades out to ominous piano strokes, you’ll want to listen to it again and again and again.” – Merlin Alderslade, Editor
Marilyn Manson – SAY10
“Heaven Upside Down continues Mazza’s epic comeback, and SAY10 is one of the many album highlights. A real return to filthy form, it stomps, it swaggers and it sears. Clever puns, brilliant lyrics, it’s an anthem crying out to be hollered along to in arenas. The God Of Fuck is back for good.” – Vanessa Thorpe, Production Editor
Zeal & Ardor – Devil Is Fine
“One of the surprises of 2017 for me was Zeal & Ardor, and the way Manuel blended so many different styles over their debut album. This track is the intro to an album that bounces between African American spirituals to blistering extreme metal without it it feeling at all out of place.” – Lewis Somerscales, Art Editor
Converge – A Single Tear
“A destructive return from the Boston hardcore legends. Brimming with bile and aggression, it feels like Bannon’s vocals could shatter skyscapers. Written in response to becoming a father for the first time and finding a reason to live, it’s a deeply emotional blast of violence that hits hard in all the right ways.” – Luke Morton, Online Editor
Northlane – Colourwave
“Tech metal with feeling, Colourwave was written about guitarist Josh Smith’s battle with depression. The melodic chorus might be melancholic, but the scream ‘I am what I create’ is goosebump-inducingly life-affirming. A great song from a band who really came into their own on Mesmer.” – Eleanor Goodman, Deputy Editor
Nicole Sabouné – Lifetime
“As much as the 80s has swept through the underground in the last few years, few albums have wrought with as much haunting, emotional resonance from it as Nicole Sabouné’s sci-fi concept album, Miman. Cast in a neon-glow, Lifetime caught the true spirit of the period it drew from: radiant with wonder, yet aware of the vertiginous fall to come.” – Jonathan Selzer, Reviews and Subterranea Editor
Check out the Spotify playlist below for the full 90+ song playlist.
You can read our full 2017 review in the latest issue of Metal Hammer – in stores now. Buy it directly here or become a TeamRock+ member to read it right now.
