Top 2025 Releases
Top 2025 Releases
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PREAMBLE TO THIS YEAR'S LIST: 2025 was, on the whole, an absolute shit year for music. I don't care what anyone says and I completely reject the argument that any negativity on my part is the result of being old or jaded. I love music today no less than I did in the late 1980s and 1990s when this started for me; in fact, I must love it more since the only way to enjoy new music now is to do hard work sifting through endless amounts of garbage released on a daily basis (the ratio is now something like 1-to-20 worth hearing, in the 90s it was something like 2-to-5). The present generation clearly gets excited most at hearing copies of other bands, bands knocking out the same iterations of songs heard before by their idols but in ultra-polished, "clean and crisp" productions. It's way beyond a crisis of style over substance at this point - it's just a norm to be rewarded by record labels for sounding exactly like another band and capitalizing on trends.
HOW DID I CHOOSE? Like anything else today that encompasses a large data set with finite time, selection bias is unavoidable. Consequently, any top N list is bound to be a catalog of what one purposely decides to hear and not hear. For my part, I have my favorite bands over the years, quite a long list actually, but most of these bands were sleeping in 2025. While the old classic bands were mostly dormant, newer bands continue to prove time and time again that they have no interest in doing anything but repeat old glories. Only a few young bands made it this year, Enterre Vivant and Last Retch, for example, others are bands I've been following for years. Of course, dark and obscure music is what I like so no polka or dance music. I didn't pay attention to the lists of others but I will be disappointed if by coincidence anything I mention appears in some hipster Vlogger's Top 2025.
Let me know if that happens so I can take a bath and never listen to that band again.
TOP 20 OF 2025
(More reviews coming soon...)
Bergthron - Neu Asen Land
On the level of excitement, having been hitherto silent for 15 years, a new album by Bergthron must take its place at the top of my list. Like Expedition Autarktis it includes about half an hour of material, a short, no nonsense album in which every note feels thought-over and meaningful. The song structure follows a similar pattern as Expedition but there is a progressive strain here beyond anything Bergthron has done before, with more clean guitar work and a more inventive, unfettered melodicism, so to speak. It no longer makes sense to call this black or even pagan metal; to my ears this is Bergthron metal, the apotheosis of any creative band in the sense of originality. Maybe it's not the most outstanding thing that came out this year, but given how surprising it was and how extraordinary and alive and powerful this band still sounds after 30 years of existence, it rightfully deserves its place at the top of the mountain.
Thurnin - Harmr
This was a very unexpected entry into my list because the two previous Thurnin albums were not to my taste at all. Technicality aside, the stuff was just too flowery and upbeat to align with the Hermit's grim predilections, almost like pop-folk without the pop vocals, but Harmr feels very different. This album is meant to convey darker reflections and thoughts, the word Harmr itself meaning something like "Grief" or "Sorrow" per the booklet, resulting in, for the first time in me, evocative, moving feelings pulled from Jurre Timmer's compositions. Every song is great and in many ways, this was the best neo-folk album I heard all year, though admittedly I did not hear many of this style. True elaborate, beautiful webs of melodic sound from mainly just one lone guitar and never a dull moment.
Argus Megere - Cerburea Apusului
Aryan Art - За Любов и Светлина
Paganland - Unwavering Faith in the Strength of the Ukrainian Spirit and Weaponry
Blestema - Necro Therion
Clouds - Desprins
Structure - Heritage
Ornamentos del Miedo - Vacio como el Tronco de un Arbol Muerto
Nechochwen - Spelewithiipi
Dragonborn - The Riddle of Steel Beyond Ultima Thule
Agencement/Merzbow - Rilievo
Jeff Pearce - Night Thoughts
David Galas - The Nihilist
Loren Nerell - Aquaticus
Vulthum - The Tyrant Tale
Enterre Vivant - Akuzai
Last Retch - Abject Cruelty
Korp - And Darker It Shall Become
Tenebrae In Perpetuum - Vacuum Coeli
WORTHY MENTIONS
Aldaaron - Par-delà les cimes
Ulver - Neverland
Theoden's Reign - Citadel of the Stars
RELEASES STILL TO REVIEW FROM 2025:
Lull - Tide
For some reason Mick Harris decided to release this on a label with no distribution network worldwide and with apparently no interest in even streaming its music on any available platform. God Records not only have no network but are also ridiculous price gougers selling the CD and vinyl on their makeshift site for 29 euros and 50 euros respectively! The CD is probably a flimsy one panel digipak, too. It's like it was deliberately released so that as few people as possible could hear it, but I'm sure it will be at the top of my list someplace when I do since Lull is my favorite dark ambient band.
Daudsvevna - Havaaettar Thursaettar
Diathra - Our Death Scenario
Sickle of Dust - Across the Vultures Trail
Imperial Domain - Portentum
Eternal Darkness - Eternal Darkness
Totally insipid Swedish death metal band from the 90s that never released anything special but that they only in 2025, 35 years after forming, release a new album is quite wild and merits a listen.
Coroner - Dissonance Theory
I'm not crazy about thrash but Coroner is somehow an exception and the new song they released is very good. This is one I still near to hear.
Blut Aus Nord - Ethereal Horizons
The last Blut Aus Nord I found completely boring, as Vindsval's material is very inconsistent, and the new track they published is completely dull, but it's still something I would like to hear sometime. Not a priority but it's on my list.
BEST REISSUES OF 2025
Abigor - Demos 1993-1994
Aphex Twin - Ambient Works Vol 2 Expanded
Polygon Window - Surfing On Sine Waves Expanded
Thus Defiled - Through the Impure Veil of Dawn
Thus Defiled - Wings of the Nightstorm
Con-Dom - Colour of a Man's Skin
Enthral - Prophecies of the Dying
Helheim - Av norrøn ætt & Jormundgand
Gehenna - First Spell & Second Spell
Horror of Horrors - Rust Flesh Dust
Pyaemia - Cerebral Cereal
V/A - Drowned Productions 7" collection
Nordheim - Nordheim
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2025
Penitent - Melancholia Redux
Shades of Deep Water - The Years On Borrowed Time
Master's Hammer - Maldorör Disco
Almost everything on this list: Decibel Top 40
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