ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album
The ARIA Music Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Australian Recording Industry Association, an organisation whose aim is "to advance the interests of the Australian record industry."
To be eligible, the recording must be an album in the hard rock or heavy metal genres, and cannot be entered in other genre categories. The accolade is voted for by a judging school, which comprises between 40 and 100 members of representatives experienced in this genre, and is given to a solo artist or group who is either from Australia or an Australian resident.
The award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album was first presented to Parkway Drive in 2010, for Deep Blue, they won the award again in 2018 for Reverence. The Amity Affliction, DZ Deathrays & Northlane have received four nominations, however Northlane has most awards in this category with 3 awards from 4 nominations, more than any other artist or band in this category.
Winners and nominees
In the following table, the winner is highlighted in a separate colour, and in boldface; the nominees are those that are not highlighted or in boldface.| Year | Winner | Album/single title |
| 2010 | - | - |
| 2010 | Parkway Drive | Deep Blue |
| 2010 | Airbourne | No Guts. No Glory. |
| 2010 | The Amity Affliction | Youngbloods |
| 2010 | Dead Letter Circus | This Is the Warning |
| 2010 | Violent Soho | Violent Soho |
| 2011 | - | - |
| 2011 | Front End Loader | Ritardando |
| 2011 | Coerce | Ethereal Surrogate Saviour |
| 2011 | Cosmic Psychos | Glorious Basterds |
| 2011 | Dream On, Dreamer | Heartbound |
| 2011 | FLOATINGME | Floating Me |
| 2012 | - | - |
| 2012 | DZ Deathrays | Bloodstreams |
| 2012 | Buried in Verona | Notorious |
| 2012 | Frenzal Rhomb | Smoko at the Pet Food Factory |
| 2012 | sleepmakeswaves | ... and so we destroyed everything |
| 2012 | House vs. Hurricane | Crooked Teeth |
| 2013 | - | - |
| 2013 | Karnivool | Asymmetry |
| 2013 | Airbourne | Black Dog Barking |
| 2013 | Northlane | Singularity |
| 2013 | The Amity Affliction | Chasing Ghosts |
| 2013 | Thy Art Is Murder | Hate |
| 2014 | - | - |
| 2014 | DZ Deathrays | Black Rat |
| 2014 | High Tension | Death Beat |
| 2014 | Shihad | FVEY |
| 2014 | sleepmakeswaves | Love of Cartography |
| 2014 | The Amity Affliction | Let the Ocean Take Me |
| 2015 | - | - |
| 2015 | Northlane | Node |
| 2015 | Born Lion | Final Words |
| 2015 | In Hearts Wake | Skydancer |
| 2015 | King Parrot | Dead Set |
| 2015 | Thy Art Is Murder | Holy War |
| 2016 | - | - |
| 2016 | King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard | Nonagon Infinity |
| 2016 | Hellions | Opera Oblivia |
| 2016 | Parkway Drive | Ire |
| 2016 | The Amity Affliction | This Could Be Heartbreak |
| 2016 | Twelve Foot Ninja | Outlier |
| 2017 | - | - |
| 2017 | Northlane | Mesmer |
| 2017 | Airbourne | Breakin' Outta Hell |
| 2017 | Frenzal Rhomb | Hi-Vis High Tea |
| 2017 | King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard | Murder of the Universe |
| 2017 | sleepmakeswaves | Made of Breath Only |
| 2018 | - | - |
| 2018 | Parkway Drive | Reverence |
| 2018 | DZ Deathrays | Bloody Lovely |
| 2018 | King Parrot | Ugly Produce |
| 2018 | Polaris | The Mortal Coil |
| 2018 | West Thebarton | Different Beings Being Different |
| 2019 | - | - |
| 2019 | Northlane | Alien |
| 2019 | Clowns | Nature/Nurture |
| 2019 | Dead Letter Circus | Dead Letter Circus |
| 2019 | DZ Deathrays | Positive Rising: Part 1 |
| 2019 | King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard | Infest the Rats' Nest |