What is your favourite metal song?

"Laser Cannon Death Sentence" by Dethklok

https://youtu.be/RIstK5xcHXw

Black Sabbath, by Black Sabbath, from the album Black Sabbath.

a classic: "Hallowed Be Thy Name" by Iron Maiden.

Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth.

One by Metallica, Ratamahatta by Sepultura, The Trooper by Iron Maiden are all up there

Special mention for Gimme Chocolate by Babymetal

Changes literally every day! At the moment I'm loving Witch Club Satan's new single You Wildflower.

Also (sorry for the spam), I co-present a metal radio show which plays music from explicitly antifascist and/or anti-bigotry artists called Contra Odium.

All time? Probably Dream Theater's A change of seasons. But there's way too many to choose from.

Katatonia - Old heart Falls

Caligula's Horse - Marigold

Soen - Martyrs

Swallow the sun - Falling World

Haken - 1985

Mastodon - Blood and Thunder

Rotting Christ - Ze nigmar

Draconian - Daylight Misery

Paradise lost - faith divides us /death unites us

Leprous - Rewind

Eons Enthroned - Stormblessed (for fans of the stormlight archive)

Rhapsody (of fire)- emerald sword

Ihsahn - Mass darkness

Gojira - Flying whales

The ocean - jurassic

Opeth - fuck.. can't even pick one.. but let's say ghost of perdition

Dragony - Magic

And many, many, many more..

Painkiller by Judas Priest will always have a special place in my heart due to the hours 11 year old me spent air-guitaring that solo.

https://youtu.be/nM__lPTWThU

One by Metallica

Arbitrary choice, but Wherever I May Roam by Metallica never gets old for me.

Like other people say, "favorite" depends on the context. Here are ones I've had on repeat at one point or another.

The Hammer - Kublai Khan TX

Contraband - Make Them Suffer

The Migrant - Shadow of Intent

Die Alone - A Pale Horse Named Death (this one is for a sad day)

In The Name Of God - Rotting Christ

(literally anything, Garden of Earthly Delights is a good place to start) - Apocalypse Orchestra

Looking Down The Barrel of Today - Hatebreed

Bullet With A Name - Nonpoint

WAKE UP - The Browning (whole album is good, intro is a fucking headbanger)

Where The Things Have No Color - Destrage

The Orphan - Paleface Swiss

I have to go do stuff, but that should get you started.

*I'm back and adding some more, cuz why not:

I Am The Mountain - Windrose

Captain Morgan's Revenge - Alestorm

Primo Victoria - Sabbaton

Vodka - Korpiklaani

Hardrádi - Hulkoff

Låt Napalmen Regna - Raubtier

Planet on Fire - Rob Sigurd

Hellhacker - Aaron F. Bianchi Jupiter

Destiny Crucified - Shokran

Tibet - Space of Variations

Homicide - Sammy Slamdance

Helter Skelter by The Beatles

Right now its still probably Killing Time and Space by Nekrogoblikon. Goblins, cosmic history, and a banjo? In my metal? Helllll yeah brother.

Not much of a metal head, but the whole Nonagon Infinity album by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is great. Also their album PetroDragonic Apocalypse.

What got me even slightly into metal, and stays mainstays on my playlists, are the albums Black Hole Space Wizard Parts 1 and 2 by Howling Giant. Cannot reccomend those enough. Also, their album The Space Between Worlds is great too, but isn't like one long story.

Thats a hard one. But im a sucker for Metropolis part 1 by dream theater.

It’s so hard to pick a favorite, with so many great songs out there.

Meshuggah - Demiurge

Haken - Nil by Mouth

Mick Gordon - The Only Thing They Fear is You

Tesseract - King

Animals As Leaders - Tooth and Claw

Gojira - Silvera

Fit For An Autopsy - Your Pain is Mine

Murmaider

Dopesmoker by Sleep, listen to the whole thing it's a real jam

Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony - Human

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB565-jTjI8

Idk how I can just pick one,

But the stage by avenged sevenfold is a good contender

I’m not a huge metal head, but “Trapped Under Ice” by Metallica is probably my favorite. I’d strongly recommend the entire Ride the Lightning album though. Pretty much every song is great.

What kind of metal do you like?

Meshuggah - Bleed

Rotting christ - ze nigmar

Depends on what subgenres you're into.

I really enjoy power metal, and Gloryhammer is one of my faves. He has returned, Keeper of the celestial flame, Land of unicorns, Masters of the galaxy, and Rise of the chaos wizards are all ones I really enjoy.

Prog metal is another really good genre, and Between the Buried and Me is amazing and have some fantastic concept albums. Coma Ecliptic has The Coma Machine and Memory Palace being a hell of an earworm. The Great Misdirect has Obfuscation and Feed from Cloud Mountain as those two slots, and The Parallax double album is great (part 1 is a good ep, part 2 is the main album), with Astral Body being one of the main singles and so many tracks that get stuck in my head.

I listed a bunch of other bands in this comment as well that are really good as well: https://lemmy.world/comment/19203007

Deftones- Be Quiet and Drive

I'm unable to pick a single one, as it shifts very often. So I opened my main Playlist to find something, so today I'll give you three very different suggestions:
In Flames - Only For the Weak.
Dimmu Borgir - Kings of the Carnival Creation.
Destiny Potato - Addict.

Ask me tomorrow and you'll get different answers

Archspire - Drone Corpse Aviator, first song that popped in my head thinking of contemporary metal

https://youtu.be/MlnGYcMpxgU

Cannibal Corpse - Hammer Smashed Face, groovy and brutal

https://youtu.be/gNhN6lT-y5U

Electric Wizard - Funeralopolis, grungy doom goodness, love that bass line

https://youtu.be/UAPVcsDOU9U

"Postmortem" by Slayer.

Hmm, probably Vermilion by Slipknot, either part is fine...

Allegaeon - Proponent For Sentience III - The Extermination

Blind Guardian - Valhalla is also really good.

Opeth - Black Rose Immortal

Got me into metal when I was very young, and overall it’s an incredible song.

I really like a lot of Megadeth's Hidden Treasures since they don't pop up randomly so much I've never gotten tired of them.

Angry Again, 99 Ways to Die, Breakpoint, Go to Hell, Diadems. All great stuff.

Discipline - Nine Inch Nails

Trollfest Kaptein Kaos

Uncle Acid and the deadbeat Melody Lane

Blood ceremony The weird of Finistere

Actually, if I need to name only one, I'd say the latest

WE BUTTER THE BREAD WITH BUTTER - 20 km/h

BABYMETAL - ギミチョコ！！- Gimme chocolate!!

Electric Callboy - WE GOT THE MOVES

Changes all the time but right now I'm into Stoner Metal so:

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Gila Monster

https://youtu.be/YQX2CsMCB9M

Atreyu - Bleeding Mascara, just punches you in the face with an awesome intro.

at the moment aaj by bloodywood

Kickstart my Heart by Motley Crue

Not really a metal guy. I like beautiful music. I remember asking people why people who play metal don't play beautiful music. And I got no good answers. No one introduced me to Iron Maiden, who would have fit the bill. As someone who does not like metal, I can listen to every minute of "Brave New World" (2000) and enjoy the whole thing. I also like Number of the Beast and Powerslave from the 1980s, and the one that released between them.

The metal band I really love is Nightwish. They're from Finland, but I think they only have one song in Finnish? The opening to Imaginaerum. Over the Hills and Far Away is not only a cover, but it's about The Count of Monte Cristo... sort of. It's not exactly the same, but it's basically the same energy. Love triangle sends an innocent man to prison. Except in the book (and many films) the girl was his and it was the jealous lover who set him up. In this song, he messed with his best friend's wife and that's why he set him up.

And if you wanna hear how they sound live — the true indicator of what a band can do — here's Wishmaster from their final tour, I think, before they changed singers for the first time. Their composer/keyboard player is a bit of a drama queen, much like Eddie Van Halen was, and similarly, his personality would clash with diva singers over who "leads" the band. Neither of them can keep a singer. Not taking a side — incredible talent all around. Just band drama keeps them from having a consistent lineup. It happens to the best of them (see: Fleetwood Mac). So you enjoy what you can as it comes. But sadly they basically suck now. Their second singer was good too, but their third singer either isn't working for them or they're out of ideas, because their last few albums have been duds.

The entirety of their Imaginaerum album is good, but it's a bit weird. It was always meant as a companion piece for their movie, which never saw distribution in the US. So you have to watch it online. I won't help you do that, but if you're savvy, you can find it. Or maybe you're in Europe and you can just pick it up. I think you absolutely should if you can. For a while it was on YouTube (unofficially but in HD), not sure if it still is or not. Worth looking for, and it's just under an hour and a half. Much like Pink Floyd's The Wall, it's about how a musician has been driven crazy. Here, his adult daughter tries to reconcile with him before his death. Watch the movie trailer here

As the others mentioned, there's way too many options.

Heimat - Equilibrium (folk metal)

Score to a new beginning - Fairyland (symphonic metal)

Seven pillars of wisdom - Sabaton (power metal)

No Surrender by Beast in Black

Red Handed Denial - One More Night

Or

Spiritbox - Circle With Me

Here's a few of my current favourites, in random order:

Amenra - A Solitary Reign Blut aus Nord - Epitome XIV Thou / Emma Ruth Rundle - Ancestral Recall Thou / ERR - the Valley Celtic Frost - A Dying God Coming into Human Flesh Zeal and Ardor - Feed the Machine Ragana / Thou - the Void Neurosis / Jarboe - Within King Woman - Boghz

The Sentinel by Judas Priest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ksksu9JDkg

Been feeling Black Label Society lately, specifically Stillborn and Blessed Hellride.

If you consider Metalcore to be metal, then The year summer ended in June by Misery Signals.

It's hard to pick one, but here are a few of my favorites:

Opeth - the drapery falls

Panopticon - Cedar Skeletons

Cult of Luna - The Fall

Ashenspire - The Law of Asbestos

Fen - Fear

Wintersaga by Wind rose. My favorite band by a long shot.

All time favourite.

Depressing, but great vocals.

Definitely metal, absolute banger, debatably a song.

Anything by Starset.

The Prince by Metallica is always a banger.

Has to be Terror Train by Demons & Wizards.

Hmmm...

Enter Sandman, and The Unforgiven (Metallica)

The Phantom of the Opera in Tarja's and Marko's version (Nightwish). Also Storytime in Anette's version.

The Keeper of the Seven Keys, and Eagle Fly Free (Helloween)

Chop Suey (System of a Down)

Dance With the Dragon (Dark Sarah)

Ace of spades (Motörhead)

.... A bunch of stuff from Guns'n'Roses, Black Sabbath, and Poison (maybe my definition of metal is wider than yours...)

Other days I'd have listed something by Evanescence, Edguy, Blind Guardian, Dream Theater, Korpiklaani, Alestorm, Nanowar, Dragonforce, ...

Yeah, I tend to be biased towards power metal, symphonic metal, and various '80s groups that are somewhere on the border between "hard rock" and "metal". I know that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Wizard Fight by Weedeater. If I had to choose.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHKHPybcLuc

Mine is always changing! At the moment: Relentless by Pentagram.

Burning Witch - Sacred Predictions Bathory - A Fine Day to Die Suicide Silience - Unanswered Black Sabbath - N.I.B. Slayer - Disciple White Zombie - More Human Than Human

I don’t have a favorite but Error Detection by Nemophila is an often played song in my list right now.

Probably Malfire by Refused, I found them through their samurai covers for cyberpunk 2077 and I've loved their music since

I see a lot of the bangers I would also put on my personal Mount Rushmore but I’m shocked not to see any Meshuggah on here. Bleed is an absolute face melter. Dirge for November by Opeth is also up there for me. I put that song on whenever I’m really down and oddly enough it helps me feel a bit better despite it being a song about killing yourself in a bathtub.

Oh and Parpaing by Igorrr is another song that goes hard as fuck. I can hit lifting PRs with that on. Honestly anything Corpsegrinder is belting out I’m here for. He just did a feature with Shadow of Intent that is similarly brutal.

Black Sabbath’s Electric Funeral if I’m picking something old.

Baroness’s A Horse Called Golgotha if I’m picking something newer.

In Flames - Only for the weak Iced Earth - Frankestein Antioch - Where the dagger lies Children of Bodom - Needled 24/7

Right now it’s The Tales of War by Orbit Culture. Amazing band.

Holographic Universe by Scar Symmetry

https://youtu.be/EOqExgFktes

The Book of Thel by Bruce Dickinson

Motörhead - Overkill

Photograph by Nickelback is a classic.

Currently it's While we serve by Orbit Culture.

Not my fav but to post something different: dir en grey - shitataru mourou https://youtu.be/TLXtwCViVQk

Since nobody mentioned them yet, Strapping Young Lad - Detox.

Honestly though, anything that Devin Townshend touches is gold.

meshuggah - new millennium cyanide christ. great riff, great music video

Hard to choose, but I find Old Gold and most of 36 Crazyfists super underrated. Especially the end of the bridge and into the final chorus of Old Gold is one of my fav moments in any metal song.

The singers got a new band Paradise Slaves.

At the moment, Lilith - Butcher Babies

Aunt Lisa by Mastodon

Hard to choose just one, but I'm gonna say

Nodes of Ranvier — "Soundtrack for Salvation"

hell of a debut album, there

currently enjoying swamped XX - lacuna coil and unleashed - epica

Blind Guardian - Violent Shadows, Ride Into Obsession

Angra - Salvation Suicide, Nothing to Say

Twilightning - Fever Pitch

Shadow Gallery - Mystery

Dream Theater - The Root of all Evil

Mago de Oz - Molinos de Viento, El fin del Camino

Keldian - Never Existed, FTL

Chop Suey. I love how jarring the tempo changes are.

Quite a few, and hard to pick one, however Slania's Song by Eluveitie is up there.

Pure White Poison (Masshiro na Doku) - Utsu-P

The only thing they fear is you
Rip & Tear

Both by Mick Gordon

Metal is too hard to define. Some old folks would say poison is metal. Some would say only Megadeath and Pantera are metal. Some say they're pop and not metal at all. It's just not worth arguing in this sector. I grew up in the 90s and enjoy "nü metal" the 80s made shit music as far as I'm concerned and isn't metal at all. Is the music racist? Then its not metal. There's a lot of racism in bands that are considered metal. Then you have the ADHD industrial metal. What is metal and what isn't? Megadeath sucks shit outside of a few songs and are openly embraced by neonazis. It's honestly a very hipster style, with so many being labeled cool or not cool based on the time at any given moment, and whether or not they fit in.