Fan Poll: 5 Best Songs of 2019 | Page 3 | Revolver

Fan Poll: 5 Best Songs of 2019

Killswitch Engage's big reunion with Howard Jones, Slipknot's choral smash and more
killswitchengage_4_credit_Tom Bejgrowicz.jpg, Tom Bejgrowicz
(clockwise from top left) Joel Stroetzel, Mike D’Antonio, Justin Foley, Dutkiewicz, Howard Jones and Leach backstage before performing together, O2 Arena, London, 2018
photograph by Tom Bejgrowicz

This year was huge for heavy music, with resurgent giants such as Tool, Rammstein and Slipknot dropping long-awaited and inventive new offerings, while millennial leaders like Knocked Loose threw down stunning challenges to the throne. We just revealed Revolver's list of the 25 Best Songs of 2019, so it only made sense for us to turn to you, the fans, to find out your picks for the year's finest tune. Read on to see what five cuts garnered the most votes.

5. Knocked Loose - "Mistakes Like Fractures"

Knocked Loose represent the new guard of hardcore titans, and "Mistakes Like Fractures" exemplifies the irresistible rage that endears them to fresh-faced and grizzled fans of the subgenre alike. Nonstop breakdowns, throat-shredding vocals, and the occasional guttural roar make up the foundation of this ripper, all converging in a dramatic wall of noise that leads right up to the wrenching, discordant finale.

4. Killswitch Engage - "The Signal Fire"

Fans split between their love of Howard Jones–era Killswitch Engage versus Jesse Leach–era KsE got their dream come true when the former singer joined the current lineup to create one of the most incendiary tracks of the year with "The Signal Fire." Powerful and infectious, the song is the ideal showcase for the two phenomenal vocalists to come together, scream together and create perfect cacophonous harmony to unify any conflicted diehards.

3. Korn - "Idiosyncrasy"

It's hard to choose a favorite from Korn's excellent 2019 album The Nothing, but the fans have spoken, and "Idiosyncracy" took the top spot. With its throwback heavy riffs and polished modern-rock hooks — which both play out with less raw, unhinged emotion than many of the LP's other cuts — the song burns with the same hunger, nonetheless, that made The Nothing a crowning achievement for the Bakersfield boys.

2. Slipknot - "Unsainted"

Slipknot are fearless when it comes to making music on their own terms for themselves and the legions of Maggots who love them. "Unsainted," the lead single off the Nine's We Are Not Your Kind, showed the band had a few new tricks when it dropped in May, opening with delicate choir arrangements before shifting into the punishing, percussion-heavy riff-athons we've come to expect from the Iowan masked-masters. And Corey Taylor's near-pop hook — don't even try to tell us it didn't get stuck in your head at some point this year.

1. Tool - "7empest"

The team here at Revolver HQ and our readers don't always agree, but we do an awful lot. When it comes to the best song of 2019, our opinions align once again. Tool's momentous comeback album, Fear Inoculum, isn't beloved by all — some find it too long, too meandering, too mellow — but few can knock the LP's climatic cut "7empest." Fifteen-plus minutes of polyrhythmic space and time exploration spiraling into a wormhole, it's heady as fuck, but also captures much of the menace and malice of the band's punchier Nineties output. In the words of Anthrax's Charlie Benante, "It's Tool at their most Tool-ish," and that's a very good thing.