Kerrang!'s writers and photographers count down the five songs they can't stop listening to in 2019. Caution: earworms ahead.
Following on from the Kerrang! team's top 10 albums, we thought it right to celebrate the absolute tunes that we've been jamming over the past 12 months. You know the one, those songs you just can't stop listening to, earworming their way in and never leaving until your Spotify play count is skewed all over the place.
Below, some of the writers and photographers behind Kerrang! reveal the five songs that have defined their year. From prog-metal epics to crushing hardcore to hip-hop/rock crossovers, these are the songs you need to listen to. And if you haven't heard all of them, you probably didn't do 2019 properly.
Luke Morton, Digital Editor
1. King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Superbug
"It's remarkable that my favourite metal song of the year has been written by a psych-rock jam band, but King Gizzard's recent foray into heavier territory is incredible. Superbug tells the tale of an infectious disease that wipes out most of humanity following decades of unnecessary antibiotic use, with the crushing chorus keeps coming back slower and slower and slooooower. Open your lungs and bellow it from the rooftops."
2. Rammstein – Puppe
3. Torche – Times Missing
4. Slipknot – Unsainted
5. FIDLAR – By Myself
Nick Ruskell, Senior Editor
1. Rammstein – Deutschland
"Why haven't they done this before? Yeah, yeah, the video is amazing (90-million views amazing, akshually), but even without any visual accompaniment, Deutschland is Rammstein crystallised to an almost cartoonish degree. I saw them play it at Berlin's Olympic Stadium in summer. It was, as expected, wunderbar."
2. Employed To Serve – Eternal Forward Motion
3. Bring Me The Horizon – wonderful life
4. Venom Prison – Uterine Industrialisation
5. Tool – Fear Inoculum
David McLaughlin, Associate Editor
1. Tool – 7empest
“It’s a jolly sentiment, but 2019 feels like the turd that won’t flush, so it deserves a song that feels like it’s got end of days fatalism in its very DNA.”
2. LURK – Electro-Shock
3. Jimmy Eat World – Stay (All The Way)
4. FIDLAR – Called You Twice
5. The Menzingers – I Can’t Stop Drinking
Emily Carter, News Editor
1. Brian Fallon – You Have Stolen My Heart
“Only Brian Fallon could release a new single three days before we had to submit this list and instantly secure the top spot for my favourite song of the year. His “most direct attempt at a love song yet” made me cry when I first heard it while waiting for the bus to work one morning, and I’ve no doubt the rest of his new album, Local Honey, will follow suit in 2020.”
2. The Menzingers – America (You’re Freaking Me Out)
3. Fall Out Boy – Dear Future Self (Hands Up)
4. Angels & Airwaves – Rebel Girl
5. FIDLAR – By Myself
Hannah May Kilroy, Production Editor
1. Heilung – Norupo
"Heavy, eerie folk music dubbed 'Amplified History', instruments made from human bones, trance-inducing primal beats and otherworldly throat singing, all created by antler and pelt-clad heathens and a wild warrior choir? Sign me up! Their performance at Midgardsblot Festival in Norway last summer was one of my favourite live shows of all-time."
2. Rammstein – Deutschland
3. LINGUA IGNOTA – DO YOU DOUBT ME TRAITOR
4. Rotting Christ – Vetry Zlye
5. Rosalie Cunningham – Ride On My Bike
Phil Alexander, Global Creative Director
1. King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard – Mars For The Rich
"Along with the likes of Zig Zags, Aussie psych merchants King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard released an album that demonstrated the impact of ‘80s thrash metal on modern rock music. And none more so than on this glorious, cantering tune where post-NWOBHM influences collide with space rock vibes, before collapsing into a bass solo."
2. Josh Homme/Desert Sessions – Crucifire
3. Ozzy Osbourne – Under The Graveyard
4. Amy And The Sniffers – Some Mutts Can’t Be Muzzled
5. SWMRS – Berkeley’s On Fire
Ethan Fixell, U.S. Executive Director
1. Dead Soft – Step Out
"You might not yet know Vancouver, BC's Dead Soft – but after one listen to the catchy-as-all-hell single from the indie trio's fuzzed out new album, Big Blue, you'll never get them out of your head. With its earworm of a chorus and chirpy, yet apocalyptic lyrics ('I have this dream that keeps coming back for me / On a sunny summer day / Humanity's erased'), Step Out is the perfect song to encapsulate 2019."
2. Blood Incantation – Awakening From the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)
3. Trade Wind – The Beige
4. Knocked Loose – Mistakes Like Fractures
5. Baroness – Tourniquet
Chris Krovatin, U.S. Editorial Manager
1. Bloody Hammers – From Beyond The Grave
"Ever wanted to explode out of a green-glowing hole in the ground on Halloween night, and sweep the love you left behind into the sky? Because now you have a song to do that to."
2. He Is Legend – Boogiewoman
3. Enforcer – Die For The Devil
4. Devil Master – Desperate Shadow
5. Acid Witch – It’s Halloween Night (The Witches’ Jack-O-Lantern)
Steve Beebee, Writer
1. Royal Republic – Fireman & Dancer
"Faced with something as extravagantly camp as this, you either ran back home in horror or pitched your tent and joined in. It seems fair to say that no band went further in its desire to entertain us this year than snazzy-suited Swedes Royal Republic. This song steamrollered punk into disco at a giddy gallop, and even chucked in a sax solo. The result was an absolute party banger, daft but relentlessly joyful and just the kind of dancefloor burner you might need to divert your attention from challenging times."
2. The Wildhearts – Diagnosis
3. Rival Sons Feral – Roots
4. The Wildhearts – Let ’Em Go
5. Royal Republic – Anna-Leigh
Naomi Sanders, Writer
1. Reason Define – Reaper
"The album track in itself is fantastic, but the addition of Jacob Peters from Never I is what kicks this song specifically to my Number 1. The unclean vocals over the already brilliant breakdown brings about a darkness that encompasses the song. The riff, the bass slide, the vocals; everything comes together to make it the year’s best song."
2. Creeper – Born Cold
3. Yungblud – Parents
4. FEVER 333 – ONE OF US
5. Bring Me The Horizon – medicine
Dan Slessor, Writer
1. Rammstein – Puppe
"Rammstein’s latest was easily one of 2019’s finest albums and Puppe stands as its finest moment. A decent slow-burner in its own right, it’s when the chorus arrives and vocalist Till Lindemann loses it in almost feral fashion that things go to a whole new level."
2. Bury Your Dead – Collateral
3. Iron Reagan – Authority
4. Whitechapel – When A Demon Defiles A Witch
5. Weezer – Africa
Kiran Acharya, Writer
1. Tool – Invincible
"In one of Tool's most accomplished songs, guitarist Adam Jones plays with a personal minimalism where relatively simple components are made compelling through feel, emphasis and precision. In place of solos there are luminous phrases, while mesmeric bass and thunderous drums rise around Keenan's autumn-years parable of diminished youth – one final, self-consoling tale."
2. Loathe – Aggressive Evolution
3. Battles – Titanium 2 Step
4. Employed To Serve – Eternal Forward Motion
5. BATS – Old Hitler
Jake Richardson, Writer
1. Machine Gun Kelly – I Think I'm OKAY (Feat. Yungblud and Travis Barker)
"This collaboration between rapper Machine Gun Kelly, pop-rock firebrand Yungblud and punk superstar Travis Barker is a sheer delight. A track that’s built around a youthful sense of reckless abandon and self-destructive behaviour, it’s one of the best songs both MGK and Yungblud have put their names to; while for Travis, I Think I’m OKAY is yet another example of how getting the blink-182 sticksman to feature on your music will only yield positive results."
2. Slipknot – Unsainted
3. Holding Absence – Monochrome
4. Creeper – Born Cold
5. blink-182 – Darkside
Mischa Pearlman, Writer
1. Vinnie Caruana – Better
"Though best known for fronting punk outfits The Movielife and I Am The Avalanche, Vinnie Caruana is no stranger to making softer, more contemplative music. Better – from this year's Aging Frontman EP – could well be the best song he's ever written. It's a beautiful and solemn dirge that reflects on love and life and our purpose in the world. And even though it's the kind of song that will bring you to tears and make you miss everyone who was once a part of your life but is no longer, it'll still make you smile as you remember the good times."
2. PUP – Scorpion Hill
3. FEVER 333 – Burn It
4. Frank Iero And The Future Violents – Young And Doomed
5. The Menzingers – Portland
James MacKinnon, Writer
1. Mannequin Pussy – Drunk II
"These Philly punks’ album, Patience, boasts enough hooks to seriously endanger marine life, but Drunk II is undoubtedly the biggest catch. It’s got the whole cycle of falling in and out of love, complete with ‘fuck you's and ‘I miss you’s in an intoxicating swirl of punk, pop and sass. A swooning slice of power pop perfection that, yes, stole my heart in 2019."
2. Baroness – Tourniquet
3. The Menzingers – Farewell Youth
4. Pixies – On Graveyard Hill
5. Soft Kill – Tin Foil Drip
Paul Harries, Photographer
1. Slipknot – Unsainted
"The whole Slipknot album is brilliant, so it is hard to pick a best song for this list, but I will go for Unsainted as it was the first single... although I do love the strangeness of Spiders."
2. Slipknot – Spiders
3. Rammstien – Deutschland
4. Bring Me The Horizon – wonderful life
5. Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross – The Brick
Sam Law, Writer
1. Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – Crowbar
"When Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes started playing Crowbar live back on February’s sold-out UK tour, they quickly took to playing it twice during their set: as a raucous opener, then reprised again with more abandon to kick-off the encore. Even amongst three albums of other bangers it is a head-and-shoulders-above stand-out, a rebellious answer to Frank’s old nihilism boiled down to two-and-a-half minutes of snarling sex and swagger."
2. Baroness – Cold-Blooded Angels
3. Midnight – Rebirth By Blasphemy
4. Dinosaur Pile-Up – Thrash Metal Cassette
5. The Menzingers – Strain Your Memory
George Garner, Writer
1. Life Of Agony – I Surrender
“The final song – and crowning moment – on Life Of Agony’s brilliant Sound Of Scars album. I Surrender captures Mina Caputo in stunning form for a song that’s emotionally devastating… in the best way possible.”
2. Tool – Pneuma
3. Defeater – Mothers’ Sons
4. Sleater-Kinney – Hurry On Home
5. Hawk Eyes – Never Lead Me
Jenn Five, Photographer
1. Slipknot – Unsainted
"The slow burn intro. The lyrics. The video. This was my song of the year the first time I heard it and nothing has come close to top it. Fact."
2. 3TEETH – Pumped Up Kicks
3. FEVER 333 – One Of Us
4. Post Malone – Take What You Want (Feat. Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott)
5. Poppy – I Disagree
Ian Winwood, Writer
1. Bad Religion – Candidate
"'Believers, dupes and clowns, I want you all to gather round, to glorify ignorance and fear. I dispense misinformation, to a post-truth generation, my darlings, don’t shed a tear.' Bad Religion may be pushing sixty, but their capacity for sniffing the air and articulating the tenor of the times is as pronounced and perceptive as ever it was.
2. Rammstein – Radio
3. Tool – Invincible
4. Frank Turner – I Believed You William Blake
5. The Wildhearts – Let ’Em Go
Paul Travers, Writer
1. Amon Amarth – Shield Wall
"Amon Amarth have written plenty of anthems in their time, but has there ever been a better wall of death and general carnage theme than this? Bolstered by one of those immense AA riffs and hooks sharper than a finely honed battle axe, it’s a battle metal clarion call. Vikings! Raise the shield wall! Hold the front line! Fight ’til death!"
2. Dinosaur Pile-Up – Thrash Metal Cassette
3. The Chats – Pub Feed
4. Abbath – Bridge Of Spasms
5. Frank Iero And The Future Violents – Moto Pop
John Longbottom, Writer
1. Bring Me The Horizon – wonderful life
“That gigantic nu-metal riff that forms the monstrous backbone of wonderful life? It was written by Bring Me for a Limp Bizkit writing session that never happened. And I love it. You know what else I love? Dani Filth walking out onstage during BMTH’s All Points East set, wearing full battle gear, pushing a shopping trolley. The absolute high point of the summer.”
2. The Menzingers – High School Friend
3. Bad Religion – My Sanity
4. FIDLAR – By Myself
5. Baroness – Tourniquet
Alistair Lawrence, Writer
1. The Menzingers – Strangers Forever
"Whisper it, but Scranton, Pennsylvania’s finest appear to have penned their Dancing In The Dark. Fifth up on an album top-loaded with brilliant hooks, Strangers Forever bounds forth with an upbeat, irresistible call to… let the bad times roll. Well, it is The Menzingers – but that means that no one finds the comfort in articulating isolation and heartbreak quite like them, and this just be the finest example of that yet."
2. Knocked Loose – Mistakes Like Fractures
3. FIDLAR – Alcohol
4. Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – Crowbar
5. Defeater – Dealer/Debtor
