@Korey Almey

An explosion of new offshoots and fresh paths for the heaviness.

Songs to help you relax and unwind. Updated every Sunday.

Discover new music from artists we think you'll like. Refreshed every Friday.

The tracks you can’t get enough of lately, all in one place. Updated as you listen.

The songs you love. The more you use Apple Music, the better the mix. Refreshed every Tuesday.

Whether it’s a weekday morning or Saturday night, get going with this personalised mix of upbeat music. Refreshed every Monday.

After thrash, death and black metal bloomed throughout the ‘90s, the ‘00s saw an explosion of new offshoots and fresh paths. While Atlanta's Mastodon imbued classic thrash and prog with a shimmeringly clean sound and staggeringly heavy riffs, metalcore found robust new life in powerfully grimy northeastern U.S. groups like Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Metal even got a little “out there” with the experimental thrust of Tokyo's avant-psychedelic trio Boris and sludgy American outfit Isis' hammering post-metal grooves. As the decade closed, groups like Sunn O))) and UK band Jesu led the way with strong, dark vibes.

Shifting the focus from tearaway solos to syncopated riffing, nu metal hurtled into existence with Korn's famously intense 1994 debut LP. When the genre went fully mainstream a couple of years later, bands were recombining sources as far-flung as percolating funk, mouthy rap and brooding grunge. These enduring cuts showcase the strongest of a scene that mutated almost faster than we could keep up.

Metal was on a decidedly dark path going into the ‘90s as the psychedelic and occult vibes practiced by forefathers like Black Sabbath began phasing into themes of violence, politics and despair. Though classic thrashers Metallica and Slayer continued their reign, a diaspora of new subgenres suddenly emerged. Cannibal Corpse, At the Gates and Entombed turned up the distortion and grumbled a new kind of grotesque beauty as the disciples of death metal, while Type O Negative and Marilyn Manson spewed a new American heaviness that favoured gothic and industrial vibes. In Norway, murders and church burnings heralded the menacing, blast-beat-filled black metal of Mayhem, Darkthrone, Emperor and Immortal. Pantera and Sepultura doubled down on the thrash of the ‘80s and took it down a groovier and even more aggressive road.