Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” is the #1 Metal Song on Apple Music

Ever wondered how various artists from throughout the metal and hard rock communities stack up against one another when it comes to YouTube views, Apple Music streams, pure album sales, ticket sales (back when those were a thing… and when they become so again) and other metrics? Stream N’ Destroy is a newsletter that features all of those metrics and then some. Compiled by metal journalist and manager Ryan J. Downey, Stream N’ Destroy, which arrives a couple of times a week, has quickly become one of our most anticipated reads the moment it hits our inbox.

The most recent Stream N’ Destroy newsletter, which arrived last night (May 5), highlights the top 40 metal songs on Apple Music, among other rankings. While a small group of bands dominate a large portion of the chart — unsurprising if you’ve followed this column — you might be shocked to learn (or not) that Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” a 30-year-old song, ranks at #1 on the service. Four Metallica songs round out the top six, while 11 fill out the top 40, more than 25%. If not for four newly released Gojira songs placing on the chart, it’s likely we’d have seen even more Metallica.

Meanwhile, Metallica’s 1991 self-titled album — colloquially referred to as The Black Album — continues to sell as well, with 3,400 album “units,” a measure consisting of pure album sales (332), individual song sales (1,400) and on-demand song streams (3.7 million).

Here are the top 40 metal songs on Apple Music as of yesterday, May 5:

1. Metallica “Enter Sandman” 
2. Ozzy Osbourne “Crazy Train” 
3. Five Finger Death Punch “Bad Company” 
4. Metallica “For Whom the Bell Tolls” 
5. Metallica “Nothing Else Matters” 
6. Metallica “One” 
7. Black Sabbath “Paranoid” 
8. Slipknot “Duality” 
9. Five Finger Death Punch “Wrong Side of Heaven” 
10. Five Finger Death Punch “Jekyll and Hyde” 
11. Five Finger Death Punch “Blue on Black” 
12. Metallica “The Unforgiven” 
13. Slipknot “Psychosocial” 
14. Metallica “Sad But True” 
15. Metallica “Master of Puppets” 
16. Black Sabbath “Iron Man” 
17. Metallica “Fade to Black” 
18. Avenged Sevenfold “Hail to the King” 
19. TOOL “Sober” 
20. Five Finger Death Punch “A Little Bit Off” 
21. Metallica “Wherever I May Roam” 
22. System Of A Down “B.Y.O.B.” 
23. Gojira “New Found” 
24. Slipknot “The Devil in I” 
25. Five Finger Death Punch “Gone Away” 
26. Pantera “Walk” 
27. Five Finger Death Punch “Wash it All Away” 
28. Black Sabbath “War Pigs / Luke’s Wall”
29. Slipknot “Before I Forget” 
30. TOOL “Forty Six & 2” 
31. Slipknot “Wait and Bleed” 
32. Slipknot “Unsainted” 
33. Five Finger Death Punch “House of the Rising Sun” 
34. Gojira “Born for One Thing
35. TOOL “Schism” 
36. Gojira “Amazonia” 
37. Metallica “Seek & Destroy” 
38. Tool “The Pot” 
39. Metallica “Fuel” 
40. Gojira “Into the Storm” 

The Stream N’ Destroy email newsletter includes a number of other charts showing data from YouTube, Billboard and other sources. To get access to the full list, and to have data insights like these pumped into your inbox on a regular basis, sign up for Stream N’ Destroy right here.