20 Best Metal Albums of 2016

Metal provided a perfectly agitated soundtrack to an agitating year, whether the frustration was Meshuggah's oblique commentary on Europe's inability to treat refugees humanely and Megadeth's dystopian vision of a "Post-American World"; or something more existential, like James Hetfield sneering "We're so fucked" and Neurosis declaring "the end is endless." Dread and anger were expressed in the unpredictable hyper-spazz seizures of the Dillinger Escape Plan, the jazzy off-time menace of Virus and the seismic pummel of Crowbar. Here are 2016's best.