If you’ve ever wanted to feel like your skull is being lovingly caved in by three musicians who genuinely know what they’re doing, METZ is your band. The Toronto-based noise rock trio — Alex Edkins, Chris Slorach, and Hayden Menzies — have been one of the most vital and uncompromising acts in underground rock since their self-titled debut dropped on Sub Pop in 2012. Across five albums, they’ve carved out a sound that owes debts to Big Black, Pixies, and early Dischord-era hardcore without ever sounding derivative. These are the 20 best METZ songs, drawn from real recordings and real releases — no filler, no invention. Just noise, fury, and surprising depth.
Before diving in, if you’re serious about experiencing this band the way they deserve — which is loud — it’s worth investing in quality audio gear. Checking out the best headphones for your listening setup can make an enormous difference when a band like METZ is concerned. The low-end rumble on these recordings is something else entirely through a proper pair of cans.
Wet Blanket
Few debut singles arrive with this much coiled aggression and musical intelligence packed into one place. “Wet Blanket” opens their 2012 self-titled debut and immediately announces that METZ are not here to ease you in gently. Alex Edkins’ guitar tone is a wall of corroded fuzz, riding atop Hayden Menzies’ punishing, precise drumming — a combination that sounds both chaotic and mathematically controlled. The song’s structure is deceptively simple: a locked-in riff, a vocal that sounds torn out of Edkins rather than sung, and a dynamic shift that lands like a freight train. For noise rock enthusiasts who discovered this album via Sub Pop’s digital catalog, “Wet Blanket” remains the clearest encapsulation of the METZ ethos — relentless but never mindless.
Headache
“Headache” is exactly what it promises and so much more. The rhythm section on this track is monstrous — Chris Slorach’s bass tone is so thick and overdriven it barely registers as a conventional bass, instead functioning as a second layer of pure abrasion. Edkins’ vocals carry a desperate, almost confessional quality that contrasts sharply with the sonic brutality beneath them, creating a tension that doesn’t resolve so much as it exhausts itself. Listening to this one on headphones at volume is a borderline physical experience, the kind of track that makes you feel like you’ve run a sprint without leaving your chair. It’s one of the defining moments of their debut, and it holds up immaculately.
Get Off
“Get Off” is one of the fastest, most direct things METZ have ever recorded, and that’s saying something given the competition within their own catalog. The track is barely two and a half minutes of controlled detonation — Menzies’ drumming is particularly ferocious here, with a snare crack that sounds like it was recorded in a concrete bunker. What makes this more than just speed is the melodic intelligence buried inside: there’s an actual hook hiding underneath all the noise, something your brain keeps reaching for even as the production buries it under layers of distortion. This is the track that convinced a lot of skeptics that METZ weren’t just sonically aggressive but genuinely songwriters.
Sad Pricks
There’s a dark humor embedded in METZ’s titling choices, and “Sad Pricks” wears it openly. Musically, the track is a slow-burning, mid-tempo grind that shows a different side of the band’s dynamic range — they’re not always operating at maximum velocity. The riff at the center of this song has a repetitive, almost hypnotic quality, cycling through with slight variations that keep it from ever feeling static. Lyrically, Edkins taps into a kind of bleak social observation that sits somewhere between Steve Albini’s Chicago cynicism and the emotional rawness of early Fugazi. It’s not pretty, but it’s honest in a way that a lot of louder music forgets to be.
Wasted
“Wasted” exemplifies the debut album’s greatest strength: METZ know exactly when to let a riff breathe and when to crush it. The song builds with a muscular, locked-groove intensity before Edkins’ vocals arrive like an interruption to the proceedings rather than a natural addition. The production on the entire debut, handled with that signature Sub Pop clarity-meets-grime aesthetic, is particularly well-suited to this track — the bass and drums feel live and present in a way that a lot of noise rock recordings fail to achieve. “Wasted” is the kind of track that rewards repeated listening because the mix reveals new details each time.
Negative Space
Don’t let the title fool you into expecting ambient minimalism. “Negative Space” is another bludgeoning track from the debut, but it earns its place in this list specifically because of how it handles dynamics. The band allows moments of relative quiet — brief ones — that make the loud sections land with even more impact. Edkins’ guitar work here has a coiled, spring-loaded quality, like the instrument is resisting being played. The rhythm section provides a locked, almost motorik pulse beneath the chaos that gives the track an unexpected sense of forward momentum and structure.
Knife in the Water
Named after the 1962 Roman Polanski film, “Knife in the Water” carries some of that movie’s psychological tension in its sonic DNA. This is one of the more deliberately paced tracks on the debut — slower, more threatening, with a riff that circles the listener rather than attacking head-on. Slorach’s bass sits especially high in the mix here, giving the track a murky, underwater quality that matches the title’s implications beautifully. The song demonstrates that METZ’s musical intelligence extends beyond pure aggression into something more considered and genuinely unsettling.
The Mule
“The Mule” closes the debut on a note of grim determination. The track has one of the more traditional song structures on the record — verses, a discernible chorus shape, a breakdown — and it shows how well METZ can work within constraints when they choose to. The title’s metaphor of carrying impossible weight is perfectly matched by a musical arrangement that feels relentlessly heavy without ever tipping into doom metal territory. It’s a fitting final statement from an album that had spent thirty-odd minutes proving the band’s compositional chops.
Acetate
When II arrived in 2015, “Acetate” served as the album’s first declaration of intent, and it’s a significant step forward in terms of production sophistication. Working again with Graham Walsh, METZ managed to find more space in their recordings without losing any of the density that made the debut so compelling. The guitar tone on “Acetate” is slightly more refined — the distortion is still corrosive, but there’s a new precision to how it sits in the stereo field. This track showed listeners that METZ were evolving without compromising the essential harshness that defined them.
The Swimmer
“The Swimmer” is arguably the most emotionally complex track in METZ’s catalog up to that point. The melody buried within the noise is genuinely affecting — there’s something almost plaintive about Edkins’ vocal line, a quality that creates a striking dissonance with the abrasive sonic environment surrounding it. The song’s structure is more expansive than most METZ material, with a mid-section that opens up before collapsing back into density. This is a track that rewards listening with quality earbuds, which is why exploring earbuds that handle complex audio well is worth your time if you plan to spend serious hours with II. The detail in Walsh’s production mix is extraordinary.
Nervous System
“Nervous System” operates on a physiological level that few rock tracks manage. The rhythm patterns shift unexpectedly in ways that consistently wrong-foot the listener’s internal timing — a deliberate technique that generates a low-level anxiety throughout the track’s runtime. Menzies’ drumming is particularly adventurous here, incorporating fills and transitions that feel improvised but are clearly meticulous. The track sits at the center of II‘s running order and functions almost like a release valve for the tension the album has been building.
Spit You Out
Lyrically one of the more direct songs in the METZ catalog, “Spit You Out” channels interpersonal disgust into three minutes of grinding guitar rock that feels personally cathartic in a way their more abstract material sometimes doesn’t. The chorus — if you can call it that — lands with a clarity unusual for this band, with Edkins’ voice cutting through the mix in a way that’s almost melodic. It’s one of the most accessible tracks on II without feeling like a concession or a reach for mainstream appeal.
Wait in Line
“Wait in Line” has a tension-and-release structure that works almost like a hydraulic mechanism — pressure builds, the track explodes, rebuilds, explodes again. It’s a song about frustration, and the music reflects that theme in every technical decision. The guitars grind against each other in the verses before snapping into alignment for the loud passages, creating a physical sensation of conflict resolving into violence. For a band who sometimes get labeled as purely aggressive, this track is a reminder of how compositionally sophisticated METZ actually are.
Drained Lake
Strange Peace marked another sonic evolution, and “Drained Lake” captures the album’s more expansive, atmospheric approach. Produced by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago — a pairing that sounds almost too perfect on paper but fully delivers — the recording has a rawness and physicality that the earlier albums, for all their merits, couldn’t quite match. “Drained Lake” has a more open, spacious quality in its verses that makes its loud passages even more effective by contrast. The Albini engineering allows each instrument to occupy its own distinct space in the stereo field, which is revelatory for a band whose sound had sometimes felt like an undifferentiated wall of noise.
Mess of Wires
If “Drained Lake” shows Strange Peace‘s atmospheric side, “Mess of Wires” demonstrates that METZ hadn’t softened their attack. Recorded live to tape at Electrical Audio, the track has an urgent, almost documentary quality — you can feel the physical space of the room in the drum sound. The interplay between guitar and bass is particularly inspired here, with Slorach pushing back against Edkins’ riff in ways that create productive tension rather than simply doubling it. It’s one of the most dynamically alive tracks in their catalog.
Mr. Plague
“Mr. Plague” has one of METZ’s most memorable central riffs — a stuttering, stop-start guitar figure that feels genuinely threatening in a way that sustained aggression sometimes doesn’t. The track benefits enormously from the Albini recording approach: every pause in the music registers as meaningful silence rather than just a gap in the noise. Lyrically, the character sketched here is deliberately ambiguous, which makes the song’s menace more universal and more effectively unnerving. It’s a high point on an album full of them.
M.E.
Automat represented a significant stylistic expansion for METZ, incorporating synthesizers and more overtly experimental textures without abandoning the noise rock foundation. “M.E.” is the album’s emotional core — a track that uses sonic disorientation to express something genuinely vulnerable. The introduction of electronic elements doesn’t feel grafted on; instead, it feels like a natural extension of the band’s existing interest in texture and density. This is METZ growing without losing themselves, and it’s one of the most compelling moments in their discography. You can find more explorations of bold rock songwriting across GlobalMusicVibe’s song catalog if METZ has opened the door for you.
Dirty Shirt
“Dirty Shirt” is one of the more abrasive moments on Automat, which uses its harshness strategically in an album that’s frequently doing something more nuanced. The contrast between the track’s blunt sonic attack and the more experimental material surrounding it on the record is clearly intentional — this is METZ reminding you what they’re capable of when they decide to simply destroy. The rhythm section sounds almost improvisational in its ferocity, though there’s clearly nothing accidental about how the track is constructed.
Soft Whiteout
“Soft Whiteout” is one of the most genuinely unsettling things METZ have recorded. The track uses layered guitar textures in a way that creates a kind of cognitive dislocation — it’s difficult to locate where the melody is, or whether there is one, and that disorientation is entirely the point. The song’s production uses reverb and feedback as compositional tools rather than effects, creating an environment rather than a conventional song structure. It’s the most purely experimental thing on Automat and one of the most interesting tracks in their catalog.
Demolition Row
The collaborative single with Adulkt Life is a fascinating document of two noise rock sensibilities meeting on common ground. “Demolition Row” has a slightly different energy from standard METZ material — the Adulkt Life influence brings a punk economy and directness that pushes back against METZ’s tendency toward textural density. The result is something leaner and in some ways meaner than either band might produce independently. As a piece of recorded music, it demonstrates that METZ’s core values — volume, intensity, compositional rigor — translate seamlessly even in collaborative contexts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What genre is METZ?
METZ are primarily classified as noise rock, with strong influences from post-hardcore, punk, and art rock. Their sound draws comparisons to bands like Big Black, Pixies, Shellac, and Sonic Youth, though they’ve developed a distinct identity across their five-album catalog. Their later work, particularly Automat from 2019, incorporates experimental and electronic elements that broaden their sonic palette while maintaining the aggressive core of their sound.
What label is METZ on?
METZ have released most of their catalog on Sub Pop Records, the Seattle-based independent label also home to Mudhoney, Fleet Foxes, and many other influential acts. The Sub Pop relationship has been consistent since their self-titled debut in 2012, giving them both creative independence and meaningful distribution.
Who produces METZ albums?
METZ have worked with a small number of key collaborators. Graham Walsh produced their first two albums and has remained closely associated with the band. Strange Peace from 2017 was engineered by Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago — a significant milestone given Albini’s legendary status in noise rock and post-hardcore recording. Automat from 2019 saw the band experimenting with their own production approaches alongside outside collaboration.
Is METZ still active?
As of 2022, METZ remained active, releasing the collaborative single Demolition Row with Adulkt Life and continuing to tour. They have not announced a hiatus or dissolution, and their profile in the noise rock underground remains strong.
What is the best METZ album for new listeners?
Their self-titled 2012 debut is the most direct entry point — it’s the most immediate and uncompromising distillation of what makes METZ compelling. However, Strange Peace from 2017, recorded with Steve Albini, offers the best audio quality and dynamic range, which can make the noise rock experience more accessible for listeners on high-quality audio equipment. Automat from 2019 is the best choice for listeners who want METZ at their most sonically expansive and experimental.