10 Most Controversial Metal Albums Of The 21st Century

The mainstream public has always had a bit of a tough time adjusting to heavy metal music. When music was already full of major hooks and singalong choruses, the genre full of screaming, heavy riffs, and demented stories has popped many a monocle in its day.

Ever since metal first started, there have been those records that have almost welcomed controversy. As opposed to shying away from the typical rock sound, some of these albums even used their darker themes as their calling card, almost daring the metal faithful to pick it up and wear it proudly in their record collection. At the same time, plenty of records have been put to market that shocked the metal community at large for either straying from the usual formula or taking a shot in the dark into a different genre.

Whether or not all of these are good records is certainly up for debate, but like the old adage goes, any press for your album is good press. From questionable lyrics to ear-piercing shrieks to the classic bait and switch, here are just a handful of records that left listeners with their jaws on the floor.

Bring Me the Horizon had a lot of promise when they first started getting together in the late '00s. Sure, their sound was a pretty decent form of metalcore at the time, but they were still an impressionable young band that had potential bursting at the seams. These guys could have built themselves up to be something much heavier, but Sempiternal shows the band drawing a sonic line in the sand.

As opposed to the traditional abrasive sounds of metalcore, this record was the first from BMTH that actually had a lot of crossover appeal. For as much as the metallic elements were still accounted for, there were traces of genres like hard rock and alternative music laced throughout its presentation. The label may have had something more to work with, but the outliers of the metal world were disturbed by what they saw.

It's easy to say this record started Bring Me the Horizon's "sell-out" phase, but it doesn't seem to be all that simple. Rather than just stay in their own lane, Sempiternal has grown in stature in retrospect, with Bring Me the Horizon turning into one of the few bands that fly the flag for heavy music in the pop sphere. The band might even make fun of their old fanbase on their recent song "Heavy Metal," but things seemed to have panned out for them in the long run.