Hardest 100 Winner Announced! The #1 Heavy Song of 2021 Revealed

Perth, Western Australia's Make Them Suffer have taken out The Faction's Hardest 100 of 2021 countdown with their song 'Contraband', featuring Canadian vocalist Courtney LaPlante, from Spiritbox. With over 60,000 votes from across Australia, the countdown now in its fifth year has once again showed the massive strength in the heavy music scene.

The Make Them Suffer track, which was their first single release of 2021, saw them team up with LaPlante for a dynamic slice of metalcore that creeps to life with a chilling piano melody. The band said of the song at the time of release, "Lyrically the song is about everything and nothing at the same time. It’s about relationships with friends and family, but also a low-key political song, as well as an expression of the frustrations surrounding COVID-19 and its impact on our lives, particularly as members of the music community. 'Contraband' is a buildup, the result of two years without musical catharsis."

Looking at the numbers, this year's Hardest 100 showed a couple of interesting trends - listeners were LOVING Australian Music in 2021 - with half of the total number of tracks being from the land down under! 17% of the Artists voted in featured female or non-binary members of their band, and this year was the first appearance of pop singers Miley Cyrus and Avril Lavigne into the Hardest 100 eschelons, following last year's Halsey and Demi Lovato pop star firsts! Our Neighbours across the pond, New Zealand, copped 3 look-ins with tracks from Antagonist A.D., Alien Weaponry and Banks Arcade!

Though they didn't take out the number 1 spot this year (as they have for 3 out of the now 5 countdowns to date), UK legends Architects place 5 tracks in the 100, plus Sam Carter featured as a guest vocal appearance on Spiritbox's Yellowjacket. Other big winners throughout the countdown were Spiritbox with 4 tracks and 2 guest vocal appearances from vocalist Courtney LaPlante on the winning Make Them Suffer track and Erra's Vanish Canvas. Horror-obsessed outfit Ice Nine Kills slashed their way through the pack to place 4 tracks and The Amity Affliction (100% of their output in 2021!) and Bullet For My Valentine placed a respectable 3 tracks a piece in the field.

The Faction's Hardest 100 of 2021 Countdown took place today, Saturday March 5th 2022 and finished at shortly after 6pm AEDT.

One Lucky punter drawn randomly took home a prize pack from Amazon Music valued at over $1000, and listeners all over the country picked up double passes to upcoming heavy music festivals Unify Forever, Halloween Hysteria, Full Tilt Festival, Monolith Festival and Uncaged Festival.

The countdown was hosted by newly-appointed Kill Your Stereo editor and community manager, Lili Jean Berry and The Faction founder Tim Price. Packed out Listening and Afterparty events took place all over the country - Brisbane at The Triffid and Netherworld, Sydney at Crowbar, Melbourne at Black Rabbit and Perth at Lynott's Lounge.

THE FACTION'S HARDEST 100 OF 2021

1. Make Them Suffer - Contraband feat. Courtney LaPlante
2. Bring Me The Horizon - DiE4u
3. Northlane - Clockwork
4. Spiritbox - Circle With Me
5. Architects - Impermanence
6. The Amity Affliction - Like Love
7. Lorna Shore - To the Hellfire
8. Architects - Dead Butterflies
9. Eskimo Callboy - We Got the Moves
10. Northlane - Echo Chamber
11. Stand Atlantic - deathwish feat. nothing,nowhere.
12. Thornhill - Casanova
13. Karnivool - All It Takes
14. Eskimo Callboy - Pump It
15. Spiritbox - Yellowjacket feat. Sam Carter
16. The Amity Affliction - Death is All Around
17. Seiran - The Void
18. Ice Nine Kills - Funeral Derangements
19. Seiran - Dismember
20. Ocean Sleeper - Forever Sinking
21. Slowly Slowly - Blueprint
22. Slipknot - The Chapeltown Rag
23. A Day To Remember - Last Chance to Dance (Bad Friend)
24. RedHook - Bad Decisions
25. In Hearts Wake - Dogma feat. Alpha Wolf
26. Knocked Loose - Permanent
27. Spiritbox - Secret Garden
28. The Amity Affliction - Give Up The Ghost
29. Windwaker - Toxic
30. Slaughter To Prevail - Baba Yaga
31. Ocean Grove - Cali Sun
32. Erra - Snowblood
33. Trivium - In The Court Of The Dragon
34. Yours Truly - Walk Over My Grave
35. Limp Bizkit - Dad Vibes
36. Machine Gun Kelly - Love Race feat. Kellin Quinn
37. Void Of Vision - The Lonely People
38. Ice Nine Kills - Hip To Be Scared
39. Sleep Token - Alkaline
40. A Day To Remember - Everything We Need
41. Trophy Eyes - 27 Club
42. Turnstile - Blackout
43. Korn - Start The Healing
44. Ice Nine Kills - Assault & Batteries
45. Spiritbox - Hurt You
46. Wage War - High Horse
47. Diamond Construct - Hit It Back
48. Gojira - Amazonia
49. Sentiment - Once a Rose, Now a Parasite
50. Void Of Vision - Vampyr
51. Bullet For My Valentine - Knives
52. Empire Within - Protagonist
53. Erra - Vanish Canvas feat. Courtney LaPlante
54. Turnstile - Holiday
55. Holding Absence - Afterlife
56. Limp Bizkit - Out of Style
57. Pridelands - Heavy Tongue
58. Stepson - Deeper Sleep
59. To Octavia - The Sound Of The Rain
60. RedHook - Kamikaze feat. Will King from Windwaker
61. Bullet For My Valentine - Parasite
62. Erra - Gungrave
63. alt. - Devils Cut
64. Architects - Meteor
65. Every Time I Die - Post-Boredom
66. Saviour - Reshape Me
67. Bad Omens - The Death of Peace of Mind
68. Deadlights - Born of a Lie
69. Gojira - Born For One Thing
70. Bullet For My Valentine - Shatter
71. Ice Nine Kills - Rainy Day
72. Sentiment - Tragedy
73. Architects - Discourse Is Dead
74. Diskust - Khronic
75. Avril Lavigne - Bite Me
76. Empire Within - Apathy
77. Twelve Foot Ninja - Start The Fire
78. Stand Atlantic - molotov [OK]
79. The Last Martyr - Hindsight
80. Miley Cyrus - Nothing Else Matters feat. WATT, Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Trujillo, Chad Smith
81. Wildheart - Backburner feat. Bruce Shillingsworth
82. Mirrors - Beneath The Sand
83. Motionless in White - Timebomb
84. Rumours - If Only You Could Feel Something Too
85. 3OH!3 - Vampires Diet feat. Bert McCracken
86. Wage War - Manic
87. Antagonist A.D. - The System is Racist and Oppressive
88. Headwreck - Freefall
89. Machine Gun Kelly - papercuts
90. Alien Weaponry - Tangaroa
91. Justice For The Damned - Sever What Makes Me Like Them
92. Terra - Arrows feat. Daniel Richards from Alt
93. Beartooth - THE PAST IS DEAD
94. Architects - Goliath
95. Banks Arcade - Dont Start
96. Bring Me The Horizon x Jeris Johnson - Can You Feel My Heart Remix
97. Mirrors - Purple Static
98. The Butterfly Effect - So Tired
99. Reliqa - The Bearer of Bad News
100. Stepson - The Entire History Of You