It's been a good last six months — at least, if you like your music heavy, dark, headbangable and/or just plain fucked up. Below, we've compiled our favorite jams from the year so far, spanning rockstar-assisted industrial hardcore, NWOBHM icons' pyrotechnic return to form, a Deftones' surging comic-book–inspired solo cut, raging hip-hop from a metal-loving split-personality rapper, Māori thrash made by a trio of Kiwi teens, and everything in between. Blast our Spotify playlist below (check out more of our playlists here), and if you haven't already, dig into our list of the 25 Best Albums of 2018 So Far.
50 Best Songs of 2018 So Far
Blast our Spotify playlist of the last 6 month's finest heavy, dark, headbangable or just plain fucked-up cuts
The Armed at Saint Vitus, Northside Festival 2018
photograph by Nathaniel Shannon
Music
Slipknot's '.5: The Gray Chapter': How Death, Trauma Shaped Comeback LP
Corey Taylor: "This album is about making peace with the loss that we've suffered"
Music
Drugs, Death, Chaos, Contradiction: Inside Dillinger's 'One of Us Is the Killer'
How Greg Puciato and Ben Weinman's complex relationship has shaped one of heavy music's most insane bands
Music
Killswitch Engage: Inside Jesse Leach's Return, Making of 'Disarm the Descent'
Leach: "Being in Killswitch today is worlds apart from what it was 10 years ago"
Music
Pantera Look Back on 'Reinventing the Steel,' Breakup and Beyond
Phil, Rex and Vinnie shared stories from Texas firebrands' final years in classic interview
Music
Slipknot's '.5: The Gray Chapter': How Death, Trauma Shaped Comeback LP
Corey Taylor: "This album is about making peace with the loss that we've suffered"
Music
Drugs, Death, Chaos, Contradiction: Inside Dillinger's 'One of Us Is the Killer'
How Greg Puciato and Ben Weinman's complex relationship has shaped one of heavy music's most insane bands
Music
Killswitch Engage: Inside Jesse Leach's Return, Making of 'Disarm the Descent'
Leach: "Being in Killswitch today is worlds apart from what it was 10 years ago"
Music
Pantera Look Back on 'Reinventing the Steel,' Breakup and Beyond
Phil, Rex and Vinnie shared stories from Texas firebrands' final years in classic interview