The 51 Best Rock + Metal Albums of 2024

Here are the 51 best rock and metal albums of 2024.

Each year, quite literally thousands of new records are released within the ever-widening scope of heavy music, from newcomers in the underground to some of the most battle-tested veteran acts.

What has been particularly exciting about the 2020s and the tail end of the 2010s is that we’re seeing an accelerated path to superstardom for a lot of relatively younger artists. What used to be a 15-20 year grind to reach the status of headliner and filling larger clubs and arenas seems to be firmly in the rear view.

Finally, it feels like we’re mitigating the threat of self-extinction with legacy-only festival headliners and the industry at large is embracing younger acts and propping them up as the extended future of heavy music.

Meanwhile, those legacy acts are still proving their worth and dishing out surprisingly strong efforts that are their best work in decades.

What this all means is that despite the overwhelming volume of new music releases constantly scrapping for a shred of attention, it’s hard to argue that rock and metal isn’t the healthiest it’s been in a very, very long time.

Below, we present Loudwire’s picks for the 51 best albums that came out this year, listed in chronological order.

See if your favorite albums made the list!