@silvers Ryder

Created with FreeYourMusic.com where you can transfer playlists to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others

Our editors are constantly searching for songs that are about to make a huge impact. This is what's breaking in hard rock. This playlist is regularly updated—if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

In the late ’70s, ferocious young bands began stripping punk down, making it even louder and faster, and by the early ’80s, hardcore had spread around the world. With their uncompromising attitude and brutal riffs, bands like Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and Agnostic Front launched a revolution, and these ’80s hardcore classics will make you want to get in the pit.

Broken hearts. Bad days. Foul moods. Whatever's getting on your last nerve, let off some steam or find a shoulder to cry on with these heavy emotional ballads and ragers new and old.

The ’90s was a huge decade for hardcore as the genre underwent a divergence of sounds and approaches, sparking numerous new styles and subgenres. Early in the decade, bands like Earth Crisis and Born Against took things in a heavier direction—a sound which led to the success of bands like Refused later in the decade. In New York the continued impact of metal on hardcore produced heavyweights such as Sick of It All, Madball, and Biohazard, while California had more melodic acts like Pennywise and No Use For a Name. Take a tour of the decades evolving hardcore scene with these key artists.

The fringe-and-boots '70s. The leather-and-studs '80s. The T-shirts-and-tattoos '90s. Revisit the timeless riffs, the lightning-bolt solos, and the band logos you could scrawl on a notebook with these certified metal classics. We regularly update this playlist. If you like a song, add it to your library.

Who hasn't been influenced by Alice in Chains? That's the real question. In the years since Layne Staley's untimely death, the grunge pioneers' dark, twisted poetry and radically inventive songwriting have bled into the very bedrock of alt-metal, hard rock, nu-metal, stoner rock, and even metalcore. This seriously hard-hitting mix testifies to the full scope of the band's legacy.

As the 2000s began, hard rock had a nu-metal hangover: Limp Bizkit’s rugged riffage still had teeth, while P.O.D.’s thundering anthems and Papa Roach’s slash-and-burn approach rose to prominence. The genre was given an electrifying creative jolt by Linkin Park, a California group whose hip-hop-tinted take on nu-metal—and frustration-filled lyrics that zeroed in on the pain of personal shortcomings—felt fresh and energetic, not to mention all too relatable to a generation paralysed by post-September 11 uncertainty and turmoil. In fact, although ’90s superstars such as Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers continued to churn out comfort-food hits, a new breed of ambitious hard rockers captured the decade’s winds of change. Muse and My Chemical Romance unleashed heroic glam epics, Evanescence embraced an operatic vocal delivery and radio-ready acts like Shinedown merged unstoppable hooks with roiling emotional angst.

Pantera's fast, angry, and incredibly heavy style has made them a touchstone in the genre. From nu-metal acts like Korn and Limp Bizkit to metalcore bands like Atreyu and Trivium, the aggression, style, and attitude of Pantera has continued to live on. Check out these tracks from bands who take their cues from the metal legends.