Top 10 albums of the year 2025
Happy New Year, dear readers! Once again probably too late for some of you to even consider the term appropriate any longer. But as y'all should've noticed by now, I'm notoriously behind all other album reviewers in the world, and I can't be bothered to justify or even explain anything any longer. (Besides, exactly WHEN is that alleged cut-off date where the phrase "Happy New Year" stops being relevant? He asked rhetorically.)
Anyway, on to the annual album Top 10. Last year, it had a considerable overweight of solo releases. The year before that, the artists tended to be 50+ years old. And while that is probably also the case for 2025's Top 10 (can't be bothered researching it; neither could anyone), this one is leaning towards the more brutal, dark, and doomy side of metal.
Top 10 albums 2025
- Thundermother – "Dirty & Divine"
The biggest exception on this otherwise so brutal, dark, and doomy Top 10 is this year's supreme hard rock bash from a group whose baseline of quality is up there with the genre's all-time finest purveyors. Thundermother took me by storm with their previous album and did it all the more so in following up with a release that, if possible, is just that tad better. Dirty and divine indeed, the group's musicianship is flawlessly swinging; their brassy energy is electrifying, and above all, their hooks and melodies are irresistibly infectious. So infectious that you'd only need to hear bangers like "Speaking of the Devil" and "Dead or Alive" a couple of times to have your arms fly towards the heavens by merely reading the song titles. In a fair world, this band would be playing 5-digit crowds every year and getting lifelong public funding from the UN. - Cryptopsy – "An Insatiable Violence"
Living up to its title as much as the above entry, Cryptopsy's latest LP was, indeed, the most violent release of 2025. Putting the 'brutal' in 'brutal death metal' as well as implausibly kicking even more unearthly energy into the genre, the Canadian DM veterans wasted nary one second of their 33-minute sonic doomsday barrage, virtually mocking everything beautiful ever created by mankind. "An Insatiable Violence" managed to be uncompromising and relentless through-and-through, even in spite of any and all variation gradually unveiling itself with every listen – both factors curiously soliciting further listens of something that most people would find unlistenable. - Author & Punisher – "Nocturnal Birding"
If possible, even more inhuman and harsh than the above. Whereas Author & Punisher's previous LP bore clear indentations from sources of influence in new wave and new age alike, his newest LP had exactly zero redeeming elements. Drawing upon the coldest corners of industrial and the most punishingly (!) heavy corners of doom metal, "Nocturnal Birding", also much like the above entry, was a rare example of just how severely an artist can perturb his listeners during 35 minutes. And also, apparently, it was about birds somehow. - Evoken – "Mendacium"
From not only an actual doom metal band, but pioneers within the genre's funeral subdivision, as it were, "Mendacium" explored the full spectrum between stately resonant immensity and frighteningly grim darkness. Based upon the canonical hours of prayer in monastic Christianity, it sounded anything but sanctimonious, fiendishly slow tempos flanking baleful blast frenzies and bearing near-indecipherable lyrics, growled as well as whispered and spoken, and enigmatic as well as unapproachable. – Just like the music itself. - Grave Digger – "Bone Collector"
Among the truest releases of 2025, German metal institution Grave Digger's impressively 22nd LP thrashed across the dirty lowlands with a fiery zero-shits-given energy that you'll only find in bands who are metal to the bone. Played with equal parts blinding energy and precision, "Bone Collector" might not exactly bring anything new or very cosmopolitan to the table – but what a blessing that it doesn't. This, newbies, is the real fucking deal. - Hate – "Bellum Regiis"
Biggest surprise last year. While not having bothered with the band due to their daft name, Hate blew me away all the more so with their uniquely otherworldly blackened death metal, seemingly drawing upon cosmic inspiration as much as musical ditto. Equally majestic and malevolent, and with a powerful asset in its esoterically mind-bending lyrics – adding an extra dimension to something already bordering the extra-dimensional. - Brainstorm – "Plague of Rats"
Another case of Germans simply forging the purest steel of them all, "Plague of Rats" was an impressive example of an album that kept on delivering at top capacity from start to finish. That is, delivering melodies equally empowering and almost overwhelming in all their enticing pathos, along with blessedly reactionary heavy metal as it damn well is. - Paradise Lost – "Ascension"
Like seeing an old friend, "Ascension" was my first check-in with Paradise Lost in 20 years. And what a joy it was to revisit those ceremoniously gothic soundscapes that allured my teenage self about PL all those years ago. Not only does Nick Holmes seem to have embraced his natural limitations, paradoxically making him a better singer for it; he's even reintroduced that ugly ol' growl of his. And equally important long-time band-buddy Greg Mackintosh magically lets one bewitching guitar figure after the other soar into the cold, shadowy eventide. It's called originality. - Behemoth – "The Shit ov God"
Another unlikely Polish representative – and probably the world's biggest – of blackened death metal, Behemoth made a semi-comeback after a couple of uninspired releases. Disproportionately many people – Hell, including yours truly – talked about that dumbass album title, but the pummelling riffs and the astonishingly captivating themes and song structures virtually wouldn't get enough attention. "The Shit ov God", its lame title aside, was the sound of a true original reclaiming the craft that earned him due respect in the first place. - Lord Belial – "Unholy Trinity"
While not original by any measure, "Unholy Trinity" was as fresh of a breeze as the foul stench of real black metal goes on a metal scene where the genre often appears as features with bands that speculate in trends rather than cultivate purity. Lord Belial does none of the former, but exclusively the latter – as pure as that Hellishly vile expression of theirs goes, that is. And waddyaknow, it was even possibly to hear the bass guitar.
Runners-up
Honorable Mentions
Last year, this category was limited to around 10 releases. The year before, it was but one. The year before that, the category didn't even exist. This year, you guys are so in for it.
First and foremost, Night Flight Orchestra released what was perhaps their best album out of a series of already amazing albums. It was, of course, not hard enough to count towards my official Top 10, but it was too good for me to not review it, so I'll damn well mention it before anything else here. "Give Us The Moon" is the sound of warm, tender hopes, magical childhood dreams, and fiery, nostalgic passion, written, played, and performed with a professionalism demonstrating that this supergroup should be the main career focus of all its members.
In the same category of albums that aren't hard enough to count towards the Top 10, the latest solo release from Porcupine Tree mastermind Steven Wilson was yet another step in the right direction since 2021's semi-bizarre "The Future Bites". And like a lot of the other music I review on a monthly basis, the new Perturbator album was ambitious, gigantic, dark, and unique – but still not hard enough for me to review it.
I totally SHOULD have reviewed "Songs to Sun" by Stoned Jesus – a lovely slow and dusty round of stoner prog – which, apparently, is a whole thing. I'm also embarrassed about not reviewing the latest solo LP by Glenn Hughes; it had some badass riffs with an unmistakable Tom Morello-esque guitar tone, and, needless to say, Glenn's voice is tremendous as always. And shit, his songs even have more staying power than newer bands to an extent that would justify a downright sanctions legislation towards groups who don't write proper fucking songs.
Man, I wish I had more time to do reviews. In fact, Albums I'm Ashamed of Not Reviewing, Especially Seeing as I Was Totally Gonna, is hereby a sub-category to Honorable Mentions. And in this sub-category, with "Edsvuren", Sweden's Månegarm gave us a round of tremendous and true viking metal with equal parts folk and black metal features. They don't exploit the genre's idiosyncrasies to goof around like too many others, but take themselves and their music seriously. Several of their sadly more popular peers oughta take note.
Green Carnation tastefully and successfully combined gothic doom metal with progressive rock – curiously sounding a lot like those turn-of-the-century Anathema and Katatonia who went from gothic doom to progressive rock. And speaking of doom, "Major Arcana" by Novembers Doom was a wonderful addition to exactly that sub-genre – equal parts old-school and evolving.
"Mysterium" by German one-man phenomenon Paradox was a tremendously energetic and well-played stretch of heavy goddamn metal with a solid helping of thrashy ferocity. And finally in the sub-category of Albums I'm Ashamed of Not Reviewing, Especially Seeing as I Was Totally Gonna, Sanguisugabogg created what some might consider death metal release of the year – old-school organic and brutal, and featuring some fantastically guttural burping growls and a mesmerizing level of dynamics across songs.
Further in the regular death metal department, Benediction's "Ravage Of Empires" was exactly what old-school death metal should sound like (i.e., kinda like Slayer, but with a dry growl). Unleashed unleashed a decent slab of unmistakably true Swedish viking DM, but without any grand gestures. My loveable countrymen in Baest threw a liberal helping of classic rock into their semi-modern take on bands like the aforementioned, making it slightly less unoriginal, and still kicking the ass it should. Also, they had D-A-D vocalist Jesper Binzer help out; yay for that. And while Rivers Of Nihil's self-titled round of modern prog-death wasn't catchy or intricate enough for me to find it interesting enough to pursue, it was still impressive.
In the world of thrash, Sodom released a solid bunch of old-school ditto á la Sepultura and Slayer – ugly, true, and cool that it still exists. And look, about that Dark Angel album, sure, the production may have been flat, and the vocals may have been wack, but I hereby submit that the riffs were still killer; they still had Gene Hoglan nailing down some equally killer drives and fills, and in any case, it wasn't nearly as horrendous as that review average on Metal Archives would have you think. Also, Revocation's "New Gods, New Masters" was a tremendous storm of technical death thrash. Not particularly memorable, but admirable, and both modern and sharply produced without still pandering to anyone.
2025 was also the year that I finally checked out those Vildhjarta guys. Their new release was a wildly impressive, beautiful, and disturbing little hour of Meshuggah 2.0, but too demanding for me to properly get into. Sharing many similarities, "Braiding The Stories" by Gaahl's Wyrd was fascinating and avantgardistic, spanning from beautiful to somber to hard-hitting – a lot like his fine countryman Ihsahn. But it was virtually only halfway metal, and, indeed, too difficult for me to get into.
Also sharing a lot of these traits was the new LP from Hexvessel, although more to the black metal side of things, but at least as expressionistic and inaccessible. And speaking of black metal, I gave the new Abigail Williams album several spins. It had some really cool ideas, a genuinely violent and ugly expression, and a wider range of dynamics than virtually anything else in the genre. Shoulda just fucking reviewed that, too. But, so much music, so little time.
Good old Vicious Rumors released a heavy metal album that was uninspiring, uoriginal, and inelegant, even bordering on autopilot, but still hella fucking true and with an undeniable dedication to the genre. And in roughly the same territory, I finally heard a Sabaton album that I liked. I've had a bit of a difficult time with Sabaton – while some of their songs are arguable bangers, a lot of their material isn't all that exciting if you're familiar with the OGs of metal. Also, those vocals are kinda derpy. However, while they remain derpy on "Legends", the songwriting is near-flawless, the sound is immense, and the band employs some heavy metal devices that you'd HAVE to love if you're into aforementioned OGs. (And if you aren't, fuck off.)
While Nailed To Obscurity's "Generation of the Void" didn't display a lot of personality or staying power, it still did display a lot of great ideas; it was versatile, and it was masterfully produced. They could go far. And finally, while not having a new record out, I'd have to give a shout-out to my black metal countrymen in Lamentari who blew me away live. They've done that before, at Copenhell 2023. But this time, we were indoors, and they played with a set of skills as though they'd sold their souls to one of their supposedly bigger sources of inspiration. However, as much as by The Dark One, they seem to be inspired by power metal, albeit in the ceremonious end of things, not the goofy one. Here's their YouTube channel, and here's their website. D-to-the-K reprazentin'.
The ones I couldn't say much about
Also from my home country, Katla released a bunch of slow, monotonous stoner/sludge. It was okay, but I stopped listening to it midway during a clean interlude where someone spoke with a horrid Danish accent. Lalli'vær'mæ'det. Also in the stoner department, those Pelican dudes put out some instrumental post-metal that sounded alright, but didn't have any noteworthy elements. Decent background music, nothing beyond that.
Coupla minor scandals: There was a bit of controversy about plagiarism surrounding Obscura, whose main member suddenly had to hire three new band members. The resulting album sounded okay – not as muddy as people claim, but also not as tech-death-y as I was expecting, and not interesting enough for a review. Kinda the same went for Hirax: The tree other band members left because they'd had it with the lead singer's bullshit, but the (new) band's new release, albeit only lasting around 20 minutes, was solid thrash.
The new Epica was polished and forgettable, as might be expected, but the sound, the vocals, and the arrangements were impressive. Those seven-stringed guitars and growls sounded kinda forced, though. And then, there was a song whose chorus was centered around rhyming "fire" with "desire", and that's when I stopped listening. In the same corner, Lacuna Coil's new LP was equally polished and forgettable. It did have a bit of Meshuggah-esque riffing, but then there was a downright pop-earworm calculation of a song, and that's when I stopped listening. And sticking with female-fronted bands, the new Jinjer album was interesting from a compositional point of view, but nothing stuck apart from the sound in and by itself.
Rwake put out a full album with six tracks, of which I heard two. It was hella heavy and experimenting; it had some melodically interesting passages, but it was way too convoluted and inconstant for my level of patience. I can't be bothered pronouncing their weird-ass name, either, so that's just as well. And staying with weird-ass names I can't be bothered pronouncing, the new Drudkh was uncompromising and atmospheric, but that's because it was also long, monotonous, and depressing – and solely in a Minor-key, it seemed. Same thing went for Deafheaven's new release, which did have some cool ideas and passages, though. There were also some fine ambiances and strong vocal performances on the new album from In The Woods..., but not a lot of grand gestures apart from that.
In the utmost specific category of Swedish Hard Rock That I Probably SHOULD Love, But Don't, H.E.A.T. reigned supreme. "Welcome To The Future" had a gigantic sound, some fat tunes, and some badass riffs, but these guys have each and every cliché down to such a large extent that it tastes like semi-ironic speculation rather than sincere passion. And in that exact same category, Treat, apart from kinda rhyming with the aforementioned, also released a bunch of nice melodic hard rock in and by itself, but their album was a bit long, and the vocals smelled a bit of Auto-Tune.
Also in that same category, Buckcherry's new disc was tolerable hard rock with some cool elements, but at least as many uninspired and trivial ones, along with some blatant AC/DC ripoffs. Staying in Sweden, Bloodbound put out another power metal album with a thick sound and a sharp production, but a baseline that rarely transcended a predictable 4.5/6. Witchcraft chose to not employ a proper producer; the vocals were weak (and Swedish), and the guitar was monotonous and had zero sustain. But I guess they were totally keeping it real.
On to black metal: Temple Of Katharsis released a bunch of that – bad production and everything – and that's all I can say about that. Same thing goes for the new Enthroned – but that didn't seem to garner a lot of popularity anyway, what with zero original members left and all. The new Blut Aus Nord album had a spectacular sound, but the vocals were off-key. And in death metal, the new Sinsaenum would probably be okay for newbies looking for a completely plain representation of the genre, but like all else they've made so far, it just kinda exists.
Coupla deathcore albums. I couldn't tell when one track stopped and the next one started on the new release from The Acacia Strain. Its mood was nice and nasty, but it had no memorability, and there were, of course, constantly those fucking breakdowns. Less is still more, you guys. Same thing went for the Despised Icon record – impressive playing and aggression, but zero staying power, and predictable breakdowns in every fucking "song". Also in the "core" department, the new material from Agnostic Front did kick some ass – I just couldn't determine whether it was particularly good or original.
Kill Ritual play true, but standardized heavy metal, and that's that for them. Same goes for Death SS, but in the more occult, old-school corner, and with an almost pretentious and equally tuneless Tom G. Warrior-like voice. Also in the old-school department, albeit more to the side of classic rock, Don Airey released a solo album, the production and songwriting on which were a bit messy. It had some cool ideas and vibes but it wasn't focused as an entirety. And Giant put out some juicy AOR with strong vocals, but it brought nothing new to the table, and the production was a bit compressed.
The rest here is a bit random. The new Eluveitie album displayed a nice share of thrash tempos, growls, and authentic folk music instruments as you'd expect, but also some poppy, albeit impressive, female vocals on top of some predictable and harmless cadences. The guitars were deep and down-tuned, which might have been cool if they'd focused on fucking riffs instead of grooves. Rise Against were trying out some different vibes, but they're still too neat and shiny to get properly down and dirty, and they're still too whiny to be properly angry.
Mammoth – a.k.a. Wolfgang van Halen – kinda belongs to the same 21st-century type of high school hard rock: He's blinding on a purely technical level, but the production was sterile and way too similar to all that homogenized teenage shit from this accursed century. Also, his vocals are annoyingly nasal. And finally, Propagandhi seemingly tried their damndest to sound like hard, alternative bands from the mid-'90s – think a mix between Therapy?, Helmet, and NOFX. It might've been cool 30 years ago, but the production and performance were unimpressive.
… And this, dear readers, is where I have to cut this mother in half and declare to be continued. As you can perhaps conclude, I listened to more new albums in 2025 than in any other year of my life. – I'm counting 128. And that's still only around 10-15% of all the metal albums that came out.
Yes, here's Metal Archives' list of 2025's new releases for the annual rating poll – counting more than 800 new albums. And here's a video I stumbled upon, summarizing 240 reviews… from Q3 alone. That's just short of ONE THOUSAND new metal albums in ONE YEAR. You get 365 days. How many new releases do you listen to in an average week or month?
Either way, as we've hereby gone through the very best and the ones with certain redemptive qualities all else being equal, part two of this mother is gonna be lower half of the barrel. The boring ones, the annoying ones, and the downright horrid ones. Boy, it's gonna suck. Oooh-wee.
Stay tuned and stay metal.
– Andy