Year-end consensus · Hard Rock & Metal · four countdowns combined

The best hard rock songs of 2021

Q: What was the top hard rock song of 2021?

Combining 4 year-end radio countdowns, the top hard rock song of 2021 is "Teardrops" by Bring Me the Horizon, which appeared on 4 of the lists.

Four radio stations and charts published year-end countdowns for 2021: 93X, 94.3 KILO, 98KUPD and SiriusXM Octane. Combining every list, the top hard rock song of 2021 is “Teardrops” by Bring Me the Horizon, which appeared on four of the four countdowns. Four different songs were voted number one somewhere: “And So It Went” by The Pretty Reckless feat. Tom Morello, “Let The Bad Times Roll” by The Offspring, “Trouble's Coming” by Royal Blood and “Animals” by Architects. Bring Me the Horizon was the year’s most-charted artist, with three different songs placing 7 times across the countdowns.

4countdowns

118songs charted

4different #1s

Top 100 songs of 2021

All 118 songs →

Ranked by combined points across every 2021 year-end countdown in this format. How it works.

#	Song	Strength	Lists	Best	#1s
1	Teardrops Bring Me the Horizon	351	4	#2	–
2	Animals Architects	256	3	#1	1
3	Self Destructor Chevelle	253	3	#3	–
4	And So It Went The Pretty Reckless	250	3	#1	1
5	Adrenaline Zero 9:36	250	3	#4	–
6	Alone Again Asking Alexandria	225	3	#7	–
7	Kill the Noise Papa Roach	216	4	#2	–
8	Darkness Settles In Five Finger Death Punch	207	3	#2	–
9	Back from the Dead Halestorm	190	3	#10	–
10	Mars Simula Chevelle	189	3	#2	–
11	Warrior Atreyu	171	3	#12	–
12	Bruised and Bloodied Seether	171	3	#6	–
13	Breathe Again Pop Evil	168	2	#3	–
14	Nowhere Generation Rise Against	162	2	#7	–
15	Survivor Pop Evil	153	2	#7	–
16	The Past Is Dead Beartooth	153	2	#5	–
17	Heat Above Greta Van Fleet	143	2	#10	–
18	Dead Inside Nita Strauss	142	2	#5	–
19	Making A Fire Foo Fighters	137	2	#9	–
20	Better Without You Evanescence	137	3	#13	–
21	Shotgun Blues Volbeat	128	3	#16	–
22	Start The Healing Korn	127	2	#1	1
23	Kill Beautiful Things Ded	118	2	#13	–
24	Rainy Day Ice Nine Kills	116	2	#6	–
25	Only Love Can Save Me Now The Pretty Reckless	114	3	#22	–
26	So Called Life Three Days Grace	113	2	#4	–
27	Wasteland Seether	109	2	#15	–
28	Everything We Need A Day To Remember	108	2	#16	–
29	Mercy Ayron Jones	101	2	#13	–
30	Trouble's Coming Royal Blood	100	1	#1	1
31	Living The Dream Five Finger Death Punch	97	1	#4	–
32	Lifeline Bad Wolves	96	2	#18	–
33	Hometown Cleopatrick	96	1	#5	–
34	Don't Back Down Mammoth WVH	95	1	#6	–
35	Sane Fozzy	94	1	#7	–
36	Hip to Be Scared Ice Nine Kills	93	1	#3	–
37	Scarlet Cross Black Veil Brides	92	2	#19	–
38	I Wanna Be Your Slave Maneskin	90	1	#3	–
39	The Ending Papa Roach	87	1	#14	–
40	DiE4u Bring Me the Horizon	86	2	#8	–
41	Not Mad Enough Smith & Myers	84	1	#17	–
42	Infected Starset	83	3	#16	–
43	Wait a Minute My Girl Volbeat	81	1	#20	–
44	Feast of Fire Trivium	77	2	#19	–
45	Bloody Valentine Machine Gun Kelly	76	1	#6	–
46	Heavy Is the Crown Daughtry	74	1	#26	–
47	The Chapeltown Rag Slipknot	74	2	#12	–
48	Circle the Drain Wage War	73	1	#9	–
49	Learn To Walk Again Bad Wolves	72	1	#28	–
50	Hunter's Moon Ghost	71	1	#29	–
51	My Way, Soon Greta Van Fleet	70	1	#30	–
52	Hard Skool Guns N Roses	70	2	#15	–
53	They Don't Want What We Want Asking Alexandria	69	1	#31	–
54	For the Glory All Good Things	68	1	#32	–
55	Ceremony Deftones	67	2	#27	–
56	Take Me Away Ayron Jones	67	1	#33	–
57	Don't Hate Me Badflower	67	2	#20	–
58	Obsolete Of Mice & Men	67	1	#11	–
59	Distance Mammoth WVH	64	2	#17	–
60	Typhoons Royal Blood	63	1	#37	–
61	Intercorrupted RA	62	1	#38	–
62	California Dreamin' Dirty Honey	59	1	#41	–
63	Waiting On A War Foo Fighters	57	1	#43	–
64	The River Is Rising Slash	54	2	#29	–
65	Circle with Me Spiritbox	53	1	#15	–
66	Wrecked Imagine Dragons	52	1	#11	–
67	Supercharged Ayron Jones	52	1	#48	–
68	The Triumph Of King Freak Rob Zombie	51	1	#49	–
69	F the World Badflower	50	1	#50	–
70	Built by Nations Greta Van Fleet	49	1	#51	–
71	Dad Vibes Limp Bizkit	48	1	#12	–
72	Scars That I'm Hiding From Ashes to New	46	1	#54	–
73	Die for You Bring Me the Horizon	45	1	#55	–
74	Invincible Escape the Fate	44	1	#56	–
75	Again Black Stone Cherry	43	1	#57	–
76	Shoulders Coheed and Cambria	42	1	#58	–
77	Realize AC/DC	41	1	#59	–
78	The Unknown 10 Years	40	1	#19	–
79	Samantha's Gone Corey Taylor	39	1	#61	–
80	Once In A Lifetime All Time Low	38	1	#14	–
81	Shame Shame Foo Fighters	38	1	#62	–
82	CoDA Dead Poet Society	36	1	#64	–
83	Virus Dropout Kings	35	1	#65	–
84	Protect The Land System of a Down	34	1	#66	–
85	Choke The Warning	33	1	#21	–
86	Give Me One Reason (The Plug) Black Stone Cherry	33	1	#21	–
87	Love Dies Young Foo Fighters	32	1	#68	–
88	Light Up the Sky From Ashes to New	30	1	#22	–
89	Taking Me Back Jack White	30	1	#70	–
90	Ruthless Nonpoint	29	1	#71	–
91	Hate Plush	28	2	#29	–
92	Let The Bad Times Roll The Offspring	28	2	#30	–
93	Down Love and Death	28	1	#72	–
94	Let's Get This Party Started Tom Morello	27	1	#23	–
95	The Kingdom Bush	26	1	#74	–
96	Blood & Water Memphis May Fire	23	1	#24	–
97	I've Been Everywhere L.A. Rats	22	1	#77	–
98	The Writing on the Wall Iron Maiden	22	2	#18	–
99	Family Van Cleopatrick	20	1	#79	–
100	Set You Free Black Label Society	20	1	#25	–

Every station’s number one of 2021

Station	Number one song	Countdown
93X	And So It Went The Pretty Reckless feat. Tom Morello	93X Top 21 Songs of 2021
94.3 KILO	Let The Bad Times Roll The Offspring	KILO's Top 30 Kountdown of 2021
98KUPD	Trouble's Coming Royal Blood	98KUPD Top 98 of 2021
SiriusXM Octane	Animals Architects	SiriusXM Octane Big 'Uns Countdown Songs of 2021

All 2021 countdowns in this ranking

About the 2021 ranking

Radio stations count down their listeners’ favorite songs at the end of every year. Each station’s list reflects its own audience, so a song that ruled Los Angeles could miss the top ten in Chicago. To find the songs that defined 2021 everywhere, RockLists gives every appearance percentile-based points (a number one earns 100, the last position earns close to zero) and adds them up across all four qualifying countdowns. Each radio format is ranked separately, so classic rock and hard rock countdowns never shift the hard rock results; use the tabs above to switch formats. Read the full methodology.