10 Best Hard Rock And Heavy Metal Songs Of 2015 (So Far)

As festival season is well underway, we are now at the halfway point of the year and it has proved a fruitful one for rock music. Despite the claims that 'rock is dead', the genre has been revitalized somewhat in the mainstream with bands like Royal Blood and Muse bringing their harder flavor of rock to the general public.

This has been further solidified by the recent study on Spotify that suggests that heavy metal is more popular than pop music. Though slightly misleading, it's clear that both genres still maintain a passionate and loyal fan-base.

2015 has also saw a resurgence of older artists making a return to the center stage with bands like Slayer taking to the metal pulpit once again and the much anticipated album release by Faith No More after eighteen years out of action. It has also been a great year for upcoming rock and metal acts with fantastic albums from the likes of God Damn and Drenge providing a glimpse into the rock sounds of tomorrow. 

The rest of the year looks good also with releases due for Lamb Of God, Iron Maiden, Motorhead and a plethora more, but it will take something special to top this number one entry. 

Here are the 10 best hard rock and heavy metal songs of 2015 (so far).

Doom metal band Goatsnake are a super-group of sorts who formed in the late 90's with two mainly underground album releases before quickly disbanding to pursue other projects. So it comes with great surprise then that the original line up have released one of the best comeback albums of the year, Dark Age Blues. They are largely indebted to the low, apocalyptic riffs and dark lyrical content of Black Sabbath, typified best on the slow grinding, funeral march 'House Of The Moon'.

They also demonstrate their knack for writing weighty music with the subtle tempo change from verse to chorus emphasizing the sheer, downright heaviness of it. The verse is punctuated with a classic metal riff before mutating into an epic doomsday riff, sounding like it could crumble at any second. 

They are just as much indebted to classic blues as they are to its demonic offspring. The song has the same guttural expression that made the original blues so enthralling and the vocals ring out like gospel preachings of the darker variety with singer Pete Stahl and his choir of angels in disguise taking this track to its logical roots by perfectly nailing the soulful elements of the genre.

Let's hope the band stick around a little longer this time especially if they can conjure up the same hellish spirits found on this dark cracker.