2015 has sucked in almost every way for me and for a lot of people that I know, too. You could say it was full of Trials and Tribulation (that’ll be funny AFTER you see the top of my list). Fortunately, we were gifted a litany of top-shelf metal albums to get us through it without losing our minds. The following are the top 20 metal records that I subjected my children to while driving them all over L.A. I have to admit that there was so much great stuff this year that I sort of cheated here by including a very extensive “honorable mentions” category for all of the other albums that might have made the list had the year ended when they came out. All of them are excellent efforts that I know I’ll be listening to for years to come.

Check out the list and let me know what you think in the comments below because if I know metalheads (and believe me, I do) you’ll all have some very strong opinions about your own likes and dislikes. The best thing about other people’s year-end “best of” list is that I always discover a few absolute gems that got past me during the year. Last year, you, the readers, even turned me on to Ne Obliviscaris and Solstafir, two amazing bands that I was unfamiliar with and whose albums should have been on my list. It is my hope that no matter what your opinion of my personal list is, that it will inspire you to check out some artists or records that you haven’t yet discovered. Who knows, maybe you’ll find your new favorite metal band contained herein.

Have a wonderful holiday season and rest up, because 2016 promises to be another pummeling year in extreme music. And be sure to stay tuned here at GoD because you know we’ll be doing our very best to keep you informed about all of it.

Mutoid Man is a heavy metal supergroup that formed in 2012. Cave In mastermind Steven Brodsky and Converge drummer Ben Koller joined forces to work on the material that would become their 2013 debut EP Helium Head. The recording was met with a very high degree of acclaim from fans and critics alike. Bassist Nick Cageao joined the band in 2014 and the trio began work on their debut full-length album.

Released earlier this year, Bleeder is a swirling amalgam of punk, hardcore, metal, and math rock. Watch for it on my (and almost everyone else’s) “Best of 2015” list.

This week’s Massive Metal Monday tune is the title and closing track of that album. Without further ado, I give you “Bleeder.”

As a huge fan of both The Cure and black metal, I was ecstatic to learn of the existence of today’s featured Black Metal Friday artist. Curezum is a new band that offers up their own black metal take on covers of songs by Robert Smith and company. The name is an amalgam of The Cure and Norwegian black metal pioneers Burzum.

The project consists of Mort Subite (Megaton Leviathan, Vaital Deul, Alfheimr), Martti Hill (Barrowlands), legendary metal producer Billy Anderson, and Rob Vikernes, along with numerous guests. Their forthcoming debut album is titled A Monument to a Ruined Age.

It’s getting colder. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting longer, and everyone is so full of Christmas cheer, it makes you want to burn down a church. Worse than that, you have to spend precious beer money on… gifts. Well, whether you have metal buddies who are seriously expecting something this season, or whether you want to give Aunt Mabel something so heinously inappropriate that she will regift it right back to you, you might want to take a look at this list.

Here’s the 2015 Metalhead’s Holiday Gift Guide…

EYEHATEGOD is one of the most influential bands to ever emerge from the New Orleans music scene despite their sparse output. Formed in 1988, the sludge metal legends have only managed to release 5 albums due, in part, to the band members’ penchants for heavy drug use and side projects. Singer Mike Williams, in particular, has fought a very public battle with heroin addiction. Guitarist Jimmy Bower is a multi-instrumentalist who has also been in Crowbar and Phil Anselmo’s supergroups Down and Superjoint Ritual. In his absence, the other four members of the band have a side project known as Outlaw Order.

This week’s Massive Metal Monday track is “Medicine Noose” from EYEHATEGOD’s self-titled 2014 album
EYEHATEGOD. Sadly, it is the final album to feature founding drummer Joey LaCaze, who passed away in 2013 from respiratory failure.

This MMM is dedicated to the memory of Joey LaCaze.