The Best & Worst Of The Year... So Far

We make the mistake of thinking anything bisected will be of two equal halves. Symmetry is not guaranteed in nature, let alone in art. When we sit down to look at the first half of the year, we are merely seeing where we are in relation to expectations. There is no way for us to know what is to come, so trying to extrapolate from what we have heard to what we are going to hear is a logical fallacy easy to fall into, but as wrong as any other.

The first half of 2025 has been disappointing, but also not as bad as I had initially feared. That seems a bit contradictory, which is entirely the point. I haven't gotten much of a handle on the year, let alone on myself. Everything is a bit jumbled, so to make sense of where we are, let's run through the categories, in alphabetical order to avoid too many spoilers.

The Good Stuff:

A-Z - A2Z2

I'm not sure I even listened to the first A-Z album, but the reunion of classic Redemption with Ray Alder and Nick Van Dyk got me interested, and I wasn't disappointed. This band streamlines the progressive metal down to a more intricate form of melodic metal, with a more optimistic tone and energy to go along with the more concise running times. That means this feels like the Redemption we haven't gotten recently, but at their most melodic and engaging. This fills a needed void.

Avantasia - Here Be Dragons

In time, I tend to find the good in even the projects Tobias Sammet puts together that initially feel disappointing. That has happened here, as more time spent with the album has revealed a set of songs that have managed to grab hold on me. The project could still use a bit of re-invention, but it's hard to complain about an album that goes down this easily. Tobi is rarely matched in this field.

Ginger Evil - The Way It Burns

This band answers a question not many people have ever asked; what if Pink sang for a rock band? That's the key to their sound, but it wouldn't be enough if they didn't deliver songs to match the vocal prowess. Mixing classic rock with hints of early 00s pop, they deliver memorable songs and amazing vocals to give us an engaging record that is better than the majority of both what we call modern pop and modern rock.

W.E.T. - Apex

After "Earthrage", it would have been a lot to ask W.E.T. to reach those heights again. "Retransmission" didn't, but "Apex" nearly gets there. This album is as good as melodic rock gets, and the sweet sounds and uplifting tone is just the tonic we so often need. Somewhere, someone could be writing "for a good time, listen to W.E.T." on a bathroom stall.

The Disappointing Stuff:

Dream Theater - Parasomnia

I'll be honest; Dream Theater had their flaws before Mike Portnoy left. That he came back is a big story, but not necessarily a big deal. I liked most of the albums without him quite a bit, so hearing the band trying to amp up the heaviness too far again is not what I would have wanted to hear. The balance of heavy and melody is askew, and most of this record sounds to me like why people criticized albums like "Systematic Chaos" and "Black Clouds & Silver Linings"... not that anyone remembers anymore.

Ghost - Skeleta

Ghost has only delivered one consistently good album, "Meliora". They come firing out of the gates here, with three of the first four songs being amazing bits of 80s schlock filtered through the Ghost aesthetic. Thing quickly fall apart, as the songs bog down, the hooks get weaker, and Tobias starts singing about 'love rockets'. Ugh. Ghost is a singles band, and I'm going to continue thinking of them as such.

Katatonia - Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State

After delivering the AOTY, Katatonia is now the most disappointing thing I have heard this year. Gone is the energy, and hope, and the beauty of "Sky Void Of Stars". The band is back to slogging through slow and turgid songs where Jonas' voice is not enough to carry the day. The sound is there, but muted to the point the songs require focus not to drift away from. It isn't a nightmare, per se, but it might be a bit sleep inducing.

The Bad Stuff:

The Darkness - Dreams On Toast

As I said in my review, when a band writes a song about literally trying not to shit the bed, they deserve anything terrible we can say about them. The worst thing I can say is they aren't worth talking about anymore, so I won't.

Ethel Cain  - Perverts

This release left me wondering if I even know what music is, so I suppose I have to give it a small bit of credit for at least making me think. Unfortunately, the answer is that no, this is not music. It's tuneless drone that fills our ears with boring noise that doesn't give any reason why it exists. I would say you have to be a masochistic variety of pervert to enjoy this, but it doesn't hurt, it just bores us to bloody death.

Spiritbox - Tsunami Sea

I have tried several times now, but I simply do not get why Spiritbox is as popular as they are. Courtney is certainly a talented vocalist, but the band's songs are devoid of any of the hooks that made the original wave of metalcore as big as it was. These songs churn death metal riffs and boring crooning into a mix of heavy and soft that are both as flaccid as the other.

Steven Wilson - The Overview

Leave it to Steven Wilson to turn the feeling of awe in looking down at Earth from outer space into the most boring 'prog' imaginable. I use the quotes because in addition to being utterly forgettable music, it's the kind of 'prog' that glues short songs together and claims to be epic. No, and no. At this point, Wilson should stick to remixing classic records... that way I can forget about him.