Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: What are the Top 40 Metal Albums of 2015?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

The January Decibel always gives you the bloodiest slab of red meat: our Top 40 Albums of the Year list (peppered with assorted inside-Deci-ball Top 5s from staffers and musicians). It’s always a challenge to give props to established mainstream artists while repping the underground, but we do our damndest to be fair and thorough based on the preceding 12 months of coverage. Like any year-end list, it generates more electronic facepalms than flattery, but that’s part of the fun, right? And, as always, it features brand new interviews with the top five bands. This year’s mix is as eclectic as any, and numbers one and two (who did not appear on a dB cover this year or, well, to this point, ever) might be a big—albeit hopefully welcome—surprise.

If you tire of the ensuing comments section slapfights (we never do), feel free to explore the rest of the issue, which features a cover story on the resurgent Lamb of God, a Hall of Fame on Canadian thrashers Sacrifice, a revealing Q&A with Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke, and Flexi Series Five-Year Anniversary madness in the form of Misery Index covering Sepultura’s “Primitive Future.”

But I buried the lead. You can check out the list right here, right now, then obviously pick up the issue for all the bonus coolness.