And here we are once again, puzzled as to where the past year has gone and, more positively, from where did all this great metal released during the year materialize? It was yet another odd year for me, where I spent a surprising amount of time feeling strangely detached or alienated from metal, an aspect underscored by the fact that my Tidal Rewind for 2025 revealed beloved Finnish calypso/tango/reggae/insert-any-genre wizard institution Pedro’s Heavy Gentlemen firmly at the top spot, “proving [my] taste for audacious genre fusion” according to Tidal. On closer inspection, Tidal’s analysis was apt and welcome in the sense that it helped clear and guide my vision for this year’s list, which, as customary, contains plenty of bands and albums with innovative, oft-avant-garde and left-field metal that fuses and molds different elements and influences into something unique, audacious and adventurous that embodies the wild creativity, boldness and burning excitement at the heart of metal music.
As I did with my previous year-end list, I am going to follow the same approach and adhere to the brand of this blog, so my list is based on the top nine releases and nine honorable mentions I submitted as part of our joint ballot hullabaloo which I translated into a personal top 18 list.
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18. Uulliata Digir – Uulliata Digir
Uulliata Digir appeared out of nowhere, with a DNA evoking musical associations with the avant-garde freakouts of Imperial Triumphant (especially owing to Magdalena Andrys’s trumpet wizardry), the mind-bending and time-warping psychedelic metal of Entropia, the swirling hallucinations conjured up by Valonielu-era Oranssi Pazuzu and the approaching, all-consuming dread Inter Arma emits. Make no mistake though, Uulliata Digir is fueled by rare ritual ferocity and is much more feral than the aforementioned heavy hitters. Julita Dąbrowska and Michał Sosnowski’s vocal interplay and complementarity is simply stunning and the way the band performs together feels at once fluid, precise and trance-inducing. All this is crowned with an excellent immersive production that begs to be heard through high-quality headphones.
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17. Eryn Non Dae. – Disunited States of Anima
The death of a band member after more than years of shared history as brothers in arms is an incalculable tragedy. Eryn Non Dae. soldiered on following the sudden passing of vocalist Mathieu Boisgard and used his demo takes in the haunting homage to their musical evolution and companionship. Disunited States of Anima embodies the constant evolution and bubbling creativity of the band, defying genre classifications and manifesting the sound and spirit of an imaginative future that could have been, captured in Mathieu’s vocals and lyrics that scream spiritual emancipation and the emotional impact and shattering climaxes that have always been a vital part of their music. It is an astonishingly powerful tribute and celebration of life that deserves, and rewards, your full attention and reverence.
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16. Pothamus – Abur
As an experience for all senses, Abur feels like a cosmic epiphany borne of meditative stargazing. It is absolute excellence in worldbuilding, with a scale that is deeply cosmic and intimate in equal measure, where massive enveloping soundscapes, rumbling bass and rolling percussion hypnotize and resonate at celestial and tectonic frequencies, radiating awe and warmth. In her beautifully analytical review, Hera likened Abur to a spiritual experience, “something with an immense amount of joy.” That is precisely what Abur is, something larger and more meaningful than just music; a sublime journey leading to a wondrous, life-affirming revelation.
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15. Suffering Hour – Impelling Rebirth
As if there was any need for Suffering Hour to demonstrate their vitality and chops at this stage in their illustrious discography, they went ahead anyway and showed their true mettle with a 15-minute swirling hailstorm of razor-sharp riffs and fervor, a condensed variation of their unique take on dissonant black/death metal and a thrilling showcase of their masterful versatility and ability to bend spellbinding dissonance, warped melody and snaking killer riffs to their will. Impelling Rebirth is not only an artistic triumph, but also a resounding personal victory, following drummer IsN’s recovery from Stage III Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, an aspect which infuses the EP with particular spirited essence and immediacy.
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14. Dormant Ordeal – Tooth and Nail
“Let it be remembered henceforth that on the day of our lord, 18 April 2025, Tooth and Nail and its gift of merciless metal of death and blackened atmosphere materialized into our plane of existence, with riffs that scoured the earth, thundering drumming that cracked tectonic plates and songwriting that triggered purging firestorms. None were spared.”
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13. Bianca – Bianca
β and Ͷ’s decision to recruit the death metal muscle and pedigree of ES (Hideous Divinity, Patristic, ex-Hour of Penance) and Sathrath (Patristic) was a brilliant masterstroke that injected Bianca’s self-titled debut album with ferocity and blunt-force impact rarely heard in black metal. Prepare yourself for decimating blast waves of gargantuan riffs and carpet-bombing drumming and crushing intensity that are perfectly balanced with majestic doom-laced atmosphere and β’s vocals that elegantly morph between gossamer beauty and blood-curdling banshee shrieks. As a listening experience, it hits you with the force of a cleansing lightning bolt.
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12. Lychgate – Precipice
Although released just in time for year-end list consideration, Precipice clawed its way onto my list with great ease and for good reason, as it is Lychgate’s best work to date, a culmination and enrichment of the constituent elements and idiosyncratic madness that have always made the band stand out even among the avant-garde. Precipice is the sonic manifestation of a syphilitic fever dream, like stumbling and slouching through a demented labyrinth of cracked mirrors and distorted laughing visages, while laudanum courses through one’s veins. It is Lychgate’s masterclass in immersive worldbuilding where oppressive aggression and white-knuckle tension abound, terror is omnipresent and often barreling toward you, pushed forward by the suffocating wall of sound; essentially, a warped kaleidoscope of alchemic ideas transmuted into a magisterial artistic statement
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11. Balmog – Laio
Having already claimed deserved spots on my 2020 and 2023 year-end lists with their impressive, enthralling single-track EPs Pillars of Salt and Covenants of Salt, respectively, Balmog switched gears with the excellent Laio, eschewing the long-form approach of the EPs and integrating post-punk elements into their melange of black metal hooks, psychedelic shades and rebellious mysticism. The end result is imbued with gripping immediacy, replete with melodies, riffs and songwriting that instantly plant their claws into your cranium and a smoky atmosphere that envelops the listener and pushes its warmth into your lungs in the most pleasant, intoxicating manner. Balmog has been on an absolute roll since 2020 and nobody should sleep on their fantastic discography that keeps redefining and molding black metal into something wild, fresh and exciting.
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10. Burning Palace – Elegy
Burning Palace gave birth to Elegy in the elusive Goldilocks death metal sub-genre zone, where progressive, technical, dissonant and brutal strains intermingle and amalgamate. The resulting synthesis feels and sounds natural and otherworldly in equal measure, cohesive amid the ceaseless rapidfire delivery of morphing ideas, shifting tempos and sudden twists. It is a thrilling pleasure to experience an album like Elegy which dazzles and impresses with its musicianship and by constantly delivering suckerpunches, weaving alluring dissonance and ramping up the intensity.
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9. Psychonaut – World Maker
The variety of styles, moods and permutations of Psychonaut’s core sound which were on full display on 2022’s Violate Consensus Reality are turbocharged on World Maker with increased depth, bolder textures as well as the wonder and tumult of personal experiences and place in the chain of fatherhood across generations. As always, Psychonaut excels in intricate musicianship and songwriting, where their post-metal rolls and rumbles naturally and gracefully, and packs a mighty emotional wallop that is often akin to a force of nature erupting after a boiling build-up of tension. World Maker is indeed a thoroughly emotional musical voyage, with powerful, heartfelt lyrics, introspection and vibrancy. I could not agree more with the closing words of Hera’s review: “This is an incredibly personal record that is filled with hope, and one that hopes to bring comfort to those whose grief and joy are running in tandem with each other.”
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8. Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution
Every now and then, a band delivers a debut album so fully formed and realized that it defies belief. I know it is odd to say this in connection with a death metal album, but Ego Dissolution is, for lack of a better word, fun, without diminishing its seriousness or cosmic darkness the slightest bit. It is evident in the way the album often breaks free from genre mentality and expectations and sails beyond core conventions, and whenever instantly memorable rollicking riffs achieve a peculiar rhythmic state that can only be described as rocking, bouncing and grooving, a sensation enriched by Derek Moniz’s splendid performance behind the drum kit. On top of this, you get a production that is lush and inviting and leads that rip holes into the cosmic fabric, while Jasmine Alexander’s clean vocals complement Justin Witunsky’s roars and gives the music an ethereal sheen of extra richness. Everything on Ego Dissolution clicks, flows and works beautifully, both at cosmic and visceral levels.
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7. Blood Abscission – II
The gorgeous album cover already promises that this will be a black metal journey off the beaten path of hackneyed snowy forests and mountains. II is urban to the bone with a strong spirit of place, an electrifying experience with its pulse on overdrive, like a unit of spectral cyberpunk cowboys racing through nocturnal streets, fueled by immortality and drunk with the promise and secrets of the boundless night sky.
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6. Drouth – The Teeth of Time
To quote my review: “As Vincent mused in his mini-review of Excerpts From a Dread Liturgy back in 2020, “there seems to be nothing this band can’t do, no style they can’t add to the emulsion that is their unique, furious take on extreme metal, and like a good emulsion, every element here holds itself in perfect cohesion.” It is now 2025 and Drouth has enriched that winning formula on The Teeth of Time, revealing new and augmented layers and tones of the deepest black in their palette. The rich compositions, replete with raging riffs and frenzied melodies, fuel Drouth’s furnace of righteous fury and take it to unprecedented levels of scorching heat in their discography. The flame of The Teeth of Time burns with incensed vitality and purifying force and marks a new high point in their career.”
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5. Dessiderium – Keys to the Palace
As I wrote in my review of Dessiderium’s stunner of “exuberant and effervescent” progressive death metal that emanates “Townsendian charm”: “Keys to the Palace is an album so appropriate for the time of its release that it feels as if orchestrated by grand design or magic, and the greatness and sincerity of Alex Haddad’s music makes the experience genuinely serendipitous and magnificent. It’s one of those rare albums that succeeds in simultaneously providing solace and projecting unfazed optimism while the music itself screams wild defiance. As Haddad promised in the promo material, Keys to the Palace reaches for triumph — and achieves it with flying colors.”
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4. Dawnwalker – The Between
Although I had a cursory awareness of how Dawnwalker keeps shapeshifting and shedding its skin between albums with magnificent results, that really did not prepare me for the excellence and progressive majesty of The Between. Creating a captivating and cohesive 32-minute single-track album is a daunting challenge for anyone but Mark Norgate’s collective succeeds with laudable distinction, with an enthralling narrative and musical arc brimming with beautifully executed ideas and a resolved direction of travel, marked by marvelous fluidity and dynamic ebb and flow. It is a gift that keeps on giving, rewarding repeat listens by revealing new layers of richness, vivid detail and cathartic poignancy.
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3. Dephosphorus – Planetoktonos
In my review, I ranked Planetoktonos “among the greatest envelope-pushing grindcore albums I have ever heard” and challenged any band “on the extreme side of the intensity spectrum” to surpass “the captivating brilliance, blistering fury and curious intelligence” of Planetoktonos. I stand by my belief that the “sense of marvel Planetoktonos incites is unique and elevates it well above other bands that strive to synthesize brain and brawn “ and that “Dephosphorus has created an idiosyncratic and unrivalled genre landmark. Its immediacy is evident and intoxicating and its depths and textures form an inescapable gravity well of wonder. Planetoktonos is an incredible cosmic grand slam that punches a new wormhole into the celestial tapestry, with capillary waves that will continue to expand, impress and inspire.”
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2. An Abstract Illusion – The Sleeping City
Oh yes, the hype and praise are real. The Sleeping City is gloriously breathtaking, thanks to the grand scale and enormous ambition of its emotive progressive death metal, and in how everything feels warm, glowing and pleasantly dense (a sentiment shared by Chris in his mini-review). Impressively, there are no missteps into pools of molten cheese, pointless excess or tepid sentimentality which would have been the pitfalls for bands with less songwriting prowess and ability to execute their intricate vision. The album crackles with zest and sparkle and the band knows when to accelerate and when to let go with dynamic finesse and massive impact (sure, more dynamic range and breathing space would have elevated the listening experience and journey even further). The Sleeping City is a spectacularly beautiful and gripping piece of art that demonstrates how ambitious and adventurous metal is done right with aplomb.
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1. Grey Aura – Zwart Vierkant: Slotstuk
In my gushing review, I commended the avant-garde black metal adventurers of Grey Aura for their “manic intensity, feverish dynamics and captivating musical quirks” and how they had “sharpened their avant-garde assault to absolute lethality” on the extravagant and superb sequel to 2021’s Zwart Vierkant. The way the Zwart Vierkant: Slotstuk, the concluding chapter of the feverish duology, investigates through music and text “the tightrope act between abstraction and disintegration and how art and psychology dissolve into something violent and explosive” is simply intoxicating and astounding. Since reviewing the album, it has remained my inseparable musical companion, with the opening four-track whirlwind bookended by “Daken als kiezen” and “Opgehangen afgrond” especially burrowing into the pantheon of my all-time favorite metal experiences. Altogether, “Zwart Vierkant: Slotstuk represents an exhilarating leap forward for Grey Aura in their pursuit of thrilling avant-garde and towering artistic achievement and merits applause for its excellence and success in translating and transforming the narrative of [band member Ruben] Wiljacker’s novel into such intense, daringly adventurous metal. In essence and execution, Slotstuk traverses through the gateway to boundless artistic potential and expression which […] further solidifies Grey Aura’s position as one of the leading standard-bearers of envelope-pushing and forward-looking metal”
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– Zyklonius
