Metal Heardle
A daily music-guessing game where you name a heavy metal song from short audio clips that grow longer with each miss. It draws from many metal sub-genres, from classic and thrash to death metal, nu metal, and metalcore.
Metal Heardle is a daily song-guessing game built around heavy metal. Each day it hides one metal track and plays a short clip from the very start, and your job is to name the song before the snippets run out. The pool ranges across classic metal, thrash, death metal, groove, nu metal, and metalcore, so a day might land on Black Sabbath, Metallica, Slipknot, or System of a Down.
What is Metal Heardle?
The core loop follows the Heardle format that many players already know. When you open the puzzle you get the opening moment of the day's metal track, a short piece of audio, and nothing else to go on. You can start typing a title, pick the match from the autocomplete list, and submit it. If you are not sure, you can skip. Either a skip or a wrong guess unlocks a longer piece of the song, so you slowly hear more of the intro, the riff, and eventually the vocals coming in. You get six clips in all, running from one second up to sixteen seconds, before the answer is shown.
What sets this one apart from a plain Heardle is the tight focus on metal and the range of the catalog behind it. Instead of pulling from a broad pop chart, the song list stays inside heavy metal and its many branches: NWOBHM, thrash, death metal, groove, nu metal, metalcore, and modern metal all show up. That means the clues you rely on are different too. A clean acoustic intro, a specific guitar tone, a double-kick pattern, or a recognizable vocal style can each point you toward the right band before you have heard enough to be certain of the exact track.
Metal Heardle is part of the Heardle Decades network, run by an operator who goes by Hey_Moustache and links out to a Facebook page and a Ko-fi. The same network publishes many other genre and decade variants, so if you finish the metal puzzle you can move to a different flavor of the same format. A separate, original Metal Heardle existed at metalheardle.glitch.me, made by Jack Pudwell back in 2022, but that site is now offline. This Heardle Decades version is the live one that keeps the idea going.
In play the game feels quick and low pressure. It is free, it resets to a single new song every day, and a share button lets you post how you did once the round is over. The reveal is gradual by design, so even a run of wrong guesses still teaches you more of the song, and a lucky early guess off a one second clip is its own small brag among metal fans.
How to play Metal Heardle
- Open Metal Heardle at metal.heardledecades.xyz.
- Press play to hear the first one second clip of the day's metal song from its opening.
- Start typing a song title and pick the matching entry from the autocomplete list.
- Submit your guess, or skip if you would rather hear more before committing.
- On each wrong guess or skip, listen to the longer clip that unlocks, up to sixteen seconds, and try again.
- Keep going until you name the song or use all six clips, then share your result.
Tips and strategy
- Guess the band before the exact track. Metal acts have signature tones and vocal styles that often reveal themselves faster than a specific song title.
- Skip early if the first clip gives you nothing. A skip costs the same as a wrong guess and buys you more audio.
- Listen for the drum pattern. A blast beat, a double-kick gallop, or a groove shuffle narrows the sub-genre quickly.
- Pay attention to the vocal delivery once it enters: clean singing, thrash bark, death growl, and nu metal phrasing all sort the field.
- Use the autocomplete to jog your memory. Typing a band name shows which of its songs are in the pool, which can trigger recognition.
- Save a wrong guess to test a hunch. If two songs sound plausible, spending one attempt can confirm the direction and unlock a longer clip either way.
Good to know
- Category
- Music
- Resets
- Daily, one new song each day
- Cost
- Free to play
- Guesses
- 6 clips, from 1 second up to 16 seconds
- Modes
- Single daily puzzle
- Feedback
- Longer clip unlocks per miss; share button for results
- Creator
- Heardle Decades network (Hey_Moustache)
- Platform
- Browser
Metal Heardle FAQ
Is Metal Heardle free?
Yes. It is free to play in a browser at metal.heardledecades.xyz, with no purchase required to play the daily puzzle.
How do you play Metal Heardle?
You listen to a short clip of the day's metal song, then type and select a title from the autocomplete list and submit it. Each wrong guess or skip unlocks a longer clip, from one second up to sixteen, and you have six clips to name the track.
When does Metal Heardle reset?
It resets daily, offering one new metal song every day.
Is Metal Heardle like Wordle?
It shares Wordle's one-puzzle-a-day, limited-guesses idea, but instead of letters you are identifying a song from audio, in the Heardle style, with the clip getting longer after each miss.
Who made Metal Heardle?
This version is part of the Heardle Decades network, run by an operator known as Hey_Moustache. A separate original Metal Heardle made by Jack Pudwell in 2022 is now offline, and this is the live replacement.