What are the metal songs that define each year since the genre's unholy birth in 1970? Loudwire's writers recently hashed it out, year by year. Some years, it was a no-brainer (it's tough to argue with Black Sabbath in 1970, for example). In other years, things got contentious and came down to one deciding vote. That was the case when we decided on the best metal song of 2018, but this list is an effective reminder that metal is an ever-evolving beast. And with that in mind, we'll note that we may change our minds on the best song of 2018 in the next few weeks: you never know when a great new metal track will be unleashed.

Scroll through the gallery below to see the best metal song from every year since metal was born. Bonus: we've also included the runner-ups!