Fred Phillips’ look back at the Best of 2024 in metal and hard rock includes albums from Judas Priest, Bruce Dickinson, Kittie, Sebastian Bach and others.

This year has been lousy for a lot of reasons, but as this Best of 2020 list shows, hard rock and heavy metal were not among them.

It’s not until you actually start combing through the hundreds of records you’ve listened to over a decade that you realize how daunting the task really is.

Picking a Best of 2015 list wasn’t easy. A few albums were outstanding, but I sometimes had a hard time finding new music that connected.

‘The Pale Emperor,’ more than any from Marilyn Manson in the intervening years, seems like the natural successor to ‘Mechanical Animals.’

Sure, Marilyn Manson has a new record out, and we plan to get to it eventually. But first let’s recognize just how good ‘Mechanical Animals’ was.