Nobody Asked, but Here Are My Top 10 Albums of 2025

2025 Sure Did Happen

But I’m not here to talk about any of that crap, no “how I did this year,” no reflecting on world events, no attempt at promises for the new year. No, because I am here to talk about music that I really fucking enjoy and I want to share the things I really fucking enjoy with you, specifically.

Now, I’m aware that my tastes are… singular, let’s say… but please don’t let that put you off from taking a gander at THE LIST. I don’t only listen to metal, you know. I like lots of stuff! I have Opinions™️ on lots of stuff!

I also compiled a massive playlist with all of my personal recommendations from 2025 and you can take a gander right here BUT DON’T LOOK JUST YET. DON’T. The first ten are my top 1-10 albums in that order, so this is a rare instance where a playlist contains spoilers. Because spoilers for a top ten list are totally really a super big deal.

Before we get into THE LIST, I do have a bunch of honorable mentions I want to go through. After THE LIST, I’ve got a handful of other albums that came out this year which I want to pontificate about for one reason or another. Maybe because it’s an interesting project for this particular artist, maybe because I think it’s an album people should know about and give a listen despite it not making THE LIST, or maybe just because it’s boring as shit and I want to complain.

I think that’s more than enough preamble and we can kick off with:

Honorable mentions

I limited this list to twenty, but there was a lot of good stuff this year. In alphabetical order by artist:

• Allegaeon - The Ossuary Lens

• Agriculture - The Spiritual Sound

• Bon Iver - sABLE, fABLE

• Cabal - Everything Rots

• Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo - In the Earth Again

• clipping. - Dead Channel Sky

• Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out

• Green Carnation - A Dark Poem, Pt. 1: The Shores of Melancholia

• Harakiri for the Sky - Scorched Earth

• HEALTH - Conflict DLC

• Ho99o9 - Tomorrow We Escape

• Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar

• Mae Martin - I'm a TV

• Mawiza - Ül

• Street Sects - Dry Drunk

• STREET SEX - FULL COLOR ECLIPSE

• Sumac and Moor Mother - The Film

• Testament - Para Bellum

• Trauma Bond - Summer Ends. Some are Long Gone

• Tropical Fuck Storm - Fairyland Codex

Enough about these losers, we’ve got bigger fish to fry.

Here it is: THE LIST

10. Tribal Gaze - Inveighing Brilliance

Okay, so this first one isn’t exactly going to dispel any notions about me, but Inveighing Brilliance is just a real solid half hour of death metal goodness.

And I kind of don’t have much more to say about it? If you like death metal, you are going to like this and like it a lot. There is something to be said for a classic fastball down the middle: the guitar parts rule, the rhythms are propulsive, and the growls bursting with energy — what more does there need to be?

I mean, I say that, but the album is a lot more varied and interesting than I’m making it sound — for instance, ending with a drum solo that is actually good. Tribal Gaze pull off some really fun hard tempo changes to breakdowns surgically applied to drive a pit absolutely bugfuck wild like on “Beyond Recognition” and there are plenty of other moments throughout that put them a cut above their peers in the genre.

9. Westerman - A Jackal's Wedding

This is where I earn my pretentious indie points right here.

I don’t remember how I came across A Jackal’s Wedding, but I’m very glad I did. What we have here are eleven tracks that feature a diverse set instruments and styles that all still manage to come together cohesively when it could have easily been a mess. I think that’s due in part to the LP having incredible flow, very much leading you on your listening journey like a seasoned tour guide. And all of that is facilitated by Westerman’s soulful crooning that feels like a warm blanket around my heart.

Sometimes A Jackal’s Wedding is funky and danceable like on “Adriatic,” sometimes it’s pensive and moving like “Nature of a Language.” Westerman has put together a fantastic collection of tunes here that I think everyone should give a listen. There are at least one or two tracks on here that will go straight into one of your playlists, I guarantee it.

8. Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love

This isn’t usually something I notice while listening to music, but the first thing that stood out to me about Live Laugh Love is its inventive use of samples, Mr. Sweatshirt cooking up beats out of some really out there sounds that somehow still come together to deliver Gordon Ramsey approved, Michelin star, Wagyu vibes straight to your eardrums.

“TOURMALINE” in particular stands out to me in this regard for having one of the stems be a sample of… I’m not sure, I think someone laughing? You’ll know what I’m talking about when you listen to it. “TOURMALINE” exemplifies what makes Earl Sweatshirt so special, not just with the samples, but with a unique flow that manages to express earnest emotion related to love and romance.

It’s that earnestness, I think, that makes Live Laugh Love special. There’s little in the way of cynicism or irony here, just words straight from the heart from a rapper with an already singular voice.

7. FKA twigs - Eusexua

EUSEXUA is an album that came out early in the year and found myself coming back to over and over. Yes, there are your infectious bops like “Perfect Stranger,” but FKA twigs manages to weave so much vulnerability throughout the album that it makes the electronic drops really hit.

EUSEXUA belongs to a type of music I’m gong to call “dance the pain away” — a phenomenon which has existed forever but is most recently exemplified by Charli XCX. The contrast between the the high energy dance sections and FKA twigs’ lyrics delving deep into her insecurities is a captivating combination. The songs convey a loneliness and craving for love that makes it an album for us yearners out there. This one is for the yearners — top tier yearning to be found here.

Part of me wanted to be cheeky and include EUSEXUA Afterglow in this slot too since it is, after all, an extension of the same project. However, Afterglow is a much more straightforward, fun dance record. It’s confident, it’s pounding, it’s groovy, it’s just a real good time. And that’s the major difference: absent from Afterglow is the neuroticism and vulnerability that makes EUSEXUA so singular. Which is fine, I’m glad we didn’t get more of the same. It makes Afterglow an interesting companion piece — after doing deep, raw introspection, sometimes you just gotta go “fuck this, enough wallowing, let’s party.”

6. Sanguisugabogg - Hideous Aftermath

Securing the slot on my list for dumb-as-rocks, caveman death metal to tenderize a flank of mammoth to, is Ohio band Sanguisugabogg with Hideous Aftermath. Yes, that is their real band name.

I’ve always wanted to like Sanguisugabogg more than I do, but their previous efforts never consistently had enough good riffage to make me want to stick around, unlike genre contemporaries 200 Stab Wounds (yes, that is also their real band name).

Well, Sanguisugabogg have remedied that and then some. You want riffs? You’ve got the crushingest, chuggiest, stompiest riffs being served on a platter of made of shattered bones right here. There are also a number of features throughout (including by two of the best extreme vocalists in the game, Dylan Walker of Full of Hell and Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation [yes, that is also blah-de-blah]) and one would be forgiven for thinking perhaps the guests are what give the album its juice, but no. Some of the tracks that are credited only to the band are my favorites on the record — I especially dig the down-tempo chug-fest that is “Repulsive Demise” which features some really fun electronic flairs in the form of a menacing sonar-from-hell screech rhythmically piercing into the mix alongside rapid drum machine hi-hats.

The album starts out strong out of the gate with “Rotted Entanglement,” which when I heard for the first time made a big smile break out across my face because I knew Sanguisugabogg had me in good hands. A lot of albums I listened to this year had their best stuff at the front and kind of petered out towards the end (*cough* clipping. *cough*), but Hideous Aftermath saves its most brutal and inventive tracks for the back half.

I’m so proud of my boys. Keep it up, this is good shit.

5. Rosalía - LUX

I really love the “string ensemble with a drum machine” sound LUX has and Rosalía — with her not-quite-opera, not-quite-pop voice — explores as many facets of it as she can over the course of fifteen tracks. It’s always novel to hear the various elements come together, but it never enters gimmick territory. And that’s great because come on, when was the last time you heard a timpani bass drop? There are some absolutely killer moments on here by making the most of both modern production and classical sensibilities. Like a lot of music I love, Rosalía is a master of build-up leading to finales like on “La Yugular” that are just sublime.

I do think LUX runs out of steam in the last few songs, but overall it’s a high quality package. And for music that sounds so pretty, it’s about some pretty disturbing stuff, particularly regarding sexual abuse. The catholic imagery is front and center, as are all the complications that come with it.

I’ve never heard anything quite like LUX before, but man am I glad it exists and exists so well.

4. Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

Of all the albums I kept coming back to throughout 2025, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party surprised me the most with just how much play it kept getting.

Now, this album does have problems. While the hit-to-miss ratio for a 20 song album (18 at launch) is quite high, there are definitely tracks that could have stayed on the cutting room floor. It also feels more like a collection of songs than an album, and given the way the tracks were released one by one on Hayley Williams’ website, that makes sense. It’s a very solid collection, but there’s something about the way the tracklist is arranged that’s a little off and I’m having trouble putting my finger on it. It could be I’m just salty because on release “Parachute” was the final track and now she’s tacked two more to the end and it’s a much weaker conclusion.

And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to give Ego Death a lower placement on the list. I’m not going to pretend like I’m attempting to be objective with my album rankings, because I can be a sentimental person and how an album makes me subjectively feel matters a lot. But also “Parachute” and “True Believer” are just straight up two of the best songs of the year and that counts for something too. Hell, “Parachute” is among my most played songs of 2025 — if my Apple Music Replay is to be believed it’s fighting in the top ten with the Allegaeon cover of Rush’s “Animate” and… uh, “Lights” by Ellie Goulding. I don’t have to explain myself to you.

Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party is another one for the yearners. While the album covers a spectrum of subject matter, the most frequent themes revolve around sex and romance in ways that I find relatable even though I’m neither a woman nor a rockstar.

I love this album, it’s absolutely been the biggest surprise of 2025 for me.

3. King Yosef - Spire of Fear

Now this… this is how I want my industrial music. Spire of Fear sounds like absolute unrelenting hell, a combination of rhythmic screechy noises, positively evil sounding synths, beats like a wrecking ball, and also sometimes guitar. I adore it.

After the intro track, “Molting Fear” grabbed me by the throat and refused to let me go. But King Yosef is smart enough not to immerse you in hell the whole time, taking much needed detours into a sort of tense mellowness before exploding into nuclear territories once more. Especially towards the back half, Yosef calms things down into a vibe that’s more pensive and eventually winds into some unexpected somber and emotional territory on the song “Walter.” On it, King Yosef wrestles with the loss of his father, trailing off the outro with a voicemail.

And then the title track comes in and it blew my entire fucking face off. What an ending. Well… sort of. The “bonus track” after is also really great, though I’m not sure what’s so “bonus” about it if it’s on the tracklist of every version released of Spire of Fear. I think “not-so-bonus bonus tracks” are becoming a bit of a pet peeve of mine.

Regardless, this is the sort of maniac industrial music I crave and seem to find so little of. It feels like King Yosef crafted Spire of Fear for my sensibilities, specifically.

2. Messa - The Spin

If there’s one metal album on this list I’m going to insist non-metalheads listen to, it’s The Spin. Messa hew closer to the Black Sabbath end of the spectrum than the Cannibal Corpse end, so you have no excuses.

I’ve been keeping an eye on Messa since their astounding 2022 release of Close, an album that saw them evolving their proggy doom metal sound into… I’m not sure what exactly, but there’s a duduk on the record and that rules.

Continuing to play with their sound, Messa have released The Spin and man oh man, this is the good stuff right here. While the whole band are operating on extra-dimensional levels of creativity, it’s hard not to notice something special in the vocals. And that “something special” is that Sara Bianchin is a killer fucking singer. She’s always been good, but she keeps getting better with every Messa release, belting out soaring melodies which are simply inspired. Her voice has a passion, force, and beauty that’s pure opium for the ears.

The influences Messa pull from are dizzyingly diverse. The synthy intros to “Void Meridian” and “At Races” remind me of Joy Division and New Order and there’s a goddamn sax solo on “The Dress.” That’s what’s magical about The Spin: no matter what odd instrument or niche artist they’re pulling from, it’s never jarring, all feeling like natural elements of their sound as if the slide guitar metal riffs on “Reveal” are just something they do all the time. It’s only when I focus in to actually pick apart what I’m hearing that I notice things like this — Messa are just that good at incorporating seemingly anything seamlessly into their music.

Oh yeah, and when they want to they can whip out a rocking riff to headbang along with like on “Fire on the Roof.”

As far as I’m concerned, Messa are one of the most exciting bands of the 20’s and I strongly urge you to join me on this here the bandwagon.

1. Deafheaven - Lonely People With Power

Yeah, nothing else even had a chance at beating this one. Because the mad lads did it. After a decade of experience and experimentation, Deafheaven have managed to achieve the ungodly feat of releasing a record that tops Sunbather.

If you’ve been following Deafheaven, you can really hear their journey from the last decade on Lonely People With Power. From the thrash metal riffing of New Bermuda on “Magnolia” to the warm shoegaze of Infinite Granite on “Amethyst,” Deafheaven have applied every single thing they’ve learned to this album. And it’s amazing.

The thing Deafheaven have always done better than anyone else is juxtapose chaos and beauty to achieve moments that are simply breathtaking. Take “Doberman” for instance, which already evokes masterful use of tension and release to create powerful swells, reaches a climax where the vocals, guitars, and drums are at an abrasive fever pitch and yet passionate harmonies reveal themselves alongside the madness, coming together in a manner I can only refer to as “sublime” in the truest sense of the word.

Yes, Deafheaven are experts at reaching for the sublime and Lonely People With Power showcases that in spades. Every single track is a “no-skip,” even the interludes.

(In the first draft of this article, there was a 200 word diversion here about how much I hate interstitial tracks and I want you all to appreciate the sacrifices I make for you)

Anyway, Lonely People With Power’s interstitial tracks are not boring and do actually enhance atmosphere and album flow. Plus, they’re conveniently labeled “Incidentals I-III” so I can see them coming. “Incidental II” in particular is an excellent little diversion with some haunting guest vocals by Jae Matthews and is a perfect segue into “Revelator.”

Oh my god, I haven’t even touched the lyrics yet, which are highly poetic in exploring what the album title suggests, but can also be candid personal reflections of the subjects too.

Lonely People With Power is the pinnacle of Deafheaven and without question an all time masterpiece of the metal genre. And for that, it earns the prestigious award of being called “number one” on some random-ass dude’s website.

Other albums I have Opinions™️ on

Amorphis - Borderland

I forgot this album came out, which is usually a bad sign.

Borderland isn’t bad, per se, but it is forgettable and that’s a real shame coming from a band whose unique sound really appeals to me. If you dig the baritone-crooning-over-sick-riffs-supplemented-by-Finnish-folk-influences sound Amorphis has going on, might I steer you in the direction of Circle or Queen of Time instead?

Geese - Getting killed

I fucking hated this album on first listen, finding it repetitive and dull and Cameron Winters’ voice very irritating. But the album was getting so much acclaim I sucked it up and gave it a second listen to see if I was missing something. And you know what? Turns out I was.

But Getting Killed is still only okay at best.

All the things I hated about it are still true more or less, but on second listen I was able to feel how the repetition worked as buildup to some pretty stunning climaxes and noticing that made the album click for me in a way it hadn’t before. Hell, “Bow Down” and “Cobra” are great little tunes that have been seeing a decent amount of play for me lately.

I still have no fucking idea why so many people are jizzing themselves over this extremely okay record, but like… yeah okay, it’s fine. The music’s fine. I do feel insane and am starting to suspect the wild success of Getting Killed is a prank being pulled on me, specifically, but it’s fine. Listen if you want. It’s fine.

Gruesome - Silent echoes

Do you like Human era Death? So do Gruesome. Nearly litigious levels of Death worship on this record, but it’s super fun so I give it a pass (mostly).

Mawiza - Ül

I wanted to draw attention to this one as it’s a very promising debut from a band made up of members the Mapuche Nation (which is indigenous to Chile) with lyrics penned in the endangered Mapudungun language.

Mawiza displays an explicitly anti-colonial stance in their music, and it helps that said music absolutely fucking slaps. I am so so excited to see what they do next.

Rise Against - Ricochet

Continuing their descent into becoming a parody band of themselves, Rise Against released another dud this year. I found Nowhere Generation to be a rough listen which bored me totally and completely, but from the jump Ricochet feels like an album absolutely no one involved wanted to make. Regardless of whether or not that’s really the case, it doesn’t change the fact the results are just pitiful. If I learned they actually put a lot of love and effort into this LP, I think I’d hate it even more, so I’m just gonna choose to believe everyone’s burnt out and they haven’t entirely lost the sauce — there’s still greatness in there somewhere.

There is simply zero energy in any of the tracks, the themes are stale, the riffs suck, the drums bland, and McIlrath’s vocals utterly devoid of the styling and emotion which you could always count on to give a song urgency and propulsion.

Please stop doing this to me, guys.

Street sects - Dry Drunk
Street sex - FULL color eclipse

Band names notwithstanding, Street Sects and STREET SEX are very clearly efforts from the same duo of maniacs. Yes, FULL COLOR ECLIPSE is more approachable — an energetic techno dance project rather than industrial madness — but there are many similar stylings and flourishes as well as a certain je ne sais quoi at the core of both projects that can’t help but be expressed.

FULL COLOR ECLIPSE may be more approachable, but it’s still not going to be broadly palatable to a lot of people. While not as aggressive as Dry Drunk, it is aggressively horny in a way that is decidedly not for the yearners, the songs coated in a layer of intentionally unsettling sleaze many will find offputting. Besides, FULL COLOR ECLIPSE will still be way too noisy for some people, even if it’s not anywhere near as abrasive as Street Sects’ usual fare.

Anyway, Dry Drunk and FULL COLOR ECLIPSE are both very good and you should listen to them both.

Sumac and Moor Mother - The Film

This is one of the metal albums I listened to this year that I’m going to insist you non-metalheads give a chance. Not because it’s not harsh sounding — it very much can be — but because there’s nothing quite like it and for that reason alone it’s worth a listen.

In some ways, The Film is a spoken word piece more than an album as Moor Mother’s delivery of evocative line after evocative line is front and center, the instruments existing to prop up and enhance her words, sometimes expressing the rage she feels towards a deeply unjust system when words are not quite enough. It’s moody, it’s dramatic, it’s angry, it’s hurt, it’s poetic, it’s blunt, it’s thought-provoking, it’s a headbanger, it’s atmospheric, it’s experimental, it’s a story — it’s an experience. I urge you to give The Film a listen, whatever your tastes, and let the album wash over you. I promise it’ll linger with you for a while.

Trauma Bond - Summer Ends. Some are Long Gone

Seeing as how Summer Ends. Some Are Long Gone isn’t on streaming services at time of writing, consider this a PSA. If you like heavy music, you have to give this Trauma Bond album a shot, and it’s just over on Bandcamp. Seriously, it’ll blow the hair right off your noggin, it’s that intense. The duo behind the band know how to punish you with every option available, leading to dynamic tunes that will pummel you straight into the ground.

Summer Ends. Some are Long Gone also happens to be the final cut I made from the top ten, so take that for what it’s worth.

The playlist is here. Click me. I need you to click me. If you don’t click me, Drew’s going to use the cattle prod on me again. Please click me.

I put way too much effort into this article

For one reason or another, I felt compelled to take my albums of the year way, way too seriously, so I hope you found a thing or two here that really does it for you.

There was no shortage of good music this year and there’s no way I could possibly cover it all here, so please do check out my full 2025 recommendations playlist, which I spent far, far too much effort on as well.