2000`li yıllar hard rock ve heavy metal müziğin daha da çeşitlendiği zamanlar oldu. 70`ler, 80`ler ve 90`ların klasik gruplarından Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath ve Rush milenyumun önemli bir parçası haline geldi. Diğer yandan grunge ve extreme metal büyük çıkışını sürdürdü. Nu-metal ve metalcore da bu türler arasından kendine yer edinmeye çalıştı.
İnternetin yaygınlaşması ve evrimleşmesiyle beraber müzik endüstrisinde radikal değişiklikler yaşandı. Satılan albümden çok tıklanma sayıları önemsenmeye başlandı. Sosyal medya platformlarındaki beğeni ve paylaşım rakamları bir grubun gücünü gösteren, onu popüler yapan etkenlerden biri oldu.
Loudwire ekibinin hazırladığı 21. yüzyılın en iyi hard rock ve metal albümleri listesi şöyle:
100. Wolfmother – Wolfmother
99. Overkill – Ironbound
98. Chevelle – Wonder What`s Next
97. Seether – Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces
96. Dimmy Borgir – Death Cult Armageddon
95. Converge – Axe to Fall
94. HIM – Love Metal
93. Halestorm – The Strange Case Of…
92. Machine Head – The Blackening
91. Breaking Benjamin – Phobia
90. Immortal – Sons of Northern Darkness
89. Deftones – Koi No Yokan
88. Carcass – Surgical Steel
87. The Used – The Used
86. Pearl Jam – Backspacer
85. Baroness – Yellow & Green
84. Avenged Sevenfold – Nightmare
83. Sparta – Threes
82. Poison the Wall – You Come Before You
81. Cynic – Traced in Air
80. Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
79. Disturbed – Ten Thousand Fist
78. Behemoth – Demigod
77. Puscifer – Conditions of My Parole
76. Shinedown – The Sound of Madness
75. Anthrax – Worship Music
74. Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth
73. High on Fire – Blessed Black Wings
72. Woods of Ypres – Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light
71. Rise Against – The Sufferer and the Witness
70. Linkin Park – Meteora
69. Black Sabbath – 13
68. Shining – V: Halmstad
67. Rush – Clockwork Angels
66. Napalm Death – Utilitarian
65. Isis – Oceanic
64. Baroness – Blue Record
63. Amon Amarth – With Oden on Our Side
62. Audioslave – Audioslave
61. Municipal Waste – The Art of Partying
60. Bad Religion – The Process of Belief
59. Stone Sour – House of Gold & Bones, Part 1
58. Mastodon – The Hunter
57. The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium
56. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Ire Works
55. Ghost – Infestissumam
54. Slayer – God Hates Us All
53. Evanescence – Fallen
52. Pantera – Reinventing the Steel
51. Pig Destroyer – Terrifyer
50. Celtic Frost – Monotheist
49. Bring Me the Horizon – Sempiternal
48. Iron Maiden – The Book of Souls
47. Deftones – Diamond Eyes
46. Incubus – Morning View
45. Avenged Sevenfold – City of Evil
44. Killswitch Engage – The End of Heartache
43. Septicflesh – The Great Mass
42. Agalloch – The Mantle
41. Meshuggah – obZen
40. My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade
39. Slipknot – Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses
38. Queens of the Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
37. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stadium Arcadium
36. Alice In Chains – The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
35. Necrophagist – Epitaph
34. Rammstein – Mutter
33. Cannibal Corpse – Kill
32. Marilyn Manson – Holy Wood (In the Shadows of the Valley of Death)
31. Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake
30. System of a Down – Mezmerize
29. Mastodon – Crack The Skye
28. Tool – 10.000 Days
27. Porcupine Tree – Fear of a Blank Planet
26. Gorguts – Colored Sands
25. At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command
24. AFI – Sing the Sorrow
23. Killswitch Engage – Alive or Just Breathing
22. Ghost – Opus Eponymous
21. Between the Buried and Me – The Parallax II Future Sequence
20. Gojira – From Mars to Sirius
19. Children of Bodom – Follow the Reaper
18. Red Hot Chili Peppers – By the Way
17. Behemoth – The Satanist
16. Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf
15. A Perfect Circle – Mer de Noms
14. Opeth – Blackwater Park
13. Mastodon – Blood Mountain
12. Disturbed – The Sickness
11. Converge – Jane Doe
10. Gren Day – American Idiot
9. Deftones – White Pony
8. Mastodon – Leviathan
7. Between the Buried and Me – Colors
6. Slipknot – Iowa
5. Iron Maiden – Brave New World
4. Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory
3. Opeth – Ghost Reveries
2. System of a Down – Toxicity
1. Tool – Lateralus
