Okay, kids - welcome to the show. We all know what this is and what it’s about, let’s not waste a lot of time.
The Rules:
-Must be an original studio composition in 2025
-No re-releases
-No Greatest Hits or compilations of any kind (looking at you, Red Fang, and your ‘previously unreleased’ album.)
-No Live Albums.
I would like to take a moment to mention a few bands that had an impact on me for various reasons over the course of the year, but didn’t quite crack this list - in no order:
Nachtblut, Pridian, Doomsday, Blind Equation (for introducing me to Cybergrind!) Messa, Employed to Serve, Bleed From Within, Friendship Commanders, Black Magnet, Misfire, Moths and Helms Deep.
Okay, let’s get to it -
HONORABLE MENTION - Bloody Beetroots - Forever Part 1
(Video NSFW)
Okay, I admit I’m cheating a little - in seventeen years of doing this, I’ve never had two EPs that successfully competed for EP of the Year - so I’m taking the (slightly) lesser of them and moving it down into the Honorable Mention category, since I wanted to include them both and didn’t have another album I felt strongly enough about to move into the HM slot anyway. One small knock here - singles from this were released over the last year or so, so some of this music has been out there for a while, until the band finally got around to releasing the whole thing. It’s a gray area as far as the rules as stated above are concerned. It’s too good to decline its admission on a technicality, though - this EP is bombastic and genre-bending, alternating perfectly normal pop/dance songs with blistering breakdowns and vocal tweaks. A fun ride.
EP OF THE YEAR - Valletta - Bitter Lucid Truth
Somewhere between death metal and death-and-roll sits Valletta, and this EP. Super catchy while being ultra-abrasive, it’s been a long time since a band like this was able to craft riffs like this and make them stick. The EP suffers only from being too short - there’s only five songs, but luckily, four of them are bangers.
11 - Tayne - LOVE
(Video NSFW)
Admittedly, I’ve cooled on this record since I first heard it. It’s a mind-expanding effort, a deliriously noisy and loud record that throws waves and waves of sound at the listener, discordant and jerky but ultimately catchy if you can lock on to the rhythm underneath. It is in some ways challenging and physically exhausting to listen to, based solely on the intensity of the aural presentation - it’s not the kind of record you pop in when running a quick errand to the grocery store. Still, it’s a wonderful listen in the right mood and atmosphere.
10 - Lacuna Coil - Sleepless Empire
Professionals. That’s what Lacuna Coil represents on this list - a long legacy with a high-level of success, and an intrinsic knowledge of how to manage their sound. Especially since Sleepless Empire does what had been unthinkable up to this point - it’s the synthesis of all three phases of Lacuna Coil’s career, skillfully balanced and presented with excellence.
9 - Dunes - Land of the Blind
Every year my list ends up having either a) a stoner record or b) a record that survives and impresses by virtue of its sheer power. Dunes fits the first of these categories. It’s an easy listen, or at least, compared to the other albums on this list it’s an easy listen, grooving along with similar touchstones as John Garcia’s excellent solo album from 2014. It’s hard not to get sucked into the record, and I dare anyone to not bop along to the magnetic beat of “Tides.”
8 - Lord of the Lost - Opus Noir Vol. 1
As we discussed at the time, this is not a perfect album by any means, but it’s an album that proves the versatility of Lord of the Lost in a way we haven’t heard previously. Some of that is because of the influence of guest appearances who color the songs they appear on, but there’s nothing wrong with that, especially since this record is supposed to be the first of a trilogy and inspiration has to come from somewhere. Lord of the Lost shows a more ferocious side on this record, and it really helps add depth and dimension to the proceedings. I said it then and it’s worth repeating: this is the album Ghost should have released this year.
7 - Cold Steel - Discipline and Punish
6 - BRKN Love - The Program
Chris and I have differing opinions of BRKN Love because of his distaste for guitar fuzz, but I’ll drink that nonsense all day. Another album from the (at this point) veteran Canadians that proves straight-ahead guitar rock still has a place in the landscape of music of 2025. It doesn’t re-invent the wheel, but it doesn’t need to. The Program subsists on rock sensibilities that have been in play for seventy years. And I mean that as a compliment.
5 - Castle Rat - The Bestiary
It’s hard not to love this band. The aesthetic, the music, the quintessentially doom-y riffs that spark with vitality, the live show where parts are acted out in slow motion…man, I wasn’t sure I’d ever hear another album in the vein of The Sword, but here we are. Castle Rat isn’t quite at that level of conquering force yet, but they could well get there. The band gets better with every record and it’s becoming apparent that there are truly skilled musicians beneath the costumes and makeup and stage show.
4 - Vittra - Intense Indifference
It’s not all that often you get to put ‘death metal record’ and ‘rolling good time’ in the same sentence, but c’mon, listen to “Transylvanian Buffet’ and try and tell me you didn’t smile a little. It’s a death metal banger, to be sure, but then there’s a piano, and some borderline country rock guitar, and then a solo…it’s a thing to behold. And a lot of spots on the album are like that. Just hit play and let it go. These Swedes get it, man.
3 - John 5 - Ghost
A return to form for John 5, this time without The Creatures. This record picks up where Season of the Witch left off, which isn’t to say that it ignores the two albums in-between, but Ghost feels more in line with its great-grandfather record than it does the two previous. John 5 remains the only virtuoso guitar player (to my mind) who can tell a story with his guitar and not just show off his technical prowess. As ever, these are songs, not just exhibitions.
2 - Arch Enemy - March of the Miscreants
This sadly gets colored by the recent news that Alissa White-Gluz (am I too old to have a schoolboy crush on someone?) has left the band, and the future path of both her career and Arch Enemy is now a little blurrier (despite news of her impending solo release.) Even with that, between this and Vittra, maybe this was the year for ‘fun’ death metal? Certainly, Arch Enemy has understood that better than most over the last decade or so, writing a series of rousing anthems, and March of the Miscreants is no different.
1 - Year of the Cobra - Year of the Cobra
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