My Favorite Records of 2025
2025 was the first year in quite some time where I released original music. It felt really nice to get that out into the universe so we can start working on new stuff. I’m incredibly proud of that album and if you haven’t checked it out yet I’d love for you to give it a spin at one of the links below (or wherever you listen to music.)
We’re still in a beautiful death metal renaissance and I am here for it.
Albums I released in 2025
What We Owe The Dead - Rituals of the Collapse
Youtube Music | Spotify | Bandcamp
And now, on to my favorites…
35.) Florence + The Machine - Everybody Scream
Haunting and catchy at the same time.
34.) Matt Jencik & Midwife - Never Die
Loved this! Reminds me of autumn.
33.) The Last Dinner Party - From the Pyre
Quite chill. Excellent songwriting and arrangements.
32.) Hexvessel - Nocturne
This was excellent! Love the liberal usage of clean vocals throughout and the analog synths on track 9!
31.) The Vintage Caravan - Portals
Just really good songs from start to finish. The Mikael Akerfeldt feature was unexpected but quite powerful.
30.) Blindfolded and Led to the Woods - The Hardest Thing About Being God Is No One Believes Me
This band writes music that speaks to me. Harsh and abrasive and wonderful.
29.) Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound
This band is so much fun for a black metal band. Not sure if I like the first one or this one better. Songwriting prowess is wonderful, kinda wish I was in this band.
28.) Cult Burial - Collapse of Pattern, Reverence of Dust
This was a surprisingly awesome, grimey black metal record. Big fan.
27.) Stellar Circuits - Phantom : : Phoenix
Loved the songwriting and the energy and performances. I remember thinking to myself numerous times while listening to this one just how interesting their arrangements and song structures were. If you dig proggy rock or metal give this a whirl.
26.) Ba’al - The Fine Line Between Heaven and Here
This is the goods. Blackened post metal.
25.) Lamp of Murmuur - The Dreaming Prince in Ecstasy
This is the best Lamp of Murmuur album yet. Excellent, hypnotic riffing and songwriting. Psychdelic almost. The eponymous three part song is so fucking good, definitely song of the year candidate for the trifecta. Historically I haven’t loved what this project has done as much as everyone else but this one is something special.
24.) HAIM - i quit
Excellent songwriting, every single track is a banger earworm.
23.) Queens of the Stone Age - Alive in the Catacombs
Phenomenal production, as in some of the best production ever put to record, in my opinion. It’s criminally short but it stands on it’s own as an important part of QOTSA history. Hauntingly beautiful. I’m really glad they were able to make this and I wish I could have been there when it was recorded.
22.) Cryptopsy - An Insatiable Violence
Outstanding death metal right here. Intense and in your face and I loved every second of this one. Performances across the board are stellar, great songs, great production.
21.) Depravity - Bestial Possession
This is so good. Starts off with a bang, the first track is one of my favorite songs of the year I think. Great riffing, grimey production, what more could you ask for in your death metal? So good.
20.) Chairmaker - Leviathan Carcass
Grindcore clinic. Quick and to the point. Excellent drumming. Excellent riffing. Loved this. It’s so short, why not spin it again?
19.) Drouth - The Teeth of Time
Was not expecting this one, it’s so good. Riffs on riffs, great grimey production, dig the vocals, drumming is mad. More death metal excellence.
18.) Grey Aura - Zwart Vierkant: Slotstuk
This band continues to push the envelope of what the genre of black metal envelopes (and extreme music in general.) Oh man this was wonderful. Loved the pacing and songwriting here. Excellent record.
17.) Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power
Incredible record. My favorite since New Bermuda. They finally nailed the “Deafheaven of old and new combined” into a great sound. This is so good and I can’t believe it’s so low on my list because I liked it so much.
16.) Sunny War - Armageddon in a Summer Dress
Saw an article about Sunny War and checked this out. Banger album. Incredible songs and performances.
15.) Bask - The Turning
This band has a way of blending clean + effected guitar with distorted guitar in a way that works oh so well and not too many bands do nowadays. Wonderful album. The story told here is a good one and the soundtrack makes it even better. I listened to this album so many times.
14.) Silver Knife - Silver Knife
This is incredible black metal. Guitar riffs are so good. This is as good or better than the first LP in 2020. Loved this and need to relisten again and again.
13.) The Callous Daoboys - I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven
Whoa, incredible album. Their best so far, no question. The pacing, arrangements, and song writing are all top tier. Outstanding vocal performances throughout, the whole band rips. They really evolved on this record, both in performance and songwriting capabilities. The presentation to the listener and the experience of this album make it so much fun.
12.) Sallow Moth - Mossbane Lantern
This is immediately in my wheelhouse and scratches that grimey death metal itch. Garry Brants (also of Gonemage and Cara Neir) delivered a wonderful record here. Excellent filthy death metal album.
11.) Blood Abscission - I I
Some of the best drumming I’ve ever heard, full stop. Incredible cymbal work. Hypnotic guitar work. Psychedelic as fuck. Will be on repeat for a while, I think.
10.) Messa - The Spin
Damn. Super cool. Vocals are so dreamy. Great songwriting and I’m loving the guitar tones. This thing is dense and meaty and wonderful. I am becoming a huge fan of this band, their last couple LPs have been legendary.
9.) PLASMODULATED - An Ocean ov Putrid, Stinky, Vile, Disgusting Hell
This rules. Wharflurch guitarist / vocalist bringing the grimey, filthy death metal. This is everything I loved about Wharflurch.
8.) Tómarúm - Beyond Obsidian Euphoria
BIG HYPE!!! I was very excited for this one. Another magnificent black metal record to their legacy. This band is something else. Continuing the perfection they started with Ash in Realms of Stone Icons.
7.) Sons of Ra - Standard Deviation
Outstanding progressive jazz metal from my friends and former practice space neighbors. The production on this is unreal. Knocked it out of the park, my friends!
6.) Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out
Every song is a banger. The KDot and Tyler features were epic. Start to finish this is just outstanding production and songwriting.
5.) Yellow Eyes - Confusion Gate
This is the best Yellow Eyes record yet. Outstanding. Guitars are weird and interesting and well done throughout. They are doing some wild, wacky dissonant chord shapes and sounds on here that are so intriguing. I love the pacing and arrangement of the tracks, flows well and was captivating throughout. Must relisten many more times…
4.) Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
If Tool recorded a black metal record. So good. The clean parts really drive home the atmosphere. Excellent record. Love this band.
3.) Cave Sermon - Fragile Wings
I think I liked Divine Laughter better. DL had more interesting polyrhythms that aren’t really present here until the latter end of the album. That all being said, this is still some of the best dissonant progressive death metal arrangements I’ve ever heard. Charlie Park did the singing this time, too, and it came out wonderful! I wonder how Divine Laughter would have sounded with his voice on it…
2.) Rivers of Nihil - Rivers of Nihil
This very easily could have been number 1. Gets better on every listen. Every single song on this is an earworm and digs its tendrils in and simply will not let go. I remember the first time I spun this (me already being a fan of the band) thinking to myself after a few tracks just how catchy the melodies were. The best song is House of Light. My favs are Sub Orbital Blues, Evidence, and Despair Church but every single song on this album could stand on it’s own. There’s so much clean singing melody that I feel like everyone would enjoy this one, even if you’re not normally drawn to death metal (or extreme music in general.)
1.) This Gift is a Curse - Heir
Incredible album. Long songs that are able to fully realize their potential without feeling forced or out of place. Outstanding songwriting and interesting melodies and arrangements. Deranged and wonderful vocal performance. Stunning drumming. So good. Continues to be my favorite of the year so far. The trio of Kingdom into No Sun, nor Moon into Void Bringer is one of the wildest album opening journeys I’ve experienced in a long time. Just really good blackened death metal, with a touch of hardcore in there. I feel like this band is where I was hoping Tides Cult would end up at. Hands down my favorite album of the year and my most listened to.
Honorable Mentions
- …and Oceans - The Regeneration Itinerary
- Abigail Williams - A Void Within Existence
- Allegaeon - The Ossuary Lens
- Bleed - Bleed
- Blood Vulture - Die Close
- Celestial Scourge - Observers of the Inevitable
- Cloakroom - Last Leg of the Human Table
- Demonic Death Judge - Absolutely Launched
- Desaster - Kill All Idols
- Ethel Cain - Willoughby Trucker, I’ll Always Love You
- Fleshwater - 2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky
- FROGG - Eclipse
- Good Teal - Good Teal
- Green Carnation - A Dark Poem, Pt. I: The Shores of Melancholia
- Grima - Nightside
- Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar
- Kardashev - Alunea
- Mares of Thrace - The Loss
- Mriodom - Vlies
- Nite - Cult of the Serpent Sun
- Obscureviolence - Refuting the Flesh
- Outergods - Dethroned & Devoured
- Phantom Spell - Heather & Hearth
- Primitive Man - Observance
- Revocation - New Gods, New Masters
- Rolo Tomassi - In The Echoes of All Dreams
- Sabrina Carpenter - Man’s Best Friend
- Sad Eyes - V 5en5e5
- Saor - Amidst the Ruins
- Serpentes - Desert Psalms
- Symbiotic Growth - Beyond the Sleepless Aether
- The Acacia Strain - You Are Safe From God Here
- Throne - That Who Sat Upon Him, Was Death
- Tithe - Communion in Anguish
- Young Widows - Power Sucker